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Things Fall Apart, But Then You Build Again	By : zeldaofarel Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 13943 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Author's Notes: Finally, I'm getting this chapter posted. I've actually had the edit for a while, but I just kept putting it off. I have no excuse, really. However, good news is that I'm done with chapter 8, the wonderful Icicle finished the beta reading and I'm done with the edit. So in a few days, I'll be posting. Chapter 9 is still in the works that is why I'm not putting chapter 8 up right away. Chapter 9 is going to be one scene, not as fragmented as many are. I haven't got all the details yet, but I'm just going to imagine that I'm Harry and roll with it.

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Chapter 7: Rolling the Ball

The next day found Harry and Hermione sitting in the Leaky Cauldron again. They had previously decided that it was the perfect venue for their big row. Malfoy had carefully constructed just what they should say. They had to script the entire conversation, not only the most public part, just in case someone was near enough to overhear everything. As Harry was not good at remembering things verbatim, he was just given a general outline as to what he should say. Still, it was with a heavy heart that he prepared for it and only his Gryffindor courage kept him from bolting. He just hated what he was about to do.

"Oh, Hermione, I miss the kids so much," Harry began, trying to sound as authentic as he could manage.

"I miss them too," she agreed.

"You know, you could get them back easily enough."

"Harry, you know I can't do that."

"But you were both so happy together. Surely, now that you've had a few days without your family, you can see that without them, you are no one." He cringed internally at that part. Malfoy had insisted that Light Wizards regard an unattached woman as a person without aim or meaning. To them, the real purpose of a woman was attending to her husband and children.

"We have talked about this over breakfast. I'd just like to have a nice, peaceful lunch now," she said and then took a sip of her water, pretending to hide her nerves behind the glass.

"I have allowed you to stay in my house long enough."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She raised her voice a bit and noticed from the corner of her eyes that the patrons sitting closer to them were eavesdropping.

"You know very well what it means." Harry crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Well, I may be just a simple woman, so I need to be enlightened by a smart man like you!"

"Fine, Hermione." Harry was speaking loudly enough by then so that all who wanted to could hear everything. "You are a disgrace as a woman, a wife and a mother. You have gone against the wishes of your husband and when he rightfully demanded that you do as told, you left him. Now you have the audacity to want to rip your children away from the Weasley family - where they belong. With such an attitude you are no longer welcome in my house."

Hermione just looked at Harry for a bit, her face mirroring the astonishment she felt. To an outsider, it appeared to be caused by what her friend was saying. Yet, it was actually due to the way that he had said those things. If they had not talked it over beforehand, she would have thought his words sincere. When had Harry become such a good actor?

"As you wish, Harry." She stood from the table, ran out the door towards Diagon Alley and even managed to brush a tear from her face.

* * *

Next, came phase two of their plan for the day. They had to find a way to have Hermione's path cross with that of Draco's, so in the Alley, they staged it that Hermione would accidentally run into Draco and his son on her way through the Alley. Harry on the other hand simply stood up from his seat, left a few Galleons on the table and Flooed home. All of Hermione's things had already been packed away into her old bag. Harry returned to an empty house.

His phase two began an hour later, so he sat down to have an actual lunch. He did not enjoy it. He realised that he had not eaten so alone like that for a long time. He missed the kids. Ginny too, of course. She was his wife, of course he missed her. Once he finished, he went upstairs to continue reading his book. However, he stopped once he heard the Floo flare downstairs and the voice of his wife and of Ron could be heard calling for him.

"I'll be right down!" he shouted back. It was time for his phase two. He stilled his heart, that hammered from nerves, for what he needed to do.

"Ginny, Ron! What are you two doing here?" he asked, innocently.

"Oh, Harry! We heard what happened in the Leaky today!" Ginny cried and stepped towards her husband to put her hands on his arms.

"Oh, well, yeah. I tried to be a good friend to Hermione and help her in seeing what was right, but it didn't work." He bowed his head in mock defeat.

"Well, at least you tried, mate." Ron put a supporting hand on his shoulder with such force that Harry had to keep himself from wincing.

"I'm sorry I failed, Ron."

"Oy, Harry, you'll never believe what I heard happened after she left the pub!" Ron was turning that unflattering shade of red again. "She ran into Malfoy of all people! And that's not the end of it! Malfoy offered to help her! It's all a ploy, of course, he's only doing it to annoy me. It doesn't matter whatever that prat does. The law is on our side." He grinned and headed to the liquor cabinet.

Afterwards, they shared a glass of Firewhisky and Ginny promised that she would return with the kids and stay for a while. She felt that her husband just missed having a woman around. In return, Harry promised to take some time off from work to spend more time with his family. Soon enough, Ron excused himself and Ginny led her man upstairs for some fun before the kids came back.

For some reason, in spite of not having been with his wife for months, Harry rather wished she hadn't made the effort.

* * *

The following weeks went by uneventfully for Harry. The kids were back and he was glad for it. Even the short holiday from work made him happy, since he could just play all day with the children, at least when they weren't in school. Surprisingly, Ginny put a lot of effort into their relationship, more than she had since they'd gotten married, he noted. She would offer him sex at every opportunity, try to make his breakfast, even though she had always hated being in the kitchen. She called his diet silly and tried to feed him his regular fare of a full English with toast and juice, but he refused it and instead ate what Dinky had prepared for them. She tried again a few times, but eventually gave up. Once that came to pass, she focused all her energy on being very romantic instead. Picnic lunches in the park were a regular occurrence and Harry went along with them half-heartedly. He knew that he should have been happy with his wife's displays of affection and newfound enthusiasm for their relationship, but he was rather annoyed and weary of her sudden interest.

