Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: "Neither Ron nor Ginny is who you or I want to spend forever with."
Chapter 1. 12 Grimmauld Place, May 1998
She had not seen him in five days, no, was it six? She made a mental calculation. Six. It didn't feel like a relationship was supposed to feel. Not that she had much to compare it with, but at least Ginny was always here with Harry, even if it was nagging at his nerves. She gave them a lot of space.
She sighed in frustration. This whole Ron and Hermione thing was really not what she had imagined it to be. Hermione was staying at Grimmauld Place, as was Harry, but Ron stayed at the Burrow, claiming that he was fed better, they both let him go. Ginny, on the other hand, wanted to live at Grimmauld Place but her mother would not allow it until Harry and her were married. When Ginny told her, Hermione had snorted. She was still there every other day and most nights and from all the sounds she heard in their room… she was no more a virgin than her.
But they had it worked out. Living in Grimmauld Place with Harry was comfortable, they did not worry about the other a lot. They had their own space. They shared breakfast, either he cooked some pancakes or she did some scrambled eggs. To each their specialty. Hermione had been going regularly to Hogwarts to help with the rebuilding, came back home, ate with Harry whatever delicious food Kreacher had made them. He carried Master Regalus' locket everyday, and was actually nice to them. Harry went twice a week to help the rebuilding at Hogwarts, since his Auror training and studying magical sports had his schedule quite full. Hermione was also studying: Magical Healing and in her spare time she looked over old history books in the Black Library. The were both happy living in Grimmauld Place. Ginny was a welcome addition, but Ron seldom visited.
It had been two weeks, three days and thirteen hours when it clicked to Hermione. If he is my boyfriend, why does he never come to spend time with me? She could barely remember him kissing her since the final battle. She considered for a few moments, but yes, he hadn't even snogged her since. She considered she should take the initiative and went looking for him. She went to the Burrow first. She flooed over and Arthur was in the kitchen having his morning tea.
"He went over to Grimmauld Place yesterday and has not been back" Arthur said without lifting his eyes from the Daily Prophet. Hermione skipped asking Molly the same question and looked at the family clock. Ron's hand pointed towards… in was in between home and lost, which Hermione felt was not the usual position. She had a bad feeling about this, but decided to go and check at the Ministry.
She was heading for the Floo of the Burrow when the flames flared and he appeared. Molly was still in the kitchen, but Mr. Weasley was still behind her reading the paper. Ron was holding his shoes and tie, his clothes were very wrinkled and he did not carry his broom from Qudditch practice yesterday. She looked at him puzzled for a few seconds.
"Morning, Da" he said first, afterwards noticed her standing close to the fire.
"Hermione, hey, what are you doing here?" he asked. She pressed her lips together, unable to think of something worth saying. Ron's ears started to tell a story as they started turning red and pink. Hermione saw the guilt and realized she did not want to know.
"Ron?" Mr. Weasley suddenly interrupted, "I thought you had practice in half an hour" he said.
"Why are you here?"
"Um, I just came by for some clean clothes and breakfast." He did not dare add in that Kreacher was most cranky today, as he usually said, because maybe he wasn't and Hermione was in front of them.
"Kreacher did not make breakfast, again?"
"Oh, he didn't" Hermione suddenly found her voice. "Kreacher has not cooked for the whole week, has he?" she cast a hurtful glance to Ron followed by a softer one to Mr. Weasley. "At Grimmauld Place, I have been making breakfast all week, but then again, you haven't been there all week, so you wouldn't know, Ronald" she said. She was relatively calm, and only added with a bit of acid in her voice: "Honestly, it would be a great favour for me if you kept not coming." She said, and with that she left the house.
She got home and was strangely relieved. It was over. She did not need him, and clearly he was sleeping somewhere else, she did not care if he was sleeping around, or simply fell asleep at work, or at a bar. What made sense was that he never wanted to do anything with her and that he was lying to his parents that he was. She was spared further details, and he seemed to care little enough to actually try to follow her.
She spent her day by a window in the library, without crying, but making a lot of decisions in her head.
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Harry came home around six. He was furious.
"Damn her!" he said as he slammed the door, muttered the phrase to make Dumbledores trap disappear and made Mrs. Black start screaming. He pointed a Silencing spell towards her and made his way to the kitchen to find Hermione. The table was ready and Kreacher said they had meat pies for dinner. His stomach growled, but when back to the library to call Hermione to eat.
He found her in the library, but she was looking rather pale and stared through a window, no book in hand.
"Mione?" he asked. She did not react. He softly touched her lower arm and she looked his way.
"Hi. Ron and I broke up." She said as if commenting it was cloudy out. Harry twisted his face, and then asked.
"What happened?"
"I came to the realization that he is never around, so I went to look for him to tell him that we ought to change that, or stop being together. I went looking for him at the Burrow, and he was just arriving too. Apparently, he was going there because Kreacher did not make breakfast today". Harry's mouth formed an O. Hermione nodded and sighed.
"So I told him to stop coming here anyways."
"Where was he?" Harry asked.
"I don't…" she wondered off. "Care"
Harry looked at her, she seemed strong willed. Not quite a mess, but maybe relieved.
"Harry, you don't look so well either, did you and Ginny have another row?" she asked, knowing well that that was the case, yet slyly asking him. As far as she could tell, even with the distance she gave them both, they had great sex but that was about the only thing they did not argue about.
