Draco knew the differences between love and lust. He'd never felt love, but he'd read enough books and watched enough plays to see how it was portrayed. He was able to nail down the rules and principles of love, so that when he performed it, people bought his performance. It seemed genuine to them, but it was just the basic outline of love they were seeing. Because Draco didn't know the little details and hidden possibilities of love, they were for other people to experience. Not him.

He sat up in bed and tried desperately not to think of the jeopardy that he had just put his job in by sleeping with the person who was essentially, his deputy. Her blonde hair was cascaded across the pillow, and her breathing was even and relaxed.

"Oh sweet Jesus," he moaned. "What am I doing?"

He knew what he was doing. He was using lust, a strong emotion in itself, to combat lust for someone completely out of bounds. So he used sex, to try and deny any unwanted feelings, to prove to himself that he could have whoever he wanted. And to do that, he had slept with Astoria. He stood up and walked over to the window, the sun was high in the air, but he could tell the air was crisp and cold. He glanced down at the grounds, his head tilting to the side as he watched two students walk towards the Lake, their hands intertwined. Astoria shifted, on the bed behind him and he glanced at her quickly, then turned his attention back out the window.

His breathing remained steady, and his facial features were impassive. Despite, the fact that Granger was stood there, her hands locked with Weasley's as she gently kissed his face. His heart thudded against his chest and his hands balled into fists, he thought back to his talk with his father yesterday and his features hardened. He was here to finish the job his father had started, emotions would get in the way.

Unwanted emotions needed to be stopped.

He turned back and instead of heading to the shower and preparing for the day ahead, he slipped back into bed and began to press light kisses along Astoria bare shoulders. He smirked, sex was a good way to forget.

XXXXXXXXX

"Have you heard the news?" Daphne asked as Pansy came strutting into the dinner hall, her sleek hair tied back from her face.

"Of course I've heard, once again the Golden Trio manage to become the main focus of attention, even with their tedious love lifes,"

"Don't you realise what this means?"

Pansy raised an eyebrow at her, her lips seeming to form an ever present pout.

"It means that whatever feelings you thought Granger had for Malfoy are nonexistent. She doesn't care about Malfoy, as everyone's always known her attention is firmly latched onto the ginge."

Pansy scoffed and took a sip of water from her goblet, "Don't underestimate her Queenie,"

"You can't honestly believe that Granger, the curly haired prude, is after her teacher?"

"I don't just believe it darling, I know it," Pansy replied, idly flicking through pages of the newspaper.

Daphne just stared at her in disbelief. The more she spent with the girl, the more she was beginning to realise how screwed up she actually was.

"Urm Daph?"

Daphne looked up from the table to catch the well known blue eyes of Tracey. Her heart quickly sped up and she felt the familiar fluttering in her stomach. Glancing away from her lover her eyes slid down to the smirking face of Pansy. Daphne scowled and Pansy raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.

"Can I talk to you please?" Tracey asked, her brunette hair falling just over her shoulder. It had been a while since Daphne had spent any time with her, so focused on Pansy and her nutcase scheme.

"Yeah, course," she replied quickly, rising from the table and gathering her paper.

"Remember sweetie, you're meeting with me in about oh, forty five minutes to go over our plan of action."

"Yes I know," Daphne murmured back, gently pushing Tracey away from the table, her hand lingering on her back for just a little too long.

XXXXXXXXX

Hermione tapped her foot against her chair leg, and glanced around the room. Everyone was sat in a circle, preparing to be told the plan of work for today, but there was no teacher. Both Malfoy and Professor Greengrass were half an hour late. It was pissing her off, schedules had to be kept to, and any excuse to be annoyed at Malfoy was a good excuse.

The doors banged open and Paravti and Lavender raced into the room, giggling manically together. Hermione rolled her eyes at the pair of them, as they dragged chairs across the room and pushed them next to Hermione's. She caught a snippet of their hushed conversation.

"… I swear Lav, she came out of his room, her hair all tousled and she definitely had the after-sex glow…"

Hermione closed her eyes against their gossip and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes snapped open a little while later when she felt fingers gently stroking across her thumb. She turned and saw Ron, his chair pressed right next to hers, his fingers rubbing soothing patterns against her skin. Her stomach plummeted for a moment, with what felt a lot like guilt, before she forced a smile onto her face and laced their fingers together. Leaning across, ignoring the others gasps of surprise or happiness she gently kissed him, like she had done earlier in the morning down by the lake. And it was nice. It was, really really nice, just not what she wanted.

