A/N: Dramarama in this one! Plenty of screaming, fighting, and one surprising request…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harry's resolute attitude was put to the test as he and Hermione entered the dining room. Seeing all of his friends sitting around the table and glancing up at him as he and Hermione walked in made his insides squirm uncomfortably. How many of these people, he wondered, would be accepting of the development between himself and Hermione? How many would be angry? At least two redheaded Weasleys would be displeased, he was sure. Not that he really cared what Ron thought anymore, he couldn't even imagine caring after his ex-friend's treachery back in the tent, but he still liked Ginny and couldn't help but feel bad, knowing that she was going to be hurt by what he and Hermione were about to announce.
Well, we did break up, he reminded himself for the millionth time. It's not my fault if she's been expecting us to get back together. I told her that we couldn't keep seeing each other, and I meant it. Maybe I let her think that I was only breaking up with her to keep her safe - that was the only reason at one point, after all - but she has to look at the big picture: we broke up, and when it all comes down to it, it doesn't matter why. I didn't cheat on her or anything like that, because we weren't a couple anymore when I got together with Hermione, so I haven't done anything wrong, he reassured himself as he took a seat near the end of the table, Tonks on his right and Hermione in the last seat on his left. Kreacher had prepared French onion soup for lunch, and Harry busied himself with that, only vaguely listening to the various conversations going on around him. Remus and Tonks were talking with Molly and Arthur about how Teddy, while being only a few months old, was already starting to show signs of magic (besides being a Metamorphmagus), and were being treated, in turn, to tales of how the seven Weasley children had first shown their magic. Harry grinned as he caught a snatch of Ginny's story, involving a dress that she was being forced to wear suddenly disappearing into thin air in the middle of Diagon Alley.
On his left, Hermione was patiently listening to Ginny recount what sounded like stories about every single thing that the reformed DA had done during to revolt against the oppression that the students had faced at Hogwarts that year. Harry had to admit, Ginny and the DA had definitely done a very good job upholding the Light Side's honour and supporting him during the Dark reign at Hogwarts, even though it had meant injuries and torture for most of them.
After listening to a few of Ginny's stories while pretending to be very interested in his soup, Harry was pulled out of the dining room by Fred and George, under the pretence of 'discussing business matters'. Now that it was known that Harry had given the twins the gold to get their business started, this was a passable excuse, but Harry had the feeling that Fred and George weren't pulling him away to discuss Skiving Snackboxes or Patented Daydream Charms. When they were out of earshot of the people in the dining room, Harry found himself being interrogated by the twins.
"Is something the matter, Harry?" Fred asked, before Harry could even open his mouth to ask what they wanted.
"No," he answered, pretending to be puzzled when he was really having a silent and unnoticeable panic attack, realizing that he had been found out.
"You've been staring into your soup as though it's going to tell you the meaning of life ever since you sat down," said George. "I agree that it's good soup, Harry, but I really don't think that it's smart enough to tell you that. You seem awfully preoccupied for somebody who doesn't have any problems."
"Oh," said Harry, trying to think of something, anything that he could say that wouldn't lead to the twins finding out his news before it was time.
"There's nothing that we don't know, is there, Harry?" asked Fred.
"Er…"
"Old Snake Eyes isn't floating around again, is he?" George asked, lowering his voice. "Because you can tell us if he is; we won't tell anybody."
"Wha-? No! No, of course not," Harry answered, flustered by George's question. "You were both at the Battle; you know I killed him!" Harry's ability to say such a thing without the slightest hesitation was a testament to just how much he had loathed the man (if a creature as vile as Tom Riddle could really be called a man) who had robbed him of his mother and father before he had even gotten a chance to learn their names.
"OK, OK, just checking," said George, holding up his hands in surrender. "I just thought that you might've found something out about Voldemort, but didn't want to tell anyone."
"Why wouldn't I want to tell anyone?" asked Harry. "Of course I would tell you if Voldemort was back!"
George shrugged. "Maybe you didn't want to rain on everyone's parade. Everybody's so happy now that he's gone, and if I were the one who found out that he was back, I sure wouldn't want to be the bringer of bad news. I saw what happened to you when you tried to say that Voldemort was back," he reminded Harry. "I'd hate to have my name smeared like that."
