The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect, by James Bow

Chapter Six: Remembrance.

Wesley made a few practice waves with his wand: eleven inches, stained maple, phoenix feather. "Swish and flick. Swish and flick." He pocketed the wand with a twirl of his fingers. "I miss Dumbledore's staff." He stuttered to a halt. "Hell, I miss Dumbledore."

Ginny stared at him, silent.

Wesley opened a drawer and pulled out a yellowed newspaper. The headline blared "Mystery Explosion Rocks Northern Scotland."

"I think Dumbledore had it all planned from the moment he met us at St. Mungo's," he continued. "He knew what touching the two staffs together would do. He stockpiled loads of weaponry into Hogwarts and manned it with the best Aurors and, more importantly, Harry Potter and his friends. Voldemort could see that a strike on Hogwarts could kill two of his worst enemies, as well as demoralizing the rest of the wizarding world. Dumbledore baited Voldemort into a trap, and when Voldemort committed himself and most of his army, he sprung it."

Ginny winced.

Wesley sighed and stared at the paper. "The Muggle press compared the devastation to the 1908 explosion in Siberia. The ash and smoke thrown into the stratosphere made for a cold winter that year and the next. Makes you wonder about the Siberian explosion, doesn't it? Frankly, it was a miracle that not one Muggle died. The fact that every inhabitant within fifty miles felt compelled to be across country that day is another mystery the Muggles will be pondering to the end of time."

He sat down at his desk, and stared across at Ginny. The silence lengthened.

"So, that's how we won the war," she said. "I always wondered. But that doesn't answer my question: why are you leaving?"

Wesley stood up so fast, his seat went flying. "Don't you see! Don't you see what we did? We killed Voldemort! We killed Voldemort and the bulk of his Death Eater army! Dumbledore did it by sacrificing himself and Hogwarts and leaving a huge crater behind!"

"How?" demanded Ginny. "I still don't understand that."

"Everything has a temporal potential, like potential energy. As we move forward in time, that potential changes. Bring an object back in time, and touch it with its earlier self, and the potential equalizes, with a tremendous release of energy. It's the wizarding equivalent of an atomic bomb."

"So?" said Ginny.

"So?" Wesley echoed. "Ginny: Ron and Hermione are pregnant. Who do you think they're pregnant with?"

Ginny sat back in her seat. After a moment, she shook her head. "You don't know this is going to happen. I've been reading up on time travel theory as well, and I know there's something called a Butterfly Effect."

"I know about the Butterfly Effect," Wesley muttered.

"Where small changes expand over time to produce unexpected results? You changed history, remember? You wiped out the future that caused you to go back in time. You've lived alongside your parents for ten years. Who knows all that you've changed, or at what level. How do you know that they went through the exact same procedures to conceive their baby as they did when they conceived you?"

"I can't take that chance," yelled Wesley. "Right now, everything is falling into place: from the date of their wedding to the date Mum went into labour. It's all ticking down to today, my birthday. I have no choice! I have to leave, for you, for Ron, for Hermione and for six million other people I could name if I had the London telephone directory handy!"

"You don't have to touch the baby," said Ginny. "You can tell if there's a temporal charge before you touch the two things together. You felt it when the two staffs were close together. At least come in and see if what you fear is true."

"I can't." Wesley drew a shaky breath. "It would mean having to say goodbye, in person. And I can't face that."

Ginny stared at him. "So, after all that you've done, and after all that you've faced, you're that much of a coward?"

Wesley looked up, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Finally, he said, "Yes."

"That's what I thought," said a third voice.

Wesley perked up. His eyes scanned the area around the desk and he reached out and snatched the air. Harry's invisibility cloak fell away. "Harry! How long have you been listening?"

"The whole time," Harry replied. "You always confided in Ginny far more readily than you do me."

Wesley picked his seat up from off the floor. He sat down and glared at them both. "You set me up."

"No," said Ginny. "You confided in me, and Harry just happened to listen in."

