After he hung out with his friends at dinner, he walked upstairs to their room. He shed his heavy cloak in favor of a t-shirt and some running shorts. He didn't bring his shoes.

He figured his routine would shift to a night time run instead of morning. It wasn't quite dark yet but with the silver cuffs on his wrist, it would be fine. "Where are you going?" Seamus asked.

"On a run," Ron replied stretching.

"With no shoes?" Neville asked.

"I'll be back eventually but y'know," Ron said, it was too much work to explain how his mentor decided he need to toughen his feet.

"Don't wait, yeah I'm aware," Harry sighed "just y'know don't get eaten by the giant squid running around the lake, alright?"

Ron laughed "they wouldn't, I'd taste terrible," he said then headed out the portrait hole and down the stairs. His feet were tough as nails from running barefoot all the time so he never felt pebbles or anything really.

"Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said.

"Hello Professor," he said "just um going on a run," he said. Then wondered if his mentor had mentioned it to her that he was to be allowed to do this.

"Yes, Donovan has told us. You are fortunate to be the only student I don't remove points for being out of their house and bed at night," she said.

"Well I am the only vampire student, Professor," Ron replied.

"True," she said, "well off you go."

Ron nodded then went down the stairs and out the door. His run lasted about thirty minutes with about 15 laps around the lake. He did his routine than with the whip and ended it with stretches. "Hattie, Zoey," he said and they blinked into his sights. "You have got to show me how you do that," he said.

"It's similar to wizard disillusionment charms," Zoey shrugged.

"Did you need something?" Hattie asked.

"Could you look for something at the library for me? Leave a note of what you took though for the librarian," Ron said standing up and waving his wand for a quick refresher charm. This would help him cool down and be relatively clean before he took a bath later.

"I'll go, what are you looking for?" Zoey asked.

"Look for books on Eastern magic, Feng Shui maybe, and anything with Japan, Korea, and China in the title would include them. I'll take ten books if there are that many," he said.

"Yes, your highness," Zoey said then blinked out, hidden from him again but he could feel her presence until it wavered with her walking away. He flushed, he could never get used to being called that.

Xxx

Ron was pleased when Zoey came with a large stack of books and Don raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm curious," Ron announced.

"Perfectly acceptable but I seem to recall a boy from a year ago being dismayed at the thought of books," Don replied then sip his tea and a smiled.

Ron flushed "I'm not Hermione but this is important, this could help us," he said. He picked up the first book which was 'Japanese Magic Circles: Ancient Wards.'

He cracked it open and started reading, he didn't remember how long it had been exactly when he'd finished the second book but he set it down. "Why isn't this stuff common practice?" he asked.

"You'll have to be a tad more specific," Don said.

Ron strode to a chalkboard and drew the basic circle he'd seen. "This is like Arithmancy, numbers that multiply by each other are directed in shapes that fill the circle. If they are done right, they can be added to objects that can be used without casting anything,"

"How so?" Don asked.

Ron took out his wand, pointed at the fire "aguamenti," the fire sputtered, doused in water. He quickly dried the wood and took out a piece of parchment for his journal. He folded the paper as instructed in the book then drew the symbol for Fire.

He took a deep breath then threw it into the fire, it instantly sparked and the fire was as strong as before he'd doused it. "Instant magic," he said "the concept is incredible, the idea of infusing magic into a piece of paper," he said.

"Do you recall Ayumu Okajima, Ron? The Japanese Minister of Magic?" Don asked.

Ron nodded, it was hard to forget the man. He was quite old and short but his magical strength was amazing. "Wait, he used paper when he summoned those um, the foxes, what were they called again?"

"Kitsune," Hattie supplied "they purify substances and air."

"Yes, exactly, he is an Onmyoji. Their style of magic is holistic, Yin and Yang, Wuxing," he said.

"Wuxing?" Ron asked.

"Five elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. All go into each other to create balance. They use those concepts and most of all, they use something called shikigami," he said.

"The kitsune," Ron said.

"Yes," Don nodded to him "shiki are creatures invisible to most, even the most powerful wizards, but with powerful practicers of Onmyodo, they can be made physical and take form. Minister Okajima is one of the most powerful Onmyoji in the world.

"Could I learn something from him? Would he teach me?" Ron immediately asked.

Don sighed "if there was time this year, I would say yes. For now, you just need to ask Sol," he said.

