Shadows

Chapter Twenty-three

Repercussions

I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward--Tupac Shakur

I have just recently come across some very interesting information; for every action there is an immediate and opposite reaction. Now, this is not exactly the sort of thing which would interest me, it's more Hermione's cup of tea if you know what I mean…but as it comes into direct conflict with my life, it captivates me completely.

For every action: I changed the newspaper headline for Hermione. There is an immediate and opposite reaction: The headline did change…for everyone.

I just wanted to do something nice for her, she deserves it, right? After all that I've put her through in the past few months, why can't I just do one little thing for her? But…it wasn't just one little thing. It turned into one huge thing that has everyone running in circles looking for me.

The funny thing is, that I didn't even know about it for a few days. I mean, why would I? I was just around, living my days out in the chosen solitude of my house. Mark or Melissa hadn't shown up for a few days, and that was perfectly acceptable to me, no Mark or Melissa meant no potential missions. And, of course, no potential missions meant no hazards to my immediate being.

It wasn't until the fateful day that Mark came crashing into my house that I found out that I had done something wrong.

"Ron!" he bellowed with a look of fierce anger on his features.

I raised an eyebrow at him from my position on the sofa. Which, I found to be highly amusing, as gaining the ability to raise just one eyebrow, like Mark so often does, had become my goal for the week. Needless to say, I succeeded.

"Did you need something?" I asked as I lazily stretched out and stood.

"Yeah I've been meaning to kick your ass," he responded immediately.

"Well," I said, without making any move to get closer to him, "that sounds like barrels of fun; but, alas, I am busy at the moment. Perhaps sometime next week would be better."

"I'm not kidding, Ron! Do you have any clue how catastrophic your little declaration of love has been for us?"

My eyes narrowed, "my what?"

"Declaration of love," Mark repeated with growing annoyance. "As in your nice little newspaper trick."

"How…how do you know about that?"

"How could I not know," he countered, "you put it out there for every bloody John Doe to read about. In addition, may I add, that said list of John Does includes Voldemort. Why, Ron…why did you have to do this? Things were going relatively smoothly, and now it's like a train wreck."

I sat back down. "I don't understand."

Mark sighed heavily and joined me on the sofa. "How about you tell me what you did, and I'll tell you what happened."

"I just…I wanted to see Hermione, so I worked on it, and then she was just there in front of me. She was asleep, surrounded by articles and things on me, and they all just had such horrible things to say…I just wanted to do something nice for her. To show her that I'm not evil, and she isn't as abandoned as she thinks. So, I changed one of the headlines to something a bit more truthful."

He looked a little less angry as he made sure to stare me in the eye. "Ron, you didn't just change her headline though. Nothing is ever that simple. When you did that…you changed to headline of every one of those newspapers printed. So everyone--not just Hermione--, who purchased that paper, saw your truthful headline."

I sat for a moment in disbelief. Everything changed? But…that just wasn't possible…I didn't change all of them! Just Hermione's. My eyes slid shut, that couldn't have possibly happened. No way.

"But," I finally say weakly, "I didn't do that. I concentrated on what I wanted, and what I wanted was--"

I want to change what I see.

I did. I changed what I saw…I lifted the strand of hair off of Hermione's face. When she woke up, everyone would be able to see that the hair was no longer there. I changed the headline…but obviously not just hers.

"I'm sorry," I relent meekly. "I…didn't mean to. I only wanted to change hers."

"Well, there isn't really anything that we can do about it now--"

"I can change it back!"

Mark stared at me incredulously, "what?"

"I…can, right? I mean, isn't that part of my true seer powers, being able to change the past, so, shouldn't I be able to just, you know, change it back?"

"Ron, it isn't that simple. Why do you think all true seers end up living their life in either insanity or isolation? You can't just go around messing with the natural course of things, if you change one thing you change everything."

"Exactly. So that's why I should just change it back."

Mark sighed. "You can't. When you changed the present, you altered the course of fate; but the altered course is now the route of fate, it is done. Therefore, if you change it again you alter fate's alterations and create unforeseen conflicts. Do you understand?"

I sat for a moment in contemplation. "No."

"Well…just don't do anything. Alright?"

"I can do that."

"Good." Mark stood up and gestured for me to do the same. "Now, go grab your stuff, we have to relocate you."

"Relocate? Why?"

"Voldemort--must you flinch every time you hear his name?--has lost his patience. Now that he knows that you've developed your powers he is growing more desperate to make use of them."

"But…he can trace me, right? So, in essence, will it make a difference for me to move?"

"Melissa and I are taking you to an untraceable location. Even Voldemort does not have the power to break through these spells. At least, not yet he doesn't."

"Well, that last part was certainly comforting. So…I guess I should go pack then."

"I'll be down here."

I trudged up the stairs and walked quietly into my room. Lost in thought I made my way over to the closet and pulled out clothes that I carried over to the large bed to find that the bed was occupied with a figure that had gone unnoticed.

"Hermione?" I asked incredulously.

"Hi," she breathed. We stared at each other for a few moments in silence, neither believing that the situation had indeed come to pass. "I," she started, but the words fell short on her lips. She licked them uselessly. "I just…" she finally gave up on words and settled for holding up the newspaper that I had left lying beside her just days before. "Is this," she pointed at the headline, "true?"

I nodded mutely.

"Well," Hermione sighed, "that…complicates things."

"Not really," I finally responded. "I mean, you're still where you are and I…"

"You are what?" she prompted.

"I am leaving."

She laughed bitterly, "yeah. Well, that is what you do best after all."

"Hermione…please don't make it worse."

"Oh, excuse me, Ron, for making the mistake of thinking that I deserved a little consideration here. You know, I was doing just fine, I was picking up my life, finally getting ready to move on…and then you had to go and make me realize that…"

"That?"

