She could feel him staring at her, his green eyes bore into her back and she suddenly felt annoyed.  Hermione sighed with her arm around her belly and didn’t look away from the window. The rain splattered onto the ground but the noise was not soothing. It was depressing. She felt like climbing into bed, shutting herself out of the world by her covers and sleeping whenever everything was over. Hermione closed the curtains onto the rain and then turned around.

‘Stop staring, Harry,’ she whispered, watching him look down at his empty mug, ‘I don’t know what you expect me to say or do!’

‘I don’t expect you to do anything. I'm just worried, Hermione,’ Harry said, looking down at the hem of his jeans. He then looked at Hermione as she sat next to him, ‘you’re my best friend and I hate seeing you like this.’

‘Harry,’ whispered Hermione, taking his arm and resting her head on her shoulder. Her hair was probably tickling his neck but he hugged her tight, ‘I can’t do any of this anymore.’

‘You shouldn’t have to... I’m here for you,’ muttered Harry, stroking her long hair until she closed her eyes, ‘you’ve always been there for me and I’ll always be there for you, Hermione.’

‘Thank you, Harry, it means a lot but... I need Fred. My child needs his father and... he won’t talk to me at all,’ Hermione looked up to Harry, ‘I sent him so many messages, Harry, and can you believe that he sent me them back? I received all of my letters after I sent them and... I know he doesn’t want anything to do with me or my child. It’s been a week since I told him to buy me dinner so we can talk and he’s not even answering me! It hurts, Harry!’

Before Harry could say anything, she had rested her head on his shoulder and started to cry. Harry could remember how she had been like this in her sixth year. They had sat exactly like this after Ron had kissed Lavender. She had been hurt and had cried and now she was doing the exact same... the only difference was that she was crying over Fred.

‘I would speak to him for you but... he wont listen to me, Hermione, I know it. I’ve said all that I could say and he did come to your house a week ago. Now he’s sending your messages back and I can’t persuade him to leave his past behind and take responsibility. It’s obvious that he doesn’t want to and that he made a mistake when he slept with you. He’s playing with your feelings, Hermione, you can’t let him,’ Harry sighed, feeling his head hurt. Hermione hugged him as best as she could, ‘I have to leave, Hermione. Ginny wants to pick out wedding dishes and if I’m not there all hell will break loose.’

Hermione chuckled weakly but she wished he didn’t have to go. She was alone and had no one to talk to. Fred was ignoring her and who knew where Ron was. Harry stood up and paused looking at Hermione as she stood in front of him. He stared deep into her eyes like a best friend who would know what each other was thinking. Hermione felt the tears threaten to spill as Harry stared at her. Before she knew it, she threw her arms around Harry and cried into his shoulder while he waited patiently for her to stop, muttering soothing words into her ear.

‘Are you sure you’ll be alright?’ asked Harry and Hermione chuckled weakly, nodding, ‘okay, if you need anything, just owl me.’

‘Sure, Harry, thank you,’ said Hermione, wiping her tears away and feeling her heart lighten.

Harry nodded, fastened his cloak and disapparated with a little crack. Hermione sat on her sofa, feeling her heart deepen down as she thought of Fred and where he was and what he was doing. He was probably wrapped around a girl twice his age. This thought annoyed her greatly. She assured herself that she didn’t want to see him and if he ever did come back... she would never forgive him no matter what he said.

Hermione got off the sofa and walked into the kitchen. Her stomach was grumbling since she hadn’t ate since the morning and now it was 6 pm. She raked her eyes through the fridge and spotted some left over pizza that she had ordered yesterday. As she waited for it to heat up inside her microwave she leaned against the counter and watched the pizza slice, unaware of the blue eyes that were watching her and the lean body leaning on the door. His red hair was messy and wild.

‘Hermione,’ he whispered walking up behind her. She jumped as his long arms wrapped around her small but getting slightly bigger waist, ‘I missed you.’

Hermione turned around and her heart fluttered like a snitch in the wind as she saw Fred. His eyes were scrunched up and she knew that he had been drinking although he wasn’t drunk... the effect was wearing off. Fred smiled apologetically at her and she didn’t smile back. Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach as he took her hands, she pushed his chest.

‘I hate you! You evil, self centred, egotistical-’ Hermione started but was cut off as Fred’s index finger rested on her lips and he smiled as though amused by her anger.

‘Let’s skip this part and just fast forward to the part where we forgive each other,’ said Fred, his finger trailed along her lips.

‘Get out of my house,’ said Hermione, threateningly, her eyes flashing with hatred as the stupid smirk stayed on his face, ‘I’ll get through this on my own since you are obviously not bothered at all!’

