an honest mistake, an alternate universe unrequited love story
warning: use of coarse language

the grand finale (as she lives without him)

Don't look at me that way. It was an honest mistake. Don't look at me that way. It was an honest mistake.
Don't look at me that way. It was an honest mistake. Don't look at me that way. It was an honest mistake.

Hermione smiled every time they walked past or every time they came to visit Ron and Parvati when she was there. She acted friendly every time she heard Ginny talk about her wedding. She cooed affectionately when Ginny showed her pictures of their son, Michael, holding their rings. She smiled again at the sight of Ginny in her perfect dress or their wedding kiss or the tossing of the bouquet. She simply acted how she imagined she could have acted if things had been amicable. In truth, she was unfazed. Harry knew that it bothered her. He could tell that her acting friendly was just an act, that her cooing was subtle mockery, that the smiles were all fake. Harry wondered just how strong she was, that she could withstand the assault of her rejection day in and out and still maintain her sanity. It pained him to see her acting when it shouldn't have. It was all his fault anyway.

He remembered the last time he had wandered into Diagon Alley and ran into her in Flourish and Blotts with a handful of books in her arms. "Hermione!" He had called and was shocked when she turned and smiled warmly at him. It had been a long time since he had been on the receiving end of what appeared to be a genuine smile. He walked up behind her while she was on the line with her books and returned her smile appreciatively. "How are you doing, Harry?"

Harry reached to give her a hug and recoiled after many of her books dug into his chest. It didn't seem purposeful, but it was hard to tell with the flicker of sadness across his friend's face before he answered her. "I'm pretty well. Michael's doing great. Lily just turned two."

With a raise of her eyebrows, Hermione balanced her books on one of her hips before she dipped her hand into her bag, rustling around. Finally, she pulled her hand out and smiled as she handed Harry a picture. "Kelly just started kindergarten. That's her picture from school," she nodded towards the square photo. In it, Kelly's striking blue eyes pierced the lens of the still photo camera. Her hair, long and brown like Hermione's, fell past her shoulders, neatly secured with a headband. They looked surprisingly alike for a mother and daughter pair that shared no blood. He stared at the photo while Hermione set her books on the counter and paid for them.

"I, uh. I just came out to get a book." Harry peeked over at it and he couldn't see the title, but he could see the body of a woman with a tiny outline of a child in her stomach. He looked his friend up and down but she appeared to be the picture of thin and not pregnant as he could have imagined. He nodded solemnly before he reached out to catch her wrist; his small miscalculation caused him to grab her hand. This time, hers were rough and calloused and his were soft and slightly clammy. The brunette nearly jumped out of her shoes at his touch, but he cleared his throat.

"It was an honest mistake," he said plainly, looking into her eyes before he let her go.

"Harry!" Ginny cried out excitedly. "Come look at this picture Hermione sent us!" The tall, dark-haired wizard walked into the room before walking over to his wife. His eyes briefly scanned the picture before she lifted another copy. "There's another copy for you!"

Harry glanced at the surprisingly moving photo of Hermione and her family. She stood next to a tall man with a head of messy black curls, soft and short, but they stood up in some places and the photo-Hermione reached up every few moments to brush them down against his head with a vibrant laugh. Every few moments in between, photo-husband would press his lips against photo-Hermione's cheek and she'd blush. In front of her was Kelly, standing tall and beaming into the camera. Her eyes matched the blue of photo-husband's eyes. Next to Kelly were two children, a boy and a girl. The photo-boy and photo-girl would hug each other tightly, their arms wrapped around the other's shoulders. They both had sloppy, cheesy grins pasted across their faces. The photo-boy had the same dark, curly, unruly hair as the photo-husband but his eyes were warm and brown. The photo-girl had photo-Hermione's long curls draped across one shoulder, tangled in the photo-boy's arms.

And then Hermione. She was not a photo person. She gazed out into the camera serenely, occasionally reaching to touch her photo-husband's hair or settle the two hyperactive photo-children in front of her, but she looked peaceful. Harry turned the picture over in his hands and was surprised to find a short message.

'I hope you're happy with your honest mistake. I can't help you this time.' Underneath it was a tiny scrawling of the names and ages of her family members. Will, her husband, she had noted next to his name. Kelly was eight, Casey, the photo-boy, was three and the photo-girl Morgan was his twin sister. She had been pregnant when he had run into her in Flourish and Blotts after all. She hadn't written her name down on the back of the photo, but she hadn't needed to. Harry took the photo with him as he went back towards his bedroom, all the while wondering what it would have been like if Hermione had reached up to tame his hair in front of their children.

It was his honest mistake, he reminded himself, and he had to live with it now.