Draco took a step and felt something under his foot. He lifted his boot away and saw a tiny box, a tiny white box with a silver ribbon. He picked it up, as Harry and Ron were in some deep conversation of what to do next.

He opened the box, and his heart dropped.

In the middle of the tiny box was a ring. He lifted it with shaky fingers and twirled it around slowly. The ring caught the sunlight, and his heart dropped further.

There were words shimmering inside it: "Love is the morning and the evening star"

And he remembered the night he confessed everything to her at the astronomy tower.

" I suppose you want a logical explanation for all of this? " Draco began as he looked at an impressed Hermione.

She nodded once and slowly.

" You drive me manic, you know… you're my star, " he said. " You're my manic star. "

And he closed the box and quickly put on the ring. He felt for the little box in his pocket, the box he had been carrying for a week, the box he had wanted to give her the day Pansy changed everything for them. He had planned it all in his head that day only to have his plans spoiled by two seconds of her!

Draco cleared his throat and faced Harry and Ron.

" Will you, will you guys help me find her? " he asked. He gulped and finally said a word he thought he'd never say. " Please. "

Ron looked at him with wide eyes. The man was unyielding! What immeasurable patience he had all for her! Just for Hermione! And somehow, Ron knew, he had to accept this, one way or another. Draco truly did love her. The sincerity was bursting from his eyes, and Ron didn't know whether to hate it or not. There was something sad about losing a bloody good enemy-

Ron nodded. " Don't worry. "

Harry looked at Draco, and he knew this was it. Hermione was never for him then. It was a love he couldn't love romantically. He nodded.

" No! " Hermione gasped again, hearing the rose break like a piece of glass falling on a stone floor. The shards flew everywhere and bits of red crystal shone all over the place. She stared, her breathing gone shallow. It was gone! Broken!

Pansy looked at Hermione's face and smiled. Oh how she wanted the moment to last! It was priceless, seeing the mudblood's face like that! And she wanted to hear applause for her brilliance. It was lucky enough she had brought along that little charm Draco had given her. Pansy scorned at her. The mudblood was dense! She flipped her luxurious blonde mane.

" He's all yours, just give that back and gloat to yourself or to the rest of your mates. " Pansy recalled her earlier words. She was letting Draco go? What an imbecile! Pansy knew Draco! When he liked something, he liked it till it was gone. When he loved someone, he loved till the end, and here she was, the stupid muggle, giving up…

And Pansy knew the appalling, painful truth. Draco truly did love Hermione. She had never seen him that selfless for any girl. They had known each other for years and still, Draco had never looked past her! She was just a friend, like that stupid Potter was to Granger! Well at least she was making an attempt to actually make Draco look past her. Potter was too holier-than-thou to do so! He didn't have the spine to get what he wanted! Typical Gryffindor! She had wanted terribly to twist Potter and see Hermione and Potter go their separate ways, or even hex each other-

Hermione's knees shook as she walked for the tiny clearing in the middle of the snow laden earth. She stood over the fragments, and then she knelt on the snow, and took out her wand. Perhaps she could mend the pieces? " Reparo! " she whispered under hear breath. Her wand spurted some golden light, but that was all there was. Nothing more. She didn't know what to use- she didn't know what enchantment to use at all!

He smiled and lightly touched a petal with his wand. He whispered a spell. He gave it back to her. " Well…as long as that doesn't melt, what I feel for you won't either. "

But it wasn't melted! It was broken! Broken in the tiniest pieces! She could never form it again! Broken! Like what had happened to her and Draco. The final piece to end their relationship! She could never!

Pansy sneered at her. " Whoops, " she finally said with a raised eyebrow. " Little mudblood can't repair the ugly little broken gift? Well, good for you. That's for tearing my, no, breaking my own heart into more pieces than you could ever count! More than those little broken petals! " Her voice had turned harsher than ever. " I loved Draco! I waited for him for years! And you, you have the audacity to turn him away when you know! " she stopped. " I deserve him, not you. I waited for him, I was patient, I knew him from the time he had his first baby tooth fall out, I was the first to see him cry, when his father slapped him when he was six, I was… I was his first fuck! I waited for him! I loved him! Truly! With everything I had. "

" You did all that to split us up… " Hermione's voice sounded quiet as she said that. She was looking at Pansy now, as she knelt.

