A/N Hey I'm back and I'm sooooo sorry it took so long!!! Thanks to reviewers for chapter four…

Spidey3000: Well, he's going to have to go back now isn't he, but what will the truth bring out??

Be Careful What You Wish For…

Harry was laying on the uncomfortable bed in the Hogs Head, watching the rain splash down onto the inside windowsill – Harry being to tired to go and close the window itself. This was his first moment of quiet since he had met Malfoy four days ago, but he was still waiting for the peace to go with it. The Ministry had not left him alone for one minute, let alone four days. And that look that Ginny kept giving him - that was the most tiring thing of all. The look of worry, contemplation and even unloving that was staring at him from the other side of the room right now was what drained all the energy from him.

It had been at least ten minutes since Ginny had returned from taking Liam to Ron and Hermione's house, and all the while her terrified eyes had not left his body from the chair on which she sat next to an old, rotting dressing table. Harry had told her absolutely everything the same night Malfoy had showed up, after putting Liam to bed, and since then everything had changed.

Finally, as Harry knew she would, Ginny spoke; in the same terrified tone that her eyes gave.

"Harry," She said weakly, "We need to talk about this…"

Harry sighed angrily and sat up on the bed.

"We have Ginny, dozens of times!" He replied, which was perfectly true. Ginny had said near enough the same thing at least three times a day to him.

"But I can't understand it… Why… I mean, how could you?" She stuttered, and Harry watched the all too familiar tears fall down her face again.

"I've told you!" He said, getting frustrated quickly, "It was the same as all the others, just a little bit more…" He struggled to find a word, "Physical."

"But you've never mentioned this one to me before…" Ginny cried some more.

"I did, the night I told you at the Burrow. I just said the last two were too horrible to talk about; which should at least let you know I'm ashamed of it!" He yelled.

"But that's just it Harry, you don't seem at all upset about what you've done!" She shouted back.

"I can't be!" He said, and to Ginny's confused look, he continued. "Gin, if the Ministry can tell there's something wrong with me, they'll suspect things and there will be more publicity than even now."

"And you'll get sent to Azkaban," Ginny said quietly, looking at her feet.

Harry wouldn't deny that this comment shocked him a bit. Of course, he had thought of the consequences of killing five innocent muggles, (a few of them magical babies) but every time he did he found himself feeling sick again and terrified of never seeing Ginny or Liam again in his entire life.

He sighed and stood up to walk to her. "Exactly," He said even quieter, "Which is why I don't want to fight with you when these could be my last few weeks with you."

Ginny turned her head sharply towards him, "Don't say that!"

"But it's true."

"You said you wouldn't ever leave me! You promised! Before we got married!" Ginny cried.

"I know, Gin," He said, hugging her to try and calm her, "But things don't always turn out as we'd like them to."

There was a short pause as they just sat for a few minutes, hugging each other – clinging on for their whole lives.

"It's all my fault, isn't it?" Ginny whispered after a few minutes of silence.

"How?" Harry asked, letting her go.

"If I hadn't…" She stammered, "If I hadn't jinxed V – You-Know-Who on the night you killed him, none of it would have ever happened."

"That's not true," Harry tried.

"But it is! You wouldn't have been mad at me and I wouldn't have slept with Dean and then you wouldn't have left!" Ginny sobbed into Harry's shoulder again.

Harry had to force himself not to feel that way about Ginny, because he loved her with all his heart. But despite how much he forced himself not to believe it was her fault, he couldn't help it. She was completely right in what she had said; she caused him turning into a murderer, with a little help from Voldemort of course.

Ginny seemed to gather herself together and said, "I'm sorry for being like this."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"Scared of you," She answered, "I know you've learnt your lesson and you'll never do it again."

"But will the whole wizarding community see it that way?" He mused.

"I don't know… Speaking of which, you've got a conference in Diagon Ally in half an hour, you'd better get down there!" Ginny stood up and ushered him over to the door of the room.

Harry sighed again, that was all he had done for the past four days. He was so sick of having to reassure people that everything would be ok, because he knew it wouldn't be for a very long time. He was also sick of people running up to him in the street, telling him that he didn't need luck to rid the world of this dark lord, because the last one was worse. And he couldn't stand the fact that everyone was so sure that Harry Potter was going to save their lives again; when he was the one who caused the whole problem.

