A/N- I wish I had something interesting to say, but I don't. So I'm just going to let you guys get on with the chapter…

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, the name on the book would say my name and not J.K. Rowling.

Regret

"Are you alright?" Harry loomed over Hermione's shoulder. "I've never known for you to not be able to do your homework." Hermione had been staring blankly down at her work, letting the ink drip onto her parchments.

"I'm just not very focused right now, Harry. That's all, now please go." She was in a horrible mood and she just wanted to be left alone. She sat in the Gryffindor common room, not the quietest place around but she figured everyone would leave her alone if she was doing her work.

"Fine," Hermione looked up from her papers and watched Harry turn around and walk away from the reflection in the window. She huffed in frustration and crammed her work into her book before closing it. She needed to get some air and get away from everybody but the curfew was ten minutes away and there would be no point. Hermione let her mind aimlessly wonder over to Draco. She had told herself not to think about him ever since their last encounter but she finally gave in. She wondered if he was thinking about her. Probably not, he hates you now. Hermione frowned at her thought. The problem with Draco was well besides the fact of him being Draco and everything he stands for is that the "relationship" was rushing way too fast and out of control. Especially with their interesting and not so friendly history.

Draco Malfoy had pure hatred towards her only a month and a half ago, now he was in falling for her? No way, Hermione did not buy it. She figured what he liked was the sex. He craved it and she gave in to him, making him addicted, just like her. She just began to realize that she had feelings for him too. But what was she going to say to him after everything? "Hey! I like you a lot too and sorry for using you!" Yeah, right. She just did not see that going down so well. All Hermione wanted to do was to talk to him. If they weren't going to make this work then she at least needed some closure. But she wasn't even sure if she wanted to make this work. Did she really want to go through everything that she would need to with him? Draco Malfoy was indeed a package. And a very heavy one at that.

Hermione pushed herself back from the desk and stood up. She was going to risk it and take a walk. She could not be cooped up in here any longer or she might go crazy. Hermione patted her wand in her robe, checking to make sure it was in the right spot, and quickly left the common room before anybody could ask where she was going.

Draco Malfoy kicked his polished black shoes off of his feet after having put them on to come down and lazily leaned back against the Slytherin couch in their common room. He was glad he was finally alone as his eyes wandered around the empty room. He was not able to fall asleep, and decided to come down and relax on the couch. He had too much on his mind to fall asleep and he didn't even know where to begin. He cursed at himself for following Hermione's sobs from down the hall those five days ago, having that gut feeling that he knew it was her, and finding her balled up against the wall. He should have just walked the other direction but he didn't.

Draco cracked his knuckles; contemplating whether he wanted to sit there or walk around the castle. Finally wrestling with his decision, he stood up and pulled his wand from his pocket. "Lumos," The tip of his wand lit up, providing a little bit of light for him to see around the area. He slipped on his shoes and snuck out.

Draco quietly wandered through the halls, as if of an expert, he made no noise. Sneaking out at night was more common for him than most kids. But this time, he did not have anywhere to go, he was simply clearing his mind of all thoughts of Hermione Granger and anything else connected to her. As he mindlessly walked down a corridor he heard a soft gasp come from behind him and he whipped around and pointed his wand in the direction of the sound. "Who's there?" He demanded quietly. One of the picture frames complained about the noise he was making, but Draco ignored it. He squinted into the darkness and stuck his wand out further, trying to catch a glimpse of someone.

"Ron?" Harry picked up an item from his drawer. "Did you perhaps use my Marauders Map?" Harry held the map up to his face and turned to face Ron.

"Why would I use that?" Ron chewed on a licorice. "I don't see any use of it in the past few months."

"Did you see anyone go through here?"

"Besides you?"

"Well I haven't needed to use anything in this drawer and when I opened it the map was on top of everything." Ron raised an eyebrow at Harry and swallowed his licorice.

"And that's a bad thing because...?"

"Because I specifically hide it under everything so no one can find it!" Harry threw the map down on his bed in frustration. He was always so careful where he put his map so no one would take it. The only people that knew where its whereabouts were - were Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. But they wouldn't dare take it from him without asking.

"I don't know mate, but I for one haven't even seen that thing in forever." Ron leaned back against his bed frame and grabbed another licorice and stuck it in his mouth. Harry looked down at his bed, took his wand out and pointed it at the map,

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The map began to show itself as the name of the map appeared first before a stream of the writing followed through the whole thing.

"What are you doing?" Ron refocused his attention on Harry as Harry picked up the map and opened it.

"I don't know. I just have this feeling." Harry admitted.

