A/N: Hi everyone, thank you for reading chapter one. Please remember to review as all feed back and polite critique are welcomed! This is the second chapter, again I will remind you I have no Beta at the moment so please excuse my horrible grammatical errors below. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Hours had passed and Hermione had remained where she crumpled on the floor; the sleeping witch still clutched her wand in her hand, her eyes, although closed looked puffy and swollen from crying. Slowly she stirred and began to move into a sitting position. "I should get up," she thought to herself. Laying on the floor wasn't the most comfortable of things to do.

"What do I do now that Ron's gone? Do I call Ginny? Do I throw the rest of his personal effects out? Do I try and find him? Do I want to find him? How could he do this to me? Why?" One by one questions popped into her head until she felt almost faint from being overwhelmed. Hermione decided that before she did anything else, she would at least take a hot shower and clean herself up. The door leading to bathroom was on the other side of the bed; grabbing her towel and robe she made her way towards the shower. She kicked off her shoes, tore off her socks and began removing each layer of her clothing. Usually Hermione didn't leave her shoes and clothes everywhere, she was a neat freak; but today, she didn't give a hoot.

Hot water started flowing from the lavish shower head and soon the room was immersed in steam. Hermione stepped slowly into the shower, closing the glass door behind her; the burning hot water prickling her skin as it cascaded over her body.

Forty minutes later Hermione was showered, dried and wrapped in her fluffy green robe. Retreating towards the bed, she stopped. She didn't want to lay in their bed, not after everything that had happened. Ron had been unfaithful to her for over a year. If he hadn't wanted to be with her, why say not say something? They had only moved into the apartment together several months prior and it drove Hermione again to tears, wondering how and why Ron could do this to her?

Hermione was a strong young woman; hell, she was a War Hero who had helped Harry Potter defeat Lord Voldemort for crying out loud, she had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange with the crutiatius curse and suffered multiple injuries in the war, but no matter how strong Hermione might be, at the end of the day, deep down she was still a girl who had a heart which was now broken.

Instead of the bed, she walked downstairs to the lounge room, flopping heavily onto to the couch opposite their muggle TV screen where slowly she once again cried herself to sleep.

"Hermione, do you want the rest of his clothes just shoved in the box?" asked Harry, who stood in front of the wardrobe in the master bedroom. He still looked the same five years on, tall with broad shoulders and his iconic messy dark hair and emerald green eyes; Lily's eyes.

"Yes please Harry, just shove it all in, anything left behind gets burned," she said, flashing him a grin.

It had been three weeks since Ron had left Hermione. He hadn't attempted to contact her in the time he was gone and Hermione was almost glad. In that time she had cried, laughed and yelled in her now seemingly lonely home. She had decided that she no longer needed a two-story apartment with three rooms as it was just her, so she'd negotiated an early release of tenancy with the real estate. Hermione didn't' want any more memories of what she had shared with Ron taunting her day in and day out, so it was time to move forwards.

It was time to go back to where it all started; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the weeks that had passed by, Hermione had gotten in touch with Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, owling her to see if any positions on the Hogwarts staff were available. A day later she had received word that an Assistant Medi-Witch position was open and hers if she wanted it. Being the brightest witch of her age and the top student in the history of Minerva's teaching career, she welcomed the thought of the young witch joining the faculty at Hogwarts. The position came with living quarters at the castle (and 24 hour access to the library an it's restricted section), so that solved the housing issue and Hermione was welcome to move in during the holidays to re-acquaint herself with the castle before the school term commenced for the year. It had re-awakened a fire in Hermione's heart; knowing she was going back.

"I'm just about done here Harry," Hermione said, packing the last of her own clothes into an oversized trunk. She flicked down the locks before shrinking the item to fit in the palm of her hand.

"Me too Mione, just need to tape up this box and I think I'm done. I'll drop his things off at the Burrow to on my way home," Harry replied, carelessly shoving more of Ron's things into the box.

