My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.
Chapter 36: The Explanations
Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Britain, Wizarding World, December 22nd, 2005
"Lavender," Hermione said in a rather flat voice.
Ron resisted the urge to take a step closer to her. That wouldn't go over well.
"Yes. It's been seven years since…" Ron's counterpart repeated himself, then pressed his lips together, as if he didn't want to admit that Hermione hadn't died.
"And how long have you been married?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Three years," the other Ron all but spat. "We've got a son and are expecting another child," he added, in an almost defiant tone.
"Ah. Congratulations." Her tone was a little warmer than the air around them.
"Oh! You've got a son? What's his name?" Luna asked.
"Roger."
"That's a nice name," Luna said, nodding. "You never dated my counterpart, did you?"
"What? No." The other Ron shook his head. "You mean… you two dated?" He looked at her, then at Ron.
"Yes. But we broke up years ago. Ultimately, we were too different, what with him being a police officer and me a rebel against the system," Luna told him. "We remained friends, though. And I'm also friends with Hermione!" she added with a bright smile.
"Ah. I see." The other Ron didn't look like he did, in Ron's opinion. But the tension had gone down again.
A popping sound made everyone turn - the other Harry had arrived. With the other Ginny.
Swell. Unless this Ginny was vastly different from his sister, things were likely to get complicated.
"Wow. You were right - they do look like us. But he doesn't have your scar," the other Ginny said.
"My scar's on my chest," Harry told her, a little tersely.
"And no, he's not showing it to you," Ginny added with a glare.
"It doesn't look like much, anyway," Luna said. "Just a bit of puckered skin. If you were curious."
"I didn't want to see it," the other Ginny told her.
"Oh? Why did you mention it, then?" Luna asked. "It's OK to be curious, as long as you're not rude."
"I wasn't curious," Ginny's counterpart said. "Not about his scar, at least," she added.
"Ah." Luna nodded. "I would have been surprised if you weren't curious about us - that would've been very unlike our Ginny."
The other Ginny's expression almost made Ron chuckle - it looked exactly like his sister's when she lost an argument.
"Indeed. It is only natural to be curious about our counterparts," Dumbledore cut in. "However, I think we should first establish our credentials, so to speak - specifically, Dr Granger's identity."
"Dr Granger?" Mrs Granger asked, taking a half-step forward.
"I told you that I had to study quantum physics, didn't I?" Hermione replied. "Without a PhD, I would never have received any funding for my research. It was hard enough as it was," she added with a frown.
"Oh."
"Indeed. It's a most impressive career," Dumbledore said. "However, I believe you mentioned a 'pensieve'? And a magical tent?"
"Yes," Harry's counterpart said. "Let's get this done." He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out what looked like a yard-wide roll of cloth. Then he glanced at the spot the other Ron had cleared of snow.
"We didn't have our tent there," Hermione told him. "It was back there, at the tree line." She pointed at the other side of the clearing.
The other Harry glanced at Ron's counterpart, who nodded - though he looked like he was reluctant to do so.
"We're not at war any more," the other Harry said, throwing the roll at the cleared spot.
The roll hit the ground, then unfolded - somehow - into an old-fashioned tent that looked large enough for three or four people. But, as Ron expected, once the entrance flap was pulled back - following a flick of the other Harry's wand - one could see an entrance hall inside fit for a manor.
"That's not our tent," Hermione said.
"It's one of Sirius's," Harry's counterpart told her.
"Ah." That seemed to satisfy Hermione.
They stepped inside. Ron didn't gawk - he checked the room for possible threats.
Luna, of course, had less restraint. "Oh! How nice! It's like in 'Gone with the Wind', isn't it, Ginny?"
"A bit smaller, I think," Ginny replied.
"Yes."
"'Gone with the wind'?" the other Ginny asked.
"A muggle movie," Hermione told her. "Famous, though it is quite racist."
"Ah."
"Let's set up in the living room," the other Harry said. "There's enough room for everyone."
The living room also looked like it had come from the set of a period drama. And while Ron wasn't an expert on magic, the room didn't look like it had been used recently - or regularly.
That meant it was probably expendable.
But Harry the wizard was already pulling out a small stone basin. He put it on the ground, tapped it with his wand and then it wasn't so small any more - it grew into a good-sized fountain. One covered with inlaid runes.
The Pensieve.
"Which memories do you want to see?" Hermione asked.
