Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, they are the brilliant works of the marvelous J.K.Rowling. I also do not own Coldplay or To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

CHAPTER 15

When Hermione entered her dorm she walked through the door to find shards of glass on the floor of the common room. She pulled a cord to call a house elf to clean it up, before going to her room. She hadn't spoken to Draco in almost two weeks, and there was no way she was going into his room to investigate what was going on. If he was in one of his frightening moods, who knows what he might do to her?

'What's going on?' She thought as she took off her shoes to replace them with her slippers. But this was stupid. Avoiding Draco was one thing, but she couldn't live in fear that something might happen. She decided to sit in front of the fire with a hot chocolate and continue on some of the preparations for the Yule Ball.

She rushed out of her room to catch the house elf before he left to ask for a hot chocolate. He was nearly finished cleaning, and rushed off to fetch the drink. She flopped onto the couch and thought of all the things that had happened to her so far in her seventh year. She had…fallen in love? Wow, that seemed like such a big commitment. But when he had attacked her, had she just fallen out of love? That is, if she had ever been in it in the first place.

Hermione was too deep in thought to realise the house elf come and go with the delivery of her hot chocolate. She only snapped out of it when the common room door swung open and Draco walked in. He looked terrible; his face looked aged due to lack of sleep and his features sketchy. He was angry at the whole situation, and had not been able to talk to Hermione since the day he had upset her. Now was his chance. He walked briskly over and sat next to Hermione as if he thought she would escape, not too close, and waited until he knew what to say. Her first reaction was to get up and leave, but he had looked rather troubled ever since it happened, and she decided to wait and see what he had to say.

"What can I say?" He said to her. As he looked up at her she noticed tears brimming in his eyes. She was shocked. Hermione was stunned that she had effected him in this way, and for a while could only sit and stare. Eventually she was able to whisper.

"Why?" It was too quiet for him to hear, so she repeated in a louder voice, "Why?" He looked at the floor. He made to hold her hand, but she moved away. He looked hurt, but went on:

"I don't know why. The thought just crossed my mind while I was kissing you, and then it was like I had no control over what was happening."

Hermione looked into his eyes and saw nothing but remorse. It was strange to see a look like that on his face, but she remembered this was her Draco she was talking to, not the one everyone else saw. She felt bad for him and wanted nothing more than to feel once again like she had when they were together.

"So what does this mean?" she asked.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry for what I did to you, but please, will you take me back?"

She though about what this meant. He had really frightened her, and even hurt her a little, but the look in his eyes was so moving she truly believed he meant every word that he said.

Hermione could not control herself. She leant over and hugged him, whispering in his ear, "Yes".

He hugged her tightly, grateful to have a vice once more; something to come back to, to live for. Hermione had no idea of the disturbed state of Draco's mind... but strangely enough, neither did he.

They were still agreed to keep their relationship under wraps, though one morning on their way to breakfast together they were holding hands, and forgot to break apart before entering the Great Hall. People noticed. Because of their position in the school, no one dared ask them about what it meant, and luckily enough for them, none of their friends had seen it happen… but their oblivion would not last for long. For such a small thing, it seemed to arouse a lot of gossip among the students at Hogwarts, and it was not even the end of first period before Ginny heard and told the others. Harry and Ron hadn't heard anyone say anything… everybody figured they'd already know, but Ron got quite a few pityingly looks throughout the morning. It seemed the whole school knew about Ron's unrequited love for Hermione.

They had been aware (through muffled words from Hermione one morning) that the two had split up, but refused to tell them why. At that time, they had tried not to show that they knew it would happen all along, but couldn't help letting in a few snide remarks like, 'he was no good for you anyway that rotten mongrel', etc. They had been happy, knowing that Hermione had made the right choice in breaking up with him, but now they were simply disappointed. When they had found out they were back together, it went something like this:

Ginny had run at them with incredible speed, her bright orange hair billowing behind her. She was not careful about it either, and had bumped quite a few students that were in her way. She almost forgot to leave enough time to stop, and nearly bowled Harry over with the excess momentum.

"You'll never guess what happened at breakfast this morning everyone's talking about it Hermione and Draco entered the Great Hall holding hands and looking all affectionate and stuff but did you know? No body told me directly because they figured I would already know the whole story but I did get some weird questions all through the morning but did you know?" She finally stopped, and seemed to notice Ron's shattered expression for the first time.

Ron did not say anything. He had been shattered when he first learned that Hermione and Draco were seeing one another; especially seeing them making out in that classroom, and many nights laying awake thinking of them sharing living quarters. And then he had been silently happy that they had broken up. He had planned to ask her out since they had separated, but every time he saw there were either other people around, or she was buzzing around being liquid and avoiding Draco. He had come close once. He had said, "Hermione, there is something I want to ask you. Will…" but Hermione had spotted Crabb and Goyle coming around the corner and figured Draco would be next. She had darted off and left him standing there, feeling like he was really going to go through with it that time.

Ron turned and left. Harry didn't follow him. He knew what it was about, and thought it best that Ron be left alone for a while. Ron headed straight for the Griffindor quarters, and without skipping a beat, headed up to his room, unceremoniously dropped his books and flopped onto the bed, face first, at an odd angle with his legs from his knees down hanging off the edge. There he stayed for the whole of the first period. And the next. And through half of lunch. He barely slept. He just laid there thinking about Hermione and Draco, and how long he had liked Hermione, and how many opportunities he had had to ask her out over the last six years and didn't take advantage of them. Now she was taken and he had well and truly missed out.