Chapter 7 – A week in the bottle


Ron walked his last block before entering the secret entrance to the Quidditch museum from the Muggle streets. All the while remembering something he never could remember fully.


A week after Harry and Hermione Potter's wedding

Ron felt a bucket of soapy water splash all over his body. What he couldn't remember was how and from whom. He tried to look up at the practical joker but his vision was still blurry and his head was spinning. Not to mention he was listening to a lot of oinking noises in the background.

"He still stinks," commented a girlish voice that he thought he should've recognized.

"In more ways than one," commented a sarcastic Irish voice. "Get up you bloody wanker."

Ron wasn't sure but the strong grip that pulled him up seemed to make him think it was Oliver Wood.

"Ollie?" Ron asked with a very dry throat as if he hadn't a drink of water in months.

"Yeah Ron." Oliver reluctantly answered as he dragged Ron to only he knew what.

Ron didn't really want to talk, but his curiosity was greater than his thirst for a drink, at the moment. "Where am I?"

"You hear that Rosmerta, he wants to know where he is."

The angry pitch of Madam Rosmerta yelling at him was enough to clue him into know that he was probably at Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.

"Your pissed out of your wanker mind. You're damn lucky we found you in wallowing in that pig pen when we did. You would've frozen to death by morning. Oliver you tell him when he sobers up that this is a proper respectable place not for the likes of you, Prince."

Ron groaned at her using the name Prince and he was briefly about to mention that he was Ronald Weasley, but his need for something to drink now took priority.

'I need… something to drink."

Ron could tell from Oliver's chuckling and Rosmerta snickering that they weren't going to be helping him on that.

He felt a blast of heated air hit him then a heavy door slammed behind him and after a long walk up several flights of stairs he was finally pitched by Oliver on top of a fluffy bed. What he didn't realize was the fact that he wasn't in Hogsmeade. He knew he was at Hogwarts when he heard the unmistakable disapproval tone of Professor McGonagall.

"I see you finally found him."

"He was so pissed out of his mind that he wrapped his arm around a sleeping pig at old McCalisster's pig farm down the road." Commented Oliver to what happened with him.

Ron inwardly groaned and attempted to think of how he ended up in such a state.

"Oh my dear, Merlin! He smells like—" The voice that sounded like Madam Pomfrey said to him.

"Pig dung," answered a knowing Oliver Wood who didn't seem inclined to offer Ron some sympathy to whatever got him in this situation.

"Right. Mr. Wood, take him to the Prefect bathroom down the hall and – here let him drink this." Madam Pomfrey ordered from a distance.

Ron was able to sniff something even viler than himself, and even without his vision he was sure it was the potion for him to drink. He didn't even get a chance to argue as Oliver yanked him off the hospital bed and dragged him down the hall. To finish he was forced march into the Prefect bathroom and then was unceremoniously tossed into a warm pool - clothes and all.

He thought he was going to drown until Oliver reached down and pulled his head up above water. He didn't stay up long, where he was gasping for air till Oliver dunked him again.

"Oi psst stop gak gak!" Ron pleaded with Oliver while trying to catch his breath when he broke the surface again.

Oliver merely grunted back to him as he moved back to lean against the wall.

Ron felt the embarrassing need to ask. "What… happened?"

Oliver grunted again before he answered. "Which part? The part where you left your once playoff advancing Quidditch team or the part where you've been gone for over a week with everyone looking for you."

Ron outwardly groaned before remarking, "A week, how did I—"

"Right after the wedding would be my guess."

With that Ron remembered the last thing he did before blacking out. He had left the wedding reception without so much as a kiss or a word goodbye to Hermione and had made his way to the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. His memories were a little bit foggy after that.

"Now drink this."

Ron didn't get a chance to refuse as Oliver popped the bottle into his throat and yanked his chin upward to drink. He was right about the potion being the viler of him with pig dung all over him. After Oliver popped the bottle out of his mouth Ron quickly gagged the part that he hadn't swallowed.