"That does not sound good." Ron stood up and walked over behind him, peering over his shoulder, Harry opened the map in his hands and both of their eyes caught the first two people's names that showed up.

"What the bloody-"

"I said show yourself!" Draco hissed, finally feeling more than annoyed. The person slowly walked out from behind the wall and held their wand out too. Draco nearly dropped his wand. "Granger?"

"Malfoy?" Hermione's face contorted to one of anger and frowned at him. "Following me?" She demanded.

"Yeah right," He scoffed, "I should be asking you!"

"Me!" Hermione tried to keep her voice down, "You're the one who followed me after I left the Great Hall a few days ago!"

"I didn't follow you! You were blubbering so loudly anyone could have stumbled upon you!"

"Funny how it had to be you!" She stepped closer to him.

"Lucky it's me now, getting caught down here late at night, Granger. What are you doing here anyways?"

"Why should I have to answer that first?" All Hermione wanted to do was find some peace and quiet and not think about Draco Malfoy and of course her luck, she turned a corner and saw a black shadowy figure and it scared her. She pulled back and accidently let out a gasp. She heard the person ordering her to show herself and when she finally realized that it was not a Professor, to her horror it was Draco Malfoy. Out of all people to run into, she would have taken Snape any day instead. "I'm going," She stated, not wanting to be in his presence anymore.

"-hell?" Ron said from behind into Harry's ear. "What are Malfoy and Hermione doing there together? Do you think that git is bullying her?" Ron backed up from Harry and went to retrieve his wand. "I'll kill him!"

"Ron- no!" Harry held his wand out, using it to point at him. Ron turned around and shrugged his shoulders,

"You think I'm going to sit here and let him torture her!"

"Ron we don't know what is going on but you're staying here. I don't want us to get caught and it'll be easier to handle the situation by myself."

"By yourself?" Ron frowned at Harry.

"Well you might cause a bit of a... ruckus." Harry began to walk towards the door and looked back at the rest of the boys sleeping then back at Ron. "Wait here," He instructed before he left Ron's sight.

"Oh you're not going anywhere!" Draco reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Hermione spun around and used her arm to fling him off.

"Don't touch me! You're not allowed to anymore."

"You started this Granger," Draco reminded her. Hermione rolled her eyes,

"Still using that one? Well it doesn't faze me anymore." She met his gaze. "It should have never happened. God, what was I thinking? This whole thing is so messed up! You and me- together, it's so wrong. More than wrong. And you don't have feelings for me, Draco. It's just lust, there's a difference." Draco frowned at her,

"That how you feel then, is it?"

"Yes! And I wish you felt that way too! So we can at least just try to move on from this and never think about it again."

"Doubt it," he scoffed.

"Please," She reached out to touch his hand but decided against it, dropping her hand back to her

side. "Just- forget about this, okay?"

"No," They stared at each other for a minute, both trying to figure out what they wanted to say next.

Harry quickly made his way to Hermione and Draco, constantly looking at the map to make sure they didn't move or a teacher was coming. His breath quickened as he got closer to them, slowing down his pace, he let his light out on his wand the minute he heard their voices and hid behind the wall that turned into their corridor, listening in.

"No isn't a choice, Draco." He heard Hermione huff in frustration. "It's done with."

"I'm the one who decided that earlier, now wasn't I?" He heard Draco say.

"I'm sorry; I was in a weak moment."

"Yeah, I got that."

"It should all just be forgotten," Harry heard her draw in a shaky breath. "Goodbye Draco," Harry quickly slipped away before she could see him, and he darted back to the Gryffindor common room.

Once Harry got back into his shared room, Ron quickly sat up from the bed and a weary expression crossed his face. "Harry? What's going on? You look a bit pale." Harry held the map back up and searched for Hermione and Draco's names. Hermione's was gone as Draco was still hanging about in the halls. Harry went over to his bed and tossed the map down on it.

"Mischief Managed," He held his wand over the map and once the map turned into a blank piece of parchment again he dropped his wand and faced Ron. "I just heard the strangest thing." He whispered, trying to be as quiet as he could, careful not to wake the others.

"Like?" Ron pushed himself off from the bed and walked over to Harry. "Were they fighting?"

"Sort of, more of a disagreement or something. I don't know!" Harry scratched his head. He then proceeded to tell Ron everything he had heard in the halls.

"Well that's it?" Ron asked, hoping to get more information.

"That's it," Ron sighed, mimicking Harry by scratching his head, and wandered back over to his bed. He faced Harry again and shook his head.

