"Oh, they've left?" Hermione said haltingly, looking around the room.

"Yes, we're finally alone at last." Draco said blandly, eyes never leaving the book he was reading.

"I was going to ask why you're still here."

The boy stayed silent, feigning his engagement with the book he'd been reading earlier that day. He had only come back after dinner for the chance of seeing her before he retired for the night. Her presence was soothing and he found his worries melting away whenever she was around.

"Well, then, it looks like you'd much rather be alone." She made to leave but in an instant, the book was forgotten on the window still and Draco had gotten up from his lazy sprawl across the daybed.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, walking toward a white chiselled table lined carefully with snacks. It was no bigger than a footstool and held cheese and cold cuts in a spiral, with crackers, grapes, and berries strategically placed by the house elves.

Hermione immediately stopped in her tracks, recognising his white flag and walking toward the table. "Now that you mention it, I wouldn't mind something... like a sandwich?" She said hopefully.

"Your wish is Kevie's command," Draco said charmingly, "He's the house elf who has assigned himself to us. Very sweet guy who almost threw himself out the window when I gave him a sickle so please don't try to set him free."

Hermione swallowed her words along with the sandwich in her mouth and watched as some bread, lettuce, olives, and tomatoes materialised.

Draco took a slice of bread and constructed a sandwich with deft motions before whipping out his wand.

"Wingardium leviosa."

"Literally, I'm two steps away from you," Hermione said with a wry smile as she grabbed the sandwich out of the air. "Who would have thought, Draco Malfoy, sandwich maker."

"Had to learn how to make my own sandwiches after Potter lost my house elf, hadn't I?" He put together another sandwich for himself and sighed blissfully.

"You know, you don't really talk about home much. It's usually me doing all the talking."

"I like listening." He replied simply.

"I'd like to listen for a change." She said.

"What's there to hear? All the stories are true. Pure blood family dating back centuries, dirty Galleons from a dirty vocation and an affinity for the elusive, which is how we... fell in with the Dark Lord."

"I want to hear about baby Draco and stories of Malfoy Manor – surely you must have some fond memories."

He seemed to struggle for a bit, but he managed to cough up one which wasn't much of a story anyway, "When I was younger, I heard my father talk about the dark times as though they were glorious. But when I came to school, I discovered that there was no glory to our name. I believed I would have everything I wanted, but I was wrong. I was received with the same prejudices that I came with. Muggleborns are worthless, Malfoys are filth. What's the difference, really?"

"We both know that isn't true – now – and that's got to count for something." She said with a small smile, a peace offering.

"Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that we are chained on opposite sides of the fence."

"Everyone has the power to make their own choices."

"Do we? It's easy for you to say because your family is not a part of this world and you can make your choices freely. What do you think will happen if I choose Harry's side over my family's?"

"It would make you brave." She said, eyes searching, trying with all her might to convey just how much she believes that he could just do it.

But all she received in return was a quiet smirk as he inspected the colour of his robes. "You'll realise I'm not in Gryffindor."

"Look, I know it's easier said than done. You were raised to think that family matters the most – and it's true, family is important, but so are you. If you don't like the path that your family is on, you can always choose to go the other way. As I said, it won't be easy, in fact, it will be very hard. But it's not impossible. You just have to want it."

There was a fire in her words and he heard not only what she wanted him to say, but how much she wanted them. All he could do was shake his head slowly.

"He would first kill my family, the one that spawned a traitor does not deserve to live. If you think it's brave for me to sacrifice my father and mother, then I would much rather be a coward." He said coldly.

"No, that's not what I meant."

"Oh? What did you mean?"

"Fight You-Know-Who with us, destroy him, and you would have nothing to fear."

"Careful, Granger, you're starting to sound like an idealist."

Ignoring his jibe, Hermione continued, "I'm serious, Draco. If you are unhappy with where you are, move. Change. Do something. You're not a tree rooted to the ground."

"Yes, I am. I am rooted where I am planted. A seed of Salazar."

They let the conversation die and ate in silence. Draco avoided meeting her eyes the whole time. They were so rich with sincerity that he wanted to trust them and be the man that they saw, which was precisely the reason why he needed to avoid them at all costs. He couldn't afford to be moved by them.

