Second time around

by Billybob - csagun36

It is said that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. What if this old saying was applied to Harry and Hermione? What if, in an attempt to protect Ron and Ginny from the Death Eaters, Harry and Hermione had concocted a plan which although su

6. Chapter 6

Title: Second Time Around

Author: Billybob

Chapter: Six

Chapter title: Knight to E5

Category: AU alternate universe ¼ PGFH Post Graduation from Hogwarts

In other words; it takes place after J. K. Rowling's - seventh and last book

Word count: 15612 (plus or minus a word or two) (another short chapter…sorry)

(Due to the size of this puppy, fix yourself self a cuppa of Earl Grey, order in a large 'fish and chips' to munch-on, kick your shoes off and make yourself comfortable)

Rated; PG-13, for adult language, UK slang and profanity, with implied sexual innuendo

Pairings: HP-HG, CC-OQ, HP-GW and HG-RW

Author's disclaimer: This story is based in the wonderful magic world created by J. K. Rowling, she owns all legal rights to the characters, setting, etc. - I am merely borrowing the contents of the JKR world for my own amusement and that of my readers. In other words…her characters…my plot - savvy?

Author's humble thanks: I openly admit that this lame plot is all mine! (Readers shudder in dread) With that said, I would also like to point out those folks that have transformed my abuse of the Kings English into something a lot less painful to the eyes. I mean by this, my beta-readers, Mark, Dennis, Wayne and BuckNC, they and they alone, get full marks for making my chicken scratches enjoyable. Stand up and take a bow guys, you deserve it.

Warnings:

Number one: By now you have discovered that this tale is less than flattering to the 'Chosen-one' and his Bushy-haired…know-it-all best female friend, this was intentionally done. Heroes in my view are not perfect people who can walk on water, they are not Gods. They are for the most part, normal people with very human flaws that do extraordinary things when they are needed most.

For those few that are still reading this, you know by now that Harry and Hermione made a mistake. A mistake compounded by events that were for the most part, beyond their control. This happens more often then most folks realize and in my tale, my HP characters are very human about such things. This is also a story about second chances to reform broken friendships and recapture lost loves. My golden trio is composed of flawed people doing their best in an imperfect world.

Number two: Prepare to go about, battle stations all hands…run out your guns Lads …hold your fire until your guns bare. Things are speeding up a bit as the long awaited confrontation with Harry and Jon/Ron approaches

(Author watched Pirates of the Caribbean again last night…can you tell?)

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Early morning, Saturday at 'Chess Master Cottage'

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"Ron, Damn it, you open this door right now!" Ginny screamed for the hundredth time at the tightly locked door of her brother's study. "Ron, I mean it!"

There was a loud popping sound and then Ginny heard a frantic squeal. "Mistress, please come away from the door. Master cannot hear you. He be passed out from many bottles of fire-whiskey drinking. He be not happy…not happy at all." The tiny house elf then anxiously took the hand of it's Masters house guest and gently led the upset girl down the short hallway and away from the door of the study where her master had barricaded himself the night before. Once out of earshot the house elf turned on the young witch, and proceeded to give her 'what-for'.

"Wherefore did you send my Master that he returns and weeps for hours? Why does Mistress Wheezy hurt my Master… he be so sad now?" Tiki the house elf wailed with huge and heavy tears running down her face.

Ginny was taken aback by the energy of the elves anger, so she slowly lowered herself to the floor so that she was eye level with the tiny creature, she then reached out with one hand to gently touch the elf's shoulder while saying, "I sent him to see the woman he loves, Tiki; I didn't think it would end with him crushed in spirit all over again. I thought getting them together again would be a good thing," Ginny said, as she gently pulled the elf into her arms and carefully hugged the sobbing elf.

"No Mistress, sending Master to the Mrs. Pottie was a bad…bad thing. He cries for hours, says sad things and weeps; he getting pissy head drunk to make hurts go away. Master has no needed get drinkie head pissed for many long-long times. Big pain from Muggle doctors in old times made Master drinkie, now he do it again, but it worsie than old times, much worsie. Tiki be upsets now, because good Master be upsets!" The tiny elf howled.

Master be a good wizard, Master respects Tiki. No wizard respects a good enslaved house elf like Master does. Treats me like friend he do, listens to Tiki sometimes about girlie stuff, sometimes not…Master took into cottage backstabbing blood sister, who go with high mighty Pottie. Bad idea Tiki told Master, but he forgives blood sister, trusts blood sister. Then Mistress sends Master back to Mrs. Pottie. Why, be Master one to return dragon ring. Tiki should have done it. Oh…Woe is me, now all is sad, sad. Hurts be Tiki, to see kind Master so sad!"

As these harsh words escaped the elf's lips the tiny creature heard a sob that wasn't hers, looking up she saw the Mistress weeping uncontrollably. Out of pure instinct the house elf jumped to the conclusion that she had caused Mistress to cry. Master had encouraged Tiki to be honest in all things, told the tiny elf that the best way to serve him would be to be brutally blunt in advice and criticism, as any friend would. As it had been an order, Tiki, had obeyed, even if reluctantly. Now the elf realized to her horror that being honest was hurting its new Mistress and elf-shame consumed the domesticated magical creature.

"Oh Woe is me, I cause Mistress to cry, Tiki be sorry. Tiki is bad house elf, should be punished for makie Mistress be sad. Wheezy should be in bed, you be looking so pale. Master will be angry with Tiki if Mistress be losing little Wheezy."

"I am fine, Tiki. I cry because I am just like you. I'm worried sick about my brother, your Master. You have nothing to punish yourself for" Ginny said, doing her best to smile but not feeling well enough to pull it off. "Sweet Merlin," she murmured to herself, "I wish Mum hadn't disowned me. I need her help to get through all of this. If Ron finds out that Tiki did any self inflicted punishment because I can't keep my tear ducks stuffed up, brother dear will not be in a chummy mood when he wakes up. A grumbler…Ron is, he'd moan and complained about Pig all the time, but when that tiny owl was killed by a Death Eater curse; the poor git was inconsolable for days. He's a lot closer to Tiki than he ever was to his owl; he's been reaching out to an elf and his shop-sister to fill the void of family that his prolonged amnesia robbed from him.

I already know Ron disapproves of me wanting to go back to Harry again, he's been holding back, biting his tongue and not saying even half of what I deserve to hear, Tiki just confirmed this fact."

The very round young red head thought these revealing thoughts to herself as she rubbed her slowly expanding belly. "I've lost a lot of his respect and I can't blame him, not really. I disrespected his memory just like Harry and Granger did, only worst, as I'm his sister.

"I can't help but wonder," Ginny said in a soft whisper, thinking out loud. "If my dear brother would have been as eager to take me into his house and home if he had known before hand, that the bloke who made me an unwed mother and the daddy to my baby was Harry?"

It was a rhetorical question, and Ginny hadn't really expected an answer, but she got one anyway. "You not be knowing my Master all that well," said Tiki looking up with confused concern. "You be my Master's family, nothing is more important than family to my Master. Friend's, he tells Tiki, come and go, some you can trust - some you shouldn't, and it's hard to tell which is which! But family be solid as rock; it's the only thing you can always depend on. Master calls me…family, I never be called that before. I and shop-sister the Mistress Orla be all Master had, until Mistress came. What was three, now be four, and Master will never turn back on family…ever."

These words penetrated Ginny's sadness and in these sweet elfish sentences she knew that dear little Tiki had summed up Ron's innate noble nature. Ron for better or worse was a man of principle and Jon as he now called himself was no different. For a Weasley or a Veselkin apparently, family would always come first. The important thing to remember," Ginny suddenly realized, "was that Tiki was dead cert, spot-on, right about how a family was suppose to behave! The thing that Ginny would always be grateful for was that when Ron did find out that Harry was the daddy of her baby. He didn't throw her out into the street, as her Mum would have done under similar circumstances

To be one hundred percent fair, when she had been disowned, Ginny hadn't been exactly in the same condition as she was now. In the darkness of the last few nights, when she laid in bed alone, the youngest of the brood of Weasley's couldn't help but wondered what would have happen if she had presented herself at the Burrow's doorstep with a stomach swollen with child? Would they have welcomed her into their home and hearth once more, or would they turn her away into the cold night? She dreamed that they would wrap her up in hugs and shower her with kisses telling her that everything would be alright, that family stuck together during these things. But these were just dreams; the reality was that she lived with the shame of no longer having any parents or brother's, save for one. And she lacked the courage and strength to arrive home and explain to them of her pregnancy to a man they collectively rated lower then a Malfoy.

"Of all my brothers, Ron was always the one who was the least likely to be judgmental of some else's mistakes, and the first to forgive.

He has been hurt by the knowledge that I've become Harry's harlot, I've seen it in his eyes, but I couldn't help myself. Great Merlin forgive me, I love Harry Potter! Now Ron is the only family that I have anymore and being in the pudding club with Harry's child has caused Ron to lose some of his old respect for me, I can tell. The whole mess makes me feel so very guilty, I've let so many people down doing what I have done. Tiki is right, I am a backstabbing cow."

