Disclaimer: If you asked JK Rowling if she owned all the characters, places, and concepts in the Harry Potter books, would her answer be the same as the one to this question? (Think about it...)

Chapter 8
-OR-
"Mr. Harry Potter"

On his way back to his room, Ron looked at the pictures on the walls. Although most of the people in the photographs were asleep, they showed a happy history of the past ten years--weddings, vacations, parties, graduations. Ron noticed one picture in particular that made him laugh; it seemed that as Minister of Magic, Umbridge had been forced to give Harry his commendation for defeating Voldemort. He could only imagine what that scene must have been like.

When he got back to his room, Ron picked up the photo of Harry, Hermione, and himself from the end of their second year. He knew the people in that picture, he could identify with them. He thought about what Hermione had asked him: Did everything turn out how you thought it would?

He was not sure that he had ever imagined his father could be Minister of Magic, and Ginny had certainly surprised him, both by playing Quidditch and by marrying Neville. The rest of his family seemed to be pretty much like he thought it would--except for Percy.

Harry and Hermione, though, were not at all what he expected. Harry was a tired old man at the age of 26, who had spent his entire life trying to reclaim lost loved ones and who had (unwittingly) exasperated the one loved person he had left. Hermione, who on the surface appeared exactly as Ron had imagined, was running herself down as she tried to support the man she loved. In short, thought Ron, my two best friends end up miserable.

He huffed and plopped down on the bed. Maybe it won't be all bad, reasoned Ron, I'm here now. Harry will have a friend back, and Hermione already said that she's glad I'm back. There was nothing he could do about how the last ten years had turned out, but he could do his best to make the next ten good ones.
Sunlight poured in the window and woke Ron. Looking around for a clock, he saw that it was almost noon. Groggily, he sat up and listened for signs of Harry or Hermione below, but the house was silent. He got up and headed down the stairs towards the kitchen. What he saw there shocked him.

The kitchen table had been overturned, and pots and pans were tossed carelessly around the room. There were several scorch marks on the walls, and the remains of breakfast were splattered on walls, floor, and ceiling.

"Wh-wh-what happened?" asked Ron. Hearing no answer, he ran into the room and looked around for some sign of the disaster. Suddenly, he heard a squeaking voice.

"Harry...Potter.."

Ron turned and saw that Dobby was pinned under the massive table. Ron managed to shove it off the house-elf, but Dobby laid still. Finally, his eyes screwed up and he sighed heavily. He turned his large eyes towards Ron and said, "Harry...Potter. Danger, sir. Danger..."

"Dobby, what happened? Are you all right?"

"Danger...The Wheezy...danger," said Dobby again. As if to accentuate his warning, Ron heard a scream from the basement.

"Hang on, Dobby, I'll be back!" Ron rushed off to the basement and saw a flash of light below. He began to go down the stairs, but stopped when he heard voices below.

"Open the Gate, Potter. NOW. I'd hate to have to hurt Granger." The voice was unfamiliar. Ron decided to sneak, rather than charge, down the stairs.

From halfway down the staircase, Ron could see into the Gate room clearly. A dark-robed, hooded figure stood in the middle of the room, near the Gate. He was holding Hermione with one hand and pointing a wand at her with the other. Harry was standing on the platform near the Gate's controls, staring malevolently at the hooded figure. No one noticed Ron on the stairs.

"Don't, Har--" started Hermione, but the man muttered something and sparks shot out of his wand. Hermione let out a yelp of pain, then sagged a bit.

"Poor Mudblood," said the man, "look at what you're doing to her. If you'd just open that Gate..." Ron could see Harry swallowing hard. Suddenly, Ron's forehead burned. His vision went black, and he felt himself crumpling on the staircase.

Suddenly, he saw a quick series of pictures in his mind: two wands in the pocket of a black robe, a door that opened to reveal robes on hangers, and the robed man falling over. The images repeated a few times, then faded. Ron's normal vision slowly returned. He sat up and noticed, to his surprise and relief, that he was still unnoticed. Harry was trying to negotiate with the robed man, who kept barking commands at Harry. Ron looked more closely at the robed man and saw the ends of two wands sticking out of his pocket. Ron, suddenly understanding, ran back up the stairs.

