Midnight Confessions-Chap 09: Ironies

By alloy

There was strength in the stones, a wall that was ancient even before Hogwarts castle was built, steeped in the magic of its builders and their descendants. A magic that defied Roman road builders, causing them to build a curved path. A magic that has also defied modern engineers with their quantity surveyors and satellite imaging, even though on the map the road looked straight.

Arthur Weasley followed the curve of the road with his eye. In the distance he could see the muggle motor way, the main muggle artery to London. There was an off ramp onto this curved straight road.

Arthur ran his hand over the top of the wall. Some of his magic was in the wall and that of his children, and through them their mother. Generation upon generation of Weasley's making an indelible magical mark on the world.

There was blood too, his own spilled consciously when he became the caretaker of these lands, and that of his youngest son, spilled in an apparent accident a mere week after his fifth birthday. There was a small scar on Ronald's knee and an equally small stain on the stone, defiant of twelve years of weathering, as if marking this place, a place where Arthur came to think.

Arthur Weasley didn't believe in coincidence, not since his son had met Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

"Dad?"

He has a presence now, only seventeen years old and already taller than his father.

"Did Mum send you?"

"Not yet. You've got a while still."

"What brings you out here, son? I thought you had a young lady to entertain."

A glimmer of a smile flashed across his son's features.

"Dad, do you approve of her? You and mum?"

"Do you really want my opinion, son?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean it would be nice if you did."

"It wouldn't make a stitch of difference though, would it?"

Ron shook his head and laid his own hand on the wall. Arthur felt the magic in the wall responding to the touch, acknowledging- 'My Son.'

"I think you should put the gate here, son."

"Dad?"

"The driveway should be easy enough." Arthur waited for Ron to follow the direction of his gaze. "Make the place accessible for your London visitors."

He grabbed his son's arm. "Come on, son, let's see what else needs to be done."

Ron fell into step next to him as they trudged toward a copse of trees. "How will we break the wall?"

"We don't, son. We take it apart. Only a Weasley can do that. The stones will only tolerate a Weasley." Arthur paused. "You should do that. Then we use the stone to make the gate pillars."

"That way, the strength of the stone flows into the gate."

"So they have taught you something at school."

Ron grinned. "I guess," he said. "You should thank Hermione for my O.W.L.S., though."

"I have."

Both men chuckled, as they made their way up the incline. Arthur panting a little to keep up with his son and then he felt his foot slip on some loose gravel. He braced himself for a fall, when Ron grabbed his arm firmly, keeping him upright. Arthur nodded his thanks, noting that the strength in his son's arms was now mirrored in his eyes.

Strength of stone.

The stone would acknowledge the girl. "She's not for taming, Ron."

"I know that. You've never tamed Mum."

"She's mostly tamed me." They chuckled together again.

"A Weasley woman's for gentling, Ron. We don't want mild, meek creatures."

"A woman that leaves scars, Dad?"

"Only if you rile her."

"Seems like that's most of the time."

"Your mother, too," Arthur laughed. "You missed seeing Fleur give your brother a going over the other night."

"Bad?"

"The air was blue. I mean literally. I don't know if it was Veela magic or just French magic. I've never seen Harry's eyes so wide."

"Canaries."

"What?"

"Hermione sent magical canaries after me. Pecking."

"No doubt, you deserved it."

"I wish people would stop saying that."

Arthur laughed heartily. Then he caught Ron's eye.

"Is Harry serious about your sister?"

"I think so, Dad, but..."

"There's something isn't there?"

"He's afraid of making her a target."

"She already is."

"With the diary?"

Arthur shook his head, "I've had approaches."

"Approaches?"

"Idiots with more money than magic, looking to arrange a marriage."

"Weasley's don't do that!"

"That's what I told them." Arthur grabbed Ron's shoulder. "But listen, if something happened to me, they'll go to Bill and then to Charlie, down to you. You know my thoughts, Ron?"

"She marries who she wants, when she wants."

"Good! I've spoken to your brother's as well."

"Even Percy?"

"Yes, even Percy." Arthur felt a sharp pain in his heart. "Don't expect him to do the right thing, Ron."

"Don't worry, Dad."

They stopped at the ancient pump, and Ron rolled up his sleeves pumping away for a good five minutes before the ice cold water gushed forth, allowing Arthur to drink. Arthur took over from Ron, allowing him to quench his thirst.

They both sat on the ground looking back down the hill they had just climbed.

"Driveway's doable," Ron said.

"Easy," Arthur replied. "Now let's talk about plumbing."

A part of her suspected, a part of her knew, a part of her almost jumped for joy when he asked her to go on a picnic, a part of her wanted to run away and hide.

The part that loved him the most, said yes.

"Ron, I don't think we should leave the property."

"We're not going to. This is all still part of the Burrow."

They had been walking for a good half hour. Ron had led her up the hill behind the house and down through a small valley. Hermione had begun to worry when they crossed the small stream at the bottom.

"Your Dad owns all this land?"

"Nah. It's all family land, in trust or something, we just live on it."

"This much land's worth a lot of money, Ron. Millions of pounds."

"Not for sale, Luv. We've been here since before Hogwarts was even built."

Their conversation had brought them out over the ridge. Down below them, Hermione could see a little cottage nestled amongst a copse of trees.

"See there," Ron said. "That's the Little Burrow. No one lives there now, but Mum and Dad did when they first got married. Mum says Bill was conceived there. Come on."

