Ron had a dilemma on his hands and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was wanted for murder. That didn't matter. Nothing mattered when time could be altered. What preoccupied the redhead now as he hid in the shadows of London's streets was how he was going to get his hands on a time-turner. There would be no way to sneak into the Ministry undetected, and it was a guarantee that he would be arrested if spotted otherwise.

With a sigh, Ron disapparated with a crack! (possible muggles be damned), and found himself on the property of a dear friend. At least he hoped that she was still a friend. Bad news tended to spread faster than the plague and gossip faster than a wildfire. Considering that the current circumstances were a bit of both, Ron wouldn't be surprised if the blonde he had come to visit was already abreast of the disaster that had transpired over these past couple of hours.

Ron walked up to the house that was painted in a dazzling azure blue and paused for a moment before knocking on the door. It wasn't long before he heard footsteps behind it, and a second after that, the door swung open.

Luna cocked her head to one side as she stared at Ron with wide, questioning eyes. Ron gulped, suddenly faced with the possibility of having to Imperius her to do what he wanted. That would be the icing on the cake, now wouldn't it?

Ron took a deep breath, his wand ready to drop down from his sleeve if need be. "Listen, Luna, I really need-"

"I was expecting Hermione."

"What?"

"Hermione," Luna repeated with a soft smile. "I was expecting her to come see me, not you."

"Oh," Ron's ears tinged, but then it disappeared as confusion took over. "Wait, why? Did you have plans?"

"Not at all. I received a letter from my supervisor, you see, about Hermione's attempted, and suspected past use, of a time-turner. Won't you come inside?"

Luna has stepped away from the door and gestured for him to cross the threshold. Ron stood dumbfounded and unable to move.

"Why would you expect, Hermione?"Ron asked as he continued to stand on Luna's doorstep. Luna's smile was still present, and she humored him while still urging him to enter.

"Hermione knows the dangers of time-tampering. It must have been for a good reason for her to have betrayed my trust and go into the Department of Mysteries. While coming to see me was only one of many possibilities, having indirectly involved me in her exploits, Hermione may have been overcome by guilt, wanted to explain, warn me, and apologize. Instead, there's you," Luna added with a twinkle in her eye eerily similar to Dumbledore's. "You're here instead. So? What did you come here for?"

"Malfoy's dead. I killed him," Ron said for the first time aloud. He had finally come into the house, and somehow being behind closed doors made it seem less real. It also helped that Luna's expression hadn't drastically changed. A small curve of her lips downwards, a touch of sadness in her eyes, but no judgement.

"That's unfortunate. Hermione loved him very much. Tea?"

Ron followed Luna down the small hallway that led to her kitchen. Without saying yes, she had set a kettle to boil and put out two cups.

"Luna, it isn't that I'm not glad, but why are you so calm about this?"

"Oh, that's easy," Luna nonchalantly expressed with a wave of her hand. "You would never kill someone on purpose, just like Hermione would never do so. Speaking of her, do you know where she is? She may still be on her way if Draco's dead."

"Azkaban holding cells, I imagine," Ron frowned. "I'm surprised that the letter from your supervisor didn't say that."

"Purposeful omission, I suspect," Luna shrugged as she sat down. "He wants me to come in despite the odd hour to discuss it. Since no one but those who work in my sub-department knows how to get past the door with the time-turners and other inventions, I'm sure he thinks that I helped Hermione get one."

Ron sighed and ran his tired hands over his face as he groaned loudly. "I'm sorry, Luna. You really shouldn't be in this mess. What's worse is that I'm not going to make it better." Ron dropped his hands to his lap and said bluntly, "I need to get a time-Turner."

"Alright."

"Alright?" Ron repeated. Luna nodded and got up to attend to the whistling kettle. She turned around shortly after with two cups of tea, although his was accompanied with a small purple vial.

"You'll want to pour that into your tea," Luna instructed. "The Ministry will most likely have wards to detect any magic used for intrusion. The potion will mask the Chameleon Charm you put on yourself."

Ron did poorly to mask his surprise and picked up the potion. After a brief moment, he chuckled. "You just happened to have this lying about the house, did you?"

"I like to experiment on my own," Luna replied brightly. "That, and I was expecting Hermione, remember? Drink up."

Ron's anxiety was through the roof. He had cast the Chameleon Charm on himself and drank the potion-laced tea that Luna had given him. He side-apparated along with Luna onto London's streets, and now they were heading into the restrooms to enter the Ministry. It was more than awkward having to fit in the toilet with another person, but the flush took them down anyway, and the moment of truth was at hand. Ron knew very well about the intrusion wards at the Ministry. They weren't in place on a regular basis, but whenever there was a highly ranked fugitive on the loose, the wards were up in full force.

