Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or HBP would have been different.
A/N: I proposed this plot as a challenge, but no one seemed interested, so I worked on it myself. Please, if you read, leave me a comment.
Time later
But, there was an hole in her life. They had no children yet. She had told him she wanted to wait, to make her career, but truth was, although she had thought she had left Harry back and got over him, every time she had sex with her husband she kept desiring to be with Harry.
She could not bring herself to give Albert a child when she wanted that badly it to be the child of someone else.
Five years later, Hermione left her home in New York to head to the Hospital.
There, in her office, she found an advertisement for an important conference on new discoveries about Wizarding Cancer, it was to be held in a couple weeks in London.
She stared at it wondering if she should go.
It would be the first time she would go back to England since she left her parents' house after fighting with her mother about her choice.
She sighed.
"I'll talk about it with Albert later" she said.
The day passed smoothly, and at dinner they went to a fancy restaurant to have a little treat after a period that had been stressful for both of them.
While eating, she told him about the conference.
"So, do you think we should go?" she asked then.
"I dunno. I mean, knowing new techniques is always useful, especially for something that till now has been almost incurable like Wizarding Cancer. But after all you're the Director, so you should decide. And, if you want my opinion, I think it's you that should go"
"Why me?"
"Because as I said, you're the Director. We can't bring all the Healers with us, but we all need the same knowledge about this. So why should I be privileged and go with you just because I'm your husband? Instead, if you go and then report the news to us all, it would not create malcontents"
She beamed at him.
"You're right, as usual" she said, kissing him softly.
The real reason she feared the trip was that although she was doing better with forgetting Harry lately, repeating herself that he did not love her as a mantra, he kept coming into her mind at times, and she feared she may encounter him while staying there for some days.
However, the decision was taken, and two weeks later she Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Ms. Granger, it's been ages since we saw you" Tom greeted her.
She smiled warmly. "Thanks, Tom. I got to go now, sorry"
And she did.
She walked toward the near building in which the conference was to be taken into, in Diagon Alley.
All day she sat there, listening and taking notes about new spells created to reduce the production of ill cells, and to start excerpting them from the patient successfully.
She knew some of the Muggle techniques to cure cancer, or at least try, and she had to admit that Wizards were just now catching up with them.
Being Muggle-born, she could not avoid to feel pride at that for the Muggle society.
A couple days later, she decided she needed to relax, and went for a walk in Muggle London.
She was looking at shops, while passing, like many other people, when she thought she heard her name.
"Hermione…"
She turned but saw no one she knew.
"Hermione…"
Finally she spotted a person, sitting on one angle of the sidewalk, looking dishevelled, with his clothes all dirty and thorn.
He was practically a vagabond, and he was muttering something.
"My Hermione…"
She could not resist, and walked nearer, her heart pounding in her chest.
More she neared, and more she noticed the resemblance with…
"Harry" she whispered.
He did not respond, he simply kept looking blankly at the crowd walking.
"Harry, what are you doing here?"
No reply came.
She looked him over, and there was no doubt. Same hair, same eyes, same scar. He had broken glasses on his nose.
"Hermione…" he started again. "My Hermione…my Hermione left me…left…"
She tried to speak to him some more, and some started looking at her strangely.
He never looked at her, never replied to her words.
Simply kept muttering what had become the only thing he was able to think about.
She felt tears welling in her eyes.
That was the moment she understood, that her mother was right.
He was deeply in love with her, and she had left him.
Steeling her resolve, she dragged him into the nearest dark alleyway, eliciting curious looks form some people, then she Apparated both of them back to their old flat.
She found the key in one of his pockets, and opened the door.
Dragging him inside, she lay him on the couch, and noticed the complete chaos that the flat was.
She felt a nauseous smell coming from the kitchen, and found rotten food on the table, and in the bin.
The fridge was empty.
She sighed, and with some spells cleaned the kitchen, then made some tea.
She then sat near him offering him some, but he never stopped looking blankly at the wall in front of him.
