Ch 93: Twenty One
Ron sat at the familiar muggle diner sipping tea as he waited for Harry to arrive. He realized he hadn't actually checked to see if they were meeting this morning, but he thought he was safe in assuming the ritual was the same as always. He heard the little bell tingle as the front door opened, and Harry walked in from the rain outside.
"Morning," Harry said as he wiped the rain drops off of his glassed.
"Morning. Good to see you. I realized we hadn't actually talked about this morning, but I figured twenty years of habit was probably a good predictor that you'd show."
"Ron, I'll always show. You could move to Antarctica or something, and I would still come here on this day on the off chance you'd pop by."
"Cheers," smiled Ron. "I'm the same. Obviously, as I'm here. Take a seat. I'm famished."
"I guess that is one thing that hasn't changed since the dawn of time."
"Good to have things in life you can count on. So, what's the damage in the Prophet today? Anything cringe worthy?" Ron asked nervously.
"Well, I guess that's the second thing you can count on," sighed Harry. "No giant exposé or anything. Not like when they outed you and Hermione."
"But?"
"But, there is a shite article than mentions the miscarriage."
"What?!" Ron said grabbing the paper.
"I'm sorry, Ron."
"Not your fault, mate," he muttered, running his hand through his hair. He flipped through the pages to the article and saw a picture of the two of them from the previous year's anniversary gala next to a brief article titled "Year of Happiness and Heartbreak for the Hero" by Rita Skeeter.
Since we saw Ron Weasley at the 20th Anniversary Gala last year, the famous war hero and former auror has had another year full of major life events. According to sources close to the hero, he proposed to his on again / off again muggle born girlfriend on his birthday last year, and then married her on April Fool's Day one month later (no joke!). Apparently the wedding was done as a surprise to their friends and family, with only a few people aware of the event ahead of time. He married Hermione Granger (now Granger-Weasley) at his childhood home, and the ceremony was said to have been conducted by none other than Hogwarts Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. They also completed a formal adoption ceremony with the two children who are part of the family, but whose names cannot be mentioned due to journalism laws regarding naming minors in the press. We all saw the happy couple one month later at the Twentieth Anniversary events at Hogwarts and at The Ministry. The couple had a happy start to their marriage, but as we know, dear readers, heartbreak and tragedy seem to follow Ron Weasley. In October, according to an inside source, an unconscious Mrs. Granger-Weasley was seen being brought to St. Mungo's emergency department, by none other than Mr. Draco Malfoy, with whom readers may recall she was photographed apart from either her then boyfriend or his wife. Shortly after her arrival at St. Mungo's, a tense moment was seen between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy before Mr. Malfoy fled the scene. It was determined later to be an ectopic pregnancy which had ruptured, threatening the life of Mrs. Granger-Weasley. But, who the father was or how she ended up unconscious in Mr. Malfoy's arms we will never know, dear readers. Following that difficult chapter, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are reportedly doing better and once again rebuilding their relationship.
"That bitch!" Ron said as he crumpled up the paper and slammed his fist to the table.
Harry could think of nothing to say, so he simply looked at Ron softly.
"Who the father was? Who does she think she is suggesting shite like that? Bad enough they talk about it at all, but that is crossing the line. I've got to do something. I have to – fuck – Harry, what can I do?"
Harry grimaced. "I don't think there are a lot of options, Ron. You can demand a retraction, but that never does much."
"How is it we were able to bring down Voldemort when we were fucking teenagers, but as grown men and aurors we can't put a stop to that vile witch!? There has got to be something. I can't just let her trash my family like this."
"Well, maybe Hermione could come up with an idea. You and I have tried for decades with no luck. Maybe a fresh perspective is the answer?"
"Maybe."
"Well, not today anyway. Send a note to Rose, though."
"Shite. Right. I will."
"Sorry."
"Again – not your fault."
"Ever think how boring your life might have been if you'd sat in a different compartment on that train all those years ago?"
Ron scoffed. "Boring? Mate, if I hadn't saved your arse time and time again you wouldn't have been alive to die and come back again so you could off that bastard. So, the way I see it, we'd all have been dead a long time ago. They all call you the Boy Who Lived, but they need the little footnote that says something like The Boy Who Lived only because his best mate kept saving his sorry arse."
"Perfect," Harry laughed. "I think that's the most accurate description yet. I'm not giving an interview for another 4 years, but I am totally using that line when I do."
"Right. So, enough about me. What's on your docket today?"
"I'm taking a page from Hugo's playbook actually."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Watching him handle the anniversary of his parents' deaths was amazing. If he can do that at ten, then I should be able to do something now."
"So what are you doing?"
"Gin and I are going to serve lunch at a homeless shelter in muggle London. Hopefully no one will be the wiser. So it's just for the right reasons, you know? No press. And then she's convinced George to meet us at a muggle children's hospital later where we will be giving out muggle toys, pranks and joke kits to the kids there."
