"You're holding me wrong."

"I am not!"

"Yes you are. Your hand is too high on my back."

"It's fine."

"You should be starting on your left foot, not your right."

"That i is /i my left foot."

"Well it looks like your right. Sorry. But maybe you should bring it in a bit so I don't stomp on it when I turn in."

"It's b fine. /b "

"Are you sure? Because to me it looks a bit off…"

"BLOODY HELL HERMIONE!"

"What? I was only correcting your position…"

"My bloody position is bloody fine and if you don't bloody leave me bloody alone I swear on Merlin I will bloody quit this bloody performance!"

"You just swore six times in one sentence."

"I DON'T BLOODY CARE!"

"WELL MAYBE YOU BLOODY SHOULD BECAUSE IT IS IN FOUR DAYS AND I CAN'T BLOODY DO IT MYSELF!"

It was there seventh fight in three days. Ever since they had left the beach house and returned to Hogwarts petty fights had been popping up everywhere. And now, once again, they were in a bitter rage at one another. In the dance studio, now with a good five paces between them, they engaged in verbal battle at a dance practice gone bad. Last night they fought because Draco refused to help Hermione unpack, insisting that the house elves would take care of everything. In a flash Hermione was reeling off about house elf rights and in the end they both stomped off to their separate bedrooms and spent the night away from each other for the first time in months. Presently, they both secretly wondered if the other even truly cared at all.

"WELL THEN MAYBE WE SHOULDN'T BLOODY DO IT AT ALL!"

"We wouldn't even have this problem if you would just take the advice I give you!"

"Oh, you mean like the advice you took last night when I told to let the house elves do their jobs!"

"House elves have feelings too Draco! They have rights!"

"Yeah! Just like I have the right to ignore you right now!"

"That is so typical! Running away from your problems like a scaredy cat! Nothing gets solved that way Draco! Why can't you just listen to me…"

"Listen to you? Why the hell would I do that? All you ever do is bloody blow my ears out with all of your nonsense screaming!"

"IT'S NOT NONSENSE!"

"I don't give a flying rat's arse what it is! I'm sick of listening to it!"

"Then why don't you just leave!" Hermione screamed, pointing to the open doorway. Her eyes set on his stone face, her own cheeks ablaze from all the yelling they had done. She challenged him to do anything, staring him down with the nastiest glare she could muster up, and with her anger, this was not proving difficult. Without saying a word, he briskly strode out the door and into the busy corridor.

She blinked, in shock of what had just happened. She wasn't expecting him to actually i leave /i , she just wanted him to realize she was really angry and apologize. Or something like that anyways. She stood motionless and silent for a minute, debating over whether or not she should go after him. But wasn't that his job? Wasn't he supposed to be chasing after her, and begging her to listen to his reasoning? It seemed like it should be that way to Hermione, but instead she did nothing. She didn't go after him. Nor did she stand proud with her nose in the air wait for him to appear and beg her pardon. No, instead she stood numbly in the dance studio with her eyes set on where Draco's body had been standing not five minutes ago. She looked down at her left hand where the ring he gave her sat gleaming on her ring finger. Her eyes began to tear as she tipped her hand from side to side so that the brilliant diamond could catch the light, increasing its beauty even more.

How could something so perfect and so full of love go so terribly wrong in just a few days? Hermione wondered. What could she have possibly done to ruin things between her and Draco? Did he regret their time together? Was it the sex? Was it her compassion towards house elves? Hermione went through every potential problem she could have caused, but nothing seemed to make sense to her. A soft knock interrupted her thoughts.

"Hermione?" Hermione turned and saw Rebecca leaning in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest. "Is everything alright? I heard yelling and then I just saw Draco storming down the halls. Did you two have a fight?"

Sucking up her tears and refusing to let them fall in front of anyone, she addressed Rebecca. "Oh no, it was simply a little misunderstanding was all. It's quite a detailed dance, it can wear on your patience sometimes. Everything is brilliant. Really smashing." Hermione nervously shifted her eyes from the door to her bag that was resting on the floor. Striding over to it, she snatched it up. "Please excuse me for just…" She brushed past Rebecca and sped off down the corridor towards the only place she could seek solstice. The only place she could be alone to think and to calm down. The library.