Harry frowned a little, remembering his fifth year at Hogwarts. "I see what you mean," he agreed. "But I swear, Voldemort isn't back, and I promise that you'd be the first to know if he was."
George looked reassured.
"Well, if Mouldy Fart's not flying around anymore, what's bothering you, Harry?" asked Fred.
"It's- it's nothing," Harry said, still feeling completely blindsided by this sudden interrogation. "I mean, er, it's something, but-"
"You haven't knocked Hermione up, have you?" George piped up.
Harry gawped at him, completely stunned by the question. This was turning out to be a very strange conversation with the twins, that was for sure. "What?"
"Well, picture this, Harry," said Fred. "Two completely hypothetical hormonal teenagers, burdened with the daunting task of saving the world from the most fearsome wizard to ever walk the Earth-"
"-hiding out in the middle of Merlin-knows-where, with nobody around but each other-" George continued.
"-cold and lonely-"
"-just deserted by our idiot bro- I mean, a hypothetical idiot brother-" said George.
"-probably feeling pretty depressed and looking for a little comfort," said Fred. "Perfectly understandable, after being cold and hungry for weeks and then being deserted by said hypothetical idiot brother."
"Maybe things go a little bit too far," said George, shrugging.
"Completely accidentally, of course," said Fred. "I know that you two- I mean, those two completely hypothetical teenagers aren't stupid."
"And then-" George started, before Harry cut him off.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, holding up a hand in the universal 'STOP' gesture. "Look, guys, Hermione and I… we never… you know, did that."
"Mm, but by your tone, dear Harry, one would think that you did something," said Fred, raising his eyebrows at Harry, who immediately realized that he'd been set up by George's last question.
"Perhaps the something that's making you search your soup for the answer to life, the universe, and everything," George mused. "Which, by the way, is the number forty-two."
Harry blushed. He'd completely given himself away by trying to deny something else. He assumed that that had been the twins' master plan. They had never honestly thought that Harry and Hermione had spent a little too much quality time together while hiding out in the tent, they had just wanted to fluster Harry so that he would give away the real secret. The boy who had spent seven years steering clear of Voldemort's tricks had just fallen straight into a trap set up for him by two of his favourite Weasleys.
"OK, look," he said resignedly. "We were going to tell everyone at once, that's why I invited all of you over today, but… Well, Hermione and I are a couple now," he said, finding himself speaking a bit faster than he usually did.
"Ohhhhh," chorused Fred and George.
"Is that all?" asked Fred.
"Why so secretive, Harry?" asked George. "The world's not going to implode because you and Hermione got together. Congratulations, by the way."
Harry sighed. "Thanks, but maybe you should ask two of your siblings why I'm being so secretive," he said. "The younger ones in particular."
"Ah," said Fred. "Right."
"Ginny and our idiot brother," George said understandingly.
"Exactly," said Harry. "And probably your parents, too. It seems like your mum was pretty excited about having me and Hermione as her in-laws, someday."
"But you broke up with Ginny before you left, didn't you?" asked Fred. "How can Mum expect you two to get hitched when you broke up?"
Harry sighed again. "We did break up, but I know that Ginny thinks that I only did it to be noble and keep her safe, and that we're going to get back together now that Voldemort's dead. And Ron…" he said, running a hand through his messy hair. "Ron probably still thinks that he and Hermione have something going on, because they were still kind of together when he left us," he explained to the twins. "They were never exactly a couple and they never exactly broke up, so I really don't know what he's expecting from her now. I mean, there's probably not much he can do about it now, because she's told me that she's not in love with him anymore," he added. "He's lost his chance with Hermione, and I have a feeling that she's not going to hesitate to tell him so, but that's probably not going to keep him from being really angry with me for stealing his girl the moment he was gone."
Fred shrugged. "As much as I feel that I should sympathize with my brother, because he's my brother, I have to say that I'm on your side on this one, Harry. I mean, I was around for almost all of your years at Hogwarts, and from what I saw, Ron never really treated Hermione all that well in the first place, so why should he think that he deserves to be with her more than you do now?"