"Harry?"

He jumped from his reverie and realised that Ginny had said his name at least three times while they walked down the stairs together. He glanced at her and saw her face turn into a soft smile.

"You'll be ok," She said comfortingly. "Now, I'll go to the Ministry and see dad, good luck today. I'll see you later."

And with that she gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and went to leave, but Harry grabbed her hand and stopped her. She looked at him again with the scared look in her eyes.

"I love you Gin, I should tell you more often," Harry whispered.

The worried look left her eyes and was replaced with another soft smile – the kind that made Harry's heart melt every time. "I love you too, silly! I'll see you later," She said again and this time left.

Harry left the Hogs Head with a smile on his face, but that soon disappeared when everyone turned to stare at him, just as they usually did. And, with sagging shoulders, he left to go and once again try to reassure people that like would soon be as they like it.

"Mr Potter, do you ever wish that you had a quiet and peaceful life, or do you enjoy the excitement of finding villains and ridding the world of evil?"

Lights flashed at him from every angle so that he could hardly see, but Harry could not help but stare menacingly at the reporter who had asked such a stupid question.

"Of course I wish I had a quiet life!" He shouted over all the new questions that were being fired at him, "My whole life I've wished I was a normal boy, then a normal man, but its never happened. I wish it right now!"

The reporter seemed quite surprised by Harry's answer to the question, but nodded anyway and started to scribble things on a notepad.

The rest of the conference was like that, stupid questions that anyone could have answered. And when Harry finished his long-winded speech to the public at the end, they all cheered and he apparated back to the Hogs Head before any additional questions could be asked.

He hated this pub; it really did stink and look terrible. But this was the one place that the ministry could think to put the Potter family so that Malfoy couldn't find them. And to be honest Harry thought it was a ridiculous idea! It was a pub! It was easier to find Harry here than anywhere else in the country! But the ministry were ALWAYS right, and they believed it to be some sort of reverse psychology. Like Malfoy knew Harry wouldn't be there so why look there? Still, Harry and Ginny alike thought it was ridiculous.

He walked slowly up the stairs to his, Ginny's and Liam's room, only to find that Liam was completely alone when he got there. He pulled his wand out of his pocket in a flash and looked around the room before looking at Liam.

"Liam, where's your mum?" He asked when he found that the room seemed to be quite clear.

"She won't come out of the bafroom…" Liam answered sulkily.

Harry eyed the closed bathroom door and suddenly realised that he could hear sobs coming from the inside.

"Liam, go and sit on your bed."

Liam did as he was told and Harry walked up to the bathroom door.

"Gin," He said softly, "You in there?"

There was a loud sniff as a reply. Harry tried to open the door but it was locked. He pointed his wand at the lock and opened it. Upon walking into the bathroom, he saw a ginger haired mess lying on the floor; make-up stains down her face and cheeks redder that Harry had seen them in years.

"Ginny!" He ran and sat beside her, pulling her mangled hair out of her face and stroking her cheek.

She looked up at him and attempted to stop crying, but nothing really happened.

"Ginny, what's happened?" Harry asked tentatively, he knew that whatever it was wouldn't be good news. Perhaps she went to the Ministry to find her dad dead in his office or something…

"Oh Harry…" She tried in between sobs, "It's…"

"Mummy, are you ok?" Liam appeared out of nowhere at Ginny's side.

"Liam go back to the bed," Harry said. He couldn't help but feel that having Liam around would make this situation even worse.

"But mummy…"

"Go Liam!" He shouted and Liam ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"You didn't have to shout at him…" Ginny said, still crying quite hard.

But Harry didn't care about that just now, "Ginny, what's happened?"

Ginny looked solidly at him and suddenly seemed to gather the strength to stop crying. "Oh Harry… I don't want to tell you. You'll be heart-broken."

He wouldn't be heart-broken if her dad died… only upset… it was Ron… Or Hermione…

Ginny could obviously see what he was thinking, and slowly started to nod.

Harry's heart jumped into his throat and he couldn't swallow properly.

"My dad apparated here Harry, about fifteen minutes ago," Ginny explained clearly, "They… They found," She broke down again but Harry couldn't stand the waiting any longer.

"Was it Ron or Hermione?" He tried to shout at her but it came out merely as a whisper.