"Revolting." Ron remarked when he got the chance to speak after throwing up.

"I'll say," added Oliver as he left Ron alone in the bathroom.

To make matters worse he heard a soft giggling noise as his vision returned from a rather nefarious voice from his past. "Boys are so disgusting."

It was Moaning Myrtle and Ron quickly told her to get bloody lost. She nastily responded by diving into the water and splashing him as she left. He crawled out of the bath and made his soaking wet way back to the hospital bed. All the while wondering if Professor McGonagall couldn't give him detention since he graduated what could she do that would most definitely be worse.


He didn't know the answer until the next morning when Madam Pomfrey released him from the hospital wing to report to the Headmistress. A part of his brain was screaming for him to make a run for it, but he was certain that he wouldn't get far.

He gingerly knocked on the Headmistress' Office door hoping that she wasn't in.

"Come in, Mr. Weasley!" Her voiced roared like a lion from inside her office.

The door swung open as Ron gulped in fear before marching in front of his old Head of House. Ron entered her office to find his concerned Dad sitting in a chair in front of the Headmistress.

Ron softly muttered, "Dad," and was overcome with joy to see a small smile spread across his face.

"Hello, son."

"Take a seat, Mr. Weasley," Ordered a stern looking Headmistress McGonagall from behind her desk. "I brought your father here to… ahem help you before your irrational behavior got further out of control."

Ron got a sense that Professor McGonagall wasn't as concerned about him doing what he did but more what he might do in the future. He also remembered that she always had a strong fondness toward Hermione more so than the rest of the trio. His dad on the other hand seemed to convey a separate message.

"Son, we're just worried about you. I know it must be rather difficult what with… " His dad paused as he didn't want to say the words aloud to him.

Ron however did. "Harry and Hermione… Potter."

The room seemed to fall in a dead silence, as no one knew how to approach the subject with him. He took the time to look over the office and how much it changed since Professor Dumbledore was Headmaster. He managed to glimpse the sparkling glint off a sword above the fireplace.

Godric Gryffindor's sword. Ron thought as he moved out of his chair to hold it in his hands one more time.

However, right before he touched it Professor McGonagall shriek in warning for him not to touch it. "Mr. Weasley only a true Gry—"

Ron had picked it up before she finished her sentence and felt the warm magic flowing over him. He turned around to see the surprise look of Professor McGonagall and the pleased look of his Dad before speaking.

"I haven't seen this since I used it to strike He-who-must-not-be-named's stupid snake. Ripped his head right off with this."

"The big one that er… bite me?" His father inquired with a tint of red in his face as he no doubt remembered that he was almost killed by that very same snake.

"Yeah, it was one of the hor—"

"Mr. Weasley, so nice to see you again," interrupted the magical portrait of Headmaster Dumbledore.

Ron suddenly remembered his pledge never to tell anyone about the Horcruxes that he gave to Harry. The only problem was he now remembered he had already broken it by telling Oliver Wood all about it over a year ago. Not that he really cared about keeping his word to him anymore.

"Mr. Weasley about that," inquired the Headmistress who always seemed to have been out of the loop since Headmaster Dumbledore's death. "Would you be able to tell me what the three of you refuse to tell me since Albus's death?"

Ron rudely answered her as he put the sword back on top of the mantle where he gotten it down from. "I would think your beloved star pupil would've informed you of that. Is she the reason why you went looking for me?"

Ron could tell from the Headmistress surprised look that he wasn't far off the mark.

"Why don't you ask her?"

The Headmistress looked rather glum at his answer before trying again with him. "I understand from Wood that you spoke to him about this. He was rather sketchy on details as he wasn't quite ready to believe you, I'm afraid."

Ron nodded in understanding; after all to the world he was nothing more than a stupid sidekick.

