Author's Note: This is the last chapter! Tear. Well I hope you've enjoyed it and I apologize for the French. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters

It was rapidly closing in on her and Draco's one year anniversary and Hermione had no idea what to do. It was obviously a milestone, but Draco had so much that she couldn't think of a gift for him, and any romantic outing she thought of ultimately seemed tired.

Another problem was that Draco didn't appear to even know that anything was coming up. No matter how many hints she dropped he never broached the subject, and she was beginning to get exasperated. The whole time she was worrying over it Draco was acting as if he hadn't a clue what she was talking about. In actuality he was planning a wonderful evening out that involved the theatre, dinner, and dancing. He noticed her annoyance regularly but kept quiet so he didn't spoil the surprise.

A week from their anniversary Hermione was feeling helpless. She still hadn't thought of anything and no one seemed to have any ideas that were right. She agonized about it all the time, and one night on the way to dinner at Draco's it was bothering her more than usual. She reached his apartment and stopped with her hand on the door. She could hear him on the phone inside.

"No she doesn't know."

She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she thought he could be talking about their anniversary. She figured if she could get an idea of what Draco was doing for her, maybe she'd finally be able to figure out what to do for him.

"No she doesn't suspect a thing." There was a long pause that she assumed indicated the end of the conversation. Slightly disappointed, she was about to go in when Draco's voice rang out again, sharply this time.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore Blaise."

Hermione's hand stilled again on the knob. "What?" she whispered to herself.

"No, it was fun but she doesn't mean anything, not really."

Her jaw dropped. He couldn't be talking about her, could he?

"I just need to lay it on the line and tell her that I've moved on and she's out of the picture."

Hermione felt the first tears fall from her eyes. So that's what he meant about her not knowing. He was cutting her loose.

"I'll talk to her and let her know what's really important, and make it very clear that it's not her."

Standing outside the door Hermione couldn't stem the flow of tears. She decided to make things easy for him; she wrote him a note and used her wand to make sure it stuck to the door. She practically flew down the stairs and as soon as she reached the alley behind the building she apparated home. When she appeared in her living room she sank to the floor and wept until she was empty.

Back at his apartment Draco was still on the phone with Blaise.

"I'm tired of rehashing it. I've just got to tell her off."

"You know Pansy, she won't take it well," Blaise said on the other end of the connection.

"I know she won't, but I really couldn't care less. Hermione is who is important to me, not Pansy. It's Hermione that I want to be with." He looked down at his watch with a frown. "Speaking of which, she should be here by now." He walked to the front door to see if she was on her way and stopped in his tracks when he read the note on the door. "Blaise, I think my world just came crashing down on top of me."

Weeks later Draco was going out of his mind. Hermione wouldn't answer his calls, he couldn't get past the web of colleagues she'd set up at work, his owls were returned with the notes still attached, and she wouldn't answer at his apartment. He had even talked to Harry; unfortunately Potter wouldn't let him near her. He had no idea what had caused her problems, she hadn't said. All he knew for sure was that she didn't want to see Draco, and he respected her wishes, though he could tell how miserable the man was.

Every minute of every day Draco replayed the words of the note over and over, wondering what on earth had gone wrong. The few short words resonated in his mind.

I'm done. We're done. Don't come after me.

Those eight words haunted him, and he kept up his efforts even though he received no response. The papers splashed the news of the breakup all over, speculating as to how and why it had happened, making him feel ten times worse. He began to hand more and more tasks over to his secretary and everyone he knew started to worry about him. One day Blaise entered the office to see his business partner looking decidedly unlike himself and his head down on the desk.

"Draco you've got to find a way to get through this. Look at yourself, you don't even look like you anymore," he said forcefully.

Draco raised his head from the desk to reveal weary grey eyes with dark circles underneath. "I know. I just can't wrap my mind around why. It's driving me mad."

"It may well really drive you mad soon if you don't do something about it."

"I know. It would seem I'm rather screwed."

Blaise regarded his friend and tried to understand. "You really care for her don't you?"

He nodded slowly, slipping into the French that came out when he was upset. "Je devrais ne jamais avoir marche dans cette barre. Je devrais ne jamais avoir pris sa maison. Je devrais avoir su des le debut que je tomberais."

"Oui mais ne pas laisser la chute vous tue cette façon mon ami,"

Hermione spent that weekend closeted in her apartment with her tear inducing movies and ice cream, wearing a ratty old robe. Like Blaise, her friends were beginning to worry about her. Somewhere in the middle of her tear soaked marathon the doorbell rang. Assuming it was Draco again she turned up the volume and ignored it. Pretty soon the knocking turned in to pounding.

