I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update again. It just seems like I have no time or energy anymore with 3 toddlers in the house. But I am working to finish this story and my other before taking a break from writing. I hope those of you who have stuck with me for this story like this chapter and I think it will be ending soon. Love you all. Happy reading and don't forget to review please. Its all that keeps me going. :)

Over

Lying next to his sleeping body, Hermione traced circles on his bare stomach as it rose and fell with each breath. It was getting late. She had to leave. But she couldn't manage to get out of bed. She wanted to spend the night with him and let him make her feel the way he had all day, but she knew that Hugo needed her. And she had some major decisions to make about how to end her marriage. As she started to get up Draco awakened. He smiled.

"Hey." he said leaning over to kiss her softly.

"I have to go." she said guiltily.

"I know. When can I see you again?" he asked twirling his fingers in her hair.

"Soon. I promise." she whispered. "I just have to talk to my kids. And Ron. I want to be honest with him about getting a divorce. I don't want to give him false hope of reconciliation."

"Will you tell him about us?" Draco asked.

"No…no, I can't do that." she said flustered. "I know I have done worse than he did…"

Draco shook his head.

"Yes I have. I fell in love with you. That is far worse than just cheating with a random woman. But I think I would have divorced him anyway. Loving you gave me the courage to end it, and the hope as well."

Draco pulled her close and held her body against his.

"I've caused a mess Hermione. This is my fault."

"We are both to blame, but I need to set things in the right direction." she said pulling her clothes on and fixing her hair. "I will owl you as soon as I can."

"I love you Hermione." he said melodiously.

"I love you too." she replied as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

She went outside and apparated to Ginny's to pick up Hugo. She knew Ron was there as well and hoped to talk to him in private. She rang the bell and it was Ron who answered the door. His face was hard and unforgiving.

"Hi." she said meekly. Her stomach was in knots. She still cared for him and breaking his heart was not what she wanted to do.

"Are you here for Hugo?" he asked flatly.

"I want to talk to you, can you take a walk with me?" she asked.

And then she saw what she feared the most, hope in his eyes.

"Yes, of course." Ron replied as he closed the front door behind him. They headed out towards the grove of trees behind the Potters house. Hermione glanced at him every few seconds to see of that look of hope was still there. It was. By the time they got to a clearing she felt sick to her stomach.

"This is fine." she said amid the golden colored trees. Thick blankets of leaves were on the forest floor. She sat down in the pile and tried to ready herself. Ron followed her and sat down next to her, closer than she wanted.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

"Us. I know these last few weeks have been difficult. But it's been going downhill for a while don't you think?" she asked.

"No, I didn't think that until recently." he said.

"I've been unhappy." she said. "But I couldn't admit it to myself. I didn't want to."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I thought this is what was supposed to happen. Me and you I mean. Like we were written as a couple but never really were meant to go together. But we never fit, not really."

"Hermione, I have never felt like that. I always knew we would be together. I was always jealous of anyone you gave your affection to, even just as a friend. I was always jealous of Harry, Krum, most of the boys in our house and now when you started working with Malfoy I was insanely jealous. I can't help it. I love you. I want us to get over this and get back together." he said reaching out for her hands. She let him hold them and took a deep breath in.

"Ron it's over. Not because of your infidelity, but because we don't belong together. I'm not sure we ever did. I love you as a friend and the father of our children. I want to get along for their sake. But I want a divorce. I want a fresh start. We can get along for the kids, I know we can."

Ron's face said it all. It was turning redder as she sat there waiting for his reply.

"Say something." Hermione said.

"What do you want me to say? Seventeen years married. Seventeen years of good times, holidays, births and deaths. Seventeen years of giving everything I could to you, for you, for our family. I can't understand where this is coming from. I know I screwed up. You don't have to tell me. I will regret it for the rest of my life. But don't do this to our family. Don't do this to the kids." he pled.

"Ron, don't." she said. "Don't try to guilt me into staying. I've thought and cried over this for too many nights now. The kids will understand eventually. Especially if we are getting along." she said squeezing his hand. He jerked it away.

"Ron…"

"You brought me out here to ask for a divorce…is that right?" he said, his ears turning deeper shades of red.

"Well yes but…" she said. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She had no idea that this would be so hard on her.

"And you think we can just leave here, get that divorce and then be all chummy like best mates…right?"

"Well maybe not best mates…but…"

"But what? What am I supposed to do when my 'best mate' Hermione starts to date. Hey, maybe I can be mates with him too. We can all three of us hang out and play chess, go see a movie together. Hey maybe Hugo can call him daddy too!" he shouted.