"Sol?" Ron asked, "then he is coming, wait why?"

"Sol became fascinated with this very subject, he'll be ecstatic that you want to learn. He surprised Okajima and made Japanese connections when he asked to be taught by him. Sol has frequented Japan since he was eleven," Don explained.

Ron was stunned but all he could say was "brilliant."

XXX

Dear Ron,

I am sorry that we had to keep the tournament a secret from you but your father may have gotten in trouble if it leaked before the right time. Anyway, Alastor Moody is teaching defense? What has Dumbledore got in mind? He's caused such a headache for your father recently, it's ridiculous with floating trash cans and like! Also, you should thank that man regardless of his odd personality, he was the one who brought you into the hospital when you got bitten. Otherwise, who knows if you would have survived your turning without the proper preparations.

About your last question, it came out of the blue. Did that Trelawney Professor fill your head up with strange accusations? I've heard she is a bit, well, a bit strange. But the facts are that yes, my family, the Prewitt's have a few seers in the family. Not the kind that spits out a prophecy here and there. My grandmother had visions but she never spoke a word of what she saw in them. I wonder to this day if it was about the war back then.

If you need more information, there's likely to be an ancestry book at Hogwarts. Stay out of trouble, keep your grades, and have fun this year!

Love, Mum

Xxx

"Ron," he jerked a bit when Harry dropped next to him on the couch. "Ah, you are awake. I wondered if you got lost and I'd have to pick up your brain somewhere," Harry said.

"My brain?" Ron asked then he finally snapped out of it "sorry, mum just wrote me back a letter about the um…"

"Seer stuff," he said quietly.

"Yeah," Ron said "but she mentioned something I didn't know, Professor Moody, he was the one who carried me to the hospital when I got attacked," he said.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Harry said "I met the other lady, Tonks I think when I went to visit but not him."

"Yeah, but I wonder why he never said anything to me. He didn't seem to know me," Ron said.

"Maybe he didn't want to make a big deal out of it," Harry said "or he's done so many cases, they blur together?"

"Yeah, maybe," Ron agreed "well, anyway, the seer thing," he said quietly and handed it to Harry.

Xxx

"Here it is, Tiadora Jane Prewitt," Hermione pushed the door to Harry and Ron who nearly bumped their heads together to get a look. Hermione, being her, discovered something better than a genealogy book. She found a book on recorded seers within known wizarding families.

Ron stared at his great grandmother. She was young in the portrait and she looked off to the right with a smile. Her hair, red like most Prewitt's was worn long over her shoulder. "You look alike, Ron," Hermione said.

"The hair, yeah," Ron said.

"Her face too, long nose, her eye shape, and she's also quite slender, isn't she. You look a lot like her," Hermione said

"Yeah, I guess I do," Ron smiled and his great grandmother Tiadora seemed to look straight ahead this time at him. Her eyes were hazel and looked quite serious as opposed to the rest of the face.

"It says here that were no recorded prophecies but that she deposited memories to the Ministry which predicted the rise of you-know-who," Hermione read.

Ron nodded then paused when he saw the clock, they'd been looking for a couple of hours and doing homework. "Shoot, I need to go meet the other members. We're officially starting on Saturday," he said grabbing his bag.

"Good luck then, I'll just check the books out for later," Hermione said.

"Thanks, Hermione, you're brilliant," Ron said "bye Harry," he added then ran off. Harry stretched in his seat and noted several girls jumped aside as he went down the hall.

They watched him then turned to their friends and giggled. "He's popular this year," Harry mentioned. "No wonder though, he grew like a foot over summer."

"Harry," Hermione said and he looked at her, "you grew too, you know," she said.

"Not like he did," Harry crossed his arms, why couldn't he be tall like Ron? "I'm the shortest boy in my year," he said.

"You'll catch up," Hermione said in a voice that was clearly placating him. "You've always been popular so he can have a little bit of attention."

"I'm not" Harry replied, he wasn't angry just irritated "I'm famous but that doesn't mean anyone actually likes me."

Hermione stared at him her jaw dropped then took out a magazine and rolled it up then smacked him on the head with it. "Ouch, what was that?" Harry asked.

"Ron likes you, I like you, the whole Weasley family likes you. Your friends with all your housemates so don't be so stupid," she smacked him again with the rolled magazine, this one really smarted on his arm.

