Chapter 7
Gabrielle
"Gabrielle was actually a more unlikely choice for you even if there could have been a future for you and her," Destiny admitted, "she was much younger than you, she lived in a different country and went to a different school, and you didn't even really know her all that well. When she is finally old enough to actually date, you are always married by then or Voldemort ends up winning. Yet in one future, things happen just right for both of you to get together.
On the night of Fleur's wedding, at the exact moment that the ministry collapsed and the death eater's invaded the party, you decided to be nice and ask Gabrielle to dance as you knew that she had a crush on you and that it would really make her day.
When the death eater's arrived, and you were forced to flee, Gabrielle tried to come with you, and as you were worried about what they might do to the poor girl, you didn't take the time to argue.
Unfortunately Ron went and hid at the first signs of danger, and Hermione was injured so she persuaded you to go into hiding without her as she was worried that she would only slow you down.
Hermione would ultimately go into hiding herself and be perfectly fine, but you and Gabrielle fled to Grimmauld Place.
Without Hermione, Ron, or anyone else there to help or comfort you, you relied upon Gabrielle in your time of need and she in turn relied upon you. With no one else around to talk to and worried that trying to contact anyone else might get them or you captured, you really got to know Gabrielle and became very good friends with her, and learned just how smart, nice, and beautiful she was despite the age difference.
She learned everything about you as you completely opened up to her, and she completely opened up to you.
Instead of Ron and Hermione helping you destroy the horcruxes and defeat Voldemort, it was just Gabrielle and ultimately you ended up succeeding.
By the time the war ended however, it was years later and you were tired of fighting and tired of all the horrible stuff that you had had to put up with.
Gabrielle, tired as well, had by that point fallen in love with you, and insisted on going wherever you went.
Finally realizing that you had fallen in love with her, you chose to go with her back to France, where hopefully people would be less conscientious about your fame.
While people did know who you are, they weren't as bad as Britain and you were able to settle down and have a normal life with Gabrielle right by your side.
After spending a few years as a DADA teacher at Beauxbatons to be close to her while she finished her education, you married her as soon as she graduated.
Then you decided to retire to a cabin in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a French forest, where it was just you and her.
A nice peaceful life, Harry thought, away from the world and away from everything else. That sounded so good right now.
In all of his previous futures, he had been highly involved with the world and changed it drastically. He had been an icon and wherever he went he was incredibly famous.
A world where it was just him, Gabrielle, and maybe a few children sounded perfect right now, especially after the insanity of the last world, where he could really think and be himself.
"Have fun," Destiny said as he experienced the usual flash of light.
He opened his eyes to find himself looking at a beautiful sunrise over a lake.
Turning to his left he saw Gabrielle standing next to him.
"It really is beautiful isn't it Harry?" She commented.
"It really is," he agreed as he looked out across the water.
Gabrielle put a hand into his, but he didn't mind and gently held it, neither of them saying anything else, just simply enjoying the beauty that nature provided.
He felt at peace here, something that he hadn't felt in awhile.
"You want to go fishing?" She finally asked.
"Sure," he agreed as he turned around with her.
He spotted the cabin just behind them and followed her inside.
It was not a huge cabin, nor a small one, but it seemed just right.
Nothing was too fancy, nor too extravagant, the perfect place, he reasoned.
Odd that after living in a palace, he found an ordinary cabin perfect, but that's how he felt.
As he grabbed up a fishing pole lying next to the door, two little girls came out that appeared to be ages 9 and 6.
They both had long blonde hair and blue-gray eyes like their mother. He knew their names were Abigail and Jennifer or Abby and Jenny for short.
"Mommy, Daddy, can we go fishing with you?" 6 year old Jenny asked in an adorably cute little voice.
"Sure you can," Gabrielle answered, smiling.
He had actually been looking forward to some alone time, but he wasn't about to say no to the two cute little girl's faces, especially after their mother had said yes.