"So, you suspected what I was doing and why. Why did I have to go through that long tale?"

"So that you could hear it for yourself," said Harry. "And we could get this out into the open. But that's not why we're here."

"Why are you here?"

"Because two people are far more likely to drag you kicking and screaming to St. Mungo's maternity ward than one." Harry squared his shoulders. Ginny clenched her cane.

Wesley sagged. "All right," he said. "Damn you, but all right. I'll go and say goodbye."

***

They Apparated to St. Mungo's. Wesley held back at the doors as though portending doom, but came forward reluctantly when Harry and Ginny glared. They paused briefly at reception to get Hermione's room number and then set off through the corridors, Harry leading the way, Ginny positioning herself behind Wesley, her stare on his back pushing him along.

It was quiet in the hospital, for the first time any of them had remembered, but doom hung over Wesley like a cloud.

Finally, they turned a corner, and saw Ron emerging from the maternity ward, an icepack over his blackened eye.

"Ron!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Harry," said Ron, "When you and Ginny have children, try not to be in the maternity ward when she's in labour. And, if you have to go, don't ever say 'just keep pushing, dear. You can do it. It can't be that bad, can it?'"

Ginny's hand shot to her mouth. "You didn't!"

"As God is my witness, I'll never make that mistake again."

Wesley couldn't help himself. Despite Ron's glare, he began to laugh. Then Ron began to smile, then to chuckle, until Wesley was doubled over against the wall, and Ron not far behind. Harry and Ginny watched, smiling but a little nervous, ready in case either patient slipped into hysterics.

Finally, Wesley and Ron stopped laughing. Ron looked seriously at his son. "Thank you for showing up."

"I'm sorry," said Wesley. "I'm even sorrier Harry and Ginny had to drag me."

"Why didn't you just tell us, Wesley?"

"You asked me that very same question ten years ago. The answer today is roughly the same. How's Mum?"

"She's fine."

"Is everybody fine?" asked Wesley.

"Well, most everybody," said Ron. "But you'd better watch out for--"

"There you are!"

Wesley whirled around, only to have Parvati slap him hard, from left to right, across his face. He stumbled back into the wall. "That!" she shouted, "is for leaving me!"

She slapped him again, from right to left. "That! Is for not telling me why!"

Then she pulled up to him, stood on tiptoe, and planted a kiss hard on his lips. "And that," she said, "is for being yourself. Don't ever change. And don't be long." She walked away down the hall, leaving Wesley staring after her, a hand on his cheek.

Ron came up to him, still holding his icepack to his black eye. "Women," he said.

"Yeah," said Wesley.

Harry stepped up and put a hand on Wesley's shoulder. "Come on. It's time."

Wesley cast one more glance at the determined expressions of Harry, Ron and Ginny. He drew himself up. "Yes. It's time."

They led him into Hermione's room.

Wesley crossed the threshold with the air of someone entering a minefield. He looked around, frowning, at the odd quiet of the room.

His family pushed him forward.

He saw Hermione lying in bed, her hair clumped with sweat, but a blissful smile on her face. She tickled a small, shifting bundle in her arms.

She looked up at Wesley, and her smile broadened. "Wesley," she said, her voice wispy with happiness and exhaustion. "I want you to meet Harriet Granger-Weasley."

Wesley stood staring as Harry and Ron broke into big grins. They pushed him closer. The electric tension that had accompanied the two staffs was not there.

"It's a girl?" he gasped.

"You changed history, remember?" said Harry. "Say hello to your sister, who just happens to share your birthday."

Wesley took up the swaddled baby and held her in his arms. The world didn't end. "It's a girl! She's not me! I don't have to leave!"

"Welcome home, son," said Ron.

"Maybe now you can start living in it," said Ginny.

Wesley started to cry. Great sobs shook his shoulders; his mouth open and smiling. "I can stay!"

"Of course," said Hermione.

Ron hugged his son.

Nobody was coherent for a while after that.

END.