A/N: Thank-you to SnapeJuice for such a great review in the last chapter! And, yes! You are quite right about the year of the boar thing!! *But, really, we're year of the boar. I kind of wish we had a *ahem* cleaner animal. lol. But at least we're not year of the rat!!* And please - you can tell me that you love my story anytime!! I don't mind - really! Anyways, I hope that all you guys enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the original HP series.

Chapter 11: Once A Player, Always A Player

Emily sat on her bed leaning up against her headboard. She was attempting to read a textbook for one of her classes but her mind kept wandering off. Needless to say she found that she had been reading one paragraph for over an hour.

Emily kept thinking about Draco. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get him out of her mind.

She sighed heavily and cursed the gods that she couldn't think about anyone else. She knew the truth - she was still in love with him, even though he had made it clear that he no longer felt the same way about her.

And that's what her main problem was. She understand his sudden change of heart. One minute he was holding her like he would never let go and the next minute he was ending the relationship.

'I just don't get it!' she mentally yelled and threw her head back in frustration before she pushed her textbook away and flopped herself face down on her bed.

Just then, the door opened and in ran Hermione. She had a huge grin on her face as she came and sat beside Emily on her bed. "Em, look!"

Emily looked up and saw that Hermione was holding up a letter with her name scribbled on the front. She looked from the letter, then to Hermione, then back to the letter again before sitting up. "What is it?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, what does it look like?" Hermione said in a matter of fact tone. After receiving a blank stare from her friend she said, "It's a letter for you!"

"Well I can plainly see that," Emily said with a little embarrassment. "What I meant was, who's it from?"

Hermione just gave a cheeky grin and handed her the letter, "Well why don't you open it and find out?"

Emily took the letter and slowly opened it. Her eyes skipped down to the bottom and her face flushed a deep red as she read who the letter had come from. She then looked back up to the top and her eyes took in each word:

Dearest Emily,

What happened last night was a mistake. Although I didn't know at the time, the words I spoke were a complete lie. I never wanted to end what we had. But I felt that I had no choice. Please, I ask that you give me a chance to explain. There's so much that I need to tell you to make you understand why I did what I did.

I ask you to accept this as an invitation to my room tonight so that I can explain everything to you. I want so badly to see you again and to hold you close. I hope that you can forgive me. If not, then I understand. Know that I will never forget the time that we spent together. Your kindness, laughter, and love will always be in my heart.

All My Love,

Draco

Emily looked up from the letter and could feel her eyes release tears down her cheek. She looked over at Hermione and smiled. "He wants to see me tonight..." she couldn't believe that she was speaking those words.

Hermione looked at her and returned her smile.

Emily looked down at the letter and let out a small laugh through her tears. She couldn't believe it!

"Well?" Hermione broke through her happy thoughts.

Emily looked up at her, "Well, what?"

Hermione looked at her, "Are you going to go?"

Emily's face went blank for a second as if thinking about what Hermione had just said. She then shook her head as if trying to get the blankness out of it and smiled. "Of course I'm going to go. Oh, Mione! I can't believe it!" She gave her friend a joyous hug.

Hermione laughed along with Emily.

Emily then got off the bed, placed the letter on her bedside table and gave herself a quick look over in the mirror.

"Come on!" Hermione said from the doorway. She enjoyed seeing Emily happy again. "You look fine! Let's go! He's waiting!"

Emily took a deep breath as she walked beside Hermione out of Gryffindor tower and towards the Head Boy/Girl common room.

*************

The two girls soon found themselves in the Head Boy/Girl common room. Emily looked up the stairs that would take her right to Draco's door.

"What are you waiting for?" asked Hermione standing beside her friend.

Emily just continued to stare up the staircase without blinking. She hadn't even heard Hermione speak.

Hermione then nudged her, "Go," she urged.

Emily felt the nudge. She took a step before looking back at Hermione and smiling.

Hermione gave her an encouraging nod.

Emily then continued to sprint up the staircase and knock on Draco's door. She waited for a couple of seconds and then knocked once more. But still, no one answered.

Emily looked down at Hermione with confusion.

"Just go in," Hermione called up to her.

Emily turned back to face the door and slowly turned the doorknob.

As soon as she stepped into the room she saw how beautiful everything looked with all the lights turned down low. But just then, she heard movements and slight groans coming from over near the bed. She took a few steps forward and gasped at what she saw. "Draco...?" She was praying that somehow it really wasn't him.

