Requirements:
*It's post-Hogwarts, but not post war.
*Ron is an Auror, Hermione is a Healer, and Harry is a DADA teacher, though he doesn't like it.
*Ron and Luna are married, and they have one child--an eleven year old son, (whom you can name whatever you want) ready to start Hogwarts.
*Luna died less than a year ago, due to the war.
H/Hr are not together in the beginning, but get together in the end.
Ron dies, and his son is about as angst-ridden as Harry was in Ootp.
The son doesn't like his family, and hates his Aunt Ginny in particular. (Ginny can be shipped with whoever you'd like)
Harry and Hermione, as the loving godparents they are, take Ron's kid in.
Ron's son is a rightful pain in the arse, as well as angst-ridden. He keeps on telling Harry and Hermione he wished they'd leave him alone, and that they have "no idea what he's going through."
By the end of the fic, H/Hr must be together and Ron's son must like living with them.
The rest, however, is up to you!
Hope someone will take this challenge!
Jakia
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and Co.
Family Ties
Chapter 1
Ron watched his son's eyes lit up as he read his Hogwarts letter. He turned eleven a few months before and had finally received his letter of acceptance. Ron looked at his son, Artemis, with a heavy heart. He wished his wife, Luna, were still alive to witness their child's first Hogwarts letter. She'd been dead for over a year already. Ron and Artemis held a vigil for her death anniversary last month.
Ron was beginning to get teary eyed as he thought about his late wife. He felt helpless being an auror and member of the order if he couldn't even save the love of his life. Nothing was the same when he lost Luna, but he spent every free time he had trying to make up the lost of a mother for his son. He thought he'd been doing well enough. He had help from his family including Harry and Hermione of course.
Harry and Hermione happily accepted the role of godparents when Ron and Luna asked them soon after Artemis was born. They'd been with Ron and Luna at the delivery room and watched as a new member of the Weasley clan was brought into the world.
Artemis Arthur Lovegood Weasley came out into the world with the flaming red hair, blue eyes and quite a loud cry that would put a mandrake to shame. Ron and Luna were ecstatic. Harry and Hermione were happy for Ron and Luna as they took on the role of doting parents.
The auspicious occasion was shadowed by the ever-growing war, however. Everyone thought that the defeat of Voldemort would bring an end to the war, but everyone was wrong. The war became bigger. The death eaters formed a band of brotherhood that was more evil than when Voldemort reigned. The death eaters renamed themselves as the brotherhood where six evil wizards came together with one cause: rule the wizarding world, they'd work on the muggle world after.
The aurors' missions consisted of gaining data on members of the brotherhood, most especially the leaders. They knew that there were leaders for each continent except for Antarctica. There was a leader for Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. Each head had secondary heads in charge of each territory in their continent. The network of evil wizards were growing like wildfire and the Department of International Law Enforcement had no clue who the secondary heads of each group were.
The Aurors in different continents had managed to track down minor members of the brotherhood, but it wasn't enough. Information was being past from sources that were questionable, but were followed anyway because they didn't want to miss any information of potential importance. The last time bad information was passed to the England department of law enforcement, Luna and Seamus Finnegan had died. Luna was supposed to interview Seamus for the Quibbler as part of an ongoing coverage about the war. Luna and Seamus were caught in one of the explosions near a building that was supposedly housing known brotherhood members. The building was empty, but Luna and Seamus were hurt badly.
When Luna and Seamus were brought into St. Mungo's where Hermione worked as a Healer, she was stunned. She sent word for Ron to be there immediately as well as Harry for moral support. But nothing in all of Hermione's extensive knowledge of healing was able to keep Luna and Seamus from dying.
She felt guilty for not being able to save her best friend's wife, but put up a brave front for him. He needed her and she wasn't going to disappoint him. Harry was the only one that knew what she was going through. Just as she knew everything that he was going through.
He knew how guilty she felt, and he kept reassuring her that she did everything she could have possibly done.
"It wasn't your fault Hermione," he told her and kissed the top of her head as she let her cry on his shoulder. "It was the brotherhood's fault. Always remember that."
"Oh, Harry. But I'm a healer. I'm supposed to be able to heal," she whispered in between sobs.
"You can't heal everyone Hermione and you can't bring people back to life though I know you'd like be able to do that."
"You know me well, do you?"
"I know that it breaks your heart to see people hurt or to lose people they love. It's one of the reasons why you chose to be a healer, remember? You also have a big heart. But you also have to remember that even an intelligent powerful witch like yourself also has her limitation. Death is one of the lines that limits you and you have to learn to let it go because that is one thing you cannot change."
She looked up at him amazed at how much he did know her. Not even Ron knew her the way Harry did. It scared her to death that he knew so much about her, but then she also knew a lot about him. She knew just how much he felt helpless each time someone was killed but not the way she does. She knew that his helplessness went deep into his being for not being able to stop the war when he'd defeated Voldemort. He felt helpless that anyone, not just people he knew, were dying around him and he was stuck teaching at Hogwarts.
He wanted to be helping Ron find the people responsible for his wife's death. He wanted to find the people responsible for Arthur's death. He wanted the war to end, but he couldn't go back on his promise to Dumbledore. He'd promised him he would teach the new generation how to defend themselves against the dark arts and since it was his death wish, Harry wasn't about to refuse.
