Hermione stormed into the Great Hall and sat down next to Ginny once again, who she was thankful was still there, talking to Luna who had since taken the space directly opposite Ginny.

'Hi.' Hermione said, sounding extremely irritated.

'Back are we?' asked Ginny, not sounding happy at all. 'Did you have fun with your new best friends?'

'They're not my best friends.' Hermione said, tonelessly, staring down at the wooden table, which had hearts and names carved into it.

'Sure.' Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

'Hermione, what's bothering you?' asked Luna from across the table.

'Nothing.' Hermione fibbed, whilst in her head she was saying : Draco broke my trust and I think he also broke my heart.

'Hermione, I can tell something is wrong, you know.' Luna told her 'But I can also tell you don't want to talk about it, so I won't bother you about it.'

'Thanks, Luna.' Hermione said, with a weak smile as she grabbed a slice of toast and began spreading jam on it.

'So, want to do something today?' Ginny asked. 'Or have you already made plans with Parkinson and Bulstrode, or Malfoy?'

Hermione dropped her toast and stared at Ginny, eyes slightly narrowed.

'No!' she cried 'I haven't, I have no plans for today, so you decide what to do, I can't think of anything.'

'Maybe we could just go down the lake and talk?' Ginny suggested as Hermione picked up her toast again and took a bite of it.

'No! Not the lake!' Hermione exclaimed before adding 'But yeah, I guess we could talk...where though?'

'I don't know.' Ginny said, with a shrug 'What's wrong with the lake?'

'There's just people I don't want to see down there.' Hermione said, quickly.

'Like who?' Ginny asked.

'It doesn't matter.' Hermione said 'Luna, would you like to join us?'

Hermione never got an answer since Luna was too busy daydreaming again.

At that moment, a number of hoots were heard and a dozen owls swooped into the Great Hall, letters in their beaks. One of them swooped down towards Hermione, Ginny and Luna and dropped a letter in front of Ginny, before flying off again.

'Who's that from, Ginny?' Hermione asked as Ginny opened the envelope.

'Harry.' Ginny said, without even looking at the signature at the bottom 'I can tell by the writing.'

'Okay.' Hermione said as Ginny read her letter 'What did he write?'

'Nothing really important.' Ginny said, folding up the letter and putting it in her pocket 'Just asking me how I am and telling me he misses me. He also said he's going to be coming into school at some point to give talks to us students and will probably bring Ron with him, which will be nice.'

'Yeah, I guess it will.' Hermione said, managing a small smile 'Are you going to owl him back?'

'Yes, but not now, I'll do it later.' Ginny replied.

'Okay, when you do, tell him I say hi.' Hermione said.

'Alright.' Ginny said 'So, shall we go then?'

'Yes, may as well.' Hermione replied 'Luna are you coming?'

Without even looking at Hermione, Luna shook her head.

'Okay, well, see you later then.' said Hermione as she stood up.

'Bye Luna.' Ginny said, standing up herself.

The two girls then began walking out of the hall together.

'Let's go to the Gryffindor common room.' Ginny said as they passed through the Great Hall doors.

'Alright.' Hermione said.

They walked in silence for a few seconds, before Ginny brought up the one thing Hermione didn't want to talk about again.

'So, now it's just us, tell me, what is up with you?' Ginny asked 'You were fine until this morning. Yes, you were acting weird, but nothing like this.'

'Ginny, I really don't want to talk about it.' Hermione said, firmly 'It's not that I don't trust you, it's just I don't want to bring up what happened. I've done so well holding it together and I don't want to break down in tears.'

'Break down in tears?' Ginny repeated 'Must be bad, then.'

'It is Gin.' Hermione said, feeling tears stinging in her eyes, so she closed her eyes and bit her lip.

'Mione?' Ginny asked, staring at her friend, who looked on the verge of tears.

Hermione let out a sigh and felt a tear fall down her left cheek. She now felt annoyed at herself for not being able to hold it together any longer.