"The moment we arrived in the clearing for the first time," Ron's counterpart said.
Hermione hesitated a moment, Ron noticed, then nodded very curtly and pointed her wand at her temple. After a quick circling motion with its tip, a shimmering band grew out of her head, wrapping around the tip of the wand.
Ron shuddered against his will, though Hermione deftly sent the whole string flying into the Pensieve.
"There." She raised her chin.
The two wizards looked at her, frowning.
Ron watched as light mist appeared inside the Pensieve, rising slightly until it formed a thin cloud above it. "That's your memory?"
"Yes," she replied, still staring at the other Harry and Ron.
The two wizards exchanged a glance. "You're better at remembering details," Ron's counterpart said.
The other Harry nodded, but he seemed a little… wary? Doubtful?
"Oh, for…" Hermione shook her head. She was clenching her teeth, Ron noticed. "Go in, watch it, then use Ron's memory to check for differences! Honestly!"
That caused the other Ginny to snort, and both wizards to frown. The other Harry narrowed his eyes, but then stuck his head into the mist.
"Aren't memories subjective?" Ron asked in a low voice.
"Yes, but a Pensieve accesses subconscious memories that are generally more detailed than what you can consciously remember off-hand," she explained. "That's one theory, at least."
"And what's the other?"
"There was a theory that a Pensieve actually uses Divination to directly check the past. But observations of the reconstruction of a memory in a Pensieve have failed to detect any Divination charms, and it was disproved when people showed altered memories in a Pensieve. And yet, it remains a popular theory - some people prefer to believe that there are 'superior Pensieves' which offer glimpses into the actual past." She shook her head. "I think it was merely a lie put about by a wizard trying to keep the exact method of crafting a Pensieve secret."
That made sense - people protected trade secrets, after all. "Or it was a marketing ploy," he said.
She chuckled in response. "Perhaps. In any case, a Pensieve has been proven to offer a very clear picture of your memories. Clearer than you could create artificially, especially if you have another memory to check for differences."
Which meant it should be proof enough to convince her wizard friends that she was the real Hermione. Should be - her friends were proving to be rather stubborn about the whole thing. More than Ron and Harry had been, certainly.
In fact, Ron's counterpart was staring at them with a peculiar expression, Ron noticed.
"Are you together?" the wizard asked suddenly. "You and… him?"
Hermione glared, Ron saw. "Yes, we are," she all but growled. "What of it?"
The other Ron looked taken aback, but quickly narrowed his eyes. "Why did you react that way to me marrying Lavender, then?"
"'React that way'?" Hermione retorted. "I was merely surprised that you chose her, Won-Won."
The wizard actually flinched. "She's not like that!"
"Not any more," Ginny's counterpart added with a sly expression.
"'Won-Won'?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione.
"Her nickname for Ron in our fifth year. When they were together," she explained.
"Ah." What kind of girl would turn a good name like 'Ron' into 'Won-Won'? And why did Hermione care, anyway? Well, he had a theory about that, but he didn't want to pursue the thought.
"We're not teenagers any more, Hermione," Ron's counterpart replied.
"I think it's a cute nickname," Luna said.
Ginny, though, snorted and shook her head. At least Harry didn't react - not visibly. And Dumbledore's smile hadn't changed.
"Yes, we're not teenagers any more," Hermione said. "You're not playing Quidditch, either."
The other Ron looked puzzled. "What do you mean? Of course I'm still playing Quidditch."
"I didn't mean as a hobby," she clarified.
"Oh. Did you think I would play professionally? After the war?" The wizard snorted. "There was far too much to do afterwards to abandon everything for Quidditch."
"Hey!" Ginny's counterpart rounded on him. "Do you think that there's something wrong with playing Quidditch professionally?"
Ron shook his head. His counterpart had just put his foot in it.
"You're a professional sportswoman? Or would that be sportswitch?" Luna asked, perking up. "Our Ginny's a tennis star!"
"Tennis?" The other Ginny asked.
"A muggle sport," Hermione told her. "A very popular one - Ginny's world-famous. More than Harry here."
"And I have more money," Ginny added.
Sirius scoffed at that, though not quite seriously, Ron knew. "Only as long as I'm alive."
Both the other Ginny and Ron flinched at that.
The Grangers, though, looked surprised. "You're a professional tennis player?"
"Top ten," Ginny said, smiling - she had never been very modest about her success.
