I looked through a window and saw a man. He had silver blonde hair, like a Veela and matching grey eyes. It is only by his trademark hair I recognized him. In his disheveled state, I doubt anyone but I would realize it was Draco Malfoy. The hollow look in his eyes had made him look entirely different from what he used to.

He always had an arrogant pride in his eyes, always proud of his family name. He was still arrogant after he changed sides before the war, only his prejudice toward Muggles and Muggleborns were reduced. He had shown no emotion when his father had went to Azkaban. It was after her, he had changed so drastically. It should have been a timeline, AH. After her. After Hermione Granger.

Everything had started from admiration, admiring how she managed to keep her head high even after him and his friends' never-ending insults about her birth. After that, she even managed to achieve the highest score Hogwarts had ever seen. In class, almost every student's mind would drift of, concentrating on things that seemed more important, leaving only a handful paying attention.

She was one of them.

She absorbed information like a sponge and storing them for later use. She had barely lived for more than seven years in the wizarding world and already managed to score higher than those who lived in the wizarding world all their life. Of course, it was not for brains alone he admired her; else he would have fallen in love with a Ravenclaw. It was for her patience, logic, warmth, understanding... the list would never end. It was simpler to say he loved everything about her, as corny as it sounds. He knew she had qualities he would never have, and once again, admired her for it.

He never allowed a single hint to make anyone think that he was in love with her. He insulted her friends, never having the heart to insult her after the third year. Strange, it had seemed that Draco Malfoy, who did not know love, who had never been loved had a crush on a girl who was surrounded in love even before his third year. Although it was undeniably more than a crush. He tried ignoring it, finding excuses to hate her, dating others.

None worked.

At the Quidditch World Cup on his fourth year, he saw his father levitating a few muggles, torturing them and laughing as if it was all a big joke with his friends, other Death Eaters. It was. At least to them. He had been terrified, scared, but not for himself. The feelings were solely for her. It was then when he knew. Seeing her run in a thick forest with nothing but her friends made his heart lurch. He followed her, with Crabbe and Goyle.

He knew he could not warn her without being suspicious, at least not directly. Finally, he laced his warning with layers of insults. He pretended to leave and ordered Crabbe and Goyle to go back to their tents. He followed the Gryffindor Trio into the forest with his invisibility cloak.

Just then, he finally realized that Harry Potter indeed was a magnet for trouble. He heard a man's voice and something green and silver shot out of a wand. He didn't really bother, as long as nothing happened to Hermione. He was still safely under his invisibility cloak when he saw stunners narrowly missing them, along with the pleasure of a group of adults who worked in the ministry heading towards them.

He looked up, hearing thunder, when he saw the highlight of the entire event. It was a Death Eater tattoo he once saw on his father's inner forearm, floating in the air. An icy hand grasped his heart as he saw the horrendous mark, a feeling of dread flooding him. On that moment, he wondered, 'Was power really worth all the pain and groveling he was going to do?'

The fifth year passed easily. He simply restrained all contact with Hermione and avoided the trio as much as he could. In addition to that, everything he said was planned before hand, to ensure nothing would break his illusion of a cold heartless bastard who would love nothing more than to kill Muggles and Muggleborns. He pretended to help Umbridge and her group of brainless minions. He had looked power hungry for the weapon because he wanted to use it to defeat Voldermort. He might not have been a Voldermort supporter, but he wanted power all the same.

He knew everything, but chose to keep quiet.

The Room of Requirement, the thestrals, the centaurs, the department of mysteries. He knew every single bit of it.

He had a looking glass, so that he could see Hermione when she was in life threatening situations. Dueling with Neville Longbottom in the Room of Requirements was definitely life threatening. Although, most of the damage he would do was to himself.

It was the sixth year when everything changed. They were called to meet Dumbledore, the main promoter of inter-house relationships and were assigned to patrol Hogwarts together. He pretended to be outraged when he was secretly delighted. She had carefully masked her face so that it had shown no emotion.

Her friends were furious when the found out what happened and made quite a scene in The Great Hall. His friends, on the other hand, were happy, being Slytherins, they found it the perfect opportunity for Draco to provoke Hermione into loosing house points from Gryffindor.

When they first met, they agreed to be civil. The patrol lasted for two hours. They had talked about petty things, like what they thought about Arithmacy and other subjects.She found out he read Hogwarts, A History. He found out she read a few topics on DarkArts herself. ("You have to know what the curses aregoing to do before you can defend yourself against them!")They got closer, and became friends in secret, or rather, whenever they patrol.

He had never knew that both of them had so much in common. (apart from undeniable rivalry, of course) He had hoped they would argue, hate each other, and he would finally get over her. He didn't. They talked about everything, until they knew almost every single thing about each other, from his reluctance to join Voldermort to her insecurities on her looks. She was his Hope.

One day, everything changed.

-

"Happy Valentine's Day, Hermione!" said Harry enthuastically. "Ron and I got something for you."

Hermione blinked.

"Oh, Harry..." she sighed. "You know I don't really go for Valentine's Day and all..."

The sound of the clanging of glass abruptly ended their five second conversation as Professor Dumbledore stood up. He was wearing muggle clothing. The kind that thoroughly insulted muggle fashion. He was wearing a maroon tie with bright pink hearts that moved. He wore a purple vest and a green shirt underneath, velvet black hair tie for his beard and hair. He also wore checkered blue and brown pants, completed with a yellow and grey hat. Professor Dumbledore looked as if a rainbow had crossed by him and completely destroyed his clothing by coloring his clothes in almost every color possible. Which of course, looked worse than Dobby in his tea cozy, who had seemed to be impossible to beat.

