"What happened!?" asked a very irate and disheveled Harry Potter as soon as he came through the floo, not even bothering to let the green flames die down as he crossed the threshold into the Burrow.

His eyes darted back and forth expectantly between Hermione and Ron who were currently on opposite sides of the room. One possessing a very familiar scowl, the other one nursing a giant bruise over his eye.

"Well?" he asked, glaring daggers at both of them, not even breaking his stare when the flames roared to life once more as Ginny stepped through the fireplace.

"It was Ron's fault, a little bit of Hermione's if we're being honest." Ginny chimed causing both of them to glare at her, "Neither of you are going to talk so I might as well."

"And conveniently leave out the part where you were involved as well?" Hermione asked expectantly, crossing her arms in the process.

Ginny shrugged, "Semantics."

Harry wasn't having any of it and turned on his heel to interrogate the witch behind him, "Story, whole story." he instructed, as he turned back around and casually strode towards the kitchen table, taking a seat at the very top that was reserved for Arthur Weasley.

The three of them reluctantly followed silently looking between each other behind Harry's back, trying to communicate to one another that there were all going to be throwing the other under the proverbial bus.

"So how exactly does Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy fit into this equation?" he asked taking a good look at Ron's bruise.

"It really is a long story mate," Ron informed him taking the seat to his right, "and I can assure you that neither party is innocent."

"If by that you mean you taking out past aggression on the pair as soon as one of them so much as dared to make a sarcastic comment about your anger issues, which we all knew was bound to happen at some point, -don't give me that look Ronald Billius Weasley-" she scolded him and continued with her rant, "Andromeda was there, she wouldn't have let it escalate too far but both of them," she informed Harry pointing accusingly towards the two red heads that sat to his right, "drew their wands and the whole situation spiraled out of control."

Harry pinched his nose and let out an exasperated sigh, "Start from the beginning, Hermione." both Ginny and Ron opened their mouth for an objection but Harry glared at both of them, "she's the least likely to leave anything out."

"Thank you, Harry." she knew she looked quite smug but didn't have time to relish in it, Harry was glaring at her.

"Watch it Malfoy!"

Hermione hadn't expected Draco Malfoy of all people to grab onto her, one hand firmly placed on her shoulder and the other awkwardly placed around her arm holding her in place, even slightly crouched to steady himself he towered above her much like Ron. She had registered that Ron had released her hand and that Ginny's arm was now crushed between her ribs and her trapped arm but she still couldn't get over the fact that Malfoy was standing so close to her that she could see the intricate designs on one of his pearly shirt buttons.

Quickly realizing the situation he jumped back from her with his hands held up in surrender causing her to sway slightly from the sudden lack of support. He looked horrified, most likely because he had come in contact with her dirty mudblood body.

Ron scowled at him, "Watch where you're going, ferret." he pulled Hermione close to him halfway shielding her from the blond that had collided with her. Which slightly annoyed her, she had shown on more than one occasion that she could handle the likes of Malfoy.

Before Hermione could protest Ginny had stepped in front of all of them brandishing her wand in Malfoys face, "Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't hex you right here on the streets?"

"Ginny, school!" Hermione interjected, finding it to be the most logical answer at the time.

"School be damned, it would be worth it just to see him have a taste of his own medicine." the red headed witch seethed.

"Well you would be one less pain in the arse that we would have to put up if you did." came an unfamiliar voice from behind Malfoy. A very stringy boy sidestepped the group, without a visible wand. Hermione recognized him as Theodore Nott, it was the first time she had ever heard him speak. His hands were tucked into his pockets and he casually leaned back on his heels watching Malfoy for any signs of a rebuttal.

"If it's not one thing it's another." came a soft voice from the store entrance, "Wands down, children." A tall witch with long brown hair and a gentle looking face came into view.

