"There Is No Happy Ever After" by Redcandle17
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and elements from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.
Alicia didn't want to tell the story twice. She invited Angelina and Katie over for tea so she could tell them the news at the same time. It wasn't until they were both holding dainty little white porcelain teacups – when she'd chosen them Warrington had complained that they looked too delicate and feminine, and she'd told him to be grateful there was no floral pattern – that she took a deep breath and found the nerve to speak more than banalities.
"I have something important to tell you," Alicia began.
She was interrupted by Katie's squealing. "You're pregnant, aren't you?" Katie punched Angelina's arm, "I told you she was pregnant."
She hastened to correct Katie before the two of them could congratulate her. "No, no, it's not that. Cassius and I are getting a divorce."
They stared at her incomprehensibly.
"He's…" She'd prepared a speech for them, but she couldn't remember it now. How to explain why she was divorcing months short of her second wedding anniversary? "Cassius is not the type of person I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"This is a joke, right?" Angelina asked.
Katie laughed, the sound obviously forced and devoid of merriment.
"No, we've decided that it's best if we don't remain married to each other." Before they began to hate each other. Yes, it was for the best.
"Is he having an affair?" Katie bit her lip before continuing, "Are you?"
"No!" In the three years she'd loved him, never once had she desired any other man.
"It's Oliver, isn't it?" Angelina asked.
"No! It's…" Hours spent calling him a cruel, callous bastard and being called a bleeding heart muggle-lover in return.
"We simply aren't compatible." She should have known they weren't meant to be. There was a reason she'd been sorted into Gryffindor and Cassius into Slytherin. But she couldn't say that, not when Angelina was married to Montague and Katie to Flint.
"I don't understand," Angelina said. "You two seemed perfect. You don't even yell at each other all the time the way Montague and I do."
Because Cassius was too mindful of public appearances, because he did his shouting behind closed doors and silencing charms.
"But Cassius always remembers special occasions and buys you nice gifts," Katie said, implicitly invoking the memory of the year Flint had forgotten Valentine's Day and ended up giving her a gift certificate to Flourish and Blott's.
Yes, it wouldn't be appropriate for an upstanding pureblood wizard to forget important holidays. Cassius would never do that. His gifts were always beautiful, expensive, and bought without thought to who she was and what she liked.
Alicia didn't want the divorce to turn ugly, not the least because their best friends were married to each other. But her friends didn't seem to believe she was unhappy enough to end their marriage. "He's a heartless bastard," she said, "Is that reason enough?"
That stunned them into silence.
"I'm sure you can work things out." Flint had both the looks and demeanor of a troll, but Katie seemed happy.
"Don't do anything you'll regret, Alicia." Montague was a dumb jock, but Angelina practically glowed when they were in the same room.
How to explain that despite her increasing unhappiness over the last year, it had been Cassius who had oh-so-rationally explained that they were not as suited to each other as they'd though and that he was going to have his lawyer file for a divorce? They would never understand. They hadn't lived with Cassius; they didn't know him the way Alicia did.
"No, we've talked to the lawyers," Alicia said. "It's happening. It's what we both want."
That wasn't quite the truth. What she wanted was for Cassius to be the man she'd thought she could make him. And what he wanted was for her to be a beautiful social ornament and enthusiastic lover who never questioned where their money came from and how many muggles suffered in the process of earning it.
He was being very generous in their divorce settlement. He kept trying to give her so much money she'd never have to work again. Ah, work. That was another issue. She'd loved her job, but Cassius hadn't wanted his wife to be a mere mid-level bureaucrat. First he'd tried to buy her a pretty sounding title at the Ministry that involved no actual work. Then he'd flat out demanded she quit her job. He was persuasive. He'd pointed out that she didn't need the job and she was probably taking it from someone who did. She'd quit and spent the last two years so bored that she'd started noticing the difference between ivory curtains and champagne ones.
Alicia didn't want his money. It only reminded her that he'd tried to buy her, to own her, rather than love her. He thought her refusal was some kind of bargaining ploy and kept increasing the amount.
The very worst part of it all was that she still loved him. But she'd grown up enough to realize that she was more in love with who she wanted him to be than who he actually was.
"It's over," Alicia said firmly. "Please don't make this more difficult than it is already." That shut Angelina and Katie up. They started crying in sympathy, and Alicia felt tears burning her own eyes.
"I'll be moving out in a couple of days." Cassius had found her an apartment and paid a whole year's rent.
"Alicia, are you sure?" Angelina demanded, squeezing Alicia's hand hard enough to hurt her.
She was ruining the happily ever after, she knew that. "I'm sorry," Alicia whispered. "It's just wrong for both of us."
It was too soon to tell them the rest of her news; how within a week of Cassius informing her of his decision to terminate their marriage, she'd discovered she was pregnant. Despite what Cassius frequently insinuated, Alicia was not stupid. She knew very well that he'd never end their marriage if he knew she was carrying his precious heir.
If she'd been a lesser woman, she would have used the pregnancy as leverage, to keep him. But Alicia didn't want him, not if he didn't want her, too. It shouldn't be a problem; their marriage would be legally ended long before her abdomen began swelling.
"Don't worry," she tried to smile, "You can still invite us both to parties. We won't fight in public."
Katie was still crying like Alicia had demanded she leave her own beloved husband. "It'll be okay. Couples separate then get back together all the time."
Alicia let her friends cling to their hope. She'd known better than to expect her best friends to side with her unequivocally, but it still hurt. She made allowances for them and forgave them. She hoped they never felt what she did and learned what she had. Still, she couldn't help resenting them. Why her husband and not theirs? Why did she have to comfort and reassure them when her heart was broken?
Katie and Angelina left, and Alicia read a novel until Cassius came home and the house elf served dinner. He was polite, and Alicia kept her tone neutral so he couldn't accuse her of indulging in Gryffindor hysterics.
She didn't want to tell the story because she wasn't sure what it was herself. Why and what was wrong with Cassius were questions she couldn't answer and no one even wanted to hear.
End