Circumstances of Change

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, not mine. Nor is the title. Thanks to Meagan for that!!
Warnings: Selective Weasley and Dumbledore bashing; Severitus
Beta'd by: Meagan! Thanks so very much!!!!
A/N: I am sooo sooo sorry this took so long for me to get out!! I really didn't mean for it to, I swear! I got too caught up in other things in my life and my muse abandoned me. She's still missing so if you see her, please please please let me know. She responds to the name Ebony, has long pure white hair and is generally muse-like. And on top of her ditching me, I'm operating on less sleep than I would like and about three bottles of Mountain Dew so this chapter may not be all that good anyway.
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The newspaper article that everyone had been expecting came out the day after Hermione brought Ciara to Ireland. The little girl had easily won the hearts of everyone there, even Severus though he refused to admit to it. The article was, oddly, not written by Rita Skeeter. The general theory was that she wouldn't risk writing about Harry again in a negative manner because Hermione knew her secret. Instead, they had gotten a new reporter to cover the story, Marietta Edgecombe.

Harry Potter, You-Know-Who's New Right Hand?
Unfortunately, this appears to be the sad truth. I was approached by two old school mates of mine and former friends of Harry Potter, Ronald and Ginerva Weasley, who insisted that the Wizarding public know what has become of their 'Savoir'.
Potter has fled from the safety of his muggle family's home in Surrey and been seen in the company of Draco Malfoy, a known Death Eater's son, according to Ronald. And that is not all, as it turns out.
"We were going to get married. As soon as I'd graduated, he promised me. And now he's with Malfoy. And I mean, shagging him. It's horrible to think that he was lying to me all that time," A teary eyed Ginny admits.
Of course, it should come as no surprise to the population of Hogwarts that this has happened. Potter is a known Parselmouth and, as I'm sure most people are aware, they are powerful and evil wizards. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is a Parselmouth himself.
Sadly, this isn't all of it. Potter has reportedly taken Hermione Granger down with him. Anyone to have ever met her knows that she was widely acknowledged as the brightest witch in her year at Hogwarts. I shudder to think of what could have happened to make this bright, muggle-born witch surrender to the Dark side.
Reportedly, Potter, Malfoy, and Granger were behind the collapse of the Westminster Bridge as a test of their faith to You-Know-Who. I, for one, am afraid to think of what these three could do together with You-Know-Who.
-Marietta Edgecombe

Harry threw the newspaper across the table, fuming. How dare they claim he, Hermione, and Draco were behind that collapse?! Was that Ron and Ginny's idea or Marietta's? He wondered.

"I take it the article came out?" Draco asked, sitting beside Harry.

"Yes," He answered through gritted teeth.

"That bad then?"

"I can take the rest of it, but they're claiming that you, Hermione, and I are behind the Westminster Bridge."

"They are not! How the fuck could they think that?"

"They don't know I lost my parents and best friend to that attack," Hermione answered, calmer than Harry but still visibly angry, as she entered the room with Ciara on her hip. "Harry, I've owled Rita Skeeter again. Luna's dad will be willing to publish the truth, I'm sure. I know it would be better to get the Prophet, but the Ministry will never let the article in."

"Thanks 'Mione. How did you sleep?" He asked.

"She didn't," Charlie answered from behind her. "She was going through your library all night."

"You need to sleep. Especially for Cece's sake; you can't keep up with her all day if you're sleep deprived," Harry reasoned.

"Yes, I know. And I will, tonight. I was stressing myself too much about the meeting with Dumbledore later today. And I found a way to force him to let me bring Cece. There's a rarely used law that states that if a student is the legal guardian of a child, they are allowed to bring the child to the school. It also says that the student may request a private room that branches from their own common room so the child does not disturb the other students at night. That last part only applies to children 7 years and younger though but, obviously, Cece falls under that category."

"Well, then your trip to the library was a success, wasn't it?" Harry offered her a smile which she returned.

"It was. Where's everyone else?" She asked, looking around.

"Fred and George are at their shop, Bill and Fleur are speaking with her parents about the wedding, Pansy and the Patil twins are exploring the grounds, Seamus and Dean are back at Seamus' house, Sirius hasn't woken yet, and Remus is in the dungeons I think," Harry answered.

"What about the wedding?" Charlie asked.

