This Dance We Do

Chapter 5: A Reason for Everything

"Rita bloody Skeeter?" Ron bellowed, ignoring the indignant cry of "Ron!" coming from Hermione.

"Ron," Harry said through half-clenched teeth. "Hermione's parents."

"They're at work, but that's besides the point."

"I thought she wasn't allowed to write anymore," Ron said, pointing at her name for emphasis.

"Well, no, not for a year. But that was over weeks ago. The only thing she's not allowed to write now is foul lies about anyone." Ron doubted that Skeeter would ever be able to resist writing lies about Harry, it was her favorite past time. He was about to say just this when Hermione went on. "Again, this is not the point. Read the article."

Ron reluctantly looked down at the article and almost fell off his seat again when he started reading.

A New Ministry on the Horizon?

Inept officials possibly taken out of office

It seems that our Ministry is crumbling around us, right when we need it most, writes Rita Skeeter, special correspondent. Over the past few weeks it has come to the public's attention exactly how the Ministry has been run these past several years.

Our Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and those directly under him, seem to be the cause of many of the problems that have plagued the wizarding world of late. As such, Fudge and his entire office are on suspension, and might possibly be removed from office by the end of the week.

Fudge was one of the first who was alerted to the return of You-Know-Who a year ago, but he did nothing. He strictly forbade this paper to publish anything that might hint of The Dark Lord's return, and encouraged lies to be printed about the only two people who spoke the truth, as a way to discredit them.

Fudge even failed to inform the public of two escaped Dementors in Surrey just under a year ago. It was assumed by some that this meant that the Dementors were no longer under Ministry control, but rumor has it that they were sent by ex-Ministry official Dolores Umbridge to attack Harry Potter.

Recently, the lengths that Fudge and Umbridge went to make Harry and Dumbledore powerless have been revealed. Beyond the information that has already been printed, it has been discovered that Ms. Umbridge authorized a physical attack on six Hogwarts students, including Potter. She also came very close to performing an Unforgivable curse on Mr. Potter to retrieve information from him, but was deterred by a Miss Hermione Granger.

-288Ms. Umbridge thankfully retired from the Ministry after the end of the Hogwarts school year, but we still have to deal with Fudge and his horrid leadership. If the wind continues to blow the way it is, Fudge (and the rest of his office) will be without a job in the months to come, and we will have a new (and more capable) Minister shortly.

As for Mr. Potter, he is looking forward to returning to an Umbridge free Hogwarts on September first with his two best friends, Miss Granger and Mr. Robert Weasley.

"Well, I don't see any lies in there. She seems to be improving." It seemed immature to Ron to complain about her not getting his name right; at least he was mentioned.

"How did she know that stuff? Like us being attacked by the Slytherins and her trying to use the Cruciatius Curse on me? Was she buzzing around the room?"

"I don't know." Hermione looked perplexed. "Maybe Luna mentioned it, she gave an interview about a week ago about how glad she was that Umbridge was gone. I'll ask Ginny."

"Why would Ginny know?" Ron was wondering the same question. Why would his sister know anything about Loony Lovegood?

"Well, they've kept in touch. Ginny's actually told me about the letters. Apparently she's having fun looking for Crumpled-whosy-whats-its with her dad."

"So, does this mean that Fudge's getting sacked?" Ron asked, wanting to clarify things.

"And everyone who works in his office, it looks like," Hermione said gravely. She was giving Ron a strange look, like he had just lost a good set of Gobstones and she was really sorry.

"What?" he asked her, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, Ron!" She sounded exasperated. "Don't you understand? Percy is in Fudge's office. He might get fired!"

Ron looked at her, and then what she said sunk in. He turned to Harry, to see that his face mirrored Hermione's. Were they not paying attention to his feelings on Percy over the past year?

"Great. The prat deserves it. Disowns the family, makes Mum cry, all because he thought that Fudge was right simply due to his position of power. Getting what he deserves if you ask me."

Hermione sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "Ron, he's family. Even if you don't forgive him for what he did, which I'm not asking you to," she added as Ron opened his mouth to tell her off, "you can still feel sorry for his situation. What if he apologizes now that he sees that Fudge is wrong?"

"Yeah, well, everyone's known Fudge's wrong for weeks, and we haven't heard anything from him. And after what he said about Mum and Dad and Harry, I don't think I'll be forgiving him anytime soon."

