Plans went awry from time to time, but he had tried,  always  tried. She had never done anything particularly kind for him; there was nothing to earn the protection he gave her. It whittled down to his affections for a witch that could get him killed. That, in itself, was far braver to Hermione than the Slytherins who blindly followed their parents ideals. He questioned them -  challenged them - and at the end of the day, he was working to defeat them. 