"It's done with? Weak moment? Everything be forgotten? Goodbye Draco?" Ron slowly sat down on his bed, trying to process the information and decipher what it meant. "I just don't get it," He looked up at Harry. "What does it all mean?"

"I don't know," Harry also sat down on his bed. "I'm afraid to ask."

"Should we... ask Hermione, I mean?"

"No, at least not now, we don't have enough information." Ron nodded, in agreement with Harry and lay down on his pillow. "I wouldn't even know what to ask her." Harry admitted. He got up and put the map in his drawer, under everything, and closed it hard.

Hermione picked at her food the next day at breakfast. She had been sitting there for fifteen minutes and she had hardly taken two bites of her food. She noticed that Ron and Harry had been staring at her a lot that morning, probably being able to tell that something was wrong. Hermione didn't bother making up some lie, she just decided to let it go and let them worry about her. In fact they should be worried about her. She was worried about herself. When she came in that morning she kept her head down, careful not to look at the Slytherin table and she also sat opposite where she normally sits, her back facing that table so she would not have to see Draco. Why should she care though? Everything was over with, right? Everything is over with. She kept repeating to herself.

Hermione sighed dramatically, not meaning to and it drew the attention back to her. "Something on your mind?" Ron said. She caught Lavender rolling her eyes. "Anything you'd like to share?" Harry shot Ron a look and she wondered what that was about.

"Not particularly... I guess I'm just tired is all."

"Up late last night?" Ron pressed. This time Harry took action and kicked Ron under the table.

"Um what's going on?" Hermione straightened up in her seat. "Something you'd like to share?" And with that the boys shook their heads no and Harry looked back down at his food and Ron gave his full attention back to Lavender. "Alright then," She gathered up her books from the table and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked her.

"I don't know," Hermione said truthfully. She looked Harry in the eyes, in her mind begging him to help her and hoping just maybe he somehow knew, and left before he could ask her anything else.

Hermione sat on the stones outside of the castle. She fiddled with a rock in her hand, staring at it. Finally losing interest in the rock she looked back up at the scenery. She only had a few more minutes before she needed to get to class. Which she was dreading, of course Draco Malfoy had to be in there. She had a total of three classes with him and the past few days it had been awkward but now... Who knows what it will be like? She thanked God detention was over with. She kept going back to the conversation they had last night, her eyes stinging with tears every time. What if she sees him and actually started to cry? That could just not happen. She made a note to herself that every time she looked at him to pinch the bottom palm of her hand.

The rock went flailing through the air as she chucked it as hard as she could. Pretending to throw her feelings for Draco along with it. It was so hard for her to deny something again when she finally admitted it to herself. She did have feelings for Draco. But she wasn't sure what kind. How could she be sure without exactly being around him? She knew she wasn't in love though, that she had had for Ron. Hermione knew what it felt like to be in love. Everything with him was way too short amount of time for it to blossom into love, yet. She was strongly attracted to him. She knew that for sure. But was that all? Just sexual tension? Lust? She even said it to Draco himself last night. And he hadn't denied that he knew the difference between lust and anything else. In fact, now that she thought about it, he didn't really say anything. Had he finally come to terms that it was only that?

As much as she did not want to admit it, it stung to think that he only wanted her for sex. But also relieved, that both of them could move on. Then again he didn't admit to anything. Hermione sighed and put her face in her hands. She thought last night was closure. But obviously she had been wrong. All last night did was leave more questions with her and still the same amount of feelings. She obviously understood that the feelings weren't going to go away in a night. That only time could fix that. But the questions? Were they just going to eat at her forever? Or was she in need to just forget about them and move on?

Hermione decided that forgetting about them would clearly be the best. And moving on was certainly what she needed. But she was having a bit of some trouble with the moving on part. "Hermione?" Hermione, deep into her thoughts, jumped at the sound of her name. She looked over to see Ginny standing above her. "There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you." She sat crisscrossed on the ground in front of Hermione. "I've been meaning to talk to you." Ginny was about to continue but noticed the troubled look on her friend's face. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Hermione shook her head.

"No nothing, hey maybe we can talk later though. I'm probably not the best person to have a conversation with right now." Ginny frowned at Hermione, her face becoming one of worry. "It's just I've got a lot on my mind right now and I'm just trying to sort through it all." Hermione answered as honestly as she could. Ginny accepted the answer, and Hermione thanked that she did not pry anymore. "We should be getting to class anyways." Hermione grabbed her books from the ground and pushed herself off of the stone and offered her free hand to Ginny, who took it.

