A/N: Welcome Back! This is the sequel to my story I'll Be Your Stone, so if you haven't read that I suggest going back and looking at it or else this might not make as much sense. As usual, I own nothing blah,blah,blah...

I hope you all enjoy!

-Emma

Draco was the first to succumb to the darkness, screaming out her name.

"I'm here," Hermione promised, leaning over him and taking his face in her hands. "Draco, it's alright, I'm here. It's just a dream, love, please wake up."

He thrashed in his sleep and she instinctively knew that he was trying to reach her, trying to get to her as she lay on the floor in Malfoy Manor.

"Draco I'm here!" she repeated. "I'm right here."

When he thrashed again, she straddled his hips and allowed her entire body weight to rest on him, her forehead resting against his.

"Draco Malfoy, you listen to me," she ordered, forcing her voice not to shake. "It's just a dream. You're having a nightmare and you need to wake up. Now, Draco. Wake up!"

His eyes flew open and he gasped, pushing her off in a panic and sitting up.

"Shh, shh." Hermione sat up on her knees and wrapped her arms around his shoulder, quietly reassuring him. "You're alright, I'm right here. Just breathe, Draco. Just breathe."

She waited for him to orient himself, her face pressed against his back as she repeated her affirmations. After a minute he tugged at her arm, so she straddled his waist and took his face in her hands, waiting for his eyes to focus on her.

"You're okay," he breathed heavily.

"Right as rain," she smiled.

Draco nodded and fell back against the mattress, pulling Hermione down on top of him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, resting her head against his chest and listening closely as his heartbeat returned to normal.

"No." He reached up and began scratching her scalp softly, knowing that it would put her to sleep and keep her from asking questions.

"Are you sure?"

"Hermione," he bit out her name tersely, then stopped and took a deep breath, knowing she was just trying to help.

Hermione seemed to understand this and didn't keep pushing. Instead, she nodded and pressed a kiss to his neck, before settling comfortably against him.

When Hermione began flailing around a few hours later, Draco was already awake and quickly reached out to calm her.

"No, please," she whimpered, fighting against him. "Don't, please!"

"Hermione," Draco shook her lightly. "Sweetheart, wake up."

"Ron, please! Don't!"

Draco froze momentarily, a ball of rage settling in his chest. What the hell had the ginger weasel done to his girlfriend?

"Hermione," he raised his voice. "Hermione, you need to wake up. It's just a dream, love." He shook her again, but it did nothing as she began to sob desperately in her sleep, begging Weasley to stop whatever he was doing in her dream.

These were the moments that killed Draco, the inhuman sounds that came out of her as she sobbed broke his heart. All he wanted was to take care of her, to take away her pain, and he couldn't. All he could do was hold her and promise her that she was safe and that he loved her, so that was what he did.

He wasn't exactly sure when she woke up, but he eventually felt her hands grip his arm and when he looked down her eyes were open and she looked terrified.

"Hey, you're alright," Draco promised, holding her even tighter. "I've got you."

"Harry," she choked.

"Potter's fine," he assured her. "He's with the Weasleys, up in Gryffindor tower."

"Ron-"

"He's fine too." For now, Draco thought.

Hermione nodded, sitting up and resting her elbows on her knees. Her hands quickly wound into her hair, tugging at it anxiously as she took deep breaths and tried to orient herself.

"We're in my dorm," Draco said softly, tracing his hand slowly up and down her spine.

"The Puddlemere United poster gave it away," she sniffed.

"Are you questioning my Quidditch loyalties?" Draco asked, pinching her hip gently.

"Of course not." She shook her head, and Draco could hear the smile in her voice, despite the fear it still held. "You're just the only Puddlemere fan I know."

"Really? Who do Boy Wonder and Weasel cheer for, then?" he asked, trying to distract her.

"Harry doesn't really have a team, but Ron goes for the Chudley Cannons- do not say whatever it is you're thinking about saying," she threatened, twisting around so she could see his face.

"I wasn't going to say anything," he lied, trying to look innocent.

Hermione snorted. "Sure you weren't."

