Soofija: I have to say you are most definitely one of my favorite reviewers; so dedicated. :)

I'm sorry, my proofreading skills have been seriously lacking lately, don't know why. :hangs head in shame:

I'm a fan of happy endings too…

DrAcO'sblackrose, FaeRie Fire, Laura: Mild! Well, thank you. I really can't say why it was taken down, but I can explain the email I got. The peeps at fanfiction said that the title wasn't G-rated. Ok, I'll give them that. However, I don't believe that they spend their leisure time scanning the archives for improperly titled stories, though I wouldn't know because I've never had a story taken down before. My best guest is that someone insanely offended by what I've written (in or out of the story) reported me. And for that, I frown on him or her. But no matter, it's up again! And I'm glad you're enjoying it.

nArKoTiCa: Yes! I have succeeded, even if a little.

Buffy-CrazyaboutAngel: Hermione, I fear, won't have to worry about that for much longer. But they're just being friends—overprotective, but friends all the same.

xoKaSsIeox: Ha. You think so? We will see…

xXxAngelsOfDeathxXx: Yes! Don't be sad, it's back…

cherbi161: Will do.

Chewy L.: Well, here it is.

Thanks to eventers club, Velocity gurl, prep50-50punkwriter, MirrorOfRapture, Pottersgurl07, Remusluver, swmfree, and princesstiggeroe for reviewing.

I find that this chapter is rather uneventful, but you guys will bear with me, right?

Two Voices

It was quite the task to sit next to Hermione and not just grab her up liked he was used to doing. She was bent happily over her homework on the common room floor, scribbling away; and Draco was staring at her in a mixture of frustration and awe. How could she sit there and not be as unfocused as he was? He at the moment was having some very unwholesome thoughts about her body and she was gracing her homework with a contented smile. He sighed; her mind was most definitely not like his.

Hermione finally looked up. "Are you done with your essay?"

He mumbled a 'no' and she gave him a disparaging look.

"Well, I'm done with my homework," she said, "so I'm going off to bed now." She gave him a quick peck on the lips, said good night, and disappeared up her staircase.

Draco was seriously disgruntled. Between pondering the fast-approaching doom of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and the bet with Blaise, how could he be anything else? The no-sex escapade had officially been going on for a full week. Far be it from him to admit his weaknesses, but it seemed like Blaise had been correct. He wasn't handling it well at all.

He'd found himself unreasonably angry for the first few days, snapping at anyone who bothered him in even the slightest way—except for Hermione, of course. He eventually figured that it would be a good idea to avoid as many people as possible, for his sanity and the safety of the general population. He wasn't sure which, if any, of the Slytherins had noticed the difference, but he didn't much care. Spending time with others had lost what little appeal it had. In place of his former, more pleasant activities, Draco now spent his nights, and much of his days, flying around on his broom. It was the perfect way to avoid everyone and have time away from the Heads' dormitory to think.

Hermione, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem with the situation. She was always cheery, maybe even more so than usual, which Draco attested to the fact that she no longer had the distraction of sex to deal with. His only pleasure in all that contentment came from the fact that she still didn't seem to be on such good terms with her friends. Potter and the two Weasleys didn't talk to her, and Draco caught them frequently giving him suspicious glances. He refrained from walking over to the Gryffindor table at meals and wiping that irritating expression off Potter's face for the sole reason that the kid was still Hermione's friend.

Of course, Hermione's situation was not as pleasant as Draco believed. At first she'd thought his suggestion was simply a joke that would blow over quickly enough, so she'd decided to play along. Now she knew it was more serious than that. Perhaps she felt as discontented as he did by the sudden lack of intimacy in their relationship, but she was more worried by the changes she saw in him. If he had been notorious before for being somewhat of a loner, it was nothing compared to his present behavior. He didn't spend time with the other members of his house, or any other house for that matter. Hermione often wondered to where he disappeared and spent his time, and more often than not her thoughts said that he was with another girl. Hermione tried not to give in to the idea, but it would explain everything—why he didn't want her anymore and why he seemed distracted when they were together.

Under normal circumstance Hermione would've already gone to her friends and relayed her fears. She was well aware, however, that this was exactly what they were waiting for, and Hermione refused to give in and justify their treatment of her and Draco. She saw Harry and Ron in many of her classes, but even if she had wanted to approach them, they always sectioned themselves off and began to work before she had the opportunity. And Ginny mimicked their behavior in every way. It seemed like there was tension between her and everyone she was close to. And why, when not a few weeks ago, she was happy and everyone else was reasonably content?

It was with these thoughts on her mind that Hermione entered the common room to find Draco curled up on one of the couches, in something that looked like the fetal position. She approached him gingerly and touched his shoulder.

"Draco?"

He looked up at finding her bent over him and sighed, then rolled onto the floor. After a moment he stood, then sat back down on the couch.

