At the Beginning With You [Harmione]

14. Repercussions

Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river

I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

- 'At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia

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Harry, Hermione and Teddy stood waiting outside door of Ron's flat later that afternoon after they had knocked. Ron came to the door, a little surprised to see who was standing on his doorstep.

"Harry, Hermione, come on in." They came in and Ron shut the door behind them.

"Have you read the Prophet this morning?" Harry asked. Ron nodded.

"Yeah, and I think Ginny's gone too far, she's bang out of order. I don't believe you've been pressuring her into a relationship, I'd bet anything that it's been the other way around."

"I'm glad you're on my side, Ron."

"Well, aside from perhaps George, I'm probably the only one in our family that's going to take your side."

"That doesn't surprise me. You and Hermione are probably going to be the only ones in the wizarding world that believe me."

"I'll help you as much as I can to help clear this up. Just let me know what I can do."

"Well, there is something you can do," Harry said. "We have to meet with McGonagall this afternoon to straighten this out, would you mind watching Teddy for a few hours?"

"Sure. I'd be happy to." Ron reached out to take Teddy from Hermione and she handed him over along with his little diaper bag. Ron said, "Sure, we can have fun, right Teddy?" Teddy grinned.

"Thanks Ron, this helps a lot," Hermione said. "We should probably get going, Harry." Harry nodded and he and Hermione headed for the door. Harry held the door open for Hermione and when she walked out and Harry was about to follow, he stopped when he heard Teddy call for him. Harry and Hermione turned back, and saw Teddy frowning, a hand reached out to Harry.

"Dad," Teddy tearfully said. Harry went back and took Teddy's hand.

"Hey, I'll be back in a little while, you'll have fun with Ron this afternoon. I'll be back."

After a little more emotion from Teddy, Harry and Hermione were on their way, Apparating to just outside the Hogwarts grounds. That nervous gut feeling settled in the pit of Harry's stomach as they made the long climb up the hill to the castle. That feeling got stronger as they climbed the stairs to McGonagall's office. They both stopped outside McGonagall's office door, giving Harry time to take a deep breath and exhale nervously. Hermione wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a comforting squeeze.

"Everything'll be fine, Harry. Hopefully there'll be a way to smooth this over."

Harry opened the door and held it open for Hermione to go through before following. They entered the office to find fourteen other people besides Professor McGonagall in her office. Twelve of them were wizards all dressed in black, the other two were witches dressed in navy blue. The two witches were arguing with McGonagall, the wizards were all arguing amongst themselves. McGonagall noticed Harry and Hermione standing in the doorway, and put her hands out to stop the flow of disagreements that were flying around her.

"Stop, stop!!" The conversation ceased instantly.

"Mr. Potter is here now, so we can get on with this. Harry, Hermione, come in, have a seat."