Leaving (part two)
The owl tapped on the windowsill and Pig fluttered on his perch, excited to have a visitor, while Ron threw back his covers to open the window and let the bird in.
The grey owl extended its leg and Ron untied the small bundle before tapping Pig's food tray with his finger and muttering for the owl to help itself. The owl hopped over and began to eat while Pig bothered the bird with his enthusiasm.
Ron looked at the handwriting on the small parcel and recognised it immediately as Hermione's. He opened the brown paper and a pack of sweets fell out and into his hand. Well he thought they were sweets, on closer inspection he saw the horrific truth and rolled his eyes.
"Only Hermione," he sighed before looking at the neatly folded note that accompanied the 'treat'.
Dear Ron,
Korea is confusing and very humid. The air conditioning in the Muggle places combined with the cooling charms in the Magical ones are making me quite ill. I can't wait to come home, to see you, I do miss you.
I saw these Korean Fermented Chocolate Soybeans and thought of you-
"What?" Ron exclaimed, "Why?"
Every time I see chocolate while on my travels I wish you were here or I was there. I will be back very soon, I know Harry will too, I miss you both.
How is Muriel doing? I hope you aren't suffering too much with her sharp tongue. Speaking of suffering, I'm going to bring home some Korean's remedies for your knee. We managed to sneakily Apparate into North Korea and there was an old witch there who looked ready to fall apart but could do yoga and lift a large cauldron all by herself. She has something for strengthening joints and I got some for you.
Take care won't you?
I'm so sorry you're all on your own, especially with Muriel the way she is, but I am so proud of what you're doing for her.
Lots of love,
Hermione.
Ron looked down at the sweets with a grimace twisting his face.
"You saw beans covered in chocolate and thought of me did you? Barmy, that woman."
"Ronald?" Muriel called from her bed in the living room.
Ron groaned and let his head fall back, eyes briefly looking up at the ceiling before closing, and his shoulders slumped wearily.
"Oh Godric, she's up."
"Ronald?"
"What?" Ron called back.
"Come in here; don't make me shout at you!" Muriel said, angrily, "Really boy, I know your mother's time was fleeting by the time you were born but she could at least have spent some of it teaching you manners."
Ron stomped down the stairs and into the living room, ears burning and inside's seething.
"I could have been sleeping y'know?"
"I could hear you moving about and that infernal owl of yours was twittering too."
Ron smirked as he drew the curtains.
"Good impression."
"Excuse me?" Muriel asked as she stared at him, blankly.
"Twittering too!" Ron said, sounding a little like an owl hooting, "Twittering too!"
"Boy, I do believe you've cracked."
"Y'know what Muriel? So do I!" Ron grinned.
"Oh please don't be in one of your annoying moods today, I can't bear it, all the energy and mania," Muriel slumped wearily against her pillow, "it exhausts me just to look at you."
"Muriel, it's hardly even daylight and you've obliterated my day already!" Ron huffed as he dropped down onto her bed, despondently.
The old woman looked at him for a moment before reaching forward and pulling at his hand until he lifted it for her to hold in her frail ones.
"Did you have a nice break with your giant friend from school?"
Ron's eyes rolled towards his great aunt and he couldn't help but smile at the old bat, she did sometimes have the nice kind of mood swing.
"I missed the train and had to sleep over in Muggle London. I got a Floo from the Leaky Cauldron in the morning just to explain why I didn't turn up but everyone was busy so I just got to say a few hellos and then head back to the Burrow."
Muriel looked genuinely sorry for him.
"So you were alone...again?"
"Well," Ron said before pausing, "um, a Muggle man helped me out, my knee was bad and there were stairs. He talked to me a bit."
Muriel suddenly looked like a bulldog with a meaty bone as she puffed out her chest and set her jaw, aggressively.
"And your 'friends' are off doing their thing as if you don't matter, as if you didn't fight at their side and destroy a Horcrux, and now that you could do with some companionship they abandon you!"
"They didn't abandon me, Muriel, they have work," Ron said defensively.
"They don't even floo call," Muriel muttered, cantankerously.
"Oh come on," Ron huffed as he pulled his hand free of hers and got up from the bed, "they're not really around the sort of people you can turn your back on to shove your head into a fireplace."
"Don't make excuses for them Ronald, they left you behind the second you became lame!"
"I'm not lame," Ron growled through gritted teeth, "and they are still my friends. They're better than just friends. That owl you heard? That was from Hermione saying she missed me and was coming back soon."
"Oh such little scraps to keep you hanging on their every word, tell me boy, did she bait the hook with a treat?"
