Chapter Two: Broken Home.

Everything had changed. Almost over night and Hermione found it was getting harder and harder to get a grip on her surroundings. It was like all the rooms had changed. They no longer felt warm and welcoming but felt cold. This place was no longer the home she had known. She wished she had taken the offer to go straight to the Weasley's instead of coming to this place. She couldn't even call it home any more. Picture's kept disappearing and so did many of the things she had made in art class at primary school. Her mother bought dishes once a month now. She told Hermione that she was simply losing them. Her parents had always thought that she had been sleeping during their fights and she had no desire to tell them other wise. So she lay in her bed at might and listened to her fathers drunken yelling and her mother's desperate plea's.

On this particular night it wasn't her father yelling. In fact he wasn't even speaking at all, he mother was. She had turned her on her portable CD player and had tried to drown them out, but it wasn't working, so she simply turned it off and ignored what ever it was that her mother was screaming about. With a book in hand Hermione crossed to her bedroom window. Suddenly she heard the front door open, looking down below her she could see the ray of light it cast across the front yard, then it closed. She watched as her father crossed the grass.

' Strange' she thought, ' If he's leaving why isn't he heading for his car?'

Her question was answered when Gloria, the widow that lived just across the street opened the door and gave Alex and overly intimate greeting. Hermione was disgusted. It wasn't because the widow was old, actually it was quite the contrary. She was only a couple years younger than her mother but only looked in her twenty's. She had been the trophy wife a rich executive some thirty years her senior.

What upset Hermione was that this was the real reason behind the divorce. What? Had her father thought that she wouldn't notice? Perhaps he thought it didn't matter because his "little angel" would be coming with him when he left. Either way she didn't care. She heard her mother come up the stairs. She also heard the sobs Abigail was trying to hide so she wouldn't wake her daughter. Once the bedroom door closed and Hermione was sure that her mother was asleep she quietly headed down stairs. She hadn't decided yet if she would simply walk over to that miserable excuse for a women's house or if she would wait for him to come home.

She decided on the first because she wasn't even sure if he would be returning home. As quietly as she could Hermione opened and closed the front door. Thankful that neither the porch light nor the entry light were on. He could look out the window and he wouldn't be able to see her coming.

Looking around to be sure none of the neighbor's would see her stalking over to Gloria's massive home. Quickly, she practically ran across the street, and she was ready for quite a fight and they were both going to get a firm telling off. Checking behind her again she checked to see of the front door was locked.

' Stupid twit.' She thought, ' Couldn't even wait long enough to lock the damn door.'

She opened the door and then instead closing it softly so not to get caught she slammed it shut behind her. She heard the squeal form upstairs and headed in that general direction. As she proceeded to stomp up the stairs. She had only five more steps' to go when her father appeared at the top, ready to fight off any intruder. He paled at the sight of an extremely pissed off Hermione. His eyes widened upon the sight of his only child.

The look on his face said plainly that he had never meant for her to find out about the affair. And the look on Hermione's face said plainly that she didn't care on what he had intended. She was here for a fight and she meant to win.

" What the hell do you think you are doing?" she asked her father in a sickeningly sweet tone. Alex was in no way fooled.

" I am here because I want to be, not to mention that I am an adult and do not have to ask your permission." Alex said trying to sound less afraid. It wasn't working. He knew that Hermione was now old enough to perform magic outside of school and had no desire to test what she could do.

" I didn't say you needed my permission. I asked you what the heel you think you are doing. I am well aware that you are and adult daddy darling. Now ask me if I give a damn?"

She was challenging him. His own daughter was challenging him. What the hell was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say? At the moment all he could do was stammer.

" Alex baby who is it?" Gloria asked as she stuck her head out if the bedroom door.

Hermione ignored the insufferable women and her father couldn't find a single word to say to either of them even if he had wanted to. Hermione had caught him off guard and at the moment he couldn't even string two words together.

Hermione resumed her walk up the stairs and with every step she took forward her father took a step back. Gloria, sick of waiting for an answer, began to walk down the hall when she saw Alex walking backwards. She stopped only a few feet away when she saw Hermione. All Gloria could think was oh shit when she saw the look on Hermione's face. She then turned and ran back to the bedroom door and locked it. She hadn't been stupid enough to test Hermione's temper.

