Hey all. Do comment what you think about this. Since my beta was strictly against any physical assault on Ginny, I had to make things a little dark for the Weasley Matriarch. It would get even more dark in the next few chapters. Since I am writing on the go as of now, if you notice any mistake, please point it out.
Thank you.
HARRY POTTER
After the dinner, all six of the time travelers added their memories as discussed prior. Since the youngsters had already left the room, he didn't have to censor the blood and gore in the memories which were going to come up. Taking a look at his wife, who nodded him to continue, he started speaking.
"Before I start, let me be clear. Things that you will see and hear from now are not going to be pretty. They will the worse you will expect. None of us are innocents anymore, and you will see why. Just keep your judgments to yourself. We know whether what we did was right or wrong, you won't need to tell us."
Even though everyone in the room nodded, most of them were hesitant or unsure.
"For a long time after the Battle of Hogwarts, we thoughts things were going well. Voldermort was dead; the Deatheaters had been captured, the pureblood laws were revoked, the muggle-borns and half-bloods were progressing in the Wizarding world. But we were wrong, it was all a temporary front. Things had already started to go back as they were; it's just we didn't notice them. With the 'Lords and Heirs' law Wizengamot under Voldermort had passed a law, none of the people that fought against the Voldermort regime could take our seats in the Wizengamot. Our every effort to repeal that law failed. The ones we did manage to get repealed were minor laws. Even the muggle-born commission was not disbanded, just postponed, not that we knew it at that time. Adding to that, the resentment held against the purebloods, anger in people about the acts committed in the war, and a weak ministry, the British wizarding society was sitting on a top of an explosive cauldron, and all it needed was a single disturbance to blow it up.
That came four years after the war. A young pureblood Lord assaulted a recently graduated muggle-born, leading to her hospitalization. He was caught and punished, but due to the laws of Wizengamot, he got off with a few galleons fine. Her elder brother, another muggle-born, who had already lost his one sister due to Rabastan Lestrange, did not accept his last sister's condition so easily. Two days after she died in St. Mungo's, the pureblood Lord's entire manor was destroyed. The Lord himself was killed brutally, his young wife raped and dismembered, and his old parents hung on stakes. The muggleborn was caught and executed, and that proved the final straw. The Wizengamot met again after the day of his execution, and multiple new laws were passed.
By this time, I had dropped out of Hitwizard training after seeing the politics and conditions, while Hermione became an apprentice under a french spell specialist. Ron had been promoted to a junior Auror, and was partnered with his future wife, Susan Bones."
Ron interrupted him in between, eyes focused on his family and a small smile on his face.
"It was a fun time, dad. She had no idea that I didn't know about the contract and gave me quite a hard time. Add that with my general behavior, my manners, and my on and off relationship with Hermione, we both had a lot of stressed nights. I was nearly thrown out of DMLE when I almost killed her by mistake. Luckily, I had a friend named Harry Potter, who still held a lot of clouts. I was given another chance and forced to talk to my partner."
Sue spoke up in a teasing voice.
"I still remember that day. You fainted after I told you about the contract, and then disappeared after waking up. I had to spend an entire night looking for you before dragging you out from the Burrow's cellar."
"Contract?", 's asked in a strangled voice.
"Yes, mum. There is a marriage contract between the youngest Son of Lord of House Weasley and the youngest daughter of House Bones, provided that they are both less than a year apart in age. It was written for Uncle Billius Weasley and Susan's aunt. When Uncle Billus died, Dad became the Head of the Weasley family, and since he was already married by then, the contract passed down to me. When Susan was born, it activated, as I was born less than a month earlier. You would have known about it had Dad taken the time to check up on our house documents in the Gringotts. Ronnie has to know about this; the sooner, the better."
"Something I am going to do very soon." Mr. Weasley muttered from the side.
"Oh," was all Mrs. Weasley said, while the rest of her family in the room looked stunned, even Bill and Charlie. He took over when no else looked like they would speak.
"A few days after leaving the academy, I was planning to leave the country, but life had other plans for me. After hearing about Ron's contract, I decided to check up on my house's affairs. It turned out that there was indeed an active contract for me, one which had activated when Sirius had made me his heir. Since it was quite old, it took Gringotts some time to find about it. When they finally confirmed the name of the family I was supposed to marry in, let's say my reaction was not exactly mature."
