Author's note. Special thanks to King Daemon Blackfyre who has provided the necessary helpful advice and encouragement to rewrite parts of this story to my own satisfaction.
The Outcome
Chapter 2
Harry followed Hermione into the room, looking around. He had never known such rooms existed as he got his first look at the lords' quarters in Hogwarts, reserved for those privileged few.
"This is incredible, Hermione. But what are we doing…oh hey?" Harry said, standing in the entryway.
Stepping forward he saw Ron, Ginny, Luna and what looked like Fleur sitting on a magically enlarged sofa. They appeared to be waiting for him.
Spotting Ginny, his stomach did a flip, his nerves restless with excitement as he passed Hermione who had stopped just behind him, in front of the doorway. Harry couldn't help staring at Ginny for a moment, his heart racing in his chest. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Had she always been this beautiful or was it something new, he wondered.
"It's great to see you again, Ron, Ginny. How have you both been?" Harry asked, happy to see his friends after so much had happened. The threat of Voldemort was now over, and they could finally get back to the way things should have been all along.
Ron and Ginny exchanged a nervous look as Harry finally noticed the tension in the room and paused. Ginny's hand fumbled for Ron's as a shadow of unease settled over the room. Things were about to become ugly. She could sense it.
"What's wrong? Am I missing something?" Harry asked, looking around the room, at the faces staring back at him.
"Err well…" Ginny started but it was Ron who spoke.
"Harry a lot has changed while you were away," Ron said, summoning his courage.
"Changed? What do you mean? What's changed?" Harry asked, feeling a sense of uncertainty creeping up his spine.
Behind him, unbeknownst to Harry, Hermione cast a silencing and locking spell on the door just in case. Things could very well get ugly fast and they needed to be careful.
"Well to start with, Fleur and my brother Bill are no longer together and Hermione and Gabrielle, Fleur's sister, are a couple," Ginny said.
"Okay. Well, I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out with you and Bill, but I am happy you found someone, Hermione." Harry said, turning and spotting Hermione in front of the door.
"Err, Hermione, what are you doing back there?" Harry asked now curious as to why she had positioned herself in front of the door.
"Harry…there's more. Ron, Fleur, and Luna are all involved together. They're betrothed. And Fleur and Ron are expecting a child." Hermione said slowly.
"Oh um, well that is wonderful. I guess. Things really have changed." Harry said awkwardly.
"There's one more thing you should know about, Harry," Ginny said, standing and holding out her hand, with the betrothal ring on it.
"Oh…oh my. Ginny a…are you? You're engaged to someone? But I thought that you and I…Who is your fiancée?" Harry finally managed, feeling as if the floor had vanished out from under him.
Ginny bit her lip, shaking her head, a tear running down her cheek. "Oh, Harry. I'm so sorry. I did love you once, but you broke my heart. And then Ron…well he and I sort of…" Ginny trailed off turning away from him to look at Ron.
"Oh…oh my god. You and Ron? You're engaged to Ron? Your own brother? That's disgusting. Who else knows about this? You'll never get away with this." Harry said, furious, shaking his head in shock and horror.
"It's not as bad as it sounds, Harry. I love Ron. And he loves me. I can't imagine being with anyone else. Please try to understand." Ginny said, trying desperately to reason with Harry.
"I don't care. I'll put a stop to this. It's wrong. It's sick. It's disgusting." Harry said, drawing his wand.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALIS!" Hermione said, pointing her wand at Harry's back, causing his body to freeze up and as he fell backward onto the floor, unable to move, Hermione stood over him, her wand pointed at him as she whispered a spell under her breath.
"Hermione what are you doing?" Ron asked, having been silent up until now.
"Relax Ron. It's just a little compulsion charm to make sure he doesn't say or do anything that could reveal your relationship with Ginny." She said, stepping backward and removing the body bind spell.
Harry stood up, fuming, and opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. Struggling for a moment, he shook his head, turned on his heel and strode towards the door.
"Let me out, Hermione." Harry snapped when the door wouldn't budge.
Sighing, Hermione waved her wand and the door swung open. Harry walked out and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving them all behind.
"Well, that could have gone better," Fleur said.
"Well, it's not like we didn't see this coming," Ron said, shaking his head.
"What if Harry never talks to us again?" Hermione said sadly.
"He'll come around eventually," Luna said in that mysterious way of hers.
"I hope you're right," Ginny said miserably, burrowing against Ron's side as he held her and did his best to comfort her.
XxxxxxxxxxxX
Wandering down the second-floor corridor Harry fumed silently. "I can't believe this. I freaking go away for a little while, to keep them all safe while I deal with Voldemort and things go completely to hell. Ginny and Ron? How was this even possible?" He wondered to himself, deep in thought.
Harry was so lost in thought that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going. It came as a bit of a shock when he bumped into something solid and barely maintained his footing, unlike the person he had bumped into too.