"Really? That's fantastic! Bloody brilliant."
"Thank your son."
"Well, he said he got the idea from talking to George originally. So, full circle, huh?"
"Yeah. What about you? What are you doing?"
"Well, I usually go by George's after I leave breakfast. Guess I'll do that. Then the three of us are having dinner at The Burrow tonight."
"That's nice. Your mum will appreciate that. Especially Hugo being there. Nothing like kids to distract from painful memories."
"Yeah. But I love your idea. Would you mind if I join on with the lunch?"
"No, of course not. Here, I'll text you the address. We're planning to meet at 1030."
"Cheers. I'll definitely be there. I don't like to have much idle time on this day."
"Yeah, me too. You sleep last night?"
"Nah. Not really. But, only had a few rough dreams instead of weeks of nightmares like I used to. Hermione has really been amazing for that."
"Good. I'm glad."
"How about you?"
"Nah – I can never sleep the night before. But I hope that the volunteer stuff today will help and maybe I can sleep tonight."
"Here's hoping, mate," Ron said, toasting his tea to his best friend.
Later that evening, Ron was in the sitting room at his childhood home sipping firewhisky with his dad while Hermione and Hugo were in the kitchen visiting with his mum.
"Thank you for coming tonight," Arthur said thoughtfully. "Having two fresh faces that weren't a part of – well – all of it…it just helps her so much. Well, helps all of us really, but your mother most of all."
"Of course, Dad. We'll always be here if you want us to be."
"Can you imagine what this day is like for someone who wasn't there?"
Ron thought for a moment. "Well, I've tried to picture it. Especially when I work with students at Hogwarts – I want to impart to them why it matters. But, I am selfishly grateful that Hermione has no idea what that time – and especially that day – was like. But at the same time, Hermione is not naïve. She has lived in many places around the world on the edge of war zones helping people at their most vulnerable. Any illusions she may have had that war isn't hell were done by the time she was 25. But, thankfully, she was always the one helping clean up the collateral damage, and not the one in the battle zone. And I pray she never is – muggle or magical."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully. After another sip of his drink he looked across the room at the last picture of all of his children together in Egypt.
"I had hoped that would be the case for you children and your mother. Then as the years went on and I saw how intertwined you were with everything, I realized there was no way to keep you on the sidelines. And, well, you know your mother. I had absolutely zero chance of winning that argument. But I had really hoped I could keep Ginerva from seeing it first-hand."
"I'm sorry, Dad. I still regret that it happened at the school. I've tried to picture how it could have all gone down if we had gone for the things at the school first and then to Gringotts. But to this day I don't think we could have done it any other way."
"Oh Ron, I don't know a single person who blames you for that. Even the nutters. Voldemort brought that to Hogwarts, not you and Harry. You two were the only ones who made it possible to end it that day instead of dragging it on or losing it all together."
"I know, I know. And I don't really blame myself. But now that I have a child at Hogwarts…I guess I just see everything in a different lens now."
Arthur nodded and sighed, "You do everything you can to protect your children – physically and emotionally. But in the end, keeping them safe isn't enough. You have to raise them to be the best versions of themselves they can be and then watch them live their own lives. I've struggled so much over the years wondering how I could have raised everyone differently somehow that would have allowed all of you to live. But, in the end, I can only be proud. Fred lived the best version of his life he could. I mean – I look back at him and see a soul who squeezed more life and more fun and more good out of every second he was given than I could ever dream. He was full of mischief, of course, but when the stakes were high, he was there. He stood up for what was right, but he did it with humor, a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips. But he was there as his true self, you know? The fact that he was the first to welcome Percy back with open arms, and then died laughing…." His voice faded, but not into tears.
"I know. I know. Back then I was desperate to have traded places with him. I never thought I'd survive it all, but never in a million years did I imagine one of the twins dying and the other living. But I am like you, I guess…I look at how he lived, and you can't have a single regret. If we had all stood by and watched everything happen, well, that we would have regretted. Now I am just trying to learn from him. And from Fi, and everyone else who died too young. But someday – whenever my time is up – I hope I can go being my true self just like Freddie. And hopefully laughing as hard."
His dad grinned and lifted his glass. "To smiling at the end."
"To smiling at the end."
By Rose's birthday the following week, Ron had put his anger over Skeeter's most recent article behind him. But, Hermione most decidedly had not. When Ron had showed her the story, she fumed and ranted in such a way that Ron could only be thankful it wasn't directed at him. Rose's birthday fell on a Saturday that year, and Hermione had hoped to see her daughter that day, but Rose had said she couldn't get away to meet her mum for lunch because of her school work piling up with the end of the term coming soon. So, Hermione had sent several owls worth of packages and goodies to spoil Rose on the day she officially became a teenager.
