Hermione carefully cut into her pancakes; making sure to split the circle into four equal proportions. She liked it plain and didn't add any syrup to her breakfast.

She brought the fork up to her mouth but stopped at the sound of obnoxious giggling. Her eyes hovered to the center of the table where Lavender and Ron sat. The blonde girl was spoon-feeding him his breakfast.

She kept her brown eyes locked on the couple. Ron happily ate from Lavender and even kissed her cheek. Not less than twenty-four hours ago, it was Hermione's lips that brushed up against his cheek.

Hermione turned away painfully and squirmed at her plate, not feeling so hungry after all. She let that feeling in her stomach settle for a few minutes before acknowledging the growing hunger.

This time when she looked up, she met the distant eyes belonging to a certain blonde-haired Slytherin. Even from across the hall, she could feel his blazing stare capturing her.

"Hermione..." he growled whilst tipping her head far back. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

She closed her eyes at the contact of his lips trailing up and down her neck. When he planted one soft kiss she bit her lip to prevent a moan from escaping.

"I'm a smart girl." she was met with his eyes again when he drew her head back in.

Draco chuckled at her. He leaned forward so he was directly in her ear. He released her hair and placed both hands on her waist whilst moving her backward. Eventually, her back hit the wall.

"This is different."

She felt his hand roam her stomach and she voluntarily threw her head back. They were getting dangerously low.

"The things I'll do to you." His voice was dark and threatening.

But it felt so damn good. Hermione couldn't help but let out a soft whimper once he fondled the trim of her skirt. And out of instinct, her hand grabbed his.

"I can take it." she almost pleaded.

Draco grabbed both of her hands and pinned them beside her head. Hermione felt his lips attack her neck. Fuck. If it weren't for this wall, her head would've completely fallen off at the number of times she rolled it back to create more space for him to explore.

His warm tongue lit up her body in ways she had never felt warmth before. He was slow and savoring it. At this point, she had completely let go and stopped counting the number of times she moaned his name.

"Are you sure?" He whispered.

She nodded vigorously.

"Use your words, Hermione." his voice rang in her ears.

She felt him retake her chin. This time he held her chin so that she was looking directly at him now. Without the drunken feeling of his lips smothering her body, Hermione felt a little more sensible now. Especially looking into Draco's serious silver eyes.

"Do you want this?"

Did she want this? What was she getting herself into? And the consequences she would face. It was a lot to think about with a lot of pressure weighing on her chest. Well, more like Draco's wandering hands confusing her thoughts.

She was breathing heavily and with every second she took to answer, she felt Draco slowly moving off. Maybe it was an in-the-moment thing. Wanting him was pathetic. But wasting him would be stupid.

And Hermione was a lot of things.

But she wasn't stupid.

He had completely let go of her body and was slowly drifting back into the darkness until she gasped.

"I want this."

With a devious smirk transcending onto his face, Draco moved in again. He took Hermione's waist and the girl couldn't be happier at the contact. He lifted one of his hands to brush her cheek and she closed her eyes. She could feel his breath surfacing her face. His lips were so close to hers.

But in a quick flash, she felt the cold castle wind brush past her. When she opened her eyes, Draco was now standing a couple of feet away from her. His eyes glowing in the dark.

He let out a soft chuckle.

"Consider yourself the loser of the first round."

She stared at him blankly before he eyed her up and down, his smirk still present, and left.

Irritatingly, it was as if he slept with his sly smirk on his face the entire night. He had left her wanting more. And she couldn't deny that she hadn't.

She couldn't help but sneak another peek. Fortunately, but unfortunately, he was no longer looking at her. Instead, his attention was on his two friends who had just joined him. Hermione sighed and finally took a bite of her pancake.

She was halfway through her breakfast when she looked up at the end of the hall to see Ginny entering. Her eyes were red and she had a blank expression on her face.

And without another second, Hermione dropped her breakfast and grabbed her bag to rush to her best friend.

She met the redhead halfway through the hall. Ginny hadn't even noticed Hermione until the brunette reached out for her arms.

