9

Ah, Disclaimer! Thou that art necessary, but unwanted, but always assumed! As if people should be reminded that I am but an intruder upon the 'Verse, furtively attempting to fix egregious lack of awesomeness and nonsensical character decisions in the shadows of stories I do not own ...

-o-

Chapter 2 – The Method

Ron said, "Only one person attempts to fix the future. Me. I only have my own thoughts and my own hands. Nobody else. I had to put the pieces in place, and trust that they could handle it. I always exercised my magic to exhaustion, even before I came to Hogwarts, and I found a skill with compulsion charms – and," he added, bobbing his head to the side, "a bit of runic enchantment, to get Dumbledore to move in the direction we needed."

"Was he the only one?"

Ron snorted, "Not even close. Fudge always showed up as a blithering idiot because he fully embraced his idiocy, and everyone on both sides imperioed and obliviated him right, left, and center, so I threw my efforts into the mix, too." He grinned. "I enchanted his bowler hat to make him indecisive. Frustrated Malfoy and the others to no end." Ron sobered. "Cedric's death couldn't change because of an unfortunate mix of Hufflepuff nobility and Potter fairness. I couldn't encourage Cedric to take the cup before Harry, and manipulating Harry always turned out disastrous, every time, so …" Lifting his gaze up from the floor, Ron at Hermione. "No matter what, you can never tell Harry that he might even have partial responsibility for Cedric's death. Pettigrew fired the curse, so he must deal with the responsibility, and Harry should never have to shoulder that guilt." Ron's eyes shone fiercly, and Hermione nodded her agreement. She swallowed and regained her train of thought.

"And the next year?"

Ron sighed. "What I can do has less to do about magical power and more about access. I could find a way to get to Dumbledore. Fudge would meet anyone that could imply he would receive publicity – or money. I found it easy to distribute items with compulsions enchanted into them among Hogwarts students, and from them, on to their parents. But Umbridge? She showed an absolute paranoia toward everyone, hated muggles, creatures, and 'blood traitors', and had no friends. I had no way to get to her, no way to get her to accept an anonymous enchanted gift, no way to influence her." Ron eyed Hermione. "And she gathered the reins of power behind Fudge in the Ministry, so getting him to get rid of her didn't work – she just ignored him and went on with her power mad fantasies."

Ron perked up. "But getting you to think of having Harry teach the DA – wow, the hardest thing about that involved keeping you from going too far! One of the possible futures had you pushing Harry into becoming a Hogwarts Professor so he could teach everyone DADA. That always went wrong in a hurry." Ron shook his head.

Hermione smirked a bit. "And why didn't that work out okay?"

Ron fell completely serious. "Because Umbridge showed that she had every bit of skill that I used for manipulating situations, and she didn't go through time to do it as far as I could tell … which means she outclassed me in every way. As soon as Harry built a positive political foundation under himself, Umbridge worked to eliminate his support," Ron looked away into a corner of the room, "usually starting with you. Mostly she had you killed by a potions explosion. So instead of confronting her and losing you, we baited her into thinking she didn't have much in the way of opposition … up until you led her to the centaurs."

"What about the fight at the Ministry?" Hermione asked quietly.

Ron sighed and ran his right hand through his hair.

"I re-ran that fight over a hundred times. A few of those notebooks," and here, Ron gestured to the cache of memo books in the wall. "contain nothing but summaries of what not to do and why: don't use time turners against You-Know-Who, 'cause he'll just undo the universe. Don't get there early, 'cause Umbridge will have us all imprisoned. Stuff like that. We kept losing, and we kept dying. I finally got it so that we killed all the Death Eaters. In response, Voldemort went insane – ok, insane-er – and stole a few muggle nukes – set them off in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow. When we left them all alive, and Sirius survived, Harry would die by Voldemort's hand in the final battle; he didn't have the right attitude to survive. Future-Sirius volunteered to sacrifice his life in the past to help Harry in the future fight, and sent the message back to me." Ron looked directly at Hermione. "He accepted it, and volunteered. As solutions go, it sucked, but it worked."

Hermione's face hardened. "And sixth year's … activities?"

Ron got up, seemingly ignoring her question, and picked out a notebook from the hidden shelves. Most of the notebooks looked in good shape – this one had a worn and scuffed cover, and some pages obviously needed to be reattached; they hung out of the notebook with smeared pencil on them. "Read this," he said simply.

