It was a new year and it had been two months since the ceremony. I was enjoying working at Hogwarts. The students were intrigued by my stay in Azkaban but were much more interested in my Hogwarts days and the fight against Voldemort. They wanted to know more about Harry Potter and all the adventures we had while we were in school.
Talking of those times made me nostalgic and long for my old friendships. Truthfully, things were becoming easier for me. Ron certainly wasn't giving up on me; he attended dinner at Hogwarts at least once a week and Harry had joined him on several occasions. They were still living together. I didn't have the heart to ask more personal questions since I was the cause of the separation.
The day after the ceremony, news of the charges against the Azkaban guards was made public. I was happy I had come back to Hogwarts since I was being bombarded by the press. Unfortunately, the guards had somehow gotten wind of their impending arrests and had fled. Two had been discovered and extradited back to Britain. One had taken refuge in America but it was short lived. Their law enforcement apprehended him in a matter of days and sent him back. The other was found in Romania, where he was hiding with relatives. The third had not been found yet and I was told that his family had no idea where he was but was proclaiming his innocence. Ron had told me that they were going to start going through his finances and that would hopefully reveal something.
It was March 1st and Ron's birthday. I had received an invitation to a small dinner birthday party at the Weasleys. I was reluctant to accept, but Minerva (which Professor McGonagall now insisted I call her) was going too and encouraged me to come along.
We arrived together and knocked on the front door of the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley opened the door, thrilled that I had come to celebrate. We were ushered inside and I saw the most of the Weasley clan who were apparently very excited to see me. They hadn't seen me since my release hearing and were eager to apologize and offer well wishes for my future.
Bill and Fleur had a little boy named Gerard who was quite adorable. Instead of the dark red hair, his was a light strawberry blond. I felt as though I was being smothered. I excused myself and went up the stairs to the bathroom to splash some water on my face.
On my way back downstairs I stopped and looked in Ron's old room which hadn't changed a bit. Still covered in Cannons posters, the room almost overwhelmed me with memories. Then I came across Ginny's room. It too was untouched and I remembered all the summers and vacations that I had slept in there. It was as if I couldn't escape in this house at all and ran back down the stairs and collided with Ron who had just arrived with Harry.
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""Mione," he enveloped me in a tight hug, "I'm so happy that you came. I apologize for missing dinner Thursday night. I had to help Harry on a few things."
"That's ok." I said quickly and moved away to greet Harry before crossing the room to Minerva. I couldn't help but still feel unsure. I was trying hard. Some days were easy and others were impossible. I hoped that once the trial of the guards was over, I'd be better. Plus, I had started seeing a counselor regularly at St. Mungo's which was a tremendous help. She had told me to take it one day at a time. I had told Ron about it and he agreed.
I was so happy that she came. The short greeting was expected and I'm sure she was overwhelmed with all the people. I knew that she was getting along well at Hogwarts and I tried to see her once or twice a week.
I looked around at my family, one was conspicuously missing. Mum said that she had invited Ginny and hoped she'd come. It killed me to think that Harry's marriage was ending. It wasn't known by the family, but Harry was planning on filing for divorce by April 1st if things didn't turn around.
Harry's mind was made after the things we found out last Thursday during our investigation of Brockway's finances. The records revealed that Ginny had transferred a great portion of his money to a bank in Canada. We had made contact with their law enforcement and they were going to locate the bastard.
Harry and I were sure that Ginny was the one that tipped them off to their arrest and we didn't know what to do. Shacklebolt and Tonks were also aware of the suspicions but everyone is reluctant to do anything that would get her in trouble. Being a war hero and the daughter of an assassinated Minister still carried a lot of weight. Since the guard was a legal client, Ginny had no choice but to transfer his money as he wished and the leak about the arrests was only circumstantial. No one outside the four of us knows and we wanted to keep it that way for as long as we could.
Mum had made all my favorites and we sat down to a great meal. Hermione was seated beside me and graciously took the seat.
"So, how was your week? Did you find out who was sneaking into the Restricted Section?" I asked Hermione about the topic of our dinner conversation a few weeks before.
"Oh, yes. It was actually these third years who were in there trying to learn how to brew polyjuice potion. Sound familiar? They were so scared of me, but I couldn't help but laugh when they told me the truth."
I recalled our days in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with a smile. "How did you find out who it was?"
"I took your advice actually, I staked it out. I got some cocoa and sat up until they broke in. You should have seen the looks on their faces. I thought they were going to die of fright when I appeared." Her laugh was beautiful, it always had been, and over the last few weeks, I had been hearing it more and more.
Everyone was making small talk as mum began to serve the cake. I noticed it go quite when I looked up and saw that Ginny was standing in the door way with a card in her hand. I felt Hermione stiffen next to me.
"Hello everyone, I guess I'm late." She glared at Hermione and took a chair at the end of the table. "Hi honey, remember me, your wife." She said looking at Harry who returned her hello.
Everyone went back to the cake. Maybe Ginny's staying was a good sign but it was too much to ask. We went into the living room to open my presents. There was one open seat next to Harry and Hermione consciously remained standing next to McGonagall and allowed Ginny to take it.
"Well now that the family is seated open your presents." Ginny remarked and the room was incredibly tense.
My presents were great; we never got each other anything big but they were always wonderful. I opened the gift from Hermione and knew what it was going to be before I finished unwrapping it. It was the latest version of Quidditch Through the Ages.
