Loyalty
For it was Brutus's wound that ended the life of Caesar. What does trust truly mean anymore?
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine and neither is Julius Caesar.
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His breathing was heavy and winded. He could barely breathe. He had disapparated and then he ran. He ran as fast as he could.
Ron Weasley was alone. It was his own fault but that didn't change the fact that Hermione and Harry weren't by his side.
"Ron, no – please – come back, come back!"
Ron could still hear Hermione's screams as he disapparated.
He could still see the look of pain on her features.
But, how could she?
Did he not mean anything to her compared to the Boy-Who-Lives-In-The-Spotlight?
Did she realize how much she had hurt him?
Lavender Brown. His mind screamed. Because –if only for a moment- Ron had forgotten how much he had hurt her.
Recalling the story Hermione had told him long ago, he thought of Brutus and Caesar.
Brutus never hated Caesar. They were good friends in fact!
In a rush, Ron quickly looked into his bag. He had put Julius Caesar in there just the other night! HE flipped through the pages.
Where was it? He thought to himself. He hurriedly searched for the passage that ignited his growing hatred of Harry further.
Act II
Scene I
Rome. Brutus's Orchard
It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?-that;-
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar, (Harry)
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round.
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar (Harry) may.
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
Which, hatch'd, would,
as his kind, grow mischievous,
And kill him in the shell.
Ron looked at the passage once more. Especially at the points where he scratched out Caesar and –in his locket-induced rage- messily scrawled 'Harry' in place of it.
But now, freed from the cruel poison of the Horcrux, Ron realized his mistake. So close he had come to putting the final wound in Caesar's heart!
Ron then realized what he needed to do.
The locket is Cassius. Voldemort is the jealous poison within the body of Cassius that fueled his every move and speech.
Ron finally realized. "I need to help Harry."
It was no longer just helping a friend. Ron needed to kill Cassius before he stabbed his own best friend. His leaving was already the first act of betrayal.
From now on, Ron's loyalty will never again be doubted.