"That's right." Ron cheekily responded as he took his seat again next to his dad. "To him and everyone else Harry bloody Potter saved all of us. Never mind the rest of us who sacrificed to help him out, nor the fact that…"

"Ronald - my boy," interrupted a concern Professor Dumbledore at his outspokenness. "Perhaps you might want to stop by the kitchens and—"

"Enough, Albus, I'm Headmistress now," McGonagall declared.

The portrait of Dumbledore respectfully nodded back to her and then quietly left his portrait.

"As I was saying before I would very much like to close the books on that part of the… well the things you three did." The Headmistress tried to eloquently say.

Ron thought it over to himself a part of him was dying to finally get some well-deserved recognition and the other part of him was cautious to knowingly break his word. It may have been childish or immature, what with so many people dying during the war, that he wanted to be remembered as playing an important part in defeating Voldemort. It was just unbearable to see Harry and Hermione being given so much press and publicity as if they were the only two that defeated Voldemort. It was as if he didn't existed and his ex-now married friends did nothing to dispel that myth.

-Click- -click-

Ron, his Dad, and the Headmistress all looked over to a tower window to see a familiar snow white Owl tapping on the window. The Headmistress wavered her wand to open the window and watched as Hedwig flew toward an incensed Ron.

Ron immediately took his wand out, as he realized Hedwig was about to deliver him a letter.

"You bloody menace! You tell your stupid master he can go to hell!" Ron bellowed before he shot off a stunning spell barely missing a startled Hedwig.

"Ron stop," shouted his Dad trying to grasp his arm holding his wand.

"Mr. Weasley, stop this instance." The Headmistress ordered looking outraged at his actions as Hedwig landed on her desk and was shivering in fear at Ron.

She reached over and retrieved Hedwig's letter that was addressed to him. "Albus! Albus Dumbledore!" She snarled at the empty portrait and seat of the former Headmaster who no doubt made an appearance at Harry's new mansion.

Her anger at the former Headmaster stopped when Ron spoke to her.

"It's a long story so get comfortable."


Ron left Hogwarts with his Dad after telling the Headmistress everything. From what Professor Dumbledore and Harry really did the night that he died to the day that he had left the Burrow for good. He even reluctantly told his Dad why he changed his last name to Prince after feeling betrayed by his family. Then he told the Headmistress about his last meeting with Hermione at Blotts and Flourish before she got married. It really felt good to get everything off his chest and he was rather pleased to see a more impressed with him look from Headmistress McGonagall. She had no doubt been kept in the dark and told half-truths from her star pupil, Hermione. Still, he was more interested to know on how his father stood on the issues.

"Dad?"

"Yes son." His father replied but was keeping a straight-ahead look as they were walking toward the front gate.

He suddenly didn't know what to say to his father and he never finished his question until they reached the front gate.

"I'll be going now." His dad said without actually looking at him.

"Wait."

Ron stood in the cold silence, as his Dad didn't really want to look at him. After a few more vacant seconds between them Ron nodded in understanding that his Dad was upset with him.

He so wanted to hug his father but the best he could do was to say, "I should be moving into a new apartment soon. You could come by. Or if you want I could buy some tickets—"

His father politely interrupted him, "Thank you, but … I'm been rather busy with the Ministry and all."

"Well… whenever you know." Ron felt empty and lost as he looked as his father.

His Dad looked over to him and made a small nod to him before Apparating away. Then Ron found himself standing alone for over a few minutes before Apparating back to his old apartment.


Present Day

Ron remembered that was the week he reported back to his old team to found out he had already gotten traded to another. The plus side to it all was he was given a huge signing bonus with the Cannons that helped him afford his new flat. The down side was he never saw his Dad again even after several attempts of free Box tickets and Father's day letters. He would always get the same reply back that he was too busy at the Ministry working, sincerely Arthur Weasley.

Ron wasn't surprised to see that same reply to his invitation to his retirement banquet.