"Andromeda," Hermione stated watching as Ginny made no move to back away from Malfoy. Ron had stopped shielding Hermione to grab his sister, who hesitantly backed away from the Slytherin. "I'm sorry," she chirped, "We didn't realize that-"

Mrs. Tonks stood beside Draco and looked at the scene in front of her, "You didn't realize that you all so rudely caused a scene in the middle of a busy street?" she chided as she sent a frosty glare towards the small group of people that were watching the interaction.

Hermione looked around a slight blush forming over her cheeks. This is exactly what she had wanted to avoid, the spectacle that happened when they first got to Diagon Alley had been attention enough. Draco was eyeing her, his grey orbs forming into slits prepared for any one of them to throw a curse at him. Not like they would since Andromeda was there but it was still unnerving.

"I said, wands down Miss Weasley." the older witch hissed as she glared at Ginny in an even more intimidating way than Molly had ever mustered.

Conceding Ginny slowly backed away from Malfoy and lowered her wand towards the ground but made no move to actually put it away.

"I swear, kids these days are so quick to draw their wands for everything. I remember when sarcastic banter would be exchanged and formal duels were held. They really do need to bring some of the older traditions back." she mumbled before sweeping past the group of young people, "Come along Theo, Draco." Both of them smirked at Ginny as they turned to follow.

It actually surprised Hermione that neither of them had attempted anything or had even made a snide remark about blood purity or the lack of funds available to the Weasley's but she had figured that they were on their best behavior for Andromeda. It's not as if Malfoy was an idiot so he was bound to figure it out at some point that Andromeda wasn't around to simply make amends.

"Mummy and daddy couldn't get out of the house so they have a new sitter now." Ron snickered to them, which actually struck a nerve with her, Andromeda didn't deserve to be put in the middle of their long time feud even if there was no possible way that she could have heard it. Before she could reprimand Ron however, a very irate Draco Malfoy had spun back around and now stood directly in Ron's face.

"What was that Weasleby? Got something funny to say?" he sneered.

Ron glared back at him with his teeth bared, "I said, your death eater mommy and daddy aren't here for you to hide behind so now you're hiding behind someone you've been calling blood traitor and didn't your aunt off her daughter too?"

Too far Ron, too far.

That's when everything spiraled out of control. Ginny had trained her wand on Malfoy ready to shoot a hex at him but not daring to until Ron was out of the way, Hermione had her wand in hand not sure rather or not to aim it at Ron or Malfoy. Malfoy if only to restrain him and Ron to get him to shut his mouth. Malfoy had his hand in his robes but was being restrained by a struggling Theodore Nott and Ron was shoving his wand into his throat.

Hermione's eyes darted between everyone, this is exactly what she had hoped to avoid. Ron's temper and Malfoys were far worse than even Harry's. If he had been here none of this would have even been an issue and she wished he'd magically show up to disperse the fight. Unfortunately, he wasn't and she knew it was about to escalate quickly.

Although she knew Ginny was an excellent dueler she had figured that she wouldn't fire off something just in case it deflected elsewhere. Ron, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. He wouldn't hesitate to cast a spell, and he was angry enough now that no matter what any of them said he'd send a hex or jinx in Malfoy's direction. Malfoy was thrashing against Nott, kicking and attempting to remove his hand from where she figured his wand was while Nott was trying to Juggle Malfoys weight along with his kicking in order to stay upright. Ron had reared his fist back resorting to physical violence since Malfoy's attempts at release had caused him to stumble back a few inches and Hermione quickly raised her wand to separate them.

"Immobulus!"

Hermione was frozen in place, and she watched as the rest of the brawling wizards eyes darted around helplessly as they were suspended in time.

Andromeda came around behind them and snatched Ron's wand from his hand and tossed it to a now unfrozen Hermione where she fumbled to catch it, "Go." she said rather calmly as she placed herself between the two parties and quickly released the spell. She pushed both Draco and Theo down the street, muttering something to them under her breath as they kept looking back to make sure that none of them would attempt to curse them as they were being dragged away.

