Ah, Disclaimer! Thou that art necessary, but unwanted, but always assumed! As if people should be reminded that I am but an intruder upon the 'Verse, furtively attempting to fix egregious lack of awesomeness and nonsensical character decisions in the shadows of stories I do not own ...

-xXx-

Chapter 2

Ron: "It was just me. It was always just me. I had to put the pieces in place, and trust that they could handle it. I was forever exercising my magic to exhaustion, even before I came to Hogwarts, and I was able to use compulsion charms – and," he added, bobbing his head to the side, "a bit of runic enchantment, to get Dumbledore to move in the direction we needed."

"Was he the only one?"

Ron snorted, "Not even close. Fudge was a blithering idiot because he was being imperioed and obliviated right, left, and center by his allies, so I threw my efforts into the mix, too." He grinned. "His bowler hat was enchanted to make him indecisive. Frustrated Malfoy and the others to no end." Ron sobered. "Cedric's death was an unfortunate mix of Hufflepuff nobility and Potter fairness. I couldn't encourage Cedric to take the cup before Harry, and I can't ever manipulate Harry's choices, so …" Ron looked up at Hermione from where he had been studying the floor. "No matter what, you can never tell Harry that he was even partially responsible for Cedric's death. It was Pettigrew that fired the curse, it was Pettigrew's fault, and Harry should never have to shoulder that guilt." Ron's eyes were fierce, and Hermione nodded her agreement. She swallowed and regained her train of thought.

"And the next year?"

Ron sighed. "What I can do is less about magical power and more about access. I could find a way to get to Dumbledore. Fudge would meet anyone that could imply there was publicity in it for him. Items with compulsions enchanted into them were easy to distribute among Hogwarts students, and from them, on to their parents. But Umbridge? She was very distrustful of everyone, hated muggles, creatures, and 'blood traitors', and had no friends. I had no way to get to her, no way to get her to accept an anonymous enchanted gift, no way to influence her." Ron eyed Hermione. "And she was really the power behind Fudge in the Ministry, so getting him to get rid of her didn't work – she just ignored him and went on with her power mad fantasies."

Ron perked up. "But getting you to think of having Harry teach the DA – wow, the hardest thing about that was keeping you from going too far! One of the timelines had you pushing Harry into becoming a Hogwarts Professor so he could teach everyone DADA. That was something that went wrong in a hurry." Ron shook his head.

Hermione smirked a bit. "Why wasn't that okay?"

Ron fell completely serious. "Because Umbridge was every bit as good as I am at manipulating situations, and she wasn't going through time to do it as far as I could tell … which means she was better. As soon as Harry built a positive political foundation under himself, Umbridge worked to eliminate his support," Ron looked away into a corner of the room, "usually starting with you. Mostly she had you killed by a potions explosion. So instead of confronting her and losing you, we baited her into thinking she was winning … up until you led her to the centaurs."

"What about the fight at the Ministry?" Hermione asked quietly.

Ron sighed and ran his right hand through his hair.

"I re-ran that fight over a hundred times. We kept losing, and we kept dying. I finally got it so that we killed all the Death Eaters. In response, Voldemort went insane and stole a few muggle nukes – set them off in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow. When we left them all alive, and Sirius survived, I got a message from the final battle passed down from Sirius – he needed to die to get Harry in the right frame of mind to succeed." Ron looked directly at Hermione. "He accepted it, and volunteered. It wasn't a good solution, but it worked."

Hermione's face hardened. "And sixth year's … activities?"

Ron got up, seemingly ignoring her question, and picked out a notebook from the hidden shelves. Most of the notebooks looked in good shape – this one was worn, and some pages were detached and stuffed back between the covers. "Read this," he said simply.

Hermione took it and carefully opened the cover. The notebook was small – A6 size – and the sewn in pages had become detached from frequent handling. The writing was Ron's messy scribble, in pencil, and some parts seemed heavily smeared. She could make out most of it, however.

