Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Please read and review love Hermione xxx
Ron was in the hall eating his breakfast when his mother's dreaded reply came. He had been terrified she either wouldn't respond at all or would respond badly. He could see it was not a howler though so he released the breath he'd not realised he was holding in his anxiety coursing through his body. He opened the seal of the letter and read it eventually crying. They supported him no doubts. He slipped the letter into his robes pockets and took out some supplies to pen a response. He then put them in his bag again as he needed to talk to Jim about it first. His reply could wait. He approached Jim at the Slytherin table in a rush. He was so excited that he knocked into Blaise Zabini and ended on the floor with the said boy on top of him. Eventually they managed to get their footing despite Jim howling with laughter from his seat.
Both of them were then shocked as they glowed a golden colour and rose above the tables flying all around the room quickly. When they landed again Ron was mad at the twins. In his nerves he got Blaise's name wrong again. "Damian I'm sorry it's my twin brothers they are always joking around!" he said as Blaise gasped.
"Ugh it's Blaise and you're Ronan right?" he asked blushing as Ron was now scarlet red in colour himself.
"Well no I'm Ronald…I mean Ron…ugh most people jut call me Ron!" he stuttered out as Professor Snape approached them both looking shocked to the core.
"I'm so sorry Professor. I should have known my twin brothers would try a prank like this. I will accept any punishment you give" Ron said nervously as Snape shocked everyone there by laughing.
"Ronald you are not in trouble it wasn't a prank your brothers pulled off but a soul bond of some kind. We will have to wait and see if it's a friendship bond or a marriage bond. We will know in a few hours. Please take the next few hours off classes and wait for me in the infirmary" he instructed as Jim approached Ron now not laughing at all.
"Ron you were coming over to see me is everything alright?" he asked full of concern.
"Professor Snape thinks that Zabini and I had a soul bond of some kind. Wow. I wrote my parents and they said they're fine with me being gay. I'm so sorry Jim but I told them you were gay too but asked them not to tell anyone about it. I just thought if they knew you were also gay they might not be as mad. Turns out I have no reason to worry. Mum suggested me renting out my house while I'm not there for money and said people could sign a magically binding contract that for however long they are there they will keep it well. I think it could be a good idea. I must go now to the infirmary but I will write to them with my reply later on!" he said as Jim looked shocked.
"Ron I don't remember if I said you could tell anyone or not but I don't mind your parents knowing. I plan on telling mum later on myself. If you're free again later maybe you could join me? I will ask her first of course. I think your mum is right. I cannot believe I didn't think of this. You could charge a couple of hundred a week. If people think it's good value you'll get more clients and generally make more money in the long run. Good luck Ron love ya buddy!" he said hugging Ron who left with a stunned Blaise heading for the hospital wing.
"Blaise are you ok? I'm so shocked this happened!" he asked as Blaise chuckled.
"Well I've always known I was gay Ron I just didn't expect to be outed like this. My parents know and they are fine with it. Did I hear you say to Jim that you already have your own home?" he asked very impressed indeed.
"Ugh yes as a birthday gift he helped me to buy it. I am thinking to rent it out while I'm still at school and living with my parents that way I can make some money on my investment although I don't really know how much I should set the rent at!" he said as Blaise shocked him by chuckling deeply.
"That's very cunning you know. What a great way to make money on your investment. How many bedrooms does your property have? Is it a mansion?" he asked as they ascended the stairs to the hospital wing subconsciously holding hands which were now glowing without even noticing.
"I didn't realise that. It was mums idea. It's an upscale cottage with four bedrooms in it. I'm not really the manor type. Mum and dad have never had much money so we live in a very modest home and I simply couldn't go from that to a manor. It would be so weird!" he said smiling as they entered.
"Well the fact that you have a good grasp of money means you will never spend it uselessly like most other purebloods and that is a good thing but do remember to treat yourself every now and again without feeling guilt for it" he said smiling at him. Poppy was shocked to see them and upon seeing their glowing hands she almost fainted but didn't. Blaise noticed this raising his eyebrows in question. Those Slytherins were sometimes so observant it unnerved her slightly. Before he could ask he was being levitated into a bed and told to go to sleep for a while. Ron was told the same things and neither boy much minded. As they slept peacefully she erected wards around their beds to keep the noise out while she checked on them from time to time. They were definitely having a marriage soul bond.
Molly, Arthur, Clarice and Lucas were called to the hospital about their children that morning. Clarice entered and was wearing a stunning business black dress with a green cape coat on over it. She had heels on her feet and hadn't bothered with a cloak. Lucas was wearing a casual suit. Molly was wearing a navy blue cardigan which was tied at the waist with a ribbon which accentuated her curves and had on a long cream coloured skirt and some light brown t bar shoes. Arthur wore a simple suit too. Both women carried a hand bag and looked at each other in concern as they arrived at the hospital wing. Both were equally concerned about their children. They approached Poppy nervously.
"Poppy you didn't say much when you called is Ron ok?" Molly asked nervously as Arthur held her hand rubbing his thumb over it soothingly. Ginny was thankfully over at a friends house today which did enable them to come here freely.
