Once more, My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.
Chapter 38: The Counterpart
The Burrow, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon, Britain, Wizarding World, December 22nd, 2005
"Ron told me how you were sent to another world and managed to come back. That must have been a terrible ordeal," Lavender said. She didn't move to hug Hermione, Ron noted. "But you're alive, and that's all that counts. We're happy to have you back." Her smile was also a little more polite than happy.
"Thank you," Hermione replied with an equally polite - or guarded - smile. "I'm happy to be back as well."
"Of course. Living without magic must have been terrible!" Lavender gasped.
"Living as a muggle isn't the end of the world," Hermione told her, a little sharply. Not that Ron minded the sentiment.
"And she still saved my life with magic," he said.
Lavender's eyes widened - had she been so focused on Hermione that his disguise had fooled her? "Oh. You're the other Ron. The Ron who, ah..."
"Well, I consider your Ron the other Ron," he told her.
"That's going to be confusing," his counterpart said.
"You should be used to that," Fred cut in. "You keep mixing up Fred and me!"
"Fred!" Angelina shook her head.
Hermione and Lavender were ignoring him anyway, or so it seemed. "I heard you and Ron got married. Please accept my belated congratulations," Hermione said.
"Thank you. We're very happy." Lavender put a hand on her stomach - she wasn't showing, yet.
"So I've heard," Hermione said. "It looks like the next generation is well underway," she added, with a glance to the side.
Ron followed her gaze and spotted Roger, Victoire, James and Jean standing in the kitchen's entrance, grouped tightly together. Were they scared? They did look nervous. And where was Beatrice? Oh.
Ron chuckled. The kids were trying to block the view into the kitchen, where Beatrice was apparently trying to raid the pantry without being noticed. They were a handful, indeed.
And they were, apparently, eagerly listening. Damn. His good mood evaporated. They wouldn't have heard much, and would understand even less - or so he hoped - but they were still a security risk. You couldn't exactly obliviate your kids, could you? "Perhaps we should leave those details for after dinner? We wouldn't want to bore the kids, would we?" he suggested.
"Oh." Hermione must have realised that as well. "Yes, that would be better, I think."
"Not bored!" Roger protested.
Jean nodded. "Just talk like normal," she said, sounding quite earnest.
"Jean…" Ginny's counterpart took a few steps closer. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing?" Jean's smile grew more than a little forced.
"They're trying to get to the desserts!" Angelina exclaimed. "Beatrice!"
"We're playing! Hide and seek!" Roger claimed.
"Right." Angelina waved her wand, and Beatrice floated out of the kitchen.
"But you didn't see me!" the little girl protested.
"I did! And that's no dessert for you!"
That triggered a wave of shocked gasps - including, Ron noted, from Luna. But sorting out that, at least, broke the growing tension between Hermione and Lavender. At least until dinner.
"How much did they overhear?" Ron asked after the kids had successfully pleaded for a stay of execution, supported by Luna, and been sent out to play in the garden.
"Not enough to spill the secret," wizard Harry said. "For them, muggle Britain might as well be another world."
Ron could see how that would work, but he didn't think everyone would be fooled by it. He didn't know enough about wizards to tell, though. "Our disguises are a little weak, though."
"Distant relatives," Harry said. "Or we can blame Fred and George for pranking Hermione by transfiguring her friends into Weasleys."
"Hey!" George protested.
"Yes, hey… that's actually a good idea!" Fred added.
"Twin Toffees?"
"Perfect!" Fred pointed his index finger at his brother.
"We should have more family dinners like this - they're very good for our business!" Fred said.
"We do have a family dinner every Sunday," Mrs Weasley pointed out.
"Well, yeah… now that you mention it. We'll have to attend more often, I guess, now that the brightest witch is back among us, and brought friends." Fred nodded.
"I still can't believe you put that on a statue," Hermione said.
"Well, it's true. Now more than ever," Ron's counterpart replied.
"Well, I guess it's better than the 'perfect portrait prefect'," she said.
That caused Harry and Ron's counterparts to wince, and the twins to chuckle.
