Tree Houses and Daisies

little_bird

Story Summary:
Ron and Hermione, in the months after the war.

Chapter 04 - Absolution

Chapter Summary:
Ron's observations of Harry and Ginny.
Posted:
02/03/2008
Hits:
2,456


Ron stood outside the bathroom door. Whoever was inside was taking forever. It wasn't George, he was up and dressed. It wasn't Ginny, either, she didn't usually take a long time in the bathroom, and lately, she'd dashed in and out, barely stopping to comb her hair. Molly and Arthur were both downstairs. Ron sighed and shifted his weight, making the landing creak. The door opened, and Harry stood in the doorway, clad in a pair of clean boxers, surrounded by a billowing cloud of steam.

Ron eyed Harry critically. Harry had never been large, and was usually thin to begin with, but he was nearly skin and bones. 'What?' asked Harry exasperatedly.

'You need to eat, mate. I can count your ribs,' Ron told him, the need to use the loo forgotten.

'You could always count my ribs,' said Harry dryly.

'Not like this,' Ron said soberly.

'I'm fine, Ron. Just haven't been hungry lately.'

'You should try coming down for meals more often.'

Harry ran a hand through his damp hair, making it stick up in clumps around his head. 'I don't know. I mean Ginny...' He gestured vaguely.

'Well, this will be a perfect time for you to get her to talk to you, won't it?' asked Ron crisply. 'Or at least ask her to meet you later. Out of the house.'

Harry just stood there, rubbing the back of his neck. 'I'll think about it,' he said quietly.

'Don't think too much. My scones are best when they're fresh.'

'You make scones?' Harry gaped at Ron. 'Since when do you make scones?'

'Since last week,' Ron said, shrugging. 'It's not a big deal, you know.'

'I might have to see this to believe it.' Harry let a small, fleeting grin skip across his face.

Ron let out a bark of laughter, and good-naturedly shoved Harry aside. 'Move it, will you? Some of us need to get in there.'

'Oh! Right.' Harry came all the way into the landing. He stood for a moment, staring at his bare toes before meeting Ron's eyes. 'I'm sorry, Ron. I didn't...' He lifted a shoulder helplessly. 'I wish things had turned out differently. I know it doesn't make anything better.'

'So do we. But like I told you last night, it's not your fault. And I'm going to repeat it until you believe me, you daft git.' Ron moved into the bathroom. Before closing the door he said, 'You might want to get dressed before Mum sees you like that. She's liable to tie you to a chair and feed you until you look like your cousin.'

Harry snorted, and went down the stairs to Bill's old room. Shaking his head, Ron closed the bathroom door. He hoped Harry would begin to believe it soon.

Ron met Harry on the first landing, standing at the top of the stairs uncertainly. 'Harry, what are you doing?'

'Trying to make up my mind to go downstairs.' Ron huffed impatiently and took Harry's elbow and dragged him down to the kitchen. As he propelled Harry down the stairs, Harry commented, 'Do you realize you just sounded like Hermione?'

'I did not!' Ron said scandalized. The two of them pushed through the kitchen door, and the chatter that had flitted around the table stopped into silence, as Harry came through the door.

'Harry!' Molly exclaimed. Ron, correctly thinking Molly was about to make a fuss, quickly shook his head behind Harry. Molly took in a quick breath, and pointed her wand at a cupboard. A plate flew toward the table and settled at the empty chair between George and Ginny. 'Sit down, dear.'

Ron heard Harry's soft gasp. Scanning the table, he saw it was the only empty seat left. 'That's what you get for dawdling,' he informed Harry smugly, so low Harry was the only one who heard it.

Harry gingerly sat in the chair, and reached for a scone from the basket in the middle of the table. He looked at Ginny from the corner of his eye. She was studying the contents of her plate intently, determined not to meet Harry's eye. Molly saw the by-play as she shoveled eggs and bacon onto Harry's plate. She met George's eye and rolled her eyes.

Harry methodically cleaned his plate, and didn't protest when Molly piled more food on it. He and Ginny kept giving each other sidelong glances when they thought the other wasn't looking.

