A/N: I have to say. I love you guys so much. Thank you a lot for reviewing and putting my story on alerts, it means a lot because this is the first story that I'm writing for HP that I think that is going to really work out. I normally say that we should write for ourselves, not for the others and as long as we like what we are writing, everythin's going to be fine; but knowing that you guys actually like what I write, it's awesome!

Sorry for the boring parts, hope you like it as much as I like to write it.

Chapter 7 - Truth Always Comes to The Fore

Gryffindor's Common Room, At Night

"What were you thinking?" Ginny yelled, throwing a pillow against Ron's chest "Are you stupid? Are you... you stupid, coward, bastard!" she yelled again, and took a step, this time closing her hands in fists trying to hit him but someone held her on the waist and pulled her away.

"I'm your brother, why are you acting this mad at me?!" Ron yelled back at her "I wasn't conscious of what I was doing... I-I..."

"Why? Did she pointed a gun to your head and made you have sex with her? Did she?" Ginny's body was trembling with nerves. Harry was still holding her by the waist, but she was trying her best to get free of his hold to punch his brother in the face. He cheated on her bestfriend and of course, he was her brother but... this was not the time to defend him. He really screwed up this time "I can't even look at you, Ronald Weasley! I'm so- disgusted." she finally said it.

She let her body fall in the couch and covered her face with her hands. 'Poor Hermione' was the only thing she could think of.

Ron, in the other hand, couldn't understand how much he had screw it up. He was just shocked at his sister's reaction "Why are you so mad? I didn't cheat on you-"

"But you cheated on my bestfriend and that poor girl doesn't even know it!" she hissed. She raised from her place again and walked over to him. Harry tried to stop her again "Get off me Harry!" she yelled and Harry took a step back, scratching his neck "I'm not going to tell her. You are. Because that girl is going to be hurt because of YOU. Because YOU are an idiot, because YOU made that mistake." Ginny hit him on his chest "But you don't even look worried about it."

Ron bit his lip "I-I am. I love Hermione,"

"No you don't! Because if you did, you wouldn't have slept with L... Lavender, for Merlin's sake!" Ginny shook her head in disbelief "You don't deserve Hermione, at all."

Ron kept quiet for a minute, gazing at his shoes as his sister sat again on the couch and gazed at the fireplace in the Common Room. When he looked around, everyone was staring at them and Ron swallowed tightly. Only a few minutes after, Ron started wondering how was he going to say to Hermione that he had slept with Lavender. He hadn't thought about it much, he had been worried about the way he was feeling and not about the way Hermione would feel and react. 'Maybe I really am a selfish bastard' he thought, shaking his head slowly.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now," Ron muttered, not looking to his sister and Harry "I can't lose her."

"But you are going to lose her" Ginny said, in a low voice "She's not going to forgive you, and you know that. You are about to lose the only person that have ever loved you."

Next Morning

Hermione walked in the halls, curled up on herself holding her books with strength against her chest. Everyone was looking at her and she stopped a few times along her way to check if she was missing some piece of uniform or if she had something on her back... or maybe her hair was getting puffy like it was a few years ago. But nothing. She was in her normal self, just walking to her first class in the morning.

Gladly, she had eaten her breakfast back in her tower and so she wouldn't need to go to the Great Hall and deal with those looks any more time than she already had.

Some people would just look at her; others would grin and others would just whisper something to himselves after taking a deep look at her person. She was starting to feel very uncomfortable and her heart was starting to beat faster at every step she was taking towards the class.

When she opened the door of the classroom, for Hermione's contentment, there was no one inside it. She sat in her usual desk ahead of all the other desks and let her head rest in her arms. For awhile she closed her eyes and tried to calm her breath down. Just in that moment she realized that she has been holding her breath along the way. 'Calm down Hermione, it's nothing to do with you. There's nothing wrong with you' she thought for herself, but she was smart. She knew perfectly that whatever that people were whispering about, was about her. But the worst thing was that she didn't know why.

'Oh Granger, if only you knew...'she heard Malfoy's voice in her head saying. That was one of the doubtful sentences that he had said to her last night. One of the sentences that made Hermione angry, but she didn't think about it much until that very moment. If there was something wrong or any rumor going on about her, it was obvious that Malfoy knew. 'Then you should ask him' a small voice said in her head but she shook her head "There's no way in hell I'm going to ask that annoying bastard anything" she said in a low voice to herself. 'Not even if it is something about me... that I probably should know'

She waited a few more minutes until she heard people entering the classroom. She raised her head and rubbed gently her face to erase any mark that her robe could have made in her face. Then she heard some gasps... and then the whispers began again. She sighed. The whispering thing only started that morning and she was already getting tired of it.

