Pretty Woman

Hermione Granger turned and stared at herself in the grimy, cracked bathroom mirror which hung crookedly above the equally as grimy sink. She sighed heavily as she stared at herself. She again checked her heavily applied makeup that did not quite succeed in making her look older. She tried, in vain, to pull her mini skirt down lower towards her knees which were covered by her thigh-high boots. She had a tight tube top on that barely covered her chest and her hair was tied up in a high pony tail. She again sighed and thought, for the countless time: how had she got to this stage?

Hermione Granger was twenty years old and a prostitute, and had been for the last three years, she was also a witch but being a muggle-born made her the scum of the wizarding word and a social outcast even though she was very intelligent and had a beautiful and caring nature. When Hermione’s parents found out she was a witch, they were not pleased and treated her badly, her father, who already used to beat her, and her mother, too scared of him to help, treated her like a personal slave until Hermione ran away when she was just sixteen, claiming that she had had enough and anywhere was better than this. She travelled to London where she met Cho Chang who was a year older than her and had already been a prostitute for two years. Cho Chang, who was also a muggle-born witch, took her in and cared for her and taught her all the “tricks of the trade” that she needed to know to become “a lady of the night.”

Hermione suddenly shook her head, stopping the flow of memories that were threatening to overwhelm her. “Stop it.” she said, talking to herself in the mirror, “This is as good as

it’s gonna get, live with it!” She took a deep breath and exited her and Cho’s apartment.

********************

Faded, peeling walls and thread-bare dirty carpets greeted Hermione as she walked down the corridor to the lift that connected to the block of flats outside, to the night, where she hoped to earn a good night’s wage.

“Hey Hermione!” A gruff voice called from an apartment behind her.

Hermione sighed heavily and turned around to face, Mr Dursley, her landlord, an unshaven, enormously pot-bellied man in a stained t-shirt, “Yeah what?”

“Rent. You’re late.”

“Don’t give me that. Cho gave it to you yesterday, cash.”

“Cho give me nothin’”

“You bull-shittin’ me?” Hermione asked, suddenly uncertain as she knew what Cho could be like.

“Of rent, I do not bullshit!” replied Mr. Dursley with a smug grin. His grin suddenly turned to a frown. “By the end of the week or you and your friend are outta here.”

Hermione started to run back to the apartment with a flurry of thoughts streaming through her head. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t. Could she? Cho what have you done with that money? In the background she heard Mr Dursley shout, “By the way, you look very nice tonight,” and Hermione cursed under her breath.

************

“Where is it? Where is it?” Hermione chanted, as she looked around the apartment frantically for the money she had given Cho this morning. She looked in the money pot for the third time and threw it against the wall when she once again found it empty.

“Shit!” She shouted, tossing the pot against the wall causing it to smash. Giving up, Hermione grabbed her coat and set out for The Leaky Cauldron, the only place Cho would be on a night when she got money.

********************

Hermione scanned the small, dark pub at the entrance of Diagon Alley and spotted Cho and her boyfriend Dean Thomas in the corner sniffing what looked like… “Angel Dusk,” Hermione breathed. Full of rage, Hermione thundered towards the couple who were obviously high and had been for a long time. “You spent it on drugs, didn’t you?” Hermione asked, startling Cho and Dean.

“Oh, hi Herms. Dean, you know my roommate, Hermione?” Cho asked, avoiding the question.

“Lookin’ good, baby,” Dean said after staring freely at her breasts.

Hermione sighed, “Did you blow it all Cho?” she asked, desperation in her voice, not again, “Is it all gone?”

“Dean had some great rock Herms,” said Cho, beginning to regret what she had done.

“That was our rent!”

“Hey calm down chick” said Dean, attempting to put an arm around Hermione. “What is it you wan’ baby? I can fix you up.”

“Beat it scumbag!” shouted Hermione moving away from him.

“Kiss your mother with that mouth? Your friend still owes me 200.”

“Let’s go Cho,” she said grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the pub.

********************

“We worked for that money Cho. We were gonna put together enough to get out of that dump we live in, get off this street,” started Hermione as they sat in a small coffee shop a block away from their flat. How could she do this again?

“Hermione… don’t be stupid. We’re whores.” Said Cho in an off-hand way. Oh no, it looks like she’s gonna cry. “So I blew our stash.“ she continued, “we could make it all back with one good night on the streets.”

“There‘s muggleborn prostitutes like us that go missing every day Cho, even more since Chucky and his gang have moved ya.”

“Don’t be mad at me. I’ll pay you back. I promise. And will you keep you‘re voice down? Anyone could hear you!“

“How we gonna get some security if we ain‘t even got a lock on the door. Powerful wizards can break our lock with an Alohamora spell and I haven‘t been able to afford a new book from Flourish and Blotts for literally years to be able to read about it. Anyway, I thought you were gonna give up that drug shit?”

“I will, I’m trying. Meanwhile though I got some crack left, you wanna get high?”

“No, let’s go to work. Okay?” sighed Hermione defeated.

“Okay,” said Cho reaching across the table and squeezing Hermiones hand reassuringly.

“I’m sorry I said your dream was stupid.”