Hermione wonders when the line between compromise and corruption fell apart between them.
She can still recall the day they first saw one another with perfect clarity, as though it were just yesterday he was the new kid strolling through the doors of Riverdale High, full of swagger and charm and fresh from his expulsion from prep school. She had chanced a look his way, catching his eye just in time for him to flash her that damn smile of his, turning her insides to goo as her mind simultaneously yearned to know more about the boy with the diamond-like smile.
He wasn't what she thought he would be at all.
Hiram is equal parts slick and smarmy as he fires an insult Fred's way, needling the other boy into arguments seemingly just so he can win them. His ego is unprecedented, and he loves winning. Whether it be a wrestling match, an argument, or even something as insignificant as a bet. He enjoys the power he gets from it, and he makes no effort to hide it. He's as uncompromising as they come, arrogant, and so, so free from the weight of expectations and the leering figure of life after high school, and she envies him for it.
And yet he's the same boy she would see nurturing Hal Cooper's confidence inside and outside of school, tending to the other boy like a gardener would a small flower sapling, until before long he bloomed before all of their eyes. He's the same hot-headed boy who loved to pick a fight with Fred, but also the one who had held him with her when he had gotten the call about poor Oscar. He's one who had sent all of those flowers, held her hand as she cried over everything from her inability to tug Penelope away from her fucked up family to the doubt nestled in her heart that she was a disappointment to her parents when compared to the accomplishments of her sisters. He could be so wonderfully transparent with her, and kiss from him made her forget even the most troubling of her problems. When it was just them there was no worry, no demanding parents, and no scary future waiting for them at the end of the tunnel.
She's not sure where the two versions of him start and end. Or even if they were ever two at all. But she falls hard. Her and Mary would dreamily discuss their future spouses between sleepovers and boring math classes, talking endlessly about the person that would just get them, and make their lives that much better. She had decided long ago that her person would be the one that really saw her beyond her Vixen uniform and the neighbourhood she grew up in, and would see her warts and all, and love her anyway. And she knows, she just knows, when Hiram pulls her close and whispers those sweet nothings in her ear, that he's the one she's been waiting for.
But there had always been an unsettling glean in his eye in all the time she had known him, the insatiable urge he had for power that grew and grew and could never quite be quenched.
He offers out a hand to her on their Graduation Day, offering to take her away from small town suburbia and into his world, so long as she took the leap and jumped with him into the unknown. No matter the cost.
She jumps. But all these years later, and she's still falling.
He gets sloppy, and the authorities are finally able to take him away from her. She feels as though she's stuck in a car driving blindfolded as he's handcuffed and taken away, and for one frightening minute she doesn't know how she'll cope alone. But there's Veronica, and she'd never thought she would love anyone the way she does her, and she needs her to take charge now more than ever. So she jumps once more, and works to remake herself in her old home town.
And then he comes home.
She shouldn't have done it. She shouldn't have welcomed him back so easily after everything he had put her and Veronica through, but god she had missed him. The dull ache in her heart that had been present since his arrest finally fades as he takes her into his arms, and they kiss with wild abandon. Suddenly Fred, and SoDale and money don't matter, because he's safe, and he's home, and everything will be alright again.
But more and more compromise is asked of her, as Veronica is pulled into their business, she's suddenly a mayoral candidate, and a war is ignited between the North and Southside of Riverdale. She bites her tongue. She sticks to the shadows. She plays the part. This was all for the good of their family after all.
But when Tall Boy fires those shots at the stage on Debate Night, she can compromise no longer. Something in her snaps. She's shakes and she sobs, when all she wants to do is scream, kick and punch at him. To make him cry and hurt the way she is hurting. Yes, he had quite literally put her in the line of fire, and she was furious about that. But he'd put Veronica there too. Her strong and beautiful baby girl, who she loved beyond reason and would die for without hesitation. She could have been hurt. Or worse. No money, no power, and no marriage was worth more than her baby's safety and happiness.
So she cuts the line between them, her mind suddenly blooming with drawn out schemes and elaborate plans to tear him to pieces. He would pay for putting their daughter in danger.
Hermione wonders when the line between compromise and corruption fell apart between them, as the lies and the carnage he's caused become that much clearer.