Ron was too humiliated to tell her she was right so he pretended to be walking away from the conversation with his dignity.
"I really think you should move on, Ronald," Muriel called after him, "make new friends, I'll invite the Archers' grandchildren over for you to meet. They're lovely young people and the girls are all very pre-"
"I don't want to meet the Archers' grandchildren," Ron yelled as he spun around at the doorway and raged at his great aunt, "I can make my own friends!"
"I had friends once too and now I'm left here with you," Muriel said with a dramatic quiver in her voice, her hand resting against her chest, while she gazed out the window, "Your loyalty will get you a lonely death bed Ronald."
"Oh for goodness sake." Ron huffed as he turned and marched into the kitchen to escape the conversation and make breakfast.
"Hold on to me and bend slowly, I've got you Ron, keep your foot flat on the floor. Don't invert and twist like you have been doing..."
Ron hated his knee examinations. He hated the knee strengthening exercises. More than anything else he hated how even the Healers assigned to his case didn't understand what the problem was no matter how many times he explained it to them.
"Holding me up doesn't make me feel secure though," Ron said, voice tense as he gripped the Healer's forearms so tightly he was leaving marks, and he bent his weak leg and let it support his full weight before lifting himself up and straightening it again.
"What does make you feel secure?"
"Not standing my full body weight on it for one thing!" Ron snapped, trying not to panic as the dread that he was going to have to really hurt himself in order to be taken seriously.
"And that's the problem Mr Weasley," the Healer said, not reacting to his prickly mood in any way at all, "you're favouring the other leg too much and the muscles in this leg are getting weaker from lack of use."
"But it buckles under me," Ron said as he swayed a little and put his other foot down to steady himself, "you can't expect me to hop up and down on it."
"But if you do the appropriate exercises you might be able to walk without a limp all the time. You might be able to use your legs equally and not favour one over the other. You might even be able to jump up and down, two footed, if we really got your confidence and muscle strength boosted."
"I don't want to jump up and down!" Ron yelled, "I want to be able to walk from a to b without collapsing in a bloody heap."
"Watch your language and watch your temper Mr Weasley," the Healer said sternly.
Ron let go of her and walked towards the wall. He leaned against it and folded his arms across his chest. He knew he was sulking and he didn't care.
"Magic can't fix it, Muggles can't fix it, why don't you just forget about it and leave me alone?"
"Because you're a young, healthy man and I will not let somebody like you give up."
"Give up on what?" Ron huffed, "My fabulous career, my professional Quidditch contract, my loving and relaxing home life?"
"You're telling me that your family aren't loving?"
"My home life isn't! There's nobody bloody there to lo...There's nobody." Ron felt his throat tightening up on him and he swallowed before pushing away from the wall and walking over to pick up his things from the treatment table.
"Same time next week Ron?" his Healer called after him.
Ron paused and looked down at his feet.
"If nothing else it'll get you out of the house for an hour," the Healer said with sympathy for his situation.
Ron shook his head, slowly.
"You want me to come here and hop up and down on my bad leg for one hour every week to give me a break from carrying an old woman back and forth to the toilet, waiting on her hand and foot, cooking, cleaning an-"
"This is something for you Ron," the Healer said, "What did you enjoy doing before you got splinched?"
Ron thought for a moment before smiling sadly and looking at the Healer in glum realisation.
"Y'know, I don't even remember a time before? I'm sure there was a time I did fun stuff but all I can think about now is picking up a Rainbow trout for Muriel's dinner because everywhere I've been so far dye their smoked haddock and then renewing her potion prescriptions before they run out and maybe getting her out of bed long enough to change her sheets without her complaining."
The Healer took a step towards him and reached out her hand to tug at his sleeve and coax him into a nearby chair but Ron smiled again and pulled free to drape his Muggle jacket over his arm and back towards the door.
"It's ok, my life belongs to Muriel now and that's fine, at least I'm wanted somewhere eh?" Ron turned and opened the door before calling back over his shoulder to the Healer, "I'll try to do the squat exercises while I cook dinner or something and I'll let you know how things go next week. See ya."
"Bye Ron."
"Can I help you sir?"
The mousey haired Muggle girl at the desk smiled at him as he approached, nervous about what he was about to do.
"Um, yeah, I was here the other night and was just wondering if I could get a ro-"
"I knew I recognised you!" the girl said brightly, "Your leg seems to be better this time. Your friend's already checked in; he's up in room 14, go right up and knock."
"Oh but," Ron didn't know if this meant that the Milk man was with another stray he'd found on the tube or if he somehow knew Ron was going to check back in for a night off from everything but despite his reservations he still went up the stairs and made his way to room 14.
