Chapter 3
Hermione entered the dimly lit living room of her small home from the floo. The flash of green lit the room brightly before it simmered to its faint orange hue that was the only source of light in the room. Typically she would be shocked and surprised to not see her husband, correction, ex-husband Ron passed out drunk on the living room settee, but her brain was still trying to process what she had just witnessed with the mirror.
I don't understand. . .He's gone. . .he's been gone for years. . .and we certainly had nothing of the sort going on prior to his death! I know Harry saw his parents but that was his family. . .
With her mind whirling, it had completely slipped Hermione's mind that Senna had extended an invitation for her to stay there that evening.
Ohhh bugger all, I completely forgot! I'll just grab a couple essentials and then I'll make my way over there.
She shook her head, making her way towards the kitchen and hanging up her grey peacoat in the process on the coat rack in the corner. She stopped when she reached the kitchen, startled to see Ron sitting at the small dining table there. He sat silently, glaring at Hermione from across the room. An unattractive scowl on his face, he was swirling a glass of fire whiskey in his hand with a half empty bottle to his other side.
"Goodness Ronald you scared me half to death! What on Earth are you doing just sitting here in the dark?"
"Wwhere. . have you been?" he replied, completely ignoring her question, his words slurring just slightly.
"I- - What?"
"Where the bloody hell have you been?"
"I've been at the Ministry like I always am, trying to catch up on all the things Kingsley left me with! And I'd certainly prefer if you didn't speak to me that way." She warned in a lower voice.
He stood up, stumbling slightly as he did. He grabbed hold of the kitchen chair to steady his balance, a small hiccup before he spoke again.
"Don't l-lie to me, 'M-Mione!" he borderline yelled, taking a few steps forward until he was right in front of her, pointing an accusing finger right at her face. "Who the hell were you off shagging?!" His voice continued to grow in volume.
"I'm not lying, Ron! I was at my office!"
"T-THEN WHO IN THE BLOODY HELL GAVE YOU THAT RING?!" he roared, his face growing as red as his hair.
"It was a birthday gift from Senna, Ron!. A birthday that you of all people completely forgot about!" Hermione hissed, her temper growing at his ridiculously false accusations.
"I never expected my know-it-all wife of all people to turn into such a slag!" Ron hissed back.
Hermione was absolutely gobsmacked by the poison in his words, the awful vulgarity he chose to use towards someone he claimed to be so in love with. She narrowed her eyes at him, doing everything she could not to go completely mental on him. It would do no good to go off on him when he was in this much of an intoxicated state. She took a big deep breath before speaking again.
"Do not call me that, Ronald Weasley," she warned. "You're drunk. Please stop this. Besides, it would be no concern of yours at this point what I would be doing with my time since we are no longer married. I just came here to get a couple things and then I will be out of your way." She made her way past Ron to make her way to the bedroom when she was halted in her tracks and flinched at the pain she started to feel on her wrist.
Ron had grabbed a hold of her wrist tightly, cutting off circulation. She looked back at him in absolute shock.
This is not the same Ron that I grew to love. . .not at all.
For the first time in the entire time she had known Ron for all of these years, this was the first that she feared him and his intentions.
"Ron. . .let me go, please. . ." Hermione pleaded in a whisper. The look of rage on his face didn't falter to her plea. He yanked her towards him, backing her into the wall, his face just centimetres from her ear.
"We just finished ffffinalising our d-divorce and you just think you can wander off in the evenings after work to sssshag some random prat?!"
Hermione could feel a single tear slide down her cheek, between the pain in her wrist, Ron's hurtful words and the pain in the back of her head from hitting the wall when he pushed her against it, it took everything in her power not to sob. She bit her lip and shook her head.
"Ronald, please! Please stop! I told you that none of that is even close to true!" She cried out, trying so hard to hide the quake in her voice.
There was a loud 'smack' that echoed the room as Ron smacked her hard across the face. Hermione looked at him, stunned. It took her a moment to register what he had just done.
