Here's the next chapter! Draco's point of view is told in third person.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, only the plot. (:

The first time he saw her. It was only a couple of years ago, but he swore it was a lot longer. If he didn't know better, he would've said he'd known her his whole life.

That was how Draco felt about Hermione. They didn't always get along, and he was a dick to her ninety-five percent of the time, but she was a part of him.

He remembered every detail about the first time he saw her. He had walked into class and resigned himself to another year of absolute boredom. That was all school, and even life, was to him. Something he needed to do, so he did it. Every day was the same routine. Go to school, go to practice, come home, do homework, go to bed. Then he'd wake up the next morning and repeat the pattern.

But then he saw her. She wasn't outwardly impressive in any way. She wore plain clothing, glasses and had frizzy, out of control hair. She was watching him, but when their eyes connected, she looked away. Objectively, there was nothing interesting about her that should have kept his attention. Yet, Draco couldn't look away.

From that point on, life wasn't boring. Life was her. It was the way her eyes seemed to sparkle when he made her laugh. The way she yelled and scrunched up her face when he made her angry. The way she fit in his arms and looked up at him with a lazy smile gracing her face the few times he'd held her. Every day was new, exciting and easy if she was there. It was addictive. He couldn't get enough of her or how alive she made him feel. No matter how many times he had tried to let her go, he'd find her again.

That was just how they were. Whether they wanted to or not, it felt like in a room full of hundreds of people they would always find each other. When one of them wanted to be hidden, the other would see them clearly. They were drawn to each other. It, whatever it was, felt inevitable.

But this time, he really fucked up. Draco probably had only one chance to get her to forgive him, if she was even willing to listen. He hated apologizing to anyone, but it was obvious Hermione wasn't about to talk to him before he did.

It'd been a couple of months since the last time they talked to each other. Both of them were acting as if they didn't know each other. But enough was enough. He missed her and it was frustrating to see her talking to Harry and Ron again, while ignoring him.

Draco was determined to fix the problem today. He pushed open the doors leading to the courtyard and spotted a table with Luna, Padma and Ginny.

"Hey," he greeted before sitting down.

All three of them looked at each other with slight apprehension.

"You're not here to talk to Hermione, are you?" Padma asked, exchanging a nervous look with Ginny.

"Well, I was planning to," Draco confirmed suspiciously. "Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

"No! Of course not!" Ginny rushed to interject and aggressively shaking her head at Padma.

He eyed the two girls, knowing they were withholding something important. Draco then turned his steady gaze to Luna, who, while extremely sweet and kind, was the easiest to break.

"Luna," he drawled, shooting her a reassuring grin. "Come on, you can tell me."

Luna desperately looked at her friends for help.

"Well-, I mean I guess-"

"Oh look!" Ginny exclaimed suddenly, overly excited by the possible distraction. "There's my brother!"

Ron had just opened the large double doors and was making his way towards their table. Accompanying him, was a petite girl with curly, brown hair thrown into a messy bun. Draco immediately focused on her.

"And Hermione," Padma hissed, nudging Ginny, whose eyes widened.

"R-right," Ginny nodded. "Draco, maybe we should go-"

"Hey guys," a voice interrupted.

Draco nodded a greeting to Harry as he claimed the empty seat next to him. Before Ginny could try to get Draco's attention again and convince him to leave with her, Ron and Hermione arrived at the table. Ron quickly made his way over to Draco and took the other seat next to him.

"Hey man, why are we seating here today?"

"I thought it would be nice to catch up," Draco responded to Ron's question feigning innocence. "We haven't seen you four girls in a while."

Draco's attention was fixed on Hermione as he spoke. He needed to talk to her, but she wasn't even looking at him. It was like he didn't exist. Draco narrowed his eyes. Something was different.

She wasn't just ignoring him. Hermione was completely uninterested in the blonde sitting directly across the table from her. She turned to Ginny, who kept giving Draco worried glances, and talked to her like nothing was wrong.

