A Butterfly Effect
Summary: In which Ron Weasley doesn't remember the House Elves at the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry isn't too distracted to ask one more thing of Hermione, and these small differences change everything. AU after the Battle of Hogwarts.
HG/FW, HP/GW, RW/?, others to be added later.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, all are owned by JKR. A few of the lines of dialogue in this chapter are taken from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Chapter 1: The Battle
Hermione panted as Harry led her and Ron back to the Room of Requirement, thinking about how much her legs were going to ache in the morning, hysterical laughing at her lips when she thought immediately after that she may not make it until the morning.
But no, thinking that way wouldn't help anyone, wouldn't help Harry or the Weasleys or Hogwarts or herself. She was going to make it. They were going to make it. She had to think that way, otherwise the pressure in her chest would build up so much that Hermione was sure she would burst or break, and then she'd be no help to anyone.
Harry was talking to Augusta Longbottom and Tonks, Ginny standing nearby. Neville's grandmother left quickly to find him, and Tonks explained that Teddy was with her mother before speeding off after her. Harry turned to Ginny.
"Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. Then you can come back in."
Hermione knew the second that the words left his mouth that he'd never get Ginny back into the room and the look on Ginny's face reinforced her thoughts.
Harry repeated himself, "And then you can come back in!" He shouted after her, "You've got to come back in!" And she was racing down the stairs after Tonks, and then it was just them.
They looked awkwardly at each other, Ron and Hermione, trying to avoid the grief and worry on Harry's face, not sure where to look.
"C'mon mate, we've got to…" Ron gestured to the Room. "The sooner we end this, the sooner she'll be safe." Hermione nodded and Harry glanced at her, a peculiar look on his face.
"Yeah, yeah, let's—" They stepped back into the hallway.
"Hermione." She heard her name and looked to her right, her eyes connecting with Harry's.
"Yes, Harry?"
"I need—, I need you to do something. For me. Please." Harry looked at her desperately.
What could he mean? What, other than this Horcrux, was left to be done? Did he mean to send her to kill Nagini? Hermione knew she was good with her wand, but she wasn't sure if she even knew where to begin looking for Nagini, much less how to kill her. Their last fight with the giant snake hadn't ended well, she recalled with a shudder.
"What do you need, Harry?" She asked.
"Ginny. Please go to her. Protect her."
Ginny. Harry wanted her to find Ginny, to make sure she was okay. In a flash of selfishness, Hermione wanted to refuse. They were the Golden Trio, they were supposed to do this together, and she should be here when they found the diadem and destroyed it, what if they needed her? She was the brightest out of all of them, she knew the most spells, and surely she was needed more here than chasing after her friend?
"Hermione, you're the only one I trust to keep her safe. As my best friend I'm asking you… I know it's a lot, but I need her to be okay. And you. Keep each other safe." Harry must have seen the anger and hesitation in her eyes.
It was unfair, but Hermione knew that no matter how much she wanted to refuse, she would do this for Harry. He was her best friend, she'd pledged to follow him, to help him, and more than that she knew she couldn't refuse him when he looked this mad with worry.
"I'll do it. She'll be safe." She gave a quick hug to each of the boys, her boys, lingering a little longer with Ron. She choked back a sob as she thought that they may never get their moment.
No, no, no. She forced those treacherous thoughts back.
"Be safe, both of you. Don't take unnecessary risks." She warned them, and then she was gone.
"Ginny!" Relief flowed through the brown-haired girl's veins as she saw her friend. "There you are!"
"Hermione?" Ginny glanced back at her, slowing down, "What are you doing? If Harry's sent you to come get me you can tell him to go bugger—"
Hermione managed a smile, "Harry knows better than to think he could get you back in the Room now. He wants us to watch out for each other."
Ginny seemed torn between being offended and pleased that Harry was so worried about her. "All right, then, we are two fearsome witches, who would want to mess with us?" She grinned wickedly.
Hermione was about to answer when a resounding crash sounded from around the corridor, and she and Ginny readied their wands. They were going to wait for whoever was coming; that is, until they hear the uproarious laughter of what Hermione knew, could only be a Weasley twin. Ginny tensed next to her momentarily, and then shot off before Hermione could even think of stopping her.
Hermione was not far behind her friend, however, and they turned the corner to see Fred and Percy battling Death Eaters. The castle had been breached.
