Chapter 8: Falling Apart

The divorce papers were signed. The last of the asset splitting hashed out, though there had been some argumentative shouting and tears involved. The finality of the whole thing – the entire dissolution of a marriage, one that had produced children – hadn't quite sunk in for Hermione, even as she was leaving the attorney's office. She was finding it hard to look at her husband…. her ex-husband, walking next to her. For the first time in over twenty years, she was no longer Mrs. Hermione Weasley. She was Hermione Granger once again, though now that she considered it, she decided she probably wouldn't formally drop the Weasley from her name. To do that to Ron…. Well, it seemed particularly cruel. Though her love for him was no longer in a romantic way, she still loved him. He was her best friend, and he always would be. They had been childhood mates since she was a little girl.

Pausing at the elevator, Ron and Hermione were finally able to look each other in the face. She bit her lip. "Um…. where are you off to?"

"Probably the pub – I really need a drink." The sigh in Ron's voice made him sound so melodramatic – a more heartless woman might have even called him out on it. Instead, Hermione just bit down on her lip tighter, in danger of drawing blood.

"You'll call later so we can hash out visitation schedules?" The stipulation was more for Hugo than anyone else, who still was technically underage. As for Rose, Hermione figured that their daughter would maintain a relationship with her father as she saw fit…. She seemed busy rekindling her romance with Scorpius anyway, to Hermione's abject relief.

"I promise," Ron nodded, his voice soft, and sincere. Hermione sighed. In laying out what had gone wrong between them, not every facet had been touched upon, but Ron probably suspected that a sporadic reliability in keeping his promises was one of them. That was not by all means the only factor, but to recognize that it was one of the grievances was truly big on Ron's part. Introspection was never easy, even for people who felt secure in themselves.

Acid churning in her gut, Hermione turned and pressed the elevator button, impatiently tapping her foot while waiting for it to arrive on their floor. In the truly awkward silence, Ron finally broke it:

"I heard you left the Ministry charity function with Krum. Did you shag him?"

Hermione hoped with all her heart that color in her cheeks wouldn't give her away. "That's none of your business, Ronald," she huffed.

A pause, and then: "No. It's not." Another beat, and Hermione turned to look at him just in time for him to ask.

"Are you going to marry him?"

Still miffed, Hermione couldn't resist letting out a scoff. "Would you blame me?" Viktor was still gorgeous, stacked, and truly cared about her. When it came down to it, the ex-Quidditch star was sweet, almost adorably so. And even after all these years, he still seemed to want her…. It was nice to feel wanted. Though she and Viktor hadn't spoken since the night they had sex, Hermione half-hoped he would write or Floo her again. She hadn't seen him around the Ministry – yet – his ambassadorship was surely keeping him busy.

Ron was frowning hard, though there was a sting of hurt in his eyes that caused Hermione to soften. If she ever did decide to date Viktor – and, all wonderful fucking aside, that wasn't entirely clear – she wouldn't agree to leap back into a romantic relationship so soon. For Ron's sake, actually. The perceptions of her leaping into bed with another man immediately after her divorce would be catastrophic, and Hermione had enough to worry about.

"Can you at least tell me that he isn't the reason we failed?" Ron asked bitterly. "You weren't Apparating off to Bulgaria to fuck him behind my back, were you?"

Her jaw dropped. "How could you think that of me….?" she gasped, spluttering, truly affronted. In the back of her mind, the ghost of Scorpius Malfoy reared up, and she wrestled it down. She had been drunk that night, and emotionally low over Teddy. She didn't dwell on how the excuse was weak; hopefully, that shag would be a secret she took to her own grave.

"No. Viktor isn't responsible for the breaking up of our marriage," she managed to state clearly, once she had gotten a hold of her anger. "I hadn't even seen him since our wedding when he showed up at the Ministry."

Ron looked askance, ashamed. "I believe you," he murmured.

Hermione felt all the anger and hard feelings whoosh out of her. Cupping his cheek tenderly, she forced Ron to look at her. "You know I'll always love you, Ron, just… in a different way. But I would never betray you, in any context, for any reason." Overcome, she suddenly surged forward and kissed his lips softly, one last time. The strong, independent woman in her scolded her, but she was too drained to care. This last kiss was just for her, to carry it with her and remember what it felt like… before it all went wrong.