Well, two can play at that game, he thought to himself before pulling out his phone and proceeding to act like he wasn't interested in their current situation.

He chose to appear unfazed by her refusal to acknowledge him and continued to listen to the table's mundane conversation as he scrolled through his messages. He knew Hermione better than that. She was still mad at him and it was only a matter of time before she would make it clear. Especially, if he didn't say anything to her first. The fact that he was sitting at her table nonchalantly was probably already grating on her nerves.

Game, set...

"So, Hermione," Harry started, grinning at her teasingly, "how's your boyfriend?"

"What?" Draco's eyes shot up from his phone and met Hermione's brown ones.

Match.

His sudden interest in the group's conversation did not go unnoticed. The other three girls and Ron were watching Draco uneasily. He hadn't looked up from his phone or said anything since Ron and Hermione sat down, but now he was too surprised to even pretend like he didn't care.

Boyfriend?

Draco froze. Boyfriend. Harry didn't just say boyfriend. He'd heard wrong. Or maybe Harry was wrong? Someone was wrong. There was no way Hermione Granger, the virginal bookworm sitting in front of him, who never showed even mild interest in the opposite sex, now had a boyfriend.

Hermione glared at Draco angrily, silently telling him he had no input on this topic. Draco also noticed she seemed slightly defensive after his outburst.

"He's not my boyfriend," she said, narrowing her eyes at Harry, but trying to hide a smile. "We annoy each other way too much."

"Right," Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm sure that's why you two stay up texting until like four in the morning almost every day."

"Shut up," she muttered blushing.

Since when does she blush.

Draco could feel Ron's attention still on him and attempted to keep his expression neutral. In reality, his brain was absolutely racing as he tried to figure out who it was.

Ginny shot Draco an apologetic look before giving Hermione a weak smile.

"You should think about it though. Blaise seems nice."

Blaise.

Draco felt cold. Blaise Zabini. He had met him a few times through Ron. The Italian boy had seemed fine in the past, but now Draco felt nauseous at the idea of him coming near Hermione.

"I don't think he likes me," Hermione said, dismissing the idea.

Draco's fists clenched. It was wrong. Of course, he didn't like her. And she didn't like him. It just wasn't right. There was nothing great about Blaise. He was athletic sure, but he was an idiot. Hermione was near the top of the class in terms of grades and deserved to be with someone just as intelligent. She'd get bored otherwise. And Blaise wasn't the stupidest person, but it was obvious he didn't give many fucks about school or anything even mildly important.

That's it, Draco mentally reassured himself. That's why it matters. Zabini's not good enough. It doesn't matter though, because it won't last. Hell, it won't even start.

He was wrong. It was a feeling he was experiencing more often. One Draco hated with every fiber of his being. He was never wrong unless it involved Hermione.

Her and Blaise were officially dating.

Apparently, Blaise had asked her on a date over the summer. Unfortunately, Hermione's parents decided she wasn't mature enough to date anyone. Her sister had come to the rescue, however, and covered for Hermione, taking her on the dates and allowing the young couple to get closer. As a result, the star-crossed teenagers returned for their sixth year completely in love.

At least, that was the romanticized version Ginny had excitedly told to Luna and Padma in Advanced Arithmetic, Level III. Draco watched as Hermione just rolled her eyes, laughing at the red head's antics.

"Is that true?" Draco asked Ron, slightly louder than he meant to.

Hermione's eyes immediately found his and she glared at him distastefully before turning back to the girls.

Ron lowered his voice before responding.

"Yeah, they've been together for like two months now," Ron scrutinized the blonde and continued. "Listen, I don't know what was going on between you two, but you need to drop it. She's happy with Blaise. Just let her enjoy herself, alright?"

Draco glared at him and returned his attention to Hermione. She was laughing loudly and talking to Padma excitedly about their plans for the upcoming weekend. She did seem happy. Happier than he'd seen her in a long time. Draco felt his nails press into his palm as his hand instinctively formed a fist. He hated Blaise, but if she was happy, he'd stay quiet for now.