A few more step's and Alex realized he had nowhere to run and hide. He could feel the wall at his back. He didn't waste his time to look around because that would have been a grave mistake. He knew that his daughter had a mean right hook and he wasn't going to give her the chance to use it on him.

" Well daddy darling, aren't your going to answer me?" she said with a wicked smile. She looked like a crazed lunatic, and she was in the mood to kill, or at least it looked like it from where he was standing.

Alex opened his mouth to say something but he was finding it increasingly hard to breathe.

" I guess not then." Hermione said, " Then I guess I'll do all the talking. I want you to go home right now. I do not want to hear any arguing when I get there. You will not go after my mother. She is sleeping and doesn't even know that I am here. You are going to sit on the sofa in the living room and stay quietly seated until I arrive home. Is that understood?"

All Alexander Granger could do was shake his head numbly. When his daughter made a move to the bedroom door where Gloria was hiding he made the mistake of taking his eyes off of Hermione. Suddenly everything went black and he was seeing stars. He felt her fist hit him again and again. When he was on the ground she gave him one final kick and then laughed. It was sick menacing laugh that made him sick to the stomach.

" Hit my mother again and I swear I'll kill you next time." Hermione whispered in his ear. He could hear her leaving. Walking down the hall down the stairs and out the door. Suddenly Gloria was at his side and she was crying. The threat his daughter, his own flesh and blood, had given him still ringing in his ears. Then the world went black and all the pain left his body.

Gloria looked down at the limp man in front of her, not knowing what to do. She wouldn't dare call the police everything was suspicious enough already. She simply waited for him to wake up. So she sat on the floor crying until she could barely see waiting, hoping that nothing was horribly wrong.

The next day Abby noticed that Hermione was just a bit more chipper than usual. She was still very upset because Alex hadn't come home again last night, and yet she was also oddly relieved.

" Good morning mama." Hermione said from the other side of the breakfast bar, " So what's for breakfast?"

Abby couldn't help but smile. She had everything that mattered in her world smiling at her. " I dunno… I was thinking maybe… pancake's." when Hermione's eye's lit up Abby remembered why she had married her husband. Now that it was over between them her life could only get better. She had a wonderful daughter whom she loved with all her heart and that was all that mattered. What made her day better was watching Alex walking in and noticing the fresh bruises he had on his face and arm's.

' For once he was the one getting beaten.' Abby thought to herself.

Hermione noticed that her mother was looking at something behind her and turned to look. When she saw Alex she smiled that wicked little smile that made his skin crawl. She cocked an eyebrow as if to say ' I dare you to tell her.'

Alex simply turned his gaze toward the ground and headed up the stairs. Hermione smiled to herself and turned back to her mother. They spent the morning and most of the after noon baking all of their favorite treats and pigging out on cookie dough.

When dinner came everyone was quiet and not a word was said. Occasionally Abby would look up from her plate and smile at her wonderful daughter. She would never forget what Hermione had said to her that after noon.

Flashback

" Sweet heart," Abby started, " When everything is finalized… I know I shouldn't be asking you… but which one of us are you going to live with? I mean if you don't want to answer me…" but she didn't get to finish because Hermione cut her off.

" I'll live with you. You have always been there for me and you mean a lot more to me than dad does. Besides who would I spend hours cooking with?" Hermione asked in such a happy tone that made Abby's heart ache.

End Flashback

Hermione went upstairs to her room to catch up on her reading. Given everything that had happened she hadn't been able to concentrate on anything the past few weeks. When the front door opened and then slammed closed she crossed to the window and watched as her father got into his car and speed down the street. Hermione simply watched him leave, part of her hoping he would never come back and part of her wishing he would just die and leave them alone. Either way she thought she and her mother would be happier... she had no idea how wrong she was.

She spent most of the night with her nose in one book or another; a few times she had ventured out to grab a snack or a glass of something to drink. Some time's she would stop and have a conversation with her mother about one thing or another. At ten o'clock she had her mother sat down to watch the news and spent a good hour after word complaining about the government and all the things that had seen.

Hermione was in her room reading a book when she saw them. From somewhere outside she could see red and blue lights. She quickly crossed to the window to see where they were going. When they stopped outside of her house an began to make there way up the front walk she ran from her room. She made it just in time to see her mother sink to the floor in tears.