AN: It's been a while but, having been inspired by the most recent book, I am continuing with my twisted little tale. Thanks to all who have reviewed, especially those who been persuading me to get on with it.

Chapter Summary: Draco and Ron get drunk again but this time there are serious consequences.

c

Chapter Forty Five – Consequences

Will watched Hermione exit the house through the kitchen door with Harry and Severus preparing to follow close behind. He didn't know what Severus and Harry had shared with Hermione, he assumed that it had been something dark and disturbing. She had been decidedly down in spirits since they had returned to the kitchen after the event the previous evening. Severus had made a lovely meal and they had all passed a pleasant enough time together but Will couldn't help feeling that something very serious had been communicated with the swords.

Will had tried repeatedly to draw Hermione out in conversation but he had been largely unsuccessful. She had always warmed to him before, they had almost been flirting with each other the previous night. Now she wouldn't even look him in the eye, she was a million miles away. He wondered what the two Kin could have said or done to make such a spirited woman give up.

Now he was left watching the elegant sway of Hermione's cloak as she departed and he didn't know when he would see her again. He knew that he shouldn't seek to see her again but his common sense seemed to have departed him. He had even received a specific warning to leave her alone and he still couldn't help it. There wasn't a sword, pointy or otherwise, that could stop him from thinking. He forced himself to stay silent and not let thoughts become actions as he watched her go.

Severus stepped close to Will as Harry stepped outside into the garden, "Don't even think about it," Severus warned pleasantly enough.

"Think about what?" Will replied feigning innocence.

"You know what," Severus added, "She belongs to Ron."

Will waited till they had all gone and then he waited a few minutes more. Once he was sure that they were on their way he reached into the cupboard under the sink and pulled himself out a new bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a large measure into the same glass that he had been using the day before.

"Here's to the thing I shouldn't be thinking about," Will said to himself grimly as he downed the entire glass.

Harry was hoping that Hermione might return with them and meet up with Ron but as soon as they were finding their way through Hogwarts she wanted to be away.

"I have to get back to Gryffindor," She said as they were nearing the place where they would part.

"Why? Come up with us, have a cup of tea," Harry offered.

Hermione looked quite grim, "I have some things to think about." She said without elaborating.

"What things? Come on up." Harry persisted.

"Harry, I have had so much tea already, if I drink any more I will end up looking like a tea leaf."

"What about Ron?" Harry asked, taking a more direct approach.

"Send him down some time this afternoon." Hermione said before walking away.

"I think we should share our memories with each other more often," Severus commented, "Seems like everybody suddenly wants to be on their own to think."

"I don't." Harry told his Kin.

"Let us see if those two have managed to behave themselves this time." Severus added.

"You're too hard on them, I am sure everything will be fine," Harry insisted in defence of his friend.

Harry and Severus continued on their way back to their rooms.

"Seriously, however," Severus said continuing their conversation about Hermione, "I can understand a little bit of the anger she has shown to us since her return, when you think of what this means for her and the fact that I think she knows what it means."

"Not sure I do." Harry added.

"This should never have happened, a child by one Kin and not the other, to a woman outside of the Kin, it doesn't fit. In one way we have ended up controlling her life but we can give her nothing that might in time be seen as compensation."

"She can have more children with Ron," Harry mentioned trying to look on the bright side, "And she was going to work here with us at Hogwarts anyway, she won't know that she can't leave if she doesn't try to."

"But we can give her nothing." Severus repeated.

"Oh no," Harry teased his Kin with a smile, "Is my Sev feeling guilty about Hermione of all people?"

When Harry and Severus opened the door to their quarters the first thing they heard was the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. Severus' expression immediately darkened and with a smooth swish of cloak he had launched himself into the doorway of the bathroom and was seeing exactly what he had expected to find.

Ron was kneeling on the floor and had hung his head over the side of the bath, his face was white and moist. There was evidence on the floor that he hadn't quite made it to the bath the first time he had vomited. Severus took out his sword and cleaned up the mess as quickly as he could before launching into his chastisement.

"After you have finished you will get out this time, you will find yourself some corner elsewhere in this castle and you can stay there, I will not change my mind and let you stay this time," Severus stormed.

Ron looked up from the bath, "I will be glad to go."

"I will not have any more drunkenness in this castle, the term is about to start and this is a school. It is highly inappropriate, you and Draco will find that you have enjoyed your final night of irresponsibility together."

"If I go, Draco goes." Ron snapped.

"Draco goes nowhere, there are many reasons for this, only one of which is the fact that neither of you can be trusted to behave like adults."

