Chapter 3
Hermione huffed. "I'll be fine, Ginny. I already found a new apartment to stay in."
She was sitting in her parked car, talking with Ginny over the phone (they had grown accustomed to muggle technology since their jobs in the Ministry of Magic required both their own magic and the constant communication with muggles). Her redheaded friend gave a sigh. "Okay, but you still have to move out all your stuff from Ron's apartment."
"I know," said Hermione sternly. "Ron and I already had….enough time to talk things over after Harry informed me about what happened with him and Pansy. Ron won't be giving me a hard time as I pack my stuff up."
"Hmm," said Ginny. "Well that's good. But that doesn't mean you'll find it easy to be around him. If you want, you can come over to my place so that you don't have to spend the next few nights with him-- I can also help you move your stuff out so that you don't have to be alone with him more than you need to."
Hermione bit her lip. After finding out the awful news about Ron's affair with Pansy, the thought of being alone in the same space with him made Hermione want to vomit.
When Hermione said nothing, Ginny gave a short laugh. "Hermione, don't be afraid to accept or even ask for support! I'm your friend! I'm more than willing to let you sleep here-- also, I can help you move your stuff out when you're ready to visit his place again."
Hermione nodded. "Okay," her tone was stiff and rather curt as she tried to suppress herself from bawling out in tears. "Thanks, Gin. See you soon." She hung up immediately and rested her forehead on her arm, which was stretched over the driver's wheel. She felt like she could just stay in this position for hours without ever leaving or moving a muscle again.
Of all the ways to call off an engagement….Hermione's thoughts were racing rapidly through her head, even faster than the beating of her heart as she felt herself overwhelmed with mixed feelings of anger, grief, shock, and desperation. It was less than 24 hours that Harry had broken news to her that Ron had an affair-- no, had raped-- Pansy Parkinson yesterday evening. By the time the next morning came, Harry and Pansy had already discovered she had been impregnated with Ron's child. Since hearing the horrible news this morning, Hermione had been unable to concentrate on her duties in the Ministry of Magic. She spent her entire afternoon on the phone with Ron, and then meeting him face to face in a nearby café to discuss how they were going to move on from here.
He was extremely apologetic, but still rather flustered from everything that had happened that his apologies seemed out of desperation and self-defense rather than a genuine and sincere repentance for having done wrong. Hermione had ended up calling off their engagement.
The encounter with him was all a blur, but the emotional drain from it was still taking a toil on her. It wasn't until thunder began rumbling in the sky that Hermione lifted her heavy head and decided she should probably start driving over to Ginny's before it was too dark and too wet for her to exert any more focus than she already could.
She started up her car and began driving to Ginny's. The thunder rumbled again as she drove across a quiet, empty road, yet no rain came down as of yet. Just as Hermione felt the thunder coursing through her own body as she tried to suppress herself from crying again. She had already cried enough throughout the day-- alone, in front of Ron, then alone again….she didn't need to waste any more tears on that foul, loathsome man.
Instead, she focused more on how angry she was about what he had done.
Yet, the angrier she felt, the harder it became to suppress her grief. Soon, it was raining, and her tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Then Hermione's heart wrenched as the road led her through a familiar apartment complex. She suddenly remembered that Ginny resided in the same complex as she and Ron did. Apparently, she wasn't going to be that far from Ron as she had hoped.
Whatever, Hermione rolled her tear-filled eyes. Better than nothing…
She drove into the apartment complex, intending to drive around a longer route so that she wouldn't have to pass by Ron's apartment on her way to Ginny's. But before she turned her car to the other direction, she noticed two hooded men walking down the sidewalk to her right, their backs turned to her. She narrowed her eyes at the men, trying to scrutinize through the pouring rain. She couldn't recognize who they were in their raincoats, but she noticed they were heading straight to the door of Ron's apartment. They stopped at the door, and each of them began banging at it with their fists, shouting profanity.
The door opened to reveal a disheveled and confused Ron, and then within the next second, her redheaded ex-fiancé was punched in the face by one of the hooded men.
Hermione flinched as she watched Ron stumble back from the blow, only to be pulled forward as the other man grabbed the front of his shirt and give an upward fist-punch to his nose.
"Oh my God!" Hermione cried, suddenly driving her car up to the men. She skidded to a halt beside the curb and hastily stepped out of her car, barely noticing the pouring rain soaking her as she hurried up to the attacking men and her ex-fiancé. "Hey! Stop that! Ron, what's going-- ahhh!" She screamed as one of the hooded men stumbled backward and bumped into her, as Ron had fought back with a retaliating punch to his face. Hermione clumsily took a few rapid steps to the side as she pushed the hooded man off of her, causing him to land on his side with a grunt. The hood of his raincoat fell off, revealing a livid, grey-eyed man with sleek-blonde hair that had become even sleeker under the pouring rain.
"Malfoy?!" Screamed Hermione.
The Slytherin didn't even notice her as he shouted angrily at the other hooded man. "Hey Potter! Don't cause too much damage yet-- the bloke is mine too!" He shot up to his feet and raced to where the other hooded man was violently tussling on the ground with Ron. Draco grabbed at Ron's legs and yanked him out of his skirmish, then held him down to the ground and delivered a series of rapid punches to his face and shoulders.
The other man sat up from the fight-- his hood had fallen off as well, and Hermione widened her eyes as she recognized his bruised, dirty face.
"Harry!" Hermione hurried up to him and grabbed his arm, stopping him from lunging at Draco and Ron. "Stop this! Please! Just stop!"
Thunder crashed in the sky and the rain suddenly felt like it was pouring harder. Harry whipped his head around to face Hermione with fury in his eyes. "Hermione! What are you doing?!"
"What am I doing?!" Hermione yelled in disbelief. "What are you doing here?! And why is Malfoy here?" She shifted her shocked eyes to watch as Ron kicked hastily at Malfoy and managed to wriggle free from his grip. But as soon as he did, Harry lunged forward and pinned him back down, and delivered his own set of slower-- but more forceful-- punches at the redhead. Meanwhile, Draco got up and kicked at Ron's side.
Hermione felt helpless-- it was then that she realized she was probably better off calling for help rather than trying to resolve this mess by herself. She took her phone out and called the police-- the muggle police, as she was too flustered to even think about who in the Ministry of Magic would best handle this situation.
But after she dialed the country's emergency number, the phone was knocked out of her hand as Draco fell back against her again, this time stumbling into her side as Ron had shoved him out of the way. The redhead had escaped Harry's grip and was running back into his apartment.
"Dammit, Granger!" Draco scoffed as he noticed her phone on the ground, displaying on its screen that the emergency call for the police had gone through. Draco flashed her scathing glare. "How dare you try to ruin our fun….you filthy mudblood." He kicked her phone aside as he stomped toward the sidewalk.
"Hey!" Hermione snapped, running over to grab her phone from the ground, wincing as she wiped off all the mud it acquired. She looked over her shoulder to see Draco walk passed Harry. He gave him light punch on the arm. "The mudblood just called the police on us. I'm getting out of here."
Harry was facing Ron's apartment with his fists still clenched, looking like he was ready to just ram straight through the closed door and drag the cowardly redhead back out. Then thunder crashed, and Harry turned to kick at a rock as he stomped after Draco. Hermione watched as the two of them began to run down the sidewalk and disappear around the corner.