Hermione took it and carefully opened the cover. The notebook felt small in her hands – A6 size – and the sewn in pages had become detached from frequent handling. The writing obviously came from Ron's messy scribble, in pencil, and some parts seemed heavily smeared. She could make out most of it, however.

I have looked at all the reports from up the timeline, and I/we will have to sacrifice this year to make our survival in the years to come possible – not certain, just possible. The alienation that Harry and Hermione will each feel will have to be endured; without it, neither will survive the year after. It will build on the hardships that they have suffered in the past, and will give them the power and determination they can get in no other way. You have to accept going in that you your relationship with Hermione might never recover, and it may never grow into what you want. I know that I'd rather have her alive and hating me than have her dying as my girlfriend. I don't think I've changed that much in two years that you'd feel differently, so you'll come to the same conclusions I have; both Harry and Hermione have to survive. Harry because he saves the world. Hermione because she makes the world worth saving…

you'll have to use a series of short loops to successfully ensnare Lavender, and you will have to find a way to avoid vomiting when she calls you "Won-Won". You have your warning. A little opposition to Harry's romance will help him commit to it, no matter how much you want to smooth the way. Oh, and don't take your focus off Harry, but give Neville as much support as you can without making it obvious; Neville's strength that will save the school while you worry about saving Harry so he can save us all. I certainly hope so, anyway, because no one else will do it if Nev does not decide to rise to the occasion …

Hermione closed the cover softly. She considered a while, Ron waiting patiently for her attention to return to the real world.

Finally, she said, "What does this mean, 'short loops'?"

"Um, where?"

Hermione opened the notebook and pointed out the passage. "Oh, right. Um, Lavender and I had little attraction to each other, but choosing her kept the burden from falling on anyone else. I used the time turners to replay each meeting until I found an approach she fell for, and I had acted the way she demanded so she wouldn't break up with me, so that you and Harry could grow the skills you needed for survival." He shrugged. "I thought that I would eventually begin to like her, but it never happened. At least she got something out of it."

Hermione's eyes flashed with anger. "So you think that getting groped by The Great Ron Weasley makes up for dealing with lies and manipulation?"

Ron snorted, "I think that she could tell that I felt a low enthusiasm about pawing her, especially in public, and I had to constantly talk fast and do damage control every time she wanted a public snogging session." Ron gave a significant look to Hermione that said stop faking your obtuseness, "She asked for some pointers with DADA, and I her some flawed DADA tricks – I set her up to die. The reason she came recommended by the notebooks is because in every timeline where I didn't date her, she … lived." Hermione looked up, startled by Ron's defense, and grew still. "And she hated it. She ended up as the plaything of Death Eaters, sometimes she broke and joined them. Her knowledge of the DA would have killed a lot of us – did kill a lot of us if she shared with the wrong people … and one time when I talked with her, I asked her if she'd ever join the Death Eaters." He shrugged. "She said she'd rather die. I made sure she got her wish."

Ron's face showed plainly that this would haunt him to the end of his days.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Hermione processing, and Ron patiently waiting for Hermione's next question. Ron carefully placed the battered notebook back on the shelf and then sat while Hermione stared off into space.

"Why haven't you gone back and re-done the battle so that Fred lives?" she asked quietly.

Ron gestured to the two time turners hanging in the hidden shelves. "I can't use them anymore. You obviously haven't thought about how the time turners work."

Hermione's eyebrow raised at Ron, but he felt no effects.

"Oh, come on. You have plenty of ability – you just haven't thought this through yet. Look at the pegs – I've only got two turners now, the minimum needed for a relay trip into the far past. What happens to a set of turners when you pass the point from which they came back?"

Hermione's forehead wrinkled as she thought.

Ron didn't wait for her to puzzle it out. "They disappear. The point where I sent back information to fix Lockhart's wagon? Wiped out as we passed through it with a successful resolution, so I didn't go back, so the time turners didn't end up in my collection. They disappeared off my pegs, never to exist again." He took a breath. "I have a hazy theory on why my notebooks still exist, but it probably has something to do with how they influenced the development of this timeline."

"Now, we've won the final battle against ol' Snake-Face, and any further meddling with the decisions that brought us here could easily end up with us heading into a future, well … we could easily cause a paradox. Watch." Ron's voice held a forceful command, and Hermione carefully observed as Ron tried to pick up the two lone time turners from their hanging pegs. As his hand grew near, they turned translucent and insubstantial, and Ron's hand passed through them.