"What have I done?" she whispered sadly, walking into the bathroom.
All night she tried to comfort him, but the only words that left his mouth were, "Hermione…my Hermione left me…left…she…not here…"
Her heart broke at seeing him in that condition, and she started crying, sobbing loudly.
She cried herself to sleep, the only reason she had left him crumbling with realization, and her hurt for being the responsible of his condition overwhelming her.
She did the only thing she could do for the moment, holding him close to her, and hoping it would help.
Next day, she went to attend the convention, locking him into the flat to not risk him escaping.
Her mind kept going to him, so for the first time in her life, she did not pay so much attention to a lecture.
At lunch, although there was the afternoon still to attend, she decided Harry was more important, so she left and went checking on him.
She found the man in the same spot she had left him, and decided she would do the first thing she could to try and bring him back.
She lovingly shaved him from the long beard covering his face, then she changed her clothes.
There was something she needed to do, although she knew it would not be easy.
She went to the Daily Prophet, and asked of Ginny Weasley.
Moments later, she found herself facing her old friend.
"Hi Ginny" she said, smiling.
"Hi" the other one replied coldly. "What are you doing here? I'm busy"
Hermione cringed at her tone. "Listen, we need to talk. There are things I need to tell you and the others"
"Fine. I have no time now, but I'll alert the others. Let's meet tonight at my place" and with that the redhead gave her a small piece of parchment with an address, turned on her heels and walked away.
Hermione sighed, going back to Harry's flat.
She knew it would not have been easy, but maybe she expected something better than that.
That night, she nervously locked Harry in the flat and left, Apparating to the address Ginny had given her.
She entered.
"Hello, Ginny?" she asked.
"Come in, Hermione" she was greeted by Ron's voice.
"Oh, hi, Ron"
The redhead said nothing, simply glared at her.
Minutes later, they were all reunited around a table, and no one seemed friendly to her.
She sighed.
"Well, I see you and Draco are married, Ginny. And you and Luna too, Ron" she started, noticing the rings on their hands. "Why didn't you invite me?" she asked then a bit hurt.
"I don't recall you inviting any of us, Granger" Draco sneered.
She slumped in her seat. He was right. She had left all of them behind.
"You're right. But, Luna, am I wrong, or are you pregnant?" she said, looking at the blonde girl, hoping to find a better attitude from her.
"Yes, I'm on the sixth month. You could have been too, if you stayed with Harry" the girl said, for once forgetting her daydreaming attitude, and attacking her former friend.
Since the subject of the meeting had been touched, Hermione told them about Harry's conditions, and how she found him.
"Well, what did you expect?" Ron spat angrily. "Did you think he would go on with life and find himself another woman, after you left?"
She said nothing. It was exactly what she thought he would do. What she thought he was already doing, to be truthful.
"You can't be serious, Hermione!" Ginny cried, guessing her silence for what it was. "The man was totally head over heels with you. And he knew you were seeing someone, but he hoped it would pass. He did not know what to do anymore, he tried to right the situation, but you let the rift grow deeper and deeper!"
Hermione felt tears start to well up in her eyes.
"I…didn't know he loved me that much…I thought he was finding excuses to see someone else…" she admitted.
Ron suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
"Hermione, you told me once I had the emotional range of a teaspoon, but Merlin, even I could see you had him wrapped around your finger, bloody hell! How could you think he would cheat on you?" he cried in frustration, leaving her.
"Seriously, Granger" Draco said, "You did something pretty stupid for being the brightest witch of our age"
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Draco, I needed just that" she said.
"Yes, you did. Did you know that before your troubles started, he wanted to propose? The night we captured Dolohov, he had arranged to do just that. But things got the way you know, and he couldn't. Merlin, even few days before your break up he still wanted to propose!" Draco said, for once losing his cool behaviour.
She gasped.
That was something she did not know.
"And, few days later you left him, he resigned from his position and started drinking, trying to drown his sorrow in the alcohol. Every one of us tried to help him, to make him stop, but he would lash out at us, and no one can contain him when he's angered. Only you had the power to do so, because you were the only one he would listen to. Because he's in love with you" Draco finished.
