Huh. Where did the time go? I was certain I wasn't late this time. Oh, well...

Uni started up again. Am following three courses while taking care of my infant son. Pesky real life.


Things were beginning to feel rather unreal for Hermione. First of all, Theo was acting as if hardly anything had happened. Granted, this shouldn't surprise her, but somehow it just seemed wrong. Second of all, Malfoy wasn't bothering her. She had been almost certain he would after everything that happened in his room and the way she had left, but he, too, chose to act as if nothing was the matter.

The real surprise, though—the thing that made her suspect that something must have gone horribly wrong in Potions, or possibly someone did a mind-altering spell—was the third thing.

Blaise Zabini was civil to her.

In fact, if the very concept wouldn't have made her brains melt, she would have almost thought that he was being nice.

So, obviously, something was up, and it was time to be on her guard. It was never a good sign when a Slytherin was being nice to her. Just look at all the trouble it had landed her in so far.

She just wished they would stop centering their games on her. She was tired of it. She was tired of trying to work out what their motives were. She was tired of odd attractions that should never have been. But most of all… she was just tired.

Are you also tired of the kissing, then?

She flushed and unconsciously tried to cool her cheeks with her hands. What had she been thinking? Going to Draco's room after what happened with Theo… She should have known.

Maybe she had sort of known. After all, she'd been rather quick to try and soothe her own bruised feelings with the aid of his lips.

What she hadn't known was that he wouldn't go through with it. He had seemed like he really wanted to. No, more than that, she knew he had really wanted to. But still he had stopped.

This was really humiliating but, truth be told, she was getting pretty used to that by now. There was nothing like getting either physically or emotionally involved with a Slytherin to ensure your constant and never-ending humiliation.

Why she had decided to stay after that, she didn't even know herself. She honestly wasn't certain. The best she could come up with was that he had been right; she had been in a very emotional state and as much as she loved her friends, they wouldn't be able to not judge her relationship with Theo and would just give her their unwelcome opinions on the matter. She had somehow known that Draco wouldn't and had allowed herself to take comfort in him.

Once she'd awoken to find her emotions back in check, she had panicked. She didn't know what Dracos take was on the whole thing and, well, she didn't really want to know. So she'd removed his bracelet from his wrist, leaving it behind, and snuck out like a thief in the night, almost certainly annoying the heck out of him.

So why wasn't he bothering her now?


It wasn't easy being him, Draco decided for the umpteenth time. Never mind things like dark wizards trying to force him to do their bidding, his father still trying to please that dark wizard, and his mother and himself being entirely dependent on an Order that despised everything they stood for.

No, even on the level of what should have been normalcy, he had it hard.

He desperately lusted for a girl he couldn't actually pursue. So, ok, maybe that was tied in with everything else, but the fact of the matter remained—he had to leave her alone and he did not want to.

To be quite honest with himself, the only reason why he did leave her alone was because of that tiny opening she had shown him the other night. Despite everything Blaise seemed to believe of him, he wasn't actually interested in hurting her. She had seen enough hurt lately without him adding to it. It had just never been a possibility that he would.

He wished she'd get back with Theo. As much as he hated seeing them together it just made everything that much easier. He'd be constantly reminded and she'd not even bother to look his way anyway.

"I don't get why you're being such an absolute git!" Blaise was saying. Lately, he only even bothered to talk to Draco if he was cussing him out. It was getting old.

Truly, was there really a need for Blaise to walk up to Draco in the hallway just to keep this up? Of course, they were both going to the same classes, but still… a little peace and quiet at least between classes would be nice.

"Will you let it go?" Draco wearily asked.

"No."

"Look, I told you already; nothing happened, and nothing will happen!"

"You've been leading her on." Blaise wasn't one to let go.

"And you care why?" Draco asked. "She's a Muggleborn. She's a Gryffindor. She's an annoying know-it-all. She's Granger! And you, my dear friend, are not anyone's champion, especially not hers."

Blaise, unfortunately, chose not to take any offense but continued to stay on the subject. "You're crossing the line with her."

"I'm not you. She's not Tracey. She's not in love with me and I'm not doing anything." He was getting a headache.

"You should, though. You should just come out and ask her out. Theo and I would still stand by you."

