A/N – Welcome to my newest short story. It is 7 chapters in total, and updates will be Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I want to dedicate this story to slytherinflower 26, who gave me the idea for the story. I just hope you like what I've done with your idea.

And I hope everyone else enjoys this short little story.

The Head Girl, Hermione Granger, squeezed the last of her Christmas presents into her bag and with a bit of a struggle managed to zip it up.

"Let's hope I haven't forgotten anything," she muttered to herself. It didn't feel as though she'd packed too much for the Christmas holidays, but it had been a tight squeeze to get everything into her bag.

Knowing she would make a final check later, Hermione left her bag on the bottom of the bed and headed out of the bedroom with the intention of paying a visit to Gryffindor Tower. As Head Girl, Hermione shared the Head Dorms on the third floor with the Head Boy, Draco Malfoy, but she still spent a lot of time up in Gryffindor Tower. After all, she was still a Gryffindor.

Making her way down to the common room, Hermione found Draco lounging on the sofa, reading a quidditch magazine. When she'd first discovered she would be sharing dorms with Draco she'd feared that it would be a terrible experience and would mar her final year at Hogwarts, but as it turned out it wasn't anything like she'd thought it would be. Surprisingly she and Draco had found they could work together with ease, and after agreeing to put the past behind them and make a fresh start, living together was no hassle. If anything, they'd even struck up a friendship, and it pained Hermione to admit it, but the conversations she could have with Draco were often more intellectual than any she could have with her other friends.

"Are you ready for the Christmas holidays?" Hermione asked Draco. The Hogwarts Express would be leaving the following morning, and Hermione knew from sharing dorms with Draco for the past couple of months that he was almost as organised as she was and would certainly be prepared for the trip home.

"I think so," Draco replied. "I sent my parents presents to the manor last week, and I've got everything ready here for a good time."

"Are you not going home for the holidays?" Hermione questioned with surprise. Even before she'd shared dorms with Draco she'd known how much of a big deal family was to the Malfoys, and she knew that Draco went home for most holidays.

"No," Draco answered with a shake of his head. "Father wrote to me last month asking if I minded staying at school. He wants to take Mother to Italy for the holidays. Apparently, some prestigious opera company is performing the exact same opera which they went to see on honeymoon, in the exact same venue they viewed it in, on Christmas Eve."

"Aww, that is so sweet," Hermione said with a smile. She never would have thought of Lucius Malfoy as the romantic type, but it was clear that he thought a great deal of his wife to organise such a romantic surprise.

"He may be a tough, ruthless bastard, but when it comes to mother he's a pussy cat," Draco chuckled. "Just don't tell anyone I ever said so. Father would disown me rather than admit he had a soft side."

"Your secret is safe with me," Hermione laughed. Another thing she'd discovered about Draco since they'd been living together was that when you got to know him, he was very open and had a good sense of humour. "So, what are you going to do for the holidays?"

"Stay here and party," Draco answered with a smirk. "When I mentioned I was staying for Christmas, almost all of my friends decided to stay as well. So, we're going to make the most of our final Christmas at Hogwarts."

Hermione couldn't help but smile at the Slytherins sense of friendship. They really were a tightknit bunch of friends, and Hermione knew they would stick together through thick and thin. She would like to think that if she'd been in the same position as Draco, her friends would have done and same and stayed at Hogwarts with her, but honestly, she doubted it. Her friends always went home for the holidays, and even though Hermione had once suggested Harry and Ron could go to her home for Christmas, the idea was shot down in flames. So, if Hermione wanted to spend the holidays with her friends, as she was planning on doing this year, she had to go the Weasleys home, The Burrow.

"Are you going home for Christmas?" Draco asked.

"Actually, I'm going to Ron's for the holiday," Hermione answered.

"Have fun," Draco replied, flashing Hermione a quick smile before burying his head back in his magazine before she noticed the distaste in his eyes at the mention of her idiot boyfriend, Ron Weasley.

Draco had never been a fan of Ron's, but he was even less of a fan now he was sharing dorms with Hermione and witnessed first-hand what a shoddy boyfriend he was to the bright and beautiful muggleborn witch. Of course, his opinions weren't helped by the fact he'd developed a crush on Hermione, but even without that he was convinced that he would dislike Ron and disapprove of him as a boyfriend. From what Draco had seen the relationship between Hermione and Ron was very one sided and Ron was only interested in what he could get. He certainly wasn't interested in Hermione and what would make her happy.

Unaware of Draco's train of thoughts, Hermione breezily said goodbye to the Head Boy and headed off to Gryffindor Tower. Upon entering Gryffindor Tower, Hermione couldn't see either her boyfriend or her best friend, Harry Potter. After briefly debating whether to just wait for them in the common room, she decided to go and check if they were in the boy's dorms. It was unlikely they were being organised and packing early rather than leaving it to the last minute, but you never knew, eventually Hermione's influence might rub off on them and they might realise it was better to be organised than to run around like blue arsed flies' hours before departure.

Hurrying up the staircase that led to the boy's dorms, Hermione pushed open the door and entered the seventh-year dorm room only to wish she hadn't. Guttural moans and cries filled the air and Hermione was greeted at the sight of a naked Lavender Brown writhing atop of a male figure on the bed directly opposite the door. The bed belonged to Neville Longbottom, and in the midst of her embarrassment, Hermione vaguely thought he and Lavender made a bizarre couple. But before her mind could totally process that it wasn't Neville under Lavender, the witch in question moved slightly and Hermione spotted a familiar mop of red hair.

"Ron," she whispered, frozen on the spot even though a second earlier she'd been about to turn and leave the bedroom.