"Do not fear, Mistress Wheezy. Tiki be here, - Master be here too. All will be well. Master say that he has plans within plans, Master say you be blood of his blood, he take care of you and little one. Master say he be loyal even to those who are not! He be saying that he be too big a fool, too set in his ways to change now. So fear not Mistress, you and little Wheezy be safe here.

My Master be very good at planning, thinks of everything. Plan be like chess, he be checked every move, planned for each counter move. No one ever beats Master. But you must be in bed now and rest, I be telling you when Master awakes."

"All right Tiki, I will go and lay down, as long as I have your promise to tell me when Ron comes out of that room," Ginny said, while accepting the house elf's aid in regaining her feet.

Ginny knew full well how lost she would have been, had Harry been aware of her situation during their last row. Only distance and an excellent glamour spell had prevented her condition from being spotted. Secrets had destroyed all four of their lives over the years and this one was no exception. A lie for the safety of others seven years ago had all but killed her brother in body and soul. Her lie today was also to protect, not only Harry, but an innocent life as well.

Seven years after the fact and Ginny saw her brother struggling with the consequences of Harry and Hermione's calculated deception, especially now that he had regained 'some' of his former memories. She saw his pain and torment every day. Her own guilt over not trying harder to find some trace of his body after the battle was compounded by the remorse she felt for not convincing Harry to come forward to contradict the slanderous portrayal of Ron in Hermione's bloody book. She had laid awake for three nights wondering if by going back to Harry, had she somehow joined the ranks of her brother's betrayers?

"Sweet Merlin, I've made a mess of things," Ginny said to herself as she waddled her way back to her room. "Ron coming back from the dead was defiantly a shocker, how can one man be so different and yet the same all at once? You'd think that as a trained healer I would understand how people can seem so contradictory. That Muggleborn college of mine told me that story about the physicist Einstein, bloody brilliant in science but a bloke who would at the same time go out of doors without his trousers on.

Knowing this, being aware as a healer, that brilliance in one area is often compensated by being dumb as a post in others, sure does explain the prolonged amnesia of my long lost sibling, which resulted in the development of two very different personalities. For Jon part of his personality can be a brilliant chess player able to think five or ten moves ahead in a complex game and yet at the same time as the Ron part of him act as a stubborn thick-headed dolt when it comes to his own love life. I could curse him for mucking up my plan to get two brilliant people who love each other to death back together. Both of these stubborn Prats, brilliant in their own way, both of them total idiots when it comes to something as simple as expressing their love to one another.

Being a bit of a realist, Ginny accepted the fact in her heart of hearts that Harry had suffered over what he had done to Ron, and understood…to a point, his view that he couldn't make amends to a dead man. She even acknowledged how Harry would react if he knew the truth about Ron still being alive or her 'condition.' For Harry, like the other two members of the trio was seriously flawed when it came to expressing himself emotionally. Not that Ginny herself was perfect, the five years of hell she had put Harry through by rebutting his attempts to apologize for the half baked plot was her own way of coping with Ron's so-called death. However, her emotionally thick-witted brother had been right about one thing, there was nothing a married wizard could do financially or otherwise if his 'mistress' had Ginny's little problem.

For more than a year Ginny had been called a gold digger, home breaker, and old salt behind her back at work. They didn't even mention her by name anymore in the Daily Prophet when pictures of Harry and her appeared in the newspaper. The caption always read "Harry Potter and 'friend' attend such and such event."

Her life had really gone to hell three weeks ago, when she had discovered that she was four months gone with a bun in the oven. Up to that point her 'missed' monthly visitor's had been chalked up to the nervous tension and stress of being disowned by her family. Once the truth was revealed, it was then that Ginny realized that her life was essentially ruined. Her family already treated her like a Leper, all because of her love affair with the married Harry Potter. If her 'problem' became public knowledge, Ginny's career as a healer would be over as well, so Ron's plan had to work.

It was a lot to ask of him, but then again her kindhearted brother had volunteered without having to be asked, to raise his sister's child as his own. To have any chance at all for a normal future Ginny's baby need to be legitimate. Ron had outlined two ideas the other day to make this happen, one was a bit complicated and the other…well it shocked Ginny right down to her very core.

There was no future with a married Harry that much was certain. The status of unwed mother's in the Wizarding World was worst than just being shunned in work and polite society. The baby itself would pay its entire life for its parent's sin. There was no concept of child support in the magical world, and as there was just no way that the national hero would get a divorce when no other witch or wizard could obtain one, his child and lover would be doomed to a fate worse than death.

Besides, after their little girl-talk a fortnight ago, Hermione was more concerned about her career at the Ministry than allowing Harry to go free. Although Ginny had pointed out some hard truths to the smartest witch of their age, she doubted that the arrogant witch would accept her insights, to say nothing of learn anything from her mistakes. Not that Ginny herself, hadn't made her own share of blunders over the years.

Halfway to her bedroom Ginny raised her head and thanked her lucky stars once again for putting Ron back into her life. Less than two hours after he regained his memories, Ron, somehow drawn to the now memory filled deserted battlefield of Hogsmeade. There he had found his pregnant sister wandering around the same site, sobbing, exhausted, and without a Knut to her name. Ever since breaking up with Harry six nights before, Ginny had attempted to sort out what to do about her little problem. Totally stressed after five days and nights of failures to find an answer, Ginny had gone to the battlefield at Hogsmeade to plead with the ghost of her brother…'if such a ghost existed,' to provide an answer to her dilemma. The solution had appeared literally out of the mist in the form of her long lost and thought to be dead brother Ron, and Ginny had fainted at the sight of a man dressed like a masked Death Eater out of the past.

When Ginny awoke in a strange bedroom the following morning she had feared the worse. This fear intensified when a fully cloaked figure, with the entire upper half of his body fully coved had entered the bedroom carrying a breakfast tray.

"Good morning Ginny, sleep well?" a raspy voice declared from behind the hood.

"You know who I am?" She fearfully replied as she felt around for her wand.

"Your wand is locked up at the moment," said the man, guessing what she was searching for, his tone laced with amusement. "I know you feel vulnerable without it, but from what little I know of you, I prefer that we have our little chat without having to run the risk of getting hexed into next week by shocking you with some rather unexpected, if hopefully, pleasant news."

And Jon had been right, she would have indeed had jinxed him a dozen times or more when he dropped that particular bomb shell of who he claimed to be. It had taken almost a half an hour for Ginny to accept just the possibility that the scarred and batted war veteran, covered from head to foot to conceal his wounds, before her was indeed Ginny's thought-to-be dead sibling. Even when Jon had drawn up his shirt and exposed his pale white chest, covered with the memorable scars that he had acquired during his part of the Department of Mysteries struggle with the tentacles of the brain, still his sister remained cautious and unconvinced.

The final straw that broke Ginny's disbelief that the man before her was indeed her brother was a tiny bit of silver. It was a ring of two battling dragons fighting over the tiny diamond separating them. A ring Ginny had seen on Doctor Potter's baby finger four weeks ago.

Ginny hadn't been feeling well that day and seeing her brother's long missing ring on his betrayers hand caused something inside of Ginny to snap. Now four weeks later the same dragon ring had appeared again, in the hand of a man claiming to be her thought to be dead sibling. When Jon explained how he had found it in a display case in Hogsmeade, under the place card of 'Friendship ring', Ginny couldn't help but cringe.

Shown the dragon ring Wednesday morning, by someone who could not only remind Ginny, of its true intended purpose, but also of the inscription on the inside that only she and Ron knew, was the final straw, which convinced Ginny that the man in the fully concealing garments was indeed her brother Ron.

The next couple of days flew by in a blur; Jon questioned Ginny about the holes in his fire damaged memories, his sister agreeing to answer these inquiries in exchange for seeing more than just a peek into what he looked like under his robes. Ginny couldn't help noticing the deep hurt in Jon's tone over the shock of what his so-called friends had done to his memory in their 'factual' novel. When he had finally kept his word and stripped down to his waist, exposing for the first time the upper part of his body, Ginny couldn't help but shudder at the extent of his burn scares. She had honestly insisted that his injuries were not as bad as Jon himself imagined to be. However, nothing Ginny said concerning her experience as a healer, seemed to shake Jon/Ron's conviction that he was hideous in appearance underneath his robes.

Here again was another example of the 'old' Ron making himself known, for the stubborn prat refused to believe his sister, a fully trained healer, that she had seen far worse burn scaring. "Sweet Merlin, what a slow witted git," Ginny had thought at the time. "He can be as flexible as the best of them in his thinking during anything involving Wizard Chess and yet as inflexible as the thick prat I remember at Hogwarts about stuff like his appearance or how he feels about that…that Granger B-witch."

