Heart in Agony

Chapter 5

"Draco."

"What the fuck do you want mudblood?"

"What?"

"You heard me. What do you want?"

"What is your problem? Clearly I want to talk to you. Away from those charming friends of yours."

"Oh you hear that guys, it wants to talk to me in private!"

Hermione had never been so confused. Why was he acting like this towards her? As if nothing had ever happened? She was sure he hadn't been lying when he said he loved her. He wouldn't have done that. Would he? But, he wouldn't have had a reason. She was hardly the most popular girl at school.

At that moment he stepped closer to her and whispered so that only she could hear, "Just go Granger, I'll find you later."

But before she could respond in any way a Slytherin boy she recognised, Blaize Zabini, stepped forward and snarled, "Maybe it wants another fuck Malfoy!" Then he turned to Hermione, narrowed his eyes and shaking his head said, "What would Mr Potter think?"

She couldn't believe it. He had told them. Why? She didn't hesitate to ask though, instead she slapped Draco hard across his face.

"I wouldn't touch you again if you were the last man on earth Malfoy!"

And with that, she turned and began running down the corridor. She had to get as far away from them as possible so that they wouldn't see the tears falling down her face. But just before she was out of earshot she heard one of them shout after her. And what he said made her heart stop.

"Don't worry about that mudblood, he only associates with filth like you when he's being paid!"

She realised then why he had told them about their sleeping together. The bet.

X------------------------------------X

Hermione had only been in the library, standing at the window, for a few minutes when Ron came in. She had been in many places that day as she didn't want to talk to anyone. Nobody had been able to find her and were getting quite worried. It wasn't like Hermione not to be

completely focussed on her schoolwork on the first day back after the holidays. She was usually doing all of her homework set for the next few weeks!

"Hermione are you okay?"

When she didn't answer he reached out and shook her by the shoulder. She seemed startled and jerked round to stare at him with wide eyes. When she saw his worried face she couldn't help but burst into tears. She felt so ashamed and knew that he and Harry would never forgive her.

"What's wrong Hermione? Where have you been all day? Who's done this to you?"

He was getting visibly furious and was clearly getting violent urges towards whoever had made her cry.

"Nobody did anything that I didn't allow to happen. I did it. It's my fault, it must be."

"What is?"

"I'm sorry but I really can't tell you Ron. It doesn't make a difference anyway, I let myself get fooled. I was stupid...I got caught up in what I thought was real and..."

"Who fooled you? Seriously Hermione, it's not your fault, it can't be if your this upset, just give me one name."

"NO! Ron, you don't know what it is. If you did you'd understand that it's my fault. If I'd thought before I acted I could have stopped this from happening. No, I probably wouldn't have. I'm so confused, I don't know what to do. If anyone finds out...nobody can ever find out."

"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense!"

"I know, I'm sorry. Please don't mention this to anyone?"

"Mention what? I have no idea what you're talking about!"

She grabbed her things, wiped her face, and hurried for the door with a determined look on her face.

"Hermione. HERMIONE!"

But she didn't even turn back, she had to be quick. Nobody could ever find out.

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Hermione managed to get Harry's invisibility cloak without much effort. Nobody was in the boy's dorms and everyone in the common room was too preoccupied with either schoolwork or gossip to notice her going up or down the stairs.

Once she got outside into the corridor she slipped it on and began retracing her footsteps from the previous week. First to the stairs leading to the Astronomy tower then down the way Draco had taken her to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. All she could remember of the password Draco had used was that somewhere it had the word 'whore' in it. Leave it to the Slytherins to have an insult as their password!

After trying many different sentences with 'whore' in them she eventually got in when a first year boy, unaware that she was there, came along and opened the entrance with the password, "Ulysses."

She could have sworn that it had included the word 'whore' the previous week. She thought that it was strange that they had changed their password half-way through the year, but perhaps it was just their system.

Once inside she was surprised to see that there were only two people in the common room. They were two girls who looked vaguely familiar to her but weren't in her year. When she got close enough to hear their conversation she was shocked by what she heard.

"No seriously, he dumped her."

"You liar, why would he dump her? She gives him everything he wants. If Draco asked her to jump off a cliff she'd do it...twice!"

"Yeah. I know that, but I think he's just got sick of her finally! I saw Pansy crying in the toilets earlier, and then Kevin told me Draco's been moaning about her for like...a week now!"

"How are things going with you and Kevin by the way? You know I could really go a big salami sandwich at the moment! You want to go make one with me?"

At this point Sarah pointed to a table with a Salami sitting on it. This greatly confused Hermione, these Slytherins were very strange indeed!

"Sarah this is hardly the time, Pansy and Draco have broken up and I think there may be a secret somewhere in there!"

"For God's sake Kirsty! He'll take her back, he always does. You always think there's some secret! We all know she's a pain in the ass, but he's a guy! He'll take it wherever and whenever he can! It's not like he's going to be after conversation!"

Hermione thought it was best to leave at this point, it was just making her feel worse about herself and wasn't even based on fact. However it had told her one thing, Draco had been going out with Pansy when they slept together, regardless of whether they were going out any more. She had broken her virginity with a heartless bastard who had a girlfriend. She was very proud of herself! It just made her want to find him even more.

When she got to Draco's bedroom she didn't bother knocking. She opened the door and strode in preparing to take off the invisibility cloak and start shouting. But she hadn't been prepared for Pansy to be in there too.

Both Pansy and Draco turned and looked at the open door, clearly confused as to why it had opened by itself. Pansy had definitely been crying. Her face had eyeliner smudges all down it, her nose and eyes were red, and she was sniffing every so often. This was clearly making Draco uncomfortable and he was sitting as far away from her as possible looking very awkward.

He muttered something under his breath and got up and shut the door, still unaware of Hermione's presence. As soon as the door was closed Pansy started wailing. The words she was sputtering in between sobs were just barely understandable.

"Just...tell me...did you...sleep with...it?"

"It's really none of your business Pansy."

"Draco...tell me...please."

Hermione assumed they were talking about her. It made her blood boil when she heard anyone call her 'it'.

"No, I didn't . I just told the guys I did to get the money alright. You happy now?"

"I don't understand then. Why don't you want me any more?"

"Because you are a repulsive, lying, bitch. And I don't want to put up with your crap any more!"

Pansy looked shocked. For once in her life she was speechless. Hermione was even more

shocked though. Draco had denied sleeping with her. Why? Maybe he was ashamed as well. It certainly hadn't been to protect Pansy's feelings. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she ran, past Hermione, out of the door.

Draco sighed and wandered over to the door, shutting it behind Pansy. When he turned around he banged into something invisible, or someone, which made a very strange yelping sound. He put his hand out in front of him and was startled when he felt something there.

"Ow Malfoy you arse, that was my eye!"

"Oh my God...Granger? I need to talk to you. But...why can't I see you?"