United We Stand, a harry potter fanfic

Please excuse any mistakes

I know this is perhaps a little out of character with Ron, but it's about time he grew up:)

Comments are welcome!

"United we Stand."

Surprised, aren't you? "United we stand." It sounds rather pompous of me, doesn't it? Something Percy might say, really. Not the youngest brother, 'ickle Ronniekins'. Really, being the 6th boy in your family doesn't do much towards your status. Like I told Harry right at the beginning of first year – everyone expects me to do as well as my siblings, but when I do it's nothing special. It used to really annoy me, that I had so many siblings. I was kind of jealous, I suppose.

But the years have passed, and I've matured. To a certain extent, at least. We are no longer the innocent teenagers that we should be – the time we live in has seen to that. And after encountering danger after danger with Harry, my family has become the one thing I cherish the most. Without our loved ones, the ones who support us, care for us, the ones there for us in our times of need, would we ever manage to get through the low points in our lives?

And believe me, there has been many of those. Ever since the return of You-Know-Who, and even before that, our lives have been fraught with disaster after disaster. How many times has Harry almost lost his life? Discounting all the plots Voldemort had employed to take my best friend, is it even ironic that every DADA teacher we've had so far has tried to end his life?

Harry. He's probably the reason why my motto is 'United we Stand'. He lost his parents when he was just one. He spent the next ten years living in a family who while came just short of physically abusing him, certainly did him no good. He has shockingly low self-esteem for someone of his power. I'm not surprised – bars on his windows? We were twelve at the time! I was so happy for him when he and Sirius found each other in third year; Harry desperately needed family. But when Sirius was forced to flee so soon …

Fourth year. Harry still has nightmares about Cedric Diggory. Still says it's his fault. Bloody Amos Diggory probably agrees with him. I understand the man's upset that he lost his only son; I'd be just as grieved if Munchkin (that's Ginny to the rest of yous) had gone – in second year I almost died when I heard she had been taken by the Chamber, I don't know what I'd be like if she hadn't come back – but I digress. Couldn't Amos see that Harry himself was just a boy? They put so much pressure on him. What happened to him when he was one was not of his own choosing! He carries the weight of the world.

There's a saying, you know? "It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." After fifth and sixth year, I really don't know. Fifth year … Harry has never recovered from losing Sirius. He blames himself on that one harder than he blames himself for Diggory's death. I sound heartless, but sometimes I do think that it would just have been better for Harry never to have loved, never to have found Sirius, never to have suffered the anguish I know he still feels, even now. How much more can he take before he cracks? He has lost loved one after loved one time and time again. How many times will he be called on to sacrifice what is dear to him?

I don't know what we're going to do now. Albus Dumbledore is dead. Just as Voldemort is head of the dark, so is Dumbledore the head of the light. Was. Harry may be the chosen one, but he was the weapon in Dumbledore's hand. Now? I don't know what will come. We are leaderless. The Order's in shock after what Snape did.Hermione and Iare probably going to follow Harry and not finish seventh year. I don't know. Where he goes, I'll follow.

I feel so lucky that my family are all still here. Discounting Percy the Prat, of course, but while he's alive, there's always hope. And Bill … well, I'm so grateful. It could have turned out so much worse. And he's got Fleur for him, too. And then I think of Harry. Who does he have? Now more than ever, Harry's going to need a family. As much as he began to distrust Dumbledore, who never let him know the whole story, who probably used him as much as Voldemort did, he was still the omnipotent being of our side. Once again, Harry's lost someone he cared about. But I'll make sure he always has us. Mum and Dad treat him as an extra son, for the rest of us, he's like our brother. Younger or older? I'm not sure. Biologically (yes, I do know big words), Harry is the youngest by a few months, but from what he's been through, he displays a maturity well beyond his years. Oh, and Ginny claims him as her boyfriend. Whatever the case, he's one of us. And we'll do all we can to make sure he's never alone.

Sixteen years ago, when Voldemort's killing curse rebounded onto himself from Harry, the Death Eaters fell. They lost their head, and they scattered. Well, that won't happen to us. We may have lost Albus Dumbledore, but we'll stay together, and we'll continue to be there for Harry. Divided, they fall. United we stand.