Of particular interest for Ginny during those first few days reconnecting with her brother was Jon's so-called get-up's, and after a mixture of sibling bulling and half hearted threats, Jon… as he now preferred to be called, modeled several combinations for his sister, leaving his red-haired, blue eyed…'Weasley impression' for last. There was a spell to apply the make-up, another to correctly attach the false eyebrows and wig. Once everything was in place, and the contact lens inserted, the only thing that kept Ginny from fainting dead away was the lack of freckles. As a fully trained healer, Ginny couldn't help but ask why no one could identify 'Jon' while he'd been in hospital.

"When they brought me in I looked like raw meat, with no tell-tale red hair anywhere on my body, even the tips of my fingers and feet were burnt, so not even that Muggle method of recognition called fingerprinting would have identified me, I was a blank slate both mentally and physically." Here again the old Ron shown through, dismissing out of hand the extent of his injuries. Ron's concern over Harry's or more importantly Hermione whenever either of them got hurt was legendary; as was his well known downplaying of his own so-called minor bumps and bruises. Fred and George use to milk even a simple cut for all it was worth, but not Ron. Everyone else was more important than he was, even his brushes with near death at the Ministry and during his poisoning didn't rate a mention. She remembered clearly what he had said.

"It was only by stumbling across the dragon ring in that display case at the Veterans Museum on Tuesday, that I reconnected who I was seven years ago with who I am now." Jon had confessed. "Look, I'm not complaining really, In spite of the way my earlier self was portrayed in Dr. Potter's book, I consider myself one of the lucky ones, at least I am alive and mentally somewhat whole. There are too many unidentified souls still in St.Mungo's long-term-care wards with no memory of who they are at all. The Maximum Obliterate memory removal hex the Death Eaters developed near the end of the war, wiped many a brilliant mind clean, damn them.

Nor was I was the only victim of their latest in a long line of Horrible jinxes…the fire-ball hex that they used with so much fondness during that last battle, some of us who were hit with it died from far less sever burns than I received. No Ginny, all in all, I'm just happy to be alive, my health could be better…I don't deny that, but alive and sickly, is loads better than being a corpse and looking up at the wrong side of the daises."

Jon's ability in trying to put his painful past behind him amazed Ginny. In-spite of the torment of reconciling his damaged memories of the publicly disgraced Ron, to the humble Chess Master and shopkeeper role that Jon had lived for the last seven years. Ginny's thought to be dead sibling had taken his sister into his home without batting an eye and was totally focused on helping her out of the mess she found herself in.

The first thing he did was to move everything she owned out of the expensive flat she shared with Hanna Abbott, taking care to do this while Hanna was at work and leaving no forwarding address. Then, with all the skill of the Master strategist that he was, Jon sent an Owl-post letter to St. Mungo's in which Ginny formally requested, on Jon's insistence, an extended unpaid leave from St. Mungo's medical staff so as to take a short time position as the personal healer of, Jonathan Veselkin, the British Wizard Chess Champion, a man well known to have a long history of health problems.

Jon also insisted that Ginny owl her old flat mate as well with a carefully worded drawn out story of how she had come across the Chess Master in Hogsmeade collapsed in the lane the same Wednesday night that she had her 'last' big row with Harry. Over the next few days, she had nursed the 'older' man back to health. Her healing skills being the thing that had prompted the job offer. This new position was a perfect excuse to keep Ginny out of the public eye for the last trimester of her unplanned pregnancy, as well as to give Harry, who was no doubt looking for her, a reason for Ginny and Veselkin to be out of the country together.

Knowing Ron as she did, Ginny knew that her brother had come up with this excuse for more than the fact that it would please Ginny's friends at hospital were she worked. They would all look at it as a brilliant career move, as well as a chance to get away from England while the dust settled over her rumored break up with the very married Potter. What people didn't understand is that as a brilliant chess player, every move was not an end in itself, but rather it was a first step to getting his opposition into 'check' five to ten moves from now. By intentionally 'letting slip' Ginny's new post as his personal Healer, Jon was moving the chess pieces into place to help Ginny get-out of her hopeless situation.

'The plan,' as it was now called, had a plot which had shocked Ginny so intensely that she had to ask her brother for few days just to think it over, as it was simple and foolproof. If the Potters, as Ginny had repeated told Jon were both living in a loveless sham of a marriage, why couldn't Ginny do the same thing? To make Ginny's child legitimate she needed a husband with a biological link to the baby, and who better to do that with than Jon?

With no reason for anyone to think otherwise, there was no Lawful reason why Jon couldn't marry his personal healer, there being no blood tests requirement to obtain a magical marriage license. The plan called for Ginevra Weasley, to marry Jonathan Veselkin in Rome directly after the European Wizard Chess Championships. It wouldn't be a real marriage in any sense, beyond giving Ginny's baby the legal safeguards to allow 'him or her' a happy and fulfilling life. To make it easier for his sister to except this unusual solution, Jon even reluctantly gave his sister permission to resume her adulterous relationship with Potter, with any children produced, lawfully claimed as a Veselkin.

Getting back with Harry however, came with a price. Ginny and her married lover would have to make an unbreakable vow, to be as discreet as possible and more importantly, never have a rendezvous tryst at Jon's cottage. For Harry to get his mistress back as well as a cooperative dupe to palm off his nippers on, Jon felt that the high and mighty Potter prat would be more than willing to refrain from asking the kind of awkward questions that might risk upsetting the apple cart providing public cover for his adultery.

Another selling point in Jonathan's plan was his total lack of body hair and his near blind milky white eyes. Both of which would be prefect if Ginny produced, as expected, any green eyed, black out of control haired offspring.

Ginny's immediate objections about ruining her brothers' chances to find love for himself were quickly brushed aside. "Gin-gin, honestly, lets be realistic here," said Jon in a sad resigned tone. "We both know I'm dreadful looking under these robes. You flinched when you saw me, now don't bother to deny it. What woman who isn't blinder than I am would ever give me a tumble. I'm not really giving up all that much…that's my point here, and besides, this may be my only chance to be a father, even if it is by proxy.

I don't mind being cuckolded by my 'discreet wife' as long as it occurs in private, and not where I have to watch. So if you can't resist your married lover, feel free to indulge yourself. Remember however, if you decide to take this deal, you're going to have to be very-very discreet and that means doing the following. One, you are not to be seen in public in his company ever again, no more acting as his escort at social functions.

Secondly, so that no one has reason to suspect that I am not the father of your offspring's, your…lover is not allowed to be anywhere 'near' any child he puts into you. Potter is not to come within ten kilometers of this cottage at any time or for any reason, nor are you to take any child of yours to 'visit' the git…I want that clearly understood.

If you want your babies to bear my name, so that they will not be handicapped by your ill advised adultery, the baby in your belly must be in every respect, 'my child.' I refuse for him or her to grow up with your…lover's abnormal concept of morality. This child and any other you may have with him will grow up understanding the real value of loyalty to family and friends."

Ginny didn't like Jon's terms all that much, denying Harry the right to be with his own child was heartless. But then as she thought about it, it wasn't any crueler than what Harry and Hermione had done to Ron's image after his 'brushed under the carpet' heroic death. Actually Jon was being far more generous than Ginny herself would have been if the situation had been reversed.

It certainly wasn't the life she had wanted, but her brother's plan would save her and her baby's future. Besides, Jon had even given her his half hearted blessing to continue her affair with the married Harry and that had to have been a hard concession for her brother to make. All in all, Ginny could easy accept her brother's solution to her little problem but she also knew that her brother expected an argument over his so-called harsh terms, so she gave him what he wanted.

"Bloody hell, Ron, I told you, Harry didn't…it was all Granger's idea…and she…" Ginny began shouting only to be interrupted.

"Save it little sister," Jon retorted with anger. "If Harry cared about you at all, he would have taken precautions to prevent your…little problem. Birth control is not an exclusive concern of the female partner. Look, Ginny, I'm willing to help you find a way out of this mess, but my assistance comes with a price.

To be honest, I have always wanted to be a daddy," Jon had said with amusement. "So I can pass on my sense of honor and fidelity to the next generation." Ginny took this last comment really hard, not knowing exactly how to respond to her brother at the time. "And frankly, I refuse to share the joy of being a Dad, with the disloyal bloke who stabbed me in the back."

Jon's terms were a bit callous, but also reasonable under the circumstances, he was 'after all' giving up his own life to be the acknowledged father of another blokes little nipper, and of one thing Ginny was dead cert. Ron or Jon, as he preferred to be called these days, was going to be a brilliant daddy.

Ginny suspected that Harry wouldn't be all that happy, not being able to see his first born, but when push came to shove, Harry had no more of a choice in the matter than she did. She wondered if her brother's 'no contact terms,' were his way of teaching Harry a painful lesson so as to be more careful about birth control in the future, or just a small payback for a long ago betrayal., frankly, neither would have surprised her.

