Chapter 7
Captured Memories
“Harry, where are we?” Ginny asked as she slipped off the blindfold from around her eyes and looked around.
Ron watched his sister. He was in this memory, so he wasn’t actually there, but it was bizarre seeing her. She was alive and her cheeks were flushed from the flight and her hair hung long down her back as she explored the new sight with her eyes.
“I’m not actually sure, love. Remember a few weeks ago when Pettigrew took Ron? I needed to clear my head, I needed to think so I took my broom and started to fly. I don’t know how I found this place, but I thought it would be the perfect place for tonight,” Harry explained.
Ron stared at Harry for a minute. He was in the presence of his best friend again. It was so overwhelming. He thought he might start to cry again, but there was no time for that as the memory continued.
“What is tonight?” Ginny asked with a worried look on her face.
Ron knew why she was worried. With the war constantly on her mind, she had the habit of forgetting significant days like anniversaries or birthdays.
“That is for me to know,” Harry answered as he walked closer and wrapped his arms around Ginny’s waist. “And you to find out.”
Ron watched as they kissed. He had forgotten how used to that he was. He’d had to get used to it because they’d do it everywhere.
“Alright, love, I’ve set up a picnic over there,” Harry pointed to a spot not too far off under a large tree.
Ron chuckled. Cliché. Too predictable. He walked over to the picnic with them, listening to their comfortable silence and wondered how they could go with silence comfortably when he and Hermione couldn’t. They always had to talk to fill the time, even if it meant bickering.
When they got to the tree, Ginny started to sit down, but Harry grabbed her hand.
“Don’t sit just yet, love. I wanted to wait until after we ate, but I can’t,” Harry explained. He knelt down on one knee and kissed the top of her hand. He reached into the picnic basket beside him and grabbed a small box. He opened it up. “Ginevra Molly Weasley, will you marry me?”
Ginny screeched. Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes got huge. “Yes! Harry, yes!”
She pulled him up to her and wrapped her arms around his neck. He laughed and lifted her up, swinging her around. Then he put her down and they kissed before each disappearing in the others’ shoulder.
“I love you,” Ron heard one of them whisper.
“I love you, too,” the other whispered.
Ron wiped the tears from his face. Damn, this was hard. Everything began to swirl and Ron screwed up his face, looking around. It was really blurry and the scenery was changing. He closed his eyes tight and then opened them again.
He was in Ginny’s room. Hermione was sitting on the bed and Ginny was standing, talking about what had just happened. When she got to the proposal part, Hermione gasped and jumped up, grabbing Ginny into a hug.
“You’re getting married!” Hermione screamed.
“I’m getting married!” Ginny repeated.
“When?” Hermione asked.
Ginny took a deep breath and then sat down next to Hermione. “We’ve discussed it, but we haven’t really decided on anything. I mean, I’m only 19 and he’s only 20. It’s hard because we don’t know how long this war is going to continue, you know? We’ve collected all but one Horcrux, we’re so close and then we’ve got to defeat Voldemort. We can’t exactly guess how long that will take. We’ve been in this war for three years now and we can’t exactly estimate when it will end. So we’ve sort of decided that we want to get married soon. Like within the next month.”
Hermione screwed up her face and looked at the ceiling. After a moment she said, “Well I think we can have the wedding in about three weeks time. It’ll take about that to plan it, let’s face it- you’re a Weasley and there’ll be no small wedding. We can get out invitations by next week-”
“Thank you,” Ginny whispered, interrupting Hermione with a hug. “No questions, you just understand us. Thank you so much,”
Hermione chuckled and wiped a tear off her cheek. How could she be the one crying when it was Ginny that was getting married? “What are best friends for?”
Ginny smiled.
Ron watched his sister and Hermione. It hit him with a blow just how much he really missed his three best friends. He could change that. He could get one of them back.
The room got blurry again, cleared up for a moment as he saw Ginny watching Harry and a younger version of himself hug, and then started swirling again. When the view had cleared and Ron was ready for the next memory, he was in his room. Hermione was sitting on the bed while Harry paced the room.
“Why are you nervous, I’m the one getting married?” Harry exclaimed, stopping suddenly to look at Hermione expectantly.
