Hermione walked through the dark hallway away from her office, the click of her heels on the marble floor echoing around her. The gentle glow of candlelight filtering through the slight gap under a doorway the only sign that anyone else was still left working at this hour.

Exiting the building she spared half a glance at the alley that would take her back into muggle London before finding the closest apparition point. She missed spending time outside of the wizarding world and enjoyed the small pleasure of people-watching in the evenings and would occasionally opt to take the bus home. The vibrancy of the luminous billboards and traffic were jarring when stepping out of Diagon Alley but somehow evoked a sense of nostalgia for the muggle born witch.

With a faint crack, she disapparated and reappeared just hidden from view in the front porch of a terraced house looking out onto Wimbledon Common. Opening the door and walking into the hallway, she kicked off her shoes and hung up her coat as a tabby cat wound its way around her calves.

'Hey Mittens," she said reaching down to scratch the cat gently behind the ears. "Let's get you some food."

The house was quiet as Hermione padded quietly into the large, open kitchen and muttered a quick lumos to illuminate the room. She went across to the fridge and pulled out a small container of leftover chicken which she set down for Mittens in the corner before searching for the bowl of risotto from the night before.

The clock on the wall read 21:54 as she poured herself a small glass of chilled riesling, picked up the book sat on the kitchen island and opened the wide patio doors. Hermione sat out in the warm air of the late summer evening, breathing in the scent of the honeysuckles and sweet peas that filled the small walled garden.

It had been three months since Ron had moved out and she was still getting accustomed to the quiet that permeated her time at home. After the war, their relationship had progressed more quickly than she thought either of them had been ready for and with a misplaced sense of inevitability. When Ron had proposed at Christmas, it hadn't crossed her mind to say no. The wedding followed a few months later and she thought back fondly of the smiling faces and the happiness of the day. The next year had been full of excitement and new experiences.

…

Over time, Hermione began to feel that something was missing between them. After three years, what had once been a marriage filled with gentle warmth and affectionate touches somehow felt colder, more indifferent and detached. While around them, friends were talking about starting families, Hermione and Ron steadfastly ignored the topic and brushed off the overt questions from Molly and the sly glances from Ginny. They found less and less time to spend together, either working late or spending their weekends at the Weasley home where Ron would spend time with his brothers playing quidditch and Hermione would help Molly in the kitchen. It was simple for them to play the part of an easy relationship with their friends and family – no one was expecting them to be sneaking off like teenagers and they had no reason to think that things at home were anything other than content.

For a while, Hermione said nothing, but tried to put in a little more effort and make time to spend together as a couple. When that failed to change things, she sat down with Ron and told him how she was feeling. To her surprise, Ron had exhaled shakily and explained that he hadn't been happy for some time but hadn't known how to fix it or felt able to tell her. They'd cried together that night and agreed that they should give each other some space to figure out whether their marriage was worth saving.

…

Surprisingly to Hermione, Harry had been one of their few friends that had been quick to accept the new state of their relationship. She supposed that Ron have spoken to him about some of their issues when they would meet after work for a drink. Hermione was usually too busy to join them. The only person that Hermione had expressed her doubts to had been Luna Lovegood, of all people. While they hadn't been particularly close, on one of the rare occasions that they had met for lunch soon after finishing their final year at Hogwarts, Luna had been quick to see that there was more to the fairytale ending that the couple portrayed. They'd become much closer in the last year and Hermione had been glad to find a friend that didn't share her husband's surname or wasn't likely to gossip. The Weasleys had been surprised and tried to be understanding but it was clear that Molly expected their situation to be temporary, repeatedly assuring Hermione that no marriage is perfect.

She'd kept her distance from Ron's family when, six weeks later, she and Ron had agreed that they should make the break permanent.

Hermione had told her parents of the separation but her relationship with her parents had been strained since the end of the war as they struggled with her decision to erase their memories. It had been an arduous task to restore them but Hermione had worked night and day with the best healers she could find. Having sold their dental practice before leaving for Australia, her parents had decided to stay in Australia. Hermione saw them every couple of months and it was clear that while her parents would always love her, they were also very angry at not being given a choice.

Having few people she could speak openly to about the breakdown of her relationship had been difficult. Perhaps she should have spoken to Harry sooner, but she hadn't wanted to put him in the middle of their troubles and risk his relationship with his best friend.

Which all left her sat eating leftover risotto on a muggy July evening with only Mittens for company.