The Bracelet, Chapter 92/103
Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
Draco walked the halls back from the library, yawning. This was exactly how he wanted to be spending his Saturday night-researching for dumb essays! He couldn't wait for school to be done. Just a couple of months….
And then he wouldn't see Hermione again.
On second thought, the essays weren't that bad.
He turned a corner and was met with sudden exploding pain in the middle of his face as someone punched him too quickly for him to see who it was. He cried out with the pain, but was then gripped by fear. Had they come again? Were they going to kill everyone? Hermione. He needed to warn her, make sure she… what? That she was safe? She'd run head-first into trouble the minute he told her. Maybe if he-
"That was for you being a git in general, now stand up straight so I can give you what you deserve for the way you've treated Hermione."
Potter?
Draco straightened, tentatively feeling his nose. He hissed with the pain of it. His head was pounding and he had a hard time focusing his vision. He didn't plan on letting any of it on, though.
"You know, Potter," he slowly said, "I always found it quite endearing how you make a pretense out of fancying girls. Is this to show Weasley what a manly man you are? The boy Weasley, I mean. Not the girl."
He was still fiddling with his nose, considering running up to the Hospital Wing afterwards to have it taken care of just in case it was broken. He really didn't have the kind of face that could sport a crooked nose very well.
Potter frowned. "What?" He shook his head. "Never mind."
Then he punched Draco again, right in the mouth.
"Son of a-!" Draco exclaimed as it felt like the pain split his skull open and the metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth. He was going to get the worst migraine ever. He spat, hoping some of it hit Potter, but not seeing well enough to be sure. "Would you fucking stop doing that?" He tentatively felt his lip and then growled. It had split. So much for his good looks.
"You used her," Potter growled. "You softened her until you could get what you wanted and then you threw her aside like… like she was nothing but rubbish."
"What?" Draco frowned in confusion, trying to will his bruised brains to think. "Who?"
Potter's eyes widened. "There have been more?"
Draco groaned at the shout and then dodged the next blow just in time, making his head throb extra painfully with the motion, while considering whether Hermione would be very mad at him if they found Potter's corpse in the morning. "I swear," he muttered. "If you weren't a friend of Hermione's…."
"Then what? Then it would have been easier for you to get away with?" Potter harshly asked.
"Wait, I'm supposed to have done something to her?" Draco frowned again. Almost anything he did these days was for Hermione, so how the hell would Potter get an idea like that?
"Don't act innocent, Malfoy. She told us!" Potter was looking absolutely livid.
"Told you what?" Draco quietly asked.
"You slept with her!"
"Yeah, but…." Draco straightened and then grimaced as a wave of nausea hit him. Oh, yes. Migraine. "Not against her will!"
Potter took another wild swing that Draco also barely dodged. Soon he would have to strike back just to make Potter stop.
"You fucking tricked her!" Potter hissed. "Just because she's smart doesn't mean that she's not a girl. One with a soft spot for lost causes, even! How dare you get what you want and then laugh at her behind her back and even to her face?"
"Whoa!" Draco stepped back just to make sure Potter couldn't easily take another swing at him. "First off, I didn't trick her to do anything! Second of all, laugh at her? I don't know how she got that impression! I've done nothing she didn't want! I left her alone like she wanted after she got what she wanted from me! It wasn't me who went to her room to take advantage of her soft spot!" Ugh, the state of his head really didn't lend itself to long and passionate speeches. Draco hoped Potter would just get it and go away.
"Nice try, Malfoy!" Potter said, drawing his arm back.
So Draco did the only thing left to do and took a step forward and kneed Potter in the groin to spare his own abused head. As Potter crumpled to the ground, gasping for air, Draco said, "Someone got used but it wasn't her. I want her and you know it. You just don't want to face it. None of you do. Least of all her." Then Draco turned around and walked up to the Hospital Wing, where he would explain to Madam Pomfrey how he'd tripped and hit a wall-twice.
And tomorrow he would find Hermione and find out exactly what kind of stories she had been spreading about him.
"You know, Granger, avoiding me like that only postpones the inevitable."