Hermione looked concerned. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," he said, "just thinking."

Well, it wasn't a complete lie. He'd been thinking for the entire day. The subject of his thoughts, however, would've have undoubtedly upset her if she knew what they were. Mostly he'd been remembering what Blaise had said about their relationship, and the horrible, undeniable truth of the statement. Restraining himself from touching Hermione was one of the hardest things he'd even done. Even though Draco hadn't broken the rules, the fact that it had proven to be such a difficult feat confirmed what Blaise had to say: that was their whole relationship.

But it wasn't like he and Hermione didn't do other things. They talked, they joked, they snuggled (in private—they'd both agreed that it would be best not to make their relationship public). They did everything other couples did, and Draco enjoyed it. And yet he hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something was intrinsically wrong with their relationship.

So you don't even know what you're worried about?

"No."

And apparently he was back to talking to himself.

You might want to figure that out.

"I know, ok…I'll tell you what's wrong. What's going to happen when one day we stop wanting to have sex so much? Nothing. It won't be ok. I'm going to lose interest in her and then I'll be repulsed by the idea of being in her presence. It's what happens."

You don't know that.

"What else would happen? Sex is all we do. When we don't do that anymore, what's going to keep us together?"

Maybe love?

Draco laughed; he was obviously going crazy. "Love? I'm not in love. In love with the sex, maybe. But that's all."

Interesting way to put it.

"Interesting and the truth."

The voice kept talking to him, of course, trying to get him to consider the idea. Draco tried blocking it out to no avail. It was a shame, that after all these years he had finally cracked, just when he had the chance to take control of his destiny. After a while, quiet finally returned to his head and he lay on the couch in contemplation of what the voice had said. That was how Hermione found him when she entered the dorm.

She looked unconvinced by his latest statement. Even so, Hermione turned away in the direction of her bedroom. Draco watched her walk away, and then she changed her mind, and turned back to him with a determined look on her face.

"Is there something going on that you're not telling me?"

Well, she had asked. Draco reluctantly looked up at her. "Actually, there is."

A positively horrified expression took her face. "So there is someone else?" Hermione sighed, raising her hands to her forehead.

"What?" Draco was confused, but quickly realized what she suspected. "No, of course not! Not when I have you."

She looked greatly relieved, but still refused to meet his eyes. "So what do you have to tell me?"

Draco gulped. He couldn't believe he was doing this, not to her. Funny how he'd never imagined this scenario until he was faced with it. "We-we…probably shouldn't be together anymore." There, better to be straightforward.

Her head snapped up and she looked at him incredulously. Now it was her turn to ask him what he was talking about.

He didn't know what to say; then finally: "don't you feel that there's something wrong with this whole situation?"

She made no response.

"We can still be friends," he said weakly. Then again: "we should be friends." He rubbed his face and looked at her. She was looking right back at him.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Why we should be friends?"

"No. I mean, why are you doing this? What's wrong with us?" She said it with a unexpected amount of calm for someone who was being broken up with.

"Nothing, there's nothing wrong with us, or you. Maybe me. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but it just doesn't feel right."

"How can you say that?"

"I don't know."

"Apparently," she said with a hint of bitterness in her voice, "you don't know anything." Hermione could feel the tears building up behind her eyes, but she forced them away and waited for him to speak.

"Please, don't take this in the wrong way. I'm so sorry, Hermione; believe me, I never wanted to hurt you."

"It's interesting that you say that. It's also interesting that you don't want me to 'take this' in the wrong way. There's only one way to take it. You don't want to be with me, correct?"

He seemed to be wracking his brain for the right words. "It's not that I don't want to be with you," he finally said, "it's that I can't."

"Ok…think about how much sense that would make to the average person. Either you're lying, which I doubt, or you are right. This is wrong. And we shouldn't be together." She began walking off to her staircase.

"Wait, wait. I still want us to spend time together. We can still do that, right; we can still be friends?"

"Ok."

"We can?"

"Of course." Her feet were now on the stairs. She said nothing more as she disappeared from the common room.

Draco sat on the couch in stunned silence as the images of what had just transpired played through his head.

"I did the right thing, right?"

If that's what you think.

Damn the voice in his head. "Of course I did. It was inevitable."

He'd done the right thing. It was inevitable. Like he'd reasoned before, it was only a matter of time before he tired of her presence like with all the other girls. But Hermione was better than them, someone he'd always want as a friend. This time he'd been gentle, because it was what she deserved. No sleeping with one girl to get another off his back. No yelling or threatening. If it had been a different girl, he wouldn't have been so kind. It was inevitable, and he should've been thankful that it wasn't messier than it had been. Now everything would go back to normal, he thought, and there wouldn't be that awful nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

So why didn't he feel any relief?