A/N: So you're aware, this story won't properly develop any romantic pairings, but there are hints here and there to round out the story and my versions of the characters.

Chapter 22: The Consequences of Aunt Marge's Visit - End of August 1993

Ron enjoyed his time in Egypt with his family.

Percy was still annoying, but Ron's improved handling of him smoothed things over.

Bill sought out more conversations with his youngest brother, maybe because the latter was secretly close to his own age.

Ron saw the twins as his younger brothers now: amusing but myopic. Their mother was incredibly stressed while herding the family through a new-to-her country, and the twins were apt to wander off. Ron wanted to stay out of it, so he used the charm he heard about from Lockhart (then found in an obscure book in the school library) to pretend to be a door to hide from them all.

As a result of his dad's scheming this past school year, Ron watched him closely throughout the family vacation. Mostly, Ron saw what he always had: a good father. But he also saw that he shared the twins' mischievous nature. His mild manners were a bit of a front. Ron wished that he hadn't noticed.

The news of Pettigrew's escape from Azkaban made its way to their family a few days after it hit the Daily Prophet back home. Arthur and Molly worried that the horrible man would come to enact some sort of revenge for his capture, so they cut the family vacation short.

Ron privately thought that revenge was unlikely given Pettigrew's cowardice, but obviously he couldn't tell them that.

But he did agree with his parents that Harry would be a target for Pettigrew, so a meetup with him was still out of the question. Both Hermione and Luna were out for the same reasons: the Weasley parents didn't want the burden of protecting them at the Burrow, nor did they want to send their children to other people's homes. Their mother and Percy purchased school supplies for Ron, Ginny, Fred, and Weasley parents' protectiveness and sense of responsibility was endearing if stifling.

Day by day, the Burrow shrunk a little more in Ron's mind.

The siblings were only at peace when they played quidditch. The rest of the time was nearly unbearable. Even Fred and George took breaks from each other's company, which had been unthinkable before.

Both Fred and George sought out Ron's company individually. Fred asked a lot of questions about Ron's extensive knowledge of charms.

Ron was most flattered by the speculative questions: "Do you think that charm could be modified to give someone horns as well?" It was one thing to be asked to recall information from a book. It was another to be asked for his opinions.

Ron was motivated by this to do some extra summer charms reading. However, his family's shock at seeing him reading through his mother's household charms book took some of the fun out of it. Is it really so hard to believe I would learn things on my own?

George asked Ron a lot of questions about Harry:

"D'ya suppose Harry's worried about Pettigrew's escape?"

"Do you think those muggles are treating Harry alright?"

"Is Sirius Black a good godfather to Harry?"

Ron tried to answer those questions and more. When George asked variations of them again, Ron's patience thinned. "Write Harry yourself, if you like."

A few days later, George approached Ron by the chicken coop with a gleeful smile. "He wrote back!"

"Let's see it, then."

Harry's reply to George was warm but very light on specifics. Ron thought that was a little odd, but Harry's summers had always been a sensitive spot.

At George's light frown, Ron said, "Harry would write the same sort of stuff to me. What he says, and doesn't say, is still important. And I'm sure he liked your letter, else he would have waited longer to write back."

George was encouraged, and set off back towards the house.

Ron's mind went to his own owl correspondence. Rook, the new Weasley family owl, brought him a letter that day from Hermione implying that she checked places like Riddle manor for Pettigrew, but hadn't seen him or anyone else. Hermione had probably sent Harry a similar missive using Dobby as courier.

As ineffective as he was, Pettigrew's escape was a boon for Voldemort. The redhead was frustrated. I sent him to the Ministry tied up with a little bow on top, and they still messed it up.

Like last timeline, Aunt Marge had insulted and picked at Harry whenever he was in sight for her weeklong stay at Privet Drive the previous month.

But unlike last timeline, Harry spent quite a bit of time with Sirius during Vernon's sister's visit. As a result, he didn't end up having the blow-up that drove him to run away to Diagon Alley for the rest of the summer.

Harry had thought that was a harmless, positive change. He was proven wrong.

In middle of August, Harry found Aunt Petunia ugly-crying in the living room.

"Er, I'll go." Harry moved towards the stairs leading to the house's bedrooms.

"Sit." Her tone was sharp. Harry moved to sit in the chair she pointed at.

Aunt Petunia dabbed at her eyes, then straightened her spine. "Vernon and I are separating."

"Oh." Harry hid his reaction from his face, but he was shocked. He hadn't seen Vernon in a few days at least, but hadn't given it much thought.

"While you were… out, his sister was just awful to me. About my sister, our parents, and you. I snapped. Threw my best crystal straight at her horrible, bitchy face."

Harry's tone was casual but he looked directly at his aunt so she'd know that he wasn't being flippant. "Sounds like the right reaction to me."

"He took her side, and I said some things." After a pause, she added. "The kind of stuff you can't take back, even if you wanted to."

"Do you want to?" Harry tried to keep any judgement out of his voice.

"No. However, Dudley has expressed a preference to spend more time with his father. I have some regrets about that."

"I'd pick you over Vernon any day." Harry didn't particularly like his mother's sister, but he could tell that she was hurting now.

"I'm not sure where I'll be living next summer, or how the people from your world will react. I want you to tell your godfather about your… changing circumstances."

"I'll do that."

"If he wants to talk in person or by post, he can. But tell him to be normal about it. I need to get a job and figure all of this out. I can't afford to attract the wrong sorts of attention."

For the first half of August, Vernon and Dudley had been making only very occasional appearances at Privet Drive as they spent most of their time at Marge's. Harry was honestly embarrassed that he hadn't properly noticed that until Petunia told him about the separation.

