Chapter Text
Hermione started her morning in the worst way imaginable– the sound of wet coughing from the other side of her thin walls.
She groaned and pushed herself upright, blinking through dry, gritty eyes as the harsh sun assaulted her vision. It was far too bright for this early in the morning, the rays shining brilliantly as if they were trying to blind her with the spiteful brilliance.
She ignored the ache in her bones and stood, stretching until a loud pop cracked through her skull. Hermione took in a breath of cool air and let it rush into her lungs before she groggily grabbed a pair of sweats off the floor, eyes catching on the camera she had neglected to put away last night. She looked away from it and left her bedroom in favour of the one right behind hers.
Another wet cough sent her into the room without knocking. The lilac walls bathed in soft sunlight greeted Hermione’s vision, drawings and posters covered the wall by the window, layered so thickly that not a scrap of paint showed through. Hermione smiled as she the newest drawing that had been taped up– blue crayon scribbled onto white paper with no discernable pattern. She looked away from the wall and towards the bed that held her sleeping daughter.
Juliette was curled up tight in her Dora the Explorer blanket, her cheeks unnaturally pale. Her soft brown curls stuck to her sweaty forehead and her tiny hands were clutching around her favourite stuffed rabbit like it was her only lifeline to this world. She coughed again, eyes screwing tighter.
Hermione came over to the side of the bed, crouching down until she was eye-level with her very sick baby. "Honey?" she said softly, offering a sympathetic smile when Juliette opened her eyes. "Don't feel too good, huh baby?"
Juliette shook her head weakly, punctuating the sentiment with another cough. "No," she said with a raspy voice, her pale lips dry and cracked.
Hermione pressed her hand against Juliette's forehead, warmth seeping out of her. "Oh, Juli..." Hermione kept her hand there a little longer, hoping the cool of her skin eased the little girl's pain. "You're burning up."
Juliette’s lower lip trembled. “Mummy, I really don’t feel good.”
Hermione kissed her hair, already mentally rearranging her day. “I know, baby. I’ll fix it.” Hermione left the room for a moment, returning with her phone and the last of the cough medicine in the house.
She mentally tallied how much replacing it would cost as she called the school to inform them of Juliette’s absence. Then, she pulled up a delivery app and paid the exuberant prices to have two more bottles of the bubblegum flavoured medicine delivered. She cringed as her bank immediately notified her of her updated balance.
Juliette whimpered and scooted herself closer to Hermione, lying her warm head on Hermione’s cool hand again. “I’ll fix it,” Hermione muttered, more to herself than anything.
Fixing it had meant calling three sitters, all of whom were unavailable. The fourth answered, listened to Hermione’s desperate explanation, and said she could come in an hour.
Hermione had glanced at the clock, she needed to be at the café in twenty minutes. Her stomach dropped. “I’ll take it,” she said, mainly because she didn’t have a choice.
An hour had turned into nearly two, the sitter knocking on the door just as Hermione was about to call her boss and inform him she actually wouldn't be able to make it in today and beg him not to fire her. When the knock on the door came, she kissed her daughter's forehead, gave the sitter one of her already prepared lists, and sprinted out the door.
By the time she ran through the café’s front door, she was already bracing for impact.
Roland stood behind the counter, fingers smoothing the front of his apron in quick, nervous strokes. The moment he saw Hermione rush through the door, something in his expression pinched.
“You’re late,” he said, voice clipped. His gaze flicked toward the crowded café, then back to Hermione, a muscle in his jaw jumping. “We opened short‑staffed. I needed you here.”
Hermione dropped her bag behind the counter, pushing her hair back into a messy ponytail. “I know, I’m sorry– Juli woke up sick and the sitter–”
Roland exhaled through his nose, not quite a sigh, not quite a huff. “Hermione… I can’t keep scrambling like this.” He rubbed his temple with two fingers, eyes darting toward the register. “Just– get to work. Please.”
Hermione nodded and slipped behind the register, tying her apron as Ginny tapped in the customer’s order with slightly frazzled haste.
“Is Juli okay?” Ginny asked, stepping aside and taking over the espresso machine in one smooth motion. Hermione felt a twinge of guilt as she realized Ginny had been working alone due to her tardiness. “It’s been utter chaos in here.”
