She looked both terrified and incredibly brave, and Draco was, as always, struck by how strange it was that she would want to be with him. Hermione was everything that anyone should want to be; brave, intelligent, strong, kind, and with a sense of integrity that no one else he had known could rival. Why would she want to be around him? Draco cared about her more than anyone else in the world except his mother now, although he didn’t allow himself to think of his affection in terms of love. He knew she cared about him too; it was obvious in every look, every touch – in the way she crept down to the cellar in the middle of the night, to talk and snog.