Ron had a lot of trouble going to sleep even though he knew he needed to if he wanted to get some answers. At some point around 1:30AM Ron was able to fall asleep.
"What the hell is going on?" he demanded to Death who seemed anxious and worried himself. "How was he able to find me? How did he even know about me? What is going on?" Death let the questions hang in air for some time before answering.
"There are...other forces at work here. They have brought him here to stop you from changing the future, they have brought him back from the time in the States" Death answered slowly.
"So what do we do now?" Ron asked to Death who replied "I will deal with the entity, but you need to handle him"
Ron woke up with a cold sweat. "Hey mate" Harry called from the bunk below "you okay?" Theo meanwhile was sleeping peacefully in his bed
"Just nervous" Ron lied "about the quidditch trials"
"You'll be fine" Harry told him, Ron didn't reply choosing to lie on his bed for a few more minutes. Ron finally got out of his bed and went through his morning routine, after which he got ready for the quidditch trials.
"You seem a bit out of it today" Daphne told Ron during breakfast to which the redhead replied "and a very good morning to you too"
Ron chatted with his friends and ate breakfast, but all the while his mind was on the problem he was supposed to be dealing with, Ron walked towards the quidditch pitch holding the broom, Fred had lent him for the trials.
Ron walked into the pitch with a dozen other Gryffindor's for the trials. "Listen up people" Wood said, commanding authority and a slight bit of fear "today, you will be competing with each other and my team for the position of your choice, if you're good, you'll be recruited as a reserve, if you're amazing, then you could even start this season" Everybody cheered as they got ready for the trials.
First was the seeker trials where harry kicked everybody's ass but Wood chose a Rachel Codnor as a reserve, because she was the only one other than harry who had been able to spot the snitch before harry had caught it.
Then the beater trials took place where Fred and George's chemistry allowed them to take down everybody who weren't able to stop their buldger's even with the bats, but wood still got Sean Ogborne who was the last man standing, other than Fred and George.
Then came the chaser trials, there were four people competing for this position including Ron. The four of them were to try and score against Wood and Angelina Johnson who would be trying to score, themselves.
It was between Ron, Dean, David Nolton and Jack Clinton. Ron knew Nolton was one year above him and Jack was Creevey's friend. He hadn't really paid much attention to the kid as he was busy with the chamber and everything.
"Ready?" Alicia Spinnet, who was serving as referee, called and everyone responded in agreement "okay then" she blew the whistle and they started the test. Nolton rushed forward to throw the ball which was easily intercepted by Wood.
"You've got to do better than that" the keeper called and threw the ball to Angelina who charged forward, dean rushed in front of her but was easily avoided, jack tried to tackle her but she dodged it, Ron brushed past her and suddenly had the ball in his possession.
"How did he do that?" harry asked his team mates from the sidelines, none of whom had an answer. Ron rushed towards Wood but twisted his entire body at the last possible second and threw the ball into the side hoop.
"good shot" dean told him as they got back in position and continued to play, Angelina went into the offensive and zigzagged around Dean's and Nolton's tackles. Jack tried to get into a head on collision but Angelina rolled and missed him when suddenly Ron cut her path and snatched the ball from her.
Ron raced towards the goal with Angelina behind him and Wood ready to fly wherever he threw the ball. "Oi!" Ron threw the ball to Clinton who was able to score.
"You're good Weasley" Wood complemented him "very good" the trials ended with Ron part of the reserve team.
"you were amazing" Katie told him when it was just them in the changing room "I was okay" Ron shrugged modesty was never his strong suit but he had learnt to downplay his talents as an undercover hit wizard.
"You seem to be good at everything" Katie said as Ron laughed and turned around packing up his gear into his kit "I wish that were true. There are a lot of things I'm bad at"
"Is making the first move one of them?" Katie asked startling Ron who turned around "wha-" Katie cut off Ron with a kiss. Ron stood there for a moment before kissing her back. Ron sucked on her lower lip, he wrapped his hands around her waist as she pulled him closer, until they needed to break apart for air.
Both of them were gasping for air. "Wow" Katie uttered making Ron smile and kiss her cheek "Wow yourself" he told her making her grin "is that all you got to say?" Ron smirked, wrapped his hands around her and pulled her closer to him.
"I've always preferred to show rather than say" Ron whispered in her ear sending shivers down her spine. He then kissed her neck making the brunette girl moan. Ron then suddenly felt magic around him.
He could feel it building in front of him, behind Katie as a portal. He knew the construct, it was a portal used by seers to view anything happening in real time and allowed them to track people. Ron detached himself from his embrace with Katie and focused on the portal breaking it.
Elsewhere...
The woman panted with exhaustion as she stared at the broken mirror in front of her "I'm sorry to have failed you master" she addressed the man standing beside her.
"it's fine girl" the man answered "I expected him to break the portal"
"if I may be so bold as to ask" the woman bowed her head in humility "if you knew it wouldn't work then why did you want me to do it?"
"it was just my way of saying hello" the man laughed
In the quidditch pitch...
"What happened?" Katie asked looking confused and anxious "just feeling lucky you made the first move" Katie gave him a sceptical look "...and I thought I heard harry come towards us"
Katie nodded "I too don't want to make or relationship public. It's my first one" Ron smiled and kissed her on the nose. A minute later the two walked out, Ron looking perfectly fine while Katie looked nervous but masked it quite well; Ron was only able to notice it due to his years of experience.