"He shouldn't," Harry agreed, "but you weren't around for our sixth year, and that's when they kind of started showing 'feelings' for each other," he told Fred, tracing quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "And then, this year, before he left us in the tent, Ron was actually pretty decent towards Hermione, always wanting to protect her and stuff, so he probably thinks that he's made up for how he's treated her in the past, and that now he's her knight in shining armour or something like that," he said, rolling his eyes to show how he felt about that.
"But he can't be, because that's you now, right?" asked George, smiling slyly and making Harry blush again.
"I never said that…" he replied lamely. Fred and George just smirked at each other.
"He's a hopeless case, isn't he, Fred?" asked George.
"Yup," Fred agreed. "How sweet, our little Harry's completely head over heels in love with Hermione!"
"Aww…" said George.
"I'm not head over heels," Harry protested, but he couldn't keep the goofy grin off his face, completely contradicting his protest.
"You are!" said Fred.
"I'm not!"
"You a-are," George said in a singsong voice.
"We're not talking about me in the first place!" said Harry, trying to get the focus of the conversation off of himself.
"Actually, Harry, we are," Fred pointed out. "This whole conversation started because you were trying to bore holes in the bottom of your soup bowl with your laser gaze."
"Laser gaze?" asked Harry, bewildered.
"It's an expression, now stop changing the subject," said George. "So…" he said, "how long have you and Hermione been madly in love with each other? Officially, I mean."
"Since a few days after Ron left," said Harry, blushing furiously as he realized, a moment later, that he had just verified that he was madly in love with Hermione.
"So you didn't steal his girl the moment he was gone," said Fred. "That could be helpful," he told Harry, obviously trying to make him feel better.
"Excuse me for not being optimistic," said Harry, "but I'm pretty sure that he's not going to care if I waited a day or two. All he's going to care about is that I stole his girl, as far as he's concerned."
"True," Fred reluctantly agreed. "Well, if it's any consolation, we're on your side, Harry."
"We'll put Ron and Ginny in Body-Binds if we have to," said George, eliciting a small grin from Harry. "If they try to attack you and Hermione or something after you tell them that you two are a couple."
"Thanks, guys," Harry said gratefully.
"Anytime, lover boy," the twins chorused, prior to leading Harry back into the dining room before he could protest against being called 'lover boy'. Once again, Harry received a collective glance from everyone present, making his insides squirm nervously once more. He had gotten through telling the twins about what had happened between him and Hermione, and he hadn't even had a chance to think about what he was going to say to them, but they weren't the ones who he was worried about breaking the news to.
Hermione gave him a curious look as he sat down again, but he responded with a small shake of his head, telling her that it wasn't anything that they could discuss right then. Her curious look didn't fade, but she seemed to accept that he didn't want to tell her about his discussion with the twins right now and returned to her rather one-sided conversation with Ginny, who was still talking about the DA revolution at Hogwarts, while Harry busied himself by finishing off his soup, which was a little unappetizing now, having cooled down considerably during his talk with the twins. Harry tried to get his bearings about telling their secret to the rest of the group, which he wanted to do soon, now that the twins knew about him and Hermione being a couple. He stared into his now-empty soup bowl for a few minutes more, trying to prepare himself for whatever reactions he would get from his friends, before giving Hermione's foot a gentle kick under the table, making her give him another curious look.
"I think it's about time to tell them," he murmured to her, his voice masked by the buzz of the various conversations going on around him. Her eyes widened a bit after that; he had obviously surprised her.
"Are you sure?" she murmured back. He nodded.
"All right," she said, "let's get it over with, then."
He nodded determinedly and used the classic technique of tapping his glass to attract the attention of everyone around the table. The conversations died out and everyone turned to look at him, making his insides squirm again. He stood up and cleared his throat nervously.
"First off," he said nervously, "I'd like to say thanks to all of you, for being able to come on such short notice." He winced inwardly. He sounded like he was holding a business meeting. All he needed was a starchy suit, some sort of projector and a couple of graphs and spreadsheets. "I can't find words to tell you how great it is to be able to have you all here, safe and sound," he said, smiling. There, that sounded more like something he should say.
There was a general noise of agreement and many nods from around the table.