"Fred! Percy!" Ginny called, entering the foray without hesitation. Hermione waved her wand quickly, trying to double-team the Death Eater that Percy was fighting. Under the combined weight of their spells, he fell back, his hood falling to reveal—
"Hello, Minister!" Percy bellowed, sending a jinx Thicknesse's way. Hermione followed up with an Incarcerous, binding the man. "Did I mention I'm resigning?" They turned to deal with the Death Eater that Ginny and Fred were quickly dispatching, and Ron and Harry rounded the corner.
"You're joking, Perce!" Fred exclaimed as the Death Eater fell. With nothing else to do in the corridor, Hermione and Ginny locked eyes and nodded. They were all needed elsewhere. Ginny grabbed Fred's arm and yanked him away from the wall that had been the site of their duels. Hermione beckoned the other boys, leading the group further down the corridor.
"You actually are joking, Perce… I don't think I've heard you joke since you were—"
Fred's comment was cut off as the air behind them exploded, throwing them all forward a few feet. Hermione groaned as a chunk of rock hit her torso; sure it was going to leave a bruise, if not fracture a rib.
"Fred! Ginny!" Ron cried, and for one horrified moment, Hermione froze in fear as she turned back to where Fred and Ginny had brought up the rear of their group.
But her worst fears weren't realized. Ginny cradled her wrist in her other hand, clearly having fallen on it during the blast, and Fred received the worst of the blast, a heavy chunk of the wall pinning his leg to the ground.
Hermione and Percy scurried back to them as a figure blew in to the building through the hole in the wall, blasting curses at them. Ginny immediately rounded her wand on them, as did Ron, Harry, and Percy.
Hermione crouched next to Fred, his face contorted in an expression of pain.
"Fred? I'm going to move the rock, okay? It may hurt."
"Do it, now." He rasped.
She levitated the large piece of wall, wincing at the ruined mangled piece of Fred's leg that was beneath it.
"We need to get you to safety." She fretted, glancing up at Ginny's exclamation of horror. Acormantulas, just what they needed right now.
"Ginny!" She screamed, almost hysterically, "We have to move him!" She grabbed Fred's arm and together, she and the red-headed prankster worked to pull him to his feet.
"How much of your own weight can you support?" She asked, in between sending stunners to the giant spiders, watching as they hit and forced the spiders back down from the wall they were climbing through.
"Not much, but with you on this side of me we should manage." Fred was somehow, still coherent.
Ginny had appeared before them, "Let's go. These three can handle the spiders. Hermione, I'll support Fred's body, you cover all of us from attack." Hermione nodded, switching spots with Ginny. The arrangement made sense. Ginny was physically stronger than Hermione, and Hermione had all year to improve her arsenal of offensive spells.
"Thank Merlin we moved away from the wall in time." Fred said lightly as they moved through the halls, looking for any place that seemed safe enough from the fighting. Hermione did most of the defense, casting spells to try to incapacitate the wayward Death Eaters they came across. Thankfully it was never more than one or two at a time, or Hermione knew they'd be in huge trouble.
And finally, finally they came across someone who could help. George Weasley appeared down the hallways from him, looking more serious and grief-stricken than Hermione'd ever seen.
"Fred!" He cried, rushing toward him, "I'd thought, I'd felt, Fred, what happened—"
Hermione looked back; they weren't horribly far from where Harry and Ron had been. She needed to get back to them.
"George, Ginny, I need to get back to Harry and Ron, will you—?"
George nodded, eyes bright, "We've got him, go make sure they're all right."
Hermione ran through the castle so quickly that she'd swear she was flying.
Severus Snape was dead.
A flurry of emotions pass through Hermione, she wasn't sure which to focus on. Relief that Dumbledore's murderer had been brought to justice? Revulsion at the barbaric way it had been done? Or disbelief, because at times Snape had been so cruel and hateful Hermione had been unable to see him as person, as human, as someone capable of dying?
But the evidence was in front of her, Severus Snape was dead.
And then Voldemort's voice filled the air, impossibly loud and frighteningly cold.
An ultimatum. Hermione and Ron shook their heads.
"Don't listen to him." Said Ron.
Hermione heard herself, "It'll be all right. Let's— let's go back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan—" With a shuddering breath, she looked at Snape's body before fleeing the tunnel, looking back at Harry occasionally as they made their way back to the castle, to make sure he was still with them.