Much like the lower levels of Gringotts, the Ministry's intrusion wards would melt away any magical disguise or concealment. Ron held his breath as he and Luna came out of the Ministry's fireplace, and he immediately looked down at himself to see if he still blended into his surroundings.

Merlin, bless Luna.

Luna headed directly for the lifts and Ron kept on her heels. The lift was empty when they entered, and Luna gently whispered his name to make sure that he was in there with her. His pressing of the button to head down to the Department of Mysteries confirmed that he was, and the lift's doors closed.

"Odds are that there'll be guards where the time-turners are kept," Luna voiced to the air as she retrieved her wand from her charmed pocket and held it tightly. "It's down a long corridor, and so Aurors will see me coming from afar off. I'll attack first."

Ron was hearing her, truly, but he still found it difficult to believe that Luna was so willingly going along with this. Typical of her aloof, yet present nature, her eyes were lively, and she had a smile on her face. No one would think that she was about to break several, Azkaban-worthy laws. It was both appreciated and downright scary the longer the ride down to the Department of Mysteries took. As the feminine voice that signaled floors declared their destination, the lift began to slow to a halt. The doors of the lift opened, and Luna made the first step out. Ron was on her heels, and the pair of them headed right and down a corridor that had a snakelike curve to it. Luna already had her wand drawn at her side, and it swung forward and back as the witch hummed. Hell, she even skipped.

"Go left," Luna announced as the end of the corridor came into view. At the end of that same corridor were four of the very Aurors that the witch had warned of, and she calmly raised her wand. "Stupefy!" she called, dropping one Auror who stood closest to the door. The one beside him paused for a moment, not realizing what had happened, and obviously froze for too long as Luna disarmed him and knocked him back with a powerful Depulso.

The other two Aurors to the left were ready to take Luna down, but Ron used his own Stunning Spell on one witch, effectively confusing her partner as he had no idea where the spell came from. It worked out in the intruding pair's favor, however, and Luna was able to follow up with a happily muttered, "Incarcerous," for the remaining wizard.

"Come along then," Luna said as she walked up to the door. "They won't stay like this forever."

Ron watched her perform an intricate shape on the door before it lighted up and opened. Luna estimated where Ron would be and urged him with her head. He closed the door after him once they were both inside and instantly realized that he was visible again.

"This room is impervious to many types of magic," Luna answered his unvoiced question. "The potion would have lasted much longer otherwise. The time-turners are over there, in those boxes."

Ron looked to where Luna pointed and found several rows of ring boxes. His brows were furrowed as he went over to them, taking out a ring from one of the boxes when he had fully expected to find a necklace with rings to turn. Before he could ask a question, Luna had stopped in front of him, slipping the ring from his hands and putting it on his left hand's ring finger. He had already taken off his wedding ring.

"You'll have to press the jewel as you say the date you wish to go to," Luna informed him. "Just know that there's no coming back when you're done. You'll have to live out your life from when you go."

That thought instantly sobered him. Ron bit the inside of his jaw, his lips pursed in deep thought. His body was numb, and he could barely feel Luna's hand on his shoulder, her whispers falling on deaf ears. What if he messed up? What if he made things worse than they already were? Then again, what could be worse than being a fugitive for killing someone in a fit of rage? Or feeling the heartbreak that crushed every part of him?

It was with a sad realization that Ron determined there was nothing left for him in this life. Everything had been shot to hell, and there was nothing left to do but to start over. The question, however, was when to start over. When Harry had brought up the time-turner, Ron hadn't been entirely sure how far back he had wanted to go, but he did know that he needed to go somewhere. Since then he thought about when Hermione had wanted to travel to. March 23rd… No, he didn't have a year, but that date was seared into his memory because that was the day she had told him that Malfoy had a blood-bond marriage. It was the day that Ron had finally gotten his chance to have Hermione, and he did. The only problem with going back to that date was that she didn't love him. Could he honestly go back to a time when she so clearly didn't? Could he go back to any time knowing that she never would?

"Ron, Aurors are coming," Luna said sternly. "If you're going to go, you'll have to go now."

Luna stepped back from him, her wand dangling between her fingers as she looked between Ron and the door, beyond which she could hear a loud commotion. More Aurors, she imagined. Ron let his finger hover over the jewel of the ring, and he took a deep breath. His choice was poison to his heart, soul, and mind, but he had to pick something.

So, he did, and he watched the world around him disappear.

Author's note: Not abandoned! Lol, just life. As Ron heads back, the next chapter shall be the last!

-WP