True to form, the wait was short lived before all hell broke loose in the small kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
In a matter of seconds Ron went through every color known to man, beast and plant, before finally settling on the striking color of Slytherin green. Then as his face settled on a color his hair repeated the same process, this time landing on the complimentary color of Slytherin silver.
Whilst all other occupants of the kitchen, sat in disbelief as the boy, who had neither noticed the change in his appearance or the change in the behavior of the people surrounding him.
Before anyone could get used to those changes the second round of color changing began. This process continued for another five minutes and in all that time Ron had not looked up from his plate where, he was inhaling food so fast that it looked like he wasn't even stopping to swallow, before taking another huge fork full.
"Brother, I believe that phase 1, has completed, the colossal color change chews, will be a hit. Great for the Quidditch matches at school." George whispered to his Twin not taking his eyes off his brother, who still had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.
"We've only just begun. The next lot should be starting right about now." George announced to the others.
Only his words were drowned out by the shrill screams coming from the end of the table that had caused the household to come to a standstill. The noise that the shrieking made, managed to bring the Order members out of their stupor and into action. Within seconds Ron 6 wand tip trained right at him, with curses a moment notice away from rolling off their tongues.
"Germeofme" Ron squealed in between bouts of screaming, by now it was a wonder that his voice hadn't gone horse because of the pitch and numbers of time he had screamed.
"What's wrong with him?" Remus asked the now laughing pranksters near the head of the table.
"According to my partners in crime he is experiencing his worst fear, which in Ronald's case is spiders. He thinks they are there, but Fred and George have found a way to copy the effects of some muggle drugs like LSD and Cocaine, to produce the same chemical reactions in the brain without, ever having to ingest the drugs." Hermione explained to the room, once Tonks had had the decency to silence Ron and leave him to it.
"So you drugged him." Minerva asked.
"You call it that we call it, revenge. Maybe next time he will think twice about trying to hurt the people I love." Harry responded, with the same glint in his eye, as when he faced Voldemort, who was at the time trying to take away the one thing that Harry could never survive without.
Hermione.
"Why revenge? What's Ronald been up to? Now tell me." Mrs. Weasley spurted out she took in the expressions that passed over Harry's face.
Ginny decided to make her presence known by recounting all that Ron had said and done in the past few days to upset his best mate, so much so that Harry had resorted to finally putting him in his place.
Once her little monologue had finished, Ginny sat back in her chair, folded her arms over her chest and smirked. A smirk worthy of the bouncing ferret.
The story slowly sank into everyone at the table as they, tried to comprehend how someone they trusted could act in such a malicious way, towards such an innocent and loving couple.
Whilst the realization dawned on them they were oblivious to the 'love birds' (as dubbed by the Twins) crept from the kitchen and into the now deserted lounge.
Harry took a seat on the sofa and spread out, lifting his hand out he invited Hermione to come and lay between his legs and rest her back against him. Sighing at the feeling of her body as close as it was possible, with the restraints of clothing and Mrs. Weasley in the house.
Hermione was the first to breach the comfortable silence that had fallen on them. "Do you think we were a bit harsh on Ron back there?"
Sighing once again, Harry wrapped his arms around her tiny frame buried his head into soft curls of her hair, before answering her, his voice barely above a whisper as he spoke directly into her ear, his warm breath grazing the shell ever so gently causing her to shiver and Harry to lightly the chuckle at her response.
"Tonight, we did… I did what was necessary to protect you. Before you start, I know you don't need protecting, but as my future wife…" He trailed off. "Sometimes I just get this overwhelming urge to protect you, and that's what I did. So to answer your question, I could never regret a decision like that if you were in harm's way."
"I don't want to lose you either Harry. We only just started and yet it still feels like a lifetime with you will never be enough for me." Hermione whispered back as she gently ran fingers back and forth across his forearms, where they rested, with a reassuring pressure on her stomach.
"To the end of time would never be enough for me. For I could never stop loving you."
"I could never stop loving you either Harry." Hermione repeated back to him as she turned to one side to come face to face with a man who had, faced so much hurt and pain, yet all there seemed to be in his eyes was the love he felt for her so freely.
An unspoken conversation passed with the mere blink of an eye, before they slowly leaned towards one another and pressed their lips against the others. Neither noticed as they became engrossed in the kiss that had commandeered their attention, but they started to glow and as the kiss became more intense, the glow increased in intensity until the whole room was covered in a bright light that then swept through the entire household, startling the Weasley's and Order member in the kitchen. Gently they broke the kiss, not knowing that they had just changed the future as they knew it.
"I love you"
"I love you too" Came the whispered voices of a long thought to be forgotten man and woman.
"We're finally home." The woman almost shouted out in the pure joy of knowing they would finally meet the little boy they lost on that fateful night 16 years ago.
"I know Lils. I know."
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