** A/N: ok so I get that you guys are mad! (At least we hope you are!) for the lack in updates… but school and fan fiction don't go hand in hand. Nevertheless than you for all the "favourites'' that the story got! Enjoy **

Cheater, cheater… (HPOV)

After I had given Ginny the details of my week without her I looked over to her face, checking for any signs of animosity. After all I was fraternizing with the enemy. However all I saw was a look of utter sympathy with a dash of annoyance.

I felt comforted and started twining the fingers of my hands together to pass the time.

"What about Ron, Hermione?" asked Ginny abruptly.

"What about him?" I feigned indifference.

"You know what I'm talking about. You have to take a step. You can't just let him rule your life like that." She tried to explain.

"Nobody is ruling my life! Certainly not Ron. And as for letting him go, I don't think it's that easy. He's been in my life for 11 years now and seven of them have been the best of my life! I can't let someone that crucial go." I said exasperatedly.

"Sure that makes sense if you say it that way but think about it with another angle. 4 years with as your boyfriend have been absolutely horrid. If Ron is that important to you, tell me was he there when you heard about your parents? Was he there to celebrate your triumphs? No he wasn't. So it's just better if you make your decision quick" she said.

As I mulled over what Ginny had said, I realized the truth in her words. I had never been one to be pushed around by the others, so why now? I needed to sort something out with one Ronald Weasley.

"I guess you're right, this has been going on for far too long. I should've listened to you and the others when all of this began; you've been right all along!" I exclaimed.

"I know" Ginny said cockily, her fun loving nature was back.

For a few minutes we were silently sipping our coffees when Ginny suddenly said, "well, I'm bored do you want to go some place?"

"As much as I'd love to I can't. I've the case to work on and I need to re-furnish the apartment."

"Umm, I can't help you with the case, how about I accompany to you to your apartment and I give you tips for the furnishing huh?" she offered.

"Seems good enough, let's go." I said as we walked out of the café.

As we went out, I bumped into a very tall figure that smelt suspiciously familiar. Harry.

As I looked up to his face I saw the look of pure happiness, he scooped me up into his arms and held me at arm's length to look me over. While we were catching up, I heard Ginny tap her feet impatiently and whine out like a 5 year old, "Hey! What about me?"

"How could I forget?" Harry cooed and went over to her. They shared a small kiss and a few love dove words.

"Get a room you two!" I yelled as they broke off and smiled sheepishly.

"So where are you girls headed to?" harry asked.

"Well, Hermione needed help for the furnishing in her apartment so I decided to go with her, who knows maybe I'll meet my 'dear' brother" Ginny said simply.

"You're still living with that git?" harry asked incredulously.

"I am … but not for long, umm why don't we head to the house, it'll be much more comfortable there." I offered trying to change the topic.

We all entered a dark alley so as to apparate. We reached the apartment and with a sense of déjà vu I could smell alcohol in the air. I ignored that, but as I was about to lie on the couch and offer the two to sit down, I heard shuffling sounds coming from my bed room. My hand instinctively went to my wand, preparing for an offence if need be.

I slowly tip toed towards the room and heard moans and labored breathing. This confused me a lot. After all who could be in there? When I left there was only Ron in the apartment… OH no!

As the moans and breaths became more prominent I prayed to whatever deity there was that this was not the predicament that I thought it to be.

With a shaky breath I opened the door just a crack and there it was, as if straight from my previously occurring nightmares, Ron lying half naked on the bed with a brunette in a lip-lock.

I felt my chest contract and my knees tremble. I let out an ear piercing scream that had Ron and the girl stop abruptly and Harry and Ginny cover their ears. Seconds later the door flung open and I was met with the frantic eyes of Ron. The sight alone enraged me beyond comprehension.

I quickly scrambled to my feet and stood up glaring murderously at him. As I walked on forward he slowly backed away.

"HOW COULD YOU? IS THIS ALL I WAS TO YOU HUH? SOMEBODY'S LIFE TO DESTROY AND MAKE MISERABLE! AND TO THINK I'VE BEEN DEFENDING YOU FROM YOUR OWN SISTER!" I yelled.

When I looked over to Harry and Ginny for reassurance they both were busy looking murderously at Ron.

In a more refined and unwavering voice I asked, "How long has this been going on" (A/N: did you get the reference?)

"Five months" Ron answered in a small voice.