Hermione jumped in her seat. She hadn't heard anyone entering the office. She quickly glanced over at Theo to see if he looked surprised, but he didn't. Of course he didn't.
"You'd better not be bothering the Head Girl again, Draco," Theo said without even looking up.
"Maybe if I could talk to her alone?" Draco asked.
"Not a chance," Theo calmly replied. Hermione was quite glad; she couldn't handle Draco alone right now.
"Fine. Just exactly how much am I bothering you… Granger?" Draco's voice was rather ominous.
Hermione still wasn't sure how to look him in the eyes or talk to him as if nothing had ever happened, but she supposed that she had to. He was right-she was only postponing the inevitable. She slowly turned around and then gasped as she saw his face, momentarily forgetting her own discomfort. "What happened?"
He darkly smiled. "It's funny you should ask that. It seems that last night Potter took exception to how I've been using you. Forgive me if it surprised me what you've been telling your friends. The way I remember it, you were the one to suggest certain… intimacies… for testing purposes."
Theo had turned around in his chair as well and folded his arms over his chest. "What do you know. He has a legit reason to be angry. At least if that's true."
Hermione glanced at Theo, whose face was a closed book as always, and then back at Draco. "I-I didn't." She got up and took a few steps closer to Draco. He had two black eyes, both the area around his nose and on his chin seemed swollen under all the bruising and he had a split lip. "You should go to the Hospital Wing with that."
"I did," he harshly said. "Pomfrey told me I'll live. Thanks for your concern. But if you sic your friends on me again, I can't answer for them."
"Good! I didn't even sic them on you the first time! Damn that Harry, I told him it wasn't like that!" Hermione was so frustrated, she didn't know what to do with herself. She ran one hand through her hair, nervously tangling her fingers in the curls. "Even Ron seemed to realize that Pansy was just stirring up trouble when she said those things," she babbled.
Draco frowned. "Pansy?"
Hermione opened her mouth to tell him, but then closed it again. Who was she to come between Draco and his friends? "Nothing. I'm… I'm really sorry about this. It won't happen again."
"You're damn right, it won't!" he hissed. "If it does, I'll make damn sure everyone knows how it all really happened!" He turned around and marched out, slamming the door behind himself.
Hermione jumped at the loud sound and closed her eyes. Great. Now he hated her. This was just what she'd been hoping for! Thanks a lot, Harry! She took a deep breath, trying to not feel. She didn't like it when she felt things around Draco. It always hurt.
"Wow, I could give you two a manual with lots of little pictures and you still wouldn't be able to figure it out, would you?" Theo drily asked.
"Who can blame him for being angry?" Hermione muttered, slowly sitting back down at her desk. "He's been accused of taking advantage of me when he hardly even wanted to… um, never mind."
"Make no mistake, he wanted to do it. He also did take advantage of you. He used you to feel like he had what he wanted. That doesn't mean you didn't want to be used or that you didn't use him too, though. It's all semantics and irrelevant to the case. You people are beginning to bore me. Could you two at least try to react less primitively to each other?"
If Theo only knew exactly how primitively Hermione reacted to Draco. She blushed and, then, knowing how telling that blush was, she blushed even deeper. Damn it. Theo would draw all kinds of conclusions. All of them correct. "It's not like any of that matters anyway. Harry was wrong to attack him."
"Perhaps. But he was looking out for you. And that's not why Draco is angry, anyway."
"No, he's angry because he thinks I lied."
"No. He's angry because he needs to be angry at you before he can get over you and move on. He's finally moving towards the final stages. You'd better act quickly if you want to keep him pining for you." The last line was fairly dripping with sarcasm.
"That's ridiculous," Hermione objected. "You don't need to be angry at someone to get over them."
"Some people do."
"I don't."
"No, you move on remarkably well."
"So, you're saying I'm fickle?" Hermione's face fell completely. Draco had often said the same thing. Maybe that was even why he didn't really want her.
"No." Theo's voice was almost gentle. "I'm saying that it's about time you admit you want him and that you won't know what to do with yourself if he actually manages to move on."
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, he said-"
"Forget what comes out of his mouth. He's too stupid to be trusted to speak."
"Why are you saying all this?" Hermione suspiciously eyed Theo. "Is this another one of your evil schemes?"
