Hermione's POV:

While I was still heartbroken over my falling out with Ron, I was unsurprised to discover that he was not. It felt like he moved on within seconds. Of course, he was dating the very blonde, very gorgeous Elizabeth Bennet, who was notorious for her, to put this lightly "sweater stretchers."

When I found out, I felt as if I had been stabbed in the gut, and every time I saw them together, I felt that knife being twisted around in my stomach. I ruined everything! Sure, he was horrible to me at times, but there was also a good side of him. I had loved him so much; I just couldn't bear to let him go. I remember the first time I stumbled upon them snogging in the corridor late at night.

I was walking back to the common room after a long night in the library, arms full of books, looking for the right stairwell when I heard the distinct hiss of a whisper followed by a giggle. I didn't slow down, used to these sounds coming from empty classrooms (and horny students)

I turned the corner of the corridor and panicked. Ron's red hair was unmistakable, even in the darkness. But entangled in his fiery locks were the pale fingers of Elizabeth Bennet.

Ron was all but pinned to the wall by Elizabeth's body, eyes closed as she placed love bites along his neck, giggling about how exciting it would be to get caught.

I was frozen. I wanted to scream or cry, but my throat felt constricted. I meant to run. I meant to disappear, to evaporate. Instead, I stood there. So when Ron opened hs eyes, he saw me. And he smiled slyly, lowering his hand to Elizabeth's bum and squeezing roughly, eliciting a girlish squeal from her. He was revelling in my shock.

So I ran. I felt the tears coming before I made it up the main stairway. Ginny spent the whole night comforting me. I didn't leave the girls dorms for an entire day.

°°°°°

The next few days, I was utterly inconsolable. I moped constantly, going from bed to food to class to food then bed with nothing in between. Ginny tried everything to cheer me up while Harry tried to get us back together, but neither of them found any success. They both did everything they could to keep the stories of Ron's string of conquests from reaching me, but they found even less success in this than their previous endeavours.

Through this time, the only thing that managed to hold my interest without making me break down was Malfoy's shenanigans, which Ginny kept me informed on. I'd never paid him any mind before, but more than once I found myself staring at him during lessons and wondering why the hell he thought it'd be wise to tell Pansy Parkinson to go to hell while had another girl on his lap, or why he would ever try to kiss some random guy who handed him his books when they fell. The walking enigma he was, Malfoy strolled around the school like he owned it, a constant smile on his face, though, in reality, he was far from. He'd only managed to gain permission to return to Hogwarts by the skin of his teeth, and he was on ministry probation.

Nevertheless, it seemed that every other day he was engaged in some new romantic tryst or otherwise starting some catfight. The more attention I focused on him, however, the more I began to wonder why I never saw him. I noticed this first when I was wandering the halls after hours completing my duties as Head Girl and heard some rather inappropriate noises.

Since that night I caught Ron I took extra care to stray far from those kinds of sounds while patrolling, but I was lost in my head sorting out the only thing that seemed to be able to hold my interest these days, the latest Malfoy disaster. As it was, I was so distracted I ran smack dab into someones back.

I stepped back quickly, an apology already on my lips when I noticed what I'd stumbled upon. A slender black haired witch I recognised as Alex Russo was draped across another wizard, her mussed hair and swollen lips evidence of what I'd interrupted. She giggled and looked a little sheepish, but I hardly noticed since I had my gaze trained on the wizard's face. "Malfoy," I breathed, unsure of whether the word had really left my lips. I expected smugness from him, but all the colour drained from his face and his eyes widened to give him the appearance of a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Umm, hi?" said the witch in a distinctly American accent, waving her hand in front of my face. "You've been staring at him for like 5 minutes." I instantly flushed and looked down, just in time to see the witch hit the floor. I looked up quickly, but Malfoy had disappeared, apparently dropping his...date?

Ever since then I began to take note that he arrived late to every lesson, and left them all early. Some he just skipped, earning him a fair share of detentions. Whenever I entered a room, even the library or the great hall, he was just leaving. It became infuriating, to the extent that I sought him out purposely often just to see how he would escape each time. All the while, the constant swarm of rumours surrounding him slowed to a low hum as he seemingly decided to slow his apparent mission to work his way through every girl in Hogwarts (and some guys) only to be replaced by rumours that Ron had taken his spot as the school playboy.

°°°°°

"Can't you just forget him?" Ginny asked, as the portrait to the Gryffindor common room swung open. She had been begging me for days to stop my efforts to get Ron back. "Please, Hermione, this isn't good for you. I love him, but you guys just weren't a good match. And this is tearing you up."

