An Interesting Afternoon at the Burrow
Rating: T Ship: HP/HG, sort of One Chapter
Summary: Harry tells the Weasleys some disturbing news.
Timeframe: 1998. Canon up to after the battle of Hogwarts, diverging after that time.
Disclaimer: I did not create the characters or locations, which belong to JK Rowling and her associates. I gain nothing from this effort, either monetarily or other, except the enjoyment. She built the playground, and I am just playing on the swing set. I have read some other fan fiction concerning the family backgrounds, but I think I have taken a different tack on them; if you find my plotlines a little too familiar, I can assure you that it was not intentional, and that you enjoyed the other stories as well.
Author's Notes:
This developed from a plot bunny that hopped by. Bunnies tend to reproduce rapidly. Also, as Alice found out, following bunnies can lead you to some rather strange places.
As part of full disclosure, I have to point out I am an adult male, so my understanding of the female mind is speculative at best.
I also agree with several other authors that, in my estimation, Ron and Hermione do not belong together as a couple as they have completely incompatible interests. If they actually married, I can foresee divorce or murder in a very short time. However, in Hermione's life, there are only a small number of male characters who will have anything to do with her. I can see how, with her very sharp and analytical mind, Hermione could see that Harry's life expectancy was short (at least during the school years), and that as a long-term companion, Ron was perhaps the better bet. I think Harry's desire to learn new things which would help him defeat Voldemort, and incidentally survive to graduate from Hogwarts, is more compatible with Hermione.
It strikes me that Ginny was always more in love with the image than the person.
August 1998
It was three months after the Battle of Hogwarts. The funerals had been conducted, the celebrations had been held, and people were starting to get on with their lives. For the first time in seven years, people of the wizarding world were laughing and going around without fear, except one.
Harry Potter was shaking in his boots, more terrified than he had been every since he re-entered the magical world. He had to face Molly Weasley, and kill one of her dreams. Facing Voldemort seemed trivial compared to this situation.
Molly had just started coming to terms with Fred's death in the battle, and as his adopted/surrogate mother, and the mother of his adopted family, there were few things that Harry wanted less than to cause her pain, but it had to be done.
He knew Molly was fiercely protective of her family, but most importantly, of her only daughter. During the Battle of Hogwarts, she tried to protect her children, but when Bellatrix Lestrange attacked Ginny, a flame-haired hellcat emerged that no-one (other than Arthur) had ever seen. With almost frightening ease, Molly destroyed the most feared Dark Witch in several centuries. And Harry had to face her on her home ground.
Since the War, Harry found that he had come into his inheritances from both his parents, and as the sole heir of Sirius Black, becoming the Head of two Ancient and Noble Houses. As such, he became incredible wealthy and the owner of several mansions, houses, cottages, and businesses. One thing that made him feel even more wealthy than these possessions was the realization (once the stress of the war had subsided) that he and Hermione Granger were in love.
They had not planned it, they had not even recognized it, but the stressful year of hunting for the Horcruxes, leaving in a tent together, being tortured, escaping capture, and finally defeating the Dark Lord and his forces, had rather distracted them from the fact that they now cared more for each others' well-being than anything else in the universe, and that they wished to continue living with and for each other.
In the time since the battle, Hermione and Harry had explored a few of his holdings, finding a cottage on Grand Anse Beach in Grenada which they both found was perfect to their tastes (peaceful, warmer on a cold day than Scotland during a heat wave, and away from public attention), and which they were now referring to simply as "Our Place". They had not yet shared the location with very many others.
So it came to pass that on a summer afternoon, Harry and Hermione arrived at the Burrow to speak to the Weasley family. The entire family was there, so Molly's Team was at full strength (except of course for poor Fred). George might not have been considered "at full strength" himself, but he was in attendance. Harry remembered that this was a family of very powerful and experienced wizards and witches, and he had to face them.
Harry started, "Thank you all for being here. I have some things to tell you. I love you all – you have been the family I never had, and if I could do anything to help you or prevent pain, you know I would." He looked at Hermione, and added, "We would". He continued, "However, I have to tell you something that you may not want to hear".
Ron looked at Harry and Hermione, and knew what was coming. He could be pretty dense at times, but he had seen his best friends fighting together, and supporting each other over the past few years and had come to terms with the way things were. His mother, however, was a different matter. Ron started looking for something large and heavy to hide behind.
Harry took a deep breath, and looked around the room. He took another breath, and said "Hermione and I are in love. I have asked her to marry me, and she has accepted." Hermione dis-illusioned the Potter family engagement ring she was wearing.