Anger flared in Ron's eyes and, despite the nausea that he was still feeling, he dragged himself to his feet, "If I go I will take Draco with me and I won't argue about it any longer."

Severus stepped away from the doorway and Ron walked straight past him, he approached the potion room door.

"I'll have a couple of pain potions before I go though," he said as he went into the room.

A few moments later Ron returned, swigging one potion and holding the other phial in his hand. He stopped and looked at the two Kin who stood side by side.

"What? No more cutting words Severus?" Ron challenged, "You don't command me any longer, you have to come of age to drink, what can be more adult than that? I will drink and I will smoke, I will leave here and I will take Draco with me, we will both smoke and drink. There is no reason why Draco wouldn't be just as safe in another part of the castle. He is all I have, there is nobody else left in the world for me."

"What? Still nothing you want to say?" Ron snapped as he remained the only one talking. He went to Severus' desk and used the length of his arm to sweep everything on top of it off onto the floor. He turned back to Severus waiting for the reaction.

"What did you do last night?" Severus asked, looking stunned more than anything else.

"What did I do? What sort of thing is that to say? You've suddenly gone all reasonably calm?" Ron approached Severus, "Can I do anything to make you fight me?" Ron shouted in Severus' face.

"Ron," Harry said as the following silence stretched, "You are stomping around the room without any help whatsoever, what did you do last night?"

Ron frowned and looked down at his feet, as if that would help his comprehension. Sure enough, he had come down from his bedroom without the walker and had covered some considerable ground on his own two feet. His balance was more perfect than it should have been, even as a normal person with a hangover. The contents of his stomach jumped in his throat and he had to force them back down again, but he didn't sway and he didn't stumble. He should have been back down on the floor seconds after getting up in the bathroom.

"Can this kind of curse just wear off one day?" Harry asked Severus.

"No, I have never seen it." Severus replied.

"We had a few drinks," Ron said frowning, "I don't know much about the rest, we must have fallen asleep eventually."

"Do I have to figure this out without any clue whatsoever because you were so drunk you can't remember anything?" Severus snapped at last finding his voice.

Ron smiled, "Yes."

"Well, you can live in a state of confusion then," Severus countered, "After you have placed everything back on my desk!"

"Why don't we go up into the attic, sit down and see if we can create a time line," Harry said trying to calm things between Ron and Severus if only so he could satisfy his own curiosity on the subject.

"Fine, whatever." Ron said heading for his room.

They all sat themselves down on Ron's sofa with Harry sitting between Ron and Severus. Draco was still asleep and so Harry insisted that they speak quietly although Severus was all for waking him up.

"Start at the beginning," Harry led Ron, "Just tell us what you did no matter how insignificant it sounds."

"I came downstairs and saw your note, then I went back up here and Draco suggested that we have a few drinks, so we did." Ron spoke.

"I think you will have to try a little harder than that." Severus interrupted.

"That was the introduction," Ron snapped, "We sat on the sofa and had a few drinks, then we had a pillow fight down on the floor. Then we..." Ron tried to demonstrate what they had done next without being able to adequately find the words. He held his hands close to each other, each clenched in a fist, he waved them around. He frowned, "I've missed a bit out. We had the pillow fight and then we went downstairs, we went into your bedroom."

"You did what?" Severus snapped.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"What's going on?" Draco asked before Ron had a chance to answer, he had woken and was sitting up on the end of the bed looking about as bad as Ron did.

"Nothing," Ron said in what Harry thought was an unnecessarily gentle voice, "Go back to sleep."

"Actually, I don't feel very well," Draco muttered holding a hand to his mouth as he groped around on the floor for his crutch. Unable to find the crutch quickly enough he then crawled out of bed and made his way across the floor on hands and knees.

Harry caught Severus rolling his eyes, but he had wasted all the breath he going to trying to reason with the two boys about their behaviour.

"How come Draco doesn't get shouted at?" Ron complained.

"Why were you in our bedroom?" Severus demanded to know.

"I don't know!" Ron tried to evade.

"I could not lift the curse the Death Eaters placed upon you, that sort of thing certainly doesn't just disappear one day, you had better think hard," Severus warned, "We need to find out what you did."

"I had better check on Draco, maybe he's been affected too," Ron tried to evade.

"The sooner we find out what you two have done the better then." Severus dug in.

"Pensieve," Harry suggested, "Why doesn't Ron put everything from last night in the Pensieve, that should cut through the inebriation shouldn't it?"