She felt something around her shoulders and she looked up to see her readhead bestfriend beside her "Knock it off people! Don't you have anything else to do?" she roared towards the people that were looking at Hermione. She gazed at them but still they didn't stop looking at her, 'The nerve!' "What's up?" Ginny asked, smiling at Hermione.

"Nothing," Hermione said with a sigh and looked at her hands "Well I've been dealing with these whispers and looks along the morning, but everything's fine."

Hermione realized how still Ginny was. She raised her eyes to see her bestfriend with a forced smile in her lips "Do you have any idea of what this is all about?" Hermione asked, in a murmur. Ginny opened her mouth several times but there was no sound coming out. Finally she shook her head slowly.

"No, no idea."

Professor Flitwick entered in the classroom and walked quickly towards his desk "Morning, students" he said, almost breathless "Today we are..." and he started to talk about what they were going to do in that class. Hermione tried her best to focus her attention on the professor, but she could still feel people whispering about her behind her back.

The professor started writting stuff on the board and Hermione took that opportunity to look around the room. Everyone was writting down their notes, fortunately, and they weren't looking at her or talking about her. She spoted Ron on the other side of the classroom, looking at her. She waved lively at him and smiled at him. He forced a smirk and waved slowly to her, to then look away.

Hermione narrowed her eyebrows. Something was definitely not right and she was not talking about the lack of enthusiasm in Ron's wave. Harry wasn't sitting beside him, like he normally would do in every class. Harry was sitting beside a blonde girl from Ravenclaw in the opposite side of the room where Ron was. 'That's odd' she thought.

"Now, we are going to try this new spell we learned today" professor's voice made Hermione wake up from her thoughts and to look quickly to him. She blinked several times before starting to write some notes before she make the spell.

"You alright?" Ginny asked in a murmur. Hermione looked at her and nodded, with a forced smile. She was not. Deep in her heart, she was with a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Or had already happenned.

It was lunch time and Hermione was already tired. This day wasn't being as good as she hoped it would be. One thing she always does in the morning is wishing that the day goes well. Sometimes, obviously, her wish doesn't come true but this time... it was going terribly wrong!

She was sitting on the Great Hall with Ginny by her side and Harry in front of her. Neville and Seamus joined them in the lunch, talking enthusiastically.

"So Hermione," Neville scretched his neck with his cheeks starting to get red. Hermione looked at her friend and smirked "I'm having some troubles with my essay and I was wondering if you could help me you know..." he still didn't look at her.

"Of course, Neville. No problem." she said with a nod and she saw the relief in Neville's face "Meet me later in the library after the class. I'll help you."

"Thank you so much Hermione!" Neville smiled "I've done what I known in that thing... but... that's so complicated that-"

"Don't stress, Neville!" Hermione laughed "There's no problem. I'm telling you that I'm going to help you, look for the information you need in some books and answer to all your questions about it."

Neville smiled one more time and then Seamus said, "You're such a great friend, Hermione" he nodded. Hermione couldn't find it anything but weird and so all that she could say was "Thank you Seamus, I think."

"It's a shame if someone hurts you!" he continued, nodding his head quickly "What a shame."

Ginny sighed and rubbed her eyes with two fingers 'Why can't he just shut up?' she thought for herself.

"No one ever..." Hermione laughed "Seamus, what is this about? Are you alright?"

"Hermione," he grabbed her hand and smirked at her "If someone ever hurt you please call me. I swear to Merlin that I will punch the person right in the face, you hear me?"

"Sure... Seamus, but no one is going to hurt me" she shook her head slowly, with her eyebrows narrowed "Well, if you don't drop my hand I'll be hurt because you are holding it very tight."

Seamus dropped her hand "Sorry 'bout that." Hermione didn't say nothing and looked at Ginny.

"What was that about?" she whispered to her bestfriend. Ginny rolled her eyes and shook her head, not answering materially to Hermione's question.

She looked around the Great Hall and she didn't see Ron anywhere. In fact, the only times that she had seen Ron today was in class. Between classes he disappears completely and now the same thing was happenning. She was feeling sad because she hadn't been with him since last night and she was already missing him. 'I guess I just have to wait'.

Later that day, Hermione went to meet Neville on the library. He showed her the essay "There's so much left to do, Neville!" she gasped, with one hand covering her mouth.

"I know, I'm so sorry!" Neville scretched his neck with a sad look "But I was so confused and... I fell asleep!"

She shook her head with a smile on her lips and raised from her chair "Stay here, I'll look for some books for us to look up some things for your essay."

