It took a moment for Hermione to realize what she was seeing. This, she knew, was because shock had taken over her mind. Shock and disbelief and, above all else, a deep, overwhelming pain. It stabbed her through the heart, made her grip her chest to try and catch her breath. This was something she had never expected; something she never thought would happen to her in a million years. But there it was; there was her husband on the bed, a skinny blonde woman on top of him. She could see him thrusting. She could see the sweat glistening on their backs, the way he rubbed his hands all over the blonde woman's body. She could hear him too. The repetitive words he always said as he came close to a climax.

She cleared her throat, and the room went still. Ron swore. "Fuck." As if the one word could fully sum up everything the situation meant.

"Ron, Honey," the blonde woman said. Hermione recognized her as one of the young women who worked in the joke store with Ron and George. "What's wrong, Baby? You're hearing noises."

It took a moment for Ron to push to young woman off him. He swore again, and then quickly stated, "It's not what it looks like. I swear, Hermione-"

"Oh, I think it's exactly what it looks like," Hermione said, her voice as cold as the knife to her heart. "You're, ah...How should I put it...Sleeping with Vanessa, from the store."

"It was a one time thing-" Ron argued, attempting to pull a sheet around his lower half as he stumbled out of bed. Vanessa just sat on the bed, her doe eyes wide and full of tears.

"Ronny, we've been together for months," Vanessa said. Hermione watched as the tears started to fall down her cheeks. "You promised me that you would leave her this week."

"Shut up-Hermione, I would never. You know I would never-"

"Do I?" Hermione asked, the iciness remaining. "Because it looks to me as if you've been screwing a twenty year-old for months, Ronny."

"I-"

"No. You don't get to speak right now. You made a vow, Ronald Weasley. You made a vow that-"

"A vow is a promise and you broke yours!" Ron said, getting angry as well. The chill remained as he stormed over to her. Hermione instinctively reached for her wand in her robes, suddenly afraid. She still didn't like people coming up to her when she didn't trust them, and she definitely didn't trust Ron at the moment. "You swore we could have a family. You said you wanted one as well. And then...And then you just...You let our daughter die."

Hermione couldn't breathe again. A very different pain seized control of her body then, and she wondered how someone who was supposed to love her could ever say something so hurtful. "That wasn't my fault," Hermione said, her voice suddenly weak and shaking. "I...I couldn't have done anything differently. I thought that it was fine."

"You're supposed to be smart," Ron challenged, sensing he had gained the upper hand. "You should have known. A mother would know."

"How dare you?" Hermione said. Her voice was still shaking and she hated it. She hated any appearance of weakness in front of Ron right now. He'd gone and cheated on her, and now he was throwing Rose back in her face. Hermione hadn't had control over the situation, as much as it pained her to admit. She hadn't been able to do anything differently. "She wasn't my fault; you swore up and down that you would never blame me for what happened. How...Why...That's it. I'm not doing this."

"Hermione wait," Ron said, his voice softening slightly from the anger it had contained before. "Hermione, we can work this out; we can make this better-"

"Go to hell, Ron," Hermione said, going to her drawer and pulling out clothes. "Be with Vanessa for all I care; I'm not going to do this with you. I'm not going to have you cheating on me and making me look like an idiot. I'm not going to do it."

She stuffed the clothes in a bag she'd summoned from the closet. Her hands were shaking but there wasn't anything she could do to stop that at the moment. She needed to get out of the house and get away from Ron Weasley. Her husband of just a few years. She had been so stupid to think that everything would work. To assume that after Rose he would continue to love her like before. Of course that wasn't the case; after what happened...No, she couldn't think about that. She needed to focus on getting out of the house.

"Where are you going to go, Hermione?" Ron asked, his voice becoming angry again. "You don't have anywhere to stay. You don't have any other family."

It was another knife to the heart. Hermione whipped around, her hand on her wand as she turned to stare at her husband. "You don't think your mother would take me in?" she asked heatedly. "If I told her what you did, how I found you...you don't think there's any chance she would take me in? Or Harry?"

"Stay away from my mother!" Ron shouted, anger taking him over. "And stay away from Harry too; he was my friend first!"

"That doesn't matter, Ronald!" Hermione yelled, shoving him away from her. "He's my friend too and if I need a place to stay then I'll bloody well go and stay with him!"

She turned on her heel and disapparated, her heavy bag hanging off her shoulder. When she landed she yelled out, clutching her arm as blood seeped through her fingers. She didn't recognize where she was, but she'd been aiming for Harry and Ginny's home and she could only hope she'd landed near them. Harry would have charms around to sense people coming because he could be paranoid, and then maybe he would find her and help her inside.

Hermione's legs wobbled as she tried to take a step forward. She fell to the ground, shocked at the pain in her arm. She'd never been splinched before; she'd never left in a hurry like that and she'd never been so full of emotions when trying to apparate. It had gone horribly wrong and now she could tell that a part of her arm was missing. It was bleeding and it hurt terribly, and it made her want to close her eyes and just give up. She'd felt this way before, after Rose, but that had been a thousand times worse.

