Red Roses and Silver Rings

Chapter Twenty - Two : So Soft It Could Bring Her To Tears

The clock blinked brightly in Hermione's face as she leaned over from Dracos chest to read it. 3:00am blinked back at her. She quietly groaned in annoyance as she sunk back into him. His soft breathing filling the room.

"Can't sleep?" His deep voice makes her jump.

"N-no. I just woke up. Can you not sleep?" She whispers.

"Nope. I haven't slept yet."

"Why?" She spins around to him.

He stutters for a couple of moments, his sentences going in multiple directions before he sighs. "I was trying to keep awake just incase you woke up and needed me."

"Oh..." was all Hermione said.

"Yeah..." he huffs.

She nods for a while, completely shocked by his admission. He stayed up for hours just in case if I woke up and needed him again? Hermione's blush pulls on her cheeks, a soft hush of a pink scattering her freckle-filled face.

"Thank you for that." She whispers, with Draco replying with a short, stiff nod.

The early morning atmosphere was in a way comforting to Hermione. She loved the early mornings when everyone was alseep and she could relax. It was some of her favourite mornings when she was on the hunt. It just made life a little bit better.

"I saw that article on your parents a couple of weeks ago." She says to him. "The one about their opinion on Voldemort."

He nods stiffly again. His whole body being completely stoic. "Don't know why they wrote that article to be fair, I don't think anyone really cares what any one of us thinks."

She frowns. "That's not true."

He looks at her with his eyebrows raised. "No?"

"No I don't think so. I have seen so many journalists write about how they would love to talk to someone about it. I'm sure many people want to talk to you." She peered at him, trying her best to read him.

He hums in response to her words. She sees that he doesn't want to talk about it and decides not to push it any longer. Shuffling up and resting against his headboard, pulling the cover up against her body.

"Do you speak to your parents?" She whispers.

"Not often. I was requested by the headmaster to go and see them the other day." He tells her.

"What was it like?"

He sighs. "Weird. My dad and I's relationship was the same. Cold and distant but with my mother it was different. She actually seemed interested in what I was doing for once." She turns to him and sees that he's lost in thought. His face is full of distaste from the mention of his father.

"Is your mother nice?"

"She's alright. We don't have the best relationship but she's better than my dad by a long shot." He mumbles.

Her heart warms at his honesty, knowing it costs him a lot of pride to admit that his family life wasn't perfect. Everyone thought that the Malfoy family was perfection. Even Hermione was jealous at some points because it looked like they had it all. Money, status, a happy family but it all came crashing down.

"My parents are in Australia. They have been since the war."

"And they don't remember you? Like at all?" His eyes widen.

"Nope. Nothing. I had to do remove them. I did not have a choice as I said before. If I had gotten them killed because of pure selfishness, I would have never forgiven myself. They were in so much danger."