He also heard a lot about Hermione. Ron would often visit in the evenings, sometimes with his kids. It was nice to see all five little heads playing together, even when the occasional fight took place. Still, Harry was not happy that Ron never seemed to remember that the kids were around and he would often use language that was inappropriate. Therefore, Harry took to taking everyone upstairs first and cast a good one-way silencing charm on the playroom.

Once downstairs, the rants about "the whore" would start. Ron's rants were mostly focused on his wife's friendship with Malfoy. Draco had indeed started to introduce Hermione around the upper reaches of society. Ron was of course convinced that they were sleeping together. Harry did not even bother trying to convince him otherwise and just nodded along with both of them.

"She's a disgrace, that's what she is!" Ron remarked after he consumed enough alcohol to drown a goldfish.

"Would you still take her back?" Harry inquired, curious.

"Of course, mate. She belongs with me. I didn't do everything to get her just to let her go! Not ever!"

"That is quite enough, Ron. You'd better go home," Ginny injected and quickly helped her intoxicated brother into the Floo. It was a good thing the kids stayed with their grandmother that night.

Harry was glad to hear it, though. That meant that they had time. As long as the divorce wasn't finalised, the children could still go to Hermione at the end of it all. In the Wizarding world rulings were rarely overturned and it was rare that someone even attempted it. Harry was sure that enough time had passed to move onto the next phase of the plan and he couldn't wait for it. Of course, the past weeks were rather pleasant most of the time, but once he started to move forward with his life again, he was loath to go back to being idle.

Still, as he thought over just what Ron had said, he wondered a bit about just what Ron had done to get Hermione that had been such a grand effort. He couldn't remember anything special.

* * *

Phase three went into action the next morning. Harry was having his usual breakfast and Ginny was still glaring at the plate. The kids were there as well, but they were a lot happier about their diet than they had been on the first few occasions.

"Ginny, I've been thinking. Maybe I should move on from law enforcement," Harry started up The Conversation. They had drawn up discussion points with Draco, but he still had to improvise most of it.

"Harry, why on earth would you do that?! You love your job!"

"True, but it's dangerous and I would hate to leave you all behind. I was wondering if there was perhaps a way that I could help the Wizarding world without endangering my life."

Ginny seemed to think on it for a bit, then the light came on in her eyes.

"You could always take back your Wizengamot seats!"

"Me - in the Wizengamot? I'm not good at politics. Wait, did you say seats? I have seats there?" He tried to recreate the astonishment on his face that was there the first time he learned of his stolen seats. He had wondered how Ginny was going to explain her father holding onto them without even consulting him. At the time though, he probably would not have wanted them anyway.

"Yes, Harry," she said with a sweet smile on her face. "I know you're terrible at politics, so that's why I never told you about them. My father has been holding onto them in your stead. He has our seat and we thought that it would be simpler if he just managed your seats together with the Weasley seat. You have one for the Potter and one for the Black family. He's been doing a splendid job and without getting paid too."

"Oh, the members don't get paid? I didn't know that." Harry was playing dumb very well and he actually couldn't believe how easy it was to fool her. "You know, Ginny, maybe I should learn more. This whole thing with Hermione got me interested in finding out more about the laws and such. Being on the Wizengamot would give me even more opportunities and it would be something I could do for Our World without putting myself in danger. We don't need the money I make as an Auror anyway, thanks to our investments. I feel I could really make a difference." He surprised himself by actually telling the truth, but twisting it in a way that Ginny would hear what she wanted to. Perhaps the Hat had been right all along and all this time he was just really hiding...

"What a wonderful idea, Harry! Dad could help you learn everything and Our World needs such an honest man in politics. Of course that would mean attending even more Ministry functions, but nothing I can't handle," she gushed, since she never missed those in the past either. Harry recalled her Apparating in from Bali last year for a Ministry ball, and then she returned the next day. She clearly enjoyed every minute of being the centre of attention on his arm. Not that there was anything wrong with that, since women generally did love those occasions when they could dress up, put tons of make-up on and wear high-heels. Then complain about it all. Yes, Ginny did seem to enjoy the whole show.

"How about I have lunch with Arthur and discuss it with him? I could owl him right now," Harry suggested.

"Great! Write the letter and then take the kids to school and such. I have a shopping date with some of the girls." She jumped up from the table to kiss him goodbye and was already heading out the door.

Harry wondered briefly what 'girls' she was talking about, then remembered that Ginny sometimes spent time with the women she met at balls and such. She was so rarely home, it was a mystery to him how she kept up her friendships.

He wrote a quick missive to Arthur and then saw the kids off to their respective schools. As he was heading home, he received a reply from his father-in-law that they could meet that evening. He was glad that he had a bit of time until then as he found a secluded spot behind a tree in the remote area where the boys' school was and put on his invisibility cloak. Taking care to not lose it he Apparated.
- 6
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Things Fall Apart, But Then You Build Again