"Yes Molly Ron and Blaise together are fine. They did give us a bit of a scare today though. Ron was running towards the Slytherin table when he fell and collided with Blaise here. As soon as they touched well they both glowed golden and flew about the room for a while which I don't have to tell you means major things. They are fine now but as you can see if you look in through this curtain here they are having a marriage soul bond. Congratulations you two. Once they are done they will be married to one another and may be moved from their houses into a new dorm or may just use the dorm connecting Hufflepuff and Slytherin. There is no need for the shock Gryffindor and Ravenclaw have one too!" she said pointing inside the gap she had made in the curtain.
All parents looked in and noticed their sons were changing before their very eyes. Ron's hair was now longer and his face was way more defined. He no longer had any puppy fat. Blaise's hair was now shaggy and his own puppy fat of which there had not been as much as Ron's was now fading away too. They both looked about one or two years older.
"I should warn you two though that those involved in a soul bond usually age mentally more then physically so if my reference to the magical guide I read is correct both boys will think and even act like seventeen year olds despite their ages of twelve. It would seem this bond aged them physically by a few months" she said casually referencing the book in her arms.
Ron was due to turn twelve in three months and Blaise was due to turn twelve in two months. They hadn't really missed out on much. No one would much notice them aging three or so months earlier when they would continue to age normally after their initial boost. Severus entered then and spoke to Molly.
"Molly I must ask you does Ronald get in trouble a lot at home? I only ask because after their soul bond occurred and they had glowed a golden colour and went all around the room in the air and he thought he was getting in trouble for it. He told me the twins had done whatever it was and he would accept any punishment I chose to give him. To be honest ma'am he seemed very shocked he was not in trouble!" he said as Molly gasped.
"No Severus he doesn't get in trouble a lot at home but his twin brothers' conduct many pranks and sometimes I really do get angry with them. He must have thought that any anger from a prank they have done would also fall onto him. I am sorry about that. My family will be conducting themselves better when they return home for Christmas. Ron has been writing to me and a lot of the things he has told me about himself have enlightened us both very much to the errors of our other children. Hufflepuff has been a godsend for our son and we are so proud of him!" she said brightly as they all watched the boys sleeping peacefully.
"What is not in the manual however is that both boys will inherit a magical trait they didn't have before. Examples from past experiences include water elementals, fire elementals, telepathic abilities, sensory deprivation abilities and earth elementals. We will know what ability they have once they wake up. I would suggest that although they are already technically twelve that on their birthdays they celebrate their twelfth birthday as normal. They will now reside in the combined Hufflepuff Slytherin dorms which only they will have access to. It hasn't been used however in over one hundred and fifty years so we may need to ask the house elves to update it for them if necessary. A lot has changed in that time frame as you know!" he said as Clarice turned to him a serious expression on her face.
"Severus, will there be devices such as the pear of anguish in there because if so we need to get it out of there. I don't want those wonderful boys subject to anything medieval and archaic!" she said seriously as Molly agreed with her.
"Tilly! Please check out the rooms of Hufflepuff and Slytherin as two students will be using them and we need to know they are safe! If they are not safe please make them safe if you can" he said to the stunned elf.
"Yes Professor Snake sir!" she said leaving at once. Tilly arrived at the rooms which were thickly covered with dust and made her sneeze. It had been two hundred years since they had been used after all. She snapped her finger ten times to clear away all the dust and deposited it into the two fires in the both the Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms to burn away as one often did with this much magical dust. The main living room in here was filled with moth eaten furniture which was old and dangerously enough filled with doxies. The furniture was broken up into pieces and burned in the huge fireplace there as fire was one of the only ways to truly kill off doxies permanently.
This room was round and once the walls had been cleaned did look lovely. She popped to the room of requirement for new furniture. She just asked it to provide her with new living room furniture which it did. She entered to find loads of new furniture and gasped. She would just have to pick out whatever she liked. She chose a lovely glass side table with a briefcase record player and records to go on top. She chose some simple teal blue couches to go by the fire with a wooden coffee table in front of them. Being an elf did of course mean that she would have eclectic taste as she proved when she chose a leopard print rug and cushions for the room squealing in joy.
The next room was very small as it was intended just for study. There were two desks and some ample shelving in here. It was very dark and dusty so she banished the dust to the fireplaces and cleaned the windows so the room could finally be fully lit. Once the walls were clean she checked and all the furniture was good to use except for a doxie infested rug which was fed into the fireplace where they promptly burned and died. She placed a new zebra print rug in here and went to the last room the bedroom and gasped.
In here there was the master bed but on the four posts of the bed were rings where one would slide through some rope when they wished to tie up their lover. Also on the bed frame as indicative of the fifteen hundreds was a carving on one side of a man with a huge penis and on the other side a heavily pregnant girl. This kind of thing was done in those days as people found it encouraged them to produce babies as and when needed. This bed was totally inappropriate as was all the ropes and whips on the wall. It was clear that this had been last used a sex dungeon which made her blush and shudder deeply. She returned to the room of requirement and picked up an ordinary king sized four poster bed with matching bedside lockers and lamps.
This room contained an en suite bathroom which was normal once cleaned and a walk in closet which once cleaned contained all the stuff each boy owned segregated. She returned to the hospital wing blushing deeply. "Professor Snake sir it is done. It is all cleaned up and the bedroom is now appropriate. Whoever used it last made it a sexy dungeon!" she said sounding outraged as both Molly and Clarice gasped.
"Thank you Tilly. You will serve Mr Weasley and Mr Zabini personally ok? When they wake up they may decide how they wish to be addressed!" he said as she bowed and thanked him before leaving again. Ron and Blaise started to stir in their beds. This would be interesting indeed.