Questions
"Everybody hold hands," their mother fussed as they approached the High Street in Ottery St Catchpole, "Fred, George, not each other please, that's even more dangerous than letting you cross alone."
"Oi!" Fred said with squeaky indignance while George have a huff and a tut.
Bill took Fred's hand and Charlie grabbed a sulking George. Percy held out his hand for Ron to take and Ron, in turn, grabbed Ginny's.
"Careful crossing over now," their Mum said as she stepped into the road and ushered her brood across the road, "it's busy here today."
Ginny was being dragged at the end of her chain of three, looking everywhere but ahead of her and asking what everything was and what everybody was doing.
"Who's that man?"
"He's a butcher Ginny," Percy answered.
"What's he doing with that knife?"
"He's sharpening it."
"Why?" Ron frowned.
"He needs sharp knives to cut the meat." Percy answered with patience that his older siblings still hadn't mastered.
"Do as you're told you little git!" Charlie was snapping at a whinging George.
"Mum, Fred's not moving his sodding feet!" Bill called as he dragged Fred across the road, Fred's feet sliding along the rough road and face wickedly delighted.
"Why does he need sharp knives for the meat cutting? Knives are always sharp, Mummy says so." Ron said as Ginny walked into an old lady's shopping basket and was then pulled out of the way by her brothers and towards the kerb.
"Knives always cut Ronnie dear," their Mum said, pausing to blow the hair out of her eyes, "but if you want nice thin slices of bacon and not jaggedy thick ones they have to be cut with a very sharp knife."
Ron blinked at his mother and took in her explanation.
"But why?"
"What do they put kerbs here for?" Ginny asked as she tripped up and stumbled onto the pavement.
"To separate the road and the pavement," Percy answered.
"Who was it who decided where the kerb would be Percy?"
"Why does the road need to be separated from the pavement Mummy?" Ron piped up as his mother began rummaging inside her handbag and pulled out her purse.
"Bill, Charlie, take a Knut each and take everybody to the Porgey's sweet shop. Buy all the little ones a sweetie each and get yourselves something too and sit with them on the bench outside while I get the groceries."
"Where are you going for the groceries Mummy?" Ginny asked as Percy tried to pull Ron, and in turn her, after him and down the street.
"Liptons dear, be a good girl and stay with your brothers, keep holding han-"
"Why are you going to Liptons Mummy?" Ron interupted.
"Because it's the only shop that sells enough milk for all of us," his Mum smiled down at him.
"But why? Why can't the other places just get more milk?" Ron said, resisting Percy's pull at his arm.
"I don't know Ronnie, they don't tell me why?"
"Why not?"
Percy was calling after Bill and Charlie, who stopped and rolled their eyes.
"They won't move, they keep bothering Mum!" Percy whined.
Bill handed Fred to Charlie and jogged back towards the stragglers.
"Who is that man?" Ginny said as she pointed to a street sweeper, "Can he fly that broom? How come he can take a broom out in the open and the boys can't Mummy?"
"C'mere you little pain!" Bill said as he picked Ginny up and made her squeak and giggle, "Don't you want any sweeties?"
"I do!" Ginny sang out loud.
"Let's follow them Ron," Percy said as he pulled Ron along behind him, "before all the good sweets are all gone."
"Why would the sweets be all gone?" Ron said as he tripped over his untied shoelaces and stumbled all the way along the pavement.
"I think we'll get you a gob-stopper," Percy sighed.
"Why?"
"Who's that man over there?" Ginny said as she nodded across the village square to a man behind a newspaper wearing a hat which was pulled down low.
"Why?" Ron frowned, craning his neck in a most obvious way.
Ginny huffed and smacked him on the arm with the back of her hand.
"He's clearly suspicious!"
"He's clearly reading a newspaper!" Ron threw back at her.
"Constant vigilance, Ron? Everyone's a suspect, sound familiar?" Ginny put her hands on her hips and sneered at him.