Hermione shook her head and Ron noticed that she was crying again. “I love him, Harry. I love him so much. But I’m not ready to get married. I’m so nervous that he’ll want to after this, and I’m not sure how to tell him I can’t,”
Harry watched her with a look of brotherly love before walking to the bed slowly. He knelt down so that they were the same height and he grabbed her hand. “You and Ron are my two best friends in the whole world. And if there is one thing that I know about Ron the most, it’s that he wants whatever you want. I never thought he would be like that, really. He was always kind of selfish growing up, in a loving way of course. But when we left school, when you both realized just how in love with each other you were, he changed so much. His whole life became you. He won’t ask you to marry him until the time is right, Hermione. He knows you better than you know yourself, and he knows that you aren’t ready,”
Hermione smiled weakly through her tears. “You think so?”
Harry grinned and nodded. “I know so,”
There was a comfortable silence for a minute before Harry stood up and took a deep breath. “Now, let’s focus on me, considering I am the groom,”
Hermione let out a small laugh. “Yes, I suppose,”
She got up and walked over to him, slapping his hand away as she attempted to fix his tie.
“I’ve been thinking about it, and do you know what’s odd?” Harry asked, trying to flatten his hair with a comb.
“What’s that?” Hermione asked, pulling his robes from Ron’s closet and taking it off the hanger.
“The four of us have one of the most amazing things anyone could ever offer. You and Ron love each other so much. Ginny and I match that with our own. I never thought that I would be this in love with the woman I married. I mean, yeah, I’d heard of love and I knew that you fell in love and got married to start and family and such, but really I never thought that I could be this in love and this happy,” Harry said this all with a matter-of-fact tone.
Hermione was dumbstruck after listening to his monologue. She laughed and shook her head. “You’re right, I think. We are really lucky,”
Ron was ready this time when the room got blurry again and he closed his eyes so as not to get sick from the spinning. Carefully, after a minute, he opened his eyes. He was in Ginny’s room now looking at himself and his sister.
The younger Ron was sitting on the bed, playing with some fluff on his sister’s pillow while Ginny sat down at her desk, fixing her makeup.
“Really, I don’t see why they pile so much of this on!” Ginny grumbled as she wiped more makeup off.
“Are you excited?” Ron asked.
Ginny screwed up her face and turned around to look at Ron. “About getting married?”
Ron nodded.
“Yes, more than I can put into words. But really, Ron, I don’t need to be married to him to know that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him. We just decided that ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ seemed appropriate for whether or not we get out of this war. I love him so much, Ron. I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with him. I’ve been ready since before I could remember,” she explained.
Ron nodded. “I’m ready to marry Hermione. I’ve been ready for a while too, but she isn’t. We haven’t discussed it, but I can tell. I don’t think it’s that she doesn’t want to be married, but rather that she doesn’t like to think that we are rushing into a marriage just because of the war, you know?”
Ginny nodded. “You and Hermione will have your time, Ron. Just hearing the way you talk about each other is amazing. You’re a lucky bloke, you are, Ronald Weasley. Hermione Granger is a hard one to beat and I’m so happy that you chose her because I couldn’t have picked anyone better to marry you,”
Ron stood up and walked over to Ginny’s seat. He wrapped his arms around her and looked at their faces in the mirror. It was a typical site, Ron’s head resting on Ginny’s, but this time it was different. They’d grown up and they knew it.
The older Ron watched himself and Ginny and felt a tug at his heart. He remembered that day as if it were yesterday.
“Yeah, well I’ve been hinting that you and Harry should be together since our fifth year, haven’t I?” Ron loved playing the older brother.
Ginny chuckled. “Yes, you have,”
She turned around to face him and her expression became very serious. “Look, Ron, I know our world is in a very bad place. I mean, look around us, it’s mad! But we each have our own comfort zone. Mine is with Harry, Hermione, and you. Something tells me that yours is the same as mine. I love Harry with all of my heart. And sometimes “ every once in a while, despite the madness and disastrous world we live in “ sometimes, it’s okay to be happy. We all deserve it at some point. Mine is right now. It’s right now before something takes it away from me. Someday, you’ll find your time. I just know it,”
The room became blurry once again and Ron wondered just how many memories could be shoved into one pensive.
