Draco wasn't used to blatant defiance. Not from anyone but he knew the exact moment when Hermione turned away from him, lifted herself up from the bed and walked away without a backward glance. He had expected fury, anger he could tame but this … blankness, he couldn't understand.

"It's not just your life, Draco." She said from the doorway, her voice eerily steady, "it's Astoria's and mine, you cannot forget about the people you effect around you. She deserves a chance and so do I."

"You do this…" he whispered.

"I know, if I do this we're done. I'll take that bargain, Draco." She said coldly.

"You'd just walk away, for some girl you have talked to for probably ten minutes." His disbelief colored his voice.

"Selfishness is unbecoming, Draco."

"What use are ethics when you won't have two galleons to rub together?" he said bitterly, "Go Hermione, fight your 'noble' cause."

"Don't say it so condescendingly! Isn't it worth having more to life, than this… this coldness that you surround yourself with, like… like some impregnable shield!" she cried out, her voice cracking suddenly. Her shoulders shook under the strain of her conviction.

"You expect too much from me, Granger. I'm a bastard, I wish your standards of me matched mine." He said cruelly, "What did you think? A few hard fucks and then I am going to start falling in love with you!?"

"Stop it…" she whispered, "Stop cheapening it…"

"Why little kitten, can't take the truth." He continued cruelly, his voice dangerously low, this was Draco's territory he knew how to destroy any vestige of emotion she felt for him, "Are you trying to tell me that you… mudblood…" he sneered, "Could change the kind of person I am, the kind of person I have been for so long. My-my Granger you have a higher opinion of your abilities than me."

"Stop it!" she screamed violently, raising her hands to cover her ears, "Why are you doing this!? This isn't you Draco."

"Get out." He said coldly, "The Game was meant to be on my terms or not at all, you're getting to be more trouble than your worth."

Hermione did all she could to suppress the gasping sobs that rose from deep within her, no she would not cry… could not cry. Without looking at him she left his rooms and went straight to her Tower bedroom.

Hermione sat on her bed, fists clenched and shoulder shaking. When had she become this person, one who ran from confrontation? But his words, such deep cutting words, had inflicted wounds upon her… invisible wounds that no one could see but she could feel their serrated edges digging into the softest parts of her soul. Parts that she had shared with him, parts that didn't want to believe he had just said all that he had.

This wasn't Draco, this wasn't the same person who had carried her to her bed from the library when she could barely stand due to exhaustion, this wasn't the person who had set up a picnic in the Astronomy tower, who had held her, loved her, touched her with such tenderness that your heart would weep.

No, this was the Draco who had killed ruthlessly, who had broken minds of men and women without the slightest feeling of remorse, this was the Draco who had iron and ice running in his veins, ice that threatened to creep its way into his heart until he had nothing but metal and chips of blackened glass in him.

She loved him; she realized with a broken sob, she loved him more than anything in the world and despite what he had said to her she couldn't leave him. Because, if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back . . . then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.

She hadn't even realized how happy she had been until now, what was this crushing sense of loss? Laying on her heart like a heavy rock? Stealthily creeping up her soul, this pain so fucking intense and dark.

She knew him, she knew that there was something within him that made him say those things to her, that scared little boy so afraid to show anyone his true feelings lest someone learn them and exploit whatever good was left within him. She knew that but what if this time he wasn't lying.

….

Draco's body sank to the floor; he wanted so desperately to call out to her but that darkness in him refused. It refused because he couldn't accept rejection one more time.

"She picked her over me." He thought, dark fury sweeping through him, "SHE WAS MEANT TO LOVE ME!" he screamed, in his fury pounding the floor over and over and over again.

"She was mine, the one good thing, the one fucking person who was mine and mine alone. She was meant to love me, to hold me!", to accept me for who I am he thought as he screamed bitterly , knowing she couldn't hear him. His fists going down again and again and again, even as the blood from his broken knuckles stained the floor.

He had lied to her, everything he said to her had been a lie; had come from that scared little boy , stuck in a dark corner of his psyche who's senses had been deprived for so long that even when he found a way out of that sightless, soundless box he had been trapped in he had snarled at it like a suspicious animal and thrust it away from him. His prison was a creation of his own mind, he couldn't escape it, not without her… not ever.

"She was mine." He said brokenly his head bent, his body huddled in a fetal ball.

….

Guys I know I've been shit at uploading but I am in my final year of school so bear with me; I have exams and uni entrances and stuff. I know it sucks but I love your support and your feedback so please don't forget to review (even though I don't deserve it) but I do promise to try to upload more and more often.