I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM THAT SERIES BECAUSE THEY ALL BELONG TO JOANNE KATHLEEN (J.K.) ROWLING!

Chapter Seven

Hermione woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. It was a high pitched loud beep that came every second. It signaled Hermione that she had an hour before she had to go to work. Hermione moaned before slapping her hand on the clock to press the large button that would shut it off.

Hermione sighed and then gently sat up in her comfy bed. The sun was starting to come up and shine through her window. It was eight o’clock.

Once she was sitting up in her bed, Hermione yawned and stretched her arms in front of her as she looked around her room. It was a deep shade of red and she had a white carpet as the flooring. She had a sandy brown dresser, nightstand, and dress and she had pictures of her and her friends as well as her family on her wall.

Hermione looked at the one picture that we had of her parents. She hadn’t seen them since she left them and foiled their memory. They were travelling now. All she knew from the neighbours was that they went on a Europe wide trip. Hermione didn’t know where they were since they were gone by the time she had gotten back from the war. She admitted that she missed them, but she tried every way that she could think of to find them.

She had no such luck.

She sighed and shook her head before she then walked to her door. She carefully opened it and heard that the television was on. When she went to go to bed last night, she was sitting on the couch watching television with him. There was a muggle action movie on and she thought Ron would enjoy it, which he did. Once the movie was over, she went to bed and Ron said that he would watch a little more television.

As she had suspected, he was laying on the couch, fast asleep, the television still on. Hermione gently turned the television off with the button before she then walked over to her boyfriend. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder and moved it. Ron awoke with a grumbling start before he looked at Hermione.

“It’s eight o’clock, Ron. I was going to make myself some breakfast and I am sure that you want some too. You have to go to work when I do, so we can walk to Diagon Alley together.” Hermione said.

Ron nodded and Hermione was still in her pajamas as she walked over to the kitchen part of her apartment. Ron gave a large yawn and stretched himself out before gently getting up and walking to her. He helped her start the toaster to make some toast while she started to make some eggs. Once in a while, Ron would smile at her and she would smile back.

As they were sitting at the table eating, Hermione looked at Ron after she ate a bite of her eggs, “are you going to work today or the protest again?”

“I have the rest of the week off and the next anyway as my holidays, so I am going back. I don’t really have anything else to do,” Ron answered.

“Why don’t you relax on your holidays, Ron?” Hermione said.

“I’m doing something that I want to do. It’s my holiday and I can choose to be either lazy or active.” Ron defended not answering angrily, but strictly.

Hermione was silent for a couple of seconds as Ron and her looked at each other all throughout it before Hermione whispered, hurt, “you never told me that you were on holidays, Ron.”

Ron stared at Hermione as she went back to eating silently, looking down at her plate. After a couple of minutes, Ron said to Hermione, “before all of this Ministry law happened, I was going to surprise you. I was going to take you out to dinner and see a movie with you.”

Hermione set her fork down and swallowed the food that was in her mouth. She looked at Ron and said, “as nice and romantic as that sounds, Ron, just because of this trial and all of these rallies, I’m being put second, your own girlfriend?”

He could see how hurt she was and he told her gently, “that’s not what I meant and that’s not how I want you to think of it.”

“But that’s what I do think of.” Hermione answered.

“That’s not what I’m saying though.”

“Then what are you saying?”

Ron stared down at his plate, both of them silent for a couple of seconds. A little later on, Ron looked up at her, “Hermione, I’ve just been so stressed lately. I’ve had to deal with work and now the Ministry…”

“And now me, right?” Hermione whispered.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Hermione.” Ron told her.

“But I seem to be the second or third choice when it comes to those things. I feel as if now I’m never first for you anymore, when I almost always make you mine.” Hermione whispered.

“Hermione, I love you! You know that I do and I always try to find time so that I can spend time with you!”

“Then how come I had to get Hagrid to tell you to come here? How come you weren’t there for our Friday eating?”

“Hermione, one dinner is not a crime!”

“It is to me!”

Ron stared at her as Hermione had raised her voice. She was trying to control her anger and hurt.

“If that makes me selfish and the bad guy, then fine, Ron.” Hermione told him forcing herself to hold back her tears, “but for once I want to be put first. I want to be taken by surprise again. Our night last night was me begging for it and even then it was just us sitting together. No kissing, no hugging, just sitting together and me feeding you!”

Ron sighed before Hermione stood up and whispered to her shocked and silent boyfriend, “I’m not very hungry. I’m going to start getting ready for work…. You can let yourself out.”

Ron was silent and had his back turned to Hermione once she was out of his sight as she walked to the bedroom. Before she shut the door, she saw Ron still sitting at the table, not moving. She sighed before shutting the door and locking it so that Ron wouldn’t invade her when she was getting ready.

Hermione let her silent tears sun down her face since she was in the privacy of her room. She took off her pajamas before finding a pair of normal black jeans and a light pink, plain t-shirt. She quickly blotted her cheeks before applying make-up. She forced herself not to cry so that she could do her make-up, but when she was done, she looked in the mirror to see herself. Her eyes were red and blotchy from her tears.

She gently wiped her eyes so that she wouldn’t ruin her eye make-up before she looked at the clock. She had to be at work in fifteen minutes. She saw that as a good timing. All she had to do was clean up the kitchen and brush her teeth.

She grabbed her wand and walked out of the room and used her wand to clean up the kitchen. She wasn’t worried about Ron seeing her because she heard him leave during the time that she was changing.

*

Hermione walked into the store. As she was about to leave, she looked in the mirror one more time to see that her eyes were still red and although she was embarrassed, work was work and she had to go to it, no matter what her emotions were.

When she walked into the store, Madame Glirsh was talking to Draco, who had arrived early. She was explaining to him what to do so Hermione quickly went to the employee coat racks behind the counter and took off her coat.

Both of them looked at her as she came in and noticed her red eyes. Hermione looked down, avoiding theirs and Madame Glirsh went back to talking to Draco. She was telling him how to bring in the boxes of books that had apparently come in today. She was telling him to come through the back door and carry the boxes in here. Hermione heard that her boss suspected that parents wouldn’t come in today or at least not many would, so it would be easy to restock the shelves here.

Once that was done, Hermione heard Madame Glirsh’s heels against the floor as they walked to her. Hermione looked at her boss and in the corner of her eye, she saw Draco go out to back door, which was held open with a stopper and outside the door he saw a truck full of boxes that Hermione knew all too well.

Madame Glirsh looked at Hermione and asked, “are you okay, dear? Do you need the day off?”

Hermione gave a soft smile and shook her head, “No. I’m fine, Madame. I just had a fight with my boyfriend. I’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure?” Madame Glirsh asked her, “because I can get Sophie to come in today. She asked for the weekend off, but I can still call her up.”

“No. I’m fine. I just kind of need time for my eyes to set back to their normal colour.” Hermione told her.

Madame Glirsh nodded and said, “I have to leave for the day. I have business to attend to in Tinworth.”

“Okay.” Hermione said.

Madame Glirsh nodded and left the store as Hermione went to help Draco unpack the boxes. It was surprisingly hot and Hermione found it nice at first, but she knew that she would be sweating in her t-shirt.

But she was grateful for Draco because though he saw her red eyes, he didn’t comment on them. Though it was silent, for the first time, Hermione thought that it was peaceful.

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so, i just wanted to point out that the picture is Tilda Swinton and she plays Madame Glirsh.