It was enough to make Ron gag.

Ginny tried to leave the table, but Harry's hand closed around her wrist. She looked down at him, a slight frown on her face. Harry looked at her full in the face, and gave his head a slight jerk toward the back door. Ginny nodded, and Harry rose from his seat, and he and Ginny silently left the kitchen.

Molly, George, and Ron all exchanged glances. 'It's about bloody time!' exclaimed Molly.

'Mum!' admonished George. 'Language!'

'Like you weren't thinking the same thing,' sniffed Molly.

Ron looked out the window, and saw Ginny's bright head bob next to Harry's dark one, as they trudged down to the far end of the paddock. He was ready to strangle both of them for being as thick as he was normally accused of being. 'Mum?'

'Hmmm?' Molly was absently flicking her wand at the breakfast dishes, able to put only a fraction of her mind on it out of long habit.

'Could you and Dad talk to Harry? Try to convince him it wasn't his fault?'

'We've tried, but he always darts back into Bill's room.'

'He needs it, Mum. And from you, George,' Ron added turning to George, who was polishing off the last scone. 'He won't forgive himself until you forgive him.'

'There's nothing to forgive, Ron,' stated George flatly.

'I know that, but he needs to hear it.'

Ron turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Ginny came back into the house before lunch, slightly pale, but starting to shed some of the haunted look she'd carried for the past few weeks. Harry trailed after her a few minutes later. Ron looked up from the plate of chicken sandwiches he was making, and held one out to Harry. 'How'd it go?'

'All right.' Harry shrugged.

'Just all right?'

'You want details?' Harry asked Ron, who nodded. Harry held up the sandwich in his hand. 'After lunch, eh?'

******

Harry and Ginny walked slowly down the garden and into the paddock, carefully avoiding each other's gaze. Neither of them spoke until they reached the oak tree. As the came to a stop at the base of the tree, Ginny looked up at Harry, biting her lip in obvious distress. She delicately traced one of the fading bruises on Harry's cheekbone. 'I'm so sorry,' she whispered. 'I shouldn't have...' Ginny drew in a deep breath. 'Slapped you,' she finished.

Harry shrugged. 'Maybe it was just what I needed. To get through the fog, I suppose.' Harry wrinkled his nose. 'Just don't do that again, all right? You have a very good right arm on you,' he said, allowing a faint ghost of a smile to flit across his face.

One of Harry's hands slowly rose and his fingers slid through the dark red strands that lay over Ginny's shoulder. 'Gin? I'm sorry... About Fred. It was not something I wanted to happen. It was like losing my own brother,' he said hoarsely.

'Fred knew what he was getting into,' Ginny said softly. 'We all did. Doesn't make it hurt less, but it wasn't pointless, and Fred would kick your arse halfway to London if he knew you were wallowing,' Ginny pointed out.

Harry's hand that had been sliding through Ginny's hair suddenly stilled. 'Any death is pointless when it's like that,' he countered.

'Maybe. But you can wallow in the grief and let it swallow you, or you can remember the person as they lived. And you can make damn sure they're never forgotten,' she replied firmly.

Harry shrugged again, and gestured to the ladder. 'After you.'

Ginny climbed the ladder, and her eyes widened at the signs of habitation in the tree house. 'Who's been here?' she wondered.

'Ron and Hermione before she left. Since then, Ron just comes here to get out of the house during the afternoon.'

'Eww. Please tell me they didn't...'

'No,' replied Harry hastily. 'Not here anyway.'

Ginny raised an eyebrow. 'I could have lived my whole life without hearing that.'

'Me, too,' muttered Harry, sitting on a cushion. He leaned his back against one of the walls. Harry's eyes closed and for a moment, Ginny thought he went to sleep. She settled on one of the cushions on the other side of the room. 'So, I have a few things to answer for with you,' Harry said into the blanket of quiet, making Ginny jump. 'I know you don't agree with some of the decisions I made over the last year.'

'I suppose.'