"Ginny. Come on."

She obliged and followed Hermione out of the hall with a few wandering eyes on them. Once they were in a more private setting outside of the entrance, Hermione pulled the girl away.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Ginny sniffled before forcing a smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she said under her breath.

Hermione was slightly taken aback but decided to ignore the comment for Ginny's sake. She sighed and brushed the girl's hair away from her face.

"You can tell me Gin."

"No. I can't, Hermione." Ginny folded her arms and frowned at her. "You haven't spoken to me at all this past week, you've been distant with all of us and it feels like everything is falling apart."

Her voice cracked at the end and Hermione found herself sympathizing with Ginny. Seeing Ginny upset and frustrated made her understand the severity of her actions.

"I broke up with Dean." the redhead rushed out.

Hermione's mouth parted. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad about it. It goes to show how little she knew about Ginny's relationship with him. So she stayed quiet and waited for her to elaborate.

"For Harry." Ginny nodded and looked away. It was a mechanism to keep the tears in her eyes that were threatening to fall with each word she said. "But he isn't even talking to me, anymore."

"Ginny-"

"What happened between you two?" Ginny's eyes were filled with resentment.

Hermione was defeated. She didn't know the answer herself.

"It's a long story Gin." was all she could make it out.

Ginny shook her head and let out a humorless chuckle. And just on time, a wave of students was exiting the Great Hall causing both girls to go silent.

"Hey Hermione, you coming to the Prefects meeting?" Padma asked amidst the crowd.

"I'll be right behind you." She smiled back.

Hermione turned to look at Ginny who avoided eye contact with her. The brunette sighed. This was a mess. Her mess that she needed to polish clean.

"I'll explain everything after dinner. The common room?" She laid her hand on Ginny's shoulder and waited for her to respond.

After a minute or so, Ginny's eyes met Hermione's and the red-head looked at her with hesitation before replying. "Fine."

Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and squeezed it for confirmation and nodded at her before joining the rest of the Prefects who were on their way to McGonagall's classroom.

Ginny sighed and dried her moist face with the sleeve of her robes. And if she had just taken a second longer, she would've missed something out of the ordinary from the corner of her eye.

With a baffled look on her face, Ginny furrowed her brows at the flaring eyes of Malfoy. She followed his deathly gaze and to her surprise, it landed directly on the brunette curls of her best friend.

The classroom erupted into squeals and chants. The announcement of a Christmas Ball caused all Prefects to burst into excitement. Well, not all.

Hermione looked at her fellow Prefects with slight disbelief. A Christmas Ball was far from her thoughts.

McGonagall cleared her throat and lowered her eyes at the students. "Attention, please."

"Wait," Padma raised her hand and waited for Eleanor and Brandt to acknowledge her. "Halloween is closer, why not have the ball then?"

"The idea of costumes didn't feel too right with us. I mean anyone could be anyone. And under our circumstances, we need to be able to identify each student without a foul mask getting in that way." McGonagall immediately addressed.

At least someone is aware. Hermione thought.

"Awe. Are they afraid the Dark Lord is going to crash the ball?" she heard from behind her.

Hermione turned around and caught a few Slytherins snickering at a comment made by no other than Draco. His slight smile made her skin crawl. Did he find that amusing?

His eyes shortly captured hers and she quickly turned around to the front again. She straightened her posture and decided to move up more towards the front to avoid any type of contact with him. Especially after that comment.

"This year we want our Prefects to demonstrate the first dance. Therefore, we will be meeting once a week to practice a waltz McGonagall has choreographed for us." Eleanor Chasity began.

"And to make it easy, you will be partnered with the fellow housemate that was selected to be a Prefect alongside you." Brandt Erindale finished.

Her classmates groaned in response.

Ron. Hermione was paired with freaking Ronald Weasley. On account, she would've been ecstatic if you told her this last week. But after watching him snog Lavender Brown, not so much.

"Are there any questions?" he asked.