Severus grinned cunningly, "A very good idea Harry, maybe Ron will better see the error of his ways when he sees how ridiculously he behaves when drunk."

Ron paled at the suggestion but since it had been Harry's idea in the first place he felt rather ganged up on.

"Ok, whatever," Ron gave in, "Can I go back to bed after that?"

"You are missing out on your life with all this drinking you know." Harry said kindly.

"What life?" Ron grumbled miserably as he trudged off to the Pensieve downstairs.

Draco had shut the door to the bathroom so Harry and Severus left him to it for a while. Ron tried to make a detour to make sure Draco was all right but Severus was having none of it and grabbed him by the collar in order to project him into the potions room where Severus kept his Pensieve.

Severus used his wand to extract from Ron the entirety of his memories from the time he found the note right through to the morning. He cast it all into the Pensieve and then they all jumped in.

Harry was amused to note that Ron had included the conversation where it was firmly established that it had all been Draco's idea. They stood together in silence as they watched Draco and Ron swallow drink after drink, eat some food and then fall about on the floor for a pillow fight.

Severus and Harry both felt the anticipation as they realised that they were coming to end of Ron's concious memory.

Both Ron and Draco lay exhausted on the floor of the attic room, out of breath but laughing.

"What now?" Draco asked Ron leaning up against him, "I don't wanna go to bed yet."

"I don't know, would duel you but I don't have a wand any more." Ron said huffily.

"Neither do I," Draco added, "I'm not surprised, I think my magic is screwed up by the curse anyway."

"Has it squibbed you?" Ron asked.

"Nah, but I nearly blew my head off trying to make a fire a while ago."

"This sucks." Ron grumbled for them both.

"Tell me about it, I have to be drunk just to make you tolerable Weasley."

"Think I would hang out with you if it wasn't for them and their happy family Kin bullshit." Ron added.

"Severus Snape with Harry bloody Potter!"

"I am surprised I'm not vomiting twenty four hours a day!"

"At least you knew where you were with Severus being a grumpy old bastard, now he's all nicey nicey with Harry and it comes out of nowhere."

"What was your father going to do to you, you can tell me you know, I won't tell THEM." Ron suddenly persuaded as he took a swig out of the whiskey bottle and handed it to Draco.

Draco shrugged, "I don't know, just might have been something to do with the thing."

"Which thing?" Ron asked.

"The thing I stole, but it's a box that won't open."

"I remember now, Severus said that we should try to think of how to open it, they hid it in the bedroom."

"Really?" Draco enthused, "Let's go get it, if we can get it open won't we be the clever ones?"

"Then they'll have to say 'well done' without choking on it," Ron laughed gleefully.

Severus and Harry followed along as the drunken Ron and Draco crawled downstairs into their quarters and into the bedroom. Ron and Draco then searched all the cabinets and wardrobes till they found the little wooden box.

The hungover Ron was cringing now, anticipating all the troublesome ranting that would soon follow the Pensieve revelations.

"I've got it!" Draco suddenly called.

Ron eagerly joined Draco, "Well go on!" He urged.

Draco opened the lid of the box easily, "I've opened it," he exclaimed, "It wouldn't do that before, no matter what I did."

The drunken Ron peered at the contents of the box but before Harry or Severus could look themselves the memory faltered and fogged over, the sounds became distorted, they couldn't see anything but blurs.

"What have you done to this memory?" Severus demanded to know.

"Nothing!" Ron replied indignantly, "You were the one that drew the memories out into the Pensieve, maybe you messed it up."

"I certainly did not!" Severus retorted.

"This is hopeless," Harry commented as the distortion continued.

They could hear occasionally that Draco and Ron were laughing and moving around the main area of the Headmaster's quarters but they could make out little else for what seemed to be about an hour. The Pensieve memory then suddenly cleared and Draco and Ron were sitting on the floor at the foot of the stairs to the attic and the little wooden box was nowhere to be seen.

"I have wanted to do something like that for so long!" Ron told Draco, a long ago extinguished light now shining again in his eyes, it was the glow of enthusiasm.

"Well there's nothing stopping us from doing it again, nothing!" Draco replied with an equal amount of enthusiasm.

"But for now we need to get to bed, those two will be back in the morning and we need to get to bed before we pass out on the floor."

Severus and Harry followed the Pensieve Ron and Draco up the stairs to bed and the hungover Ron trailed behind wondering how long he had left before Severus ripped his throat out.