"One day she'll win a major," Ron added, which caused her to scowl at him. But she couldn't say anything - he was praising her, after all. Technically.
"One of the four most important tennis tournaments," Hermione told the wizards present.
"Most money is in advertising, anyway," Ginny said.
Ron was about to tweak her nose a little more - it was better than watching Hermione be jealous of the other Ron's wife - but before he could say something, Harry's counterpart pulled his head out of the mist.
"Mate?"
"I'll need your memory, Ron," the other Harry said, staring at Hermione.
"Right away, mate."
Hermione huffed as the other Harry stuck his head back into the mist after exchanging the memories in the Pensieve. No one else seemed to react. Ron's counterpart exchanged a glance with the other Ginny, but, unless they could communicate telepathically, they didn't actually exchange any words. Of course, as siblings, they could add a lot of meaning to a glance.
"So…" Ron looked at Hermione. "Does the Pensieve work for anyone?" If it did, it could revolutionise criminal investigations. Testimony you could actually watch...
"You mean does it work for muggles?" Hermione replied, tilting her head. "It should - unless someone added charms to prevent muggles from using it. That's just watching, though. To get their memory into the Pensieve, a muggle would have to depend on a wizard to retrieve it, and that can be tricky. You'd have to be a Master Legilimens to have a chance of finding the right memory in someone else's head, and those are rare."
That would make sharing memories awkward, at the very least. Probably impossible. Well, it wasn't as if Ron was going to continue working as a police officer anyway. But… "Why would anyone charm the Pensieve to not work for muggles?"
"To keep muggles from accidentally discovering magic," she explained.
"Wouldn't someone have to put a memory in it and leave for that to happen?"
"Or someone sees you using it, thinks you're inhaling some new drug and sticks their head inside it."
"Ah." That was more plausible. Still… "That would mean that they'd left a Pensieve unguarded, though."
"Such things have happened, and continue to happen," the other Ron cut in. "Some wizards are just negligent."
"Or stupid," Hermione added. "Or they don't consider muggles at all."
"And then the muggles get obliviated?" Ron asked.
"Unless they're related to a wizard," she said. With a glare at the other Ron, she added: "And the Statute of Secrecy doesn't apply to other worlds."
"I'm not sure if the Wizengamot or the ICW would agree," Ron's counterpart told her.
"It would be hard to argue that my friends aren't related to wizards, seeing as their DNA matches yours," she pointed out.
"That's never stopped the Ministry, now has it?" the wizard replied with a grin.
"No, it didn't," she agreed. Both of them chuckled at that.
Ron refrained from scowling. He was better than that. He wasn't so insecure and jealous as to take offence at her laughing with an old friend. Even if said old friend was not only her ex-lover but also Ron's counterpart who could use magic.
"Wiping our memories wouldn't be a good idea, anyway," he said. "Some of us have taken precautions against such an event." Well, Dumbledore had, in any case.
The other Ron frowned. "What kind of precautions?"
"Now that would be telling," Ron retorted with the best grin he could muster.
"Let's just say that erasing our knowledge of magic would be rather counterproductive," he heard Dumbledore say behind him.
The wizard Ron blinked, then sighed. "That's going to be a mess."
"Isn't your Harry the chief of the police?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean we make the laws. Well, not all of them," the wizard replied.
"Even as a wizard, you are beholden to the corrupt government," Luna said, shaking her head. "What a pity!"
"What?"
"The needed revolution will never happen if good people do nothing but mindlessly defend the status quo," Luna explained. "The corrupt regime will never be toppled if everyone kneels to them!"
"Hey! We did storm the Ministry," the other Ron defended himself. "We got rid of all the bigots, too. But Harry and I… well, we're not politicians. We hunt dark wizards and other criminals and leave the politics to others."
'Got rid of all the bigots'? Ron raised his eyebrows at the wording.
"'Others'?" Hermione asked.
"Dad. Shacklebolt. Doge." The wizard Ron shrugged.
"Percy," Ginny's counterpart added.
"Doge? Elphias Doge?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes…?"
"So he survived in this world." The old man smiled, a little ruefully. "He died in the war in my world. He joined the RAF and was shot down in the Battle of Britain."
"Oh." The other Ron nodded. "That war."
Before anyone could say anything else, Harry's counterpart pulled his head out of the mist. "I need a second opinion," he said, looking at Ron.
"Oh for…!" Hermione muttered under her breath. Ron squeezed her hand.
