Chapter Text
It was a few months after the war, and a rather unusual gathering had assembled at the Burrow. The Weasley family filled most of the kitchen and sitting room, with Kingsley, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid, Neville and Luna completing the audience. Having finally had time to breathe, Harry, Ron and Hermione had agreed to tell the full story of their hunt for the horcruxes.
“So then I heard Hermione’s voice saying my name,” Ron explained. “So I clicked it and this tiny ball of light appeared and...” He paused dramatically. “...I knew it would take me where I needed to go.” He and Hermione exchanged a soft, thoroughly mushy look while Harry made a faint gagging noise.
“Wait, wait,” Bill interrupted with a frown. “None of that makes any sense.”
“Yes,” Kingsley agreed. “I'd like to pause here a moment. What exactly explains that?”
Every pair of eyes turned towards the trio. Harry looked from face to face.“Umm... magic?”
“Yeah,” Ron said quickly. “Magic.” Hermione nodded in agreement.
Several of the adults exchanged distinctly unconvinced looks.Arthur cleared his throat.“Were you doing anything else, son?”
Ron thought for a moment.“Not really.” He shrugged. “I was listening to the radio.”
Luna, who had been watching Ron with unusual concentration, tilted her head.“What song was it?”
Hermione sighed.“Oh honestly, Luna—”
But Professor Flitwick looked unexpectedly interested.“Music can have powerful effects,” he said thoughtfully. “Albus was undeniably unusual, and he always had a fascination with the relationship between magic and music.”
Ron scratched his head.“Erm...” He frowned, trying to remember. “I think it was Like a Prayer, by Madonna.”
Luna brightened immediately.“We should play it!”
“I agree,” said Flitwick.
Hermione looked at both of them as though they had simultaneously taken leave of their senses.McGonagall's expression suggested she was only marginally more convinced.Arthur, however, was already rummaging through a cupboard. “This is probably nothing,” he said cheerfully, producing an old Muggle radio. He fiddled with the dial while Harry resumed the story, they were just getting to the exciting bit where they stood around in the tent some more for weeks on end, when Arthur suddenly smiled. “Ah-ha!”
Everyone waited as it started up. ‘Life is a mystery… Everyone must stand alone…’
At first, nothing happened. Everyone relaxed.
‘I hear you call my name… And it feels like … home.’
“See?” Hermione said smugly, but then the Deluminator trembled, a single, unmistakable shiver. It pulsed once, as though something deep inside it had awakened.
The room fell silent. The music from the radio seemed to recede, becoming strangely distant beneath something else that all of them could feel. It was as though another melody, older and immeasurably larger, had begun to rise beneath it, carried on voices instead of instruments.
“…Ron…”
It was Hermione’s voice…but Hermione was sitting right there. Her hand immediately went to her mouth.“I didn’t say that.”
Ron stared at the Deluminator. The room seemed to hold its breath as they waited a few moments .The voice echoed softly through the air, like someone reaching across an impossible distance.
“Ron…”
Ron reached forward.“Wait.”Professor Flitwick had placed a gentle hand on his arm while everyone looked at him.The tiny professor’s eyes were fixed on the Deluminator. “Just wait.”
Ron hesitated.“But Professor—”
“If this is a magical resonance,” Flitwick said quietly, “we need to understand what is happening before we interfere.”
McGonagall nodded slowly.“Professor Flitwick is right.”
Ron reluctantly pulled his hand back and the room waited. For several minutes, nothing happened. Nobody moved or said anything, even the portraits seemed to be listening, their painted faces turned towards the Deluminator with open curiosity. The radio continued to play softly in the background, but its music seemed strangely distant now, as though it belonged in another room.
The Deluminator gave a slow, gentle pulse.
Then another voice came.”...Ron..." It was fainter than Hermione’s and more distant. It was a different voice.
Ron froze, his eyes locked onto the Deluminator as the colour drained from his face.
Harry frowned as he looked at Ron, then slowly at Hermione, whose eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits.
"Wait..." Harry said carefully. "Is that...?"
"Lavender?" Hermione finished.
Ron didn't answer. He simply listened, his brow furrowed."...No."
Hermione folded her arms."No?"
Ron shook his head slowly."It sounds like Lavender..."
Another whisper floated through the room."...Ron..."
"...but something's wrong."
"But?" Harry prompted.
Ron frowned harder. "She doesn't sound quite right."
Hermione stared at him.”What do you mean she doesn't sound quite right?"
Ron nodded absently, still listening. “It's her voice, but…” He struggled to explain it. “I remember how she laughed, how she spoke when she was excited, when she was angry…” He trailed off as Hermione’s face tightened.
