A/N: Ok, here....we....go.... Thanks again to Lady Starlight, for her tireless work.
Chapter 20: What Goes Around...
***************************Hogwarts******************************
October 10, 1997
9:00 pm
Hermione was tired, so tired. This constant training that she, Harry and Ron had been under since they had left the Burrow oh so long ago, and the destruction of one Horcrux nearly at the cost of her life, was causing her very bones to ache, and her brain to pound. One too many bouts of Leglimency training against several opponents at once, had driven her behind her shields for the day, blocking out even Harry at this distance. Unless he actively searched her out, of course. She looked down slightly cross-eyed at her watch and wondered just were the hell Harry was. She could feel his presence of course, but it seemed that he was in another part of the castle and her head hurt too much to reach out across the distance to ask him were he was. I swear if I didn't love the boy I would feed him to Norbert.
Hermione leaned against the wall outside of Remus' classroom and pulled her wand out. She idly examined the carved surface of her ivy-wood wand and noticed a slight chip that had happened yesterday in a training exercise with Tonks. And if he would show up I could use his wand to fix this blasted ding, it doesn't hurt it, but I liked that carving. Hermione checked her watch again, and pulled the note out that an owl had delivered after she had left training with Tonks just now. Sure enough the time and place was right. And the handwriting was Harry's, she was sure of it. She had seen it almost every single day for the last seven years taking time off for summers and hiding from dark forces. Well, I guess I'll just go in and wait.
Hermione flicked her wand at the door and it clicked open. I really need to talk to Remus about his locking charms; Ron could have beaten that one hung over. Hermione pushed her way into the room and looked around, no Remus, no Harry. Harry had sent her the owl to meet him here to go ever her new anti-Inferi spell. Harry had gotten it easily, but he wanted to talk to Remus to see if it could be modified to work against other dark creatures. He gets everything easily, it's like Dumbledore's reborn in him...Hermione took a seat at a front table and took out the ancient copy of Advanced Potion Making that had caused the rift between her and Harry last year. With an annoyed sigh, she fell into the relentless concentration that had gotten her through six years of study here, pushing aside everything else; it was at least quiet here, as she began to read.
Her heart had almost stopped that night at Grimmauld when he had come to her in the Library and handed her the book, his eyes never quite meeting hers, and asked her to look through it, to see if there was anything they could learn from it. He had held up the brand new copy he had sent Dobby to purchase and said he would get along on his own...or with her help rather, from now on.
She had cried that night after he left. And it wasn't because she was mad at him.
It infuriated her beyond belief, but there were several items in the book that might prove useful, and it was far too late for worries about where a spell or potion that might confuse, disable or destroy a Death Eater might have come from. Hermione's quill scratched on a blank sheet of parchment for a half hour as she took notes from the book. She had already learned the potentially lethal curse of Snape's, which Harry had used on Malfoy and tried to use on the Inferi. Mine works better, she thought with no small bit of self-satisfaction as they had proved earlier this year in Nottingham.
A soft scrape came from the door, and Hermione turned to it, with a small, exasperated smile, "Harry, where the...." But it was not Harry that was standing there, but a petite redhead at least a foot shorter. Ginny was already glaring at her as she slammed the door behind her and locked it with a Colloportus spell. Hermione crooked an eyebrow as she softly asked, "Hello Ginny? What's up?"
But Hermione already knew, as her mind reached out to find Harry up in their rooms, and she quietly cursed herself for letting herself get distracted and not search for him before. She quickly damped her presence before he reacted; this could be bad enough, without getting Harry involved. Her eyes flicked around the room, quickly cataloging anything and everything of interest or use. Ginny took a step into the room and her wand came out from behind her back. "Why did you have to take Harry? Why couldn't you be happy with Ron, he loved you?" she hissed darkly as her wand started to track slowly towards Hermione.
Hermione sighed softly and stood from the table. She gave the younger witch a wan smile; "No, he didn't, Ginny, at least not like that. He was a friend, maybe one with benefits for a while, but in the end he's my brother, nothing more, nothing less."
