Hermione just stood there in the snow, watching him walk away. She saw him run a hand through his hair and ball up his fists. He really was tormented. She felt a tear trickle down her cheeks, rosy from the chill. Even if he was twisted and tortured inside how could he say something so horrible? He should at least try to change; he does want to change, doesn't he? Everything was running through her mind and she didn't know what to think, she just stared at him hoping he would turn around and apologise. She stared until his figure disappeared behind the curtain of snow.
"Damn you Draco…" She let out a sob and trudged back to the castle, her damp feet growing colder with each step.
She couldn't take it personally, he has been moulded into this person his whole life, the last few years in particular. Still, it doesn't mean that it hurts any less. She wiped her eyes and when she reached the common room she curled up in front of the fire and sobbed.
He had called her a mudblood, pathetic, he had spent nights with Pansy and let her talk down to her, and yet she couldn't get him out of her mind. She wanted to comfort him even though he was the one doing the stomping.
She couldn't let what he said get to her. She took out a piece of parchment and scribbled her note before placing the enchantments on it and sending it flying out through the portrait of the fat lady.
Draco was pacing the dormitory now, too many emotions in his body to count. He was angry at her; angry because she wanted to see them. He hated them, maybe it was because they had an actual bond with one another while Crabbe hadn't even bothered to speak to him since the end of last year, when he left Hogwarts to do… he didn't even know. And Goyle… obviously Draco was upset about his death, but more about the fact that he had known him for seven years than the fact that he was his friend.
Draco didn't have friends like Harry, Ron and Hermione. There was never intimacy, or much loyalty, when it came down to it they were 'save your own skin before the other' kind of "friends". Deep down he did long for someone to be himself with, someone to just… be with and not have motives.
He hated picturing the three of them in the common room, sitting by the red and gold fire just laughing and joking with one another. He hated it. He hated even more imagining Hermione feel the way he did with her when she was with someone else. He wasn't special, he wasn't anything new, and he was just another one to add to her collection.
He wasn't special to her, she felt like that all the time.
He headed down to the fire and began pacing in front of it. He must have been pacing for at least five minutes when a little flying piece of parchment began throwing itself at his face and no matter how much he batted it away it wouldn't stop until he grabbed it in his hand.
He unfurled the yellowing paper and read the short note; 7:30. That was it, just a time. He knew what it meant and he held it tightly for a few seconds before throwing it into the fire and watching it burn from the outside in.
Hermione sat in the room of requirement on a velvety red couch. The was a fireplace on one side of the room and a large bed with warm blankets and glasses of pumpkin juice that she had pilfered from the great hall sitting on a bedside table. The walls were decorated with bouquets of roses.
She looked down at her pocket watch. It was nearly twenty past eight. Surely he was just held up; he didn't mean what he said.
Of course not, he just needs time, she told herself. Minutes passed and she tested out her patronus, and then her transfiguration, and then her charms. Minutes turned into another hour. It wasn't long before she found it hard to conjure her patronus.
He wasn't going to show up.
As she left the room she tried to pick herself up. It would never have worked anyway, they were just too different.
But they had something, didn't they? She thought about seeing her friends tomorrow but somehow nothing would cheer her up at this point. She felt something with him, different, special… and it turns out it was just a little nothing. He said it didn't he? It was nothing.
She couldn't help but let the tears flow as she tried to fall asleep.
It was so much more than nothing to her.
"Hermione!" Harry called out to her when he saw her standing on the platform.
"Harry!" She ran over to him and gave wrapped her arms around him.
It almost made her want to cry, but she told herself that she wouldn't cry over Draco today. He made himself very clear. They were nothing. They were nothing.
She had been repeating that to herself over and over in her head trying to make herself realise that what she thought was something so special was really just her imagination running wild. Maybe it was more than that, but she couldn't fight him anymore.
She couldn't keep letting him hurt her the way he did. He needed someone to get him through everything, but for now it couldn't be her.
She let him go and grinned, a tear rolling from her eye.
"Are you alright Hermione?" He brushed away the tear with his glove and cocked his head questioningly.
"Sorry! I've just been on my own for so long, I missed you."
"We missed you to Hermione."
She gave him another hug and he rested his head on hers.
"You better not get too close to him, George was testing out some new candies on him back at the burrow." Ginny walked around to give Hermione a quick hug before linking arms with Harry.
"He's working on new things?"
"Oh yes, the last was a tribute to Fred, Fred's Firework Farts. It made for an interesting Christmas Eve." She smiled lightly.
At least George was finally moving on and doing what Fred would have wanted; making some kind of horrid candy to cause a riot.
"He definitely needs to work on those some more." Ron startled Hermione as he walked up beside her.
"Hi Ronald." She said, it was still slightly awkward.
Even more so if he'd known about Draco.
Draco.
He gave her a small smile.
"Oh for goodness sake, are the two of you going to do this forever?" Said Ginny.
Hermione laughed and shook her head, trying to avoid the subject. Her smile faded fast though and Ginny raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
They headed back to the common room and Hermione stole a glance towards the staircase that lead down to the dungeons.
"…So that's how we ended up smashing every single dish in the kitchen." Harry finished his story as they walked through the Fat-Lady's portrait into the common room.
"I think George should just stick to puking pastilles." Hermione laughed.
"I can't believe classes start again in less than a week." Ron sighed as he slumped into his favourite armchair. "It's like we never left."
"I can't believe we only have less than a year until we actually have to work for a living." Harry sat next to Ginny on the old couch and sighed.
"I can't believe that we're standing here." Hermione stared into the flames of the fire and the others looked up at her.
After a while of reflection they started talking more about their breaks. Clearly they all had fun down at the burrow but what would Hermione say? 'I was fraternising with the enemy'? No.
"I can't believe you just stayed here studying the whole time." Harry laughed.
"You really are mad Hermione." Ron was slowly starting to act like himself around her. It usually took an hour or so, and then it went back to awkward when they saw each other again.
"No, I can't believe it either." Ginny raised an eyebrow, this time making sure that Hermione saw it.
"I just want to make sure I get the best marks that I possibly can." She shrugged and tried her hardest to get the memories of Draco's lips out of her mind.
The boys eventually headed up to their dormitories for a while before dinner and Ginny waited until she heard their door shut before she began questioning Hermione.
"So what really happened on the break?"
"What? Nothing. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about." Hermione shrugged and began staring out the window.
"You have been so distracted ever since we got back and you don't even have a drop of ink on your hands. Not even a smudge. It's a guy isn't it?"
Hermione squirmed in her seat and bit down on her lip.
"It is!" Ginny squealed.
"Ginny! Shush." Hermione's cheeks were flushed and she just wanted to forget.
"Oh come on, I won't tell anyone! Who is he?"
"Ginny! He's nothing- It's nothing, okay?"
"You don't have to worry about Ron, he was pretty friendly with someone over the break, you two can stop being awkward and move on already!"
Well Ron managed to find someone who wasn't completely damaged…
"Ginny, stop, you don't understand. Yes there was… a guy, but it ended badly. It's no good. It's all done now and I'm just trying to forget."
Ginny sighed. "Sorry Hermione, I wish it had been better. Do I know the guy?"
She thought for a moment. "Yeah, you do."
Draco stood with his arms folded on the platform as he waited for the train to pull into the station. He would have to see Pansy at some point. That time was now.
He couldn't even think about… her. He didn't want to remember how happy he was for what seemed like five minutes. He wouldn't let himself have that luxury.
The train pulled in with a great screech and he stood like a statue just staring through the mist, waiting for Pansy to show up.