Merely seconds afterward Hermione directed her attention towards Ron, "How dare you, Ronald!" Hermione shouted as she pocketed her wand and his, turning to stand in his face. She was livid. For one they had caused a scene which would probably end up being the front page headline in tomorrow's Prophet, for two he's the one that initiated the fight and lastly he had the gall to speak about Tonks as if her death hadn't meant a thing and in front of her mother to boot. Oh, he was lucky she didn't want to hex him in front of everyone.

"I'm sorry Moine...you know he just...it's Malfoy." he surrendered weakly.

As if that was enough of an excuse. The war was over and it was time they all settled their differences and put down their house pride, there were more important things. Draco Malfoy wouldn't be of any significance in the grand scheme of things when it came down to Ron, and she would highly appreciate it if he didn't make her last year considerably unbearable with having to share responsibilities with Draco as head boy and girl. She'd much rather focus on her studies rather than to be at odds with him the entire year. "It's not excusable! You should know better than to resort to silly outbursts and physical violence." She scolded as Ginny looked on feigning little to no interest. She wasn't about to be put in the middle of their squabble, "In fact, you should apologize to each and every one of them." She informed him gesturing towards the retreating Slytherins.

Ron's face went starkly red and he stood up straight looking down on the bushy haired witch, "Why?!" he barked, "For calling him out on something that we've all known was a long time coming? For reminding him of the reality of war? A war we both fought in?" he growled at her throwing his hands up in frustration looking at her arm where the infamous mudblood word was carved into her skin, "Malfoy is a git, and it seems like you're trying to defend them, defend the whole lot!" he hissed at her.

"Harry defended him," She shot back, "and his mother. Do you honestly think that Mrs. Tonks would defend them or stand behind them if she had no reason to?" She asked leaving out the part that she had already known wasn't exactly true, Ron didn't need to know that though.

"It's always Harry with you, Hermione," she winced, knowing that he rarely used her full name now that they were together, "He's been wrong before." he reminded her not wanting to point out the incident in fifth year with the depart of Mysteries.

"He has, but he's also been completely right and we've had a habit of ignoring him. This isn't about Harry though. This is about you and what you said about...about Tonks!" she snapped, bringing the conversation back to what she had initially been upset about, "I can't believe you had the audacity to say that in front of them!" She honestly didn't want to have to spell it out for him just how insensitive it was, it would be the equivalent of Malfoy gloating about how Rookwood had murdered Fred.

"But it's true!" he defended himself, "Bellatrix did kill her! We can't just pretend that these things didn't happen!" He countered thinking it was as good of an argument as any.

Before she had time to stop herself she felt her hand connect to the side of his face.

"That's basically how it happened. I stormed off with Ron on my heels and floo'd directly back here. I didn't feel like continuing to shop after that." She informed them staring daggers at Ron.

Harry was rubbing his scar, something she noticed that he did frequently even though she knew it wasn't hurting him. It was something he did out of habit, "Honestly, I expected better of both of you. This is exactly why I haven't ventured from the Burrow these past few months, it's just a headache. Ron, you're going to run into people you don't like constantly being an Auror and you're going to have to handle yourself accordingly. Ginny, you can't just forgo school and curse people on the street. Hermione, you shouldn't have slapped Ron." he scolded them all like little children. Whether it was the war or the quiet in the last few months Harry had grown up before their eyes and it was quite rare when Hermione felt the sting of being treated like a child.

They each mumbled an apology to Harry and one another, "I can fix that," Hermione told Ron directing her attention towards his bruise.

He smiled at her, anger long since passed, "Thanks, Mione." he smiled reaching his hand across the table to grab hers.

"Well, now that that's over with I've got to go and try to fix things on their end." Harry sighed standing from the table and making his way to the fireplace.