How long can it really last anyway, he thought.

"Draco," Ron said in a low voice, "drop it?"

"I'm not a dog," Draco snapped. "Nothing was going on between us anyway. Stop meddling so much though, you're starting to sound like your girlfriend."

Ron shot him a glare and Draco held up his hands in surrender.

"I'm only joking," he smirked.

Draco was saved from having to defend himself further by Mrs. Sprout walking in and introducing herself to the class, even though Luna and Ron were the only students new to the subject. Ginny immediately turned to Luna and began to inform the innocent girl about her conspiracy involving the cheerful teacher and her plan to kill all the students.

Draco soon found himself occupied by his thoughts, wondering why it bothered him so much that Hermione was dating Blaise. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smiling as she responded to a text, using her phone under her desk so she wouldn't get in trouble. He felt a bitter twinge of annoyance. She was probably texting her boyfriend. Normally, she was such a tight ass about the rules. Draco used to be the only person who could get her to break them.

Hermione had grown over the summer. She had the same features and hair, but she looked older. Less like a girl, and more like a woman. She carried herself with a confidence Draco hadn't seen before. He'd had a childish crush on her at one point, sure, but neither of them were children anymore. In her case, people were starting to notice. To Draco, it wasn't surprising when people liked her. She was genuine and it was refreshing. He'd taken that for granted. The possibility of someone else coming along didn't even occur to him before.

And maybe one day, we could have-

Draco shook himself out of his thoughts. The idea of it was ridiculous. He had considered her when they were younger, but it couldn't happen now. As Marcus, his siblings and his parents continuously reminded him, there were certain expectations for Draco. His family was extremely wealthy and surrounded themselves with colleagues that had comparable standards, such as Marcus' and Pansy's families. His siblings were all doctors and lawyers married to spouses of equal social standing. Hermione didn't fit in with those kinds of people, but Draco didn't even want her to. She was kind and honest, not elitist. She was too good for them.

He couldn't be with her. Even if he wanted to. In fact, Draco was already risking a lot by spending so much of his time with the Weasleys and Harry since Marcus was at Hogwarts keeping an eye on him. Luckily, Marcus had agreed to keep his mouth shut, as long as Draco agreed to never be more than friends with Hermione. He'd been sloppy though, which led to last year's incident in the parking lot.

The class finally ended, and Draco began to put away his work when the door opened. Draco immediately felt his blood boil at the sight of Blaise Zabini in the doorway, waiting for Hermione to finish putting her stuff away. He quickly grew impatient and made his way to her desk.

"Why are you always the last person out of the class?" he asked.

Draco couldn't tell if he was teasing her, or if he was honestly annoyed. He felt his muscles tense as he fought back the urge to hit the boy. He sounded so fucking condescending.

"There's plenty of people still here," Hermione said amicably, smiling at him and taking his hand once her bag was closed. "Let's go."

Draco watched as they left the classroom, only relaxing once the door closed behind them. Ron gave him a worried look.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"I'm fine," he muttered. "I have to be, don't I?"

The two friends exited the classroom together and made their way to the courtyard for lunch. Unfortunately, Marcus Flint was waiting for them at their usual table.

"Can you give us a minute?" Draco sighed.

Ron nodded before walking over to some members of the soccer team at an adjacent table.

"What do you want Marcus?"

"I heard about Hermione," he said. "You did the right thing. Your parents wouldn't have approved."

"Yeah, I know," Draco hissed. "What else?"

"I'll make sure to recommend you to my dad. You'll probably get a message from Harvard sometime at the beginning of next year."

"Thanks," Draco said, his eyes on the brunette walking into the courtyard with Blaise.

"You're not having second thoughts about our deal are you?" Marcus questioned, following Draco's line of sight until his gaze also landed on Hermione. "I'm not recommending someone who can't see the bigger picture. You need ambition, not distractions."

