Getting Rid of Ron

Chapter 3

"Who's there?" Hermione repeated, raising her voice.

Draco sighed and stepped out from behind the pillar. He saw Hermione's brows furrow.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms.
"I like to come here sometimes..." Draco said.

"Save the lies, Draco. Why are you really here?" She inquired.

"I'm telling the truth, Hermione. Anyway, why are you here?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

Hermione looked nervous and brushed away the tears from her eyes with the back of the sleeve.
"Uh...umm..." she stammered. "It doesn't matter..."

"Yes it does. If you get the chance to question me and expect an honest answer, I can ask you." Draco snapped.

Hermione looked at him and hesitated. Her eyes were still watery and bloodshot.

"I saw you crying, what's wrong?" Draco said, moving towards her.

"Nothing." She said blankly.

"Come on, something's obviously wrong."

"Really, it's nothing."

"It doesn't seem like nothing. The way you threw that necklace-"

"Since when have you cared about my life so much?!" Hermione shouted.

Draco looked taken aback. "I just wanted to see if you were ok!" He replied.

"Stop! Stop it!" Hermione buried her head in her hands and sank to the floor. "Stop caring."

Draco ran his hands through his hair.
"Look...Hermione...I-"

"Draco. Please just go." Hermione sniffled. "You're one of the last people that I want to talk to about this."

Draco looked down at Hermione, contemplating what to do next.
"I'm not going to drop this." He said quietly.

"Damn it Draco, DROP IT!" Hermione shouted, getting up and moving closer to him. "Stop pretending to care and go back to being your conceited, arrogant, stubborn and crude self!"

Draco didn't think about what he did next.

He moved close up to a Hermione's face and pressed his lips to hers.

Hermione's eyes widened. After what seemed like a long moment, they pulled away.

"You really think I'm crude?" Draco asked.

Hermione said nothing, and stepped backwards, shaking her head.

She had just kissed Draco...

Well, Draco had just kissed her...

She was just as bad as Ron.

Hermione turned and ran out of the Owlery, drowning out the sounds of Draco shouting after her.

Why did she do that?! Why did she let him do that?!

Being her emotionally unstable self, Hermione cried...again. Why was everything in her life going wrong?

She ran all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, which she found empty.

Crap! She was late to Potions!

She grabbed her books from where she'd left them and arrived at potions, tired and out of breath.

"Miss Granger. Nice of you to finally join us." Snape said, snarling.

"Sorry." She mumbled. Hermione found an empty seat at the back and sat down.

A few minutes later, Draco walked into the classroom, interrupting Snape yet another time.

He was headed straight for the empty seat next to her.