Title: Afflictions of the Heart

Author: Tiffany

Summary: Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger had a secret relationship but for their own reasons. Draco, because he wanted to make someone else's life hell instead of his. Hermione, because she wanted to find out what Draco was hiding. However, after the two break up, they realise they lose a lot more than what they gained from the break up.

Quick Note: Most things in italics are memories and for the first few chapters, there will be quite a number of memories. Present thoughts are also in italics. I believe that I will rapidly shift point of views from Draco to Hermione and vise versa, so I apologise for any inconvenience. However, the pint of views will be in third person. For example, Hermione felt a tug pull at her heart.

Request: Enjoy!

:Prologue:

Hermione Granger touched the wooden table. So smooth. So cold. So exposed. Lightly tracing the textured lines, she glanced around the dungeon.

It was bare. Empty. No-one was around. She was very aware of her own breathing, own heart beat. Everything was silent and Hermione felt as if her presence was destroying the peace.

Hermione's honey-coloured eyes stared at the dungeon door. It was the passage that stopped those entering this peace, and those exiting.

…………………………………………..

Hermione cursed as she picked up her books that fell onto the ground. Why did she carry a mountain full of books again?

Brushing her skirt lightly when she stood up, Hermione was shocked when she came face-to-face to Draco Malfoy.

She had never really been that close to Draco before. And she was glad about that. For Draco was breathtaking up-close.

The two probably started off at the same height in First Year but now, well now, he was about half a feet taller than her.

This caused him to look (well glare was more like it) down at her so his white-blonde hair to fall carelessly down, so it seemed to shimmer silver in front of his molten gray eyes.

And his eyelashes. Why should such a guy be so lucky to have such long, pretty eyelashes? They weren't white-blonde like his hair but the lightest brown, like the perfect toffee.

Had Draco always been this good-looking?

"You're in my way." Hermione decided to speak and she equalled his glare.

"You were looking at me the whole Potions lesson," Draco hissed.

Had Draco always had such a deep, goose-bumping voice?

"Well, you wouldn't know if you didn't look at me," Hermione hissed back.

Hermione thought about her words. Therefore, Draco must've been looking at her. Looking at her! Argh! Why didn't she put more effort in the way she dressed? But then again, it wasn't like she imagined Draco would ever look at her.

The reason why she kept constantly looking at Draco was because her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, still believed that he was up to something mischievous in the Room of Requirements. Hermione couldn't imagine what and every time she glanced at him, she felt puzzled and what it could be.

"Well next time, don't look at me. You're not worthy to a Pureblood, you have no hope of ever getting a Pureblood," Draco growled.

Why was he telling her that? Didn't he think that perhaps she already knew that when every time he referred to her it was 'Mudblood'?

"I wouldn't want to stain the perfect blood," Hermione snapped. "You can marry all the other Purebloodettes left. Just to let you know, I don't support incest relationships. But then again, why would my opinion count?"

Draco glowered at her. Sure, he was rather menacing towering over her but the reason why Hermione's heart was beating faster was because he was very good-looking. So looks aren't everything. But it is something.

"Why were you looking at me?"

"Why are you talking to me?"

Draco hissed again and raised a wand-free arm as if to hit her. Hermione didn't even flinch. She was holding her wand in her hand and she had even mastered some non-verbal spells. She wasn't scared of Draco.

"If I ever catch you looking at me again, I'll…I'll make sure you cry Mudblood tears," Draco threatened.

No matter how many times he called her that, it still cut her to the bone each time he said it. Only he and his cronies would ever call her 'Mudblood'. But only his words would hurt her. She hadn't really figured out why yet.

"You are being so immature," Hermione scoffed. "Since when did it matter who looked at whom? And if you want to threaten me, I'll rip your perfect Pureblood face."

Draco's anger flare swiftly left his face only to be replaced by a blank look.

"Perfect?" Draco repeated, hollowly. "You think my face is perfect?"

Argh! Why was it that he picked up on things that didn't matter but what does matter, he doesn't even notice?! And great. Now what does he think? Sure, he had a perfectly good-looking face but…it was a Pureblood face.

"I'm Muggle-born. Go work your charms on a Purebloodette," Hermione muttered prodding her wand sharply into his shoulder. "Move, Malfoy."

Of course he never listened to her.

With his left hand, he grabbed hold of her wand and tugged it out of her hand. Hermione was too mesmerised with how his gray eyes seemed to shift colours like clouds to realise he removed her wand.

"HEY!" Hermione growled crossly, feeling the slightest twinge of fear. To be without a wand, is to be powerless. Hermione had read that quote once, totally laughed at it, but now she actually felt powerless. "Give back my wand!"

"You don't need a wand to look at someone or talk to someone," Draco replied almost in a monotone voice. He also demonstrated this by withdrawing his wand and throwing it on the floor. It made a loud clanking noise as it joined Hermione's own wand.

Hermione was no longer just feeling powerless but now also, scared. What was he planning?

"Why did we both look at each other?" Draco whispered as he took a step closer. Hermione felt frozen to the spot; she couldn't move. There was a fierce emotion in his eyes but she couldn't work out what it was. "Why are we talking to each other?"

Hermione's head was whirling. She didn't know whether it was a trick question and whether she was supposed to answer it. What was he up to??

"Kiss," Draco said huskily before forcibly grabbing her shoulders. The books that Hermione had so delicately picked up dropped back onto the floor.

Draco had her in an instant backed up against the door as he explored her mouth with his own. Hermione had never had many kissing experiences (ahem, Krum and some skinny boy before she went to Hogwarts) but she knew that Draco was an excellent kisser. There were pixies (Muggles called it butterflies) whizzing in her stomach and she was sure she would've fell onto the floor if Draco wasn't holding her.