Once again, the blurriness paused for a moment to show Ginny walking down the aisle, Harry watching her and Ron standing next to him. It skipped and then he was watching them kiss before the blurriness returned.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he heard his mother’s voice, he opened them up again.
“Who else are we waiting for?” Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny and Harry.
“Hermione,” Harry answered.
A moment later, a young woman with bushy brown hair entered the kitchen.
“Sorry, Ron wouldn’t let me leave,” she said with a blush.
Harry chuckled.
At that moment, Ron realized that this was the night after the wedding. He and Hermione had been upstairs, after being together for the second time, lying down on the bed silently. She’d suddenly jumped up and started randomly putting clothes on muttering that she had to go talk to Ginny. Ron kept fussing with her, whining that she had loads of time to talk to her and he wanted her to stay with him. But she’d left and Ron had pouted.
“Harry and I wanted to ask the two of you to do us a favor. It’s sort of a big favor,” Ginny explained.
Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley were seated around the table. Hermione and Mrs. Weasley nodded.
“Harry and I want to have a baby,” Ginny started, but was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley and Hermione screaming in excitement.
Harry shook his head. “No, just listen, alright? We want to have a baby because we don’t know how much longer this war is going to go on nor how it will end. If one or both of us dies, we want a baby to carry on. We need something that is a part of each of us to live on,”
“But Harry can’t leave the war and I won’t leave his side. I’m in the war now and I’m next to him! But I can’t stand next to him if I’m pregnant. What’s the point of putting our baby’s life in danger when we want it live on no matter what happens?”
“What are you getting at?” Hermione asked.
Ginny closed her eyes as she realized how hard this actually was.
“We want you to carry our baby, Hermione,” Harry said.
The room went silent. Mrs. Weasley sat with her eyes wide and her hand over her mouth. Hermione’s face was screwed up as if she was trying to comprehend what Harry had said.
“You are our best friend, Hermione, and we want you to do this for us. We don’t expect you to decide right away, nor did we take it into our own hands to tell Ron just yet,” Ginny was cut off by Hermione.
“Yes. Yes! Of course! Merlin, how could I say no?” Hermione was clearly beside herself with happiness and shock. She kept shaking her head and finally got up to hug Harry and Ginny.
“I’m so honored,” Hermione whispered through her tears, getting Ginny’s shoulder wet.
Ginny smiled and for one of the only times in Ron’s life, he saw Ginny cry.
Of course, it wasn’t big or obnoxious. It was barely noticeable. But he saw it. And he could tell that Harry saw it because he walked over to her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“I love you, Harry Potter,” Ginny told Harry, her face nestled into his chest.
“I love you, Ginny Potter,” Harry responded kissing the top of her head.
Mrs. Weasley was bawling.
“Dears?” she asked with a hiccup.
Harry, Ginny, and Hermione looked over at her.
“Why, if you didn’t tell anyone else, did you want me to know?”
Ginny walked over to her mother and hugged her tightly. “Firstly, we want you in this baby’s life. Secondly, we were hoping you would do the incantation,”
Mrs. Weasley began to cry again.
“Are you going to tell the rest of the family?” Hermione asked.
Harry shook his head. “Actually we sort of wanted to wait. We were hoping that we could announce it to everyone once your stomach started to show your pregnancy. We also want everything to be taken care of the muggle way so that no one will know that there is a baby Potter,”
“We wanted, for now, to keep it between us three, and maybe Ron. But we understand if you don’t want to tell him right away. He might react kind of poorly and that’s the last thing we need since we’re going back out to fight next week,” Ginny explained.
“Hermione isn’t going back to fight, no questions!” Mrs. Weasley commanded.
“That’s actually fine, because I’ve gotten that job at St. Mungo’s and I wasn’t going to take it, but now it would only make sense that I did,” Hermione told them.
Ginny and Harry stared at Hermione with thankful looks.
“Now, when would you like do this?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“Actually, we were kind of hoping tonight,” Harry answered.
