Hermione had conditioned herself not to cry after these meetings. The pain had stopped long ago and Ron was so poorly endowed that she barely felt him inside her these days. And he was so clumsy with his spell work that Hermione was half-convinced he had made her barren anyway. She would retreat to the shower after every Bedding Rite and wash the soil of it from every part she could reach. The shower hid her tears in the early days, now it just helped cleanse her self-hatred.