Ginny didn't look as if she had even heard Hermione, her eyes flared and her wand flicked. A shimmering bolt snapped across the room to whine uselessly into the ceiling. Hermione's slightly glowing shield hung in the air, automatically orienting itself between the two girls. Hermione's eyes flashed and she responded softly, in a tone that Death Eaters would learn to fear, "You really do not want to do that, Ginny." Her eyes flicked to the small crack in the ceiling that Ginny's deflected spell had caused, "Honestly, Ginny, a Bat-Bogey Hex, you can do better, hell I taught you better myself."
"Yeah, Harry taught me a lot," Ginny shot back snarkishly. She flicked her wand again and a hard banishing charm pushed against Hermione's shield, which should have pushed Hermione back into the wall...hard. But Hermione just stood her ground and rolled her eyes.
"Please stop this Ginny," Hermione sighed as she slowly started to circle to her right around the various desks and chairs. "I let it go when I found out about the potions and the talismans." Her eyes hardened, becoming clips of brown flint, the pupils became tiny pinpricks of green fire, "But I am not going to let it go any longer, leave him alone. You're a friend, I thought you were mine." Hermione sighed and summoned her books and bag to her, and turned to leave the room by the far end door. She canceled her shield and vanished her wand, and had almost reached the far door, when some instinct caused her to dive to her right. The silver jet of the cutting beam grazed her left arm, darkening the sleeve of her white blouse with her blood and cutting the strap of her pack on that side causing it to spill to the floor. Books and papers flew about the room, an inkpot shattered and pencils, quills, and a tube of strawberry flavored lip-gloss rolled under a desk.
"Don't you turn your back on me, you scarlet woman, you...slag. You're just like his mother a Mud..." Ginny roared, and Hermione took a breath. She bit her lip and her small fists clenched.
"Fine then," she said flatly as she cut off Ginny's rant. Hermione rolled her neck slightly, cracking it, and turned to Ginny in a voice of slow-pulled steel, "Ginevra Molly Weasley...with no provocation, you have attacked me with a lethal curse and insulted the honor of myself and my lover," Ginny gasped loudly as Hermione finally admitted what had been her greatest fear since seeing them seemingly back to themselves at Bill and Fleur's wedding the day after Hermione had ended things with Ron. "You will meet me on the Field of Honor at noon on the 'marrow. You may chose a second that will fight in your place should you fail to appear. You are reminded, as this is Hogwarts, the duel is to incapacitation, Unforgivables will result in your termination by the appointed judge. However, any spell other than the forbidden three may be cast and could result in death if properly utilized. On your honor as a Gryffindor, do you accept the terms as presented or will you give restitution to myself and Master Potter?" Hermione's words were almost verbatim from Hogwarts a History. They were the formal terms used at a Duel of Honor, and that had not been used in almost fifty years, until this year, when Harry had already had to face two duels with various Slytherins too stupid to abide by his and Hermione's midnight warning a month ago, or when Ron had stood as Luna's champion after she had been ambushed after a DA meeting by Austin Waldinger, a sixth year Slytherin that had probably been put up to it.
Minerva McGonagall's glare at Harry and Hermione had been historic the day she had signed off on the duel between Harry and Jacob Flint, but she had just nodded in the end, and agreed. Umbridge in her capacity as overseer for the Ministry had growled and wined and railed and threatened the two Heads with expulsion and incarceration, until Harry's faintly glowing eyes had finally turned to her and told her to "shut up" with the addition of an expletive normally used in conjunction with an activity that it was doubtful that Umbridge had herself ever experienced.
The toad had scampered away, and McGonagall's almost hidden grin was not lost on either of them, especially not after Harry had asked her point blank at the start of school, when her appointment had been announced, why he as a Gryffindor, should ever be expected to meekly bow down to a tyrant of any level. The realization of the fact that that was exactly what she had advised him to do fifth year was not lost on any of them.
Ginny's brown eyes were almost as hard as Hermione's when she nodded, "I will not need a second; I will be there."
"Very well," Hermione replied and watched, wordlessly, as Ginny stalked out of the room. She slowly picked up her books and things and placed them in her bag carefully. She mended the strap severed by Ginny's cutting spell and checked the fit of a pair of daggers beneath her robes at her back, all in an futile attempt to calm herself. The attempt failed.