They all went down to the water, where there was a small dock, and a canoe tied up to it.
Putting both Abby and Jenny into the boat, Gabrielle then got in as well and he released the rope it was tied to and then jumped in himself.
After paddling out a bit, he watched Gabrielle help Jenny with her fishing pole, but both girls surprisingly had little difficulty, having obviously done this many times before.
He threw out his own line, not really knowing to fish himself, but he had watched all 3 girls do it, so he figured how hard could it be?
Of course he ended up messing it up and the line failed to even release.
Jenny giggled, "you're funny daddy."
She threw out her own line as if it was as easy as using a spoon to eat a bowl of cereal with.
Not about to let himself be outdone by a 6 year old, he tried it again, and was grateful that this time it worked, his future memory of just how to use a fishing pole suddenly coming to him.
None of the girls actually said much as they waited for a fish to bite, and he found he rather enjoyed that, peace and quiet being spent with his family.
Abby was the first one to catch a fish, a nice big whatever fish it was, and they all exulted in watching her reel it in and bring it aboard the boat.
Jenny caught the next one, and then Abby caught another.
Gabrielle caught one but it was judged too small and she threw it back.
He decided that he was definitely going to catch a fish if it took him all day to do it.
A couple of minutes later he felt a tug on the line as he slowly tried to reel it in.
After finally managing to pull it aboard, he proudly laid eyes on his fish. It kept flopping around, but Gabrielle finally killed it using a spell from her wand and put it into the fish bucket.
"Well that should be all we need, about time we should be heading back," Gabrielle announced.
"Oh," moaned Abby as she stared at her mother with her cute little eyes, "do we have to?"
"We can go fishing again tomorrow," Gabrielle reassured.
They paddled back, and Harry helped Gabrielle skin the fish as she made a breakfast of fresh fish and oatmeal.
While it was simple, it tasted delicious, and he happily ate all of it.
After breakfast, they had "school" for the girls.
Both girls were rather smart, and good readers and the lessons far more advanced than he had been doing at their ages. It even involved a bit of magic, even though both girls were too young to do any real spells and lacked magic wands.
Gabrielle was an excellent teacher however and both girls really seemed to enjoy learning.
After the lessons were over for the day, Gabrielle allowed them to go play outside for a bit while she watched them.
"They grow up so fast don't they?" Gabrielle commented.
"They sure do," He agreed.
She reached up and kissed him, which he returned lightly.
He could get used to this, this kind of peace, not a care in the world.
Finally allowing himself to take it all in, he went to go run around with the girls.
LOVELOVELOV
As the weeks or months went by, he couldn't find much he didn't like about this world. Gabrielle or Gabby as he liked to call her was amazing. She seemed to genuinely love him and he could already see himself loving her. They did absolutely everything together, and unlike his previous life where it was basically non stop sex, it was usually just spending time together doing various activities, although sex definitely was still a definite highlight it was much more satisfying.
The girls were fantastic as well and quickly wormed their way into his heart. They seemed to love life and exulted in doing various activities from fishing, archery, canoeing, to riding horses on the couple of horses that they had. When they got old enough to start learning magic, which Abby soon would be, they planned to continue to home school them.
Since both girls had inherited the veela gene from their mother, they knew it would be hard on them to be able to keep friends that would likely be jealous of them or deal with boys that might react badly to them.
They wanted to make sure that the girls were protected but not too sheltered and still allowed to experience life.
Of course they still saw other people and made sure the girls still knew other people so that it would hopefully be balanced out. Once a week they would go into the nearest muggle town and let the girls play with children their own age at a day care center while Gabby and he went shopping.
Gabby actually didn't care much for being around other people though, as being a veela and quite beautiful she got a lot of stares, so she always kept him close and was more than happy to show that she was already taken by the occasional kiss which usually broke any stares of any men around her.
