"I'll fight for you, you know," he says as the sky begins to lighten again. "Even though I'm a bloody coward, you're the one I'll fight for."

Her gaze leaves the rapidly graying sky to meet his eyes, which are oddly almost the same color. She tries to venture a smile but none surfaces. Instead she looks back out into the distance, watching, waiting…

"I'll make sure you're safe," he continues on. "I promise you, I'll keep you safe."

Another glance. Another attempt at a smile. Another failure.

"I won't make fun of Potter and Weasley any more."

This time she does smile but her eyes do not meet his, continuing to stare steadily onward into the vastly growing light.

"Seriously, I'm not kidding." His face screws up and then softens when she raises an eyebrow at him. "For you I would. All of that stuff, I mean."

She gives him the briefest of nods, so subtle that he is not even sure that it was an acknowledgement of his profession or a mere twitch of her shoulder.

"I'd win too," he continues, pulling his knees to his chest and fiddling with the end of his shoelace.

Another ghost of a smile flickers and then fades from her features.

"I could tear them to shreds. I know I could," he says earnestly, gazing hard at her profile. "Every hex, every jinx. I'd do it for you. To make sure that you won. That we won"

The sun was rising most rapidly now and from their post at the top of the astronomy tower, they could see its rays racing across the lake toward them. A thestral rose from the trees of the forbidden forest, turning a gruesome pirouette in the sky before plummeting again out of sight.

"Seriously," he says, his voice trembling slightly, eyes riveted on the spot where the beast had just been seen. "I would kill for you."

Her head whips to face him, her hair spraying in a golden halo around her shoulders. Before he can calculate what is happening, she is on her knees and crawling towards him, reaching for his face and crushing their lips together. As he reaches to tangle a hand in her hair she is gone, settling back into her sitting position, waiting for his mind to recover from what had just happened before speaking.

"Don't say things like that to me," she whispers and he frowns, looking slightly disgruntled.

"But I want you to know," he says, leaning towards her in his anxiousness to make her understand. "I want you to know how much I-"

"Draco!" she hisses and the flow of words stops.

"But I-"

"I know," she says and suddenly she is on her feet, holding her hand out to him, the newly risen sun framing her whole body so that she looks illuminated and glowing, like an angel. His angel…

He grasps her offering hand and allows her to pull him up. She makes no move to let go as they walk toward the door leading down to the rest of the castle. They meet Neville and Dean at the door, wishing them a quiet sentinel as they pass.

"Hermione," he whispers as they reach the bottom of the stairs and she lets go of his hand, heading for the doors of the castle.

He does not even hesitate in his pursual, nipping at her heels as if he were a common stray, but his lineage and his honor do not matter any more. He catches her hand again just as she had thrown open the door and the morning light blinds him temporarily so that she is merely a burst of color.

"Don't," she says warningly.

"I need you to know," he says, stepping forward so that their lips are millimeters apart. "You have to know."

He reaches his hands up, cupping her face gently and then delving his long fingers into her wild tangle of hair. His eyes bore into hers and he finally sees the fear swimming in her eyes and threatening to fall over her lids and down her cheeks.

"Hermione," he whispers, softly, reverently. Like an offering. A silent prayer for them cast off into the new day.

"I know."