"He's an old Muggle man," Ron said before stepping backwards back inside the terrace house they had rented, "and if you go over there all bolshy and make a scene we're gonna be known as 'the new people who are looking for trouble' when we really want to be known as 'Who are they? I don't know?' All right?"
"Let me go over there and ask him where the post office is," Ginny said, "I'll get him to speak to me and suss him out."
"Gin..." Ron said with a weary sigh, "Legilimency?"
"Well I could have a go but," Ginny began before Ron pulled her inside the house and closed the door.
"I mean mine," Ron said, voice low, "I'm getting nothing and if he was really watching his emotions would have flared when he saw you. Whoever it is knows what you look like and that you're with Foster. That is a bloke reading a paper!"
"But he could be using Occlumency," Ginny said, still unconvinced.
"And I feel like I've told people that Occlumency doesn't stop me getting pulled in, more times than Hermione told me you can't Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts grounds," Ron huffed before stomping off towards the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
He was halfway there when he made a small 'hmm' sound and plunged his hand into his pocket to pull out the Deluminator and activate it as quickly as possible. As the ball of light sank inside him his shoulders relaxed and he carried on his way.
"Ha! I knew it!" Ginny declared as she drew her wand and turned to fling open the front door.
"Ginny no," Ron barked, "it's just fucking grief!"
"What?" Ginny exclaimed.
"Mourners Gin, there's a funeral nearby and a church over the road, a big outpouring like that..." Ron's head bowed and he became subdued. "Anyway I recognised it straight away. No harm to us and I really don't want to be taken into those people's heads right now."
Ginny shook her head.
"You're no expert on this Legilimency thing yet and I had a bad feeling about that man behind the newspaper from the moment I saw him." She turned and swung the door open, wand held tightly at her side, "sometimes, brother dear, a woman's intuition is just as reliable as your new t-"
Ginny froze at the sight of a funeral procession moving by the open door. Slowly moving black cars, their roofs decked with floral tributes, filled with sombre looking people. Her eyes darted over to the 'suspect'. He had risen to his feet and folded his newspaper under his arm before removing his hat and bowing his head.
He was an elderly gentleman wearing a tatty paper poppy in his lapel and Ginny knew he was as safe as houses. She bit her lip and lowered her own head as the cars passed by before gently closing the door once again.
"How could you be so sure?" She turned to face her brother, who thankfully wasn't looking smug about being right.
"Ginny, I know what grief feels like." Ron half smiled but his eyes were cheerless. "It's pretty unmistakeable."
Ginny took three steps towards him and hugged him tightly.
"Your head didn't hurt did it?"
"Nah, I caught it early," Ron said as he ruffled Ginny's hair and grinned at her, "I'm getting pretty good at felling it coming on."
Ginny slapped his hand away and smoothed down her hair once more. Ron carried on through to the kitchen to make the tea and Ginny made her way up the stairs to Foster's bedroom to see if she wanted a cuppa.
With no word coming through to them, all they could do was remain hiding. Ron and Ginny were taking it in turns to go out in public to keep from going stir crazy and re-stock their supplies and Foster swung between staring at Ron in silence and gossiping with Ginny like a pair of old gasbags.
One night the three of them became so bored that talk ended up moving back to the investigation they were no longer part of.
"So who was the person in the department who had all that stuff in his head?" Ginny said as she rubbed her eyes, tiredly.
"Why does that matter?" Ron said with a one shouldered shrug, "Our focus is Foster's ex, not his spies. Kingsley's gonna deal with that stuff while were gone isn't he?"
"Of course it matters you nit." Ginny huffed and narrowed her eyes, a patronising expression on her face, "If it wasn't the hex happy ex then who?"
"Why wouldn't you think it was him anyway?" Ron sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.
"He could have attacked sooner, it's got to be a spy for the ex and not the ex himself. What does he want if not revenge? It's got to be information."
