Chapter Seven: Sunday (Ginny)

Ron awoke with a start from a lovely dream where he had just scored the winning goal in the League Cup Final, taking the Cannons to their first ever Cup victory, to find Fred and George about to sit on him. He struggled to free himself, but they were too heavy.

"Get off!" he managed to croak out. "Get off me!"

"Well, get up then, lazy bones!"

"I can't!" he bellowed furiously. "You're sitting on me!"

The twins just laughed.

"Mum says we can't start breakfast without her special ickle baby there, so get a move on, 'cos we're starving."

"Yeah, c'mon Ronnie," chuckled George, ripping the quilt unceremoniously from Ron's body. "Hurry up!"

"Tell you what; we'll give you a hand..."

One of the twins pulled Ron's pyjama top halfway over his head, while the other yanked his trousers down to his knees, cackling evilly as they did so.

"Get off!" gasped Ron, struggling to free himself from his own pyjamas. "Get off me, you… bloody bastards!"

Fred and George laughed, but they jumped to their feet and made for the door.

"Better hurry up, Ronniekins."

"Yeah, 'cos if our bacon's gone cold we won't be happy."

"Piss off!" blurted Ron, crimson-faced with humiliation.

"There's gratitude for you, Fred."

"I know, and we were only trying to help."

"Yeah, we just wanted to help improve your timekeeping..."

"'Cos if you're late for lessons at Hogwarts, you'll have to face a lot worse than us, we can promise you that."

"Or even worse, late for the Sorting ceremony…"

"Yeah," added Fred solemnly, closing the door carefully behind him but making quite sure that Ron could still hear, "I mean... that troll won't wrestle itself…"

Ron rolled off the bed and landed on the floor with an undignified thump, hurriedly pulled his pyjama trousers back up, and then belatedly realised what his brother had said.

"Wait... what?"


Entering the kitchen to ironic cheers a few minutes later, he stuck two fingers up at the nearest twin, and slumped into the empty seat between Percy and Ginny. Percy had his nose buried in a book as usual, and Ginny just ignored him.

"About time!" exclaimed his mother, bustling into the room with a jug of pumpkin juice. "Now we can start breakfast!"

"Well, I didn't ask everyone to wait for me," muttered Ron.

"Don't answer back to your mother," said his father mildly, without looking up from his Sunday paper.

His mum put a glass in front of Ron and began to pour out the pumpkin juice, but he threw out a hand to stop her.

"Can I have tea?"

She hesitated. "You don't want pumpkin juice?"

Ron shook his head. "I'd rather have tea."

"But you always have pumpkin juice!"

Ron bit his lip uncertainly. The usual answer to "Can I have…?" in this house was a resounding "no", so he had become used to not asking for things. But it was only a cup of tea, and the pot was already full, and glancing around the table he could see that everyone else was drinking tea...

"Please?" he added, hopefully.

Molly chuckled as though indulging a childish whim. "Of course you can have tea," she beamed, patting him on the head. Ron cringed away from her touch.

"Looks like it's just you, then, Ginny," she said cheerfully, pushing the glass of pumpkin juice over to her daughter instead.

Ginny looked furious, but Ron ignored her. She spent most of her time glaring at him these days. Today was obviously going to be no different. He reached across for the teapot and began carefully pouring himself a cup of tea. Milk, then one large heaped spoonful of sugar. He stirred it in, then became aware of his sister still watching him and started deliberately scraping the spoon against the side of the cup just to annoy her. Round and round, faster and faster, scrape, scrape, scrape...

"Stop that!" said his mother sharply, "I don't want people at Hogwarts thinking I've raised a child with no manners!"

"Sorry," mumbled Ron, flushing slightly. He put the spoon down and sipped his tea slowly. It could really do with another spoonful, but he didn't dare raise the ire of his mother. Ginny shot him a triumphant look, obviously delighted to see him get a telling-off. He stuck his tongue out at her, and her smile vanished. She turned her back on him again, but Ron merely shrugged and reached for the toast. It was his last day. He would not let Ginny ruin it.