"Thanks Harry, really, you and Ginny have been life savers," she said, giving him a warm smile. Harry had always been impartial to his two best friends fighting. He learnt years ago not to bother getting in the middle of their arguments as he ended up in the firing line from them both. Although Harry had never truly taken sides, this time he was more than disgusted at his future brother-in-law's behaviour. Ron had sent an owl to Harry, explaining that he had left Hermione who he'd apparently fallen out of love with as the same time his feelings blossomed for Lavender. He had explained that he had been planning to confront Hermione for months but was a coward, too scared to face her.

"That's what friends are for Mione," he grinned.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Harry had left a few hours later with Ginny who had stopped by to bring them dinner on her way home from her job at the Ministry. Hermione had packed the final boxes of her office and sat for one last time in her favorite wing backed chair. She smiled, looking at the park across the way – the park where she used to take a book and lay on the sweet smelling freshly cut grass in the warm weather, the world around her fading away.

Hermione stood in the doorway of her once warm and welcoming home, thinking how it now looked cold and barren since the removalist had left. Harry had taken all of Ron's things to the Burrow a few days prior and she had organized that the furniture be packed into a muggle storage facility. She wouldn't need anything whilst residing at Hogwarts aside her personal effects so it made the most sense to her. "This is good bye," she thought to herself, tracing a hand along the frame of the wooden door, taking one last look around the place before closing the door. In Hermione's mind it was closing a chapter of her life; one she would not want to re-open any time soon.

"Alright. Time to get moving," she said to herself aloud. As she needed to pick up supplies from Diagon Alley before term, Hermione had organized to rent a room for the night at the Leaky Cauldron in London. It had been months since she had been there and she would welcome the familiarity of the place she had grown to love in her younger years. Not only that, how could she pass up a trip to Flourish and Blotts to pick up a book and a new set of robes from Madam Malkins.

"Welcome back Miss Granger," said a familiar voice as Hermione walked through the doors to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Tom! It's been so long," the bushy haired witch said, rushing over and quickly hugging the now almost bald innkeeper standing next to the bar.

"Aye, it has, but not much around here has changed" he laughed, pulling away from their hug. "Here, let me take your things up to your room while you relax and settle in. You'll be staying in number 8," he said, grabbing hold of her bags from where she had dropped them down.

"Tom no, it's fine, really – I'm more than happy to take my-"

"No, you won't Miss Granger, leave an old man be to do his job and you go and get a drink or re-acquaint yourself with the Alley" he chided, pulling the bags out of her reach and giving her a look.

She threw her hands up in the air and laughed, "Okay, okay, you can take my bags. Thank you, Tom. I'll head out, but be back in a few hours."

Leaving her things with Tom, Hermione retreated out the back door the building, finding herself face to face once again with the brick wall that lead to Diagon Alley. She tapped the red brick three times with her wand and in an instant the wall in front of her became alive. Bricks shuffled from here to there, swinging around quickly as they created a doorway for her to walk through. Hermione stepped under the archway and into Diagon Alley, it was busy and bustling with witches and wizards everywhere like it always was.

"Now, to Flourish and Blotts," she thought, smiling to herself.

Weaving her way through the busy crowds, Hermione made mental notes of all the stops she intended to make, the first after the book shop to be her Gringotts's account. A few minutes later something caught the corner of her eye; a mannequin adorning a dark silver robe stood positioned in the window of Madam Malkin's – it seemed to glisten and Hermione found herself wandering over to it. "It's beautiful," she thought, looking the robe up and down, "I might have to come back and try this on,". Through the window Hermione noticed something else, a young witch seemed to be trying on the most beautiful wedding robes with Madam Malkin and her assistant fussing over her. The girl twirled around, the robes swishing beautifully as she did. Hermione blood froze as the girls' face came into view; it was Lavender.

A moment passed before Hermione turned around swiftly, letting go of the breath she didn't realize she was holding. She bumped into something solid, or rather, someone. Hermione froze and looked up at the man with fiery red hair, their eyes meeting. Of all people she could have run into, let alone physically bump into, it had to be him.

"H-h-h-hermione," Ron stuttered.

A/N: Please let me know what you think! Review! Review! Review! Please also note I go back to work tomorrow so further chapters may not come through until next weekend.