Alright, here's chapter two. If you're actually reading this- please, feel free to let us know what you think. Not much to say this time.

Eyes Wide Shut

Chapter Two:

Murphy's Law

The dark, dingy room stank of alcohol and filth. Walls that at one point in time had been white, now gray with age and mold only added to the rank odor.

"Ron, come on! You should really clean this place up! How can you even stand to live here?" she ranted, hands placed on her hips as she walked past the stacks of days old pizza boxes and over to the week old dishes piled haphazardly nearby.

Ron lay sprawled on the couch, looking up at her with bleary, glazed eyes. His appearance was disheveled, from his unshaven face, to the beer bottle clutched in his hand. Needless to say, Ronald Weasley had seen better days. "I don't see why it really matters 'Mione." He took a long drag from the bottle. "There'll just be more t'morra."

"Which is why you should get ahead of it today," she said, sighing exasperatedly. She watched as he lifted the near empty bottle to his lips. How many long nights had they spent this way? How many times had she left, convinced that she had finally won, only to come back and find the same scene greeting her as she walked in the door? She shook her head absent mindedly, too many.

"Come on, Ron," her voice softened. "I'm really worried about you." She didn't know why she even bothered any more. He never listened, yet she would be back tomorrow, saying the same things she had said tonight, and so many nights before.

"You shouldn't worry," he slurred drunkenly, "Nobody else does."

She threw her hands up, "What does it matter if any one else cares? I care!" "Isn't that enough," she added in a low voice. He stared at her blankly. "I love you, you bastard! Doesn't that mean anything?"

He belched, and took another swig. He lurched to his feet and embraced her, beer bottle still in hand. "I love you 'Mione," his breath was hot in her ear, tickling her skin, and filling her nose with the stink of alcohol. "I just..." he trailed off.

"It's okay, Ron. I know," she said. But the voice in her head knew better.

'Different night, same line as always.' "I know."

He dropped the now empty bottle to the floor. "Hermione," he said, speaking her full name for the first time in ages. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Yeah, what?" she asked wearily.

He leaned back, holding her by the shoulders and looking her in the eye. The unexpected change in character caught her off guard, and sent chills up her spine. Was the old Ron coming back?

"Can you get me another beer?"

"You drunken son of a bitch!" she shouted, shoving him backwards and onto the couch. His head lolled as he fell back. "I can't believe you!" She continued storming about searching for her coat. Finally locating the brown over coat, she yanked open the door, pausing to shout back at him, "When you decide to act like a real adult, instead of a drunken fool, you know where to find me!"

The door slammed, rattling the precariously perched dishes. He sat silently on the couch, wishing many things. Among them, that she had tossed him a cold beer before leaving.

"Bloody git," she muttered to herself. She hugged the coat closer to her in the cold night air. "Stupid, bloody, drunken..."

Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice where her feet were taking her. Before long, she stood in front of a frozen statue of an angel. "Some help you are." she grumbled as she stomped past. Could her life possibly get any worse?

It started to snow. Apparently it could.

"You there, Freeze!"

'I already am!' Hermione thought bitterly.

"Show me your pass, please, Miss." he demanded, emphasizing the word miss. Fake courtesy; the man sure knew how to charm a woman. Suddenly the light bulb in her mind clicked on. Pass? Oh no...

"Um, its..."

"Pass, Miss?" He smirked. He knew she didn't have one. "Oh, too bad. By order of our Dark Lord, you are now under arrest."

Murphy's law: whatever can go wrong, will.

Damn you, Murphy!

That's all for now. What'cha think? Love it? Hate it? Suddenly feeling the urge to kill us/anybody else? We'll never know if you don't tell us!