Ginny, for the sake of form, had spent an hour trying to talk her brother out of his notion of forbidding Harry from ever seeing his own offspring, but Jon had been rather stubborn about this issue due to his disapproval of his sister's affair with a married man. She knew it was a battle she'd lose, but she had to try anyway. Harry, in Jon's view, was being extremely self-centered, enjoying all the benefits of having a mistress without suffering the shame that society placed on his single bird chatting up a married bloke.

As Ginny laid on her bed, awaiting her brother to wake up, Ginny was once again filled with feelings of guilt over the child in her womb as well as pressuring Ron into taking the dragon ring back himself…in person, rather than using Tiki.

Like the half baked plot of so long ago, Ginny had also been motivated by the best of intentions, she actually hoped for an explosion of temper; for there were always fireworks when Ron and Hermione met. Harry had once speculated that their famous rows were Ron and Hermione's private form of foreplay, it was just the way they flirted. Their rows had been loud, and borderline violent and yet, as Harry had correctly pointed out more often than not, twenty minutes after a verbal battles that stopped just short of bloodshed, they would often be seen joking playfully with one another as if the row had never accrued.

Ginny had expected that once she got the two of them into the same room, they would instinctively revert to their long established pattern of rowing followed by excessive making up, usually done by Ron, and forgiveness usually done by Hermione. However, something had gone seriously wrong, instead of reuniting the long separated lovers, as Ginny had hoped; Ron had returned from his hospital visit once again a broken man whose only method of stopping the pain was drowning it in multiple bottles of fire-whiskey.

Ginny had pounded on her brothers door that morning wanting an explanation, for in her point of view, Ron's ability to forgive and accept others mistakes with little or no complaint had already been proven, if by nothing else than by Ron taking his backstabbing sister back into his life. So that meant that the failure of Ginny's matchmaking had to be Hermione's fault. It wasn't hard for Ginny to jump to the conclusion that once again the good Doctor had been too cowardly to admit out loud that she 'loved' Ron to his face. So instead of kissing him, she had instinctively began to belittle him again, and with his restored memories still so painfully fresh, Ron hadn't the strength to fight back. Ginny theorized that rejected once again, Ron had surrendered and fled.

The Granger b-witch had somehow managed to muck-up Ginny's attempt to arrange a happy ending for her brother, which left the very pregnant, mood shifting Weasley girl torn between blaming herself for the attempt and blaming that self-centered know-it-all for botching up the reconciliation. With Ginny's emotions wandering all over the place due to the baby growing inside her, Ginny thought back to her last confrontation with her lover's spouse. Ever since Ginny resumed her 'affair' with her old boyfriend Harry Potter, by unspoken agreement, both Ginny and Hermione had avoided each other like the plague.

This avoidance wasn't hard to pull off at all because the two young women moved in very different circles now. The outgoing Ginny had few enemies and dozens of friends almost everywhere, especially in the medical field. Doctor Potter, on the other hand, although very good at what she did, was more feared for her rants than approachable. There were a number of people within the Ministry that respected her work, without liking her as a person at all.

Ginny had heard rumors about Dr Potter's ice-cold aloof relationship with co-workers for years, even before she got back together with Harry. Between his sources inside the ministry and Ginny's from without, the overall picture of Hermione was that of a very talented professional, whose career had been a series of successes, one after the other. Her personal life however, seemed to mirror her years at Hogwarts, top of her class with few if any real friends.

Harry had once theorized to Ginny, that Hermione's anti-social attitude was mostly self inflicted, for in her arrogance to be always right, she had a habit of talking down to people in a lecturing fashion. Harry doubted that Hermione deliberately intended to cause people to dislike her, her goal was the exact opposite in fact, but somehow, her attempts to help people ended up being resented. It hadn't been until Harry had graduated that he began to appreciate the subtle diplomatic skills of the member of the trio that his wife referred to as a clown in her book.

Harry, his pregnant lover knew, had come to accept that he had been rather moody during most of his years at school, prone to fits of self loathing that put Ron's feelings of worthlessness to shame. Ginny always thought that her brother's feelings of lack of worth were based on things outside his control. The lack of 'new' clothing, for example, was due to one paycheck being stretched to cover nine people. The famous 'everything I have is rubbish' complaint was due more to the small size of the Weasley family income than anything Ron had personally done.

Ron's means of coping with his poor status had been dry witty humor. Almost everyone outside of the Slytherins liked Ginny's brother, the twins on the other hand were a walking gag, popular but dangerous, likely to explode at any second. Ron gave off a comfort zone wherever he was, people felt at ease in his presence and his sharp comical wit had more often than not been the only thing keeping his standoffish friends Potter and Granger on good terms with their age mates. It had taken the apparent loss of Ron in battle to make those he left behind appreciate his diplomacy and good hearted nature.

Harry reacted to the loss of his best mate by mopping and blaming himself for what was his part of the half-baked plot. Yielding to public pressure to marry his so-called girlfriend after school seemed a good way to get the public to leave them alone for awhile. The "I'm never wrong" Hermione on the other hand, couldn't accept what she had done to the boy she loved, and unable to cope in any other way, had repeatedly lashed out at the victim of her mistake by subconsciously belittling him in her book, and by doing so only compounded her error. The repressed guilt from both the plot and the book's damage to Ron's memory, had chewed at Dr. Potter's sanity a little bit at a time. Seven years later, her worn thin mental pretense had begun to crack.

Ginny found out the extent of Hermione's mental instability first hand, during an unexpected visit by Dr. Potter to St. Mungo's on her way home to her private wing within Potter Manor. You see, Dr. Potter lived in a huge empty of people mansion. The servants were hardly ever visible, being 'freed' house elves and Hermione rarely if ever saw her husband, so, with no real friends to relax or vent with, she lived for the most part isolated and alone except for old Crookshanks, her faithful familiar. Years of unending regret and self imposed solitude as punishment for her crimes against Ron, had over time taken its toll, to the point that she was now having trouble sleeping more than three hours a night.

The stress of working long hours just to keep herself busy and the conflict within her mind over the blame of what had happened to Ron, had created a sort of mental specter of Ron, that seemed to haunt every facet of her life. Her repressed feelings of responsibility had, over time, acted like the dripping of drops of water into the hull of a boat gradually swamping Hermione's mental well being. Her feelings of guilt and remorse had grown steadily, and when combined with an ever increasing longing for what she had lost, these things had worn down Dr. Potter both physically and mentally. So, by the time Hermione had finally sought out mental help at St. Mungo's, the know-it-all's grip on reality was seriously beginning to slip.

Hermione hadn't expected to find Ginny as the only healer on duty, and it was only the near exhaustion from her nightmares of regret that prevented her from turning around and leaving. Dr. Potter's insomnia and ever increasingly fragile state of mental health had reached the point where it compelled the Ministry official to seek a more permanent solution than the self brewed sleeping potion she kept at home.

Ginny would never understand exactly how a strictly professional interaction with a patient would so rapidly descend into a violent shouting match. One minute they were speaking calmly and clinically, the next it was a full blown cat fight. It was only a silencing jinx cast by a friend of Ginny's that saved their shouted…'discussion'…from shaking the walls of the hospital.

For you see, after Dr. Potter had graciously provided 'advice' to leave her husband alone or risk the ruination of her reputation. Ginny had replied to this politely worded THREAT, by bluntly telling the arrogant 'Know-it-all' a thing or two.

Ginny could still recall every word that was said between them.

"Thank you so much for your wise consul Granger, but I am afraid that your advice comes far too late to be of any positive use. I only retain my position here at St. Mungo's due to Ministry pressure. The Minister herself feels that if I were to be sacked for having an affair with a married man and if the name of my lover were to get into the Daily Prophet then the reputation of the 'National Hero' might suffer, and we all know the Ministry would never allow that to happen. I do however, sympathize with your concern, not so much for my own career, but with the effect a public scandal would have on your ambitions to become the first ever Muggleborn Minister of Magic."

"I have never told anyone that becoming Minister is a goal of mine," Hermione replied with forced calm.

"Nor have you denied it, Granger," Ginny replied with a smirk, her temper only barely under control. "But we could argue this point all night, let us just say, that your 'unconfirmed' ambition to become something more than you are now, would be damaged if the true state of your marriage was revealed to the press."

"What true state are you referring to, Healer Weasley" Hermione shot back.

"Honestly, Granger, who do you think you're talking to? I've been your husband's mistress for almost two years now, I know which bed he prefers to share, and it isn't yours!"

"I never, in all my…" Hermione began.

"…Yes, exactly, you never had time in your extra busy workweek, for the last, Merlin knows how many years, to have sex with your husband." Ginny said interrupting her former friend.

"Harry didn't tell you that, I know better!" Hermione retorted a frantic edge in her voice.

"He didn't, Granger, not directly anyway. I've shared a bed with Harry for almost two years now, and you'd be surprised what a bloke unknowing lets slip during pillow talk. But then again, afterglow pillow talk with Harry is just another one of the things you and your husband have never done, isn't that right?"

Hermione's eyes went wide, she face as white as a sheet as the thought jumped into her panic filled brain 'she knows!"

