Hope Floats

Once she was out of the shower, Hermione donned a bathrobe, and wrapped her hair in a towel.

'COFFEE!' She thought yearningly as she trodded down the stairs and into the kitchen.

" Hi Mummy!" Diana said cheerfully as she ate her cereal.

"Morning, luv," Hermione said absently.

"what are you doing mummy?" Diana inquired happily.

"I'm just making some coffee," Hermione responded tiredly.

"Daddy says 'Good luck on your interview'," she informed her mother.

"Oh, okay, thanks hunny," Hermione said before yawning.

She sat down next to her daughter and let her head fall onto her crossed arms until the coffee was done.

"Are you okay, mummy?" Diana asked as she caressed her mother's forearm.

"Yes, baby, Mummy is just a little tired this morning," Hermione said as she lifted her head up to give her daughter a smile.

Moments later she kissed her daughter on the forehead before she got up to pour herself a huge mug of coffee.

Hermione downed her coffee while her daughter finished off her cereal.

"Alright, you little bug, it's time to get you off to school," Hermione told her before she headed up the stairs to get dressed.

She emerged moments later from the stair case looking immaculate, as always. Her daughter grinned mischievously at her.

"What, may I ask, is so Amusing?" Hermione asked with a mischievous smile of her own.

"I think I prefer you sleepy," Diana said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, hush you," Hermione said happily as she grabbed her purse from the foyer table.

"Come on Di, out to the car!" Hermione called.

"Coming mummy!" She responded as she padded rapidly to the front door.

Hermione sat in her car seat and took a few deep breaths to prepare herself for the day ahead.

Hermione had written a fiction book for magical children. The idea occurred to her when her own daughter was reluctant to read anything beneficial. She had always wanted to do something important, something worth while. Now, she had finally found her dream. The beautiful child seated next to her had inspired her to write a fiction children's novel that also gave children valuable information. Not just Moral standards or parables...She wanted to teach the children to think critically in a way that was unbeknownst to them.

Today was her first book review, and her nerves were completely out of control. Her calm, intellectual demeanor did nothing to sedate her deeply set performance anxiety.

'Alright, get a grip,' she told herself as she turned the key in the ignition.

She looked over at her daughter and smiled involuntarily. Her daughter was key to her equilibrium. No matter what, Di will love me just the same.

She dropped her daughter off at school and headed to the radio station, her stomach in fluttering in anxiety.

Hermione parked her Jag in the guest section of the WWN parking lot.

Ron was a scout for the chudley cannons, and naturally, he had to play the part.

She Stepped gracefully out of the Jag and straigtened her skirt. She let out a breath through pursed lips and grabbed her handbag.

The cool air from the radio station blew her hair back as she entered the impressive building. She entered the lift to the seventh floor where her interview was supposed to take place. She was to be Interviewed by Rita Skeeter. Although there was a time this would have been a horror, Hermione was assured that things would turn out favorably.

Hermione encountered the first loop of her day when she was requested to sit in a small, windowless room and was laden with a blindfold.

............Meanwhile, in the main room................

"Goooooood morning my fellow witches and wizards! It's a beautiful day and the time is ripe for a scandalous confession today on 'The Skeeter Show', brought to you by 'The Daily Prophet'," Rita Skeeter announced to all her listeners.

"Today folks, we have Connie Abram who's here to tell her bestfriend Hermione Weasley, that she's been having an affair with her husband!" she informed her listeners.

Faintly you could hear a collective gasp ripple through the audience.

"Alright then Connie, How long have you been having an affair with Ronald Weasley?" Rita inquired.

"A little over a year now," Connie answered.

"And do you love him?" Rita asked.

"More than anything," Connie replied.

"Did you hear that folks? She's been having an affair for five years and she doesn't even LOVE him!" Rita delivered excitedly.

Connie was left with her mouth gaping while the crowd, once again, shuddered with an audible gasp.

"Wait I didn't -"

"TIME to invite Mrs. Hermione Weasley on the show!" Rita said as the door at the end of the recording room bursted open to reveal Hermione being led in, blindfolded, by some WWN security staff.