They switched the memories again, and Ron's counterpart stuck his head into the mist.
"Honestly, is it so hard to believe that I'm telling the truth?"
"Yes," the other Harry said, rather flatly.
"Why? Do you think I couldn't have created a portal to another world?" Hermione asked, huffing.
"No. But we took a long time to, well, accept that you were gone."
"Oh."
"See? I told you: They defend the status quo no matter what!"
"What?" Harry's counterpart turned to look at Luna.
"I don't think that that's the case here," Harry told her.
"Well, I think it's at least part of the reason for all of this!" Luna retorted. "You need to face reality, Harry - what do we call you, anyway? 'Other Harry' sounds rude, and 'Harry Two' wouldn't be correct."
"...Just call me Harry," the other Harry said.
"But we have two of you," Luna insisted. "And both of you are with a Ginny… oh, you didn't take her name, did you?"
"No, I took his," the other Ginny said.
"Fiddlesticks."
Then the other Ron pulled back out of the mist and stared at Hermione with a lost expression. "Bloody hell!" He shook his head. "It's… You're Hermione. Our Hermione."
"Finally!" Hermione said with a frown, her hands on her hips. "It took you long enough to admit it, you stubborn idiots!"
For a moment, neither she nor the other Harry and Ron moved. Then she opened her arms and took a step towards them.
They all but tackled her as the stand-off turned into a group hug. Hermione was sobbing, Ron noticed, as all three started to babble. Ron only caught a few of everyone's words.
"...thought you were dead…"
"...seven years…"
"...had to invent a way to travel…"
"...you're really back…"
"...only ashes left…"
"...Crabbe and Goyle…"
"...thought you…"
"...I would never…"
"...destroy the diadem…"
Then he noticed the Grangers approaching the three friends. Hesitantly.
"Hermione?" Mrs Granger called. "Hermione?"
"Oh!" Hermione pulled away from the two men. "Mum! Dad! I'm so sorry! I had to convince them first."
Another group hug followed, with more tears and sobbing. Ron took a step back, giving them some privacy. No one liked to be seen when they were crying.
And he didn't feel as left out if he was with the others in their group.
"...and then I threw the bag with the diadem into the fire and jumped into the Vanishing Cabinet. It finally worked - but I was sent to another world," Hermione said ten minutes later. "I didn't have a wand, so I couldn't do any magic, and I was exhausted. I reached a house, and they called the police - I was covered in bruises from the fighting. And once the police arrived, I found out that 'Hermione Granger' had vanished seven years ago, presumably kidnapped. My DNA matched hers, so everyone thought I had escaped from a kidnapper after seven years."
"Yes," Ron said. "Her appearance made international headlines back then."
Hermione nodded. "I found out how bad being famous for surviving a crime was," she told the other Harry. "The press hounded me, as did the police - I had claimed amnesia so I didn't have to explain where I had been or who had kidnapped me. They didn't like that."
"The police never like it if you don't 'cooperate'," Luna commented.
"Some of the tabloids claimed she was protecting her kidnapper," Harry said.
"Bloody vultures," Ron added with a sneer.
"They even tried to sneak on to my estate to get pictures of Harry not a month after James and Lily's murder!" Sirius snarled.
Ginny nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes. They still hound us whenever we go out in public without disguises."
"They hound you," Harry told her.
"A typical reaction of the establishment - they have the press discredit anyone who doesn't bow to their demands!" Luna said. "They've done that to Daddy many times! And they use celebrities to distract the masses so they won't band together and tear down the corrupt system! That's why they published those topless pictures of you!"
"Luna!" Ginny hissed.
"What? They did!"
Hermione cleared her throat. "Anyway, I quickly realised that without a wand, and no way to make one even if I knew how, I had to resort to rituals to find a way back. And for that, I had to study physics."
"And then you caught up on your education and earned a PhD in quantum physics?" Mr Granger asked.
"Yes."
"My little girl is a doctor!" Hermione's mum exclaimed and hugged her. Well, hugged her harder - she hadn't really let go of Hermione since their first hug.
"If she found out how to travel through time, she could be the Doctor," Luna said. "All she needs is a telephone booth - she can use a wand in place of a sonic screwdriver."
The confused glances their counterparts exchanged made it clear that they had never heard of Doctor Who. And this wasn't the time to explain the finer points of the BBC's best series. Not that Luna wouldn't try if given the chance. So Ron chuckled but changed the subject again. "We didn't meet Hermione until a few months ago - we had information that a small number of criminals were interested in Dr Granger…"
"...and then we came to see my parents. You know the rest." Hermione finished.
