This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated.

I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!

Hermione thoughts are in Italics.

Fixing the Past & Present

Ron was definitely terrified of me. He had scrambled off our bed when he first noticed me. He had tried to explain, but he was doing a piss poor job of it. He was currently backed up against his dresser.

"SAFE! I was safe! You kept dating me for three years because I was safe?" I said drawing my wand and pointing it at Ron's face.

"Hermione, th-th-that's not-t-t what I meant t-t-to say." Ron stammered as his eyes crossed to keep the point of my wand in his sight.

"Really, Ron that is not what you meant to say?" I said slowly as I turned my hand menacingly. "Then, what in the bloody hell did you mean to say?"

"I meant… I meant… I don't know what I meant." Ron whispered barely loud enough for me to hear. "You know my family. They would never accept me for being this way."

I slightly loosened my grip on my wand and lowered my arm. I can't believe myself. I actually sort of feel bad for Ron and all of his insecurities. "Are you kidding me? Your family is some of the most accepting people I have ever met. They accepted that your brother is now part werewolf. They adopted Harry and myself into your family. They forgave Narcissa and Draco Malfoy because they helped save the three of us multiple times! But you thought they wouldn't accept you being with someone that made you truly happy?"

"But what I have done… what I am… what I am doing is harder to accept than…"

"What you're doing is worse than evil, despicable acts that Narcissa and Draco participated in?" I huffed before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I don't think this is about your family not accepting you for who you are and what makes you happy. This is about you accepting yourself and you being a bloody coward!" I said taking a step back with my hands shaking. "Why did you even propose to me?"

He slid down his dresser to the floor as the truth of my words and my question hit him. He shook his head back and forth staring at his hands. "I am sorry, Hermione. I am so very sorry."

"Honestly, Ron, I don't give a shit if you are sorry. At this moment, I don't have a single forgiving bone in my body." I said turning around and started making my way out of our bedroom. "I will be back tomorrow evening for all of my things. You will not be here when I am. I don't want to see you for a long, long time."

I left the room and walked down the stairs of the house that Ron's Aunt Muriel had bought us when we had gotten engaged. I stopped on the bottom stair and placed my generic, run of the mill diamond engagement ring on the banister. I walked to the front door and stopped again. I called out to the silent, anxious, scared couple upstairs. "It was not so lovely to see you again, Kenneth."

As I shut the front door, I heard Ron beginning to scream as the bat-bogeys appeared on his face after I cast a non-verbal hex toward the ceiling.

I walked down the front path. I brushed my hands along the top of the silver rose bushes that I had planted just a few months ago. I opened the white picket gate and walked through. I looked up at the house I thought I would call home for the rest of my life and turned heel. Taking a deep breath, I tried to figure out my next move. I needed a place to stay for the night before I collapsed from exhaustion.

Option one is going to the Leaky Cauldron and rent a room for the night. The beds aren't bad and Tom would be discrete. Then, I could easily get to Gringotts for work in the morning. On the other hand, I don't really feel like being alone tonight.

I can't go to the Burrow. Molly and Arthur are Ron's parents. Besides, Ron will probably show up there for breakfast tomorrow morning, if Kenneth can help him reverse my hex.

My parent's house is no longer an option. After Kingsley and I restored their memories, they forgave me and were even proud of me for wiping their memories and keeping them safe. We stay in touch by writing every week, but they chose to stay in Australia and they sold their house here in England. I could go stay with them in Australia, but I am too angry to apparate that far and I have to work in the morning.

Bill and Fleur would welcome me at Shell Cottage. Then, Bill and I can floo to work together. It is Bill's first night home after being home after being with me in Egypt for the last two weeks. I am sure that he didn't walk in on what I walked in on earlier. Plus, Fleur fusses and hovers more than Molly ever since Victoire was born.

George's large flat above his shop was not an option either. He and Katie probably already had a hard time getting their one year old twin girls and the two year old twin brothers that they had adopted after Fred and Angelina had passed away to bed. Plus, Katie is halfway through her second pregnancy. I can't in good conscience do anything to possibly cause a second bedtime for them tonight.

Charlie and Kursten had a newborn at home just like Percy and Penelope do. I placed both of those couples in the no column of my mental check list. Neville and Luna are about to deliver their first daughter any day now, so they are also on the no list.

I'm not close enough to any of the other curse breakers to ask them if I can borrow a couch tonight.

While I was thinking and going through a list of my friends, I walked through the village. It was so quiet and peaceful at night. When I got to the edge of Ottery St. Catchpole, I had made an unlikely decision. I had only one option left to stay with a friend, Harry.

