All alone in an interview room at the Ministry of Magic, Ron sat with his head in his hands, unable to believe his day had ended up with him under arrest for attempted murder. He'd been so confident about the day when he'd awoken that morning, and he'd been sure the meeting with Daniel would be a turning point in his life. Only he'd rather expected the meeting would lead to good things, not bad.
When he'd set out to meet Daniel earlier that afternoon, Ron had still been wary of a potential trap and he'd deliberately arrived on the far side of Godric's Hollow, away from the graveyard. As he'd approached the graveyard, he'd half expected the restraining order to kick in, but as he got closer to the graveyard it had been obvious that the restraining order had been lifted, or that Daniel hadn't kept to the meeting he'd suggested. Still wary when he reached the graveyard, Ron had scouted about for anything suspicious, meaning it was nearly quarter past the hour when he finally made it to the graveside of his best friend.
The moment he'd entered the graveyard, Ron had spotted the dark haired wizard sitting opposite Harry's grave, and when he got close enough to Daniel to get his first proper look at him, he'd been blown away by the resemblance to his father. His instincts had been to pull Daniel into a crushing hug, but he'd refrained from doing so and instead he'd commented on how much he looked like his father.
Ron had to admit that Daniel's reaction and tone of voice was not at all what he was expecting, and it had completely thrown him. He'd been expecting a warm reunion with the son of his best friend, but Daniel had acted as though he didn't want anything to do with him. It was his bewilderment at Daniel's hostility had led to his indecisiveness when the Aurors had suddenly pounced on him, and by the time it occurred to him that he was in trouble, it was too late to try and run. Instead, all he'd been able to do was come to the Ministry quietly and accept his fate. Although that wasn't to say he wasn't going to fight the ridiculous charges against him as there was no way on earth he was going to admit to attempted murder.
After requesting his parents be informed of his arrest, and that they contact a solicitor for him, Ron had then asked to speak to Daniel. His initial reaction to his arrest was that Daniel had lured him into a trap, but the letter he'd sent him earlier in the week kept playing around in his head. Daniel had sounded so genuine in his letter, and Ron wanted to believe that everything he'd said in the letter had been true. Somehow his so-called family must have found out about the letter and forced him to use it to trap Ron. It was the only explanation that made sense to Ron, and he wanted Daniel to know that he didn't blame him in the slightest. It wasn't his fault that he was being manipulated by the Malfoys as it was what they did best.
A good half hour passed between the Aurors leaving him to fulfil his request and their return. Technically only one of the Aurors returned to the interview room where Ron was sitting, but Ron only had eyes for the young wizard who followed him into the room. That was until a third figure entered the room, and he frowned at the sight of the witch who had once been his best friend and the object of his romantic intentions.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he spat in Hermione's direction. "I didn't ask to speak to you."
"Mum stays, or I go," Daniel insisted with a hard glare.
"Fine, but I have no interest in anything you have to say," Ron spat, glaring at Hermione as she and Daniel took the seats on the opposite side of the table. "I want to speak to Daniel."
"I have no idea what about," Daniel said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I want you to know that I forgive you," Ron said, focusing on Daniel and ignoring the witch sitting next to him. "I understand that you were forced to help the Ministry when they discovered the letter you sent me. But I want you to know, I appreciated you reaching out to me. It's good to know that it's not too late for us to build a relationship."
"Are you serious?" Daniel snorted, sharing a bemused look with his mother before refocusing his attention to the deluded redhead sat opposite him. "The whole letter was a lure to get you out of hiding. It was my idea. Not one word was genuine."
"No," Ron muttered, shaking his head stubbornly. "I don't believe that, Daniel. I know you've been manipulated, most likely by those sodding Malfoys. They've twisted your mind against me."
"No-one had to twist my mind against you," Daniel scoffed. "All I needed was the knowledge of what you'd put Mum through when she as expecting me, and then what you did when I was born. I do have a mind of my own, and I have been able to decide for myself that I don't want anything to do with you."
"But we're family," Ron argued. "You have just married my niece. But even without that, I'm your family, Daniel. Your Dad thought of my family as his family, making us your family. We're you're real family, not the Malfoys."
"It's funny, but by your definition family isn't just about blood, it's about the people we choose to love," Daniel mused. "My father chose to love you and your family, and to him you were his family and I respect that. But I choose to love the Malfoys, and they are my family. Draco is my Dad and Lucius and Narcissa are my grandparents. We have that family connection, not just because my Mum married Dad, but because I chose to think of them as family."