Then the fireplace flared up again, and Luna arrived. Wizarding Luna.
She looked around, blinking, until she spotted Hermione. "Hermione! Is it really you? You're not a Bavarian Doppelgänger?"
Bavarian Doppelgänger? Ron blinked.
Hermione, though, was unfazed. "It's me - Harry and Ron confirmed my identity."
Wizarding Luna frowned just like Luna, then cocked her head at the two wizards. "Really?"
"Yes," wizarding Harry confirmed with a nod.
"And you weren't confunded?"
"We were careful."
"You checked with ale?"
"Ale?" Ron blurted out before he could control himself.
"Bavarian Doppelgängers can't stand ale. The smell alone sends them into a frothing rage," wizarding Luna explained. "If they are tricked into drinking it, they resume their true form - a small dwarf with a beard made of beer."
"And you brought ale," Hermione said, still smiling.
"Of course. First thing I bought when I heard," wizarding Luna said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out… a pint of ale? In a glass, not a bottle?
Hermione accepted it and took a large swallow while Luna peered at her with squinting eyes. "Ah. That's a good one."
"Your favourite," wizarding Luna said, then hugged her. "It's really you! You didn't die!"
"No, I didn't. But I got dimensionally misplaced, and it took me years to find a way back."
"As long as you managed to return home," wizarding Luna said, releasing her. Then she blinked. "Dimensionally misplaced?"
Hermione looked at wizarding Harry and Ron. "You didn't tell her?"
"We just said that you were back," wizarding Harry replied. "We didn't want to go into details, in case the message was intercepted."
Ron nodded. That was smart.
"Oh." Hermione blinked. "In that case, Luna, I was transported to another world - a world without magic, but with other versions of ourselves."
"Really?" Wizarding Luna looked doubtful.
"Yes," Ron said, stepping closer to Hermione and wizarding Luna. "I'm Ron Weasley - from the other world."
"And I'm Luna Lovegood!" Luna chimed in, beaming at her counterpart as she pulled her dark wig off. "We're in disguise because they think we need to be kept a secret."
"Oh!" Wizarding Luna looked shocked, then leaned forward and peered at them. "You really look like me. Like a twin."
"So do you," Luna told her. "But I'm not a witch. I'm a hacker!"
"A hacker?"
"I hack into computers to expose the government's secrets!"
"Ah. Like the Rotfang Conspiracy?"
"Exactly!"
Ron didn't think wizarding Luna had any idea what computers were or how hacking worked. But it was obvious that she was as much into conspiracies as his Luna.
"So you're in disguise to keep your world's existence a secret?" wizarding Luna asked about ten minutes filled with various introductions and explanations later.
"Yes," Luna replied. "I'm not convinced that's a good course of action, but I was told that there are too many evil wizards in this world who'd try to invade our world if they knew about it."
Wizarding Luna nodded. "Oh, yes, they would. Especially if they knew that there are dimensional twins in your world - they could replace a lot of people. Well, with some people, it would be a clear improvement, but it would still be a bad thing."
"There aren't any wizards or witches in the other world," Hermione said. "It's a muggle world."
"Right." Wizarding Luna frowned again. "Does that mean that there aren't any magical creatures, either?"
"I'm sorry, Luna, but I don't think so."
"What about muggle creatures that don't exist in our world?"
"I can't prove it, but my observations so far would lead me to conclude that there aren't any animals unique to the other world, either."
"Aw." She pouted. "I was hoping for a new exclusive for The Quibbler."
"We're trying to keep the other world a secret, Luna," Hermione reminded her.
"Well, we could've smuggled a few animals into our world. The way the muggles cause animals to go extinct, there's more than enough room here." The witch sighed.
"That's the same in our world," Luna said. "It's all the fault of the corrupt governments controlled by evil corporations. They value profit over nature."
"That's stupid. Isn't anyone doing anything about that?" Wizarding Luna asked.
"We're trying our best, but we're too few, and most people don't care," Luna replied. "We don't have any witches and wizards who could use magic to solve this problem, either."
Both Lunas blinked, and Ron felt a cold shiver run down his spine. They wouldn't...