A heartbeat later, she was running though the halls of the castle, ignoring a shouted complaint by Flich as she sprinted up the stairs to the seventh floor. She scraped her shoulder on the secret archway to the Head's suite as she was through the arch before it had even fully formed. The upper door slammed open as she approached and Harry and Crookshanks looked up from where they were reclining on the couch, Harry reading a treatise on wandless Transfiguration and the Kneazle enjoying a leisurely scratch behind the ears as he lay in Harry's lap.
Crookshanks barely got clear as his brunette-haired mistress threw herself into Harry's arms and started weeping. Harry didn't ask, he just held her against his shoulder, stoking her hair with the hand that had held the abandoned book, and kissing the crown of her head as the other hand rubbed the small of her back in small circles. Finally, she pulled away slightly and rolled in his arms, to face the fire in the corner. She arched back into him, pressing her back against his chest as if trying to touch him with her whole body. "What's wrong Mione?" Harry asked quietly as he knew tears continued to roll down her cheeks. His thumb came up and swept a few away as his lips kissed her collarbone softly.
"Ginny..."
"Ginny, what?" Harry inquired as his voice started to rise slowly, "What happened Hermione?" His tone became quietly urgent as he wondered what could have happened to the diminutive witch, who despite his and Hermione's, and Ron's if it came down to it, differences with her she was still their friend, or so he thought. He did not know as her thoughts were closed and warded, a practice that she normally did not practice, at least not with him. Hermione sighed and sat up, and turned around to face him once more. Harry's heart moaned at the sight of still more tears in her eyes. She grabbed both of his hands with hers tightly and met his eyes; a flare and a rush of images filled his thoughts.
"Damn," Harry whispered. He dropped her hands and pulled her back into his shoulder as she started to cry openly again. Damn Ginny, damn it. She cried softly for several minutes more until, with a soft choked sound she pulled away and wiped tears angrily. "She faked the note Hermione, I never, I would have been there, I thought that you were up in the Library, I..."
Hermione gave him a forced half-smile and a soft snort, "I know Harry, I knew as soon as I saw her come in the door."
Harry slowly rose from the couch and kneeled next to her. His hand reached out and cupped her cheek, Hermione rubbed against it as her eyes closed. "Are you going to be alright for a bit, Mione? I...need to go talk to McGonagall."
"Yeah," she breathed, "and I need...I need to talk to Ron." Harry nodded at her as he left via the passage to the corridor. Hermione took a deep breath and headed in the opposite direction, towards the Gryffindor common room.
***************************Hogwarts, Quidditch Pitch*******************
Saturday, October 11, 1997
11:58 am
The sky was endlessly blue as Hermione stood in a black duelist's cloak, bearing the markings of the Head Girl, on the edge of the center circle in the middle of the green grass of the pitch. She glanced around at the stands surrounding the pitch, where at least most of the school was gathered. And while the student body at Hogwarts was at least halved due to the war, there were still many, many students, Professors and others looking down at her as she waited for the preliminaries to end.
Opposite her, Ginny waited as well, in scarlet robes emblazoned with the Gryffindor crest, her wand was held easily in front of her as she glared at Hermione. Over to one side, halfway between her and Hermione, Harry, McGonagall, Flitwick, Remus and Ron stood, and none of them looked happy at all to be there. Poppy stood a ways back, a stretcher and several bags ready just in case.
Harry was there as he was the Head Boy, though he had wanted to stand in a second for Hermione as she had done for one of his duels, Ron had had his back at the other, but today Hermione had kissed his cheek and told him he would be better off with McGonagall. Ron was there as the titular representative of the DA, McGonagall as Headmistress, Remus in his role as Head of Gryffindor House and Flitwick as a judge. The diminutive wizard held his wand ready, as he looked between the two.
He cast a Hovering Charm on himself and floated out between the two witches. A sudden silence fell over the crowded Quidditch pitch as everyone watched him glance back and forth between the two of them "Sonorus, A CHALLENGE TO AN INSULT AND AN ATTACK HAS BEEN OFFERED." Flitwick looked to Hermione, "WILL THE OFFENDED WITHDRAW?"
