Two Beds and a Coffee Machine

As she takes another step

Slowly she opens the door

To check that he is sleeping

Pick up all the broken glass

And furniture on the floor

    Hermione Granger Malfoy tiptoed carefully across her living room floor. Toys were strewn across her living room where her five year old, Anthony, had been playing only minutes before. Her three year old, Jayna, was sleeping in her room while Anthony was on the couch. She opened door a just a crack to peek at her husband Draco, who was lying in a drunken slumber. Then she turned around to tackle the mess in the living room. The toys were no problem. However, glass from a window Draco had broken and the lounge chair that he had flipped over would be a bigger problem. She pushed and pulled until finally the lounge chair was sitting upright. She swept up all the glass she could, cutting her hands in the process.

Been up half the night screaming

Now it’s time to get away

Pack up the kids in the car

Another bruise to try and hide

Another alibi to write

Hermione just didn’t see how the cleverest witch in her year had let it all come down to this. In their seventh year, Harry had finally defeated the Dark Lord, Voldemort, and many of his supporters died in the battle. Draco’s parents were some of them. Then Draco came with stories about how he was brainwashed and truly didn’t mean to do any of the horrible things he did. And Hermione was actually stupid enough to believe him. A romance had developed when Hermione was an auror and Draco was her secretary. It wasn’t long until they were married, and Anthony was on the way.

When he found out she was pregnant, Draco hit her-- the first of many times. He had never wanted a child so early in their marriage and somehow blamed Hermione for the whole thing. She had gotten a black eye, and her stomach was ached from all the times she had been punched, much like she felt tonight. She didn’t even remember what had set him off.

For Draco, everything wasn’t enough. The house wasn’t clean enough, the food didn’t taste good enough, and Hermione wasn’t pretty enough. When Anthony was born, Draco had convinced her to quit her job to be a full- time mother. Hermione had been miserable ever since.

A loud snore brought her back to reality. Draco had flipped over on his stomach. She scooped Anthony up off the couch and got Jayna out of her room. She unlocked the door as quietly as she could and stole out to the car. A car was one Muggle thing Hermione couldn’t live without now that she had children. They couldn’t apparate and it was a pain trying to get them both on a broom. She buckled both into their car seats and set off towards the hotel.

Another ditch in the road

You keep moving

Another stop sign

You keep moving on

And the years go by so fast

Wonder how I ever made

And there are children to think of

Babies asleep in the backseat

Wonder how they’ll ever make it

Through this living nightmare

But the mind is an amazing thing

Filled with candy dreams and new toys

And another cheap hotel

Two beds and a coffee machine

But there are groceries to buy

And she knows she’ll have to go home

At the hotel, Hermione got Jayna out of her car seat.

“Tiffany Potter told me about this new toy broom…” Jayna muttered before she fell back asleep.

So cute, Hermione thought, thinking about toys as her life was falling apart around her. Harry and Ginny’s daughter Tiffany would grow up in a normal happy home. Harry loved his wife more than anything in the world and she had a wonderful career that he supported. He also adored his daughter and they could often be seen walking hand in hand through the park. Ginny doesn’t know how lucky she is, Hermione thought, as she woke Anthony so he would walk. Suddenly she realized she had used up all her Muggle money the last time Draco had gone crazy. There was no way she could stay at a wizard hotel because Draco would find her and besides, having to stay in a sleazy hotel would definitely bring a lot of shame to their family. Her only hope was to find a wizard with Muggle money. Hermione laughed dryly. This was not the type of establishment where one would normally find wizards. “Who here looks like they might know what a Galleon is,” Hermione whispered to herself.

“I happen to know what a Galleon is,” a voice said behind her. “I don’t have too many but…”

Hermione turned around and said, “Ron!”

“That would be me,” Ron said coolly. “Nice to see you still remember my name.”

Hermione blushed and held Jayna a little closer.

“I don’t have money to trade you for wizard money but I’m getting a room with two beds and a coffee machine.”

“I don’t think Draco would approve,” Hermione muttered.

“And Draco’s obviously a charmer,” Ron aid sarcastically. “Look at that eye.”

“I suppose we could stay with you Mr. Weasley,” Hermione said, taking Anthony’s hand. Ron held the door open for Hermione. Ron's room was on the second floor. As soon as they got in the room, Anthony crawled on one of the beds and was instantly asleep. Hermione laid Jayna down beside him.

“I’m going to call down and order a cot to sleep on,” Ron said picking up the phone. He spoke to the front desk momentarily then he hung up and said, “They don’t have a cot to order in.”

“Oh,” Hermione said quietly.

“You can have the bed,” Ron said. “I’ll just sleep on the floor.”

“Nonsense,” Hermione said. “We can share a bed without doing anything we shouldn’t. It’s not like we haven’t ever before.”

Ron turned red and they both got into bed and scooted as far as they could to their separate sides.

A few minutes later Ron turned to face Hermione and whispered, “Are you still awake?”

“Yeah,” Hermione answered. “I never sleep much after things like this happen anyway.”

Hermione could tell Ron was fighting the urge to say, ’Well if you’d stayed with me none of this would’ve ever happened.’

“Can I ask you a question,” Ron said quietly.

“Sure,” Hermione answered, nodding.

“What happened to us?”

Hermione sighed. “We were young and stupid, and I didn’t know what I wanted. Very few people know that Anthony wasn’t my first child, that a few months before we had a baby. And we fought so much about that baby. And finally we decided to give it to Harry and Ginny. But even that didn’t stop our fighting. And then Draco came along, and we had this natural attraction. I found myself falling for him. Then he convinced me to move out of our apartment. After that, I never talked to you again.”

“I watched Tiffany grow up,” Ron said. “I wish we’d had a chance to raise her together,” Hermione said smiling.

“What if…” Ron said. “We could try and raise Anthony and Jayna together.”

Hermione looked astonished at the very idea.

“If you were with me you would never have to spend the night in a sleazy motel room with a black eye,” Ron said. “I just can’t leave him yet. What would it do to my kids?” Hermione whispered.

“Okay,” Ron answered as he turned over and went to sleep.

The next morning Hermione was loading her kids in the car when Ron came running out.

“Mione,” he called. “In case you ever want to leave...”

He slipped a piece of paper with a phone number on it in her hand. Hermione got into her car and started driving towards home. Maybe, she thought, I could leave Draco and start a new life. She smiled and felt the piece of paper now in her pocket. Maybe there was hope after all.

Another bruise to try and hide

Another alibi to write

Another lonely hideaway in the black of night

There’s hope in the darkness

You know you’re going to make it through