Hermione POV -

I awoke the next morning stifling a loud yawn. It was Monday. I put on my uniform and fixed myself up to have breakfast down in the great hall. I grabbed my bag and went into the common room. Malfoy was standing by the marble fireplace with a grin on his face. I was confused for a moment then I remembered what happened last night... me... with no towel. I looked down at my feet to hide the embarrassment on my face.

"Hi Granger." he said in a mocking voice

"Hello." I simply said

"Plan on taking a bath today?" he grinned.

"None of your business." I said knowing too well that he was trying to mess with me.

"I bet that weaselbee has never seen you naked." he smirked. I gasped... Ron... my boyfriend. I realized that I had not received a letter from him in days. It felt like weeks. Why did I not get a letter from him? I was the last person to send him a letter... so why did he not reply?

"Nothing to say Granger huh?"

"Leave me alone Malfoy." I snapped.

"So I'll take that as a no . I'm the only person that has seen you naked then." he sneers crossing his arms over his chest with a look full of pride in my torment.

I decided to ignore him. I made my way out the common room slamming the door behind me. Malfoy was right. Ron has never seen me naked. Ron and I never got intimate with each other. We were close to it a couple of times but I pulled out at the last minute. I never stopped to ask myself why.

I thought it was particularly odd that Ron hasn't yet wrote to me yet. Usually he would have done so by now. So what has changed? 'Maybe he is just busy' I thought to myself. I shrugged it all off and sat next to Ginny in the great hall. While I was sitting I noticed Ginny smiling down at a white piece of paper with familiar writing on it.

"Is that letter from Harry?" I ask her peering in.

"Yes it is. I received it this morning. It's so lovely of him to send me a letter so early in the morning" she says her smile bigger than it was 3 seconds ago.

"It's great..." I mumbled. She gave me a questioning look.

"What's the matter... did Ron send you one?"

"I did not get one for almost a week. I don't know whats up." I say.

"That bloody git. Has he seriously not got ten minutes spare to write his girlfriend a letter!?" said Ginny with an unusual tone of anger in her voice.

"It's okay Ginny... really it is." I say wanting to change the subject.

"It's not okay Hermione. Ron can't just think that he can pick you up and drop you off whenever he likes. He's bloody disgusting..."

"Whoa hold on there Ginny. It's only a letter... I can get over it." I gave her a questioning look. She had a guilty look on her face which caused me further confusion.

"Ginny is there something you're not telling me?" I ask worried.

"Um... I don't think we should talk about this here Hermione" she mumbles looking everywhere but my eyes. Okay now I was really worried.

"What is going on?" I demand

"Come to the astronomy tower with me." she says getting up of her chair and walking towards the exit, her eyes still didn't meet mine.

After watching Ginny pace up and down for several minutes I could not take it anymore. This was getting beyond ridiculous.

"Ginny what is it? You're driving me crazy!"

"I don't know how to put this Hermione." she began. "It's not an easy topic to discuss."

"Is it about Ron?" I question. She nodded.

"Well come on then... Before school starts." I say checking my watch. School does not start till another half hour. I had plenty of time. I would sit here for that length of time if i had to.

"Okay, but promise me you won't be mad at me." Ginny took a deep breath.

"I promise... now please just tell me." I was getting impatient at this point.

"Okay" she began. "Yesterday... or maybe it was the day before, I can't remember. I received a letter from Harry. In the letter Harry said that he saw Ron with another girl... he did not know whether it would be best to tell you or not..."

My hand flung to my mouth. I can't believe I'm hearing this.

"Hermione." she continued looking upset. "Harry saw Ron kiss a girl down an alleyway after they finished a days worth of training... I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out this way and neither did Harry. We both thought that Ron would make contact with you at this stage..."

"I don't believe you... Ron would not do that to me." I cried. My heart pounded against my chest and tears clogged my vision.

Ginny hugged me as I sobbed into her jumper. "I'm so so sorry Hermione. Harry told Ron that he should arrange to meet up with you in Hogsmeade to confess, but obviously that didn't happen. I even wrote to him too and gave him a right telling off... I just can't believe that he would do something like this, ever."

"Who is she?" I sniffed.

"She is a slytherin who skipped seventh year this year. We don't know her; Harry did not even who she was. Harry confronted Ron about what he saw and he soon found out about her name. Her name is Sarah, I don't know her surname. I'm so sorry Hermione. I literally started screaming when I read the letter. I can't believe that my brother has become such a pig" she says patting my back.

