Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 9

Later that evening Hermione made her way down from her dorm to the common room for the celebration of Gryffindor's win. She had spent the last few hours in her dorm, holding back tears as she laid doing nothing on her bed half the time and furiously making notes on the new spell she had found the other half. A part of her hoped that the new incantation she was looking into worked so she could leave this whole Malfoy situation in the past, while the other half of her hoped it wouldn't. She cursed the part of her that still wanted to see Malfoy during their weekly meetings. It was pathetic. She was pathetic. After what Malfoy had said to her she should not want to see him ever again. In fact, she shouldn't even want to continue helping him repair the cabinet. No one else in her shoes would. But she couldn't stoop that low… she wouldn't stoop that low. To purposely withdraw her offer of help just because her feelings were hurt was not something Hermione would do.

She heard the loud voices and music coming from the common room as she descended the last step from her dormitory. The party was in full swing and Gryffindors all around were celebrating. She noticed a few bottles of firewhiskey and butterbear on the table by the fire and she decided to ignore the fact that she was a Prefect and pretend she hadn't seen them. Her housemates deserved to enjoy their celebration.

"Hermione!" she heard Ron call from a couch by the fire. Harry and Ginny sat beside him and she noticed their hands were interlocked and she felt a smile tug at her lips. Finally.

She headed over to her friends, taking a seat next to Ron. She caught a waft of firewhiskey from him and he slung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him. "Have you been drinking, Ron?" she asked, raising her brows as she pulled back slightly from him.

"Come on, Mione. Don't be a party pooper," he said, grinning at her.

She rolled her eyes, turning her attention to Harry and Ginny. "So… this finally happened, huh?" she asked, smiling when they turned to each other.

Ginny pecked Harry's cheek. "Yep. Finally." she smiled and reached out to punch Ron's arm when he groaned.

"Just because I'm letting you two date-" Ron began, though was cut off by Ginny.

"Letting us?" she repeated, shooting him a glare. "Don't start, Ronald." the fiery redhead threatened before she tightened her hold on Harry's hand and pulled him up, leading him away.

"Let them be happy, Ron." Hermione said, frowning in disapproval.

Ron pouted, squeezing her around her shoulders. Hermione rolled her eyes before she smiled, unable to remain upset with her goofy friend.

"You deserve to be happy too, Mione." he said, his words slightly slurring.

She felt her heart drop as she looked at him, no longer smiling. "What are you talking about?"

"I know you, Mione. I saw you today. You're upset about something." he said, and Hermione averted her gaze.

"I'm not… it's just school. I'm getting a bit stressed out with all the assignments we've been given." she said lamely, hoping he would buy it.

"Harry and Ginny are happy together…" Ron admitted, tracing circles on her arm. "I was thinking… maybe we could try it out too." he looked at her hopefully.

Hermione felt a wave of guilt wash through her as she lifted a hand to remove Ron's arm from around her. "We'll talk about this tomorrow," she said softly as she made to get up.

"No!" Ron grabbed her wrist and Hermione winced slightly. Her wrists had bruised again as a result of Malfoy's handling of her. "Hear me out…" he pleaded, pulling her back down next to him.

"I'm sorry, about the whole Lavender situation. I don't know what I was thinking. We had been fighting so much and she came onto me and…" he trailed off, a guilty expression on his face.

Hermione felt the hurt she had felt when the two had first got together rise up in her again. She had been head over heels for him just a few months ago…

"If you'll let me… I want to give us a try. I'll make it up to you, Mione. I promise." he said, his expression more serious than she had ever seen.

She thought over his words, her heart racing. She longer felt like that towards Ron… too much had happened. Between her and Ron. Between her and Malfoy. She couldn't run back into Ron's arms just because Malfoy had hurt her earlier that very day. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

"I don't think so, Ron." she said, shaking her head. "I just… I don't think I feel that way anymore." she finished, glancing over to him nervously.

His face fell in disappointment as he looked down at his hands. "I don't think you mean that." he pushed. "I think you're still mad at me… and I get it. You have every right. But we're meant to be. Everyone knows it, Hermione. I'll show you I can be better." he insisted, reaching out to grab her hands.

She bit her lip nervously, looking down at their hands. "Just tell me you'll think about it. About us." he continued when she didn't respond.

She looked up at him, her brown eyes locking on his blue ones. He looked so hopeful… so promising. After a few seconds she nodded slightly. She deserved to be happy. Maybe there was still something between her and Ron that had been clouded by her little situationship with Malfoy.

"I'll think about it." she agreed, releasing his hands. He grinned broadly, pulling her into a hug. "But that's it. I'll think about it. That doesn't mean that I'm agreeing."

