CHAPTER 001
"Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy, I would like the two of you to pair up for this project."
"Excuse me, professor, don't you think we're old enough to chose our own partners?" Draco spoke in a very dry tone.
"Yes, you are Mr. Malfoy, however your last project was so ill prepared and a rather waste of time; I thought I'd step in. I'm sorry to do this to you Ms. Granger." stated Professor McGonagall sending an apologetic tone.
"No problem at all professor. " Hermione expressed while sending daggers at Draco.
"Here are the topics for the project, you have the rest of the class to get started."
Hermione and Draco stared at one another, neither of them moving a muscle. Hermione thought she would have to force Draco to come over. To her surprise, he strutted his way to her, holding their eye contact. He dropped his books on the table, slouched in his seat. Hermione noticed his tongue move across his lips.
"So Granger…" Draco emphasized every syllables with a smirk.
"Okay Malfoy here are some ground rules; one: you stay at least a foot away from me at all times."
Hearing this he moved closer to her until their faces were inches apart. Hermione leaned back and pushed him away, speaking loudly "Starting now Malfoy! " after taking a deep breath she continued "Two: we're going to get this done in half the time than the rest of the class. I don't need you messing me up."
"Yea, yea, whatever.. Just give me your number so I can get out of here." Draco was hardly listening, his attention was on the pencil he was trying to balance on his finger.
"Correction. You will give me your phone number…" Draco gave her a blank stare while she droned on and on.
"Why did you and the weasel break up? " Hermione's mouth dropped as she gave him a blank stare.
"H-how do you know about that? "
"Oh you know stuff spreads." He gave her a smirk.
"Well, it's none of your business. Just write down your number." She was considerably more quiet, packing her things quickly.
Last night
The doorbell to Hermione's shared apartment, with her best friend Ginny Weasley, rang. The latter was away for the night.
"Ron! You're finally here, you're ten minutes late mister." Hermione playfully wagged her finger at him and pulled him into a hug. He barely lifted his arms around her.
"Sorry about that. So where's Gin?" Ron asked, as Hermione pulled him into the living room.
"I told you early she's studying at a mate's flat tonight. We have the place all to ourselves."
"Great…" Hermione noticed Ron was looking everywhere, but at her.
"Sooo… Do you want to order pizza, watch a movie? I could put some popcorn in?" Ron hesitated the next time he spoke. He was now staring at his nail-bitten fingers. "The movie sounds good."
"Alrighty, I'll pick the movie then?" Ron gave her a tight lipped smile and nodded. Hermione put in the movie 50 First Dates. She sat back down and cuddled next to Ron. Shortly, after the movie starts, Ron begins to fidget underneath Hermione.
"Ron, are you okay? You've been acting weird since you walked through the door." Hermione counted 1… 2… 3… breaths before Ron let out a sign.
"Bloody hell, Hermione. I can't do this anymore." He pushes her off of him and takes another breath. "Look there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while." This time he finally lifted his blue eyes to meet her brown ones. He places his hand on her thigh. "I'm really sorry about this Hermione, but I want to break up." Now it was his turn to count breaths, 1… 2… 3… 4… Ron looks up when he hears a snort. He sees Hermione doubled over with her shoulders shaking.
"Oh bloody… 'Mione I'm really really sorry. I didn't know you would take it like this…" She comes up for a breath of air and, and she's laughing. Ron looks at her, lost for words.
"Ron! Ronald Weasley! You crack me up with your jokes. You almost had me though with that." She was now practically rolling on the floor, holding her stomach from the laughing pains.
"Hermione. Hermione! HERMIONE!" She stopped at Ron's yelling. "This isn't a joke! I'm breaking up with you! I wanted us to have one more good night together. I-I just couldn't do it." Ron had stood up. His hands were clenching and unclenching at his sides. Hermione slowly sat up from her position on the floor.
"Ron, but why? We were fine a month ago, a week ago, yesterday!" He sat down next to her on the floor. "I know. I know. It's just I haven't been completely honest with you." He gave her a side glance.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Hermione was always quick to imagine the worst, Ron knew this. "I haven't cheated on you, so you can stop thinking about that. It's just I met this girl in my class and we've been talking and getting to know each other." Herimone's eyes were slowly filling with tears. She squeezed her eyes shut to stop them. "You like her better than me, don't you?"
"Hermione. Please don't cry. We can still be friends."
"GET OUT!" Hermione jumped up; immediately started pushing Ron towards the door.
"But-but"
"GET OUT! I DON'T WANT TO LOOK AT YOU!" Tears were falling down her face. She shoved Ron out the door and slammed it in his face. She ran back to her bedroom and just cried and cried.
"That s-s-stupid jerk." Hermione grabbed her phone and press speed dial for her best friend.
"Hello, thank you for calling Jay's Pizza & Pasta. This is-"
"OH GINNY! You know how Ron and I had a date tonight right? Well, he came over and then the bastard b-b-breaks up with me! I was so excited we were going to spend more time together, but he goes and does that! He started talking about some stupid girl he met in one of his c-c-classes.
What made it worse was that I thought it was all a joke!" Hermione said this in one breath. She was hiccupping and sobbing, when she realized her best friend wasn't responding.
"G-ginny?" She wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"Sorry, but you have the wrong number. This is a restaurant called Jay's Pizza & Pasta. Goodbye now." The man on the other side of the phone was not sorry in the least bit. It was dinner rush and he did not have the time to entertain stupid relationship problems.
"Who was on the phone, Draco?"
"A prank caller."