Disclaimer, these characters are not mine never have been never will be, they belong to JK Rowlins
Lost Twenty Years of Real Love
Harry potter 37 year old head of the Auror department sat behind his desk watching as one of his best friends paced the room. Hermione was deeply troubled yet she was finding it hard to talk to him, he found it surprising to say the least, they had been best friends for twenty six years now, so what ever it was that had her so upset had to be bad, very bad.
Finally she began to speak "Harry, do you trust me, really trust me like you did back in our third year at school? Harry I need you to remember how much you trusted me then, before you answer," she stood in front of his desk and looked at him pleading with her eyes to think back, to remember the days when they were young.
Harry recollected their third year when just the two of them had used the time turner, he remembered the total faith he had placed in her, he had left his life in her hands without hesitation, without even thinking about it. Then he compared those feelings with the way he now felt, somewhere there was a subtle difference, though he could not put his finger on what it was, there was a slight uncertainty and yet he knew of no reason for it. This was Hermione the only person in his entire life that had never once let him down, never giving a thought to her own safety if he was in peril. He was going to trust her despite the hesitation he felt, the hesitation was wrong somehow.
"Ok Hermione, you have my full attention, and I will trust you just as I did in our third year, totally no reserve. So what is this all about?" he saw the physical change as his words reached her, the sag in her shoulders lifted a little and a faint glimmer of hope lit in her eyes.
"Do you still own Grimmauld place?" she asked.
"Yeah but I haven't been there for over ten years," came his reply.
"Can we go there now, without telling anyone? Can you bring your Pensieve? It's important," her eyes pleaded with him as she asked.
Hermione spoke again before he had chance to answer "Remember in third year, when we used the time turner, how I stopped you cursing your self because you saw another Harry with me, remember that feeling Harry please,"
He remembered it, he had been so in love with her, his jealousy had almost made him curse his three hours younger self. "Ok let's go, Grimmauld place it is,"
He put a no trace charm on his floo connection before they took the floo to his old house.
"Harry put up the defences against everyone, that includes Ron and Ginny and all the other Weasleys," she begged him almost as soon as they arrived.
It was an odd request to block her husband and his wife from finding them but he had made a promise, and he definitely wanted some answers as to what had his best friend so jittery. Harry did as she required he even placed a few other charms, charms that for now would render both Hermione and himself untraceable, that done he turned and lit a large fire in the cold damp hearth of the kitchen, the fire slowly began to heat the room, the extra light from the flames revealing that she had been crying.
"Hermione are you going to tell me what this is all about now? You really have me worried," he asked gently.
"We should sit down, this is going to take some time," she whispered then pointed at two of the old chairs with her wand and after cleaning them a little she moved them to sit in front of the fire.
Once they were both comfortable she began "Three months ago as you know I had some sort of bug, being sick and all that, well I was working on a project at work, one that I could not get out of, I was putting in long hours at work, longer than I ever did before, I stopped eating and drinking at home, I didn't have the time. At first it was the sickness but then after a week or so I began to notice that the food and drink at work had a better taste than the food we had at home, so I stopped eating and drinking at home. It was about a month after that that things began to feel wrong, by the end of the second month I knew exactly what was wrong. I was married to a man I had never wanted to be married too.
Harry interrupted "Whoa Hermione, you married Ron, you fell for him in the fourth year remember,"
"Harry please, please let me finish, trust me like you did in third year remember," she was less harassed now and Harry thought it was because she was safe from what ever was troubling her. He nodded for her to continue.
"Right, as I was saying, I was married to a man I never loved, a man I once hated and feared, I had a hard time believing it at first and I thought it must be some strange side effect of the bug. But each time you and Ginny came over or we visited you, I found I still felt the same way about you, the way I had all those years ago, only deeper stronger like it had grown and matured, I still love you with all my heart and soul,"
Harry made to interrupt her, this was getting a little uncomfortable, Hermione held up her hand, "remember how you felt in the third year Harry you promised."
Harry nodded, uncomfortable as it was, in his third year he had indeed loved her as deeply as any adult could love.
"I love you with every part of me, there is no room left in my heart to love another, I began to wonder why I had married Ron, I couldn't remember loving him but I remember being drawn to him, so yesterday I broke the law Harry, and now I want Ron charged with multiple rape and anything else you can think of. I want you to see my memory of what happened yesterday Harry, I have a potion here, a potent antidote, so that if you want it after you see my memory, I'll just leave it here by the fire," she was crying again now though her tears were silent.
