A/N: Chapter Ten! Sorry for the wait.

Draco snuck back into the Slytherin Dungeons. It was as empty as he'd left it, save for the silhouette situated across the fireplace. Without wasting any time, he escaped the doorway and moved to the fireplace. There, seated on her own with a bottle of fire whiskey and a stack of photographs was, of course, Astoria.

She fixed her attention on him, startled. "Merlin's sake, Draco. Warn a girl before you sneak up on her in the middle of the night."

He held his hands up in surrender, before lowering on the rug, next to her. As per usual, she handed him the bottle of fire whiskey and he took a swig. Normally, he would have thought to ask why she was drinking by herself, — in the middle of the Common Room no less — but the answer was laid out for him.

Draco looked to the photographs, recognizing both people in them. Astoria with her ex-boyfriend, Theodore Nott. When he looked back at her, he could see the shine in her eyes. It was evident then, that she'd been crying. Normally, he didn't involve himself in his friends' personal business, but he and Astoria had always been close.

Without speaking the words, he communicated his thoughts towards her in the form of a sideways hug. For a moment, she resisted, but the second she breathed in, was the second she leaned her head against his shoulder. She was the type to keep her emotions bottled up (like him). Bearing that, it did not surprise him in the slightest, when she began to cry softly into his shirt, hardly making a sound. If he hadn't felt the dampness beneath her eyes, he would never have known.

They stayed like that for a long time, about fifteen minutes, before Astoria lifted her head from his shoulder and reached for the bottle. Draco would normally have given it back to her without reservation, but something told him not to, that night.

"You don't need this," Draco voiced, holding the bottle of liquor where she couldn't reach it. "You never did."

Astoria tossed him a hard look. "You're not Gryffindor. Stop acting like it." For the second time, she tried reaching for the bottle. For the second time, her attempts were thwarted. "Give it back, Draco. I'm serious."

"So am I."

"What is this?" she demanded. "Some sort of unscripted intervention? Get real. You drink more than I do."

Draco fixed his eyes on her, knowingly. "If I hand this to you, you're going to drink until sunrise, wake up with a piercing hangover, miss your classes, wander into the Great Hall sometime around dinner, spot him sitting next to another girl, pretend it doesn't bother you, snog a random bloke when you think he's looking, feel bad about the lengths you're willing to go to get his attention, lock yourself in the girls dormitory for a cry, and, then, when the Common Room is empty, you are going to sit right here and do the same thing over again."

Astoria glared daggers at him. "Bravo. Did you come up with all of that on the spot, or are you pathetic enough to actually give a damn?"

"Both."

She closed her eyes. By that point, he could tell. It was eating away at her: the breakup and the aftermath and the alcohol. For months, she had done her best to hide it, but everything was slowly rising to the surface.

"Listen," Draco broke through, speaking quietly. "I know I'm an arse most of the time, and I know I could have shown you a little more support when everything happened, but I — I do care. You know that, right?"

Astoria glanced down. "Yeah, I know."

"Good," he decided, looking to the photographs, before lifting the topmost one and tossing it into the fire.

"Dra — What are you doing?" Astoria demanded, shuffling as close as she could get to the flames, without burning herself. "Are in you insane?"

Draco responded to this by tossing another and then another, and then, in a moment both of them would look back on and remember, he tossed her the fourth photograph and motioned for her to follow his lead.

"Go on."

Astoria gaped at him, with no falter in expression until her eyes drifted to the photograph in her hand. It was the most recent, taken about two weeks before Theodore had broken up with her. She blinked, holding back a fresh wave of tears.

"I can't…"

"You can," Draco persuaded, shifting closer. "I'll sit here all night, if that's what it takes."

Her attention bounced to him. "Why are you doing this?"

"Making you burn your memories? I read somewhere that it's supposed to be therapeutic."

"No, not that…" she countered. "I mean, why are you being nice?"

Draco stared at her for a moment, realizing she was serious. He understood for the most part, that he had a reputation for being a selfish, smarmy brat, and probably deserved all the negative energy directed his way, but to have one of his closest friends sincerely question his integrity was…jarring.

Perhaps he did need a change in attitude.

It was twenty-four hours later, that Hermione found herself sneaking out of the Common Room and into the Restricted Section of the library. Going off of Harry and Ginny's example, she arranged for Blaise to meet her there, in the most sacred of places, to engage in a bit of extracurricular activity. It was a little uncharacteristic of them to sneak around like that, seeing as she was Head Girl and he was Head Boy, but Hermione was no stranger to bending the rules at her will. Only, this time she wasn't doing it for the greater good of the wizarding world. This time, she was doing it for herself.

She escaped the girls dormitory and crawled through the Portrait Hole; all, without striking suspicion in her friends. Harry and Ginny had it in pretty good authority that she and Blaise were involved, but they had no idea she was sneaking off to meet him every night. She wanted to tell them, because they were her friends, but she had nothing to say. At that point, things with Blaise were purely physical. Sure, they had things in common, such as their mutual interests in academics and Muggle music and things of that nature, but they weren't exactly in a relationship. It was more of an arrangement. A mature, civilized arrangement, between two consenting parties.