Harry slumped "okay, sorry. I'm just…"

"Jealous," she finished with an expect glance for him to contradict her. Harry flushed, okay so he was a little jealous but not exactly for Ron getting attention in general. Ron was tall like he wanted to be and he had wide shoulders. He was the kind of good looking he would never be, he wasn't lanky and dashing like Cedric Diggory either.

"Fine, but it's not because-"

"You like Cho," Hermione said and he blushed. "Ron doesn't know, he's not good at stuff like that. He doesn't even notice the attention girls at this school pay him. He thinks people are still scared of him."

Harry sighed "that's our Ron," he said and she laughed then set the magazine down.
Xxx

Harry was impressed with the way Ron was going around the school recruiting people for his club with surprising ease. At the same time though, the teachers were picking up the pace with school work.

The club was a roaring success with people showing up even just to be able to socialize and get help with their studies. The school was looking a lot cleaner by the way since the staff was trying to get it in top shape.

"I just can't believe the Slytherin's are actually playing nice," Harry mentioned to Ron after their club dismissed before dinner. The club room was big with tables, open spaces, floor cushion,s and couches. Plenty of space for any sort of activity, well except for outdoor ones.

"Well, it wasn't easy," Ron agreed "it took a bit of pushing them in the right direction. They won't go on the defensive if you don't start anything with them. We worked out a club guide to start a conversation when there's disagreement."

"I'm beginning to see some real differences, Ron," Hermione said. "Really, I saw a group of first-year girls talking, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor all together.

"Hopefully it stays that way," Ron said "If we get enough attendance regularly, we'll extend so that it becomes an open club every day. Show up whenever you want until curfew. Then we'll have to rotate leadership so someone is always there."

They gathered their bags and headed for the Great Hall. "Mr. Weasley," they all paused when Professor McGonagall turned a corner. "Just who I wanted to speak to," she said.

"Me?" Ron asked.

"Of course, who else? Come along, Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said and Ron turned to them.

"I'll see you at dinner," Ron said and they both nodded. Ron followed her as she made her way to her office.

"It has come to my attention that you are incredibly proficient in French," she said.

"I'm not bad," Ron replied.

"Please leave modesty at the door, Mr. Weasley, this is pertinent as I am requesting that you be a Hogwarts ambassador for the Beauxbatons students," she said strictly.

"Oh," Ron said "then I suppose I speak it well enough for casual conversation. So long as I'm not reading French," he said "but my mentor, he speaks French too."

"He also speaks Hungarian which is why we need him for that task. As far as I am told, many of the students all speak a passable amount of English. But if you would be so kind as to offer assistance in French as needed," her strict gaze made it obvious he wouldn't be allowed to refuse.

"Sure but what I be doing, Professor?"

"Hogwarts is quite a large place and confusing. The students will be taking some our courses while they are here so directions and the occasional translating maybe be needed."

"Sure," Ron agreed.
Xxx

Ron had been so busy the past week with the club starting and other projects that he hadn't noticed that the date for dropping a magazine article had come.

So one day he goes to breakfast one morning and a thousand eyes are on him. Ron swallows when he noticed his face smiling on the cover for Of Importance magazine. He sits between Hermione and Harry, his face going red.

"She's singing praises Ron," Hermione said flipping through her copy of the magazine.

"You bought it?" Ron asked, mortified.

"Of course I did, Ron," she said as if annoyed he would think otherwise "I wanted to see what she would say."

"A polyglot in the making, the Crown Prince of the Vampires is gifted in language," Fred's voice was in his left ear.

"He's only fourteen years old and he is already conversationally fluent in French and Romanian," George said.

Ron blushed, his face feeling like it would explode "stop it," he said standing up trying to grab the magazine Fred held, he handed it off to Ginny who backed up.

"He's the most charming fourteen-year-old I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," Ginny said then laughed.

"You know I had to do that interview," Ron said.

"We know but this is brilliant, it's gold," George said.

"Shut up," Ron said, he was glaring now and he didn't care how much his eyes glowed. If it stopped them from making fun of him. It took them a good twenty minutes of teasing before they had to get to class.

"They're just jealous," Hermione said, "it's a good thing that it was announced this way."

"They're never gonna let me live it down," Ron moaned, covering his face in his hands.