"Yyyyou belonggg with mee, 'Mione! Nooo one else!" he yelled and slurred. His free hand travelled to undo the belt on her dress pants. Hermione had a fire ignited inside of her when she realised what he was trying to do and once her brain finally caught up she grew angry, using all of her might to push Ron off of her.
"RONALD GET OFF OF ME!" she shrieked, and Ron stumbled backwards, falling to the floor. Hermione quickly pulled out her wand, pointing it directly at his face. She stood over top of him, the tears in her eyes beginning to stream down her cheeks, her lip quivering hard.
"Don't you ever put your hands on me like that again, Ronald Bilius Weasley." she growled in a low, threatening voice. "How dare you have the nerve to treat me like that, after everything we have been through together!" Her voice began to tremble again, but she was trying so hard to keep her voice strong. As much as she knew the separation was the right thing to do, this was breaking her heart. She truly loved Ron, and she always would, but she was no longer in love with him. This was not the same Ron that she always knew.
"Youuuuu don't even realiseee the mistake you're makinggg, 'Mmmione." His slurring grew worse and his eyes were heavy.
"I'm doing the right thing, Ron. We both need to move on. . .and you've just made this more difficult than it needed to be. . .you could've stayed civil and you chose differently. I will always care for you, but now my thoughts of you are never going to be the same. You've broken my heart."
Ron's anger started to fade. He looked up at Hermione like he had always done after a big fight, those pitiful apologetic eyes that Hermione used to give in to looking up at her. In the past those looks would make her confidence falter and give in to Ron's wishes, but not anymore.
"H-Hermione. . .I'm sssorry. Please don't go. . ."
Hermione shook her head several times, fighting the urge to let more tears fall.
"The decision is final Ron, this is unhealthy for us both. I need you to stand up and pull yourself together." It took a few moments for Ron to climb to his feet, but he finally managed. Once he stood, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the floor. He eventually peered up at Hermione, giving her one last look, hoping in that small span of time, she just might've changed her mind.
"No more, Ron. . .no more. We're done. Please, get yourself a tonic before you fall asleep to help with any hangover effects for the morning and then get yourself to bed, now."
Ron hesitantly obliged, shuffling off down the hall and slowly up the stairs to what used to be their bedroom. Hermione followed behind him a few feet, making sure he made it up the stairs okay. With a flick of her wrist, the things she had initially come to the house to grab came hovering down, and she placed them all in her beaded bag.
Just a moment after she bagged her things, she heard the bedroom door slowly close. No 'goodnight' or 'goodbye' mouthed by the fiery haired wizard she had once fallen in love with. It really sunk in how permanent this decision had come to be. This was no longer going to be her home, and Ron was no longer her husband. She glanced up the stairs for a moment longer, wiping the last couple tears from her cheeks.
"Goodnight, Ron," she spoke in a hushed whisper.
She made her way back to the living room to grab her coat and enter the floo, announcing to be sent to Senna's home.
Hermione was surprised to find Senna still awake when she exited the fireplace and stepped into her living room. Senna was curled up on the sofa with her reading glasses on and a book in her hand. She glanced up initially to welcome Hermione with a big smile, but her smile faltered once she met eyes with an obviously distraught Hermione.
"Merlin, Hermione, what on Earth happened?! Your cheek is bright red!" Hermione didn't even think there was any evidence to show of Ron's smack, she thought the sting of his hit was the only thing lingering. She crossed the room and sat quietly on the opposite end of the couch, trying very hard not to burst into tears.
"I got into it with Ron. . .again. I had gone home to grab a few things and he was there, piss drunk! He kept questioning where I had been and why I was back there so late and I- -"
"Did he hit you?" Senna asked, abruptly cutting Hermione off, with no intention of being rude, but coming to the realisation of what just might have happened got the best of her.
Hermione sighed, hanging her head and shaking it slowly. "Yes. . ."
There were several moments of silence. Hermione lifted her head to look at Senna, who just looked on in shock, trying to process what Hermione had just told her. Her mouth agape, but it turned into a nasty scowl, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she clenched her fists.
