Million Galleon Man

One

August, 2010.

Hermione thought her life plan was pretty solid. She was going to graduate in Hogwarts, get an O at her NEWTs, work as an intern at the Ministry of Magic and eventually she, herself, would become minister of magic. The first muggleborn woman to ever achieve such a thing.

That part of her life... Well... Let's just say it was not like she planned at all. She did get an O at her NEWTs but she was not expecting that Ronald Weasley would break up with her as soon as he learned what a cellphone was. So he did break up with her, with a text message. In the most muggle fuck boy way possible. What she didn't know about the situation was that he would announce a relationship with none other than Millicent Blustrode and that would send herself in such a depressive state that she barely could eat, sleep or talk.

Her friends have visited, of course, but in an awkward way. Ginny and Harry got married soon after the end of the war, not giving chance to fate to separate them again, wanting to live life together and express their love. They were, respectively, Ron's sister and bestfriend, so although they were understanding and supportive towards Hermione, they couldn't really be mad at Ronald for chasing something Hermione could not give him. And to be honest, she didn't quite know what the Weasley was looking for in a woman. Someone like Molly? That wanted to stay at home and pop out an entire quidditch team? Or someone spontaneous, with fire? She liked to think she had plenty of fire, but he always knew she liked things programmed and without surprises. Maybe he fell out of love with her after the thrill of all their adventures had passed and all that was left was just life? Or maybe he just realized that they had nothing in common besides both of them being gryffindors and having Harry Potter as their bestfriend?

Eleven years had passed since her breakup with Ron. Some days seemed like it happened just yesterday, but others she could really see how much stuff had happened. She couldn't get her internship at the Ministry of Magic, but she did get an okay job at Flourish and Blotts, it was not a career but made her pretty... content, on a daily basis.

She, no longer, was the Hermione Granger that she once was. The bookworm girl still lived inside her, of course, her job was proof of it. Hermione did enjoy reading and buying books, recommending them to people and assisting them to get what they need, but she noted that her life needed change in order to progress. She thought she needed to be the kind of girl people would notice. The flirty, party girl she never was. It was cute when she was twenty two and the future looked bright as the Brightest Witch of Her Age, now that she's thirty it is not so fun anymore. But that's nothing else she knows how to do. Is she supposed to be visiting Ginny and Harry every weekend at Grimmauld Place? Or offer to babysit for them, watch the kids as the couple took some time to themselves? She did that, but not so often anymore. Should she visit The Burrow again? She would be there at every holiday and no, she didn't think that she needed to spend more time with the Weasleys and, even though her friendship with Harry and Ron was still strong, it was pretty odd to see Ron's and Millicent's kids and wonder how some woman was living the life that supposed to be hers.

So she stood by what she knew how to do. Close the store on friday night, head home, open a wine and get ready to go out to some club, muggle one, wizarding one, it didn't matter. She just needed to feel something, dance until her feet hurt or feel nothing at all, numb with all the alcohol she drank.

Saturday she woke up hungover, dragged herself to the store for the opening. She would take a pepper up potion and go through the day, closing the store at night and repeating what she did in the day prior.

Sunday was her day off, she would just get cozy inside her house, with her nearly dead pet, Crookshanks, and read until her head hurt. Reading for pleasure only, who would believe? Sometimes even she didn't believe that reading, searching for dark artifacts and dark wizards was not a necessary thing anymore. Yes, she did know that was her life more than a decade ago, but... Somedays still looked like yesterday. Sometimes Hermione dreamed about waking up in her dorms at Hogwarts, her life now being just a nightmare and she would still have all her youth to do everything different and maybe achieve the things she wanted the most.