Author Note: This is set in the same universe as my Slide by Slide story. Ron the Hero. You know there had to be one in the infinite multiverse.

=============xxxxxxx====================

It had been a decade since they had graduated. 2007 was a fine year they had agreed so far. Harry's son with Rhonda, William James Potter, was in the Godric's Hollow Primary school, their second child a daughter they named Lillian Beth was only four and a precocious toddler. Ron and Selene's son Arthur Antares Weasley was in the same class and friends with William James. The daughter Selene had with harry was just starting school this fall, her name was Aurora Rose. Miranda had given Ron a daughter she named Persephone only a few years ago. Diana had kept the child that the Draco of that world had put within her. She had originally considered putting the child up for adoption but changed her mind as the pregnancy went on and she felt the life inside her touching her mind. The little boy she gave birth to had grown into a sweet young boy. He had been named Andrew Thomas. A nice normal name Diana had said, although as he was the third child in the new trio as they were called she was going to wonder how normal he would be. The other wives had all agreed they would hold off for a few years until they were established in life or careers. Ginny especially as her career with the Harpies took her all over the UK and the continent.

Hermione had taken classes at University in High energy physics, as well as an apprenticeship in Charms and Runes. Becoming a master of both in record time. She had recently founded the Granger Institute with money from harry as the primary investor. Researching ways to develop new magic items, items that might be sold as muggle technology, or adapting muggle technology to work in magical environments. Given that even the Wizengamut and the ICW had finally noticed that muggles had develop some pretty amazing things they had changed many of the laws. Blurring the lines and creating a new form of magical study called techno-wizardry.

Harry was a rich playboy and investor. He was quite happy to be retired from the fighting darkness and evil gig he said. Neville had taken up the post of Herbology professor assistant as Sprout had begun to consider going on to other pastures with her career. Ron actually worked at the Granger institute, mainly as a guinea pig he said but Hermione kept pointing out his official job title was head of product research and development. Jean and Abigail had settled down to run a bed and breakfast in Dartmouth. They enjoyed their life together.

The Granger Institute also helped set up the Devon and Wales Magical Creatures Sanctuary run by Luna Lovegood, Diana Lovegood and Jane Granger. Jane had developed the ability to shift between human, cat and hybrid forms to Harry's amusement. She also still had a bit of an aversion to wearing clothes which as she ran through the wilderness areas of the sanctuary she was able to do without.

======xxxxx=====

Hermione had kept the inter-dimensional device and used it in the basement of Potterplace to help the worlds they had already contacted. Helping the one with Gryffindor Luna defeat their Voldemort with some devices and ideas. Their Hermione only being good for moral support.

She also discovered that the one with only Ron and Harry as the only fertile magical males had their entire laws of magic malfunctioning. With some suggestions and help they managed to fix them and get their world back on course. According to that Hermione there were already several muggle-borns in the Hogwarts book.

So by the time the Granger Institute developed their Multiversal Exploration and Defense Liaison and Research department she had full protocols for contact and safety of the teams.

Hermione had asked Harry, Ron to make a team to go on excursions and they had agreed.

=====xxxxx=====

Walking out of the wormhole into the woods Harry and Ron both sighed sniffing the fresh air of the Scottish Highlands. Tapping the comms device he had on his wrist bracer Harry said, "Okay we're through we'll contact you when its time to reopen the gate."

"Okay be careful guys. The time axis indicates its 2007 so they should be post war but don't take any chances."

"Understood dear."
"Well I stopped taking the monthly and I peak tomorrow night so you better be back by then or I'll give the job to Neville."

"Understood smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast." He said signing off to her groan. He had to thank Dan for showing him those tv shows. The Dursleys never allowing anything like that in their home.

Ron just shook his head. "C'mon you wanna cloak or go under disguises?"

"Well since there is a counterpart for all of us lets go disguises."

Ron tapped his hair changing it into a long blonde cascade that he tied back. Wiped the freckles off and changed his eyes to hazel. Harry gave himself a beard, short buzzed hair and brown eyes.

"Okay we should be good enough as long as the locals don't look too close."
=====xxxxx=====xxxxx=====

Walking into Hogsmeade from the valley the first thing they saw was the castle sitting on a small hill looking over the village. It was a short squat ugly castle that looked like it had been built for war. There was a wall running along the edge of the grounds that was topped with crenelations with massive gates leading to the road to the village.

"Well that's different." Ron observed.

"Yeah does it seem Hogsmeade is larger too?"

"A bit."

The village was larger with more solid stone buildings and half timbered upper floors. The Three Broomsticks was still there and popular with the students it seemed like. There was a the usual clusters of friends sitting and chatting, running around after each other. Flirting and talking.