Ginny breathed deeply as she looked at him and said quite forcefully, "They found… They found Ron's body in an alley."

Harry said nothing but tried to concentrate on his breathing. After a good few minutes he asked, "Where's Hermione now?"

"She at her house," Ginny answered, but when Harry stood up and got ready to disapparate she added, "She doesn't want to see anyone!"

"She'll want to see me," He said. And with that he disappeared from view.

Harry knocked firmly on the door to Ron and Hermione's house, still with a dry face but very blank expression.

"Not now please," He heard Hermione call from inside.

"Hermione it's me," He called back to her. And less than a minute later the door flew open and he saw something he hadn't seen since his first year at Hogwarts. Hermione crying.

That alone brought the lump back to Harry's throat. Hermione had always fought the urge to cry unless at a funeral. Now he thought about it, the only other time Harry had seen her cry was indeed at Dumbledore's funeral.

Suddenly, Hermione fell into his arms and cried even harder than before. The people on the street evidently found it all rather interesting, so Harry slowly helped Hermione get back inside the house and closed the door behind him. They went and sat in the living room together on the sofa for a long while, Harry's arms wrapped the whole time around Hermione who cried, and he let her cry.

After near enough half an hour, Hermione's tears slowed and she stopped crying, just resting her head on Harry's sopping wet shoulder.

"Ginny said you didn't want to see anyone," Harry said in a blank tone.

"That's because I didn't want to see just anyone," Hermione answered with a groggy voice.

"I know."

He turned to look at her and she gave the weakest smile he'd ever seen, but it meant so much.

There was another long moments pause until Hermione said sadly, "Why, Harry?"

He sighed, "If I told you, you'd hate me."

"Why would I hate you?" She asked incredulously.

"Malfoy wants revenge on me. So he killed Ron," He answered.

Hermione gave a whimper at the word 'killed', but then said, "Revenge just for killing his 'master'? He's so pathetic. Well I don't blame you Harry, not at all."

Harry's heart, which was already torn in two, split a few more times. Would she still not blame him when she found out the real reason Malfoy wanted revenge? But Harry had made a decision to tell her everything the second he found out Ron was dead. He should have told both her and Ron everything years ago.

"He doesn't was revenge because I killed Voldemort," He said, and not giving her time to react, he added, "I killed his son."

To Harry's great surprise, Hermione did not throw him out of her house, nor did she start saying 'don't be ridiculous'. She just sat watching him for two minutes, and then asked very calmly, "When?"

Without looking at her again he answered, "Before Ginny and I got married, that time when I was away for over a year."

"Oh Harry," She said, sounding more disappointed than threatened or scared, "Why?"

"Because I was mad at Ginny, wasn't I? I murdered 5 people."

This time Hermione sighed. "That's what muggle psychiatric doctors are for."

Harry looked confusedly at her, and then laughed. She laughed too.

"I still don't blame you," Hermione said once they had stopped laughing (which was very quickly). Harry's face drooped again and she added, "And Ron wouldn't want you to beat yourself up about it. He loved you too much for you to hate yourself."

"I told you both to stick together. I told you both to be careful after I found out it was Malfoy the other day," Harry mused more to himself than Hermione.

Hermione started to cry again. "He was just going to work… To make a living…"

Harry couldn't stand to see her cry for more than a minute, and said the first thing that popped into his head.

"Unlike him…"

"What?" Hermione sniffed.

"Well, it was unlike Ron to try and make a living," He tried to smile.

Hermione coughed out a real smile and nodded her head. "Unlike him to do anything really, wasn't it?"

Harry laughed a little bit and said, "Yeah… It was…"

And they sat there for hours. Talking about Ron and the good times they'd spent with him. And when Harry finally fell asleep, all he could see were the figures of two eleven year old boys and a very bushy haired girl sitting under a tree in the grounds of a castle somewhere far away.

A/N Wow, sorry it took so long to come up. And sorry this chapter drags a bit. Ok, drags a lot… I had to get back into writing after a week of no Harry Potter at all lol!! And even before I went away I hadn't written because I was re-reading the sixth book so I apologise! (NINE DAYS EVERYONE!!!) But hopefully I'll get a couple more chapters up before number seven comes out… Thanks for reading!!!