I was beyond enraged, I took a vase near the table and smashed into a billion pieces right there on his head, which alleviated some of my frustration. I slowly backed away into Ginny's and Harry's embrace when Ron said, "I'm sorry"

Something inside me snapped and my rage came out to play, " YOU DON'T SAY SORRY, THAT WORD MEANS NOTHING IN YOUR MOUTH!" I yelled while struggling to get of Ginny's grasp and murder the man right there and then.

When I finally did get out of there, I reached for my wand in my back pocket but came up short, I looked around in confusion and saw Ginny quickly hide something behind her back, and I walked her way and said in an eerily calm voice, "Give me my wand Ginny."

She shook her head 'no' like a petulant child who won't hand over his toys to his mother.

"GINNY! Give me my wand", "Ginny Give her the wand!" Harry and I said at the same time.

Ginny looked between the two of us and broke the awkward silence, "trust me as much as I want to, I know that he's not a person worth going to Azkaban for."

I contemplated and the anger in my slowly dissipated as I realized how much I wanted to sleep and wake up in the morning to find out that it was all just a dream.

However I went to Ron and slapped him across his face. Hard. Soon thereafter Harry joined me and punched him in the face (after which Ron had blood spewing out of his mouth). I looked him in the eye and said, "You count your blessings alright? You're alive just because one of us has control over their emotions get that asshole?"

Ron was just stood there with an emotionless face, probably thinking of ways to retaliate back. Harry grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dissaparated to Merlin knows where.

As soon as they went, tears started streaming from my eyes. I couldn't hold it back any longer, I just had to let it go (A/N: please tell me you got that). Ginny wrapped me in a comforting embrace and we just sat there on the bed room floor. After a minute or two I heard a slight pop and assumed harry was back. Ginny left me just for a moment to speak with him, as they were talking; they repeatedly shared concerned glances my way. I looked down to see my crumpled clothes and frizzy hair, frizzier than before. I quickly got up and brushed off none existent dust off my clothes.

Harry and Ginny made their way towards me but I held up a hand so as to stop them and to also let them know that I was about to say something.

"Guys, relax you don't have to worry. Yes, I am shaken, very much so but I know it's all for the best. I will need time but honestly, I don't think Ron deserves that much attention. Besides I've got the case to work on, so that'll distract me." I said.

They both looked at me a bit skeptically before rushing towards me for a group hug and I welcomed it whole heartedly. Ginny broke the comfortable silence and said, "Well I know you'll hate me for this but how about we decided on your furniture."

I looked at her and then burst out laughing, soon thereafter harry and Ginny joined me in making the apartment look presentable and ridding it of its foul smell, Ginny even gave me pointers here and there about the shades and whatnot.

Soon it was time for them to leave, they both were reluctant and even offered to stay with me for the night but I refused. After all this I needed some alone time. When they finally budged and took off, I plopped down on my bed after changing into my pj's and looked back on this weirdly amazing day I just had. I had not only given Ron my piece of mind but also got him out of my life. My mind wandered off to work and one thing led to another and I started thinking about Malfoy. It actually surprised me that I defended him against Ron earlier today, but I guess it was because I didn't really had a good argument against him that time so I used whatever came to my mind.

In all honesty Malfoy was actually a good wizard; it surprised me when I heard he was becoming an Auror. But it was nice of him to decide to change his future and not let his past rule it. Something I couldn't do. I felt a bit guilty today because I was supposed to be working on the case instead I got stuck in my own problems. However this was something that needed to be sorted out so the earlier the better.

I slowly drifted off to sleep a nightmare free sleep after a long and emotionally exhausting day.

TLCSHF…

I woke up to see the sun's light streaming in through the curtains and windows of my bedroom. Still squinting I rummaged through my memory to recall what happened yesterday night as my mind was still a bit unresponsive and groggy from sleep. I remembered how I entered the apartment to find Ron cheating on me with some other girl… me confronting him, me breaking the vase on his face and finally me breaking it off with him. It took several minutes for it to hit me. I had finally ended my dreadful relationship with Ronald Weasley.

I was half expecting for tears to prickle my eyes but all that happened was a slight pin-prick feeling in my chest. I guess I was coping up with it pretty well!

I got up from my bed trudged down to the kitchen and poured myself some coffee to wake me up. Soon thereafter I busied myself in getting ready for work. Although this time it wasn't in a hurry, I actually savored my breakfast and enjoyed my bath, which felt oddly relaxing.

I was about to take my coat and leave when the flames in my fireplace turned green of their own accord and Ginny emerged brushing the soot off her clothes.

"Hey, not that I mind but what are you doing here?" I asked surprised.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the Ministry by now?" she asked incredulously

I whipped my head around to check the clock and saw that I was not 10 not 15 but 45 minutes late. Without a word I grabbed Ginny by the hand, threw Floo-powder into the fire and went to the ministry.

