Disclaimer: Blah blah blah..own nothing..you know the drill..

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews. I appreciate them so much heart
As some of you might have guessed, we are getting closer and closer to the end of this fic. I suspect there will be one, maybe two, chapters left, but hey, what do I know? I'm only the author ::wink::
Anyway, here you have chapter eight. Please read and review :)

Chapter Eight – Facing the Consequences

"Ron?" almost shrieked Hermione, "Er.. What are you doing up?" Asked Hermione casually, as if nothing had happened.

Hermione could see, in the light from the flames in the fireplace, Ron's expression on his face. It looked like he was very upset. No, very upset couldn't do it. He looked completely pissed off. In fact, Hermione couldn't recall seeming him this furious. His face was outstandingly pale and his eyes were burning with fury.

The glare Ron aimed at her, reminded her of the glare Snape would send her every time she tried to help Neville with his potion in Potions class. If Ron was Snape, he would be shouting soon.

Hermione could feel her stomach turning. Oh, she was definitely in trouble.

Hermione stood in silence, waiting for Ron to make the first move. To give her a sign. How much did he know? Should she explain what had happened?

This was bad. Very bad, indeed.

Finally, to Hermione's relief, Ron spoke.

"So, Harry and me noticed you were gone after the Quidditch match and instead of running all over the school, searching for you, we decided we'd use this very unique map. You might have heard of it, it's called the Marauder's Map," he raised an eyebrow as a gesture for Hermione to answer.

"Yes, Ron, I am familiar with the map," said Hermione and suddenly her feet seemed very interesting to her.

"Right. So we used the map to see where you were and would you believe what we found out?" said Ron sarcastically.

"No, Ron, what did you find out?" said Hermione. Still very interested in her feet.

"Surprisingly enough, you weren't in the library, nor in the Great Hall," he started to pace, "You weren't outside on the school grounds. Harry and me started to get a little worried, but then we noticed your name in The Room of Requirement… WITH THAT SLIMY FERRET MALFOY!" he bellowed, startling Hermione.

"WHAT IN THE UNIVERSE WERE YOU DOING WITH HIM? I suspect you must have been enjoying yourself, 'cause you were with him for quite a long time, but then again, I couldn't really believe that OUR Hermione was having fun with our albino enemy, The Prince of Darkness. No, I could simply not believe that MY GIRLFRIEND was with someone who has tormented us for YEARS!" said Ron angrily and looked at Hermione through narrow, fiery eyes.

Tears were slowly gathering in Hermione's eyes. What had she done? What had she been thinking? And then a more Slytherin-ish thought popped up in her mind; Why on earth did she have to get caught?

'Oh, why did I think I was able to pull this off?' thought a desperate Hermione.

What could she do? She realised, she had to tell Ron the truth. She knew she couldn't lie to him.

"Yes, you are absolutely right, Ron. I was with Dra.. Malfoy," said she seriously, "And I will not deny that I did, in fact, have fun with him."

Ron opened his eyes wide, but then narrowed them in again quick. An awful sneer appeared on his face.

"You disgust me!" said Ron harshly.

"Okay, I deserved that one," admitted Hermione and looked away from his killer gaze.

"Apparently, you are not the person I thought you were!" He paused and glanced over at the fire.

"I hope you realise how much it hurts me to do this!" said Ron, almost trembling.

"Do what? Hurts you to do what?" asked Hermione worried. Ron sighed, then once again pierced her with his burning eyes.

"It's over, Hermione. WE are OVER!" shouted Ron.

The tears that had burned in Hermione's eyes, threatening to let a river a loose, finally won.

"Wha-what?" whispered Hermione, "But, no! Please Ron," she begged.

"Tell me, Hermione, that you do not have feelings for this guy! Tell me, that you haven't forgiven him for all the times he called you a 'Mudblood'! Tell me, that I haven't lost you to him!" said Ron, who was on the edge of tears.

A million thoughts collided in Hermione's head. A part of her was screaming at her, telling her to just break down, sobbing, and tell Ron that she still loved him and her affair with Malfoy had just been one big mistake. Another part of her was telling her that she would only be lying to herself if she told Ron those things. A third part told her to just get the hell out of there and never come back.

The thought-train she had been riding was broken off when Ron spoke again. Her thoughts kept her from answering Ron and she now noticed a tear falling from Ron's one eye.

"That's what I thought. You can't say those things to me, can you? You love him and not me. Well, thank you, Hermione Granger, for breaking my heart. May you two be happy together." And with those cold words, Ron left a breathless Hermione.

The words Ron had just said to her, hurt so much. 'Probably not as much as you hurt Ron!' thought Hermione. Suddenly, a great burden of guilt was placed upon Hermione's shoulders. Who was she to hurt Ron? How dared she betray Ron and Harry like that? Sleeping with the enemy. Hermione shook her own head in disgust.

'But wait a minute! You enjoyed it, didn't you? You felt truly alive when Draco touched you. You lusted for his kisses! You even wanted more, you filthy whore!'

"STOP IT!" yelled Hermione and ran up the stairs to her room. Now her own mind was betraying her, but what it said was… true.

She slammed the door behind her, locked it and muttered a silencing spell.

'This is awful! What have I done?' thought Hermione and threw herself on her bed and buried her face in the pillows.

'Oh, would you quit the whining? Seriously, you know exactly what you've done. You lived for a while and now you're paying! You heard him, you're over! It's your own fault, anyway.'

The voice in her head was right, she couldn't lie there crying. It was her own fault. So, the question was; Where do you go from here?

With the decision to sleep on the events of the day and deal with everything in the morning, Hermione went to bed.

