"Mummy?" Ron said, reaching up and tapping his mother's hip, she didn't notice at all.
"Percy! Percy come downstairs and help me lay the table please" His mum called up the stairs.
"Mummy!" Ron said again, moving around the kitchen table to stand next to his mother again.
"Charlie be a dear and go fetch your father out the shed please, dinner's nearly ready" She said to Charlie who had just entered the kitchen.
"Mummy!" Ron said even louder this time.
"Oh Ronny could you go and fetch Ginny from her room please?" Said mum absentmindedly
"But I wanted to…" Ron began
"Now please Ron, you can tell me after dinner."
Ron scowled at his mother's ignorance of him and stomped up the stairs. When he reached Ginny's room he banged open the door.
"Dinner." He said sulkily
"Yum!" Ginny exclaimed, leaping off the floor where she had been playing with a doll of hers and racing out the room and down the stairs, Ron followed her at a slower pace.
When he arrived back downstairs the rest of his family were now in the kitchen, making a lot of noise and all bustling about. Ron hung back, feeling left out he didn't have a job to do. Even Ginny was spooning mashed potato into a bowl – although she was getting a lot of it on the kitchen counter.
"All right that's everything, sit down!" His mum said, wiping her forehead with her tea-towel as she placed a big pie in the centre of the table. Ron moved forward and took his normal seat to the left of his dad with Bill sitting beside him.
"So tell me about the homework you've been doing all the time you've been back Percy, I don't remember Bill or Charlie ever having this much in the Christmas holiday when they were first years!" Ron's mother started as she spooned mashed potato onto everyone's plates.
Whilst Percy began speaking in a lot of words Ron didn't understand, Bill spoke across Ron to their father.
"So have you read the story in the Daily Prophet a few day ago? The one about the man who got arrested for stealing from Flourish and Blotts?"
"Yes, odd one that!" Answered his dad, chuckling slightly "Took fifteen copies of Unfogging the Future! Now why would you do something like that?"
Bill carried on talking to his father, with Charlie now entering the conversation as well. Across from Ron, Fred, George and Ginny were all giggling about something.
"What are you laughing at?" Ron asked, as Fred glanced his way.
"None of your business smelly!" Fred said, sticking his tongue out then shovelling a huge mouthful of pie into his mouth.
Ron felt his ears turn red in anger as he looked at his family around him. They were all talking happily with each other, and nowhere was a conversation that Ron could join in with.
"Mummy?" Ron whined, turning to face his mother at the other end of the table. She didn't hear him again.
Ron hung his head and carried on eating his dinner, keeping his eyes on his plate until he had finished every last scrap of food. Then he still kept his head lowered until he heard his mum clearing up the plates.
"Come on George let's go and finish the game!" Fred said, bolting up from the table and quickly putting his knife and fork in the sink.
"What are you playing?" Ron asked curiously, "Can I come?"
Fred and George looked at each other, two identical grins on their faces before turning back to their brother.
"No, you're much too young, isn't he Fred?" Said George
"Oh yes, much to ickle little!" Smirked Fred
"I'm six years old, that's not little!" Ron said, trying very hard not to stamp his foot in anger.
"I'm six years old!" Mimed Fred.
"That's not little" Shrieked George.
Then they both ran off upstairs. Ron's eyes began to itch as he tried very hard not to cry; instead he turned around to see what the rest of his family were doing. Bill and his Dad were now sitting in the lounge, bent over the old chessboard in concentration. Charlie was reading a book he'd got for Christmas about Quidditch. Ginny was watching his mum clear up dinner, chatting away about how she'd like a dragon as a pet. Percy had disappeared upstairs again.
"Dad, can I join in?" Ron asked, coming closer to his fathers and Bill's game.
"Sorry son, it's a two person game remember. You can play the next game though okay?"
Ron sighed and clomped over to the sofa instead, sitting down with a thump next to Charlie.
"Charlie, what's your book about?"
"Quidditch." He said shortly, not looking up.
"What about Quidditch?"
"Just like … the history of it and famous players. Look Ron I'll talk to you about it later okay, this chapter just got really interesting."
Ron scowled and felt his eyes began to itch again. He jumped back off the sofa and walked into the kitchen. Ginny and his mum were now sitting at the table, chatting happily. Ron moved a bit closer.
"What are you talking about?" He asked.
"Girly stuff!" Said Ginny, spinning around in her seat to face him. "You can't join in, you're a boy!"
That was the final straw for Ron. Turing quickly so Ginny and his mum wouldn't see him cry he ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Tears spilling over his eyes and down onto his cheeks. Fred and George wouldn't let him play with them, Bill and Dad just did older people stuff, Charlie wasn't interested in talking to him, Percy was to busy with all his books and writing and Ginny and his Mum didn't want to speak to a boy. Finally after a lot of stairs Ron reached his room, where he threw himself on the floor and rolled underneath the bed, curling up into a ball and crying even harder. Fred and George always played with each other. Bill and Dad always talked about older people stuff. Percy was always to busy for him. Charlie always said he'd speak to him later. Ginny always did girly stuff and mum always preferred to speak to Ginny. Mum definitely preferred Ginny to him. Everyone in the family preferred someone else over him. Ron cried harder
OOO
Ron awoke with a jolt, covered in a cold sweat. In the grey half light, his eyes, still blurry from sleep could just make out the image of Hermione sitting at the small table reading a book. It took a while to get his bearings as the dream (or memory as he should say) had been so vivid. He remembered that day clearly even now, eleven years later. Although, hadn't there been another part of that memory? Ron tried to remember.
