A/N I haven't been doing my best on this story recently...I've been quite lazy with it the past few chapters so I'm going to try a bit harder for this one. Don't forget to review people, it only takes a second!

Rain smattered against the windows, droplets of water falling smoothly down glass like the tears that slid down her cheeks. A glass of Firewhisky was by her hand and a crumpled letter lay beside it...screwed up and tossed aside in anger but smoothed out carefully a moment later when the fury turned to despair.

She should not feel anger; surely...it was her choice, after all. The whisky stung her throat but comforted her and her hand reached for the letter that lay beside the glass.

Pansy,

The missive began with only her name, a formal start. How different this letter was from the notes once passed furtively in classes, those scraps of parchment slid beneath her dormitory door...My love...they had said when she opened them and started to read with a smile on her face as she drank in the words, always poetic, always heartfelt. Draco had always been eloquent.

I made it to London. I'm at the Leaky Cauldron and leaving for Grimmauld Place tomorrow.

I want to thank you for letting me go. It was brave and selfless and your kindness and compassion, your empathy is more than I deserve.

Don't dwell on what could have been, on what never was. My regrets will be with me forever, my mistakes will follow me like a shadow but your wounds will heal. As time passes and the years go by, you will move on with your life, you'll see. I hope it is filled with happiness.

I'm sorry.

Draco

She was broken. Draco had destroyed her and he knew it. He had fallen in love with another girl, fallen so fast and true, enamoured and fascinated by her in a way he never was with her. That is why she had to let him leave because she could not live a lie, she could not play games with her own heart. She could not watch as he pined for Hermione Granger while she pretended to herself he would forget that fleeting romance and learn to love her once more.

The love of her life, stolen by a Mudblood, taken from her. A piece of her heart gauged out by a girl who was plain and unremarkable, with ink stained cuffs and flyaway hair, bookish and uninteresting. Surely she should pale in comparison to herself...sleek and groomed, quick witted, loyal, devoted. They had grown up together, shared their lives together and yet all their past, all they had been through with each other seemed to be worth nothing anymore. She was angry with Granger, furious with her. Did she not realise what she was destroying? No, what she had already destroyed...

"Pansy"

Her cousin, slender with the angular features and dark glossy hair they shared, entered the kitchen and took a seat across the table from her. Pansy wondered for a moment why she was in a dressing gown. She glanced at the clock – 11pm. Had she really been sitting here drinking for that long?

"She stole everything, April, tore my world apart" Pansy said to her, noticing her words were slurred from the drink "she doesn't realise what she has done"

"I thought you were stronger than this, this is pathetic" her cousin replied harshly "when someone steals something from you that is precious, you take it back. Am I wrong?"

Pansy laughed humourlessly "while she is there, Draco will never consider coming back. I let him go because I wanted him to be happy"

"And are you happy?" April enquired "look at what you've done to yourself" she picked up the empty Firewhisky bottle and slammed it back onto the table "you're a mess. Draco would have been happy; his relationship with the Mudblood is an infatuation. She wormed her way into his life and offered him comfort when he needed it. You were always his and he was always yours and because of your stupidity, you've driven him back to her"

"Draco loves her, I see it in his eyes...I saw it when he looked at her" she paused "it was how he used to look at me"

"Don't be weak!" April told her sternly "he caused you enough pain before he ran away with this filthy little slut he's taken a fancy to and now you've decided to stand back and let him hurt you again! Draco needs to heal your heart and make up for the mistakes he made. You mustn't throw all this away, Pansy"

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Pansy asked her angrily "what am I supposed to do?"

"Get rid of the problem" said April, looking at her closely "permanently"

Pansy stared back at her, processing the suggestion through her alcohol soaked haze "No..." she said "no...No I can't do that to him"

"You need to get rid of her in order for Draco to see his mistake!" April insisted "she's nothing, Pansy...have you seen the girl?"

"I won't kill her" said Pansy.

"Then remove her some other way!" said April "frame her for something..." she said thoughtfully "we have friends who escaped the war, who can help us arrange a fitting crime and ensure Miss Granger ends up in Azkaban –"

"She's a heroine, it would never stick" said Pansy.

April reclined in her chair and looked contemplatively out of the window at the rainy Welsh countryside "then we make Draco cheat on her. Nothing like a broken heart to cause pain, is there Pansy? Or at least we will make it seem as though he has cheated...make it so convincing that little Miss Granger ends up heartbroken and angry and then she leaves Draco and you step in to comfort him, make him see that he has always loved you, not her"

"We could make her cheat on him" said Pansy, suddenly more alert, brought out of her drunken stupor by a sudden idea "the Weasley boy is besotted with her, he hates Draco and wants the Mudblood back –"

April smiled "perfect" she said "do you know where he lives?"