The small smile he gave seemed to cost him a lot of effort. "I like you, Hermione. For some highly illogical reason you like him. A lot. And I really hate to see you hurting. Just take my advice; ignore his words and judge him by his actions."
"But he didn't even kiss me," she whispered.
"What?"
"After… after we… he rejected my kiss. He said we shouldn't do it again. He didn't want me there, didn't even look at me or touch me." She fought against the tears gathering in her eyes. "I don't know where this could eventually have gone, but he's obviously over it, so it's all fairly pointless."
"That was more than I wanted to know," Theo muttered.
Hermione shook her head. "And even if it had been possible to have something, I can't ignore that he said we could never be serious. I can't be with anyone who wouldn't be seen with me in public. He never made the slightest hint that he changed his mind about that!"
"And you think he's fool enough to not change his mind for love?"
Hermione shook her head again. "He moved on too easily. I don't believe he was ever really in love with me. He just thought he was."
"That would be an obstacle."
"I know."
"But did you at least finally realize that you might be a little bit in love with him?"
Hermione swallowed and forced her mind to be a blank. "I'm not a glutton for punishment."
"If you truly believe that, then there are two obstacles."
"Are you saying that I am?"
Theo leaned back in his chair and pursed his lips. "I'm saying that if you don't want to fight for it, then far be it from me to care. Do you have the detention list?"
Hermione blinked, feeling a little disoriented. "Um, sure."
"Ok. The easy way to go would be to make each detention a night of rounds. That might even lighten the load a bit for the rest of us. What do you think?"
Apparently, just like that, the other conversation was over.
It was better that way, anyway.
Draco's bag slammed down on the common room table, covering Pansy's Witch Weekly.
"Hey!" she objected, but then widened her eyes as she got a good look at his face. "What happened to you?"
"Daphne, leave," Draco coldly said to the witch on the sofa next to Pansy while his eyes never left Pansy's. "Personal business."
Daphne Greengrass seemed to get the hint, because she scurried away without complaint.
"Now, that wasn't very nice of you," Pansy said, folding her arms and staring him down.
"Shut up, Pansy," he harshly said. "I will give you one chance to tell me what tales you've been spreading."
"You really have to be more specific than that, Draco," she said, casually studying her fingernails.
"I bet I do," he growled. "What did you tell Potter?"
"Potter?" Pansy looked genuinely surprised. "I don't tend to talk to Potter. He's much too sanctimonious for my tastes. Did he do that to you?"
Draco didn't reply. "Weasley, then? Don't think I didn't notice how you've been encouraging him."
Pansy's lips parted in indignation. "I would never encourage that daft tosser! And, besides, he finally seemed to take a hint when I told that Granger that-" She abruptly cut off.
"Yes?" Draco silkily asked. "Please do tell me what you told Granger."
Pansy shrugged. "It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Just told her that he was stupid and she was ugly."
Draco narrowed his eyes. "You can do better than that."
"I was testing her!" Pansy defensively said. "To see if she cared about you. But she hardly even reacted!"
"What did you say?" he growled.
"Um…" Pansy conspicuously picked at invisible lint on her sleeve. "What did you hear?"
"Pansy, unless you want to permanently lose those pretty golden locks of yours…."
"All right! All right!" Pansy threw up her hands. "I suppose I might have said that you've been using her for sex, don't care about her, and have moved on. But, Draco, when I suspected that the two of you had… you know… I couldn't help but try and see if she had any feelings for you. I took a swipe at every insecurity I know she has and a few I suspect she has, and she should have been running crying from the room, but there was no sign that it bothered her at all. In fact, she seems to… to have taken up with Weasley now."
That immediately distracted Draco. Weasley? Ron Weasley? That freckled loser she touched much too often to be decent? Draco wished he couldn't believe it. He really did. Unfortunately, he was currently doing his very best to be realistic and it was very realistic that Hermione Granger would end up with Ron Weasley.
He didn't have the right to care who she ended up with, though. He could not show jealousy.
Draco found himself wondering if he could make hexing Weasley look like payback for being punched by Potter.