After breakfast, Molly made him wash up the pile of breakfast things, despite his protests ("But it's my last day!" "Exactly, and you won't have to do any washing up for the next four months, so I don't think it's too much to ask, do you?"). He made sure everyone knew he was only doing it under duress, making as much noise and mess as he could, and muttering loudly about how unfair it all was. No-one seemed to care that it was his last day. Everyone was being just as annoying as they usually were. At this rate he would be glad to go off to school.

Of course, taking it out on the china didn't help much, especially when he broke a cup and then cut his hand on the sharp edge, and had to call his mum to come and mend both cup and hand, like a little kid. Humiliated and irritable, he finally finished the washing up and wandered into the front room to find Ginny curled up on the sofa, reading a book. As soon as she saw him enter she snapped her book shut, jumped hurriedly to her feet and, chin held haughtily high, made to leave the room again. Ron felt a surge of anger rise in his chest.

"Where are my shoes?" he demanded, blocking the doorway with his arm.

"How should I know?"

"Where are they?"

Ginny gave an insolent little shrug. "Have you looked under your bed?"

He grabbed her arm and twisted it up her back until she cried out.

"Tell me where they are!"

Ginny kicked him as hard as she could in the shin, and he yelped in pain and let go.

"I threw them in the pond!" she bellowed, quite red in the face.

He stared at her in appalled disbelief. "You didn't!"

"I did!" she told him proudly.

"Why did you do that?" he wailed. "They're my only good pair!"

She gave a tinkling little laugh, which only enraged him more.

"Well, that's your problem, isn't it?"

"Mum'll go mental, you know. Shoes are really expensive, and it's too late to get me some new ones."

Ginny made another attempt to get past him, but he wasn't moving.

"Let me past."

"No."

"Let me past!"

Ron held firm in the doorway.

"I'll tell Mum."

"Fine, tell her. And I'll tell her you threw my only good pair of shoes in the pond, and then we'll see who's in trouble."

Ginny's eyes instantly filled with tears. "I hate you!" she shrieked.

"Fine," retorted Ron. "What do I care? I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow anyway!"

"Fine! Go, then!"

"I am going!"

"So go!"

She pushed him in the shoulder and he shoved her back harder. They glared at each other for a moment, breathing heavily, impasse having been reached, then:

"Mu-um! Ron won't let me leave the room!"

"Mu-um!" he mimicked, "Ginny says she threw my shoes in the pond!"

"Ron just tried to break my arm!"

"Oh, you liar!"

"He did! He twisted my arm up my back!"

"Well, she kicked me! Ow! She just kicked me again!"

By the time Molly came running into the room a few moments later they were locked in a violent tussle, lashing out with nails and knees and elbows.

"I'm glad you're leaving!" Ginny shouted, as her mother prised her fingernails from her brother's scalp. "I hope you never come back!"

"Fine by me!" Ron yelled back, still trying to hit any part of her body he could reach. "If I never see you again, it'll be too soon!"

"Stop it!" bellowed their mother. "Stop it at once! What's wrong with you?"

"She threw my shoes in the pond!"

"Don't be silly, Ronald, why would Ginny throw your sh-"

"She did!" he shouted, almost incandescent with fury. "Ask her! Go on, ask her!"

Molly let out a weary sigh. "Fine. Ginerva, did you throw your brother's shoes in the pond?"

Ginny met her brother's eye for a moment, then rearranged her expression into one of butter-wouldn't-melt innocence and turned back to their mother.

"No."

"What?" shouted Ron, indignantly. "No! She's lying!"

Molly gripped him firmly by the shoulders and pushed him towards the door. "Go to your room, please, Ronald. I won't have you fighting."

"It's my last day!" protested Ron.

"You should have thought of that before you started fighting, shouldn't you?"

"No!" he protested, twisting out of her grasp. "She told me she threw them in the pond! This is so unfair!"

"Life isn't fair," said Molly crisply, "And you can rest assured your sister won't go unpunished. Ginny, you will wait two minutes, then you will go to your room too."

"What?" piped up Ginny, outraged. "But he hit me!"

"Ha ha," said Ron, in a mocking, sing-song voice. Ginny lunged at him, eyes blazing, but Molly stepped firmly between them.

"Go!" she ordered him. "Now!"