Hermione walked through the bookshelves towards the one that she knew that she would find the information they needed. She usually spent so much time in the library, that she already knows in what bookshelf is the book that she needs. And she was not ashamed of it, she actually felt fine with it. Since she was a little kid she loved books. She had books spread all over her room back in London; in matter of fact, she learned how to read very soon. She couldn't figure out what she loved the most about books, but the ability to forget about the entire world while she was reading was one of her favourite things about books. And books taught her something about love: in books, you don't know how the character looks like; so you fall in love with their actions, their words and their personalitys. And that was one of the most important things she had learned while reading a book.

She climbed to a wooden stairs to reach out for a book that was in a high shelf. What she didn't know was that someone was watching her closely.

Draco took a small look to her legs, while she stretched her body to reach out a book. The cinnamon tone of her skin was somewhat interesting and... curious to look at. Normally, Granger would cover her body with clothes as much as she could and so no one could ever see her true figure. Draco was living with her in that tower for a few weeks now, and he hadn't seen yet her body. 'What a shame'

"Need help up there, Granger?" he played with his silver ring around his tomb, with a smirk marked on his lips. She jumped on the stairs and let out a small scream when she overbalanced. The books fell on the floor and she fell right into his arms.

She took a deep breath when she opened her eyes and realized that she wasn't in the floor. But she almost threw up when she saw that Malfoy was holding her in his arms. She struggled to get on the ground but the man was holding her way to hard.

"Would you please put me on the ground?" she asked, slowly trying to not lose her head and to not start punching him on the face.

"Of course." he smiled and let her fall. She fell on the floor and started to grab the books.

"Stupid bastard." she muttered to herself while grabbing the books.

"What is that?" he asked, with a playfull tone of voice.

"I said leave me alone." she turned around to go back to Neville, but a pale hand stopped her. In a blink of an eye, he was in front of her.

"Na... I don't feel like it," he smirked "I feel like annoying you."

"Like you don't do that enough back in the tower." she rolled her eyes and tried to walk, but he stopped her once again "Really, Malfoy, leave me alone. I have to go help Neville with his works" 'No, don't say that! You don't need to give him any explanations'

"Yeah I saw Neville before I found you," Draco smirked "He looked kind of entertained back there." Hermione took a step forward to look at Neville, that was talking with a girl. She felt like smiling, because Neville never had a girlfriend before, well as much as she knew, but then she realized that Malfoy was there and that she should be there helping him "You don't want to end his... best moment of the day, do you?"

Hermione opened slightly and narrowed her eyebrows to Malfoy "I can't belive this," she muttered, gazing at her roommate "You did that!"

"I did what?" Draco narrowed his eyebrows and made a confused expression, but he knew exactly what Granger was saying. She couldn't help but feel her stomach tighten at his touch.

"That! You made that girl go talk to him... you... you," she shook her head with her eyes closed. She couldn't believe how mean Malfoy was. 'Poor Neville' "What did you promise to her in return? Huh? One more night stand?" she ironically laughed.

"No," Draco pursed his lips, pointing a finger at her "I promised nothing in return. Look at me! I'm a new man."

"Sure." Hermione rolled her eyes and prepared to escape from him. She knew that library like the palm of her hand.

"I know what you are thinking and no. You are not going to escape me." he smirked.

"Stop doing that!" she hissed "Stop... ugh, stop being so annoying! Leave me alone!" in that moment, she strolled off towards Neville and the girl. "I'm back."

Neville looked back and Hermione and she could see how blushed he was. It was obvious that the girl was flirting with him shamelessly. The girl gazed at Hermione with one eyebrow raised and with an attitude like she was more than Hermione was "Well, darling, in case you didn't notice... your friend is busy."

"And you are full of crap," Hermione faked a smiled "Get lost and don't ever bother him again."

The girl looked over Hermione's shoulder and nodded, going away. Hermione turned around to see Malfoy, winking at her. She just rolled her eyes.

"Hermione... I don't want to be mean but... and I know you are helping me with this essay but..." Neville scratched the back of his head "that girl kind of looked interested on me and you kind of ruined it-"

"I'm sorry Neville... but she was not. Malfoy told her to go talk to you so that he could annoy me for awhile" Hermione shook her head and snorted "Can you believe it? He is such a-" she looked at Neville that was looking at the piece of parchment in front of him. He was sad 'Great Hermione, you made him feel sad' "Neville I'm so... sorry."

"It's okay" he smiled, sadly shrugging "It's not like this is the first time I get rejected... or fooled."