A ghost of a frown crossed her eyes as she answered, but unfortunately none of the trio could back down any longer, to anything or anyone, "If she apologizes, aye, barring that, nay, sir." Flitwick nodded, he knew.
He turned to Ginny, "WILL THE CHALLENGED ACCEPT THE TERMS FOR WITHDRAWL?"
"No sir," she replied harshly, "since I was correct in the terms I chose to describe her and Potter's mother." A loud murmuring broke out over the stands, and as Flitwick nodded sadly and spun to the crowd, another presence ran out on the field.
"No, don't do this, no, don't hurt my Ginny." Ron caught his mother and stopped her progress. Ron had been caught in the middle with all of this since last night when of his best friends came to him in tears and told him what had happened. He had fielded the Howler from his mother as well, this morning, for somehow not stopping her precious youngest daughter from getting her arse kicked. Which, unlike many in the crowd who still regarded Hermione as a shy, retiring bookworm despite the obvious changes over the years, is what he pretty much knew would happen if Ginny crossed wands with the Head Girl with intent. And he knew what might happen when he chose his brother and sister by choice over the sister by blood. Almost the entire clan had appeared this morning, two or three hours after breakfast, a breakfast in which Gryffindor tower was pretty much silent.
Bill had gone to talk to Harry, and then to Hermione. He had meant what he had said at the wedding in an aside to the trio. A quick sharing of memories with Harry and he had turned gray. He had left, to go stand with Fleur with only a quiet, "Please try not to kill her." Hermione had bit her lip and cried several minutes in Harry's arms after they escaped after all the Weasleys had had their say. Of which most, post a brief talk with Bill, had mostly consisted of similar sentiments to his. Arthur had just sighed and took a coffee that Dobby had supplied, smelling suspiciously of Ogden's.
Molly had gone to her daughter and glared at Hermione instead. She had refused to even consider that the memory was not a fabrication. And now she was pulling at Ron's arms, "Let me go, damn it," she snapped at the tall redhead who overshadowed her by almost a foot. "Let me go. She will get hurt."
"Yes mum, I am afraid she that will," Ron agreed sadly. He looked over at Harry and Hermione. Hermione was stony eyed as she stood looking at her former best friend exclusive of Harry or Ron. "She needs to learn there are consequences to her actions," he said kindly.
"She got in an argument, you lot do it all the time," Molly hissed as she waved vaguely at Hermione. She tried to shake his arms on her shoulders, but to absolutely no avail, Ron might be the youngest of her boys, but he was easily the biggest. A gust of wind snapped the cloaks of the combatants and witnesses exposing Ron's wand sheathed on one thigh, with another of the daggers on his other leg.
"Mum, we don't cast lethal curses at each other, or call each other slags or call their parents a...." Ron broke off, not wanting to complete his thought. He looked at Molly thoughtfully, "You really don't know do you?" He sighed, "What she has been doing for the last two years..."
"Ginny wouldn't do anything..."
"She's not a bloody angel, mum," Ron growled in her ear.
Minerva forestalled any further argument, "Mr. Weasley, please remove your mother from the field." Her voice was kind, but hard.
"I will not...Minerva, she's underage, I am her parent, I extend the apology for her..."
"Alas you can not," Flitwick replied, "While she is underage as to the general use of magic outside of the school, according to the law, she may be challenged and may accept challenges at sixteen." Molly's mouth flopped open and closed like a fish as Ron led her back to the stands and gave her into the arms of Bill who just nodded. Unlike his mother, he understood. He understood that you sometimes had to choose what was right and just, no matter the cost, over what was easy. Bill had already known of the things Ginny had done to the three of them in her quest to gain Harry. She had been discrete, but in the end Fleur was part Veela, she knew of the ways to induce feelings of desire better than most of the people who wrote those restricted spellbooks did. Fleur had felt it at the Burrow.
Fortunately, Bill and Fleur's intervention was not needed; the depth of feelings and the sheer magical power of the affected people had thrown off the influences, along with a series of events that could not have been foreseen by the youngest Weasley.