"Why did I feel that anger and betrayal when I saw Foster through his eyes then, eh?" Ron said, eyebrows rising and the corner of his mouth twisting upwards into a smirk, "if it wasn't somebody who'd been physically intimate with her then how did they know what she smelled like, what her hair felt like, why would a spy know that?"
"You've never been physically intimate with her and you seem to know those things!" Ginny threw back.
Foster shifted, awkwardly.
"Don't shit stir Gin," Ron warned his sister, "you've never been intimate with Neville and I bet you could pick his smell out of a line up."
"A line up of smells?" Ginny snorted.
"Why?" Ron said with frustration, "Why now, when I'm trying to make a real point? Just why?"
"What did you see or feel in there to make you think it was so much more intimate than just somebody who's been around Foster like we have been?"
Ron looked down at his hands and then found himself unable to look his sister or Foster in the eye when he lifted his head again.
"Well um, it was kind of like the head I was...the person who was...the memories..."
"Oh spit it out Ron!" Ginny snapped.
"Whoever it was had...beeninbedwithfosternaked!" Ron said before flushing in the face.
"Oh," Ginny said as she sat back in her seat and then looked to Foster, "so, have you been with anybody else recently?"
"No!" Foster declared, defensively, jumping out of her chair and looking from brother to sister in hurt humiliation, "And before the two of you start dissecting my technique or something I have to ask you something?"
"What?" Ginny blinked.
"Why would you think we were going t-"
"Shut up Ron! Go on Foster, what is it?"
"That's it, that's it exactly," Foster said as she waved her hand between them, "All you two do is talk in questions and it's driving me nuts! Why, why, why? Who, what where?"
"It's an investigation, Tracy." Ron said before cringing as Foster exploded with a scream of frustration.
"My name is Foster, Tracy is my last name...last!"
"Sorry!" Ron blurted, cowering.
"He's such a prat so-" Ginny began to say with a shake of the head.
"And you, I get that you want to rib him all the time, sibling stuff and all that, but not about me. Not about 'Foster's silly crush'. The two of you ignored me at this table and I only got brought into the bloody conversation so you could embarrass me!"
"No, it wasn't," Ginny sputtered.
"It wasn't like I was teasing you about the sex stuff. I just wanted to be straight with you Foster." Ron said as he got to his feet.
"If the person at the Auror building had memories of being betrayed by me and knew what it felt like to be in bed with me then it's him ok? He's not outside the house looking for me, staking me out, he's back there." Foster drew in a calming breath before turning on her heel and stomping towards the front door, "So I may as well go outside for some fresh air."
"No!" Ron and Ginny shouted in unison.
"Why?" Foster said, in a parody of the questions that had been bouncing off the walls of their secret hideout.
"Because...cause..." Ron's eyes closed and he fumbled deep in his pocket for the Deluminator.
"Ron?" Ginny said as she grabbed him and helped him stand upright.
Ron was lifting the Deluminator to the side of his face when he heard what sounded like a whisper inside his head, the back of his neck prickled and he felt breath and warmth and Foster shouted for him to stop it from what sounded like miles away.
He heard the voice whispering into his ear and clicked the Deluminator. The ball of blue light sank into his throbbing head and Foster's shouts were just feet away from him again.
"Get out and leave me alone, I don't have secrets from you, I told you everything!"
"Didn't mean to," Ron panted, "didn't see anything."
"Ron sit down," Ginny ordered as she pushed him backwards and lowered him down into a chair.
"I'm going for a walk," Foster said as she reached for the door handle.
Ginny flung out her wand arm and sent a spell at the door that closed it off with bricks.
"Sorry Foster but I can't let you be seen by anyone."
Foster scowled at her and then marched up the stairs like a moody teenager throwing a tantrum.
"I'm fine Gin, go after her and make sure she's all right." Ron nodded towards the stairs.
"One more question first," Ginny said as she lowered her face to his level, "what did you see?"
"Nothing," Ron shook his head, "heard a whisper, man's voice, really low and close-to whisper."
"What was he whispering?"