Xxx

Hermione slumped onto the mat feeling awfully, terribly weak "it's alright, we didn't expect you to be strong immediately," Hattie comforted her. She'd set up Hattie and Zoey to train her to be able to fight.

"I can't even do a push-up!" she said miserably. She had never been athletic, admittedly but despite the constant exercise of stair climbing and lots of walking around the castle, it didn't help her strength.

"Lots of people can't so we'll find another way for you to get arm strength," Zoey said, surprisingly she was straight forward and icy. "We'll start with weights, this isn't just the beginning so chin up," she said.

"Yes and give it a few months you'll be doing push-ups one-handed," Hattie said confidently.

Hermione nodded though she felt miserable "I've just never been so… so awful at anything before. Well, maybe DADA sometimes but…" she said standing up. Her legs felt wobbly and her stomach was killing her. She needed a shower.

"The best things in life are difficult," Zoey said.

"Zoey would know," Hattie said "she chose to become a vampire with me when I was turned, she didn't want me to be alone. You know before we decided to move to the castle, she ran three miles every day to go get our blood. I was still weak from being turned, it takes a little bit of time to recovery when you were sick as a human," she explained.

Zoey flushed "she makes it sound more amazing than it really is, I think I did something selfish, I didn't want her to leave me," she said.

"That's pretty amazing, still," Hermione said smiling.

"Having a goal might help you, we can write it down. Start small, how about in two weeks you'll be able to do 10 push-ups in under a minute," Hattie said.

Hermione nodded though she was apprehensive "what if I can't, though?" she asked.

"Then we'll try again and set a new goal," Zoey said "Einstein always said that failure is success in progress," she said.

Hermione beamed at her "I forgot, you were muggles before you were vampires," she said. "Yes! You are absolutely right, okay then what's next?" she asked.

"That's the spirit, here let's not focus on how tired you are. Let's talk about something?" Hattie said, her bubbly personality shining through.

"Hm, I wondered but do you miss tv?" Hermione asked.

"Nope," Zoey said with a smile "we have it, at Nacht castle, one of our muggle-born witches turned vampire figured out how to charm them to work."

"No way," Hermione said.

"Way," Zoey inclined her head "we ah maybe packed a tv in a suitcase for here?"

"Do you have any movies?" Hermione asked ecstatic, her heart soaring "I've been dying to watch some 80s movies," she said.

"We have Back To The Future," Hattie supplied helpfully.

"Tonight, we're watching it, so glad I did my homework early," Hermione said. They both agreed and had Hermione do arm raises.

Xxx

Ron made it a point to talk to his new Slytherin friends when he found the time. He spotted Malfoy sitting on a window sill after his last class of the day.

He had his eyes closed making Ron wonder if he was asleep. But he opened them again and look to his side "Weasley, hello," he said with a sigh.

"Hi Draco, long night?" Ron wondered.

"Extremely, I've been up late doing my Arithmancy homework. It's my worst subject."

"I always thought that'd be Care of Magical Creatures," Ron admitted.

"That- that uh professor… isn't my favorite but the subject is easy," Draco struggled to keep talking about Hagrid without insulting his friend.

"I know you think Hagrid is an idiot but he really does know his stuff when it comes to magical creatures. He just picks really questionable animals sometimes," Ron said.

"Let's not get into it," Draco said. "I have a question, why are so nice all of a sudden?"

"Nice?" Ron asked.

"You hate me, or you did hate me. Potter almost certainly still hates me. I tried to get that monstrous hippogriff killed, got you into detention, been pretty uh antagonistic most of our school years," Draco explained.

"That's a bit of an understatement," Ron admitted and Draco glared "You won't like my answer," he said.

"Delicacy if for the weak," Draco said, "Slytherin's are blunt, feelings are worthless," he said.

"You say that but I think you feel a lot of things you don't want to. I just discovered that we have something in common, you feel unimportant," Ron said. If Draco wanted blunt, he'd give it to him.

Draco swallowed looking a little pained "I didn't mean for it all to come out when I fought with Granger," he said.

"Hermione knows how to push the right buttons when she feels attacked," Ron explained. "Is that why you kept your mouth closed about me?"

"I figured if we both had dirt on the other... I close my mouth and you close yours," Draco crossed his arms.

"Right," Ron said understanding now "I don't think your self worth should come from your blood purity," he said. Draco hands clasped together "you wanted blunt, so I'm giving it to you as your friend," he added.