When they were done picking at their food, Draco stood up and bade Hermione good night.

"Wait." He looked at her small pale hand holding on to a fistfull of his sleeve and stopped for a beat.

"Sirius, he's your uncle, isn't he?" At Draco's immovable silence, Hermione continued, "He rejected his family's values and Volde-You-Know-Who let them live." She faltered at using Voldemort's name at Draco's expression.

"Yes, but his father didn't fail the Dark Lord and got himself locked in Azkaban. Furthermore, Sirius was an oddball. He was a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin."

"He ran away from home when he was sixteen to live with the Potters. You're seventeen. It's not too late for you to run away." Hermione said lightly, trying for a joking tone in order to lighten up the mood, but a heavy glumness had set into Draco's face and he merely shook his head before exiting the Room of Requirement.

"I'm not about to move in with Potter. Good night, Granger."

The click of a shutting door had never sounded as lonely as it did at that moment, with Hermione still holding onto a vain hope.

He went straight to Selgentar's office and gave her the information Harry had instructed him to give and she instantly brightened up with glee.

"Thank you for that information, Draco." She began waving her wand around. A brown duffel bag, which contained the few meagre possessions she seemed to have, zoomed into the office.

Her reaction took Draco aback as he imagined that she would have taken it differently, "Is Slughorn important?" He asked, trying to buy time for improvisation.

"Yes... I think so... He was a teacher here, before... Interesting," She said haltingly, as though unsure how much to share but overtaken by excitement. The professor was a blur as she rushed about her office, grabbing things from secret compartments off the shelves, walls and even her chair. "I must leave at once."

"Wait, what... What is going on?"

She paused in the middle of stuffing what looked like a scrapbook into her bag, "Something exciting," Her words were breathless, "Oh, Draco," she came up to him so closely he felt uncomfortable. The heat emanating off her was intoxicatingly so, "Finally, something useful." Her face came close to his and before he knew to dodge, she had planted a warm kiss on his temple and was off again, rummaging through her possessions.

At a loss for what to say, the boy stood there motionlessly, feeling his skin on fire and wondering what he had done... He watched as something was being set in motion but unsure of what it meant. Did Harry foresee this? Was this what he was expecting? Or had they just given away their most prized information, not knowing what it's worth?

The next day, Selgentar had gone and Dumbledore mentioned that Snape would be filling in for Defense Against The Dark Arts, whereas a new professor would be taking the role of Potions. Pansy had thought Draco succeeded in the Dark Lord's plans and threw a surprise party for him and decorated the Slytherin common room with silver snake streamers and green balloons which contained euphoria gas.

While he appreciated the gesture deep down inside, noting that his years of friendship with his house did not go unrewarded, he was sick to the stomach, wondering... Always wondering if what he did was the right thing. Despite it being the very thing that Harry had wanted him to do, he couldn't stop speculating if it was not the wrong thing after all.

"Draco!" Pansy shrieked with laughter, intoxicated with butterbeer, came over to him and slung an arm across the shoulder, sloshing the amber liquid all over his robes and not seeming to care. "Our most prized possession and pride of Slytherin!" She laughed, drinking deeply from the mug.

Draco took a sip from it and smirked at the faces in the common room, some shining with envy and others happy at his success. Both apparent on both old and young.

"He is valued above all and has done more than any of you ever will." Pansy said with satisfaction.

"Thanks, Pansy." He shrugged her off and sought out Crabbe and Goyle, trying to dispel feelings of being an outsider.

"To Draco," Crabbe said, giving him a nod of acknowledgement and drinking deeply from his mug.

"Black pudding for lunch tomorrow!" Goyle's words left an unpleasant aftertaste in his mouth because his simpleton friend seemed to think that everything would go back to the way things were. If only he knew, Draco Malfoy was too far gone to contend with childish games and act a bully.

Pansy found them soon after and whispered, "I don't know how you did it, convincing that old witch to leave and leaving the position open for Snape, but it was genius, Draco, genius!" With that, he received another unwanted kiss for the day, on his cheek this time round. He rubbed it off under the guise of rubbing his eyes and said, "Well I'm tired and I am heading to bed."

His subdued tones did nothing to put a damper on the party and they went on till late at night, celebrating a victory which was not his.