The old man stared at the document in his hand. He felt faintly amused as he studied the document, "this little act will bring about a lot of trouble dear brother" the man spoke into the empty room, "Well I guess there are worse families to marry into" the man got up from his seat. He had to return to England.
XXXXXXX
Ron was sitting in his room, staring out of the window. He had been told by his parents to not tell Harry about anything that was going on due to fear of interception of the letter; he didn't really have much to talk to Hermione about either.
Hermione was a great friend but she got on Ron's nerves a lot, hell the only reason they were still friends was because Harry always served as the mediator. Last year though, Ron had seen her all dressed up during the Yule ball and had felt a bit attracted, but had come to his senses about her. Hermione would always be one of his closest friends but he doubted he would ever be able to date her.
"Ron, come down here for a moment" Ron heard his mother call and sighed as he walked down into the living room. "Come into the study room for a moment" his mother called nervously peeking from the doorway of the study.
"Why is she so nervous?" Ron wondered as he walked into the study to see his parents and another man. The man was dressed in navy blue formal robes with a cane in his hand, he had grey hair and a pale face, he looked in his early sixties, but his piercing blue eyes that put Ron in mind of someone younger. He also had an aristocratic air about him that put Ron in his guard.
"Hello Ron" the man greeted him before anyone could say anything. His voice had a slight lilt to it.
"Hello..." Ron left it hanging hoping the man would introduce himself but instead his father spoke up. "Ron! This is my uncle, Marcus Weasley"
Ron knew that name "the one who moved to America?" he asked looking between his parents.
"The very same" the man replied smiling at Ron as an awkward silence descended which was filled in by Mr. Weasley "uncle Marcus here had been looking through some of dad's old documents that had been given to him and found one that comes into effect soon"
"Okay" Ron said slowly feeling a sense of dread creeping upon him "it's a marriage contract" Uncle Marcus spoke up, making Ron stare at him "aren't those things of the past?"
Uncle Marcus nodded "yes but this contract was made by my brother in 1934. Back then marriage contracts were still normal in the wizarding world, my brother made it with his friends for their children, but both of them only had boys, so the marriage contract got forwarded to your generation."
"No!" Ron whispered as the Knut dropped. "Yes" Uncle Marcus replied as he knew Ron finally understood how he tied up into this contract.
"B-but I'm too young to be married, and...And Bill is the eldest in our family; shouldn't he bear the responsibility of the contract?"
"The thing is Ron" Mr. Weasley spoke up "the contract also has a clause which states that if there are multiple children on either side, the one who are closest in age get married, and in this case, both of you are in the same year so you two are betrothed."
"This is fucking insane" Ron whispered overwhelmed, making his mother scowl at him.
"You do not swear Ronald" she told him angrily as Ron stared at her "my whole life is being twisted upside down and all you can think about is my swearing?" his voice turned exasperated in the end as Mrs. Weasley glared at him.
"Ron" Mr. Weasley got his sons attention onto him before his wife could say something "I understand that it's hard for you to take all of this in but we're all here to support you, I know it's a lot to take in so just we'll just give you some time to think on it"
Ron nodded and turned towards the door before turning back "who is it I'm getting married to?" Ron asked and Uncle Marcus answered leaving Ron shocked.
XXXXXXX
"Did you just say I'm betrothed to Ronald Weasley?" Daphne Greengrass asked her father her face clearly showing the panic and fear building inside of her.
"Yes! Yes I did" Michael Greengrass answered, sinking into his chair.
Daphne had beautiful blonde hair that cascaded to her chest like her mother Mary Greengrass had, and sea green eyes like her father's. Almost fifteen, she was turning into a beautiful woman with a sharp mind and brilliant magical ability.
But right now Daphne was angry and scared with the prospect of being betrothed.
"It was made by my father with another family to strengthen our bonds" Michael Greengrass explained "my father was a very good friend of that man and made the contract when he was not even married, but both of them only had sons so you have to honour the contract or both your and his magic is voided"
"This is crazy" Daphne threw up her hands "I'm supposed to marry Ronald Weasley of all people? His family is completely anti Slytherin what's more he's a complete idiot and a side kick to Harry Potter."
Michael sighed and said "you barely know him, at least meet him once before forming an opinion about him" Daphne didn't say anything; she just stormed off to her room.
Michael spoke into the empty room "that went better than expected"
XXXXXXX
It was late at night and Ron was sitting on the roof of the burrow staring at the night sky. "What do I do?" Ron moaned holding his head in his hands, "this is fucking insane, how is a guy supposed to deal with this?" Ron wondered dejected "I'm being pushed into this contract by other people against my will"
All of a sudden Ron realised what his best friend had been going through, "shit!" Ron thought "I'm just being pushed into marriage; my best friend is being pushed into a war" Ron decided that he needed to talk to Harry about both their problems.
