Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Harry Potter universe and am not making any money off this fic.
The few weeks leading up to Ron's inauguration were very trying for Hermione. She had written him multiple times informing him that she was going to come out in public against him but was willing to talk to him in person to hash things out. She wasn't sure if he was getting them until she received a response back filled with bubotuber pus warning her to stay out of things, signed by both Ron and Meredith. Thankfully, Hermione had a well-established routine of checking all mail before touching it or she would've been in quite a lot of pain. Well, at least she saved herself the physical pain, but Ron's magic was included in the letter so she knew he was part of the warning message and it was a rather nasty shock coming from her ex-best friend.
Unhindered by the nastygram, Hermione arranged for an interview with both Harry and herself. The goal was not character assassination if they could help it, but rather getting the public's sympathy for how the proposed law was affecting war heroes. A few other school friends joined in to participate or support them, including Minerva McGonagall, Cho Chang, Dennis Creevey, and Draco Malfoy. Neville Longbottom was perhaps the most surprising addition to the group since he had been happily married to a Hufflepuff who had been a year behind them for the last year and a half. However, it was his support that confirmed to Harry and Hermione that they were doing the right thing. He had taken them out to dinner and reminded them of their first year when he was awarded the points that won the house cup because, in the words of Headmaster Dumbledore (no doubt long since memorized by Neville), it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
Fleur also took part in the interviews, although she had to keep hers rather short and to the point that, because of the law, she was returning to France. Bill still refused to sign the divorce papers, but Fleur had warned him that he couldn't keep her in the country involuntarily, that she wouldn't leave the country with this issue unsettled, and that she was participating in the interview stating she was leaving the country. The news of their divorce breaking was inevitable and she thought he would want to talk to his family first and get the divorce finalized before the interview came out, but he hadn't signed the papers or talked to his family (as far as she knew). Bill had still been her friend and she was never going to out the real reasons for their marriage, but she felt bad that this was how Ron and his family were going to find out about the dissolution of their marriage and that some of it seemingly came as a result of Ron's platform.
The interview was received with mixed reactions. Some truly felt bad for the heroes and that their trauma was being furthered by forcing them into unsuitable arrangements. However, even those with true sympathy also felt that everyone should be doing their part to avoid the population crisis, and that perhaps the heroes were exactly the right people to continue making that sacrifice as they have always done. It was depressing for everyone involved, but most of all for Hermione. She continued writing in to the Daily Prophet with talking points about other ways the population crisis could be averted, or ways the tax law could be changed to be less oppressive. However, the more she wrote and organized and spoke in public, the more she became targeted. Awful articles were written about her school days and the war, bringing up her personal failings and weaknesses in the worst light possible. The hex used on Marietta in the DA was twisted into a malicious attempt at manipulating and intimidating students. The worst article that had Hermione lock herself in her apartment for three days was the one about her parents. The heart-wrenching and deeply painful, personal decision to protect her parents and remove their memories was contorted into a sick version of her using dark magic against her helpless, unprotected muggle parents who were then never seen again. Although there was a much happier ending in real life, the risk of never seeing her parents again had been high and she could still feel the phantom tendrils of harrowing anxiety wrapped around her heart when she thought back on that very low point in her life.
The breaking point for her was the immediate follow-up from that article with calls for her magic to be bound and wand snapped, expelled from the magical world. That she was now fighting against the magical community in revenge for the last war and the treatment of muggleborns. That she had turned into a dark witch and was plotting the eradication of magic in all forms. There was a quote in the article from Ron – vague but not contradictory – that stated that Hermione was working against the welfare of the magical world and that he didn't know who she was anymore.
Hermione wrote one last article. In it, she detailed every time Ron picked on her, put her down, bullied her or other students, had a strong bias against and loathing for Slytherins (of which there are not a few in his constituency), allowed his laziness or incompetence affect lives of both magical people and beings. She wrote the real history of their friendship, how little he had contributed to their misadventures, how he abandoned them in fits of jealousy and rage. She wrote that perhaps he should be granted some grace for his earlier years, but his behavior is still largely the same – the jealousy, petty revenge, copying her work and presenting it as his own, abandoning situations when they became too difficult. She left nothing negative out as he had left nothing out. She brought up none of the good times or redeeming qualities that had maintained their friendship. She sent the letter off to the Daily Prophet before she had time to reconsider or edit it, but in the words of one of her favorite muggle authors, "angry people are not always wise."
~*FD/HG*~*FD/HG*~*FD/HG*~
"Hermione, please let me in!" Fleur stood outside Hermione's flat trying to find a way inside to help her distraught friend. Harry hadn't had any luck either, and Fleur was starting to get desperate. Just as she was about to start using her curse breaking skills to get through the wards, she heard a soft voice about halfway down the door. "Fleur, how can you even want to talk to me? I went so far beyond what I meant to. I was so awful and now I can't take it back. Maybe what they said about me is true."
Fleur thought she might find Hermione so despondent, so she sat down with her back to the door, relieved that she had made contact with her dear friend. "Hermione, of course I want to talk to you! You are the dearest person to me. Of course you feel the way you do because you can't stand to be the cause of pain to anyone else. But everyone has their limit and all of these attacks on you have been targeted to cause the most pain. How anyone who knows you can even believe that garbage is a mystery to me. Listen to me, Hermione. You are a good person and you have a good heart. You have made so many sacrifices that nobody else was willing or able to make and I don't believe for one minute that you're turning into a dark witch set on getting revenge, okay? And anyway, that's my best friend you're talking about, and I don't much appreciate you talking about her that way!" She had heard Hermione crying and hiccupping on the other side of the door and knew she needed to be inside to console and listen to her. "Chéri, will you please open the door? I'm here to listen okay? I didn't come to judge you. I just want to be here for you."
