Only A Rule
Summary: 'Death is a rule, Ron, and rules are for other people.' /Severely AU, Dark!Harry, Dark!Follower!Ron, mentioned Ron/Hermione/
Date written: August 12, 2007 (crossposted from LiveJournal)
Genre: General
Word Count: 631
Author's Note: This was from an AU where all good characters were evil and all evil characters were good, so that, for instance, the then-Defense-Against-The-Dark-Arts Professor Gellert Grindelwald defeated the Dark Lord Dumbledore in 1945, Harry Potter became the next Dark Lord, and Tom Marvolo Riddle was the Boy-Who-Lived.
(Note from the present:It would be interesting to do more in this AU, but it's been ages since I've contemplated it, and it would take some work to make all the reversed roles hang together. Maybe when I have more free time…)
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter series and all related characters, settings, and plots.
"I can't believe this," Harry Potter said after he stopped laughing. "They really did have a book on Horcruxes in the Restricted Section! I was just joking when I told Hermione to find one!"
Ronald Weasley grinned, wiping the tears of laughter out of his eyes. "Isn't it wonderful, mate? You'd think they wouldn't have books on the Darkest of Dark-" -here he rolled his eyes- "-Magic in the library, but they do. And Hermione actually managed to find it!" He leaned against his chair and stared at the ceiling. "She's pretty good. For a Muggleborn and all," he hastily added.
Harry smiled at him, a knowing glint in his eyes. "She's with us, and understands the filth of her blood. She's a Pureblood at heart." He patted Ron on the back. "So, no need to worry that I'll consider you a blood traitor for being in love with her." Ron began to protest at the top of his lungs, but Harry shook his head. "I'm rather... dense when it comes to personal relationships, but you two have been fighting like - what's the phrase - like a married couple since First Year."
Ron blushed as red as his hair. Harry smiled, then turned serious again. "D'you understand what this means, Ron?" he asked, holding up the book. "Immortality could be mine. It could be yours. It could be all of ours."
"B-but Harry, we asked Professor Nott what it took, and -"
Harry waved him off. "We can kill Mudbloods - they're hardly human. I frankly don't understand why killing animals would rip my soul... maybe I'll be reminded of Hermione at the last moment." He considered it for a moment, then sighed. "She's the exception to the rule, of course. One does get the occasional... freak. Like a six-legged calf, except that in her case, she's a worthy Mudblood." Ron frowned at this insult to his girlfriend, but nodded. As he should, Harry thought in annoyance. Ron was a good and loyal follower - like the brother Harry never had, to use the old saying - but he could be defiant - no, mistaken at times. Because to defy Harry's whims was always a mistake, because Harry was always right. Harry knew this from much experience.
"Still... why?" Ron asked. "Mum always said death was just a part of life. I mean, I certainly wasn't enjoying it when Uncle Bilius died - he was a good bloke - but I accepted it."
"Death is a rule, Ron," Harry said, an edge in his voice. Why did Ron have to be so dense sometimes?
"So?" Make that 'so exceedingly dense'.
"Rules, Ron, are for other people," Harry patiently explained. "I am Harold James Potter, Golden Boy of Gryffindor, heir to the Potter line, leader of the Dumbledore-Was-Right group at Hogwarts - I'm thinking of renaming it, by the way - and what I mean by mentioning all this is - I have never had to follow the rules. We are Gryffindors. We care not for authority. The Hufflepuffs can be enslaved to others all they want, the Slytherins can try to entrap us with their petty manipulations and regulations, the Ravenclaws can have their little philosophical debates, but we do not care. We will ignore them, because we are better than them. And so we shall ignore death, because we can be better than death."
At the end of Harry's mini-speech, Ron was nodding. He always did, when Harry explained things to him. In fact, Harry felt a bit of a soft spot in his heart for Ron; his friend meant well, but simply lacked the ability to understand the world on his own. He needed a leader to show him the way, and Harry always helped those in need.