"It was just a bit of kissing, you know," Harry shrugged. "Ron doesn't even like her."

No, I didn't know. As far as I could remember, I had never kissed anyone before. Ron was going to be my first, but then he went and ruined it by locking lips with someone else.

But strangely... I wasn't as upset by this revelation as I thought I should be. Maybe because my heart had already dealt with it?

I was more concerned about the fact that I'd missed almost an entire school year of learning. How on earth was I meant to catch up?

After begging him, Harry went and fetched my school bag and brought it back to the hospital wing so that I could do some cramming. Luckily, I made copies of each and every piece of work I'd handed in so I was able to see exactly where I was at.

"You're mad, woman," Ron had muttered from his hospital bed that evening as he watched me going over another Transfiguration essay. "I'd do anything to forget all that garbage."

I rolled my eyes, reaching into my bag for my quill.

"What's this?" I breathed, pulling out a beautiful peacock feather, for some reason my heart giving a little flutter at the sight of it.

"Dunno," Ron shrugged, stuffing a sausage roll in his gob. "I saw you using it after Christmas, but we weren't talking so I never asked about it. Perhaps it was a present from someone?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. So, not only had he spent the last six months snogging another girl, to add insult to injury, he wasn't even talking to me?!

"But the main thing is, we're alright now," he added quickly, shrinking back from my furious glare. "It's amazing how a little health scare can bring people back together, isn't it?"

Either way, he was useless at filling me in about what I'd been up to over the past sixth months.

"What would I know?" He grumbled when I pressed him further about significant events, "you were too busy tutoring bloody Malfoy and attending stupid Slug Club to tell me what was going on in your life."

I looked up sharply. This was news to me.

"Malfoy? I was tutoring Draco Malfoy? Why? Why would I do that? He- he's nothing but a- a...bully!"

"That's what I said!" Ron nodded energetically. "But of course you can never say no to a teacher."

"Why didn't Harry say anything?" I pondered out loud. "It seems rather a big thing to leave out."

"Maybe because he thinks it's something you'd rather forget. I mean, it must have been pretty nasty for you, 'Mione."

"Yes, maybe," I nodded uncertainly.

Although, if he wanted to protect me, then surely he would have not mentioned the fact that Ron had hurt me.

"It's over between me and Lav," Ron whispered across to me after the lights went, "just so you know."

"Um- okay," I said, not entirely sure he was being accurate, "is that why you pretended to be asleep when she visited earlier?"

There was just enough moonlight for me to be able to see his face colour. "It's just easier this way... you know?"

Yeah, for you, I muttered in my head.

Merlin, I was starting to think that maybe I had had a narrow escape. Poor Lavender, imagine someone just dumping you without telling you.

I rolled over and closed my eyes, desperately willing for sleep to come. But my mind was in overdrive, trying so hard to locate my missing memories, going over everything Harry had told me.

The Slug Club... the Half-Blood Prince... Katie and the cursed necklace.... me going on a date with Cormac to make Ron jealous. It sounded like a pretty normal year at Hogwarts. I wondered what was so important about it that someone wanted me to forget?

For some reason, I felt as though these mysterious tutorials with Draco Malfoy were the key.

The following morning I was discharged from the hospital wing with a full bill of health despite still having a great big gaping hole in my memory bank.

I decided to go in search of Harry and question him about why he felt the need to leave out the fact that I'd been tutoring a boy whom I loathed more than anything.

And then, if I felt brave enough, I would confront Draco himself.

I couldn't help but feel curious about these tutorials. Were we ever alone together? Did we talk - have general conversations like civil people? Or was it as every bit awkward and uncomfortable as I would imagine it to have been?

I began my search in the Great Hall where people were still milling around eating breakfast.

The Gryffindor table was almost empty all except for Neville and Lavender sat on the end. Seeing me, Neville began waving enthusiastically, beckoning me over.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" He asked the second I reached the table, concern flitting over his features. "Seamus said he found you unconscious at the bottom of some steps."

"I'm fine," I lied, not wanting to get into the details of my dodgy memory. "Just a bit of a headache. Have you seen Harry? I need to speak to him rather urgently."

