Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: It has taken me along time but I have finally updated. Since I last updated I have read Order of the Phoenix and have decided to make this an AU fic. This fic will NOT contain spoilers for the fifth book, except for maybe some spells that are used in it.

Chapter 3: Facing Facts

The rain was relentless. But that didn't stop me from looking. I had to find him. No one had seen him since before dinner. I was getting worried. I had already searched Gryffindor tower twice and all his usual places for contemplation; the Great Hall, the library (I wasn't surprised we wasn't there) and the Quidditch pitch. My next stop was the lake. The drops of rain rippled every centimeter of the lake, but on the other side was a figure. I knew the shape of Harry Potter anywhere.

Harry was just sitting there staring into the lake as though it held the secrets of the universe. He didn't seem aware of anything. Not me, not the rain and not the lake. I sat down beside him and looked at where he was staring hoping that somehow this would give me insight to what was tormenting his mind. After a few minutes all I had achieved to understand was that I was soaked to the bone.

"You know if you sit out here any longer you will catch pneumonia or something." Harry jumped at the sound of my voice and looked around at me cautiously. My eyes started drifting over his body. He was soaked also, his arms gripping each other around his legs, his hair slopped against his forehead and hung slightly behind the lens' of his glasses. The eyes behind the glasses were as they usually were recently. Dead. Blank. Hollow.

"I was just thinking. About life. School. You. Hermione. The Dursley's." I had to strain to hear the last part. I slid an arm around him and noticed a single tear fall from his cheek.

"What about the Dursley's?" He didn't normally bring up the Dursley's unless to compare to someone or something. Not until the train ride home at least.

"The way they ignore me. The way that I can sit in the corner of my room with the door open and cry my self to sleep every night and they don't notice. Not to tease me about it and not to tell me to shut up. They.. Well, Uncle Vernon found out what happened, and he started raving about having a murderer in the house and that I deserved to be punished for killing my friend, and that someone should warn you before I kill you too. They starved me. I got one meal a day until I got to the Burrow. They worked me till I dropped a few weeks into the holidays. Uncle Vernon just said that I was a whimp. When I wasn't doing chores or having my meal I was locked in my room." His voice was flat and toneless. I just wanted to hold him and tell him that everything was ok and that he didn't need to warn me that he might murder me because I loved him and trusted him.

"WHAT? And you believed HIM? Harry, you did not kill Cedric. How many times do I have to tell you? Only stupid gits like Malfoy and Fudge believe that bullshit. I mean look at the time you spent with us at the Burrow. You were treated like you not a murderer, not the Boy Who Lived and not someone who is mentally disturbed. We all love you Harry, you're apart of the family. Why won't you accept that it wasn't your fault?" I was angry, frustrated. Everyone said I was stubborn once I got an idea into my head. Well if I was stubborn then Harry was as thick as a brick.

"I guess, but you try living like that for the majority of the summer. And then you try to not believe it."

"Come on Harry, we need to get into some dry clothes." We made our way back to the castle in silence. With anyone else I would have been uncomfortable with the silence, but with Harry, I could have remained silent forever.

We were still soaked when we got to the portrait of the fat lady, but before we could give the password she swung open to reveal the strict face of professor McGonagall. I don't think I had ever seen her lips pressed together any tighter than they were know. They looked like someone had taken hers away and replaced them with a thin line of red ink.

"Potter you will accompany me to the head masters office, now. Mr. Weasley you may rejoin your classmates. Come along Potter." With one last look over his shoulder Harry was gone. I spent all that time looking for him so as he would come back to the common room and McGonagall had to take him somewhere else.

The common room was the emptiest I had seen it in days. Only four people still remained; Hermione, still studying; Ginny, reading a book and two first years just sitting around talking about Sir Codagan, a portrait of a knight that had temporarily guarded the common room in our third year.

I took one more look around the common room before slowly ascending the stairs to the dorm. None of us really had any shame so starting to undress as soon as you heard the door click shut behind you was not rare but this night I wish I hadn't. By the time I got to my bed I was already in my boxers and began looking for my pajamas. But before I had a chance to find any the door swung open.

"Hermione. This is the boy's dorm! You can't just walk in to the boy's dor- mmph" The kiss was soft at first but within seconds she was deepening it. I don't know why I didn't push her away straight off, it took me a few seconds but I did pull out of the kiss. "Hermione? What, was that?"