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: When Hermione Granger loses a bet she was sure she'd win to Draco Malfoy, it's the beginning of her own personal hell. And his.
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
Draco walked the halls back from the library, yawning. This was exactly how he wanted to be spending his Saturday night-researching for dumb essays! He couldn't wait for school to be done. Just a couple of months….
And then he wouldn't see Hermione again.
On second thought, the essays weren't that bad.
He turned a corner and was met with sudden exploding pain in the middle of his face as someone punched him too quickly for him to see who it was. He cried out with the pain, but was then gripped by fear. Had they come again? Were they going to kill everyone? Hermione. He needed to warn her, make sure she… what? That she was safe? She'd run head-first into trouble the minute he told her. Maybe if he-
"That was for you being a git in general, now stand up straight so I can give you what you deserve for the way you've treated Hermione."
Potter?
Draco straightened, tentatively feeling his nose. He hissed with the pain of it. His head was pounding and he had a hard time focusing his vision. He didn't plan on letting any of it on, though.
"You know, Potter," he slowly said, "I always found it quite endearing how you make a pretense out of fancying girls. Is this to show Weasley what a manly man you are? The boy Weasley, I mean. Not the girl."
He was still fiddling with his nose, considering running up to the Hospital Wing afterwards to have it taken care of just in case it was broken. He really didn't have the kind of face that could sport a crooked nose very well.
Potter frowned. "What?" He shook his head. "Never mind."
Then he punched Draco again, right in the mouth.
"Son of a-!" Draco exclaimed as it felt like the pain split his skull open and the metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth. He was going to get the worst migraine ever. He spat, hoping some of it hit Potter, but not seeing well enough to be sure. "Would you fucking stop doing that?" He tentatively felt his lip and then growled. It had split. So much for his good looks.
"You used her," Potter growled. "You softened her until you could get what you wanted and then you threw her aside like… like she was nothing but rubbish."
"What?" Draco frowned in confusion, trying to will his bruised brains to think. "Who?"
Potter's eyes widened. "There have been more?"
Draco groaned at the shout and then dodged the next blow just in time, making his head throb extra painfully with the motion, while considering whether Hermione would be very mad at him if they found Potter's corpse in the morning. "I swear," he muttered. "If you weren't a friend of Hermione's…."
"Then what? Then it would have been easier for you to get away with?" Potter harshly asked.
"Wait, I'm supposed to have done something to her?" Draco frowned again. Almost anything he did these days was for Hermione, so how the hell would Potter get an idea like that?
"Don't act innocent, Malfoy. She told us!" Potter was looking absolutely livid.
"Told you what?" Draco quietly asked.
"You slept with her!"
"Yeah, but…." Draco straightened and then grimaced as a wave of nausea hit him. Oh, yes. Migraine. "Not against her will!"
Potter took another wild swing that Draco also barely dodged. Soon he would have to strike back just to make Potter stop.
"You fucking tricked her!" Potter hissed. "Just because she's smart doesn't mean that she's not a girl. One with a soft spot for lost causes, even! How dare you get what you want and then laugh at her behind her back and even to her face?"
"Whoa!" Draco stepped back just to make sure Potter couldn't easily take another swing at him. "First off, I didn't trick her to do anything! Second of all, laugh at her? I don't know how she got that impression! I've done nothing she didn't want! I left her alone like she wanted after she got what she wanted from me! It wasn't me who went to her room to take advantage of her soft spot!" Ugh, the state of his head really didn't lend itself to long and passionate speeches. Draco hoped Potter would just get it and go away.
"Nice try, Malfoy!" Potter said, drawing his arm back.
So Draco did the only thing left to do and took a step forward and kneed Potter in the groin to spare his own abused head. As Potter crumpled to the ground, gasping for air, Draco said, "Someone got used but it wasn't her. I want her and you know it. You just don't want to face it. None of you do. Least of all her." Then Draco turned around and walked up to the Hospital Wing, where he would explain to Madam Pomfrey how he'd tripped and hit a wall-twice.
And tomorrow he would find Hermione and find out exactly what kind of stories she had been spreading about him.
"You know, Granger, avoiding me like that only postpones the inevitable."