She then tought about Luna. Luna didn't come back to Hogwarts to finish her seventh year, and Neville had been very sad on the first weeks on school. Hermione felt so selfish and such a bad friend in that very moment 'Thinking only about your problems, not even taking a minute to care about your friends'

"I'm so sorry Neville. I'm sure that the right girl will appear someday." Neville nodded and you could see some relief in his face, but it was not enough to make Hermione feel any good. She focused on helping Neville with that essay so he would have a straight A. He was her friend, and he was there for her, and she wasn't. For no one.

Draco was sitting on the Slytherin's table for an hour now. First, he had been eating, but when he finished he just stayed there, lost in his thoughts not caring at all for the people who walked before him and stared.

"Hey man." Blaise sat across him and grabbed some food that instanly appeared "You look quiet."

"I was alone. I was not going to be talking out loud with myself, huh?" Draco muttered, but when he said that himself thought he said abruptly "Anything new?"

"No," Blaise shook his head, with his eyes focused on the food he was eating "Unless you don't know about the Weasley scandal."

"About the Weasel cheating on Granger?" Draco nodded, rubbing his tumb against his fingers "Yeah you told me that."

"Then I've got nothing. Well nothing good," Blaise thought of something that made him grin "I made Pansy fell just a while ago. It was so hilarious. The look on her face... oh man, priceless."

"Looks amusing. But tell me," Draco narrowed his eyebrows, gazing at his fingers, and then crossed his arms against his chest "When are you going to tell her that you like her?"

Blaise froze and gazed at Draco. Then he swallowed his food and took a sip of water, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"The thing is, my friend, you know very well." Draco grinned and Blaise slammed the glass on the table "Maybe that's the reason you want to snog with Granger so much. To try make Pansy jealous-"

"Look man, if you tell anyone, I will tear you into pieces."

"Calm down man, you look so... affected." Draco laughed. Just when Blaise was about to give a punch on Draco's arm, Pansy appeared and grabbed it.

"Hey... Drake" she said, ignoring Blaise's presence. Draco gave her a quick smirk, and then returned to his serious expression. He only gazed at Blaise, who wasn't paying attention to him and Pansy. Or trying not to. Draco could her the murmur of Pansy talking beside him, but he wasn't that interested.

"Look Pansy, you really need to stop" Blaise hissed, putting a grape on his mouth "It's obvious that Draco his not paying any attention to you. So, do all of us a favor, and shut the hell up."

Draco smirked. Blaise was looking at him, with his eyes wide open waiting for him to defend Blaise. Draco felt like he needed to do it, because it was already enough for Blaise to see his crush everyday around Draco, always flirting with him and Draco usually didn't do nothing to stop that. He didn't answer her but he never told her to stop. Pansy looked at him with her mouth slightly opened. "Look you little piece of-"

"It's true Pansy," Draco hissed, getting rid of her hold "I don't care what you are saying. Now if you don't mind, I was talking with Blaise. Alone."

Pansy opened her mouth and looked to Draco and Blaise "Look what you have done!" Pansy yelled at Blaise and threw a bit of water at him. Then she strolled off, making Draco laugh.

"Thank you." Blaise muttered. It was not a normal thing for Slytherins to say thank you, and Blaise couldn't remember one time he said it. But it was the only words for him to say to Draco in that moment.

Draco felt embarrassed. He couldn't understand why he felt like that, but it was something to do with his bestfriend's 'thank you'. It was a problem for Draco to admit that he does something right sometimes, and if Blaise said 'thank you', he did it. He tried to ignore it and smiled "You just took a shower, pal." Blaise laughed cleaning his shirt "You need to get over Pansy. Seriously, what do you see in her?"

Blaise opened his mouth but Draco shook his finger "Forget. I don't want to her those sentimental stuff that I bet you are going to say. But Pansy is not the right girl, man. She's crazy."

"I know," Blaise shrugged "Look, forget that this happened. I will."

"As you wish, sir" Draco bowed slightly and laughed.

Hermione was sitting by the windowsill for an hour. The looks that she had been getting for the entire day was really starting to get into her nerves and she couldn't take it anymore. The only place where she could hide from the crowd was back in the tower, in her bedroom. No one, except for her and Malfoy, could enter that tower so she was safe there. 'Safe' was not the right word because she could be everything, but she wasn't safe; her thoughts were constantly attacking her and making her feel angry at everyone. Even Ginny.

An hour earlier

Hermione was walking in the halls with Ginny for an hour. She was trying to understand what the hell had been going on today, because people kept staring at her. No matter what. It started to be annoying and she was getting tired of it.

"Look Ginny, if you know something just tell me" Hermione begged "I'll not be mad."