"Now, I know that I invited all of you here to 'catch up' today," said Harry, "but I suppose that most of you have noticed that I haven't been doing much catching up."
Again, there was a general noise of agreement from around the table, though there was a note of puzzlement present this time around. The guests were obviously wondering why Harry had invited them over if he wasn't going to want to talk.
"I want to assure you all that it's not because I don't want to talk to all of you, because I most certainly do," Harry assured his friends. "I've just been a little preoccupied today, considering that I have a bit of an announcement to make. Or, rather, Hermione and I have an announcement to make," he corrected, and Hermione stood up beside him, looking as nervous as he felt.
"Don't worry, he hasn't knocked her up!" Fred called, completely surprising Harry and Hermione. Harry chuckled nervously while Hermione (who had been absent for Harry's discussion with the twins) looked dumbstruck, her expression screaming "Where in Merlin's name did THAT come from?" The rest of the people around the table just looked confused. Harry's insides wiggled uncomfortably yet again as his gaze fell on Ron for a moment. Back when they were friends, he would have trusted Ron to take this well, but today… Well, he was glad that he was an accomplished caster of the Shield Charm. To Harry's dismay, Ron looked like he was cottoning on to what was happening, and by the way his brow was furrowed, he most certainly wasn't liking it. A glance at Ginny proved to be less worrying; she just looked confused by the odd sequence of events that was playing out in front of her.
"Yes, thank you, Fred," Harry said, forcing a small smile. "It's true, I haven't gotten Hermione pregnant, so no worries there, but we do still have an announcement." He paused, trying to say the words, but he couldn't force them out, his mind still focused on Ron's upset look and running through all of the particularly painful curses that his friend knew. He compromised by taking Hermione's hand in his and awkwardly saying "Well…", hoping that the gesture would be enough to explain.
It was as though he had run an electric shock through everyone's chairs. Everybody looked surprised, some more than others, and many lower lips hung slightly slack as everyone's gaze flicked to his and Hermione's joined hands. Time seemed to slow, the world grinding to a silent halt for a moment or two, in which Harry and Hermione stood unmoving, momentarily frozen by the collective gaze of everyone in the room, before-
"WHAT?"
The two youngest Weasleys were on their feet, their eyes blazing with that Weasley fire, looking at Harry and Hermione as though the pair had just told them that they had been randomly selected for execution and would have their freckled, carrot-coloured heads cut off tomorrow at noon. Harry managed to reduce his reaction to a mere surprised blink, while Hermione quite literally flinched as though she'd been struck, seeing as she was much closer to Ginny than Harry and therefore far more startled by the girl's outburst, but she regained her composure after Harry squeezed her hand reassuringly, silently reminding her that they had been expecting this.
"Hermione and I are a couple now," Harry finally managed to say, quite calmly. Now that he had seen his friends' reactions, his nervousness was far less intense, his mind focused instead on how to deal with the two fiery-tempered Weasleys. It seemed that his calm reaction was the right one, as the two now looked as though they'd been doused with cold water, looking at Hermione with gaping mouths and saucer-sized eyes, mouthing wordlessly like fish out of water. Harry took the relatively calm moment to glance around the table, his gaze falling on Fred and George, who had their wands out and were pretending to hex Ron and Ginny while looking at Harry with their eyebrows raised, silently asking him if he wanted them to carry out their promise of Body-Binding their siblings. Harry gave them a small shake of his head and they obediently lowered their wands.
But Harry probably shouldn't have shown Ron and Ginny any mercy, as it was only a millisecond before both of them had their wands out and turned on Harry and Hermione. It was Peter Pettigrew and his silver hand all over again. Harry's free hand went back to pull his own wand out of his back pocket, but he found that he didn't have to, as Remus and Tonks had both gotten to their feet and had their own wands turned on the two youngest Weasleys, who faltered and lowered their wands by a fraction of an inch, obviously torn between getting their revenge on Harry and Hermione and keeping themselves from ending up at the mercy of their ex-Defence teacher, not to mention the man who was also the last of the Marauders, and a highly trained Auror.
"Now, now," Remus said calmly, "is that any way to congratulate your friends?"