Harvard was everything to Draco. He needed to get accepted to have his parent's approval. It was prestigious enough where he would no longer be compared to his siblings and he could finally feel like he had done enough to prove his worth to his family. He couldn't give that up. Not even for her.

"No, I'm not."

The next month felt like absolute hell. Draco had agreed with Ron that the best thing to do was just to stay away from Hermione, but it felt like he saw her everywhere. With Blaise. It seemed like they were always together. Draco lost count of the number of times he had seen them in the hallway holding hands and flirting.

Blaise was apparently big on PDA. He was always trying to kiss her goodbye and didn't seem to care that there were other people in the hallway, including Draco, who would rather eat a slug than see the Italian boy touch Hermione. Luckily, she was very aware of the other students and grudgingly allowed him to kiss her temple or cheek before leaving. Never on the lips though. Draco was thankful for that small blessing. He thought it would kill him if he ever saw them kiss.

"It's Hermione's birthday today," Ron said casually as they walked to the locker room.

"And I care because?"

"She's coming to the game."

Draco stopped in his tracks. Hermione never came to games. Even though Ron and Harry, two of her best friends, were on the team, she still didn't go. She claimed she had too much to do to spend her time going to every soccer game and since there were hundreds of other people going, Ron and Harry wouldn't even notice her absence.

It was also homecoming night, which Hermione pretty much hated. Draco recalled her saying it was frivolous and a waste of time and money when he'd asked her about it last year.

"She wouldn't."

"Blaise convinced her. He gave her a mixtape and some birthday card about how much he loved her and said they'd have a lot of fun together if she went," Ron shrugged. "She's going for him, I guess."

Draco turned to the locker in front of him and punched it once as hard as he could. It's contents rattled and a hush fell over the room's occupants. Thankfully, Ron remained silent as well. Draco took deep breaths until he could think clearly again.

He was furious. He had asked Hermione to come to countless games over the past couple of years and she always said no. He always noticed she wasn't in the crowd. Every fucking time. If this was the only time she would ever see him on the field, then he definitely wasn't going to lose.

"Get ready," he growled to his teammates.

"Malfoy, what the fuck are you doing?"

"Shit," Draco cursed under his breath as Adrian shouted at him. He had let someone easily steal the ball from him and score another goal. They were down by three now.

"Draco Malfoy get your ass over here!"

He sighed and motioned to the referee for another timeout before jogging over to Coach Hooch.

"What are you doing out there? Your entire team is playing like shit and you're the worst out of all of them! Keep this up and you won't be captain anymore!

Draco rolled his eyes and turned his attention back towards the bleachers, where it had been all evening. It took him a few seconds to spot Hermione again. He saw her through all of the streamers and banners carried by the hundreds of excited students in the stands almost as soon as he walked onto the field. The stadium lights were blinding, but he could still clearly see how upset she was. Once he'd seen her upset, all of his earlier motivation to win went out the window and now all that mattered was making sure she was okay.

It was her birthday, her seventeenth birthday, and Hermione was all alone. Her asshole of a boyfriend ditched her after convincing her to come to the game. Ginny and Lavender, much to Ginny's undisguised chagrin, were sitting with Hermione, but neither one of them were able to console her. From the field, Draco could see Hermione weakly smile from time to time and nod in response to their attempts to talk to her. It was obvious she wasn't paying attention to anything though.

"Are you even listening to me Mr. Malfoy?"

"I am. Sorry," Draco apologized. "I'm just a little distracted."

Coach Hooch looked at him for a moment longer before rubbing her forehead tiredly.

"Look, I know we all have off days and other things to deal with in our lives, but you can't afford to mess this up. There are college scouts in the bleachers and they're primarily looking at you."

"I know. I'll pull it together."

Facing the rest of the team, Draco called them over for a huddle.