Although they worked in different places, they managed to see each other at least once a week socially, during order business and more often during the holidays. As the Professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts and the new Head of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry rarely had time during the week to visit anyone, so the weekends were reserved for his family and friends, as were his holidays.
"Harry, you do know me well, too well for your own good," she sighed.
"I think it's only fair that I know everything about you since you know everything about me. And I mean everything."
"Well, let's not go that far. There are still some things we don't know about each other," she was talking about the physical side of their relationship. Although, they were really close, they had never really had an intimate relationship with one another. They dated other people only to end up crying on each other's shoulder when their relationship ended. They were both almost thirty years old yet they hadn't found anyone that would make them settle down and start a family. Ron had been the only one of the three of them that found his happiness with Luna. But his happiness had just ended.
Ron looked at his son and he saw so much of Luna in him. He even had the dreamy far away look that Luna had when she was daydreaming, but he had Ron's temper.
"So, you got in did you?"
"Dad, this is wicked!"
"It sure is. Why don't I take a holiday from work so we can go buy your supplies?"
"All right. Does it mean I have to see my cousins more now that I'm going to be going to Hogwarts?"
"Yes, you will. Why?"
"Nothing. Just asking."
"What is it?"
"It's just that they always make fun of me. They gang up on me whenever I see them."
"They probably don't mean any harm, my brothers always made fun of me. It's like a family tradition."
"Yeah, well. I don't like it and I don't like them." He didn't really want to tell his dad that the other reason he didn't like them was because they made fun of the fact that he didn't have a mum. Or maybe that he was just jealous and sore that they had a mum and he didn't. He felt like an oddball around them. His grandmother coddles him too much and although she means well, she wasn't his mother. He wanted his mother, no one else would do.
"Now, come on. They're the only family we've got. Family is very important especially at times like these."
"I know. I miss mum a lot."
"Oh, Arty, I miss her a lot too." Ron started getting teary eyed and wiped it away quickly. He wanted to be strong for his son.
"Can we go visit her? I want to share the letter with her."
"Sure we can."
They took the floo to the Burrow where the family cemetery lay nearby. Although, Artemis didn't want to see his relatives, he didn't have a choice since the fireplace was inside the burrow.
The next day they flood to Diagon Alley to buy Artemis's supplies. They'd made it a special occasion and asked Harry and Hermione along as well. Artemis had no problem with his Uncle Harry and Aunt Hermione. He liked them a lot. They didn't make fun of him or treat him as if he was a fragile crystal. He liked the fact that they were his godparents too. To think, he had the famous Harry Potter as a godparent. It was surreal even for him. Now he was going to have him as a teacher. He could only describe it in one word. WICKED!
"So, Arty? What do you have left on the list?" Harry asked.
"I need a wand, cauldron and a pet, but that's optional so it doesn't matter."
"Hmm! Ron, maybe you want to give him a rat?" Harry joked.
"Don't even joke about that mate, having that slime git as a pet was enough to haunt me for a lifetime."
"What are you talking about, dad?"
"Well, honey" Hermione started. "Your dad was handed down a rat for a pet on his first year at Hogwarts and it turned out that the rat was a death eater called Peter Pettigrew. Of course he's dead now so no need to worry."
"You never told me about that."
"It was a long time ago and something I'd rather forget," he glared at Harry. Harry only chuckled. He let Ron have the honor of capturing Peter as payback and he'd succeeded. He was brought to justice where Sirius' name was finally cleared and received the dementors kiss before they'd changed loyalties and joined the brotherhood.
"Don't worry Arty, your dad captured him. Why don't you two," he gestured towards Ron and his son, " go ahead into Ollivander's and get his wand. Hermione and I will meet you there."
"Okay. Let's go Arty."
"Dad, how come Uncle Harry and Aunt Hermione aren't married?" Harry heard the child's comment and smiled. Ron chuckled and although no one saw, Hermione cheeks turned bright red.
"I heard that Arty," he called out as Ron and Artemis turned the corner to go to Ollivander's.
"Well, dad?" he asked again looking behind him to make sure Harry and Hermione were out of earshot.
"That's a difficult question. I don't know the answer to that one."
"They love each other don't they?"
"They do. But adults can sometimes be thickheaded."
"Well, if I was Uncle Harry, I would tell Aunt Hermione that I loved her before someone else steals her away from him or she dies and she'd never know."
"Is this about mum?"
"No," he lied. He felt guilty that the last words he and his mum exchanged were hurtful words. He'd never told her how much he did love her and to tell her how sorry he was for being such a prat the day she died. They'd gotten into an argument over his messy room and he'd slammed the door and told her it was his room, it could be as messy as he wanted it to be. She'd left for work and she never came back and he'd been sorry ever since.
"Well, okay. You know you can tell me anything, right?"
"Yeah, okay dad. Let's go in. People are staring at us."
They went into Ollivander's where they purchased Arty's wand. Harry and Hermione met them with an owl for Artemis and a cauldron as well as a part of his "Congratulations" gift. Artemis accepted it with open arms. He hadn't wanted his dad to worry about getting him a pet because he didn't know if they were able to afford it, but actually having one was, well wicked!
"Well, I guess shopping is done. What do you say we get some ice cream?" Hermione offered.
They all agreed.
A/N: Okay. That's what I have so far as a response to the challenge. Let me know what you think.