"Looks like I'm going to Privet Drive" Ron told himself and climbed down the roof and into his room. "Okay I need to make a plan." He said out loud "I've been thinking out loud a lot lately" he noticed before pulling out a piece of parchment.
"Okay what do I need to do?" Ron wondered and began noting it onto the parchment.
Reach Privet drive and talk to Harry without the order guard on hand noticing.
Problem: transport, distraction
Ron briefly considered each of the problems he was facing, he could get to Privet drive by broom as he remembered the way due to him rescuing Harry, but he needed a distraction to avoid detection by the order guard.
Ron packed up some muggle and magical money in a rucksack; he then noticed some of the potion ingredients lying around and got an idea. It took Ron five minutes to brew the needed potion. Ron packed up some food as well as a map and compass for emergency.
Ron exited his room and crept down the stairs, sliding over the railing over the creaky ones, Ron had managed to make it to the first floor landing when the door to the guest room opened and Ron saw Uncle Marcus standing there.
"How did you know I was out here?" Ron whispered to his uncle who had a knowing smile on his face "I heard about you and your friends current situation and came to the same conclusion you did" uncle Marcus told Ron once he had been ushered inside the room.
"Now, what is your plan?" he asked Ron who shrugged "fly over to Little Whinging, distract the guard and enter Harry's room" Ron carefully left out his potions idea.
Uncle Marcus shook his head and handed a pouch to Ron "the local pub will be open now, floo over to 'the fair lady' in Staines market, from there it's just a long walk to Little Whinging" Ron stared at his great uncle in awe.
"You're brilliant" he told him as the man opened the bedroom's window "thank you! Now go!"
Ron climbed out of the window and grabbed onto the trunk of the willow tree in the yard and slid down, he then jogged into the town and reached the local pub in ten minutes.
"Kids aren't allowed" an old wizard behind the counter said when Ron entered "just need to use the floo" Ron said and walked over to the grate before the man could say anything.
"The fair lady" Ron shouted as he threw the powder and was engulfed in emerald flames and went spinning towards his destination. Ron walked out into the grate of another bar and calmly ordered some food to-go as he looked around.
Ron paid for the food parcel and headed to privet drive, determined to meet his best friend, Ron mostly stuck to the back alleys and side lanes to avoid detection. It took him slightly more than a half-hour to reach privet drive, after some dead ends, double backing, trespassing and jumping over walls and fence.
Ron had changed the distraction part of the plan on the way, originally he was going to distract the guard and gain entry, but he had then remembered his father telling him how the guard was to always keep Harry in sight and positioned across the house at nights.
So Ron had stuck to the back alleys and had snuck to the back of the row of houses on the side of the drive where Harry was located. Ron snuck over to no.4 and climbed the fence. He knew he wouldn't have any trouble as he had no ill will towards Harry.
Ron picked the locks how Fred and George had taught him and silently crept into the house. He stood in front of Harry's room and slowly opened the door. He saw that Harry was lying on the bed but also noticed how stiff he was.
"Harry it's me" Ron whispered but Harry didn't budge "doesn't know if I'm the real Ron or a death eater" Ron deduced and whispered "you saw your family in the mirror of the erased"
"Ron" Harry whispered as he got out of his bed and gave his friend a man hug. "What are you doing here? Why haven't you been replying to my letters? How did you get here? Why are you here?"
"I finally understand what you're going through" Ron told Harry who fell silent "what?" Harry asked wondering exactly what Ron meant by that statement.
"I'm betrothed" Ron told Harry whose mouth hung open in shock "apparently my grandfather had made a betrothal contract and as my father was a boy as was the heir of the other family, it falls on me"
Harry thought about it for a few moments "why not bill?" he asked Ron who sighed and answered "there is a clause that in case of multiple children, those closest of age shall be betrothed"
There was a minute of silence after which Harry clapped Ron on the shoulder "I'm sorry man" Ron smiled sardonically "and here's the punch line. I'm betrothed to Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin" Harry stared at Ron for a moment before starting to laugh.
"Yeah yeah, it all very funny" Ron complained but Harry wouldn't stop laughing, Ron waited for half a minute before punching Harry on the shoulder making him finally stop laughing.
"Sorry, mate!" Harry apologized "but the situation is just so funny..." Harry shut up seeing the look on Ron's face and decided to move to a more serious topic. "So how's the war effort going?"
Ron turned serious as well "Dumbledore has revived the order of the phoenix, a vigilante group of his from the previous war, the order is keeping tabs on old death eaters, recruiting new members and trying to thwart death eater efforts, there is also always one order member guarding you, right now the guard is standing on the other side of the road staring into this room which is why we haven't turned on the lights."