"Yes. This morning, Parkinson and Travers asked about you - if you were alright. Well, they didn't know it was you, but that's how we found out that someone was impersonating us," the other Harry said.
"And why did you decide to visit my parents?" Hermione asked. "We were disguised."
"Your reaction to your statue," Ron's counterpart explained. "I told Harry that we should check up on Gabriel and Ellen, in case someone was trying to scam them using our appearances."
"A good deduction," Dumbledore commented. "Considering the intel you had to base it on, of course."
"Ah." Hermione nodded, then frowned. "And who had the idea to put up a statue of me? In the train station at Hogsmeade?"
"Err… you don't like it?" The other Harry looked honestly baffled.
"I told you we should have insisted on Hogwarts," Ron's counterpart muttered. "Probably in the library."
"It was a compromise. We thought that there, every student would see it every time they went to Hogwarts," Harry's counterpart explained.
"We thought you were dead and wanted to honour your memory," the other Ron told her. "McGonagall said there hadn't been any statues put up in Hogwarts since the fourteenth century since, otherwise, every Minister and headmaster would want one, and that would be a mess. But there's a portrait of you in the school!" he added with a bright smile.
Hermione blinked. "A portrait?"
She didn't sound happy about that, either.
Harry's counterpart nodded. "We hung it in the Gryffindor common room, but it usually wanders through all the other portraits."
"Helping with homework, guiding lost first years, patrolling the halls…" the other Ron added.
"That sounds nice," Luna said. "A literally smart portrait."
"I see." Hermione still didn't sound very happy about it. Ron would have to ask her about the reason for that. "Well, a statue and a portrait. I guess that was to be expected," she went on.
"There's also the manor," Harry's counterpart told her.
"The manor?"
"Well, it was like this…"
"You turned Parkinson Manor into an orphanage and renamed it 'Granger Memorial Manor'?" Hermione sounded almost shocked.
"Well, it was Shacklebolt's idea." The other Ron shrugged. "But Harry was all for it, and it's a nice idea."
"I didn't want an orphanage named after me," the wizard Harry - or was that the wizarding Harry? - explained. "Sorry," he added with a grin.
She shook her head. "I understand. It's just… I'm surprised how much Wizarding Britain has changed."
"Not as much as the country will be surprised by your return," Ron's counterpart said with a grin.
"About that…" Hermione bit her lower lip. "We can't tell them the truth. Not right now, at least."
"What?"
"Think about it. I created a portal to another world. A world without magic, but where magic works. There's no ICW there to protect muggles from dark wizards. Or from unscrupulous and greedy wizards."
"It's not as if the ICW did anything for us when Voldemort was running the country," the other Ron muttered.
"I see your point," wizard Harry said. "And if you can open a portal to this world, you can open portals to other worlds, too, can't you?"
"In theory, yes," Hermione admitted. "The ICW will want to control the portal."
"Everyone will want to control the portal," wizard Ron added.
"I dare say that they would encounter some difficulties - at least on our side," Dumbledore interjected. "But if our own experiences are any indication, Dr Granger will become the target of every wizard or wizarding government with ambitions."
Ron clenched his teeth. To fight Russian wizards… Couldn't they have some peace, at last?
"Yes. No one can know about the portal," Hermione said.
"But you'll need an excuse for suddenly returning after seven years," Harry's counterpart pointed out. "We can't tell people that you took a vacation or went studying."
"Well, we could, but it wouldn't go over well," the other Ron said.
"Yes," his friend agreed. "Shacklebolt used your name for a lot of reforms. All things you would have approved, trust me."
"Ah. Politics," Sirius commented with a sneer.
"Dead heroes - or heroines, in this case - suddenly turning up alive have a tendency to upset the status quo," Dumbledore remarked.
"Which isn't a bad thing," Luna interjected. "People deserve the truth."
"But not everyone deserves to know every one of your secrets. And this is too dangerous to let every goon with a wand know about it," Hermione told her.
"I want to live without having to fear thugs trying to kidnap me or my family," Ginny added.
Luna pouted. "The longer you keep a secret, the more it hurts once it comes out."
"That depends on how long the secret is kept, my dear," Dumbledore said. "I concur with keeping the portal a secret. But Mr Potter is correct - you'll need an explanation for your absence."
