The Emerald Terror

Planning Magic

The Emerald Terror

Summary: It wasn't supposed to end like this. The light was supposed to win and everyone should have continued on living peacefully. Too bad the muggles don't believe in happily ever after... nor coexistence it seems. "Goodbye Magic". Time travel fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Three: Planning Magic

--- POV Heath Potter ---

"What's going on over there mate?" Ron asks and Hermione turns from her work on the wall opposite us to lecture him when light flashes outside the corridor windows and the castle shakes.

"Bloo-" Ron's swear is cut off by another, much closer, shake that throws me into him sending us to the floor. Hermione pales drastically as McGonagall's voice is heard throughout the partially reconstructed but still in use school.

"Hogsmeade is under attack. First through sixth years please proceed to the dungeons and follow the directions of Mr.Filch and the Ghosts once there. All seventh years and up either follow or meet out by the path to the village. Thank you." A third rocking produces a scream further down the corridor and I'm off with Ron by my side, heading towards it only to stop dead.

A huge chunk of the castle was gone, a hole and ruins where a nearly complete hallway once stood.

"They're bombing us." Hermione gasps out. Not much was able to surprise us anymore but this... no one could say this was expected.

Heath sits up in bed and the lights immediately turn on as he huddles into himself. Tears he hadn't known he was still capable of the stream down his face as he rocks back and forth not knowing what to do. It had been so long since he'd had to deal with this alone and he didn't think his regimen of dreamless sleep potions and staying up all night practicing how to get the spells wrong was going to last much longer. Which was why he had tried sleeping normally, an obvious failure. He wanted Hermione...no... he wanted RON. Ron may have, as Hermione put it, possessed the emotional range of a teaspoon but he knew how to calm the brunette down after a particularly bad nightmare.

The redhead actually knew how to do a lot that no one had ever given him credit for until he was no longer around to do it.

It had been particularly evident in the care of the surviving two-thirds of the Golden Trio. Well, in the care of HARRY anyway. It was Ron that had dealt with the nightmares both during and after the Second Blood War. Ron that had forgone Mione's simple ranting lecture and sat him down at the mercy of the kitchen elves when he stopped eating, Ron that truly helped Harry through his struggle with sexuality (He was actually better with it than Hermione, something about a gay uncle and the assurance that Harry didn't like redheads...), and it was Ron that had 'fixed' Harry's wardrobe. Hermione had been there too but despite all the jealousy, abandonment, and the fighting it was Ron who usually dealt with everything not related directly to books.

If Ronald Weasley's emotional range was that of a teaspoon then that was a bloody big spoon.

He'd been Harry's first friend, the one that knew more about the wizarding world than either mundane-raised teens of their group could ever hope to, and the one who didn't turn to books for all the answers. They'd taken down a troll, saved Ginny from a Horcrux, broken Harry out of his relatives' house, attempted to end SPEW, driven a car to Hogwarts, faced an Acromantula nest, destroyed Horcruxes, survived the Whomping Willow, found ball dates, and suffered through years of rooming together. Hermione had died without ever truly knowing Harry's sexuality (after her reaction to his break-up with Ginny and the hypothetical idea he'd given to her there was no way he could tell her), she'd never woken up in the same bed as him because they'd found he slept better when in someone's arms, walking in on one of them masturbating was definitely not checked off on their list, Quidditch wasn't a topic that could be breached, and the girl would never be able to shop for his clothes without him and find the perfect outfits. In short Hermione Granger was his best friend and she was great and all...