Professor McGongall shook her head “…I think…it’s a bit deeper, more certain… older perhaps. That’s what it is. ”
The room fell silent, Hermione turned to him with exaggerated calm. "So you've memorised Lavender Brown's voice well enough to notice subtle changes?"
Ron finally looked away from the Deluminator. “Oh, come off it.”
“I'm asking.”
“I dated her for months, Hermione! Of course I know what she sounds like!”
The Deluminator answered before Hermione could. It rolled gently across the tabletop with a tiny metallic clank and the silver light brightened.
The whisper came once more.”...Ron..."
Ron shook his head.”No... definitely not my Lavender.” The words had barely left his mouth when another voice joined the choir. This voice was softer and dreamlike. Almost as though it were being carried away across a meadow on the evening breeze.
"...Ron..."
Luna's eyes widened."Oh."
Hermione spun around, glaring at Ron “Would you like to explain why Luna’s voice is now coming out of that thing.”
“I can’t!”
Luna smiled serenely. “Hermione? I don't think you need to worry. I've certainly always found Ron attractive.” The room froze. Hermione's eyes became very round indeed. Ron made a choking noise, he had gone scarlet.“Er... thanks?” “But we've never had any sort of romantic relationship.” Luna continued.“I think I'd remember…Which is why I don't think these voices are from us.”
Everyone looked at her.“They're similar to us,” she said thoughtfully, watching the Deluminator's glow. “But not us.”
Flitwick leaned forward.“What makes you say that?”
“Because Lavender didn't sound quite like Lavender.”
Ron nodded before he could stop himself.“Exactly.” Hermione shot him a look.
Luna continued as though nobody had interrupted. “And I don't think I sounded quite like me either.”
“You can tell?” asked Arthur.
“Oh yes.”
“How?”
Luna thought for a moment.“She sounded... happier.”
Everyone shifted uncomfortably, Hermione shot another look between Luna and Ron.
“Not necessarily happier than I am,” Luna clarified. “Just happy in a different way. As though she'd lived a different life….That seems much more likely than Ron secretly going around collecting women who’ll whisper his name into the night.”
Ron nodded, looking somewhat relieved. Hermione didn't take her eyes off him.“I haven't ruled that one out yet.”
Ron groaned. “Hermione!”
Flitwick's eyes widened. "A parallel magical resonance…" he whispered.
The Deluminator answered for them. It gave another soft pulse and everyone instinctively fell silent. The song on the radio continued, the familiar melody buried beneath a vast choir of voices that seemed to fill every corner of the Burrow. It was beautiful, almost haunting.
Then another whisper drifted through the room.“...Ron...”
The accent was unmistakable. Bill's head snapped up. Ron blinked. “No way.” Breathed George, perking up for the first time in weeks.
The room became deathly quiet.
“Oh, you've got to be kidding me.” Hermione turned very, very slowly towards Ron.
Bill’s expression darkened “Would someone like to explain why my wife's voice has just emerged from your Deluminator?”
“I can't!”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I genuinely can't!”
Fleur herself looked utterly bewildered “Bill,” she said carefully, “I swear I 'ave never whispered your brother's name in my life.”
The whisper came again, soft and affectionate.“Ron...”
She frowned at the glowing Deluminator. “She does sound like me, though.” Fleur had gone very still. She listened carefully, her head tilted. “Ah!” Everyone looked at her as she smiled in sudden recognition. “That is not me.” A collective sigh of relief swept around the table. “It is Gabrielle I think - older - but it is Gabrielle.”
Ron looked as though he wanted to disappear beneath the table. Hermione, meanwhile, had reached a state of calm so complete that Harry immediately recognised it as dangerous and began backing away from the centre of the room cautiously.
“Ron.” She asked sweetly.
“Yes?”
“How many more women do you expect this thing to produce?”
Arthur cleared his throat.“If Luna's theory is correct...”Everyone looked at him.“…then this wouldn't be our Gabrielle.”
Bill considered that, frowning. Fleur looked uncertain “So another universe… another time”
Flitwick nodded thoughtfully. “A plausible explanation I wonder if -”
Hermione interrupted ”So-"
Ron groaned.
“In another universe…"
"Hermione, please."
“...your soulmate is Fleur's little sister?”
Ron buried his face in his hands.
Almost on cue, it pulsed again and the silver light brightened once more. Another whisper drifted across the hall. “...Ron..."
Everyone leaned in again. Harry frowned.”I know that voice.”
"So do I," Ginny said slowly.
Neville’s face changed suddenly ."...Parkinson?"
Ron looked like someone had hit him over the head with a beaters bat. Harry stared at him "I'm sorry… but...Pansy?"