"Yeah, all of a sudden I feel that what she wants and what I want are very different things, and I am not sure if I can give her what she wants." He admitted, he sat in front of her.
"What does she want?" she asked softly, more out of courtesy than curiosity.
"Money, riches, attention, fame… those things that I have tried to stay away from all my life" he sighed, too. She stood from her high backed chaise, a very expensive thing which was probably centuries old, moved closer and grabbed his hand. She sat on the armrest, and stroked the hair out of his face, a motherly gesture. "Sometimes I wished it was just us" he said softly, and held tightly to the hand she placed in his.
"You know I would do anything for you, Harry" she said, knowing how true it was. He laughed and she finally lightened up about the events of this morning and joined him.
"Hey, I went to see Snape today." He said.
"How is he" she half-heartedly asked, but her heart skipped a beat. She knew he was okay, he was
alive. She knew deep inside that he was alive, a certain heartstring would pull on her soul of he was in suffering, and it would break if he died.
"Well, he was not very happy to see me, particularly now that I know about my mum and him. The history between them. I think that he thought he was not going to make it, because he seemed a little… touchy about it. Then we talked about the Dursleys, Aunt Petunia, who he called an eavesdropping jiraffe. I had to agree. Then he told me how the anti-venom he had once supplied for Arthur was what saved him. He asked for you, in his usual way," she raised her eyebrows. "How's the know it all? Still insufferable?" Hermione smiled softly.
"Under different conditions, I would have loved to apprentice in potions with him. But I love healing, too" she said. He smiled and nodded too.
"He doesn't seem up for working at all. And now McGonagall is Headmistress. Everything is going to be different now." He paused, somewhere between an encouraging pause or a dramatic pause, then he sighed. "My chief of department mentioned some options abroad that might be interesting. It would help to go away from all the attention in Britain. I want to take it" he said, it was easy to tell her,
"Where?"
"It would start with Paris, then Barcelona" he said.
"Are you going to take it?" she asked
"Only if you come with me" the proposition laid there, thick in the air. They stared at each other. Harry looked away first, taking a chance on a deep blink of hers.
"What about Ginny?" she asked.
"She'll understand." He said, even though he was most certain the opposite was true. He simply no longer cared and wanted to get away.
"Are you sure that this is what you want?" she asked him. He turned to face her completely.
"More than anything, you are the one that gets me, who I can be myself with, who I know loves me unconditionally and I love you too."
"I do love you, Harry, I just think… the Weasley's have been like a family to us" she said, hoping he understood that she loved him, as her best friend, even if that could grow.
"Yes, but neither Ron nor Ginny is who you or I want to spend forever with" he replied back, softly, not throwing it her face, simply stating the truth and she also nodded softly, suddenly a warm tear left her face. He brushed it away. He kissed her cheek and they stared into the depths of each other's eyes.
"Okay." Her voice rose, but not out of fear, but rather confidence. He just smiled and hugged her.
"This is wonderful, we can leave in a week." He said. "You're gonna love Paris"
"I'm gonna make you keep your word on that, Harry" he looked at her. He had looked at her that way before, but for a moment she felt squirmy under his scrutinizing gaze. She was about to ask him what it was, when he closed the short distance between them on the couch and kissed her.
The kiss felt wonderful. At the beginning her lips tingled. Then her fingers and toes and it slowly made her way through all her body, warming her. Her hands went to frame his face. He slowly backed out, then hugged her, pushing her head into his chest where he grabbed her protectively.
"They say that after a long traumatic even with someone, either you love them and can't spend the rest of your life without them or that persons brings back all those fears and you never see them again" Harry whispered to her. "To me, you are that first option." He said.
"You too, Harry, you too" she said softly.
"You're amazing, just amazing" he said, taking her hand, knowing deep inside that he never wanted to let her go.
That night, everything changed.
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"You are what?!" Ginny Weasley turned on the man she thought was her boyfriend, soon to be husband.
"I am not in love with you, Ginny. I tried to love you, but what we want in life are different things." He explained to her.
"No, you want what I want, you want to make me happy" she almost screamed in his face
"No, I want you to be happy… without me." He replied. He knew Hermione was nearby, probably listening, not that it was too hard with Ginny's screams, but he needed to do this alone.
"I don't believe you" she snarled at him.
"I'm sorry, this is just not how I pictured our lives becoming" he said.
"You'll never get another witch in Britain if I have any say about it" she threatened.
"About that…" Harry started off. "I'm leaving the country. I got a job offer abroad" he said to her. She gaped at him, twice she seemed that she wanted to say something but was lost for words. She shook her head, her face got red, and then she slapped him across the face.
"I don't know you, Harry Potter" she said to him. And with that she turned on her heel and left the room, she was in such a foul mood and knew that the answer would be her mother's help… she would get him a love potion or something to make him see her way.
"She'll know what to do, he is mine, I won't lose him" she mumbled to herself as she headed to the exit of number 12 Grimmauld Place.
She failed to notice Hermione Granger sitting peacefully on a large armchair, cuddled up with a book that had long ago been set down to favor listening in to their conversation. Silence was thick in the air.
"Hermione?" Harry called out to her when a full minute had passed after Ginny slammed the front door in her tantrum.
"Yes, Harry?" she called back. He came out of the study room and squeezed in next to her in the armchair, she wiggled to accommodate the two of them. He hugged her, and soon started to cry. She held him, no words were necessary.