She felt Ron return the kiss, and when they broke apart, both Ron and Hermione burst into tears. Hugging, they clung to each other and sobbed until the elevator finally arrived. Descending down to the ground floor, the annulled couple went their separate ways out on the street, giving each other one last hand-squeeze goodbye. Hermione hurried up the street, wiping tears from her eyes.

The tears still hadn't abated by the time Hermione got back to her office that she shared with Teddy. Her head was buried in her palms as she blubbered like an idiot, Teddy dutifully passing tissues to her at regular intervals. Through her damp lashes, she could see she had already burned through a whole box.

"I'm a failure!" Hermione wailed. "I let my marriage fail!"

"No one let anything fail, Hermione," Teddy told her firmly. "Some things just can't be saved." Glancing up and sniffling, Hermione watched Teddy turn his face away sadly, his expression dark, and her heart clenched.

"You still can be," Hermione spoke up, after taking a deep breath, remembering what Harry had instructed of her. About taking every opportunity to remind Teddy that he was loved. That he mattered.

Teddy's head whipped back around, blinking in surprise. His warm, blue eyes softened, and he seemed truly touched. Though, Hermione noted, his smile was weak and still so hopelessly sad.

"Thank you, Hermione," he murmured quietly. "You know… you're one of the few things that makes…. all of this…. all worth it."

Hermione's eyes pricked with tears as she sucked in a breath. Maybe she was the one who needed to be told that she mattered, just as much as Teddy needed to hear it.

Glancing up through her lashes, Hermione's heart began to race when she saw Teddy leaning forward, closer. Goosebumps alighted her flesh as she felt his hands touch her arms and she felt herself swaying in, terrified and unsure over what was about to happen. But before anything could happen…

The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching her office door in a hurry, and Hermione and Teddy pulled away from whatever…. that almost was. Rose burst in, her eyes flashing.

"Mother," she got out tersely. "Can I speak with you? Alone?"

Hermione bristled at her tone, as Teddy stood up. "It's all right, Hermione, I was thinking of knocking off anyway. Thanks for the talk. I needed it." He stooped and kissed her cheek before she could react, the gesture causing Rose's eyes to narrow. Teddy quickly ducked out, and as soon as the door closed behind her, Rose was advancing on her mother's desk. The aggressive motion caused Hermione's own orbs to narrow into slits.

"Rose Ginevra…." She stated warningly.

"How could you?" Rose bemoaned. "How dare you!"

Hermione blinked, perplexed. "How could I what?"

"Is it true – you slept with my boyfriend?!"

Hermione went ghastly white at this. "He told you?"

"He's been acting weird, ever since we got back together. At first, I thought it was over lingering awkwardness over how we ended things. Come to find out, you more than just coerced him into crawling back to me. You manipulated him by…. I don't even want to know how you thought seducing him would work in…"

"I didn't seduce him!" Hermione leapt to her feet, though her insides were currently being lacerated with shame. "He seduced me. Scorpius was confused; we both had too much to drink…."

"That's no excuse!" Rose hissed fiercely. "And now, come to find out, Teddy is kissing your cheek. What's that about?"

"Nothing is going on with Teddy…." Hermione hated how she sounded so weak, even to her own ears.

"So, you're just into younger guys and dabbling in cradle snatching, is that it? I never took you to be a cougar, Mother." Hermione flinched at the pejorative term, half-suspecting that Rose had meant to say something else, and far worse.

"It was a mistake," Hermione stressed, feeling so horrible she didn't know what to do with herself. "The very next morning, I made it clear it would never happen again and I told him to go back to you."

"So I'm the consolation prize, is that it?" Rose sneered. "He'll shag me while wishing it was you underneath him…."

"Rose Ginevra!" Hermione barked. "Scorpius feels just as ashamed over what happened as I do! I don't expect you to forgive either of us right away, but I do expect you to listen to his side of the story. And hopefully, try to work things out."

"That sounds like real solid advice," Rose scoffed sarcastically. Frankly, Hermione couldn't blame her for being so skeptical. What couple could come back from a boy shagging his one-time fiancé's mother? His almost mother-in-law?

Rose softened, looking too exhausted to maintain such a stratospheric level of anger. In the interim, the door suddenly burst open and Harry appeared, looking haggard.

One look at his translucent face and Hermione felt her insides turn into knots. "Harry? What is it?"

"You have to come to St. Mungo's."

"Why? What's happened?" Though Hermione had a sinking feeling she already knew.

"It's Teddy. He's…. he's tried to kill himself."