'Hermione.' Ginny said, walking towards her and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders 'What's wrong?'

Hermione shook her head as more tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

'Come on, let's go to my dormitory and we can talk, okay?' Ginny said, softly, as she removed the arm from Hermione's shoulder and began walking to the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione followed, head bowed as she frantically wiped the tears from her eyes.

'So, what is it?' Ginny asked, handing Hermione a tissue and sitting on her bed beside Hermione.

Hermione stared at the tissue in her hands.

'I should have listened to you, Ginny.' she said in a wobbly voice.

'What do you mean?' Ginny asked.

'Let's just say I should have believed you about Draco.' Hermione said, careful not to reveal what had really happened. More tears spilled from her eyes as his name left her lips.

'What did he do?' Ginny questioned, now sounding annoyed.

Hermione shook her head. She wouldn't tell Ginny. She couldn't tell Ginny.

'Hermione, what did he do?' Ginny repeated 'It must be quite bad, he's been awful in the past, but has never made you this upset.'

'I can't tell you.' Hermione sobbed, as she dabbed away some of the tears with her tissue.

'Yes you can.' Ginny said, trying to get it out of Hermione 'You know I won't tell anyone else. You're my best friend!'

'Ginny, I know.' Hermione said, with a sniff 'But you wouldn't understand.'

'Why wouldn't I?' Ginny asked. She then added 'If you tell me why Malfoy had made you so upset, I'll tell you something no one else knows and will ever know.'

'Stop trying to get me to tell you.' Hermione wailed, even though she was curious to know what the something was.

'Well, guess you'll never know my secret.' Ginny said, with a smirk.

'Okay, fine.' Hermione said, with a shrug 'Draco got angry last night...and he, he hit me.'

Ginny gasped.

'He what?!'

'He..hit me.' Hermione said again, more quietly this time as she blinked back tears 'I..just am still in shock from it and Pansy told me that he was only being nice to me, to try to eventually seduce me. It happened to her, apparently.'

'Oh, that's awful!' Ginny cried 'What a jerk. I'm so sorry, Mione. You should really report it and Pansy could be lying.''

'No.' Hermione said 'It doesn't need to be reported, he just lost control of his temper...and I don't think she was.'

'Okay, but if he does anything again-' Ginny began.

'Yeah, I will do something if he does it again.' Hermione said, quickly before asking 'So what's that thing you said you'd tell me?'

'Alright, but you can't tell anyone.' Ginny said, tucking her hair behind her ears 'Promise?'

'Only if you promise to keep the Draco thing to yourself.' Hermione said.

'I promise I will, now promise me that you won't repeat a word of what I say to anyone.'

''I promise.' said Hermione.

'Okay.' said Ginny with a sigh 'So, a few months ago,not long after the war ended, I got pregnant.'

'What?' Hermione cried.

'Yeah.' Ginny said, with a small nod 'I didn't keep it, of course. Harry and I decided it would be best..it was really hard, but he got me through it. Mum and Dad never knew and can't ever know about it. So you mustn't say a word to anyone, not even Harry. If he knew I told you, he wouldn't be happy.'

'So that's why you were acting weird and seemed sad for ages.' Hermione said, thinking back to late June. 'I'm sorry, Ginny. If I'd known-'

'It's alright, Hermione.' Ginny said 'Don't be sorry. I'm fine now. We both are.'

'That's good then.' Hermione said, still not believing that Ginny had been pregnant and she didn't even know at the time. 'But how did you get away with everything, without everyone noticing?'

'Well, Harry and I snuck off to some muggle hospital, quite early in the morning and afterwards, I pretended I was sick, so stayed in bed all day, with Harry looking after me, if you remember.'

'But you weren't in your room, though.' Hermione said 'I was sharing with you, remember?'

'I was in Ron's room.' Ginny answered 'He wasn't there.'

'Where was he?' Hermione asked, brow furrowed. They'd still been together at the time.

'Probably shagging Lavender Brown somewhere.' Ginny said, casually, not noticing the look on Hermione's face.

