Author's note: This story came about after I finished reading the story Weasley's Ten. I just didn't care for the ending where Hermione and the Weasleys kidnap and harass Harry to do what they think is the right thing.
After talking to author Crius, he said write your own ending. The result is, I did just that. This is my first attempt to write, so it might not be as good as a someone who has been at it awhile, but I put a lot of work into it and had a few betas helping. Thus a big thank you to Brina and Kristen.
Needless to say the characters aren't mine, they belong to JKR. Just the idea comes from my mind. I hope someone will find it enjoyable.
It's rated M for some later chapters, just in case.
The Weasley brothers parted like the proverbial Red Sea to reveal the seventh figure concealed behind them. Harry had died and gone to Heaven, it was the only rational explanation for the sight that he now beheld. Never in his life had he seen Ginny Weasley looking so regal, so grown-up, so obviously gorgeous. She wore a black evening gown, to call it a dress simply did not do it justice, with not a shoulder strap in sight whose bodice was tailored so closely that Ginny's measurements that it made Harry want to drool rivers. A slender belt studded with small shards of some kind of reflective but dulled stone emphasized her slender waist, and below that the skirts of the dress belled out slightly from her hips to form a waterfall of raven-colored fabric that reached all the way to the floor. A pair of simple metal earrings dangled from her earlobes, they could have been silver or they could have been polished steel, Harry could not tell the difference and a matching bracelet encircled her right wrist. Her fiery colored mane was partly gathered up at the back of her head, but with a considerable length falling down behind her shoulders in a sleek straight waterfall of titian tresses. The only make-up she wore was green eye-shadow on her eyelids, and soft pink lipstick
Weasley's Ten by Crius
Chapter 1: Weasley's Misadventure
Harry was gob smacked. His jaw dropped open, if only for a moment. His level of apprehension had just shot through the roof and he began to sweat and shake slightly. His breathing quickened as well.
Reign in your over active hormones right this instant and see this for what it really is, youdunderhead! said the voice of his conscience. The voice wanted to be calm and clear, but was edgy and nervous.
Harry closed his eyes tightly and shook his head to clear his thoughts. Here were his supposed friends leading their ickle Ginnikins out to Harry like a virgin to be sacrificed. Where was their decency? Their sense of honor? They've going too bloody far with this!
Suddenly, it dawned on Harry's addle-pated and overworked brain just what had been occurring through the whole of the school year, so far. They had somehow discerned his feelings, as they said, and had schemed and contrived to foist their sister on him for whatever bizarre reason, perhaps even against her will. He opened his eyes back up, hoping that it had been a mistake, an illusion, yet she was still there, smiling at him. Oh, bugger! I'm in worse trouble than I thought, flashed a quick panicky thought through his brain.
Seeing Ginny Weasley was the last straw for Harry. After all his friends' attempts to bully and manipulate him, he had enough. I've got to think. There has to be a way out of this, I.... Suddenly an idea came to his panicking brain. He turned his back on Ginny, folded his arms across his chest, and called out, "HELP ME KREACHER!"
A loud crack was heard and Harry Potter's faithful servant Kreacher appeared.
"Master Harry is calling Kreacher?" he said in a concerned voice. His eyes darting about the room to assess any problems, looking for any threats to his master.
"Yes, Kreacher. I need your help. Bind all these people quickly, please," Harry said, in a slightly irate and distressed voice. Before anyone could move Kreacher snapped his fingers several times and ropes appeared to tie up the entire band of conspirators spread out around Harry and Kreacher in the room. Harry and Kreacher's actions were so quick that there was no way for them to fight back.
"Get me my wand, too, if you would, please."
"Yes, Master Harry. Is the blood traitors givings you trouble Master Harry?" Again Kreacher snapped his fingers and Harry's wand materialized in Kreacher's hand, and he gave it to Harry.
"Harry, no mate, wait!" cried Ron. "We're only trying to help you!"
Harry wasn't interested in Ron's cries. This is my best mate and my family. Harry reflected. It might just as well be Dudley and his gang in here to beat up on me.
"Bring Hermione in here as well and bind her, if you please, Kreacher. Then put them all into the far corner."