Ginny looked at him quizzically her brow arching in the process, "I should probably go find mum...she's probably heard about the incident through the grapevine." It didn't sound like she was too keen on the idea but considering Harry had other plans and Hermione was going to tend to Ron, "I'll see you back here in a bit. Give me your list Hermione, I'll help mum gather the rest of our things." Hermione fumbled through her bag for her list and handed it to the red head witch before she stepped into the floo back on her way to Diagon Alley.

Harry sighed and took a hand full of floo powder, "You two behave yourselves while we're gone. I don't think any of us want to explain to Molly why her home was turned into a battleground and none of us want to clean it up either." His gaze drifted towards Ron both of them nodding in silent agreement, "Malfoy Manor." Harry said clearly as he dropped the powder and disappeared in a shroud of green flames.


By the time they had arrived back home, Aurors were already overcrowding the entrance hall. Andromeda had warned them ahead of time what was probably going to happen and that she'd gladly tell the Aurors everything that had transpired and that neither he nor Theo had so much as raised their wands. He had expected as much though, they really were looking for any excuse to throw any one of them away in Azkaban.

Before any of them had time to react to the Aurors in the room each one of them, including Andromeda, had been thrown against the wall with a wand to their chests, "Wands! Now!" Robards hissed as his underlings searched their robes for their wands. All of this really wasn't necessary but he had figured that they would react this way, although he was taken aback by the hostile way they were treating Andromeda. If she hadn't already proven that she was on their side the loss of her family sure had.

"Honestly, none of this is even necessary. I was the only one to even draw my wand." She informed them. She looked tired, like all she wanted to do was go to her room and fetch her grandson from St. Mungos, but the Aurors were ignoring her and were looking through their wands for any signs of use.

That was one of the biggest problems with the Ministry. They weren't far off from The Dark Lord, they were just on a different side. While Voldemort was for the eradication of muggles and anything associated with them along with mixed breeds and anything else he didn't deem worthy, these Aurors were the same except they wanted to get rid of things and people like the Malfoys. Although blood purity ran through the family they had deflected, it may have been for selfish reasons but in the end they didn't support the death eaters or their cause. If he could merely get rid of his dark mark, if it were so simple, he would. Of course they didn't see it like that, merely the black and whites of war.

When the Aurors didn't find anything suspicious with his or Theo's wands they averted their attention to Andromeda, "And why exactly would you need to perform an immobulus?" one of the auror's interrogated her, "We heard about the scuffle with Mrs. Bulstrode, pulling your wand on an innocent woman in the middle of Madam Malkins."

Draco noticed her not so subtle eye roll out of the corner of his eye, "I guess I am to assume that Mrs. Bulstrode, did, in fact, contact you on the events that transpired earlier today?" When no one tried to correct her she nodded her head, "Oh, so I see. The Aurors have resulted to acting before actually doing their jobs to investigate? If you had done your jobs properly and asked one of the spectators to give their testimony they would tell you that we were the ones in fact assaulted, and if we so choose, especially my nephew here, could sue Mrs. Bulstrode and the Auror department for assault and negligence." she informed them in a matter of fact tone that could probably rival anyone that he had known. "My daughter and Moody would be appalled to see how far their beloved department has fallen." She added, as the Aurors that currently had their wands trained on them lowered them and stepped away.

He wasn't sure if it was her threat that caused them to look rather remorseful or her use of the fallen Aurors that used to run the department, either way, they relented their efforts and handed all three of them back their wands. It was Robards who spoke first, "And the incident with Granger and the Weasley's?" He asked smugly as if that confrontation was just cause to interrogate them once more.

"A school rivalry taken quite out of hand." Andromeda shrugged as if it were an everyday occurrence for nemesis to attack each other on the street. "It was dealt with before anyone was harmed." None of the Aurors looked assuaged with her answer though, "Now if you're quite done here I'd like to go get my grandson," she stated as if she had more authority than the actual authorities in the room. Begrudgingly they all made their way back to the fireplace or opted to apparate out of the house, but not before Robards gave each of them a look as to say that he would still be keeping an eye on them.