"Hello?" she heard. Feet crunched the fresh snow on the ground, and Hermione recognized Harry's voice almost immediately. She'd gotten it right; she must have landed in their front yard. "Is anyone there? Hello?" Light hit her a moment later, and she heard a panicked, "Hermione?" before he rushed over to her. "What's-Splinched? I can fix that. You'll be fine. Should I call Ron? Of course I should call Ron; he'll be panicked when he-"

"No," Hermione managed to say in spite of the pain she felt. "Don't. I don't want to see him; I don't want him to know."

Harry looked confused, but immediately started fixing her arm anyway. Relief spread through her body as the wound slowly began to heal. It wouldn't be back to normal for a while and she would have to go into St. Mungos to get it fixed eventually, but she could live with that. She wasn't in danger of dying anymore, and that was all that really mattered. "Hermione, what's going on?" Harry asked once he'd done as much work as he could. He helped her off the ground and supported her weight as he led her into the house.

"Can I stay with you? Just for tonight? I'll find somewhere else to go tomorrow, I just...It's getting late and the hotels aren't going to have space now and I…"

"Of course you can," Harry said immediately. "What's going on?"

"I...I can't say," Hermione said softly. "Just trust that everything will be okay?"

"Hermione you show up splinched in my front yard and refusing to let me call Ron. Something's not right; what is it?" Harry said, his voice serious and making her panic slightly. She didn't want to tell him because as furious as she was with Ron, she knew Harry would be angrier and she didn't want to hurt their friendship. She also knew that Harry would tell Ginny, and Hermione didn't really want Ron dead.

"I…" All of those thoughts washed away when she closed her eyes. She saw Ron with Vanessa and anger bubbled up inside her, and the words came spilling out. "I went home and caught Ron in the middle of having sex with Vanessa."

"Vanessa?" Harry asked, shocked. "Hermione that's not...Maybe you were seeing things?"

"No," she said, her voice full of cold fury. "No, I wasn't seeing things. He's been sleeping with her for months; he told her that he'd leave me this week. I...I told him I wouldn't tell you."

She watched Harry's face, somewhat scared that he wouldn't believe her and would kick her out. But Harry wasn't just Ron's best friend, he was hers too. "That bastard," Harry said eventually. "Merlin, Hermione, I'm so sorry. Do you want me to go talk to him?"

"Why do I feel like that conversation would involve a fist?"

"Because it probably would," Harry said, giving her a tight hug. "Look, you're going to stay with us as long as you need to. We've got the guest room and the boys will be thrilled to see you. Ginny-When she finds out what Ron did...Might be best to tell her in the morning…"

As he said that though, Ginny's familiar face came down the steps and entered the room. "Hermione? What are you doing here so late? Is Ron with you? If that idiot got drunk and dragged us out of bed…"

"Not exactly what happened." Hermione muttered. She stepped away from Harry, who suddenly looked apprehensive, though she could understand why.

"Ginny, Love, you're not going to like this…"

Hermione stood with her arms folded across her chest, staring at Ginny as Harry told her the truth. She was trying to maintain her composure, as James and Albus were asleep upstairs and no one wanted to wake them up. Hermione could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. "When I get my hands on that little-" she stopped, took a deep breath, and then said, "Mum's going to be furious. She loves you. You're still in our family though, do you hear me? You've got to keep coming to Christmas and birthdays; you're our family, Hermione, no matter what Ron did and no matter what you decide to do. If you want to leave him, you've got our full support. Did Harry already tell you that you're staying here? I'm not giving you a choice, Hermione, I'll lock you in the guest room if you try to leave."

Hermione laughed, grateful now more than ever for Ginny and Harry. They couldn't solve her situation with Ron, but they would be damned if they didn't try to cheer her up. "He mentioned, Ginny. And thank you both; I know this is an inconvenience."

"Nonsense," Harry said. "You're not tired yet, are you? I could find us something to eat and we could chat or something. I have the whole day off; no one is supposed to call me in until midnight at the earliest."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to go lay down for a while. I'll be up at seven once the boys find out I'm here and I'll have to go back home tomorrow to get a few things I left behind. I really appreciate you letting me stay though."

"Family," Ginny reminded her, giving her a hug. "I'll come with you tomorrow. If Ron's there I'll give him a piece of my mind. We'll drop the kids by Mum's place; she'll be delighted to have them."

"You'll want to stop by St. Mungos tomorrow and get your arm checked out," Harry added. "I healed it decently enough but I'm no healer; they can get it back to normal for you."

Hermione nodded and thanked them once again before heading up to the guest room. She'd stayed with Harry and Ginny enough to know where it is, and she knew that they would probably like some time alone as, after all, this was Harry's day off of work. As she walked up she heard Ginny mutter, "I'm going to murder my brother." Hermione smiled slightly and shook her head. Ron might be blood, but Ginny was right. She was family, and she had a right to keep her family as intact as possible. She didn't have her parents anymore, and had never been particularly close to her extended family, which meant she had the Weasleys and Harry and that was about it. She'd make due. And she'd figure out what to do about Ron soon enough. She couldn't picture herself staying with him, not after this, but she did want to make peace with him. If they were going to co-exist, she needed to make peace with him.