… going to be the worst year yet – and in some ways, worse than what will happen after, too. The alienation that Harry and Hermione will each feel is necessary; without it, neither will survive the year after. It will build on the hardships that they have suffered in the past, and will give them the power and determination they can get in no other way. You have to accept going in that you may never be able to repair your friendship with Hermione, and it may never grow into what you want. I know that I'd rather have her alive and hating me than have her dying as my girlfriend. I don't think I've changed that much in two years that you'd feel differently, so you'll come to the same conclusions I have; both Harry and Hermione have to survive. Harry because he saves the world. Hermione because she makes the world worth saving…

… you'll have to use a series of short loops to successfully ensnare Lavender, and it is imperative that you not vomit when she calls you "Won-Won". A little opposition to Harry's romance will help him commit to it, no matter how much you want to smooth the way. Don't take your focus off Harry, but give Neville as much support as you can without making it obvious; Neville is the one man we should all try to emulate, and it is his strength that will save the school while you are saving Harry so he can save us all…

Hermione closed the cover softly. She considered a while, Ron waiting patiently for her attention to return to the real world.

Finally, she said, "What does this mean, 'short loops'?"

"Um, where?"

Hermione opened the notebook and pointed out the passage. "Oh, right. Um, Lavender wasn't attracted to me, and I wasn't attracted to her, but she was the best choice. I used the time turners to replay each meeting until I found an approach she fell for, and I had acted the way she demanded so she wouldn't break up with me, so that you and Harry could become who you needed to be to survive." He shrugged. "I was surprised that physical interaction with her never made me feel less repulsed – I thought that I would eventually begin to like her, but it never happened. At least she got something out of it."

Hermione's eyes flashed with anger. "So you think that getting groped by The Great Ron Weasley makes up for being lied to and manipulated?"

Ron snorted, "I think that she could tell that I wasn't every enthused about pawing her, especially in public, and I had to constantly talk fast and do damage control every time she wanted a public snogging session. What I meant," Ron gave a significant look to Hermione, "was that I taught Lavender some flawed DADA tricks. The reason she was recommended was because in every timeline where I didn't date her, she … lived." Hermione was startled by Ron's defense, and was still. "And she hated it. She ended up as the plaything of Death Eaters, sometimes she broke and joined them. Her knowledge of the DA would kill a lot of us if she shared with the wrong people … and one time when I was putting off a snogging session, I asked her if she'd ever join the Death Eaters." He shrugged. "She said she'd rather die. I made sure she got her wish."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Hermione processing, and Ron patiently waiting for Hermione's next question. Ron carefully placed the battered notebook back on the shelf and then sat while Hermione stared off into space.

"Why haven't you gone back and re-done the battle so that Fred lives?" she asked quietly.

Ron gestured to the two time turners hanging in the hidden shelves. "I can't use them anymore. You obviously haven't thought about how the time turners work."

Hermione's eyebrow raised at Ron, but he was remarkably unaffected.

"Oh, come on. I'm not saying you're unintelligent – you just haven't thought this through yet. Look at the pegs – I've only got two turners now, the minimum needed for a relay trip into the far past. What happens to a set of turners when the point from which they came back is passed?"

Hermione's forehead wrinkled as she thought.

Ron didn't wait for her to puzzle it out. "They disappear is what. The point where I sent back information to fix Lockhart's wagon? Wiped out as we passed through it with a successful resolution, so I didn't go back, so the time turners didn't end up in my collection. They disappeared off my pegs, and that's that." He took a breath.

"Now, we've won the final battle against ol' Snake-Face, and any further meddling with the decisions that brought us here could easily end up with us heading into a future where I wasn't desperate enough to send the time turners back at all. Watch." Ron's command was forceful, and Hermione carefully observed as Ron tried to pick up the two lone time turners from their hanging pegs. As his hand grew near, they turned translucent and insubstantial, and Ron's hand passed through them.

"I don't think that you really figured out what I've been doing. I've been accepting notebooks from Older Rons since I was seven years old. And each time, they faded out of existence, because what I do makes it so that that particular them never happens. I'm the one that maneuvers and bespells people, sometimes to their deaths, because I'm not smart enough or clever enough or complex enough to figure out how to save them. The Ron that exists through all this," Ron waved his hand vaguely, "is the one that has never been brave or focused or determined enough to unmake his universe so that a better one can be made. Even though I could become him, I never do. I'm the one that gets the shitty end of the stick, the one that has to take their complaints and try to craft a future that's not worth unmaking, wondering how many people can I save and how far can I push you before you break." He took a deep breath.