"You called out for him," Draco said quietly, sitting up beside her. "While you were sleeping."

"Who?"

"Weasley."

He didn't miss the way that she tried to shrink away from him, suddenly becoming very interested in the quilt covering her legs.

"You begged him not to do something," Draco continued.

"Please." She shook her head, her light tone from only moments ago gone and replaced by sheer desperation. "Draco, please don't."

"Hermione did he hurt you?"

"Draco," she pleaded with him again, her voice breaking.

"Hermione," he placed his hand on the small of her back, watching her intently. "Please, love, you can tell me."

Hermione took a few deep breaths, trying to pull herself together enough to tell him what had happened- something she'd avoided ever since that first night at Shell Cottage.

"He left," she finally admitted, unable to look at him as she spoke.

Draco nodded slowly, vaguely remembering this piece of information from the shouting match she and her friends had when they got to Shell Cottage. He'd meant to ask her about it later, but there had always been more important things to discuss- or so he thought.

"We'd been in hiding for a couple months, and we'd found the first horcrux- the necklace," Hermione explained, her voice barely more than a whisper and her eyes fixed on a spot near the end of the bed. "We didn't want to risk losing it, so we took turns wearing it. It messed with our emotions, our thoughts. Whenever you wore it, you just felt so angry. Ron had the hardest time- he's always had a temper and the necklace just made it that much easier to get on his bad side. We were barely eating, we hadn't had time to properly pack and we had to scavenge all our meals. It was getting to all of us, but Ron..."

She trailed off for a moment, shaking her head.

"We were trying to figure out how to destroy it." She continued after a minute, as Draco traced patterns on her back softly, a comforting reminder that it was over now. "I'd just worked it out, more or less, and Harry and I were excited- we were finally getting somewhere, you know? Ron was so angry, though. He was convinced that there was something going on between Harry and I- that we were talking about him behind his back, keeping secrets from him. He and Harry started to row, screaming at each other. I thought they were going to start beating each other, but then Harry told him that he should go if he didn't want to be there, so he did. Ron wanted me to leave with him, he said I could choose him or Harry-"

She stopped again, letting a small sob escape as she relived that night in her mind.

"I begged him to stay, but he wouldn't. I followed him out of the tent and to the edge of the wards, I tried to pull him back, but he just wouldn't listen. He shoved me off of him and before I could get up he was gone, outside the wards, and I couldn't-"

Her voice finally broke completely, tears beginning to fall again as she buried her face in her hands.

"He left," she choked out. "He looked me right in the eye and told me I could stay or I could go, and then he left us. He left me."

"He came back," Draco tried to comfort her, despite wanting nothing more than to storm Gryffindor Tower and wring the youngest Weasley son by his scrawny ginger neck.

"But he left," Hermione shook her head, using the palms of her hands to wipe away her tears. "We promised that we would support each other, that we would take care of each other no matter what, but he didn't! Things got hard and he ran away."

"I'm sorry," Draco kissed her shoulder, trying to think of a way to make her feel better.

"Don't ever leave me like that," she whispered, suddenly, in the most shattered tone Draco had ever heard. "If you ever leave, don't let it be like that."

"I'm not going anywhere-"

"-But if you do," she insisted, finally turning to face him, a desperate look in her eye.

"I promise you, Hermione, I will never leave you like that," Draco insisted, taking her hand in his. "Never. I wouldn't be able to."

"I never thought Ron would be able to either," she sniffled.

Unable to see her so broken, Draco maneuvered himself to sit partially in front of her and took her face in his hands, desperate for her to believe him- to trust in his love for her. "I will never hurt you like that, and I will never leave you- ever. I can't live without you."

Hermione studied his face carefully for a minute, taking in each and every inch of it- every line and crevice and twitch- before finally nodding and allowing the tension in her body to release ever so slightly.

"Come here," Draco pulled her flush against him, easing them back against the pillows again and holding her tightly. "Try to get some more sleep."

He could tell that she was fighting it, her hands roaming listlessly across his chest and arms, but once again the feeling of his nails scratching softly against her scalp finally lulled her to sleep and the weight of her head on his chest had Draco following not long after.