The quiet of the household was overturned after Dudley threw a horrible tantrum about Marge's dogs and how small her house was. Vernon turned around and demand number 4 Privet Drive for himself and Dudley.

So for the last two weeks before Harry left for Hogwarts, Vernon and Dudley were both around, being incredibly rude to Petunia and Harry both. Petunia spent her days looking for both a flat and a job.

Harry squirmed with guilt, knowing that his time traveling indirectly caused her current struggles. Since he couldn't come to Hogwarts anyway, Harry asked Dobby to help Petunia while he was at school, which the elf agreed to eagerly.

Sirius reacted to Harry's news of his aunt's potential divorce with careful words that didn't say much. Harry got the impression that Sirius would talk to Petunia and a magical barrister. Harry would have to wait for any firm answers about what the changes at the Dursley household would mean for him personally.

Were Harry an ordinary child, he would expect to remain under his aunt's care until he was of age unless she couldn't support him financially. Which, admittedly, was a concern since his aunt had been a housewife for over a decade.

But with his fame, he couldn't begin to predict if Dumbledore or some other witch or wizard would swoop in to assert control over the situation. If they did, he didn't know what the game would be. His only consolation was that he could run away to Sirius or his friends, most likely.

If Harry hadn't had the experiences of a twenty-one-year-old and several distractions, he would have lost his mind. One such distraction was a new correspondent: George Weasley. Harry struggled to actually write responses back given how stressed he was, but he appreciated the mail all the same.

Another wonderful distraction was Harry's godfather, though their relationship still felt a bit fragile. He wished that he could ask Sirius about his mother, which had been bugging him all summer. But Sirius' reaction to the stag patronus told Harry that Sirius wasn't ready to talk about much from his past yet.

With only a few days until Harry went back to school, Vernon and Dudley's vitriol had reached new lows. Harry's numerous redirection tactics were no match for Vernon now, in particular.

Harry contemplated just leaving with the portkey that Sirius had given him, but decided to talk to his aunt about staying with Sirius until school started.

"Fine. Make sure he knows he needs to get you to the train station on September first."

Harry nodded. Then he asked, "Are you going to be okay here?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Her lips twitched with emotion, but she didn't cry.

At Harry's missive sent through Dobby, Sirius came immediately to pick Harry up.

Harry told his aunt, "See you. Be good to Dobby."

"I will. Goodbye."

After they got to Sirius' home, Harry had a minor breakdown. He couldn't tell Sirius about every facet of his guilt, but he did say, "I think Aunt Marge just needed a punching bag. When I wasn't there, it became Petunia. And now things are all messed up!"

Sirius tried the usual sorts of consolations about people making their own choices.

Harry said, "Vernon hates magic, and I think that played into it too. He and Dudley kept taunting her over being related to me and mum, once things really started to go downhill."

His godfather let Harry say everything he wanted to say.

The morning of Harry's departure for Hogwarts, Sirius treated his godson to a full English at Sirius's favorite breakfast spot. Harry asked Sirius about his favorite memories at Hogwarts, which proved to be an entertaining if not entirely age-appropriate conversation topic.

His godfather gave him a big hug goodbye. Harry teared up when he realized that this was the first time that an adult saw to him at the station for just him, and not as a part of a herd.

"Thanks for everything this summer, Sirius."

As Hermione packed up her trunk for her (repeat of her) third year at Hogwarts, she reflected on the previous school year. Maybe she should have done that at the beginning of the summer, but things had felt too close. Many things were clearer with hindsight and time.

She was immensely proud of Harry for his patience and thoughtfulness when approaching Lily-as-Snape. The latter was quick to take offense, and the former was quick to get defensive. Their interactions could have ended in yelling or total silence easily.

Instead, the pair had a really important conversation about Harry's actual protection from Voldemort. This year, they could build on this success, even if the witch thought things would also get messier.

Harry's feelings had been hurt by secrets, abandonment, and Snape's harsh words. His negative feelings were totally valid, but she hoped that he could look past them for a while longer as he collected the facts.

Hermione couldn't see Harry walking away from his mother forever, but he definitely could see her withdrawing in the face of criticism. Harry would be devastated by that, no matter how terrible the truths he learned about her were. If that came to pass, Hermione would help her friend pick up the pieces, but she hoped to spare him that pain.

Hermione's thoughts drifted to other matters.

Upon further reflection, she had lingering concerns about how blindsided the trio was on the Lockhart situation.

Ron saw himself as the trio's lead strategist, but lacked a certain pragmatism that let him see himself and people he loved clearly. He also was the least likely to gather information directly. The trio could have just asked Lockhart what was up with him, and he probably would have told them everything.

However, she could see that Ron's recent success with Bertha and the Crouch father and son that his way certainly had merit. And, Ron's secrecy coaching had proven highly effective. Other than a slip-up with the Weasley twins and Harry sending Dobby to Dumbledore, no one knew more than they should.

Maybe Ron was the head, Harry was the heart, and Hermione was the fist of their trio. They each brought different strengths and weaknesses.

Hermione had many doubts (over the years, if she was being honest) if their little team was quite up to the challenges they set themself. But adventures and sneaking around had always been what their friendship had been about. Why change what's working for them?

The witch had many other friends and acquaintances to bond with in other ways. She, Lavender, and Parvati bonded over romance novels, beauty charms, music, dancing, and many other joyous and lighthearted things. She and the Hufflepuff girls mostly talked about their families and school, but it was still enjoyable.

Hermione had something of an older-sister-younger-brother relationship with Neville. It was more effort than her other close friends. But, he seemed to appreciate her help in the ways that Harry and Ron usually didn't.

She closed the lid of her school trunk and smiled. I'll be seeing all of my friends very soon!