New chapter! Hope you guys like it :) special fangz (geddit cos im goffik) to resina, harrypottergeekychick16, Modges and bluebook1496 for your reviews - as always, they were very much appreciated :) please don't be shy to share your opinions, and also remember that none of these characters are mine (I keep forgetting to say this!) apart from a couple of OCs in the background. Enjoy!

Hermione had expected to see the breakdown of her relationship plastered across the Daily Prophet, but she had not expected just how seriously everyone appeared to take it. She read through the article as quickly as she could. According to the Prophet, both she and Ron had been linked to several other people – and in Ron's case, a Veela – and they had had a public fight which three people had claimed to have witnessed. Their failed relationship was attributed to the pressures of life in the public eye, the stresses of Auror training and – in one baffling column at the end of page seven – the failing economy.

All in all, there were about three pages devoted to their break up.

The only thing that was actually true was the fact that they were no longer together.

She sighed, and went to make herself a cup of tea.

The second he had seen Ron, Harry had made his excuses and left, casting worried glances over his shoulder. Hermione couldn't have said she blamed him; she hadn't exactly taken Ron's relationship with Lavender well and they weren't even going out then. Of course, she knew now that Harry must have known the way Ron felt about her had changed, but at the time she could only stare across the road, completely perplexed.

He came over to her.

Six months ago, she would have run across the street and thrown herself into his arms. Two months ago, she would have slapped him across the face, or screamed at him, or just refused to see him altogether.

Now, she did nothing.

He smiled nervously at sat next to her on the wall. "Er…hi, Hermione."

"Hello."

"How've you been?"

"Good, thank you. How're you?"

"Good, yeah."

There was a very long silence. Both of them stared out at the street, at the rows of curious passers by turning their heads in their direction or the piles of slushy, dirty snow swept up against the sides of the street.

Hermione cleared her throat.

"It's been a while since I've heard from you."

Ron's ears went pink. "Yeah…yeah. I'm sorry."

"It's OK."

They fell silent again.

"Listen, Hermione…"

She smiled. She knew what was coming next.

"Things have been…well, really weird, lately, and I know I've been a complete prat, but it's just…I don't think…"

She swallowed. Ron sighed, and leant back against the wall.

"This dating stuff is harder than it looks."

She laughed. "It is, isn't it?"

A look of absolute relief washed over Ron's face. He smiled at her, in an apologetic sort of way. "I kind of thought…us going out would make all this stuff easier. That's what they all say, isn't it? It'll just…work."

She smiled too, even though tears were prickling at the corners of her eyes. "We've been lied to, I think."

He laughed. "I think we have."

They stared across the street again.

"So," she said, "what do you want to do?"

He fidgeted, picking at a spot of lichen on the wall. "Well…it's just I'm here and you're still at school, and I've got all the Auror training and I've barely got five minutes to spare, these days and…it's just…"

A lump formed in Hermione's throat. "This is it, isn't it?"

"It's not that I don't like you," he said, his blue eyes earnest, "it's not that at all! It's just that it isn't a good time for me to be seeing anyone and I don't want to mess you about. You…you do understand, right?"

She nodded. She understood far more than Ron was letting on. It wasn't that she didn't believe him. Auror training was a difficult time for anyone, and maintaining a long-distance relationship was difficult enough without the stress of hunting down Dark wizards. But she knew, deep down, that if Ron really loved her he would find a way to make it work, and so would she. Harry was making time for Ginny, and Ginny was making time for him – their relationship would last.

Hers would not.

"It's all right," she had said, patting him on the shoulder, "it really is."

"You aren't angry with me?"

She shook her head. "I've grown up a lot since you went off with Lavender. I'm sorry about the birds thing, by the way."

Ron smiled, and shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

Hermione picked at the hole in her glove, pulling on a loose thread.

"Do you…do you still want to be friends?"

He'd smiled at her, and pulled her into a hug.

"Of course."

That was when she had cried.

But now, in her meticulously organised bedroom in her parents' neat, tidy home, Hermione was not crying. She'd cried a little, when she'd got home from Diagon Alley, but now, three days later, her eyes were dry. Her fully packed Hogwarts trunk was waiting at the foot of her bed; tomorrow, she would be going back to school.

The thought made her feel sick to her stomach.

The last thing she wanted to do now was to go back to school. She wanted to lie on her bed for weeks, far away from prying eyes and sympathetic glances and Charlie Jackson's big, crushing hands. It'd only get worse now the Daily Prophet had reported she was single. Everyone probably knew about it already and she was willing to bet that the second she set foot in the castle she would be swamped with more bloody love letters. And if she did actually find someone that she wanted to go out with, what then? Reporters, cameras, barely an inch of privacy…who would want to go through that just for a couple of dates?

Still, at least Draco would be there, sharp and sarcastic as ever. Draco would laugh at Ron, she was sure, and smile down at her, his soft blond hair falling into his gleaming grey eyes…

She blushed, and shook her head a little.

Yes, Draco would be there, in all his confusing, Slytherin glory, and now there was nothing to stop her from pursuing anyone she wanted to go out with, even him…apart from that hunched, defeated look in his eyes and the way he kept pulling away from her and tugging on his left sleeve.

Draco wouldn't care that she was single now, she was sure of that.

Hermione rolled over and stared at the clock on her bedside table. It was four in the morning. She sighed.

No, she thought, closing her eyes, he wouldn't care about that.