AN: Here's chapter 7. Hope y'all love it and also know the drill.
OoOoO
Harry flopped down on their bed, staring at the ceiling hatefully. What the Hell had he done to get kicked out this time? Okay, he'd made love to her, possibly against her will, but he looked away when she told him to!
He growled angrily and rolled off his back to lay on his stomach. Maybe she hadn't really wanted to get back together. Maybe she just wanted someone to want her and then she realized he still loved her. He shouldn't have said anything. He should have just let her have his cock.
Fuck, this hurt bad. He wished he had never fallen in love with her, way back in fifth year. She was just so perfect, though. Well, maybe not perfect, but pretty damn close. She was perfect to him.
With a flick of his wand, all his clothed and stuff was back in his suitcase and ready to go. Maybe Ron would let him stay for a bit. Yeah, he might.
Harry dragged himself to the doorway and lifted his hand to turn the knob and leave everything he had behind.
"Where you going, Mr. Potter?" A deep voice asked from behind him. He turned to see his three kids and Cory staring at him expectantly.
"Well, I've got to go find a place to live." He answered. Cory shook his head calmly. Harry nodded back impatiently.
"Mr. Potter, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made?"
Harry froze. He locked eyes with Cory for a moment and bit his lip. Cory's head tipped to the side and he raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"Cory, this is different."
"How so?"
It was Hermione's voice that spoke this time. Harry's head whipped to meet her eyes anxiously. She had tears in her eyes and her face was splotchy from crying.
"Hermione, look…I just love you, okay? I understand that you don't feel the same way, but I can't keep on living here without you. I'm going and – and I don't think I'm coming back this time." Her eyes widened at his proclamation and quickly settled into a sad look of longing. "I'm not going to be taking the kids on weekends and the month in summer anymore. I'll, uh, keep sending you support, but I can't be here any longer."
"Harry listen - "
"I can't, Hermione. It hurts, just like you said. I'll just go and, whoever this new guy is, I'll get Ron to clobber the shit out of him for me. Nobody touches our 'Mione." He smiled and leaned over to kiss her cheek in farewell. She lunged at him and clung to him fearfully.
"Oh, Merlin, don't go, Harry! Please, I'll do anything!" She sobbed. Harry stood completely still. Had she not recently told him to leave?
"Hermione, I don't understand." He stated in perfect truth. She continued to sob into his chest, arms wrapped around him frantically.
"I'm not letting you go this time, Harry! I shouldn't have let you last time! This time, you're going to sit down and tell me what's wrong!" Her shouts had made the kids realize that they should make themselves scarce and now they were nowhere to be seen.
"Alright, okay. I'll sit down and we can talk." He set his bags down and walked over to the couch, sitting on it demonstratively, as if proving that he could follow her directions. He wasn't an idiot.
She sat beside him and looked at her knees nervously. After a deep breath, she glanced at him.
"So…why are you going this time? Ginny knocked up again?" She questioned calmly. She was taking deep, steadying breaths.
"No. You told me to leave."
"Oh, good. That would have been far too déjà vu." She laughed uneasily. Harry looked at her in mystification. What on earth was she talking about?
"Um, I've got practice in an hour." He said bewilderedly. Her faint-hearted smile slipped instantly.
"O-oh. Well, I-I'll just let you, um, go, then." She stammered self-consciously. She stood suddenly and began the rush from the room.
"I can apparate to it, if I need to. I've got fifty minutes."
"Oh, right. Well, we should talk, then." She faltered. He smiled comfortingly and she sat back down, taking deep breaths again. Her seat was awkward and rigid, as if she was expecting to run off at any second.
"Yeah."
"Okay, I have something to tell you." She took another steadying breath and clutched at her stomach queasily.
"Well, could it wait a bit? I've got to run my stuff over to Ron's before practice." Harry glanced at the clock, tapping his foot impatiently. Her face flushed in humiliation and she turned away from him, hiding the tears in her eyes.
"Alright, Harry, but if you leave, that door might not be open when you want to come back." She said softly. He looked at her tenderly and reached out for her hand. She took his sadly and held on tightly.
"What do you need to say?"
Hermione thought about it. She was going to tell him her newest secret, but it hadn't made him stay before. Maybe she could just tell him she missed the way he used to look at her. That was part of it.
"You don't find me sexy anymore, Harry. You said you would and – and you don't. I know you don't." She mumbled, tears springing to her eyes forlornly. His eyebrows knit together worriedly and she nodded tearfully.
"I do, Hermione, you know that!" He exclaimed. Her head shook again and he pulled her close to him. "Yes, I do, love. More than anything!"
"Then why didn't you look?"
Her question made him stop; he didn't know what she meant.
"When we made love, Harry. I told you not to look and you didn't! You always used to look before, Harry. It was some horny thing you used to do, even when I told you not to. It always made me feel pretty." She cried. Harry looked down at his shoes as he remembered looking at her after she got out of the shower as she shouted at him, him keeping his gaze on her naked body anyways.
