A/N I promise you this is a nice chapter! We're getting towards the end… But the thing is… I don't really know how to end it! I'd like all your views on what sort of endings you'd like please if that's ok… but I'm not saying that I will use them. Just to give me ideas please! Thanks! Also, thanks to reviewers:
SierraPotter: Well, I have two loyal reviewers now, you and Kp. It's really good to have that feeling that you know someone will review, gives you a reason to write it! I know, sad about Harry isn't it; bless him, he's troubled!
Kp: Oh good! That's the idea that Harry scares you woop woop! Thanks for saying it was a good chapter, hope this one lives to your expectations as well!
Changed Life
"Harry… Wake up Harry."
Harry turned over and rubbed his eyes to protect them from the morning sun. Then he pulled his covers right up over his head and sighed loudly.
"Go away," He moaned, "I'm sleeping."
Hermione gave a short giggle before ripping the covers off him, which was a big mistake.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted, covering himself up as he sat bolt upright all too quickly, snatching the covers back from her and putting them over his nearly naked body.
"Sorry…" She laughed, turning bright red. "I thought you wore pyjamas!"
"Well now you know I don't!" He said, also turning slightly red as he pulled his jeans on under the cover, then getting out of bed with a still naked torso.
"Err…" Hermione coughed away the rest of her girlish giggles and carried on; "I came to tell you that breakfast is ready. Full English again. Molly's hoping that you feel ok today, so that you can eat it!"
"Yeah ok, I'll be down in a second; I just have to find a shirt…" He replied distractedly.
With that Hermione left the room and Harry was in pursuit of a t-shirt. At last he found the one he was wearing the night before on the floor under the desk. What it was doing there he didn't know, it was like he had rushed to get it off, but he couldn't remember much from last night. And as he thought more about it, he realised that he couldn't actually remember anything after slapping Ginny around the face. Well no, that was a lie; he remembered going to a pub somewhere and just sitting with his invisibility cloak on in the corner on his own. He was still fuming about what Ginny had told him and was trying hard not to throw his glass of pumpkin juice across the room out of shear frustration. But then he saw something out of the window in the street. Dean Thomas was standing, for all to see, beating someone up. Harry's heart lifted; what he wouldn't give to kill this boy. But then he realised what he was thinking and cursed under his breath. He wasn't going to kill anyone this time, there was no chance. He heard the screams of the person Dean was beating up, and he actually felt sorry for him. He went outside and pushed Dean out of the way while shouting at him. His invisibility cloak had fallen off in the rush and Harry was bending down to help the boy – he looked no more that sixteen. But then, the next thing Harry knew was he was feeling a terrible pain on his right arm and then everything went black.
He jumped as he realised he was downstairs in the kitchen of the Burrow. His thoughts of the night before had taken him downstairs and at the breakfast table, where everyone was staring at him.
"What?" He asked, a little worried.
"Look Harry," Hermione said, shoving the Daily Prophet into his hand.
He was taken completely by surprise when he saw, on the front page of the paper, a picture of him, Dean and the sixteen year old boy. Dean was grabbing Harry's arm and twisting it round, but Harry pushed him back and bent over and hit the boy, with what looked like a lot of effort.
He looked up and saw Hermione and Mrs Weasley looking very concerned.
"I didn't do it! I swear!" He shouted. "I can't remember what happened but I didn't do it! I wouldn't do that!"
"Harry!" Ginny shouted over him.
"Please don't blame me! Dean started hitting him first!" Harry continued, terrified that they now knew he was a murderer and they would never speak to him again.
"Harry!" Ginny shouted louder this time. "It's ok! Mum and Hermione know that without you this boy wouldn't have lived!" She looked his straight in the eyes as she said it. A smile spreading across her face.
"What?" He asked, realization dawning upon him.
"If you hadn't hit this boys heart, he wouldn't have lived," Ginny explained, "You saved his life, remember?"