“Oh, Merlin! Well, we can most certainly do that! Let me just get my book,” Mrs. Weasley held up her wand and a book titled The Wonders of Pregnancy came flying at her.
Catching it, Mrs. Weasley looked through the pages and found what she was looking for.
“How do we…? I mean, do I need to…,” Harry couldn’t quite get out what he wanted to ask. He fidgeted. This might be awkward.
“No, no, nothing of that sort. This might feel weird, though,”
Ron watched as his mother pointed her wand just below Harry’s stomach, and muttered a spell, causing a small little blur of something that hung in the air. She then did the same to Ginny and joined the two blurs together. Pointing just below Hermione’s stomach, she muttered something more, and the blur disappeared into Hermione.
Hermione’s breath caught slightly and she grabbed onto her stomach. “I felt that,” she whispered in awe.
And before Ron could watch any longer, the memory began to change again. He knew as soon as he opened his eyes what this was. He didn’t need a pensive to relive it, because he saw it every day in his own head.
“It seems so weird,” Ginny thought aloud to the room.
She was laying face-up on her and Harry’s bed with her legs hanging off the end. She was focusing on the ceiling. Harry was looking out of the window while the younger Ron was standing, leaning against the closet door, and Hermione was spread out on the carpet, also looking up at the ceiling. They were all deep in thought.
“It won’t be for long, right?” Hermione asked the room.
“No, it won’t be long,” Harry answered, never taking his eyes away from whatever he was watching out of the window.
“Harry,” Ginny whispered. Harry’s head snapped toward her and Ron looked down at Hermione.
Harry sat down on the carpet with his knees up and spread apart. Ginny walked over to him and sat between his legs, pulling her knees up to her chest and laid a hand on each of Harry’s thighs.
Hermione sat up as Ron came over to her and sat behind her. She scooted back so that she was sitting against him, both of their legs straddled out. She pushed her head back into his chest and he laid his chin on it. He wrapped his arms around her when he felt her tremble with tears.
The older Ron watched himself unknowingly place a hand on Hermione’s stomach. He saw her close her eyes tightly as if holding back from yelling something.
“You can’t leave me for long!” she cried.
“Don’t cry, love, we won’t,” Ron soothed.
“Yeah, Ron’s right. I mean, we are accident prone! We’ll probably see you soon, Healer Granger,” Ginny giggled.
Hermione smiled weakly.
“Thanks, Mrs. Potter,” she said and Ginny smiled proudly.
“Yes, I am! And soon we’ll have little Potters running around this house!”
Harry pulled Ginny closer to him and smiled at Hermione.
“You’re pregnant?” Ron cried. The room laughed.
“No, Ronald! Do you seriously think that I would fight and finish this war if I were?” Ginny asked incredulously.
Ron shrugged. “Never know. You are so damn stubborn! Besides, I was just taking care of my kid sister, even if you are nineteen. If Mione was pregnant, then I wouldn’t let her fight,” Ron explained.
The older Ron had forgotten that he’d started to call her that. It was almost like “’Mione” was so much easier than “Hermione” but then he realized that it hadn’t been about that; it had been about nicknames. Kind of like when they were alone together, she called him “Ronny”. He would’ve hated it from anyone else, but from her he didn’t mind.
Hermione’s voice shook him back to the memory.
“Well, you wouldn’t have to worry about that if I were, Ron, because I’m not fighting anymore, anyway,” Hermione pointed out.
“True. Ginny, I’m just taking care of you. The best care.” Ron told her.
Ginny cocked her head to one side. “Always?” she whispered.
“Forever,” Ron whispered back before winking.
This time, Ron hadn’t really been expecting the change and when he opened his eyes, he jumped because it was such a dramatic change from the last memory.
“Healer Granger, we need you in here! Three bodies just came in! Beyond repair, I think,” a short woman in a white gown shouted at a flustered yet somewhat calm Hermione.
Ron watched as she took a deep breath, rubbed her stomach lightly, and ran after the lady. He followed them into a room and gasped at the bodies. Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, and another boy their year she thought had been in Hufflepuff.
Hermione examined each of them and muttered spells and incantations. She yelled at the short woman for a number of different things that Ron assumed were potions.