"I would never ever let the kids call anyone else daddy, and besides I have no plans on dating anytime soon." she lied about the second part.

"Right." he said under his breath. "I don't know why you are being so selfish Hermione. Think about our family first."

"I am!" she shouted. "The kids will eventually know how miserable I am, do you want to take responsibility for that? Have them find out about your affair?"

Ron winced.

"No." he replied.

"Then what should we do? Live together and pretend everything is alright when it's not. They will catch on sooner or later and feel slighted by our deception."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Ron this is for the best. I promise." she said standing up and brushing dried leaves off of her clothes. Ron stood up as well and walked off without saying another word. She waited a moment, wiped the tears from her eyes and headed back to Harry's, to pick up Hugo. Ron went inside the house and went straight upstairs without another word to anyone. Ginny brought Hugo out, took one look at Hermione and knew instantly what was wrong. She sent Hugo back into the house.

"It's over." Hermione said crying on Ginny's shoulder.

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. It will be for the best. I tried to reason with Ron and tell him that us getting along would be the best thing for the kids but he doesn't want to even try."

"You know Ron. He won't accept this until the very end. And even then you might have to keep pushing." Ginny said.

"I know. I have to get going though. There is a lot to do between work and this mess now."

"Hugo!" Ginny called. "Time to go home."

Hugo ran out and waved goodbye to everyone and somehow Hermione felt it was truly goodbye. Goodbye to her best friend, goodbye to a man whom she had tried her very best for. Goodbye to the happy times with Ron and the kids. And goodbye to the Golden trio because she was sure Harry would be just as unforgiving as Ron. Tears welled up in her eyes again and she tried to blink them away.

"Come on Hugo, let's go." she said sniffing.

"Are you crying mum?" he asked innocently.

"No, no…" she said soothingly. "Just the bitter wind." And with that she apparated home with Hugo in tow.

Inside the house Ron was raging. He was throwing things in Harry's guest room and shattering them against the wall. A vase hit the window and it broke as well. A chair followed and landed on the pile of dried leaves on the lawn.

"RON!" Harry shouted over the assortment of swear words that was spewing from Ron's mouth. Ron turned towards his friend, rage blazing in his blue eyes.

"What?" he yelled.

"Do you think you could keep the rage to a minimum?" he asked. "Lily is just down the hall. And you broke Ginny's favorite vase. She is going to be pissed."

"Who cares?" he shouted. "Who cares about any of this? My life is over. Hermione just asked me for a divorce. She thinks we should be just friends, get along for the kids. Isn't that the biggest crock of crap you have ever heard?" he asked panting with anger.

"She might have just been angry when she asked. Give her some time." Harry said in his calmest voice.

"No, no, no…" Ron told him. "She's dead serious. She told me she has been unhappy, not wanting to stir up trouble. She actually thinks that we can get along as friends…"
"You started off as friends…" Harry interrupted. "It wasn't always romantic between the two of you."

"It was for me. I think I loved her from the first moment we met. Sure she was a bossy know-it-all, and annoyed the bloody hell out of me, but I knew one day it would happen. And I never stopped hoping she would look at me the way she did Krum, or even you. I thought for sure she fancied you. But I hid my jealousy."

Harry snorted.

"What?" Ron asked.

"You hid your jealousy? Not bloody likely. Everyone knew you were jealous of Krum. Hiding your emotion is not a strong suit of yours."

"Well anyway now she just wants to sweep the last seventeen years under a rug and call it a day. How can I do that?" he said with a quiver to his voice.

"You can't. And she can't either." Harry said. "I'm sure she doesn't want to forget you, your marriage. I'm sure she just wants space to think about what you did, and to punish you a little for it. Anger is a powerful thing in women. Remember the birds she shot at you? Well this is worse, and you hurt her more than just fooling around with Lavender in front of her. You cheated on her with some random floozy. It's going to take time to forgive you. Just give her that chance." Harry said patting Ron on the back.

"Now you better fix this room before Ginny sees it or you will have two Weasley women mad at you." Harry laughed.

"Three." Ron corrected. "Mum is furious as well thanks to Ginny."

"If you think it will help I will talk to Hermione again. See if I can feel out her intentions."

"Thanks." Ron said waving his wand around and repairing different things around the room.

Asteria was busy preparing some high galleon revenge. She had pictures of that kiss from every angle of the mansion. And she was trying to decide which one would have the most impact. She purred when she found the one.

"Perfect." she said in her low voice. And with that she put it into a large envelope, wrote The Daily Prophet on the outside of it and sent it out with her owl.

"Tomorrow will be interesting my dear Draco. Very interesting."