"Yeah… not yet at least. You won't regret it, Mione." he said, pulling back to place a sloppy, damp kiss on her cheek.

Hermione blushed slightly, hoping she wouldn't regret it. She felt terribly getting his hopes up when she wasn't even sure for herself what she felt. Was she just saying this to distract herself from Malfoy? She shook her head. She needed to stop thinking about him… that chapter of her life was over.


The rest of the weekend blew over and Tuesday evening rolled around sooner than Hermione would've liked. Hermione had spent the weekend with Ron for the most part. Harry and Ginny often disappeared for some alone time and the only people Hermione had spoken with in the last few days were Ron, sometimes Neville and occasionally Luna when they crossed paths in the library. Malfoy had been staying out of her way and she was relieved at that.

She pretended not to notice Ron's flirtatious advances towards her whenever they were alone. He was everything she would want in a boyfriend; kind, loyal, brave and trustworthy but for some reason she couldn't allow herself to see him. There was something missing… the passion, the excitement, something was missing in her attraction to Ron.

On top of that, a part of her felt ashamed that she had been reassuring Malfoy just a few weeks ago that Ron and her were just friends and now here she was telling Ron that she would think about his proposition to start seeing each other. She knew she didn't owe Malfoy anything, especially not her loyalty but she couldn't help it.

As she made her way up to the Room of Requirement for her meeting with Malfoy, she felt her stomach erupt in nervous butterflies. How would he react to seeing her? She approached the entrance to the room, she spotted the tall form of Draco Malfoy up ahead. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she stopped next to him and turned to the stone wall that hid the room. The entrance appeared a few seconds later and Hermione pushed open the doors, entering the room without a word.

The two settled into their usual seats beside the fire and Hermione silently began laying out her notes she had accumulated over the last week or so. Malfoy silently watched her, much to her distress. Couldn't he look somewhere else?

She cleared her throat and finally looked up to meet his eyes. Her breath hitched at the intense way he stared at her, his icy grey eyes seemingly staring into her soul.

"I found it." she began, summoning her Gryffindor courage within her to make sure she didn't break eye contact. She would remain cool and collected about this. "Harmonia Nectere Passus. It's an old charm that's been used before to repair a broken Vanishing Cabinet and it's supposed to perfect the cabinet's performance. The only thing is that it needs to be performed several times over a long period of time before it works. So once I show you how to perform the spell, we'll need to repeat that for at least a month. If we're consistent -if we come back every night to perform it then the cabinet should be repaired by the last day of June. We're just past halfway through May now so we'll have just over a week to perfect the spell and then the month to perform it."

Malfoy stared at her with a slightly weary look. "That's cutting it a bit close, don't you think? The last day of June. That's the last day of school."

She stared at him, a bit annoyed. She had finally come up with a solution that had been proven to work and he was worried about it taking too long?

"Well if you learn the spell quick enough we can maybe buy you a week early. But…" she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence. "But we'll have to see each other more often. So I can teach you. You can't learn the spell fast enough if you're only practicing twice a week. If we up our meetings to maybe four times this week then you should know the spell before the end of May. Then we can start performing it during the last week of May and be done a few days before June ends."

"Fine by me. You're the one who doesn't want to be associated with me anymore." he drawled, voice nonchalant but she noticed the muscle in his jaw twitch as it usually did when he was restraining himself.

She felt anger rise in her. "I just spent the last two weeks killing myself… losing sleep, losing time doing my own homework, losing time with my friends, skipping meals to find this for you. And you want to make comments like that?" she glared at him. She really hated him right now.

His face remained neutral, mask of indifference on as always. "Why?" he asked, leaning forward on his elbows.

"What?" she asked, confusion written all over her face.

"You said you hate me. Why did you lose all of that sleep and time with your friends and meal times for someone you hate so much? Why are you still helping me?" he pushed, and she wanted to reach out to punch him square in the face when he smirked.

"Don't flatter yourself, Malfoy. I do hate you. I'm just finishing what I started with this cabinet," she spat. "But if you're going to keep making stupid comments like that then forget it. I gave you the spell, you have my notes. I did my part. You can teach yourself." she finished.

"No need to be dramatic, Granger. We both know I need your help to get this done in time." he admitted, raising his hands in surrender. "I'll be nice." he muttered, and Hermione relaxed slightly.

She could do this. She could work with him and teach him the spell if he stopped making comments to rub salt into her wound.

"The charm is a powerful one and it will probably drain you of a lot of your magic. Once we perfect the incantation I think we should take turns performing it every other day. So neither of us falls ill or anything." she continued, looking down at her notes as she spoke.