"It's over, Hermione. I am done playing with fate, unmaking decisions because they weren't good enough. I'm going to make decisions – even if they're not right the first time, and live with what I have chosen. All I can do is the same as what everyone else can do – we just try to live our lives in peace and try to be happy."

They sat together as Ron joined her on the edge of the bed. He never let us know he was suffering. Hermione's mind was skittering about and wasn't paying attention, though, as there was a loose thread in her brain that was shouting for attention.

"Wait a minute!" she suddenly exclaimed. "You can't change anything in time that you've already seen! How did you change all those times when you were trying to chat up Lav?"

Ron smirked. "Surely you can figure it out? If you can't change anything you have seen, then you can change anything you haven't seen. And how does a Wizard un-see anything?"

"Memory charms …" Hermione breathed, a little stunned. "So …" her mind whirled as she spoke her thoughts while solving the problem, "… you … obliviated yourself and then told yourself what to try on the next round … and you had to make a record somewhere …"

"I wrote down what my younger self had to try next, and then handed the notebook and time turners over. I've got quite a list of ways not to approach that girl …" Ron chuckled. "Apparently, my first approach went well until I asked her if there was some way that she could make her hair a little more like yours – she really didn't take that well."

A small chuckle. "I suppose not."

There was more silence.

Finally, Hermione asked, "How do I know that you aren't doing short loops until I agree to marry you?"

"Are you irritated with me now?" Ron's question threw Hermione for a moment, but she nodded. "And have you been intensely irritated with me in the past?" Hermione couldn't help the grin as she nodded.

"The way this works," said Ron as he leaned forward in his chair, "is that if I was looping, you would remember a very happy past with me – since I would have fixed everything in the past – and you would be only slightly irritated with me in the present until I could go back and fix that, too. If you remember an imperfect past relationship …" Ron trailed off and raised his eyebrows at her in invitation.

"… then you aren't manipulating me!"

"Then I'm not manipulating you through time," Ron corrected. "I could still be trying to manipulate you through my amazing powers of observation and charm."

He joined Hermione as she laughed at that.

When she sobered, Hermine looked at Ron calculatingly. "I think that I only need one more explanation." She took a deep breath. "Why did you leave us in the tent?"

Ron looked away, got up and started looking at his hidden shelves. "I had something to do. Harry and you couldn't know why I was leaving, so I had to have an excuse. I had used jealousy as a cover in the past so I could duck out and attend to things, it seemed to work for this occasion, too."

"What did you need to do?"

Ron looked at her steadily, but did not answer.

"What was it, Ron?"

Ron took a deep breath. "You are concerned that you may be manipulated. The only way that you can be sure that you are not being controlled in any way by me is to reflexively refuse my offer, which implicitly assumes that I am asking you to marry me in the hopes that you will accept. That course of action ignores the possibility that I may have figured out your strategy of refusal, and then propositioned you in the expectation that you will refuse me, thus putting you on the path I desired to manipulate you into taking in the first place. Correct?"

An extremely flustered Hermione nodded in assent.

"And if I offered any incentives for you to marry me, that could also be considered a form of manipulation. So I cannot offer you a ring or any other trinket until I have your answer. But before you give me that answer, you should probably consider something."

Hermione's eyes were still locked on Ron, so he continued, "Any course of action based on what anyone else does can be manipulated. So can any decision based on feelings – every guy knows that a young witch who isn't aware of how pretty she is can easily be led into making some … questionable … decisions. The only thing that I cannot mess with under any circumstances is what you want. So answer me based on what you really want, what you are actually looking for in your life, and you can rest easy that this is truly your choice."

Hermione nodded along with Ron's explanation. "You can't tell me what you were doing?"

"I can't answer that question."

"Can you answer the question after I answer your question?"

"I can't answer that question, either."

"Ah-ha!" Hermione announced. "If your activity didn't have anything to do with asking me to marry you, you could give me an answer, so you left because you were planning on proposing and your errand could be considered an inducement for me to say yes!"