Ron snorted, trying to cover a laugh.
"It was worse than just simple, not mature. After arriving at the Burrow, he blew up, destroyed some ancient trees, and ranted about it for more than an hour. Even managed to shut up Hermione, which was an achievement, I say."
Shaking his Head at Ron, who was trying to ignore poking from Jean, he continued on.
"The Goblins informed me that I was supposed to marry the eldest daughter of House Greengrass before my 24th birthday. The same house which had announced a betrothal between it's youngest daughter and Draco Malfoy."
More than a few ah sounded in the room as people understood why he had reacted so badly.
"I decided to approach Lord Greengrass the same evening, which in hindsight, was not the right decision. Daphne arrived in the mid-meeting, and things started going down from there. We had our first argument that day, which nearly ended up in a physical altercation. The next few meetings went in the same way, more or less. Credit to Lord Greengrass, he managed to make both of us settle on some standard terms. Even though we were not comfortable with each other, I agreed to a courting period of eight months before marrying his daughter next fall. The Greengrass family didn't seem to like the Malfoy family much, which might have proved a good point in their favor. Anyway, the next eight months changed a lot of things. Daphne and I began to come to some understandings and care about each other. It was not a fast process; instead, many times, we had to force to continue, knowing we had no other options. We discussed things which made us what we are, debated on the difference between pureblood and muggle-borns, need and want of Wizarding traditions, and much more. I also got to know her family. Her father taught me how to drink properly, her mother the cooking charms and techniques, and finally, from her sister, how to calm my future wife down. My friends too accompanied me to their house and formed relations none of us had suspected. Jean became quite close to Tracey, Daphne's best friend, while Ron started spending a lot of time with Astoria Greengrass."
"She reminded me of twins, and by Harry's marriage, had become my honorary sister," Ron added in a soft tone. The Weasley family had the same sad expression that their time traveler member had.
"When the day of marriage arrived, Jean, having already been in a relationship with Tracey for the past four months, was standing next to her girlfriend, Astoria, and Sue as the bridesmaid. Ron, Neville, and Bill were my groomsmen. We had become quite close to Bill and Fleur after the war. It had started with them regularly visiting Teddy, and a friendship had blossomed from there."
Ron interrupted once again, his eyes fixed on the empty pensieve.
"Tonks had become a close friend to both of them during the war. Even though Harry was Teddy's godfather, she had made both of them promise to take care of Teddy if things went south. Bill later told me that Teddy had been the reason their marriage had survived after Fred's death. They both loved that young boy like family, maybe even more. I am sure that if not for Harry, they would have adopted him."
Tracey chose that moment to join in.
"Same for me. Teddy became a source for me to escape everything I had suffered in my sixth and seventh years. I still remember the day I first met him. He had come over with Harry and was in Daphne's arms. His blonde hair had turned black at seeing me, and he had badgered me for the entire time about the Dragon printed on my jacket."
She then turned to face Nymphadora, whose eyes looked suspiciously wet.
"Your child saved all of us, Tonks. I cannot thank your future self for him personally, but I hope she gets it wherever she is."
After letting the silence go on for a few minutes, he spoke up again.
"Our wedding seemed to be a jump-off for others.
Less than a month later, Ron and Sue tied off in a drunk wedding, followed soon by Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott. We were still reeling from Ron's wedding when Hermione and Tracey got married under muggle law. It was kept a secret as same-sex marriages were still a punishable offense under the ministry. And finally, Astoria married Draco Malfoy a year after my wedding. While their union, no matter how undesired, was being celebrated, we had no idea it would be our last time of enjoyment."
Adding a few memories to the Pensieve, he started the first one.