"How did you find it?" he asked after nodding in agreement.

"I was reading old copies of the Daily Prophet dating back to decades ago. I figured I might be able to find something useful in them and it was pretty much the only place I hadn't looked yet. The person who repaired the cabinet made the front paper for restoring such a rare magical artifact." she explained, tucking a loose curl that has fallen from her plait behind her ear.

"Impressive." he said, a rare smile playing on his lips. Hermione hated the surge of pride she felt from his compliment.

"Let's get started then." she said, standing up and brandishing her wand.

"We're not going to talk about what happened then?" he raised a brow as she stood.

"I have nothing left to say." she said shortly. She would not let him lure her into another fight.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Hermione had enough. "Get up." she ordered impatiently. She had told herself she would help him, not that she would be nice about it.

He glared at her for the tone of her voice but stood. They spent the next two hours rehearsing the spell. Hermione snapped at him several times just because she could and she felt pleased when he simply gritted his teeth and took it, doing as she instructed.

"Keep practicing that until we meet next. Are you free tomorrow? You need at least three more days of practice before we can start actually performing on the cabinet." she said as they finished up.

She didn't wait for a response as she shouldered her bag and headed for the exit. She felt her breath hitch when he reached out to wrap a hand around her forearm.

"Come on, Granger. You've proven your point. I pissed you off, I get it. Can you cut out the cold shoulder act now?" he asked, forcing her to face him.

"The cold shoulder act?" she repeated, feeling the anger she had been restraining the entire night unleash within her. "You're despicable." she spat, wrenching her arm from his hold with all the strength she had. "I've been dealing with your cold shoulder act for months now. Deal with it."

He rolled his eyes, staring down at her. "So this is all to get back at me then? Congratulations, you've gotten back at me. You can drop the act now."

"You don't even understand what you did." she said quietly, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Was he really going to make her tell him how she felt?

"You… you made me actually like you. You made me think that maybe… maybe you liked me too." she felt pathetic as a traitorous tear escaped her eye. "I went against my gut instinct, I ignored everything in me telling me to deny you help, to leave you high and dry to fix this cabinet on your own. I let you call me a disgusting name over and over, let you toss me around like some doll for you to play with. All because I thought you didn't know any better. It wasn't your fault that you were raised to believe those things. It wasn't your fault that you were a little rough… you had a lot of anger and resentment in you. And you needed to let it out. And I let you let it out on me because I thought maybe I could bring out something better in you. You never once gave me a genuine apology for anything you did and you never once said thank you for my help."

He opened his mouth to argue back but she held up a hand. "Let me finish." she said sharply, and he obeyed, snapping his mouth shut. "I was wrong. After what you said, the way you spoke to me and treated me… I realized that you're exactly like I originally thought. You're selfish, and cruel. You're ungrateful and abusive. You're not a child anymore. You can think for yourself and you can choose your own actions. I'm done making excuses for you. I'm done trying to fix you." she stepped back from him, furiously wiping at the tear on her cheek. "After this cabinet is repaired… you can marry Pansy Parkinson for all I care. You two deserve each other." she finished.

It felt good to let that off her chest. It felt like a little bit of closure.

He stared at her and she was pleased to see the shocked expression in his face. Good. He needed to know that he couldn't just treat her any type of way. Not anymore.

"Goodnight, Malfoy." she muttered, turning on her heel and speeding out of the room.


Draco stared at her back as she left, for once in his life at a loss of words. He hadn't expected that. Sure, Granger had been upset with him the other day in the library but he hadn't thought she would take it this far. Or at least he had hoped she wouldn't.

He thought back to what she had just said and the tears she had shed over his actions. Seeing her cry because of him wasn't like seeing Pansy cry. With Pansy, he got annoyed and angry after seeing her tears. With Granger… he felt shitty. He felt angry with himself for causing tears to fall from her pretty eyes.

He cursed, moving to sit back in his chair by the fire. If he had known enlisting Granger's help would cause all this drama in his life, he wouldn't have asked. But everything Granger had said… had she been right?

He first felt angry at her for claiming she had tried to fix him; to change him. But now that he had heard everything she'd said he felt the familiar feeling of guilt he recently began to feel around Granger. He would never be her knight in shining armour but if he hadn't messed up the other day, would she have been able to bring out something good in him? Something worthy of her?

He shook his head. No. He would never be the good guy she was talking about. The black ink brandished into his left forearm would make sure of that. He was a fucked up, cruel guy and he would only get worse when he finished his task. He would never be worthy of saint Granger. He would never be one of the good guys.