Hermione took the customer’s payment, feeling the adrenaline that had been propping her up all morning drain from her body in one heavy rush. She was going to need an unreasonable amount of caffeine to survive the rest of this shift. “She’ll be right as rain once the medicine kicks in.”
Ginny offered her a smile before turning her full attention back to the machine. "I can stop by with some of Mum's famous chicken noodle soup tomorrow," Ginny said as her hands manipulated the complicated machine. "It'll knock the cold right out of her."
"Four-twenty, love." Hermione blew the strand of hair that escaped its confines out of her face as the customer tapped their phone against the pin pad and stepped to the side. "That'd be great, Gin."
Ginny hummed approvingly as she prepped another drink. They didn't talk much more as the rush of customers took all their attention. It took nearly twenty minutes for Hermione to get the line down, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand as soon as the last customer took their order, dropping some coins into the half-full tip jar. The smell of espresso clung to her, furthering her need for a strong hit of caffeine. Just as she was about to ask Ginny to make her a caramel latte, a customer appeared at her register again.
“Hello there, welcome to Starlight–” Hermione looked up towards the woman, fighting off the urge to roll her eyes. “Hello, Bellatrix.”
“Well,” Bellatrix said, voice smooth as velvet. “You look flustered today, pet.”
Hermione blinked away the annoyance, putting on her best customer service smile. “I’m quite fine. Your usual?”
Bellatrix nodded once, eyes trailing up and down Hermione's form for far longer than was appropriate, that familiar wolfish grin stirring something in Hermione that she ignored. "You were late today," Bellatrix said.
Hermione fought a groan. Of course Bellatrix had been here earlier. She always had managed to arrive within minutes of Hermione's shift starting, she wasn't sure why she had thought today would be any different.
Hermione waited for Bellatrix to hand her the cash, hand out impatiently. "I had a morning."
"I can tell," Bellatrix purred, her gaze lingering on Hermione's tousled hair with a predatory gleam. "Let someone help you unwind, pet. You're wound up so tight... I'd love to be the one to make you let loose."
Bellatrix slipped the twenty‑pound note into Hermione’s palm--ridiculously generous for a three‑pound coffee– and let her fingers drag just a moment too long, eyes gleaming with the knowledge that Hermione felt it. "Keep the change."
Hermione sighed and went to slip the remainder into the tip jar when Bellatrix's hand covered it. She looked up into those dark eyes that were always fixated on her. "We've been over this, Bellatrix. I split tips here."
"I didn't give red over there the tip, Hermione." Bellatrix drawled out her name, rolling it on her tongue in a sinful way. "I gave it to you."
"Since it is mine," Hermione countered, "I can do what I want with it. And I want–” She pulled the tip jar towards her, slipping the change inside. "To split it."
Just before Bellatrix could offer her own counter, Ginny placed the finished drink on the counter and slid it towards Bellatrix. Ginny’s eyes flicked between Hermione and Bellatrix, the same look she wore everyday written fresh on her face. Hermione could keep a calendar solely based on how many times she had seen that exact look.
Bellatrix accepted the drink with a wink. “Try to breathe today, Hermione.”
Bellatrix didn’t leave immediately. She lingered near the counter, sipping her drink slowly, eyes flicking toward Hermione every few minutes. Hermione did as she did every day, ignoring the looks as she wiped down the counter.
Hermione’s phone vibrated twice in her pocket. She glanced around, checking for Roland’s hovering presence. When she didn’t spot him near the bar or the pastry case, she slipped the device out and saw two texts from the sitter.
She went to open them just as Roland appeared.
"No devices on the floor."
Hermione’s cheeks burned. “The sitter–”
"Don't talk back. You know the rule-- no personal devices." Roland's hand hovered expectantly between them.
Hermione swallowed and held the phone out, Juliette's sick face rising in her thoughts. He went to grab it when a voice interrupted them both.
“Is that how you speak to your staff?” Bellatrix asked, tone deceptively light. Hermione turned towards her, shocked at the speed in which the woman had appeared in front of her.
Roland stiffened, smoothing the front of his apron like he was trying to iron out his nerves. “I’m… upholding company policy,” he said, voice tight.
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow, and Roland’s posture faltered as he took a step back. Hermione wasn’t unfamiliar with the strange tension that always sparked between the two of them, but every time Bellatrix made Roland’s skin crawl, a flicker of curiosity stirred in her chest. What on earth had happened between them?