But that did not change the past, and did not change the present. Flitwick floated back to the witnesses and nodded to Harry. A wave of Harry's hand and a translucent, diamond wall appeared between them and the duelists. "BEGIN"
Ginny's wand shot up, "REDUCTO," the blue bolt of a Reductor shot across. Hermione's wand flick was almost negligent as she deflected it and it whined off into the boundless sky. Hermione's eyes narrowed as she deflected one, two more curses. The girls started circling, looking for vulnerability. Ginny's eyes widened and she grinned. She whispered something and waved her wand oddly. A splash rang out as a huge, bottomless swamp appeared under Hermione's feet and she began to sink into it. Hermione flicked a Repulsion Hex at her own feet as she flipped up and back, using the spell as a springboard. She landed on solid ground and did something that Umbridge had not been able to do in fifth year...she banished the swamp with a slight sneer.
Ginny looked over at Hermione and swallowed, a brief passage of a conversation between her and Luna at the Burrow flicked across her thoughts, You are a powerful witch Ginny, but she's like a bonfire to your candle. Hermione's wand flicked and a cloud of yellow birds shot at the redhead, and on the sidelines, Ron winced. Ginny's hasty Reductor destroyed the birds, and a silver curse retaliated for the birds, only to hit only air as Hermione dove to her left, rolled and bounded back to her feet in one smooth, blurred motion.
Harry watched the duel with an expression on his face that seemed to indicate he was a thousand instead of seventeen. He caught Ron's eye; who just nodded. They both knew. Hermione was trying to not to have to hurt Ginny, Hermione who, along with Harry and Ron, had already had an abortive Auror course shoved down her throat. Who already knew at fifteen, more curses than Ginny would probably ever know, was trying not to have to hurt Ginny too much. They could both see that Hermione was looking for an opportunity to stun her or something and take her wand, which would technically end the duel, as Ginny wouldn't be able to continue.
But unfortunately Ginny had other ideas. "DIFFIDO SPARSI" A hail of silver darts flashed out at Hermione. She blocked most of them, but staggered as blood ran down her legs and back. Behind the barrier, Harry's hands twitched and Ron placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. A new hush fell over the previously cheering crowd; everyone knew that the stakes were changed. Ginny, in her blinding Weasley anger, was going for the kill instead of incapacitation. And with that confirmed, the duel changed.
Harry's voice echoed in Hermione's thoughts as she rolled to her feet, a shimmering blue field dancing in the air between her and Ginny, End it Hermione, please... She frowned. Ginny tried her shotgun blast again, but Hermione was ready for it.
She MOVED, A flutter of a cloak and she vanished from in front of Ginny to dance to the side. Incendio incarcium. Flaming bars of fire erupted around the small witch, Ginny shot out several random stunners, missing with them all. A twirl of a cloak, a hard slash downward with an ivy-wood wand, and a purple wave shot through the bars, cutting Ginny off at the knees. The crack of her leg could be heard throughout the stadium. Hermione stopped in front of Ginny, "Please Ginny...end it," she pleaded.
Ginny's only response was a flurry of silver bolts back at Hermione. Hermione spun to her left and fired a Banishing Charm at the girl with a hurried flick of her wand to cancel the flames before Ginny shot back twenty feet and skidded on her back another ten. Molly was crying as Hermione once again called for Ginny to surrender. Hermione blocked another lethal curse and fired a stunner in return, which whined off into the protective wall around the judges.
Hermione growled, and spun her wand in a tight cone, Cyclonium. A horizontal cyclone shot out from Hermione's wand, grabbed Ginny and tossed her in the air. Wild random spells shot out from the center of the whirlwind for a moment, before stopping. Finite, Arresto Momentum. Hermione cast silently and Ginny's unconscious, battered body slowly floated to the ground. Hermione slowly approached, and summoned Ginny's wand with a wand flick. She turned and walked over to the witnesses. Tears were in her eyes as she resolutely handed Flitwick Ginny's ash wand. Flitwick nodded and took the wand. He announced the end of the duel as Hermione fell into Harry's arms and Ron hugged them both, kissed the top of her head and went over to Ginny as Poppy levitated the witch onto a stretcher.