As Kreacher disappeared to fetch Hermione, Harry used his wand to perform the Silencio charm on all the Weasleys and when Kreacher returned with a bound Hermione, he made sure that all those assembled were gathered together on the floor in the furthest corner.
"Please, collect their wands, as well, Kreacher. We don't want any unexpected interruptions." Kreacher snapped his fingers and all of their wands appeared in Kreacher's hand. He handed them to Harry, a small smirk on his face.
"Harry, stop this." yelled Hermione, anxiously. "Why are you doing this? We're only trying to...."
"I know what you're trying to do." Harry turned to gaze at Ron's face with sad eyes, then turned back to Hermione. "You're trying – unsuccessfully, I might add –to manipulate my life," Harry intoned in a calm but sad voice. "You are trying to do what the Dursley's, Professor Snape, Umbridge, Professor Dumbledore and last but not least Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, have tried to do to me all my life: abuse and control me to your own ends."
Harry walked up to the rogues that he had come to consider his closest friends and family, always keeping his eyes away from Ginny, so as not to be distracted. He began to breathe slower and more even, and tried to calm himself and clear his mind.
As he looked over the group and thought how much they had come to mean to him over the years, it was completely aggravating that they, his new family, would treat him just like his old family, the Dursleys had. Being locked in this room was every bit as hurtful and humiliating as being locked in the cupboard under the stairs.
It was like Snape giving him detentions just for being Harry Potter, or Umbridge making him write with the blood quill because he argued with her. Harry thought about all the years that the bloody prophecy had ruled his life and made Voldemort come after him time and again and in the end the only choice he had been left to make was to let the Dark Lord kill him so that these same wonderful people could be free of the evil.
If the Dursley's had loved him, if Snape had been a mentor and friend like Lupin, if his mentor Professor Dumbledore had been truthful with him earlier in his life, what options might he have had open to him. Harry was a legal citizen of the Wizarding world now, and he was damned if anyone person or group would make decisions for him.
"Harry, you have feelings for Ginny! You know you do. You need to let them out, we-" began Hermoine, breaking Harry out of his reverie.
"According to you Hermione. Not according to me, and it's wrong of you to try to push Ginny and myself together when we are obvious not suited for each other." Harry pointed his wand at Hermione and cast a Silencio on her as well.
Harry stepped back then so he could see the whole crew. They were all straining in their bonds trying to get loose, and the older Weasleys, Bill and Charlie, had deep scowls on their faces. He chanced a glance at Ginny and saw tears washing down her cheeks, then quickly centered his gaze on the whole group.
This is really all for the best, he thought. She'll see it after a while, said the gnawing little voice in his head. Hermione and her brothers are pushing her at me because she had a crush on me years ago. She can't possibly still care about me. He closed his eyes for a moment, drew in a deep breath and then exhaled slowly to further calm himself, then opened his eyes.
"Kreacher, can you confirm my suspicions as to what these deluded prats have been on about with me so far this year?" Harry inquired of Kreacher.
"Kreacher can'ts be absolutely certain about all of the incidents, but, Kreacher dids foil the love potion plot that theys attempted to involve Master Harry in. Kreacher is witnessing the Blood Traitor Weasley Trollope tryings to slip Master Harry the love potion to beguile him. Kreacher is managing to keep Master Harry from drinkin' it, and instead is making sure that the Blood Traitor Trollope drinks the potion. It is most likely thats these vile miscreants is being involved in any and all attempts to put Master Harry and the Blood Traitor Trollope together." Kreacher's insistence on calling Ginny the Blood Traitor Trollope brought angry black looks at Harry and Kreacher.
"I would prefer, Kreacher, if you would not refer to Ginny as the...ah....well, Just call her the Weasley girl, please. She is a warm, sensitive girl, and I still think of her as my friend." Harry looked at Kreacher with a kindly but firm resolve on his face.
"Kreacher will tries in future not to refers to the Weasley female as the Blood Traitor Trollope, Master Harry. Kreacher is spending too many years serving the Ancient and Noble House of Black, where such people is considered Blood Traitors, and he woulds humbly begs Master Harry's pardon."
