Chuchi's corner of shame has returned! Glorious!
So I royally botched this chapter up, nearly screwing the logical flow of the HP world because of negligence. A kindly reviewer commented on the mistakes I have made, which I have rectified to the best of my abilities. Special thanks to SweGLEEK for pointing it out.
EDIT: Made more minor grammar, sentence structure tweaks. And the corner of shame is staying! Yay for me!
Year One:
Ron Weasley and Beginning With A Stone
Chapter One:
The Boy Who Went Back
From the day he had been conceived, Ronald Bilius Weasley had been a most curious child.
To begin with, his parents honestly thought he was going to be the baby girl they had hoped and prayed for. It was only farther along pregnancy did they realize that they were having their sixth boy, and already his entry into the world was blemished by despair.
Then on the night of his birth, the world was ablaze with crackling light but no sign of rain. The thunderstorm that came without warning lasted from the time his mother had gone into labor up until after birth, and had anyone around him been more observant, they would have found it odd that the sky grew quiet when the babe uttered his first cry.
But no one bothered too much when it came to little Ronald Bilius Weasley, and that was perhaps in itself a blessing.
He had the sky for his eyes, and much like the sky, they would shift and darken like moody weather. At times, it would be clear and bright, as it should be whenever he would run around and play with his siblings, receive the slightest bit of attention from his parents.
On others, it would be cloudy, whenever everyone around him seemed to be in a world of their own, and he was all alone in his. Whenever he would fall for some folly and be punished for it because no one really took the time to explain anything. Whenever it felt like truly he could never compare to the shine that his other siblings so naturally possessed.
And then there are moments, those rare ones, when the blue of his eyes turned into the color of nimbus. And when they do, it was as if the whole heavens would roll and crack in response. Those who could have witnessed such a moment would describe it being wrapped in a sudden draft, as if thunder and lightning broke through the clouds and next to their ears. Had anyone been looking at the boy's eyes, they would be fascinated by—or wary of—the sudden age and the weariness that came upon the azure irises.
Yet hardly anyone does, because they are more caught up in the events that came along with this inexpiable change. A sighting of a Grim. A teddy turned into a spider. An attempt of the Unbreakable Vow. A near death of a mother.
And each time that happened, there would be a jolt in his brain, a sudden onslaught of thoughts few to many, some too complicated for him to understand, yet instinctively he, or his magic, knew what to do.
Ronald Bilius Weasley was an enigma, a playful bundle of energy so eager to please and belong for a moment, a quiet wallflower in the next; with secrets so intimate that not even he himself knew or understood them.
That was, until one fateful night.
FLASH!
"You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity."
The Great Hall was teeming with movement, of Hogwarts' defenders making the most of the respite to tend to their wounded, sort through the dead. Already, unseen partitions were being formed among the crowd, with the middle of the hall reserved for the fallen both valiant and unfortunate.
Fortunately, the Weasleys—four of them, at least, grouped together at the left aisle—had no reason to linger for long at the center. While it was a heavy loss to have friends like Colin, Remus and Tonks among the dead, in their hearts of hearts, the family was thankful and relieved that so far it hadn't been any of their own.
Still, the fact that her husband and two of her children returned to her relatively unharmed did nothing to deter Molly's worried fussing.
"Mum, for the last time, I'm telling you I'm fine!" Ginny huffed over, arms crossed but obligingly still while Molly continued to fuss over her. From behind the Weasley matriarch, Arthur stood with a near apologetic smile and a hand on a barely quietly laughing George's shoulder.
"Really, Ginny, look at you all bruised and cut up! I'm just making sure those Death Eaters didn't hurt you worse, my poor girl!"
"Which they didn't! Honestly, just because I'm under age doesn't mean that—"
"Ah, just keep that chin up and bear it, little sister." George said cheekily over their mother's shoulder. "You know there's no stopping mum when she's like that. Best take it like a good ol' Gryffindor."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's exaggerated show of pumping fists. Arthur shook his head and patted George's back fondly. "Best you listen to your own advice then, son. It looks like your mother is just about done with Gin."
True enough, after a few more seconds of tutting and waving her wand around her daughter, Molly finally backed away with a satisfied nod (and a sigh of relief from Ginny) before turning to George. "There, all done. Your turn, George dear."
"Who, oh, me? Err…" George blanched, switching his gaze between his amused father and his victoriously smirking sister while trying to talk his way out (or just plain run) of his predicament. "No, no, wait, mum, ah, don't you think this is a little—?"
"—Fred? Percy?"
It was Arthur who saw them first, suddenly going rigid as George, Molly and Ginny turned to see Fred and Percy slowly walking up to their huddle. Fred had his head down, lips twisted roughly and gait almost stumbling. Percy, from behind him, walked almost the same way, but with more obvious reason: he held a bundle in his arms that went all the way behind his right shoulder. A human looking bundle that appeared too tall for the bespectacled brother to carry.
A too still human looking bundle. George noted with a sharp inhale before running to meet his twin when his family appeared to be frozen in place. "Fred! Fred, Perce, Merlin, wha—?"