"Hermione," Ron cried, bolting upright in the bed and pushing Lavender off him. "This isn't what it looks like," he pleaded, hopping out of bed, forgetting that he was still stark naked.

"It looks to me like you're shagging Lavender Brown," Hermione replied calmly, gesturing to Ron's bobbing penis. "Or did your clothes fall off by accident?"

"Hermione, please just listen to me," Ron pleaded, hurrying towards his girlfriend.

"Don't you dare touch me," Hermione seethed, stepping backwards. "Nothing can explain this, Ron. We're over."

Turning on her heel, Hermione ran from the boy's dorms, ignoring Ron's voice as he called after her. Bolting down the stairs, Hermione was almost knocked off her feet as she ran into Harry. Luckily, her friend had excellent reflexes and he steadied Hermione before she went tumbling to the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked in concern, noticing that Hermione looked to be on the verge of tears.

"That bastard," Hermione spat.

"What bastard?" Ginny Weasley, who was at Harry's side asked.

"Your scumbag brother," Hermione replied. "I've just walked in on him shagging Lavender Brown."

"No, he wouldn't," Harry muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "Tell me this is a misunderstanding, Ron," he said, suddenly spotting Ron emerging from the staircase. The only problem was, he could see that Ron had dressed in a hurry and looked totally flustered.

"There is no misunderstanding, Harry," Hermione spat, turning around so she was glaring at her now ex-boyfriend. "I know what I saw. He was cheating on me."

"It never meant to get that far," Ron whispered. "And it wouldn't have if you hadn't been so damn cold."

"You're blaming me?" Hermione questioned in outrage, her hurt being pushed aside in favour of anger.

"At least Lavender appreciates that I'm a man and I have needs," Ron said defensively. "I'm lucky if I get more than a snog from you."

"Don't you dare say this is my fault," Hermione hissed. "It is not my fault that you can't keep your trousers on."

"It's not like I get a chance to take them off with you," Ron shot back. "Hell, if I go to touch you, you run a mile. I'm sick of taking care of myself, Hermione."

"It looks like you don't have that problem anymore," Hermione spat. "Let your tart take care of your little problem in future. And I do mean little," she added maliciously, waggling her little finger at Ron. "We're done, and I never want to set eyes on you again."

"Fine by me," Ron snarled as he turned and headed back up to the boy's dorms, where Lavender was clearly still waiting for him.

"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry said sympathetically.

"It's not your fault Ron is an arsehole," Hermione replied with a sad smile.

"This isn't all Ron's fault," Ginny said, jumping to her brother's defence.

"Who else? He was the one who chose to cheat on me, Ginny," Hermione pointed out.

"But you do have to ask yourself why," Ginny argued. "Ron was right, Hermione. If you're going to be a prick tease, you can't be surprised when he looks for action elsewhere."

"I can't believe you're blaming me," Hermione muttered with a shake of her head. "I should not have to sleep with someone who professed to love me, just to keep them faithful."

"Even if you weren't ready for sex, there's other stuff you could do," Ginny retorted with a shrug. "You're his girlfriend, Hermione. It's your duty to keep Ron satisfied. At the very least you could have given him the odd blow job"

"If you really believe that, then I feel sorry for you, Ginny," Hermione said sadly. "If a man doesn't respect you enough to honour your choices regarding sex, then he's not worth having. Ron said he loved me. I shouldn't have had to sleep with him or give him sexual favours to keep him faithful. His love for me should have done that. And if sex was so important to him, and he wasn't prepared to wait for me to be ready, then he should have ended things. I am not the one in the wrong, Ginny, and I will not let you blame me for your brothers' loose morals."

"I can't believe you have just said that," Harry muttered to Ginny, giving her a look of disgust as Hermione turned and stalked out of Gryffindor Tower. "Hermione, wait," he called, running after his best friend and catching her outside in the hallway.

"I just want to be alone, Harry," Hermione said with a sad sigh. To be honest now she'd vented her fury all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry, and she would rather do that in the privacy of her own room.

"You won't be coming for Christmas, will you?" he asked sadly.

"What do you think?" Hermione snorted. "Drop by the Head Dorms in the morning and I'll give you the presents."

"I can talk to them over the holidays," Harry offered. "I'm sure Ginny doesn't think half of what she said. And as for Ron, I'm sure that he'll regret what he's done."

"It really doesn't matter if he regrets it or not, it's too late to fix things," Hermione said. "We're finished and that's the end of it. Don't get yourself caught up in the middle of it, Harry. If you take sides you're going to lose one of us, and I don't want that to happen."

"Okay, but for the record the side I choose is yours," Harry said, wrapping his arm around Hermione. "Ron was wrong."

"Thanks Harry, I appreciate that," Hermione replied, giving her friend a peck on the cheek. "Now if you don't mind, I want to be alone."

"At least let me walk you back to the head dorms," Harry insisted.

Not having the energy to argue, Hermione allowed Harry to walk her back to the third floor, where the Head Dorms were located. When they entered the Head Dorms, Draco was still lounging in the front room and his greeting died on his lips when he spotted Hermione and could see how pale and shaken she looked.

"What's happened?" he asked on concern.

"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione replied quietly. "Thank you for walking me back, Harry. I'll see you tomorrow."

Making her way towards her bedroom, Hermione heard Draco asking Harry what was going on. She heard Harry's quick explanation, and she also caught Harry asking Draco to keep an eye on her over the holidays. Not that she cared as she didn't plan on leaving her room over the festive season. As far as she was concerned, Christmas was cancelled.