Kreacher bowed to Harry, and Harry smiled back to him, and turned back to address his astonished abductors. "I'm going to be leaving now. I'll let you lot just sit and stew here for awhile. I think I need to have a small talk with a certain Transfiguration teacher about the proper protocol for disciplining a student and what constitutes an abuse of the detention process. I'll let Professor McGonagall know where you are when I'm done."
He turned back to Kreacher. "You know where we are, don't you Kreacher? I mean, you can tell Professor McGonagall where these people are, so that she can come to their rescue or vent her displeasure at them, right?"
Kreacher came forward and bowed to Harry. "Simplicity itself Master Harry... it is being an interesting matter to sees which course the Professor takes." Kreacher gave a quick look back to the captives and flashed an evil grin. Harry turned to go, his shoulders sagging visibly as he walked towards the door.
"Oh, and by the way," Harry turned his head slowly back to the unhappy group, "I understand that as friends of mine you care about me and you want to help me, but it is still my life to live. I have to live it in my own way according to what my heart tells me, so I intend to have Kreacher keep an eye on me from now on. Please, get it out of your head that you can attempt any more of these shenanigans." Harry glanced at Ginny for a long moment, when she wasn't looking and gave a silent sigh.
Ginny was everything in a girl that Harry could have dreamed for. It was cruel of his friends to first prank him relentlessly by dangling the one thing he wanted so badly and could not have. It was terrible to dredge up the old feelings Ginny had once had for The Boy Who Lived and abuse her as well. Harry was a little peeved at his friends at the moment.
Harry slowly turned back to Kreacher. "Kreacher can we leave now, please? All of this nonsense has given me a slight headache."
"Yes, Master Harry, where exactly is it we is going to?" Kreacher looked up to Harry with a pleasant smile.
"To wherever Professor McGonagall is at the moment, I need to have a personal discussion on ethics with her."
Kreacher turned back to the assembled conspirators, a sadness spreading across his countenance. "A wise muggle is once saying-'The appearance of right oft leads us wrong'." He sighed deeply. "You is trying to force Master Harry to act as you feel he should act. You is not respecting him to be the great wizard that he is. Think well while you is here about whether you is really his friends. Force without wisdom falls of it's own weight. So you is brought pain to Master Harry and consequence beyond what you is wanting for yourself."
Kreacher turned away from them shaking his head. The old elf reached out and took hold of Harry's left hand and with a loud crack they were gone.
Ginny Weasley sat trussed up and silently bemoaning the aches and pains her body was enduring. Her biggest pain by far was the fact their plan to coerce Harry into surrendering his act as a noble git did not pan out. Not only did he refuse to give in to her, he had turned the tables on the whole lot of them, with Kreacher's help. He'd simply walked away without admitting any sort of feelings for her, let alone how much she knew that he loved her. She had gone to great lengths to pick out her dress and jewelry, fix her hair and face; everything to be a knockout femme fatale that she was sure would melt Harry's heart and bring them together at last. Harry had found a way out of the situation.
Ginny tried to maneuver her body to find some comfort. Despite the deep ache in her heart and how much she wanted to cry openly, she sniffed once and made her face a stoic mask. In her silence, she thought of the irony of the circumstances.
Harry had been brought here, not like a lamb for the slaughter, as he had presented himself to Voldemort, but as someone they all cared for very deeply, especially Ginny, who refused to accept Harry's ignoring the feeling he had for her. All of the people he considered family had decided to make him listen to reason.
He had been surrounded and outnumbered, and he had still won the day. Suddenly she thought of the last battle at Hogwarts, where Harry had defeated Voldemort. Before the end, Harry had let himself be killed, yet because of Tom's Hourcrux, Harry had been given the chance to come back to life and finish off the Dark Wizard. They should have known. She should have known that he would not 'go gentle into that good night' as the Muggle poem said.
Ginny thought hard about what Kreacher had said about force. Their attempt to force Harry to be open with his feelings had only ended in pushing him further away from her. Now she was afraid that she had lost her last chance to be with him and her heart was breaking into many pieces.