That seemed to be too much for Ron to bear. "Congratulate?" he repeated angrily. "Are you a madman?"
"Ron!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Don't you talk to Remus like-"
"It's fine, Molly," Remus assured her, cutting her off. "Why don't we hear Ron and Ginny out? Now, Ron," he said calmly, "why don't you put that wand away and tell us all why I'm such a madman?"
Ron hesitated, but he slowly lowered his wand and returned it to his back pocket.
"Good," said Remus, lowering his own wand. "Now, why don't we all sit down and talk like mature adults?" he suggested, taking his own seat. Beside him, Tonks still stood and held Ginny at wandpoint, as the redhead had not put her wand away, still biting her bottom lip and trying to decide whether to listen to Remus or curse Harry and Hermione.
"Aren't you going to join us, Ginny?" Remus asked serenely. When Ginny didn't move or respond, Tonks seemed to lose her patience and gave her wand a sharp downward flick while giving Ginny a very pointed look. The message was crystal clear: "Sit or I force you to."
Ginny gave up, shoved her wand back into her pocket and sat, her arms crossed tightly. Now that the two youngest Weasleys had been subdued, Harry and Hermione considered it safe to relax and sat down as well, letting go of each other's hands for the sake of keeping the peace.
"Good," said Remus. "Now, Ron, please explain why you find it necessary to question my sanity," he said, pressing the tips of his fingers together in a very Dumbledore-like way and looking at Ron expectantly. The redhead looked a little unsure of himself for a moment, not used to being prompted to explain himself, but his indignation took over again a moment later and he scowled as he spoke.
"Why the hell-" he started, receiving another "Ron!" from his mother, "-would I congratulate Harry for stealing my girlfriend, and Hermione for letting him?"
Harry and Hermione both bit back angry retorts and forced themselves to breathe deeply, calming themselves. They would not mimic Ron and Ginny by making a scene.
"Harry, Hermione, would either of you care to respond to that?" Remus asked calmly, nodding to the two.
"I think both of us would like to respond to that, Remus," Hermione replied equally calmly, while Harry nodded, "but if Harry doesn't mind, I'd like to go first."
"Be my guest," said Harry.
"Thank you, Harry," said Hermione. "Now, Ron," she started, "I'd like to point out that it's unfair for you to accuse Harry of 'stealing' me, considering that I can't seem to remember you ever asking me to be your girlfriend."
She had struck a blow to Ron's argument, and he knew it. Everyone could tell, as it was obvious in the way his gaze flicked down to the table for a fraction of a second before returning to lock with Hermione's.
"Also," Hermione continued, "I'd like you to know that I can't help but be a little hurt by the way you phrased your argument, considering that in order for me to be 'stolen', I would have to be, in some way, your property, which I can assure you that I don't consider and have never considered myself to be."
And that's one point to Hermione and zero to ickle Ronniekins, thought Harry, watching as the fire in Ron's eyes faded a little. He seemed to be wondering if he had gotten himself in over his head. Everybody knew that you had to be pretty stupid to let yourself get into a full-blown debate with Hermione, and that was exactly what he had done.
"Well said, Hermione," said Remus. "Harry, would you like to add anything to Hermione's argument?"
"I would," said Harry. "Ron, I agree with Hermione. I did not 'steal' her from you, because, as she has pointed out, you never did ask her to be your girlfriend, and, as she said, it would be impossible to 'steal' her in the first place, as she does not 'belong' and has never 'belonged' to you. Also, I'd like to point out that Hermione didn't just 'let' me do anything. We had a completely fair discussion, in which we both agreed that we wanted to be a couple. We both had complete control over the situation and either of us could have decided that we didn't want to be with the other. Hermione didn't just give up and let me do what I wanted, if that's what you're trying to imply."
Ron was looking more and more beaten by the second. Harry and Hermione's arguments were stronger than his, not to mention that Hermione had practically torn apart his argument from the start and made it worthless by pointing out all the things that were wrong with it.
"Good, very good," said Remus. "Ron, do you have a response?"
Ron shook his head, looking at the table. To the unknowing eye, he seemed beaten, but Harry knew better and was quite convinced that Ron wasn't done arguing yet. He was just plotting his next move. Ron wasn't Hogwarts' best wizard chess player for nothing, after all.