Other than the occasional eye rolls and grunts, Eleanor and Brandt adjourned the meeting. Hermione couldn't be any happier than to leave the classroom, though she dreaded her next destination.

She felt a hand grab her shoulder and turned around.

"Ron!" she gasped.

"Hey, you didn't congratulate me on the win last night." Ron poked as he caught up with her.

Walking next to him made her feel uneasy and quite awkward. So in response, she let out a breathy laugh.

"So, Hermione." Ron turned to her.

She stopped her feet and slowly faced him. He looked nervous according to his body posture. His hands were shoved into his pockets and his shoulders were shaking.

"Uhm, about the ball." he started.

Her heart froze. Was he going to ask her out? No. Not like this. Not when he was snogging Lavender.

"I know we're partnered and all but I plan on taking Lavender."

Ouch. Hermione stood there with her mouth slightly open, unable to say anything as Ron waited for her response. Her heart? It was petrified now.

"Hermione?"

"I need to go." She muttered quickly.

She was turned on her heel when Ron grabbed her arm again. "I'll walk with you. We're going to the same class anyway." he chuckled.

Hermione creased her eyebrows and frowned at Ron. "You don't get it. Do you?"

Ron tilted his face with a questioning look. "Get what, exactly?"

It was a punch to the gut. He was clueless. For him to disregard her feelings the way he did for a due date on any assignment he was given. Had he truly not cared?

She shoved her arm away from his grasp rather aggressively. Ron flinched in shock. And Hermione slowly backed away whilst shaking her head, disbelievingly at the boy.

"Just stay away from me, Ron."

She continued down the hall. And what made things worse, he not once called after her. She didn't hear his footsteps chase behind her even when she turned in the other direction from the dungeons. And even though Hermione had badly wanted to feel his hold on her shoulder again, asking her to stop and demand what she meant about what she said, there was nothing.

Like it had always been for the past six years.

When she got to the girl's bathroom, the brunette rushed to one of the sinks. She clutched onto the rim of the sink tightly before letting out a desperate sob. She sniffled before looking up at the ceiling. She just wanted things to get better. Or to the way they used to be. Her grip grew tighter and she let out a small cry knowing things were only getting worse.

She was falling apart. The brunette quickly swatted the tears crumbling from her eyes and let out another exhale. Everything had felt so suffocating and she needed to breathe and focus. But focusing was not an option her ears captured delicate smacking in the background.

Hermione lifted her head in confusion. The sound was coming from one of the stalls. There was someone in here? She thought she was alone. But the light noise kept going.

She neared the row of stalls silently. Her eyes darted to the ground in hopes of finding a pair of shoes she could familiarize the noise to.

She stopped at the second to last stall on the left side of the bathroom and skeptically tilted her head. It was left slightly open so Hermione gave it a little push.

And she went pale at the sight of Harry, pinning Cho against the stall. They were snogging.

"Hermione!" Cho gasped.

The brunette backed away as Cho pushed herself from Harry. Hermione locked eyes with him and he was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

"Oh my god." Hermione rushed under her breath.

She didn't give them any time to explain. Instead, she rushed out of there with only one person on her mind now.

Ginny.

Hermione had rushed into the library at the start of lunch. And it was now the beginning of dinner.

And she still had not come up with a solution to her problems. Her eyes darted to the clock. There was only an hour left before she had to meet with Ginny in the common room.

Her hands banged at the side of her head and she roughly grabbed her brunette hair. She let out a soft groan and was thankful there were no students around to witness her little breakdown.

Even Madam Pince had gone off to dinner. Hermione had the library all to herself, the way she liked.

She took a deep breath in before fixing her hair. She knew her problems weren't going to be solved by some simple-minded whining. Maybe some reading would help alieve her.

Her hands reached into the book bag to fetch her latest reading. Hermione's eyebrows crinkled in confusion when all she could fondle were a few scrolls of paper and quills.

She brought the bag to her lap and opened it wider. She had never misplaced a book.

"Not hungry?"

