A/N Here we are…the culmination of the story, and our heart to heart chapter, where we finally set the record straight…enjoy. :D
Chapter VII: A Lasting Truth
The morning greeted the sleeping occupants in Harry's bed - himself and Hermione. The previous night had been one of tranquil peace, which had not been recently attainable.
Another reason, for which Harry and Hermione awoke merrier than usual, was that today would be the official culmination of their thoughts, constant doubtful worries and hopes for the last five years - the divorce hearing at the Ministry. For the last few days, not much of a communication occurred between them and the Weasleys. Luna had visited them once, but she had come alone. Regardless, her light-heartedness did not seem to be affected by the severity and seriousness of the interesting situation that had occupied their lives recently.
Hermione was in the bathroom, attending to her morning requirements, while Harry was busy dressing himself in an elaborate set of dress robes; another inconvenient requirement by the Ministry was that the participants in the trial were forced to show up in their best appearance - otherwise Harry would have been quite happy to show in his pajamas even.
Yet, the more he thought about today's court hearing, the less enthused he became.
At last, Hermione came out. She had also changed herself in a professional appearance, and after she gave herself a last sweep of her wardrobe, her gaze shot at Harry.
"You are still not ready?" she snapped rather harshly.
"It's this tie…" Harry replied, while trying to adjust said tie in a knot.
"Oh, Harry, you are hopeless," Hermione chided him, as she walked over to where he was standing in front of the mirror. "Let me…"
She deftly managed to arrange the tie acceptably, and then stopped to admire her handiwork.
"Excellent," she declared, "now we have to depart, or else, we'll be late."
"Hermione, it is only half past nine," Harry said exasperatedly. "If we leave an hour later, we can still arrive in good time."
"Harry, we are required to be there a half hour earlier," she told him sternly. "Come on."
Grumbling under his breath, Harry followed her towards the kitchen. A hastily consumed breakfast with a spot of welcomed hot coffee followed, and they quickly prepared to leave. The relation between them was becoming increasingly strained as the morning passed.
Harry and Hermione walked out of the flat, and down the flight of steps onto the street below. On the other side, several blocks down the road, was the dim outline of the doorframe that led inside the Leaky Cauldron. An arrangement had been made with the Weasley family that they would meet them outside the Leaky Cauldron, on the entrance of Diagon Alley.
As the front door of the run-down bar loomed closer, the seriousness, which surrounded today's hearing, caused Hermione to think increasingly more about the affair. The brief cheeriness of the morning had completely deserted her, only to be replaced by numerous conflicting emotions.
The ancient floorboards creaked, as their steps echoed in the large, and nearly empty room. Two wizards were huddled in one corner, playing a game of cards and sipping firewhiskey, while Tom was situated behind the bar, wiping the counter top with a rag.
"Harry Potter," he called as his quarry and Hermione approached. "What can I do you and your lovely lady friend for today?"
"Have any way to sooth jittery nerves?" Harry smiled nervously at the kind old man.
"Ye, certainly do," the barman murmured, and turned around to face the cabinet, full of clean and dusty bottles.
He took two glasses down and placed them on the bar. Waving his wand caused a bottle to fly into his hand - its label was indistinguishable beneath the layer of grime formed over it, but Tom did not seem to be terribly concerned; his crooked fingers gripped the bottle, and he poured a golden liquid into each glass.
"There ye are, laddies," he said, smiling a toothless smile, "that will be two Sickles."
Harry handed him the coin. "Thanks, Tom."
Muttering under his breath, the old barman nodded kindly, and Harry and Hermione sat at a table nearby.
"Is this what we want, Harry?" Hermione asked him anxiously, boring into his eyes.
Harry took a few minutes to answer. He took a sip of the strange alcoholic beverage, and immediately felt more relaxed - it had a slight butterbeer taste, and something else added to it, but he did not know what it was; yet it was also pleasing in taste.
"I am confident we are, Hermione," he replied assuredly. "After five years, I have realized that I can pretend no longer. I was under the impression that you had come to the same conclusion."
"I don't have second thoughts about the divorce, Harry. I do want to spend my life with you - I suppose I am only nervous about it…after all, we are doing this for the better," Hermione replied, before taking a sip of the contents in her glass as well.
Harry could not completely understand Hermione - she was confident and insecure simultaneously. He thought it would be in his, and her, interest, if he tried to improve her spirits.
"Hermione," Harry began, "look at me."
She raised her eyes to meet his, and he took her hands in his.