'W-what?'

'Yeah, he'd always sneak off to her house. Harry told me.' Ginny said 'Guess she made a quick recovery, eh?'

Hermione felt like she couldn't breathe. He'd cheated on her and she didn't even realise. No wonder he seemed so keen to end things with had Harry and Ginny never thought to have told her? Even though Hermione no longer had feelings for Ron, it still hurt and her current vulnerable state made her take the news even worse than she normally would have done.

'Hermione, what's wrong?' Ginny asked, giving Hermione an odd look.

'Nothing, got homework.' Hermione lied, before quickly dashing out the room. She ran out of the common room, trying to slow her breathing and feeling more hot tears sting in her eyes. Hermione was desperate to get back to her dorm room, where she could just lock herself away, cry and perhaps sleep it off, but halfway there, she ended up collapsing against a wall in floods of tears and sinking down to the floor.

Draco walked through the corridors, at a fast speed, carelessly bumping into younger students and getting angry at them, telling them to watch where they're going.

He had to get to that place he'd discovered, that nobody else knew about. Apart from Hermione, who ended up unknowingly following him into that place, before quickly leaving again. Draco sighed. He was thinking about her again and this didn't make him feel any better. In fact, it just made him feel worse.

He stopped in his tracks for a second and rubbed his temples, trying to pull himself together, before continuing to walk through the hallways.

Draco was about to turn into the corridor that led to the secluded place, when he heard an odd sound coming from another corridor. He stopped and listened to it for several seconds, before realising it was someone crying. Draco decided to check it out and see who it was.

A gasp escaped his lips when he realised it was Hermione. She was sat on the floor, crying into her knees. He rushed over to her immediately and crouched down to her level.

'Hermione?' he called, gently, staring at the girl with great concern.

Hermione slowly raised her head from her knees and looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her mouth quivered slightly, as she was unable to find any words to say to him.

'What's wrong?' he asked 'It's not me again, is it? Because if it is, I'm so sorry.'

Not long after those words left his lips, Hermione found herself in his arms, sobbing into his broad chest. She didn't know why. She disliked him very much right now, but yet wanted to stay in this warm embrace.

'Sorry.' Draco whispered, countless times as he stroked her back with one hand and hair with the other.

Hermione wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, even though it partly was, and that most of it was due to what she had found out from Ginny, but found herself lost for words.

She then came to her senses and backed out of his arms and stood up. Draco stood up too.

He was about to wipe away her tears, but Hermione beat him to it, quickly wiping them away with the side of her hand.

Several more seconds of silence passed.

'Well, I'm going to go.' Hermione said, with a gravely voice before adding 'Before I do anything else stupid. I always end up doing things I shouldn't when I'm upset.'

'Oh so is cuddling up to me stupid?' he asked, teasingly.

'Yes, it is when I'm supposed to be mad at you.' Hermione replied.

'Well, what will it take for you not to be mad?' Draco asked, quietly as he reached up and wiped away a single tear on Hermione's left cheek that she'd missed. Hermione didn't dare to look him in the eyes as he did this.

Hermione gently pushed him away as she said 'Nothing right now.'

'Oh really?' he asked, eye brows raised as she began to walk away from him.

'Yes.' Hermione said, stopping in her tracks and looking at Draco over her shoulder 'But give me some time and space and I might stop being mad at you.'

Draco smiled at the back of her head as she turned away and continued walking.

'I never meant to hit you by the way.' he called after her. Hermione stopped and turned once more as Draco continued 'It was meant for Pansy, the slap, she and Millicent pushed you in the way.'

'You're just saying that.' Hermione said, flatly, though feeling slightly happier at the thought of this possibly being true.

'I'm not.' said Draco 'Why would I want to hit a face as pretty as yours?'

Hermione's heart skipped a beat, but she hid this by shaking her head, with a small smile.

'Goodbye, Draco.' she said, with a slight smirk, before finally leaving him.