| The note sat on her desk, stared at and unoccupied for days on end. It had been two months since she had arrived back home. The baby was growing, and much to her annoyance, so was she. She had not wanted to find out the gender of the baby and she and her overexcited mother flipped through baby name books. Hermione was adamant about one thing, ever since she had even thought about having children with Jonathon.
Her first son�s middle name was, without a doubt, going to be Ronald. He had been a fleeting thought in and out of the transom of her mind for eleven whole years. Staring at him that last night, being in his arms, it had felt so wrong to know she�d never be there again. It was so crazy to think, but all along, all that time� Even as she stood in the front of the church with a large white dress on� She knew that Ron should have been the one by her side. She should have been wearing that white dress for Ron. She should have been carrying Ron�s child. She should have been with him. He never would have left her with nothing� he never would have abandoned her and their child� he would have never fallen out of love with her. She certainly hadn�t fallen out of love with him. She recalled Ron�s bright blue eyes and impish smile. The way he always made her feel better by simply playing with her hair. She knew for a fact that Ron would never leave her. Ron was too sensitive, too in love with her, too good. Remembering the way Ron had been, she knew that deep down in her heart, he was the kind of man that wanted a big family. Staring out the window of the nursery she and her mother were decorating, she hugged herself to keep warm. Thinking was supposed to be one of her favorite pastimes. She had to push off such foolish thoughts and face reality. Ron was probably married with four kids. She knew him too well to stay single for long, no matter how much they had loved each other. She hadn�t seen him yet, but she had a feeling. In fact, she hadn�t seen anyone from Hogwarts. That was why it had been so weird to receive her letter. It was from Hogwarts, specifically Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. She had requested that Hermione come to Hogwarts and teach. Hermione recalled quite clearly that Dumbledore asked her if she would teach there right after her last year. As it had been only days after Ron had broken up with her, she wasn�t keen on staying. Maybe returning would be good for her. Hermione told her mother about the offer and she pushed her daughter into taking it. It would do her some good to get out of the house and get her mind off of her troubles. She still had a week yet to reply. She would be teaching the Arithmancy course, in which she knew an awful lot. Picking up the letter and turning it over in her hands a few times, she decided what she was going to do. It was time to throw away her pain and face her destiny. Maybe she�d meet another man of her dreams that wasn�t married off with kids. She didn�t know if Ron was married off with kids. She didn�t know anything anymore. She decided that finally, as a way to bring herself back from the dead and become Hermione Granger again, she was going to pull out her old quill pen and write. Perhaps even study. |