"I don't pretend that this hearing will not be unnerving, or that it will cause rifts between us and the Weasleys. In fact, even your parents may be disappointed, because you told them they were also required to be there," he said.
"Thank you for the kind words, Harry," Hermione gave him a weak, sarcastic smile.
"I'm not finished," he continued. "When we went to Ron and Luna- we had a decent time with them. Yes, it was slightly awkward, but that does not mean we'll stop being friends. Time will pass before we speak normally again, and I'm sure some will be angry, others disappointed, but after all, we've all been denying the truth for a long time."
Harry ceased speaking and looked closely at Hermione. "We'll be fine," he said, giving a reassuring squeeze to her hands.
Feeling marginally better, Hermione slipped her hands away from Harry's took a braver sip from her drink - a small dose of optimism had crept into her after his monologue.
They finished their drinks in relative silence, letting the calming effect the mildly alcoholic beverage produced, envelope them entirely. About a half hour later, Harry and Hermione at last rose from their chairs.
"Ready?" he asked her.
Hermione seemed dazed for a few seconds, but she quickly regained her senses. "Yes."
Tom waved them on their way out, and they bid him goodbye as well - the two old wizards in the corner, however, had no paid them any heed, as they were still absorbed in their card game.
Harry tapped the bricks on the grimy wall in the appropriate order, and then watched, as they rearranged themselves into the archway he had long grown used to seeing.
He walked through it, closely followed by Hermione.
As had been arranged, the Weasleys were indeed waiting for Harry and Hermione: Arthur, Molly, Ron and Ginny had arrived, waiting patiently; at the periphery of their company, Draco Malfoy stood awkwardly, looking around uneasily.
Harry and Hermione approached them, and Mr. Weasley was the first to spot them.
"There they are!" he said loudly, and the rest of the party turned in the direction of the oncoming visitors.
"Hello, Mr and Mrs. Weasley," Harry said somewhat coolly, but still politely, and Hermione mimicked his action slightly strenuously too.
"Err…shall we be going?" Ron offered to the tense silence that followed the initial greeting.
"Yes…let's," Mrs. Weasley replied thoughtfully - she was giving scrutinizing looks to Harry and Hermione.
She was still suppressing anger, Harry fathomed from the snappish behaviour of the Weasley matriarch. He caught Ron's eye, and asked him silently; ashen-faced, Ron merely shrugged, and nodded gravely - he had received a sound verbal treatment for his…escapades with Luna. A fear rose within Harry that he could easily expect the same…
Hermione was also walking tersely along, sticking close to Harry, and throwing anxious glances at Mrs. Weasley form the corner of her eye. She noticed Ginny was also walking a little aside from her mother, and beside Draco - only the young Malfoy was haughty and rather careless about the whole situation; it seemed, his accompaniment had not been voluntary.
Only Mr. Weasley was brave enough to walk on par with his wife, but fore mostly out of duty for being her husband than anything else.
Eventually, they reached the Ministry building, and took turns to clamber down with the inconveniently restricted red phone booth. Once inside, they were directed to the offices of the Wizengamot, several floors below.
The chill of the lower floors permeated Harry, as he walked along towards the heavy oaken doors at the end of the hallway. Behind him, the rest followed with deliberately slow, shuffling footsteps. There was a building tension in the air, as they walked through the doors, which opened creakily of their own accord…
The large hall, however, was quite devoid of life. Dark and cold, it seemed nobody had entered it for quite a lengthy period of time. Still, as they had been instructed to wait, everyone sat along one of the benches near the front of the room.
Perhaps by sheer misfortune, or maybe precisely calculated, Harry did not know, as he found himself sitting right beside Mrs. Weasley. She was certainly not disposed in his favour, as icy looks from her kept coming in his direction.
"Harry," she whispered rather harshly at last; the grandeur and eeriness of the hall seemed to unsettle her a bit.
"What?" he asked uncertainly.
"Think about this!" came her reply. "Do you have any common sense left over?"
"What are you on about, Mrs. Weasley?"
Harry needn't have asked - he knew the question was rhetorical at best.
"Do you know what you're doing to Ginny, or to Hermione - or to yourself?" she emphasized.
"Yes, I do," answered Harry with conviction.
"I believe you are making a mistake, Harry," Mrs. Weasley positively glowered at him as she spoke those words in a forced calm.