The next morning Hermione awoke feeling well-rested and calm and she was determined to keep the calmness, so she pushed all the thoughts about the previous night away from her.

While getting dressed, Hermione pondered about what she should do all day, being way ahead in all her homework, she had decided to take this day off to relax and gather her strength from the stressing week that she had had.

"Perhaps a nice walk outside would do its good?" muttered she to herself.

After putting on a warm robe, she made her way through the castle. There weren't many students in corridors, since, unlike Hermione, most of the other students weren't ahead in their homework, so they usually spent their Sunday writing all their essays.

The cold February breeze hit Hermione, the minute she stepped outside, and made her thank herself for remembering to put on a warm robe.

Her feet brought her to the lake, where she sat on the ground. The water was stirring slightly and Hermione knew that the Giant Squid was moving somewhere below the surface.

Maybe she had been wrong to go and see Draco yesterday. Perhaps she should just have stayed away. Though, what Draco had said last night had made an impression on Hermione. The words he had said, had sounded a bit harsh, but still something deep inside Hermione, couldn't help but to believe they were true.

Maybe she really did deserve better. Maybe she did deserve more. And maybe Draco was the one to give her that.

While sitting there with her arms wrapped around her knees, staring at the lake, Hermione lost track of time and wasn't brought back to reality before she heard a noise behind her. She turned her head quickly and found a raven-haired boy approaching her.

"Harry," said Hermione, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to talk, Hermione," said Harry seriously, when he reached her. He sat down beside her and Hermione looked into his big, green eyes. She had a feeling this wouldn't be a nice talk.

Several minutes passed in silence, none of them moved. Harry was the one to break the ice.

"Seriously, Hermione, what were you thinking?"

Once again Hermione's eyes found her feet interesting. What had she been thinking?

In that moment Hermione realised why she had gone to such extremes; For once in her life she had wanted to do something not like her. An unpredictable move. Something that would make people unable to label her as an annoying Know-It-All Gryffindor. Deep inside, hidden behind her devotion to duty, she had wanted to do something forbidden. Allowing their enemy to get as close as Draco got was forbidden. And she had known that, but done it anyway. Now she had to suffer the consequences.

"Okay, then. Just tell me something, because I don't understand. Why would you rather be with Malfoy?" He pronounced 'Malfoy' in a tone of disgust.

Through her watery eyes, Hermione looked at Harry.

"Because I felt alive when he touched me. Because I felt appreciated. He made me feel desired and wanted.." said Hermione, trembling.

"Oh, say no more," said Harry and looked as though he was going to throw up.

"Alright then, you must know that Ron probably won't ever talk or look at you again."

"Yes, I expected that."

"Okay, then you must know that I'm on his side."

The last words felt as a knife had been stabbed right into Hermione's heart. Great, so now she had lost her boyfriend AND her best friend. Just great.

They looked at each other for a while, directly in the eyes, then Harry got up and left Hermione to herself, without any further comments.

So this was the price she had to pay for her mischief? Surprisingly, a part of her felt like it was actually worth it. Though, something in her was a little bit hurt to have lost both Ron and Harry.

Everything overwhelmed her and soon she was crying silently, luckily no one was around to hear her. At least that was what she thought, but not far from her, were two grey eyes watching her and had been for a long time.

Draco Malfoy had been watching Hermione while she had been talking with Harry, now when she was finally alone, he made his way over to her.

"Sitting here all by yourself, are you Granger?" he said cockily.

"Obviously not, you're here," said Hermione coldly without looking at Draco.

"Oooh, someone's in a bad mood, huh?" he said and smirked.

Yeah, she was. So what? In a matter of no time, she had fucked her life completely up.

Hermione was just about to snap back at him, but then she reasoned with herself, after all, it wasn't Draco's fault. Only a little bit.

"Yeah, sorry, just had a bad morning, that's all," she muttered.

"Yeah, you did, didn't you? Good thing, I'm here now," said Draco and gloated, "You see I have a special gift for cheering up people," he continued and moved closer to Hermione.

Hermione felt a tickle in her stomach. She had a faint idea about what he meant and she smirked slightly by it.

Draco was now sitting next to her, very close. Hermione looked into his sparkling grey eyes as he slowly moved his head closer to hers.

Their lips met in an intense kiss that made Hermione forget about all the bad things that had happened since last night. All the pain faded away, when his fingers caressed her skin.

When they parted again, Hermione didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't want to go back to reality, she wanted to stay with Draco forever in that moment.

"Come with me, Granger," demanded Draco and got up from the ground. Hermione followed him, very confused.

"Draco, where are we going?" she asked, while trying to keep up with him. He seemed to be in an awful hurry.

"Back to the school," she could hear him answer.

Hermione caught up with Draco, just before they entered the castle.

"Oh yeah, just so you know, I'm not seeing Ron anymore," said Hermione, on their way into the Entrance Hall, "So, I guess, I'm completely yours now," said she and smiled slightly.

Draco stopped and turned around to face her. To Hermione's surprise, he was smirking.

"Oh, well isn't that just lovely. You broke up with the Weasel, all just for me?" said Draco loudly, making sure everyone close to them could hear him.

Hermione glared puzzled at him.

"Wha-what?" she stuttered. She noticed Draco's eyes weren't sparkling like they had done when he had kissed her only minutes ago.

"Well, newsflash, Granger. I don't want you!" said Draco and sneered. Hermione's eyes widened and she was pretty sure she had dropped her jar.

"Now, get lost, Mudblood!"

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So, what do you think?
Just so you know, I enjoyed writing this angsty chaper so much! ::mwah::

Reviews anyone? ;)