He looked around the table at the three of them; three women suddenly smiling gleefully at him. And why? He had saved a boys life? By punching him?
"No," He mumbled.
"Oh Harry!" Ginny shouted.
"Oh Harry," Hermione said, giving a little girlish giggle and getting up to walk over to him, she sat down by his side, "It was late, I guess you just can't remember because you were tired!"
"No," He said, remembering, "Dean hit me around the head! But I must have stayed conscious!" He smiled.
"Someone hit you and you stayed conscious but didn't fight back?" Ginny said incredulously.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked angrily.
"Nothing," Harry said before Ginny could reply, "She's got issues."
Ginny's jaw dropped open and she took a moment before replying; "Oh is that so?! At least I'm not a psychopath m…"
Harry turned at the sound of knocking on the door.
"Now who's that at this time of morning?" Mrs Weasley said, clearly un-phased by the argument she was listening to.
She went and opened the door to a great flash of photographs and the loud noise of reporters asking questions. Mrs Weasley instantly started to push them away, with the help of Hermione. But Harry was watching none of this; his eyes were firmly locked to Ginny's.
She wasn't really going to tell them what he'd done? He had never meant to hurt anybody, and he didn't mean to slap her last night. She was lucky of one thing; he didn't kill her.
"Harry! Help here please!" Hermione shouted at the back of his mind. "Ginny!"
Ginny's eyes were like stone, or like an eagle's eyes before they swooped in for the kill. Harry shook his head at her, and whispered quietly, "Please," he paused, "Please Ginny, don't do this." His eyes were soft and warm, whereas hers were cold. But suddenly her vision dropped down to the ground as she looked away.
"I'm sorry," She muttered.
"Me too," He replied, giving a very weak, but oh so real smile.
She delivered one back as Mrs Weasley suddenly shouted "Help!"
They were both shocked out of their own worlds and it surprised them both to see tons of reporters fighting their way into the house. Harry was about to walk over as he saw Mrs Weasley get knocked back off her feet.
"Mum!" Ginny shouted, running to her on the floor.
"Oi!" Harry shouted, shoving past Hermione and out of the door. "Stop it now!" He shouted, brandishing his wand.
The reporters instantly stopped taking photos and stopped shouting questions at him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Harry shouted again, "Sure, you want to ask me questions but that's no excuse to knock a woman over!" He paused, and smiled inwardly as he saw all the men and women look childishly at their feet. "Now," He sighed, "Who knocked her over?"
A small man walked forward holding a pad and a quill, something Harry recognised as a quick notes quill.
"Go and apologise," Harry ordered, and he watched the meek little man walk into the house.
"What do you all want?" He asked as he waited for the man to come back out.
"To ask you where you've been for the past year!" A few shouted.
"Well I'm not telling you that," He replied, "How did you find me?"
"Someone tailed you here last night on your broom, from the pub," A woman shouted.
Harry sighed as the small man came back out of the house.
"All of you go away," He said quietly.
"But Mr Potter!" They all shouted.
"Fuck off!" He shouted loudly, biting his tongue after he did so.
All the reporters looked at each other and they left, with sad looks upon the last glimpses of their pathetic faces.
Harry walked back into the house slowly and sat at the table, looking over all of the food that had appeared in his absence.
"Mrs Weasley, are you ok?" He asked quietly.
"Oh yes dear," She replied, sitting down opposite him, "There's not much can kick me down! And Harry dear, it's Molly!"
They all laughed together and ate their breakfast in silence after that. A very pleasant meal, once the argument beforehand was forgotten.
Harry lay on his bed in Ron's room three hours later; reading over old school books and looking at things which were randomly in his trunk. They hadn't been to see Ron that day, as he was having lots of medical attention, to see if he could come home two days later. So it had been a rather peaceful afternoon, after all the ruckus in the morning. Harry had really just stayed in his room, lots in his thoughts. He found that most of his time these days was taken up by thinking about his past.