All of a sudden, as soon as George reached him, Fred's barely standing posture broke like glass. With a strangled gasp, Fred's arms were around his brother, and the sudden weight sent both of them dropping to their knees.
"It should have been me!" Fred gasped as if he were running out of air, his cold hands clutching George's frame like a lifeline. "It should have been me, Georgie. It should have been—shite, shite, why wasn't it me?!"
"F—Fred, slow down, what the hell happened?" George's voice shook on its own, blindsided and troubled beyond anything. For all their lives together, he had never seen the defiant and dauntless Fred Weasley like this, so openly upset that broken didn't seem enough a word to describe him. "Fred, come on, just tell me—"
Then a horrid scream sounded from behind him. George barely had the time to turn when he saw his sister barrel past him and to Percy. To the cargo Percy had been carrying.
"NO! NO! NOOO! RON!" Ginny's wails pierced the air and made it still, her lithe figure falling to her knees as Percy did when he laid out the unmoving Ron Weasley to the floor, blue eyes half open and fixed, bright red hair standing out above the pale skin. Molly was right next to her, tears flooding out of her eyes and anguished screams out of her lips as she buried her head against the unmoving chest.
"R…Ron?" George's voice was hushed and tight, unlike his sister's and mother's, who had crowded over Ron's torso in a cacophony of hysterics and tears. He was barely aware of him slipping out of Fred's embrace, of Fred leaning heavily on the ground with a harsh sob, of himself inching on hands and knees forward to Ron's form stained with dust and dried blood, threading trembling fingers through the bright red locks. "Oh Merlin, Ronnie, please, no…please, don't…"
FLASH! CRACK!
"MUM! DAD!"
Charlie halted a few steps away from the group, the second eldest Weasley son's face was as wild as his hair. Trailing from behind were Bill and Fleur, bruised and dirtied in some places, both just as shaken as Charlie when they saw what appeared to be their family in mourning in the middle of the Great Hall.
The seconds ticked, with none of the three appearing to want to move forward, until Bill took the tentative step. "Dad? Percy? Wh—what's going on?"
"It's Ron…" The Weasley patriarch swallowed for what felt like forever, until he managed to drag the words out. "Ron—Bill, Charlie—he's…"
"…No…" Bill choked out the second it sank in, Fleur let out a strangled cry and Charlie pushed forward to the group gathered around the fallen teen. One sight of Ron's body and the second oldest brother's knees gave out, Charlie's hands grasping Ron's side being all that kept him from falling to the earth.
"Ron…" Charlie breathed, hands forming fists on Ron's shirt as he shook them. "This…this can't…you can't be…Ron, you have to get up. Damn it, Ron, you stupid git, get up!"
"Charlie…" Bill's voice was just as strained, coming to kneel beside his immediate younger brother.
"What the hell do you think you're doing lying around like that? There's a bloody war going on! You don't have time to slack off!" A beat then a choke. "Damn it, Ron, get up! It wasn't supposed to be—this can't be happening! You can't seriously be—!"
"Charlie, please don't…"
"IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY, BILL!" Charlie lashed out oh so violently as he seized Ron by the shoulders and shook the lanky boy hard. "RON, HE—HE'S JUST COME OF AGE! HE HAD HIS WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HIM! HE WAS SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE THIS STUPID WAR, GET A JOB, SETTLE DOWN AND LIVE ON WITH A BUNCH OF KIDS UNTIL ALL THAT RED HAIR TURNS GRAY AND OLD!
"BUT THEN THE SOD JUST GOES OFF LIKE SOME GODDAMN HERO AS IF THAT'S FINE AND FUCKING DANDY BUT IT'S NOT! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DITCH US ALL LIKE THIS, YOU STUPID GIGANTIC PRICK, SO QUIT LYING AROUND AND GET THE FUCK UP, RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!"
The tirade only made Molly cry harder, unable to scold her son for his uncouth language and instead clutching onto Ron as hard as she could. Fleur gently took Ginny to her arms, sobbing and shaking along with her while Bill had his arms full of his most volatile little brother.
"Stop," said Bill with all the firmness he could muster—so little, barely there—as he gently pulled Charlie back. "Stop it, Charlie, he's gone. He's gone, he's not going to wake up. He's never going to wake up again no matter what we do, Charlie, n—no matter how badly we want him to…"
"HE'S NOT GONE, BILL! HE'S NOT—HE CAN'T—! HE—" Then with a roar, like a cry of a dying dragon, Charlie careened forward, clutching his dead brother and howling unceasingly. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, I'm sorry for never being around but I'm here! Big brother's here now and big brother's not leaving you ever again just please…don't do this...! Goddamnit, Ronnie, please…!"
"…Ron…" Bill let out a ragged breath, keeping an arm around Charlie as he tipped forward, pressing his head against Ron's cold, bruised cheek, his grief soft yet just as broken, just as lost as the rest of them. Just as in pleading and in denial. "Oh Merlin, Ronnie…Ronnie…"
Beside his family, bloodshot eyes streaming endless tears and staring blankly ahead, was Fred muttering over and over, "It should have been me. It should have been me. Oh God why hadn't it been me?"