He flew into Harry's and Hermione's bedroom, looking for the door he had seen in the vision. He opened the first door he found. He could tell from the sizes and colors he was in the wrong one. He looked in the next closet. There we go...Harry's... Rummaging madly through the hangers, Ron thought he might have made a mistake. Suddenly, he saw a very familiar, shimmering, silvery gray cloak. Smiling, Ron put it on.
Harry glared at the man under the cloak. "Kill me," he said. "I'm not opening this Gate for you."

"No, Potter, I won't make it that easy for you. I'd kill Granger first, and I'd torture her before I'd kill her. I think both of those are more...persuasive. I'll give you to the count of three."

Harry looked to Hermione. Her eyes told him what he knew she would say: Don't help him.

"One."

He knew that he couldn't allow himself to be manipulated like this-- the consequences of giving in were too great. But he couldn't bear to see her hurt again...

"Two."

If he gave in, though, everyone he knew would die...would cease to exist. He couldn't let that happen.

"Thr--" the man managed to get out. Mid-word, he fell over like something hit him. Ron tumbled out of the Invisibility Cloak and wrestled the man's wand away from him. As they scuffled on the floor, Ron managed to knock free Harry's and Hermione's wands. Ron rolled off his opponent and stood. As his adversary rose, the two fighters looked at each other stopped.

"Weasley?"

"Snape?" It was hard to tell which of the two was more surprised. Ron stared at his former teacher with an open mouth and a blank look. Snape gaped at his former student with a look of shock and disgust. Snape suddenly regained control of his body and punched Ron. Ron landed hard on the ground, dazed. Snape lurched for his wand, and Ron tried to kick it away. The older man's longer reach prevailed, and he whipped around and aimed his wand at Harry.

Hermione, however, had retrieved both her own wand as well as Harry's and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

Snape flung himself on the ground and dodged the spell. He growled something Ron was not able to hear, and Hermione flew through the air and hit the wall. She collapsed and laid still. Ron leapt onto Snape's back, and tried to take his wand from him. Snape flipped Ron over his shoulder, and Ron landed with a thud in front of Snape.

Glaring down at him, Snape pointed his wand towards Ron. "Die," he said simply. Ron heard the words "Adava Kedavra" and saw a flash of green light...

Snape crumpled onto him. Shoving his body aside, Ron stood and saw Harry, wand still quivering, staring at Snape's fallen form. His friend stood there, statuesque, for a long moment. Then he rushed to Hermione's side.

"Harry...you just...what happened? Is she...?" Ron moved towards Harry, who was now cradling Hermione's limp body. He looked up at Ron through cracked glasses.

"No. She's not dead. Not that it matters."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?" Ron was furious. "Do you realize how much she cares for you? Do you know what you've put her through?"

Harry stood and looked Ron in the eyes. "Yes, Ron, I do. Which is why it doesn't matter. You have to go back."

"Huh?" Ron looked from Harry to Hermione. Then Harry started to move to the Gate.

"You have to go back. To when you were," said Harry simply. He stopped by Snape's body and kicked it.

"Harry, I thought you said you couldn't do that! And what's Snape doing here? I thought he died! And Hermione--we should get help..."

"Ron, no. Listen to me." Harry walked back to Ron and grabbed his friend by the shoulders. "I'm going to use that Gate to send you back to the day you came here. Then none of this," he said, pointing at the aftermath around him, "will ever have happened. There will never have been an attack, so Hermione won't be hurt."

"I thought you said that was not a good thing--going back, I mean. It would cause everyone alive to be...uh, gone."

"That's exactly what will happen," said Harry. "But what sort of a loss is it? Ron...my whole life has been miserable since you died. Death and loss. That's all I've accomplished in the past ten years..."

"You married Hermione!"

"And caused her to suffer even more than I do. Yes, Ron, I know how much she does for me. I love her Ron. She deserves better. She wouldn't have married me if...well, maybe if you go back...maybe then she can be happy. I know I will be happier when you get back, if that makes any sense."

"But...what..." Ron blustered. The events of the morning were still too confusing.

"Look...I'll explain as I prepare the Gate, okay?" Harry bustled off and lifted one of the books off his desk. He paged through it, looking for some spell or another. "Snape is here because he wanted to do what Malfoy wanted to do five years ago. He wanted to go back and aid Voldemort." Ron nodded. He had guessed as much.