"I don't think that you really figured out what I've done. I've accepted notebooks from Older Rons since this whole thing started ten years ago. And each time, they faded out of existence, because what I do makes it so that that particular them never happens. This version of me – my current memories and experiences – has never travelled in time. I am the one who maneuvers and bespells people, sometimes to their deaths, because I don't have the smarts or clever insights or complex plans to figure out how to save them. The Ron that exists through all this," Ron waved his hand vaguely, "has never shown bravery or focus or acted determined enough to unmake his universe so that a better one can grow in its place. Although I could become him, I never do. I continually live with the shitty end of the stick, the one that has to take their complaints and try to craft a future good enough to continue in, wondering how many people can I save and how far can I push you before you break." He took a deep breath.

"My days of playing with time are over, Hermione. I have finished playing with fate, unmaking decisions because they failed the first time through. I will make decisions – even if they turn out wrong, and live with what I have chosen. I only want to live my life and be happy, the same as everyone else, living with the consequences of my decisions, and recovering from bad choices and chance as best I can."

They sat together as Ron joined her on the edge of the bed. He never showed anything about his hidden burden. Hermione's mind skittered about and failed to pay attention to the present, though, as she felt a loose thread in her thoughts and chased it down.

"Wait a minute!" she suddenly exclaimed. "You can't change anything in time that you've already seen! How did you change all those times when you tried to chat up Lav?"

Ron smirked. "Surely you can figure it out? If you can't change anything you have seen, then you can change anything you haven't seen. And how does a Wizard un-see anything?"

"Memory charms …" Hermione breathed, a little stunned. "So …" her mind whirled as she spoke her thoughts while solving the problem, "… you … obliviated yourself and then told yourself what to try on the next round … and you had to make a record somewhere …"

"Actually, I wrote down what my younger self had to try next, and then handed the notebook and time turners over. My time-travelling adventures involve me not travelling, remember? I've got quite a list of ways not to approach that girl …" Ron chuckled. "Apparently, my first approach went well until I asked her if she could make her hair a little more like yours – she really didn't take that well."

A small chuckle. "I suppose not."

Silence spread as they both stopped to think about what Ron told her.

Finally, Hermione asked, "How do I know that I am not under your manipulations until I agree to marry you?"

"Are you irritated with me now?" Ron's question threw Hermione for a moment, but she nodded. "And have you felt intensely irritated with me in the past?" Hermione couldn't help the grin as she nodded.

Ron leaned forward in his chair, arms resting on his knees, saying "If I were manipulating you, you would remember a very happy past with me – since I would have fixed everything in the past – and you would feel only slightly irritated with me in the present until I could go back and fix that, too. If you remember an imperfect past relationship …" Ron trailed off and raised his eyebrows at her in invitation.

"… then I make my own choices!"

Ron smirked. "Well, I could still try to manipulate you through my amazing powers of observation and charm."

He joined Hermione as she laughed at that.

When she sobered, Hermione looked at Ron calculatingly. "I think that I only need one more explanation." She took a deep breath. "Why did you leave us in the tent?"

Ron looked away, got up and started looking at his hidden shelves. "I had something to do. Harry and you,"

"You and Harry," Hermione reflexively corrected.

"… couldn't know why I left, so I had to have an excuse. I had used jealousy as a cover in the past so I could duck out and attend to things, it seemed to work for this occasion, too."

"What did you need to do?"

Ron looked at her steadily, but did not answer.

"What did you do, Ron?"

Ron took a deep breath. "You have concerns about my manipulations. The only way that you can feel sure that I leave you alone to make your own decisions involves reflexively refusing my offer, which implicitly assumes that I made my offer in the hopes that you will accept. That course of action ignores the possibility that I may have figured out your strategy of refusal, and then propositioned you in the expectation that you will refuse me, thus putting you on the path I desired to manipulate you into taking in the first place. Correct?"

An extremely flustered Hermione nodded in assent.

"And if I offered any incentives for you to marry me, you could also consider that a form of manipulation. So I cannot offer you a ring or any other trinket until I have your answer. But before you give me that answer, you should probably consider something."

Ron saw Hermione's eyes still locked on him, so he continued, "Any course of action based on what anyone else does or how anyone feels can inherently manipulate a person. Your deepest motivations, however, are inherently beyond my grasp, and are never subject to my manipulations. So answer me based on what you really want, what you actually desire in your life, and you can rest easy that I have not altered the outcome in any way."

Hermione nodded along with Ron's explanation. "You can't tell me what you did during your absence in the hunt?"

