In Another Room
Disclaimer: As I'm not making any money from this, chances are I don't own the characters.
"I called you last night in the hotel,
Everyone knows, but they won't tell."
('That's true. No one tells me anything about him anymore.')
"But their half-water smiles tell me something just ain't right I've been waiting on you for a long time."
('Why can't he see that? Doesn't he know how much I miss him?')
"Fueling up on heartaches and cheap wine."
('Amen to that, sister!')
"I ain't heard from you in three damn nights!"
('More like two damn years.')
"I put your picture away,
I wonder where you've been.
I can't look at you while I'm lying next to him."
('Dear God, can this song be any more right?')
"I put your picture away,
I wonder where you been."
('This is one hell of a dedication. It's almost as if someone dedicated it to 'me'.')
"I can't look at you while I'm lying next to him."
('What in the world is going on over there?')
Hermione clicked off the radio as the sounds of a woman screaming came to her ears. She moved closer to the wall and listened closely.
"Then why are you carrying a picture of that girl around with you? Is she the reason that we've never made love 'once' in the entire eighteen months we've been together? Why you only hold my hand or kiss me when 'I' initiate it? And even when you 'do' kiss me, you make it overly short! It's like you think that being with me is some sort of chore! I won't have it!" Silence fell, and Hermione was about to turn the radio back on to finish listening to the dedication hour as she did every night, but a minute later, the woman was back. "I will not sit around waiting for you to figure out what you want. Good-bye, because we're through!"
The door to the next room slammed so hard that it made the wall in front of Hermione vibrate. Curiosity got the better of her and she ran to look through the peephole in the door. The woman was heading to the stairs a few feet away, her back to her, and showing a lot of her long legs under a mid-thigh length coat. She threw a pair of shoes on the floor and stepped into them as she reached them and tossed her blonde hair back and shouldered her bag before starting down the short flight to the landing. Hermione only caught the briefest glimpse of her face when she turned on the landing to go down the next set, but it was one of absolute rage. She looked vaguely familiar.
'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' she thought, then turned away from the door to check on her boyfriend. He was still sound asleep in the bed of course, a hurricane could go through his ears and not wake him up. She grimaced at the sight of him. 'Why did I come here? I want to end it with him, not give him the thought that we are getting closer. I just 'know' that he's going to try and talk me into sleeping with him again.' She turned away and headed back to the sitting room.
"Why did I let Ron and Luna talk me into coming here with Mark?" she whispered to herself as she sat down in an overstuffed chair, brought her feet up onto the cushion and hugged her knees. Her suitcase caught her eye and she pulled her wand out from the waistband of her jean shorts to summon it to her.
She flipped the latches on the top and reached inside, digging around until she unearthed half of a picture. She put her suitcase on the floor and smiled.
Harry's image looked back at her with a disarming grin, then he puffed out his cheeks and stuck his top teeth over his lower lip before turning to the ragged edge of the photograph and saying something and laughing to the missing half. He moved his left arm out of the shot by way of the torn side and she knew where it was going. She had been on the other side. This had been one of their last days before the final battle and when Colin Creevey had wanted to take their picture, Harry had hammed it up and talked her into doing the same thing. She remembered feeling her stomach flutter pleasantly when Harry's arm had come over her shoulder, and she was sure that she had been turning red.
"But I'll never know, will I?" she said out loud. "I haven't seen Harry since we broke off our friendship two years ago, and I know that he doesn't want anything more to do with me." She looked towards the bedroom. "But I am 'not' going to be stuck here with someone that I have no romantic interest in. The fights between me and Harry taught me to stand up for myself and I think that I've been quiet about this too long."
She stood and marched back into the bedroom, flicking on the light as she made her way to the foot of the bed. Mark was lying on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes and was snoring loudly. She nudged his foot none too gently to prod him awake.
"Mark! Wake up, I need to talk to you." He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, pulling the pillow over his head. Hermione yanked the covers off, sending him bolt upright and instantly alert.
"What are you doing?" Mark sputtered, "I was trying to sleep."
"That's the point. You've done nothing but sleep and eat since we got here and I've had enough of it," Hermione responded, crossing her arms.
"What else is there to do here? You won't go to bed with me. Remember that it was your idea to come here in the first place, not mine, Hermione. I would have rather stayed in London, but your friend and his wife talked you into coming to this hole in the wall little island that no one's ever heard of, much less visited." Hermione's face became irate.
"That does it. You want to go back to London so badly? Then go! Get out of here. Now." She turned and grabbed his scattered clothes off the floor and threw them at him. "Go on, get packed and leave! I don't want you to feel that you have to stay just for me." Mark got out of the bed and gathered the assorted articles and tossed them into the chair by the window.
"Now you're being ridiculous."
"No, I'm not. I'm serious. I think you are the rudest person I have ever met. You only think of yourself, treat my friends like they are less than nothing, leave your things all over my home, I could go on for another hour or so, but I want you out of this room. And to think that I was even remotely considering thinking about as you so nastily put it, 'going to bed with you'. Forget it, Mark. I want you out of my life within the next ten minutes or I'll call security to have you removed."
"What would you tell them was the reason?"
"You haven't figured out from how rude you were when we checked in last week that they won't 'need' a reason to throw you out? They would enjoy it immensely."
She reached for the phone.
"Care to try it?"
He shook his head and picked up his suitcase. Hermione watched as he quickly dressed and threw all his belongings in haphazzardly. She chuckled inwardly to herself when his wand was snapped in half as he shut the lid on it. Mark swore softly, pocketed the half that had fallen onto the bed and took up the case. She gestured for him to go ahead, following out of the room and to the front door. Mark turned when he reached it, a sly smile on his face.
"You don't really want me to leave, right? This is only a joke." Hermione moved past him and opened the door.
"Good-bye, Mark. Have a nice life." She shoved him out into the hall and closed the door firmly after him, and turned the lock with a satisfied smile.