The two wished each other goodbye and Ron walked to the greenhouse where he was supposed to meet Luna. "Hello Ronald" Luna greeted him in her dreamy voice. She was kneeling by the soil with her gardening gloves on her hand and holding a tool Ron didn't recognize.
"Sorry I'm late" Ron apologized "selection took more time than anticipated" Ron put on his own gloves and kneeled down by the soil to help Luna plant the moon flowers, as he had promised her the previous day.
"It's quite okay" Luna assured him "I myself arrived a few minutes ago" the two worked for the most part of an hour. "Thank you very much Ron" Luna told him as the two of them packed up the equipment and placed it back in the shed.
"It was my pleasure" Ron replied taking notice of how the light seemed to hit Luna just right and make her glow. "Stop it" Ron chided himself "you just snogged Katie, stop thinking about going to other girls already"
"Ron!" Luna said getting his attention "did the nargles get to you?" Ron shook his head "no! they didn't" Luna smiled at him "well they got me" Luna suddenly kissed Ron. Ron was stunned that he who hadn't had much of a romantic life during his first school years had kissed two gilrs in the span of an hour.
"Shit" the penny dropped and Ron cupped Luna's face as he probed her mind and found what he suspected "a love spell. That bastard" Ron removed the spell from Luna's mind causing the blonde girl to snap out of it.
"Um.. That was..." Ron knew that things would never be the same again, unless... Ron raised his wand and silently obliviated the last sixty seconds from Luna's memory. Luna's expression turned blank for a moment before returning to her usual dreamy look. "I'll see you later then" Luna said and Ron nodded before rushing out of the greenhouse.
Ron felt physically sick; he had in a moment of impulse manipulated a close friend of him for the selfish reason of avoiding any awkwardness. "I really have turned apathetic" Ron cursed himself. He had violated the trust of someone close to him, and there was no forgiving that, but the worst part was that he knew he was going to do it again. Ron was guessing Katie, Susan and Daphne had also been implanted with the spell and he was going to have to deal with Katie's reaction to them kissing as well.
"Shit" Ron swore mentally he really hated having to do this, but he knew it was necessary to avoid further complications. Ron walked into the great hall to see everyone had sat down for lunch. Ron noticed Susan on the Hufflepuff table and sat down on the Gryffindor table right in her line of vision.
Ron stared at Susan, who felt his gaze and looked at him. The moment they made eye contact Ron probed into her mind and destroyed the spell. Susan stared at Ron in a moment of confusion before turning red like a tomato and looking away; Ron smirked at his little victory and ate his lunch with gusto.
He then began to wander the halls searching for his friends who were each doing their own thing. Harry was being tutored by Tracey for history of magic; Daphne was hanging out with her sister, Susan was going to a meeting for her gobstones club, but he didn't really have any idea where Theo was.
Ron enhanced his senses trying to locate Theo and finally felt his magic near the dungeons. Ron creeped own into the underground level of Hogwarts as he tried to find his friend and whatever secret he was hiding. Ron crept along the dark corridors till he reached the one adjacent to the one his friend was in. Ron peeked around the corner and was surprised with what he saw.
Theo was snogging Hannah Abbot. "Holy shit" Ron thought mentally, he peeked around the corner to make sure he wasn't seeing it and probed their brains to detect any spell on them.
"Way to go Theo!" Ron cheered silently before he silently creeped away to find Daphne and Katie. The first thing Ron did was check up on Harry and Tracey to make sure they didn't have any spell on them either. He was then finally able to track down Katie. He would've been able to earlier but his curiosity over Theo's secret had made him temporarily forget about the spell on his love interests.
Ron found Daphne and Astoria chatting by the black lake and didn't even reveal himself to them to take the spell out of Daphne's head.
Ron then found Katie in the common room sitting by herself "hey handsome" she smiled when she saw him "hey Kate" Ron kissed her on the cheek and simultaneously removed the spell from her mind.
"Uh..." Katie was coming to terms with what she had done under the spell. She turned red, then lost all colour from her face. Ron grit his teeth and obliviated Katie's mind regarding the events that had transpired in the morning and a few minutes ago.
Ron walked up to his room and collapsed by his bed, he felt like a monster, manipulating his friends, wiping their memories, all because he wanted to keep their relationship how it was.
"I am a horrible, horrible man" Ron muttered, he then felt a spike of energy coming from outside the castle Ron rushed to the window and realised the energy was subtle and fluctuating. It took Ron a few minutes to realise that the energy was fluctuating in a patter and then another few minutes to learn that it was in Morse code.
Ron mentally translated the code "H-E-L-L-O R-O-N" Ron slammed his fist on the wooden frame of the window.
"That bastard!" Ron swore as he pulled on his 'storm gloves' and 'gale shoes' Ron jumped out of the window. Ron flew of into the forbidden forest, tracing the energy waves, before tracking it to a clearing.
Ron landed down and saw no one at first glance but felt his opponent hiding behind the trees to his right.
"Hello Ron" his voice grated on Ron's nerves, reminding him of battle of long past. But Ron steeled himself and replied "hello..."