As far as their relationship had gone, other than Hermione who he had already known quite well, she was by far the easiest to get really attached to when it came to his futures. Perhaps it was just the fact that he spent more time with her than he did with his previous wives but she just connected with him easily.
While she loved life and loved to have fun, she also did what was necessary when she had to. Gabby was very much the one he had the most in common with out of all of them and he could really talk with her if he wanted but also sit there in silence with her as well.
He would never have believed it, but this future with Gabby was definitely his favorite and by the time 5 months had passed, he had fallen totally in love with her. He wouldn't change a thing about his life and he knew that it simply did not get any better than this.
When it came time to change futures, he would be telling Destiny that he had made his decision already. Gabby had always been intensely loyal to him and he knew she always would be no matter what. She deserved his loyalty in return.
That night, as they got into bed, he told her so, without actually telling her about being a time traveler.
"I choose you Gabrielle," He whispered into her ear as they lay side by side.
"I choose you too," she said grinning.
She began removing her clothes as he told her, "I really love it here and I really love you. This life is truly perfect. I wouldn't change this life or you at all."
"I wouldn't either, not one bit," she claimed as she snuggled into him, now with both of them totally naked.
There wasn't ever any rush or urgency when it came to their lovemaking, they always took their time and made it nice and slow, a little romance perhaps, or some kissing, or when her feet hurt he would rub them for her. He literally loved every single inch of Gabrielle's beautiful body, it was small but still altogether perfect.
He was just about to ask if she would like a foot rub when suddenly there was a knock at the door.
"Who could that be?" Gabrielle asked, "we never get visitors."
"Perhaps a hiker who's lost or something?" Harry suggested.
"They would have to wander off pretty far," Gabrielle commented.
They hastily got some clothes on before going and answering the door.
As he opened it however, he was surprised to find that it was Hermione.
He had not seen or heard from Hermione at all in this future, or most people for that matter as he had preferred his privacy.
"Harry, thank goodness I finally found you," she admitted as she went and gave him a hug.
"What is it?" He asked.
"We need you Harry, without you we don't have a chance," Hermione told him.
"What do you mean you need me?" He answered.
"Haven't you heard at all what's been going on in Britain?" She asked, "even the muggle news probably has reported some of it."
"I don't get television service all the way out here, and I don't really have much contact with other people nowadays. Fleur writes Gabby occasionally but they moved to Egypt for Bill's work so I don't really know anything about Britain," he admitted.
"It's bad Harry, it all just got worse and worse after you left," she replied.
"I killed Voldemort and defeated all of his death eaters though, how can it be all bad?" He asked.
"All the death eaters are still dead or in prison but in their absence another group took power. Apparently the muggleborns were kind of upset about how they were mistreated during the war and so they all banded together. At first it seemed like a good idea and I even supported them as we worked to get greater muggleborn rights. Yet eventually they decided that simple equality wasn't good enough, they felt they deserved to finally have all power after being discriminated against and treated as lesser wizards for so long, so they finally took it.
It was peaceful at first, but when the purebloods got upset when a law was passed that would no longer allow them to marry or have children with other purebloods they got angry and they retaliated. It soon turned into civil war," Hermione shared.
"That's horrible!" Gabby exclaimed in shock.
"We need you Harry, you're the only one that both sides might respect enough to actually listen to," Hermione claimed.
Looking over at Gabby, he then told Hermione., "I can't Hermione, I've got a family and life here now. I left Britain and left the magical world because I didn't want to have to deal with stuff like this anymore. I already have done far more than my fair share. Can't you find someone else to solve all your problems for you?"
"There is no one else, you're my last hope Harry. Without you both sides will likely destroy each other," Hermione answered desperately.
"I won't leave my family," he refused.
"You know that if you need to go, I'll come with you Harry," Gabby answered loyally.
"I won't put you into any danger again, nor will I bring my children with me into a war zone," He replied.
Realizing that he wasn't willing, Hermione asked, "Where is the Harry I know? The Harry who is a hero?"