"A good one," Ron's counterpart added. "We searched for you for a long time."
"The Vanishing Cabinet malfunctioning explains my survival - and is the truth," Hermione added with a look at Luna. "We just need to avoid mentioning the other world. I could've been in a coma in a muggle clinic."
"Or you could've lost your memory," Ginny added.
"But that wouldn't explain us," Luna said. "I want to see the magical world! And my counterpart!" She sounded almost desperate.
"It's only temporary," Hermione told her. "And you can wear disguises in the magical world."
"And you can see Luna - our Luna. She's our friend," Ron's counterpart added. "And our family."
That mollified Luna. Ron glanced at Dumbledore; that was a lot of people who would be in on their secret. But the old man didn't protest. Did he plan to use Hermione's wizard friends to defend the portal on his side?
"Pretending to have lost my memory and my wand would probably be best," Hermione said. "I can introduce you as new friends I made, and, since I'm such a prominent witch," she added with a glance at her wizard friends, "it makes sense that I'd keep their identity secret to avoid old enemies harming them."
It wasn't much of a cover story, in Ron's opinion. But then, magic could remove memories, so it probably didn't sound like a movie plot to wizards and witches. If they even had movies.
"Alright, that's settled. So… shall we go to The Burrow? Or Grimmauld Place?" Ron's counterpart asked.
"Both?" Luna suggested with a beaming smile.
Ron saw Hermione glance at her parents. Ah. "What about your home?" he said.
"Would that be as safe from magical intruders as the aforementioned locations?" Dumbledore asked with seemingly idle curiosity.
Hermione sighed and looked at her wizard friends. "The office wasn't protected in any way."
"Putting up wards would have messed with all their electronic devices," Harry the wizard said.
"Like the telly," Ron's counterpart added. "It's a shame we can't have one at home. Dad's been trying for years to get it working but hasn't had any success. Not yet."
"And we cannot live without modern media. We had bodyguards for years because we couldn't have wards," Mr Granger told Hermione. "In the time after, well... " He shrugged. "After the war."
Ron suspected that the guards hadn't just looked out for intruders, but also had kept an eye on the Grangers in case they couldn't handle the loss of their daughter.
"But if it was safe a few years ago…" Mrs Granger started to say. "No?"
Ron the wizard scoffed. "I bet those two rookies already spread the news about our doubles. It won't take long to connect that to the Grangers."
"Really?" Hermione looked doubtful.
Ron's counterpart grinned ruefully. "We kind of told them we'd check on Gabriel and Ellen before we left. Just in case there was trouble, and we needed reinforcements. By now, it has probably reached the Daily Prophet."
"Ah." Hermione pressed her lips together. "I would rather not have my face plastered all over one of Skeeter's articles."
"Oh, she's in Azkaban," Ron's counterpart said, his grin growing wider. "You don't have to worry about her."
"What?" Hermione looked surprised. "What did she do? I don't remember her joining Voldemort."
"She wrote several articles exposing muggleborns and exaggerated the supposed dangers from them and muggles, remember?" Wizarding Harry looked at her expectantly, or that was Ron's impression, anyway.
"Yes, but…"
"That helped Voldemort's goals," the other Ron said. "She was lucky she didn't get executed - Shacklebolt mentioned there was a famous muggle case about that."
"A famous muggle case?" Hermione blinked. "But…"
"Oh! Julius Streicher, the Nazi newspaper publisher," Luna interjected, nodding. "He wrote so many anti-Semitic news articles, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed at Nuremberg."
"From what I remember, Rita Skeeter wasn't really as bad as Streicher," Hermione said.
"Well, as Shacklebolt said, Wizarding Britain is much smaller than the muggle countries, population-wise, so it evened out." Ron's counterpart shrugged. "Anyway, she wasn't executed but sentenced to Azkaban."
"That's the wizard prison with the evil soul-sucking ghosts, isn't it?" Luna asked.
"Dementors," Hermione replied. "But…" She looked at the wizards. "Are they still around?"
"Yes," wizarding Harry admitted, wincing a little. "We didn't have the manpower to replace them right after the war."
"But we moved all the prisoners out and only sent Death Eater sympathisers and other dark wizards there," the other Ron added. "So… it worked out."
"And unlike Sirius - my Sirius - everyone got a fair trial," Harry's counterpart said.
"So… Grimmauld Place first, then the Burrow?" Ron's counterpart asked.
