He was kissing her. She'd been in the middle of insulting him and he'd just leaned down and kissed her. Who did that? She wasn't even prepared for how to respond and found herself staring awkwardly at his face for the first couple of seconds as he gently kissed her. When he started to pull away, however, Hermione finally snapped out of her trance and found herself reaching up to pull his lips back down to hers. She could feel him smile in response, but she was too content to pull away and tease him for it. No, she would stay like this for the next century: kissing Draco Malfoy on the floor of his bedroom.

Clearly, she hadn't intended for this to be the outcome when she'd raced into his room to tell him out the breakthrough she'd just made. Seeing him fast asleep hadn't even registered until she realised he was looking particularly groggy and definitely not paying attention to her as she spoke. Even then she hadn't felt very bad about waking him up. She'd been too excited to tell someone to feel bad or wait and now she was honestly trying to remember what she'd been saying before Draco had attacked her with his lips. She doubted it could be more important than threading her fingers through Draco's hair and the feeling of his body covering hers entirely. Nothing could be more exciting or important than what she was currently doing.

When they did finally pull away, it was because Hermione badly needed to breathe. They were both panting and Hermione was pretty sure her face was red, but she didn't care. Draco was still lying on top of her and his face was buried in her neck as he tried to catch his breath. Every time he breathed, his warm breath fanned over her neck and it was all Hermione could do not to shiver.

"I'm not going to crucio you, Hermione," he murmured, pressing a tickling kiss to her neck.

Hermione smiled; that's what they'd been talking about earlier. It was a stupid thing to argue about, she supposed, but she still wanted to make sure the spell worked.

"Okay," she agreed, moving her hands from his hair to wrap around his shoulders. He was still propped on his elbows, holding himself up so he wasn't crushing her, but she wished he wasn't. Even when disrupting her research, he was warm and safe and she really just wanted to hug him for hours on end.

"However," he said, pulling away to look at her, "I am interested in hearing about whatever you were talking about earlier."

Hermione snorted before she started to laugh. Draco watched her, an amused smile on his face as she shook with laughter from below him. As sweetly and mockingly as she could, she cupped his face and opened her mouth to say something before dissolving into more laughter.

"Draco," she said between laughs, "If you weren't listening before, what makes you think you'll listen now?"

"I'll try really hard," he promised, kissing a spot on her cheek right under her eye. She was still laughing softly at the thought, but what was one more time explaining?

"Fine," she agreed, pushing him off of her so she could sit up. Neither of them would be able to focus on what she was saying if Draco stayed hovering over her and pressing kisses to her face.

She started from the beginning, telling Draco about how her and Ginny had decided they needed a way to keep the younger students safe with the Carrows at Hogwarts. She told him of the first spell she'd discovered and saved it as a back-up plan; how the books his mother had sent had offered at least three more options.

Only one of the three had sounded exactly what she wanted which had immediately struck her as convenient, so she'd read further on it to figure out all the side effects it could have. Aside from leaving real marks where injured, it seemed flawless. The person charmed with it wouldn't feel the pain or terror of anything that happened to them and if there were any physical injuries, the spell would work as a makeshift healer. It couldn't keep them from losing blood or passing out from the stress of the injury, but it would prevent them from feeling the pain or terror and could protect them until they received actual medical attention.

"It sounds familiar," Draco muttered at the end of her explanation. She frowned. Sure, the books were from his library so he might have read them, but he almost sounded as if he'd seen the spell in effect. "I'll write my mother," he told her, summoning a parchment and a quill. "Perhaps she knows more about that particular spell."

Hermione watched as he penned a quick note to his mother, asking her what the name of the spell was then asking her to spell it for him. He used the same charm to send the finished letter away then looked up at her with a grin.

"You know I'm proud of you, right?" he said, throwing her off for a second. What on earth was he talking about? "You've worked so hard to find a spell that would protect everyone else and now you've figured it out. I'd never had even thought of the idea."

"It's really not that big of a deal," she said, trying not to turn red. He was looking at her with such a sweet look and she could see the pride in his eyes despite insisting that it wasn't her idea alone. She was certain Ginny had been some sort of influence in the decision making process even if she hadn't done the research.

"But it is, Hermione," Draco insisted, reaching out and grabbing her hand. She subconsciously laced her fingers through his and smiled. "If you were to walk up to a third year and ask them if this was a big deal to them, they'd probably hug you until you couldn't breathe."

"Oh, god," Hermione groaned, thinking of how the DA would react. If she received hugs from every single one of those kids, it would take up the entire practice time. Besides, she rather liked breathing.

"Hey, it's a good thing," Draco told her, smiling when she rolled her eyes.

He used the hand she was holding onto to pull her closer. She grinned as she let herself be dragged forward and into his lap. When he wrapped his arms around her from around her back and pressed a kiss to a spot behind her ear, she held back shiver, instead pressing herself even closer and hugging the arms he'd wrapped around her.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, spotting a small spot of ink on his forearm. He hummed. "You're not going to like it."

"I haven't liked a lot of things recently," he muttered.

Hermione felt her heart clench at the thought of Draco dreading his life instead of enjoying it. He deserved to be happy and to have a war beginning during the last year of their schooling already made things pretty terrible.

"You have the Dark Mark," she said, forgetting to make it a question. She felt Draco tense and made a point of running her hand down his arm soothingly. A muscle in his arm twitched and she knew he was tempted to pull away from her, but he didn't.

"That's not a question."

"Why?" she asked, twisting slightly to face him. She had an idea, but she wanted to be certain. If he'd been forced to take the Mark, things would be much more different than if he'd willingly done so. Being eager to be marked for Voldemort would change a lot of things about their friendship and whatever this new thing was.

"Why what? Why let it happen? Why stay friends with you?" Draco asked.

She hadn't really thought into what she was asking 'why' about, but both of those seemed like worthwhile questions so she nodded to both. Draco sighed and she felt his breath hit her neck moments before his forehead connected with her shoulder.

"I didn't have much of a choice," he said softly. Before she could even think to argue with him that he did, he was saying, "I know it seems like I always do, but when the Dark Lord is living in your home and you have Death Eaters as dinner guests every night who ask when you'll officially join his rank, it's not a choice. My mother hated the idea and fought against it as long as she could, but at seventeen I was an adult and she couldn't make her excuses, so I took it. I want to say things have been easier since then, but I don't honestly know anymore."

Hermione subconsciously ran her thumb over his arm, refusing to let him pull away when he tried. He quit after the second time and dropped his head back onto her shoulder.

"As for you?" he murmured. He pressed three kisses along her neck then said, "I was too invested in our relationship by third year. My mother knew, of course, and probably suspected there was more to my feelings about you before I did. I know being a Death Eater complicates things, but I know where I want us to stand. If you need some time, though, that's okay too."

Hermione turned around to fully face him, bringing her hands up to gently cup his face. With her back to his chest, she hadn't been able to see his eyes watering and the way he bit his lip subconsciously. She supposed she could just tell him straight out where she wanted them to stand now, but she wasn't entirely sure she could accurately portray just what she wanted. Instead of trying to awkwardly explain what she wanted and hope they were on the same page, she pressed their lips together again for just a short moment before pulling away.

"I'm proud of you," she said softly. One of his hands reached up and grabbed hold of her wrist. She brushed her thumb over his cheek as she told him, "You're brave and you're funny and you're my best friend, but—" she felt him tense at that and smiled despite herself "—but I want us to try this new thing. The thing you claim your mother saw before you."

"Me too," Draco said after a pause, before drawing her back in to kiss her senseless.