Ron sat on the stairs at Grimmauld Place as the order meeting carried on. Ginny and the twins were downstairs next to the door, as usual, hoping to get any snippets of conversation that might make it past the silencing spell. But he wasn't interested in the order details. He was instead sitting with his knees up close to his chest, crying for his friend who he was sure was lying bleeding on the floor somewhere.
He tried to comfort himself with the knowledge that of everything else Harry had been through, he'd never been broken. But then he remembered that before his magic helped to protect him from the reality of his life. Would it still do that? Now that they had uncovered the truth, would his subconscious magic stop working?
It was a big unknown and Ron wasn't comfortable with wondering. He rubbed furiously at his face as tears rolled down. Downstairs he heard a commotion as once again Mrs. Weasley caught Ginny and the twins working to infiltrate the meeting. He listened with half an ear as she berated them and sent them on their way, but just as they started to amble up the steps in his direction he heard her call out again.
"Wait. Where's Ron?"
Apparently she would expect him to be right there with them, which normally he supposed he would have been. Ginny spoke out, "He's upstairs. He seemed upset about something."
"Okay, Ginny, thank you. Now go unpack. And if you get bored, I expect you to start cleaning in the library. There were some pixies in there making a mess earlier."
"Yes, ma'am," came a chorus of voices. But he didn't hear the door to the kitchen open again. Instead, multiple footsteps came up in his direction. He quickly scrambled up and got out of the way as the twins and Ginny all brushed past him. The twins avoided looking his way, but Ginny gave him a sympathetic smile as she went by. He wiped his face again in an effort to pull himself together.
That effort fell to pieces as soon as he saw his mother's compassionate face. He didn't understand it, but anytime any of the kids were upset, they had a hard time trying to disguise it from their mum. The sight of her care filled eyes immediately broke down any barriers and brought everything right to the surface. He started to cry openly.
She immediately put her arms around him and pulled him into a warm, care filled hug. "Shhh, shhhhh. Sweet boy. What's wrong?"
"H..h…harry can't stay th…th…there, Mum. He just c…c…can't!" He forced out around his sobs.
"Harry can't stay where?" she asked in her warm, patient tone.
"W…with those mu….mu…muggles! They, they hurt him!" He finally got out.
He felt her stiffen a little at his claim. "Hurt him? I know they aren't nice to him. You've always said they don't feed him enough, right?"
"It's worse," he pulled back and looked into her eyes as he gathered himself enough to speak plainly. "They really hurt him, Mum. Like they hit him and stuff. He has all these…all these….scars!"
Her eyes widened. She turned him to face her straight on and kept both hands on his biceps. She looked up into his face and made sure she had eye contact. Even though he was taller than she was, he always felt small under her gaze.
"Ronald, I want you to be totally honest with me right now. What do you know?"
"Those people are awful, Mum. His whole life they've beaten him, and starved him, and even burned him. He didn't know, really. His magic was b..b..blocking it or something. Like, it still hap…pened, but all the scars were hidden and he didn't really remember. We figured it out a couple of weeks ago. We were going to tell Sirius….but….now he's gone."
She cocked her head at him and narrowed her eyes. He realized at that moment why sometimes Hermione reminded him of his mum. They got that same concentrated look when sorting through a problem. She thinned her lips then asked, "Is this what you spoke to Dumbledore about earlier?"
"Yes! I…I tried. But he didn't let me really tell him. He just told me that Harry had to stay there because of the stupid b…b…blood wards then he left the room. He doesn't seem to care at all, Mum!"
She dropped her arms down and placed them immediately onto her hips. Oh dear, he recognized that look. Someone was about to get the full momma bear.
"Well, we'll see about that!" She turned and stalked back down the stairs. Ron followed eagerly, very interested to see someone other than he or his siblings get a good lashing.
She burst through the door of the kitchen and a hush fell over all the order members present. Ron saw his dad immediately look very concerned, but no one dared to stop her. Mrs. Weasley stormed straight up to Albus Dumbledore and grabbed him by his ear, yanking the most powerful wizard in existence down to her level.
"Do I understand this correctly, Professor?! You are letting that sweet, wonderful boy live in a home full of abuse? You don't listen when one of my children tries to tell you the truth? You just let him stay there and be beaten and starved because it's for his 'protection'?!" Her voice came out so loudly the portrait in the hallway awoke and started to yell blood slurs and vulgarity, but no one paid it any attention.
"I…I…what?" came Dumbledore's shaky voice.
"We are going to get that boy, Albus Dumbledore. We are getting him out of that house tonight. Right now!" Molly Weasley let go of his ear and turned to the room, "Is anyone coming with me? I will beat down that door myself if I have to."
Dumbledore tried to interject, "What do you mea…"
But Professor McGonagall interrupted him. "I'm coming too. I knew those muggles were up to no good." She said as she stood straight and tall, giving a side-eyed disapproving glance to Dumbledore.
"What boy? What are you guys talking about?" Tonks asked. Ron realized that most of the order hadn't drawn the same conclusion that McGonagall had.
"Harry." He said, announcing his presence.
With that admission, he saw most of the members of the order leap to their feet. Several all started talking at once.
"I knew it!"
"Those awful muggles, poor dear."
"I knew it was bad, but…"
"Now, just wait a second before we all storm into a muggle neighborhood," Dumbledore said in an effort to calm the room. "It won't do any of us any good to have the ministry sweeping in there and causing a scene."
"Cause a scene? You better hope I don't cause a scene, you old fool!" Mrs. Weasley spat at him.
"Mum, he's right," Ron said. She spun and looked at him with knit brows. "Harry wouldn't want everyone showing up there and getting in trouble with the muggles. We don't really need to do that, do we? Those muggles are terrified of us. We just need a couple of us, just enough to get him out of there."
He watched as she slowly nodded her head, "Okay. You're right, Ronald." Then, taking complete command she turned back around and called out orders. "Arthur and Remus, you're coming along. He's most familiar with us and will like seeing a friendly face. Minerva, you too. You're more than capable of handling those muggles. And you," she spun to face Dumbledore who Ron was amused to see shrunk slightly under her pointed finger. "You will contact Madame Pomfrey. I hope nothing has happened, for your sake, but if it has we might need her assistance. Understand?" The headmaster mutely agreed.
He watched as his parents, Lupin, and McGonagall all left out of the back of the house to apparate to Surrey and hopefully fetch his friend. He then saw Dumbledore go to the fireplace and stick his head through to converse with who he assumed was Madame Pomfrey. His suspicions were confirmed when the headmaster quickly scrambled out of the way as the mediwitch came bursting into the room.
She seemed to fight with herself a moment before eventually turning to the old man and with a low, quiet voice said, "We'll be having words. Later. But right now, I will do my best to rectify what you have caused." Then she swept into another room where there was a long couch available and began to unshrink vials of potions and a giant medical bag that she had pulled from her pockets.
A few of the order members, such as Mad-eye and Professor Snape, left. But several chose to stay to see for themselves that Harry was okay. Dumbledore was in a chair in the corner, the twinkle gone from his eyes. They sat and waited.