Hermione is lost.
"Why did you do it?" he said.
"Hmm? What? What did you say?" Granger looked up from her book.
"I said, why did you do it?"
"I don't have much to go on here. Can you give me a clue?"
"That night in the nook in the Trophy Room. Why did you kiss me?"
"Oh. I don't know."
"Come on."
"I suppose I wanted to lose myself in something, turn my mind off."
"That's a cliche answer," Malfoy groused.
"Sometimes it's a cliche because it's true."
"I'm sure it's truth-adjacent. Care to share some more?"
"Fine, Malfoy, here are some more true cliches: I am not the person I used to be. This place became my home. I made friends here. I didn't have to try to suppress something I didn't understand any longer."
"You're doing well," he said, "keep going."
"Before I came to Hogwarts, in a fit of pique, I accidentally vanished the underwear of all the girls in my class."
To Granger's obvious delight, he burst out laughing.
"That's my only funny magical anecdote."
He nodded like he understood there was no more mirth ahead.
"Here, at Hogwarts, I was an apple tree in an apple orchard. Harry, Ron and I, we bloomed and made golden apples. Every student was an apple tree making apples."
"Really, what about me? What was I? A rotten core?"
"No, an apple tree. We were all the same, all students. Perhaps yours grew crab apples. But really, I didn't think like that - in the spring, we all bloomed together."
She continued after a pause, "I came back from the war, and it wasn't the same. The orchard is still full of students, but now I'm a hawthorn bush."