"I decided I wasn't going to wait for you to make the first move anymore." If my hair looked like it was on fire then our faces were beetroots. My best friend had just kissed me. And five months ago I would have welcomed it and possibly even deepened the kiss my self. But now? "Hermione, you are my best friend and I do love you, just. Not that way." Hermione was crying. Merlin it hurt. "I mean, you're beautiful, clever and funny. But the way you feel about me isn't the way I feel about you. It wouldn't be fair on either of us. I think of you more as a sister than anything else." The words just seemed to come out. They sounded exactly the same as the way everyone else let down someone. But I couldn't do anything with Hermione. I loved Harry. Sure we weren't in a relationship - and I couldn't risk telling him how I felt - but I would have been cheating my heart. "I am so sorry Ron. I thought you felt the same way. I. I. Oh damn it." Following Hermione's exit was the loudest I had heard a door slam in my life. Reaching the door to follow her and make sure she wasn't too hurt I suddenly realized I was still in my underwear and couldn't. Unless I wanted to suffer the embarrassment of talking to Hermione in front of whoever was in the common while I was just wearing under wear. Instead I got into my pajamas and decided to turn in early.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

For the first time in a long time I woke before dawn so I decided to spend it just laying in my bed throwing feelings, thoughts and questions around. I felt so guilty that, while I did like Hermione the year before, I had somehow lost interest in Hermione. I hadn't lied the night before - although at the time it just came out - I really did lover her, but only as a close friend - a sister. Since when had she begun taking the initiative anyway?

By the time it I had to get ready for class I had what felt like the world's biggest headache. Harry's bed was empty. I figured he must have already gone down to breakfast. When I got to the Great Hall I looked for Harry. I found everyone but Harry. It was bloody unusual and to be honest I was a little worried, but I was starving so I made my way over to a seat next to Hermione.

"Morning Hermione. Sleep well?" SLAP. "'Mione what was that. oh."

"Gee I wonder Ronald Weasley. Last night wouldn't have anything to do with it would it? You are such a prat." I had apologized the night before, but obviously girls are still incomprehensible creatures to me, I figured we would just go on like usual. Stupid me.

"Hermione, I am sorry but I am not in love with you - I love some one else." Hermione's jaw had dropped an inch and her eyes looked as though she would begin crying any second. Then I realized that the entire hall had heard our little conversation. "Yeah, you all heard me. That's right I love Snape." All the tables except the Slytherins cracked up laughing. I had managed to make the entire school laugh.

"Thank you for your love Weasley, perhaps we can talk about it over you doing a detention." I knew that voice. And considering the silence that had fallen so suddenly I was right. Snape. "My dungeons. Eight o'clock. One hour. Don't be late." His lips curled into his familiar cruel smile and he walked of his robes billowing as if caught in an invisible wind.

"Classes haven't even started yet and I have already got a detention. Thank Merlin we don't have potions today. Anyway, I have to get to Divination. Herm' I need to talk to you. But not here and not now. Meet me in the common room at nine. Ok?"

My worry for Harry grew when I got to Divination and saw that he wasn't there. The class room that we took Divination in always felt like a furnace that had strong smell of something that would smell nice if it weren't so strong. "I have foreseen that one of our number has left us. Possibly forever." The soft and misty voice said. Immediately I knew who said it and also whom it was talking about. Professor Trelawney was always foreseeing Harry's death. Ever since our first class she has always predicted his death. But she was right. Harry didn't seem to be with us this time. By the end of the lesson I was worried.

I was thankful to be out of the Divination classroom and on my way to Transfiguration. I could ask McGonagall where Harry was and I wouldn't have to sit alone. Assuming that Hermione still wanted to sit next to me.

I had barely entered the transfiguration classroom when McGonagall came into the room, "Mr. Weasley, the headmaster would like to see you in his office immediately." She didn't sound happy, but I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, and McGonagall was fair. To get in trouble with her, you had to do something wrong.

So I made my way to the headmaster's office, which was situated on the second floor behind a stone gargoyle. I had only been to this office once, and that had only been three days ago. I had been at this school for four years and only this year had I stepped foot in Dumbledore's office. Typical Weasley luck.

I gave the gargoyle the password and it leapt to the side revealing a spinning spiral staircase. The short trip up the staircase left me as dizzy as it had the first time I had visited the office. After finding my balance I knocked on the door.