Personally he was tempted to tell Hermione to shut up. He didn't need to be a hero, not anymore. Instead he said:
"I've already saved the world, many times over, I think I've earned the right to finally stay out of things."
"I can't deny that you've earned that right, but we still need you Harry," Hermione pleaded.
Just because Hermione suddenly showed up, did not mean he had to actually listen to her.
"It was nice seeing you Hermione but I'm staying out of this," he said firmly.
Hermione looked at him again, but upon seeing his face, finally relented.
"If you change your mind I'll be staying in room 103 at the motel in the muggle village until tomorrow afternoon," Hermione said as she then left.
Now alone with Gabby, he said, "What choice could I make Gabby? I'm never leaving you or the girls again nor will I intentionally put you in danger. Hermione will just have to make do without me."
"You know that I support any decision that you make Harry," Gabrielle told him simply.
"I just don't see why I always have to be the one to go be the hero. Why can't stupid magical Britain or even the world solve its own problems without me?" He asked.
"Do you know why I always stayed with you back when we were fighting Voldemort and it was just the two of us?" Gabrielle asked, "It seemed completely hopeless, but you never gave up and so neither did I. You knew that you were the only one that could stop him and so you just kept at it, and I loved you for it. I would have followed you to the ends of the earth then, as I would now. Maybe you are the only one who can solve this crisis or maybe they can simply handle it themselves, but I think you have to ask yourself, can you live with the consequences for either choice should they go bad?"
It was sage advice, Gabrielle always had sage advice, but for the 2nd time in as many futures, what she had said really got to him and forced him to make an important decision.
He wanted to just say screw Britain and let them work out their own problems.
If he had decided not to choose this future he would definitely have made that choice, as of course he didn't see the need to save a world he would only be leaving immediately after.
Yet since he had already chosen this world, he felt like he couldn't simply leave it to be destroyed.
He still had good friends in Britain and women that he loved, such as Hermione still in it, even if he was annoyed with her right now.
As much as he might want to simply ignore it, he knew what he needed to do.
"Would you hate me if I left?" He finally asked.
He knew that in this future that he and Gabrielle had barely even left each others' sight for the last 17 years, and he knew that she would miss him terribly.
"I could never hate you, Harry, but I'll definitely still miss you and count down the minutes until you get back," she said.
"I love you Gabby," Harry said as he planted a kiss on her lips.
"I love you too. I'll be waiting for you when you come back," she answered.
"If it takes any longer than a month, I'm coming back to at least visit you," he told her.
He began packing up his things into a suitcase and prepared to head off.
After one final parting kiss, he apparated to the hotel room that Hermione had mentioned.
Yet as he prepared to knock on the door, a voice stopped him.
"You just couldn't leave it alone could you Harry?" Ron asked as he appeared from the shadows.
"What are you doing here Ron?" Harry asked, "are you here with Hermione?"
"Not exactly. Actually I followed her here to see what you would do. I used an invisibility cloak to get close and listen in on your conversation with her. Hermione didn't want to tell you, but I became the head of the purebloods in your absence. I rather like the way things are going in Britain. Voldemort may have been deranged but he had the right idea. Purebloods will always be superior to muggleborns and lesser wizards, they simply just don't know how to lead like we do."
Why was it in every single future that Ron was the biggest idiot on the planet? He had really grown tired of his former friend by now.
"Perhaps we could discuss this first and see if we can work something out," Harry suggested fairly.
"You already sided with Hermione. She's a muggleborn. If you are going to take her side then there is nothing to discuss," Ron answered.
"I'm not taking anyone's side, I just want to resolve this issue that you apparently now have with muggleborns. I didn't have to do anything, I've got a wife and family that I'm going to dearly miss while I deal with the problems you've apparently helped create," Harry replied.