"I'll bloody kill him. . ." Senna finally said, standing up quickly, not entirely sure of where to go or where to start, but she was ready to pummel Ronald Weasley for physically harming one of the greatest people she had the pleasure of knowing.
"Senna please. . .please," Hermione pleaded in a hushed voice. Senna looked over at her, the rage still on her face, but she could see in Hermione's eyes that she didn't want her doing such a thing.
"I don't want to escalate this any further. This whole process has been a mess since it started with rumours and that bloody awful Rita Skeeter digging her nose into my business, the last thing I need is to lose my assistant because she hexed my ex-husband into oblivion." The final words of her sentence made her chuckle slightly at the thought of the petite blonde Senna having the upper hand on Ron. The chuckle coming from Hermione seemed to calm Senna ever so slightly, and she sat back down, taking a few deep breaths before continuing to converse with Hermione.
"It's not only the fact that you are such a dear friend, Hermione, you're the Minister for magic! He should be arrested and charged for putting a hand on you!" It was Senna's turn to plead; she didn't want to see Ron get away with something so awful.
"I know you're upset, Senna," Hermione replied in a calm voice. "But I'm going to be okay. I'll be able to get the rest of my things situated into my new home tomorrow and start anew."
"Just please have Harry and Ginny accompany you back to the house for your things tomorrow, promise me that? I'm going to try and make it there myself to help out as well. But just in case I can't, please do that."
Hermione nodded her head. "It's going to take even more effort and coaxing from me to convince Harry and Ginny not to strangle Ron themselves when I have to explain to them what happened and why I need them there, but yes, I promise."
Senna nodded her thanks, and stood up to go to the kitchen. "Let me grab you a cool cloth for your cheek, then I'll let you get some rest."
Hermione gave Senna a quiet thank you and she placed the damp washcloth to her cheek, grimacing a little at how tender it really was. With her adrenaline rush down and emotions more level the pain in both her face and wrist was starting to be more noticeable. She glanced down at her wrist, noticing that by morning there was going to be some unsightly bruising. She pulled out her wand, muttering a spell that would help conceal her wounds for the time being. With how late it was and how exhausted she was finding herself to be, she made note to take a tonic for the pain tomorrow morning. She glanced down at her new ring, and it swirled with red and black, an apt combination considering the fear and anger she was feeling.
Senna said goodnight and went upstairs, flicking the lights off with her wand as she exited, leaving the small tableside lamp on by the couch for Hermione until she was ready to turn it off herself. Hermione pulled the covers to her neck, her mind swimming with everything that had happened that evening. She pushed the thoughts of Ron into the back of her mind, trying harder to focus on her experience with the mirror.
Some thirtieth birthday this has been. . .
She thought back on all of the birthdays she'd had so far. . .her wedding day that happened to fall on her birthday, her wonderful celebrations at Hogwarts with Harry and Ron and also with the whole Weasley clan at the Burrow. She thought back to the birthdays with her parents, her muggle friends at the time who would come over a few years in a row for a sleepover.
She closed her eyes, trying to succumb to sleep, fighting the urge to continue thinking about what she had witnessed with the mirror and how something like this could even become a possibility.
Then it hit her. The night of her 8th birthday, before she had discovered that she was a witch, she remembered the silly little urban legend game one of her friends tried to play.
What if. . .no. . .could that really work?
It took Hermione much longer to fall asleep than she had wanted to once she started thinking about the possibility that the story she once thought to be a myth could almost for certain work in the magical world that she now lived in.
It's worth a try. . . Hermione thought to herself before allowing her mind to ease and drift off to sleep.
If the cup and candle trick that she and her muggle friends attempted with just a standard mirror could work, what could possibly happen with her magic involved, especially with the Mirror of Erised? Hermione wasn't quite sure what was going to happen of course, but she was willing to try, especially if it meant there would be some glimmer of hope for such a brilliant wizard like Severus Snape to be brought back into this world. Maybe what she saw today was a sign that she was able to do something about the tragedy he endured.
But what about that young child silhouette? How in the world does that come into play? Hermione thought to herself before allowing her mind to ease and drift off to sleep.