"Kindly refrain from doing that in my lesson Granger,"

She pulled away at the interruption and glanced up at the face of the voice she knew so very well. She locked eyes with him, and it was like they both just knew. She knew that she as was trapped in this thing that was going on between them as well as he did. The moment passed and he cleared his throat, walking to the head of the classroom and turning to the eager students.

"So today, we're going to be leaving,"

Everyone in the room frowned and glanced at each other.

"Going where?" Blaise asked.

"To Gringott's Theatre." He replied shortly, ignoring the short gasps that came from every student in the room. Gringotts was renowned as one of the best theatres in the world, holding performances that no other theatre would dream of, or be able to afford.

Hermione looked over at Blaise and grinned, it was his dream to go to Gringotts, and now he didn't even have to try and fight his way in.

"Awesome," he whispered to her and she nodded, feeling as Ron's grip on her hand tightened slightly. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Ron subtle display of possessiveness. But then she supposed it was to be expected, her relationship with Blaise was so speculated about, that Hermione knew some of the First Year girls had started to write their own stories based on the two of them, something she wasn't sure whether she should be amused by or slightly worried.

Professor Greengrass stood next to Malfoy at the top of the room, and Hermione mentally hit herself for noticing how close she was stood to him, and the well hidden hickey that was just peeking out from her top. She also smacked herself from noticing how Lavender and Parvati, nudged each other and giggled. She just prayed to a nonexistent God, that what they had been gossiping about before what not in any way, about Professor Greengrass and Malfoy.

"So, everyone go to the entrance of the school and wait there, Tori will show you the way,"

"Tori will show the way," Hermione mimicked under her breath, a nasal biting quality in her tone of voice. Blaise leaned across into Hermione's personal space and tilted her chin up to meet her eyes, ignoring Ron's small burst of protest and the intimacy of the gesture. Blaise raised a dark eyebrow at her, and she bit her lip, a blush of colour coming to her cheeks. She knew that she would have to explain her mimic to him later on, hiding her feelings from Blaise was practically impossible. She turned away from him to plant a kiss on Ron's cheek, when she caught sight of Draco staring at the three of them.

That must of looked so oddly perfect, Hermione caught between the two men who were making her life Hell. On and off stage.

"Granger, stay behind a moment." Malfoy called, and she hated the way her heartbeat picked up, like a stupid puppy, eager to hear its Masters voice. She stood up from her chair and pulled Ron up from his too, she stood directly in front of Ron. Her back and her eyesight away from Malfoy.

She sighed a little but smiled at Ron, whose eyes had narrowed at the blond, watching him over Hermione's shoulder.

"I'll be one minute," she promised quietly.

"I can wait for you outside," Ron suggested and she shook her head.

"No, seriously, go save me a seat. I'm a big girl, I can handle him," she smiled again and something must have made her performance convincing because his eyes softened and he leaned down and lightly brushed his lips against hers.

She turned and watched him walk out the door, a gentle smile still playing on her lips. The moment he was gone, she turned back around and raised one eyebrow at Malfoy.

"Yes?"

"You and Weasley," he said it bluntly, nothing showing in his face or eyes. Hermione cocked her head to one side, because if there was one thing that was a given with Malfoy, it's that whenever they engaged in this; this weird, sexual tension filled awkwardness, he was full of emotion. But now it was like he was empty.

"Yes," she repeated, watching him intently for any flicker of emotion.

He nodded, then turned back to his desk "Don't let it affect you're studies,"

Hermione blinked. He completely ignored her, the silence echoing louder than any of the fights she had had with him, had.

She frowned confused, then turned to walk out of the door, pausing before walking right back to him.

"That's it?" She asked, shaking her head slightly in confusion.

Draco turned to look at her. "That's it," he confirmed.

"No snide comment about my choice of boyfriend, or as Ron was invited to come to this school and I wasn't he could do better?"

"It's really not any of my business,"

"That never stopped you before," she murmured, watching him.

He pressed his lips together and nodded towards the door, "You should head out to the coach,"

"No," she shook her head defiantly, and he raised his eyebrows at her.

