Disclaimer: Again I don't own Harry Potter :)
Also a little note before I start this chapter, I hope you guys enjoy and please do Review. It let's me know if I'm doing something right or wrong even! Some nice constructive criticism would be great! Also characters may be a little OCC but oh well it's my fic and I like the way I've written it!
Hermione looked at who the mysterious footsteps had belonged to and almost laughed. Draco stood there, looking quite frightened by her. "Oh my goodness." Hermione let out a soft giggle as she dropped her wand back to her side. Draco's face slowly returned to its normal smirk. "What are you laughing at Granger?" The tone Draco used was actually playful and not the snide sarcastic tone that Hermione was so used to. "Your face Draco, you looked so frightened." She responded between giggles. Draco smiled an actual full smile as he looked at her happily. "Well of course I looked scared. I was just coming up here to make sure everyone was out of here for Madam Pince. I didn't expect a random girl to pop out, wands ready. Hermione now was at a full fledge laugh. "Oh poor Draco, you got scared by a little Gryffindor girl like me." She looked up at him, he looked a little mad about this comment; his ego was most likely bruised. "Shut up Granger." He managed to say, still with a playful sounding voice. Hermione turned and gathered all of her books. "Alright, I'll head out now." The amount of books she had was forcing her to use all her strength as she walked slowly out of the library. "Damn Granger, give me some of those." Draco said grabbing some of the books off the top of Hermione's pile. Hermione was grateful for the loss of weight, but still looked at him confused. "Are you sure Draco? There's a lot of stares to climb to get to Gryffindor tower, and I know how inexperienced you Slytherins are with stairs." Draco let out a sarcastic laugh. "Haha Granger. Look, I'm trying to be a gentleman Granger, just let me be that, ok?" Hermione nodded and led Draco up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower.
Close to the common room, Draco finally broke the silence that had been occupying the air around the two of them. "So Granger, you finally got smart and ditched the Weasel did you?" Hermione faltered on the step she was on and then stopped altogether. Draco, who had gotten slightly ahead of her, stopped, and turned around to look at Hermione. "You alright there Granger?" No... but she couldn't say that, not to him, right? She nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to continue up the steps to the common room. She was supposed to be war hardened, but all she could see was a pathetically weak girl that was herself. "Granger, what's wrong? Was it something I said?" Her throat closed, she wanted to answer him, she really did, but why? Would Draco really care about her petty emotions if she told them to him?
As they rounded the corner, towards the entrance to the common room, Hermione felt a hand wrap around her wrist. She looked over to see Draco next to her, her eyes betraying her by showing him her tears. He quickly grabbed her books from her and sat her down on the floor next to them. "Alright Hermione, tell me." Her heart fluttered as her name left his lips. "I...I don't want to." She said, breaking down completely. "Why not Hermione?" "Because if I tell you... if I talk about it... it becomes real and I don't want it to be real Draco." Draco sat next to her, looking relieved to see the reason wasn't that it was him, and grabbed her hand. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news Hermione, but not telling me won't make it any less real than it already is." This broke Hermione completely. She now hid her face hidden behind her hands as she sobbed. "We really are two broken people, aren't we Granger." Draco said, hesitantly rubbing Hermione's back. She sighed and nodded slightly. Then her mind finally began to work again, and it came to a conclusion that she didn't like...Draco was right. She needed to release all of this negativity out of herself, and Draco seemed to be the only one around willing to listen to her.
She took a deep breath and looked into Draco's silver eyes. Draco quickly reacted by running his thumb underneath each of her eyes and cleared away the make-up that had rushed down her eyes. She gave him a small smile, appreciating his caring touch and nodded. "Alright... you're right Draco; I need to let this go. After the battle at Hogwarts, Ron and I finally began to officially date each other. It was amazing, fun, loving. I couldn't have asked for more to be honest with you, but I quickly watched Ron become more and more distant from me. I would send him an owl to go out, and he'd respond with a swift "I'm busy" or "Sorry can't." I got a bit suspicious, so one day I decided I would surprise him with a nice dinner. So, I set it up in his apartment and waited for him to come home. Needless to say though, he didn't come home alone." Hermione let this last part out with as much effort as it took to get out. Draco looked disgusted. "He did not bring another woman home with him?" Hermione nodded. "It was one of the other auror protégés. He had been sleeping with her for three months before I found out. Yet he had the gall to call me boring and not spontaneous and that I was...withholding things from him. Like this was all entirely my fault and not his. He...um...-wanted things. Things I was not ready to give to him, so he sought it out elsewhere."
She was done, it was out. She cradled her face back into her hands. She then heard something that shocked her, Draco's breath had steadily increased and it almost sounded as if he was growling. She heard the tap of his shoes as he stood up and then heard a loud thud. Hermione's head shot up and she swiftly looked at Draco. He had both hands in fists against the wall and he looked mad. She blinked, confused. "Draco, what's wrong?" Draco growled and looked down at her. "That asshole! How dare he! Did he really not realize what he had standing right next to him?!" Hermione's eyes widened at this statement. "Wait, what?" "Hermione, you are the brightest mind in the entire wizarding world. Your damn near so perfect that it's annoying Granger. Smart, kind, sarcastic, funny, beautiful- don't shake your head no Hermione, I saw you at the Yule Ball. You were the most breathtakingly beautiful girl there. And that idiot thought with his dick rather than his hear!" Hermione was shocked to hear this from Draco. Was that why he had protected her? Because he thought she was beautiful. "D-Draco, what are you trying to say? I mean you hated me Draco. I thought my heartbreak and suffering would make you happy, give you some new teasing material." Draco's eyes glared down at her, but behind the anger, she could see something else, defeat, and hurt which made her even more confused by his actions. "You thought I'd be happy Granger? You really don't understand me at all, are you Granger?" Draco had slid back down the wall next to her, frustrated and annoyed.