"Well that seems normal."

"Hey does that look like Lavender?" Ron said pointing out one of the servers.

"Yeah well that's one of the old gang."

They walked around until they came to a large fountain in the center of a village square by the rail station. In the center of the fountain was a large statue of a lone wizard. The wizard stood tall and proud with a mighty sword in one hand and his wand in the other. The face gazing out in a steely eyed stare across the square.

Harry and Ron both froze looking up at the face of Ronald Weasley immortalized in granite.

"This is what going mad must feel like." Harry whispered.

"IS that supposed to be..." Ron whispered in awe.

"Yeah I think so. Let's just read the plaque and see what it says." Harry shook his head. Being told by Hermione that there was an infinite number of possible worlds that they could encounter with all kinds of permutations is one thing walking into a town square to find a 10 foot tall statue of Ron Weasley in the center of it was something else entirely.

They looked at the plaque which read: The Hero of Hogsmeade, Defeater of the Dark Lord Voldemort Ronald Weasley. On this spot he slew the Dark Lord after a pitched battle with the Sword of Gryffindor. May 7th 1997.

"Wicked. I'm a bleedin hero in this world."

"Yeah nice. Well there had to be one out there somewhere." Harry said still in shock.

Looking at the coins in the fountain they seemed to be normal Galleons so Harry said, "Okay to the bookstore."

Walking past the Three Broomsticks Harry heard some of the patrons singing a song. He stopped as he could not believe the words.

"Weasley is our king, the man who made the sword of Gryffindor sing. The hero of Hogsmeade who finished the heroic deed. The man who slayed the dark lord. Ron Weasley is our King!"
Harry mumbled to himself, "No this is what going mad feels like."

======xxxxx====xxxxx====

Walking onto the market street for the village they found several shops that had not been in theirs. The Weasley Wizarding Wheezes Hogsmeade Branch was expected, the Potterplayhouse toy store was not.

"Do you see that?" Harry asked

"You have a toy store?"

"Yeah."

=====xxxxx=====xxxxx====

Walking in they saw this world's Harry Potter in a bright lime green jacket with a purple glitter vest underneath and turquoise trousers. He was talking to some students about a magical broom rider and a Hungarian Horntail model that actually flew. They also saw Ginny running the counter. Her outfit was just as loud and colorful so it must have been some kind of store uniform Harry thought, although she was missing the jacket. She looked cute here he thought with her tall leggy frame capped by waist length red hair. The faint scar on her face and left arm showed that their war must have not been an easy one.

"oi hey check this." Ron had called finding a shelf with action figures of all of them. "How many galleons do we have?"

"I don't think we have enough to get all of them."

"I'm definitely getting the big three."
"Ahh hello fellows. You're strangers in town." The local Harry said coming over.

"Uh yeah me and my cousin are from Canada visiting." Harry lied.

"Oh good. Its always nice to meet new people. As for your concerns about prices we take most forms of currency plus the major credit cards."

"You take credit cards?" Ron was enthusiastic.

"Yeah all four of the big international ones plus the Gcard."

"Gcard?"
"The Gringott's card. Useful in all wizarding enclaves all over the UK and Continent."

"Oh okay.

They both looked at Ron grabbing a copy of each action figure off the shelf and putting them in his basket excitedly.

"Your friend seems rather excitable."

"Yeah he's a big fan of Ron's and all. I'm a bit more interested in the history and everything."

"Oh you want history you need to talk to my wife over at the bookshop. Ask for Hermione."
Ron froze for a split second as he shook his head. Harry just nodded politely as Ginny called the local one to come back over and help with a custom broom order for a family with their child.

"Good grief. What is it with you? Every world you and her."
"What you want to find a world with you and her."

"Well it might be different. And since this is my world to be the big damn hero you know. Hey I wonder who I did wind up with?"

"I have no idea. It could be anyone, hell it could be Pansy or Cho." Harry said pulling their action figures out of the basket. Cho was a Ravenclaw still according to the package but Pansy had been a Hufflepuff.

"Hey what does the package say. He said pulling the action figure of himself out of the basket he read the blurb on the back. "Whoa Luna."

Pulling her action figure out they stared at the tall muscular amazonian Gryffindor figure. "I wonder how accurate these are." Harry asked walking up to the counter.

"These are accurate enough but you can't disrobe them. My brothers in their stupid joke shop sell a deluxe model that you can disrobe and stuff. Supposedly Luna actually modeled for it." Ginny said.

"Hunh?"

"Yeah Its part of their Really Real Deluxe Doll series. Ron and Luna are both anatomically correct and accurate. Not a cheap series."