As soon as I reached the Atrium I met with the frantic eyes of Harry who apparently was "so worried for me"

"I was just caught up today, no big deal… geez Harry gets a grip."

"Yeah, Yeah sure." He said averting his gaze from mine.

Those were the last words he said when suddenly flashes of white temporarily blinded me and thunderous yells of media reporters surrounded us.

I looked around clearly startled by the sudden uproar our mere presence started. I was hell bent on ignoring them until they asked the dreaded question.

"How is Ron, Hermione? Are you both still going strong?" a random reporter asked.

I was clearly taken aback by the question and that was all it took for the reporters to bombard us with questions regarding Ron. I knew all of us held a look of unease as I looked around to see if anyone could get me out of the mess.

As I was searching I met a pair of striking grey eyes, and recognized the person. Malfoy. I practically pleaded for him to save me from the crowd and surprisingly he did (without a smirk might I add!) he waded through the throngs of people and yanked me out from them.

As soon as I was at a comparatively safe distance from the crowd, a woman who by the looks of it was just an intern at the Ministry came up to me and Malfoy. "Hermione, you very, very clever woman, and fine you won, now tell us how you did that." She said, while looking Malfoy up and down. Something which surprisingly wanted me to knock the wind right out of her. However her question had caught me off guard. What did she mean when she said that I won, more importantly what did I win? But soon I felt arms around my waist and was being pulled away from the new crowd that had gathered.

I distinctly heard Kingsley calling us out and felt a gush of relief to be finally doing some work. As soon as he reached us he said,

"Hermione and Draco I suppose you have heard that we have found a dead body at Diagon Alley but the marks on the body are quite strange. We examined it to check whether they were Ware-wolf bite marks, but no they were something else entirely.

I am sorry to inform you but we don't know what it is yet. We selected you both for this investigation because of the affairs Mr. Malfoy had been to; I think it is the right time to go to Knockturn Alley for investigation and to solve this mystery. You can go whenever you feel like just ask for a portkey or you can get brooms and of course apparition is always an option." Kingsley said as calmly as Dumbledore used to be.

I was pondering over what he had said, Ware-wolf bite marks

Were strange considering they had gone into hiding after the war. But well I guess everything happening these days was strange so who could tell? There could be several answers as to what it could be but Kingsley was right, we had to go there in person and investigate. Suddenly Malfoy broke the silence and said. "Brooms would work; you can have them available in no time." That slick git! Of course he'd like to ride a broom. Not only would it entertain him but it would make my life miserable.

"We should apparate; it is faster and less conspicuous." I said quickly trying to diminish any thoughts from Malfoy's mind about riding brooms. I knew he agreed only because he couldn't care less but I went on with it. No reason to prolong something when the minister is practically breathing down your neck. After that the minister reminded us to check the victim's body should we have any suspicion. I and Malfoy nodded and went back to work.

While we were going towards the elevators I curiously asked, "What was that lady talking about?"

"What lady?" he asked back quite dumb of him to be honest.

"The lady we ran into not fifteen minutes ago, the one who looked a bit scary actually." I said in a 'duh' tone while snapping my fingers across his face trying to put some sense into him.

"Oh her!"

"Yes her, now will you answer my question? 'Mr. I know everything'?" I said exasperatedly.

He held up his hand and snapped, "First of all I am not the 'know-it-all' that is your job. Second of all I would appreciate it if you would put more attention to the task at hand or coming on time to your job rather than some passerby woman who spoke to you for a second." That shut me up, for the first time did I agree to what he said.

As we stepped in the elevators, I pressed our department number and grabbed on to one of the hanging structures hanging down from the ceiling. The elevator whooshed sideways then lurched downwards; I briefly wondered if this was how Charlie felt like when Mr. Willy Wonka showed him around the factory. My musings were cut short when Malfoy suddenly asked me, "Why were you late this morning?"

"None of your business." I snapped in reply.

"Does it have something to do with Weasley?" he asked obviously ignoring my previous comment. I was half expecting myself to wince on hearing any reference to Ron but I kept up a calm façade.

"I said none of your business. Get that through your thick head Mal- '' I was cut short by the elevator abruptly stopping, causing me to lose my grip on the handle and almost tumble, however soon a pair of strong arms gripped my elbows and flipped me to come face to face with sparkling grey eyes, dancing with amusement. 'Need saving again Granger? I seem to be doing that a lot. Are you sure that you don't fall purposely wanting to end up in my arms?' he winked and wagged his eyebrows suggestively for effect.

