The Eternal Triangle

Chapter 2 - Dark Power

Three weeks later a hurried communiqué arrived from Draco informing them of a Death Eater attack on a Muggle town the next day. All available Order members were drawn for the battle.

When the Death Eaters arrived, they were ready. They'd moved as many Muggles as they could gather to another location. Because of the warning they'd received from Draco, Ron's tactics were winning the day and Death Eaters were fleeing in total disarray.

Draco was among the Death Eaters but he only pretended to fight, his curses were only to stun, not kill.

Harry was in the thick of the battle when a group of Death Eaters suddenly made a stand at the edge of town. They had somehow captured about twenty Muggles and surrounded them in a tight circle, their wands drawn.

"Surrender, or these Muggles die!"

Harry, Neville, Susan Bones, Charlie Weasley and two other Order members were facing off with the Death Eaters. The others were scattered around engaged with the remaining Death Eaters.

Charlie threw a curse at a Death Eater hoping to surprise them but they retaliated by throwing killing curses towards the Muggles and four of them died on the spot.

Charlie shuddered in disbelieve and remained frozen in the act of throwing another curse. "You bastards! They're innocent, let them go!" he shouted.

"Oh, I think not Weasley," Nott replied, smiling maliciously. "Release all of us and we might let the Muggles live."

"It'll be a cold day in hell before we release you," Harry said in a dangerous voice. His eyes sparking in anger and a hint of madness lurked at the back of his eyes.

"We don't mind killing these Muggles slowly one by one Potter," warned another Death Eater.

"Neither do I if it means your death!" he snarled.

"Harry, no!" Neville gasped.

A cold wind started blowing and everyone sensed Harry's power manifesting. He was the centre of a growing storm, tendrils of sickening, oily dark coils of vapour appearing from the surrounding air and gathered around him. He raised his wand, pointing it at the group of Death Eaters and Muggles.

"Harry stop!!" Ron yelled from the other end of the street. The rest of them had just realized the situation developing and Ron knew he was too far away to stop Harry and he suspected Harry couldn't or wouldn't hear anything or anyone at the moment.

There was no other choice, he had to risk it. Ron grabbed George who was standing beside him. "I need your help. Hang on to any part of me, blank your mind and just focus on me!" he said urgently.

"What? Why?!"

"There's no time, just do it!"

George looked wide eyed at Ron and muttered, "You better know what you're doing." He grabbed Ron's shoulder and focused. An instant later he felt like everything in him, the air from his lungs, blood, heart, even his very soul, were being sucked out of him and he stumbled and almost let go of Ron's shoulder.

Ron grabbed George's hand, "Don't let go George, don't let go," he said urgently. His eyes were closed, an intense look of concentration on his face, wand pointed towards where Harry was. A thin almost non-existent line was streaking from his wand and hit the dark nimbus surrounding Harry and the line was like a vacuum drawing the dark tendrils away from Harry towards Ron and George.

When the dark vapour reached the tip of Ron's wand, George felt like he had been hit by a crackling surge of energy so powerful, he was sure his entire body would explode. The power was everything, unclean, dirty, foul and evil that ever existed and it felt like he couldn't ever be clean again after being touched by it.

Just when he thought he couldn't hold on anymore, he felt the evil power leave him, heard an explosion and passed out cold.

When he came to, Ron was leaning over him, looking worst than he could ever remember seeing him.

"You alright George?" Ron croaked.

"Yeah, think so. What happened?"

"Tell you later," and Ron got up and staggered his way towards where Harry was.

Lifting his head, George could see that the group of Muggles and Death Eaters were lying motionless on the ground.

Ron skidded to a halt and asked breathlessly, "Are they dead?"

"No, they're alive," Susan answered. "Barely."

"Oh, thank Merlin!" and Ron fell to his knees, shuddering.

Moody looked speculatively at Ron and hurried to Harry, who seemed to have passed out as well.

After the remaining Death Eaters had been rounded up and handed over to the Ministry, the injured sent to St. Mungo, the remaining Order members made their way back to headquarters. An emergency meeting had convened. This meeting had not been called or arranged, it just happened. Ron had introduced a surprising element into the battle and everyone wanted to know what happened.

Harry was not present as he was still at St. Mungo. George and Ron were there, still looking shaky and very pale. Moody was looking at Ron with the same speculative look he'd thrown at him after the battle.

"Why don't you tell us what happened Ron. And what the hell you did," Moody asked harshly.

Ron's red head lifted from his hands and he locked eyes with Moody. He then turned to look around and could see the same interrogative look as Moody's being thrown at him.

"What?" he snapped.

George put a hand on Ron's shoulder. "Hey, I want to know what happened as well little brother," he said quietly.

Ron's shoulder slumped in defeat and he looked down, he wasn't prepared to meet anyone's eye.

Speaking in a flat, dull tone, Ron explained:

"I've been spending a lot of time in the Library, doing research."

"Yeah, you've taken over where Hermione left off," Fred interrupted, chuckling.

Shooting a furious look at Fred, he continued. "The Black library is fascinating, unfortunately the majority of books deal with the dark arts. I probably know more about the dark arts now than anyone else besides You-Know-Who, the Death Eaters, yourself," Ron nodded at Moody. "And... Harry."

