Well, This two chapter story is based on something that
happened in my life and the only way for me to release
the stupid pain is to write about it.
So..

Her heart felt like it was about to break. She could never convey the hurt she felt to anyone. It was just one of those emotions that you'd have to feel to understand... You couldn't sympathize with a person any other way. The past few days had been living hell for her. Sure, she was a strong person. She'd been made fun of for being a muggle-born by Malfoy, ignored by Ron, treated as a go-between by Harry, and many other things by countless others. She'd put up with all of this, along with trying to defeat Voldemort for the past 6 bloody years, and being one of the smartest witches of her age. She'd been through things other people couldn't even dream of. She held on because she knew that in the end, everything would be alright. She wouldn't have been given the life she was leading if someone out there didn't think she could handle it... And besides, everyone knew Hermione Granger never gave up. But this was just one thing too much. She couldn't handle it anymore.
It happened overnight. He just stopped talking to her.

"What did I do?" she was standing heartbroken in front of the one man she never thought she'd stand in front of begging for an answer to a question she never thought she'd ask. It wasn't directly official that he was ignoring her but it was silently stated. Every time she asked him a question or made a small comment that would have made him laugh just weeks earlier, he answered her with a one word statement or just a silent nod of his head. At first, she thought that maybe he was just brooding over something that had happened earlier that day and didn't want to talk about it. It was normal for him to do that. He wasn't exactly the most social and inviting person, but he was always polite.. but during lunch when she went to go sit at the Slytherin table with him and his... 'friends', if you will, she noticed that he was perfectly fine with them. Just not with her.
"You won't talk to me, you act like I don't exist, and when you do acknowledge my presence, you act like I'm wasting your time." Tom Riddle just looked at Hermione with a cold, calculating stare. How was it that she had come to not only befriend this man, but possibly.. love him? She stared back, trying to figure out his secrets.

"Why are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you."

"You sure as hell are acting like it!"

"Listen, Granger-" She stopped breathing for a second, he hadn't called her that since she showed up four months ago, back in January before he knew her. "If you're talking about Potions class with Slughorn the other day.. I was going to sit by you, but I thought someone else was going to sit there. So I went to an empty seat." How was he lying like that to her face? It's not like she couldn't tell. It's not like she didn't know. She was there when he walked into the damn classroom. She made sure no one sat in the seat next to her. She saw him walk in and look at her seat and then her, and then the seat again, and sat down in a chair at the front of the room. Then when class was over, he left the class without saying a word to her and just walking off instead of waiting and going to lunch with her like he had done since they started talking.

"I'm not talking about the damn class, Tom! I don't care where you sit," which was an obvious lie, but she didn't feel like correcting herself. "You've been ignoring me like a bloody plague!" He narrowed his eyes at her. Her voice was cracking now. She had no idea what she did wrong. "I haven't said or done anything to you since Monday when I wrote you that damn note about that poetry book you were asking about! And in my opinion, that note was actually somewhat funny! The last thing I said to you was that I would talk to you tomorrow. That was the very last thing I said. And then I see you on Tuesday and your demeanor towards me is completely different. Your stance, the way your voice sounded, the way you looked at me. Everything." His eyes seemed to get colder and he stood up straighter.

"Just.. tell me what I did." He didn't respond, he just continued to stare. Hermione didn't want to show him the effect he had on her. It made her feel pathetic... especially when it didn't affect him in the slightest. She broke through his exterior and became his friend, and then broke through even farther to something she didn't quite understand. She knew he was capable of emotions despite what everything she had ever heard and been taught about the cruel, heartless animal Tom Riddle became. She knew he could feel and that he hurt and she knew that she could make him laugh the most amazing laugh she had ever heard and tell some of the most interesting stories she would ever have the honor of hearing. What she didn't know is how in just one night, everything could change. Tears were forming in her eyes. He turned around and walked over to a window and leaned back against it staring over her shoulder. "J-just tell me what I did to you to make you do this." His hair was falling over his eyes and it just made her heart hurt even more.
T
om Riddle was beautiful. There was no other word for it. He wouldn't answer her. He didn't care and the look in his eyes proved it. "I don't kno-" She stopped talking. She couldn't even make it through the sentence. He looked away from her over at some first years that were playing with cards in the hall. She thought she could handle this, but she was so completely wrong. She couldn't handle the person she thought she could trust turning his back on her when she needed him. This thought made Hermione Granger break down in the worst possible way in front of the one man she knew she needed to keep her distance from at the very beginning. She shouldn't be sobbing in front of Tom Riddle, a man who didn't even care about her existence. "Why are you doing this to me, Tom?! WHY ARE YOU HURTING ME!?" He continued to look away. Hermione felt her legs starting to turn to jelly. "...You don't even care." She put her arms around herself and ran in the opposite direction towards someone, anyone, who would just hold her and tell her it would be alright.

She ended up running into Ashley Lora, one of Tom's many cult girls as she flew away from him. "Tom, what's wrong with your little mudblood?" She heard her ask him. "Oh, she's just mad because she was talking to me and I wouldn't answer her. She just started crying and ran away." Ashley laughed and said something about stupid little Gryffindors. Tom directed his attention to Ashley, quickly forgetting the girl he had recently come to like as more than a friend. Hermione eventually ran into Marie Ripple, her boyfriend Zane Ryam, Louise Bittle, and Choice Rogers. They all stared at her as she ran into their circle crying. Zane was the only one who knew what was going on with Hermione because she had asked him for advice a couple days earlier when Tom had started ignoring her and she had been keeping him updated. Hermione finally felt that she couldn't support her own body weight and fell to the floor sobbing. Louise held Hermione as Zane uttered a few explicatives about Tom and how she didn't deserve this and not to worry because he'd take care of him.

She continued to cry not caring who saw her. This pain was just too much. She didn't know what to do. Tom had just made it blatantly obvious that he didn't want anything to do with her and there was nothing she could do about it. Hermione felt someone standing behind her when there hadn't been anyone there just minutes earlier. She turned around and saw Leslie Kyle staring down at her smirking.

Leslie was an old friend of Tom's though they stopped talking when Hermione showed up, for Leslie didn't like the fact that Hermione took her place and more with Tom. She felt that, in looks, she was everything Hermione wasn't. Beautiful with short blonde hair and skinnier that Hermione could ever be without looking like death formed over. Leslie had just asked Peter, a friend of Zane's who had shown up minutes earlier, what was going on. Peter looked at Hermione's body and then told Leslie. She laughed. Hermione stood up and turned around to face Leslie. It was pretty obvious that this move scared Leslie because she backed up. "What-" Hermione started in a low hiss. "Did I ever do to you? Nothing. That's the answer. And if you were in my position and I yours, I would not be standing behind you laughing and smirking." Leslie's eyes widened as Hermione's fist collided with her face. Leslie fell back on the floor with a bleeding nose. "You're going to regret that, Granger." She growled as she put a hand to her nose. "No. I don't think I will," and Hermione started walking to her next class, tears silently forming again while the group she left behind stared after her.
"Well, one thing's for certain," Marie started to say. "Hermione Granger has definitely got balls."

Review, please?