"No." I sighed. "I just... I need him back." My voice cracked on the word back.

"I'm sorry Hermione. I know how hard this is." She brightened up quickly, though. "Maybe you just need a rebound," she said with a wink, as we entered our common room. "Plenty of guys would be interested in you."

My mind instantly went to Malfoy, but I huffed and shoved the idea away for what seemed like the millionth time. "I'm not ready to give up on him just yet."

As we stepped into the common room, I noticed Harry sitting by the fire, playing chess with someone I couldn't see. Ginny made a beeline for the armchair next to Harry, but she veered away when she saw who he was playing with.

"Ron?" she asked. He turned to face her, and his eyes landed on me. He had that same passionate look in his eyes, the kind he got when he was really focused on something he cared about or didn't want to mess up. In this case, chess. But I could still remember the days when he looked at me like that. My heart stung as I saw the look vanish when he realised it was only me.

Ron turned back to Harry, moving a piece and presumably winning the game before standing. "I'm going to see Elizabeth," he declared haughtily, purposely baiting me.

"You do that!" I snapped at his back as he strode away, ignoring the way my eyes naturally picked up a million little details about him that it seemed I could never unlearn.

Ginny and Harry looked at me with curious expressions. "I'm fine," I replied crossly. They continued to stare, unconvinced. "I am!" I snapped, rolling my eyes and storming out into the main hallway, ignoring the stares of my fellow Gryffindors. Everyone thinks I'm bloody mad! How did he make it seem like this was all my fault!

As I strode through the corridors, my mind racing, I didn't even know where I was going. Eventually, my feet took me to the astronomy tower. As I turned to corner, I spotted a small scuff on the stone walls. I put that there when I got distracted kissing Ron, my leg kicking back to mark the stone. It seemed that every inch of Hogwarts was ingrained with Ron. There was no escaping him, us, even if I'd wanted to.

Suddenly, the sadness hit me like a truck, crushing me with what seemed like inescapable force. I slid down the wall and tucked my knees into my chest, my body wracked with violent sobs. Why can't I get him back? I buried my head in my hands. I felt like pulling my bloody hair out.

There was a sudden crash and I looked up to see a slack jawed Malfoy above a pile of books he'd seemingly dropped. His tousled blond hair was far more unruly than usual, and his cheeks were flushed bright red.

Utterly incapable of giving a single fuck in that moment, I simply stared up at him with my tear stained eyes with shaky breaths trembling my form, the most annoyed expression I could muster on my features.

After Merlin only knows how long, Malfoy released a breath he had seemed to be holding. "Hermione?"

I looked away. "Oh look, it talks," I huffed under my breath.

"What are you- I mean how- but you-" Malfoy stammered.

I dropped my head to my knees, still not meeting his eyes. "Just scamper off Malfoy. That's what you do best isn't it?"

It was quiet then. So he left. Good. Or maybe...not? Did I want him gone? Suddenly, there was movement beside me as Draco slumped against the wall and slid downwards to sit at my side. Gingerly, he reached out to me, as if to touch my shoulder, before faltering and letting his arm fall to where his hand was barely brushing against mine. "What do you mean?"

"You've been avoiding me. I don't know why, but I've noticed."

"Right..." He studied his hands. "Sorry about that, by the way."

I scoffed. "You're the least of my problems at the moment."

"Ron?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"Do you want him back?"

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"Do you want him back?"

"I...yeah. Too bad I can't bring myself to touch him, or he'd be mine. Hell, my best bet right now is something crazy, like... I don't know, lessons on intimacy." I laughed humourlessly to myself.

Malfoy's face was stone, unreadable. "I could help you."

I laughed again. "Yeah? How's that?"

"I could teach you...stuff. Merlin knows I have the experience."

I squinted at him, but he refused to meet my gaze. "You're...joking, right?"

Malfoy grinned at me suddenly. "Well, why not? You want something, and I am in a prime position to provide it." He jumped to his feet, pulling me up with him.

"But-"

"Excellent, it's settled then." He waved his wand and his books stacked themselves and came to hover beside him.

"Wait-"

Draco grabbed both my hands, stunning me into silence. "See you around..." he paused, leaning closer to me and placing the lightest brush of a kiss on my cheek before whispering the end of his sentence into my ear. "Granger."

And then he was gone. I turned away from where he was standing, looking out the window. "Huh."

What did I just get myself into?

°°°°°

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