Ginny and Hermione walked back into school, their footsteps syncing into step as that was the only noise the two of them made until their mumbled goodbyes to each other as they parted ways to their classes, which conveniently for Hermione was on the other side of the school to Ginny's. She couldn't stand to be around the awkward silence between them any longer.

Hermione finally arrived at class, being one of the last people to come in, surprisingly. She frowned, knowing she shouldn't have stayed outside that long. Her eyes immediately fell on the back of Draco's head and she pinched at her palm and then again and then again, all the way to her seat. She dared not look at him as Snape began to lecture. She even decided against answering one of the questions, not wanting the attention on her. Harry gave her a sideways glance, when she didn't raise her hand but she ignored him. As Snape waited for somebody his eyes settled on her. "Miss Granger, finally not have the answer to something?" She wanted to laugh in his face. Was that an understatement or what! The past few months she did not have an answer to anything that she felt or did, making her feel lost and confused about her whole existence. Was she raised to prance half naked on a school's table in the middle of the night? No. Fuck with the enemy? And then fall for him? Hell no.

That's where it all initially started, that damn night she went down with a bunch of her fellow Gryffindor girl friend's to model down the table! She cursed that night. Hermione's attention went back to Snape as he came closer and hovered over her. "Well?" He tried. She was really getting pissed off at him for bringing the attention on her.

"No sir," She looked down at the table.

"Pity," He said, not looking upset about it at all and looked up at the rest of the students. "Mr. Malfoy," Hermione craned her neck around to look at Draco. Draco answered Snape's question, who then kept quiet for a minute and then what seemed like an eternity for Hermione, Snape turned around and said, "Correct," Draco's eyes quickly locked with Hermione, and something flashed through them but she had no idea what. She faced front again and pinched her palm at least five times.

By the end of class, Hermione had snuck a peak at Draco three more times; thankfully they were too quick for him to notice. But she punished herself by pinching her palms countless amounts of times. She even began to do so when she stopped focusing on what Snape was saying and began thinking about him.

Hermione pushed herself up from her seat, using her palms and she winced. Harry caught her pained expression and looked at her concerned. "What's wrong?" Hermione faced her hand that had stung her and frowned. She had pinched herself into bleeding. She quickly wiped the blood on her robe and gathered her books into her arms.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Harry tried again. He seemed generally concerned and for a second Hermione believed that maybe Harry had caught earlier in their exchange that she was crying out for help.

"Yes, positive," She didn't even wait for him or say goodbye as she swept out of the classroom. What was the matter with her? She wanted help but anytime someone was willing to give it to her she did not let them in. She blamed Draco for it. Ever since their first heated exchange, back when he hungrily looked her up and down practically naked, her mood had changed into a more well Slytherin-esque one. He was rubbing off on her. Only another reason not to be with him, she frowned.

Hermione rounded the corner, lost in her thoughts, her palm stinging, as she collided with Neville Longbottom. "Oh god," She caught herself as she grabbed the wall and held herself up. Neville sat on the floor, his expression turning into a famous one of his 'why does this always happen to me' and sat there in a slump before quickly scrambling to his feet before he got more looks from people in the hall. Neville looked at Hermione, as if he hadn't even noticed it was her he ran into.

"Hermione!" He exclaimed, "I'm so sorry," Hermione felt her eyes threaten with tears.

"It's okay, Neville, really." She bent down to retrieve her things from the floor, trying to cover up her tears as they dropped from her eyes and onto the floor.

"My fault really," He began and bent down to get his books also.

"No, it wasn't your fault." She had all her books in hand and backed up from him. "I'm sorry!" She flew from his sight, running down the halls as tears poured from her eyes. She was sorry. For everything. When she snuck out that night with the Gryffindor girls. Modeled down the table. Getting caught and having to serve detention. Using Malfoy as a distraction. Having sex with him. Lying to people. Sneaking around. Slapping and yelling at Ron. Flushing Lavender's necklace down the toilet. Breaking Malfoy's heart. Everything. And most importantly, falling hard for him. She cried her eyes out as if she never cried before. The past few months really hitting home. She changed so much and she regretted that. She wanted to be the same Hermione as last year. Before she gave her innocence to Ron. And falling for his trick.

Thunder boomed outside and Hermione darted for the doors, running as fast as she could to get outside. Before she entered the rain, she dropped her books to the ground, and when she was finally out she busted out crying even harder than before. She didn't even know that was possible. Her life was a complete and utter mess. And she wished she was the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz so she could melt away in the rain and hopefully be forgotten. And all her secrets would melt away with her. It would be for the better.

A/N- I know, there still broken up… but maybe next chapter things will get better?

Let's see if I can max to one hundred reviews; that would be awesome!

Brittany