Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

By

Sannikex

To Louise

Because you are you and that is all we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

A/N: A new story! Wee! As usual I don't own a thing except for the plot bunny, which I have kept, nicely locked up in my head til now. I started this story a looong time ago, pre-HBP so I guess it's AU. This story was inspired by the song Two Beds and a Coffee Machine by Savage Garden and I used the name as working title and now it got to stick since it has been the title for so long. Not beta-ed but I hope y'all will enjoy anyway!

Chapter One

She takes another step
Slowly she opens the door
Check that he is sleeping
Pick up all the broken glass
And furniture on the floor
Been up half the night screaming
Now its time to get away
Pack up the kids in the car
Another bruise to try and hide
Another alibi to write

/Savage Garden/

She didn't cry any more. She had shed so many tears over her fate. How it had become hers, smart and bossy Hermione Granger the star student of Hogwarts, Prefect and Head Girl, would without a doubt puzzle everyone who'd known her. Those who had known her. Who would recognize her now? Kneeling on the floor, bruised and disillusioned with shattered furniture and glass around her.

He had come home drunk again.

At the age of twenty Hermione Granger had married Viktor Krum, the celebrated Quidditch star.

She rose from the floor, grinding her teeth as the pain from various bruises hit her.

She had been smart, yes, but oh, so naïve. She had been blind in the beginning of her marriage. As a researcher she should have known, known that Bulgarian magicians had another view of marriage. But she hadn't known. She didn't notice her husband's growing irritation. When he suggested that she should stop working she had laughed at him. When he had argued with her how a wife should behave she had yelled back. But she had shrugged it all off as simple brawls.

The tension had grown stronger.

Viktor's career had started to go downwards and so did his temper. The first time he had hit her was after his team had lost to the Chudley Cannons. Shaken and upset she had started to pack her bags. But he had stopped her, begging her to forgive him, he hadn't realized what he was doing and it would never happen again. Then the years had passed and Vanessa had been born while Hermione had persuaded herself to think that she loved Viktor, whose career continued to go downwards. And then when she was pregnant with Henry he had been fired from the team. He had beaten her so she couldn't walk for two days. It was a wonder Henry'd survived. He had since long forbidden her to call her friends. And the masquerade carried on as they together played the forever-happy couple.

She hadn't heard from her friends in ten years. Of course they had been worried at first but she had told them that everything was fine, she just wanted to be with her family…Their letters had stopped coming. She didn't know anything about their lives except for what she had read in the paper. Harry Potter marries Luna Lovegood, The Daily Prophet knows it all! Ronald Weasley lets down top job and stays with the Cannons. That day she had cried. She didn't know them any more. Then she hadn't been allowed the wizard paper anymore. Viktor couldn't stand the shame of being fired from his team so they had moved to the Muggle side. She was far away from the world she had loved in this neat suburb of London, stuffed away in an inconspicuous terraced house. She couldn't escape. She had no one to escape to. Her old friends had forgotten her long ago. She couldn't appear on their doorstep with three children in tow. Sure, they would let her in for old times' sake but she wasn't the Hermione Granger they had known and loved; she was an empty shell, a shadow of that woman.

But she couldn't live on like this either. For eleven years she had put up with it but Viktor had effectively stomped of all the shreds of her heart and had unscrupulously burned her dreams and buried her personality until she was his faithful and pleasant wife. His slave. She had watched him become a wreck from alcohol. He used it to forget that he once was a celebrated star and now – nothing.

"Let me out", she whispered but no one answered.

----------

With a sigh of relief he sunk down in his favorite chair that his sister called the Bachelor Throne. She had a point, he thought and used his teeth to open the butterbeer bottle. He was thirty-one and still single to his mother's despair. Even Harry who mostly avoided touching the subject since he knew his friend was uncomfortable with it had carefully asked if it wasn't time to forget and move on. All around him there were nieces and nephews and marital happiness. Even Ginny was happy and she had married Malfoy. That was still a sore point and he couldn't do anything about it, Malfoy was after all the only man who could make his sister happy. Ginny was too good for the bastard. The thing was that was about the only thing he and Malfoy agreed on and that made it really hard to hate him. But he could torture him. The sad thing was that Malfoy always held the ace since he just needed to mention that he was the father of Ginny's children to make him have to run to the closest loo. Eww. He shook his head to make the uncomfortable thought to go away and took a gulp of beer. He didn't need to date right now; after all he wasn't in a hurry. Besides, John at the office had mentioned an extra ticket to the Bournemouth Bees' game tonight.

----------

She had been close once. She'd had the children with her in the groceriesstore; she'd had the car keys and some money. The automatic doors had opened and closed with a wheezing sound and the sun had been shining outside. But she hadn't dared. Viktor had her wand and his own and she just had a car. She had turned and continued deeper into the winding labyrinth of shelves feeling like she left a part of herself out on the warm car park.

But she couldn't live on like this. No way. She wouldn't let her children grow up together with him.

Hermione rose silently and walked towards the bedroom door, careful to not step on the shreds of glass. She peeked in but it really wasn't necessary, his snores echoed out in the hall. He hadn't made it to the bed, he was lying flat on his back on the floor, his mouth was open and he was snoring loudly. She closed the door and cursed inwardly that she didn't know where he hid the wands. She crept down the hallway feeling worthless; she was like a thief in her own house. Hermione opened the next door and the sight of her daughter sitting up in her bed, head bent and hands in front of her face, met her.

"Vanessa", she walked closer and sat down on the bed. Vanessa didn't look up but she lowered her hands and Hermione could see traces of tears on her cheeks and wet stains on the sleeves of the flannel pajamas where purple hippos grinned dumbly.

"He did it again, didn't he, he hit you." Hermione opened her mouth to lie and say that she had fallen but nothing came out. Vanessa was nine and smart, she had understood long ago.

"Yes." Vanessa looked up sharply and Hermione smiled sadly. "But this was the last time. We're leaving. Come on, hurry. We get the boys and take the car." She fastened Vanessa's long, dark, sleek hair, so unlike her own, behind her ears and rose.

"But where?"

"Anywhere"

She winced when she turned her head to check that Henry and Rorie were properly seated in the backseat but clenched her teeth and backed out from the driveway. As if on given cue she saw the curtains in the house next to theirs move. Her neighbors didn't like disturbances of the night peace. She could only pray that they wouldn't call to complain and wake Viktor.

"Mum, where are we going?" Henry asked from the backseat and she glanced at him in the rear-view. Almost six with eyes like hers and bushy eyebrows often wrinkled in wonder as he contemplated life around him. His hair was messy and his pajamas wrinkled as she had gotten him straight out of bed and into the car.

"It's a surprise, honey. But it's far away. Go to sleep." For once this wasn't followed by a dozen whys. Rorie, her baby, was already asleep. He was only one year old and accepted most things contently calm. Her children were the three things she could thank Viktor for.

---------

Don't hesitate to review!