No. There was nothing else Ronald.
He was sure there was. He knew he hadn't fallen asleep crying. Something else had happened on that day.
Don't pretend Ronald. You know nothing else happened. You know that's what your family think of you.
Ron sighed in anger. Of course that was the end of that day. What else could have happened? Ron threw the covers off himself and climbed out of his bunk, grabbing his jumper from the floor where he'd left it before he went to sleep and pulling it over himself. As the material pressed against his chest he felt the coldness of the locket that was strung round his neck press into him. Ron scowled. Hermione looked up tentatively as Ron stomped over then began to pour him a cup of tea from the pot that sat beside her. Ron sat down hard on the chair and Hermione pushed the cup towards him.
"You can give me the locket now, that's you twelve hours over." She said, apprehension audible in her voice.
Ron nodded and slipped the locket over his head. Immediately he felt a lightness come over him. His head seemed to clear and his whole body felt warmer. Smiling slightly he placed the locket in Hermione's hand. For just a moment the paused, looking up at each other with the locket held between them, savouring the few seconds with them both away from the influence of it. They didn't need to say anything. Then the moment passed and Hermione placed the chain around her own neck, Ron noticed the tiny change in her eyes – the small amount of clouding over from their usual brightness to a duller appearance.
Hermione smiled a weary smile and turned back to her book, pulling the blanket she was wearing slightly tighter around herself. Ron cradled his tea in his hands closed his eyes, his clear mind now able to float back to the memory he had had as a dream, to the part the locket had forced him to miss. He made sure to think about this as much as possible, he didn't want the locket to change what he thought he knew.
OOO
"Ron?"
Ron lifted his head slightly from its cramped position to listen to who was calling him.
"Ronny?"
It was his mother, Ron could now hear as she climbed the stairs. He tried to be as still as possible so his mother wouldn't think he was in his room. He heard the door open and his mum call his name again. But instead of backing back out the room, Ron watched as his mother's feet came to stand by his bed. Then to his complete and utter surprise, the pair of slippered feet were replaced by his mother's face.
"Oh Ronniekins, what are you doing?" she asked softly, lowering herself to the floor so they were at eye level.
Ron mumbled something inaudible and hid his face in his arms again.
"Say that again sweetie,"
"Hiding!" Ron said, lifting his head properly.
His mother nodded understandingly and said slowly "Well do you think you can come out from under there so we can have a nice talk about why you were hiding?"
Ron nodded slowly and crawled out from under his bed, wiping his eyes on his jumper as he did so. When he was standing up his mother sat down on his bed, Ron sat next to her.
"So tell me why you were hiding," She said
Ron took a deep breathe, then without meaning to, burst into tears again. "Because no one wants to speak to me because I'm not old enough or I'm not a girl, or they're too busy or they're just don't want to and everyone else has someone they love more than me and I'm all on my own!" Ron wailed, dissolving into sobs as he finished.
"Oh Ronny!" His mum said, opening up her arms and crushing Ron into a hug. For what seemed like a very long time, they sat like that. His mother stroking his hair and quietly shushing him until his sobs had finished and he just hiccupped and sniffed occasionally. Then his mother, drew away from the hug, but kept a firm grip on his arms and stared right into his eyes.
"Now Ron, no-one in this family loves anyone else more than they love you, we all love each other equally. And of course people want to speak to you and play with you; today they were just all doing other things. But we're all very sorry that we left you out, it wasn't very nice of us at all,"
Ron sniffed and shook his head. "You're just saying that."
"Am I?" His mum said, sounding surprised. "I don't think I am because down stairs your dad wants to play a game of chess against you, Bill wants to teach you a new chess move, Charlie wants to read you a bit from his book that he knows you'll like, Percy wants to tell you a story about Hogwarts, Fred and George need an extra person in their game and have asked for you and Ginny wants to discuss the best way to sneak a dragon into the garden with you. Oh and I really want to read you your bed time story and give you a big kiss goodnight a bit later. Does that sound like people who aren't interested in you?"
Ron shook his head "Is that all true? Really?"
"As true as true can be, why don't you wipe you eyes, rinse your face and go down to have a look for yourself?"
Ron grinned, gave his mother one final big squeeze and raced off, quickly forgetting that anyone wasn't interested in him.
Hey all! This is my competition entry for Weasleyseeker's early childhood competition. The bit set in Deathly Hallows I imagine to be set quite early after they've got the locket as Ron still has quite a bit of hope when he takes it off - in case you were wondering
To any of my regular readers who are still around I Miss you all so much! I'm so sorry I haven't been posting more, there's a note on my profile explaining in a bit more detail why I've been so rubbish so you can go and read that if you're not so angry at me that you'd prefer to just ignore me - I would understand! Just know that I've been really missing writing and I REALLY want to try to write more! Especially Hermione's story!
Please leave a review
Hannah xx