Her head snapped up. Draco stood at her table with his hands shoved in his slacks. He looked at her beneath his lashes with his infamous smirk. She didn't even hear him enter. And he was the last person she wanted to see. If a pile of leaves on a fall day represented Hermione's problems, then Draco was the little kid that would jump into the pile and spread the mess for her to clean up.

His eyes raked over her body and she shifted in her seat from the intensity.

Hermione forced her eyes back to her bag and continued to fondle amongst her belongings. The table vibrated and she looked up to see Draco leaning against it with both of his hands pressed against the trim.

"Are you ignoring me, Hermione?" his voice was innocent.

"Is it obvious?" she teasingly pouted at him.

"Why?"

She clenched her hands and threw them up out of irritation. "Besides the comment you made during the Prefects meeting you-"

"Comment?" he questioned.

"Yes! The one about.." she glanced around the empty library, hesitant to bring up the subject. "Voldemort."

Draco nodded in amusement.

Her mouth dropped open. "If you think joking around with a topic of that sort is comical, you're truly repulsive!"

He snapped his head at her with his signature smirk. "Repulsive? It's the honest truth."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but she refuted, going over his last words.

"And you know it." He folded his arms against his chest and leaned against the table with the side of his hip. "Potter and Weasley are too idiotic to acknowledge it, but I know you, Hermione."

She shuttered knowing she would never get used to hearing him refer to her by her first name.

"You're constantly scanning the daily prophet for all missing persons. Specifically muggles." He emphasized.

Hermione glanced away. Though she wanted Draco to shut his mouth, he was right.

"There's a war coming. And some of the darkest witches and wizards have been roaming the streets."

She turned to him slowly. His narrative gave her the chills but it was nothing she wasn't used to.

"You would know?" Hermione fought to control her facial expressions. Though in this moment of curiosity, she feared his answer would elaborate on any suspicions she had on him from the beginning of this year.

"A lot of my father's aquaintances visited my mother and I before school started. And well.." he chuckled. "They're not exactly the type of people you have tea with."

Death Eaters. She sat upright in her chair and leaned forward.

"Listen. If you know something, you need to report it to Dumbledore."

"Woah." He fixed his posture and was standing straight now. With his hands in his pockets, the blonde smiled at her. "Do you think I'm conspiring with them?"

Hermione froze and went silent. Draco snickered under his breath and she remained quiet. It was definitely and idea she had in her mind. But it wasn't believable. Draco Malfoy a Death Eater? But he had changed. Shes wa brain fried.

He walked behind her and pulled the chair next to her before he sat down. Draco folded his arms against his chest before leaning back. It took everything in her to not tilt her body in his direction. She was motivated to deprive him of the attention he sought from her.

"You skipped lunch and dinner." he spoke out.

"And you noticed?" She found it ridiculous that he could non-chalantly move onto another topic of such.

"Would a hunter take his eyes off his prey?"

Prey? Hermione scoffed before finally turning towards him. He smirked at her reaction.

"Oh Malfoy, I'm anything but your prey. I'd prefer mudblood over that term." she argued.

Draco leaned forward. "Are we back to last names? Because I've been replaying last night over and over again in my head and I was starting to get used to you calling me by Draco."

Hermione's mouth went dry. She squeezed her tongue against the top of her mouth to rid of the feeling she was reminiscing. Draco clicked his tongue and shook his head at her.

She immediately turned away from him and went back to her bag.

Draco noticed and slowly lifted the bag from her lap. "You don't need that right now, hm."

The cold air brushed against her lap without the feeling of her bag weighing down on it. He set the bag down on the table and lightly placed his large hand on her thigh. His hand was warm and Hermione shifted at the contact.

"What are you doing, Malfoy?" she asked without batting a single eyelash.

He scooted closer towards her and she could practically feel his breath tickling down her throat. "Come on, Hermione. Let's not be rude."

Draco inched his hand further up. "Can you ask again? But correctly."

She swallowed. "What are you doing, Draco?"

This time was slower and she gritted it through her teeth.

