Ron was still on his weekend long mission to make it up to Hermione, so he too her and Rose shopping on Sunday. It was unexpected and actually something that Hermione was hoping to do anyway.
She bought loads of new clothes and things for Rose for the upcoming winter. She bought herself some new scarves and gloves and Ron a new winter beanie.
At lunch time, they made their way from Muggle London to Diagon Alley for some lunch before heading for ice cream.
Hermione was actually having a good day with her little family.
After leaving the ice cream shop, she was caught completely off guard at the sight of Malfoy and Astoria, walking hand in hand, looking completely in love, walking towards them.
Malfoy's face when he saw her was like stone. Hermione looked to their joined hands, which he seemed to attempted to release, but Astoria's grip appeared to tighten.
"Don't look now, here come the Malfoys" Ron mumbled as the group came face to face.
"Hermione, how lovely to see you again" Astoria said in her usual sickeningly sweet voice, giving her a kiss on each cheek.
Hermione smiled sweetly right back, despite feeling nothing but rage.
"Granger, Weasley" Malfoy said with a nod to each of them.
"Malfoy" Ron said back with a nod right back.
"Well, this has been delightful, but we're in a hurry" Hermione said.
"Who dat mummy?" Rose asked.
"Oh, honey, this is someone I work with. His name is Draco" Hermione said, having hoped to have avoided this.
Malfoy bent down to where Rose was in her stroller and put his hand out for her to shake. She reached out and shook his hand with a giggle and quickly pulled it away.
"Well, now that's taken care of, lets be on our way, shall we?" Hermione said.
"Good idea" Ron said, glaring at Malfoy.
As they walked away, Hermione felt herself start to crumble. He said they went together. He couldn't stand her. They didn't spend time together. She was living in a separate wing of the castle.
Yet… Here they were, walking hand in hand, smiling even, wandering down Diagon Alley together.
"I see you haven't warmed to him at all" Ron said.
"Well, he's still Malfoy" she said.
"I wanted to hex him away from Rose" Ron said with a frown.
"Well, she has to come face to face with all aspects of the world soon enough. The good and the evil" Hermione said, feeling both the truth and the lie in that sentence in relation to Malfoy.
"Wow Mione, last time Malfoy was brought up, you two were practically best buddies" Ron said.
"Well, we were friendly while we worked closely together, but now we don't really see that much of each other" she said with a shrug as he insides screamed at her.
They passed a public toilet and she excuised herself, making sure she had her phone with her.
When she was in the ladies, she entered a cubical, put the lid down on the toilet and sat, taking her phone out.
HG – Are they together Theo? Tell me, please, just tell me!
TN – Ok but you're not going to like it. They've been together since she moved back in.
HG – Sleeping in the same room?
TN – yes
HG – How can you be certain?
TN – Because I have been staying there. I hear them fucking almost every night. I thought you and Draco were done.
TN – So he's been lying to you? You need to let him go Granger
HG – Please… don't tell me you're concerned about my feelings.
TN – Granger, you may not believe this, but I've come to enjoy spending time with you, hanging out in Draco's office. You try so hard not to let it show how much you're in love with him, but I can see it plain as day on your face. Its sickening.
HG – What do I do?
TN – You deserve better. Than either of them. Go somewhere, start a new life. Find someone who deserves your love.
HG – Merlin…
She deleted the texts and left the bathroom, having wiped her tears away.
"You were in there a while" Ron said.
"Yeah, I guess lunch didn't agree with the ice cream" she said.
That night at the Burrow, Hermione curled herself up in bed with a good book, telling Ron that she wasn't feeling well. Rose curled up beside her with some toys and fell asleep after having had a long day of shopping.
Malfoy had text her that afternoon revealing the truth in a string of message that made her want to throw her phone and smash it into a million pieces.
DM – I'm sorry you had to find out that way. Astoria and I have been together since she moved back. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd be upset. I don't love her, its just easier this way.
HG – You're not sorry, you're sorry I found out. Did you even meet up with another woman the other night? Or was that a lie too?