Draco pushed himself of the female that he was on top of and turned to look towards Emily. "Emily...?" Even in the dim lighting Emily could see his eyes go wide. "But...I thought?" He turned towards the female that was underneath him. "Parkinson?!"

By this time the lights had returned to their normal brightness and Emily could see clearly that it was Pansy who rested underneath Draco.

Emily's chin started to quiver as tears threatened to fall down her face again. She was at complete loss for words. All she could do was stand there and shake her head as if trying to erase that image from her mind.

Draco was quick to get up off the bed and he pulled a sheet around his lower half. "Emily, listen, I don't know how this happened-"

"Don't!" she was quick to find her voice. She held out a hand in front of her as if that would keep him from advancing. She took a glance over to Pansy and saw that she held her sheets up above her chest with a wide grin on her face.

"Emily-"

But Emily cut him off again, "Stop! I don't want to hear it." Tears were in her eyes and were now coming down her cheek. "I can't believe that you set me up like this..." she shook her head in disbelieve.

"What are you talking about?" Draco felt very confused. For once, he had no idea what was going on. "I did not sleep with Parkinson!"

Emily's mouth dropped, "Oh, really! Then would you mind telling me who it is that you think is in your bed?" She pointed harshly towards Pansy.

"But I-"

But this time Pansy was the one to cut him off, "Drakie, is this going to take long? I want you to come back to bed!" she said with a really annoying whine.

But Draco didn't pay any attention to her. Instead he walked right up to Emily and grabbed her gently by the arms. He looked into her tear filled eyes, "Emily, please listen to me-" he began to plead.

"No!" she shouted through tears as she pulled out of his grasp. "What the hell do you take me for? I'm not a fool, Malfoy!"

It hurt Draco deeply when she had called him by his last name. But never the less, he tried his plea again, "Emily, this isn't what it looks like!"

"Oh, no! You're right! It doesn't look like you just had sex with Pansy!" Her voice was filled with pain and even Draco could tell that.

"I thought it was you!" Draco stepped forward.

"Right, I can really see the resemblance!" Emily said in disbelief. She was becoming angry now. "I can't believe this! If you really didn't want to be with me then why in Merlin's name would you send me that letter?"

"Because I did want to be with you!" Draco matched her loud tone.

Again, Emily shook her head in disbelief, "Yeah, well you sure have a great way of showing it." Her voice was quiet this time and was extremely shaky.

Draco was about to say something again but just then, Hermione came into the room.

"Emily, I heard yelling. Is everything al-" but she stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the scene. She looked from Emily's tear streaked face, to Draco standing with a bed sheet wrapped around him, and then to Pansy who was sitting up in Draco's bed with a wide smirk. Her eyes went wide as everything sunk in. "Emily...?" she asked softly coming up from behind to put a hand on her shoulder.

But Emily lowered her head and began to let the tears run free before shaking of Hermione's hand and running out of the room.

Hermione then shot daggers at Malfoy. She didn't need anyone to tell her what had happened. It was self explanatory. "You're nothing but a bloody prat, Malfoy." Her voice was cold. "I mean, did you plan it so that Emily would walk in on you like this? Or did you think that Emily wouldn't come so soon and you thought that you'd have enough time to get in a quick session?"

Malfoy approached Hermione matching her stare, "That's not how it happened, Mudblood and you know it!" Draco then opened his mouth to say something more but Hermione beat him to it.

"Save it, ferret! I don't want to know how your warped little mind works. But if you think that you can play women the way you do, then you have another thing coming. If I were Emily, I would've stunned you while I had the chance." And with that, she turned her back on Malfoy and sprinted out of the room wanting to catch up with Emily ignoring the words that Malfoy threw at her.

*************

Hermione attempted to talk to Emily that night but just got turned away. Emily had made it clear that she wanted to be left alone.

And so that's where Emily was now. She was back on her bed, lying face down and sobbing into her pillow. She lifted her head up and took a glance at the letter that she held in her hands. It was the one that Draco had sent her earlier that night. She glared at it as if it was the one who had done her wrong and then she continued to tear it up.

The pieces fluttered to the floor where they would end up remaining until morning, listening as their destructor cried into the early morning light...

A/N: Well, that's another chapter! What did you guys think? Harry will begin talking to her soon, so don't worry! I think there's only a few chapters of the stories left. Perhaps just three or four more chapters...so we're almost there! But anyways, I'm not sure if I'll get to update again until next weekend because I gotta get my arse in gear and start a major project that's due in two weeks. But anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! Until next time! ^_^