'Ginny,' Harry said, opening his eyes, looking directly at her. 'I don't even like some of the decisions I made. But they were things I had to do. They were things nobody else could do.'

'I know that.'

'So don't hold it against me,' he said hotly.

'I don't!'

'Yes, you do. You're angry with me. You're still angry I wouldn't tell Molly to let you go fight.' Harry held out a hand beseechingly. 'Let me finish? I know what you can do, Ginny. You've fought alongside me. But I couldn't risk you. I wouldn't have been able to come back from wherever it was I went after that Killing curse, if I knew you weren't here.'

'It was my fight, too,' Ginny muttered stubbornly.

'I know it was, but God, Ginny, if I'd lost you, my life wouldn't have been worth three Knuts. That's one of the reasons you couldn't come with us. I know Hogwarts was complete and repulsive crap for you, but it was a damn sight safer there. I almost died more times from August to May than I had the previous six years.' Harry methodically cracked the knuckles of his hands.

Ginny looked up from the quill she had been twirling in her hands. 'You don't have to explain,' she said dully. 'I understand, all right?'

'I know you do. You always do. But that doesn't mean you liked it.'

'I don't like being treated like a child.'

'I never meant to treat you like a child. I just want you to be safe.'

'Harry,' Ginny sighed. 'You can't wrap me in layers of cotton wool and pack me in a box.'

'I know,' he replied, looking at his hands. 'And if I could, it would change you, and you wouldn't be the person I fell in love with.'

'Glad you finally realize that,' she said tartly.

'I always did.' Harry stretched his feet out in front of him. 'So... the dying thing...' He tilted his head up to look through a window at the leaves blowing gently in the breeze. 'That was simple self-preservation. The Killing curse didn't work, and if Riddle knew I was alive, they would have killed me for good.' Harry's gaze drifted back to Ginny. 'I am sorry... For that... After everything else.' Harry's eyes bored into Ginny's. 'I was a Horcrux,' he said simply. 'I had to willingly die for that bit of Riddle to be destroyed.'

'How did you not die?' Ginny asked in a faint voice.

'Ever heard of the Deathly Hallows?'

'No,' Ginny said, shaking her head.

'The Tale of the Three Brothers?'

'Yes! Mum always told it to Ron and me.'

'It's true.' Harry pulled his Invisibility cloak from his pocket. 'This was handed down from the youngest brother.'

'That can't be true,' scoffed Ginny.

'Ginny, I've had this since I was eleven, and it's been in more scrapes, but look at it.' Harry spread the cloak out between his hands. 'No holes, no tears, no fading. It works just as good as it did the day Dumbledore gave it back to me.' Harry carefully folded the water-soft folds and tucked the cloak back into his pocket. 'Do you remember the wand? The one Riddle had that morning? It was the wand. It had been Dumbledore's. When Malfoy Disarmed Dumbledore last year, the wand switched allegiance to him. When I Disarmed Malfoy in March, it was mine. I just didn't have physical possession. That's why it didn't work very well for Riddle. The wand wasn't his.' Harry cocked his head to one side. Ginny was starting to look at him like he was crazy. 'I've not gone mad, you know. Do you remember the Snitch they brought to me on my birthday? From Dumbledore? It had a ring with the stone in it. And yes, it worked. But it's gone. And it needs to stay that way. Can't live in the past.'

Ginny was shaking her head. 'So if they're real, how did it work?' she asked skeptically.

'I'm not too sure myself. I can guess, though.' Harry began to tick items off on his fingers. 'I had to have possession of all three objects, which I did, even if the wand wasn't physically in my hand. I also had to willingly die, and not want to cheat death. And I had to only want to use the stone momentarily, and not want to bring someone back for good.'

'That's insane,' Ginny breathed.

'Yeah, it is,' agreed Harry. 'But considering I'm alive, I'm not going to question it.'

'What happened to the other two things?'