Ron gave what he hoped was a nonchalant shrug and turned to leave, but at the last moment he threw out an arm and deliberately swept all of Ginny's 10th birthday cards off the mantelpiece. His mother's angry protests ringing in his ears, he made his exit. No, he wasn't going to come back, and he wasn't going to pick them up either. He didn't care if he had to stay in his room all day. The whole day was ruined anyway, thanks to Ginny. Everything was ruined.

He went up to his room and aimed a vicious kick at his school trunk. It hurt like mad, and he hopped over to the bed clutching his foot and swearing loudly, then collapsed onto it and screamed into the pillow. It seemed as though everyone in his entire family had got together and decided to make his last day as rubbish as possible. Well, he was glad he was leaving if Ginny was going to be such a cow all the time.

Why was she so determined to ruin his last day? Why couldn't she just let him enjoy it in peace without throwing some big hissy fit? Why did it always have to be about her? Why couldn't she let him be the centre of attention for once? It was his last day! She always got away with it because she was the smallest, and a girl, and he always got the blame for everything. It was so unfair!


He didn't see his sister for the rest of the day. She didn't come down for lunch, their mother announcing that "Ginny isn't feeling very well", and shooting him a pointed glare, as though it was somehow his fault.

"Sulking more like," he muttered, and received a well-aimed smack to the side of the head for his trouble.

In the late afternoon, wanting to be alone but fed up of staring at the four walls of his bedroom, he took Scabbers and headed for his favourite spot at the end of the garden, by the pond. It was surrounded by tall grass and couldn't be seen from the house. Rounding the rhododendron bushes, he pulled up short. Ginny was sitting there on the grass with her knees pulled up to her chest, crying silently. He stood there for a moment, unsure what to do. She hadn't heard him approach, so he could probably slip quietly away again without her ever knowing he was there. She probably came here to have a good cry in peace where no-one could see her. He wouldn't want anyone else to know if he'd been crying.

Ginny gave another anguished sob, and he sighed to himself, crossed the grass, and sat down beside her.

"Go away!" wailed Ginny, without looking up.

Ron sat and waited patiently, tickling Scabbers behind the ear while he waited, and after a while Ginny's sobs quietened and finally ceased. She reached for a tissue then remembered she was wearing a skirt with no pockets. Ron automatically checked his own pockets, and then offered his arm to her.

"You can use my sleeve if you want."

She laughed, and gave a tearful sniff, and they exchanged rather sheepish, awkward little smiles.

"I'm sorry I ruined your last day."

"That's alright. You didn't really."

She nodded, and they fell back into silence, neither knowing what to say next.

"I don't even want to go," Ron said suddenly.

She looked up, surprised. "Don't you?"

He shook his head.

"Are you scared?"

"No!" he retorted at once, then shrugged. "A bit," he admitted.

"I would be," she said forcefully, and he felt a bit better somehow.

"Would you?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've never been away from home before."

"Me neither," said Ron, seriously. "It's going to be weird."

"You'll have to share a room again."

"Yeah." He was starting to get that tight knot in his stomach again. "It won't be the same without you there."

Ginny was silent for a moment. "At least you'll have Fred and George. I'll be all on my own with just Mum for company."

"And Dad!"

"Not during the day, though."

"No," he conceded, "Not during the day."

"I'm gonna be sooo bored."

"It's only four months. I'll be back at Christmas."

"Four months is ages away!"

"It'll go quickly though. And at least you'll have Mum and Dad. I won't see them for ages."

"Will you miss them?"

A shrug. "Yeah."

"Will you miss me?"

"Course I will!"

"I won't miss you."

"Well, I won't miss you either."

She shoved him playfully and he shoved her back. They both laughed.

Ginny looked away, down at her feet. "I don't really hate you, you know."

"I know," he said, but he was glad to hear it. "I'll write to you," he told her, earnestly, "Every week."

"You won't. You'll make loads of new friends and forget all about me."

"I won't!"

"You will," mumbled Ginny. She sounded on the verge of tears again.

"You'll always be my best friend, Gin."

Ginny yanked a fistful of grass from the ground and said nothing.

Ron didn't know what else to say. Nothing he said or did seemed to cheer her up. He stroked Scabbers' sun-warmed fur, and the animal gave a little wriggle of pleasure. Well, maybe there was one thing he could do...