If she didn’t already have a mountain of problems to juggle, she might have been tempted to ask.
Roland huffed and walked away, telling Hermione to take her break. She offered a quick thanks toward Bellatrix before scurrying off to the backroom, opening the text messages quickly.
By the time she had finished her shift and made the long walk back to her apartment, Hermione felt like she had lived three days instead of the one.
Juliette was curled up against her on the couch. Her fever had broke earlier, which is what the sitter had texted her about, but the cough was still holding on strong.
"Mummy, are you okay?" Juliette asked after another fit. She huddled closer to Hermione, still holding onto her rabbit.
Hermione nodded, brushing curls from her forehead. “I’m just tired, sweetheart.” She clicked the remote a couple of times, searching for a movie for the two of them to watch before Juliette’s bed time.
Juliette sniffled. “Did your boss be mean again?”
Hermione stopped her search and turned to look at Juliette. “Where did you hear that?”
She was always careful never to let her daughter feel the weight she carried. Hermione made a point of keeping the worst parts of her day far from Juliette’s ears– the stress, the fear, the exhaustion. None of it belonged to her child.
Hermione believed, fiercely, that a parent’s burdens shouldn’t become a child’s. So she worked herself ragged to make sure Juliette’s world stayed bright: the best education she could afford, every class trip paid for somehow, Hermione present at every event no matter how tired she was.
Juliette was already growing up without a father. She didn’t need any more heaviness than that.
“You said it last week,” Juliette murmured. “When you thought I was asleep.”
Hermione closed her eyes. “He’s just… stressed.” She cursed herself in her head for the lapse in judgement. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Everything is alright.”
Juliette frowned. “He shouldn’t be mean.”
Hermione smiled weakly. “No, he shouldn’t. Come on, let’s watch Robin Hood before bed.”
Juliette leaned against her. Hermione wrapped her arms around her daughter, breathing in the scent of strawberry shampoo and sickness. She wished she could stop time, just for a moment, just long enough to catch her breath.
She stayed huddled with Juliette on the couch until the movie ended and Juli’s soft snores filled the now-quiet living room.
Her phone buzzed as the sitter texted. Let me know if you need me tomorrow. I had a cancellation.
Hermione exhaled shakily. “Thank God.”
She typed back a thank‑you and confirmed that she would, in fact need her tomorrow, then went to take her sleping daughter to her bed.
The click of her bedroom door locking echoed in the quiet apartment as Hermione leaned against the door. Her shoulders slumped into exhaustion as she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Her feet ached from standing all day and her head had been pounding since the morning. With a weary sigh, she kicked off her shoes and stripped out of her uniform, letting it fall to a heap on the floor that she would deal with tomorrow.
She walked past her dresser that held her pajamas, getting down onto the floor and reaching under the bed to pull out her box.
She pulled out the items she would need for the night, lying them on the bed in order of need. First, she turned on the white noise machine and placed it directly against the wall between her room and Juliette's, knowing that between it and the matching one in her daughter's room would drown out any noise that could wake the girl.
She pulled on the lingerie, careful to fix any twisted straps or pieces of fabric until it clung to her body the way it was supposed to. It was nothing special, black scraps of lace that had seen better days, but they got the job done. Then, she reached for the matching black bunny mask, the cheap plastic cool against her skin as she positioned it over her face.
She turned and found the mirror behind the camera, holding her reflection for a moment. The stranger looking back at her was both familiar and foreign, and she sighed one final time before going over and flipping the camera on.
Rent is due in three days, she reminded herself as she saw the blinking red light. She forced a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes and leaned forward, turning on her monitor and connecting it to the camera.
"Welcome back to the rabbit hole, darlings," she purred, her voice foreign and smooth as honey. "Ready to hop down with me tonight?"
BunnyBabe69: You look amazing tonight!
TipperTeddy: That outfit is everything!
LonelyLarry: Wish I could be there with you...
Hermione kept her smile in place, even as her mind raced ahead, calculating how much she’d need to cover this month’s utilities and Juliette’s upcoming school trip. The notifications pinged steadily, each tip a tiny lifeline pulling her one inch closer to another week of stability.
She caught her reflection in the monitor and wondered how long she could keep it up before the line between Hermione and the bunny thinned into something she could no longer separate.