He just bent down to pick something out of his trunk that he couldn't remember, when there was a knock at the door and it opened.
"Hi Harry," Hermione said as she walked into the room.
"You should learn to wait for a reply to a knock at the door!" Harry said with a smile as he sat up on the bed, signalling for her to sit with him. She smiled and took the seat gladly. "So, how are you?"
"I'm ok," Hermione replied, adding, "You seem very chirpy today."
"How do you know? I've been up here all day," Harry said.
"Yes, I know… Why do you do that?" She asked.
"Do what?"
"Burrow yourself in here all the time," She replied.
"I don't know. Just like thinking I guess," Harry mused.
Hermione tilted her head and planted a lopsided smile on her face.
"What?" Harry asked at her expression.
"Nothing…" She replied, "What do you think about?"
Harry smiled, "Me and you, and Ron; our days at school. I miss them."
"I bet you do. You sort of… missed the last year though, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did a bit… Corrupted in the head… I wouldn't have concentrated even if I was there…" He said, in a sort of a daze.
"I missed you while you were gone… Every time you were gone," Hermione said quietly.
"I know you did, I missed you too. I missed so many things. I don't even know what your relationship is with Ron these days."
"Oh, we're together. Sometimes I think it's not for the right reasons though…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, after you left, he started to act like you a lot… And I loved him more and more…"
"What?"
There was a silence as each of them looked at each other. Hermione turned bright red and Harry just stared. Had he just heard her right? She loved Ron because he was like him?
Suddenly Hermione sighed and started to talk.
"Oh Harry, you know how much I missed you. And when you got back I was so happy. That's when I realised."
"Realised what?" He asked slowly.
"That I love you…"
Hermione leaned over and started to kiss him. A type of kiss that he hadn't felt for so long; so passionate and filling. He put his arms around her back and started to rub it. Every second counted. He was with her again, with his Ginny…
"Wait!" He shouted, pulling back. He breathed heavily and felt mildly sick as he realised who he had just been kissing. This girl was his best friend! Not a lover!
"That was amazing," Hermione smiled.
"Hermione, why? I don't… Come again?" He stuttered.
"What? I love you!" She smiled.
Again she leaned in to kiss him, but this time he pushed her away quick enough.
"What are you doing? You're my best friend Hermione, I… I don't…"
"Yes?"
"I don't want this… And I'm pretty sure you don't either!"
"But I do…" She sighed.
Harry smiled; "Hermione, you just miss Ron. He's been gone a long time. And then I came back and because you were so happy to see me you thought you loved me! I think you're just a bit light headed without Ron around."
Hermione sighed again and said, "I guess you're right…"
"Look, you love Ron and I…" He paused.
"You what?" Hermione asked.
"Well I, I love Ginny…" He answered sheepishly.
"You still do?" She asked, getting back to her normal state of mind, "But she is so horrible to you!"
"She has a reason to be."
"What's that then?"
Harry paused; he couldn't tell her. What was he going to say?
"It doesn't matter," He replied.
Hermione made a clicking noise with her tongue and stood up. "Well, I wouldn't trust her, she may be my best friend, but she is horrid to you! She has no right! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to my room. I need to read up on my notes for work."
Harry rolled his eyes as she walked out the door. Did girls never change? No matter how old they get? Hermione had always embarrassed easily and then changed the subject swiftly to some sort of work.
He sighed at the strange event that had just happened. It really was odd; Hermione had always been like a sister, and they were just kissing! She really did miss Ron… That was all his fault as well. Everything that went wrong in this family's life was Harry's fault. But he was going to set it straight. No more murders, no more fights, and no more anger. From now on, he would be the boy he once was; when his parents, Godfather and head teacher were alive. He would be good again.
A/N Oohh it was a relatively long chapter again! Hope you liked it! Remember please to give me ideas on how to end it. It should actually be a few more chapters yet, but I still don't know how to end it! So please, all the advice you have to me!