"All right, if Ron has nothing else to add right now, would you like to make a statement, Ginny?" asked Remus.
Ginny had uncrossed her arms by then and was looking quite a bit calmer, having gotten her initial angry outburst out of the way. "If I could," she said quietly.
"Go ahead," said Remus, settling back into his chair.
"Well," said Ginny, a guilty sigh present in her voice, "first, I want to say I'm sorry for my behaviour a few minutes ago. It was uncalled for, and I want you to know that I wouldn't really have cursed either of you," she said to Harry and Hermione, whose expressions softened from determinedly blank, straight-lipped masks of stone to more forgiving looks.
"But," said Ginny, "I still want to say that I can't help but feel hurt, and that I think that I deserve to feel that way. Harry," she said, turning a little in her chair so that she could face him, "I realize that we broke up, during Dumbledore's funeral last year, but I have to point out that from the things you said back then, it sounded like you were only breaking up with me to keep me safe from You-Know-… Voldemort, I mean," she corrected herself, and Harry had to admit that he was proud to hear her say the name. "You never told me that you didn't have feelings for me anymore, and when you and I kissed last summer, I thought that it meant that you still wanted to be with me, when everything was over," she said quietly, the hurt visible in her eyes. "And now, everything is over, but it turns out that you and Hermione got together while you were off fighting Voldemort, and… Well, you can probably guess how that's making me feel right now," she said, looking at the table.
The atmosphere in the room had shifted from surprise at the sudden outbursts of the two youngest Weasleys to sympathy for Ginny, but, luckily, Harry couldn't detect any harsh feelings towards him, minus the ones from Ron. A glance at Molly and Arthur reassured him, for neither of them looked angry with him, just a little sorry for their daughter.
"And I'm not accusing you of leading me on, because you did break up with me 'fair and square', as they say," Ginny assured him. "But… Well, couldn't you have given me a more definite sign to tell me that you didn't want to be with me anymore, if you had feelings for another girl?" she asked.
Harry folded his hands in his lap and bowed his head slightly. "Ginny," he said, "I want to say that I accept your apology, and that I completely agree with everything you've said. However, I want to point out that when I broke up with you, it was only to keep you safe from Voldemort, at the time. I didn't have- I mean, I didn't know that I had feelings for Hermione back when we broke up, and I promise you that if I had, I would have told you so and broken up with you with far more finality than I did, and I would never, ever have gone through with that kiss last summer. While I'm not sorry for getting together with Hermione, I am sorry that it means that I've disappointed you and let you down. I'm sorry that I led you to wait for me, and I promise you that I never meant to."
Ginny's only response was a nod, but Harry could tell that she had at least started to forgive him. He also felt reassured when, looking around, he found the same sort of forgiving look adorning the Weasleys' faces. They might be disappointed that he wasn't going to end up being their relative, but what mattered to Harry was that they weren't angry with him.
Ron, on the other hand, look thoroughly scandalized. It seemed that he had expected Ginny to put up a fight, to take his side in this.
"Ginny!" he exclaimed. "How can you just give up like that? Aren't you angry? Harry toyed with you, led you on, messed you around last summer, for Merlin's sake, and you're just going to sit back and let him get away with it?"
Remus opened his mouth to tell Ron to calm down, but Ginny beat him to the punch, still speaking calmly to her brother. She was used to his fiery temper, after all, having lived with him for sixteen years.
"Ron, I'm not 'giving up'. I'm accepting the fact that things aren't going to go my way. And I just said that I don't feel that Harry led me on, because he broke up with me before he and Hermione got together, not to mention that he didn't 'mess me around', thank you very much, because I was the one who kissed him. And I love how you say that I'm 'letting him get away with it', as though he's committed some kind of crime," she added, her tone turning from calm to a little bit sarcastic. "Why can't you just accept the fact that Harry and Hermione want to be together?"
"Accept it? Accept it?" Ron repeated, looking a little demented in his anger. "How in holy hell do you expect me to accept this?" he asked, gesturing to Harry and Hermione with a sweep of his arm that looked like it could probably dislocate his shoulder if he wasn't careful. "My best mate stole my girlfriend the minute I was out of the picture!"
