Consequences

AN - This chapter does contain some violence.



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When they entered the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast, Ginny watched with narrowed eyes as Draco hesitantly approached the Slytherin table. A few of his old friends had also returned, such as Gregory Goyle, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, but when Draco drew close to where they were seated, they all turned away to speak with a group of students from Ginny\'s year. Draco stopped in his tracks and turned toward the Gryffindor table, seeking her out with a grim expression.



Suddenly, Harry surprised her by standing up and yelling, "Hey, Dray! Get over here where you belong. You don\'t wanna eat with a bunch of snakes anyway!"



The entire Hall went silent as Draco smiled gratefully at Harry and quickly crossed the room to sit with his cousin and girlfriend. As he slid into the space between Ginny and Ron, he mumbled, "Thanks, Harry."



The Hall was still quiet when McGonagall, who was once again acting as Headmistress, stood and cleared her throat. "This seems like an appropriate time to announce that there are going to be some changes around here this year. Most importantly, all sixth, seventh and returning eighth year students will no longer be staying in their original house dorms..."



The room exploded in excited chatter, with a few disgruntled voices scattered in the mix. "Silence!" McGonagall shouted. "This is being done to eliminate exactly the attitude that we witnessed just moments ago. We all know that a huge division exists between Slytherin and the other houses, and even within Slytherin house itself. This is unacceptable!" Draco swallowed loudly and lowered his eyes to the empty plate in front of him as every student in the room turned to stare at him. "In the spirit of house unity, we\'re merging all of our older students into a new house...the name of which we will let you students vote on in the coming weeks. Our incoming first years are also eligible to be sorted into the new house, and any second through fifth year students who wish to move may request to be resorted over the next few days."



Everyone went quiet, looking at each other with wide eyes as this sank in. "After dinner, our Head Boy and Girl, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, will lead all of you older students and whichever first years are sorted thusly to the new dormitory entrance. Anyone else wishing to be resorted, please see me in my office before Friday afternoon." McGonagall requested. Clapping her hands loudly she called, "Mr Filch, please bring in the first years!"



While the extremely beaten (and slightly scorched) Sorting Hat babbled about unity and tolerance, Ginny turned to Draco and kissed him on the cheek, knowing he must be feeling horribly uncomfortable after such a public shunning by his old housemates, and McGonagall\'s equally public condemnation of it. Despite the fact that she had disapproved of his housemates\' treatment of him, Ginny knew the attention Headmistress had drawn to it only made him more feel worse. "Are you okay?" she whispered, squeezing his hand beneath the table.



"I love you, but right now I wish I\'d stayed home," he mumbled embarrassedly.



"Everyone up!" McGonagall exclaimed suddenly.



"What now?" Ron grumbled as they all stood up.



"Back away from the tables!" McGonagall directed. As soon as they\'d obeyed, the tables all rearranged themselves, turning perpendicular to the length of the hall so there were now ten shorter tables crossing the room instead of four lengthwise. "Alright...Slytherin take the first two, fifth year and under only...Ravenclaw the next two, then Hufflepuff, Gryffindor next and all of you sixth year and up here at the front please."



With a great deal of muttering amongst the older students, everyone moved to the appropriate tables. Ginny noticed that all of the previous Slytherins (minus Draco) sat at one of the new house\'s tables while the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors all squeezed in at the other. This clearly didn\'t escape the professors\' attention, but they said nothing as the first incoming student cautiously crept forward to be sorted.



"Um...whatchamacallit!" the Hat yelled after a minute.



"Excuse me?" McGonagall frowned.



"The hat\'s lost it!" Neville called out, earning himself a frown...from the hat.



"New house!" The hat clarified. "See if I ever bring you a sword again, Longbottom," it added, prompting a chorus of laughter.



The sorting proceeded quickly, with a surprising majority of the new students being placed in the new house. There were no new Slytherins or Gryffindors, three Hufflepuffs and two Ravenclaws. McGonagall had to adjust the table assignments again, designating only one each to Slytherin and Gryffindor and four to the new house.