"Here," he said quickly, holding out Scabbers to her before he could change his mind, "You have him."

Ginny's eyes grew wide. "You mean it?"

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't, would I?" he retorted, rather testily.

She took the sleeping animal gingerly from his hands, half-excited, half-fearful.

"Hello Scabbers, she whispered, pressing the rat's fur against her cheek. "He's all soft and warm!" she exclaimed, looking up at her brother in wonder.

Ron forced a weak smile. Even though he'd only had Scabbers less than a week he felt oddly bereft without him. The rat had gone everywhere with him these past few days and he had grown used to the reassuring presence of the warm soft ball of fur in his chest pocket, the rhythm of the rat's tiny heartbeart an inch away from his own.

"Are you sure?" asked Ginny, hardly daring believe it.

"'Course," said Ron, bracingly. "I mean, I'll have Fred and George and Percy, won't I? You'll be all on your own."

He watched her stroking Scabbers, who seemed quite happy with his new owner. Traitor, he thought bitterly, then quickly pushed the thought from his mind.

"No," said Ginny, with sudden decisiveness. "No, Percy gave him to you. You should have him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's rude to give away something you've been given as a present, isn't it? Percy will be offended."

"Yeah," agreed Ron, trying not to sound too pleased. "I hadn't thought about that."

"And you'll have Percy there if you need any advice. I mean; what if Scabbers gets sick or something? I won't know what to do."

"Yeah," nodded Ron eagerly, "Yeah, I see what you mean. Maybe Scabbers should come with me to Hogwarts after all..."

Ginny handed Scabbers back to him and he hurriedly put the rat safely in his top pocket before she could change her mind again.

"Anyway," Ginny went on brightly, "Now you lot aren't here eating all the food, maybe Mum and Dad will buy me a rabbit!"

"Yeah," said Ron, heartily, although it seemed unlikely, "Maybe."

"I mean, they can't be that expensive... they only eat potato and carrot peelings, don't they?"

Ron just nodded. He hated to disappoint her, but the chances of her getting a rabbit were slim to non-existent.

"Well… they need straw for their bedding as well. And a bowl for their water. And you need some sort of reinforced fence or they burrow out and escape. Oh, and a hutch, of course. You don't want foxes getting in."

"Oh," said Ginny, pulling a face. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Maybe you could get Dad to make you one," he suggested. "He's got lots of old bits of wood in the shed."

Ginny shook her head. "Dad's really busy," she said flatly.

Ron didn't know what to say. He could insist she take Scabbers, but he really didn't want to part with him, even more so now that he'd nearly lost him once.

"Maybe I'll just get a goldfish," she said, perking up again. "What do they eat?"

Ron thought for a moment. "Pond weed?" he suggested.

Their gazes both drifted automatically to the weed-choked pond in front of them. "Well, we've got plenty of that."

They both laughed. Feeling much happier, Ron lay back on the grass and let out a long sigh of bliss. After a few moments' hesitation, Ginny followed.

They gazed up at the blue sky and clouds scudding overhead in sleepy silence for several minutes.

"It's hot, isn't it?" murmured Ginny.

"Yeah, it's hot."

"Have you done all your packing?"

"Yeah. Mum's been nagging me to do it all holiday. Everything's packed now." He turned his head and shot her a pointed look. "Except my shoes, of course…"

Ginny looked suitably embarrassed.

"Did you really throw them in the pond?"

She giggled, but shook her head.

"Where are they, then?"

"In the bottom of my wardrobe."

"But I looked there!"

A shrug. "I kept moving them."

"Oh," said Ron, feeling rather stupid.

"Sorry."

He shrugged. "S'okay. I'm just glad I haven't got to go to school in my slippers."

They fell into silence again, but the awkwardness of earlier had gone now.

"Look!" he exclaimed, after a few minutes, "That cloud looks like a duck!"

"Which one?"

"That one. There."

Ginny squinted up into the sky. "It doesn't!"

"Well, it did a second ago. It moved."

They both laughed.

"You're silly!"

"You are."

No, you are."

Ron bent his arm across his face to shield his eyes from the sun's glare.

