A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I am glad that you liked it :) This chapter is 1418 words long and is for the September fanfic month on HSOWAW.

Hermione couldn't believe that it had only been a week since she had found Ron cheating on her. So much had happened since that it felt a lot longer.

Rumours of their split had started the very next day and since the blame was being put on her, Hermione knew that they must have been coming from the Weasley family. Rita Skeeter had picked up on the gossip immediately and the headline Heartless Hermione was printed on the front page the next day with an article full of of her usual rubbish.

The day after she received an owl from Draco.

Hermione,

Can you meet me a Giovanni's for lunch tomorrow around 12:30? We can talk about your Weasley problem then. I assume that was the 'sensitive matter' you wanted to discuss,

Draco Malfoy

Short and to the point as always. There were no mixed words with Draco even after they had become tentative friends.

Hermione sent an owl back saying she would be there and all to soon she was standing outside of the restaurant waiting for him.

Once they had sat down and covered the pleasantries Draco asked ,"So what exactly do you need my advice about, Hermione?"

"I want him to pay for what he's done. Not just the cheating but the lying after too. I need a plan which is subtle and cunning, and although I have the bare bones of one I need help to flesh it out a little," she confessed.

Draco was silent for a moment before he answered.

"There are many ways you could do this depending on just how much you want to humiliate him. You could be plotting for a few months at least with some of them," he admitted.

"I know, and I'm sure about what I want. His family need to see him for who he really is."

"So what plans have you-"

"Hermione!" a voice roared cutting Draco off.

Hermione closed her eyes and steeled herself. She knew that she would have to face Ron at some point but didn't think it would be now.

"Yes, Ronald," she said turning around to face him.

"What have you been telling, Harry?" he asked furiously.

"The truth, Ronald. I have told Harry nothing but the truth."

"Liar. You've been feeding him your lies and tried to turn him against me," Ron snarled.

"I have never tried to turn Harry against you. I told him the truth and he believed me. If you don't like it then tough," Hermione said shaking her head.

"Potter is a grown man, Weasley. I am sure he can make up his own mind without being told to by somebody else," Draco injected.

"I wasn't asking you ferret," Ron snapped, "You cursed him didn't you? I wouldn't put it past you to try. If Harry wasn't friends with you then nobody would be," Ron said maliciously.

"That is where you are wrong, Ronald. I happen to have quite a few friends which don't give a rats ass about my friendship with Harry. Draco is one, as well as Daphne and Theo. They are friends with me because they want to be, not because Harry is. I suggest you leave before you embarrass yourself even further," Hermione said dismissively.

At that point the manager came over and asked Ron to leave.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," he said moodily as he was escorted out of the door.

"Well that little outburst will surely go in your favour. I didn't realise Potter had grown some balls and actually sided with you on this one. You would think he wouldn't want to upset the rest of Weaslebee's family," Draco observed.

"Harry doesn't want to believe that Ron would do something like that, but he knows that I would never lie about it. I am sure he's finding it hard standing up to them as they are the closest thing he has to a family," Hermione explained.

"Are you including him in your plan?"

"No, I think asking him to turn on Ron like that is too much," Hermione said shaking her head.

"So tell me, what exactly is your plan?" Draco asked curiously.

"Well the first one is that I find the woman he cheated on me with and try to convince her to tell the truth but I don't think she will. The second is to wait until he is in a relationship and spring a honey trap. The only problem with that is no one can no that I'm involved otherwise everyone will think I'm out to ruin his life."

"I agree that the first is never going to happen, the second has merit but you could be waiting years for him to be in a relationship and that's simply too long to wait. What were your other plans?" He asked.

"I was hoping if you could help me see if he had broken any major wizarding traditions which should be followed. I know the Weasley's are not the most...conventional of families, but surely there is something he could have done to violate one of the fundamental rules," Hermione replied.

Draco snorted.

"He's broken a dozen at least, but none of them would have the outcome you want."

"What do you mean?"

"The worst one he has broken is moving in with you before the two of you were married. In the eyes of wizarding society you are ruined, and the only way to redeem yourself would be to marry the person who ruined you. What you really want is for whoever this witch is to be pregnant, especially if they are a pureblood. It would mean that he would have to marry them as they are not as 'redeemable' as you."

"He knew that, didn't he? He knew he would be limiting my chances of a relationship if we ever split up?" Hermione asked angrily.

"I'm sorry, Hermione but he probably did. It was the reason why Daphne and Astoria tried to talk you out of it so much. I know that Astoria's father would demand me to marry her if she spent just one night at the Manor unchaperoned," Draco informed her.

Silence enveloped them for a few moments.

"Thank you, Draco. I knew he could be a prat but I never guessed just how much of a prat he actually was. Will you teach me about these traditions and rules? I don't want to be caught out again and it could be useful getting revenge," Hermione said sincerely.

"I will do my best, but you should also talk to Daphne and Astoria. Men and women have different rules and they will be able to tell you more about what is expected of you," Draco said agreeing to help his friend.

The rest of the lunch went by without any interruptions and Draco and Hermione parted ways promising that they would meet up again soon.

When Hermione arrived back to the house, there were a dozen or so unopened letters on the kitchen table as well as scorch marks where howlers had obviously exploded.

Summoning her dragon hide gloves, Hermione carefully sorted through what was from her friends and what was hatemail. The incident with the undiluted Bubotuber Pus firmly in the back of her mind when dealing with these kind of letters.

Once she had vanished the ones which were full of insults, Hermione noticed that there was a letter from her boss.

Hermione felt a sense of dread well up.

If this has got me sacked I will kill him, she thought.

Opening the letter, Hermione sighed in relief.

Dear Miss Granger,

I know that you are on annual leave at the moment, but I would appreciate you arranging to come and see me when you receive this letter.

Normally an employee would not need to talk about their private life with me or the press department, but the board feels that we need to discuss a strategy in dealing with all the negative attention you are getting at the moment.

Hopefully something can be done as you are one of our most competent researchers and developers. It would be a shame to lose an asset such as yourself.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Thompson

Head researcher at Duke's Spell Creations

Talking to her boss and the company's press department would be humiliating, but at the same time at least she would get her side of the story out to more people. She could only hope that they would believe her.