"Come. Ah, Mr. Weasley, I was expecting you. Please sit down. You are not in trouble, I just wish to speak to you." Relief washed over me with his last words, I wasn't in trouble. There were three seats in front of his desk so I chose one that was indirectly in front of him. Within seconds of me sitting in the chair Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, perched himself on my knee. "He must like you. He doesn't normally take to strangers, first Harry now you. Hmmmm."

I never did know what to say to Dumbledore when he spoke to me. He was one of my hero's. I always thought he was a bit mad but who isn't in one way or another. "Where is Harry?" I didn't even think about it, it just came out of my mouth before I had even realized I was saying it.

"The one thing I can not tell you I am afraid. But I assure you he will be back in the dormitory and classes tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with him." One day I will remember to ask him if he can read my mind. "He is merely being told everything he should have known since his first day at Hogwarts, as you should have been. I must apologize for keeping things from both of you that should have been explained to you years ago.

"I am old. I have made many mistakes, but none as big as the ones I have made with you and Harry. I kept the truth from Harry in fear that he was too young to understand or accept the truth. I kept the truth from you in fear that you would have more expectations placed on you than you could handle." Dumbledore, looking at me over his half moon glasses, released a sigh of resignation and continued. "Magic is genetic. It is passed from one or both parents to their children. Sometimes only one parent donates the gene and sometimes neither donate the gene. That is how we get squibs, but coming from a wizarding family you will already understand this. Three quarters of the world's population are capable of donating this gene to their children and most are so mixed that it is amazing we are still having Muggles giving birth to witches and wizards. The Weasley blood line is one of the oldest among our kind. Your mother's blood line however is much older than the Weasley's. Your mother caries on the blood line from Godric Gryffindor."

I couldn't believe my ears. My mother was the heir of Gryffindor. My family was the descendants of one of the Hogwarts Four. But how could this affect the expectations that were already put on me. My entire family was the same.

"The gene that gives the magic of Gryffindor has not been active for many generations; you are the first in one hundred years. You are the only heir of Gryffindor. Your brothers, sister and mother are all blood relatives of Gryffindor but you are the only one that has the magic gene of Gryffindor active making you the heir."

My head was pounding I had never understood genetics or heirs of families before. Mum had explained it to me ever since I could remember, and ever since I could remember I did not understand it. But now I knew why mum had always thought it important that I know it. She had been trying to prepare me for this. But I wasn't prepared. I would have been prepared if Harry had turned out to be the heir but not me.

"But how does that place more expectations on me? I mean, just 'cause I am the heir does that mean I am more powerful? Or that I have more responsibilities?"

Dumbledore gazed down at the desk for a moment thinking of the answer and looked at me as though seeing me for the first time. "You will have more power than most wizards, but you will not be given any extra responsibilities. You will still be treated the way you always have been here at Hogwarts. If you ever need me to explain anything you may use my personal password: 'Brian' while tapping the gargoyle on the nose. Now if you don't have any more questions I must Owl your parents and tell them that I have finally told you."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Snape's office was the same as I remembered it from my second year. Jars lined every shelf, full of things I didn't want to know the names of, giving off a green glow to the room and a sense of foreboding. "Ah, Mr Weasley, You will be scrubbing cauldrons left by my seventh years tonight. Unfortunately," Snape's lips curled into a cruel snarl. "Magic will not work on this substance so you will have to use some elbow grease and a scourer." I made my way to the door into the classroom to see fourteen cauldrons sitting near the sink. "And Mr Weasley, if you aren't over me by tonight you can come clean up after my first years, they are mixing a forgetfulness potion tomorrow."

The cauldrons were a mess. They seemed to be covered in what looked and smelled to be dragon dung. Sitting on the bench next to the sink was a scourer and a bottle of Mr Grime's Elbow Grease. It was harder to clean than Snape had made out. Not only did the remnants of the potion resist magic, but it dissolved the scouring brush as well. It was worse than having to polish all the trophies in the trophy room with Filch in my second year.

When I got the portrait of the Fat Lady that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower I was surprised to see Hermione waiting for me. Her eyes looked red and puffy, like they do after you cry and I immediately felt a pang of guilt. I was sure that she would have been crying because I didn't like her.

