Hermione woke up the next morning still feeling drunk from the deeds of the night before. It was as if his hands never left her body, it was a feeling she wished would never go away. She checked her watch and saw that breakfast was due to be starting soon. She pulled on her jeans and a t-shirt and brushed her hair. She selected her most sensational perfume, Vex Baysoon, a floral and fruity scent that she adored; though this time she didn't use it for her own enjoyment. She headed down to the great hall, it seemed so empty without the majority of its students. As she flounced to the Gryffindor table she felt as though she could have been a student at Beaxbatons, she felt so full of grace. She told herself that she wouldn't but she couldn't help looking over to the Slytherin table. As soon as her eyes hit the table she felt herself grow heavy. Draco was sitting at the end of the bench with an over exuberant Pansy Parkinson hanging herself from him, and he didn't seem to mind, in fact he seemed to enjoy it. She was standing behind him with her arms draped over his shoulders and stroking his chest, her lips whispering into his ears, his mouth curling into a satisfied grin every time she did so. Hermione suddenly felt embarrassed, she threw her head down and walked to her table, her appetite no longer in function. How stupid could she be? To think that Draco could be interested in her and only her when he had someone like Pansy readily available at his beck and call. Last night must have been a mere ploy to get out of her what he wanted, she thought. But why then did he leave? Her head was spinning and she wished that he had never said two words to her.

She heard the mail run starting and looked up to see Errol flying towards her, he misjudged his landing of course and skidded off the table a metre from her plate. He soon hopped back up and turned to allow her to untie the letters from his leg. One was from Harry, the other from Ginny. She opened Ginny's letter first.

Hermione,

I hope all is well at Hogwarts, I had hoped you were coming back this Christmas, my mother was quite disappointed. I expect she'll knit you something and have it sent over. I still wish you and Ron could have worked things out, I'm pretty sure he feels that way too, mainly because he doesn't want it to be awkward I think, you know what he's like. It's hard having Harry here …

She began to talk in depth about why it was hard for her to sit across from Harry at the dinner table and how Molly was trying to force words out of their mouths. Hermione expected nothing less from her, though she expected that it would be a way for her to avoid talking about Fred. Hermione found that her throat became dry and that she had to take deep breaths when she thought of him. The wounds were still very fresh. The battle changed a lot of people and some of them were still coping with the scars as if they were fresh incisions, unable to be sutured, with individual grains of salt being scattered into them.

Hermione sighed, she did feel guilty about the way things ended with Ron, it had been weeks of silence, days without contact. After a while she realised that she didn't love him in the way that she thought she had. He was her best friend, for seven years. You would think that a friendship like that would make for a perfect relationship, maybe they just waited too long. She did love him, but as her friend, nothing more. Now it was just awkward between them.

She opened Harry's letter and began to read.

Dear Hermione,

I know Ginny is writing to you, I just want to say that I am not purposely trying to avoid her; it's just easier to apparate into the kitchen rather than risk running into her on the stairs. I hope your study is going well. I'd be going absolutely mad. Have you even decided what you want to do when we graduate? I'll send you something for Christmas when the date gets closer, try not to spend it alone. I think Luna is staying over Christmas, her father couldn't stand for her to see the house as it was left and wanted her safe at Hogwarts. You know, now that it actually is safe. Ron told me to say that he says hello. Can you two please just stop being awkward? It puts a lot of pressure on me! I know, it's not about me. Anyway, I'll write again for Christmas, I was just making sure you're not too lonely.

Always, Harry.

Hermione sighed again. She thought to herself that she would escape to Hogsmeade for the day to relax, seeing as she did no such thing last night and Draco was so wrapped up in Pansy.

She walked through the snow-lined streets of Hogsmeade she could smell the food cooking in the kitchens of the pubs and she heard the carollers singing on the next street over. She walked into the Three Broomsticks and ordered a butter beer before sitting in the old corner booth that she would always sit in with Harry and Ron. She took one of the back issues of Witch Weekly from the stack on the bench and began to flick through it.

"I didn't peg you as a gossip magazine kind of girl, I guess you're tired of being a know-it-all." She didn't need to look up to know whose silky arrogant voice it was beside her.

"What do you want Malfoy?" she said coldly without looking away from her magazine.

"I thought you might like some more of my company. You seemed so enthralled by me the last time we met." She sniggered to himself and she put the magazine down.

"Malfoy, what is it that you want?" She looked up at him with a blank stare.

"You! Mudblood!" Hermione snapped her head around to see Pansy striding towards them.

She grabbed Draco's arm and she was quite obviously digging her nails into his skin.

"What do you think you're doing?" She hissed.

"I believe I was minding my own business before I was so rudely interrupted."

"How dare you talk back to me! You just think that you have something that Draco wants, you'll never be worth anything mudblood!" Clearly she was being defensive because she was jealous, and right now Hermione just didn't care. "You're not in the same league as Draco and I, you don't have what it takes to stand with us, or near us for that matter." She sneered, her eyes burning with hate.

"I have no intention of standing with or near people who mean little to nothing to me, I won't be losing any sleep over not knowing you, either of you." Hermione turned to look at Draco as she finished her sentence.

She picked up her bag and pushed past Pansy to get to the door of the bar before heading to Honeydukes to find something that might warm her up.

As he watched her walk out of the bar he felt a pang in his chest, she had looked at him with such nothingness in her eyes, could she really feel nothing at all for him? More importantly what was this repugnant emotion that he was experiencing with her dismissal?

"She's pathetic." Pansy took hold of his shirt and pulled him in for a hard kiss on the mouth.

It was exactly the kind of kiss he liked, it made him feel nothing, and it brought him back to the reality that his life was destined to be without warmth. The only warmth he had ever felt was Hermione's hands on his sides in that bath. He never expected it nor did he ask for it. It wasn't until he felt that warmth did he realise that his life was so barren of it. When she had looked up at him as she left he didn't understand how it could make him feel so alone, he had thought that was already what he was feeling. Apparently he was wrong.