'I don't know where the stone is. It fell in the Forest. The wand is back in Dumbledore's tomb. I went out in the dead of night, under the cloak to replace it.' Harry suddenly lunged across the tree house, gripping Ginny's shoulders. 'Ginny, the only other people that know any of this are Ron and Hermione. And Dumbledore,' he added, knowing Dumbledore's portrait did indeed know everything that had happened, even the conversation at King's Cross. 'Please, Ginny... Please promise me you won't try to find the ring!' A haunted expression flashed across Harry's eyes.

Ginny gently grasped Harry's wrists in her hands, and she pulled his hands off her shoulders. 'I don't want to live in the past. Not even for Fred.' Harry slumped in relief. 'Why are you telling me all this?'

'You need to know, Ginny.' Harry's hands slid through Ginny's and his thumbs traced circles on her palms. 'And I needed to tell you.' He looked up at Ginny. 'Because I trust you. I trust you with my life.' Harry lifted one of Ginny's hands to his mouth, and pressed a kiss in the palm. 'How can I make it up to you?'

Ginny pulled back a little bit, so she could look at Harry. She had forgiven him a long time ago, even if she hadn't wanted to admit it. She gave Harry a hard kiss on the mouth. 'Earn me back,' she murmured against his lips.

******

Harry stretched out in the grass under the apple tree in the back garden. 'That's it,' he told Ron.

'That's all you did? Just talk?' Ron snorted.

'She's right, though. I need to earn her trust back.' Harry closed his eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted. 'That's all I'm going to tell you, anyway.'

Ron sat quietly, watching the gnomes cavort in the shrubs. In a few minutes, he heard Harry's deep, even breathing. Harry had fallen asleep. Ron leaned against the trunk of the tree. He hoped Hermione was having a better time with her parents, than Harry was having with his own life.

******

Ron came down the stairs the next evening. Molly and Arthur had propelled a reluctant Harry into the sitting room after dinner. Ginny was sitting at the table, her head propped in her upturned hands, watching the closed door. 'Are they still in there?'

'Mmm-hmmm. They put a Silencing charm on the door. Impenetrable, too,' she said as Ron began to pull an Extendable Ear out of his pocket.

'Bugger,' said Ron mildly. He looked at his watch. 'They've been in there for two hours,' he commented.

George wandered into the kitchen, and joined Ginny at the table. 'Still in there?'

'Yeah,' Ron said absently, rummaging in a cupboard for a tin of biscuits. He set it in the middle of the table. The door suddenly opened to reveal Arthur. Ron craned his neck and caught a glimpse of Harry sitting next to Molly on the sofa, her arms around him, as he wept silently, his body shaking with sobs. 'Dad? Is he okay?' Ron asked softly.

'He will be... One day,' Arthur said, patting Ron on the back.

******

-Hermione...

Did you know that Harry cries without making a sound? Mum and Dad took him into the sitting room to talk after dinner a couple of days ago. About Fred. George, Ginny, and I keep telling him it's not his fault, but I think he won't start to believe it until he's convinced Mum and Dad forgive him for it.

I was always a noisy crier. Loud, snotty... Don't tell anyone, okay? Actually, we all were kind of loud when we were upset. Especially Ginny, but she normally never cried unless she was angry. Still the same way today. During Dumbledore's funeral, I wanted to curl into a ball and scream, but I didn't because I knew you needed me to be... well... not me. That doesn't make sense, does it?

It makes me wonder, though...

What makes a person cry like that? It was almost creepy, the silent crying.

Ginny could barely stand it. She bit through her lip. George fixed her up, though.

They talked, by the way. The Duo. They're not moping quite as much, but Harry's still prone to nightmares. Not every night anymore, thank Merlin.

I can't wait for Monday. It'll be nice to do something. I have to admit, I'm getting a bit bored, although the cooking lessons are going well.

Maybe when you come back, I can cook dinner for you.

I promise it'll be good.

R.


This was pretty Ron/Ginny/Harry-centric... Hermione will be in the next chapter. I wanted to show Harry and Ginny's reconciliation, but I didn't want Ron to actually observe it -- even Ron has a sense of when something needs to be private, so that's why I had Harry tell Ron about it, since the story is pretty much from Ron and Hermione's POV.