Draco

I try and catch Granger's eye from my seat in the Great Hall, but she ignores me. I let out a frustrated groan, and push my food away. 

"Draco. Eat," Blaise orders.

I glare at him.

"Don't boss me around," I snap at him. 

"You haven't been eating properly for weeks-"

"Shut up, Blaise."

"Well, maybe your sickly appearance is the reason Granger's avoiding you," Blaise growls, sliding away from me to sit near Bulstrode. 

I halfheartedly shovel some food into my mouth, grumbling as I do so. 

I keep an eye on Granger, and my glance turns into a full on glare as Weasley brushes what looks like-snow?- off her shoulder. 

I automatically look around for Brown, and spot her a few tables away, with red eyes, and a murderous glare that's directed towards the area where Granger, Weasley, and Potter are sitting. The trio, however, is acting oblivious to Brown's seething, and seem to be laughing, carefree, at something Weasley said. 

"Brown and Weasel split up," Blaise says in a low voice. "I heard those Patil twins talking about it in the library."

"When?" I ask, trying to calm down. 

"Last night. Apparently Brown saw Hermione and Weasley coming out of the common room together."

I curl my hand into a fist. So Granger was with Weasley last night, before I met her in the library?

"Are you going to talk to her?" Blaise asks.

"Why would I talk to her?" I mutter angrily. 

"But I thought you two were-"

"Nothing. We are nothing. Or whatever we had before is now nothing," I say disdainfully, getting to my feet. 

"Draco, don't do this," Blaise says. "Just tell her how you feel."

"Do I have to repeat myself? I don't want anything to do with that filthy little mudblood."

"We don't really know the whole truth about what happened."

"Let's think, shall we? Brown saw Weasley and Granger coming out of their yesterday late at night. Something definitely happened between them. Then, I met Granger in the library, and like an idiot, flirted with her when she just was getting it on with Weasel. To top my embarrassment over that, I took her to the Slytherin common room, and then flew her back to her dorm, where we made out for a few hours," I say in one breath. 

Blaise looks at me, brows furrowed. I shake my head at his calculating face.

"There's a reason our parents told us to stay away from her kind. Haven't I been humiliated enough?" I hiss, striding out of the room.

I go straight to the seventh floor to work on the cabinet, seething. The work I do is pointless, and after two hours, I've gotten nowhere. I take deep breaths, and close my eyes. But then, all I see swimming in my mind is Granger's face. I slam my fist into the wall in frustration. 

"Don't let her see you're affected, asshole," I mutter to my reflection in a cracked mirror. "Act like you don't give a fuck."

"You don't give a fuck," I repeat to my reflection sternly. "You do not give a fuck."

Maybe if I repeat that enough times, I'll believe it. 

Hermione

"Psst," I whisper to Blaise, standing over his desk in Charms. 

Ron and Harry watch me curiously, then go back to talking. 

"What?" he snaps in a low voice, whipping his head around to glare at me. 

I frown.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Just ask what you want or get lost."

"Where's Draco?" I ask, grinning as I say his name. 

To my surprise, Blaise's eyes fill with anger, and he hisses, "Stay away from him, Granger."

I glare back.

"What is it to you? Don't meddle in between Draco and I."

"There is 'Draco and I' anymore. Haven't you done enough?"

Heads turn towards us, and the students stare at us weirdly. 

"Let's go outside," I tell him, confused. 

He follows me reluctantly to the classroom door, and Professor Flitwick nods as we ask to leave. 

"What do you mean, 'I've done enough?'" I ask. 

"Just stay away from Draco. He's my best mate, and you don't even know him."

"Of course I know him! And I care about Draco too!" I say, stung. 

"You think you know him? Has he shared anything with you? Anything at all?" 

I frown, thinking. 

"Do you know what his favorite food his? His favorite color? His grandmother's name? Any of his family problems?" Blaise continues. "Hell, Hermione, do you even know his full name?"

My breathing quickens, and I realize Blaise is right. I've told Draco nearly everything about me, and he hasn't even opened his mouth. This whole time, was it just me talking?

"Exactly," Blaise says disdainfully.

"That- That's not true! He told me about, er, his mom and Fenrir Greyback!" I say in panic, trying to convince myself that-

That what exactly? That this whole thing between me and Draco wasn't a complete waste of time?

"Oh please, Granger, everyone knows about that."

"Don't call me that!" I burst, my mind swarming with emotions. 

"Call you what?" Blaise asked, confused.

"Don't call me 'Granger!' Only Draco is allowed to call me that!" I say, knowing fully well that I sound like a lunatic right now. 

"It's- er, your name?" Blaise says in confusion, but shuts up as I glare at him. 

"You're wrong! Draco told me about his task. He's trying to fix something!" I whisper desperately.

"And did he tell you exactly what the task was? Or what he was trying to fix? Or why he was given that task?" Blaise challenges. "Hermione, you probably forced him into telling you."

Did I? I try to remember, but I can't. 

"So- so you're saying that Draco and I never should have gotten together?" I ask Blaise. 

"Were you two ever together?" 

"I- of course we were!" I say in alarm. "I mean, of course we are! We are together."

We were, weren't we?

"Are you sure?" Blaise asks coldly. 

"Yes, I'm sure-"

"Hermione, he's kissed hundreds of girls. What makes you think you are special?"

My eyes fill with tears, and Blaise's soften's his tone a little. 

"Look, just leave him alone."

I shake my head, leaning against the wall, trying to steady myself. 

"God dammit! Leave him alone!" Blaise yells. "Now that Brown and Weasel are split up, go torture Weasley!"

I look at him in confusion. "I don't- I don't want Ron like that anymore."

"Sure," he snorts. "You don't want Weasel anymore, now that you got it on with him last night."

Anger blazes through me, and I whip my wand out, pointing it at Blaise's throat.

"What did you just say?" I growl. 

"The whole school knows. Brown saw you and and Weasel coming out of the common room, alone. I wonder what could have happened?" Blaise says, his eyes trained on my wand. 

"We didn't- Harry was with us!" I whisper. 

Blaise snorts. 

"He was! Harry was under the invisibility cloak!" I blurt. 

"Potter has an invisibility cloak?" Blaise asks. 

I nod, lowering my wand. 

"Nothing happened between me and Ron," I say firmly to him. 

"So, you still like Draco?" Blaise checks. 

"Like?" I let out a sad laugh. "Merlin, I think I'm falling in love with him."

Blaise frowns, apparently deep in thought. 

"Don't tell Draco," I plead. 

"He wouldn't believe me anyways," Blaise says. "He's mad at you because of-"

"The breakup. He believes the rumors," I realize, pacing. 

"Yes. So just go tell him the truth, and boom, problem solved."

"You know, you've had me thinking," I say thoughtfully. "You were right, I honestly don't know a thing about Draco."

"That's ok," Blaise says. "He isn't the sharing type."

"That's not the point!" I snap. "I think you were right about me and Draco not being good for each other."

He stares at me in dismay. 

"What? No, Hermione, I just said that in a flow! I didn't mean it!"

"Whatever you said, it's true," I say, my emotions swirling in my mind. "You had me doubting if we were ever even, er, a thing."

"You are-"

"Which must mean that we never had anything," I conclude. "You were right, I probably forced him into the whole thing."

Blaise open his mouth, but I don't let him talk. 

"Where is he?"

"Er, the sixth floor I think," Blaise starts. 

I don't give him time to finish. 

"I have to tell him that we- that we can't do whatever we're doing anymore," I say, walk away. 

"That's really not what I meant!" Blaise calls after me. 

I ignore him. 

Draco

I sit on a bench on the sixth floor, breathing heavily. Fuck you, Granger. 

"Draco?" a voice asks. 

I can tell right away, from the voice, that it's her. I turn, and stand, willing myself to not let any emotions show on my face. 

"I have to talk to you," she says. "It's important."

She grabs my hand, and I curse the way my heart rises. 

After we're both in the spare Divination classroom, I look at her expectantly. 

I remember Dumbledore saying that this classroom was not to be used for anything other than Divination practice; Firenze couldn't climb the stairs, but apparently the student's had needed a place to practice what he taught on the base floor, so they built this classroom. It certainly was built the same way as the new Divination room, with the floor as moss, and trees growing out of it.

The leafy branches of the trees fan across the room, and shafts of soft dappled, green light give the room a different kind of feel. I lean against a tree branch, forcing myself not to look at Granger's eyes. Which leads my pupils to her lips. 

"Draco, I've been thinking," she starts nervously. "Do you think that this is right?"

I knew it. She's going to say that she doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore, now that Weasley is single again. I remind myself of my resolve; I'm not going to let her see that I even care. 

"That what is right?" I ask calmly. 

"Us," she whispers hesitantly. 

"Of course it's not right." I state flatly. "How could it be?"

"Then why are we doing this?"

"You tell me," I say coldly. 

"Would you please answer me properly?" she snaps. 

"Ok, fine. What do you want me to say?" I ask in irritation. 

"I just- I feel like everything happened too fast," she whispers. "One day, we're on the Hogwarts Express, the next, I'm on a broom with you, and then we're kissing."

I stare at her, not sure at what she's trying to say. 

"I don't even remember why or when we even started."

"You don't remember why we started," I repeat after her, failing to keep the anger out of my voice. 

"Draco... Do you think we should split up?" she asks in misery.

"No," I say. I see the spark of hope that lights up in her eyes, the smile that she starts to curve her lips in to. 

Hope? How dare she have hope? How dare she act like she still wants me, and not Weasley, when I've done nothing but think about her- only her- all day?

"No," I repeat. "We can't break up, because we were never together."

Her eyes become pools of misery, and goddammit, I already told myself not to look at her eyes. 

"I've made out with hundreds of girls," I say coldly, pushing away the hurt inside of me. "What made you think you were special?"

She's quite for a moment, but when she brings her head back up, I see that her eyes blaze with fires of anger. 

"You!" she shouts, pounding her fist into my shoulder, then quickly drawing back. "Merlin, you made me feel like I was special!"

I stare at her in surprise; I wasn't expecting her to yell.

"You, with your stupid letters, your stupid presents, your stupid smile, and your stupid rose! You made me feel like I was special!" she screams, blinking away the tears in her eyes. 

"You need a more diverse vocabulary," I start. 

"If one more person asks me, why I thought that I was special-"

"Hell, Granger, don't give me that shit!" I say angrily. "I bet Weasley made you feel special too!"

Shit. I slipped out what I didn't want to; the fact that I do give a fuck. 

"I didn't do anything with Ron-"

"I don't believe you," I snarl. 

"You shouldn't care then! I thought that we weren't together!" she yells. "If we aren't together, then why do you even care?"

A waxy leaf falls from the tree above us, and we both watch it float slowly to the ground. I keep my eye on the leaf even after it's hit the mossy ground; I can hear her sniffling. 

"You're right. I don't care," I say flatly. "And you shouldn't care about Pansy and I either then."

It's a straight up lie; I haven't even talked to Pansy for weeks, and the hurt in her eyes makes my stomach churn with the guilt of the lie. 

"Do you want to know something Draco Malfoy? I do care; I care very much!" she howls. "I, like the idiot I am, thought we were actually together!"

I stay silent, avoiding her eyes. But then she says something, and it's so quiet, that I'm not even sure she says it. 

"I can't believe I was falling in love with you."

I look up, and she appears to be talking to herself, as she's now muttering a flow of insults under her breath. 

"What did you just say?" I dare to ask. 

"I said, I can't believe I gave up the idea of killing you," she says loudly. 

I want to keep my guard up, the frosty manner, but I can't help the way my mouth curves up, the way my eyes soften. 

"Don't give me that look Malfoy," she threatens. "I am done with you."

"I- what?" I ask, lost in her eyes, barely paying attention to what she's saying. 

"I said, that's it. Whatever we had has to end." 

"Granger-"

"That's final," she growls. 

"Fine. You think I don't know why you're doing this? Do you think I didn't catch that stupid grin on your face this morning, when you were laughing with Weasley?" I spit angrily. 

"I did not have a stupid grin on my face."

"Now that we're over, you can do whatever you want," I snap. 

I want to call her a mudblood, but the words won't come out. I realize that it wouldn't work anyways, because I've already told her to imagine I was kissing her if I did call her that. 

"Then the first thing I'll do is burn everything you've ever touched!" she snaps angrily. 

"I won't be coming to your funeral then," I say, matching her livid tone, and storming out of the classroom. 

"I hope you die a painful death, too!" she screams after me.

I go straight into the bathroom, and stare at my reflection in the mirror. All the stress builds up inside me, pounding, pounding to get out. Everything that I've been trying to do this year is failing. 

"Are you ok?" the whiny voice of Myrtle makes me start. "Did you finish whatever you're trying to do?"

I try to not let the tears rush out, but they come anyways. I can hear my father's voice now, sneering at me, for crying over a fucking mudblood. 

My father. 

The memory of my family makes the tears stream even faster. 

"Stop," Myrtle croons. "I can help you!"

"Goddammit, no one can help me, " I snap, my body shaking. "I can't do it- I can't. It won't work! And unless I do it soon...he says he'll kill me..."

I take huge breaths between my words, trying to calm myself down. Then, I spot him. Potter.

He's watching me through the mirror, a surprised look on his face. 

I pull out my wand, and turn quickly. He aims a spell; I block it. It goes on for a while. 

Out of desperation, though I know I can't even do the curse, I yell, "Cruci-"

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Potter bellows, waving his wand wildly. 

Pain shoots through my body, and it feels like I'm being stabbed a thousand times. I vaguely see the blood spurt out of my body, before crashing to the ground. 

I feel the water swirl around my body, then hear Myrtle's horrified shrieks. Then, I feel Potter's hands on my body, frantically shaking me before everything goes dark.