"I'm sorry, love. I didn't know you wanted me to look."
"That shouldn't matter, Harry! You should want to look. You shouldn't look because I want you to." She whispered. He took her face in his hands and stared at her for several minutes.
"I will always want to stare at Hermione Potter while she is soaking wet and she will always be sexy to me." He said, his low voice rumbling immodestly. Her face broke into a smile unwarrantedly. She squashed it quickly and tossed him a reprimanding look. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Sexy."
"You should be, Mr. Sexy." She scolded. In her heart, she knew this had to be the last time they contacted each other. "It's just too bad that you'll never see me soaking wet again."
"Why?"
"This has to stop, Harry. All this drama and chaos. You need to get back to Ginny and your daughter and I need to get back to…paying the bills as best I can. But this insanity has to finish. I can't take it anymore."
Harry's mind latched onto the part about paying the bills and wouldn't move an inch from those seven words. Pay the bills as best as she can?
"What do you mean 'the best you can'?" He asked worriedly. She blushed and looked away.
"Well, money's a little tight, but we're fine." She answered quickly. "Where are you going to be staying again?"
"At Ron's. What do you mean money's tight?" He asked uneasily. She glared at him and sighed.
"I mean I only get thirty percent of the money need to support Emily and Ricki, but I don't get anything for Lily because your lawyer said you didn't know about her until we were already in the process of being divorced. Apparently, if she was conceived after Ginny got pregnant, she wasn't yours." Hermione said stiltedly. Harry was very confused right now. She had a job.
"But what about your job?" He asked. "You get money from that."
"Yes, but it's not a Pro Quidditch job. I work as secretary to the editor of the prophet, Harry. I make surprisingly little. Ron's been trying to help me out, but you can't make something from nothing." She sighed. Harry's mind traveled back to when he had first arrived here and she was taking to Ron. "…don't know how it's going to come together, Ron. It's just not there! You can't make something from nothing unless you're Merlin, for Merlin's sake!"
"Hermione, why didn't you tell me? I would have helped in a second!" He said. She looked at him disdainfully.
"Would you find it easy to ask a man for money after he left you because he got some other woman pregnant?" She asked miserably. "Things aren't going my way, Harry. They haven't for a while now. They've gotten progressively worse since – since a couple of weeks ago."
"Since I got here." Harry said dejectedly.
"No, it was a while after that." She answered, breathing deeply again. "Well, let's get your stuff over to Ron's."
"Sure." Harry responded. He picked up several bags and left a small duffle for her. "Ready to apparate?"
"Er, I think I'll take the floo, actually. I shouldn't be apparating." She blushed and grabbed to duffle bag, marching into the fire and shouting 'Ron's Playboy Mansion!'.
By the time Harry had apparated to Ron's 'Playboy Mansion', Hermione had left. He thought that was odd, but he had a very angry Ron to deal with presently.
"I told you not to screw her over, Potter!" Ron shouted. Harry shrank backwards into the sofa, remembering the last 'you're a jackass, Potter' talk he had had with Ron. That was when Harry had gotten Ginny pregnant.
"I know, Ron, I'm just an idiot. She had sex with me a couple weeks ago and when she told me not to look, I didn't. Somehow, that made her angry."
"Well, yeah! They always want you to look! It makes them feel sexy, Harry. Are you dense?" Ron asked angrily. Harry shrugged and slumped away to the guest room.
"I need some time to revel in my fucked-upness, Ron. Just leave me alone for a bit."
He trudged down the hallway and flopped onto his old bed. He and Ron had named it the 'Harry's Been Kicked Out Bed' because he always stayed there when Hermione kicked him out. And here he was. On the HBKO Bed. Fuck.
OoOoO
It had been several months since Hermione kicked Harry out. If you could call it kicking. They had kind of mutually agreed to go their separate ways. And both of them were dieing slowly.
They hadn't spoke since and hadn't seen each other. Ron had visited Hermione once and had come back a few days afterwards, white-faced and completely distraught. He wouldn't breathe a word to Harry, most likely under sworn oath from Hermione, and hadn't spoken to him for several days afterwards. Harry had heard him crying himself to sleep that night.
Ron never cried. It didn't happen. Whatever was wrong with Hermione was terrible. Unfortunately, Harry had been banned from her house and she wouldn't let him come within a hundred feet of her.
Hermione was sick. That had to be the answer. She had looked so queasy the last time he saw her. Was it from radiation therapy or something? Harry liked answers. He hated questions without them. He hated not knowing why the love of his life was keeping such a distance from him.
He would find out sooner than he really wanted to, though.
AN: So, that's chapter seven. I think it was mostly filler to get to the next chapter. Nothing monumental happened. Well, Harry got kicked out, but that was bound to happen. Trust me, though, I might like tragic stories, but I also like happy endings.
Should be about 2 or 3 chapters left. Keep waiting!
Bridgette
Blue Dazzles