Pansy nodded and gave a mirthful laugh. " Yes! I was willing to do anything for him. I am willing to do anything for him, even make you bleed, even make you cry a thousand oceans! "

Hermione didn't want to be defeated, but at that moment, she felt Pansy had never been more victorious. She was in some sick game, all for the name of love, all for the greed of it. She was suffering for a greed not of her own, destroyed by it. Slowly she reached for the largest petal she could find. It began to melt in her palm, and she watched the water drip down from her hand and onto the ground.

" That's right, mudblood. Start crying," Pansy cried. " Cry, you filthy, wretched… Damn it! This is all because of you! Now he will never ever look at me! No matter what I will do! You! You spoiled everything! I was patient, I gave everything away! I loved him; I love him more than you do! You know it! "

Hermione didn't say anything. Instead she let the wet petal fall to the ground. It was over. The petals had melted. The spell was over. The magic was gone. The love was gone. Draco was gone. And she had fallen for all those lies. The time for regrets had come. The bitterness of realizing you still truly did love someone, only you can never have them again; because of your foolishness, because of your stubborn thoughts, the self-centeredness of hurt and love combined. And she had lost the tiny box, little material things that mattered to her, she lost the rose, she lost… she lost…

And Hermione felt a tear slide down her cheek again, the weakness she didn't want Pansy to see at all. But Pansy never said anything, because Pansy was staring too hard at her, not even noticing the teardrop on her face. This was her weakness? She loved too much then? But Pansy did too, didn't she? She was willing to destroy them for her own gain, now, that was obsession? But she couldn't blame Pansy because she probably saw his congeniality first, way ahead of her.

" You didn't, " Hermione began, not knowing what to say anymore. " You didn't have to break… "

Pansy raised her nose higher, but she gulped. " I don't know what he saw in you, but he must've been blinded, blinded by what? Your sheer brilliance in subjects or your… you don't even look sophisticated at all! Do you think you would pass for a true witch with dirty blood? No matter how red your blood gets, it won't change the fact that you are common! " Pansy gave a short and harsh laugh. " You don't deserve him! "

Another tear rolled down from Hermione's eye, and then there was more. And she knew they would be difficult to control now. Her tears were rolling down on their own accord.

" I didn't have to what! " Pansy stepped closer to her kneeling figure. " Break it? Like it meant something to you! You threw Draco away; you should've broken it yourself. But I suppose you needed my help? I was glad to break it for you! Aren't you happy? The last of it is gone, the last of it! " And Pansy stopped, her chest heaving up and down, her face red from all the frenzied display of anger and hatred.

Hermione stared at Pansy's corn blue eyes with her own brown ones. She slowly stood up from her position and looked at her straight in the eye, bringing herself to her maximum height of five feet and five inches against Pansy's five feet and eight.

" Yes, " Hermione finally said. " It's gone, isn't it? Do you experience content in it, for doing a favor, for that unsolicited favor? "

Pansy bit her lower lip and gave a glare to threaten her. " You bitch. He is mine. "

" No one's pilfering him away from you, he just won't stick to you. And you bloody know that, don't you? " Hermione said; trying to stop her lower lip from trembling.

Pansy was quiet. And she stared at the blood red petals, swimming in newly melted ice, swimming in the love Draco had frozen for Hermione, a love he wanted to last and she recalled Draco's eyes when he glared at her for hurting not only Hermione but him as well.

" I love him, " Pansy said in a trembling voice. " More than you'll ever know. I had to twist him up, like what I did to Potter, so that he'd forget about you, resume being who he was and perhaps he could then see me if I comforted him when Potter succeeded in breaking you two up. But Potter was being an arse."

" I don't want to know, " Hermione replied softly. " I've seen what you can do, since you say you love him and I don't want to know the extent of it. "

" I love him more than you do! " Pansy said pointing to the distance behind her, the white expanse behind her, where nobody was. " I wouldn't have gone through all over that bloody scheming just to have him as yours, just for him to love you and look at you like there's no one else suitable for him! "

Hermione nodded. " I don't know about that. If you claim it is, then so be it, love doesn't have facts on who loves more and who loves less. Keep loving him all you want. You've succeeded anyway… we're gone. Be as self-centered as you want to be."