Finally the door was opened, and Hermione stood there wiping and half-covering her face with the wide sleeve of a too-big sweater. Fleur immediately swept Hermione into a hug and closed the door behind her. The brunette immediately sagged in relief at being held and let out a choked sob. Fleur just held her tighter until the sobbing subsided, and then led the brunette over to the couch, still holding her closely. Hermione had tried to start talking a few times, but ended up devolving into tears each time so Fleur just held her, stroking her hair and back and making soft reassurances. After a long while, Hermione finally seemed to calm down and started talking. She talked about how much truth there was to those articles, and how she wondered at the choices she had and could make without compunction. Fleur gently reminded her that she didn't make those decisions lightly and did try to work out the best solution and wasn't an evil dark witch with no conscience. Hermione continued on, talking about the time when she sent her parents off, which they hadn't really talked about before because it was such a sensitive subject for Hermione that she shuddered to think about. She talked about how she had, in fact, considered getting revenge on behalf of muggleborns, but that her revenge would take the form of new legislation and actually fair policies, not destroying the magical world. She talked and talked, and Fleur listened intently, gently correcting Hermione's self-deprecation and offering an endless supply of soft handkerchiefs. After Hermione was all talked out, they sat silently holding each other closely and taking in the comfort of the other's warmth. When she felt the brunette's breathing even out, Fleur carefully laid her down on the couch and got up to order some take-out. She was positive Hermione had not been eating or sleeping much the last few days and she would try her hardest to help correct that now.
Awhile after the food had been ordered, there was a knock on the door and Fleur opened it, expecting it to be dinner. What she got instead was a spell quickly hurtling toward her and thankfully absorbed by the wards around Hermione's home. Fleur's defensive instincts jumped in and she kicked herself for not being more careful about opening the door. She identified the intruder as none other than Ron Weasley and quickly cast a silencing and binding spell his way. Fleur was seething that this immature boy came and attempted to attack Hermione after all of the emotional attacks she had fielded lately. She closed the door behind her so Hermione wouldn't wake up. "Well, I have to give it to you – you are bold. Most people in positions of power have other people do their dirty work. But you have some gall showing up here after all you have done."
Once Ron had realized who had bound and silenced him, he turned red in anger at seeing the woman who had spurned his brother and caused such an embarrassment at this critical junction in his career. He started struggling against his restraints, which ended up being a bad idea since Fleur had used a devil's snare rope spell so the ropes tightened up the more the captive struggled. Before Fleur was able to speak further, the door opened and Hermione poked her head out and immediately deduced what must've happened. Sighing deeply but grateful that she was more put together, she opened the door more fully and asked Fleur to bring Ron inside to avoid any extra drama. After Fleur brought him in, she noticed the actual deliveryman was coming so she went and got the food and then came back inside, shutting the door and locking it behind her.
In perhaps the worst revenge she could get at the moment, Fleur left Ron on the living room floor and handed a box of food and fork to Hermione and they both went and sat down to eat on the couch in front of the incensed redhead. Once they finished, Hermione cancelled the silencing spell and asked Ron what he thought he was doing by coming to her home. He immediately went off on a rant about the nasty witch she is, writing so many awful lies and making people lose confidence in him right before his inauguration.
Hermione finally had enough of his diatribe and put the silencing charm back on him. "Are you the pot or the kettle here?" Upon seeing the confusion on the faces of both Ron and Fleur, she realized that might just be a muggle saying. "Nevermind that. What I mean is that I tried to keep you personally out of it and just work on a better solution for the tax law. In return, I was viciously attacked by the media. And you! You're the one who didn't deny that I'm some dark witch trying to bring down the whole of society! Like everything I've ever tried to do has been a detriment instead of the salvation of the wizarding world. All you had to say after everything we went through is "gee I just don't know her anymore". You are selfish, bigoted, immature little slug vomit and we are through Ronald. But soon you won't have to worry about me. I'll take my dark magic and leave you alone, just like you want."
Since Ron was looking a little calmer, she took the silencing spell off him again. Ron spoke up then and told her she couldn't imagine the stress he was under trying to appease as many people as possible and she was making it so much harder fighting him at every turn and going against his plan that she was the who told him about. While she could sympathize with him (a very little), she was very done with this conversation and just wanted him to leave. She got up and went back to her room and came back with a smallish book-sized wrapped package. "Since I don't intend to see you again, here is my inauguration gift. Now please, kindly, leave my home and never come back." Fleur removed the ropes binding Ron, Hermione handed him the package and he promptly disappeared from the room.
As soon as he was gone, Fleur's curiosity got the best of her. "What exactly was in that package you gave him? Is that something you're going to get arrested for?"
Hermione burst out laughing for the first time that day. "No, nothing so sinister. Although I am rather pleased I had the chance to give it to him. In fifth year, I gave him and Harry a planner for studying for our OWL exams. When you open it, it's absolutely insufferable – it has little reminders like "do it today or later you'll pay". I have no doubt he promptly threw it in the rubbish bin back then but I was TRYING to help him prepare better instead of relying on me so much. But anyways, I got him another one so I can get in one more nag about doing his own work."
Fleur and Hermione started giggling and then outright laughing at Hermione's awful gift choice. Although it will probably meet the same fate as the first, hopefully it sent the right message: this is all the help you can expect from me, now leave me the hell alone.