Malfoy searched for a white, silk handkerchief inside his jacket and took it out. Hermione held out her hand for it, but he disregarded this, and took her hand between his. He dried the coffee gently away. He was concentrating on what he was doing so he did not see Hermione's eyes search him wonderingly, as if surprised at this soft gesture.

'It's okay, Hermione, she's going to be all right,' he repeated, and he put his arms around her. 'Come here.' He pressed his hands against her back and pulled her gently towards him, comforting her, asking her without words to let her grief out by trusting him; unconciously, she let him, not caring whose body was comforting her, as long as there was one to cry on. She felt a vague sensation of numb disbelief that this could be Malfoy, but her grief as a mother pushed it away - her desire to be told that she was not a failure forced her to forget that this was her archenemy.

Hermione stood there, sandwiched between the wall and him. It was a long time since she had been this close to a man other than Ron. There was a tiny sliver of a space separating their waists, the rest of her was pressed up against him, and suddenly her skin felt hot and feverish under his fingers.

'God, Hermione, how could this ever be unreal?' he whispered and laid his forehead against hers, the lengths of their noses touching, their lips inches apart. Hermione desired nothing more this moment than to breach that distance, but she had promised...

She looked down at her coffee, which had now gone cold. Images seemed to flash before her, images of their marriage and of how proud Molly and Arthur had been; of Hugo's birth and Ron's glowing face; of the time Rose got her acceptance letter to Hogwarts - she and Ron had been up at dawn just to greet the owl who delivered it; when Ron got his driver's license and tried to convince Hermione that he had done it honestly; the way that Ron made the most perfect hot chocolate... And then the images vanished, and all that was left was Ron's pale face, staring at her fearfully.