I could not believe that this was happening. Ron was with another girl. I told myself to shrug it off... it could easily be some sick joke. But I knew that my friends would not lie to me about something as serious as this. I was only gone for 3 weeks and already Ron is doing the dirty... what if it was going on before I boarded the Hogwarts express a couple of weeks ago? I felt like my head was going to explode trying to make sense of everything. I thought Ron and I had something special? When I remained silent Ginny gave me a worried look.

"Please say something..." she says sounding worried.

"What did I do to deserve this?" I sobbed harder.

"You did nothing wrong Hermione. This is all Ron's fault; every bit of it. He does not deserve you. All what you have done is try to be a good girlfriend and make him happy. But that was not good enough for him. Ugh that bloody git makes me sick to the stomach. What on earth possessed him." Ginny was boiling with anger at this stage and I thought that maybe I should have been the one to calm her down.

"It's no wonder he did not reply to my letter... he was probably too busy getting it on with that Sarah." I yelled full of anger and hurt. I sat on the cold stone ground and buried my head in my hands. "I loved him... and he threw it all back in my face."

"I'm sorry" Ginny said again. "I did not mean for it to turn out like this. I swear when I get my hands on the fool I'll- "

"You don't need to sort him out. It's fine."

"Hermione."

"Honestly Ginny, I don't even want to talk about this anymore. Thanks for telling me but I think I'll get going now. I need to clear my head."

All of a sudden I did not feel like going to school. I did not feel like working and studying. I wanted to be alone.

"Ginny can you please let on that I'm sick and I won't be coming into school. I don't feel like going in" I tell her whilst wiping my eyes.

"Of course." she looks at me sympathetically. "But I don't like leaving you on your own, not when you're like this."

"It's fine. I need to be alone for a while." I smiled, both of us knew well that it was forced.

"Okay well let me know if you need anything, okay?" she says dragging me in for a hug. "Don't let an idiot like him bring you down. He does not know what he is missing" she whispers in my ear.I said goodbye to Ginny and started to walk to my common room, wiping away the tears not wanting to see anybody.

Just as I was near the common room I saw Malfoy, Pansy, Goyle, Crabbe and Blaise all in a gang in the corridor. They were talking, laughing and jeering, they were damn loud. I sighed as I put my head down and tried to ignore and walk past them. I could almost feel their smirks. I came to a halt when I heard Malfoy say something to his goons.

"So yeah anyway, I was sitting down minding my own business and she suddenly came out of the bathroom naked and tried to seduce me." said Malfoy to his goons. Everyone laughed and sneered looking in my direction. My heart stopped. He could not be that cruel, could he? Who am I kidding; he is a Slytherin for crying out loud. He enjoys making people's lives a misery. The fact that he just told a massive lie about ME trying to seduce him naked... so not true. I ACCIDENTLY dropped my towel, he knew damn well what happened. If he was not being such a girl about his stupid cloak in the first place none of this would have happened.

"I always knew the mud blood was desperate. You could not just keep your hands off could you?" Pug faced Pansy growled in my direction.

I spun around staring straight at Malfoy and his sneering goons.

"Why don't you all do yourselves a favour and leave me alone. I've had it with you fools." I yelled, catching them all by surprise. "You especially Malfoy, just when I thought you couldn't turn into an even bigger and annoying prat."

"Mud blood is too scared to admit that she tried to seduce Draco." said Blaise in a deep voice. Everyone laughed again. "It's pathetic, really."

"That is not what happened... and he knows it." I say gesturing towards the smirking Malfoy; not daring to look at him in the eyes.

"As if you're to be believed you filthy mud blood." Crabbe exclaimed and high-fived Goyle.

"Now Granger is in denial. I know she finds me attractive; I see her checking me out all the time. One day I was faking to be nice to her and she had it in her head that I was in love with her. So that's when she decided to try and seduce me." Malfoy smirked. Everyone started laughing. Pansy shot daggers at me.

I shook my head in disbelief. First I find out that there a possibility Ron cheats on me then some crazy sick rumur is about to be spread about me. I blinked to fight back the tears. There was no way I was going to cry in front of these horrid people. I was about to defend myself and say something back, but I simply had no energy left in me to fight back.

"I've had enough. Just leave me alone" I say lamely before turning back around towards the common room. Malfoy was wide eyed; I think he half expected me to go mental at him. But he did seem pleased that he had power over me. I would do anything to rip his eyeballs out.

But right now... I had no energy left in me. I wanted to curl up into a hole and die. I very slowly got changed out of my uniform and went into my bed. I cried into my pillow; sleep soon found me. I slept for what seemed like days.