"Ambition has always been the number one lover in your life hasn't it Granger," Ginny continued, "to be the best student, to become Head Girl, to marry someone who'd be in the best position to assist your career. Nothing, or more importantly no one, was allowed to stand in the way of your great destiny.

I have recently come to believe that your all encompassing 'Ambition' was the real reason you pushed so hard for Harry to agree to the half baked plot he told me about. I must reluctantly say thank-you for reducing the Death Eater threat to my family, but I'm more or less sure that my protection was merely a by-product of your desire to rid yourself of a boyfriend who would have been a liability to you now."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked in near total panic mode, as the house of cards that was her life teetered, ready to fall

"Come now, Granger, I'm not as thick to the inner workings of the female mind as my kind-hearted sibling. Ron never did understand how little you actually thought of him, otherwise he would have fallen for a girl that could actually say out loud…to his face, 'I LOVE YOU,' three little words he never did hear from you, now did he?"

"H-h-how did you know that?"

"Ron, talked in his sleep sometimes, and during his last months on earth, I would sit at his bedside trying to comfort him in his misery. I learned a lot about how you treated him Doctor, from what he said while he slept."

"Believe it or not, I loved your brother!" Hermione shot back as she fought off a panic attack.

"I'm sure in your own twisted way, you believe that. But, after all is said and done, what priority did you place on him? I'm willing to bet you 'love' Crookshanks more; after all, you didn't betray him with another cat!"

Hermione responded to this comment as if it had been a physical blow, her head jerked back, her eyes went wide and were filled with horror, her skin turned deadly pale. The healer inside of Ginny saw all the signs of a mental breakdown, but the part that was Ron's little sister ignored these all important tell-tales as she closed in for the kill.

"All boils down to ambition with you, doesn't it? I mean, I should have seen it years ago. You had to be the best at everything, you were going places and my poor as dirt brother couldn't help you with that, now could he? Merlin as my witness, I will never understand why you got sorted into Gryffindor.

Don't get me wrong, I know you're brave and all that, you stood with Harry and Ron throughout the whole war, But with your stunning intellect, the sorting hat should have stuck you in with the stuff-shirt Ravenclaws. Hold on, come to think on it, the way ambition has ruled your life, maybe Slytherin would have been better. Using people and tossing them aside when no longer needed, that is a Malfoy family trait after all. Heck, you could have been a Slytherin poster-girl of the month in using people. Yes, you would have fitted in fine with that lot of backstabbers."

Hermione responded to this as if physically slapped, there was no greater insult to a Muggleborn than to be associated with a Slytherin.

"Now, it makes me sick just to think of it, but in a way, I'm glad Ron's dead." Ginny said, her whole body shuddering in dread. "All of us Weasleys are big into families, and that means having babies. Ron may have called the first-years shortie and titchy little midgets, but none of the lower year Gryffindors feared Ron. He treated them all like little brothers and sisters and if they had a non-school related problem, well, did you happen to notice that they 'always' took that kind of stuff to him instead of you?"

"Yes, I did notice that," Hermione said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Anyroad, as I was saying, had you stayed with my brother, I'm pretty sure he would have paralleled Harry's life with you." Ginny said twisting in the knife. "Because in serving your ambition, there appeared to be no time in six years set aside for a honeymoon, and of course you couldn't have climbed the latter of success at the Ministry if the trip up kept getting interrupted by maternity leaves.

In point of fact, I'm rather surprised that the Daily Prophet has never commented on the fact that after six years of wedded bliss, you have still failed to present the world with a Potter heir. Its not Harry's fault, I know that for certain, for each year as a Auror he is required to have a 'complete' physical and being a healer I have access to his file. Let's just say he is very fertile and leave it at that. So that leaves you either sterile or the childless condition of your marriage is a conscious choice on your part. I remember how much Harry wanted to start a family of his own, so it's a safe guess he isn't the one saying no."

"Why are you being so cruel to me? I haven't interfered with your affair with my husband." Hermione pleaded in a humiliated tone of defeat. "All I wanted when I came in here was medical advice; all I have gotten instead has been insults.

There is a lot wrong with you Granger, however, I cannot separate the physical for the mental symptoms without doing my patient's a disservice. So humor me by answering a few questions."

Forcing herself to remain calm, and getting a somewhat firmer grip on her shattering nerves. Doctor Potter coolly replied. "Very well, ask your questions."

Healer Weasley attempted to maintain her professional detachment and this took more effort than she wanted to admit.

"You say here in the admittal from, that you have experienced trouble sleeping, has this been a recent development or long term?"

"Long term." Hermione replied.

"How long are we talking about here, days, weeks, months or years?" Ginny asked.

"Years, but it had been getting far worse lately." Hermione responded.

Did this restlessness at night, begin roughly around the time that I resumed seeing your husband romantically, or did it precede that date?" Ginny asked in a monotone.

"You're a cold one aren't you?" Hermione responded with a touch of contempt.

"What I am, is not the issue here, answer the question." Ginny replied in her coolest professional voice.

"Alright, you win! It does go back a lot farther than the start your…'affair' with Harry. I first began having trouble sleeping through the night during my last year at Hogwarts," Hermione said with a touch of heat.

"I see, so tell me, does this affliction become more intense at any particular time of the year." Said the unemotional healer.

"Yes, September in particular, I hardly sleep at all." Hermione reluctantly admitted.

"Do you experience, nightmares, daytime fatigue with bouts of irritability?" Ginny probed deeper.

"Yes, have you seen this kind of illness before? Does it have a name? A frantic Granger asked.

"And you have had these intense bouts of depression and sleeplessness since…" Ginny began ignoring Grangers questions.

"…The end of the war, yes…yes, so what's wrong with me?" Hermione shouted franticly

"Guilt" was the cold matter of fact reply from Ginny.

"What?" Hermione asked astonished.

"Its official name is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Ginny replied while marking something down on the clipboard she carried, "but I can narrow it down even more, because you're suffering from the same thing Harry was when he came to me two years ago. You're suffering from what's called 'Survivors Guilt,' or in simpler terms, you're suffering because you are alive today and my brother Ron isn't.

It took time, but Harry was able to finally accept his responsibility surrounding how his best-mate died. In therapy he came to acknowledge that Ron meeting his fate believing that someone who he trusted like a brother had stabbed him in back was tearing him apart mentally. Solving a mental issue like this, cannot begin until the patient accepts that the overwhelming guilt exists."

"So you're claiming that I'm in denial about how the war ended!" Hermione said shocked.

"You can't even say it, can you?" Ginny said looking up from her clipboard with an evil wicked smirk. "To say nothing of admitting to yourself that you feel guilty about the lies you wrote about the man who saved your arse seven years ago.

Have you even once called that day something other than the end of the war? Ron died that day, you ungrateful snot…defending you and you're afraid to admit that, even to yourself, isn't that true? A man who said out loud that he loved you went to his death unaware of the half baked plot, he died convinced he'd been cheated on and betrayed by you and seven years later you can't even acknowledge publicly to one healer alone in this room, that my brother died for your ungrateful arse."

"Why are you being so cruel to me?"

"Cruel? Ha! This isn't cruel; if anything I'm restraining myself. You have ruined a lot of lives Granger, Ron deserved better from you than the humiliation he got. But if the truth be told, I can forgive your ambition, and your manipulation of Harry and my brother, like I said I should have seen it coming, it was always there, plain as day.

No, the thing that really buggers the deal isn't the lies, the betrayal, or the abuse you showered on Ron in your awful book. It's that ring you're wearing that's setting my blood to boil." Ginny said noticing that the moment the dragon ring was mentioned, Hermione at once glance down to reassure herself that her most prized procession, was still firmly on her baby finger.

"Yes, you disloyal cow, the dragon ring, the one you shrunk down to fit your baby finger…the Dragon ring that actually belongs to my dead brother." Ginny declared her eyes on fire, her hands balled into fists.

"R-Ron, gave me this ring as a token of f-friendship"

"Liar" Ginny shouted, causing Hermione to step back and look away her guilt obvious

"Ginny, honestly I don't…" Granger feebly began grasping for an excuse to counter this painful truth.

I said…LIAR. Tell me Granger, exactly when did you lose all contact with telling the truth? Ron never gave you that ring. He did buy it for you I don't deny that, I helped him pick it out, so I know. But just one day before his death, I saw it in his school trunk, up in his dorm, he showed it to me, you…overambitious…harpy."

Hermione responded to this with her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, stricken dumb by the cold truth and unable to think of anything to say.

"Save your breath Granger," Ginny said before Granger could come up with yet another lie. "Harry already admitted to me that he stole it out of Ron's trunk to give to you as a remembrance of him, save your tall tales for someone who might believe your Dragon dung.

And, by the way, 'friendship ring'…my ARSE! Have you ever had that ring appraised? We Weasleys have never been rich, so ickle Ronniekins had to sell everything of value in his Chudley Cannons memorabilia collection to buy it. That's a real diamond those two dragons are fighting over, every brass Knut Ron owned went into getting that for you. Of course, he never had the chance to give it to you in person at the end of term ball, because you had to practice your little half baked plot public snogging demonstration that Ron and I walked in on…damn it, and damn you." Ginny shouted as she began to cry.