Draco crawled up into bed first and Ron crawled onto the same bed. Ron threw the covers back as if hot and Draco complained that he was cold. Ron then pulled the covers up over Draco, turned over and went to sleep.

"That's enough." Severus announced and they all came out of the Pensieve and back into the Potions room.

Ron edged towards the door as soon as they landed back in the Headmaster's quarters. He wanted to flee but Severus noticed before he had a chance to run.

"Get the box out of the bedroom, I don't suppose you put it back in it's original location." Severus commanded.

They all followed Ron through to the bedroom. Despite claiming that he didn't remember a thing Ron nevertheless remembered exactly where he had left the box and retrieved it promptly. He had no intention of relinquishing it however, and as soon as he retrieved it, he held it close to his chest both arms wrapped protectively around it.

"Open it!" Severus tried to command.

Ron backed towards the doorway shaking his head slowly.

Severus' expression was one of intense curiosity rather than rage, "I won't take it from you, just open the lid." He persisted.

Harry was beginning to wonder too, Ron's behaviour was very strange, very out of character for him. An idea was forming in his mind but he wanted to push it away.

"I must check on Draco!" Ron announced.

"Show me the contents of the box," Severus insisted following Ron out of the room.

Severus managed to grab the box from Ron's grasp but as he did so it suddenly flared up hot to the touch and he dropped it again.

Ron scrambled to the floor and retrieved the box, he looked angry and possessive.

"Enough!" Ron snapped, "I am going to Draco!"

Severus stood still, looking stunned, "Go to him then! That evil no good Malfoy deserves nothing however, I should cast him out!"

"Sev?" Harry exclaimed, wondering what on earth had got into his Kin.

Ron turned on Severus, his eyes wide with fury, "Draco is not evil, he is my..." Ron suddenly froze mid sentence and frowned to himself.

"Go to Draco," Severus prompted.

Without finishing what he had been about to say Ron turned and went into the bathroom shutting the door behind him.

"What was all that about?" Harry asked his Kin.

"I think I know what Lucius Malfoy was intending to do to his son, why he was so keen to have the person he thought was me under his roof." Severus said somewhat cryptically, "Tell me, who is the younger, Ron or Draco?"

"Draco I think, not by much." Harry answered.

"Hmm, that would make sense."

"Would it really?"

"There is Lucius Malfoy with a young son destined for the Death Eater limelight, but without any particularly outstanding magical prowess. There is I, or so Lucius thinks, a former Kin with a pair of swords now that Albus seems to have disappeared. But I had those swords out in the wilderness with you. So Lucius must think again, abandon the plan altogether, or else find another pair."

"Another pair?"

"Suppose there is another pair, we know that they exist somewhere, Hermione's research confirms it." Severus continued, "Suppose that Lucius finds them, Albus would never allow it to happen to him and even so, they choose who they want. Draco flees and, out of all his father's possessions, is compelled to take that little box and little else. He would have fared much better if he had stolen something that he could sell."

Ron was suddenly at the door, his face as white as a ghost and his eyes wild with fear, "You have to help me, it's Draco. I think he's dying, the curse is killing him. I don't know what to do, he can't die, you can't let him. I would... I can't..."

Severus and Harry entered the bathroom to find Ron scooping Draco up from the floor of the bathroom to hold him in his arms.

"It's ok, I said I wouldn't leave you," Ron cooed to Draco.

Draco violently doubled over and screamed in agony, his face was almost transparent and his skin was moist. He was lost in a world of pain, the searing pain overtaking him.

"I've tried to heal, but nothing happens, nothing helps, he's ripping apart from the inside out, he's bleeding, I can't stop it. You should have let me come to him sooner."

Severus knelt down by Draco and reached a hand out to his arm, "It isn't the curse," He tried to reassure Ron, "The pain is only coming from his abdomen, it feels different to before."

"Will you bloody do something!" Ron yelled.

Severus slipped a hand beneath Draco's clothing and sensed over his abdomen, "He will be all right, in a few minutes the pain will ease."

Ron continued to cradle Draco in his arms, he was whimpering and shaking now.

"What is it?" Ron demanded, the panic still in his voice.

"We are going to leave now," Severus said calmly to Ron, "Sense again and you will see that this is nearly over and you will know what has happened. When you are both ready come to me and show me what is in the box, then you can both go back to bed."

Severus guided Harry out of the bathroom and closed the door on Draco and Ron.

c

Next Chapter: The repercussions of Draco and Ron's recent exploits are felt all through the Castle and who is going to teach Muggle Studies?

AN: I am going to start writng the next chapter now :)