More than that, she wasn't sure she wanted to be in a relationship. Being in one required time and effort; time and effort that could have been geared to revision and planning for the future. It seemed she and Blaise were in total agreement on that front. Yet another perk of having so much in common.

Hermione pushed those thoughts aside, tiptoeing into the library and then, into the Restricted Section.

"Astoria. Please, just listen to me —"

The Head Girl froze, ducking behind one of the shelves. She heard hushed voices, followed closely by two sets of footsteps. Evidently, she was not the only person in the library. There were two others: one male and one female, going by the sounds of their voices. She thought, perhaps, to penalize them for being out after curfew, but doing that would get her in trouble, seeing as no students were allowed in the Restricted Section. It didn't matter that she was Head Girl.

Bearing that in mind, Hermione slipped further into the shadows, until she was sure they couldn't see her. Through the corner of her eye, however, she did have a clear shot of them.

"Will you listen to me? Please. One moment. That's all I want," Theodore Nott all but begged, looking to Astoria with desperation. "I made a mistake when I broke up with you. It was a careless, thoughtless decision, and now that I know the truth, I just — I can't stop thinking about you."

Astoria folded her arms, shaking her head with disbelief. "If you came to me twenty-four hours ago, speaking those exact words, I would've been stupid enough to believe you. No questions asked."

The look in his eyes deepened. He approached her, holding about an inch or two of distance between them. "What's changed? What…happened?"

"You hurt me," she said, point blank. "You fooled me into thinking what we had meant something to you, and then you — you went ahead and decided to trust the word of Parkinson over me. Par-kin-son. She's been on my case for years; since the day she found out I kissed Draco at that stupid party. She's certifiably obsessed with him. She would say or do anything to hurt my reputation, including starting those rumours about me and Marcus, because she thinks I'm a threat. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is, that you believed her over me?"

Hermione listened in, fascinated and at the same time, empathetic towards the Slytherin girl. She had been in a similar situation, not too long ago.

"Well, Parkinson was obviously picking up on something, considering the fact that you and Draco are now an item."

Astoria rolled her eyes. "It's bollocks."

"What? What do you mean 'it's bollocks'?" Theodore asked, as though he had a telepathic connection with the Head Girl. "You're all over each other."

"I don't feel that way about Draco," she explained, calming down a little. "I'm not interested. I haven't been for a long, long time."

The wizard looked at her, puzzled.

Astoria took a deep breath, moving closer to her fellow Slytherin and then whispering something in his ear. His reaction was shock mingled with the smallest hint of foresight. Seconds later, she separated from him. "You can't tell anyone, okay? I mean it."

"I won't," he promised. "You have my word, and again, I'm sorry. I know your mind is made up, but if I could go back in time and do things differently, I would. I miss you. I…I love you. I never stopped loving y—"

"Will you just shut up and kiss me already?"

He froze. "Really?"

"Yes, before I come to my senses."

Without wasting another minute, Theodore Nott complied with the wishes of Astoria Greengrass and wrapped his arms around her, pressing her body against one of the shelves, and knocking some books down, as they kissed in a moment of complete and utter abandonment.

Feeling sufficiently creepy, the Head Girl tiptoed out of the Restricted Section. It was safe to assume her best friends, Harry and Ginny, weren't the only students who used the Restricted Section as their snogging spot. That said, she still didn't expect to walk in on Astoria and Theodore.

Come to think of it, she had no idea they had ever dated.

And as shocked as she was over the scene she had just witnessed, nothing shocked her more than the fact that Astoria had just, before the Head Girl's very eyes, cheated on Malfoy. Granted, ferret boy probably deserved to be taken down a few notches — but cheating was wrong.

She couldn't help but wonder what to do with the information. Mostly, that Astoria claimed to have no romantic interest in Malfoy, and yet, kissed him at every juncture and agreed to be in a very public relationship with him. It made no sense whatsoever. Hermione racked her brain, but came up with nothing other than Slytherins will be Slytherins.

It was none of her business.

She wasn't involved. They weren't her friends.

But, as she walked silently through the corridor, she realized she did have a connection with a very close friend of theirs. Someone who would probably want to know, and would probably know what to do with the information.

Blaise.

"Speaking of…" she voiced, having a look around.

It was empty in the seventh floor corridor. Blaise was nowhere to be found. He can't possibly have stood her up. He wasn't the type to do something like that. Plus, he seemed to enjoy himself the last time they 'talked'. There was no reason for him not be there. He liked her. He wasn't forgetful. If he simply couldn't make it, he would have mentioned it to her in some way.

Like her, he was a smart, reliable person.

Hermione crawled through the portrait hole in silence, having the sneaking suspicion that the surprises were far from over.

A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter! I know we're all waiting for Hermione to get back at Draco for being such a massive tool, but trust me...shit is about to hit the fan haha. I'll update as soon as I can!

Cheers

xo.