DM – That was a lie
HG – I waited for you at breakfast for an hour
DM – I'm sorry.
HG – I'm done with this Malfoy. I can't keep letting you break me every time I start planning a life with you.
DM – Please, can we just meet? One last time, just meet me. One last embrace. If it feels wrong, then its over.
HG – fine.
The page she was reading was swimming before her eyes as her brain struggled to take in a word on it. As hard as she tried, her mind was reeling. She was waiting for the right moment to sneak out, to go to him and see if she could bear to touch him or have him touch her.
When Ron came to bed and hastily fell asleep, she crept downstairs and floo'd to the cottage, via her parents house.
When she arrived, he was there. Her stomach lurched at the feeling of heartbreak which was coursing through her again.
It wasn't that he had cheated on her with his wife, that was silly. It was the fact that he told her he was done. He told her they weren't together. She had been planning to leave Ron, planning a life with Malfoy, but he was at home in their castle, playing house with his wife.
She walked towards him and put her arms around him, not sure what it is she was hoping for. She desperately didn't want to feel broken, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to still love him the same way either.
When he put his arms around her, she felt nothing. THe spark was gone. It had burnt out. He had extinguished it with his lies and the pain he had caused her. She was numb now. No thoughts of love, no ideas of a happy life with him, no passion. No desire. She was dead inside.
She pulled back from him with tears in her eyes at the idea that what they had was over. She knew he could see it in her eyes, as she shook her head and stepped away from him.
She took one last look at him, at the place where they had shared so many intimate memories and disapparated away. Back to her life, back to Ron, back to the pain, the hurt and the suffering. Back to empty nothingness.
The Burrow had always been her safe place, her source of comfort. It had been so good throughout all the bad of the past, but as she walked up the path towards where the light that shone dimly through the windows, she felt as though she were walking towards her doom.
The devastation of the loss of what hse had with Malfoy was weighing more upon her chest than it had previously, although now she had no one to blame but herself. She allowed herself to get pulled back in. To feel things for him again. To allow him to hurt her in this way.
She lost everything. More than just a lover, Malfoy was her confidant, her friend, the one who understood things that she dare not have spoken to anyone else. He was her best friend and the loss of that was more painful now than anything else. The sex, really, was just an incredible bonus.
She made her way back inside, unseen by any Weasley for the last time and checked on Rose before she went to bed.
She lay beside Ron, thinking about all the lies, cheating and manipulating she had partaken in to get her to this point. Ron had grown steadily worse in his attitude towards her, but she couldn't help but correlate it to her affair with Malfoy.
Had she withdrawn from Ron because she had grown close to someone else? Had she not tried hard enough to have a great sex life with Ron? Had she pulled away from him as he was desperately trying to pull her back to him?
This predicament she had found herself in was all her fault. There was no one to blame for her feelings but herself.
Malfoy was married. He was legally bound to another person. Perhaps magically so as well, she had no idea what the terms of their marriage were. Maybe that was why Hermione was destined to be miserable? Maybe, cheating on Ron and being the one to come between a man and his wife was just something so terribly wrong that it was causing this result every time.
As tears flowed freely down her face, she turned and looked to Ron who was sleeping soundly beside her. She brushed the hair out of his face and somehow, behind all the hurt and pain, behind the broken man who grew from a boy ravaged by war, behind the wall that he had imposed between himself and every other person he came into contact with, somehow, there was Ron. There was her Ron. He was in there. And she so desperately wanted to bring him back out.
AN - Collective sigh... Not again. Hermione is being so aggravating right now, you just want to grab her and shake her. Why be jealous? Why? She actually isn't. There is no jealousy here. Seeing him back with his wife means that its just another step back in her pans to leave Ron. Everything she thought might be possible has just been smashed to pieces on the ground in front of her. She feels like she can't do this alone. It will take so much strength to leave, not only Ron, but all of the Weasleys. The idea that maybe he would be there to help her, to guide her was the driving force behind it. The idea that she wouldn't have to sleep alone was the key here. Now it was all over. I hope you all can understand what this is really all about.