"I could help you!" wizarding Luna exclaimed. "There's no law against it in the other world, is there?"
"Oh no, there isn't, since magic doesn't exist there," Luna told her, beaming.
They would. Ron closed his eyes.
"What? You plan to take over the world?" Hermione blurted out.
"No!" Luna shook her head. "Just a few parts of it. Parts about to be destroyed anyway."
"Yes! Think of all the poor animals! Magic can save them!" wizarding Luna added in an earnest tone of voice.
"You can't exactly save the environment with a single wand," Hermione pointed out.
"But you can save the species in threatened ecosystems," wizarding Luna retorted. "And we can create habitats that are muggle-proof!"
"Oh, yes - with magic, we can fit a savannah inside a suitcase, right?" Luna beamed at her counterpart.
"Well, an entire savannah might be a little much, you don't need that much to keep an ecosystem self-contained," wizarding Luna explained.
Ron blinked. He didn't know this Luna, but if she was in any way similar to his Luna - and that was the impression he had so far - then that sounded a little too… "You've done that before, haven't you?" he asked.
Wizarding Luna blinked. "What?"
"You already created such habitats, and used them." He watched her closely.
"That would be illegal," she replied. "And Harry and Ron would have to arrest me if I were to do such a thing."
Oh, yes, she had. Ron sighed again.
"Luna!" Apparently, the other Ron had caught on as well. "You can't use magic to interfere with the muggle world!"
"Of course I can - hypothetically. Any witch or wizard has the capability to do so, after all," wizarding Luna retorted with an innocent smile that didn't fool anyone. Well, perhaps the kids.
"Luna…" Wizarding Harry sighed and covered his eyes with his hand. "Don't tell me that you're endangering the Statute of Secrecy by interfering with the muggle ecosystem."
"Of course not. If I were to tell you that, you'd have to arrest me!"
"Exactly!" Luna nodded several times. "We wouldn't want to force the loyal enforcers of the government's will to choose between their friends or their paycheck!"
"That's not what this is about!" wizarding Harry protested.
"And imagine if they had to explain to their children that they sent their Luna to prison for the crime of saving poor animals!" Luna said.
"Well, it would be a chance to study Dementors," wizarding Luna added.
"What? Dementors?" Hermione looked at her wizarding friends. "Surely those are limited to the worst dark wizards…"
The expressions on wizarding Harry and Ron's faces told Ron that this wasn't true even before his counterpart replied.
"Well… there were so many prisoners after the Death Eater trials, there weren't enough guards to handle them, so…" Wizarding Ron shrugged. "It's gotten better since then."
"Because there are more guards - or fewer prisoners?" Hermione pursed her lips.
"Both," wizarding Harry told her.
She scoffed. "If you plan to arrest Luna, you might as well arrest me since I used magic to deal with muggles in the other world myself!"
"Muggle criminals," Ron was quick to clarify. "And it was to save your and our lives."
She glared at him, but he met her eyes.
"No one's arresting Luna or Hermione," wizarding Ron said. "Merlin's beard, who do you think we are?"
"Loyal enforcers of the state?" Luna asked, tilting her head.
Wizarding Harry groaned and leaned back on the couch he and wizarding Ginny were occupying.
"See, this is why I don't tell them about such things, so they don't feel conflicted," wizarding Luna said.
"Yes." Luna nodded in agreement. "I do the same. Of course, separating your private life and your business is just common sense."
"But if you can't talk about your day then that makes for a rather boring dinner," wizarding Luna retorted.
"Only if all you do is work, and if that's the case, something's wrong anyway," Luna told her.
Now Ron was wondering what else Luna hadn't told him.
"Oh, I wish Gellert would share that view. Even at our age, he still works far too much," Dumbledore remarked.
"Gellert?" Wizarding Luna blinked. "Like…"
"Not our Grindelwald," Hermione interrupted her.
"But his counterpart!" The witch smiled. "Does that mean Skeeter's book was correct?"
"I haven't read it, so I couldn't possibly comment," Dumbledore replied.
"Oh, she wrote that our Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers before Grindelwald's War;" wizarding Luna said.