"Alright, it's going to be hard, but we can still win this. We've beaten the shit out of this team so many times that it's fucking embarrassing if we don't."

His teammates nodded in acknowledgement before beginning to strategize.

"Okay, so I've noticed their defense is weak on the left side. If we can-"

Draco found his attention drifting back towards the stands as Theo explained his plan. She was angry now and Draco soon realized why. Blaise was making his way to her through the stands, an entire hour late. Hermione was glaring and pushing him away, but he managed to pull her into his arms and plant a deep kiss on her lips.

Draco's heart stopped beating. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of them kissing. His body was quickly going numb and it felt like someone had just punched him in the gut repeatedly. When they finally separated, after what seemed like a century, Hermione was smiling brightly with her arms wrapped around his neck.

"Malfoy."

"What?" Draco snapped, trying to regain control of his emotions. The rest of the team was staring at him with a mixture of confusion and worry.

"Are you good, man?" Harry questioned, placing his hand on the blonde's shoulder.

Draco shook him off.

"I'm fine," he managed through clenched teeth. The image of Hermione and Blaise was burned into his memory and every time he blinked; he saw it like it was happening right in front of him over and over again.

Draco felt adrenaline rushing through his body, fueled by his anger as he remembered how Blaise's arms were wrapped around her, sprinkling kisses on her face.

"Let's win this."

Draco slammed his locker door shut, the sound echoing in the empty room. The only other sound was the water from the a lone shower. Ron had decided to shower immediately after the game instead of waiting until he got home. He was also taking a significantly long time. It didn't take a genius to figure out what, or rather who, he was waiting for.

They won the game. Draco should've been happy. He played flawlessly ever since the timeout and scored the winning goal, assisting in the other three. In fact, he was elated at first, knowing the college scouts and Hermione would have seen one of his best plays. Then he turned towards the stands. She was gone. Draco didn't know when she left, but she missed seeing him score the winning goal. Blaise was gone too.

They're probably off celebrating her birthday, Draco winced at the idea of them together, recalling what happened earlier in the stands for the hundredth time.

Slinging his gym bag over his shoulder, Draco finally exited the locker room.

"You did good today," a feminine voice called.

Draco spun around and came face to face with Lavender, leaning against the brick wall next to the locker room.

"Thanks," he muttered before continuing towards his car.

"I'm not really a fan of Blaise either," Lavender said casually, following him. "I saw you watching them during the game."

"You're not a fan of him because he called you out for leading Ron on for years."

"He didn't have a right to talk to me about that."

"Well someone had to."

"Are you going to listen to my plan or not?"

Draco sighed and threw his bag into the passenger seat of the Ferrari.

"What plan?"

"Well," Lavender began, grinning mischievously, "I want them broken up. And I'm sure you do too. Hermione won't listen to me, but she might break up with him if you tell her to."

"As much as I love being a nosy bitch," Draco said, unlocking his car and getting into the driver's seat, "I'm going to have to pass. She seems happy, so maybe just leave her alone."

"She doesn't know what's good for her."

"Right, but you do."

"I know a boyfriend who shows up an hour late on a date he convinced her to go on in the first place isn't good. In fact. you want to know why he was late?" Lavender said. "It was because he was hanging out with a bunch of his friends and he didn't think it would be a big deal if he missed the game and just hung out with her afterwards. But that's not even the worst part! Instead of telling her himself, Hermione found out from Dean that he wasn't coming. Blaise only showed up an hour later because Hermione texted him saying she was pissed."

Draco vision blurred as he saw red. He wanted to fucking murder that kid. Why the fuck did he think he could just ditch his girlfriend on her birthday? His grip tightened on the steering wheel, turning his knuckles white.

"And you know what else?" Lavender continued, oblivious to the blonde's visceral reaction to her gossip. "Blaise told Ron Hermione gave him a blowjob. He probably pressured her into it. We all know Hermione's a fucking prude, so she would never do it otherwise."

