Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling. This is post OoTP, pre-HBP.

Author's Note:

I know it's been forever. Forgive me. This is sort of a teaser because someone wanted Draco's reactions to being disowned. It's really short because I haven't decided how I'm going to play the plot yet, but it's something right? I will try to do every other chapter switching from one PoV to the other from now on…Enjoy, comments welcome, appreciated and begged for.

Draco awoke the next morning and yawned, a large and very loud yawn, before looking around and attempting to find get his bearings. Stuck the pillow was a piece of parchment; he sighed and picked it up.

Draco,

I'm sorry…

And that was it. He stared at it in disbelief and then crumpled it in his fist.

"I'm sorry? Sorry for what Hermione?" He asked out loud and threw the paper as hard as he could. It was disappointing – it didn't go far. It was, after all, merely parchment. He sighed heavily and pulled himself out of bed.

He had to admit, the room was extremely handy and now that he understood how to get in – without destroying walls as Umbridge had done the year before – he would be quite happy to sleep there from now on.

It's not as if I'm welcome in my own dorm anymore, Draco thought sullenly, He didn't just exile me from my family…He exiled me from my life.

Sighing again and resigning himself to a long, lonely day, Draco ran a hand through his hair and pulled on his robes. Grabbing his cloak he left the room and headed towards the Quidditch fields. He may have been exiled from just about every aspect of his life, over a girl nonetheless, but it was a lot harder to kick someone off of the house team…Especially seeker and captain. Not that they hadn't tried.

The Slytherin House team was waiting for him and Draco didn't waste any time exacting his revenge in the grueling workouts he had planned.

At lunch time Draco headed back towards the Great Hall. He was famished and the smells wafting down the long corridor smelled absolutely delicious. He walked in and unconsciously scanned the Griffindor table for Hermione. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Look Malfoy. I don't know what you're playing at…But leave Hermione alone. She's with Harry and I don't want you screwing around with their relationship." Draco turned and met Ron Weasley's eyes with a glare.

"Look Weasley, Granger's a big girl and can make her own choices…Plus. What would I want with her?"

"Her inheritance." Ron said softly, smiling at Draco in a knowing way and walked off. Draco fumed, he didn't know how all of Hogwarts knew that he had been disowned but it was really starting to piss him off. It wasn't like he needed money…Not that much at least. He sat at the middle of the Slytherin table, by himself, and filled a plate with food.

When he looked up to reach for the pitcher of Butterbeer he saw Hermione perched next to Harry who had one arm slung around her shoulder. He pushed back from the table so fast that the stool he was sitting on fell over. The hall fell silent, but he wasn't paying attention. He stalked out of the hall and once outside turned towards the library. Halfway there he stopped and threw his fist into the wall. He pounded it several times before his slumped to the floor.

"Goddamn you Hermione…You're the only person I ever wanted to be different for, and you're the only person not worth my time." He whispered softly and covered his face.

"Draco?" A soft voice asked. He looked up, and seeing red hair pulled himself to his feet.

"I don't want to hear it Weasley." He said.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" The voice asked. He had no idea, but he wasn't going to let on.

"Past your bedtime," he replied snidely pasting a smirk on his face.

"Draco it's like eight o'clock," Ginny said.

"Yeah, and?"

"I've passed you four times and you never moved. Are you okay?"

"What's it to you Weasley?"

"Your mother's worried about you," Ginny replied. Draco stopped walking.

"You've talked to my mother?"

"She was at a party I attended," Ginny said softly in reply.

"A party…You attended?"

"Yes. With Crabbe." Ginny replied, but Draco heard the undertone in her voice. The just reserved tone that said she was really there with Lucius.

"Why are you with my father?" Draco asked stiffly.

"Because I have to be." Ginny said cryptically.

"Why?"

"Draco, that's hardly important right now. Look we don't have long. Narcissa is terribly worried about you and she wanted me to tell you that she misses you and that you need to just make it through a couple more months. Also…She tried to owl you but Lucius is monitoring everything. There's too much of a threat of things going terribly wrong."
"What does she mean, just a couple of months?" Draco demanded. Ginny just shrugged and turned to walk away.

"Ginny. Tell me what she meant."
"What who meant Malfoy?" Ginny asked snidely, sneering at him loftily and pulling her thick cloak more tightly around her. Draco looked at her in disbelief. She turned away from him again and called over her shoulder, "You must be really desperate for attention to be talking to me Draco."

And it was true. He was desperately desperate for human contact. That night he curled into a ball in his room and drank himself to sleep.