He led her to the front door, which opened easily at his touch. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted off her feet. Ron had his arms around her, kissing her, as he carried her though the doorway.

"What do you think?" he said, releasing her.

The cottage was furnished much like the Burrow- proper, tatty and worn. The whole place was clean, there was something else, too; a faintest echo of the sense of wellbeing she only ever felt at the Burrow.

"There are two bedrooms," Ron said, "a study, the lounge and a kitchen."

"Ron, it's so clean, are you sure no one lives here?"

"Mum comes up here, ever so often, to strengthen the cleaning charms. With the wedding, some people will be staying here I expect."

"Ron, it's lovely."

Ron beamed at her and squeezed her closer. "It's easy to get to by car," he said. "The muggle motor way comes off near our wall. Dad reckons it wouldn't be difficult to make a driveway. We'd have to fix the plumbing up a bit. There's only an old pump out back, but Dad says Ted Tonks would give us a good deal. Then I'd like to build some book cases along that wall, I can manage that myself. The kitchen could…"

"Ron, wait! Why are you telling me this?" Hermione's heart was in her throat. She thought she knew, she hoped she knew, but she had to ask.

"I thought….I mean we could…" Ron shook his head, turning away from her. "I've stuffed it up again."

"No, Ron, you haven't, please just…just tell me."

"Do you want to live here? This could be ours for a while, until we outgrow it. We could make it easy for your folks to get to."

"Ron?"

Hermione held her breath as Ron dug into his jeans pocket, pulling out a small purple velvet box.

"'Mione, will you marry me?" he said holding out the box.

Gingerly, she opened the box to reveal a petite, sapphire stoned engagement ring, accompanied by a plain gold wedding band.

"Ron, they're beautiful. Where did you get them from?"

"From a muggle store. You see, they have to be uncharmed and that's the easiest way of making sure." He was babbling, but she didn't mind. "Do you like the stone? Angelina said it reminded her of my eyes." Ron blushed. "That you would like that."

"Angelina helped you?"

"Yeah, she was really helpful?"

"Ron, how did you afford these?"

"I had a little help."

"From the twins?"

"Yeah."

"You asked the twins?"

"Yeah."

"God, how much interest are they charging? We'll be in debt for the rest of our lives." Hermione began pacing the small living room. "I'll speak to my parents. We've got to pay them off quickly."

"'Mione, calm down."

"Yes?" She looked at him concerned.

"They're giving us the money."

"What? Fred and George? Your brothers?

"They said… well, George said, actually: for you, anything. For Lavender, not a single knut."

For once in her life, Hermione was speechless. A shy smile began to tug at her mouth as she took in the compliment.

"They said that?" she said, "The Twins said that about me?"

Ron walked up to Hermione and put his hands on her waist, looking down at her. "They did and you shouldn't be too surprised, either. They think you deserve an Order of Merlin for putting up with me for so long."

"Well, this is true," said Hermione shyly. She paused for a moment taking in the ring, as the blue stone did remind her of Ron's eyes.

"'Mione?"

"Yes, Ron?"

"I'm dying here." There was a touch of exasperation in his voice, "Do I build bookcases or not?"

A part of her wanted to throw herself at him, to melt into his arms, to feel his body against hers. "When, Ron?"

"Tomorrow morning. Bill's party is in the evening and then there's the wedding. Harry wants to leave the day after that. Fred says he knows someone who can do it on short notice, someone who's discrete."

"You want to keep this a secret?"

"It's Bill's big day and I don't want to spoil it for him. I thought if we came back… I mean when we came back we could have a fancy ceremony. I want to do this quickly, for the protection. I need you to be protected."

"What about our wedding night?"

"The protection doesn't need that… I thought it could wait until…until we came back."

"Do you want that?"

Ron squirmed uncomfortably. "That's not a fair question."

"I don't want to wait either. I'll marry you, Ronald, but you need to organise something. I'm not sleeping alone on my wedding night!" Hermione allowed Ron to draw her into his arms. "I'm not sleeping alone ever again."

"There's a problem," said Fred. "A rather big one."

"I thought you said this guy could do it, Fred," said Ron.

"He can," replied Fred. "And he'll bend the rules by doing it so quickly, but he won't break the law."

"What law?" said Hermione. "Ron and I are both of age."

"Ah, yes my dear, but you're a Muggleborn."

"WHAT?" Hermione could almost feel Ron's instant rage. "There's no law against marrying a Muggleborn! There can't be. I refuse to accept that!"

"Calm down, Ron," said George. "There's no law that says you can't marry a Muggleborn."

"But you just said…"

"I need to be twenty-one," said Hermione quietly. "That's the muggle age of consent."

"That's right," said Fred. "Apparently a law was passed a few years ago to protect innocent, young Muggleborns like yourself from randy, young wizards like Ron. You can't marry without your father's express permission at the ceremony, not until you're twenty one."

"That's ridiculous," Ron protested. "Who came up with a stupid law like that?"

"Well you see, there's the bitter irony, Ron," said Fred. "It's part of Dad's Muggle Protection Act."

Fin

Next Chapter: Chapter: 11 - Submission

Starring little Jimmy Knott

Author's note:

1. Inspired by all those fics that have Ron, Hermione or Harry & Ginny having nice little houses. (Cliché I know)

2. In some fics I've read Ted Tonks was a magical plumber, so I'm stealing that shamelessly.

3. Sandy made a big contribution to this chapter as well, especially Hermione's reaction to the twins.