"But…" Hermione trailed off and sighed. "The Burrow second, I guess. Grimmauld Place offers more privacy," she added with a glance at her parents.
Ah. Ron nodded. That made sense.
"So, that's the home of the magical Weasleys, right?" Luna asked. "And it's at the same place as your home, Ginny!"
"Probably," Hermione corrected them. "At least it's in the same village, but since I've never visited Ron's place in your world, I couldn't say with any certainty whether the locations are identical."
"Well, we'll find out!" Luna bounced on her feet.
"Better, ah, disguise yourself, first," the other Ron told her. "Don't want to shock Mum."
Ginny's counterpart grinned. "She'd probably have an accidental magic incident!"
"Which can have serious consequences," Hermione said, frowning. "It's not a joking matter."
"Ah, we handle our kids all the time," the other Ginny retorted.
"You've got kids?" Ginny said, blinking. "But you're a professional athlete, aren't you? Did you take a break?"
"A break?" Her counterpart seemed confused. "Well, for the last few months, but we timed that so the kids were born post-season."
"How many kids do you have?" Ginny asked.
"Two. James and Jean," her counterpart replied. "Twins."
"Oh. 'Jean'?" Hermione looked surprised again. That was her middle name, Ron knew.
"We didn't want to name her Hermione," the other Harry explained. "That would've been too much pressure. It's bad enough being our child."
"Oh." Hermione nodded. "That sounds sensible."
"Yes. And there are enough Hermiones around already," Ron's counterpart added. "It's a popular name in Britain."
"Really." Hermione glanced at her parents, Ron noticed.
"I told you that it would be a popular name one day, remember?" Mrs Granger told her with a smile. "As soon as people realised it."
"Hm?" Ron hadn't heard about that.
"When I was five, and other children teased me about my 'weird name'," Hermione told him.
"Ah."
"Although I doubt that you had this in mind," she added, turning back to her parents with a rather watery smile.
More hugging followed, but, watching the Grangers, Ron didn't feel as awkward as before.
No 12 Grimmauld Place, London, Britain, Wizarding World, December 22nd, 2005
They arrived with the by now familiar yet still unpleasant feeling of Apparition. The ancestral home of the Black family in this world - and, apparently, now the home of Ginny and Harry's counterparts - didn't look like Ron had expected. It didn't look very magical. No floating stairs, no glowing lights, no walking furniture. Hell, it didn't even look as ancient as Sirius's home. Bright and modern, more IKEA than Victorian, if Ron was honest. With the exception of the oversized fireplace.
"My mother would have a stroke if she saw this," Sirius commented next to Ron. "It's much too bright and cheery for her."
"Oh, we know," Ginny's counterpart said, sighing while the other Harry and Ron, as well as Hermione, vanished again to fetch the others. "She complained endlessly when we started to renovate the building."
Sirius blinked. "I was under the impression that she had died here as well."
"She has. Her portrait, though, has endured. We finally had to silence the entire frame and wall it in, or James's first word would have been a slur."
"Wow. My mother would have rather died than curse like a sailor. Completely unsuitable behaviour for a refined member of the aristocracy, you know." Sirius shook his head.
With a pop, the Grangers and Dumbledore arrived.
"Sirius! Does this give you ideas?" Harry asked while the others recovered.
"IKEA? In our home?" Sirius shook his head. "I have an image to uphold, Harry. And English Heritage would probably send me to prison if I changed too much in our home."
Ron doubted that. English Heritage weren't quite as bad, nor had quite as much power, as Sirius liked to claim. But as long as Harry's godfather wanted to use them as an excuse for keeping his home as it had been while he was growing up...
Another popping noise announced Luna and Ginny's arrival. "Oh!" Luna gasped. "It looks…" Ron saw her face fall. "...boring. Completely boring!" She pouted as she looked around. "It doesn't look magical at all!"
"I'll have you know that all our friends told us that it looks exotic," Ginny's counterpart replied, in a slightly sharp tone.
"Really?" Hermione looked surprised. "It looks very… muggle."
"Exactly," Harry's counterpart said with a very familiar grin.
"Oh, you!" She shook her head, then looked at her parents. "I guess you helped?"
"A little," her mother said.
"Figures." She perked up. "Oh! Did you reorganise the library? It would be so much more useful with a proper index and cataloguing system!"
"Err…" The other Harry's grin vanished. "We didn't really do much with it."