Hermione jumped in her seat. She hadn't heard anyone entering the office. She quickly glanced over at Theo to see if he looked surprised, but he didn't. Of course he didn't.
"You'd better not be bothering the Head Girl again, Draco," Theo said without even looking up.
"Maybe if I could talk to her alone?" Draco asked.
"Not a chance," Theo calmly replied. Hermione was quite glad; she couldn't handle Draco alone right now.
"Fine. Just exactly how much am I bothering you… Granger?" Draco's voice was rather ominous.
Hermione still wasn't sure how to look him in the eyes or talk to him as if nothing had ever happened, but she supposed that she had to. He was right-she was only postponing the inevitable. She slowly turned around and then gasped as she saw his face, momentarily forgetting her own discomfort. "What happened?"
He darkly smiled. "It's funny you should ask that. It seems that last night Potter took exception to how I've been using you. Forgive me if it surprised me what you've been telling your friends. The way I remember it, you were the one to suggest certain… intimacies… for testing purposes."
Theo had turned around in his chair as well and folded his arms over his chest. "What do you know. He has a legit reason to be angry. At least if that's true."
Hermione glanced at Theo, whose face was a closed book as always, and then back at Draco. "I-I didn't." She got up and took a few steps closer to Draco. He had two black eyes, both the area around his nose and on his chin seemed swollen under all the bruising and he had a split lip. "You should go to the Hospital Wing with that."
"I did," he harshly said. "Pomfrey told me I'll live. Thanks for your concern. But if you sic your friends on me again, I can't answer for them."
"Good! I didn't even sic them on you the first time! Damn that Harry, I told him it wasn't like that!" Hermione was so frustrated, she didn't know what to do with herself. She ran one hand through her hair, nervously tangling her fingers in the curls. "Even Ron seemed to realize that Pansy was just stirring up trouble when she said those things," she babbled.
Draco frowned. "Pansy?"
Hermione opened her mouth to tell him, but then closed it again. Who was she to come between Draco and his friends? "Nothing. I'm… I'm really sorry about this. It won't happen again."
"You're damn right, it won't!" he hissed. "If it does, I'll make damn sure everyone knows how it all really happened!" He turned around and marched out, slamming the door behind himself.
Hermione jumped at the loud sound and closed her eyes. Great. Now he hated her. This was just what she'd been hoping for! Thanks a lot, Harry! She took a deep breath, trying to not feel. She didn't like it when she felt things around Draco. It always hurt.
"Wow, I could give you two a manual with lots of little pictures and you still wouldn't be able to figure it out, would you?" Theo drily asked.
"Who can blame him for being angry?" Hermione muttered, slowly sitting back down at her desk. "He's been accused of taking advantage of me when he hardly even wanted to… um, never mind."
"Make no mistake, he wanted to do it. He also did take advantage of you. He used you to feel like he had what he wanted. That doesn't mean you didn't want to be used or that you didn't use him too, though. It's all semantics and irrelevant to the case. You people are beginning to bore me. Could you two at least try to react less primitively to each other?"
If Theo only knew exactly how primitively Hermione reacted to Draco. She blushed and, then, knowing how telling that blush was, she blushed even deeper. Damn it. Theo would draw all kinds of conclusions. All of them correct. "It's not like any of that matters anyway. Harry was wrong to attack him."
"Perhaps. But he was looking out for you. And that's not why Draco is angry, anyway."
"No, he's angry because he thinks I lied."
"No. He's angry because he needs to be angry at you before he can get over you and move on. He's finally moving towards the final stages. You'd better act quickly if you want to keep him pining for you." The last line was fairly dripping with sarcasm.
"That's ridiculous," Hermione objected. "You don't need to be angry at someone to get over them."
"Some people do."
"I don't."
"No, you move on remarkably well."
"So, you're saying I'm fickle?" Hermione's face fell completely. Draco had often said the same thing. Maybe that was even why he didn't really want her.
"No." Theo's voice was almost gentle. "I'm saying that it's about time you admit you want him and that you won't know what to do with yourself if he actually manages to move on."
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, he said-"
"Forget what comes out of his mouth. He's too stupid to be trusted to speak."
