Caught

***

Hermione Jean Granger glanced around furtively, making sure for the millionth time that her boyfriend of three years was well on his way to work at the Ministry before opening up his computer.

It had been hard to persuade Ron to try the computer, first with the concept of muggle technology and then with the price tag, (she nearly regretted introducing it to him after a couple of episodes where he had exploded on her while she was patiently teaching him how to use it) and he would insist that he hadn't touched it whenever she asked, but sometimes, late at night, she'd notice him engrossed in the magic of the screen.

Lately, however, it was like he was with the darn thing. He seemed to have no qualms that she was teasing him about it (that had been surprising, considering Ron's pride), nor that he was openly willing to use it. She had been pleasantly surprised by his sudden change of heart, and was happy to see that he had changed his mind about using things both magic and Muggle.

After a while, though, she began to get suspicious. What had caused his sudden interest in the thing, when he'd disliked it and refused it for months? He was almost paying more attention to the device than her, and while she didn't want to play the jealous girlfriend card, if she found something, Godric help Ron. He had become more distant, spacing out at random times. A few weeks ago, Hermione had been determined to find out, and today happened to be the perfect chance to get some answers. With Ron working overtime, and her taking the day off (Harry had insisted, and Ginny had threatened), there was nothing stopping her.

She logged on, having created her boyfriend's login, and opened his search engine. YouTube and Netflix tabs were both open- to her surprise. He had been ranting over the price of "that muggle video thing" when Hermione had casually mentioned it one day, yet here it seemed that he was paying a pretty penny for a premium subscription. She wasn't interested in his Netflix, but when she opened YouTube there were surprises to be found.

There, she found several videos that were as close to pornography as it got without going on the Dark Net, and, when she opened his browser history, she noted a few particular sites she had never heard of. She re-opened the most frequent site, www.nevaeh.com, and a grey, in all appearances professional, login page appeared. She sighed, but thought. Ron had never been particularly creative when it came to- well, anything, so she put in "Ronald" and "password".

Bingo.

She scrolled through the site, and figured it out to be a dating site. While that alone didn't prove anything, she was still disappointed. And suspicious. He had a girlfriend; he was, so to speak, 'taken'. Why would he need to be anywhere near a dating site?

She clicked on a small icon shaped like Cupid's Arrow, and it took her to a conversation between Ronald and a girl who said her name was Melissa. She scrolled to the very top of the chat history, and started reading from the top. She tensed when she saw that Ron was the one who had initiated conversation.

Immediately, one thing became clear.

These two had within minutes of meeting each other on the Internet, and the conversation quickly turned sexual. Within days, they were making plans to meet up and talk to each other in person.

And the last message, sent not thirty-five minutes ago from Ron, read,

Never find out, huh?

Hermione felt the tears start to fall and soak into her cosiest knit sweater but she paid no mind. The chat history went back two months, and clearly Ron loved this girl more than he'd ever loved her. The things he said to this 'Melissa'... Some of them were sexual but there were still sweet, romantic, texts, and loving, doting ones. He'd never said anything as romantic to her.

He'd also been lying- telling her he had to work overtime when he was meeting this girl, and she had naively believed him. Feeling her heart shatter into irreparable pieces, she logged out of the site, closed the tab so that everything looked just like it had before, and gently replaced the computer where she had found it. Before doing so, she made sure to take pictures of the computer chat on her cellphone (evidence if Ron ever decided to confront her about leaving) and then, after leaving no trace of her being on the computer, Hermione began to pack.

She didn't care for their shared bed or any furniture except for the small glass coffee table she had fallen in love with and bought, much to Ron's annoyance, a year prior. He had thought it was too expensive; she had gotten it anyways and it had been one of the last, defiant actions that she had taken before she had attempted to conform to Ron's expectations of a 'good' girlfriend so that they could stay together.

Turns out it had never mattered.

She shrunk it and placed it into a small handbag. It wasn't the beaded one she had taken on the run with her, when she, Ron and Harry were searching for Horcruxes, as she had lost it a few years prior, but she had placed Undetectable Extension Charms on all of her bags now.

All of her clothes, packed neatly into a box, as well as her book collection, disappeared into the small handbag as well. Work files, paperwork, her stationary- in it went. Any small, personal items were neatly packed into a separate pocket of her long raincoat. The last thing she packed was her mother's china dinner set- while she had found her parents, they had both opted to stay in Australia. It had broken Hermione's heart, but she recognized the fact that they were happy as they were. Privately, she suspected they were still suffering from the aftereffects and hadn't been quite sure about anything when she had removed it.

Dressed in her long lilac raincoat, and a black, high-waisted jumper, she took a long look at the place she used to call home, memories flooding back, both good and bad. Steeling her resolve, she glanced around one last time before Disapparating to Ginny's.