"What you need to do is eat," Neville said sternly, beckoning down at the table. "And besides, he's down at the Quidditch pitch, trying out for a replacement for Ron. He's going to be no use in the upcoming match against Hufflepuff next weekend."

"How is Ron?" Lavender asked in a small quivering voice as I reluctantly sat down and helped myself to a croissant. "Is he- is he up for visitors... do you think?"

"Oh, Lavender," I sighed, wondering whether just to tell her the truth so she could start moving on. "Ron is a git. You're really much better off without him."

She blinked as I went to reach across for the butter.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her tone was sharp, accusing.

"It means he's too chicken shit to tell you it's over," Neville muttered. "And I for one agree with Hermione. You deserve heaps better."

But Lavender just ignored him, moving the butter dish out of my reach as she glared at me.

"You liar! You just want him for yourself!" She screeched out of nowhere, standing up to point her fork accusingly in my face. "All these months you've been sulking because you're jealous that he'd rather kiss me than you, and now that he's lying - vulnerable - in a hospital bed, you are using it to break us up! But it won't happen! Ron and I are unbreakable!"

"Calm down, Lav," Neville hissed, trying to pull her back down in her seat.

"NO, I WON'T CALM DOWN!" Lavender screamed, yanking her arm out of Neville's grip. "NOT WHEN THAT BITCH IS TRYING TO DIG HER UGLY CLAWS INTO MY BOYFRIEND!"

Woah! She did not just call me ugly!

"You know what," I sighed, throwing down my untouched croissant as I got to my feet, "I'm not standing for this. I've got bigger problems to deal with."

"Hermione, wait-" Neville implored as I wheeled on the spot to storm away.

Accept that I didn't get far because blocking my path was none other than Draco Malfoy.

My first instinct was to quickly step around him, bracing myself for the barrage of verbal abuse he was bound to throw at me.

But instead I found myself hesitating, staring up at him in disbelief at the dramatic change in his appearance.

I know I had only lost six months of my memory but in that time Draco had changed drastically from the cocky, arrogant mean faced boy I remembered.

The resemblance to death was uncanny, his pale skin taking on a grey hue and dark shadows making his grey eyes look sunken in his gaunt face.

"Oh-" I found myself gasping, not being able to tear my eyes away from him.

He didn't say anything, didn't move or make a noise. Just stood statue still as his eyes burned down into mine.

The way he was looking at me was disconcerting to say the least. It was like he was searching for something, or even perhaps trying to delve into my mind and read my thoughts.

I looked away, embarrassed.

But then I was hit by the faint scent of his cologne and was surprised by how my body reacted to it - heart racing, breath hitching and every surface of my skin tingling in a not unpleasant way.

A part of me wanted to get away, as far from him as possible. Yet, another part, an unfamiliar part, had the strangest desire to stay.

But before I could analyse this strange occurrence any further, his eyes steeled over and a familiar sneer curled at his lip.

"I just wanted you to know," he snarled, his voice spiked with hate, "that your tutorial services are no longer required."

And without another word, he swept dramatically away, leaving nothing but his scent which still hung in the air and tickled my nose.

*****

He leant over the sink, splashing his face with cold water, waiting for his racing heart to calm down.

His Memory Charm had truly worked. He knew the second he had looked into her eyes.

The love... gone.

But his love hadn't gone, his heart still beat for her, thudding crazily in his chest, and, in that moment, as he stood so close to her in the Great Hall, all he had thought was, what the fuck have I done?

And he realised that he could never take it back, that what he had done to her was one of the most terrible things in the world. He'd robbed her of her choices, of her memories that were rightly hers.

He had robbed her of them.

Fuck, she had no idea that she was no longer a virgin, that she'd even been kissed.

What he had done was like the opposite of rape.

He'd de-virgined her.

But... he reminded himself, he was doing this for his mother. Her life was in his hands, not to mention his own.

He should never have started up with Hermione in the first place, should have listened to his head that was telling him to leave well alone.

Still, better late than never, he supposed.

He just prayed that Potter would stick to his end of the bargain and keep his trap well and truly shut.

In the meantime, he had a cabinet to fix and a headmaster to kill.

*****