Hermione nodded her head and bit her nails nervously. This woman had been droning on for hours. Every once in a while she would nod her head and smile or give a little fake laugh with a 'cute'. Brent's mother really did talk like a waterfall. She had been listening to his childhood stories for at least two hours now and was getting pretty sick of it all. But something his mother said next caught her attention.

"Yeah, she was cruel. She broke his heart very deeply. Left him for another man, after they had made marriage arrangements and everything. He couldn't get over her for years." There was a sad, distant look on the woman's face. Then she snapped out of it and looked up at Hermione with a warm smile on her face. "But then he met you."

Hermione forced a smile on her face. For some reason this story had made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

"Your tie is crooked." Pansy remarked. "Fix it." She ordered him.

He scowled at her. Who was she, thinking she could boss him around? "I will do what I want."

"You know, one would think you'd know how to put on a tie." She remarked cooly.

He ignored her. She could talk as much as she wanted to. It's not like anything good could come out of her mouth with all that come that went through there anyway.

"Let's go." He said coldly and walked out of the bedroom door. He was not looking forward to this ball whatsoever. The last thing he wanted these days was to mingle with a whole bunch of money-greedy idiots pretending to be his best friend. Or to see Granger, of course. He scowled as he walked down the stairs.

"What's gotten your knickers in a bunch?" He heard Pansy ask him as they walked out of their house to their apparating yard.

"Nothing that concerns you." He snapped back and quickly apparated to the ministry.

The two made their way to the lower-most floor where the party would take place. It was already crowded with witches and wizards everywhere. As they entered Draco's eyes scanned the room, obviously looking for one person. But he didn't get a chance to look everywhere since at that moment the minister approached him with a big hello.

After being introduced to about ten wizards, some from Germany, some from France, he was finally able to pry himself away to walk over to the bar where the drinks were served. He got his glass of firewhiskey and sighed in relief as he sipped slowly. Feeling the burning liquor going down his throat really felt increadible at that moment.

He opened his eyes only to find them staring at the person he had been looking for when he had first entered. Draco felt his stomach churn uncomfortably and his breath caught in his throat. She was wearing a maroon gown and looked more gorgeous then ever. He tried to look away but felt that he couldn't keep his eyes off her. She suddenly looked up and their eyes met for a moment. He didn't do anything but stared back at her. He saw her inhale deeply and pry her eyes back to the man she was talking about.

Draco looked down on the ground and cleared his throat. Just one more hour... he told himself. He had vowed that we would only stick around as long as he needed to, and right now and hour was as much as he would tolerate. He walked around and socialized with a few more people, putting on his Malfoy charm, convincing them to donate their money towards his projects. But every now and then his eyes would search for her again and most commonly she stared back at him as well. Their eyes would meet for just a second and they would look away again.

Finally, when Draco felt like he could stand it no more, he saw Granger excuse herself from the group of people she was standing with and leave the hall. Making up a quick excuse to the current Italian guy he had been talking to and ran out the hall after her. He caught her just as she was turning the corner to walk to the bathrooms.

He grabbed her arm and turned her around. She gave a little shriek of surprise but her face quickly relaxed when she saw him.

"Oh my, you scared me nearly to death." She said. Then she remembered who she was talking to her face quickly grew cold. "What do you want?" She snapped.

"I -" After three weeks of not talking to her and constant thinking about her, he found himself completely speechless. She looked at him expectantly.

"Oh, very smooth, Malfoy. Very smooth. First you work your charm on me, making me think you're a different man, then you shagg me, then you ditch me for three weeks, and now you can't even apologize." She growled. "Nice work." She turned around to walk away but he grabbed her again.

"No..." He whispered. "I...I'm sorry." Hermione looked in his eyes for a few seconds, searching for something. "I..." He started again. He needed to let her know how he felt. How she scared him more than anything in this world, but yet somehow he couldn't help but falling in... "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to avoid you." Hermione bit her lip and kept looking at him.

Then suddenly she frowned. "Oh, Malfoy." She shook her head and looked away. "Do you think a 'sorry' is going to make everything better? You do not shit me like that at Hogwarts, smooth talk me ten years later only to screw me over again! Do you honestly think I'll believe another word that comes out of your mouth?" She spat. She was growing tired of this conversation. She really wanted to walk away.