Gathering his things, he headed out of the room and up to the owlery. Now that he had a confirmed date for the repair of the cabinet, he had to inform his aunt. Hogwarts would be infiltrated with Death Eaters at the end of June.


The following evening Hermione made her way up to the Room of Requirement, bracing herself for the inevitably awkward situation she would be in with Malfoy. She entered the room and the two tensely practiced the incantation of the charm she had found. The following two nights went the same.

"You've pretty much got it. Keep practicing over the weekend and we'll start performing it on the cabinet on our Tuesday meeting." she said as she packed her things on Friday night.

He didn't respond, simply pocketed his wand and swiftly exited the room. She watched him leave and stood in the room for a few minutes before she too left. It was really over. Her and Malfoy were officially done. In just over a month the cabinet would be repaired and they would never speak to each other again. Just like she had said she wanted.


That weekend Hermione visited Hogsmeade with Ron. He had asked her out and she had thought about turning him down but she had thought better of it. Now that her and Malfoy were done for, she didn't see why she shouldn't explore her options. She didn't owe him anything. She was allowed to move on with her life now.

Her and Ron explored the village, stopping by their favourite shops and picking up their favourite sweets from Honeydukes.

"Do you mind if we stop by Flourish & Blotts? I've been dying to check out this new book-" she began slowing down as they passed the shop, though she was cut off by a groan from Ron.

"Come on, Mione! It's the weekend, do we have to go into a store full of books?" he complained, pulling on her hand as he tugged her in the opposite direction.

She eyed Ron, allowing him to drag her away as she pushed aside her disappointment. It saddened her that Ron didn't appreciate her intelligence and her interest in expanding her knowledge. Sure, he praised her for writing his essays for him and guiding him through many of his classes, but he mostly used her brains as an insult towards her. Malfoy on the other hand praised her, admired it about her…

Stop it. she told herself. That ship had sailed. For every redeemable quality that Malfoy had, ten horrid things outweighed it.

Her and Ron entered the Three Broomsticks, wanting to grab a cup of butterbeer before they headed back to the castle. She took her seat at an empty table and Ron headed off to grab their drinks. She sighed, twiddling her thumbs on top of the table as she waited. She looked up when Ron returned, two large mugs of butterbeer in either hand and a grin plastered on his face.

"Well?" Ron prompted as he took his seat across her. "Have you thought about it? Giving us a chance?" He asked eagerly, loudly sipping on his drink.

She glanced around as he spoke and she froze in her seat when her eyes fell on a silver blonde haired Slytherin who had just entered the Three Broomsticks. Their eyes locked across the room and she watched as his grey eyes shifted from her own to the back of Ron's ginger head. She watched as his lip curled in distaste before he headed to find a table of his own, Blaise Zabini trailing behind him.

"Hermione?" she heard Ron push, nudging her hand on the table.

She jumped in surprise, pulling her eyes away from Malfoy before turning her attention back to Ron. "What? Yeah," she said, hoping it was the right answer. She hadn't heard a word he had said.

She watched as his face broke into a grin before he brought his mug to his lips, chugging down the rest of his drink. "Brilliant!" he beamed, wiping the back of his hand across her mouth.

She smiled weakly in return, raising her own mug to finish it off. "Seconds? My treat." she offered, snatching up his mug in her free hand and heading off to order seconds before he could even respond.

She waited for their drinks off to the side as she tried to calm her fast beating heart. Of course Malfoy would show up on her first date with Ron.

"So much for being just friends." she heard a familiar cold voice behind her.

She whirled around to face him, a shocked expression on her face. He must've been waiting for his drinks too.

"That's none of your business, Malfoy." she said quietly, looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to them.

"I wonder what your little boyfriend would think if he knew about all of the filthy things we've done," he taunted, throwing her a cold smirk that didn't reach his eyes.

"You wouldn't." she breathed, panicking a bit. Would he stoop so low?

"Don't worry, Granger. It would look just as bad on me if our little arrangement got out." he laughed humourlessly, stepping forward and into her personal space.

She pushed aside her hurt at his little insult and breathed in deeply as his familiar scent invaded her nostrils. She inhaled the musky scent that could only be that of the most expensive cologne on the market. She hated herself for the butterflies that erupted in her stomach when he reached around her, grabbing the mug of butterbeer from the bar directly behind her. His front briefly brushed against her own before he stepped back, shooting her one last hard look before he headed off back to his table.

She took a few deep breaths in in an attempt to calm her racing heart down before she too grabbed her drinks from the bar and returned to her table with Ron.

As they left the Three Broomsticks and headed up to the castle, Ron slowed in his steps, reaching down to grasp her hand.