"How big is this new dorm?" Ron asked Harry, curiously, knowing he and Hermione had received instructions and information about the changes from McGonagall during the prefect meeting on the train. Despite having been prefects before, Ron, Ginny and Draco had declined the opportunity to serve this year. They\'d unanimously agreed they\'d rather relax as much as possible after the stress of the previous year. Harry had only accepted the position of Head Boy because it was Hermione\'s lifelong dream to be Head Girl and Ginny suspected he just didn\'t want someone like Roger Davies or, Merlin forbid, Theodore Nott sharing a suite with his girlfriend.



"It\'s as big as it needs to be," Harry shrugged slightly. "McGonagall says it just kind of appeared where the Room of Requirement used to be. However many people go in, that many bedrooms appear."



"So we all get our own rooms?" Ginny asked excitedly.



"Apparently," Harry grinned. "And the rooms for eighth years won\'t have the gender barrier," he added, wiggling his eyebrows successively. "We\'re all well over 17, after all."



Draco stared at him a moment, then reached into his bag and pulled out the invisibility cloak, dropping it on Harry\'s plate. "Won\'t be needing that, I guess," he drawled, grinning at Ginny.



Harry snagged the cloak and shoved it into his bag just as the table filled to overflowing with the usual offering of food and beverages. Ginny noticed happily that there was now an assortment of muggle soft drinks and candy, and eagerly grabbed a cherry cola, which Hermione had introduced her to over the summer.



"So...there\'s also a new swimming pool downstairs," Hermione announced, handing Harry a bottle of orange soda to open for her. Ginny smiled to herself when he handed it back and kissed her cheek without pausing in the conversation he was having about Quidditch with Ron and Dean.



"Where?" asked Luna, who had sat beside Hermione when they\'d merged tables.



"Behind the main stairs, where the old dungeons used to be," Hermione glanced briefly at Draco, who flinched ever so slightly. "They filled them all in and built the pool over them," Hermione continued softly. "They decided there was too much negative energy down there and too much unused space."



"Great, I can swim laps with dear old dad\'s ghost..." Draco muttered, dropping his fork on his plate and standing up. "Excuse me. I need some air," he mumbled, heading for the doors.



"He\'s still having nightmares about what happened in that room," Ginny explained sadly. Over the summer, Draco had dreamed repeatedly and graphically about his own death, as well as his father\'s. Somehow, his subconscious remembered every detail of the death that Ginny and Ron had prevented. Harry had also admitted to having more than one dream about falling from a broomstick. Hermione refused to talk about anything that had happened in the hours following the final battle. Her vehement denial that anything was wrong pretty much confirmed for Ginny that she was having nightmares as well. The only one they\'d saved who seemed not to be bothered by nightmares was Fred. Of course, no one could ask Snape since he and Draco\'s mother Narcissa had run away together that same day.



Ron and Ginny didn\'t suffer from nightmares, but they both experienced frequent headaches and random waking visions of Fred and Harry, dead. Ginny was just glad she\'d never actually seen Draco or Hermione\'s corpses. She especially didn\'t think she could handle seeing Draco dead at various times throughout the day. In addition to Fred and Harry, Ginny had also had several strange flashes of Tonks and Remus lying pale and motionless on the ground, surrounded by swirling smoke.



Ginny was beginning to think the consequences of time travel were a little too harsh for everyone involved.



"Hey...Goyle, Zabini, Nott and some Slytherin sixth and seventh years just left," Ron murmured, elbowing Ginny gently in the ribs. "I think they were following Draco."



"Fuck that," Ginny growled and leapt to her feet, crossing the length of the hall in seconds. She was vaguely aware of footsteps behind her, but didn\'t bother to look as she headed for the front doors. Once she reached the dimly lit courtyard, she paused to listen. Only a few moments later she heard a muffled shout, followed by a flash of red light coming from around the corner to her left.



Pulling out her wand, Ginny took off running as she heard Draco\'s voice cry out in pain. Rounding the corner she found Nott holding his wand over Draco, who was hunched over as much as he could with his upper arms being held back by Zabini and a younger boy she didn\'t know. Goyle and a few other Slytherins stood in a semi-circle around them, loudly egging them on. "Let him go!" She shouted angrily.