"No?" He questioned.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong," she replied to him, crossing her arms. He barked out a laugh and leaned against his desk.

"There is nothing wrong with me Granger. Don't not assume that just because I am not indulging in your petty arguments that there must be something the matter. Now go,"

Hermione inhaled, the words stinging more than they should have. He was arrogant and cold and most of the time treated her like she was inferior, but he had never been intentionally hurtful before. "You're being different," she accused and he narrowed his eyes.

"Be quiet Granger and go to the bus,"

"Don't treat me like a child," she retorted, the familiar sick satisfaction lacing its way through her veins as she finally got through to him, and engaged him in their normal banter.

"Then stop acting like one."

"How am I acting like a child? All I'm doing is enquiring after you?"

"It's not your place to do so. Our relationship is strictly professional."

"Oh please," she scoffed, "Our relationship has never been professional. Most of the time, because you refuse to let it be that way,"

"Do not blame this on me," he snarled and for a moment Hermione wondered if she had gone too far. If she should of backed down and left, but then she remembered how in her Third Year, she and Harry had defied their Ministry by helping a convict, his godfather, escape. Whilst it was a story for another time she would not be intimidated by him.

"Whatever is going on between us-" she began, only to be cut off as he span back round and glared at her.

"No. There is nothing happening here. At all, you are a delusional child with a crush. That is all, and I refuse to be caught up in your games."

"In my games?" Hermione gasped, fury enriching her words as she took a step closer to him. "My games? What about yours? What about how you treat me? How one minute you treat me like absolute crap and then the next you're looking at me like-"

"Like what?" He hissed, moving towards her, his proximity perhaps for the first time, was very unwanted.

"Like I'm…"

"Do not finish that sentence." He growled, stepping closer he grabbed the back of her head and bought it close to his face. His eyes bore into hers and she wasn't entirely sure of what he was going to do next.

"There is nothing I could ever want from you Granger," he murmured, watching her face as his words pierced into her very being. She swallowed, desperately blinking against the sting of tears.

"Get out," he whispered.

And so she fled.

XXXXXXXXX

"I need you to do something for me."

Hermione wearily turned around, and cursed the lone tear that rolled down her cheek. She inhaled deeply.

"And what would that be?" She asked, her voice trembling a little. Daphne Greengrass stood forward out of the shadows and walked towards her, stopping just in front of her face and snatching the teardrop from her cheek, pressing it between her fingers.

"I know you don't trust me, nor do you have reason to. But I promise that what I ask of you is in your best interest."

"Just tell me what it is," Hermione murmured.

"Promise me that you will not under any circumstances, pursue Professor Malfoy."

Hermione's mouth dropped open and she stared at Daphne. The blonde blinked right back at her, taking of her glasses and tucking them on top of her head. Her green eyes gazed at Hermione intently, and Hermione found herself huffing out a laugh.

"From what I've heard you're an intelligent girl Daphne, how could you say something so ludicrous?"

"I'm a writer Granger. Part of my inspiration comes from people, I see how the pair of you interact. Now please promise me."

Hermione picked up the pieces of her stupid hurting heart and threw them away, out into the blackness, never again.

"I absolutely promise to never ever, even in my wildest dreams, pursue the vile scumbag that is Malfoy. Now in return you must promise to never think up such bizarre, simply disgusting things again." Hermione laughed, pulling her cloak of acting around her as a shield.

"I have to go, we're going to Gringotts," she smiled hesitantly at the blonde, remembering that she was still a Slytherin. And with Slytherin's performance was everything.

Turning her back, she began to make her way out to the front of the school.

"Why were you crying?"

Hermione whipped her head back around.

"If the idea of you and Malfoy being linked in any kind of way is so preposterous, then why did you leave his room crying?" Daphne asked, watching Hermione with sad strange eyes.

"Hayfever,"

XXXXXXXXX

Draco walked into the Gringotts theatre way after the performance they were meant to see had finished. He had needed time, away from his group and Astoria and everything and her. He slipped into the darkened hall and looked up at the stage frowning a little at the sight of Granger and Weasley stood up there talking with people he knew would of been performing in the earlier show.

"Hey," he murmured when he reached Astoria, gently touching her arm. She turned to face him and smiled her deep blue eyes outlined with charcoal, her hair floating round her face. " What's going on?" He asked gesturing towards the stage.

