Title: Another ditch in the road
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: In times of need, Hermione could always turn to Harry. Unfortunately this kind of need is not the kind you can face with a Wand in hand. (Disturbing themes, inspired by Two Beds and a Coffee Machine by Savage Garden)
As soon as the knock at the door sounded, Harry knew who it was, and more painfully he knew why. Opening the door his fears were confirmed. He ushered his unexpected guests into the spacious apartment. By now it was almost a routine, as he went into the kitchen and began to brew a fresh pot of coffee. After a few minutes Hermione joined him, sitting across the table with her head down slightly so that her hair covered her left cheek.
"They get to sleep ok?" Harry asked, in a vain attempt to avoid the real topic.
Hermione simply nodded, and took a sip of the coffee. These unexpected visits from his best friend were always torture for Harry. He had always been one for action. He had faced a Dark Lord at age eleven, a sixty foot long at age twelve. He had seen more battles than he can remember and had the scars to prove it. What tortured Harry about this was that he could do nothing to help, because Hermione would not let him.
After the defeat of the Dark Lord for good, things had been up and down for the Golden Trio. The ups had included good jobs straight away (The Auror Academy for Ron, a place in the Department of Mysteries for Hermione and starting Seeker for a professional Quidditch team for Harry). Harry's relationship with Ginny never really got off the ground but Hermione had gotten together with Ron. One of the happiest days in Harry's life had been the day he had seen Hermione walking down the aisle, her face radiant in a flowing white dress on her father's arm. In his Best Man's speech he had said that he had as many, if not more, embarrassing anecdotes about the Bride as he did about the Groom, but he would stick to the ones about Ron because he knew Hermione would hunt him down otherwise.
One week later a severe accident during a match would end his Quidditch career. Now he did not work, having earned enough in his short career that when coupled with his modest inheritance kept him comfortable. On occasion he would do guest lectures in the more senior DADA classes at Hogwarts, but only because Headmistress McGonagall was a friend and always asked in person, but most of his time was spent working on developing or refining new tactics for the Aurors and Hit Wizards. The one thing he had done right, in his opinion, was to stay in close touch with Hermione, and by extension Ron. After the wedding, a distance had sprung up between Harry and Ron, but Hermione was always a friend and confidant. Harry had been present at the birth of all three of Hermione's children. For the twins, Rose and Hugo, he had waited outside in the waiting room with her parents and all the Weasleys while Ron was in the delivery room with her. By the time little Lillian was due, things had changed between Ron and Hermione, so at her insistence it had been Harry's had she squeezed as her youngest was born, and named in honour of Harry's mother.
By that time, Hermione had been high in the ranks of the Unspeakables, doing groundbreaking research that was improving the lives of all Witches and Wizards. Ron, on the other hand, was a hairsbreadth from being kicked out of the Aurors and had been put on probation a number of times. During her second pregnancy had been when it started. That was why he always had two spare beds made up, one for the two and half year old twins and one for Hermione and little eight month old Lillian.
"Can I see?" Harry asked quietly.
After a few seconds, Hermione tucked her hair behind her left ear, revealing the huge bruise that covered her cheek. She also lifted up her shirt as showed the bruise that coverer her side just below the ribs and looked like it had been made by a beater's bat.
Harry sighed as he got the bruise paste from the cupboard and began to gently apply it to her ribs and then her face. She would stay here for the two days it took for the bruises to fade and then, despite his best efforts, she always went back to Ron. He had tried a thousand ways to get her not to go back to him. He once even said that he would go to DMLE and report Ron, but she had forced a magical oath out of him never to do that.
She kept her strong façade all the way through, until Harry was gently rubbing the bruise paste into her cheek, at which point she broke down crying. For the longest time she had convinced herself that she was in love with Ron, that somewhere below the lazy and gruff exterior he was at least a little gentle and that he loved her back. Now she had no such delusions, but she kept going back to Ron simply for the sake of the children because she though they needed a father figure.
For a few minutes Hermione luxuriated in the feel of the bruise paste soothing the pain in her side and cheek. A small part of her arguing that it was not the paste that felt so good but merely Harry's touch.
The next morning Harry sat at the kitchen table when Hermione and the children emerged from their rooms.
"Uncie Hawwee." Rose and Hugo said in unison, charging him.
He swept them up into his lap while still seated, and they gave him huge hugs. Even little Lillian started smiling, cooing and pointing at Harry. Not surprising really, as the little girl had seen more of Harry in her short life so far than she had of Ron.
Harry set the twins down on the ground, and they immediately ran around to their usual seats while Hermione brought Lillian over to Harry and the little girl gave Harry a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Hermione then put Lillian in the highchair that Harry had acquired, and then sat down next to Harry and poured herself a coffee from the pot in the middle of the table while the twins were messily drinking some orange juice. Lillian had already eaten.
Harry was a natural with the children, keeping them entertained all throughout breakfast. Once they finished breakfast, the twins went off to play in their room while Lillian was having fun playing with some mush on her highchair.
"You know that you are always welcome here." Harry said.
He said that every time, it was his way of reassuring the only person who ever stood by him and, in an oblique way, trying to give her an out if only she would let herself see it.
"I know Harry. A couple of days now and then is what I need to get through." She replied.
"You are welcome here for as long as you need. A few days, a few weeks. Whatever." He replied.
Hermione may be the smartest Witch of her generation, arguably the smartest Witch in history, she did have blind spots. When she made up her mind something was logical then it often took something major to change her mind. Sitting there at the table, with her little baby girl babbling away incoherently next to her, Hermione had an epiphany. Harry would never hit her, never hurt her. He would look after the children as if they were his own. He would do everything in his power to keep them all safe, just as he always had, and here he was offing her a way out of her abusive marriage.
"Harry… I… I." she began but was unable to go on.
"Take your time." He responded.
This time, Hermione did stay. She filed for divorce from Ron, using the Magical Photographs of her bruises that Harry would take every time she sought refuge, both as potential evidence and a personal penance that he could not save her. Molly Weasley had come to the divorce proceedings full of 'righteous anger' at Hermione for slandering her baby, until Harry had presented the photos and the testimony of all the times she had shown up on his doorstep covered in bruises. That had been the final shock for the Weasley Matriarch, causing her heart, strained by years of volatile anger and too much weight, to finally give out. As a result of the divorce proceedings, Ron had not only been fired from the Aurors but had been sentenced to Azkaban for two years. Once he got out he disappeared and was never heard from again.
For Harry, Hermione and the children life became a blissful routine. The twins quickly adapted to 'Uncie Hawwee' being around all the time and their father not being there at all. Little Lillian never remembered a time before Harry was in their life, with her first words being 'mama' for Hermione and 'dada' for Harry.
It took four years for Harry and Hermione to start dating, Hermione needing the time to get over the trauma and Harry to get over the guilt of not being able to help her earlier. They spent the next forty years together, having another child, young James, together, but they never got Married, Hermione not being able to face the possibility of Harry changing after marriage like Ron had despite knowing it was not in Harry's nature.
After their forty years together, Harry died one night in bed. He died of a brain aneurism, a blood vessel deep in his brain had been damaged long before by repeated blows to his head both from his relatives while growing up and in his countless fights. The family gathered around their mother while morning their father, all of them taking leave from their very successful careers. It was not a surprise to any of them when Hermione followed Harry to the grave within a week. He had been the love of her life and they could all see that she was lost without him.
Harry and Hermione were buried together in a small cemetery in Godric's Hollow, next to Harry's parents. Their graves became a shine to the next twenty generations of their family who all tried to follow their example of love and kindness.
The End.