~*Fixing*~

I had been standing in the courtyard in front of Number 12 Grimmauld Place for approximately twenty minutes. It was getting close to eleven pm. I am tired, cold, angry, sad, and hungry all at the same time. I'm too complex for Ron. I am not a teaspoon!

Unfortunately, I just didn't have the courage to walk across the street, climb the front steps, and knock on the door. What a Gryffindor I am!

Just when I was about to leave and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, the front door of Number 12 opened.

Harry Potter stood there with the light from the hallway outlining how thin he had become since the last time I had seen him. He stepped onto the top stair and called out to me. "Hermione Jean Granger, why are you standing out there shivering? Get your ass in this house right now. If you don't do it quickly, I will come out there and get you!"

Knowing that he would make good on his threat, I waited for a car to pass. Then, I sprint across the street. Running up the stairs, I ran straight into his arms that were open wide. He enveloped me in a calming hug. After keeping me close for a couple of minutes, Harry led me into his home.

"Hermione, why were you just standing out there for the past twenty minutes? Where were you for the hour before that?" Harry half questioned and half ranted at me again. He led me down the hall. Sirius, Tonks, and Remus waved to me from Sirius' portrait where his mother's used to be. I gave them a small wave back. Harry murmured to them not to be nice to me because I am in trouble. He escorted me down the stairs to the kitchen mumbling about me being stupid for standing out in the cold.

Once we were in the large, basement kitchen, he ordered me to sit at the table. He moved about the room making tea and muttering to under his breath like Kreacher used to do before he met Winky. It was almost funny to see Harry acting so at home in the kitchen.

Harry's hair was longer and shaggier than the last time I saw him. His clothes seemed to hang off of him because of the weight that he had lost that he could not afford to lose. The old Gryffindor quidditch tee he was wearing him, not the other way around. His denims were slung low on his hips, worn, and had several holes in them.

"How long did you know I was out there? How did you know I was out there? How did you know I was missing, even though I really wasn't, for the hour before that?" I asked in my own rant when he sat down at the table opposite me. "We haven't seen each other for almost two years. Why would anyone contact you to find me?"

"Everyone has been floo calling me and everyone else that has ever been in contact with you. Everyone else in the wizarding world is trying to find you. Aurors and several curse breakers are apparating from place to place trying to find you. I know for a fact that Kingsley even went to Malfoy Manor to make sure no one there lapsed." Harry waving his hands around like he always does when he is agitated. "Twenty minutes and many floo calls. Hermione, no matter what has happened the past two years, I still care a great deal for you. I may not have acted like it, but you are still my best friend. I have worried about you every day." Harry said as he placed his hands comfortingly over mine. Then, he reached his right hand up and wiped away a tear from my cheek. "You are exhausted. I should get you to a bed. We will save the deep, over-thinking discussions for tomorrow."

"Okay, I will feel so very much better after a night's sleep." I replied sarcastically as I tried to stifle a yawn.

"Now, you have your choice of any of the bedrooms. Well, you can't have the master, BuckBeak still lays claim to it. I swear that one of these days I will get him to sleep in the house that Hagrid made for him in the back garden." Harry said with a dry chuckle that made me smile.

"That sound is wonderful to hear." I said so low that I didn't think he heard me, but he did.

"You have no idea." Harry said chuckling again. "It's time to get you to bed. You are not to worry about a thing. Bill owled Gringotts and told them you are both doing some research from home tomorrow. Plus, I locked the Floo network and placed and anti-apparation charm here. You have from now until Monday morning to relax and maybe make a few decisions."

"Thanks, Harry." I said as I stood and walked my mug over to the sink. "I guess I better go find a room."

"Kreacher, Winky, and I have been really working this place over. I think you will find the best rooms are Sirius and Regulus' old rooms." Harry said following me up the stairs to the main hall.

"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed when we reached the main hall.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Harry looked at me and all around frantically. He sank to the floor as I did with tears in his eyes. "Talk to me. I can't fight what I don't know!" He is still on high alert even three years after the war.

"It's over. The past almost ten years of my life have been some kind of cruel joke." I cried out as he pulled me into his arms. "Plus, I still have to keep his secret."

Harry just rocked me as he ran his fingers though my hair. "You are going to get though this, Hermione. You don't have to do anything for him ever again, if you don't want to."

"I have to go back to that house and pack all of my stuff tomorrow night." I said after several minutes of his soft murmuring and reassurances.

