A/N: Yeah well this story has been in the pipeline for a while and I haven't been on fanfiction in a while so I'm just trying to get all my stories out there in the next week so I can do my Christmas special.
Beyond the fairytale
Have you ever noticed how every fairytale ends with 'and they all lived happily ever after'? The fortunate couple are always beautiful, with lots of money, a big house and servants to wait on them, they disappear into a world of marital bliss never to be seen again. Well I might not have been a princess but he was certainly my prince charming, he came along and swept me off my feet, when I was with him I wasn't nerdy Herminie Granger anymore I was a queen, and he was my king. We had the big wedding they always have in the stories and we rode off into the distance just like we were supposed to but we didn't get our happy ending.
Soon after the ceremony the rows started, it was just petty things, he'd be half an hour late home, I would have plans when he wanted to invite company over for dinner, I wanted to free the house elves, he of course thought the idea was ridiculous. We'd always make up of course, but already just 3 months into our marriage the cracks were starting to show.
It was 5 months later when I was pregnant with our first child when it happened, it was to be the first of many times. He came home late again, I could smell the firewhiskey on his breath, he'd been cavorting with those cheap harlots again I knew it, I could sense it on him, I screamed at him, couldn't he see the child I was carrying? Couldn't he feel the ring on his finger? It was the drink that did it I'm sure, all I remember was one second I was yelling and the next I was on the floor, blood gushing from my mouth, he stared at his hand, as surprised as me, I thought he would stoop, help me to my feet, apologize and swear never to do it again, that's what I wanted, what I needed, and, for a second I was sure he would, but he simply strode over my cowering form and out the door. That night I cried for the first time since my parents had been killed in the war.
It happened again the following evening I had being held up in a meeting at the ministry, but he was convinced I had a man on the side, he even questioned whether the child was his, I swore to him it was, that I had always been faithful, always would be. He wouldn't believe me, however desperately I pleaded, he promised he'd teach me a lesson I would never forget. That night I gave birth to a stillborn son, the house elves whisked him away before I could even say goodbye, I don't even know where the poor soul is buried, he forbade them to tell me, it broke my heart to have my precious child so unlovingly disposed of without ever having experienced the world.
When he entered my bed chamber it was gone 2 in the morning, I lay weeping on the floor, I don't know what I expected, sympathy maybe, grief definitely but he simply chastised me for the loss of his boy, his heir, I yelled at him that this would have never happened if he could have kept his temper. I received the worse beating of my life for it, my face was bloodied and swollen and my stomach and breasts were black, I know it was mostly grief for his lost child, but he was so cold, his face emotionless and once again he calmly left me bleeding.
Suddenly every time I displeased him, a strange look, a wrong word this would be the way he would solve our problems, I began to have to have time off work because of the bruises and soon I lost my job at the ministry. I became a prisoner in my home as he became more and more controlling, stopping me seeing Ron and Harry whom he had always seen as a threat. I sat at home day after day, not allowed to do the work of the house elves but not permitted to leave my prison.
At first my friends would still call for me, leave me messages but when I didn't get back to them, unable to make any contact with them at all they soon forgot, soon forgot the friend who had so many times covered their back, so many times fought their corner. It was my invite to Ron and Luna's wedding that forced my hand, I hadn't even known they were dating. He forbade me go of course, but how could I miss the wedding of my one time best friend? Of the man I had once known so intimately, loved so much. I felt a pang of sadness for the loss of the golden trio, I remembered the happy smiling faces of the bride, bridesmaid and 2 guests of honour at my wedding. Those were gone now but I had always kept the photos, as my mother had always told me, it's not the pictures that change only the people in them. I had no-one else to blame for being different though, the few times I had seen Harry and Ron since my union they had still being the happy, cheerful boys I remembered, I was fully all too painfully aware the only one of us who had aged was me.