Hermione Granger loved spring-cleaning. She loved emptying out her drawers and donating her old clothes. She loved cleaning out the pantry. She loved making her carpet smell nice. She loved the whole concept of 'out with the old and in with the new' and how good she felt when she accomplished a task. She thought about her love for cleaning and hoped it would be enough to tackle the mess her life was currently presenting to her.

Hermione had just moved into a small flat in New York. The flat was atrociously dirty when she first moved in but she could see the fruits of her labour a couple of hours of cleaning later, when she could actually see, to her delight, that the floor was in fact white, not dark grey.

She knew that she would have a better life working in Hogwarts, the Ministry, or in St. Mungos, but she seemed to like this city and it's crowds. She didn't know why but she loved the people here. The rude, the mean, the angry, and the hurried. She felt invisible and anonymous amongst the endless crowds of muggles. She has only chosen New York City due to being the only city in America she knew from films and literature. She was sure that none of her wizarding friends would think about her being in America.

She had left the wizarding world about three and a half months ago, not telling a soul where she was going. 'It's for the best' she constantly assured herself, 'they don't need to be troubled'. After she finished cleaning the living room, which took her a long time, she planned on tackling the small bedroom but opted for sitting down and taking a small break. She rubbed her slightly prominent belly and reassured herself 'it's for the best'.

She would never tell anyone from her past life what had happened. She didn't need people to pity her or to pick sides between them. When she found out she was pregnant she couldn't believe it. Her first reaction was pure joy and it was quickly followed by her second reaction of thinking that he would be so disappointed. He told her he didn't want children. She even tried telling him one night, when they were in bed.

They were about to go to sleep and she summoned bravery while engulfed in the darkness of their bedroom. She told him, while looking up at the ceiling, her voice quiet and mousy,

"I'm pregnant"

And he exploded at her in rage. "Pregnant? Hermione what the fuck? How could you do this to me? We've talked about this before! The brightest witch of her age couldn't remember to take a fucking potion?"

"I did take the potion but you know the percent effectiveness is not 100" she pleaded

"I know I did the charm every time, Hermione. There is no chance that baby is mine. The baby must be another wizard's"

She gasped in indignation and rage

"How could you say that to me?!" she demanded

He told her so many more things that a man should never say to his partner. He commanded her to go to St. Mungo's and have the pregnancy terminated at once. So many insults and so many words of rage, "How could you do this to me?" he shouted "To yourself?".

"Get out!" he ordered while covering his face with his hands. His shoulders were shaking with repressed rage. She was thankful they kept the room with silencing charms at night so no one could hear his screams. She had been shrinking into herself throughout his whole meltdown and when she couldn't take it anymore she bolted from the room in tears and he did not follow after her.

Get out she did. She went back to the room after several hours and obliviated him while he was asleep. She packed her bags that very night using magic and her purple beaded bag. She had disappeared from the house in the middle of the night and hadn't looked back since.

Part of her wanted to say that she didn't regret a thing. That she was a strong woman and that if he didn't want this child and she did then they would have been bound to separate. She knew his stance on children and she had taken every necessary precaution because of it. But not everything could be 100%, not every potion or every spell would be guaranteed to work all the time. Not every relationship was bound to work all the time…

Another part of her missed him so much. Another part of her cried every time she was reminded of him, or every time she felt her- their baby's movement inside of her. She felt so lonely and weak without him, but she'd never admit that to anyone. Ever.

She continued to rub little circles around her belly until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Looking over to the bed she saw the mattress was covered in a layer of dust and dirt. She could have cleaned it with a flick of her wand, but she hadn't used magic since she left so she couldn't be tracked, so she decided that it would just better to sleep on the recently cleaned floor. The hard surface didn't bother her in the least because within a second of having rested her head against it she was out like a light.