"That's another question," Ron smiled, wearily.
"Ron." Ginny warned.
"When I know to free hate to sever no one."
"Free hate?" Ginny furrowed her brow, "What the hell does that mean?"
"No idea. Why would he have said that to her and why would she remember it but not mention it in her statement?"
"She's right," Ginny sighed, "We do talk in questions a lot. How long do you think we've been doing that for?"
"Since we got here, maybe?" Ron shrugged.
"Where, here?" Ginny smirked.
"Why do you do that?" Ron laughed.
"Know anything about Muggles, Foster?"
"Um...well they have really complicated machines to do things for them. They do everything the hard way. Their photos don't move. Their sports are really two-dimentional..."
"And because of them we have to hide, as if we're something to be ashamed of, I never understood why that was fair."
"Well magic would scare them; we don't want to frighten people do we?"
"They have things called bombs, Foster. They can destroy the whole world, including ours, and that scares me. Why do I have to live with their power but they don't have to live with mine?"
"That's like saying a child pulling the legs off a spider is the same as an adult torturing another human being."
"I know some spiteful children, my love."
"And how many Muggles do you know?"
"I know all I need to know about Muggles, the one thing that will help me control them all, and I'm just biding my time until I use it."
"What are you talking about?"
His face nuzzled into the side of Foster's and he whispered with a hit of a growl, breath hot against her ear.
"Oh, when I know to free hate to sever no one."
Ron gasped and sat bolt upright, panting heavily and clutching his head. He heard a door opening further down the landing and suddenly light was seeping in under the crack of his bedroom door.
"Foster, what is it, what's the matter? Bad dream?"
"R-Ron!" Foster said, sounding shaken.
Ginny's footsteps sounded on the landing and soon his door was flung open and he squinted at the bright light from Ginny's wand.
"Shit, are you all right? Where's the Deluminator?"
Ron was massaging his temple with one hand and fumbling on the bedside table with the other.
"Put it...here," he said, wincing.
Ginny directed her wand downwards and saw that Ron had knocked everything off and onto the floor. Aiming the light at the carpet, she saw the Deluminator and hurried forward to pick it up. She wiped it off on her nightgown; a glass of water had fallen from the bedside table as well and had soaked everything, and then forced it into Ron's flailing hand.
"Here, click it," she said as she positioned Ron's thumb and then let go.
Ron clicked the Deluminator and the light was sucked from her wand and into it. The room was plunged into darkness.
"Shit!" Ron hissed.
There was another click and the light returned to Ginny's wand tip. Ron paused and scrunched his eyes up as the throbbing in his head seemed to worsen. He shook the Deluminator rapidly and clicked it again. Once more the light was gone.
"Fuck, it won't do it!" Ron whimpered.
"Click it again," Ginny said, and as soon as the light was back she took the Deluminator and tapped it with her wand, "Siccus!"
There was a sucking sound and Ginny handed the Deluminator back again.
"No damp inside now, give it another go," Ginny said with concern for her brother's distress.
Ron took a deep breath and clicked the Deluminator once again. The ball of blue light grew from the device, like a giant bubble, and then sank into his head. Ron closed his eyes and exhaled with a low moan of relief.
Ginny sighed and pushed Ron down onto the bed, pulling the covers back over him, and set the Deluminator back on the bedside table.
"Get some sleep, I'll go back and make sure Foster's ok."
"Tell her I'm sorry," Ron mumbled, eyelids heavy, "and ask her what it means."
"What what means?"
Ron closed his eyes and rolled onto his side, visibly exhausted, and muttered into his pillow.
"To free hate to sever no one."
A/N Life has calmed down somewhat so I should be back a bit more frequently with this until its done now.
I have just updated my profile with some news, if you love Roncentric stuff then head over there and if you're interested in my real life writing there's news on that too. Both are non-profit for me but supporting good causes so I don't feel self conscious about pimping them to you lot who are the nicest people to ever grace this site.
Loves you all