"The common room is too crowded, I couldn't concentrate. I grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak, we can go anywhere you want." I hadn't taken any notice of what she held in her right hand till she mentioned the invisibility cloak, but there it was, that familiar silvery material that had once belonged to Harry's father.

"Alright, how's about Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? We can go there and not have to worry about anyone overhearing us." I had never felt comfortable about being in a girl's lavatory even though I spent a lot of my second year in one, but I had to make sure no one over heard what I had to say.

It took surprisingly little time to get to the second floor but we had to wait almost twenty minutes for Filch to clean up some water that had leaked from Myrtle's bathroom. When we finally stepped foot in the bathroom however Myrtle was no where to be seen. 'Good sign. No interruptions.' No sooner had I thought it did Cho Chang walk out of one of the cubicles and then out into the corridor.

It looked as miserable and dank as I remembered. The lack of use of the facilities was as evident as ever in the rusty taps and dirty mirrors. The floor was the one thing that looked as though it hadn't been there all that long, mostly due to Myrtle flooding it whenever she got upset. The group of sinks, which seemed to be older than the rest of the furnishings, was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets that Harry and I had found in our second year.

When we were sure we were alone Hermione slipped the cloak off and sat on it looking at me expectantly. "Well? We are here, no what did you want to tell me?" As she said it I could see the hopefulness in her eyes and the pain I was about to cause. It was the look in her eyes though that made me say it, it was the same look I had when ever Harry talked about liking "someone".

"This is really hard Hermione. I don't know where to start, well I do." I was already starting to want to back out, but I knew I had to go on. "Well I am really sorry about last night, but. But I like some one else and I don't know how to tell them. I am in love. with - Harry. Or, at least I think it is love. I have never really loved anyone that wasn't family before." I had never seen such a surprised look on Hermione's face.

"You love Harry? You're gay? You.? Oh my god! Why didn't I see this before? You two do everything together. I am such an idiot. I am so sorry for last night Ron." Now she was apologizing to me for last night. Girls really are odd creatures. She had regained her composure in no time at all. "You should tell him. When he gets back I mean. You never know, he might feel the same about you. It's getting late. We should probably get back to the tower before we get in trouble."

Standing in the door way was Filch, the caretaker, and he had an insane smile on his face that just screamed trouble. "Too late! It's straight to the head master with you. I will have two expelled - Two students making out in a girls bathroom, an out of bounds bathroom at that - That should be enough even to expel Potter if I could catch him at it. Come along you two."

We trailed along in silence to Dumbledore's office, where Filch gave the password and escorted us to the door. Before he had even knocked Dumbledore's voice welcomed us in. "Ah Argus, I have been meaning to ask you to. Mr Weasley, Miss Granger? Where were they Argus?" Dumbledore's gave us a searching look, as if to find the answer written somewhere on us.

"Found them making out in the out of bounds bathroom on the second floor Professor." Filch's eyes gleamed with pride at being the one to have gotten us into trouble. For a moment Dumbledore looked severe and then his expression softened and a smirk played across his mouth so quickly I wasn't sure I had actually seen it.

"I will deal with them Argus, in the meantime could you possibly check on the Ravenclaw common room I believe there were some dung bombs let off there earlier this evening." Filch left the room almost at once with a manic grin on his face that could only mean that we were in trouble. "Now would either of you like some tea? I tend to drink a lot of it at this time of night." I nodded silently as Hermione asked politely with a slight waver in her voice.

"Despite what Mr. Filch says, you are not in trouble. Although when he finds out you aren't expelled, he will be furious. I understand that teenagers require some privacy as they tend to not trust what people could possibly over hear. I also understand that some things are best not overheard by anyone that would use it against you." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in my direction for a second and then shifted to Hermione.

"Now if you would both like to return to Gryffindor Tower I must see Professor McGonagall, I will accompany you." We walked silently through the castle until we reached the Fat Lady and Dumbledore gave the password. "Get some sleep; you don't want to miss any of your classes tomorrow. Good night." The common room was empty and the dormitories were quiet so we both made for our separate dorms and went to bed.

A/N: Sorry this took so long. Real life kept getting in the way and I haven't had a much internet time to post this. The next two chapters however should be up by the end of next week. I also am in need of a Beta, anyone who wouldn't mind giving up some time to Beta my stuff could just email me. Please...