Chapter five – A 100 Roses

Three days went by really fast and Becky were going to spend the weekend with her grandmother, Molly, in the burrow and Hermione were going to be alone all weekend. Molly came by around 5 pm at Friday afternoon.

"Hermione, are you alright?" Mrs Weasley asked when she waited for Becky to get dressed.

"I've been sick all week so I'm just tired", Hermione lied.

"Oh, ok, I hope this will make you feel better", Molly said and gave Hermione a basket. "I brought you some freshly squeezed pumpkin juice and apple pie", she continued and stroke one of her hands over Hermiones cheek.

"Thank you Molly"

"I'm ready to go now", said Becky who just stepped out in the hall. She was wearing a pink t-shirt with a silver pony on, jeans and hair red was tied back in a ponytail. She looked as pretty as usual. She loved those colours, silver and pink, or as she called them 'the princess colours'.
Hermione smiled at her and lifted her up to give her a big hug.

"I love you baby", she whispered and kissed Becky on the tip of her nose. Becky giggled and hug her mother tightly. "I love you to mum"

The two of them had done a lot of talking during the last three days, about the kids who were teasing Becky. Becky had explained to her mother that when they teased her for her red hair and when they were mean to her she became so angry that her ears turned red, and then they teased her even more. One time when she was so very angry at one boy, Dean Cohen, his teeth suddenly had fallen out from his mouth. No one could explain what had happened… But Hermione knew the reason why, Becky was a witch and her powers were developing inside of her. That's why Hermione made the decision to take Becky to a day-care for wizards and witches instead, the same as James went to. It would be her first day on Monday. Hermione felt really stupid for not taking her to that day-care at once, but she wanted Becky to learn things the muggle way too…Like she once did.

"Hermione, I expect you to stay for dinner when you pick Becky up on Sunday", Molly said and smiled brightly at Hermione. "I would be really happy if you did, and I think Crookshanks will be too"

"Of course I'll stay", Hermione replied and smiled back at Molly.

"Bye mummy", Becky said as she grabbed her grandmothers' hand and they walked out the door.

"Bye honey, tell Crookshanks that I'm coming on Sunday", Hermione said and smiled again when she thought about Crookshanks. When Mrs Weasley lost her husband and two of her sons in the war she was devastated, and when Ginny was the last Weasley child to move out from the burrow Hermione had given Molly Crookshanks. So that she wouldn't be too lonely.

As soon as Hermione knew that Mrs Weasley and Becky had left the building she broke down in tears. It felt like her heart was breaking into a million pieces as she stepped into the kitchen and reached for the phone. She dialled Ginny and Harry's number. She needed to speak with Ginny, she needed to speak with anyone. She could not hold everything inside anymore, three days had been long enough.

"Ginny Weasley", Ginny had finally picked up the phone. It was always Ginny who picked up the phone in Harry and Ginny's place nowadays. Since Hermione and Harry had taught her how to use the phone she used it all the time.

"Hi, Ginny, it's me", Hermione sobbed.

"Mione, honey, are you ok?" Asked Ginny.

"No", Hermione replied and dried a couple of tears.

"Are you crying?"

"Gin, I need to talk"

"Aw honey, what's happened?" Asked Ginny and sounded very worried.

"Not only am I a bad mother, I'm a lousy writer too"

"What are you talking about Mione? None of that is true!" Ginny exclaimed.

"But Emily said I'm a bad parent and then Draco, and he… I'm…" Hermione sobbed hysterically.

"What has Draco done to you?" Ginny asked with a tone of anger in her voice. "Did he tell you that you're a bad mother? I swear Mione, if he did I'm gonna rip his head off!"

"Emily said that"

"Who the heck is Emily?"

"She works at Becky's day-care"

"And she says you are-"

"Ginny, can you please come over? I really, really need to talk!" Hermione interrupted.

"Of course, I just have to tell Harry to… Can you hold a second?"

"HARRY!" Ginny screamed, it took a minute or two before Hermione, through the phone, could hear Harry's answer.

"Why are you screaming?" He asked. "You scared me, I thought something had happened"

"Take James to day-care"

"You're supposed to do that today!" Harry said, and Hermione could hear by the tone of his voice that he was really tired. "You know I worked late yesterday"

"Yes I know, but since you're awake now you might as well take a walk with your son, drop him off at day-care and then go home and sleep the rest of the day!"

"No, it's your turn-"

"Stop!" Ginny interrupted. "Hermione needs to see me now"

"Why can't she wait?"