"Hey, do you remember that summer you found a snail that had dried up in the sun and decided to go around saving all the snails by pouring water on them? You went around carrying a cup of water with you for weeks, even when we went into Diagon Alley to get Fred and George's new schoolbooks!"

Ginny gave a rueful smile. "They wouldn't let me in the bookshop."

Ron giggled. "That's right! And Mum was really annoyed with you because you kept stopping in the street to water the snails and got left behind, and she kept turning around and finding you weren't there."

"I know; she was tearing her hair out."

"You didn't try to save the slugs though."

Ginny made a face. "I don't like slugs. Too slimy."

Ron gave a great snort of laughter. "Yeah, let the slugs die!"

She shoved him in the arm and they both laughed.

Ginny rolled over onto her front and plucked a daisy from the grass.

"Do you remember that time we went to Exeter, and we stopped to stroke a dog, and when we looked up we couldn't see Mum anywhere?"

Ron nodded. "Mum went mental."

"You weren't scared, though."

"I was a bit," he admitted. "I just thought it would make it worse if we were both panicking."

"And we stood there for twenty minutes, and you held my hand, and if anyone asked where our Mum was, you told them she was just in that shop over there, and eventually she came back and found us. I was seven and you were nine."

Ron frowned. "What were we doing in Exeter?"

She shrugged. "I can't remember. Was there a fair or something?"

"Oh, yeah," he nodded. "It was the first time we had candy floss."

"Do you remember when Charlie brought that ferret home and he tried to hide it in his room, only it got out and weed on Mum's best tablecloth?"

Ron laughed out loud. "How could I forget?"

Ginny laughed too. "Mum was furious; she had to burn it in the end because she couldn't get the smell out."

"Remember when Dad took us to Ottery St Mary to watch the fireworks and we bumped into Bill on a date –"

"Yes! And he pretended not to know who we were!"

"– and we followed them 'round all evening shouting "Bill!" and then hiding when he looked around!"

"And making puking noises every time he tried to kiss her!"

They both pulled identical expressions of disgust at the thought of kissing.

"Remember that time we all went to Auntie Muriel's for tea and Mum made us wear our best clothes, and Auntie Muriel made us all eat mushroom soup, even though Percy told her he hates mushrooms, and he was sick on her cat?"

They were nearly unable to breathe for laughing now, rolling about on the grass and clutching at their sides in joyous pain.

Ginny recovered her composure first. "Do you remember that Christmas after Bill left, when Mum was ill, and we all helped making Christmas dinner and took it up to Mum and Dad's room and ate it sitting on their bed?"

"Yeah, and Mum kept fretting that we were going to spill gravy on the quilt."

And then we had custard without Christmas pudding because Charlie let the water boil dry and it went all hard, and Dad said it was the best custard he'd ever tasted."

Ron smiled. "It was good custard."

"It was! Who doesn't like custard?"

"No-one," chuckled Ron.

"Didn't Dad get up early the next morning and go and buy another Christmas pudding so we could have it for breakfast?"

Ron's smile faded. The thought of Mum and Dad and not seeing them for four whole months caused a tight knot of pain to twist in his chest. For two years – since the twins left – it had just been him and Ginny and their parents, a perfect little family of four. He had got used to having more of his parents' attention, used to spending all of his time with Ginny, used to having his own room and occasionally even being able to snatch five minutes of peace and quiet without someone trying to jump on his head. This time tomorrow he would be four hundred miles away at Hogwarts, and Mum and Dad and Ginny would be here, eating their dinner at the kitchen table without him.

Ginny reached over and patted the back of his hand. "You'll be alright, Ronnie."

Ron didn't have the heart to correct her use of the hated pet name.

"Mm," he said, without enthusiasm.

Ginny was silent for a few moments, watching him.

"Do you wanna go and put pondweed in Percy's bed and pretend Fred and George did it?"

Ron looked up, their eyes met, and wide grins spread across both their faces.

"Yeah," he nodded, starting to laugh already at the thought of it. "Yeah, I really, really do."


Hope you liked it and please leave a review if you can. thank you!

In the next and final chapter: the day of Ron's departure is finally here and he's about to meet two people who will change his life forever.

Pb x