"Boyfriend" was too juvenile a word to explain their connection. "Lover" captured only the physicality, the admittedly poignant perfection of their chemistry, but it was not sufficient either. "Partner" was too formal, or too casual, or perhaps just too simple to relay the vastness of their relationship. It was almost comical how quickly he’d come to mean so much to her, too. As they rebuilt the walls of Hogwarts Castle, so too was Draco tearing down the walls around Hermione’s carefully sheltered heart. Her shock quickly shifted to thrill every time he touched her, as he engrained himself into her life with quiet soundness and surety. That’s what did her in, in the end; he had become the person she most wanted to see and most wanted to make happy, and it seemed that she hadn’t been enough for him. The anguish of that realization had taken a month to compartmentalize, and yet with one glimpse in a dingy pub in Hogsmeade, all her hard work was coming rapidly undone. 