A. N. Hi! I'm back! I'm cute!

Disclaimer: they ain't mine. . .

"Do you want me there?" Draco asked quietly.

Hermione took a deep breath and nodded, "But not within sight. I just, it's not that I'm ashamed, but I think that perhaps it would be a bad idea to have Harry see you quite yet."

Draco did his best to cover his cringe and nodded. "Well. . . They've already seen me, on the grounds last night."

Hermione slid a hand into her hair and yanked. "Damn. I should pop by my old flat and grab some of my clothes. Now that Ron is. . . Aware." She paced in Draco's room. The sun had gone down about an hour previous. Hermione was stalling.

And quite happily playing oblivious to that fact.

Draco's eyes watched her like a hawk. "Of course. However, you should feed before you go."

Hermione nodded, he had a point. She was wound as tight as a brand spankin new clock spring that had been handed to an over zealous five year old. Taking a deep breath, she did her best to try and calm down. She reviewed what she had learned about the shift in their magic as they went down to the kitchens. Yes, it wouldn't have taken a lot to have a house elf bring up the blood they required, but the walk would do Hermione good. She had been pacing all evening, as it was.

She vaguely remembered the sweet taste touching her lips, but she was miles away. It was only until the she practically heard Draco purring that she was pulled from her thoughts. "What?"

Draco smiled, "Not that I don't immensely enjoy your own flavor love, there's just something about a nice cup in the morning. Does wonders for the mind and body."

Hermione snorted into her own cup before placing it in the sink and washing it out.

They stepped out into the small courtyard, the only available Apparation point in the entire Manor. It only worked one way, to let people leave but not return, but the Manor was not where they were returning to. No, Harry was waiting at Hogwarts. Hermione quieted her mind, pulling forth the image of her old flat. Her magic began rise within her and instinctively she tried to grip her wand. She felt remorseful when her hand clenched around nothing, the instrument had been a constant companion for many years, it had saved her life and ended others on command. Maybe Ginny had found it. . .

The brief sense of nausea passed and she found herself looking at the number 217.

Flat number 217.

It seemed so surreal.

Shaking her head and pushing her thoughts aside again, she reached for the handle and surprisingly it turned without resistance. Ron had left it unlocked in case she came home. Her heart clenched in agony.

Steeling her resolve she stepped into the familiar surroundings.

It was as if she had been expecting everything to have changed, to have some big giant black smudge on the wall. Something to symbolize what she had done. But no, everything remained so very cruelly the same as she had left it. Right down to the magazine she had been reading before she began to get ready to go out that evening. She ran her fingertips over the cover.

She bit her lip as the tears began to fall.

By Merlin, it was not fair!

Why did she have to choose?! Why did someone have to be hurt in all this mess? It was the last thing she had ever intended. Spying a piece of parchment and a quill, Hermione sat down and began to write.

She had always been able to explain things on paper better.

With a pop Hermione apparated outside Hogwarts gates. She was relieved to hear the corresponding pop and feel Draco's presence at her side. She slipped her hand into his, drawing strength from him.

Her jeans fit the same way they had before she left, but everything seemed so much more harsh and brash now. Before where they had been a comfortable fit the fabric cut across her legs like fiberglass and she itched within her own skin.

"It's customary when one apparates somewhere, they actually being walking," Draco supplied.

Hermione turned, slightly hurt at his biting tone. But Draco's eyes swirled with understanding, she needed to have all her defenses up for the next conversation and deluding herself into thinking that everything was going to end happily would only scar her more in the end. Straightening her back she glared at him, "I'm quite aware of that."

She only gripped his hand harder, and felt his fingers tighten around her own.

He was with her.

She closed her eyes and inhaled, catching a sweet pine scent on the breeze. Oh how appropriate, Harry was waiting in the astronomy tower.

It wasn't long until she felt Draco pause and wait for her in the corridor. "I won't be far," he whispered, kissing her hand, before disappearing with a pop.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione pushed the heavy oak door open. "Hello, Harry."

Harry shifted uncomfortably, he was standing at the outcropping, staring out. After sighing he turned two emeralds burning in righteous anger on her own reproachful brown eyes. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Hello? You disappear for days! No one has any clue where you are. Ginny was feeling so guilty and Ron was out of his mind with worry and all I get to hear is hello?!"

Despite his harsh tone, he crossed the room in two strides and took her into a massive hug. "You can't do that to us."

Hermione, knowing this was probably going to be her last Harry-hug for a while wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. She could feel the pinpricks of tears beginning, but she couldn't cry.

Not now.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to worry everyone."

Harry sighed pulling back, before sticking a finger in her face, "Don't ever do that again!"

Hermione resisted the urge to snap said finger off.

"But it's all ok now, even if you are a. . . A vampire. You and Ron can make things work, you always have," Harry said, covering her left hand with his right.

If it was at all possible, Hermione went stone cold.

She only got colder as Harry's brow furrowed in confusion before tracing over her ring finger. He locked eyes with her, almost pleading that he just hadn't felt the ring. That it was still there, it had to be! With a sinking feeling in his stomach he grabbed her wrist and lifted her hand. Hermione kept her gaze firmly on his face as her looked her finger over three or four times.

"It's not there," she whispered.

All friendly feelings evaporated out of the room. "What do you bloody mean it's not there?!"

It was amazing how close Harry got to speaking Parsletongue when he was angry, she mused. "I'm. . . I'm not going to marry Ron. I don't love him."

If anything this incensed Harry even more. "What has Malfoy done to you?"

Ah, now that was the question wasn't it.

Harry's grip was strong, and had she still been human, it would have bruised. She felt a slight bit of pain, but nothing more than one would get when scraping they're arm on a counter. "It's complicated. Harry, please just listen! I'm. . . I'm with Malfoy now. Even if I had never been turned Ron and I were so wrong for each other! We were comfortable where we were. Neither of us had known anything else, really! If you've only eaten vanilla ice cream all your life, how do you know you don't like chocolate better?"

"This is not fucking ice cream Hermione! It's Ron! You know, the bloke who happens to adore and love you! The one who fought beside you during the war, rather than slithering off into some hole and waiting it out! You're leave Ron over Malfoy?!" Harry stomped to the other side of the room, only to stomp right back up to her. "I don't believe you, Malfoy has brainwashed your common sense down the drain."

Hermione had been more than prepared for that argument.

"No, he has not! The git wouldn't have the brainpower to do it in the first place!"

Harry blinked, a brainwashed Hermione wouldn't have just called Malfoy a git. He stared at her in confusion.

Hermione watched the anger in his eyes die out, before it was replaced with a pain and yearning.

"'Mione. Just. . . Forget. Please, Ron, me and Ginny, we all need you. Just come back home. Just take my hand, and please, please come home. We can forget this ever happened. . ."

Hermione stared at his outstretched hand and bit her bottom lip as up on the roof of the tower Draco's heart froze.

'Stay with me. . . You promised you'd stay with me. . .'