She sighed heavily. "That I'm still in love with you. Forever and always, right?"

I couldn't bring myself to meet her eye. "I…have to pack."

She shook her head and stood, "Well, I just had to find out for myself if you really did change that headline."

"And now that you know?"

"Then I know," she shrugged. "Like you said, it doesn't make a difference."

"I never said that."

"Not in so many words, no; but you might as well have. You should pack, I'm sure you have something exciting to run off and do. I suppose I'll eventually see you around, or something like that."

I see her begin to leave and cannot bring myself to let her go. "Hermione…I'm sorry."

She turned around to allow me to see the tears welling up in her large brown eyes. "No, you aren't. If you were truly sorry, Ron, you would ask me to stay. You would tell me that you loved me enough to give up everything else to be with me. You would tell me that I was more important to you than any spy mission or whatever it is that you do."

"You are more important to me than any spy mission," I say, "but your well-being is more important than whatever selfish needs I have to keep you with me. I won't risk you, Hermione, so please don't ask me to."

She turned back around and waited for a moment before speaking without looking at me. "If you loved me you wouldn't risk yourself." And before I could even comprehend her, she had disapparated out of my life once again.

A few hours later, I was somewhere else. The location I could not name, all that I did know was that it was…dull. Colorless surroundings did little to improve my mood, neither did the fact that we were once again back to the stage in which no one would tell me anything. Apparently, when you alter the course of fate that gives grounds to ostracize you from the loop of knowledge.

I sat leaned back on a gray couch with my feet propped up on a black table that resided on black carpet with white walls. "Who decorated this place?" I voice to the general public, which, of course, was no one besides my self. "Whoever they are," I answer, "they must have been a manic depressant."

"I'll choose not to take offence to that," Melissa said as she entered the depressing room.

"You decorated this?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Hmm," I contemplate. "I never took you for a downer sort of a person. Would some color have killed you, Melissa? Maybe a splash of yellow or blue here and there? Think about it."

She looked around ponderingly, "Well, I figured it was a hideout. Hideouts are not generally filled with what you would call 'happy' colors. Serious colors for serious business."

"I suppose. So, if you and Mark are here, where is Perseus?"

"In a safe place."

"I thought this was a safe place."

"In a safer place then."

"Well," I respond, "I feel fleeced that I am not in the safest place possible."

She gave a small smile. "Between you, Mark, and myself, no place is going to be all that safe."

"You know what, that is strangely depressing."

"Yeah," she nodded, "preaching to the choir here."

A/N-I haven't done shout outs in a long time…and since I love talking to all of you so much I'm going to stop being lazy and do it now, lol.

RonandHerm4eva (Hey! Dude, I have not talked to you in forever! Oh, wait…I'm talking to you on AIM right now. Well screw you then, you don't a shout out. sticks out tongue), CaretoDream (Right on! Sappiness is a good thing. Lol, too bad it turned out somewhat badly for Ron. But I'm sure I'll cave and have super-sappy moments later on in the story.), marzoog (Aww, lol, glad that you liked the newspaper thing! Lol, my sentimental moment.), KeeperOfTheMoon (Lol, oh, she saw it all right. Along with every one else.), zoreo09 (Wow, five stars…I feel special! Sorry that you won't be here in June, are you on vacation or something? If so, then lucky you! See ya in July!), Tiffany-45 (Glad that you liked this chapter, I tried to explain things for everyone, so I'm happy that it worked. And I am sure that you, like me, are ecstatic to be done with school. Finals are a killer.), Alexia Gemini Potter (Okay, well I updated…but not exactly quickly. Lol, oh well one out of two isn't bad. Glad that you are loving the story!), T (Hey, more people are always welcome to jump onboard this story, lol. Glad that you are enjoying it!), Stompy-Sanjii (Hey, haven't talked to you in a couple of days! How have you been? Hopefully I'll see you around MSN sometime!), orli-enthusiast (Oh, yes, I can raise one eyebrow. Something that I shamelessly admit to practicing in front of the mirror until I got it straight. It is a nice skill to acquire, lol. Glad that you love Ron's sarcasm! I'm really sarcastic like that, and I always saw Ron as that way too.), Diocletian (Aww, thank you so much! I'm flattered that you've been following the story and think of me as a good author. Hope that you're still enjoying it, and thanks for the review!), Shakespeare's Muse (I haven't talked to you in forever! Hopefully your exams are done now, I saw that you had some new chapters up that I've been meaning to read…ugh, I've been crazy busy lately though. I'll get around to it soon though!), Cheshire Bat (You totally hit the nail on the head with the 'Butterfly Effect' thing…I'm going to have some fun with this one wink Ron's changed more than he thinks, and since I'm into complicating things he'll be changing more. Oh, and I adore Puss in Boots, it made me laugh that you did the eyes!), Mia Sedai (Ugh, I hate when people have bad spelling and grammar, I make an effort to have decent amounts of both, so glad that you noticed! Thanks for your review!), JiggyHH (I promise I'll get to your new chapter, I've been swamped lately…but I'm looking forward to reading it! Glad that you're enjoying this, and we'll see if I can get it done by the end of July, lol.), Me (Well, you saw Hermione's reaction, lol. What'd you think? Glad that you are liking the story!), Sei Kou Ki (No problem about not reviewing, don't sweat it! Glad that you are loving the story!!), xMutedFaithx (Lol, well, that's always worked for me. Walk around and you'll eventually find what you are looking for. Good to talk to you again, Crystal! Lol, of course I remember you! E-mail me sometime!), Aimz (I'm so glad that you are liking the story! Lol, but you'll just have to wait to see what happens to Ron and Hermione.)