"A book? Just what Ron needs." Ginny remarked in a not so quite whisper to Harry.
Choosing to ignore her, "thanks Hermione, I love it. This just came out and I can't wait to read the updated stats." I looked at Hermione who looked very nervous and as though she was ready to bolt.
"Hermione," Ginny turned around in her chair to see her, "Ron hasn't changed that much since you were in prison. Really, when did you ever remember him reading at Hogwarts? Don't you remember he was friends with you so he wouldn't have to? He used you for his assignments."
Hermione just remained silent. "Come on Gin," Harry pleaded.
"Well, it's true." She shrugged then put her arm through his.
Harry seemed terrible uncomfortable as did the whole room. "Gin, why don't you just stay quiet?" Harry demanded.
"Excuse me?"
"I was wondering the same thing," added Bill who looked disbelievingly at his little sister.
"Well excuse me for not being comfortable sharing a family celebration with the murderer of our father."
The room began to get noisy as everyone began to argue. I looked to Hermione but she was no longer there. McGonagall motioned that she had gone outside, I noticed she quickly apparated after that. I stood up to go after her.
"Ron, sh'es not worth going after." Ginny countered but I just ignored her and left her to the rest of the family.
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I just couldn't stay in there anymore. I needed to get out and clear my head before apparating back to Hogsmeade.
"'Mione wait, please wait." Ron called after me.
I turned and gave him a sad smile and cocked my head to one side. "I'm sorry for ruining your birthday. I think it's best if I don't come around here anymore."
"Don't say that, I want you around. Plus, I have my own flat you can visit." He wiggled his eyebrows in an obvious attempt to lighten the situation.
"Ron stop! It's just too hard, don't you see? It's hard enough for me to put the past behind me, I can't deal with Ginny too. She's your family Ron and I'm not. I just don't belong around you guys anymore." Ron gave me a heartbroken look and I reached and cupped his cheek. "We both tried our best. I think it's probably a good idea if you didn't come to visit me anymore."
"No, now I'm just going to start coming more. Don't you get it? I want you to be my family."
The word family is what made me lose it. I couldn't help but start crying, so much that it began to drown out the yells from inside the Burrow. Then Ron did something unexpected, he reached down and kissed me. It was gentle and sweet. When he pulled away, I just looked at him not knowing what to say. Then he did it again, but this time it had more passion and my insides froze.
"Ron, I'm sorry. You deserve better than me." All I could picture were the guards' faces as I turned away.
"'Mione if anything, I don't deserve you. I love you so much."
"Why do you love me? Why would you ever want to be with me? You know what happened to me in there. I'm filthy! I might never be able to have children. You deserve someone who can give you that."
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My heart broke to think that she thought of herself that way. "'Mione, you can have all the time in the world. I'd never pressure you. You're not filthy; what happened to you wasn't your fault. If my first time could be with you I would consider myself the luckiest person in the world."
She quickly turned back to back to face me. "What? You mean that you never…"
"I told you I had been pretty messed up." I paused; she must have thought I was out here living it up. "I had a few dates and no second ones. It never felt right."
"Ron, you deserve someone innocent too. Not someone used as a personal play thing for over a year." She choked back a sob, it was obvious that she was so ashamed and embarassed.
"In my eyes, you are innocent. You didn't want those things to happen to you." I could tell she wanted to interrupt so I continued. "And if we spend our lives together and never have children of our own, we can adopt. There are lots of witches and wizards out there wanting a home."
Hermione looked like she was in disbelief. "I've always loved you, for as long as I can remember. I don't want to make any promises, but if we go that direction it will need to be very slow."
"I'll wait forever for you, I promise."
"I don't want you to make promises that you might end up regretting or anything that could tear your family further apart or..."
"Hermione," I stopped her, "stop making excuses."
She stared at me. For the first time I felt like I had really broken down some of her walls. The noises from inside broke us out of our moment. I looked up to see Ginny running toward us followed closely by Harry.
"Stay away from my brother you filthy whore!" Ginny yelled as she approached.
With that, everything we had just built crumbled. "See I told you that you deserved better." And with a pop, she was gone.
I rounded on Ginny, "Sis, I love you but get out. I don't want to see you right now and I don't really want to see you until you can accept that Hermione is a part of our lives again."
"Fine, first Harry and now you? My whole family has turned against me." I looked up to see the rest of the family out on the lawn. Everyone looked angry and scared of what might be about to happen.
"You know what?" Ginny continued, "If my family would rather have our father killer as a member than me, the only one who can see things for what they are, then fine. I'm leaving and I won't be back." And she left. For a moment, we all stood there in shock. Everyone was quiet and began to walk slowly back inside.
Harry turned to me. "What else could I do?" He asked, he looked on the verge of tears. "I told her that I was planning to file for divorce. I can't believe I told her in front of her family." He began to walk off, "I'll be back at your place if that's ok."
"It will be ok mate." But he was already gone.
I walked back inside to a shell shocked family. My mum was crying for her only daughter, she knew as well as everyone else that with Ginny's temper she was as good as gone from our lives.
"I really can't blame Harry." Bill told me. "Let him know that we all understand. None of us really see a way for them to work it out at this point. Tell him that he's still family to us."
"Yes dear." Said mum, looking up from her tea cup full of her own tears. "Make sure he knows that he's still part of the family." She paused before she started to sob again, "I can't lose both of them."