Snapping back to reality, Harry quickly apologized. "Oh, sorry about that. I wasn't paying any attention. My apologies." He said, reaching out to help the girl up.
In front of him, he saw a tall blond girl in Slytherin robes, who blushed slightly as she took his hand. "Um thanks, Harry." She mumbled as he helped her pick up her books.
"Sorry. Um, do I know you?" Harry mumbled at a loss.
"Oh well not officially, I suppose. Daphne Greengrass." She said awkwardly.
"Well it is nice to meet you. Err, officially that is, I suppose. I'm Harry, err I guess you already know that though." Harry said, somewhat lamely.
"Yeah. Um, I'll see you around, maybe?" Daphne said.
"Sure. I'd like that." Harry smiled, suddenly remembering he was holding her books and blushed, offering them to her.
"Thanks," Daphne said, taking her books with a smile, before turning and continuing on her way down the corridor.
Harry watched her walk away, smiling despite himself, his disappointment and anger were temporarily forgotten as he continued his way up the grand staircase towards the Gryffindor common room. It was only when he reached the portrait of the Fat Lady that he remembered why he was upset, to begin with. Shaking his head and swearing under his breath he muttered the password and made his way inside the common room.
Grabbing his trunk and Hedwig's cage he dragged them up the staircase to his four-poster in the Seventh Year Dorms. After settling in, he flopped back onto his bed and ran his hands through his hair, letting the events of the last few hours wash over him.
Slowly, exhaustion from the day's events washed over him and he succumbed to sleep.
XXXXXXXXXX
Ron made his way down the third-floor corridor for his first DADA class with Fleur. "Err Professor Delacour." He mentally corrected himself.
Entering the room, he noticed he was one of the first to arrive and sat down in a desk near the front of the room beside Hermione who was already there. Behind them, the rest of the seventh years filed in to the classroom whispering quietly amongst themselves.
"Welcome, class. Take your seats. I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Fleur Delacour. Today we will be practicing wandless spellcasting. Today we will focus on the levitation spell as levitating items can be useful in blocking unfriendly spells. If you will all, please take out your wands now." Fleur said, facing the class.
On the desks in front of each of you is a pebble. Your job is to make the pebble float without vocalizing the incantation for the levitation charm. First, take out your wands and clear your minds." Fleur said as the class of students drew their wands.
"Next, concentrate on the pebble and imagine it floating in your mind, make the wand movements for the levitation charm. If it helps, you may say the incantation in your head." Fleur said, demonstrating to the class with a pebble of her own.
The next fifteen minutes was spent with the class practicing the levitation charm with varying degrees of success. Hermione managed the spell almost instantly, while it took Ron a few tries before he managed to levitate the pebble a few inches off the desk, only for it to clatter back onto the hard surface when he lost his concentration.
"Remember, clear your minds. Keep calm and try not over think it. Simply focus on the pebble and imagine it floating. Most magic is intent based. Say the incantation in your minds if you must and make the necessary movements with your wand." Fleur said, moving through the rows of students.
Within the next half hour, the rest of the class had managed with some success to get the pebble to float briefly.
"Excellent, class. Now keep practicing. Repetition breeds success." Fleur said, smiling briefly at Neville who had finally succeeded in making his pebble float.
The rest of the hour was spent with the class mastering the spell in their minds when the bell finally rang for dismissal.
"Excellent class. Remember, next lesson will be spent practicing levitating larger objects to block spells. Class dismissed." Fleur said.
They filed out of the DADA classroom and made their way down to the dungeons for Potions class, where they were learning to brew the Polyjuice Potion. Potions had always been one of Ron's worst classes but in the past, he had Harry there with him to distract him from his misery. It hurt knowing that his best mate now resented him and the fact that that wouldn't change for some time was a little upsetting. Still, he made do, partnering with Hermione once again.
Harry meanwhile was partnering with Neville who had begun to finally flourish at potions now that Snape was far removed from the subject. Sadly, Snape was not a much-missed face at Hogwarts. At best he had been an ineffectual teacher and unpleasant member of the faculty. At worst he was a bully and source of discontent among the teaching staff.
After a double session of Potions, they filed out of the dungeons and stowed their potion kits away before heading to the Great Hall for Lunch. Unsurprisingly, Harry chose to sit away from them at the far end of the table leaving Ron, Hermione, Gabrielle and Luna who had broken away from the Ravenclaw table to sit with them again, on their own. The other students had shown no signs of letting go of their fears and in fact seemed to take Harry's hostility towards them as a sign of encouragement.
Ron did his best to ignore the whispers of the word "monster" as he passed by, the sudden silence as he turned to look at them, the younger students edging out of the way when they saw him coming. Walking down a corridor near the Charms classroom, he cried out in pain as something impacted with his back from behind. Collapsing to his knees, he reached behind him to check his back and paled as his hand came away bloody.
Breathless and in utter agony, he called out for help. The only sound was a quiet pop and a loud squeaking voice calling out as everything went black and he fell forward, the darkness consuming him.
TBC