He knocked and prepared himself to be faced with a milk man who had totally forgotten who he was or a man from the London Underground who wasn't a frigid tease. The door opened and the Milk man stood before him in just his jeans.
"Ron?"
Ron smiled, happy to have been remembered.
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm not stalking you, I came in and the girl at the desk remembered me and assumed..."
"Yeah," Milk man nodded, "I come in alone a lot and you were the first person I brought back with me, the only person in fact, I suppose that was something to remember."
Ron gave a laugh of familiarity with the concept of only being thought of as alone before shuffling his feet awkwardly and mumbling into his chest.
"Well I was going to ask her for a room but she sent me up and I'm here and sort of...I'm pushing myself into your private space aren't I? I'll go back downstairs and get a room for myself."
"No wait," Milk man said as he reached out and grabbed Ron's wrist, "come in, this is fate this is, you've gotta come in and keep me company. I was thinking about you the other day, I'm glad to see you again."
Ron smiled, bashfully and stepped inside, closing the door behind him and hanging up his jacket on the hook screwed into the back of it.
"Well I was in town having my knee looked at and I thought, well my Mum's enduring my Aunt for the evening so I thought I'd come back here and have a lazy night somewhere other than my old bedroom."
Milk man smiled at him and flung himself backwards onto the bed, propping himself up on his elbows.
"So you're walking better today, they did some good at the hospital or clinic place you went to?"
"Well I had a bit of a strop to be honest but moving it makes me feel a lot better than not moving it so exercise is always better for me. I just don't like to stress the joint out too much, it can give way at the drop of a hat and the second I put all my weight on it like the Healers ask me to my mind goes straight to how painful it'll be if I fell then and there."
"Healers? You're getting hippy treatment are you?" Milk man frowned, "I didn't figure you for one of those sorts Ron."
"Doctors, they're doctors, I just said...forget what I said." Ron panicked.
"It's ok, calm down," Milk man said as he grabbed Ron about the wrist and pulled him over to the bed, "sit and relax and enjoy your night off from the battleaxe."
Ron dropped onto the bed and flung himself backwards so he was sprawled across it. He closed his eyes and groaned.
"Oh she is driving me batty. I'm supposed to be back in time to do her dinner but I got knackered and tetchy at my knee appointment and just wanted to hide somewhere."
He felt the mattress dipping beside him with the weight of the Milk man laying back and opened his eyes to look up at him.
"Look Ron, I know what you said last time and I respect it and everything but...you're lying on my bed and you know I fancy you. I have to ask, are you waiting for me to make my move?"
Ron shuffled up on his elbows and looked at Milk man with apprehension.
"No, I'm...I'm sorry, I forgot that you want to...you want... Sorry, I'll go."
Ron was about to get up from the bed but Milk man pushed his hand flat against his chest to hold him in place.
"Don't go, just know that I'm not going to try anything on with you because you said no the first time and that's it for me. If you want to then you have to be the one to take the plunge. I'm not having you tell me I took advantage afterwards; I've been burnt like that before."
"I wasn't, I just... Look I'll get a different room, I just thought we could be mates but you obviously think I'm t-"
Ron sat up on the bed again and looked pained for having been a tease without meaning to.
"No, don't go, I didn't mean to chase you away!"
"I know, you didn't, I don't know what I was thinking anyway, I have to find a rainbow trout and then get back to that bloody woman before my mother murders her. I'll just get it over with rather than putting it off."
Ron got up from the bed and walked towards the door for his jacket.
"You're leaving me for a rainbow trout?" Milk man said, with a smirk, "I can handle being rejected for a woman Ron but never a fish. Sit down before you really bruise my ego."
Ron pulled his jacket down from the hook and stood at the closed door for a moment before opening it.
"I don't want to mess you about," Ron said, sounding humble, "I just miss... I have to go."
The Milk man snatched up a pen and ran across the room to Ron to take his hand and begin writing on the back of it.
"This is my mobile number, you can call me whenever you feel like this and I won't kiss you and I won't expect you to kiss me. We can be friends, ok?"
Ron didn't want to show himself up by asking why he'd need a 'mobile number' so he just watched the blue ink marking his hand before his eyes trailed over to the faded mark on the back of the milk man's. The word 'milk' was still on the back of his hand.
"Still haven't got that milk eh?" Ron said with a small laugh.
"It's long lasting ink and short lasting milk," the Milk man shrugged before pulling Ron into a hug, "Take care yeah? And gimme a ring if you need anything, I promise I'll resist your animal magnetism and be able to be a friend."
Ron laughed and blushed before looking at the number on the back of his hand and then pulling the door open and leaving.