"Oh, that's different. We were both junior officers during the war, and despite fighting for different sides, we became lovers. After a brief separation, we reunited after the war," the old man told her. "And we've been together ever since."
"How romantic!" wizarding Luna exclaimed.
"They also built the biggest arms business in Europe," Hermione pointed out. "While running the Secret Service."
Judging by their expressions, most wizards and witches present didn't quite understand what that meant, Ron assumed. His and Harry's counterparts, though, were not among them.
Dumbledore inclined his head with a faint smile. "Indeed - which allowed me to both protect you and your work, as well as provide you with the resources to finish your portal."
Hermione nodded, acknowledging the point - though Ron could tell that she did so grudgingly. Though he hadn't missed that Luna hadn't commented on that.
Great.
"And here's where we keep our brooms," wizarding Ron announced, opening the door of a rather shabby-looking wooden shed and revealing…
...a rather shabby looking interior containing about a dozen brooms. They looked like ordinary, old-fashioned brooms, as far as Ron could tell. It was almost a little disappointing - no extension charms. No magical protections. No guardian creatures.
"Oh! Oh! Flying brooms! Actual flying brooms!" Of course, Luna's enthusiasm wasn't deterred in the slightest. "Which one would you recommend?" she asked wizarding Ron with a beaming smile.
"Ah, any of them should do," he replied.
"These are brooms meant for beginners," wizarding Luna added. "The high-performance brooms are kept inside the house."
"Oh?" Luna turned away from where she had been gushing over the brooms. "In case you get attacked and have to flee?"
"Well, mostly so the kids won't get their fingers on Firebolts and the like," wizarding Ron explained.
"It's a Weasley tradition to sneak out and grab a broom to fly even though you're not allowed to," wizarding Luna added. "Ginny started when she was six."
"Each of us did it, I believe." Wizarding Ron grinned. "It was fine when all we had were old, slow brooms, but a Firebolt? You can kill yourself with one of those if you mess up a Wronski Feint."
"'Wronski feint'?" Ron asked.
"Ah. Figures Hermione wouldn't have told you about Quidditch," the wizard said, chuckling.
"She did, actually," Luna retorted. "It's the game with hoops and flying cannonballs, right?"
Wizarding Ron laughed. "That's as good a description as any. In any case, a Wronski Feint is when one Seeker tries to fool the other Seeker into believing that they have spotted the Snitch. They enter a dive, hoping the other will follow, and at the last moment, they pull up while the other, distracted by looking for the Snitch, crashes onto the ground. When it works, that is."
That sounded crazy. No wonder Hermione wasn't fond of the sport.
"And if it doesn't?" Luna asked. "Both crash?"
"No. If it doesn't work, then you just lost altitude for nothing."
"Ah." Luna nodded. "So… which broom should I pick?"
"All of them have had safety charms cast on them," Ron explained. "So… pick whichever you want."
"Which is the fastest?"
"Ah… this one. That's a Cleansweep Three. My great-uncle used it when he flew for the Cannons."
"Oh! A Quidditch broom?" Luna grabbed it and put it between her legs. "It doesn't work?"
"Ah. Put it on the ground, then hold your hand out and say 'up'," wizarding Ron told her. "Firmly and confidently."
"UP!"
The broom didn't move.
"UP!" Luna repeated herself. "UP! UP! Upupupupup!" She looked dejected. "It doesn't work for muggles?"
"It should - most brooms come with Muggle-Repelling Charms to prevent muggles from accidentally flying off if they find a lost broom," wizarding Ron said. "But it's an old broom and a little temperamental."
That sounded as if the broom had a will of its own. Not exactly encouraging, in Ron's opinion.
"Just put all your longing to fly into it, and you'll be fine," wizarding Luna added, grabbing a broom for herself.
"UP!"
The broom leapt into Luna's hand. Ron saw her expression turn into a look of wonder he hadn't seen often lately.
"Now mount it like this." Wizarding Luna straddled her own broom.
"And grip it tightly, but not too tightly," wizarding Ron added. "Then jump off and pull…"
"WHEEE!"