Harry hadn't a clue what to do, to charge his best mate with multiple rapes sounded insane, but then he thought again about the third year at school, and he knew that there was some reason it was vitally important he remembered how he felt for Hermione then.
"Ok, let's set up the Pensieve eh," he said wiping a tear from her cheek.
Hermione leaned into his hand for some comfort and he felt his gut twist at the pain in her eyes. With the Pensieve set up Hermione poured in her memory from a small phial, they watched as the silvery memory swirled for a moment before she took his hand and together they entered her memory, Harry felt the oh so familiar feelings he always got when he used the pensieve, moments later he found himself in Hermione's kitchen she was pouring Ron a drink and Harry watched as she dropped in a few drops of clear liquid.
The Hermione standing beside him gave his hand a little squeeze, "This is going to be hard Harry, on both of us, you should be ready for the shock, its Veritaserum if you are wondering."
Back in the memory Ron was just finishing his drink, it took a few moments but suddenly his eyes glazed over and Hermione began to ask him questions, ordinary ones at first testing the effectiveness of the potion.
"Ron were you giving me Amortentia potion?"
"Yes, everyday,"
"When did this start?"
"Mum started to give it to you in our forth year at Hogwarts,"
"Why Ron Why?"
"She wanted me to marry a clever witch, someone who could help me get somewhere in the world, and I fancied you but you were in love with Harry."
"So all this time you just kept feeding me the potion?"
"Yes, and then Mum started to give it too Harry in sixth year, then I had to give it too both of you, that's why mum made me go back to you during the hunt for the horcrux,"
"You only came back so you could feed us the potion?"
"Yes it only lasts for a while with the amounts we gave to you,"
"Why Harry? Ron"
"Ginny wanted him so much she kept crying; mum promised her she would marry him,"
"Did Ginny know?"
"Yes she has been feeding it to him for years, just like I give it too you, except she sometimes has to use a larger dose if he is away for a few days,"
"Did you ever feel guilty?"
"No because I took something Harry can't have, he was always first, always the best, and I beat him because I took you from him,"
"So you never loved me then, I was just a prize,"
"Yeah you were a prize and I won you,"
Both Hermione's were now crying, one because she was learning the truth for the first time, and the other because she had to live through it all again, Harry tightened his grip on her hand and a moment later they were back in the kitchen.
"Oh god Hermione I, I, I don't know what to say," Harry stuttered as he looked into her tear filled eyes. After staring into her eyes for a moment Harry walked over to the fire place, picked up the phial sat down and drank the lot in one huge gulp. "How long does this take to work?" he asked as he closed his eyes and for some reason he hoped he still loved Ginny, but he knew instantly it was just the potion she had fed him for so long.
"Well that's the strongest antidote there is so about an hour, I think," she told him.
An hour and a half later Harry knew he was free of the effects of the illegal love potion, he felt his heart swell with the same love he had had all those years ago, but like Hermione the love had grown matured, and filled him inside. He also knew he had now some very unpleasant work to do, He and Hermione disapparated back to the ministry, once in his office Harry sent for his best Auror team, writing out the arrest warrants for the Weasley family was the hardest thing he had ever had to do, but he just kept on reminding himself of the years he had been robbed of, years when he and Hermione could have been together.
He found the arrest warrant for his own wife the easiest to write, now he was back in a normal potion free mind, he absolutely no feelings for her, he did not think he had even liked her. She had just been Ron's little sister. He felt sorry for their three children but as much as he loved them he could not let their mother get away with such an evil deed.
Harry kept Hermione with him at all times, even when one of them wanted to go to the toilet Harry went with her and stood guard at the door to the stall she used, he had her go in to the gents with him making sure she was in a stall before he busied himself. He had her transferred from her own department in the ministry and she was given the position of his legal advisor and personal assistant.
It took two days for the Aurors to find and arrest all the Weasleys, Ron was the hardest to find, he had gone into hiding as soon as he realised he had been found out. Each and every one of them was subjected to a truth serum, one that was used exclusively by his law department, one that could not be prepared for or countered in any way.
Harry was in the room when Arthur Weasley was questioned and cleared of any knowledge of the crime. Harry felt a great sadness for the man he had looked on as a father figure for so long. Together Harry and Arthur sat with Molly Weasley as she was subjected to the test, she admitted it all, she told how it had started because Ron liked Hermione, she told of how she had chosen to have Harry as a son-in-law, she was helped by Ginny having a huge crush on Harry.