"But I thought Snape was dead."

"So did I. So did everyone. This morning was the first time he's been seen for nine years." He started to wave his wand and Ron saw a dim glow in the archway. "I guess it was one of Dumbledore's few mistakes. He thought Snape was to be trusted. He was wrong."

"Why did he trust Snape?"

"Snape was a Death Eater the first time around, right? He was a loyal supporter of Voldemort. But he had a secret that could have been deadly."

"Which was?"

Harry absentmindedly rummaged through one of the scrolls. "He was in love with a Muggle-born witch. Such fondness for a "Mudblood" could have gotten him killed. In the end, though, that love was more important to him than his allegiance to Voldemort."

"He ran off with the witch?"

"No, she was married already. But he turned traitor to Voldemort for her sake."

"What did he do?"

"He told Dumbledore that Voldemort knew about the prophecy and was coming to kill me." He waited as Ron tried to understand what he was saying. "He loved my mother. Don't worry--it was a one-way thing. But even though he hated my dad and he overall supported Voldemort, he couldn't allow my mother to come to harm. So that's why Dumbledore trusted him. He thought Voldemort's killing my mum would be enough to keep him on our side. He also thought that my being her son would keep Snape from killing me."

Ron looked at his fallen Potions master. He found it hard to believe that Snape could have loved anyone. There was a bright pulse from the archway; the glow had intensified.

"The day I thought Snape died, he was in fact going back to Voldemort's service. Voldemort, through his mental connection to Snape, had intensified his hatred of my father--and me--to the point where he was willing to go back to the service of the Dark Lord. Voldemort kept him in hiding, so that he could exploit his killed-in-action status, like Wormtail did. I defeated him before his plans could come to fruition, and Snape had to wait. Five years ago, he met up with Malfoy and they planned the last attack. This time, Snape wasn't going to take chances by sending Malfoy."

"How did he find out about this?" asked Ron, pointing at the Gate. There was now a slight breeze in the room, as if the Gate was sucking in air.

"Neville. He was late yesterday--that was because Snape had used the Floo network to get into Neville's office and put him under the Imperius Curse. He learned that I had a Gate, but it was just my lousy luck that he was here at a time when we had made the preparations to actually open it."

Ron walked up to the control panel. "Harry, does this actually do anything?" He pointed at the button. Harry nodded.

"It does. It's the most important part, the part that actually opens the Gate."

"How come I can't push it?"

"It's not a button," said Harry. He moved back to Hermione and picked her up. He moved her closer to the Gate. "It's a keyhole."

"Huh?"

"It's a keyhole. You need a key to open the Gate."

"Do you have it?" Ron looked through the archway, which was now shining, rather than glowing.

"I do. Well, she does," said Harry. He looked up to Ron. "See, after the last attack, I realized it would not be safe if one person alone could open the Gate. An Imperius Curse could undo us all. So..." He took Hermione's hand and removed her wedding ring. "I gave Hermione the key."

He stepped up on the platform and put the ring around the "button." It slid into the panel noiselessly. The ring glowed for a moment, then disappeared as the control panel turned completely solid. Then, with a clinking sound, the ring dropped out of the underside of the control panel onto the floor. Harry picked it up and handed it to Ron.

"Here. Take it," he said. As he dropped the ring in Ron's hand, Ron noticed that it was no longer gold, but that it matched the stone of the control panel. After a moment, a slight band of gold appeared around the edges of the ring.

"Harry...I...I don't know what to..."

"It's set. Just step through it. Either you'll be right back where you started...or..."

"Or what?"

"Or...well, it won't matter. As soon as you step through that Gate, I'll disappear anyway."

"Harry..." Words failed Ron as he looked at his friend. Harry was less old now than Ron had yet seen him. Ron reached out and hugged Harry. "Thanks, mate," he said.

"Hey," said Harry. "Did you ever have any doubts?"

"No," said Ron, "you're the same old Harry."

"See you in a minute, buddy," said Harry. He turned and knelt by Hermione's side. Ron gave the room one last look.

"In a minute, then."

He stepped through the Gate.