"...up slowly," he finished, staring after Luna, who was already at a height of twenty feet - and still rising.
"Is it supposed to go that high?" Ron asked.
"Yes," his counterpart replied. "Don't worry, the ground on the pitch is charmed as well."
That didn't really reassure Ron, but wizarding Luna was already chasing after Luna - and gaining quickly. "I thought she took the fastest broom," Ron commented.
"She's a muggle; brooms go faster if they're ridden by a wizard or witch. It's how the magic works."
"Ah." So, not even in the air were they equal. That figured.
"Do you want to take a broom up as well?" the other Ron asked.
Ron was tempted. Very tempted. To fly… Luna was having the time of her life, as far as Ron could tell. On the other hand… He looked around. The kids were at the pond, something about hunting winter faeries, with Ginny the witch supervising. Luna and wizarding Luna were high up in the air. And the others were in the house, or in Mr Weasley's shed. Which did have Extension Charms cast on it. This was as private as it could probably get, here.
He glanced at his counterpart.
"Ah." The other Ron sported a thin grin and quickly glanced around as well before focusing on Ron again. "So… you and Hermione?"
"You and Lavender?" Ron replied, then frowned. He hadn't wanted to use such a stupid comeback, but it slipped out before he could think of any of his planned openings - he had been hoping for an opportunity like this, after all.
The other Ron frowned. "Hey! For years, I thought she had died. I didn't jump into Lavender's bed on the same day as the funeral, you know."
"There was a funeral?" Ron asked. "You haven't mentioned that before."
"Harry didn't tell you?" Wizarding Ron seemed honestly surprised. "Well, he probably told Hermione."
And Hermione wouldn't have mentioned it to me?, Ron thought with a frown. Well, she did have a lot on her mind, and they hadn't had a lot of time to talk privately. "Perhaps," he said.
For a moment, they just stared at each other. Wizarding Ron looked to be younger, in Ron's opinion, but that might just be his imagination - he knew that wizards lived longer. On the other hand, Mr Weasley didn't look younger than Dad. Perhaps they simply grew older? Ron would have liked to say that the other man looked softer, but wizarding Ron didn't. "I've heard a lot about you," he said, "but only about your school years."
"Figures," wizarding Ron replied with a shrug.
"Yes."
"And I don't match what you expected, hm?"
"I didn't expect anything," Ron lied. "We didn't even know if time had passed at the same rate in both worlds."
Wizarding Ron blinked. "Blimey. You thought that you could have returned after decades?"
"Or at the same moment Hermione had left," Ron pointed out.
That made his counterpart wince. "That would have been…"
"Awkward," Ron finished for him. It would have been. But he was fairly sure that Hermione wouldn't have picked a boy seven years younger than herself, so that would have settled things.
Wizarding Ron snorted. "Oh, yeah. Very awkward. But she would've been here. Alive."
"Yes." And probably been involved in wizarding politics straight away, from what Ron could tell. "And there wouldn't have been a statue of her or a portrait."
"But it would've been harder to explain her age," wizarding Ron told him.
"Couldn't you blame a curse for that?" Sacrificing years of your life in exchange for a spell was a staple of some stories. Or being forcefully aged - like in Indiana Jones.
Wizarding Ron frowned. "The Healers at St Mungo's would have expected to examine her and then tried to find a cure. And they wouldn't find anything. Not that that would be terribly new, of course. So... it could've worked. Perhaps."
"Better than amnesia?" Ron asked. But before his counterpart could answer, he had another thought: "But won't they want to examine her for her supposed amnesia if she's claiming that now?"
"They might, but if she says she remembers everything again, that should put a stop to that. It's not as if people like having others rummaging around inside their heads." The other Ron shrugged. "And, well, no one wanted to question us, anyway, after Voldemort's death."
"So I thought."
That earned Ron another frown - he must have failed to hide how he felt about that. "Hey! Who should have questioned us, and for what? Voldemort had taken over the country, and we had to do something about that. Would you have left a bunch of bigots in power after they spent months trying to murder all the muggleborn?"
Of course he wouldn't have! Ron almost snarled. That was a low blow. "I'm not concerned about the murderers," he said instead, as calmly as he could. "But where did you draw the line?"
