All They Want For Christmas...

Dueling

The following weeks took on more or less the same pattern. Hermione and Draco kept their relationship a secret while spending evenings together, and Draco continued to send Holly to her at lunch with letters and trinkets. Ginny and Lavender had sworn to never rest until they discovered his identity, and Ron was seething more and more about the whole situation. Harry wisely chose to stay out of the whole thing. Despite kicking Voldemort's ass, he wasn't very confrontational.

Every other day or so, Draco would pull Hermione away from her friends to "talk about Head business;" And every so often Hermione would do the same to him. Blaise noticed, but said nothing. Ron however, also noticed and was not so subtle.

"Malfoy's been needing you a lot lately this semester, Hermione." He had said one day in a biting tone. "Can't do anything by himself, huh."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Really, Ronald? You're going to criticize Malfoy for not shirking his duties? For taking responsibility for things?"

Ron sputtered.

"Are you really so insecure, Ron? You're jealous of, Malfoy now?" accusation coated her voice as it rose in volume. "Get over, yourself, Ronald. Or better yet, get over me. It's not happening!" She had lowered her voice to a very harsh, low tone.

"What is wrong with you?" Ron matched her tone. "You don't like me anymore just because I don't shower you with bloody expensive presents!?"

"No, Ronald. I don't like you anymore because you're a prat and because you won't grow up and because you cheated on me with Luna blasted Lovegood and then expected me to just understand. I don't like you anymore because you treat me terribly and expect me to simply take it. So grow up, Ron. I've moved on, and someone out there values me more than you ever did. So shut the bloody fuck up." Ron's face clouded over as Hermione fell deeper into her rage. She rarely used such strong language and he knew that he had crossed a line this time. He didn't say anything. He had merely walked away, knowing that he had lost. The ordeal had occurred after dinner one night, and Hermione had promptly gone back up to the Head's quarters and fallen into Draco's comforting arms.

He had been understanding, and Hermione had finally told him what had happened between her and Ron. The fallout had occurred shortly after Harry's defeat of Voldemort. Harry and Ginny hadn't been together at that time, but Harry and Hermione had spent enormous amounts of time together during the whole ordeal. After everything was said and done, Harry and Hermione had seemed closer than she and Ron, and Ron had gotten jealous. Enraged and frightened that he would lose Hermione to Harry, Ron had gone out and gotten himself completely drunk. Among those celebrating was a very airy and naïve Luna Lovegood. Ron had told her that he and Hermione were over and had hooked up with her that night.

Of course Hermione had found out, and although Ron had apologized and realized that he had been completely foolish, it had been too late. Hermione felt too betrayed and too hurt to repair their relationship.

The telling of this story did nothing more than make Draco want to kill Ron even more than usual, but Hermione had been able to calm him down, saying that she didn't want him to end up in Azkaban because of her. She had been able to fix part of her friendship with Ron, but he'd never fully been able to let her go like she had him. Of course, Hermione had always been more mature and intelligent than Ron. She figured that the relationship was about to run its course anyways.

And so Draco and Hermione's relationship grew all through January. Hermione still struggled watching Draco continue to fake his relationship with Pansy, especially since there was that lurking fear of him cheating on her, but Draco proved over and over again that he was loyal to her, and so the mystery of Hermione's secret admirer continued, and she wore her locket every day.