He wondered how far he could go, how close to the chest could he take this without Draco walking away. "Your father treats you like your a pet instead of his son," he admitted.

Draco tensed, his eyes burning brightly and Ron wasn't sure if he'd receive a retaliation. "I can't do anything about that, I'm a disappointment."

"Why?" Ron asked in a whisper, just a tiny bit relieved.

"I… was born too early, my mother had a miscarriage her first child. I was the second but I was too weak the first five years of my life. My magic isn't strong enough, our family magic is dying out," he said.

Ron couldn't believe he was hearing this from Draco, that he was trusted enough with this kind of information. "Is it that your magic isn't strong enough or that he told you it isn't?"

"What?" Draco asked.

"I've seen you bring some potions that made Snape actually almost smile. You've done some pretty nasty but amazing hexes to my friends before. So I don't know if your magic is a problem at all. You seem to have enough to me."

Draco stared at him "I can't do practical magic well, the only things I'm actually good at don't require me to flick my wand. I learned those spells because I practiced them over and over again," he said.

"I'll bet Hermione could help," Ron said. "Listen, she doesn't gossip and she can keep a secret. She won't hold it against you, she's got a soft spot for people who want to learn. I wasn't good at spells either until I realized that I was sabotaging myself."

"I called Granger a mu- er, well you know. What stops her from giving me the wrong advice so I end up worse off?"

"An apology," Ron said. A few pauses.

"Maybe, don't expect us to be friends, we'll be civil but that's it."

Xxx

"You're in Arithmancy right?" Hermione paused to look at Draco Malfoy, she stared at him.

"Considering I've seen you in my classes, yes, I am in Arithmancy lessons," she said slowly. Malfoy turned pink.

"Right well, do you think that I could work on it here?" Draco asked pointing at the table.

"I suppose that since intercourse relations is the goal here, yes you can," Hermione replied diplomatically, she wasn't sure what exactly his goal was.

Malfoy sat down and took out his textbook and his notebook and homework. They worked for a few minutes before Malfoy "How are doing in Arithmancy? Is it a foreign concept?" he asked.
Hermione tensed then glared at him "I think you'll that Arithmancy is like basic mathematics in the muggle world. So I'm quite comfortable with the concept" she said hotly.

Malfoy looked startled at her harsh reply and she realized that maybe what he said wasn't what he meant. "Oh, well, it's foreign to me," he stood up about to pack his things.

"Wait," she said, "I think I misunderstood something, would you sit down?" He sank into his chair, his face flushed and his face reminded her of Ron when he was humiliated by his siblings. "Did you want my help in Arithmancy?"

"Not if you're going to attack me by stating its simplicity, I don't appreciate being called stupid," Malfoy said tersely.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. I thought you were making another jab at me being muggle-born," Hermione said openly. She felt a little thrill in her heart, they were actually communicating with each other.

"Weas- I mean, Ron made it clear that if I mentioned your blood status in his presence again I would find myself hexed. And regardless of your status, your intelligence is impressive," Malfoy said like it pained him to say so.

"Thank you," Hermione said with a smile, it wasn't quite an outright compliment but it was close enough.

"And I… will not use that term again as an apology," Malfoy added.

"I'm sorry too," she said and he turned to look at her "yes, I did say some pretty awful assumptions at the Quidditch World cup," she said.

"They may not have nice but they didn't make it less true," Malfoy muttered "well, can we just drop this. Here, I'm Draco, your classmate."

"Hermione," she said then offered her hand which Draco took and kissed her hand. She flushed.

"I always forgot that only purebloods do that," Draco said, "well, um."

"Just tell me what you'd like my help on and we'll work on it," Hermione said.

Xxx

Harry felt far behind Ron even with all of his best friend telling him it wasn't true that he was better at spell work. It was Ron was casting a long shadow behind him and Harry was just trying to catch the shadow.

Was this how Ron felt being Harry's best friend? Harry felt a swell of pride that Ron was so loyal to him and felt the need to give that back. If he was so good at DADA like Ron insisted then he needed to prove it to himself.

He'd gotten by with just learning the spells everyone else knew, he was just a little better than others at managing them. Wasn't there a bunch of saying when he was in muggle primary school about talent never measuring up to talent?

Harry made his way to the library and chose three books on advanced defensive spells. He'd felt pretty useless last winter in Nacht Castle, he wouldn't let it happen again.