"A few months after Astoria's wedding, Ron and Sue were called to investigate a dead body near Hogsmeade. It was so severely damaged that we had to take the help of the Unspeakables for an identity. The result shook us all. It was Dennis Creevey, younger brother of Collin Creevey, and a member of Dumbledore's army. The Auror department investigated for quite a long time but couldn't even find a suspect. Then one day, Percy brought some alarming information to me. It seemed that since the Battle of Hogwarts, the members of DA had whittled down a lot. Out of 37 that had survived the battle, only 12 were alive now. Rest had either disappeared, murdered by an unknown person, or suffered fatal accidents. The ministry had been suppressing that information, with the Wizengamot stopping DMLE from investigating nearly half a dozen cases. During a family meeting of Greengrass, Potter, Weasley, Bones, and Davis family, we found that all of us had disturbance alerts on our home wards at one time or another. We decided to pay more attention to what was going on while the ministry workers of us were asked to look for what was happening inside their workplace. They managed to uncover quite a few things. New laws were in limbo that targeted the lighthouses, muggle-borns, and half-bloods; recruitment plans were going to change soon, and there were some specific plans for Hogwarts. But before we could do anything, the first tragedy struck us."
Words failed him as he tried to speak about the death of a girl he had started thinking about as his little sister. His wife took up the lead, her voice as hard as diamond.
"One morning, we received news that Astoria had died due to a blood curse."
"That's impossible. Astoria doesn't have the curse, we have checked multiple times." Daphne's mother cried out.
Daphne closed her eyes, and he could sense her trying not to cry. When she opened them again, her pureblood mask went on.
"Yes, mother. We later found that she had been killed after discovering a plot against Harry."
A movement from the side caught his eyes. Turning, he saw his father in law nearly trembling in his seat.
"Who?"
"Her husband was the one who caught her, and her father in law was the one to perform the deed."
After a moment of silence, both Greengrass's parents stood up from their seats, their future intentions clear. He immediately snapped the wards on them, immobilizing both of them. It was difficult work, as both of their magic was fighting furiously against the wards. Signaling Daphne to do something, he focused entirely on immobilizing them. A few minutes later, they both eased off after Daphne continued speaking to them. Once they had calmed down, he looked up to them.
"They paid for everything they did in the future, and they will pay in this timeline too."
His father in law didn't say anything, but his mother in law's nature shone through her words.
" I want to know what you are going to do with them."
He nodded, having no problem doing so. Daphne continued soon after.
"By this time, seven years had passed since the battle of Hogwarts, and things continued going bad. Ten months after Astoria's funeral, the Malfoys made their last mistake."
Even Daphne hesitated after this. The things that the Malfoys had done had been devastating for them, shaking every one of the extended family to their core. Taking a deep breath, he finally forged ahead.
" Mrs. Weasley and Ginny went to the Diagon alley for some work one day and never returned. After two days of intense search, all we found were their destroyed wands. Nothing else was found, at least not for next month. Then, Percy once again found something. One of the Auror had found a strand of golden hair where the wands were found, and that was all we needed."
This time Sue took over the lead, probably knowing that neither he nor others would be able to tell what had followed after.
SUSAN BONES
"We had a suspect, and the full weight of the extended family descended on them. The spouses of the Weasley family joined them as they left for the Malfoy manor. Bill, Jean, and Audrey Weasley, Percy's wife, brought down the manor wards while trapping the family inside. Ron and I had already disabled all the alarms the family had connected to the DMLE. The group that breached the manor's fortified gates consisted of Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, Audrey, George, Angelina, Ron, Harry, Daphne, Jean, Tracey, and me."
She took a deep breath before continuing on.
"Narcissa folded first under torture, telling us what had happened. Lucius and Draco had kidnapped Mrs. Weasley and Ginny from the Diagon alley and brought them to the manor."
She paused at that point, looking for the Weasley family reactions. Along with the anger, there were multiple other expressions on their faces. Bill asked in a soft voice.
" Was Ginny...?"
She shook her head.
"No, but they did something worse. They had attacked her first, physically and magically, as retribution for Bellatrix's death by Mrs. Weasley's hand. Narcissa had killed Mrs. Weasley after Lucius had killed Ginny."
She could see that Harry had once again used the immobilization wards, this time on the Weasley family.
"The memory will show what happened that night. Just..."
She motioned the memory to start and watched as one of her nightmares came alive.
REVIEW REPLIES
ALE74 Thank you. Hope you like this update.
PASCAL DRAGON Dumbeldore's answer is still in writing, so let's see. The thing about Bellatrix's vault will come up soon. Yup post canon events are here. Do comment what you think about them.
FRITTER I had to cover the memories before moving to post canon events.