"They want to move it from the Burrow. Bill figures that, since his parents can't be uninvited, he'll move the location to somewhere more neutral for us. I told him that I can stay here with Pansy, Blaise, and Draco, but he wants us there," Harry shrugged.

Hedwig soared through the open window at that point and landed on Hermione's shoulder. She removed the scroll attached to the bird's leg, and Hedwig took off. Up to the owlery, Harry assumed. As Hermione was reading the note, Draco turned to Harry and asked, "What about Hagrid? He's always been your friend from what I know."

"Shit! Hermione?" He turned to his friend for help.

"Owl him today. Give Hedwig a little rest time, of course. Just tell him the truth, Harry," Neither of them said it, but they were both thinking that it would be a horrible thing to lose Hagrid because of this.

"What did he say, Dragoste?" Charlie asked, referring to the note she held in her hand.

"He says to meet him in the Entrance Hall at half past three today and to look presentable," She responded, childishly sticking her tongue out at the parchment. Cece was wiggling in her arms so she set the little girl down. She ran straight to Draco, climbed onto his lap, and began eating his bagel off of his plate. The group of four watched her for a moment before laughing.

"Looks like you need a new bagel, Draco," Harry laughed.

"Nope, but you do," The blond reached over and swiped Harry's already cream cheesed bagel off of his plate before taking a large bite out of it.

"Oi, what was that for?" Draco just smirked as he chewed and wrapped his free arm around the little girl in his lap. "That isn't right at all, Malfoy," Harry declared. He ate his cereal anyway then got himself a new bagel.

After breakfast, Draco took Ciara upstairs to wake Sirius and Harry went to the dungeons to try to find Remus. "What do you think of this dungeon, Harry?" Remus asked as soon as he saw the young man approaching.

"I think it's dark and dank and reminds me of Potions, why?"

"I'm looking for a place to spend my transformation while I'm here."

"Why not spend it in the forest a little way off with Hermione, Sirius, and me?" Harry asked.

Remus opened his mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again and said, while smirking, "Because I didn't think of that until you said something to me. I will then," Together the two of them left the dungeons and headed up to the main part of the castle.

When the reached the main staircase, Draco was running down it with Cece in his arms, being chased by a boxers-wearing Sirius. Draco ran behind Remus and Harry and Sirius skidded to a stop in front of them.

"What did they do to you?" Harry asked.

"He put her on my stomach and she started bouncing on my gut and then was hitting me in the face," He answered.

"Poor Padfoot; woken up at 1 in the afternoon by a happy toddler. What a horrible beginning to the day. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been doing productive things or been accused of being Voldemort's new right hand," Remus rolled his eyes at his old friend.

"The article was finally written?" Sirius asked, alert now.

"Yes; the paper's in the dining room unless Binky or one of the others moved it," Harry responded.

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Hermione came back from her meeting with Dumbledore around half past four that afternoon. "That went faster than I expected," Charlie stated when she walked into the courtyard.

"He couldn't say no; I brought the book I found the law in with me," She explained, smiling slightly at Ciara who was in Draco's lap again, playing with his hair. The little girl had quickly become attached to the blond Slytherin.

"Good. Did you request your own room?" Harry asked.

"Yes; I don't want her to wake Lavender and Parvati if she starts crying at night."

"Oh, Bill, Fleur," Harry turned to the two of them. "Do you know where you're going for your honeymoon?"

"We were going to wait until after the war I think. It'll be safer that way," Bill responded. Fleur scowled at Bill, it was obvious she didn't like that idea very much.

"Here, Fleur, catch," Harry tossed a medallion at her. She neatly caught it and looked at him with a puzzled look. "It's a portkey to an island in the Mediterranean that is my family's. Go there, you'll be perfectly safe," He insisted, using the same tone Minerva and Severus used when they wanted no argument. He'd heard it enough that he was able to imitate it just fine.

Fleur beamed. "Oh, thank you 'Arry!" She gushed.

A/N: And this is where I must leave you. I am in desperate need of sleep. In case you were wondering, I really want a bagel. That's what inspired the breakfast thing. I'll try not to go so long without updating again, but I make no promises. I will do my very best though. It's likely that I won't be updating Three's Company too soon, but I will try to get it up as soon as I can. Also, anyone who wants me to add them to a mailing list I have going, leave a review with your email address in it, saying you want to be added to the list, and I will add you.