"Good morning Mrs. Weasley," Rita intoned pleasantly.

"Uh, Good morning..." Hermione replied in a bemused voice.

"Why am I blindfolded?" Hermione asked a moment later in an irritated tone.

"Well, you're not exactly here for your book review, Mrs. Weasley," Rita admitted with glee.

"Your bestfriend has something very important to tell you," Skeeter informed her.

"Harry?" Hermione said as she ripped off her blindfold to look at him.

'Ahhh! Loop #2!!!' Hermione nearly groaned as she looked at Connie apologetically.

"Alright then, Connie," Rita began gleefully, "Go ahead and tell Hermione why you put her here,"

"Hermione," Connie said before clearing her throat briefly, " Ron and I are having an affair,"

'Ugh' Hermione thought as she felt her stomach plummet, ' There goes loop #3'

"H-How long?" Hermione barely got out.

"A-" Connie began before Rita butted in.

" Five years now; and the worst part....she doesn't -even-love-him!!" Rita supplied dramatically.

Hermione sucked in a deep, audible breath of air and clutched at her chest.

The fact that Rita skeeter was most likely exaggerating completely skipped her mind. She was beyond rational thought. Her 'happy home' was forever tainted when those first words came out of Connie's sodding mouth.

Before Hermione had even the slightest chance to recuperate, Rita called Ron into the studio.

"Mr. Weasley, you may come out now!" Rita said as she held the button for the intercom.

" Er, hello?" Ron asked uncertainly as he stepped into the room, also blindfolded.

"Hello Ronald, please have a seat," Rita said in a tone that was utterly reminscent of Dolores Umbridge.

"You may remove your blindfold," she told him after he sat down.

"BLOODY HELL!" Ron screamed when he realized which two women were in the same room with him.

This was enough proof for Hermione. Silent, unadulturated tears ran down her cheeks; a testiment of the hopelessness flooding through her.

"Ronald, Connie Abram has admitted to your five-year relationship and claims to not love you. What do you say to this?" Rita asked in rapid speech.

"WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU ON LADY? TOO MANY POTIONS INGREDIENTS IN THE WRONG PLACES?!" Ron screamed angrily.

"Do-NOT-lie, Ron," Hermione said in a deadly tone.

Ron quickly disinflated as he looked at his wife. He knew it in his heart, the moment he saw her eyes, that she knew. He looked down at his shoes in shame.

"Hermione I..." He began, but quickly faltered.

"You WHAT, Ron?" Hermione replied snappishly.

"I'm sorry," He said simply.

"So it's true then," she said more as a statement to herself than anything else.

"Yeah," He began, "Only this old bag is exaggerating!!! it wasn't five years!! it was only ONE year!"

Hermione snorted then. She snorted, then began to laugh manaically. Ron sat there and looked at her as if she was high off of potion fumes.

"What the-" he began before Hermione interrupted him.

"Five years, one year, what's the difference? It's the same thing, Ron. Yet you still try to better your situation by telling me that it was 'only' one year," Hermione seethed.

The silence following her diatribe was so poigniant that it was nearly physically painful.

"Did you consummate the relationship?" she asked.

"Huh?" Ron replied.

"DID YOU HAVE SEX!?!" she screamed in response.

"Yes," he answered in a tone hardly above a whisper.

"Do you love each other?" she asked in a voice hardly above a whisper.

"Yes," They both replied as Rita spouted off with an adamant 'NO!'.

Hermione got up from her seat without another word or glance at the other three people seated before her. She dashed from the studio, slamming the door behind her as she went. As she got off the lift and headed for the front door she heard the other lift ring to announce it's arrival. As if on instinct, Hermione quickens her pace.

"Do NOT speak to me Ron," she intoned forcefully as she pushed open the door.

"Hermione please wait!" he begged after her.

"There is nothing left to say, LEAVE ME BE!" she screamed as she flung open the driver's side door to the Jag.

"Let me EXPLAIN!" he pleaded exasperatedly.

"I think I've heard enough," Hermione said as she backed up and drove away, tires screeching in the distance.