"I really enjoyed our date, Mione." he said, reaching up to tuck a curl behind her ear.

She smiled half heartedly, nodding her agreement. "Me too," she replied, hoping she sounded sincere.

They stared at each other for an awkward minute before Ron leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. She froze as his mouth moved against her own, unaware of her lack of enthusiasm. She felt no spark, no butterflies in her stomach. The kiss felt clumsy and awkward and just not right.

She pressed a hand to his chest, gently pushing him back. He pulled away, his face full of confusion.

"I'm sorry," she stumbled over her words, avoiding eye contact with him. "I just… it's too fast, Ron. I don't know-"

"It's okay." he said, offering her a tight smile before he took her hand again and began leading her back up to the castle.


Before she knew it, it was Tuesday evening and time to meet up with Malfoy. She sighed from her seat on the couch of the Gryffindor common room as she began putting away her book.

"Going somewhere?" Ron asked from his spot on the floor in front of her.

"Patrols." she supplied quickly.

He frowned. "We don't have patrols tonight." he pointed out.

"I took a shift from a Ravenclaw prefect." she said, panicking slightly at his questioning of her. Since when did Ron start noticing her absences?

"Oh," he sounded disappointed and Hermione felt the all too familiar wave of guilt wash over her.

They hadn't talked about their brief kiss and whenever Hermione tried to bring it up Ron would change the topic as if he was afraid of what she might say.

She didn't like leading him on… she had really tried to return his affections but she just couldn't. His goofy tendencies that she previously found endearing now began to annoy her. His obnoxious way of eating, the way he loudly slurped his drinks, the fact that he no longer bothered even attempting his homework that he found difficult and instead expected her to complete. All of it was beginning to irk her. And she felt horrible for it.

But all of those things… she could learn to look past them, couldn't she? She had found them cute at some point in their friendship. Besides, Ron was right, everyone did expect them to be together. So why couldn't she see it anymore?

She sighed, standing up and waving her goodbye to Ron. She headed up to the Room of Requirement, dreading seeing Malfoy after their Three Broomsticks interaction.

"Well… this shouldn't take too long." she said once her and Malfoy stood in front of the Vanishing Cabinet. "You can do it today, and I'll go tomorrow." she suggested, looking at him expectantly.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus." he chanted the spell, waving his wand towards the cabinet. The cabinet glimmered in response to the charm for a few moments before fading back to it's usual dusty self.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, staring at the cabinet.

"That's it then…" she said quietly, turning towards the exit. "See you tomorrow."

"I saw you kissing the oaf over the weekend." he said before she could walk off.

She felt her face heat up as she stared at him, surprised. How had he seen that? "And?" she raised a brow, feigning indifference.

"It was probably the worst kiss I've ever witnessed in my life." he continued, sneering down at her.

"Sod off, Malfoy." she muttered, averting her gaze.

He took a step towards her, invading her personal space as he loved to do. "How long are you going to keep this up, Granger?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." she gripped her wand tightly in her hand.

"I think you do. I think you know that Weasley's not right for you." he taunted her, lifting a finger to wrap around a curl. She had worn her hair down today. "I like your hair down like this." he commented.

"Right. And you are?" she ignored the compliment and the urge to shove his hand off.

"Yes." he breathed, bending his head down to whisper in her ear. "You may think nice guy Weasley is who you want to be with… who you should be with. But we both know you have a dark side to you that only I can satisfy." his lips brushed against the lobe of her ear and she held back a gasp.

She couldn't be weak. She couldn't give in to Malfoys flirtatious advances. Being with Ron would be simple. Easy. Drama free. She wouldn't have to worry about him hurting her -both physically and emotionally. But being with Ron… it was like being with a friend. Ron didn't make her feel sexy, or desired. He didn't light up a fire within her that could only be put out with his lips on her own.

Malfoy's hand trailed up her waist and his longer fingers danced around the curves of her breasts. She felt her nipples harden through her thin shirt as she sucked in a sharp breath. He pulled away from her ear, staring down at her with darkened eyes.

"Admit it, Granger." he purred, raising his other hand to drag his thumb across her bottom lip. "Admit that you want me."

It would be so easy… to give in to him. To close the distance between them and snog him senseless like she so desperately wanted to. To allow him to make her feel pleasure and pain and everything in between.

She shook her head, stepping back so that his hands dropped to his sides. "Stop it. You can't keep playing these games with me, Malfoy. I told you, this thing between us is over. I'm not yours to toy around with." she finished firmly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

A/N: What do you guys think so far? Reviews keep me going! Let me know what you enjoying/not enjoying from the story! Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows thus far!