I sit here by the window tears streaming down my face. I look down at the engagement ring unconciously twisting it around my finger. It's a beautiful ring, silver-gold with a small diamond in the middle. It's beautiful because it's simlpe. I can hear my heart beating in my ears and and my head is pounding. I don't want to feel the way I do, but it's too late. I don't believe you really care, if you do I'm sorry. I feel like you loved the image of me more then you actually loved me. I walk back to my room, the tears still falling. You're still at work and for that I am glad. I see them, my bags, all of my things ready to go. I start bringing them down the stairs to the foyer. They are all sitting there, waiting to be moved. I sit in the living room waiting for you to get home and finally I hear the click of your keys in the door and the turning of the lock. I begin to twist my ring again and I start to cry even harder. You hear me and walk into the living room. By now you have seen the bags, by now you have probably figured out that I'm leaving.

"What's going on Hermione?" He asks, his blue eyes penetrating my own brown ones.

"I'm leaving Ron." I can barely manage.

"What?" He whispers. I can see the hurt in your eyes, I can see disbelief shaping your features.

"I can't do this anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about us, this life we have together." I say the tears coming less in less and my voice finally getting firmer. "I've tried to convince myself that eventually I would come to love you as real lovers do but I just couldn't. After the war when you asked me to be with you, to live with you, I said yes. I didn't want to hurt you. Belive me I didn't. But either way I would have. Keeping this from you was the worse thing I have done. Ron I don't love you in the way I should. I love you more then the world it's self but as my brother. It has been breaking me for a while and, really, I couldn't take it anymore. This giant secret that I wanted so badly to set free and finally I have." I slowly remove the ring from my finger and place it in his hand.

I pull myself off the couch and place my lips one last time on his cheek. I walk to the foyer and grab all of my bags and put them in the trunk of my car. I have to get out of here. I get in my car and put the music on so loud I can't hear myself think. I am driving to Ginny's and I feel myself breaking inside even more. I reach the driveway and race up the stairs to the front door. I knock on the door and she opens the door smiling but she can tell something is wrong. My eyes are red from crying and I'm shaking. I sit down on the couch and the phone rings. She comes in after she hangs up. I can feel it in my gut that it was Ron, that he told her everything making me out to be the bad person. I feel bile rising in the back of my throat but I just manage to swallow it down as she enters the room

"Get out." Ice laced through her voice.

I feel my throat constricting and the tears falling, the god damn tears. I feel her words piercing my heart, her tone piercing my ears.

"What?" We have been mates since Ron and I had been mates.

"I don't want to be mates with a liar and a bitch." Ginny said in a dead tone.

I ran from the room and into my car and drove to the park. The sky opened up and it poured. It didn't matter. I leaned against a tree and let the tears fall. I can't believe I lost to of my best friends in less then an hour. I pull my knees to my chest as sobs rack my body. When I have cried as many tears as I can I stand up completely soaked and get in my car. I use a quick drying spell and reach for my cellphone. The operator transfers me to the Edinburgh Waverly Train Station. I am catching the next train back to England. I stare blankly at the road ahead of me.

I grab the only carry on I brought, my purse, and board the Train. I am glad to finally be leaving Scotland. I never liked it much. It will be pulling into King's Cross Station in three hours. I quickly fall asleep, mentally drained. When I wake up I still have an hour and a half before I come into the station. I sit there just staring out of the window wondering how my life had changed so dramrically with in five hours. The original plan was to stay with Ginny, we'd always been mates. I never expected to leave Scotland, my life, my job.

I grab my cellphone and beg for a signal. I frantically start dialing the number of my other best mate, Lavender Brown.

"Hello?" Says a deep raspy voice.

"Lav?"

"Yeah?"

"It's Herms." I say, relieved, into the speaker.

"Hey, what's going on?" She expects me to say Ron and I are still engaged, she expects me to tell her about what Ginny and I did today at the shop.

"I left." I tell her figuring I should just get to the point.

"What?" I can tell she's either confused or heard me wrong I am on a train.

"I left Ron, I left my job, I left Scotland." I say my tone more leveled then I felt.

"Wow." She exhales. "You're not marrying Ron?" She asks cautiously.

"No...I should have never said yes." I breathe. "Lav, I am coming into King's Cross in an hour...can I stay with you until I get my life put back together.