"Look," Harry's patience had began to wear thin, "I've thought about this Mrs. Weasley, and my decision is final - no amount of coercion will force me to reconsider that decision. Hermione is the one girl for me, not Ginny; she and I have both agreed on that."
Not expecting such a snappish response, Mrs. Weasley was taken aback. She spared a quick glance at Hermione - she was involved in a silent conversation with Arthur, and next to him, Ginny was talking to Draco, while a devilish smile played on his lips. At the end of the bench, Ron sat, looking nervous and rather awkward - he was checking his watch quite frequently.
Suddenly the torches that lined the walls came to life. Immediately after, a loud bang echoed, as the doors were thrown open - the draft made the flames flicker wildly.
An imposing wizard walked down the central alley of the hall, and ascended on the high chair that stood facing the rows of benches. Behind him, more official-looking Ministry employees filed, and took their seats around the high chair. After them, a congregation of wizards, who looked to be merely citizens, came in.
High-strung about the whole affair, Harry watched in anticipation, surprised by the austere efficiency with which the court had assembled.
"Good day," called the wizard, sitting in the high chair, "my name is Darius Padfoot, and I will be presiding over the case of this trial."
There was a pregnant pause, before he started speaking again.
"This is the case of the divorces of Harry Potter and Ginny Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley…is that correct?"
He had turned his gaze upon Harry.
"Yes," Harry said loudly.
The important wizard was about to speak again, but a sudden interruption prevented him. The doors swung open once again, and heads turned to observe a man and a woman coming in slowly, bewildered expressions covering their faces. Behind them, a beautiful woman with strikingly blond hair walked in, perfectly mindless of the events going on around her.
"Ah, Mr and Mrs. Granger, and Ms. Lovegood" the wizard addressed them, "yes, if you could just take a seat, right there."
He pointed them towards the bench onto which Harry, Hermione, Draco and the Weasleys were squashed together. With some effort, and willful compression on the part of the others, the Grangers sat down on either side of their daughter, and Luna squeezed in next to Ron.
"Now, let's continue with the business at hand," the head went on. "As this trial has captured wide attention, I have invited members of the Daily Prophet to observe the proceedings."
Harry groaned inwardly. From the corner of his eye, he caught the flamboyant decorations of a self-writing quill - his spirits sinking even lower could only be because Rita Skeeter was present too, eager to write her next travesty of an article…
"I summon Harry Potter to the stand."
With difficulty, Harry extradited himself from his seat, and moved forward towards the podium. Motioned to sit down on the rather grimy, chain bound chair, he obliged.
A mousy clerk hurried up to him, carrying what looked like to be a replica of a sword.
"Do you swear, by Merlin, to tell the truth, and nothing, but the truth?" he recited quickly.
"I…do," Harry replied slowly, and touched the sword that was held out.
"Mr. Potter, what are your reasons for requesting a divorce from Mrs. Ginny Potter?"
Harry had anticipated the question, and immediately launched into his response.
"On the grounds that we have differences that are too great," he said. "We have both secretly looked for personal fulfillment to other people, and with feelings, stronger to those people, the relations between us have diminished greatly, and cannot be salvaged."
"Mrs. Potter, would you like to add?" said the wizard in the high chair.
"Yes," Ginny replied, "yes I do. "I met Draco Malfoy months ago, and since then, I've been happier with him than I ever was with Harry. The fact that I travel much of the time, means that we cannot spend time with one another, and our marriage has just dissolved by itself - without love, it isn't sustainable. Oh, and before I finish, I need request that my name be reverted back to Weasley."
"Point taken, Mrs. Potter, and it shall be done," affirmed the wizard. "Anyone hold any objections to this divorce?"
Expectantly, Mrs. Weasley did bother to voice herself - she stood right up, moving her hand away from Mr. Weasley's grasp, as he tried to restrain her from rising.
"I have an objection," she said huffily, "my daughter has been raised to be a respectable woman, and I will not allow her honour to be blemished by such a shameful method! Harry has been as good as a son to me, and I will not permit him to suffer through this! They are both committing a grievous mistake in separating, and I will simply not allow it!"
"Dear - " Mr. Weasley tried to reason with his wife, but failed.
"Call this off at once! We can work to repair their relationship, and set it on the right path!" she continued to rant.
"Mrs. Weasley, your jurisdiction over the marriage of your daughter and her husband is limited, and not enough to affect their desired outcome," the judge declared. "I pronounce you divorced, and there will be some paperwork to complete once the hearing is over."