Hermione darted and wove her way past row after row of high book shelves. Once she was a safe distance away from all of the other studying students, she let the tears fall freely down her hot cheeks. She was certain that no one could hear or see her where she was, but she kept whizzing by aisle after aisle, unable to stop her legs from moving. Eventually, she knew she would have to stop. The aisles were getting narrower, and the walls were closing in. Soon, she will reach the very back of the library. Soon she will have to stop running. Soon, but not now.

Draco paced furiously back and forth in the Heads' common room. Anger surged through him. Anger towards Hermione, and towards himself. i Who is she to think she can tell me how to dance? I probably know better than her anyway. She is always so demanding, can't stand it when people don't do something her way, pushy, know-it-all… /i Draco thought. i Can't leave well enough alone, perfectionist to be put simply. Temperamental, determined… /i He thought some more. i Hard working... beautiful, very beautiful. Intelligent, and in love. In love me? Would she still be after the last few days of fighting/i Why had he done that? He wondered. Why had he gotten so angry? Something was eating him but he couldn't put his finger on it. Enraged at himself for behaving so rudely and for being unable to understand himself, he turned to the stone wall and punched it with all his might. Roaring out in pain (it was a solid stone wall, very painful) and swearing openly, he cradled his scraped up hand. This was not good.

She had gone as far as she could, and now she had to stoop. Stopping meant that she would have to think, and that wasn't something she wanted to do. Throwing herself into the corner, she felt the hard impact of her body slamming into walls. Sliding down the wall and bringing her knees up to her chest, she let out the loud, choking sob that had been trying to escape since the fight started. Taking a deep, shuttering breath, she breathed in the musty smell around her. i Everything is falling apart… /i She thought. i Why can't I make this work? What am I doing wrong? Is it me he's angry with or is he just in a bad mood/i Questions pounded through her brain, showing no mercy and no signs of slowing down. i Does he hate me? Was he using me for sex? Is this all a joke for him? Can I really keep doing this? Is it worth it/i Her head ached, her body was exhausted from practicing all day, her homework was not done, and now the girl that could never fall, and the girl that vowed to never let a man drag her to her knees was in a heap on the library floor crying her eyes out. Later she would figure out that her body just couldn't handle the mental and physical stress, but for now, se just wanted to escape to a place where she couldn't be bothered. Tucking her head into the nook between where the two walls join, she let her eyelids close and she fell into a light, dreamless, but by no means good, sleep.

Draco sat on the couch in the common room, waiting for Hermione to come back so they could work out the problem (once they figured out what it was) and then have passionate make up sex. With his head resting in his palm, he kept his eyes locked on the portrait hole, waiting for her familiar figure to come walking through it any moment. Her figure, however, never came. For hours he worried, only getting up twice to pace back and forth in front of the dying fire. By three AM he couldn't take it anymore, and decided to go out and look for her, curfew be damned. He was a Head and could smooth talk his way out of anything. He roamed the empty, dark eerie halls hoping that she was just out for a night time stroll to the kitchens, but somehow he knew that wasn't the case.

He checked the kitchens, but they were empty, even the house elves were in bed at this hour. His next guess was the library, but when he got there he saw that it was locked.

"Alohomora." He said, pointing his wand at the door. He tried the knob again but it still wouldn't budge and he swore under his breath. He continued on his way checking all the halls on that floor as well as passing by the Gryffindor common room. He has thought that maybe she would go to her friends if she was upset, but he was wrong. After searching fruitlessly for over an hour, his body was begging for rest. He convinced himself that she had most likely gone back to their common room while he was out looking for her. In fact, she was probably fast asleep in her bed right now. Trudging back to his room, he poked his head into Hermione's bedroom. To his great disappointment, her bed remained empty and perfectly made, and he knew that she had never come back as he had hoped.