After what felt like too soon, Draco released her. How could he so easily step back as if nothing happened? What did he mean by that?

"Kiss?" Hermione asked, scratchily. Her voice sounded broken and she could barely look at him.

She could never look at him the same. He kissed her. Two opposites. Good and evil. Mudblood and Pureblood. Gryffindor and Slytherin. He was the one who united them.

Even if it meant nothing to him, it meant everything to her.

"Is a kiss what you implied that we wanted?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders and picked up the wands. He threw Hermione's to her and she barely caught it. She was aware that she was shaking slightly.

"It's what it leads to," Draco answered shortly. He glanced at Hermione's fallen books and picked it up. He made a motion as if to give it to her but then placed it on the front desk.

"How does it end?" Hermione whispered.

Draco met her eyes for a brief second before looking away.

"Has it even started?"

………………………………………………

Draco Malfoy looked around his stupid dorm and decided that everything was indeed very stupid.

Stupid posters. Stupid cheap beds. Stupid blurry windows. Stupid coarse carpets. Stupid old wardrobes. Stupid EVERYTHING!

Draco kicked the stupid chair and that's when the cushion fell off the chair and everything came flooding back.

………………………………………………

"Why are you laughing?" Draco asked, a tad bit annoyed. No-one ever laughed at him. Including his dorm. It wasn't like he had a choice on the furniture Hogwarts imported.

"I just feel so…so NAUGHTY!" Hermione hiccupped with laughter as she fell onto his neatly-made bed. Draco felt something twitch inside him watching Hermione Granger sprawled across his bed.

"What kind of naughty?" Draco suggested with a smirk.

Hermione immediately stopped laughing and sat up straight.

"Like the naughty when you slyly past all the Slytherins to go into your dorm," Hermione said with a scowl. She looked around his room and picked up a plush, red cushion. "You're such a guy."

She threw the cushion at him but he easily caught it.

"And you're such a girl," Draco said copying her dry humour. "So why are you laughing?"

"I just felt hysterical that I could sneak past all them. I never thought that I would," Hermione replied.

"Be in Draco Malfoy's dorm?" he asked.

"Yeah," Hermione said and than a tender look passed her eye. "And be happy at the same time."

Hermione Granger was happy. When she was in his room. Was he the cause of the happiness? Since when could he make someone happy?

"Well, I never thought so too," Draco said. Happy included but to hell would he tell her that. "But I'm not laughing."

"You only laugh at people," Hermione said rolling her eyes. "Why? Does my laugh disturb you or something?"

"No," Draco replied truthfully. He sat down next to her on the bed and pulled her close to him. Hermione wrapped an arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Draco, I want to tell you something," she whispered placing with the collar of his robes.

Great. His most favourite words to hear. It was always warning for: I have something to tell you, and it's bad. He'd been used to for his entire life. But he didn't want to hear anything bad from Hermione's mouth because for once, it would hurt him.

"Then tell," he said, shifting slightly so she couldn't reach his collar. It was distracting.

Hermione pulled away and then grabbed both his hands in hers. She looked squarely into his eyes and the emotion in her eyes was intense.

"I love you, Draco Malfoy. I know it's only been a month since we started whatever we did, but I love you. I've never been happier in my life and I would sacrifice anything for you to be happy."

For the first time in his life, he had nothing to say. This was not what he was expecting. He thought she would break off whatever it was that they were. Not this. Not something like this. Never in his mind…she was probably lying. Yeah, she must be. How could anyone even say they love him? He was imperfect. And she was perfect. How could someone perfect love someone who was imperfect?

"You look shocked," Hermione said with a smile, releasing one of his hands to trace his face. She didn't look like she was expecting anything in return. Why not? Everyone seek to be loved and she sure as hell deserved to be loved.

"Why should I be?" Draco asked, finally finding his voice. "You are a Gryffindor. Brave. Fearless. You always say what's on your mind."

Hermione's smile widened.

"And you're a Malfoy. Malfoys don't love."

The way she said it, it twisted in his heart. It was the very thing he said after their second kiss. But it was just a generalisation not the truth. That was how everyone perceived the Malfoys.

"And you don't expect me to," Draco said, his voice slightly scratchy. That was what she said after he made his statement.

"Exactly," she said, her smile developing into a grin. She leaned forward and pecked him lightly on the lips.

What she didn't realise was that he did. He loved her too.

…………………………………………………

"You look like a ghost," Ron Weasley said as he took a seat next to her in the dungeons. He moved closer to inspect her face. "What happened to you?"

Draco Malfoy broke my heart. DRACO! It was a laugh. Who would've thought that Draco would break her heart?

"Nothing, I'm fine," Hermione replied, mustering a smile.

"You sure?" Harry Potter asked, taking the other vacant seat next to Hermione. "Our detention with Snape doesn't start until seven and you're hear way early. We were waiting for you and then Ginny told us that you had already left."

Damn that redhead. She probably spoke in a way that made her look concerned as if there was something wrong with Hermione. There wasn't.

"I forgot," Hermione lied.

This was the reason why she wanted to leave everyone. They all talked too much. Can't she just have some alone-time?

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ron asked with a frown.

Was there an answer to satisfy his question? If she said yes, he wouldn't believe her. If she said no, he would ask her what's wrong. It was a no-win situation.

"Yeah," Hermione said, reaching over and squeezing his hand. His hand was so warm whereas her hand felt like ice. "It's nothing big. Nothing to worry about. Just girl issues."

………………………………………………

"Just afflictions of the heart," Draco whispered as he looked at a portrait he drew of Hermione.

He raised his wand and sent the portrait into flames. That's what she did to his heart.