“I know!”
Hermione folded her arms."Explain."
Ron looked helpless."I can't!"
“That's becoming your favourite answer."
"Because it's the only one I've got!” But the words came out quieter than before, because, this time, he genuinely looked shaken. "I don't understand."
Ginny shook her head “I thought she couldn't stand you.”
Ron laughed nervously.”So did I.”
Luna smiled.”Perhaps this Ron was more her type.”
The whisper came once more.”...Ron..." Pansy's voice carried a warmth that nobody in the room had ever heard from her.
Ginny frowned.” Well...That's unsettling.”
“It really is…” Harry agreed.
Ron looked around the room desperately. "I'd just like to point out that I have absolutely no control over whichever version of me was apparently loved by Pansy Parkinson.”
“I mean I can understand it logically, small changes and all that, but seriously Parkinson? She’d need a personality transplant right?” Hermione grasped desperately.
Luna smiled faintly.”Perhaps that Ron didn't need her to become someone else.” Everyone looked at her.”He just got to know the parts of her that we never saw.”
Hermione frowned as Ron. for the first time since the voices began, didn't look embarrassed but instead looked almost sad. Because somewhere out there was a version of his life where a person he had hated had become someone he loved and he would never know how.
The Deluminator gave another soft, eager pulse. Flitwick bounced a little with excitement at witnessing entirely new magic.”I believe,” he said, “there are still more. Remarkable.”
McGonagall gave him a warning look."Filius."
"I know, I know Minerva."
Ron slumped back into his chair."Of course there are more.” Harry put a hand on his shoulder.
“Ron..." There was unmistakeable love in the quiet voice that emerged. It was the voice of someone who had known exactly where they belonged for a very long time and it contained a sort of easy happiness that rarely was heard from that voice.
Harry stared at the Deluminator and swallowed heavily.”That's..." He couldn't finish, he didn't need to, because everyone already knew… The voice was his.
Silence filled the room. Ginny looked between Harry and Ron cautiously.
“No.” Harry shook his head slightly.”That can't be.”
Flitwick's expression softened. "Why not?”
Hermione's hand slowly covered her mouth.
Harry looked at Ron and Ron looked back. Neither of them knew what to do with the impossible proof that somewhere, in another world, the two people who had always chosen each other had chosen each other in an entirely different way.
Ginny finally found her voice. “So…"
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed vaguely between Harry and Ron.”There is a universe where you two…” She stopped. Harry went red and Ron looked like he wanted the floor to open. Ginny pressed her lips together. “I'm trying very hard to be mature about this.”
Hermione lowered her hand, still looking at the Deluminator. “It's not like it's that impossible.” She sighed.”I…” She glanced at Harry and Ron."You two have always been the most obvious people in the world about how much you mean to each other."
Ron frowned."That doesn't mean—"
"I know.” Hermione smiled faintly. “ I know…”
The voice came again."Ron..."
Harry looked down and this time, he looked thoughtful. Because on some level he understood - somewhere out there, another Harry had looked at Ron and seen the same things he had always seen: Ron’s bravery, his kindness, the way he understood Harry, the way he always made him laugh…The difference was only that, in that world, he had understood those feelings differently.
The room remained silent for several long moments. Harry was still staring at the Deluminator like it hadrewritten everything he thought he knew about himself.
Ron rubbed a hand over his face. “I think,” he said weakly, “That’s enough alternate universes for one day.”
Professor Flitwick smiled apologetically. "I'm afraid, Mr Weasley…" The Deluminator pulsed again."...the magic appears to disagree."
A ripple of nervous laughter passed around the room. The silver light brightened once more.
"...Ron..."
The voice was that came out was deeper than the others, calm and gentle and once again carried the unmistakable cadence of someone for whom English was not their first language.
Hermione frowned. Ginny looked at her."You know it?"
Hermione stared at the Deluminator.”I... I…”
Harry looked between Ron and Hermione, wondering if he dare say it. “That's Krum.”
George burst out laughing.
Ron’s mouth opened and closed “ How…”
“In our world,” Luna said quietly, “he met the Ron who was jealous of him.” She smiled at Ron “But another Viktor may have met a Ron who admired him. I expect it was an interesting story.”
Ron frowned thoughtfully. ”I did admire him.”
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
George grinned. “Well…” He looked thoughtfully at Ron. “Just think, little brother, you could've had it all.”
Ron blinked at him “What?”
“World-famous Quidditch legend.” George began counting on his fingers.”International celebrity, rich - probably owns a castle somewhere.”
"George," Hermione warned.
He ignored her completely.”Just saying... alternate Ron seems to have done rather nicely for himself.You'd have been the trophy husband.”
