Broken up, deep inside

But you won't get to see the tears I cry

Behind these hazel eyes

-Behind These Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson

It was only the middle of October, when the only worries for the students of Hogwarts should be the fact that the school work was getting harder. This wasn't the case for Hermione Granger though. She wished that her only worries were her school work and her Head Girl duties. However she had to worry about avoiding the person she least wanted to see, which was extremely hard because He was in almost all of her classes. It had been a week since He had broken her heart. No those weren't the right words, it was more like He ripped her heart out of her chest, tore it to pieces and scattered it across the Forbidden Forest so she could never put it back together again. Hermione had spent the last week trying to pour all of her attention into her school work and on the outside she looked perfectly fine, but on the inside she was slowly falling apart.

As Hermione walked into Defence Against the Dark Arts, she rushed past the table that He was sitting at and sat down at the table the furthest away. To everyone else in the room it seemed like she was completely composed but she knew that one look at Him would break down her resolve and she would start sobbing in the middle of the classroom.

Class passed by without Hermione breaking down and quickly packed up her things and made her way out of the classroom. She made her way through the corridors without a single thought to where she was going. Frankly, the last week she had been in a daze. Her mind had shut down and her body just followed her natural instincts and routines. Soon enough she found herself standing outside the portrait that guarded the entrance to the Head's quarters. Hermione quietly gave the password and slipped through the portrait hole. She quickly glanced around the common room and was thankful to see that Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. She had finally come to accept the fact that he had somehow been named Head Boy and that she had to share the Head's dorms with him, but it was nice not to have to deal with his snide comments. She sat her bag down on the table in front of the fire and then her stomach growled slightly reminding her that it was dinner time. She silently thanked whoever had the idea to put a kitchen in the Head's dorms and walked over to it to grab something to eat. After she got her food she grabbed her bag and went up to her room to study, eat and avoid the outside world.

A while later the sound of the shower starting up in the shared bathroom alerted Hermione to Malfoy's return. She glanced out the window and realized that it was later than she thought as dusk had already started to set in. She waited until she was sure that Malfoy was out of the bathroom and then went in herself to take a shower. After she was done she went back into her room, changed into her pyjamas, cleaned up her desk and settled into bed with a book.

Hours later, Hermione tossed and turned in bed. Every time she closed she saw Him breaking her heart all over again. Giving up on sleep, Hermione crawled out of bed, grabbed a cloak and made her way out into the corridors. There was only one place Hermione knew she could go to clam herself down and that was why she found herself climbing the stairs of the Astronomy Tower. Once she reached the top she went outside and sat on the ground, leaning her head back against the wall and gazing up at the stars. They danced around in the sky without a single care in the world and Hermione wished she could be among them, far away from the pain of human emotion. Sighing, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her mind immediately jumping to the one place she didn't want it to go.

*A week ago*

There He was, holding her hand as they walked around the lake on a warm October day. The last four months were everything that Hermione could have ever hoped for. Ever since He had asked her out at the beginning of the summer she had been floating on cloud nine.

He stopped them under a tree on the shore of the lake closest to the castle. He turned to look at her, releasing her hand in the process. She looked into His eyes and noticed something was off. Ever since He had asked her out there had been a light in His eyes that sparkled everytime He looked at her. Now it was replaced with a look that was clouded and uncaring.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Look 'Mione, these last four months have been great. It's just that…I've found someone else."

She took a step back from Him. "What?"

"I'm breaking up with you."

She could almost feel the cracks forming across the surface of her heart. "Why? You told me that they only reason you ever dated anyone else was because you knew I was the one but could never get up the courage to ask me out."

"It turns out I was wrong. I've wanted to tell you for a while now but I just didn't know how to."

She felt the cracks in her heart sink deeper. "So you just decided to lead me on!" She had tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "You just decided to use me and went off and found some meaningless girl behind my back!"

"No! She's not meaningless, you were the meaningless one! Just something to keep me occupied between real girlfriends."

She felt it then, her heart shattering to pieces like a mirror hitting a wall. She stumbled back a step, looking at Him with wide eyes, tears flowing freely from them now. She tried to say something but her brain was no longer forming coherent thoughts or words. She clenched and unclenched her fists and then did something she never though she would do: she slapped Him across the face and then went running towards the castle.

*Present*

Hermione opened her eyes and tried to blink away the tears that had started to run down her face. It was no use and soon enough she was sitting there with her knees pulled up to her chest sobbing. The only time she would ever cry was when she was alone and she knew there was no possibility of anyone seeing or hearing her. Even though her heart was hopelessly shattered, she would never let Ronald Weasley have the satisfaction of seeing what he had done.