"Theo?" This stopped Draco short. Why would Theo support him dating Granger?

"Yeah, he'd respect you a lot more, you know. He understands that you can't necessarily control how you feel, but he's angry that you sabotaged his chances without even wanting a chance to get her for yourself."

"I didn't—"

"Yeah, you did."

Draco sighed. Yeah, he did. "But don't you see?"

"No, but you're going to try and make me. In vain, I might add."

Damn straight he was. "You're acting as if it's the end of the world that I choose not to risk the money. As if she has feelings when she doesn't. As if I won't get past mine when I will. The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway, and I'm just saving everyone a world of trouble."

"But what if you don't feel that way again?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"What if she's The One?"

Draco shook his head, unable to believe he was hearing this from Blaise Zabini, the biggest whore Hogwarts had ever seen. "I don't believe in that stuff."

"Yeah, just look at how many times you've been in love thus far."

"I'm seventeen."

"What if you never feel for anyone else what you feel for her? Are you really willing to risk that?"

Draco didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"Then you're a fool and you deserve what you get. It's just money."

"It's a lot of money."

"Money won't buy you happiness." Blaise was wearing his stubborn pout. He was such a girl sometimes.

"Who's to say I would find happiness with her? Even if I managed to get her interest it could end really badly. After I lost the money. While it may not be able to buy happiness, it can buy a lot of things to help the happiness along."

"You're so cynical. I don't get it. Your parents love each other."

"My parents weren't each other's first choice. They worked on their affections."

"You're being impossible."

Draco let out a huff of air, trying to contain his annoyance. "And you're projecting. She's not Tracey. She doesn't give a damn about me; she never has, and she never will. Why won't you just accept that? I have!"

"I guess… because she went to your room? And because I'd like to see you happy for once." Blaise shrugged.

Draco's head was positively throbbing. "You really can be such a girl sometimes, Zabini," he said. "Can we stop with the touchy-feely stuff?"

"You're a git."

"What else is new?"

Blaise frowned rather disapprovingly, but refrained from replying since they were now at their destination.

Small blessings.


Hermione bit into her orange segment, trying to ignore Harry and Ron. She hated the way they had been looking at her and acting around her ever since Theo broke up with her. It was as if they were afraid she'd go into hysterics at any moment. Even now, just sitting in the common room they were acting almost skittish.

Yes, it was upsetting to be broken up. Yes, it was even worse when she had to work together with him and endure his indifferene. Yes, she'd even been spending some time in private desperately trying to get over it all. But she had not had any public emotional outbursts and she didn't plan on having any, either.

At least not unless they kept doing this. It grated on her nerves.

Harry squirmed in his seat. "So, um, is everything going ok? With you, I mean."

Oh, so he was trying to be understanding now? That should go over well. "It's fine. I'm fine. Everything is fine." Ok, the statement was a bit overkill, but she wasn't actually feeling all that stable today. Maybe she should just go to bed.

"She's fine, Harry," Ron wearily said and then shrunk under the heat of her glare.

Thank you, Mr. Obvious.

"Ok. Good," Harry muttered, looking away.

"How's Ginny?" Hermione asked, full well knowing that the bugger was still punishing his girlfriend. She popped the last orange segment in her mouth, watching her friends.

Harry shrugged. "She's ok, I guess."

Ron snorted. "Yeah. Right." He didn't look too happy about the mention of his sister. Apparently he hadn't found it in him to confront Harry yet.

Well, maybe Hermione would save him the trouble. She carefully swallowed her orange.

"What is it exactly she did?" she asked. "So she had a fling with Zabini in the past, long before the two of you got together. Boohoo."

Both Ron and Harry looked mildly shocked at her statement.

"Um…" Harry said. "She hid it from me, for one thing."

"She thought you might overreact," Hermione pointed out. "And, Merlin, did you prove her wrong."

Harry shook his head. "I really don't think it's any of—"

"It's because he's Slytherin, isn't it?" Hermione asked. "You're as prejudiced as the worst of them, you know. You're also not-so-secretly glad that Theo and I aren't together anymore, aren't you?"

Harry's eyes had narrowed but he kept silent. A sure sign that she'd pushed a button.