Ginny looked at her friend and sighed 'No Ginny, you can't tell her. Ron has to' "I don't know nothing."

"I know you do!" Hermione pointed a finger to her bestfriend "I know you so well, and you can't fool me. You know something and I'm begging you... begging you Ginny..."

"Look I know something, alright?" she saw some hope in Hermione's eyes "But I can't tell you. It's not my duty... it's someone else's."

Ginny knew something but she wasn't telling her, and Hermione couldn't feel nothing but mad at her. If she really knew something, she should tell her. After all, it was about her.

Hermione sighed and gazed at the twilight, appearing in front of her. She felt something was tightening her chest, like deep down, she knew what had been happening.

Three hours earlier

Hermione was sitting by the Gryffindor table with Ginny across her. She had just returned from the library and from helping Neville out with his essay. She was having a peaceful snack when Lavender walked by and she caught a bit of the conversation she was having with someone.

"I think he is going to admit it tonight," she said "It's about time. It's been two days, and nothing. But he already told that he loves me, not her."

Hermione felt a drop on her stomach. Those thoughts were making her head throb and making her heart race. "It's impossible that she was talking about Ronald..." she muttered to herself, but she wasn't sure... not anymore.

Everything was coming up to her head. Those previous events, the day of the game when Ron went to bed early, Malfoy's comments, Ron acting weird... and the huge need of Lavender to talk with Ron.

Hermione shook her head "What the hell Hermione it's impossible that..." she felt like something was squeezing her throat, like she couldn't talk. When a tear rolled down her cheek she realized that it was the urge to cry "It's impossible that Ronald... is... cheating on me." then the sobs came. She was insecure, she wanted to believe that what her mind was confirming wasn't true.

But it was true, and now she could see it. The looks, the murmurs, everything was making sense now. She got up and cleared her tears that were rolling on her cheeks. She needed to find him and talk to him. She needed to know if that was really true, what she had been thinking off.

She walk towards the courtyard, ignoring all the looks. 'Stupid people' she thought. That's when she spoted him. With Lanvender. Tears started to form in her eyes and one rolled down her cheek but she looked up so she wouldn't cry. Not there. When she started to walk towards Ron again, something grabbed her arm.

"Hermione!" Ginny called her "I've been looking for you. Where were you?"

Hermione said nothing. She kept walking until she was just a few steps close from Ron and Lavender. They stopped laughing in the minute they noticed Hermione's presence. Lavender hid her smile with one hand and Ron scretched his head.

"Hermio-" suddenly, the only thing that you could hear in that courtyard was gasps. Hermione was seeing everything blurred because of the tears on her eyes, but she could see the red mark on Ron's face. Her hand was burning from the huge slap she gave him, but the feel she got after doing it, was good enough to cover the pain on her hand. But not enough to cover the one in her heart "Please-"

"Don't you dare talking to me, anymore!" she yelled, with her voice hoarse. She turned to Lavender and gave her a slap too. She could hear Lavender's gasp but she didn't care. It felt so good "You two really look good together. Pair of clowns."

Then she turned her back on them and strolled off. Someone grabbed her wrist and she stopped "Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny asked. Hermione snorted and got rid from her hold.

"Like you care," Hermione muttered.

"I do-"

"No, you don't. Because if you did, you would have told me that Ron has been cheating on me. But you didn't" Hermione gazed for a brief second into Ginny's eyes and turned her back on her.

She could feel everyone staring at her back, and she could hear all the murmurs on the halls. She hid herself in a empty dark hall, and leaned her back on the cold wall. Then she let herself fall, slowly, while sobs started to attack her throat. Hermione curled up, with her arms pressing her legs against her chest, hiding her face between her knees.

The pain in her heart was like someone was stabbing her multiple times. Now that she was alone in her hall, there was no way that she could hid her tears and her sobs. Her body was trembling from her head to her toes and the only thing she could think was that she could really use a hug, but there was no one that could give her one. Ronald wasn't the person she used to know and now she was thinking that all his hugs and kisses were fake, and that was hurting her even more; Ginny... her bestfriend, the person where she was supposed to trust, was the person that knew everything and didn't tell her nothing. Harry. She didn't see Harry back in the courtyard, but she believed that he is going to be on Ron's side. So she was completely alone, no one there to help her. What could be worse?

A/N: A lot of drama here! Maybe the slap was too much? But it seemed right and I believe that it would be the first thing that Hermione would do once she found out that Ron was cheating on her. And I believe that the part where she understands everything happened too fast, but I didn't want to make the chapter too big. So please tell me what do you think about this chapter, please! I really need to know what you guys think of my story, sometimes it's nice to get some feedback.