He beamed at his gobsmacked students, who finally noticed their headmaster.

"I would like to wish you all Happy Valentine's Day!" he said, happily. "I hope you don't all end up with a goat like my brother, Aberforth did. Also, I wouldn't recommend checking my old school records... (he looked meaningfully at the Slytherin table) after the spade and the pumpkin accident, I..."

Professor McGonagall blushed.

"Albus, please..."

Professor Dumbledore blinked and changed the subject.

"So please don't damage your ears too much from listening to singing valentines!" he said with a laugh. "Tuck in!"

Food appeared on the table, all complete with red and pink food coloring. As food seemed to be Ron's only passion, she was surprised when he tugged her hand and gave her a dictionary box covered with beautiful, glittery, pink and red wrapping paper. She inwardly sighed as she realized that her best friends didn't know she abhorred the color pink.

'Draco would...'

She was snapped back to reality by Harry tapping her shoulder.

"Aren't you going to open it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She did. And she was surprised to see not a book, but a box of Dobblegoose's Best Chocolates. One of the most expensive brands of chocolates there was. Apparently, although her friends forgot her taste in colors, they did not forget she loved chocolates.

She thanked them and gave them each a hug.

-

It was time for patrol. Hermione could barely contain her excitement to meet Draco. She had never felt this way for anyone before. Her heart pleaded desperately for her to see him. When she touched him, even the barest skin contact, she felt warmth fill her. She knew she had to tell him. It was the unevitable.

She met up with him, twiddling her thumbs, trying to choose whether to tell him the straight plain truth or prepare him slowly but flirting with him. She knew she would be facing rejection but she wanted to be honest, denying everything would simply make matters even worse. Besides that, the alternative, acception, was tempting.

As soon as he reached her, her mouth went dry.

"Um... How's stuff?" she asked gingerly.

"Stuff?" repeated Draco disbelievingly. "It's Valentine's Day and you're asking me about stuff?"

"What would you expect me to say?" countered Hermione. "That I love you?"

"Well," said Draco, pretending to ponder. "That would be an interesting change. It's Valentine's Day after all. All about love and what not."

"But wouldn't that bother you? I mean, if I said that. Even a slightest bit?" asked Hermione desperately.

"Hermione," said Draco, rolling his eyes. "I thought it was glaringly obvious. When pigs fly, Hermione."

Hermione frowned slightly. "The Babilinious is a pig. It flies. Does that mean that..."

Draco laughed in amusement. "Shut up, Hermione." he stated firmly.

"No, I mean it. Do you mean that..."

But Hermione couldn't continue her sentence. She was too busy being kissed by Draco Malfoy to even remember what she had thought about in the first place.

It was then she knew that her love was mutual. She reveled in it.

-

They knew about each other's love and pursued a relationship only Harry, Ron and Ginny knew of. They never lived happily after. Voldermort was stronger than before, alive and still as ruthless as ever. As people would have said, he was at the height of his power.

He was not thoroughly accepted by Hermione's friends, but he was trusted and tolerated by them. He could never expect to give them a 'manly' slap on the back and punch each other on their shoulders one day. But he didn't really care, as long as he was with Hermione. He restrained himself from provoking them because he wanted to be in her good graces. He was to join Harry, Ron, Ginny (although with many protests from her brother) and Hermione to fight against Voldermort.

The day before they were to act, a Death Eater attacked Hermione repeatedly with the Cruciatus curse, she was unarmed, and therefore at great disadvantage. They couldn't help her because they were separated by a barrier. After much pounding and curses, the barrier finally crumbled. They stunned the offender and crept by her side. She made Draco promise to live for her, and win Voldermort. Those were her last words. On that day, Hope died.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Draco attacked Voldermort's lair with great fury. When they finally found him, Ginny was unconscious, stunned, but not hurt psychically in any other way. They tried many curses and spells, even casted Avada Kedavra many times in unison. Only to be evaded by Voldermort.

The spells were only absorbed by Voldermort.

They weren't even suspicious that Voldermort did not attack back. The truth was, they were too full of hatred and anger that they could not defeat Voldermort as he was supported by mostly negative energy. At the end, Harry remembered Dumbledore's words. "It is love that conquers all." They resorted to channeling their love for Hermione (Draco's a romantic love; Harry and Ron, a brotherly love) into a single spell. Voldermort could not stand it and evaporated.

Peace returned to the wizarding world. Everything was finally over. His relationship with Hermione was made known and had became a trend for the other Hogwarts students. Before the term ended, Pansy was dating Harry while Millicent was dating Ron. Ginny, on the other hand, had her hooks on Blaise. No one had ever expected that to happen. Then again, no one had expected him to fall in love with Hermione either. They started their new lives, leaving chaos behind. All of the Death Eaters that weren't killed were in Azkaban, together with his father, now heavily guarded with Gryffins and dragons, courtesy of Charlie Weasley.

Every time I look at the window, I see him and pity him. Everyone had moved on, they still remembered and appreciated Hermione of course, but they accepted the fact that she was gone. Draco didn't. He could not live without her. His purpose of life was gone. But Hermione had made him promise to live for her. And he'd be damned if he ever broke his last promise to her. It is not easy for him, but he tries his best. He keeps his sufferings for himself and put on a fake cheer when he goes out. He never told anyone how he felt about anything, everything.

How do I know all this and understand this all so well?

Because the window I was looking through was a mirror. And Draco Malfoy is me.