"Of course!" She practically screamed. "I'll fix you a room and come down to the station."

"Thanks, for being there." She has no idea what it means to me for her to actually be there.

"Always, Herms." and we hang up.

I step out of the train and breathe the fresh air in and as I exhale I feel as though I'm breathing out the bad and finally bringing in the good. I see Lavender standing, waiting to pick me up. I am happy to see her. She hasn't changed much since two weeks ago. She still has her blonde pixie cut hair, her soulful blue eyes, and her tanned skin. I had missed seeing her everyday. She pulls me into a tight hug. We don't say a word as we get in the car and for that I am thankful. When we pull up to her flat I smile. We apparate, my things in hand, and we land in the guest bedroom. It's been straightened nicely. A blue duvet cover and silver, sheer drapes. I love it.

We order in and sit on the couch.

"What happened Hermione?" Lavender asks the floor.

"I...Never loved him, Lav, not in that way." I whisper. "I couldn't go on living like that. I am only twenty and marrying someone I don't truly love with all my heart. I didn't want to have kids and end up fifteen years down the road with joint custody and a divorce.

"I'm so sorry." Lavender looked me in the eye and out of all the people in my life that had said sorry I instatnly believed her.

The next day, I decide to do something I had always wanted to do. I go in search of a store. I go all over Diagon Alley and finally I find this old shop and the owner sells it to me for a good price. The bookstore I always wanted. I immediatly put my magic to use and fix it up. I have it done by five and can't wait to open it tomorrow. When I get in Lavender is reading the paper and sipping tea.

"How's the search go?"

"I bought and I'm already to open tomorrow."

"Well I shall buy your first book." Lavender smiles. "What time do you open?"

"Nine." I had decided earlier.

A month passes and no one from Scotalnd has attempted to talk to me. I come home from work at ten and my phone starts to ring. I look down and my heart races, it's Ginny.

"Hello?" I say coldly.

"It's Ginny."

"Oh." It goes silent on the other end and for a moment I believe she has hung up on me.

"Where did you go?"

"Back to London." I say stiffly.

"Hermione, I am really really sorry." Ginny whispers. "I shouldn't have said the things I did."

"Well you did." I reply.

"I should have heard you out. I really am sorry."

"Sorry doesn't fix everything Gin." I say heatedly as a tear streaks down my face and ferociously wipe it away. No more tears will be shed over the Weasley family.

"I know. I want to see you. I miss you."

"You should have thought of that. You have no idea how much it hurt me to leave Ron. No doubt it hurt him just as much. Think how much worse it would have been for me to leave once we were married, once we had a child! I couldn't face that! I just couldn't!" I yell at her.

"I know. Please come back."

"I'm not coming back to Scotland. I have a home and a job and a life here in London again and I wish to keep it that way. You can visit me next weekend though. I'll pick you up at King's Cross when you need me too."

I hear her breathe a sigh of relief. We talk for a while and we hang up. I feel my life turning back to normal once again. I am doing well with my book store and I have Ginny and Lav. Lavender convinced me to go with a new look. We pull up to the salon and I can't believe I am actually doing this. I am dying my hair blonde. That's right blonde. I sit there for two hours and am not able to look in the mirror. They have to preform a spell wear it won't grow out with my hair and if I want to change it back then I just come back to the salon. I look at myself in the mirror and nearly have a heart attack. It doesn't look anything like me!

"Oh. My. God." I say touching my hair.

"OH MY GOD!" Lavender shrieks. " You look amazing!" I did. I don't want to sound like I'm concieted but I looked amazing.

I love my new blonde hair and it looks so natural like I have always been I blonde. Before I go to work the next morning I apply foundation, dark brown shimmering eye shadow, dark brown eye liner, light pink blush, and finally mauve gloss. I pull on a pair of bright blue skinny jeans, a brown turtle neck sweater, and my brown leather boots that are three inch heels. I tell Lavender I'm going to be at the store late because we got new inventory and apparate to the store.

It's nine o'clock and I am about to close when the bell rings informing me that a customer as entered.

"We close exactly at nine." I say not bothering to look up.

"Do you really?" The male voice asked.

I look up and Draco Malfoy is standing in front of me and he looks better then I have ever seen him before.