“Get them set up in a room! I think that this one and this one will recover. Put this one in critical care, because I don’t think I can spend enough time on him to save him,” Hermione’s voice cracked at the last part and Ron knew it was because she couldn’t believe that there was someone she couldn’t help.
“He did it! You-Know-Who is gone! Harry Potter’s killed him!” someone yelled from the hall.
Hermione smiled and started to cry. Ron could tell that she was relieved yet worried.
“Damn it! Someone get out here, now! Granger?” the voice hollered so loud that Ron covered his ears.
Hermione sprinted past Ron and into the hall. “What do-”
Ron went out to see what had stopped Hermione from continuing. He heard her scream before he could see what it was. He’d never heard anyone scream that loud in his life. She was on her knees, crying harder than she’d ever cried, trying to clutch at two lifeless bodies.
“No! Please! Please!” Hermione was crying.
Luna Lovegood came out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around Hermione.
“Please, god no! Don’t take them! Please don’t take them from me!” Hermione was screaming.
Ron hadn’t realized it, but he was on his knees, too. He was staring at the bodies of Harry and Ginny and he was absolutely beside himself. He couldn’t breathe. He was crying so hard that he couldn’t breathe. He, Ronald Weasley, was sobbing.
When he opened his eyes again he was at the Burrow in Ginny’s room. After the wedding, Ginny and Harry had moved up to Fred and George’s old room, leaving Hermione with Ginny’s.
He was still on his knees, crying as if there was no tomorrow and he watched Hermione pack her things into a suitcase that was charmed so that more could fit in it than appeared.
She was still sobbing, but was taking things from everywhere and putting them into the suitcase. And then she picked up a picture of the four of them on Harry and Ginny’s wedding day. She sunk down onto the bed, holding the picture to her chest and screaming at nothing in particular.
And then the door opened behind him and Ron watched himself walk over to Hermione and grab her into his arms. He was kissing her forehead, his face covered in dried dirt with tear streaks down his cheeks. He was trying to hush her but it wasn’t working.
And that was when the younger Ron noticed the open suitcase, filled with all of Hermione’s belongings. He screwed up his face. “Where are we going?”
Hermione shook her head. “I’m leaving,” she whispered with a small hiccup.
“’Mione! Where the bloody hell are we going?” Ron yelled.
The older Ron knew that the younger Ron was upset because he knew deep down what Hermione was going to say.
“I’m leaving, Ronald. I can’t stay here,” she said through her sobs.
Ron shook his head. And right before his eyes, Hermione got up, closed the suitcase, shrunk it into the size of a handbag, picked it up, and left the room, all the while trying to hold back her sobs.
Ron watched himself follow her down into the kitchen. She turned abruptly and he ran into her. She kissed him passionately, whispering that she loved him, before stepping back and Disapparating.
Ron knew that this was the end and wasn’t surprised when he was pulled back out and landed in the kitchen of Hermione’s flat.
She was sitting at the table, waiting for him with a glass of hot tea.
He realized he was still crying and turned away, embarrassed. He jumped slightly when he felt her wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his chest. He heard her quiet sobs. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned down to put his face in the crook of her neck.
It seemed forever that they stayed like that, each crying into their embrace. And when they parted, Ron realized it was late at night and let her lead him into her room.
She pointed out the bathroom and pointed across the hall to another door that was wide open. He walked across the hall, through the door and went to stand next to James’ crib. He rubbed his back a few times, leaned over to kiss his head of unruly black hair, and whispered a small, “I love you,” before leaving and walking back to Hermione.
She was already in her bed, curled up on her side, crying. Ron took off his pants and shoes, and went to spoon up behind her, kissing her softly and falling asleep.
He didn’t need to ask questions, for he knew that come the next day, everything would be answered.
Only one more chapter after this! Exciting, I know! I’m so terribly sorry for waiting this long to update, but it won’t happen again! Please leave some reviews and constructive criticism. Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoyed it.
Manda
Sometimes, It's Okay to Be Happy by Rons chick
Chapter Notes: I hope it's approved this time!
sorry for the wait!
hope it's worth it!
xoxo
manda