He pulled back from me slightly and ducked to look me in the eye. "If you want, I will go with you. If you don't want to go, I am sure Bill and Fleur will go over and pack for you."

"Does everyone know that he cheated on me? In the bed that my parents bought us when Muriel bought us the house?" I asked quietly.

"The git cheated on you? I'll kill him." Harry said with an iced fire in his green eyes.

"Obviously, you didn't know." I said trying to lighten our dismal moods again.

"No one told me, but I don't think anyone knows that happened." Harry said helping us both to our feet. "Ron isn't talking much and he took himself to St. Mungo's."

"Oops! Maybe that spell was a little too strong."

"I figured that was your handy work. Last I heard, he is still at hospital and the healers haven't been able to remove it yet." He said starting toward the next set of stairs. As we continued up to the bedrooms, he waved to the portraits. "Night, Sirius. Good night, Mum and Dad. Night, Ginny. Night, Remus and Tonks."

I could see the love and hurt in his eyes as he said good night to paintings instead of the actual people.

He startled me from my thoughts by asking me a surprise question. "Do you still scream at night?"

I made an attempt at sarcasm. "Doesn't everyone at this point?"

"Funny," Harry said as he nudged me with his shoulder. "Don't silence the room. It has been so long since someone else has been here that I don't want to forget someone else is here."

"If you are sure," I said skeptically. "I will warn you that Bill says I am progressively getting louder."

"I'm sure I can handle it." Harry said smirking before pulling me into a hug. "We will talk more about tomorrow."

"Night, Harry."

~*Fixing*~

I don't really remember walking into Regulus' room, changing into the sleep vest and shorts left over from my work trip in my extendable bag, or climbing into the bed. I don't remember my dreams, screaming until I woke Harry up, or Harry coming into the bedroom.

I do remember waking up with Harry's arms wrapped around me, seemingly protecting me from my dreams and my own personal bitch in the darkness. I was a little surprised realizing that Harry was not wearing a shirt or even a vest.

I tried slipping out of his arms to the washroom without him noticing or waking up. I slid a pillow in between our bodies and breathed a sigh of relief and did a quiet happy dance when I made it to the adjoining washroom.

After using the restroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked horrible. My hair was a mess, so I pulled it back into a somewhat tamer bun. Now that I can see my full face, I realize my make-up is smeared and all over the place. I grab a washcloth and quickly scrub my face clean.

I still have red eyes with circles around them. I still have numbed, stoic facial expression. I am still the mousey, know-it-all, bookworm that I was when I was a student at Hogwarts. I am still a fool that is in love with Ronald Weasley.

I decided that I didn't want to keep analyzing myself and turned from the mirror to left the washroom. I crept back into the room and I laid down on the chaise lounge under the street facing bay window. I laid there and watched the sun make its daily journey through the sky.

When the sunlight finally touched my face, the weight and enormity of the past twelve hours hit me. I felt the tears beginning to stream down my face and I knew they would not be stopping anytime soon. I needed a hug. I needed Harry.

I called out to Harry and I heard him stir on the bed behind me.

"Hermione, where are you?" He asked in a raspy tone.

"Grab you glasses from the nightstand and I am on the chaise near the window." I answered through my tears.

He leaned me forward and sat down behind me. Pulling me back against his chest, in a voice filled with sleep, he said "I had no idea this thing was called a chaise."

Through my tears, I lightly asked, "Is that really the point right now, Harry?"

"No, but I am half asleep." He said like it made his random comment make sense. "Plus, I hate to see you cry, especially when I am one of the reasons."

"Why do you say that you are one of the reasons?"

"Because I know you, Hermione Jean Granger. You haven't cried since the end of the war. You have tried to be strong for everyone else while they fall apart. You stay strong for your friends and family, even when one or two of us have been nothing, but royal asses to you." Harry said wrapping his arms around my shoulders to ground me to him. "Hermione, I'm here with you. I am not going to push you away ever again. Let everything out. Then, Winky and I will make your favorite breakfast of porridge with peaches and honeycomb."

I do make up different situations from J. K. Rowling's work, but I am not a fan of making up my own characters. Everyone in here is in her original books. The man with Ron was Kenneth Towler, a Gryffindor that was two years above the Golden Trio in school. Charlie's wife is Kursten Blijk, who was a German Quidditch Chaser.

I had to take my stories down from my old account, KaliMione77. This story used to be named "Changes Unknown". I think i will be posting every few days. I am rereading everything, fixing mistakes, and fleshing out the story.

Let me know what you think! ~DuckiBelle