Ron held up his hand to stop her. "Unless I know that any question I answer could be considered an inducement or manipulation, so I refuse to answer anything until you respond to my proposal."

Hermione grumped, "Damn, you weren't supposed to think of that."

Ron calmly walked over and knelt on one knee in front of her. "First, language! And second: so, will you respond to my proposal?"

Hermione cocked her head to the side. "Let me see the ring again."

Ron shook his head, "Nothing doing. Gimme an answer, and then we can talk. No answer, no talk."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You realize that not answering my questions could be considered inducement for me to accept your proposal, and would therefore be manipulation?"

Ron snorted. "I'm just not answering questions until an answer is received. I will answer your questions after you give me an answer, but my willingness to talk is not based on what your answer is – just that you give me one."

"So you are manipulating me into giving you an answer!" Hermione almost shouted in triumph.

"An answer," Ron responded mildly. "Whatever answer you give is still completely dependent upon what you truly desire. And far be it from me to manipulate you into being courteous," he snarked.

"Hmm," she pondered.

"But before you answer me, I'd like you to consider two things," Ron said. "First, consider the conversation we just had. I think that I've proven that I can be your intellectual equal in at least one area. Second, I'm not rolling over for your demands. I am your social equal as well. I'm not asking for you to commit to a marriage where you need to babysit your husband, or where you can look down on him. I'm asking for your hand in marriage, but only if it comes with your respect. And I'm doing my best to insure that there is no way you can claim you were manipulated into giving whatever answer you give."

Hermione looked intently at Ron. He placidly looked back from down on his knee, not showing anything other than a surface calm.

An impish smile broke out on Hermione's face. "Yes," she announced.

Ron lunged forward to hug her, but was met with an upraised hand. "Now I want answers," she demanded.

Ron looked a bit hurt. "I happen to think that finding out that I'm going to be happy for the rest of my life deserves a little celebration, Hermione."

She lunged at Ron, and the shared a strong hug for longer than Molly would have liked. Hermione let go, sat back down on the bed, and then demanded, "Talk!"

Ron sat down, too, and began, "I figured out how to use runes to send a small-ish object back in time … pretty far. Along with a few other special rune sequences that I developed, that made it possible to set something up that I figured would be a perfect betrothal gift for you." He casually added, "And I spent a lot of that time I was gone talking to Kreature, making sure that Snape was in place to lead Harry to the Sword of Gryffindor, making sure that the DA wasn't completely destroyed or betrayed, stuff like that."

Hermione was not allowing herself to be distracted. "So what is this gift?"

Ron grinned a little. "Kreature led me to a rare book from the Black library and made a copy. It was a one-of-a kind title, perfect bait, and I made, what was it – about twenty copies of Kreature's copy. Then I took apart the binding and added my runes to make it a hook, and then I sent all the copies back in time with money and instructions for sending them out by owl post."

Hermione was not happy that Ron wasn't getting to the point, and her expression showed it. Ron, however was finding this enjoyable, and his grin was increasing. "The book was sent over twenty years into the past, and was distributed to all the casualties that I knew were going to happen."

"Who?"

"Well, Dumbledore for one. Snape, too. And just about every Death Eater I can think of: the Carrows, Rookwood, Yaxley, Doholov, the LeStranges, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson …"

"Mulciber?"

"Yes, I think I got him, too."

"And what did this 'hook' do to them?"

"Well, firstly, it reinforced their desire to collect books. Rare knowledge, offbeat diaries, complete spell collections, bestiaries, anything. And then …"

"WHAT?" The anticipation really was doing a number on Hermione.

"They had to leave it all in their will to the top student of the next Hogwarts graduating class. Which we all know will be you."

Hermione's mouth was opening and closing soundlessly. Her skin was pale, and small beads of moisture were appearing on her forehead. her pupils were dilated to an alarming degree.

Offhandedly, Ron said, "If you do this right, you'll have a personal library that will rival Hogwarts' own. But if it's too much pressure, you don't have to try for it …"

Hermione pounced so quickly that Ron wasn't sure there was any windup. And even though she was moving away from the bed, he wasn't ever quite sure how they ended up landing on it …