"Who\'s gonna make us?" Nott smirked.



Just then a rush of running footsteps sounded behind Ginny. "We are," Harry\'s voice replied coldly. Ginny glanced over her shoulder and found most of the returning members of Dumbledore\'s army spread out behind her, wands drawn.



"What do you care Potter?" Zabini drawled. "This is Slytherin business."



"This isn\'t Slytherin house, and that\'s my cousin you\'re assaulting!" Harry growled. "Do you really want to cross all of us?"



Nott turned and frowned slightly when he realized most of his new house had their wands directed at him. Grunting, he gestured at Zabini and the other boy, who reluctantly dropped Draco on the ground. Ginny frowned worriedly when he didn\'t react other than to curl up in a ball clutching his stomach. "What did you do to him?" She shouted, running to her boyfriend and dropping to her knees beside him.



"I\'m okay," Draco grunted, pulling his hand away to reveal a three inch high smear of blood across his previously immaculate white shirt. "Just a scratch." He rolled up onto his knees, then used Ginny\'s shoulder for support as he pulled himself to his feet. Turning to his former friends, he growled, "I know you think my family is to blame for your parents being in jail; but the truth is, it\'s their own damn fault for following that madman in the first place. Believe me, I resent my own father for ever dragging us into that mess in the first place! Don\'t you see we\'re all so much better off without him?"



"Maybe you are. You got to keep your home and money. Must be nice to have your little blood traitor girlfriend and her daddy put in a good word for you," Nott snarled.



"Did it ever occur to you that it was Voldemort who betrayed us all? By turning everyone against each other. It\'s his fault the magical population in Great Britain is one third smaller than it was three years ago," Neville declared, standing proudly at his full height (he seemed to have had yet another growth spurt over the summer, and now towered over everyone but Ron). He calmly looked each Slytherin in the eye in turn as he continued, "It\'s time to stop fighting and try to put all this blood purity nonsense in the past. Zabini, you\'re not even a pureblood yourself! Harry\'s the most powerful wizard here, and he\'s a halfblood, too. Hermione is a muggleborn and she could duel most of you one handed and blindfolded. So get over yourselves or go home! There\'s no room for this kind of shit anymore at Hogwarts!"



Zabini and the others stared at him, wide eyed, while the rest of the crowd, which had grown over the last few minutes, began to clap. Finally, Goyle turned to Draco and mumbled, "I\'m sorry, man," as he held out his hand.



Draco ignored his hand, but nodded slightly, "Let\'s just forget it, okay?"



"Done," Goyle nodded, smiling faintly. Jerking his head at the other Slytherins, he headed back to the castle. The gathered students, and a few professors, parted before them.



"Well said, Longbottom," Remus, who was newly reinstated as DADA professor, smiled approvingly, "Twenty points to...Whatchamacallit," he added with a wink.



Neville laughed and blushed as several people patted him on the back. Everyone began slowly making their way back inside to finish the feast. "Are you really okay?" Ginny asked Draco softly once they were alone other than Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna and Neville, who were all talking quietly a few feet away.



"Nope," he grunted through gritted teeth. Lifting his shirt, he revealed the word \'TRAITOR\' gouged into the skin of his upper abdomen.



"Oh my gods," Ginny gasped. "Guys, I\'m gonna take Draco up to see Madam Pomfrey," she said, raising her voice slightly.



"She\'s still in the Great Hall," Luna said, "I\'ll go tell her you\'re on your way to the infirmary."



"Thanks, Luna," Draco said, his voice strained.



Ginny took his hand and began walking toward the castle. As they entered the courtyard, she had another flash of Remus and Tonks lying dead on the ground. Glancing up ahead at the professor\'s retreating form, she shuddered slightly. "You\'re still seeing him dead?" Draco asked softly.



"Yeah," Ginny nodded reluctantly. "I don\'t know what it means."



"Maybe it just means you\'ve seen way too much death for someone your age," Draco shrugged.



"We all have," Ginny murmured, "But Ron sees them too, and that scares me."