Chapter Text
Chapter One
Preparing to go back to Hogwarts for 8th year, Hermione had managed to get a day away from her boyfriend in order to go back to her parents’ old house and collect a few things that she wanted to take back to school with her, a feeble attempt at making it feel like a normal year instead of what it really was.
She’d lasted not even a full five minutes in the silent place before the walls felt like they were collapsing in on her. It felt like death. It felt like she’d never see her parents again, which was feeling more and more like reality as the days went on and the Australian Ministry was still having no luck finding them.
So, Hermione decided to go do something for herself. Adventuring into Muggle London, Hermione found a tattoo parlour and piercing studio and went in. It wasn’t like Ron had ever seen her naked, and she wasn’t planning on sleeping with him in the next few days. She was still angry with him for abandoning her…again. She was going back to Hogwarts, to the site of the most terrifying day of her life, and he had decided to go to Auror training, stating that he had no use for school or NEWTs when the ministry was breaking protocol by letting him into the program without the proper credentials. It was just like in the Forest of Dean, and Hermione had to be honest with herself, she was having second (and third!) thoughts about whether or not she and Ron were truly meant to be in a relationship.
A number of hours later, Hermione left with a series of black roses over the word that had been carved into her forearm and two new piercings that she’d healed quickly in the loo so that she could put her bra and shirt back on without wincing every five seconds. She did not plan to tell anyone about the piercings. They were a little secret just for her.
Ron never made Hermione feel sexy. He made her feel as though she wasn’t good enough because she didn’t want to go all the way with him. It wasn’t that she was a virgin, because she wasn’t, but their relationship was just too new, too born of the fire and drama of the war. She wanted to give them time to settle before adding sex to the mix. Ron didn’t agree and his petty annoyance made her feel even less inclined to take their relationship to the next level.
His reaction to the roses she'd gotten tattooed on her arm was just one more issue. He hated them, but he hated the scars too. He just wanted her to put a permanent glamour charm on her skin, despite the amount of energy he knew casting something like that took.
"Good girls don't have tattoos, Mione," he stated, using the nickname that he knew she hated, clicking his tongue. "What will our kids say?"
Hermione wanted kids, but in an amorphous hypothetical some day in the future kind of way. She definitely wasn't sure if Ron Weasley was going to be those hypothetical kids' father. If he was so controlling and close-minded at this stage of their relationship, what would he be like when Hermione was in deep?
So Hermione, new nipple piercings hidden under her clothes and a new forearm tattoo firmly on display, boarded the Hogwarts Express and headed towards her eighth year, leaving Harry and Ron waving at her and Ginny from the platform.
She sighed and opened a book, determined to ignore the Quidditch talk around her. She was just going to focus on her academics, score higher on her NEWTs than anyone in history and then figure out what to do with the rest of her life. It wasn’t too tall of an order.
When her secret piercings rubbed against her bra and Hermione smiled knowing the future was all hers.