That was too much for Harry and Hermione. Ron had crossed some sort of invisible line, making it impossible for them to keep calm any longer. They both found themselves on their feet before anybody could realize that they had stood up, both holding balled fists by their sides and glaring at Ron, making him shrink back into his seat a little.
"I'm not. Your. Girlfriend," Hermione reminded the redhead, in a voice that was as icy as anything that Voldemort himself had ever been able to muster. Harry, however, had no intention of dowsing his indignation with ice water.
"Your best mate?" he repeated angrily. "Your BEST MATE? How dare you call me your best mate? How can you think that I want to be your best mate after what you did to Hermione and me? You deserted us, Ron, when we needed you the most, just because you couldn't take it when things didn't go your way! For all you knew, you left us to die, and you didn't give a bloody damn! All you cared about was getting three square meals a day!"
To Harry's surprise, his outburst had left all of the Weasleys except for Fred, George and Ron looking very surprised. Bill was the first to turn on Ron, fire in his eyes.
"You told us that they told you to leave," he said, his icy tone a sharp contrast to the inferno in his eyes. "You told us that they wanted you to go, that they sent you to be with your family."
Harry was dumbstruck. "He told you that? He told you that we let him go? That we wanted him to leave?"
Bill's expression darkened. "That's exactly what he told us. But why don't you tell us what really happened, Harry? I'm sure that everyone here is very interested to know what Ron's been lying to us about all along."
Everyone around the table heard Ron gulp. Harry was positively furious. How could Ron lie to everyone about what he had done? Harry knew that Ron was a coward, he had proven that back in the tent, but he hadn't thought that Ron would sink low enough to lie to his own family.
"What really happened," Harry began coolly, "was that Ron here couldn't take it when he realized that we weren't exactly going to be able to live comfortably while we were on this mission for Dumbledore, so he upped and left. Hermione and I didn't know where he had gone and we didn't know if he was ever going to come back. We never had any say in the matter, and if Ron has been telling you that we did, then he's been telling you flat-out lies."
A general aura of hurt radiated off of the Weasley clan after that. They, apparently, had still been under the impression that their ickle Ronniekins was a good boy, loyal to his friends and family, who could never lie to his parents without his ears looking like they had suddenly transformed into beets. Bill and Fleur seemed especially hurt, though Harry didn't know why right away. A moment later, however, he learned.
"We let you stay with us!" Fleur exclaimed indignantly. "We thought you 'ad not wanted to leave, we thought zat you 'ad fought tooth and nail to stay with your friends, and now we learn zat you 'ad really just left zem to fight Voldemort by zemselves because you were hungry!"
Ron looked at the table, his ears turning a brilliant shade of red, while Ginny looked like she wanted to pummel him to a bloody pulp.
"You just left?" she said angrily. "You just left them all alone, out in Merlin-knows-where, not even caring what happened to them, just so you could get something to eat?"
"Nobody said that I didn't care," Ron mumbled under his breath, enraging Ginny even more.
"You obviously didn't give much of a damn, Ron, if you valued a sandwich over the two people who were supposed to be your best friends!" she retorted furiously.
That definitely shut Ron up. The rest of his family, minus the twins (to whom Harry supposed Ron must have disclosed the real reason for his departure from the tent), looked at him with expressions of mixed shock, hurt and anger, seeming to be rendered speechless by this sudden development.
"Well," said Remus, clearing his throat as he took charge of the situation once again, "now that we've cleared that up, I believe it's time for us to figure out a way to settle this little dispute."
Harry was surprised. He had just thought that he would break the news to his friends, get their reactions and apologize if necessary, and then all would be well. He hadn't expected to be asked to decide on some sort of compromise. What was he expected to do? Share Hermione with Ron? Switch her relationship status from 'Harry's girlfriend' to 'Ron's girlfriend' every other week? Spend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with Ginny, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with Hermione, and then spend Sundays living the single life?
Even as crazier and more unlikely thoughts started to run through Harry's head, he got an even bigger shock as a voice spoke up in the silence.
"I want a duel."