Draco tensed, his attention snapping back to Lavender and away from plotting how to kill Blaise.

"What did you just say?"

"Hermione's a prude?"

"No before that."

"Oh, Hermione gave Blaise oral."

Draco thought for a minute longer before he realized why this piece of information stuck out to him.

"A month ago," Draco practically snarled, "there was a rumor going around about Hermione doing that. Did you start it?"

"Well, it's not a rumor if it's true."

"Brown!"

"Alright!" Lavender exclaimed, quickly growing alarmed by how angry Draco was. "Yeah, I told a few people, because it's wrong. I'm just worried about her. Hermione shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff! It makes her seem slutty."

"Oh, because having a sex life with her boyfriend makes her slutty now? But if she doesn't have one, then she's a prude?"

Draco choked down the immediate urge to throw up at the idea of Hermione and Blaise having sex and continued.

"Seems hypocritical. Especially because you and I both know the reason you're here so late is to congratulate your boyfriend in the locker room."

"That's different-"

"No, it's not Brown. Look, I hate Zabini. I think he's a piece of shit and everything you've said about him proves it. But I hate him because I don't think he's good enough for Hermione. It doesn't matter though, because I've already proven to her I'm not a great friend. That goes for you too even though you pretend you care about her. So just do everyone a favor and focus on your own fucking relationship instead of everyone else's."

With that, Draco turned on the engine of the car and tore out of the parking lot, not bothering to wait for a response.

Blaise and Hermione.

It felt wrong. As Draco sped through the street, it was all he could focus on. Everything just felt wrong.

He made a sharp turn, causing his tires to squeal loudly. Another turn and he finally parked the car. He'd been driving on autopilot ever since he left the school. Looking around at his surroundings, Draco realized he was at their place. It used to be just his, but ever since he brought her there less than a year ago, he felt like it was theirs.

He got out of the car and sat on the hood. It was chilly, but he didn't feel anything as he looked at the flowers bending because of the wind sweeping through the meadow. It was dark, almost too dark to see. Once his eyes adjusted to the moonlight, Draco spotted where they'd sat when he brought her here the first time. He remembered how it felt to hold her so close, the smell of cinnamon surrounding him. Every time he brought her here after that, he would watch her. She would be reading or doing homework, and he would just watch. It fascinated him how easy it was to read her to anyone who cared enough to notice. She bit on the tip of her pencil when she was confused. Tapped her lips when she was feeling thoughtful. And when she was really frustrated, she would tie her hair up in a bun and sigh angrily. That's when he knew it was time to take away her homework and have her just relax with him for a little longer before taking her home.

While Draco liked her hair down, he also liked it when it was up. She seemed more relaxed when her curly hair was resting on her shoulders, but there was something about watching her work with her hair tied up that made him stop and stare. He could clearly see her face during those moments. Every flicker of each emotion was completely obvious to him without her hair blocking those expressive eyes. From her exhaustion, frustration and elation. It was all written clearly across her face when her hair was up. He never needed to guess with her, but she could still easily surprise him with how inquisitive and passionate she was.

One time, Blaise had walked her to their Advanced Arithmetic class and taken her hair out her bun, claiming she looked nicer with her hair down and it bothered him that she didn't wear it like that more often. Draco clenched his pen in his fist tightly, causing it to snap in half. She looked beautiful either way. Hermione just smiled and watched Blaise leave, then as soon as he was out of eyesight, she pulled another hair tie from her pocket.

Draco grinned to himself as he recalled the brief moment which gave him hope that she was still the same girl who did whatever she wanted. It was easier for both of them to do that when they were younger. Now, it seemed like growing up meant they couldn't do what they wanted anymore. They had to consider what other people, like their families and friends, wanted for them and their separate futures.

Draco sighed. He needed to let her go. Forever this time. As badly as he wanted her to be, she wasn't his future.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please favorite/follow and review to let me know what you think! (: