Hello! Here's this week's chapter! I held off on deciding what state they are in, but I've decided they're from New York because that's what works best for the rest of this story. (:

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

Three long years and this was what it came down to. I watched him pull into the parking lot of the park. Half an hour after I got there. I wasn't even surprised, but I was pissed that he blamed me for being late. According to him, it was my fault that he was late because he'd said sometime after six, not at six.

"He's finally here?" Hannah asked, giving me a sympathetic look.

"Yeah," I muttered. "That's his car."

"Good luck," she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. "I love you and as soon as you're done text me and I'll take you to Ginny's."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry I can't hang out tonight."

"It's okay, really."

I got out of the car, picking up the paper bag containing a variety of jewelry, clothes and stuffed animals and closing the door behind me. Hannah rolled down her passenger window.

"You've got this, Hermione."

I tried to give her a smile, which probably looked more like a grimace, before turning toward the silver Nissan parked behind Hannah. I barely registered the sound of Hannah's car starting when she left the park because the majority of my attention was fixed on the boy sitting in his car waiting for me. Less than two weeks ago, we celebrated our three year anniversary. Less than a week ago, we spent the entire day together and he told me he loved me more than anything. Then he asked me if I wanted to fool around, which was oh so romantic. Then three days ago, he texted me while I was on vacation with my family and told me he realized a part of him just didn't love me anymore, which led to him wanting to break up. Today, we were meeting in some local park for my benefit to break up in person for the second time during our relationship.

Third time, I reminded myself.

The first time happened during our sixth year at Hogwarts and lasted for a few hours. It was also been over text while I was on vacation. The next morning, Blaise texted me saying he was sorry and really regretted it. I usually didn't count that time since it seemed so quick and insignificant, but maybe if I had I wouldn't be in this situation now.

The second time was two days before I started classes at college. He had thought it was the day before. I don't know how that was supposed to make it better. It was also over text and we were broken up for close to three months until he saw a picture of some boy kissing my cheek on my friend's twitter. That led to him messaging her and saying that he hoped my new "boyfriend" knew what he was getting into. After a long argument between the two of them, Blaise broke down and said he still loved me and couldn't forget about me. He said he thought about me everyday and was miserable. We got back together shortly afterwards, and, eight months later, here we were again.

I'm such an idiot. It's my fault I'm going through this again.

"Hey," I said, trying to find some part of me that still cared as I slid into the front seat.

"Hi."

For the past three days, I thought about everything I could say to try and convince him to give this decision some more thought. After three years together, I wanted him to be sure that this was what he wanted. But, now that we were in his car together and he was looking at me like I was a stranger, I was just tired. I waited for the blinding pain I'd felt the last two times we'd gone through this, but it wasn't coming. My heart wasn't breaking this time. It felt like it was already broken a long time ago.

"Did you want to talk about something," Blaise snapped, quickly growing impatient with my silence.

"Oh. Um, yeah."

I quickly tried to gather my thoughts and remember what it was I rehearsed with Ginny over the phone a few days ago.

"Can I know why this is happening?"

"I already told you."

"Humor me then."

He sighed and repeated his text to me almost verbatim.

"I just realized a part of me doesn't love you anymore. I don't love you anymore. I know it's sudden, but sometimes things like that just happen. I've talked to some people about it and they say it works out like that sometimes."

After three years?

"Uh huh," I said absentmindedly, waiting for the pain that should have accompanied the words "I don't love you anymore," but it never came.

"This has nothing to do with us arguing these past couple of days?"

"No, I just don't love you."

"Do you think we should maybe give it a week to make sure this time?" I asked.

"No, Hermione. I don't love you anymore."

"Or maybe just the rest of today even?"

"NO!"

I jumped in my seat at the sudden anger in his voice.

Is the idea of being with me for another day that bad?

"You know what Hermione?" he said.

I don't really think I want to know what.

"We're here together right now and you see those kids playing basketball over there?"

I directed my attention to the group of what looked like high school students running around in the heat on the basketball court in front of the parked car.

"I would rather be over there playing basketball with them than here with you and that's what I've been thinking about instead of you and this conversation. Because I. Don't. Love. You."

I blinked slowly in response.

Well that was aggressive.

I could feel my temper rising and took deep breaths to calm myself down. We were nineteen years old now and I still felt like I was dealing with a child.

"What about last weekend? You told me you loved me then and that everything was alright."

"I was just acting," he blurted out. "I wanted you to be happy, so I just acted like that."

Acting. He acted like we were okay and asked if we could have sex that day.

I sighed out of pure exhaustion.

Just when I thought this couldn't get more fucked up.

"I don't want to spend anymore time with you because I don't love you," he continued, not bothering to wait for my response.

"Yeah, I got that the first few times you said it," I said under my breath, looking back out the window and wishing I was anywhere else.

He, of course, didn't hear me. Sometimes it felt like he never did.

"I don't see myself with you anymore and I don't regret our time together, but it's over and I don't want to be with you."

"Please shut up."

"I know you think this is like last time, but it isn't."

"Shut up."

"I just don't love you anymore. No part of me loves you anymore."

"SHUT UP! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE SHUT UP! For once in your fucking life just shut up and listen to me!" I finally screamed, my hands were clenched into fists and my eyes were squeezed shut tightly.

I don't know why I was crying. I should be angry, and a large part of me was, but the tears were still falling out of the corners of my eyes. Blaise wordlessly reached into the glove compartment and handed me a couple of McDonald's napkins he had since god knows when.

Ah yes, that will fix everything you did. A couple of dirty old napkins.

I took them and just held them in my hand, not bothering to use them. If he thought I was about to put those suspicious pieces of paper on my face, he had another thing coming. His car wasn't the most disgusting thing in the world, but it definitely wasn't clean. I wasn't going to take any chances.

I sighed and faced the green eyed boy in the drivers seat. I'd loved him so much. He was my first kiss and he'd said he wanted to be my last. I was skeptical at first, not wanting to trust that he wouldn't leave me like everyone else, especially when he'd already done so, but eventually he wore me down and I'd trusted him completely. There were things he knew that I never told anyone else. He'd seen me cry. As a matter of fact, he'd seen me cry countless times. Part of me thought that was why this was happening, because maybe he thought I was unhappy. Maybe I was.

"I love you," I whispered brokenly. "I love you so much."

Blaise wouldn't look at me, choosing instead to stare resolutely ahead with his hands clenched around the steering wheel.

"That's why I took you back. I love you. I didn't just want to be with someone, and I wasn't lonely. I wanted you. And I've never been happier than I was the day you came back to me. You were everything to me. I trusted you with so much and I don't regret a moment with you. It wasn't always perfect, but these past eight months were amazing to me."

Blaise started the car and began to drive around the parking lot.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't want to just sit here," he bit out through clenched teeth.

"Uh, alright I guess?" I tried to remember what I'd been saying in vain.

When we were together and happy, it felt amazing. But lately it felt like it was too hard to make him happy. I watched him drive in circles in the parking lot for a little bit and wondered how we got here.

It shouldn't be this hard. Should it?

"Alright, as much as I love confessing my feelings to the side of your head while you drive around," I sighed in frustration, "could you please just park the damn car?"

"I don't want to."

"JUST PARK THE FUCKING CAR!"

He swung into a parking space and turned towards me.

"FINE! Is this enough eye contact for you? Does it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want to hear about how much you love me?"

My instinct was to console him and say that I was sorry. I still wanted to make him happy. It pissed me off.

Fuck making him happy.

"Oh, yeah," I scoffed. "I'm sorry, this is so difficult for you. I can't imagine what you're going through. My deepest condolences. It must be so hard to have me in your life for what? Another hour? You can't just grow the fuck up for one hour so that I can say goodbye to you? We're never going to fucking see each other again!"

He fell silent at that.

"That's harsh."

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously.

"I said that's harsh. You don't know if we'll never see each other again."

I just stared at him.

"Do you want to see me before I go back off to college?"

"No."

"What about during winter break?"

"No."

"What about an entire year from now?"

"Not right now no."

"So please tell me, Blaise," I said slowly, wondering if he was always this stupid or if this was just for my benefit, "when exactly do you think we would ever see each other?"

"Are you done talking or is there more you wanted to say?" he muttered, completely ignoring me.

I could feel my nails biting into my skin as I fought to control my temper. All I wanted, was an amicable breakup. After three years, I didn't know why we couldn't just stay friends. Despite my best attempts to be nice, he was very determined to be as much of an asshole as possible.

"If you ever feel like this is a mistake, let me know. I'll forgive you," I said almost mechanically.

I don't know if that's true anymore.

They were just words at this point. But I couldn't mean the things I had planned to tell him when he was like this. There was so much more I wanted to say because I did loved him. More than I'd ever loved anyone else. I didn't want it to end like this when this wasn't who he was to me.

"Anything else?"

But I was so fucking tired. I looked at the boy I'd loved so much and the slight smirk on his face and wondered how he could suddenly be so cruel. I didn't recognize him anymore. A week ago I could, but now? I couldn't even see the boy who'd been so sweet and caring to me.

I knew he had a problem dealing with his emotions and whenever he was sad, he reacted angrily. But this was ridiculous. I didn't want this. I didn't care how upset he was, I wasn't willing to make excuses for him anymore. I was tired of trying to figure him out and not knowing whether he was lying to me. I was tired of feeling guilty for not believing him when he said he loved me after how much he hurt me over and over again. I was tired of thinking that I had to always believe in him because he didn't believe in himself.

"No," I managed to choke out. "I'm done."

Blaise looked surprised at that and nodded slowly.

"Someone coming to pick you up?"

"Yeah, you can just drop me off here."

"I'll wait," he insisted.

"It's fine."

"How bad of a person do you think I am?"

He sounded surprised and I chose not to answer him, staying in the car silently.

"Your stuff and some gifts you got me are in here," I said, nudging the bag on the floor in front of me with my foot.

"Okay."

We sat in silence together for awhile and I felt the tears I'd been trying to hold back fall freely. I could never stop myself from crying when Blaise was there.

I could see him looking for more napkins through my tears and motioned for him to stop.

"I'm fine."

"Hermione-"

"I'm fine, Blaise."

"That doesn't work on me."

Someone said that to me before, but it'd been so long that the memory was almost gone now. All I remembered were a pair of stormy grey eyes and the smell of sandalwood. I shook my head, trying to focus again on the boy in front of me.

"I don't think that matters anymore," I shrugged as I got out of the car, watching Hannah pull into the parking lot.

Blaise also got out of the car and turned towards me. After a brief moment of hesitation, I ran towards him and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him tightly against me. Sobs wracked my body while he just held me.

I finally knew why I was crying. I was crying because, as angry as I was at the boy in front of me, I loved him. Which meant I was worried about him. His parents thought he was a screw up, his teachers thought he was a screw up, he even thought he was a screw up. But I didn't. I wanted him to believe in himself the way I did, but I couldn't keep hurting myself trying to make him feel better. He had such big dreams for himself and I didn't doubt for a second that he could achieve all of them. I knew he was better than this mess, but he didn't think so.

Last time we broke up, he had gotten high every single night because he said he couldn't sleep without me. He quit the track team and stopped going to a lot of his classes. He even started smoking cigarettes. Once we were back together though, his entire attitude changed, and he was telling me how much he needed me in his life to motivate him to be a better person. I didn't want that pressure now, not when I needed to think about myself.

"You need to go Hermione," he said softly, pulling away from me a little.

Which brought me to the second reason I was crying. I was mourning myself. I couldn't even recognize the person I was now. I had put so many of my own plans away to make sure that the boy in front of me was happy. I was complacent and content. It felt like I used to be so much more than that.

I loved him, but he was a child. He hadn't grown up yet, while I did. Our relationship wasn't enough for me anymore. I didn't even want kids and it felt like I spent all of my free time trying to take care of him and teach him how to be a good person. It shouldn't have been my job to teach him how to be decent. I wasn't his mother. Hell, I wasn't even motherly. It just wasn't in my nature to take care of people like they were children.

I loved him, but it really wasn't enough this time. It still hurt like a bitch though.

I cupped the side of his face and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

"I love you."

"I know."

"That's it? He just said I know?"

"Yup," I said as I spread some cream cheese on a bagel.

"I'm going to kill him."

Dean, Ginny and I were all at the Weasley's house. Hannah drove me straight there after my breakup, saying that she would call the next day and dropping me off.

Once I entered the house, Ginny took one glance at my tear stained face and ushered all of her siblings and both of her parents upstairs, placing me in the living room with a stack of bagels. I didn't know why she'd chosen to give me bagels as comfort food, but wisely decided not to question it. An hour later, I called Dean and asked if he would come over too. We'd become closer during our sixth year at Hogwarts and started talking a lot more after he and Susan broke up before college.

In fact, Dean actually took care of me the first time I got drunk after Blaise and I broke up last year. I internally winced at that memory. While Dean had been nice and took care of me, I had been a complete mess and threatened to murder him in his sleep if he ever spoke of it afterwards. Of course, he immediately told Ginny, Harry, Padma and Luna because he was a backstabbing little shit.

Despite that incident, Dean was still a very good friend. I was honestly surprised he was there though because he sounded like he was busy with friends over the phone. Apparently, he'd ditched them to come join our little pity party instead.

"You're objectively pretty," a voice broke through my thoughts. I jumped, looking up to find Dean and Ginny both facing me. It took me a minute to realize that the voice I had heard was male.

Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"Uh, thanks?" I said, glancing at Ginny for some kind of explanation. She appeared just as confused as I was about the sudden change in topic.

"So, Ginny," I started, after the ensuing silence became too much for me to handle, "how do you like Syracuse?"

"I hate it," she muttered angrily. "But, it's easy. And I only hate it because you guys aren't there, so I guess it's okay."

Ginny enrolled herself at Syracuse University after deciding it was a better fit for her. It was closer to her parents and she liked the campus a lot more than she liked the other colleges she looked at. Unfortunately, Ron, Padma, Luna, Dean and I had all decided to go to NYU, leaving her with just Harry and Blaise for company. Well, I guess just Harry now.

"You know we wouldn't get any work done if you went to NYU with us," I grinned at her.

"That's very true. How is my dear brother by the way?"

I frowned at that. Ron and Lavender broke up halfway through our seventh year at Hogwarts, but he'd been drifting away from the rest of us even before that. Their breakup was messy, filled with random hookups with each other, and, in Lavender's case, with other people. Ron and I managed to stay in touch during our first semester of college, but once I started dating Blaise again we'd stopped talking to each other. I'd assumed that Ginny would know more about him than I did.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I asked. "You know, since you're his twin and everything?"

"Honey, that boy barely talks to me anymore. I haven't seen him since winter break when we all had to come home for Percy's wedding."

Their brother's wedding was in January, which meant Ginny hadn't spoken to Ron in about six months.

"That's still better than me," I sighed. "I haven't seen him since last November."

"Don't take it personally," she said, giving me a sympathetic look. Ginny knew how close the two of us were in the past. "He's been rough around the edges ever since Lavender got her demon talons in him."

"Speaking of, anyone know how Lavender's doing?" Dean asked both of us.

"That name shall not be spoken in this household."

"You literally just said her name."

"Well, It's my house. I make the rules."

"She said she was having fun at Cornell last time I talked to her," I interjected before Dean could argue more with the redhead, "which was probably over winter break."

"I can't believe you're still friends with her," Ginny grumbled to herself, angrily spreading cream cheese over her bagel.

"Friends is a strong word. Last time Blaise and I-"

"Another name that shall not be spoken in the household."

I rolled my eyes and continued.

"Last time He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and I broke up, Lavender was nice to me and apologized for a bunch of shit. So we're okay with each other I guess."

Ginny just grumbled more to herself and took a bite out of her bagel in response.

"Just be careful."

I nodded in response, picking up another bagel and splitting it with Dean.

"What about Malfoy?"

I felt myself instinctively tense at Dean's question.

"He texts me saying he misses me every once in awhile and say we need to hang out when he gets back into town," Ginny shrugged. "But we never do. I assume he's still the same hoe he was in high school. He's probably fucked his way through most of your class at NYU by now. Do you guys ever see him?"

Dean shook his head no.

"A couple of times," I said.

I'd seen him about three times during our first semester, and every time I either ducked into a building or ran away in the opposite direction. There was no real reason to react like that since he probably wouldn't even acknowledge me if he'd seen me, but for some reason whenever I saw him my only thought was that I needed to immediately escape. I hadn't seen him at all since then. Part of me wondered if he managed to transfer to Harvard like he told Ron he would during our seventh year.

Ginny nodded in acknowledgement and then gave me a wicked grin before facing Dean.

"So, Thomas," she began casually. Almost too casually. "you over Bones yet?"

"Um, yeah I guess so. We broke up a year ago."

"Do you have your eye on anyone?" Ginny winked at the brunette, causing him to shift uncomfortably in his chair as he tried to avoid looking directly at her.

"Down Gin," I said, taking pity on Dean.

"What? I'm just seeing if he's interested. The boy's cute, we all know it. Plenty of people would be interested in him. Plus, I haven't been with anyone since Mallory and I'm fucking pissed about it."

"Plenty of people?" he asked.

"Mhhm. You're looking at one of them honey," Ginny purred at him, grinning flirtatiously.

Dean gulped in slight fear, which was perfectly understandable considering who he was talking to. I considered the possibility of them together for a moment and then dismissed the idea. Dean was very traditional when it came to dating, so he and Ginny probably wouldn't work out. In fact, it would most likely end with her murdering him.

I kicked her with my foot.

"Stop it. You're scaring him."'

"Fine," she groaned and gave him another glance. "You couldn't handle me anyway darling."

"I'm definitely not arguing with that," Dean agreed. "I think I'm going to get going. Do you want me to give you a ride home, Hermione?"

I glanced at the clock above Ginny's sofa and saw that it was almost two in the morning.

My parents are going to kill me.

"Yes, please. I'll see you later Ginny?"

"Definitely," she said as she walked us to the door. "You're seeing Harry tomorrow, right?"

"That's the plan."

"That'll be good for you." She pulled me into a tight hug and then held me at arm's length. "I missed you."

I smiled fondly at the tall girl. I knew Ginny wasn't just talking about when we were away at college. I'd been distant ever since our sixth year, but it felt nice to reconnect with her again.

"I missed you too."

"You get her home safe."

"I'll do my best," Dean grinned, giving her a hug goodbye too before we both headed towards the driveway.

"Thanks for coming over by the way," I said as I looked out the window while he started the car and left Ginny's neighborhood.

"No problem man. I'm here for you. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said smiling at him. Overall, I felt better after spending time with both of them. I still thought about Blaise a lot and missed him but being with them made it a lot easier to deal with. "I'm a little sad, but I'll be okay. You didn't need to cancel your plans to make sure I was good though."

By then we had reached my house and he parked the car as I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'd do the same for me right?" Dean thought for a moment before amending his statement. "Actually, you probably wouldn't."

Excuse me?

I immediately stopped getting out of the car and spun in my seat to face him.

"I will have you know that I would definitely be there for you! It's not my fault you don't ask me to be! And when you and Susan broke up, I was-" I cut myself off when I noticed he was laughing. "That's not funny."

"It kind of is. You get all high pitched and squinty whenever you get angry. It's adorable."

ADORABLE?

I opened my mouth, fully prepared to yell at him, but he quickly interrupted me.

"I'm joking."

"Sure, you are," I hesitated, thinking about what he said. "You know I care about you a lot, right?"

"Really?" Dean asked. I couldn't interpret the look he was giving me, but it made me shift in my seat self-consciously.

"Of course," I said frowning in confusion, "I thought that was obvious."

"Okay. I'll see you later?"

"Sure. I'll text you. Bye, Dean."

"Bye, Hermione."

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