"Because I still love you! Regardless of all of this, I do!"~Ron

"The fact that you think I'm sneaking about with Potter's girl, when she was just helping facilitate my giving Hermione Granger lessons in the boudoir."~ Draco

Hermione's POV:

I froze, my jaw going slack. I couldn't see, but I was pretty sure Ginny and Harry were in the same state. Ron's cheeks were flushed, and laboured breaths tore through his lungs rapidly, the only sound in the frozen room. After Merlin knows how long, I cleared my throat. "Excuse you?"

Ron sprung to his feet, as if my words were a cue of some sort, and began to pace the small bit of floor between his bed and Harry's. He ran his hands through his hair, and I noted a faint tremor in his fingers, probably from barely contained emotions. Like a dam fit to burst, I did not want to be here when the wall cracked.

"You fucking heard me," he muttered under his breath, refusing to meet my eyes.

"And you fucking dumped me!" I shouted, suddenly unable to control the anger boiling inside my chest. Perhaps boiling isn't the correct word. People always describe anger as hot, myself included, but what I felt in that moment was nothing close to any anger I'd felt in the past.

It was a cold burn, subzero, an icy clarity that clouded the edges of my vision like frost on a windshield and I felt a faint numbing sensation in my chest.

"You dumped me for refusing to be at your beck and call, you broke my heart for the most trivial reason I can imagine, and now" my voice rose to a fever pitch, "and now you come to me with this horseshit about loving me!? What's your motherfucking problem!?" I spat venomously.

Almost like I was asleep and someone was trying to wake me, I felt a faint touch on my shoulder from the edge of my consciousness. "Hermione maybe it's best-"

My voice tinged with the tone it took on when I was truly pissed, I cut her off. "Out."

Harry stepped forward and pulled her away. "C'mon Gin. We should do some damage control downstairs."

The second the door closed, Ron whirled on me. "My problem? What about yours? Traipsing around making out with that bastard where anyone could find you?"

"Right, like you've never done that with Elizabeth?!" I shouted back.

"That's different!" Ron said, turning away from me and throwing his hands up.

"How the hell it is different!?" I screamed, the caution of being overheard thrown to the wind as the icy burn spread.

"It just is!" His back still to me, his voice was strained with barely contained anger.

"Ron! How!?"

He whirled around, his face nearly as red as his hair and his hands moving wildly as he shouted. "You're not supposed to be....I don't know, that! I'm the outgoing one, I'm the hero! I'm used to being second to Harry, but to you and Malfoy!? It's torture! Can't you see how you hurt me?!"

The fight drained out of me in the coming silence, and I slumped onto the bed, looking at my hands. The ice ebbed, leaving in it's place only the raw emotions I so badly wanted to be free of, the only motivators in this entire conflict. My simultaneous love and sadness when it came to Ron. I felt tears prick at my eyes, and I blinked them away. "Can't you see how you hurt me?" I said quietly, peering up at Ron.

The fight seemed to leave him too, in its wake leaving only a seeming shell of the passion that was there second before. He slumped beside me onto the bed, rubbing his face with his hands. "Yeah. Yeah, I can. I just don't know how to fix it. And I don't even know if I want to. There's just a lot of...stuff."

I nodded. "Stuff." He sighed, and my chest ached at the simultaneous familiarity and foreignness. "I miss how we were."

Ron tiled his head so it barely touched my shoulder. "Me too," he whispered. "I just don't know what to do. Even when we were together I had this constant nagging in my head saying you didn't really love me, didn't want to be with me."

I wrinkled my nose. Was that why he freaked out? Not feeling like I loved him?

We were quiet for ages, until Ron turned to me, rubbing the back of his neck. "Umm, Hermione? Can I, uh, kiss you? Only if it's ok with you," he said quickly.

I bit my lip, pondering. He seemed respectful, and I had to admit I was curious. After the sparks I felt with Draco, I didn't know if anything could compare. "Uh, sure."

He nodded and swallowed hard before placing his fingertips lightly at my jawline and pressing his lips to mine gently. It was nothing like I remembered his kisses being, soft and moist and perfectly pressured, though close-mouthed.

The kiss was short, and tender in a way I'd never experienced before, with Ron or Draco. It held something our previous kisses had lacked. Where my kisses with Draco were sparks, this kiss was something akin to an ember. Flickering and faint, but undeniably there. Even so, it was somehow...empty.

Then I understood why. Sparks were the beginning of a flame, something that was easily put out but with a possible future. Embers were the tail end of flames, the remnants that refuse to leave. Difficult to put out quickly, but able to be breathed back to life with a mountain of work. Something that I couldn't see happening here.

Ron pulled away, and I filled that discovery away for a later and more appropriate time. "That was, um, nice." I nodded, not trusting my voice at the moment. "Hermione? Can I ask you something?" I nodded again. "Would you leave Malfoy? Not for me or anything, just... I can't stand you being with him." He looked away, sheepish.

For some reason, the very thought stirred a sense of panic in my gut and I flinched back. "What? N-no, I- No."

Ron's gaze snapped up to meet mine, beseeching. "What? Why not?"

"Because... I don't know, I just won't. We're not even "together" anyway."

He started getting angry again, colour rushing to his cheeks. "I thought we made progress!

I wrinkled my brow. "What, so that means I'm not free to see who I'd like? That only makes sense if we're getting back together which," I looked him over, my incredulity growing at his irrational anger. "I don't see happening right now. Ignoring anything you did today, you still threatened my with your wand yesterday, and that's not something easily forgotten."

"Hermione, I'm sorry! You know I didn't mean it," he pleaded.

I was instantly reminded of a night at the Burrow, early in the summer. We had gotten in a huge row because we were kissing and when I tried to pull away he dug his fingers into my hips so hard he left bruises. I was a wreck, afraid that it would escalate to true hurt, and Ron refused to leave me to figure stuff out, just yelling and then apologising, and then yelling and then apologising, messing with my head in the worst possible way.

I'd gotten all the warnings from my parents, read all the government PSA's about abuse, and this was it. The very definition. But it was impossible. It would never happen to me, it could never come from Ron. So I shoved my doubts away and heeded Ron's apology. He had said those exact words that night, pleading his innocence.

I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean it.

I clenched my jaw and looked away. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest, but I forced the words out of my throat. "I don't believe you."

Ron whirled on me. "Excuse you?"

I shrunk away from him, but my voice remained defiant. "I said, I don't believe you. Now if you will excuse me, I need to be alone and figure some stuff out." My heart seemed to jump into my throat. This was the ultimate test. Could he trust me to be away from his influence?

"You can't! We have to figure this out now!"

My face contorted into a snarl. "That's too damn bad." I got up and started to walk out.

"Well that's bloody perfect," he muttered, walking away from me and thumping his fist against the wall.

I snorted and walked out of the dorm, muttering under my breath. "It bloody well is." Ignoring the turmoil in the common room, I stalked into the girl's dormitories, which were mercifully empty, and got ready for bed in a proper huff.

As I got under the covers, I was startled by the crinkling of parchment under me. I jumped up, worried I'd sat on my homework.

Instead, I found a note from Draco.

Granger,

Look at that, I know a way into your bed. Well, more than one, but this way is best for delivering notes.

Tomorrow after dinner?

Malfoy

P.S. Tell Weaslette that the next time she bursts in we just won't stop and then she'll really be scarred for life.

Thank you for reading ! Xx

Next chapter will be Dracos pov with Blaise. Please vote and I love you all ❤

Soz for the short chapter I have exams in 3 and a half weeks and I'm gonna fail:/ why can't I be as smart as Hermione❤ and as stunningly beautiful as Draco my gorgeous blonde❤ xx