Because she knew, knew that if Harry thought it would save them, that he would give himself up. They made their way to the Great Hall, Hermione hoping upon hope that all of their loved ones would be there, safe.
Fred was sitting in a chair that had somehow escaped the destruction that the rest of the castle had seen. His mother was fussing over him and George was holding his hand as Molly tried to salvage his leg. The trio made their way over, and Ginny ran up to them, flinging her arms around them.
"It was so close, if we've been even 3 feet closer to that wall…" Her voice trembled and Hermione swallowed. Any of them could have died.
"Will his leg—?" Hermione left the question open.
"Mum says it'll be hard but they shouldn't need to— to take it. He won't be able to walk without a cane, though, she thinks." Ginny whispered. "But I'd rather have him injured than not have him at all."
They'd reached the Weasley family by then, and Percy nodded, "Thank Merlin you two showed up when you did. If we hadn't defeated the Death Eaters that quickly we all would've been nearer to the wall when it went."
Hermione locked eyes with Fred who managed a grin even as Mrs. Weasley was setting his wounds. "Close call, eh Granger?"
Hermione smiled, tears in her eyes, "Too close."
"I live for danger!" Fred joked, wincing when George squeezed his hand, anxiety on his face. Ron moved forward to the rest of his family, and Hermione glanced around, searching for her other friend.
Oh. Oh no.
The bodies of Remus and Tonks weren't too far from where the Weasleys were stationed, and she knew that if she were seeing their bodies, then there was no way Harry could've missed them. She looked around the hall frantically for the raven-haired boy, and, not seeing them, had to ask:
"Where did Harry go?"
That brave, brave, stupid boy. Hermione's heart clenched as Hagrid came into view, carrying what was undeniably the body of her best friend.
This couldn't be happening, this shouldn't be, couldn't be real. Because Harry Potter was the Boy-Who-Lived, he wasn't mean to look so broken and unmoving. Hermione felt as though all the breath had left her as her body met Ginny's; she wasn't sure which of them was slumping in grief against the other.
"No, no, no!" She gasped out, moving forward. Hermione wondered quickly if this is what Harry had felt when Sirius died, the closest thing he'd had to family. With her parents off in Australia, Harry was the only family she had, and she didn't think the ache in her chest would ever go away.
She would kill them all.
"Hermione!" A voice called to her, an arm grabbed her, and then she was struggling against someone's chest.
"No, I'll kill them, I will, I'll destroy them all, they can't—" She let out a strangled cry. She was spun around suddenly, and she caught sight of Mr. Weasley holding a hysterical and furious Ginny back, her screams louder than Hermione's by far. She looked up at George, his eyes grave.
"You'll die."
Her head pounded and she was surprised she could still speak with the lump in her throat, "I'm a Mudblood, if Harry's dead then I am too, and I will kill as many of those bastards as I—"
"If you run out there on your own, you won't get ten feet before they get you!" George hissed, "We won't go down without a fight, but use that big brain of yours, Granger!"
Hermione wasn't sure when the fight left her, but she felt herself crumple against George.
Nothing would ever be right in the world again, because Harry Potter had died.
Death, apparently, had a different definition to Harry than it did to other people.
Hermione was sure her heart should've stopped by now, from all the adrenaline and surprise. She'd no sooner been fighting Bellatrix Lestrange than Mrs. Weasley took over, and the shock at watching Bellatrix, another beast of a woman so inhumane that Hermione had thought of her as more of a myth than a mortal, was nothing compared to the feeling she'd had when she saw the familiar flash of Harry's cloak, followed by the appearance of Harry himself.
She listened, as did everyone in the hall, to Harry and Voldemort's words, and for once, she felt hope. Hope that Snape hadn't truly been the monster they'd thought, hope that Harry was right about the stupid Elder Wand, and hope that maybe he could finally finish this, forever.
And then it was done. She felt Luna and Ginny's arms encircle her as they wept.
True to his name, Harry Potter lived.
I just have too many ideas! Okay, so this is most likely going to be a multi-chapter fic but I wanted to cut it off here just to sort of show exactly how it deviates from canon. Basically, this is my attempt at allow Fred to survive, especially after I heard that JKR almost made Fremione canon! UGH!
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, please please pleaseeeee let me know what you think!