When she had entered into her relationship with Ron, she had known it would be hard. Especially since she could see that his feelings weren't as deep as hers. But Merlin, she hadn't thought things would be this hard.
Two nights ago, she had come home from a long day at work, only to stumble into the bedroom and find him there with Pansy Pugface Parkinson! Of all the people he could have chosen to cheat on her with, she found Parkinson the most hurtful choice.
At first she was too startled to react, but as her anger overtook her, she hexed Pansy and screamed at her to get out of the house. She was obeyed quickly, because the stupid pug was so damned afraid of getting hexed again.
She then abruptly turned around and seemingly calmly walked to the living room, where she collapsed on the couch and fell asleep. The next morning she woke early and went to work as usual, but she was continually distracted, messing up even simple tasks because of her anger.
Her boss finally sent her home, unable to take it anymore. He ordered her to take the rest of the day and the next day off to sort out whatever her problem was so she could finally get back to work properly.
Ron was sitting on the couch with a bottle of Firewhiskey in his hand when she got home. She quickly went upstairs and changed into more comfortable clothing before she came back and sat on the armchair facing him. She sat there watching him with a mixture of anger and betrayal in her eyes for a few minutes before finally quietly asking him why he did it.
He remained silent for a few minutes, taking a few swigs from the bottle. When he finally answered, he looked her in the eye, sneered, and said, "Why did I do it? Because she's a good shag. Because you refused to shag me until we were married, even though we're fucking living together. Most of all, because you're so fucking gullible that you actually believed every single fucking thing I told you. I didn't mean a damn word of anything that I told you while I was trying to get you to shag me. But you wouldn't give in even after I said I loved you. You're a fucking prude, Hermione Granger, and you're not worth anyone's time, let alone mine. Get out of my house. Now. I want you gone by the time I wake up tomorrow."
Hermione just sat there staring vacantly at him for a few minutes, letting his words sink in, before jumping up and running to the bedroom. She hurriedly started throwing her clothes and knick-knacks into a suitcase she pulled from the closet.
There was absolutely no semblance of order to the normally perfectionist job of packing done by Hermione Granger. She just randomly threw in everything she could find that belonged to her. She finally finished at nearly three in the morning. The suitcase had had to be Enlarged to hold all of her precious books.
She collapsed on the bed, utterly exhausted from her frantic packing, but she couldn't fall asleep. She finally drifted off around five to the lullaby of thunder in the distance.
She didn't know what time it was when the storm finally arrived and woke her with a sudden, loud crack of lightning nearby, but she quickly fumbled for her phone and called a Muggle taxi because she knew she had to leave soon, before Ron woke up.
She would have Apparated, but she didn't trust herself not to accidentally Splinch herself because of her nerves. When she finally made it down the stairs and out to the taxi, she told the driver the first address that came to mind. Oddly, it was that of her boss.
She wearily laid her head on the window and closed her eyes. Hearing the rain beating down right next to her ear made her realise she hadn't cried once since the whole mess began.
She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about what Ron had said to her, but she was disappointed that her once bright dreams for her future were now shattered along with her trust of men's feelings. She had never really been close to a man who didn't try to get into her pants. Well, there was one. 'But that doesn't really count,' she supposed, 'since he's my boss and there are rules for things like that.'
And now she just felt so... hollow inside. She wasn't sure she could get any more down than she already was, so she believed she was ready for whatever his reaction would be when she reached his house.
The only thing she could see for herself in the near future, at the very least, was getting herself an apartment, going to work, and pretending she didn't feel like giving up on the world. But if she just gave up on the world, then maybe no one would recognise her as Hermione Granger, founder of S.P.E.W. and lover of knowledge. She wasn't sure whether that would be a good thing or not.
She let out a giant whooshing sigh as she realised she was seriously contemplating giving up. She wasn't supposed to be this broken up over a RELATIONSHIP; she had always thought of herself as independent.
She wondered what had changed Ron. She knew he meant what he'd told her last night, but she also knew that he had genuinely seemed to want to be with her in the beginning, when they were still in school. She thought that perhaps they hadn't had enough romantic times together, especially since she had started her job and he had started his Auror training.
Then her eyes widened at the depressing realisation that maybe there really was no way they would ever have worked as a couple. Even if she hadn't caught him cheating on her, she realised, she never would have been completely happy with him. There had been something missing. She had no idea what that might be, but she instinctively knew it was true.
Finally, after what felt like hours of thinking in the cramped taxi, she felt it slow down and pull over to the curb before stopping in front of the intimidating mansion looming over the street. She would have been utterly terrified, as she could tell the driver was, if she hadn't known that it was only a veneer, hiding the true nature of the owner of the house.
She quickly paid the driver, making sure to give him a generous tip, before getting out and walking to the front door with her suitcase in tow behind her. Rain and wind whipped her brown curls around her face, but she had no energy left to care how she looked. She felt it the second she stepped over the ward boundaries.
She knew her boss would feel her presence inside the boundaries and head for the door to see what she was here for. She was usually here only for work reasons, though they had formed a strange sort of... companionship.
The only thing that gave her pause was how to explain the situation to him and ask for his help without embarrassing herself too badly, seeming needy, or making him look nice. He had an intimidating mansion for a reason. He really didn't want people to see him as a nice person.
She finally forced herself to walk up the steps and knock on the door with the snake-shaped door knocker while she took a deep, steadying breath to prepare herself for his somewhat icy demeanour.
She stood there, fidgeting slightly, while she waited for him to make it through the labyrinthine hallways to the door and open it.
AN: I'm a horrible author. Absolutely horrible. I know I've left this unfinished for over four years and I can't apologise enough for that, but I promise I never, ever forgot about it. I just couldn't come up with anything I liked enough, so I just left it alone instead of putting anything that was crap up.
But today, I decided to go back and edit what I had completed, hoping if I improved it, I might get ideas. And lo and behold, it worked. So after four years, I'm finally getting ready to put a second chapter up. Rejoice!
Or just review and tell me how horrible I am. Whichever you feel like.