Ron snorted.”I would not.”
"Course you would. You’d have waved from the stands while Viktor won another World Cup.” George clasped his hands dramatically.”'There he is, everyone—Mr Viktor Krum. And who's that devastatingly attractive redhead beside him?’"
Ron laughed despite himself as George carried on.“'That's his husband, Ronald. He keeps the house and occasionally reminds Viktor where he's put his broom.’"
The room erupted into laughter. Harry frowned.”...I'm famous.”
Everyone turned to look at him, George’s grin spread slowly across his face. “Did... did you just get jealous of Viktor Krum?”
Harry's ears immediately went scarlet. “No! I’m just saying that if we're measuring prospective husbands by fame, I happen to be quite famous… and good at quidditch. I mean…" Harry cleared his throat ”Hypothetically.”
George's grin became positively feral.”So … hypothetically, you're disappointed alternate Ron married Viktor instead of you?”
“No!”
“Because that's what it sounds like.”
“"I'm just saying…” He glanced awkwardly at Ron. “If there's a universe where Ron likes men…” He gestured vaguely at the Deluminator. “...why not me?”
Ginny stared at him. “Harry.”
Harry's ears immediately went scarlet. “No! I'm just saying…" He frowned at the Deluminator. “...Viktor's already tried to nick my girlfriend once.”
Ginny turned to him.”...Excuse me?”
Harry shifted uncomfortably “At Bill and Fleur's wedding.”
Ron looked between them. “When?”
“When I was disguised as Barney Weasley.” Harry shrugged. “He started asking after Ginny, so I told him she was dating some big bloke who wouldn't be very happy about it.”
Ginny stared at him. “...You what?”
George's looked positively filled with glee. “So first Viktor tried to steal your girlfriend…” He gestured towards the glowing Deluminator. “…and now you're worried he's stolen your boyfriend."
Hermione folded her arms.”Are you quite finished?”
George looked at her innocently. “Not really.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. Before she could reply, the Deluminator pulsed again.”Oh, for goodness' sake,” she muttered as another feminine voice drifted softly through the room.
"...Ron..."
Harry stared at the Deluminator and then up at Ron slightly accusatorially “...That's Cho.”
There was a long silence.
“Er…Cho… Chang?” Ron asked innocently
Harry nodded slowly. “I'm almost certain.”
Ron looked genuinely baffled. “I've barely spoken to Cho Chang.”
George snorted. “Clearly alternate Ron had better conversational skills.”
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose.
The whisper floated through the room again.”…Ron…”Cho's voice carried a flirty affection, warm enough to make Harry look deeply uncomfortable. He rubbed the back of his neck.”Well...I definitely wasn't expecting that.”
Ginny smirked. “Jealous again?”
Harry spluttered. “No!”
She raised an eyebrow at him as the song finally came to it’s end.
Ron looked between them.“I’m still trying to work out how I ended up with Viktor and Cho.”
George shrugged. “Maybe he has different hair?”
Ron looked offended. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing,” said Luna brightly. “It’s very appealing.”
Ron immediately looked alarmed. “Please stop helping.” Hermione muttered.
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat, still fascinated despite everything.“As entertaining as Mr Weasley’s unexpected popularity appears to be, I believe we may have overlooked the original purpose of the magic.”
Everyone slowly turned back towards the Deluminator as the he laughter faded.
Hermione looked at the silver device thoughtfully. “Other universes…”
Flitwick's expression softened. “Albus often had a habit of leaving people the tools they needed, rather than the answers. He probably thought once you discovered what it could do, you'd explore further...”
Hermione sighed.
Ron looked at the Deluminator. “So we spent the entire war carrying around the answer…Ron looked between Harry and Hermione. “While we were camping in a tent for months…" Hermione winced. “...we could have asked another universe if they had already figured it out?”
Harry groaned as Dumbledore saying “Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!” floated through his head.
"But why music?" Harry asked, looking down at the Deluminator.
Professor Flitwick stepped closer, his eyes still fixed on the little lighter. “Music bypasses the intellect, it is about reaching into memory, emotion, instinct…Albus understood something many wizards forget. The strongest magic is not always the magic we consciously perform."
He looked at Ron. “Sometimes it is the magic that finds us when we need it most.”
Ron glanced at the Deluminator. “So he set a magical device capable of revealing other universes…”He looked at the radio. “...to go off on a pop song because he thought I'd have an emotional reaction?”
Flitwick smiled. “Knowing Albus? Almost certainly... Besides didn't you read Skeeter's tell-all, Albus never exactly hid how much he loved Madonna. We've had complaints for years from the Muggle Studies students about how prominently she featured in the curriculum..."