"We didn't; there were trials."
"Who were the judges?" Ron asked.
"All the surviving Wizengamot members who hadn't joined Voldemort." Wizarding Ron narrowed his eyes at him - as if daring him to question the other man further.
So, of course, Ron did exactly that. "That doesn't really constitute an unbiased judge and jury, now does it?"
Wizarding Ron scoffed. "It was the best we could do. You think anyone was unbiased, after a bloody war? Everyone had lost someone. At least. This wasn't just a trial for a few dark wizards caught murdering a family. The Ministry itself was full of them."
Ron understood the message - he hadn't been there, he hadn't fought in the war, he shouldn't judge those who had. But Ron had been - still was - a CI5 officer. "What about foreign judges?"
"What? Foreigners? Judging British wizards? You barmy, mate?" Wizarding Ron shook his head. "Most of them are bigots, anyway - they'd acquit everyone and try to sentence us!" He snorted. "Didn't Hermione tell you about Magical Europe's history?"
Ron was getting tired of those digs. "She did, actually," he replied. "But she didn't tell me that everyone outside Britain was a bigot." Which was ludicrous to begin with.
"Of course not everyone is a bigot. Just most of them. And do you think those who aren't bigots wouldn't be biased against the Death Eaters, after living with bigots for so long?"
His counterpart had a point, though Ron didn't want to admit it. He also needed more information about this world; that was obvious. He shrugged. "Perhaps. So, you married Lavender."
"And you're with Hermione. How did that happen?"
"She told you, didn't she?" Ron retorted.
"Yes. But I want to know why you got together with her."
Ah. "Really?" He snorted. "I fell in love with her, and she liked me back. Simple as that."
"While you were being hunted by criminals and fighting for your lives."
Ron didn't like the insinuation. "You think this is just… stress relief?" He narrowed his eyes at his counterpart.
Wizarding Ron met his eyes without flinching. "That's what I'm trying to find out."
"Why? Do you think your relationship with her was only based on that?"
He saw the other Ron's jaw twitch. That hit home. "We were best friends for years before we got together!" the wizard protested. "We knew each other's secrets. We weren't just some… whatever."
Ron kept himself from glaring at the wizard. He couldn't keep the sneer off his face, though. "How long did it take you to notice her, even though you were so close? You were with Lavender before you and Hermione got together, weren't you?"
"We were teenagers. Don't tell me that you were perfect at that age."
Ron scoffed at that. "You're not me. Don't assume we are identical."
"We aren't. I'm a wizard."
That was the crux of the issue. "So?" Ron asked with a forced shrug. "Do you think that makes you better?"
"No." The wizard was glaring at him. "But I grew up in the magical world. You have no idea what our world's like. Hell, without Hermione, you can't even get into most places." He took a step closer to Ron. "Can you live like that? As a muggle among wizards?"
He had been asking himself that same question. And he didn't have an answer. But that wasn't any of the other man's business. "Why do you assume that we'd live in your world?"
Wizarding Ron blinked. "What? Hermione's a witch. Your children will be wizards and witches. They'll have wizarding friends and go to Hogwarts, like everyone else."
"So? That doesn't mean we have to live there." He narrowed his eyes again. "Others have managed." Hermione had told him that.
"That only works if the wizarding parent looks after the kids. You couldn't deal with accidental magic. And can you see Hermione as a housewife?" Wizarding Ron shook his head.
As if the git would have become a stay-at-home-dad! They weren't that different. Ron snorted. "If it's needed - and that's a big if - we can hire an au pair witch or wizard. Hermione's parents managed to raise her without magic, didn't they?"
"I bet that the Obliviators had to visit a few times to fix accidental magic," the wizard shot back.
Obliviators? Oh. The mind-wiping wizards. Ron definitely didn't want them barging into his home. "As I said, if needed, we can hire a nanny to handle any children." He shook his head. "Why are you being so pushy, anyway? Hermione can make her own decisions." He could imagine her reaction if he told her about wizarding Ron trying to meddle in their relationship.
