Summary: Hermione had a hard summer. She's back in school and a certain someone promised to do a mission for a friend. Easy he thought. He was wrong. It just turned in to Mission Impossible

Disclaimer: It would be the greatest honour to own these characters but that honour belongs to the Mistress of Stories that is JK Rowling. The only character's which are mine are Stephen and Prof. Londy. Also I didn't mention in the last chapter that the song lyrics belong to whoever sang them. In that case it was Shakira so I'm sorry.

On with the story…

Facing the Inevitable

Hermione woke up the next morning at 5:30, as usual and went to get a shower. She was just washing out her shampoo when she heard a door being banged. She quickly finished washing herself and got out and turned the shower off. Wrapping herself in a red bathrobe she walked out of the bathroom to find a very annoyed Malfoy.

"Why do you insist on waking me up at half bloody five in the morning?" Malfoy said fiercely.

"Oh, it was you banging on the door and believe it or not I was having a shower. I can't help it if you're a light sleeper" Hermione replied and turned and walked to her bedroom.

Once in her room she got dressed in her school uniform and quickly tied her hair in a ponytail. She collected her books and put them in her bag. She applied just the faintest touch of lip gloss and walked back to her common room. It was really early so she sat down in the closest armchair and started to think.

I'll see Stephen today. Why am I so excited? It doesn't make sense. He is a cheater and a user and I'm better off without him but I honestly thought he loved me. I loved him, or at least it's the closest thing to love I've ever felt. Am I being stupid? I'm only 16. Well nearly 17. Am I too young for love? Mum would say yes, I am but mum came from a different world and generation. I can't tell Ginny. She'd just sympathise and try to make a bad situation better but that would make it worse.

As Hermione was sitting there Malfoy came back into the room in a better mood than he had been in an hour ago. He saw Hermione sitting there, obviously lost in her own thoughts. There is seriously something wrong with the mudblood. All depressing and feeling sorry for herself. He thought.

Hermione sensed his presence in the room and jumped up grabbed her bag and made for the Great Hall. It was nearly 7 O'clock which was when breakfast started. She was very surprised to find two other people sitting in the hall, at their respective tables. One was a Ravenclaw she had never seen before so she presumed he was a 1st year and, a gasp came, Stephen. Hermione Walked over to the Gryffindor table and helped herself to some cereal. She was just finishing it when she saw Stephen come towards her. She stood up and walked quickly to the door. She was halfway up the stairs when someone grabbed her by the elbow.

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"Let me go" Hermione said, turning to face Stephen

"No, I only got here and you're avoiding me" Stephen said

"I have a right to avoid you. You on the other hand have no right to man handle me" Hermione said trying to pull her arm away from his grip.

"No baby. What's wrong with you?" Stephen asked

"What's wrong with me? You know as well as I do what's wrong with me. But seeing as you're intent on playing dumb I'll elaborate. Right, now where to start? Well ok, you were my boyfriend, you said you loved when the whole time you were playing with this other airhead, Darcy, Barbie" Hermione said

"Actually it was Cindy" Stephen said

"Whatever, she was still an air headed, blonde bimbo A/N: I'm sorry and I'm not meaning to offend any blondes by this comment because I'm a blonde myself and I'm not a bimbo. None of the blondes I know are of a doll. Understand? To put it simply you loved me, cheated on me then had the nerve to turn things around saying that I cheated on you and you dumped me. I don't like it and I swear, one word of a lie and I will hex you into oblivion. I can do that you know. I'm the best witch there is and I'm much too good for you. See you around, or not" Hermione continued

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Hermione wasn't entirely sure about her whole 'I'm too good for you' speech. She just thought it sounded good but he looked pretty convince. She wasn't being smug when she said 'I'm the best witch there is'. She just wanted to convince him that she meant business.

Hermione turned and walked up the stairs and automatically found herself going to moaning myrtle's bathroom. She always went there when she wanted to be alone.

Meanwhile Stephen was standing where she'd left him, leaning on the banister, thinking about what she'd said. She didn't understand a guy's mind. He really had cared for Hermione but she wouldn't give him what he wanted so he'd found someone who did. What was he expected to do? He was 16 and he wanted to know what sex was like so that he was ready for when his true love came. He'd only turned it around because he'd had a rep to preserve. Cindy was a bimbo so she didn't catch on, which was good because he didn't want two failures on his hands.

Malfoy had seen the whole thing. He didn't hear a word but the mudblood looked really angry. Malfoy walked down to Stephen.

"What was that about mate?" He asked

"Oh nothing. Just my ex being a stupid bitch" Stephen replied

"Your ex!" Malfoy exclaimed. "You went out with that mudblood?"

"Don't call her that" Stephen said without meaning to. "I didn't know she was a witch"

"God, you care for that, that goody-two-shoes?" Malfoy said

"I did. I'll tell you the story later" Stephen said noticing a hoard of people coming down for breakfast. Malfoy nodded and left it at that.

After another half an hour Hermione went down to find Harry, Ron and Ginny all sitting together. She walked over to them and sat down.

"Good morning and how are we all?" Hermione asked cheerier than she felt

"I'm ok. What's your room like? Can we come over after classes?" Ginny said

"Of Course you can. It's gorgeous." Hermione replied. "Although our portrait is of Arachne, you know the spider lady? She's a bit annoyed at the moment because of our password. I'll tell you it later"

"Aren't you going to eat Mione?" Harry asked

"I already did. I came down at about 7 so I got practically a privet breakfast" Hermione said.

"Mia, that new guy is staring at you" Ginny whispered

Hermione looked up and sure enough Stephen was staring at her and Malfoy's eyes kept flicking from Stephen to her. She looked back at Ginny and just said 'leave it' Professor McGonagall was handing out timetables and when Hermione got hers she looked and noticed that she had DADA first. Harry and Ron did as well.

"Good, we'll get to see what the new teacher is like" Ron said

"You're lucky. I have Binns first. Great way to start the day. At least you have a potentially good teacher who also happens to be ultra-gorgeous" Ginny complained

"Hey," Harry jokingly protested. He and Ginny weren't going out but were flirtatiously teasing one another.

"Sorry Harry but he is, don't you think?" Ginny asked

"If he thought that I would be dreadfully concerned about my best friend. I don't want my best friend to have a boyfriend" Ron said

"Hmm, there are loads of cute guys you could go out with Harry" Hermione giggled

"No offence but I prefer the cute chicks" Harry said in a mock apologetic voice.

"Oh, so we're chickens now. Well thanks a lot" Hermione said, taking mock offence

"No, chickens taste nice" Ron said

"So do girls" Harry said

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Joking, joking" Harry said as Ginny started to bombard him with play slaps.

"Hmm, We'll accept it for now but only because we'll be late if we don't hurry" Hermione said grabbing her bag

A/N: Please R&R. This chapter is a bit weird and I know it's been a fortnight since I last updated but I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. Mainly because it was the first anniversary of the car crash in which mummy died.