I gagged and pushed him off me, 'if I didn't know better I would say that it's you who enjoys my presence.' I said icily.

All this while we were staring into each other's eyes, with faces only inches apart. Our stare down was cut short with someone clearing their throat uncomfortably. I looked up to see Nathan from department of mysteries looking everywhere but the scene in front of him, clearly uncomfortable with this rapport I had with Malfoy.

To clear this out, Nathan Bradley had a crush on me since I joined the ministry but refrained from asking me out, he was very shy. I mean "looks down while talking to you" shy, he hadn't told anyone but it was quite obvious by the way he looked at me. Nathan was easy on the eyes, with a lean yet muscular body, with hazel eyes but he was not my type. Besides with what happened I don't think I'll be ready for a relationship anytime soon.

Malfoy quickly released me and I also brushed the non-existent dust off my attire. I nodded in acknowledgment to Nathan and went out and Malfoy followed suit. As we reached our office, Malfoy plopped down on the seat and exclaimed, 'Could that guy be more obvious!'

'About what?' I asked genuinely confused.

'About how he is hopelessly in looove with you.' He dragged the word love in a sickening manner in hopes of annoying me. And annoy me he did. Now with all that had happened with Ron, even the word made me flinch. To my horror I saw Malfoy from the corner of my eye see the movement and now he had a thoughtful expression on his face.

We went through the past cases, trying to see a link to this one, read the statements of the victims to even get one meager detail as to what was happening. Whoever was doing this was certainly great at their job.

Throughout the day Malfoy would make silly jokes or annoying remarks designed to make me react or at least acknowledge his presence. However thinking back to the reporter's questions got me stuck with having an internal battle with myself about Ron. While one side said that whatever I did was justified, the other argued that after being caught Ron actually looked remorseful so there was hope for change. With all this going on in my head I couldn't really concentrate on the case at hand and Malfoy's jokes and remarks seemed to never stop.

'Oh GOD! Will you SHUT IT? I've been trying to concentrate on work which is hard enough without you and your stupid little jokes and plus I've got Ron to worry about, I shouldn't worry about him though I made it very clear yesterday… ANYWAY there is so much on my mind right now and you Mr. are not helping. So if you had even a shred of self-respect you would stop the nonsense you've been going on about and let me work in PEACE!' by the end of my rant I was gasping for breath and was pretty sure that my face was red with anger.

'Whoa there Granger, I figured you were angry I just didn't that it was this much. Weasley must've hurt you real bad huh… well I'm sorry for making your day worse, I really am. If you need any help, just know that I'm here.' He said sounding a bit surprised.

To be honest I was too, this was different, and this was good.

'Yeah, about that… sorry I snapped at you, I usually don't fly into rages like this (to which he snorted and I glared at him, which shut him up).'

'Well normally I wouldn't say this, but I guess "normally" is in short amount these days… Anyway, all I want to say is that you've been carrying around a lot of pressure and you need to relieve it. Trust me I know, stuff like this happens with my mother too. She's got major anger management issues…' that was all he said before out of nowhere came up a tape-recorder, he swished his wand at it and soon the song " Do the Hippogriff" started blaring through the speakers. Malfoy started mouthing the lyrics to the song while doing this really stupid two-step dance thingy.

I was laughing uncontrollably until he started advancing towards me… 'No, no Malfoy no… BAD MALFOY, NO BAD MALFOY!' I shrieked but I was lifted and placed in the middle of the room. He took my arms in his and started shaking them from side-to-side. 'Come on Granger stop being a mad old cow! Enjoy life a little for Merlin's sake. And honestly that twit Weasley doesn't deserve your attention'

With that and fifteen seconds into the song both of us were dancing (if you could call it that), jumping, laughing and basically acting like the mature adults we are! (Note the sarcasm!)

Amidst all the spontaneous merry making, I noticed something. There was an unusual sparkle in Malfoy's (gorgeous) eyes. Ugh… get a grip Mione! I mentally berated myself. His usual eyes were now sparkling with amusement? No, excitement? No, it was something I couldn't place, just like yesterday when I fell down.

Suddenly we heard a loud Crash from the door and there stood the frame of a very angry and visibly shaking Ron…

** DUN DUN DUNNNN! Finally, this is by far the longest chapter in the story, hope it makes up for the mini-vacation we had taken. Hope you enjoyed it…

And DON"T FORGET to R and R. you reviews are what keep us going honestly...

Till then XOXOX

Cupcake_hugs **