"So did you do one?" Harry asked curious.

"Hell no. I'm not going to have every pervert in the world playing with a doll of me. The only one's they managed to talk into that were Ron, Luna, Lavender, and I think they got Cho and Pansy as well. Ron's little harem."
"Oh wow!" Ron squeed. Ginny looked at him

"So all of these?"

"Uh yeah."

"They don't have these where you're from?"
"Well I wanted to get them from the actual Hogsmeade shop and make it more authentic you know." Ron tried to be smooth.

"You sound like my hero brother." She joked.

"Oh well I am a really big fan. So what's he like in person. You know him."
"Well since he's Mr big shot Minister for Magic we don't get to see him as often but he's what they say in the books pretty much. You know the chosen one, the boy-who-survived and all that crap."

Harry felt reality shifting without engaging the clutch in his head.

Ron though was laughing in sheer giddyness. "I'm. Wow. To meet you. This is really nice. Do you think I could meet him?"

"Maybe. I'll see what his schedule is." She said like she had heard this sort of thing before. "That'll be 37 Galleons, 70 pound sterling or 56 euros."

"Uh Harry you got any money I don't have enough."

"Harry? Cool name." Ginny smiled at him.

Pulling his wallet out he nodded, "Uh yeah. Harry Jamison. From Canada." He helped Ron with the purchase then she moved on to another customer.

=====xxxx=====xxxxx====

"Bloody wicked. This world is bloody wicked."

"Yeah."

Walking into the bookshop a several months pregnant Hermione stood helping a couple of customers. She saw them walk in and gave them a I'll be with you in a moment smile.

Once she was done she turned to them "So what can I do to help you?"

"Well we're looking for some history books and of course a Hogwarts a History the latest edition if you have it." Harry smiled.

"Uh yeah over here." She said leading the way. Harry watching her backside sway a bit. Pregnancy had rounded her figure out a bit but she still had the long sexy legs he admired.

Reaching the history section she smiled at them. "Well here you are gentlemen."

"Uh thanks. Do you have any books that you'd recommend, especially on the life of Ron Weasley?"

"A few. Depending on how truthful you want or how fanciful. His own story is the best as his wife Luna wrote it."

"Yeah we'll take that one." Ron said.

She looked at the two of them, "Do I know you?"

"Uh no. No this is the first time we've met. I'm Harry Jamison and this is my cousin Roland. We're from Canada."

"Oh. You both seem so very familiar." Hermione said looking intently at them.
"Just those kind of people I guess."

"I'm a really big fan of Ron Weasley." Ron nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah I'm sure. I see you've been to my husband's toy store."

"Oh yeah. He's got some of the best stuff." Ron gushed.

"Yeah he does."

She helped them pick out some of the better books on the subject rung them up and sent them on their way.

=====xxxxx=====

Harry and Ron looked around the village bit more as they made their way back out to the countryside. Ron prattling on about the various aspects of the action figures and their available accessories in full fan boy mode. The fact he was geeking out over himself made harry laugh.

Once out of the edge of the village Harry felt a slight buzzing coming from his bracer. Rolling up his sleeve to check he saw an alert that there were two magical signatures one ahead and one behind with potentially hostile intent.

"I mean it's weird seeing Hermione running a bookstore but seems so right at the same time. I always figured she would open a library or something..." Ron was talking when he felt harry grab his arm.

"What?"

"Just raise your hands and shut up Ron."

"Aww nuts. Don't tell me we got made."
As Harry raised his hands they heard the local Ginny from behind them. "Just a bit. Ron?"
"Uh Hi Ginny." Ron said hopefully in a friendly tone as he lifted his hands over his head.

The local Harry suddenly shimmered into view as his cloak was opened. "Well Hello there."

Harry couldn't resist but should have, "General Kenobi!"

Ginny sighed audibly while the local Harry chuckled, "Well nice sense of humor you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

Ron groaned, "Oh man. He's got the same stupid sense of humor you do. I give up. Take me prisoner now."

"Probably a good idea mister."
"So what tipped you off?"

"Wrong accent. He's got a west country accent and you've got one that's sort of a London, Scottish, West country one. Neither of you sound like you're Canadian."
"That and you just feel familiar." Ginny said looking at Ron.

"Blimey harry. I think this is a code 8 situation."
"Yeah probably." he said to Ron then to harry he said, "Uh look if I promise we come in peace and are just wanting information will you let me contact our friend to let her know we're okay. I'll even drop my disguise to show you who we really are."
"Okay but no funny business." Ginny prodded with her wand.

"Okay. Nothing funny but I don't know if you'll believe it."

"I've seen a lot of strange things." Local Harry smirked.