"And want to know something? I dunno why he kept loving you. It's clear you do not deserve him" Ron spat. "Then he finally cracked, and left the Wizarding World"
All night it went on and on. Hermione tried explaining her reasons, but mostly she learned from her friends that she had been completely blind.
And with every word from them, she felt the old flame of her love for him, for the boy she had known in Hogwarts, return to flare, coming in the light again from the dark spot in her heart where she had hidden it.
When she returned to his flat, that night, she vowed she would right her mistake, somehow.
With the passing of days, she tried to cure him, but with few results. He would now move around the flat, but his blank expression remained, as well as his blabbering.
It broke her heart every time he spoke, because the words reminded her of her foolishness.
Another thing she needed to do, and would not need the help of her friends for, was mending the rift with her parents.
She went to see them, and after some insistence, her mother let her in.
"Mum, I'm sorry. These last days I've been here in London, and I discovered you were right. Harry did love me more than his own life" she started, then trough fresh tears she told her about his conditions.
Anne Granger slowly melted, seeing the pain her daughter was in. Yes, she had caused that herself, but still, she was her only daughter.
"Honey, don't despair. He would not want you to. I'm sure there's a way to make him come back to normal. But, you know, in a certain way I'm glad this has happened. You needed something like this to see what everyone else saw as clear as water" she said, hugging her crying daughter, and holding her close.
Hermione let her pain ebb away with the tears, and left feeling stronger. She knew she had her family on her side again now, and that was important for her. She was not alone in this.
At home, she sent an owl to Ginny, and got a response few minutes later. She needed something else to be cared of now.
She Apparated to her flat, and once there, she spoke.
"Guys, as you know I want to right my mistake. I want to try to bring Harry back to his normal self and live with him an happy life, and even if I was to fail, I would still remain by his side, trying to do that till the end of my life. But, as you know, I'm married. I cannot do that if I do not divorce. I'm here to ask your help to find a way to do that"
"Oh, no problem, Granger. I knew since I saw you here again that this moment would come. And what's the point in having been a Slytherin for seven years, if you can't devise a good plan when you need it?"
Hermione looked at him sceptically. She was not that sure Draco's good plan would be good at all.
He explained it to them, then the next day they put it in motion.
He took a day off from work, and Apparated to New York. He had Pansy Parkinson with him. Following Albert around all day, he got him in a dark alleyway while he was going back to his home.
"Imperio!"
Albert's eyes went blank, and he felt happiness and emptiness fill him. He grinned.
"Now, you will go to your home with this woman, and for the next few days you'll hang around with her, kiss her publicly, shag her" Albert heard Draco's voice in his head.
He nodded, and took the woman's hand in his own, leading her home.
A flash ensued, and Draco winked to someone in the shadows. Working at the Prophet, it had not been difficult for Ginny to enlist the help of Colin Creevey, their best photographer.
The boy was always eager to help when Harry was the matter, he was an huge fan of his own.
For days Colin followed Albert around, snapping pictures of him in compromising positions with Pansy.
Then, Draco returned and lifted the curse on the man, erasing the memory of it being cast on him, and replacing it with one of sudden lust for the woman he had spent few days with.
Colin delivered the pictures to Hermione minutes before she was to Apparate back to her home in New York.
A week later, she addressed the issue with Albert.
"So, I see you enjoyed yourself while I was away, didn't you?" she said, pushing the pictures under his nose.
He looked at them, and said nothing.
"I guess this was the real reason you wanted me to go alone, cheater! Liar!" she shouted, throwing things at him.
He did not try to defend himself, and she took her things and Apparated back to England.
She owled the pictures to barrister Neville Longbottom, who had volunteered to help too, and asked for divorce, then owled to her friends to let them know she was back, and things were going like planned.
She had to admit Draco's plan had been brilliant, although highly Slytherinesque.
Now, if only she could make Harry go back to normal…
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