"No, Granger, listen... I know I've made some mistakes." Draco started, but this seemed to anger her even more.

"Some mistakes? Some mistakes? Malfoy, if you plan on actually keeping a woman for once, then you do not completely ignore her after shagging her! I don't know what your experiences has been with those other whores, but for your information I'm not one of them." She was yelling now. Her anger and frustration she had felt towards him was all spilling out.

"That's exactly it, don't you see? You're different -" But Hermione interrupted him again.

"Oh, please. Spare me your 'you-re different' bullshit. I'm sick of being treated like shit from you. I thought you had changed, but that just comes to show how foolish and senseless I am!" Hermione was shaking now and tears were threatening to fall. "Get away from me. I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

"No, Granger -"

"Stop! I fucking cheated on my boyfriend with you! I did something I thought I'd never do! And all for what? For you to just do me over like that? And to think I was starting to fall in love with you again!" Hermione sobbed, tears now rolling down her cheeks. Draco stopped dead, his mouth hanging open. Had she just said... "Don't look at me like that, you bastard. You know very well that I was falling for you and that was your bloody intention from the beginning, wasn't it?" She walked towards him, a finger pointed at him. "You wanted to screw me over, just like you did at Hogwarts. Wanted to make a fool out of me again. You sick, perverted git. Getting pleasure out of my misery, you-" That was it for Malfoy. His anger was rising as well. He was not going to stand here and take this from her.

He was quick and unexpected, so Hermione was completely taken by surprise when he slammed her against the wall and shut her up.

"Don't -" He breathed, his voice icy cold. "Don't talk to me like that again." Hermione's eyes widened in fear. "You have no idea what the fuck you do to me, Granger. Do you want the truth? I'll give you the bloody truth. I'm in love with you." He felt her quiver and give a little whimper. "That's right, Granger. I just fucking fell in love with you. And you want to know why I didn't talk to you for three weeks? Well let me tell you. Because I'm a bloody Malfoy." Hermione scowled. "I don't love. I never have and thought I never would. Until I bloody got to know you. You changed everything. And how do you think I felt when I realized that for the first time in my life I loved someone? And out of all people it was you? A muggle born and my enemie's best friend. How the hell was I supposed accept that?" Hermione's eyes were as big as saucers at this point and tears were still streaming down her face. "So to tell you some more truth, Granger, you're the one who screwed me over."

There was complete silence. Neither of them said anything, each breathing hard. Hermione was in complete body contact with him and she could feel his heart beat against her own. Their faces were just inches apart and their eyes were locked together. Hermione was the first to break the stare. She gave a sob and looked down.

"No..." She whispered softly. "No." She repeated stronger, looking up at him again. "No. It's too late."

Draco was confused. "What's too late?" He asked her. She gave another sob.

"Just... nothing. Go." She told him. But it was her who started walking away. Draco was quick to chase after her.

"Granger, talk to me! What's too late? What are you talking about?" He reached out for her hand and grabbed it. She quickly pulled her hand away, scratching him with something hard in the process. He winced in pain and looked at his hand. It was fine. But then he wondered what had scratched him. He grabbed her hand again and looked at it. It was a ring.

At first he didn't think much of it and was about to ask her what was wrong again. But the expression of horror on her face told him something was wrong. He looked at her in confusion for a second. Then something dawned to him. He looked at her hand again. The ring had a middle sized diomand in it, which sparkled under the dim lights of the corridor. Then in shock he realized what it meant. He looked at her other hand and found no ring. He felt like regurgitating.

The ring was on her left hand.

He looked back up at her in utter shock and she could see a faint sparkle of deep hurt in his eyes. Tears were still streaming down her face. "No..." It was his turn to whispere the word. "You... not him... certainly..." After all he had just admitted to her... She couldn't be...

Hermione sobbed again and looked down to the ground. And without any warning she ran towards the bathroom. This time Draco did nothing to stop her.

Well, there you go. He finally admitted his feelings. Although it didn't turn out good for him. But trust me you guys. Next chapter everything will ... 'work out'. ;)

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