All but two of the Weasleys gasped. Ginny broke into tears. Molly exploded.
"You don't love her! You love Ginny!"
Hermione started to say something, but Molly turned to her and yelled "Get out of my house, you traitor! You are not welcome here!"
Hermione broke into tears at this, and looked at Harry. "Our place?" He nodded, "Our place". Hermione disapparated with a quiet pop.
Harry started to say, "Mrs. Weasley, I.." when she cut him off.
"You have to love Ginny. You have to marry her. That is her dream since she was little." She failed to say that this was largely since she had been pushing this onto Ginny since she was two, because it had been her dream that Ginny would marry the Hero. She was the one who had Ginny spike Harry's pumpkin juice with a love portion, which got spilled when Draco Malfoy jostled Harry's arm before he could drink it.
Ginny's brothers had been aware of their mother's over-protective nature when it came to their sister. They also would have liked to see Ginny marry Harry, but had enough respect for Harry to see this wasn't going to happen. However, they also had enough fear of their mother to be afraid of what was going to happen next.
Harry started, "Mrs...", when Molly yelled at him, "You are going to break off your engagement with that slut, and marry my daughter!"
Molly had bullied her sons into submission for so long that she forgot that Harry had been bullied most of his life, by his uncle, by his cousin, by Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin cohorts (who Harry had taken to thinking of as "Dudley-de-jour and the bookends"), and by assorted Death Eaters and other nasties. She forgot that this was a young man who absolutely hated being bullied. She also temporarily forgot that this was the young man who had stood up to the most feared wizard in the world and had killed him.
Harry started to turn red (Ron recognized the symptoms, and realized that there was nothing in the room big enough to hide from what was coming now). Molly's description of his fiancée was not exactly meant to calm him down.
Molly continued," What the hell has she got that Ginny hasn't?" She then turned to her daughter and ordered "Ginny, take off your clothes! Now!"
Ginny blinked and stared at her mother in disbelief, "Mama, what?" Molly had been staring at Harry, but whipped back towards the girl, "Strip! Now! Show him what you've got. Display yourself!"
Ginny blanched, then shrugged, and started to undress by unbuttoning her blouse, humming to herself and swaying (supposedly sexily) as she disrobed. In the Weasley house, whatever Momma wants, Momma gets. Ron quit thinking of somewhere to hide. However, there was absolutely no feeling of eroticism in the room.
Molly yelled at Harry, "You got my Fred killed. You owe me, ah... us!"
Ginny blushed, not for herself, but in recognition of just how many hard-built bridges her mother had just set on fire. She undressed quickly, finally looking her mother in amazed disgust as she held her knickers out at arm's length and then dropped them on the floor with a flourish. She extended her arms, and shifted from pose to pose.
Arthur was shaking his head in disbelief and dismay at the goings-on. If Ron and the other boys could have metamorphed into chameleons and look in two directions at once, so they could stare in disbelief at their mother and at the same time ogle their naked sister (whom they had not seem naked since early childhood when they bathed together, and certainly not in the shape of this gorgeous young woman standing revealed before them), they would have done so.
Molly returned her burning hateful gaze to Harry, and pointed at Ginny "Take a look! Take a really good look! This is what you're giving up if you go through with this idiocy! What has that bushy-haired bookworm bitch got that Ginny hasn't?"
Harry snapped "I love Ginny as a sister. I'm not in love with Ginny! I love Hermione!"
Molly had her wand out so fast that her sons and husband barely saw it appear, as she fired a hex at Harry. She screamed, "You are going to marry Ginny!"
None of the rest of the people in the room, other than Ron who was now thinking that hiding behind the couch would have been wiser, had ever seen Harry in full battle mode. He moved so fast that the eye could not follow. He had drawn his wand and uttered a protective charm, erecting a wall between him and the irate mother before any in the room could see his movements. Even so, the force of Molly's curse blasted the shield and Harry into the back wall.
Aghast at what she had just done, Molly dropped her wand. From his prone position, Harry issued the spell that made Molly's wand burst into flame and go up in smoke.
Harry stood up, furious, and a bit heart-broken that it had come to this. Ron figured that the manure had definitely hit the fan, but was amazed at this best friend's self-control, in that he didn't retaliate further.
Harry merely said, "I am truly sorry. You have been my family. Good-bye", and disapparated away.
Ginny put her hands on her naked hips, and looked at her mother with a disgusted glare. "Well, Mom, that certainly went well!"