"The last few weeks have been... an adjustment, to say the least." Hermione chuckled and looked down at her mug of Butterbeer and lined it up perfectly on top of an old water mark left behind by someone else. She looked up and saw Ginny's worried face across the table from her. "I know we never technically lived together, but still… I suppose this is what we have to do for now."

Ginny didn't have much in the way of consolation for Hermione. It was a tough situation to almost quarantine the person you love at night so that he doesn't hurt you. It's not something she could ever imagine.

"You still see each other a lot though, so that's good, right?"

"Yeah. We still do everything we used to do, but it's only until he has to go to sleep. Then he leaves for the night." She took a sip of her drink before setting it back down precisely lined up on top the same water mark. "I send him an owl when he leaves every night. Just so he doesn't feel quite so alone when he wakes up. He says they help him, but it doesn't help me feel any better being alone, though, or sleep any better."

There was a brief silence that Ginny was about to end, but Hermione beat her to it as the walls she put up in her mind suddenly came crashing down in a full blown panic attack.

"Am I doing something wrong?" She blurted out with a short, hysterical laugh and threw her hands in the air. "I should have noticed something was wrong with him sooner, but I didn't!" Her hands came crashing down on the table, almost knocking over their drinks. Tears started to fill her eyes. She looked away from Ginny and felt her voice getting shakier. "Maybe he needs someone better than me, who can actually help him…" She looked up at her. "I let him down. I know I did. I just- I don't think I can do this for him anymore…"

"Next person who doesn't mind their own business is going to have bats coming out of their nose for a week!" Ginny stood with her wand out, threatening anyone who decided to not mind their own business, as Hermione banging the table drew more than a few eyes. When they all turned their attention away from them she sat next to Hermione and placed a hand on her. "Hermione, that's not true. Not even in the slightest. You can do this. Harry and I go through the same ups and downs, everyone does."

Ginny continued to console her for several minutes as best she could until Harry showed up to join them.

"Hey you two." He kissed Ginny hello and sat across from them. He looked to Hermione and could instantly tell she was upset. He looked at Ginny for confirmation and she nodded. He knew it was about Ron, at the very least.

"Hi Harry." Hermione forced a small smile for him before wiping her eyes and staring at her butterbeer again, making absolutely certain it was perfectly lined up in the watermark.

The three of them went on having a fairly normal conversation about Ginny's latest quidditch match, which resulted in a win for the Harpy's and a broken arm for Ginny. Hermione always enjoyed watching the two of them talk about Quidditch because it was something they were both passionate about and connected to. Hermione always thought that if Harry wanted to, he could have been a professional quidditch player as well, although who was better, Harry or Ginny, was always a hotly contested point of conversation, with Harry usually, reluctantly, giving her the slight edge. She almost forgot about her troubles with Ron for a moment when she thought of how much fun he would be having with them if he wasn't out working a case right now.

"Do I have to remind you that your greatest Quidditch achievement was putting me on the team?" Ginny teased her husband.

"Yeah, I guess you might have a point… That was definitely a high point in my quidditch career." Harry replied to her with a sly grin before the three of them burst out laughing.

"It's a shame Ron has to work a case tonight." Hermione said with a happy smile. "You might have won that time if he was here."

"What do you mean?" Harry looked at her, confused. "He hasn't been given any cases or field assignments in months, aside from tagging along on a raid or two."

They both looked at him, having no idea what he was talking about.

"What?" Harry was just as confused by them.

"What do you mean, 'he hasn't had any cases'? Where is he if he's not working a case?" Hermione sat up in her chair.

"He's back in the office doing paperwork, or 'climbing Mt. Parchment', as he calls it. Said he couldn't meet us because he got behind."

"Why has he been doing paperwork instead of field assignments?" Hermione stood up because she didn't know what else to do with herself. She knew the answer already, or part of the answer at least.

"He got demoted. He's been stuck in the office almost every day." He said it very plainly, as if it was common knowledge that everyone should have known about. But as he went to take a sip of his drink, he saw their expressions. He looked between them in disbelief. "You did know about that…" Suddenly, it dawned on him. They didn't know. "didn't you...?"

Hermione sat back down in her chair and her face went blank. An eerie calm washed over her. Her breaths became slowed and intentional, she was sitting up perfectly straight, elbows at ninety degrees, with her palms flat on the table in front of her, tapping her fingers in a rolling cadence. It was not a very natural position for anyone to find themselves in.

"Harry, what happened? Why is Ron on desk duty?" Ginny asked as she watched Hermione closely. She had seen her mad before, but this calmness worried her more than anything else she had seen from her.

"After that big fight the two of you had, Ron went a little off the deep end. He tracked down and single-handedly brought in Merula Snyde, a witch who we've been trying to bring in for over a year."

"Why would that get him demoted? That sounds like a good thing. Why is it not a good thing?" Ginny asked with both hope and confusion.

"He sent her to St. Mungo's for a month." Harry said in a whispered tone. "He got a warning, but that's not what got him demoted."

"Oh…" Hermione responded coolly. "There's more. Did you hear that, Ginny? There's more." She shot a glance to Ginny that she had never seen before, which unsettled her.

Harry nodded slowly. He exchanged looks with Ginny, both of them now keeping a close eye on Hermione. He didn't want to say anything else, but Hermione's entire demeanor made him feel like it would be worse if he said nothing.

