All disclaimers apply.
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He was running so fast. There was a stitch in his side that kept telling him to stop, his lungs were burning and his legs ached yet he still kept running because he knew that once he reached his destination, all would be well.
"Hermione!" he shouted as soon as he burst through her house door. "Hermione!"
The house was quiet. He received no reply. She must be sleeping, he thought. After all, it was only 6:30 in the morning. He knocked over a few things in his haste to get to her bedroom.
When he opened her bedroom door, his mouth dropped open. There she was, standing in all her beauty in a very sexy nightgown and tying the sash of her robe. But that wasn't all even though he wanted it to be. There was a lump on her bed. Most of it was hidden by sheets but a bit of extremely light blond was peeking out.
"Zack," she said in surprise.
He flinched when she used her 'affectionate nickname' for him.
"Hermione?" he wanted to ask but it came from the person on the bed instead. He was sitting up now, running a hand through his hair. Zacharias Smith felt like he had never been more shocked and outraged in his life when he saw Draco Malfoy sitting in his girlfriend's bed.
"Zack, I can explain," Hermione said quickly.
"C'mere love," Draco Malfoy said as he got out of the bed and pulled her against him. She stiffened in his arms. "There's no need to keep the charade up any longer. It all ends today." She relaxed and leaned into him.
Zacharias felt his face burn. He felt himself shaking with anger. "Get your hands off of her!" he shouted.
If anything, it appeared as though he tightened his grip on her. "Maybe I don't want to," he said lightly. "Or maybe-" here he smirked. "-maybe she doesn't want me to."
He knew his face must have resembled a tomato or a Weasley at that moment. He had to use all of his self control not to draw his wand and hex him right then and there. He would have if it wasn't for the fact that Hermione was in front of him like a shield. Than again, Hermione had cheated on him. How else could she explain the fact that Draco Malfoy was in her bed?
How could she do that to him? He loved her, had told her countless times and yet she still went to Malfoy? If she was that desperate for a bed partner, she could have come to him. But no, she had always refused his offers. She would never let him get past kissing her and he could never understand why. According to her, she was "saving herself until later". Now he knew better.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he bellowed, "Hermione! Get away from him!"
She stayed where she was. "I'm sorry, Zack," she said. "But it had to be done."
"What?" his voice faltered.
"I knew better than to get my heart mixed up with my job. Then again, I didn't exactly have my heart." She smiled back at Draco.
"You – you." He didn't understand but he had a feeling that he didn't want to either.
"You were just another assignment," Draco explained. "Your feelings for her were an advantage. That was a bad move you made, Smith. Joining Voldemort?" Zacharias flinched. "Very bad move. And then participating in that raid just a few hours ago? That just sealed your fate."
"You shut it! I know for a fact that you're a supporter of the Dark Lord too!"
"He a spy," Hermione amended.
Draco in turn had gotten bored of the conversation now and found fascination in Hermione's neck where his mouth currently was. She didn't seem to mind.
Zacharias was fuming by now. He drew his wand out and strode forward but was stopped when popping noises filled the room. Suddenly, he was surrounded.
Draco's head had emerged and he was looking at Zacharias with a smug smirk. But Zacharias's eyes were fixed on Hermione.
"I love you though," he tried pleadingly.
"I know, Zack, and I'm really sorry but this is your own fault. If only you had never joined the dark side . . . I never thought of you as someone who would, you know. I really am sorry." She sounded sincere.
The last thing that Zacharias Smith heard and saw before the aurors took him to Azkaban was Draco Malfoy saying, "Another job well done," to Hermione and then kissing her.
The rest of his life, memories of that day and the ones he had spent with Hermione haunted him. He wished he had never met Hermione Granger day in and day out as he sat in his cell. Slowly, he descended into madness and was left with nothing but torturous thoughts. He pleaded with the Demetors to give him the Kiss but they took pleasure in his misery and only continued with their cruelty
Betrayed. That's how he felt. And all because of Hermione Granger.
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