WML Chapter 2: The Other Woman
She took a deep breath as she opened the door and walked inside the room. As soon as she walked in, the couple noticed her, and Ron hurriedly jumped up off the woman. The woman sat up and covered herself up. She had long blonde curly hair and Hermione recognized her and her annoying voice right away. It was Lavender Brown.
“Oh my…” Lavender said as she looked between Ron and Hermione.
Ron quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and stood up.
“Hermione…” He paused as if searching for the right words to say.
Hermione was shocked and for a moment, all she could do is stare at the two people in her bedroom. Then she looked down at her bed… her bed.
There was a naked woman in her bed with her husband. She suddenly felt incredibly angry and seriously considered strangling the two of them, but she didn’t really want to go to Azkaban for becoming a murder.
“Get out of my bed and out of my house!” She screamed at the Lavender.
Then she looked at Ron. “How could you Ron, this is our bed.”
She shook her head at him as tears started freefalling down her face.
Lavender started to get up slowly and glanced at Ron with pleading eyes, obviously wanting some help from him in this uncomfortable situation.
This only made Hermione even more angry.
“Get the hell out of my house now! Get out!!” She screamed loudly and pointed out the bedroom door.
The woman decided it was probably best to listen and rushed out of the bed and out of the room. She was fully naked as she rushed away from Hermione and her anger.
Ron shoved past Hermione and followed Lavender to the door with one of his shirts. He rushed over to her and pulled in on over her head before they both stepped out the front door.
Hermione watched them through the window as they kissed and she apparated away. Ron shook his head and took a deep breath before stepping back into the house.
He walked up to her and tried to take her hands into his, but she pulled them away, feeling disgusted by his touch.
“Don’t touch me.” She sneered at him.
“Hermione I am so sorry. I never meant for you to…”
“To what? Catch you and some slag fucking in our bed?” She cut him off.
“That’s not what I meant. Look, Hermione…”
She cut him off again.
“I don’t want to hear it, Ronald.”
She stormed through the house and to their bedroom. She paused to look at the bed for a moment before rummaging through drawers and grabbing clean clothes.
She then grabbed a few amenities off her dresser and stormed back into the living room to gather her things off the table.
“Hermione, where are you going?” He asked as she stepped up to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder.
“Well, I’m obviously not staying here with you, am I?” She asked sarcastically.
She took a deep breath and continued.
“I’m going to sleep at the office, and I will talk to you tomorrow once I’ve had time to think about all this.”
As she was about to throw down the powder, she was interrupted by him speaking angrily at her.
“Oh, back to the office then. Why am I not surprised?” He asked sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.
She felt a new wave of anger hit her and she wanted so badly to punch him in the face. How dare he judge her or question her after what she just walked in on.
“Excuse me? Just what is that supposed to mean?” She asked with a questioning glare in his direction.
He shook his head.
“Nothing. Just go.” He said dismissively.
She gritted her teeth. ‘What an ass.’ She thought to herself.
“Ministry of Magic.” She said and threw the powder down.
Green flames engulfed her and within seconds she was back at work and stepping out of one of the many floo fireplaces. She took a step out and looked around. The place was completely empty at this point except for a few random janitors throughout the building.
She figured that it was empty enough that hopefully, no one would notice if she slept there just this one night.
She finally made it to her office, and she threw all her belongings down on one of the empty chairs. Then, she plopped herself down in her seat.
She threw her hands to her face and started sobbing. She couldn’t believe that Ron would do such a horrible thing. She knew their marriage wasn’t perfect and they definitely had their issues but to cheat on her…
She couldn’t even finish her line of thought. She was too upset and pissed off to deal with any of the things running through her head.
She cleared off her desk and transfigured it into a cot. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing, but it was better than nothing.
One positive thing that she thought of was the fact that she would be really early for work the next morning and might even be able to get caught up on some of the backlog of records that needed updating.
She smiled to herself through the tears.
‘That’s it, Hermione. Think of the positives.’ She almost laughed at herself for being so ridiculous.
She was beyond exhausted and fell asleep rather quickly as she cried herself to sleep. She tossed and turned all night as horrible dreams filled her subconscious.
The next morning….
Draco walked into his office and sat down in his chair. He actually managed to get in about six hours of sleep which was probably a record for the month considering all the extra time at work lately. He felt good and rested for the first time in a while.
He sighed as he started sorting through the files on his desk. He sorted them into categories but quickly realized he was missing a stack that was supposed to have been sent in last night after he left.
Then he thought that maybe they accidentally put the files in Hermione’s office. They work so closely that they could have gotten confused as to which office needed the files.
He shrugged and stood up. He knew there wouldn’t be anyone to bring him the files. He was really early and most of the people in their department wouldn’t be there for a couple of hours still.
He slowly made his way down to Hermione’s office and walked in. He was shocked to see her sleeping in there and he wasn’t sure what to do. He really needed those files but he didn’t want to wake her.
He glanced around the office and saw her things piled in a chair. He looked at her lying on the cot and couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
She had tear stains on her cheeks and had obviously cried herself to sleep.
‘They must have had a fight.’ He thought.
He shook his head.
‘Ron, you are an idiot.’ He thought as he turned around and walked back out of her office.
He could get the files later. He didn’t want to risk waking her. It would set him behind a bit for the day but nothing he couldn’t recover from.
Later…
The day had moved along rather quickly and by that afternoon Draco had managed to get caught up on pretty much all the extra work that needed to be finished that day. He felt accomplished overall which put him in a good mood.
He pulled out his purple memo pad and wrote a quick note to Hermione to please bring up the files that must have accidentally made their way to her office and he sent it flying out of the room.
Much to his surprise, she didn’t come straight down. Most of their coworkers would rush in as soon as he requested them. He figured that they were probably still a bit scared of him and he honestly didn’t mind all that much. It was a little annoying when they acted nervous around him but at least it kept them punctual.
Usually, Hermione responded pretty quickly but this time she had him wait an hour before she finally arrived at his office door.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come right away but I wanted to finish the stack of papers that I was working on so that I could bring it all at once.” She said breathlessly as she rushed into the room.
She set the large stack on the end of his desk and took a step back.
“It’s fine, Granger. No rush. Take a seat.” He motioned to the chair in front of his desk.
She took a deep breath and nodded to herself as she sat down in the chair and looked up to see him watching her. She gave a questioning look and cleared her throat. Something about his eyes and the way he looked at her sometimes made her feel nervous and self-conscious.
“What can I help you with?” She asked softly.
“Oh, I did find the files you mentioned. They were mixed into the stack that got brought into my office last night.” She waved a hand at the files that she had placed on his desk.
“They are on top of the records that were due to be brought up today.” She finished.
He nodded his head and smiled.
“Thank you for that. I wanted to see how the workload was for the day? Any chance you will be done at a reasonable hour tonight?” He asked.
She nodded her head.
“Actually yes. I got in early today and I was able to work ahead a bit so I should be able to get out of here early tonight.”
He smiled bigger.
“That’s great. It should be an early night for both of us then. I wanted to ask you if you and the guys would want to go out tonight. It’s been too long since our last night out and I could definitely use one after all this…”
He motioned around the room to all the stacks of files and records piled up in different sections in his office.
She hesitated a moment then responded with a forced grin.
“Sure. I will talk to them and arrange it. A night out could be nice.”
Back in her office…
“Why did I say yes? What am I going to do?” She talked out loud to herself.
She pulled out her purple memo pad and jotted out two separate notes. One to Harry to invite him and Ginny out for the night and the other to Ron to tell him that he had to go and that they would talk beforehand. She needed a night out damn it and she was going to make it work, one way or another.