Almost absently, as if driven by an unknown force inside of him, Malfoy cups her cheek in a tender gesture that is at odds with the fervour in his steady gaze. His thumb brushes against the skin of her cheek and she’d shiver if she didn’t feel so leaden. Perhaps he can also see there’s not much left of her after all. Perhaps Malfoy realizes Hermione Granger, at the end of the day, is truly just a girl stuck in a war with no means or ends, and to ask her to have been anything else was inexplicably cruel.