That morning she got up as usual to make breakfast and stewed as she read the Daily Prophet. Since the article the week before, Hermione had insisted on getting it delivered so she could keep track of "that woman," and begin to come up with an idea to stop her. But so far, Ron was rather sure it had only increased her crankiness and blood pressure.
"Happy Rose's Birthday," Hugo chirped as he came down the stairs.
"Thanks, Honey," Hermione said wistfully. "I guess I am officially the mom of a teenager now. But I really just wish I could see her today."
"I know, but she'll be home next month for the whole summer."
"That will be fun. Have you thought any more about what you want to do for vacation this summer?"
"Not really," Hugo shrugged. "You and Dad always figure out something great anyway."
"Hmm. OK. I'll keep thinking on it. Maybe you and Rose could come up with some ideas. What are you up to today?"
"Um, Dad and I were going to go for a fly out by Shell Cottage. I think, well, I think he's trying to get a lot of time in doing that sort of thing before I go to Hogwarts."
"Yeah," said Hermione wistfully. "I guess we both are."
Before long, Hugo and Ron were off with their brooms, and Hermione was sitting alone at her kitchen table. She was missing Rose. She was anxious about Hugo getting ready to go. She was upset about Rita Skeeter's nonsense. She knew all of this was bothering her, but she still couldn't put her finger on what else was making her so out of sorts. Deciding that stewing at the table wasn't going to help, she wondered if meeting up with a girlfriend was what she needed.
A few hours later, she and Ginny were wandering through shops in muggle London. They were looking for nothing in particular, which of course meant they found a ton of things they liked.
"Isn't that typical? When you are desperately looking for a specific thing you always come home empty handed. But come out to just browse and you leave with bags of goodies," Ginny mused.
"So true," laughed Hermione. "Though I think I am just in a rotten mood. I am not ready to be the mum of a teenage girl! I'm still a newlywed!"
Ginny laughed at her. "Honey, nice try, but when your gorgeous daughter serves as a maid of honor, you can't really use that argument."
"Humph," said Hermione, looking through some blouses on a rack. "Maybe I should focus all of this frustration on a project or something."
"You don't think raising Hugo, basically watching after Ron, starting up that foundation and learning magic count as projects?" Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"OK, maybe I had a specific project in mind. More like a specific goal, but I haven't figured out how to achieve it yet."
"Care to share?"
Hermione sighed, considering what she should say. "Alright. But please don't tell Ron, ok? It's not a bad thing, it's just I don't want him to know how much I let this get to me."
"Ok. What's up?"
"It's that Skeeter woman. Her article last week has absolutely sent me over the edge. I was fine when they outed Ron and me two years ago. And I was fine with the ridiculous stories about Ron proposing to the American. And I was more or less fine with the whole ridiculous Malfoy story – well – except for how upset it made Rose. But, when she starts digging into private medical records and dares to publicize such a private, let alone traumatic event – and then on top of that has the gall to make it sound like it wasn't Ron's baby? That woman has GOT to go. I know Ron says to ignore it, and that it's all a part of being with him, but she has crossed a line this time."
"Well, Hermione, if anyone could stop Skeeter, I suppose it would have to be you. But, I have to warn you, Harry and I have certainly looked into it over the years, but we never found a good way to do it. Of course, being Harry, he wanted it all above board and official. Maybe you and I could find some, shall we say under the table approaches to the problem?"
"I like the way you think. I don't know that I would be for anything illegal, but maybe we could figure out how to go as far up to that line as we could go without crossing it."
"Good plan. Because if this blows up in our faces we will be raked over the goals, you know? Wouldn't want to go to Azkaban on top of all of that."
"Right."
"But, don't count on any immediate payoff, ok? I think this is a long term project."
"OK," Hermione whined. "But how do we start? I mean that woman has had to have broken about a million laws over the years. And you can't do all of that without someone knowing something. We just have to figure out who that someone is, and what we can do to help them share whatever it is that they know."
"Well, shite," Ginny laughed. "Ron is always going on about how you would have Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but maybe there is more Slytherin in you than I gave you credit for. But, I think we just have to carefully watch every move she makes. She breaks laws all the time. We just have to catch her breaking the really serious ones and somehow get evidence to prove it."
"You're right, of course," Hermione sighed. "But first I think I need to better understand the magical legal structure. I can't catch her breaking the law if I don't know what the exact laws are, can I?"
"Please don't tell me you are adding 'become a magical solicitor' to your already too long list of projects."
"No, no. I am not going to formally go back to school or anything. Well, not on top of what I'm already doing anyway. But, I need to start reading up on the law and what the differences or unique aspects are compared to the muggle law I already know. Maybe we could swing by Flourish and Blotts on the way back? I could pick up a few starter books there."
"Oh no," Ginny laughed. "I've been warned against going to a book shop with you. But, I will go with you to Diagon Alley and meet you when you're done."
"Fair enough," she said. "I'm telling you that woman is on my radar now. Mark my words, Gin. She will not win."