"Open this door Hermione," Harry said angrily.

"Damn," she cursed. She switched off the movie and hurried to get the door. Rather than angry, the emerald eyes she saw were full of concern. "I'm sorry Harry, I thought…"

"I know what you thought," he said gently as he closed the door behind him. "We're worried about you. Ginny says you never want to talk anymore; you just stay in all the time. You're miserably unhappy. What happened?"

She took a seat on the couch and shook her head. "What happened doesn't matter Harry. It's over, that's the end of it."

He sat down beside her and looked straight into her eyes. "It's not that simple Hermione. If that were the end of it you wouldn't be feeling this way. You'd have washed your hands of him and moved on; instead you're this way."

"You're right, but I don't know any other way to be. I'm hurt Harry, I'm upset and angry. I don't know how to fix me."

"I know, but you needn't do it alone. Ginny and I want to help."

She shook her head. "I don't think you can."

Harry hadn't wanted to tell her but he didn't see a choice anymore. "Gin's afraid you'll hurt yourself Hermione."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "I would never do anything to hurt myself Harry. I'm aching but I wouldn't do that."

"Then let us help you Hermione. You shouldn't have to be alone when you're feeling this way."

She nodded, and the compassion and love she knew that Harry and Ginny felt for her hit her full force; she began to cry. Hot tears stung her eyes and rushed down her cheeks. "I love him Harry, I love him and it hurts so much."

He gathered her in his arms like a child and held her as her body was wracked with great heaving sobs. "I know, I know," he whispered as he rocked her in his arms.

"He didn't love me. I was just a spot of fun." Harry frowned at that as he remembered how miserable Malfoy had looked the last time he'd seen him but he kept his mouth shut. "That's the unbearable paradox; he never loved me, but I can't stop loving him." Her words were overtaken with sobs and all Harry could do was hold her as she let it all out.

When she quieted and eventually fell asleep Harry laid her on the couch and went to call Ginny.

"It's bad love, really bad," he said, gazing at his broken friend.

"I think you should bring her here Harry. I don't want her to be alone."

"Alright, I'll get a few of her things and bring her home."

When Hermione woke Harry handed her a bag packed with enough for a week and told her she was staying with him and Ginny. Ordinarily she would have protested, but at the moment she felt too shattered to argue. When they appeared at Harry's apartment she found Ginny waiting for her with open arms. As she was enveloped in a warm hug the tears came again, this time because she knew that she was loved, no matter what.

A month and a half after he'd found the note Draco had moved from upset to flat out angry. Now he was bound and determined to get hold of Hermione and tell her exactly how he felt, which certainly wasn't good. On a mild day in London he was walking down the streets of Diagon Alley contemplating that very thing when he careened into someone. He grabbed the woman's arm to keep her from hitting the pavement and looked down into startled doe brown eyes that were all too familiar. Hermione stood stark still with Draco's hand on her arm, feeling like the world had stopped moving. He gazed down at her for a moment with wide eyes before they narrowed and he smirked at her. Before she knew it the reapparated in his apartment.

"You bastard, let me go!" she yelled as he hauled her struggling form up in his arms.

"No. I'm not letting you go anywhere until I tell you exactly what I think."

She elbowed him hard in the stomach and he let her fall to the floor with a grunt. He knew she would want to apparate out so he grabbed her legs again before she could. "You insufferable jackass," she hissed.

"Go ahead, but I'm holding on so wherever you go, I go. Keep that in mind."

She screamed in frustration and kicked his arms away. She stood with her hands on her hips as he rose. "What do you want?"

Draco cast a silencing charm on the apartment. "We're going to have this out, right now."

She crossed her arms and regarded him coolly. "Fine, I'll go first."

"Oh no, I'll go first. Of all the low down, sneaky things I've ever experienced, this takes the cake. A note on my door, no explanation, no 'sorry Draco', a note. A damn note!"

"I was cutting you free of any obligation you might have felt," she said tightly.

"What the hell are you talking about? I wasn't looking to be cut free; we were supposed to be having dinner for God's sake! I was in the middle of planning a night out for out anniversary, and then out of the blue we're done. The least you could have done was give me some sort of explanation Hermione!" he yelled.

Her eyes flashed fire. "You don't get to be angry Draco! You were going to get rid of me anyway, I just made it simple."

"You're absolutely mad woman!"

"Don't play dumb Draco! I decided to make things easier for both of us. I was trying to avoid a scene like this. You didn't care for me, I was just a bit of fun, and I get it."

He went still and his voice became dangerously quiet. "What?"

"I'm not daft, I know you were going to break it off, I knew that I wasn't important in your life."