"Of course she can! But you wouldn't be the first muggle who couldn't handle marrying a witch! And that would hurt her."
"What makes you think I couldn't handle it?" Ron snapped, with more anger than the question deserved.
"Because I know what it's like to feel overshadowed and jealous."
Ron drew a sharp breath, struggling to control his reaction. How had the…
The wizard's frown turned into a wry, almost sad, smile. "Thought so. Guess we're not as different as I hoped."
"We're not the same. And I'm not an insecure teenager." Not any more, in any case. He was a CI5 officer - still - and a damn good one. None of his brothers had done what he had done.
"But you're a muggle with a witch." Wizarding Ron nodded towards the two Lunas. "You saw her face when she thought she couldn't use a broom, didn't you?"
"Yes." And he hadn't liked it.
"Can you imagine feeling like that every time Hermione uses some clever spell? Or your kids show off?"
Ron could. That didn't mean that he would. "You seem to have given this a great deal of thought," he said, deflecting the question.
The other man shrugged. "Lavender has a squib brother. We've talked about it, in case it ran in the family. We've got a squib cousin as well."
"Squib?" Ron frowned. "Ah. The counterparts to muggleborns?"
Wizarding Ron snorted. "That was Hermione's explanation, I bet. Yeah, basically a muggle born into a wizarding family. A lot of them are very bitter."
Which was perfectly understandable, of course. "I wasn't born into a wizarding family. I'm not some kid watching my siblings do magic while I can't." He was an adult. Mature. Not an insecure child.
"But can you handle it?" the other Ron asked, staring at him.
"Yes," Ron said as convincingly as he managed. He wasn't sure if he could, actually. But he knew that he would do his best to try.
They stared at each other for a moment longer, then wizarding Ron shrugged. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Ron gritted his teeth at the implied judgement. He was better than that. "So, what's between Lavender and Hermione?"
"She didn't tell you?"
Ron forced himself to shrug nonchalantly. "I only know that Lavender was your first girlfriend, before Hermione. It didn't really seem important."
"They were roommates for six years," wizarding Ron said.
"Ah." Ron nodded. "I guess they didn't always get along even before you entered the picture."
"It was more like Hermione hung out with Harry and me, and Lavender with Parvati. They didn't really, uh, mingle."
Ron had gone to a boarding school. He knew how things worked. And from what he had heard about Hermione's time at magic school - little as it had been, all things considered - Lavender and Hermione probably pushed each other's buttons. Or had. "And when you 'entered the picture', things went from bad to worse."
"Not really. We - Lavender and I - broke up towards the end of fifth year, and then I was busy training for the war." The other Ron shrugged again. "She was at the Battle of Hogwarts, but, well… I didn't really care about anything other than killing Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and afterwards…" He trailed off.
"...you thought Hermione was dead."
That earned him a glare before wizarding Ron sighed. "Yes. It took me some time before I could deal with things. I met Lavender again at the memorial a year after the battle. We both had changed - we both had lost friends in the war - and, well… we started talking."
"Ah." That made sense. Not the healthiest way to start a relationship, but not the worst, either. Not that Ron was one to talk about that. "That explains the tension."
"It's been seven years," wizarding Ron retorted with a frown. "They're not teenagers any more."
"But Hermione's returned from death. She's no longer the dead war hero," Ron pointed out.
His counterpart winced. "Don't say that she returned from death. There was only one wizard who managed that in living memory. We don't want rumours about the Dark Arts to crop up."
"Oh." He hadn't considered that. "Alright. Thank you for the warning." That could have been ugly.
"Well, with Skeeter gone, there shouldn't be any real trouble on that front. But some idiot will always spread the worst rumours no matter what you do."
"Will that be a problem?"
"Not really. Most people who matter know better than to believe rumours, and the majority of the rest will follow the Prophet's lead." Wizarding Ron snorted.
"I've heard about the Daily Prophet," Ron said. Not much, but enough to prod his counterpart for more information.
"Oh? Of course you have." His counterpart shook his head. "They were very mean to Hermione. Mostly Skeeter's work, but after Voldemort took control of the Ministry…" He shrugged. "Nasty stuff. We had to read it - you could deduce information from what the Prophet was saying."