"Well…" He spoke slowly and chose his words carefully."Ron used a muggle toilet one day on his way back to the office, a day or two after the Snyde incident, and someone put one of those regurgitating toilet jinxes on it. He went mad. Spent three days chasing them down, wound up in a sewer in Cardiff. I don't really know what happened next, or why, but, thank Merlin he let them go. The next time I saw him in the office he was at his desk with a mountain of paperwork. He's been there ever since."

All three of them were silent. Harry and Ginny were both watching Hermione and exchanging looks with one another. Hermione kept tapping her fingers as her mind tried desperately to catch up with her emotions. When they found a happy medium, her fingers came to a stop. She smiled and stood up, straightening out her robes.

"I'm going to kill him." Hermione said it in such a nonchalant manner that it took her friends a moment to realize she might actually be serious. Hermione turned to leave, but Ginny, against her better judgement, grabbed Hermione's hand and stopped her.

"Hermione!" Ginny stood up and moved in front of her, Harry too.

"I'm just kidding, Ginny. Obviously…" Hermione let out a peculiar little laugh. "I would like to use the bathroom though, if you wouldn't mind stepping aside?"

"I know you're upset." Ginny continued, while neither one of them budged. "I can't possibly understand what you're feeling, but you can't go see him right now. I think that's a really bad idea."

Harry took it as a good sign that neither of them got jinxed on the spot, and that Hermione was still there and that she didn't disapparate.

"Why don't we get a room upstairs," Harry suggested. "and we can talk a little more in private?"

Hermione nodded and suddenly felt her body relax as her emotions came roaring back to just beneath the surface. Her cool expressionless face now looked tired and worn out. "Okay..."

Harry smiled reassuringly and motioned to the barkeep that they were taking a room upstairs. The three of them found an empty room at the end of the hall. Harry took a moment and cast a few quick spells that would guarantee them their privacy. He joined them inside and locked the door behind him to see Hermione sitting on the bed with her head in her hands and shaking.

"He's been lying to me for months. I'm so daft…" She looked up at Harry and Ginny, who had pulled two comfy looking chairs up to the bed so they were sitting in front of her. Her eyes red and puffy, she walked a fine line between crying and angry. "We've been trying so hard to get back to normal, whatever that means for us, but he's been holding back this entire time."

"Hermione, there's no way you could've known." Harry began. "He pulled one over on all of us. The only reason I knew any of it is because we work in the same office together, if not for that… none of us ever would have known."

"No…" Hermione shook her head resolutely. "I should have known. I should have known there was more, but I was just so happy to have him back that it blinded me. He was telling me more, and I was so desperate for him to open up, and finally he was, but I couldn't tell he wasn't telling me everything." She let out a small, defeated laugh and wiped her eyes. "Maybe it's my own fault that dresser almost killed me."

"None of this is your fault." Ginny pulled her chair closer to the bed and took Hermione's hand in hers. "You aren't responsible for him. He must have a reason for lying to you, to all of us, but that was his decision. That had nothing to do with you."

Hermione silently considered what Ginny had said. They all sat in silence as she processed everything. She shook her head and smiled.

"Maybe we really are perfect for each other, though? A couple of liars?"

"Hermione…?"

"I… haven't always been totally honest with him, either."

Harry and Ginny exchanged a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first it came up very briefly after the D.A. reunion… Then we were talking the other night, just before he was going to go back to his place. You know how Bill and Fleur are expecting their firstborn? Well, we were talking about it and…" Hermione let out a deep breath, struggling to get the words out because she never outright told this to anyone before. "The conversation lead to us and our future and he… I mean, this was the first time we ever talked about it. I think he always assumed we were on the same page because, well, it's never come up before, but just because I never brought it up, it doesn't mean I implicitly agree with him, does it?"

"Hermione, what are you talking about?" Harry asked, having completely lost her point in her retelling of their conversation.

Hermione looked at Harry and then back to Ginny. She could tell Ginny knew exactly what she was saying, so she gave her a little nod because she couldn't say it herself.

"Harry," Ginny began for her. "Hermione doesn't want the same things Ron does." She gave him a moment to figure it out, but the blank look on his face told her he didn't get it yet. "She doesn't want to get married or have kids."

"Oh… OH." Harry finally understood. He looked at Hermione and then back at Ginny, having no clue what to say next.

Hermione lifted her head up. "I don't know how to tell him… He seemed so happy talking about it that it seemed cruel to do it then. I think I've always known, deep down, he wanted a family of his own, but I guess I hoped I might change my mind one day. I should have told him sooner. Years ago. I've been such a coward…"

The three of them sat there well into the night. Occasionally they would find themselves on a different topic that would take their minds off of things, like the wizard who tried to make his own homemade floo powder and managed to get where he was going, but ended up with his arms where his legs should have been and his legs where his arms should have been, but mostly it was a night of brief conversation and long silences.

"I should go." Hermione looked at a clock hanging on the wall and saw it was getting late.

"You can stay with us tonight if you'd rather not be alone." Ginny offered with a sincere smile. "You're always welcome to stay with us. Anytime."

"Thanks, but…" Hermione's first reaction was to turn them down, but she thought about her flat, and everything that had happened there between her and Ron, and she changed her mind, needing a break. "I think I will stay with you, just for tonight."

Both of her friends were relieved to hear her accept their offer. Neither of them wanted her to be completely alone. The three of them walked together in silence to their flat, which wasn't too far from the Leaky Cauldron. Harry got their guest room ready for her, but she was so exhausted that by the time he went to tell her it was ready she had fallen fast asleep on their couch. He draped a blanket over her and let her sleep.