Hermione opened her mouth but Ron cut her off. "Look, I don't think the git deserves our forgiveness unless he can come back and apologize. Even then, I'll be hard pressed to keep from hitting him. Everything he did, and all because he wanted to further himself in the Ministry." Hermione opened her mouth again, but Ron held up a hand. "Look, I don't want to talk about this right now, okay?"

Hermione swelled in the way she always did right before they were going to row. Good, thinking about Percy had stirred him up, he could use a good shouting match. Hermione opened her mouth again, undoubtedly to yell at Ron, but Harry held up a hand.

"Hermione," he said wearily, "just let him be. He has every right to feel the way he does, and he shouldn't be yelled at for it."

Ron glared at his friend. Great, now he had all this pent up energy and no one to throw it at.

Harry stood up, and Ron was startled momentarily. In all the excitement of the day before, he had failed to notice what Harry looked like. He had grown a little, but if possible, he was thinner than before. He looked sick somehow. Ron was about to ask Harry if he was feeling all right, but stopped when Harry began to speak.

"I'm going to go back to bed for a bit. I'm really tired. Is that okay?" He looked at Hermione, who gave him a faint smile and nodded.

Ron watched Harry climb the stairs, waited until he was probably out of earshot, then leaned over to Hermione.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"He's grieving, Ron. He's never had a parental figure, except Sirius, and now even he's been taken away from him. What's worse, he blames himself, because he went into the Department of Mysteries, and if he hadn't been there, Sirius never would have followed, and he would still be alive."

Hermione piled the used dishes into the sink as she spoke, her hands trembling slightly. When she was done she went back into the sitting room and settled herself in a chair. Ron sat across from her.

"What do you mean he's never had a parental figure, what about my parents? Last year my mum said that Harry was as good as a son."

Hermione sighed and looked at Ron, then started talking in her annoyingly superior fashion, like she was trying to explain that one plus one equals two.

"Your parents are yours, Ron. Although they love Harry very much, and he cares for them as well, they will never be his, not the way his parents were, not the way Sirius was."

Ron still did not understand where she was coming from, so he simply shook his head and changed tactics.

"How can he blame himself? He'd been having visions that were real, like the one with my dad. And then he sees Sirius there, and he checked and everything. He wasn't about to leave him there; I wouldn't. I mean--what?"

Hermione had bowed her head and was sniffing again. She grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.

"N--nothing." She took a deep breath and looked up and the ceiling, then bowed her head again.

"No, something's wrong. I said something that upset you. What was it?"

Hermione shook her head again, then took in a very shaky breath. "It's just..." She was speaking so softly that Ron had to move so he was sitting on the floor in front of her. The advantage to this was that he could see her face again; it was heavily tear stained. "It's just, we had access to Umbridge's fire. If only we had Flooed to Grimmauld Place, the three of us. We would have found Sirius, and I could have justified it by saying that we could fully search the house, and if he wasn't there, we would have been closer to the Ministry." Hermione was crying heavily now, and her eyes were red and puffy. "If I had just brought it up, then none of this would have happened. S--Sirius would still be alive, you w-w-wouldn't have those sc--scars--"

"And the entire wizarding world would have no idea about You-Know-Who." Hermione squeaked and shook her head. Ron got up on to his knees and shimmied closer to her. "Loads of Death Eaters would still be on the loose," he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "Dumbledore and Hagrid would still be in hiding," he wiped some of her tears away with the pad of his thumb, "there wouldn't be a chance of unseating Fudge," he lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him, "and that foul Umbridge would still be at Hogwarts." Hermione rewarded him with a shaky laugh.

"I'm not saying I don't want Sirius back, or that I would trade him for any of that," Ron said as he smoothed away the last of her tears, "it's just... My mum used to tell us all that everything in life happens for a reason. We may not see that reason right then, but when the time comes, it will be made evident to us. We might not know why Sirius died, but we can't go blaming ourselves for something that was meant to happen anyway."

Hermione reached out and touched the side of Ron's face. He could feel heat radiate throughout his body from that point. He heard Hermione sigh shakily and looked at her.

"When did you start growing up?" she asked.

Ron was not sure if it was meant as a compliment or not, but he did not have time to contemplate it before Hermione was hugging him.