"And what it wasn't saying," Ron added.
"Exactly." Wizarding Ron nodded again. "But that's the past. We won't have any problems from the Prophet."
That was both reassuring and concerning, in Ron's opinion. "And from Lavender?"
"What?"
Didn't he get it? "She's your wife, and your ex just returned after being thought dead for seven years."
"But I love her! Lavender, that is!"
That was reassuring to hear. "Make sure that she knows it, then," he told his counterpart.
A white, glowing and floating, stag appeared next to them and Ron had drawn his gun and taken aim before he heard Harry's voice - no, wizarding Harry's. "Dinner's ready!"
"Harry must be showing off," the other Ron commented as the stag slowly faded.
"What was that?" Ron asked, reholstering his pistol.
"Patronus Charm. Used against Dementors, but it's handy as a messenger as well."
"Ah." Ron nodded. Wizarding Ron hadn't batted an eye at his gun, he realised. Something to talk about with Hermione, later. "Let's go back, then."
"Go ahead," his counterpart told him. "I'll send a Patronus messenger to Luna."
A moment later, a white glowing translucent terrier appeared. "Luna, dinner time!" the wizard said, and the ghostly animal soared into the sky.
"I think mobile phones are a little more useful," Ron muttered. "And more discreet."
"What?"
"Nothing."
They went back to the house. And found Hermione and Lavender glaring at each other over very toothy smiles.
The Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and Scalp Treatment was working as advertised. Her hair was, for the first time in her life, not a barely tameable disgrace. It fell in soft waves over her shoulders, and a few hairstyling charms that hadn't worked before had it done up in exactly the kind of style she had imagined - dozens of attempts to use the charms to tame her hair over the years had finally paid off.
Now, if only she'd practised the other cosmetic charms she knew as much… Looking at her reflection, she winced. If she went out like this, she would look like a clown. No makeup would be better than this. But if she skipped makeup, she would look… inadequate. The date of a tournament champion had to look their best. Especially as a muggleborn witch - she could already hear Parkinson's needling comments and see Malfoy's sneering face.
She sighed. She would just have to recast the spells. Again. Sooner or later, they would work as intended, wouldn't they?
"Hermione! What are you doing?"
She cringed - a little. Lavender. "Putting on makeup," she replied without looking at the other girl - she could see enough in the mirror to know that Lavender was already perfectly styled.
"You mean you're trying to put on makeup. That's not how you use those charms."
"And how do I use these charms?" she snapped before she could control herself - her frustration must have overcome her common sense. The last thing she wanted was a gloating lecture from Lavender.
"It needs a light touch," Lavender replied at once. "Once it looks like you're not wearing makeup, it's perfect."
"That makes no sense," Hermione retorted. "I could just forego makeup in that case."
Lavender sighed - a little too dramatically, in her opinion - and drew her wand. "Let me demonstrate." Before Hermione could protest, the other witch waved her wand, and Hermione felt the familiar sensation of makeup settling on her skin.
And the unfamiliar feeling of envy when she looked into the mirror and realised that Lavender had been correct - she really did look much better than without makeup, but it was so subtle, most people would be unable to tell she was wearing any without being close enough to touch her face. Lavender might not be the brightest witch in Gryffindor, but she knew how to apply cosmetics. Yes, as much as it galled, she had probably saved Hermione's evening and pride.
"See? Even you can look pretty with a little effort," Lavender told her with a patronising smile.
'Even you'? Hermione forced herself to return the smile - albeit with more teeth. "Thank you, Lavender. It's such a happy surprise to discover that there are some charms at which you're actually skilled."
"Why, it was my pleasure to help. Imagine the embarrassment to our house if I'd let you go out without looking your best."
She heard the unspoken 'even if your best is barely good enough by my standards' addition clearly.
"Why, yes, imagine that."
They stared at each other for a moment, then Lavender nodded and turned back to help Parvati get ready.
And Hermione went to fetch her dress robes. She would enjoy the Yule Ball. And show everyone that she wasn't just a plain bookworm.