"This isn't a friendship ring?" Hermione asked horrified.

"Of course not, you retched cow! Harry told me he shrunk it down to fit your baby finger before giving it to you and told you it was a friendship ring. He lied to you Granger, how do you like them apples. But what does it matter now, Ron's dead and you killed him.

Bloody hell, Granger, don't you get it? You're wearing stolen goods. Take it off Granger; toss it in the bin along side the rest of the rubbish you collected from us Weasleys, that's what you did to him, remember?" Ginny shouted openly sobbing. "Stay way from me, if I ever see you wearing my dead brother's ring ever again, I swear to Merlin…I'll kill you!"

Hermione, with both hands covering her face, flew out of the room sobbing openly, leaving Ginny weeping in grief behind. The healer inside of Ginny regretted letting Hermione leave the hospital shattered emotionally, but Ron's little sister relished the long overdue payback to her brother's betrayer.

Ginny's victory over the arrogant know-it-all was short lived however, for a mere six days later she discovered her membership in the pudding club. Yes…it had been kind of the fates to put the gentle-hearted and forgiving Jon on her path Tuesday night, she needed him more than ever now. She had wanted "happily ever after" with Harry; a home and a family. What she had received instead were the titles of mistress and harlot, and an infant out of wedlock that damned both mother and child.

Ginny returned to the present, laying there on the bed in the guestroom of Chess Master Cottage, Ginny pondered the changes in her brother during his seven year absence. Jon was far more focused than the seventeen year old sibling Ginny remembered. He was still thick as a post when it came to women and his dealings with them, that hadn't changed. But unlike during the war, when he frankly didn't expect to live to see another birthday, the man now calling himself Jonathan had a plan for the rest of his life.

He had 'some' of his old memories back, and realizing who he had been and the way history pictured him, he was now determined to put the past behind him. But before he moved on, he would do right by his sister, give her child his new name to protect the innocent unborn with the same kind of devotion he had once showered on Granger and Potter. It was sad really, Harry and Hermione had lost the best mate and best boyfriend in the world, and they would never see Ron again. She didn't blame her brother for not wanting to see them again. Harry would be desperate to apologize to his former best-mate, and denying him that privilege was a brilliant form of punishment, Granger on the other hand deserved to be ignored.

Stretching out on her bed, Ginny one more time thanked Merlin that her big brother had returned from the grave to save her from ruin, and that was a very comforting thought, which provided Ginny with enough peace of mind that allowed her to drift off into sleep.

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Later that day, the first thing that Jon saw when he opened his eyes again was an empty fire-whiskey bottle lying on the floor. That the bottle was lying within inches of his face indicated that he too was on the floor, which he groggily recalled, was not his normal place to sleep.

The second thing he noticed was the pounding in his head; it felt as if a half-dozen large hippogriffs in clogs where doing the tango on his noggin all at the same time. This was the payback for ingesting the contents of no less than four large bottles of the extra strong alcoholic wizarding beverage without food, a 'hangover', Jon wincingly thought, yes, that was the Muggle term for his condition. He had just sat up, and it took three attempts to accomplish this feat when his head began to pound again at a very familiar sounding.

"POP"

A tiny and very worried female house elf, clothed in a dress like garment composed of a rather large dishtowel, appeared inside the private study of the reluctantly sober Wizard Chess Champion of the entire United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

"Thank the goodness you be awake Master, woe is me…woe is me! Mistress Wheezy didn't keep her breakfast or lunch down and be ill all over Master's clean carpets," the little house elf exclaimed squeakily. "She be so weak and pale Master, Tiki be worried…oh so worried."

"Calm down Tiki, I have taken steps on that issue and a final solution is on the way for my sister, at least I hope it is. Have I gotten any owl posts this morning?"

"Afternoon, Master," the house elf hesitatingly declared.

"AFTERNOON" Jon shouted and then instantly regretted it as his head protested, again throbbing painfully in the strongest terms due to another loud noise.

"Yes, Master, early afternoon. I be bringing your drinkie-head potion to make skull bang-bang's go away," the tiny house elf declared, handing Jon a small vial of greenish liquid.

"Tiki, I just realized you're calling me 'Master' again. You only do that when something is seriously wrong. Is it my sister? Is there something about her that you're not telling me?" Jon asked after forcing the foul tasting green liquid down his throat, instantly feeling better for it, his headache fading almost at once.

"No, Master, it not be blood-kin sister, it be shop-kin sister, she be flooing here every half hour for two hours, trying to speak with drinkie-head Master and I be saying no. But Mistress Orla be saying it be important, and I be confused about what be doing, until Master awoke," Tiki declared almost in tears, wringing her dishtowel in a most distressed fashion.

"It's all right, Tiki, I'm awake now." Orla rarely contacted Jon at the cottage and for here to do so every hour meant that whatever it was that she wanted to tell him it had to be important. "I'll floo the shop straight away. Just give me a moment to get up and throw a bit of water on my face," Jon said, as he rose slowly from the floor and staggering toward the first floor lavatory.

A few minutes later, feeling a bit more refreshed, Jon entered the cottage's kitchen and moved over to the fire place. Taking out his wand, he removed the protective wards on the Floo Network which kept unauthorized persons out of his home. Although never destined to have the popularity of Quidditch, wizard chess had its fans, its groupies, and unfortunately, its stalkers too. Certainly not as many as a Quidditch star, but as the Wizard Chess Champion of the entire UK for three years running, Jonathan Veselkin had learned the hard way to safeguard his privacy. He was just reaching for some Floo powder to make the call when the fire turned green and the head of his shop assistant Orla stuck out of the flames.

"Tiki, is your Master still unconscious, I need to speak to him urgently," the voice said.

"I'm awake now, Orla, what's so important?" Jon asked.

"Can we step through, I'd rather not say this over an unguarded Floo connection," Orla replied, her expression deadly serious.

Jon knew that his unofficially adopted sister would not have asked to come to his sanctuary unless there was a real emergency. He used his wand again to expand the portal into his cottage, and a moment later both Orla and Colin had stepped into the small kitchen, brushing soot off their robes.

"Okay, what's going on, then?" Jon asked puzzled.

"Is your sister about?" Colin asked looking around for Ginny.

"Mistress be resting at the moment," Tiki answered. "You not be waking her, she no be sleeping good in days."

"Thank you, Tiki. Actually I don't want her hearing this. It might be a bit upsetting considering who it's about," Colin acknowledged in a soft tone.

"Well…what is it? I am not in the mood for games today, Colin. I had a hard night of it," Jon said, growing angry. Hearing the snarling quality of Jon's tone, Colin replied quickly.

"It's the Potters… they aren't married anymore. The Minister for Magic herself, along with the High Justice of the Wizard Court and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot held a press conference right after the Remembrance Day Service this morning at nine to confirm it," Colin said in a voice filled with excitement.

"WHAT?" Jon shouted, and again regretted it at once, for the third time. His head was better now, but it was not one hundred percent back to normal…not yet anyway.

"Yes sir, everyone was stunned by the news. The Daily Prophet is going to press later today with a special edition about it. The whole world is in a state of shock because apparently the official who conducted the bonding ceremony made some 'technical errors' while doing the ritual that rendered the original marriage legally unenforceable. The only way to correct the mistake was to cancel the original wedding and re-marry the couple legally. So an Official Decree of Annulment was announced to the press this morning that will be placed in the official records," Colin said in a rush.

"A spokesman for the Potters…neither one of who was in attendance for the Remembrance Day Service, by the way…hum…interesting timing, don't you think? Well anyroad, their spokesman, Kingsley Shacklebolt, speaking on behalf of the Potters, said that 'both Mr. and Dr. Potter were surprised and shocked by the news and will be spending the next few days examining their 'options' before coming to a decision'…whatever that means," Colin declared, puzzled.

"In an act of generosity that is way out of character for the current penny-pinching administration, the Minister herself has offered to hold a Wizarding version of a royal wedding for the Potters at government expense. In order to compensate for a technical error that she was happy to point out occurred before her administration took office and when our skin-flint Minister offers to pay for everything…well, that alone makes me suspicious as hell. That's just not normal for her, goes against the grain and all," Colin said, his speech spent, his voice softening at the end.

"They aren't married anymore?" Jon asked stunned, his voice breaking. "Are you sure about this? I mean, this isn't just a ploy to draw me out into the open, or Ginny?" Jon said, as unshed tears formed at the corners of his eyes.

"Yes, Jon, I double and tripled checked this one, thinking it might be a trap for one or both of you. But the Lord High Justice, who is an uncle on my mum's side, confirmed it. He's also an old fishing buddy of my Muggle Dad's, so I believe it's on the up-and-up," Colin said with confidence. "My Dad would skin him alive if he lied to me. So yeah, that means Harry is single again and so is SHE."