From her peripheral, she could see that he lowered his head to let out a breathy chuckle. When he lifted his head again he got even closer to her ear. He used his other hand to brush her hair out of the way so her neck was exposed.

"You get one more chance. Do it. Correctly." his voice was low and slow.

Hermione let out an exhale and looked down at his hand. He moved it up again. And he was getting so close to the trim of her panties. She mentally cursed at herself for choosing her knee stockings rather than the full-length ones.

The feeling of his hand on her bare leg was itching at every sensation in her body. To the point where Hermione had to shut her legs close the second, his hand rose when she didn't respond.

Slowly, she looked down at his silver eyes. They were admiring the flesh of her neck and now her chocolate brown eyes. She let out a breathy whimper.

"Draco."

"Yes, love?" he whispered.

His lips were so close to hers. And she felt him inch his hand to her inner thigh. His pointer finger was tracing the lace brim of her panties. And his hand was completely under her skirt.

Hermione finally tilted towards him and grasped his shoulders. She urned her face away from him. It was not only the intimacy of his touch that made her go weak. But hearing that pet name come out of his mouth drove her insane. She didn't realize how much of an effect it had on her until she could hear her panting.

She felt Draco plant a few soft kisses along her jaw. God, she wanted him. He was being so gentle. It was driving her insane.

"Oh Hermione," he pressed two fingers against her core and she let out a small moan. "I enjoy making you feel this way."

She gripped his shoulders harder and shut her eyes.

"But I enjoy winning even more."

Her eyes fluttered open and he was already standing up. It was like she was pulled out of hypnosis. And Hermione remembered that she was in the library. A very public place where any student could have walked in on them at any moment.

She immediately looked around. From her viewpoint at the back corner, she could see the entirety of the library, and luckily, there were no students in view. That she could see.

Then she looked up at Draco. Her cheeks were flustered but she had a frown on her face from the victorious smile he was wildly showcasing.

"Two to zero," he whispered before pushing his chair in.

Anger washed over the brunette as she watched the pompous blonde git bounce out of the library in victory.

And she wasn't the only one watching him.

The second Draco walked into the Slytherin common room he was greeted by the sight of Pansy and Goyle.

They were snogging on an armchair in front of three studying second years that were desperately trying to ignore the shuffling of the two.

Draco rolled his eyes and strolled past them without batting a single eyelash in their direction. Once he made it toward the hallway of dorms he could hear Pansy's tantrum.

He waved his hand and the door opened to Blaise and Theo's room. His friends were casually studying.

"Don't tell me you two gits are seriously drafting Ancient Runes essays?"

Theo chuckled. "You never know. At the rate you're going at, we might have to continue for another year at this hell hole."

Draco ignored Blaise's snicker at Theo's comment and examined the trinkets on top of his dresser.

"You know why he's working this slow, Teddy."

The two boys exchanged mischievous glances before going back to their scrolls. Draco squinted his eyes.

"You dunderheads care to fill me in?"

Theo chuckled. "Please Draco. We're not Crabbe and Goyle."

"Anyone with eyes can practically witness the eye-sex between you and Granger." Blaise admitted.

Draco chuckled and took a hold of Theodore's remembrall he snagged from Neville in their second year. He tossed the glass ball in his hands lightly and looked at Blaise who leaned against the post of his bed.

"So what's the plan with her?" Blaise asked. "Is she your drag at Potter? Or a charity case?"

Draco turned back to Theodore's dresser and placed the ball back down. "Neither."

The blonde boy turned back to the confused expressions of his friends.

"Is she your cover to get Pansy away from you?" Theo questioned. "What other use would she be?"

Draco smiled. "Can't I have a little fun, Teddy?"

"You must be joking. A mudblood? You're wasting your time, Draco." Theodore disbelievingly shook his head at him.

Blaise got up from his bed. "He's right. She won't exist in the next few months."

Draco chuckled and let his head hang low. He loved the stress and the disbelief he was receiving from his friends. More and all, he loved it when it came to his brunette fantasy.

"And she doesn't know that. That's the fun."