Harry peeked out of the window and sure enough he noticed a slight distortion in the air on the opposite sidewalk. Harry then turned to Ron and noticed a parcel in his hand, "what's that?" he asked Ron who held it up "fish and chips"
The two boys ate the food in the darkness while Ron explained his plan to harry "that is the worst plan ever" Harry informed Ron who sighed "so it's not very well thought out" Ron conceded
"Not well thought out?" harry repeated in an exasperated fashion "it's a plan relying on luck and only luck"
"You got a better plan?" Ron demanded to which Harry wilted "I thought so" Ron told harry who sighed. "Now go back to bed and pretend to sleep" Ron told harry and crept out of the room. Harry wanted to cry as he pulled up his blanket "there's no way this plan will work" the raven haired boy groaned mentally.
Ron crept downstairs and stood in front of the cupboard under the stairs, Ron then began his part of the plan, and he pulled out a wooden tumbler and filled it with the potion he had created at his home, Ron then placed the tumbler in the cupboard under the stairs and set it on fire.
The potion had been a smoke potion used by aurors to create smoke screens but Ron had used a larger quantity to burn the wooden tumbler, if everything went according to plan the tumbler would burn and leave behind a lot of smoke making everyone think that someone was trying to burn the contents of the cupboard. If everything went according to plan.
Ron exited the house the way he had come so that when the order guard noticed the smoke and came rushing into the house they would only see the fire and not Ron. Once Ron escaped from the back door, the wood tumbler was burnt but the fire hadn't stopped, having caught onto the broom as more and more smoke was being produced.
Harry who had been in his room waiting for something to go wrong smelt the smoke in the air , at once he turned on the light in his room and shouted "FIRE!" he then looked out of the window and smirked when he saw mad-eye Moody running across the street.
Harry opened the door of his room and was engulfed in a thick blanket of smoke, "holy shit, there's a lot of smoke" he thought as he coughed it out.
"Potter" Harry heard Moody's voice, "come with me quickly" he barked at Harry who pretended to be flabbergasted "what are you doing her professor Moody?" "no time now boy" Moody barked again as he waved his wand and packed up all of Harry's belongings and shrunk it to fit in his pocket.
"Follow me" Moody growled and Harry obeyed him, moody cleared the smoke away with a vanishing spell and harry noticed how a fire had been started "should've known" harry told himself as Moody put out the fire.
"C'mon boy" Moody pulled harry with him outside of the house and onto the street "hold my hand" Moody told Harry and Harry took it. "what happened here?" harry heard his uncle's voice before everything went pitch black and Harry felt pressure on his chest as if being squeezed down a tube.
Then suddenly the pressure vanished and Harry found himself in a kitchen with Remus, Sirius, Dumbledore and bunch of other people, all more shocked than him at seeing each other and Moody said "welcome to number 12 Grimmauld place Potter"
Harry spent half an hour listening to Dumbledore talk with Moody as Sirius explained him about the order. Most of it was the same as what Ron had said except for one added detail. "This time Voldemort is after an advantage" Sirius told him "he's after a weapon that he didn't have before, a very dangerous weapon that could potentially give him control of the whole war."
"What is it?" harry asked intrigued "I can't tell you" Sirius told Harry who glared at him "sorry but you're too young to know about this" Harry opened his mouth to give Sirius his piece of mind but was interrupted by Dumbledore.
"Harry" the aged headmaster called the boy "it seems the wards around your aunt's house were not strong enough to protect you, as such I believe that it is best you stay here at Grimmauld place for the rest of the summer, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger will be joining you shortly" harry nodded while smirking internally, it seemed Ron's plan had worked out in the end.
XXXXXXX
"Thanks Uncle Mark" Ron thanked his uncle as he climbed into his room "You're welcome Ron! And just for the record I'm your great uncle" Uncle Mark told Ron as he vanished the rope he had created to let Ron climb into his room.
"I know that but great uncle Marcus is a mouthful, so uncle Mark" Ron retorted as uncle Mark chuckled, Ron peeked out of the room to see if anyone was there and found the coast clear, "good night uncle Mark" Ron wished his uncle turning to leave the room.
"before you go" uncle Mark said stopping Ron in his tracks "I've scheduled for you to meet your betrothed this Saturday."
XXXXXXX
"Saturday? Seriously?" Tracey Davis asked her best friend whose face was buried in a pillow; Tracey had light olive skin and black hair. "What am I gonna do?" Daphne screamed in despair. Tracey had come to visit her friend for the holidays on that very day.
"You could just meet him" Astoria suggested, she was a year younger than Daphne, with shoulder length black hair and a smaller build than that of a girl her age. "he's Ron Weasley" Daphne spoke as if talking to a small child.
"Is that so?" Astoria asked sarcastically making Tracey giggle and Daphne chuck a pillow at him "but seriously don't judge him before you even meet him okay?" Daphne sighed "I'll try"
Astoria got up from Daphne's bed "with that being said, goodnight you two, and don't start making love to each other" both the fifteen year olds threw pillow at the brunette as she rushed out of the door.