"But they're not," Ron protested. "It's not what Harry would have wanted."
"Let's not get into what my father would have wanted," Daniel warned in a low voice. "I could spend hours listing all the things you've done to my mother that my father wouldn't have wanted. I very much doubt any of this is what he would have wanted, but it's where we are and there is nothing we can do to change it."
"Maybe not," Ron conceded. "But we can work on righting the wrongs. You're married to Victoire now, you are family Daniel, no matter how much you protest. We have a chance to be in each other's lives. We can build the sort of relationship Harry would have wanted us to have."
"It's too late for that," Daniel snorted. "It was too late the minute you sought legal advice about trying to take me from Mum before I was even born. You had a chance to be there for me when you found out Mum was pregnant with me, and you threw it away. After today, I will never lay eyes on you again. The moment I leave this room, I am making sure the restraining order is put back in place, and I will not be removing it ever again."
"You can't," Ron protested weakly, feeling the tears welling up inside him as he was faced with the coldness of Harry's son. He was now starting to wonder if the poison the Malfoys had dripped in his ear about him was irreversible and that Daniel genuinely believed what he was saying.
"I can, and I am," Daniel insisted. "This ends today. I just need you to know that you've brought all this on yourself. Things could have been so very different. If you truly had thought of my father as family, then you should have treated Mum as such when she was expecting me. But you showed your true colours, and we found out which of my father's surrogate family really cared for him. And those Weasleys are still in my life, those Weasleys are my family. But they do not include you, Ron, and they never will."
Ron balanced at Daniel's blunt words, and the steely look in his eyes told him that he was speaking the truth. Whether he had been influenced by the Malfoys, or whether it was all his own feelings, it didn't really matter, as it was clear there would be no changing his mind. For the first time ever, Ron finally started to admit that Daniel was lost to him and he would never be part of his life. His best friend's son would never think of him as anything other than a troublemaker. He would never regard him as the uncle he should be, or even the father figure Ron had hoped he could become if he ever got the chance. Their relationship was dead before it had even had a true chance to get started.
"I think that is all I have to say," Daniel said as he turned to face his mother. "Do you have anything you want to say?"
"I do want to ask one question," Hermione admitted, her attention firmly fixed on Ron, who reluctantly turned to look at her when he realised she wouldn't be leaving until she'd said her piece. "Why do you hate me so much, Ron? Why after everything we went through, did you toss me aside and treat me like dirt?"
"You mean aside from the fact you betrayed both me and Ginny," Ron snorted.
"I won't argue about that anymore," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "You know my stance on that matter. Maybe that explanation would have made more sense if we'd been together and I'd cheated on you, or Harry had still been with Ginny. When you got over your bruised ego about me sleeping with Harry rather than you, why didn't you get in touch and try and make amends properly? Why not reach out to me if Daniel was so important to you?"
"What? And play nicely with Malfoy?" Ron spat. "I'm not a turncoat like you, Hermione. I can see the Malfoys for what they're really like, even if you can't. They were simply using you to clear up their name. And it's worked, hasn't it? Now they're considered a respectable family again and their name opens doors once more. They're back where they've always wanted to be, at the top of the totem pole, and they used you and Harry's son to achieve that."
"And what do you call the almost twenty years I've been married to Draco?" Hermione questioned with a snort. "You don't marry someone and stay with them for that long, to restore your family's reputation. I can see I'm not going to truly find out what you made you hate me enough to turn your back on me when I needed you the most. You're so eaten up with bitterness, that I doubt you even know the answer yourself. I'm sorry you've ended up like this, Ron."
"You're the reason I've ended up here," Ron hissed, slamming his hand down on the table, earning himself a stern warning from the Auror who had been silently standing beside the door. "You and that bastard you married. I am sorry for one thing, Hermione. I am sorry I didn't kill him when I had the chance."
Hermione gasped in horror at Ron's words, and she lurched to her feet, suddenly wanting to be as far away from Ron as was physically possible. Daniel was on his feet almost as quickly as his mother, and the look he gave to Ron chilled him to the bone. There was pure hatred burning in his eyes and for a moment, Ron felt as though Harry was standing in front of him, judging him for everything he had done and finding him guilty of every accusation Hermione had ever thrown in his direction.
"Come on Mum, we're done here," Daniel said in a firm voice as he took hold of Hermione's arm and steered her out of the interview room, neither of them looking back at Ron, who had returned his head to his hands as it finally dawned on him that he had lost everything.