Unless You Tell Them to Everyone

The next few weeks passed by with a lot of insane Daily Prophet interviews, exhausting questions, and constant babble over what people thought had happened in the Room of Requirement.

Draco and Harry hadn't been the same since, and Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were working hard to get them out of their shells.

Draco was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table, looking at his breakfast, when Hermione slid in across from him.

"Hi, Draco."

There was no answer, and Hermione said it again. Draco didn't look up again. In fact, he didn't look up until Hermione yelled his name and pushed his arm.

"What? Yes? Hi, Hermione."

"Are you okay?"

Draco shook his head, trying to process the words that she asked him every single day. Every day, he answered with, "Yes, I'm fine," but today he didn't feel like lying anymore. He grabbed her hand and yanked her roughly out of the Great Hall.

"Do I look okay?"

"Well, no. That's why I'm asking. I'm worried about you."

"Merlin, Hermione. I don't think what I've done has sunk in with you yet. In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm a monster. I killed a person. My own father. And you think we can just go on the way we were?"

"Draco. Listen to me very carefully. You are not a monster, understand? You... you saved my life in there. I didn't mean for your father to die because of me... but I do know that there must be a reason you decided to save me, right? And of course we can't go on the same way. Not for a while, anyway. But if you're ever going to get over this, we need to talk about it."

"Of course there was a reason to save you... I would choose you no matter who the other person was... but Hermione... you don't know what it's like to have someone die at your hand. The light behind his eyes left after I said the spell and pointed my wand at him. You just don't understand what it's like... he was a terrible person, and I don't even care about him being my father at this point. But I killed a person. I took away a human life."

"Only time is going to heal this for you, Draco. I just want you to know that I love you and I am always here for you. And for the record... I think taking away someone's life to save someone else's sort of balances it out."

"I love you too, Hermione. More then you will ever know. Thank you, for everything." He pulled her in to a sweet kiss that left her melting under his touch, then told her he needed to be alone for a little while. She complied, of course, and let him go off to be on his own.

As stressed as Draco was, Hermione smiled with glee. It was over, at least, for this year. She and Draco would have the whole rest of the year and summer together, and then who knows how long after that?

She was ready to spend the rest of her life with him.