Harry nodded and wandlessly dropped his disguise. The expression on the local Harry was skeptical but at least he wasn't blasting him. Harry carefully pulled his arm over and activated the comm frequency. A moment later Hermione's voice issued from the device. "Okay harry are you and Ron ready to come home."
"Uh no Honey we have a slight problem."

"What happened? Ron didn't get captured did he?" Hermione asked tiredly.

"Well yeah sorta, kinda." Harry awkwardly confessed.
"Both of you got captured." She said flatly with a sigh.

"Sort of. The local harry and Ginny are here and they want to go have a sit down with the local Hermione. Just a nice friendly chat. So we'll be running a bit late for dinner."

"Okay. Do you need any help?"
"Nah I think we have it."

"Okay. If you don't check in after an hour I'm sending the marines through." Hermioen warned firmly.

"Okay love you hun."
"Love you too." She clicked off.

"That sounded like Hermione's voice." Ginny observed.

"That's because it was. My wife Hermione Potter. Or rather one of them."

"C'mon lets do all the explaining at once."

======xxxxx======xxxxx======

Reaching the bookstore they entered a back office with the local Hermione looking at them strangely.

"What in the world?" She asked taking in the appearances of the two newcomers.
"They were talking to someone that sounded like you over some kind of device on his left wrist."

"Yeah. Let me explain okay."
Harry explained about the Atlantean device, Hermione and Luna's efforts to research it and accidentally sending him to another dimension and all the things they had been doing since then. That they came to this world in the interest of peaceful exploration and contact but that they just wanted information right now.

"Well you might want to work harder on getting better money." Local Harry said pulling out the wad of cash Harry had.

"Uh why?"

"Well Queen Elizabeth was killed in our war and King George is on the money now."

"Bugger." Ron slumped in the chair.

"That would have been a good thing to know. I'll tell Hermione we need to observe things a bit more before we try to interact with any other worlds." Harry made a note of the problem.

"Yeah. Probably be a good idea." Local Harry said.
"So how did you wind up running a toy shop and you have a book shop?"

"I got tired of the auror gig last year and decided to bring joy and happiness. Mione wanted more time with the kids so she retired from the Ministry when Ron got elected and Ginny moved up here to be closer to Neville and her kids." Local Harry explained.
"Nice."

Ron shook his head, "Wow. That's about how we wound up. Nev and Ginny got together in our world too."

"So you were the chosen one not Ron?" The local Harry asked.

"Yeah that's wild. This is the first one we encountered like this."

"From what you said of the others though you've found some pretty interesting ones."

"Yeah" Harry said with a sigh.

Hermione raised her eyebrow and nodded, "Some that didn't end so well you didn't mention?"

"Something like that. We found one where you..Where all but Luna pretty much died. And she was hurt bad."

"So uh. Is my, er his mom and dad okay and the rest of the family?"

Ginny laughed, "Yeah mom is in hog heaven as everyone has given her at least one grandkid by now. Dad is head of the Mundane Liaison office that works with the muggle government. Bill is still with the Goblins, 3 kids with Fleur, Charlie has some Romanian girl that needs to put some vowels in her name but they got 4 kids, Percy and Penelope got back together and she just had one, Fred and Angelica and George and Katie got one. Each and their pregnant again. Although if you ask me I think they swap wives or something as all of them live in one big house together. You er him and Luna have one and Nev and I have one."

"Wow. That's good. I'm glad no one died." Ron said earnestly.
"Well it got close a few times but yeah we got lucky and Harry and Hermione had his back." Ginny confirmed.

Looking at his wrist Harry smiled, "Well I better contact Mione. She wasn't joking about the Marines thing."

"SO yours is just as temperamental?"

"She kept me alive for most of my life so she's rather motivated to get a good return on her investment." Harry joked.

"Hey we can leave a communicator or something to keep in contact can't we?"
"I suppose if you guys want to?" Harry said cautiously.

"Well I suppose it might be interesting." The local Hermione considered.

======xxxxx=====xxxxx=====

Coming back through the wormhole Ron and Harry was met by Hermione.

"okay what happened?"

"Its a long story but I brought you books." Harry said happily reaching into the bag and displaying them for her.

"Well go start typing you two. And whats with the toys?"

Ron reached in and pulled out his action figure. "Check it out I have an action figure!"

"Oh dear lord. And I thought you having a chocolate frog card was going to be bad enough."

"Yeah wait until Miranda and Diana see it." He said going off humming.

Hermione looked at Harry. "Yeah he was the Hero of Hogsmeade. There was a statue and everything." Harry confirmed.

Hermione just shook her head, "Well it is a really big universe after all."