He was in front of her in an instant. "What are you talking about?"

"I heard you say it so don't lie to me and tell me I'm wrong. I heard you say it."

"Hermione…" He reached out but she moved back as if she'd been burned.

"Don't," she choked out. "Don't touch me."

In spite of her demand he moved forward again and this time she began to cry. "Don't touch me!" she cried. She fought desperately for control but couldn't hold back the urgent tears. "You turned out to be exactly who I thought you were all those years ago! You didn't want me anymore, I heard you say it!"

He took her in his arms and she fought to break free, thrashing and striking out. Her small fists pounded into his chest over and over as she sobbed as if her heart were breaking all over again. "Petite Sorciere, I would never…"

"You don't get to call me that anymore!" She broke away from him and slid to the floor, her back against the couch. She wrapped her arms around herself as if to ward off a chill. "I'm not your anything anymore."

Draco crouched down in front of her but made sure he didn't touch her. "Ok, but please Hermione tell me what happened."

She looked up at him with red eyes. "As if you don't know."

"Please Hermione, just tell me." Something in his voice made her pause.

"The day I left the note I heard you talking on the phone. I thought at first you were talking about our anniversary so I listened for a while, even though I knew I shouldn't have. When you didn't say anything about it I was ready to come in, then you started talking about me. You said I didn't mean anything."

Everything suddenly became clear as he remembered the conversation. "Hermione."

She held up her hand. "No, you wanted to hear, so I'm going to tell all of it. After that you said you were just going to let me know I was out of the picture." Just the thought of it brought fresh tears to her eyes. "Then you said you were going to make it very clear that I wasn't what was important." She brushed impatiently at the tears that wouldn't stop coming. "I didn't stick around after that. I loved you, and you ripped my heart out." She stood up. "I just thought you should know that."

The word love had his heart clenching and he held out his hand to stop her leaving "Don't I get my chance?"

"No, you don't." She kept walking.

"I wasn't talking about you that night."

Hermione stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"I wasn't talking about you."

She turned back to him, ruthlessly squashing down the ray of hope that blossomed. "Then who?"

"I was talking about Pansy."

"What?"

He sighed. "It's a long story. Pansy always wanted to be with me when we were in school, but I had little more than a passing interest in her. When Blaise and I first got to France she showed up. Against my better judgment we had what you might call an affair. It cooled pretty quickly on my end and ended altogether when she moved to the states with her family." He paused and looked over at Hermione. Her face remained unreadable to he continued. "I hadn't heard from her in years, but the day before you left the note she showed up at my office. She wanted to rekindle things and no matter what I told her she just wouldn't take no for an answer. She breezed out, not caring that I was with you."

"Go on," she said quietly when he stopped.

"The next night Blaise called while I was waiting for you. I was telling him about what I had planned for out anniversary when he brought up Pansy. By then I decided that I needed to be absolutely frank with her, just tell her that she wasn't going to be with me, that she wasn't what was important. What you missed after you left was me telling Blaise that you where what was important to me, that you were the one I wanted to be with." He stopped and turned to look at her.

She remained quiet for a long time, thinking long and hard about what she'd just been told. Nothing in the story had a false ring to it, and the sincerity in Draco's eyes as he had told it spoke volumes. "So the whole time you were talking about Pansy?"

"Yes. Then I found the note and I went crazy. I had no idea what had happened and… well you know what happened after that."

"So you weren't going to break things off."

"No I wasn't, I had something completely different in mind actually. I had a big night planned for the next week, theatre dinner and dancing and a big surprise at the end of the night."

The ray of hope filtered back in and was joined by several more. Pretty soon she felt like the sun was shining from within her and happy tears glistened in her eyes. "I don't know what to say."

He dropped to his knees in front of her. "Say you forgive me. Sil vous plait petite sorciere."

"No, there's nothing to forgive. It was all a misunderstanding."

"Oui, all of this over a simple misunderstanding."

Hermione laughed and threw herself into his arms. He pulled her closer and captured her lips. Passions clashed and they pulled apart gasping. "Je t'aime avec tout mon coeur."

The smile that she flashed practically lit up the room. "Je t'aime aussi."

Author's Note: Well I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. I apologize once again for the horrendous French, I use a translator site so I'm not responsible for any grammatical errors.

The translation for this final chapter

Draco basically says that he never should have brought Hermione home, he never should have walked into the bar, he should have known from the start that he would fall.

Blaise says yes but don't let the fall kill you this way my friend

Obviously Draco says he loves Hermione with all of his heart and I think you can get the idea of Hermione's response.

I hope you've enjoyed the story

Au revoir for now