Chapter Three
March 1, 1997
It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair! And on his birthday, too.
Percy had been living the past year in the two-bedroom flat above Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. He was really beginning to enjoy working there. He didn't usually handle the customers, but he was impressed with the amount of money the shop had brought in – he would know, as he was the one who calibrated it. He was starting to understand why Fred and George loved their pranks and jokes so much. The war seems farther away when you're laughing.
Percy, Fred and George had come to Hogsmede looking to buy out Zonko's. Fred and George thought that it would be ideal to have premises near Hogwarts. Two locations meant more business. They had also planned to visit Ron, as it was his seventeenth birthday.
They had gone up to the castle, but hadn't been able to find Ron. Percy had thought, hoped, prayed that Ron was just in his dorm. None of the three knew the password to the Gryffindor common room, so they couldn't go check.
"This is ridiculous," said Fred after the Fat Lady had denied them entry, "Let's just go find McGonagall. She can tell us the password."
But their former Transfiguration teacher wasn't in her office, her classroom or the staffroom. Just as they were about to give up, they found her exiting the hospital wing.
"Professor McGonagall!" George called out to get her attention. She turned at the sound. Percy noticed that her usually composed demeanor was lacking. She looked upset. Had something happened?
"We weren't expecting you so soon," she said quietly, "How did you know to be here so fast?"
Percy was confused by her words. "You were expecting us?" he asked, "We're just here to visit Ron for his birthday. Is something going on? What's happening?"
She looked at them with an expression of pity. "No one has told you yet?" she asked.
Percy, Fred and George shook their heads and Fred asked, "Told us what?"
"Perhaps you should come in and sit down," McGonagall indicated Madam Pomfrey's office. They walked through the door, a sense of dread descending upon them all.
McGonagall spoke fast as she explained, as if hearing it quickly would ease the harsh reality. She told them how Ron had accidentally swallowed a love potion and Harry had taken him to Slughorn for help. Then the mead that Slughorn gave Ron turned out to be poisoned. Harry had searched the room frantically for a bezoar, but there were none to be found. The poisoner had not been caught or identified.
"Oh God," said Fred, his voice cracking, "This is all our fault. It was our bloody love potion!"
"Fred, you can't blame yourself for this," Percy put his hand on his brother's shoulder, "And, George, don't you start either!" Percy warned before George could open his mouth to protest. "It's the poisoner's fault, not yours. He'll be found, and he'll pay for what he did!"
"Could we go see Ron?" George asked tentatively.
McGonagall nodded at pointed to the door leading to the hospital wing. She had apparently lost the ability to speak.
Ron was lying on the farthest bed. From a distance, one might assume that he was sleeping. But the closer Percy got to his youngest brother, the harder it was to believe that Ron would wake up at any moment. Ron's skin was unnaturally pale and his chest did not rise and fall. Far away, back in Ottery St. Catchpole, another hand had disappeared off of the once-nine-handed clock.
Percy had not seen Ginny's or his father's bodies when they had died. This was the first time he'd seen the result of death. The last remnant of Percy's denial was gone. He knew it was true.
Ron was dead.