"HER freedom…doesn't necessarily solve Ginny's problem, but HIS does!" Jon said, getting his emotions back under tight control. "I don't figure into this, as far as the both Potters are concerned I'm dead and there is no way for either of them to prove different. As for the good Doctor, she wasn't even conscious when I saw her, doped up on healing potions I suspect. No this has nothing to do with me, it can't. The Potters and I live in different worlds now; we have nothing in common anymore. But even that's not important any more; I've said my goodbyes to Doctor Potter, so that part of my past is over and done with. Now what concerns me is this 'News' you bring to me. It doesn't feel right, and I'm too good at chess not to suspect a trap here, even if this story has the endorsement of your mothers-brothers-best mates-sister.

"Uncle, he's my uncle on my Mums side." Colin said trying to explain.

"I'm just pulling your leg, my boy, just teasing!" Jon said drolly

"So, you think it's a trap Jon?" Colin said smiling at the gentle teasing.

"Do you mean…a set up?" Orla asked, suddenly concerned.

First off, from what Colin here has just said, and I happen to agree, such generosity on behalf of our current Minister is way out of character of her normal behavior, she has been known to rub Knuts together hoping they'd reproduce. No, the only reason she would propose to spend lavishly on a wizard royal wedding was if she was sure that it would never take place.

Secondly, this is the Ministry openly admitting to a mistake, and we all know how far the government is willing to go to avoid that. So for them to call a press conference to acknowledge a muck-up of this importance bespeaks of an ulterior motive. Add it all up and I have to think the Muggle saying fits this situation perfectly, 'if something seems too good to be true, it generally isn't true" So lets proceed with caution here, with both eyes open.

"Hey, wait a minute here, you mean you never actually spoke to Granger?" Orla asked. "I thought the whole point of going there personally…"

"No, the reason for my going was to confront a ghost from my past. Like I said, she and I don't move in the same circles anymore and she didn't have to be awake for me to gain closure. Until last Saturday both Potters thought I was dead and perhaps it's for the best, that no one tells them otherwise eh? Wearing the Weasley get-up at the Nationals was a mistake that I won't be making again, without it, they can suspect all they want, but they can't prove squat." Jon said, more to himself than anyone in the room, his voice tapering off at the end as his mind filled with thoughts of 'her.'

"JON, that's pure CODSWALLOP!" Orla declared, her hands on her hips in the classic pose of a woman who wasn't about to take any malarkey from her unofficial big brother. "You have been through hell these last few days. I know full well how you feel about HER and you just can't stand there and say it doesn't matter because…well, I know better than that…and you do too."

"Orla, sweetheart, Ginny comes first with Jon. Family always did with the Weasleys, and Ron was always more willing than any of his other siblings to put himself last," Colin said, attempting to head off his fiancée's temper. "I remember from Hogwarts how often Harry's or Hermione's needs were placed ahead of his own. A quality of self-sacrifice that also didn't seem to make it into the "Golden Trio" character assassination novel that Doctor Potter wrote."

"Now you listen here, Colin, I know you're right about the trash she wrote about Jon, but that doesn't change how he feels about her, especially now that she might be free to make different choices." Orla said, changing the target of her wrath from her boss to her boyfriend.

"Look, Orla, Colin…both of you," Jon said, in an attempt to prevent a lover's quarrel. "You're both right to a point; I do have unresolved feelings about a bushy-haired girl from my past. But that's all it is, the past. My feelings are a jumbled mess right now, I admit that. They are extremely intense because I have just reclaimed an identity I didn't know I had. Sure I love her and parts of me always will, she was my first love after all. But only in fan-fiction does a shopkeeper and a Doctor of Arithmancy end up with 'happily ever after.' It's a nice dream, but not a very realistic one.

A piece of my heart will always want to see the best qualities of that girl…no strike that – she's a young woman now. But her best must always be tempered by her worst in the form of the betrayal that I endured. There is an old saying among Muggle's Orla, 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.' Granger was someone that I thought I knew, but as it turned out I didn't know her at all. That brilliant girl is now grown up and married...or was married, for six long years…until this morning to one of the richest and most well know blokes in all England. A woman who believed that my sister's safety was more important than the pathetic romantic aspirations of the trio's jester sidekick…OK?

But what are we talking about here? All of this rubbish happened seven long years ago, its ancient history now. She is a different person now and so am I. I'm just a bloke who has some catching up to do so that I can face the reality of today. It's only my memory of what happened back then that is as fresh as if it happened yesterday. Look, I've only had these 'old memories' since Tuesday night's shock and that's not even a week ago. All I need now is a little time to move on emotionally.

Ginny, on the other hand, has used the years of my 'absence' to reconcile with that scumbag…Potter. I won't deny that I'm unhappy about her hooking back up with that prat, but she is a big girl now and more than old enough to make her own mistakes. I'll even admit that my family disowning her is understandable as well especially after what we did to Percy.

However, the bottom line is that she loves that rich and famous idiot, Merlin himself only knows why? Can't really say I approve of her choice, but when all is said and done, her happiness is the only thing that really matters to me. So that's why she is living here and that's also why the plan was formed. That being said the news of the Potter Annulment that you brought to me now is most welcomed. Because Mister High and Mighty Potter's abrupt change in marital status, will naturally change my plans for Ginny.

If I do things right I can at least get one Weasley a crack at the happily-ever-after malarkey I read about in those fairy tales. Come to think of it, it makes perfect sense; the hero always gets the girl… well, in this case, the girls. He's had Hermione for seven years by right of conquest. Now it's his mistress's turn to be the Wife of the Chosen One, and the Ministry won't lift a finger to stop it, because the great Hero can do no wrong, now can he?"

"Jon, please," Orla said, in a soft tone. "I know you love her!"

"Oh, I do Orla, and I always will, first love, remember? My blood sister loves Potter so much she disregarded the taboo about messing with a married bloke to be with him. That decision lost her the support of her family and still she pressed on. I can admire that kind of sacrifice for love, envy it even. Especially as my girl would never even consider giving up everything she had for me. That simple fact is what makes this whole tragedy worthy of the finest romance novel in print. She was my first love and most likely my only love, if you take into account how I really look under my robes.

I could excuse Harry for what he did to me 'if' protecting Ginny had actually been his goal and you know, I'm not even one hundred percent sure about that. The wanker could have made-up the whole half-baked protection plan bit as an excuse five years later to get into an old girlfriend's knickers.

So when Ginny insists that Hermione never stopped loving me, I have to ask in response…where is the evidence of that, I don't see it! She loves the prat and because of it, she is willing to buy into this silly half baked plot fairy tale. Me, I'm not as gullible as I use to be, I'm thick when it comes to the way women think, I admit that, but nobody is that thick. Granger married Harry, not me. She slandered me, in her rotten book, not him. Remember Harry never lifted a finger to contradict his wife's portrayal of me in Hermione book, a book he authorized. Show me overwhelming proof that I was ever first in her heart, and I would move heaven and earth to make her mine again.

However, everything I have read in newspapers, magazines and of course the well known "Golden Trio" novel declares loud and clear that the Potter's love affair began during their sixth year at Hogwarts and since then has developed with time, into the happiest married couple in all England. Colin, you and Ginny are the only two people in the entire Wizarding world who claim different.

It's not that I don't believe either of you," Jon said seeing the expression on Colin's face. "It's just that in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it's wisest to remain a Doubting Thomas. Until I see the proof, I am going to have to stick with my 'he'll say anything to get into her knickers' theory when it comes to my ex-best mates motives.

However, if he is free of the good Doctor Potter…oh yeah, right, if they aren't married perhaps we should get use to calling her Doctor Granger from now on. Anyroad, if they are no longer married, then maybe it's time to put what he has always said to Ginny to the ultimate test. Put his Galleons where his mouth is, so to speak," Jon said with a smirk as he revised his scheme for his sister's future.

"You're going to change the plan?" Colin asked in surprise.

"Of course, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. Every wizard chess player knows that flexibility in thinking is vital for success in the game. You make a move, your opponent counters, and victory depends on constant revisions to strategy. There is a Muggle book, science fiction, I think they call it; the name of the book escapes me but there is one line in it that applies to all chess players.

"The first step in avoiding a trap is the acknowledgement of its existence."

"If the Potters are up to no good, if this is just a ploy to draw their prey out of hiding… and let's give the devil his due, the Chosen One certainly has enough influence over our Minister to arrange such a massive masquerade… then this becomes a trap worth avoiding. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak and we will put it to the test."

"But how do we test the truth behind the press conference?" Colin asked.

"By arranging a trap of our own," Jon replied. "Colin, has the special addition been published yet?"

"No, I don't think so. They'll have to call the entire pressroom back in to do it, and as this is a weekend, that will take time."

"Do you think I could place a full page advert in it before it is printed?"

"Maybe…but you'll have to be quick!" Colin said as he watched the chess master grab a blank piece of parchment and begin to write.