"Other than ensuring that it was safe for children," Ginny's counterpart added.
"Oh."
"You can do that, once you're settled in," Harry the wizard told her with a smile.
"Mate! We'll never get her out of the library again!" the other Ron complained - but he was smiling.
Hermione was smiling as well, Ron noticed. "That won't be for a while," she told them. "We have to set up a portal site in this world, so we're not cut off. And we need to find a skilled, discreet Healer."
"What?" Both wizards were suddenly alert. "Are you hurt? A lingering curse from the last battle?" Harry's counterpart asked.
"Or some muggle sickness they can't fix themselves?" Ron's counterpart blurted out.
"Are you pregnant?" Ginny the witch asked.
"No, I… What?" Hermione stared at the witch. "No, I'm not pregnant," she said with conviction. "It's for Mr Dumbledore and his friend," she explained.
"Oh. Are you sick?" the other Ron asked.
"My ailments mostly stem from my advanced age," Dumbledore replied. "Something I was told magic can deal with, up to a point."
"You want to be immortal?" Wizarding Harry looked… well, as if he had finally realised that the old spymaster wasn't the Headmaster he had known. In Ron's opinion, at least. And he was glancing at Hermione.
"No," Hermione said with a frown, "But magic can repair a lot of the damage that comes from old age. That's why we need a good, discreet Healer. They'll be paid handsomely in gold."
"Indeed. Money is of no concern - Gellert and I are quite well-off."
"Gellert?" Now all their counterparts were frowning.
"Grindelwald's counterpart," Hermione said, rolling her eyes a little, "who, I'll have you know, didn't lead armies in conquest of half of Europe."
"Ah." Wizarding Harry nodded. "We'll need a very discreet Healer then."
"Oh, yes," Ron's counterpart agreed. "Or there'll be hell to pay."
"So I was given to understand," Dumbledore said with his usual friendly smile.
"So… when do we go to The Burrow?" Luna asked.
"Well, we were planning to have the rest of the family come here. We need to tell Mum and Dad, first. Give them some time to prepare, too. Mum will want to cook for you all," the other Ron said. "And I need to get Lavender - if I don't tell her right away, she'll never forgive me."
"Alright," the other Harry said. "Let me show you the guest rooms you can use in the meantime. They're on the…" He trailed off. "James?"
Ron looked up. Yes, there was a little boy looking at them from the top of the stairs. And a little girl behind him.
"James! Jean!" Ginny's counterpart yelled. "Did you climb out of bed again?"
"Should've stuck them inside," Ron heard his counterpart mumble.
Another voice sounded from behind the toddler. "Little James! Little Jean! Oh, Dobby's so sorry! So sorry!"
Then a small alien creature appeared next to the children. "Dobby will get them back to bed, don't worry…" The creature's eyes widened almost comically. "Mistress Hermione? You got out of the portrait?"
What? Ron turned to look at Hermione and realised that she was having another flashback.
"This is an outrage!" she yelled as she dropped a thick tome on the table in the common room. "I looked it up! Elves have almost no rights!" She shook her head and looked at her friends. Who seemed to be far more confused than they should be, after her explanation.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Obliviating Dobby was legal!" she told him. "If an elf leaves your employment, you can obliviate them! And the same goes if you fire him!" This was scandalous!
"Yes?" Ron still didn't seem to get it. "That's so they can't betray the secrets of the old employer."
"But that's... " She shook her head. "That's their life! They lose their memories when they leave an employer! What if they married during that time? That's… almost as evil as slavery!"
"So that's why Dobby didn't recognise me when I saw him here," Harry said.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "His employer must have obliviated him. And if he'd been working there for longer than twelve years, he wouldn't have even known that you existed since he would have forgotten everything from since before you were born!"
"Wow, that's…"
"...evil, yes, I told you already!" Hermione finished for Ron. "Dobby's former employer must be the one behind the attacks. And Dobby still tried to warn you, Harry. He must have known the danger - he risked his memories for you!" She sat down. "We need to do something about this!"
"About the attacks? We've been trying for weeks!" Ron said.
"No, not that. We do need to solve those, of course. But we need to do something about the elves, too!" She pulled out her notes. "We'll start an organisation. A movement. A Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare. Like the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I've transfigured a pin, too."
She pulled out her prototype.
Harry and Ron didn't look very enthusiastic, though. Harry even frowned. "Spew? You named it 'spew'?"
Oh. Oh, no!