"You know what?" Hermione said getting to her feet. "Harry? Get over it. If you want to finish with Ginny, finish it, but don't blame it on her. She did nothing wrong. This whole thing is stupid. There's nothing wrong with seeing a Slytherin."

"Yeah?" Harry asked in a much too calm voice. "They're so very nice, then? Is that why he finished with you after only a few weeks?"

"Harry—" Ron began.

"Sometimes relationships just don't work!" Hermione pointed out.

"Or maybe he just had his fun."

Hermione's hands clenched. She refused to take the words at their crudest meaning, because if she did, she might have to hex the living daylight out of one of her best friends. "Even if that were true," she said, "that would have nothing to do with his house. And why keep punishing Ginny for something that happened before you were even together?"

"Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the house," Harry conceded too off-handedly to really sound like he meant it. "It has to do with the people in that house you seem to choose. Zabini is one of the worst of his kind. And when she told me she slept with him? I had to wonder just what exactly is wrong with her."

"Don't go there, Harry," Ron interjected. "That's my sister you're talking about."

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered. "But I've watched Theodore Nott since the break-up and he doesn't seem affected at all. He doesn't care about you, Hermione. He never cared about you. He was toying with you all along."

Hermione's fisted hands clenched even tighter. "You don't have a clue what you're on about!" They were talking about Theo for crying out loud. Since when was he easy to read?

"But he's right," Ron muttered so softly it was barely audible, before raising his voice just a little bit. "We watch you hurt and him… he seems to not care at all. What do you think that does to us?"

"And who are the two of you to talk, huh?" Hermione asked, fighting to stay in control of her temper. "One of you doesn't give a shit about hurting a girl who clearly loves him and the other one actually fancies a Slytherin girl himself and thinks that no one notices!"

Harry blinked and then looked at Ron. "What?"

Ron's face was crimson going on puce. "Nothing. She's bluffing."

Hermione crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

Harry glanced at her for just a second, before looking back at Ron. "Who?" His voice was colored by curiosity rather than censure. Go figure.

"No one," Ron insisted, sending Hermione a betrayed look, before murmuring some vague excuse and fleeing to his dormitory.

Harry turned back to Hermione. "Who?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she smugly asked before flouncing off.


Hermione closed her book and began rubbing her temples. Libraries were nice. Books were nice. But spending all of your time at the library hiding was actually rather wearying. Maybe she should just stop hiding and go about her business the way she used to.

She could pretend she was over Theo, sure. She could also act like nothing had happened around Harry and Ron. It would just be horribly awkward. She still stood by everything she'd said to Harry, but she was feeling a little guilty for embarrassing Ron. He hadn't deserved that. If he was moving on it was a good thing.

Sighing, she decided that it probably was time to get back.

No sooner had she gotten to her feet, though, before someone very blond entered the library and began speaking to a Ravenclaw boy. Great. Not really wanting to confront Malfoy, Hermione ducked for cover behind a few shelves, and then proceeded to peek out. Malfoy wasn't really all that social with the people in the other houses, so what was this?

With some annoyance, she saw Malfoy note something down in a small pocket book. So he was functioning as Deputy, then? For a person that she'd just spent the better part of two hours in a room with? Great. Just great. She just loved it when someone ignored her existence.

Never mind the horrible embarrassment she had felt when Dean had told her that the boys' showers weren't working and she'd had to go check—earning some strange looks—and then inform both Filch and McGonagall—earning some more strange looks and raised eyebrows.

Come to think of it, considering all the worse possibilities there were, maybe it was a good thing that he was telling Malfoy rather than her.

The conversation seemed to end and she ducked back, deciding to take a good long walk around the stacks before attempting to sneak out. Maybe she'd even find something interesting to read.

She was nothing if not crafty.

When she turned around the first corner, however, she realized that she'd been found out. A certain young, blond wizard was already there, waiting for her.


"Stop it!" he hissed. "Just… stop it! I'm tired of this. I'm tired of almost getting what I want and then having to stop because of you. And I'm tired of you never acknowledging that I do stop. I'm tired of having to toss off, knowing that I could have had the real thing. Next time you come to my room, I'm not stopping, all right? Next time you come to my room… we'll both know what you're there for."