Harry and Hermione watched as Arthur looked on a mixture of disgust and pity on his face, he had fought a war along side these young people so that they could live their life the way they wanted in peace and freedom, all the things his wife had robbed them of. Arthur asked his wife why as she recovered from the truth serum, "For our children," she replied.
Disgust filled his stomach and he wanted to heave, "You robbed these two people I thought of as son and daughter, of twenty years of love and freedom, just so you could fulfil your own desires for our children, they have children they never wanted, what is to happen to them, your son has been charged with one of the worst crimes there is, your only daughter could be charged with the same thing, you sicken me, I am ashamed you are my wife. Your ambitions have ruined so many lives."
"Molly Weasley begged Hermione not to press charges against Ron,"
But Hermione wanted some justice, she wanted him to pay for all he had done, if he had only said he did it for love she might have had the charges lessened but he did it out of jealousy of the man she had been born to love.
"You evil old hag, you sat back while he stole my innocence and raped me, you cheered when he made me pregnant, I hope you rot in Azkaban, because if you ever get out of there, I promise I will come for you" Hermione hissed at the woman she had called mum.
Harry led Hermione away; they had a whole lot of things to sort out. Hermione was glad her children were in school, she did not yet know how she felt about them, they were hers but they were his as well, they were the result of rape. Harry was in much the same boat as they watched Ginny get sent to join her mother and brother sentenced to life in Azkaban.
Ron was sentenced to twenty life terms, one for each year he had been illegally married to Hermione. The use of love potions was a joke at school, but as a means to ensnare a wife or husband it was considered as using the dark arts, and then there were the rape charges, hundreds of them simply because a person under the influence of a love potion had no choice in who they loved and shared their love with.
Harry and Hermione found themselves no longer married; their marriages had been declared null and void and then stricken from the register.
Spending all their time together they allowed their love for each other develop and three months later they were living together, at the end of the school term neither could face the children of their enslavement, so Arthur took on the role of looking after them.
Hermione felt awful that she could not face her own children, but now there was no love potion, her hate for Ron was immensely deep, and would remain so, his children reminded her of twenty years of being raped, living an enforced of life of enslavement she would never in a thousand lifetimes have chosen. Maybe if she had not hated Ron from the very beginning, maybe if she did not remember that she only suffered him because she was so in love with Harry, and he was Harry's best friend, maybe if she did not remember how they argued, how she tried hard never to be alone with him because he scared her, how she detested his lack of intelligence and emotions, maybe if he had been a good husband, maybe if the children were not like him, maybe if she could forget all that, then just maybe she could think differently about his children, but for now they were reminders of the great evil done to her. Reminder's of her stolen twenty years of real true love, they were not the children she had wanted, they were not children from the man she had wanted to be the father of her children, she could no longer think of them as her children, it might have been different if they had not spent all those years away from her in a boarding school, she hardly knew them anyway.
Harry was troubled by other things as well, thoughts that entered his mind unbidden, if Ginny had been evil enough to do what she had done, how was he to be sure they were his children none of them looked like him, none of them had green eyes or black hair. Ginny had wanted children and he now knew she was willing to do anything to get what she wanted, what if he had not made her pregnant soon enough would she have gone out and found someone else to do the job. These thoughts tormented him as he tried to come to terms with all that happened and all he had had stolen from him, he found himself rejecting them just as Hermione had done.
Together Harry and Hermione slowly began to heal, together their love flourished, they did every thing together, trying to make up for lost time. It was in their second year together that their love was rewarded the day Hermione announced she was pregnant with twins. That was the day their parenting instincts began to overrule the hate and rejection, the gulfs were narrowed and small bridges built but it would take many more years.
Hermione received news on the day her twins arrived; Molly Weasley had died in Azkaban. She felt no sorrow for the woman at all. Ron along with his sister was still there. Life in Azkaban in the wizard world meant life, and wizards lived a long, long time…
A/Note, sorry if you don't like Weasley bashing but I just had to give in to this plot bunny. Also sorry if you don't think a woman could treat children the way Hermione did, I have asked some victims who were left carrying babies and each one told me they could never under any circumstances love the child, and they did what they had to do to carry on with their lives. (None of the children were ever actually allowed to reach full term)