Pansy's lips trembled even more, but still she stuck her chin high, her nose high, but Hermione could see tears forming at the corners of her eyes. " You just have no idea how greatly he means to me, " she finally said, breaking down, trembling all over.

" I do. "

" Why would you! "

" Because you're crying for him, " Hermione replied simply.

Pansy's jaw hardened. " But so are you! You still love him and you're throwing him away! Why would you do that! Why! "

" You wanted it to happen, you made it happen! "

Pansy's shoulders finally slumped, and Hermione saw the exhausted look in her eyes. " He loves you, he loves you, he loves you…"

Hermione didn't say anything. Instead there was silence this time, and she could almost feel the snow speak softly to her as they dropped, incoherent murmurs, something that whispered of love, of secrets, of lies, of desperation, of pain, the heartache of everyone involved.

And suddenly Pansy turned on her back and ran the opposite way, from where she had come from, and Hermione couldn't tell if she was weeping or not.

A wind played on her exposed flesh, and goose bumps crawled up her skin. She looked at the ground. There was the white snow, there was her coat torn apart into two pieces, and there were the petals…. The remnants of a love…broken.

Draco ran, his heart thudding painfully against his chest. He had to find her! His last chance-! And then he saw a figure walking alone in the snow… was it… It was…

Pansy.

He stopped in his tracks. She stopped in her tracks. A heavy quiet met them. And then Pansy moved forward, and Draco saw something he had never seen from Pansy before, there was something different in her corn blue eyes.

" Draco, " she finally said in a cracked voice. Then her eyes hardened with resilience and she walked past him, hitting his shoulder roughly without care. " I broke your heart. "

And Draco stared at her, wondering what it meant. Before he could open his mouth, Pansy walked away from him quickly.

Did she hurt… would she be that low to actually hurt Hermione? She wouldn't dare now would she? Not when her actions had caused hurts in everybody? Broke his heart? What did that mean now? And Draco's footing shifted and he ran.

Pansy watched Draco's running figure. And she finally let the tears come freely.

He ran, and he saw her, kneeling on the ground, and his heart pounded even more- she wasn't hurt? Was she? And the fears kept rising up till he actually reached her. He saw red all over the snow, was it blood?

" Hermione. "

And she looked up to him, and he saw what was on her hand. Petals…

" They're, " he began.

" They've been broken, " she stammered, close to tears. " I tried to find some spell, but it didn't work, nothing worked. I tried. "

Draco knelt beside her and took out his wand. " Accio coat. Reparo. " And he placed the coat over Hermione's shivering shoulders.

" I really did, I didn't know what spell there was to… " And she stopped and took a deep breath. " I didn't want it to break. I loved it very much. I took care of it, really I did… but it broke when- " she stopped when Draco enclosed his hand on hers. He took the petal from her hand, and he saw red marks all over the backside of her hand.

" I know you did. I know you did, " Draco said soothingly. " Silly girl. " he laughed suddenly.

" What's so funny? " she asked with a sniff.

" Us, " he finally said.

And Hermione looked at his hand, and saw the ring. " You, you…found it. I was looking for it, then Pansy came, it- "

" It fits perfectly, " he interjected. " Thank you very much. "

She nodded. " You're welcome. I'm glad you like it. "

" Like it? I love it, " he said. " I'm glad I found it on the snow. You planned to give this to me? "

" I wanted to. It's our third month of… I'm just being a silly girl with my romantic notions. "

" Are you making fun of me? I worked in partnership with Weasley and Potter just to meet up with you earlier at the lake. "

" You did that for me? "

He nodded. " Hell yeah. It's cricking up my arse, you should know. "

" Harry's mad? "

" Talk to him later. "

" Well…are you mad? "

He shook his head. " No, just very much in love. " And he reached inside his coat and took out a little box and placed it on her hand. " Open it, " he told her.

It was a ring.

Hermione looked up to him. " Thank you… it's… "

" A ring? " Draco laughed. " I guess we thought of the same thing then? So much for my originality, huh? "

Hermione held the ring in between two fingers and held it up under the sunlight. Something was written inside it: " The stars are in your eyes, I'd like to look at them forever" .

A/N: One more chapter to go! Don't forget to leave a review? i'm very happy to have finally finished a story, for the first time in my life! i appreciated all your comments and suggestions and critiques! so...type away...don't dissapoint me! hehehe