Chapter 2-

The room was cluttered and there was really nowhere to sit but her bed. Ron watched her curiously as she cleared away old newspapers and a scrapbook from her bed.

"What's all that for?" Ron asked her.

"Oh…erm, just some papers that I was going through," she answered almost unwillingly.

The bed cleared off, the girl lay down seductively across it and beckoned him forward with the crook of her finger and the longing gaze in her eyes. He sat down next to her, leaning into the curve where she bent at the waist. The soft skin of her stomach pressed against the small of Ron's back, and he could feel the heat that blazed there.

"So…are you going to get what you paid for?" she asked him suddenly, and her arms were encircling his shoulders. She had sat up, wrapping her legs around his waist and her hot breath was on his neck.

"I…um…oh bloody hell." Ron muttered, and then turned around to capture the girl's rosebud lips.

She tasted sweet, and faintly salty, like she had let her tears spill over into her mouth. He let his hands roam over her soft face and fist in her hair, pulling her mouth all the closer, all the deeper. He opened his eyes slightly, and was faced with a face whose dreamy expression cut him to the core. She looked like…but it wasn't…couldn't be.

"Hermione…" he moaned, knowing it wasn't her, but dreaming that it was…oh Merlin, if only…but then suddenly,

"Mmm…Ron…" she murmured sweetly under her breath.

Ron pulled away at that, and cradled her face in his hands.

"Please tell me you said…oh Gods, Hermione? Can it be…?" he whispered. "What happened to you?"

Hermione's eyes filled with tears as she gazed into the face of the man she had wished for, for so long.

"Gods, please don't play tricks on me…who are you? What are you doing to me?" she cried as she wrenched away from him.

Ron caught her wrist and held her close as her body shook with sobs.

"Hermione…it's me, Ron. I swear it…oh I've looked for you everywhere." Ron said softly, trying to keep the emotion from cracking in his voice.

Hermione looked up at him, mascara making black rivers on her cheeks. "I thought you were…"

"Me too."

"Oh Ron," she cried, kissing his palms, "I looked everywhere for you and Harry, but after…" she gulped, "After Voldemort…"

"Don't!"

"Sorry…after…He was gone, I figured you and Harry would come back and find me. I was in hiding…after what the Death Eaters did to me; I didn't want to risk anything. But three years passed with no word, no sign…no one ever came. And it was hard trying to rebuild a life where everywhere you go, there is just leftover destruction from war. So I came back to Diagon Alley looking for somewhere to stay…and found all this. The only place with life was Knockturn Alley, and…well…I had to find some way to survive? That's all it's about, isn't it?"

Hermione turned her head away and wiped her eyes with the base of her hand.

"I missed you, Ron…I did."

"Oh Gods, I missed you too…more than you'll ever know."

Suddenly angry, she turned to him, eyes glaring. "Then why did you come here?" she demanded. "Why here? Why a whorehouse? If you missed me so much, cared for me so much…"

Ron took no notice of her no-nonsense look and swept her back into her arms, crushing her against his chest. He forced her chin upward, causing her to assume a defiant glare.

"Because I love you, dammit. Yes, that's right- and maybe you never knew it, and maybe you don't care…but the thought that I'd lost you after the war damn near killed me. I know we never had the chance to let things work between us, and I know I never really knew how you felt about me. I didn't want to come here…but I thought I'd die with needing you, with needing something- ANYTHING- to ease this pain. I…" Ron trailed off, never finishing as he pressed his lips to her in a loving assault that left Hermione breathless.

His mouth was everywhere, leaving trails of fire everywhere he went. Up her neck to brush against the soft, pale skin…his hands like wildfire on her body. Almost instinctively, Hermione lifted her arms over her head so he pull off her top.

"Hermione…this thing…it ties…how does it come off?" Ron muttered after a minute of trying to loosen the back so it could come off.

"Ron, it's not hard…"

"Well then you do it…"

The shirt went flying in the other direction.

"Oh…" he said, "Good work, there."

She was braless, and he cupped the round globes in his hands carefully.

"Oh… Ron…" she said breathlessly, trying to get his shirt off at the same time.

He took it off for her, before slowly bending down and suckling at the two perfect mounds. She gasped in pleasure, before arching her body toward his for more.

"Ron, I…"

"Shhh…" he said, and continued to lave his tongue over her nipples.

Hermione opened her eyes slowly, as if in a haze, and looked him dead on. Ron felt his knees buckle at the look of pure pleasure written on her face. Her hands pushed him away from her chest, and she went almost shyly to his jeans. With agonizing slowness, she undid them and helped him shimmy them off until he stood there in all his brazen glory; his manhood pushing through the thin cloth of his boxers in salute. Hermione, a mischievous grin on her face, crawled toward him, and slowly took him out of his boxers. Ron shivered with the anticipation as well as the sheer desire pulsing through him. Slowly, tantalizingly, Hermione ran her tongue along the tip before plunging it the rest of the way into her mouth. Ron felt the warm, wet, cavity eclipse itself around him, and he let out a moan that sent chills and shock waves through Hermione. He let her run her tongue up and down his length before he shoved her backward onto the bed and spread her legs apart. Ron didn't notice how she flinched and how her hands went instinctively to cover her body. Caught up in the passion, he plunged inside of her and gasped as he felt her warm tightness close into him. Hermione tried to fight back the tears in her eyes that came forward, in spite of the thrill that went through her when Ron came into her.

"Oh Gods…Hermione…" Ron moaned as they rocked back and forth together.

He was close…so close…but he had to…had to hang on. He wouldn't ruin this moment for the life of him.

"You're mine…all mine…" he said softly to the woman clinging onto him.

It was then that Hermione's earth shattered, and the images she had been trying to fight from her mind came to the forefront. Instead of her lover's smiling face, she saw…him…thrusting into her violently, whispering those same words…

"You're mine…all mine…" he had said to her those nights.

"I'll never be yours!" Hermione cried aloud, and shoved Ron away.

Ron tumbled backwards onto the floor, and got up instantly.

"Bloody hell, Hermione, what the…"

But he trailed off as he saw her crying in a curled ball on her bed. It was then he saw the scars on her back.

"Good Lord…what did they do to you?" he asked quietly.