"Well they knew we were coming so they took the rest of the kids behind the stage to do different workshops with them depending on what they're doing in the performance. You got here just in time actually. They ran some exercises with Hermione and Ron and they're about to perform,"

A couple of moments after the Astoria had finished talking Granger rolled her shoulders back as Ron walked to the other side of the stage.

"They're doing their kiss scene," Astoria murmured to him, grinning.

Draco nodded in reply, his eyes firmly fixed on the curly haired girl, despite how much he wanted to tear his eyes away, he just couldn't. Stood on the stage with the lights reflecting her hair and her composed 'working' face, she just looked so beautiful. He swallowed and gritted his teeth.

Leah walked towards the door and wrenched it open. She stood silently for a moment staring at Ryan as he watched her In return.

"Long time no see," she murmured, stepping out of the doorway and letting him into her flat. It felt strange to have a man who wasn't Max alone with her. She went and sat on the chair next to her dining table. She didn't say anything, she knew she didn't have to. He had seen her red eyes. He knew she was missing him.

The radio softly hummed in the background, a song she didn't recognise filling the air. She lifted her eyes to find a hand outstretched towards her. She tiredly glanced up to see that Ryan had shrugged off his jacket and was softly smiling at her.

"I don't bite," he said quietly and she wearily took his hand, sighing as he pulled her up to stand in front of him.

He pulled her close to him and began to sway them to the music, she kept her body tense and her chin just managed to rest on his shoulder. He spun them gently around the room and soon her eyes were over spilling with tears. They rolled onto his shoulder and soaked into his shirt but she couldn't stop. He spun her away from him and when he pulled her back in close, his thumbs stroked across her cheeks.

"One so beautiful, should not be so sad," he murmured leaning down close to her. Her heart began to beat faster and faster and she felt trembles breaking out across her body. Her heart was breaking, slowly ripping in two. Because she couldn't have both. Not both of them. And as he slowly kissed her, his tongue exploring her mouth and his hands caressing her face, she found she couldn't bring herself to care.

So she kissed back, twining her arms around his neck and pressing her body closer-

Hermione pulled away from Ron as an extremely loud bang echoed across the Hall, causing the other actors watching to jump as well. She looked over to the exit to see the door slowly banging against the wall, having just been forced open by someone in a rage.

That was when she noticed Malfoy was missing.

XXXXXXXXX

"Hey watch it buddy-"

Malfoy pushed the man up outside the wall of the theatre, ignoring the gasps from the people around him. He pressed his arm against the man's throat and found a sick satisfaction in the way his eyes widened in fear.

He needed to vent.

In Malfoy's mind jealousy was passion turned into madness. Sick, burning, torturing madness. The kind of madness that made people do awful, awful things. But they had been kissing like they were-

She had been kissing him, like he was something special. Like he was worthy of what she had to offer. He wanted to rip Weasley from her, destroy her memories of him and rid him from her mind. So that she would never do that little smile that only Weasley seemed to receive and she wouldn't twist her fingers in his hair.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, releasing the man from his grip. He ran his hand through his hair and looked back at Gringotts. In all honesty, he was proud that he had got out of there alive with murdering, kicking or punching anyone. The man he had held just now was a small blip. A tiny mistake.

"Screw this," he screamed suddenly, ignoring the strange glances he received from people as he stormed away from the theatre and the person inside it that was slowly poisoning him from the inside out.

XXXXXXXXX

She was sick of his dramatics, sick of his pretence of nonchalance, sick of his mind games, sick of his rudeness. Just sick of him. This was her life, this was her biggest chance, in his hands and she refused to let him just toy with it and her like this. She marched up every flight of stairs, her face probably red and her hair flying everywhere.

She would talk this out with him, whether he liked it or not. They would put an end to this stupid, unbearable tension. But when she reached the top of the stairs and walked across the hallway to Malfoy's room, she stopped. His door was open.

He was kissing Astoria Greengrass. He pulled away and locked eyes with her. They were harsh and full of no regret or shame.

Hermione Granger's heart snapped in two.

XXXXXXXX

Life pushed me to the ground, pointed and laughed. It's really slapped me in the face and I'm scared it's come across in this chapter. Let me know and if I need to change it, I will for you guys. Thanks for reading.