Chapter 3

It was past curfew but since Draco was a perfect he had nothing to worry about. He sauntered through the corridors of Hogwarts. His stomach was growling, that's why he was headed straight to the kitchens. A midnight snack was all he needed at the moment.

As he strutted past a particularly dark corridor he could hear a faint tapping sound coming from somewhere. He paused and glanced around but there was no one to be seen. He shrugged it off and continued walking but the noise grew loud enough for him to hear it distinctly. He immediately took out his wand and stood in a corner alertly.

A silhouette turned around the corner and Draco pointed his wand at it. The figure started walking towards him, it was a girl he noticed. Soon the dim lighting fell upon it and Draco could see wild, bushy curls.

"Granger! What the hell do you think you're doing?" He lowered his wand and exclaimed.

"I'm doing my job Malfoy" she said stressing on the word 'job' a little too much. "I think a better question would be, what are you doing here?"

"Keep your nose out of other people's business" he retorted.

"Let me tell you that I have no interest, whatsoever in your pathetic life. The point here is that you're out of bed after curfew, I could deduct house points for that"

Draco scoffed. "Are you really that dumb Granger? I suppose things get lost in that bushy rat's nest o f yours so let me remind you that I'm a prefect too" he finished haughtily.

"But it's not your chance to be patrolling today so you have no reason to be here" she challenged.

Dammit she was right but hell would freeze over before Draco accepted his mistake in front of her. "Wrong as always. I'm supposed to be here"

Granger narrowed her eyes at him.

"I exchanged positions with MacMillan" he added.

"Fine" she huffed. "I have checked the eastern side and since you're coming from that direction I'm assuming you have covered the dungeons. That only leaves out the seventh floor corridor. Let's do it together."

"You get one opportunity to spend some time with me and you pounce on it like a wild cat!" he smirked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're so full of yourself Malfoy. I only said we should go together because Professor Dumbledore has forbidden prefects from going there alone."

"Why am I not surprised at all? Of course you being the nerdy bookworm that you are would blindly follow every order of that foolish man"

Hermione glared at him. "You are unbelievable!"

"I actually take that as a compliment" he said in a cheerful voice which was clearly annoying her.

"Ughh….this is a nightmare! Let's just go and get this over with." She said with an exasperated look on her face and stomped away.

Draco felt oddly satisfied by getting this reaction from her. He followed her promptly hoping that they wouldn't run into Macmillan who was indeed patrolling the very same castle tonight.

Draco swirled his glass of firewhiskey as the memory floated in his mind. He could remember it vividly, as if was just yesterday, the start of their brief relationship at Hogwarts.

To be honest he hadn't thought much about Hermione since the past two years because he knew it would only hurt. Wherever he would see her or accidentally her thoughts would pop up in his mind, he would to push all thoughts related to her far away in one corner if his mind. It was like building a dam but the pressure only kept on increasing. Last night the dam had burst open resulting in his emotions flowing all over the place.

Spending one night with her in his arms had brought back all the memories of the past and he couldn't stop thinking about her.

It had been good while she had been asleep. The moment she had woken up it had started spiraling downwards.

She was dating someone.

He took a huge a huge sip from the glass.

She was dating someone. That someone was not him. She had moved on.

It hurt more than he thought it would. He gulped down the entire glass in one go and groaned at the burning sensation it had caused in his throat.

That was not all. She too worked at the Ministry of Magic so it was quite possible that he would run into her or vice versa. Even if he went to great lengths to avoid that situation he couldn't avoid a glance of her here and there as they practically worked in the same building but different floors.

He needed to talk to Hermione. He didn't know what he would say but he had to talk to her or this awkwardness between them would grow bigger and could get both of them into trouble.

Yes that was it. Draco made up his mind. He would talk to her, make sure she was okay, things between them were okay and get back to living his normal life as if nothing had happened. He just needed to find her alone to do it.

…

Hermione arrived in her flat and burst into tears. Last night she had stepped out for a little stroll but she had never imagined it would go so horribly wrong. She had cheated! She had cheated on her current boyfriend with her ex-boyfriend. Dear Merlin what had she done!

It had felt so warm to be held by Draco last night. He had been so good last night and his touch had been nothing less than a soothing balm for her. Fresh tears of regret flowed down her eyes at the memory.

She scolded herself for her poor judgment. She should have never taken his help nor should have gone to his house. What was she going to do now? How could she even explain all this to her boyfriend? She definitely couldn't hide it from him, he would figure it out. She had to tell him, there was no other way. But the mere thought of telling him made her anxious. 'What a mess' she thought to herself.

With a miserable look on her face she headed straight for the shower. The warm water was helping her calm her and she ended up spending two hours inside. By the end of the day she was as restless and anxious as she had been in the morning. All the reading and caffeine that she had taken in throughout the day had not proven to be if much help. She collapsed onto her bed due to the exhaustion but couldn't sleep.

Hermione had had this problem since the war had ended, about two years ago. No matter how exhausted she was she always had trouble falling asleep and as a result she used to be grumpy in the morning and sometimes even the entire day. But this time her insomnia seemed to have crossed all boundaries because even after midnight she couldn't sleep. All sorts of thoughts kept creeping into her mind and refused to allow her even a minute of piece. Finally she swallowed the sleeping pills that she had purchased from a muggle pharmacy and in no time sleep took over her.