"Will she be ok?" Ron asked as Molly, freed of Bill's arms, came running up. Bill, Fleur and Fred were following at a more sedate pace.
Pomfrey nodded, "Yes, Miss Granger did a good job of keeping the damage to a minimum." Her eyes were hard as she flicked her wand up and down the witch. Text filled in on an enchanted clipboard. Poppy looked over the words and gave a terse nod. "Yes she will be fine in a week or two." The stretcher followed her as she led the way up the lawn to the castle and the hospital wing within.
"Two?" Molly howled, "Two?" She spun on her heel, ran up to Hermione, and jerked her away from Harry. A crack was heard in every corner of the stadium as Molly's hand slapped against Hermione's cheek. "How dare you? She was your friend!" Hermione stood looking at her, and her eyes hardened for an instant before Hermione turned her back on the elder witch. Harry glanced back at the woman who had been the only stand-in for his own mum for all these years and placed his arm around Hermione's shoulders as they walked off together. Ron looked after their retreating forms and sighed. "And what do you have to say for yourself young man?" she seethed at him, "Siding with a girl like that over your own sister?"
"Do you want to air our laundry out here mum?" Ron asked tiredly. He groaned, "Bloody Hell...fuck it, I'm going back into the castle."
"Ronald Bilius Weasley..."
"Fine, fine mum, you really want to know..." he spun and threw his arms in the air. His wand flashed and a cone of silence surrounded them. Molly's jaw dropped at his spellwork, along with many other things she had not realized that more than one situation had changed. "Let's start at the beginning or at least when she started her plot, when in her fourth year she spiked those eggs you sent us for Easter with Amortentia and tried to get Harry then. You know mum, the potion that you thought Hermione had used on Harry our fourth year. And the one that you talked about making...but she screwed up the potion mum, she didn't figure out that you were supposed to add something to attract with, to establish the infatuation." Ron paced, the cone of silence following him and he looked back, "Then she probably stole some actual potion from the twins... and used it on Harry at the Burrow, but that didn't work either...not really. So she set out to make him jealous, with Dean, all the while she had convinced Dobby that it was some sort of potion that was supposed to be in his food, she used Dobby's loyalty to Harry to get him..." Molly's jaw dropped as Ron looked at her grimly.
"Then lets see, just to go for the sweep, she tried to get Hermione and me together to clear the field...in that she was right, more or less. We did like snogging each other anyway." Molly let out a soft strangled sound. "Yes there were feelings there, honestly there would almost have to be with all we've been together for. But her heart belonged to Harry, mum." Ron saw Luna approaching out of the corner of his eye and he gave her a tiny shake of his head, she frowned and came on anyway. He sighed as she walked through the silence cone and wrapped her arms protectively around him. "But my heart wasn't in that either, I love Luna mum. Or rather I love Hermione more than I can express, but I don't want to marry her." Luna let out a small squeak.
"Where was I...oh yes, Ginny then used a talisman she had gotten from Borgin and Burkes to confund Hermione into believing that she would be helping Harry if Ginny and him got together, and that it would be good if she and I got together so we could all be one big happy Weasley family. I think it was you who said that one day..." Ron shrugged, "Of course that particular talisman only works for so long and Hermione was already staring to turn the corner in fighting it off, and strong emotional events and sheer magical powers tend to negate the effects as well, same thing happened with the potion. Didn't you ever wonder why Harry chose Dumbledore's funeral to break up with Ginny, and Hermione and I started to drift back to our normal behaviors about then as well?" His wandtip described a five-pointed star in mid air and the cone shimmered and died.
"I am going to go get something to eat with my girlfriend mum, and then I will go up and visit Ginny, as about then I expect Poppy will be allowing visitors," he started walking back towards the castle, and shot over his shoulder, "and after that I am going to go sit with the two I choose to be my siblings because by then I am sure Hermione will have more than once soaked through Harry's clothes with her tears."
A/N: Ok there we go, next chapter the fallout from this day...