"Why are you saying all this?" Hermione suspiciously eyed Theo. "Is this another one of your evil schemes?"
The small smile he gave seemed to cost him a lot of effort. "I like you, Hermione. For some highly illogical reason you like him. A lot. And I really hate to see you hurting. Just take my advice; ignore his words and judge him by his actions."
"But he didn't even kiss me," she whispered.
"What?"
"After… after we… he rejected my kiss. He said we shouldn't do it again. He didn't want me there, didn't even look at me or touch me." She fought against the tears gathering in her eyes. "I don't know where this could eventually have gone, but he's obviously over it, so it's all fairly pointless."
"That was more than I wanted to know," Theo muttered.
Hermione shook her head. "And even if it had been possible to have something, I can't ignore that he said we could never be serious. I can't be with anyone who wouldn't be seen with me in public. He never made the slightest hint that he changed his mind about that!"
"And you think he's fool enough to not change his mind for love?"
Hermione shook her head again. "He moved on too easily. I don't believe he was ever really in love with me. He just thought he was."
"That would be an obstacle."
"I know."
"But did you at least finally realize that you might be a little bit in love with him?"
Hermione swallowed and forced her mind to be a blank. "I'm not a glutton for punishment."
"If you truly believe that, then there are two obstacles."
"Are you saying that I am?"
Theo leaned back in his chair and pursed his lips. "I'm saying that if you don't want to fight for it, then far be it from me to care. Do you have the detention list?"
Hermione blinked, feeling a little disoriented. "Um, sure."
"Ok. The easy way to go would be to make each detention a night of rounds. That might even lighten the load a bit for the rest of us. What do you think?"
Apparently, just like that, the other conversation was over.
It was better that way, anyway.
Draco's bag slammed down on the common room table, covering Pansy's Witch Weekly.
"Hey!" she objected, but then widened her eyes as she got a good look at his face. "What happened to you?"
"Daphne, leave," Draco coldly said to the witch on the sofa next to Pansy while his eyes never left Pansy's. "Personal business."
Daphne Greengrass seemed to get the hint, because she scurried away without complaint.
"Now, that wasn't very nice of you," Pansy said, folding her arms and staring him down.
"Shut up, Pansy," he harshly said. "I will give you one chance to tell me what tales you've been spreading."
"You really have to be more specific than that, Draco," she said, casually studying her fingernails.
"I bet I do," he growled. "What did you tell Potter?"
"Potter?" Pansy looked genuinely surprised. "I don't tend to talk to Potter. He's much too sanctimonious for my tastes. Did he do that to you?"
Draco didn't reply. "Weasley, then? Don't think I didn't notice how you've been encouraging him."
Pansy's lips parted in indignation. "I would never encourage that daft tosser! And, besides, he finally seemed to take a hint when I told that Granger that-" She abruptly cut off.
"Yes?" Draco silkily asked. "Please do tell me what you told Granger."
Pansy shrugged. "It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Just told her that he was stupid and she was ugly."
Draco narrowed his eyes. "You can do better than that."
"I was testing her!" Pansy defensively said. "To see if she cared about you. But she hardly even reacted!"
"What did you say?" he growled.
"Um…" Pansy conspicuously picked at invisible lint on her sleeve. "What did you hear?"
"Pansy, unless you want to permanently lose those pretty golden locks of yours…."
"All right! All right!" Pansy threw up her hands. "I suppose I might have said that you've been using her for sex, don't care about her, and have moved on. But, Draco, when I suspected that the two of you had… you know… I couldn't help but try and see if she had any feelings for you. I took a swipe at every insecurity I know she has and a few I suspect she has, and she should have been running crying from the room, but there was no sign that it bothered her at all. In fact, she seems to… to have taken up with Weasley now."
That immediately distracted Draco. Weasley? Ron Weasley? That freckled loser she touched much too often to be decent? Draco wished he couldn't believe it. He really did. Unfortunately, he was currently doing his very best to be realistic and it was very realistic that Hermione Granger would end up with Ron Weasley.
He didn't have the right to care who she ended up with, though. He could not show jealousy.
Draco found himself wondering if he could make hexing Weasley look like payback for being punched by Potter.