"It's too late Harry, the moment you left your home was the moment that I was forced to act. Right now my men are invading your precious home and killing your wife. Let that be a lesson to you to never mess with my affairs again," Ron yelled.
Stupid Ron, he thought.
In fear he instantly tried to apparate back to his house, yet found that he could not do it.
Ron laughed and said, "You fool, do you really think that I would not have already set up anti-apparition wards on your house. There is no way you manage to make it back in time. At least I'll let your little girls live, provided that you simply stay where you are and never return to Britain."
Raged coiled within him as he yelled "sectumsempra" with all his might at Ron.
Blood gushed from Ron's stomach as the grin on his face immediately changed into a face wrought by pain.
Ron tried to apparate in order to escape, but Harry held him down as he tortured him by slowly making more and more cuts into him.
While he removed Ron's entire left arm, Harry yelled, "Get ahold of your men, do whatever you have to, but I swear if Gabby dies, you die too."
Ron choked up a mouthful of blood as he said, "There is no way to stop it. If you hurry you just might have the chance to see her one last time before she dies, now let me go."
Knowing he had no more time to deal with Ron, he quickly killed him by cutting off his head and apparated as close as he could get to his house.
He ran as fast as he could and rushed inside his home to find both Abby and Jenny currently crying as they kneeled over the body of Gabrielle.
Gabrielle was covered in blood, most likely some sort of cutting curse like the one he had used on Ron.
As he rushed to attend her, he was relieved to find that she was still alive, but it soon turned to grim horror as he realized that the injuries were untreatable, she was dying."
"Gabby," Harry said desperately as he began to cry.
"It's okay Harry," she managed to say weakly, "this isn't the end for me. I know it isn't my destiny."
At the mention of destiny, he got even more angry. Why did Destiny put him through this? To finally choose a future that he loved only for it to be ripped apart?
"I love you Harry," Gabrielle said.
Then she was gone, her body fell limp and lifeless and he knew that she was dead.
"NO!" He roared.
This wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to die.
"I choose a different future Destiny," he yelled.
At once there was a bright flash of light as he found himself once again face to face with Destiny.
"Why would you put me through that?" Harry asked angrily, "I loved Gabby and then you killed her."
"Gabrielle's death was necessary in this future," Destiny replied, "with Ron dead as well, her death served as a catalyst for peace in Britain. Without it, you would never have succeeded in unifying purebloods and muggleborns again. They would have completely destroyed each other."
"What kind of future is that?" He asked even as he still wept.
"Do you not wonder why every future before this one had you make a huge difference in the world? No matter what future you choose, you can never escape the fact that the world needs you."
"The world can rot for all I care!" He exclaimed furiously, "I just want Gabby back."
"If Gabby lives then the rest of the world suffers and ultimately gets destroyed," Destiny told him.
"I don't believe that. Send me back in time, I'll do something differently, I can still save her and the world," Harry answered.
"I could indeed send you back and there are futures that you could save her, but it wouldn't be the same, you would instead have to involve yourself into saving the world instead of trying to escape from it as you tried to with Gabrielle. Before I sent you to the world you were just in, you wanted a future that you could have with you and Gabrielle where you were free from dealing with all of the world's problems, where life could be easy and peaceful. The problem is such a world can only last for so long. Had you chosen to remain with Gabrielle and not try to save magical Britain, it still would have caught up with you eventually no matter what you did. There really was no escaping it and by then it would already be too late."
"Why would I want to save a world that doesn't have Gabby in it?" Harry yelled.
"You're just saying that because you're still angry, but like it or not, Gabrielle or no Gabrielle, you still very much care about the world and believe it or not, if this future were to continue, you would be able to move on from her death as well," Destiny told him.
"I don't believe it," Harry said.
"Then let me prove it to you. I'm going to do something a little bit different and send you a couple of years past that future time. By then, you end up managing to move on enough to find love with someone else," Destiny claimed.
"Who could possibly replace Gabby?" Harry asked.
