Work Text:
At initial glance, Alice Cooper's entire life is the definition of neat.
She's never an inch less than put together, hair always in place, pumps perfectly matching her outfit. Her home is much the same. Even the structure of her family is as neat as possible; two doting, involved parents and two blonde, all-American daughters.
But Hermione knows the truth.
It's been almost a decade since they last spoke, but she knows that Alice's carefully curated life is a facade. She knows the real Alice, the one from the wrong side of the tracks, the one who ran with FP Jones back in the day, the one who used to fuck men in the back of her truck at the drive-in and steal their wallets while they were occupied.
That Alice was about as interested in neatness as a snake was in being trod upon.
But it's amazing how one bad decision, one bad man, can change everything.
Hermione is intimately acquainted with that knowledge.
So when she hears through the grapevine that Hal Cooper has been kicked out of his house, she drives over and lingers on the doorstep, trying to talk herself into knocking.
The door opens before she has a chance, and one look at the disheveled woman before her reveals that the real Alice has returned.
"I was wondering how long it would take you," Alice mutters before hooking her nails into the front of Hermione's dress and pulling her past the point of no return.