"I can't answer that question."

"Can you answer the question after I answer your question?"

"I can't answer that question, either."

"Ah-ha!" Hermione announced. "If your activity didn't have anything to do with asking me to marry you, you could give me an answer, so you left because you planned on proposing and your errand could involve an inducement for me to say yes!"

Ron held up his hand to stop her. "Unless I know that any question I answer could involve an inducement, so I refuse to answer anything until you respond to my proposal."

Hermione grumped, "Damn, I hoped that you didn't think of that."

Ron calmly walked over and knelt on one knee in front of her. "First, language! And second: so, will you respond to my proposal?"

Hermione cocked her head to the side. "Let me see the ring again."

Ron shook his head, "Nothing doing. Gimme an answer, and then we can talk. No answer, no talk."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You realize that not answering my questions manipulates me into answering?"

Ron snorted. "I will not answer questions until I get an answer. I will answer your questions after you give me an answer, but my willingness to talk does not depend on the content of your answer – just that you give me one."

"So you admit to manipulating me into giving you an answer!" Hermione almost shouted in triumph.

"An answer," Ron responded mildly. "Whatever answer you give still comes from what you truly desire. And my manipulations haven't even touched on forcing courtesy out of you," he snarked.

"Hmm," she pondered.

"But before you answer me, I'd like you to consider two things," Ron said. "First, consider the conversation we just had. I think that I've proven that I can function as your intellectual equal in at least one area. Second, this shows that I do not have to roll over for your demands, and I have enough strength to live as your social equal as well. I do not ask for you to commit to a marriage where you need to babysit your husband, or where you can look down on him. I desire your hand in marriage, but only if it comes with your respect. And you can tell that I do not want you to feel manipulated into giving whatever answer you give."

Hermione looked intently at Ron. He placidly looked back from down on his knee, not showing anything other than a surface calm.

An impish smile broke out on Hermione's face. "Yes," she announced.

Ron lunged forward to hug her, but met Hermione's upraised hand. "Now I want answers," she demanded.

Ron looked a bit hurt. "I happen to think that finding out that I will live in happiness for the rest of my life deserves a little celebration, Hermione."

She lunged at Ron, and the shared a strong hug for longer than Molly would have liked. Hermione let go, sat back down on the bed, and then demanded, "Talk!"

Ron sat down, too, and began, "I figured out how to use runes to send a small-ish object back in time … pretty far. Along with a few other special rune sequences that I developed, that made it possible to set something up that I figured you would accept as a perfect betrothal gift for you." He casually added, "And I spent a lot of that time talking to Kreature, making sure that Snape prepared to lead Harry to the Sword of Gryffindor, making sure that the DA avoided destruction or betrayal, stuff like that."

Hermione did not allow herself to become distracted. "So can you show me the gift?"

Ron grinned a little. "Kreature led me to a rare book from the Black library and made a copy. I had a one-of-a kind title, perfect bait, and I made something like twenty copies of Kreature's copy. Then I took apart the binding and added my runes to make it a hook, and then I sent all the copies back in time as a parcel with money and instructions for sending them out by owl post."

Hermione displayed signs that she felt unhappy that Ron avoided getting to the point. Ron, however, found this enjoyable, and his grin increased. "I sent the book over twenty years into the past, and distributed it to all the Death Eaters that we knew would die."

"Who?"

"Well, Dumbledore for one. Snape, too. And just about every Death Eater I can think of: the Carrows, Rookwood, Yaxley, Doholov, the LeStranges, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson …"

"Mulciber?"

"Yes, I think I got him, too."

"And what did this 'hook' do to them?"

"Well, firstly, it reinforced their desire to collect books. Rare knowledge, offbeat diaries, complete spell collections, bestiaries, anything. The fights over Riddle's library should be epic. And then …"

"WHAT?" The anticipation really got under Hermione's sang-froid.

"They had to leave it all – every single book in their possession – in their will to the top student of the next Hogwarts graduating class after their demise. And we all know who will achieve that."

Hermione's mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Her skin turned pale, and small beads of moisture appeared on her forehead. Her pupils dilated to an alarming degree.

Offhandedly, Ron said, "If you do this right, you'll have a personal library that will rival Hogwarts' own. But if you find that this kind of reward puts too much pressure on you, you don't have to try for it …"

Hermione pounced so quickly that Ron didn't see any windup. And even though she launched herself away from the bed, he couldn't quite work out how they ended up landing on it …