‘Okay, that’s quite enough. I’m sorry for not answering your messages,’ shrugged Fred, which made Hermione angrier as he didn’t mean it, ‘and you forgive me and we live happily ever after.’

‘I-’

Hermione was cut off as Fred pressed his lips to hers. She widened her eye to see that his eyes were closed but she could feel the arrogant smirk against her lips. His tongue trailed the bottom of her lip and that was what did it. She snapped. Hermione pushed his chest with all of her might, punching it and feeling her hand throb when he didn’t move an inch. He moved forwards when she tried to pull away and her back hit the counter. A sharp pain went through her and she yelped in surprise but Fred was still kissing her. Furious and feeling her back pain, Hermione pulled Fred’s hair and he pulled back, smirking as she pulled harder.

‘You can’t hurt me, Mia,’ said Fred, chuckling as she stared at him with frustration like never before, ‘you’re hot when you’re angry... maybe that’s why I slept with you.’

‘You slept with me only because I look hot when I’m angry?’ asked Hermione, remembering that they were angry and shouting before their night together. She had to admit that statement hurt her more than Fred ignoring her.

‘Why else would I sleep with you? If you hadn’t been stupid enough to sleep with me, we wouldn’t be in this situation and that bloody child wouldn’t even be-’

That was when Hermione bought back her hand in anger and slapped Fred across the face. This was the second time she had slapped him but she thought that he deserved it both times. Anger swept through his face and Hermione waited for him to do something, the sound of her palm hitting his cheek echoed in the air incredibly. Fred finally bought his eyes to look at her and the anger was raging in his eyes. His hands went up and Hermione was frozen in fear. He grabbed her arms and she tried not to yelp in pain as she gritted her teeth together.

‘Don’t ever slap me again, you ungrateful bitch,’ said Fred, enunciated his word with grabbing her arms tighter. The cuss sounded plainly wrong coming out of his mouth. She had heard him swear before but he had never been angry at her when he swore.

Instead of crying, Hermione felt infuriated at being called a bitch. She never thought Fred would act like this towards her. He always seemed to love her... but now she knew the love was a huge facade. He needed someone other than family to help him through George’s death... who was better than Hermione at that? He played with her... dumping problems onto her like trash being discarded in a dump, building and building until no one could see what was at the bottom. What was natural.

‘We’re over, Fred, our relationship is going downhill which is a huge sign that... we shouldn’t be together!’ said Hermione, her hands squashing into his stomach as he pressed against her, ‘don’t talk to me ever again and don’t visit me. You really had me fooled with your huge production of fake love.’

‘It wasn’t a production. It was all real,’ said Fred but his eyes told another story, ‘now I regret every moment I spent with you. I love you but I hate what you’ve done to me. You’ve changed me and I hate you for that!’

‘You changed yourself. You needed to change. Pranks, jokes and not taking responsibility will never get you anywhere in your life, Fred. Blame yourself for what you’ve become: a man who can’t take responsibility or commitment  and that will cost you your whole life. You won’t be happy if you can’t commit to someone you love,’ said Hermione, scowling as his hands tightened around her arms. She said nothing about the pain, she wouldn’t give in to him. The next words were spoken truthfully through gritted teeth, ‘I hate you, Fred. Stay out of my life.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ asked Fred after a small pause where his eyes roamed to her stomach and back. He smirked, ‘you’ll be all alone. I guess I could help for another eight months.’

‘Don’t be an arse, Fred,’ Hermione narrowed her eyes and she could feel the bruise forming where Fred held her tightly, ‘go die for all I care.’

Something flashed in Fred’s eyes and Hermione looked away. She would not feel sorry for him at all. Hermione was about to scream as his hands grasped tighter but then he let go. Hermione’s arms throbbed as she massaged them. She looked up to see Fred back away from her. The anger on his face was hot red. He scowled as she rolled her eyes.

‘You won’t see me after this. Hope you and that child will live happily,’ Fred said and walked out, stopping at the door, ‘I still love you, Mia. Try not to worry about me.’

Fred left the room and Hermione strained her ears to hear a crack or the door close. The door then banged shut making Hermione flinch. She dropped to the ground, massaging her arms and still felt anger course through her. Fred and Hermione were over and she couldn’t help but shed tears for losing the one person she thought she would never lose.

---

Hermione turned in her sleep, feeling the softness of her duvet caress her cheek. Her hands were resting on her stomach and one on her face. It was 3 am in the morning and Hermione was in a deep sleep, not knowing that right now Harry was persuading Ginny to stay with him and not disapparate as tears ran down her angered face. Not knowing that Mr and Mrs Weasley had heard the news and Mrs Weasley fell onto the ground in fits of tears while Mr Weasley was frozen with shock.

Hermione slept on, mumbling something in her sleep.