Why Me: Three Sides of the Same Coin

Why Me: Three Sides of the Same Coin by Pearle

Summary: Another interlude into the marital infidelity of Hermione Weasley and Severus Snape. This time, they take a few people along with them. HGSS

Companion piece to Why and Why, Indeed


Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. of the Harry Potter series are not mine they belong to J.K. Rowling and Co. I promise to return them when I am through. Well, most of them anyway.


~~~~~ Why Me: Three Sides of the Same Coin ~~~~~

What the bloody hell did she want from him anyway? The last two years haven\'t exactly been heaven on Earth for him either. He never wanted to hurt her. Thank God he was traveling with the team or they would be in real trouble.

Ron believed when he married Hermione it would be like when they were back in Hogwarts, only with sex. He never anticipated they would end up just the two of them, alone and unhappy. They had stayed at the Burrow for almost a year after the final battle. Harry had married Ginny; they were still living there while their new house at Godric Hollow was being built. Fred and George would drop by and a fast pick-up game of Quidditch would become an all night affair. It was fun.

Then Harry and Ginny moved out. Fred and George started to come round less, business was picking up. The world was moving on. Marrying Hermione had seemed the right thing to do. Even the sex wasn\'t that bad at first.

Ron smiled fondly, remembering the brunette from last weekend. She had been a fireball, all legs that one had been. What was her name? Mary something? Margaret? Well, whatever it was, she had been amazing, maybe the best one yet.

He hadn\'t meant to take up with any of the young witches that followed the Chudley Canons. They threw themselves at the team. It was after a particularly bad fight with Hermione, when his self-esteem had hit an all time low, that he\'d had his first affair.

Now what?

The last few months she had seemed a bit distant, no longer yelling about being alone. Not one mention of their last fight. She didn\'t even fight with him any more. Of course he never mentioned his alternate form of entertainment, either.

He briefly wondered when they had made love last night, where she learned that little trick with her tongue. It had really felt good. He felt a spark he hadn\'t felt in a long time. If he knew his wife, it was probably from a book somewhere. They still made love. She was his wife. He wanted children someday. Hermione would make a great mother.

Things would get better if they just gave it time.

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He intended to talk to her this time. She would listen to him even if he had to cast Stupefy. They couldn\'t go on this way. They could have a chance at some happiness together, didn\'t see she that? He was willing to risk everything for her. Was she willing to do the same?

He understood it would be worse for her. Public opinion had always held him as a bastard anyway, even after his Order of Merlin. She had been part of the Dream Team. Maybe they could go to South America, some place where they would not be as visible, and start over.

Severus believed they could have a life together, if only she would take a chance on him, on them. He watched her at the Ministry Celebration last week with that idiot of a husband. What he wouldn\'t have given to sweep her up in his arms and carry her away.

The little blonde chit he had left with had been a poor substitute for her. She barely seemed to have two brain cells to rub together. He had to make his excuses about being needed at Hogwarts so he could leave rather than stay the night. If only Hermione would agree they had a future together.

Her owl had arrived a few minutes ago. Friday, 9:00p.m. It had said. Fine, that was only three days from now. He would meet and talk to her, get her to see reason. They couldn\'t go on this way. Either she agreed to leave that moron she married or they would have to end it.

Why couldn\'t she understand? None of the others mattered. They could have a life together if they could just be together. She was the only one he really wanted.

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She left her bosses office with her internship barely intact. That little mistake she made could have had major repercussions. She made a mistake. Little Miss-Know-It-All made a mistake.

Hermione needed to focus. Her life had become subdivided. Ron. St. Mungo\'s. Severus. Now what?

Last night with Ron hadn\'t been too bad. She imagined it was Severus when she closed her eyes. Thank God she could brew her own contraception potion. Ron had started in on her about having children again. He didn\'t seem to understand her education was important to her. He just figured his mother had been happy with a large noisy brood, why not her too?

And Severus. Hermione understood she was being a bit unfair, she was at the Celebration with her husband, but how much could Severus care about her when he seemed to be drooling over that little blonde bint he been talking to in the corner? For Gods sake, they had even left together!

It was time to take a stand. If he wanted out, that was fine with her. She needed to get on with her life. It was bad enough she knew Ron was still fooling around. She wasn\'t going to put up with him having affairs, too.

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Harry smiled as he watched Ginny. She absently rubbed the gentle swell of her stomach while straining the tealeaves. Their first child, life had been good to the two of them. They had enough money to live comfortably. He and Ginny were happy together, and now a child.

He thought back to his two best friends, now his brother and sister-in-law. They had made a mess of it. He had tried to talk to Ron before he had married Hermione. Ron kept insisting they were happy. Who was he to say what happiness was?

It was only by chance that Harry had been in London last week and witnessed Hermione entering that hotel. He knew Ron was away with the team. What the hell was she doing in that part of London on a Thursday afternoon? The bar keep had been more than happy to relate the details of her coming and going, as well as to supply the name of the person she had been coming and going with.

Albus had asked him to pick up a package for the school, something about a problem with their owl delivery, other wise he never would have known. How long had it been going on? Hermione and Snape. Well, it sort of figured. He wondered if Snape quizzed her at potion ingredients in the heat of the moment.

He didn\'t have to wait too long to witness Hermione leaving the hotel less then an hour later. A few minutes after that Snape had departed. He never would have believed it if he hadn\'t witnessed it with his own eyes. The question was, now what? What did he do with this information?

Harry knew Ron and Hermione had been having a few problems, but this went beyond anything he could have imagined. He hadn\'t told Ginny yet. He really didn\'t want to upset her. Should he talk to Ron? Talk to Hermione? Confront the git?

Now what?

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Albus sat back and looked out the window. All the pieces should be in place by now. He had been accused of meddling in people\'s lives before. He really had not been as instrumental as some people thought he was. It was surprising what fate could come up with on its own.

This was not one of those times. He had been watching this little drama play out for some time now, hoping one or all of the players would come to their senses and do the right thing. It was time to intervene before the situation became explosive.

The question was, what to do? It was not up to him to decide their lives. Free will and all that, but the cauldron was bubbling, so to speak. He could only hope to push one of them in the right direction. Even he was not infallible.

Albus knew Severus had received another owl. He had been most curious when his Potions Master started to discreetly leave the castle on a regular basis. The last few weeks his mood had turned darker than ever.

Last weekend, the Ministry Celebration had almost brought things to a head. Albus could feel the tension running high just below the surface of all those polite smiles.

What to do, what to do.

Now what?


The end?? TBC???


A/N: I had written Why? as a one-shot look into an angsty situation. Why, Indeed covered Hermione\'s point of view since so many had asked for it. I started thinking about Ron and that developed into this. I suppose I should band them together, as they have taken on a life of their own and started to form their own story.

Please review and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you! As always, thoughts, comments, reviews, whatever are always welcome.

Regards, Pearle