Enter for the Quidditch League Competition - Round 10 - Puddlemere United - Chaser 2

Prompt: One half of your OTP doesn't support their partner's dreams and goals

Optional prompts used: 6. (object) lipstick; 8. (dialogue) "It's for the best."/"Yeah? Best for who?"; 11. (action) brewing a potion

Word count: 1,474

Drifting apart

Hermione was at her wit's end. She didn't know what she was going to do with her life, but she knew that she couldn't continue like this. She was following her dreams, a task she had been taught to prioritise, but it seemed like Ron couldn't understand what this meant.

"What do you mean you can't come to the Leaky because you have a shift? Are you actually being serious?" Ron was looking at her, irritation clouding his face, while she was trying to brew a potion that her boss asked her to help with. "Why are you brewing a potion at this hour when we need to leave in twenty minutes?"

"I already told you that I can't go out with you and everyone today because I have a shift in two hours and my boss wants me to brew much needed fertility potions, since I'm working at the maternity ward." Hermione tried not to let her irritation with his accusations leak into her voice, but it was a stretch. "I'll need to go to Mungos as soon as I finish this."

"Why couldn't you ask for someone to do it for you? You told me that you're working with someone from Hogwarts. I thought they'd be able to help you and you'll be free to go out with us." Ron was practically whining now, and Hermione was having to work at keeping her attention on the potion that she was brewing.

"I am working with someone from Hogwarts, but we both just started working. He got assigned to brew a potion by himself too," Hermione answered, stirring the potion clockwise three times. "This is my job, the job of my dreams. I'd never ask for someone to do it for me, and I won't leave it to go out with our friends. They'll understand."

"What about me? Would it be such a terrible thing to think about what I would want?" Ron asked, seeing how Hermione wasn't looking up from the potion. "I wanted to go out with my girlfriend and my friends."

"Sorry, Ron, but tonight, that's not going to be possible," she said, while putting the potion under a stasis charm. "Tell everyone that I miss them, but I'll need to reschedule."

Hermione walked towards her room, ready to put on her healer's robes, not bothering to see Ron out. She couldn't understand why he couldn't support her dream career, just like she supported his dreams of becoming an Auror.

They had been dating since she had finished school, having accepted McGonagall's offer to redo her seventh year. Ron and Harry had refused the offer, andRon had never understood why she wanted to return to school but seemed to support it… until he couldn't anymore.

Hermione never knew exactly what had changed between them, but Ron wasn't so happy with her working at St. Mungo's or her desire of being a healer. After the war, Hermione had gone to St. Mungo's a few times to see a healer and she discovered that healing was what she wanted to do with her future: she wanted to help people.

Ron never understood why she didn't want to join the Aurors if she was so intent on helping people; Hermione couldn't see why he still wanted to fight after all of the horrors of the war, but she supported him anyway, no matter what he had to say against her dreams.

Neither one of them realised that they had slowly started to drift apart, nornoticing that they weren't the couple that they once were.

At first, it was little things that grated on Hermione's nerves. The little comments at first: how Hermione wasn't going to be Head Healer so soon, that she probably should give up, or how with her hours at Mungo's meant they would never be able to see each other. Hermione tried to let all of Ron's comments let go and not take at her heart, but she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Sometimes, I feel like he doesn't comprehend any of my dreams, you know?" Hermione said to her colleague, Theodore Nott, who was becoming a friend of some sort. "I never once told him what to do or act like."

"Maybe, you need to talk to each other?" Theo replied, gathering supplies for a potion. "You should be able to follow your dreams, no matter what they are."

Hermione smiled softly at Theo, glad to have someone who understood her. "It's nice of you to say that, and maybe I should tell Ron this."

"If you need to talk about it, know that I'm an awesome listener," Theo replied, starting to brew a potion and losing himself on it.

Hermione thought about what Theo had said over and over; she tried to think of whether Ron was going to change the way that he was acting, but after one more comment about how she wasn't cut out to be a healer, she lost it.

"I don't think we should continue this relationship anymore," Hermione said, and his eyes showed that he didn't agree with her. "We've been fighting for too long. It's not worth it."

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying I'm unworthy of you? How the hell does that make sense?" Ron nearly yelled at her, but he held his anger. She knew he didn't want to make a scene.

"Ron, can't you see? We've been fighting ever since I started working at St. Mungo's because you say and think that I shouldn't be a healer. You never ask how my job is going, you just say that I should work with you and Harry at the Aurors departament, but you don't understand that it was never my dream!" Hermione couldn't hold back; she needed to make him understand. "Every time I try to talk with you about what I'm doing, my dreams, you shove me aside and can't understand why."

Hermione was breathing hard, and she could see that Ron wanted to argue with her still. He wanted to try to change her mind somehow, but she had made her decision and she wasn't going to budge.

"It's for the best," Hermione whispered, not wanting to drag this anymore.

"Yeah? Best for who?" Ron gritted through his teeth, and it took everything in Hermione to not respond to his challenge.

"Best for both of us, you're going to thank me someday, Ron, you'll see." Hermione kissed his cheek and walked out of his flat, knowing that this was probably the last time that she was going to be there.

Hermione looked at the lipstick in her hand, and slowly but with a certain hand, she started to put it on. This was the first time that she was going on a date after she and Ron had ended things — or rather, she had ended things between them. She didn't regret it, but she sometimes missed the parts of Ron that made him her best friend.

Hermione put the lipstick in her purse, and, with one last look at the mirror in her bedroom, she left her flat. She had known her date ever since they were at Hogwarts and started to work together, but she was still nervous about going out.

"You have nothing to be worried about. It's just dinner. You don't even know if you two are going to be more than friends after this," she murmured to herself, trying to control her errant thoughts.

Hermione Apparated to Diagon Alley, walking straight towards a new restaurant that opened soon after the war. She was distracted while walking and didn't look where she was going until she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't look where I was going," Hermione said, crouching down to grab her purse and the contents that had been dropped, grabbing her lipstick, until a voice interrupted her actions.

"'Mione?" Ron asked, making Hermione look at him. It was the first time they had seen each other after the break up.

"Hey, Ron, how are you?" Hermione was looking anywhere but at him; she hadn't expected to run into him.

"I'm doing okay, how about you? Going somewhere?" Ron asked, hardening his voice, making Hermione look at him. "Hot date?"

"We broke up, Ron. I don't think I have to give you any explanation," Hermione said, finally grabbing her things and walking away from him. "Have a good night."

Hermione walked towards the 'Witch's Brew' and saw Theo looking at her, smiling a little and holding a little bouquet of lilies — her favourites. She had a good feeling about this date. She wasn't going to let running into Ron ruin her night — he had already tried to stop her from pursuing her dreams once; she wasn't going to let him ruin anything more.