"TIKI!" Jon shouted.

"POP"

"Yes, Master, you called?" The tiny house elf said, the moment she appeared in the kitchen.

"Would you please take this down to the Daily Prophet Advertising Department? I want a full page spread in tonight's special edition. Take whatever galleons you may need out of the household account. Be quick now and don't answer any questions about who is placing the advert," Jon said in a rush.

"Yes, Master!"

"POP"

The house elf was barely gone when Jon turned on Colin and asked, "How would you like to have exclusive pictures of the wedding of the century?"

"You know I would, but are you actually thinking of allowing your sister to marry that betraying bastard?" The young man asked stunned.

"Colin! Watch your language!" Orla said in a huff, taking her boyfriend to task.

"She loves the blighter, Colin," Jon said shaking his head, not fully understanding the female mind. "Merlin only knows why. But Mister Potter always told Ginny that if he found a way to divorce his wife, that he would marry her at once. Well it's time for him to climb on his broom and ride it," Jon said his voice suddenly serious.

"POP"

"Master, I be back," the little house elf announced, with an enormous grin. "What you commanded done, has been done! Your message be appearing in afternoon's special edition. It be out in the next hour, they be telling Tiki."

"Well done, my faithful little friend. This deserves a reward. So off you go to the towel cupboard and pick out another outfit. I bought a couple of fancy lace dishtowels just the other day - pick out one of those. Again, well done, Tiki, well done," Jon said, showering the tiny house elf with praise. Tiki responded with a smile as big as she was, squealing in delight and literally hopping up and down with joy, she disappeared with a "POP"

"Dishtowels, Jon?" Orla asked.

"Technically it's not clothing, so there is no risk of her getting free by accepting it. I also reward her housekeeping efforts here with a 'gift' of a galleon each month, not a salary, mind you, like you would give a free house elf, just a gift."

"You sneak; you're treating her like a free elf without shaming her with the title," Colin said, with obvious admiration. "What about holidays and days off? You didn't forget about those, did you?"

"One day a week I am at the shop 'all day' doing the accounts, and she is at liberty to do what she likes, as long as it doesn't involve cleaning. Tiki will be also at liberty when I leave for the European and World Wizarding Chess Championships. She is currently under orders to travel, while I'm away. Visit friends and family and seek out information on house elf folklore for a book I'll probably never write."

"You bugger, Tiki has all the perks and none of the shame of being free," Colin said. "Does she have own room too?"

"Yes, it's a former coal-bin addition to the kitchen. I tore out the old walls, put in a tiny window and acquired some doll furniture that was elf size. Tiki thinks I am storing it in there as a playroom for a future niece or daughter," Jon said in an amused tone.

"Wow, I'm impressed! Now, she was assigned to you out of hospital?" Orla asked.

"Yes, and after I could afford it, I purchased her from the Welfare Office. Her original family had all been killed by Death Eaters during the war and she was homeless."

"Why didn't you set her free, like Hermione would have?" Colin asked bitterly.

"Doctor Potter set up 'spew' to look out for the well-being of the house elf community. She was the one who forgot how unwise it is to force human values on another race. Improving their working conditions was and is a noble goal. Abruptly forcing freedom on someone who doesn't want it was wrong and I used to tell her so. Although back then, 'as usual', she didn't listen to me, that girl always had to be right, never admitted to even one mistake. That was her one great weakness as I recall it, well…that and her insistence to be smarter than anyone else alive." Jon said sadly, his voice thick with emotion whenever he spoke of HER.

"Jon, now that the Potters aren't married anymore, are you going to try to clear your old name?" Colin asked.

"No"

"But Jon…" Orla began.

"…Orla, please…hear me out. The Potter Book is accepted as fact by too many people. It has the same kind of minor trivial errors that 'Hogwarts A History' contains and there is no interest in making that more accurate, now is there?"

"But your reputation as Ron…"

"Ronald Weasley is dead, Orla, I thought I made myself clear on that issue," Jon said his patience on the matter growing thin.

"Yes, Jon, you did…sorry," Orla admitted, looking at her feet embarrassed.

"But you're distracting me with these trivialities," Jon said trying to lighten the mood. "Colin, lets get back on subject, shall we? Did you contact my parents, as I asked?"

"Yes Jon, last night while you were visiting Doctor Potter at St. Mungo's. They were delighted when I told them that I had found you alive, and disappointed when I told them that I couldn't tell them your new name. Nor were they happy that you insisted that they could tell no one the good news, especially Fred and George. Actually, I think they wanted to shout the information from the rooftops," Colin said, smiling at the memory of Molly and Arthur's reaction to the glad tidings that their youngest son was alive.

"They accepted my terms for a meeting?" Jon asked, nervously.

"Yes, to come alone, without wands; to tell no one in or out of the family that you're still among the living; and I even tried to explain that Muggle amnesia split-personality memory thingamajig you went on about the other day. But don't expect them to understand it, because frankly I don't. By the way, not telling them your new name, is that because of the plan?" Colin asked.

"Yes, if Harry's promises to Ginny prove to be empty. Then the bloke you found will suddenly turn out to be a fraud, and there is no reunion. My sisters need for a husband outweighs my Mum and Dad's need to find a dead son. I'm sorry to put you on the spot like this Colin…"

"… No worries Jon, I'm about to become part of your family by marring what Tiki calls your shop-sister Orla, and by now I know how important protecting family is to you…Veselkin's," Colin said proudly.

"Well-done luv," Orla beamed at her boyfriend, "But Jon, if you marry blood-sister then…"

"…My mind is made up on this issue, Orla, Ginny and her baby comes first! When did you tell my parents to be at the Three Broomsticks?" Jon asked.

"Ten minutes after eight tomorrow night. When is Harry showing up?" Colin asked with a knowing smirk on his face.

"Eight-twenty, but I must say…spot-on – Colin, you got that in one. You've figured out my next move on the chessboard ahead of time. If Mister Potter's response to my Daily Prophet advert goes as expected, he'll walk into my trap at approximately eight-twenty Sunday night. Yes, well done indeed, Colin. My parents will unknowingly be present for their only daughter's wedding, and if the blighter shows false colors, then they'll see me take brotherly revenge on the lying Chosen One. Either way, Ginny gets closure."

"What about you, Jon?" Orla asked in a whisper.

"I don't matter. I didn't matter back then apparently, and I don't matter now. Colin was right about me; Ginny's shot at 'happy ever after' comes first and with the Fidelius Charm firmly in place she'll be unable to lead her new husband back here, so he won't disturb my sanctuary, in time, he'll stop looking. After all, even if he does find me he can't prove a thing. I wasn't the only 'fire-jinx' victim to be brought into St. Mungos that night, and not the only one to not remember who he was. There were a dozen or more people hit with the 'Obviate Maxima hex' that the Death Eaters developed, many of which never did regain their memories.

My feelings, my hopes, everything I was and am now, are expendable in exchange for my sister's happiness. That part of Ron Weasley is very much alive in me and I wouldn't change it for all the gold in Gringotts. I will see my sister happy if I can, or I will protect her from harm if the Boy Who Lived turns out to be the Boy Who Betrays…again, as he was for me seven years ago.

Orla, while you're here, can you watch over Ginny while I run a few errands in Hogsmeade? I have a party to throw tomorrow night and everything must be perfect," he said.

"Of course I will," Orla replied smiling. "But can we wander about a bit first? This is only my second visit to Chess Master Cottage since Colin and I helped you move in over a month ago," Orla asked, excited.

"Yes, feel free, little sister. Just keep your enthusiasm down to a dull roar so you don't wake your big 'sister'. And, by the way, my bedroom is off limits," Jon said, instantly taking note of the sudden blush on Orla face and the expression of disappointment on Colin's.

To be continued after tons of helpful plot bunny reviews from the adoring studio audience.

Post chapter note # () Remembrance Day in Britain is their version of Veterans Day in the Colonies (US) Thanks for this Brit-ism goes to my beta-reader Dennis.

Post chapter note # () Yes I know its S.P.E.W. but Ron…I mean, Jon, never called it that now did he?

Post chapter note # () if there are anyone out there who feels that I have written off any possibility of a Ron/Hermione reconciliation, I draw your attention to the Pairing line at the beginning of each chapter starting at number one.

Pairings: HP-HG, CC-OQ, HP-GW and HG-RW

The order in which each couple appears is vitally important; Hermione has fallen from grace in my tale, made major mistakes, and only now does she see the possibility to make amends.

I doubt anyone will claim that once Miss Granger sets a goal, she pursues that goal until she 'gets what she's after.' Is there any among you would will say that picture of Granger is out of cannon. Ron wants to put the past behind him, but now that Mione knows he's alive, Ron's past is on the hunt to recapture what they had as a couple before the HBP came into being.

Think of (Hermione) as a military sniper in pursuit of her prey (Ron) the motto of those expert hunters applies to my last pairing…"if you run, you'll just die tired."

Stay tune.