"Listen carefully Harry, in this case you have no choice, take your son to day-care so that I can go and see my friend who is the need of talking", Ginny yelled. Hermione felt bad for listening to their conversation but they were speaking so loud that she couldn't help hearing every word they said. She also felt bad for being the reason for their quarrel. "Go get dressed now! You can't go out in boxers!" Ginny said, now in a more nice tone.

"Hermione, are you there?" Ginny shouted in the phone.

"Yes, you don't need to scream"

"Oh, sorry", she said. "I'm coming over, just going to make sure that James ate his breakfast"

"Ok"

"See you"

Hermione hung up the phone and sat down at of the chairs in the kitchen, she had stopped crying by now, right now all she felt was just emptiness. She reached for one of the letters that she'd got from Draco the past three days, she had not open a single one of the letters yet… She had absolutely no intensions of returning to the Daily Prophet or forgiving him for what he did with her article! It took 20 minutes before Ginny turned up in the fireplace.

"Hermione, honey!" She exclaimed and gave her best friend a long and warm hug. That's when Hermione burst out in tears again. "What the hell has he done to you?"

"It's not just him Gin", Hermione sobbed.

"Talk to me", Ginny said and sat down at the chair next to Hermione, holding Hermiones hands in her own.

"I quit my job!"

"You did what!" Ginny exclaimed. "You love your job!"

"Yes, but I hate being around him"

"And by him you mean Mr Malfoy?"

"Yes, you know that article that was published about him three days ago?"

"The one that Pansy 'Stalkerson' wrote?"

"The thing is… I wrote that article! She, and Draco, just put her name on it!"

"I understand why you're so upset"

"Yeah, but that's not the only reason", Hermione stuttered and dried a couple of her tears.

"I'm listening"

"It's not that I don't miss Ron, because you know I do, but it's like I can't get him out of my mind even though I want to", Hermione explained as the tears continued to fall down her cheeks. "It's like he is haunting me, I can't do nothing without thinking about him and I can't even look at another boy without feel like I'm cheating on him", she continued.

"Maybe you can start by taking of the engagement ring!" Ginny said at glanced at the golden ring on Hermiones finger.

"See what I mean?" Hermione replied and looked at her hands. The golden ring that she had been wearing for the past five years felt like a part of her, and even if she wanted to take it off it still felt empty when she did. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm gonna have to live alone for the rest of my life, yes I have Becky, but I mean… You know what I mean? I don't think I'll ever be able to find a new Mr Right!"

"Of course you will", Ginny said and tried to comfort her. "When you least expect it, he will be knocking on your door and ask for a piece of apple pie", Ginny said and looked at the basket with pumpkin juice and apple pie that Hermione had got from Mrs Weasley. Hermione couldn't help smiling for a while, Ginny always knew how to make her smile. "But on the phone you talked about some Emily lady who said you were a bad mother, what's that about?" Ginny asked after a while.

"The other kids are teasing Becky and she never told me about it, Emily said that it was because I am so young that Becky doesn't want to speak with me…" Hermione said. "But I talked with Becky after my conversation with Emily, I found out the reason why she didn't told me in the first place and we solved the problem"

"That's great, but why were they teasing her?"

"Because of her red hair, and her red ears when she goes angry", Hermione replied. "So that's why I'm taking Becky to the same day-care as James instead", she explained. "She starts on Monday!"

"That's great, James is gonna love that! By the way, where's Becky today?"

"Your mother"

"Oh, yeah, of course, stupid me! I remember mum told me about it yesterday, oh, mum really loves having her there"

"And Becky loves being there to, she loves the burrow", Hermione said and smiled when she thought about her precious little Becky. Ginny was just about to open her mouth and say something when it knocked on the door.

"I better get that", Hermione said quietly and rose from her chair and went to open the door. Outside there was a boy, about 15 years old, dressed in a red suit holding a big bouquet of roses in his hands.

"Are you Hermione Granger?" The boy asked.

"Yes"

"These 100 roses are for you", he said and handed the bouquet over to Hermione. He smiled at her before he closed the door, Hermione walked back into the kitchen again.

"Um, somebody just sent me 100 red roses", she said and put the flowers on the table. Both her and Ginny started to look for a card. Ginny found it and read it out loud:

Hermione, I don't know if you got my seven letters, but please I'm asking you to come back. What happened with your article was a terrible mistake and it will never happen again! The Daily Prophet can't afford to lose a great writer like you. Hope to see you at work on Monday. x Draco.