Chapter Text
Hermione Granger brewed herself an Earl Grey tea with milk and just a small dash of honey, as she had always done - her parents were dentists, so a small dash of honey was the sweet treat she was always allowed growing up, and it paired perfectly with the floral tea. She lightly toasted a slice of wholegrain sourdough and spread half a ripe avocado on top, then sprinkled some salt and tabasco sauce to finish, finally sitting down with the Daily Prophet to complete her morning routine.
As was unfortunately also becoming a routine for her in the mornings, she soon scowled over the newest article in the ‘newspaper’ that detailed one Ronald Weasley’s latest exploits. Today was yet another in a long line of girls claiming that she had ‘been with’ Ron whilst he was still with Hermione, but that she hadn’t realised that Ron and Hermione were a couple at the time, Ron apparently claiming to the poor girl that Hermione had cheated on him and broken his heart. This, of course, was categorically untrue, however was the story that he had apparently used on many unsuspecting girls when they were still together in order to cheat on her.
“Oh goody” Hermione muttered sarcastically to herself as she continued reading. It appeared The Daily Prophet had been able to reach Ron for comment on this particular article. What was her ex’s response to the latest allegations when the reporter had spotted him? “It’s not true! Why would I even cheat with her, she’s like a 4. Though I don’t know if the part about Mione cheating is true or not, there's no way for me to know for sure she was”. Hermione threw the rag - as it could not be classified as a ‘news’paper - down on the kitchen island and continued to eat her breakfast, although her avocado toast definitely bore the brunt of her aggressive chewing.
She was so glad to be rid of the cheating bastard. She had done it just two months ago upon discovering him and a random blonde going at it in his office at the DMLE late one night. She had thrown the takeaway dinner she had brought him when she thought he was working hard at the office, screamed at him and told him it was over as he stuttered apologies and pulled his pants up, hurriedly rushing after her through the floo.
When he arrived back in their apartment and saw her packing up all of his clothes, he was apparently no longer sorry however, telling her to ‘get over it, that it was just what men need to do, what did she think he had done all that year when she went back to finish her eighth year of schooling when he was starting Auror training’. Ron told her that it was her fault for always working and making him feel second best, that he just wanted someone to think he was important and not just Harry Potter’s sidekick. Hermione was not called the Brightest Witch of Her Age for nothing, and she had not fallen for these tactics. When Ron could see that it wasn’t working and she had continued to pack up everything of his in the apartment, he told her that she couldn’t kick him out, as she wasn’t going to be able to do any better, that she was lucky he had ‘overlooked her plain appearance, annoying personality and inferior blood’.After a moment of shocked silence from both of them at his outburst, she promptly hexed him into the fireplace, threw down powder, shouted for the Burrow, did the same with all his clothing and items, shut down her floo, locked her wards, and proceeded to break down in her living room.
After a heavy weekend of wallowing and grieving, she flooed to Harry and Ginny’s place for dinner excited to see her friends and get some much needed support. Her plans were cut short though - Ron had already been to see Harry earlier that weekend and had already convinced him through distraught crocodile tears about how some girl he didn’t know had told Hermione a false story about him cheating, and that she had gone crazy and believed it and kicked him out, devastating him. Harry had not even let Hermione relay her version of events (which was actually the truth!), before Harry declared he wasn’t going to take sides in this as he loved both Ron and Hermione.
Since then, Harry had demonstrated to Hermione that ‘not choosing a side’ actually meant constantly trying to convince Hermione to take Ron back so things could get ‘back how they were meant to be’, whilst relentlessly extolling his virtues, and talking about how much Ron missed her, while not ever acknowledging what Ron had done or said. Hermione was thankful that Ginny had listened to her and believed her over her brother, and tried to run interference as much as she was able.
Hermione finished her morning routine and flooed to the Ministry to start her day at work with trepidation.