Shrugging, he said, "What I did just now was definitely a branch of the dark art. I stole some of Harry's power so that he wouldn't be able to make his killing curse fatal. I couldn't do this with just anybody. I could only do this to someone I have a strong connection to."

"What about me?" George asked with a frown.

"I'm sorry," Ron sighed, looking at George. "You know how powerful Harry's become lately and I strongly suspect Harry's doing the same thing I did, he's stealing You-Know-Who's power."

Gasps could be heard, because Ron had just verbalized what many suspected but dared not say.

"I wouldn't have been able to take on even half of Harry's power without either dying or driving myself insane, so I had to share it. To do that, I had to take every part of you, body, mind and soul and join you to me. I'm sorry again George, but you were nearest to me and there was no time. Harry would've murdered those Muggles!"

"That was You-Know-Who's power in us?" George asked dazedly and shuddered.

"Yes. That's why I released it as soon as I could."

Ron looked defiantly round at everyone present as though daring them to say something.

"Fred, remind me never to stand beside Ronniekin during battle ever again." George's quiet voice had a thread of humour in it and broke the tension in the room a little.

"What's happening to Harry, Ron?" Remus's quiet voice was extremely worried.

"I don't know Remus, I just don't know," Ron replied, shaking his head sadly.

"You can't let him continue taking Voldemort's power! It'll destroy him."

"I think he's already halfway there." This surprising statement came from Neville. As he looked around at the shocked faces he continued, "You didn't hear what he said. He was willing to let the Muggles die if it meant the Death Eaters died too." Shaking his head slowly, he said, "This is not the Harry Potter I used to know. That Harry Potter would put his own life on the line to save the innocents."

"Talk to him Ron, you're the only one who can," Remus' voice was pleading.

Ron's face flushed with anger, his fist clenching on the table top. "I'm not talking to him. I have nothing to say to Harry bloody Potter!" And he stood up and turned to leave.

"Ron!" Remus' voice stopped him. "Stay, there are things we need to discuss."

Ron turned around locking his eyes with Remus. A hard look passed between them. Then Ron walked back in towards a window, turning his back on the rest.

Fred and George looked perplexed at each other then turned their enquiring gazes to Remus.

"Harry and Ron had a falling out..." Kingsley Shacklebolt replied harshly to them.

"Falling out? Harry and Ron...?!" George said disbelievingly, turning to look at Ron's stiff back.

Remus put his hand up to stall further explanations from Kingsley. "Everyone, this meeting is adjourned. Unless there are further matters to discuss?" he enquired, looking around. Everyone shook their heads and started to walk out, though a few cast questioning glances at Kingsley and Remus.

"Fred, George, Kingsley, Alastor, Tonks. Please stay," Remus' voice was quiet.

"We'll stay too," Ginny said, taking Neville's hand. He looked questioningly at her and she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

When everybody had left leaving the nine of them, Remus closed and locked the door with a quick spell. He took out a parchment from his pocket.

"This came with the warning of today's battle. It's Luna's complete prophecy, Kingsley."

"So, he managed to get it," Kingsley said with a worried frown. "I hope he didn't compromise himself."

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

Remus explained to the rest what Draco had told them earlier and he read out the prophecy.

As his voice died away, Ron's shoulders slumped and he leaned his forehead against the window. The last part of the prophecy was ringing in his ears; 'the eternal triangle' 'loyalty spurned' 'love turned to hate' 'evil will triumph' 'the world fall to darkness'.

Oh gods, what has he done? What had they done? How could they have come to this? This wasn't supposed to happen! Their friendship was supposed to last forever, they were the Golden Trio for Merlin's sake!

He trembled violently and knew he couldn't stay in the room, he'd probably hex the first person who dared to say anything to him. Turning around he walked quickly to the door without meeting anybody's eyes, passed his wand over it and walked out.

"What the hell is going on?!" Fred's voice was hard and for once, the humorous twinkle in his eyes was missing.

"The eternal love triangle, Fred" Ginny responded in a hard voice. "Surely you know what that means?"

"If this prophecy is talking about Harry, Ron and Hermione, then that means ..." George's voice died out only to have Fred continue, "Harry and Ron are both in love with Hermione."

Remus nodded sadly and told the rest of the scene between Ron and Harry three weeks ago. After he finished, he turned to Ginny and asked, "You don't seem surprised. Did you know?"

Ginny nodded, her expression grim. "I saw them one night, Hermione leaving Harry's room and she was... rumpled. It was so obvious what had been going on in that room.

"I hated them both then. How could they do that to Ron?!" Ginny's chest was heaving with emotion and her eyes bright with unshed tears. "What made it even worse was that Ron had just told me he was going to ask Hermione to marry him!"

"We have to resolve this. We can't afford to have the last part of the prophecy come true. Gods--we need Hermione, where the bloody hell is she?!" Tonks asked in frustration.

George and Fred looked at each other.

"We know where she is,"

"No, we know who might know where she is,"

"There's a problem,"

"He might not remember,"

The others looked in shock at Fred and George. "I think we need to explain," said George.

"You'd better," Moody growled.

Grinning, they explained.

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