"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed loudly, but he did not meet her outraged gaze; denial was the first stage of healing.
He rose off the chair, and squeezing his way back into the bench, sat down in his old spot. Next to him, Mrs. Weasley was staring straight ahead, refusing to turn her head towards him. Only Hermione met his eyes and gave him a warm smile - to his right, Mr. Weasley put his hand on his shoulder, and said quietly,
"I hope you know what you're doing, Harry."
"I do," Harry muttered back.
"On to the next order of business then!" the judge shouted to regain the attention of the assembly. The sound of scratching quills permeated the air in the few seconds' silence that followed, as scribes and reporters were busily recording every word of the affair.
"The case of the divorce of Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley," he continued. "Do I stand correct?"
Both Ron and Hermione affirmed his position. They looked at each other, with genuine relief evident on their faces.
"Ron Weasley, please take the stand."
Ron repeated the same procedure as Harry - he made his way to the podium, but easier, since he was closer to the main aisle, and sat down in the same chair.
"Mr.Weasley, your reasons for requesting divorce?" the judge asked him once again.
Slightly nervous, Ron scoured the row, full of familiar faces, before he started speaking.
"My argument is simple," he said. "I…I love another woman."
"Care to elaborate?" the judge asked him when Ron had not divulged anything for a few seconds.
Ron looked in Hermione's direction for help. Ever so slightly, she rolled her eyes, and stood up.
"If I may," she called to attract the judge's attention, and he nodded her to resume. "Ronald and I - we also have our differences. There used to be a connection between us, but it has withered and died a long time ago. The reason is similar to Harry's - in fact, he and I talked about it some time ago; he was saying that he had not seen Ginny for lengthy periods of time, and I am afraid, this is the case with me…in resemblance to Ginny, Ron comes back to visit me once every two or three weeks - it's only natural, as he is quite involved in Quidditch."
Ron had suddenly found courage to offer his own opinion of the matter.
"She is right," he conceded, "I am not a good husband to Hermione, because my feelings for her are not as strong as they were once, and I have found someone, who is more compatible with me, and also understands me better."
Ron's eyes flickered towards Luna - she only smiled at him. He, however, did not bother to explain how Luna knew him better than Hermione; after all, the latter had known him for many more years, and also been through a marriage with him. Hermione did not invest more thought into it, because now she had a new future to focus towards…
"Your arguments are fair," the judge agreed, "but is there no hope for reconciliation between you?"
"No, certainly not," Ron answered with finality.
"Anyone objected to the parting of Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley?
This time, Mrs. Weasley remained seated, but another female rose; she had the same brown curly hair as Hermione, and the identical penetrating gaze Harry so often admired in his beloved.
"You, sir," she said vehemently, "the least you could do is offer an apology to our daughter…she has wasted five years of her life, and I knew myself that it would not be long, before she wished to see your rear end out of her life!"
Ron recoiled at the angry outburst from Mrs. Granger, but Mr. Granger managed to calm her enough to persuade her to sit down - that, however, did not stop her from sending hateful glares in Ron's direction.
"I pronounce the divorce official!" the judge declared, and the sound of the hammer hitting the desk confirmed that finality.
A buzz of conversation broke out, and people started to rise and leave in companies of two and three. The Weasleys segregated themselves from the others, and made for the door first. On the way, while being swept by his mother, Ron sent an apologetic glance at Harry, but that was all there was time for - only Draco remained with Ginny, and he departed with the redheaded family.
Harry merely stared at their retreating backs, and sighed deeply - it would be a long time before relations could be normal again; until then, enmity, awkwardness and avoidance was the policy of Mrs. Weasley, as much as Harry did not wish it to be so.
Hermione and him also slowly walked out closely trailed by Luna and Hermione's parents.
Once in the main lobby, they proceeded to fill out the paperwork required, and Harry saw his best friend and his family doing the same at the opposite end of the hall
Another sigh escaped him, and he saw Hermione discussing something with her parents. Feeling it would be rude to interrupt their privacy, and stood aside to let them finish. On the other side of the desk, the clerk was filing their completed papers in a cabinet.
"Ready?" Hermione asked him.
"Yeah, I am…let's go." Harry replied.
At last, they walked out in the bright daylight, and Hermione's parents took one way, and she and Harry the other - for their new life was at last awaiting to begin.
A/N Wow, most difficult chapter of this fic is done…what follows is the characters understanding one another, and re-gaining friendships…hope you like this one, and reviews are always welcome. :D
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