Andromeda sighed and watched as the Aurors disappeared, "It went better than I had planned." she let a small laugh fill the room causing both Theo and himself to look at her.

"So you're trying to say you had figured something was going to happen?" Theo asked, his lip quirking up into a half smile.

"Naturally. I mean, not so much with you Theo, your father was an unfortunate incident but you haven't had any official ties with Death Eaters...Draco on the other hand..." She looked at him and ran her hand through her hair, "It's not right the way the world only sees what it wants to. In your father's case -no offense Draco,- I can understand more than three decades of suspicious behavior and already thrown into Azkaban once, harming children too..." she trailed off talking to herself more than either of them. Draco was imagining she was thinking of her sister and her cousin's role in the confrontation at the Ministry.

"I'm sorry, I'm rambling she said sitting down in one of the chairs. I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm the same age as your father you know?" She asked eyeing Draco.

"You mean you were in the same year at Hogwarts?"

She nodded in confirmation, and both Theo and himself took the seats opposite of her, "I guess they'd never mention it, I was blasted from the family tree before you were born. I knew your father back then and I didn't care for him either...I have my personal reasons for that and I doubt your mother would want you to know my reasoning if she hasn't told you yet." She looked as if she were worlds away in her own story.

"Like you've ever respected her wishes before," he smirked before he could help himself.

Another soft smile tugged at her features, "You're right in that Draco, but I'm going to suffice it to say that I'll tell you when you're older."

Theo snorted next to Draco and clapped his hand on his shoulder, "It's okay mate, you're still too young to know the inner workings of a woman's mind."

Draco scoffed and swatted his hand away, "Seventeen is of age."

Andromeda nodded, "Quite, for magic, but not so much for inheritance and family secrets." She chuckled.

Before Draco could make another rebuttal the fireplace lit up and no other than Harry Potter stepped out of the floo.

A/N: I had originally posted this story on AO3 and someone commented and accused me of making Hermione an abuser. First off that was never my intent. In no way, shape, or form would I make Hermione that violent. To clarify, she slapped Ron, pretty hard. She's a teenage girl that makes mistakes and that was one of them. This story is about growing up and going to be full of angst and a lot of stuff people won't like so I'm not going to apologize for that, this isn't a perfect world and it's my story. So I suggest you stop reading if you wanted a perfect story that always made sense. I do this for fun on my spare time and to think someone took it that far was kind of upsetting.

A part of me wanted to just tell this person off, and someone even suggested to me that I just turn this chapter into pure satire and make Hermione put on a strap-on and say, "Happy International Women's Day," (Deadpool reference for those of you unaware) to Ron. While I honestly think it would have been comical, I didn't want to attack a reader for this. I doubt that they decide to continue reading, but on the off chance they do I didn't want to discredit someone's feelings of the matter and I'm sorry if it struck you as such. I know abuse isn't something to take lightly, and they might be going through some stuff along with my other readers.

I have also had someone tell me that Hermione should be in jail and here is my response to this:

Well obviously Hermione should have been in jail a long time ago, I mean she has a pretty long rap sheet...she set someone on fire, theft, aiding and abetting, kidnapping, breaking and entering, abuse (sending a pack of birds to maul someone because the got a new girlfriend is probably illegal, right?), Reckless endangerment of a minor, using an undetectable extension charm is highly illegal, forcibly taking people's memories, robbery, some of these a few times over, and I'm sure I left quite a few things out...I'm amazed no one has caught on to this...Man, half the heroes should be in jail or at least face a hefty fine.

With that being said, no matter what kind of reviews I get, I appreciate each and every one of you! I take your opinions into account when I'm writing and I try and make sure that I stay true to myself as well. You are all amazing, and if any of you are experiencing something in your lives and need someone to talk to I will surely listen, just let me know and I'll post my Tumblr url.