FLASH! CRACK! BOOM!
A thunderclap, and a pair of blue eyes opened, sitting up to near darkness. Ronald Bilius Weasley let out a heavy gasp, a small hand grasping at the fabric of his frayed, little shirt, short wild hair framing a round face, taking in the sight of the messy bedroom of Quidditch toys and childish trinkets.
But the eyes gazing on everything were far older, and the headache building up behind them caused by more than his abrupt awakening from the sudden crack of thunder overhead.
A casual broom ride to side start the morning. Being the Keeper for the Gryffindor team chanting "Weasley is our King!"
A filling lunch in the Burrow courtesy of his mother. Reading about the Gringotts break-in over tea and rock cakes at Hagrid's.
Throwing gnomes over the garden with Ginny. The bloody writing on the wall that read "Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever".
Percy acting pompous over his prefect badge. The awful day Percy chose the Ministry and Fudge over his family.
Fred and George retching behind their older brother in teasing disgust. The wall dangerously swaying over Fred's head and the blinding pain that followed.
He was an eleven year-old-boy looking forward to his first year in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He was an eighteen-year-old time traveling war veteran on a mission.
"Ron?"
The boy's eyes immediately flew open, his right hand flicking in reflex for his wand only to find something else in his grasp, and for half a second later to remember that he was supposed to be an eleven year old without a wand.
Yet.
"Bill?" He said slowly, blinking just to be sure that the image in front of him was really that of his oldest brother. It was rather difficult that his eyes registered a younger, scar and stress-free Bill when his mind kept going back to the haggard, war-torn brother who wept so brokenly over his broken body with the rest of their family.
But why was Bill here? Shouldn't he be in Egypt with the goblins?
"Ron, are you OK?" He must have paused long enough for the concern in Bill's face to double visibly. "We heard you shouting."
We? It was only then that Ron noticed the other figures standing behind the eldest Weasley brother: Ginny, peeking behind Bill's leg, then Fred and George on either of Bill's shoulder.
"Was it another spider again?" Charlie's voice drawled from somewhere too far for Ron to see. "Can we just kill the bloody thing and go to bed already? It's too early to be up even for his acceptance party."
Acceptance party? Ron paused over that last bit while he searched the room for a calendar. True enough, on one side of the room next to a Chudley Cannon's poster, was a calendar page dated July 1991, with all the numbers from 1 to 21 crossed out in red.
Bloody hell, I really am in the past! A day after I got my acceptance letter!
So that was why Bill was here—he came home on vacation to join the family in celebrating both Charlie leaving home for his dream dragon taming job and Ron's acceptance to Hogwarts.
To think It sent him this far back! He would have gone back and hugged the life out of It if he could. Think of the lives he could save! Of the things he could change for the better! Hell, he could probably do something to make sure Sirius doesn't have to live on the run in the first place because of that blasted Pettigrew!
Speaking of the damn rat—
"Oi, Ron!"
"Gah!" The red head nearly fell off his bed when he realized that Charlie was waving a hand on his face. Merlin, did he sound this shrill as a kid? No wonder Charlie and Fred often complained about his voice! "Charlie, what the hell?"
"I should be the one asking you that. First you wake us with your screaming match with the thunderstorm and now you're just staring in space." Said older brother leaned back up with his arms crossed and a frown. In Ron's inattentiveness, he failed to notice again that his two eldest siblings had filed into his room, though he did hear Percy quietly shoo the twins and Ginny back to sleep and to leave Ron to Bill and Charlie.
"Where are Mum and Dad?" Ron blurted before he could stop himself. The remaining two brothers traded glances before Bill cleared his throat. "We told them we would handle it. Mum's got a big day tomorrow remember, and so do you."
"Oh, right. Sorry." That must have been the wrong thing to say, because Ron heard Charlie stumble on the verge of saying something before feeling his bed sag.
Bill's blue eyes were kind in front of Ron as he laid a warm hand on the boy's shoulder. "Was it a nightmare, Ronnie?"
A nightmare? Ron wanted to laugh bitterly at the question. More like the future getting shot to hell because of fucking Voldemort. But what else can he say that won't sound utterly deranged or ridiculous?
"I guess it was. I…I don't really remember." Ron dropped his eyes to his lap, moving his hands so they could curl at the blanket over it. "I probably won't be able to talk about it even if I wanted to."
"Was it anything important, you reckon?"
A matter of life and a hundred deaths. "No, I don't think so. Not something I should have woken you all up for. Maybe it was about a spider, that's why I don't want to remember it." Ron finished in a weak attempt for a joke to cover the fact that his voice still sounded a bit shaky. "Bloody eight legged fr—things."
His words may not be all truth but the trepidation in his body was very real. He couldn't stand to look at Bill or Charlie too long without remembering their grief over his death.
Especially Charlie.
Never in Ron's wildest dreams would he ever imagine his tough as nails, could eat dragons for breakfast big brother falling apart so completely the way the older Weasley had back at the Great Hall, nor was it something Ron ever wanted to see again.
A heavy hand landed on his head, making Ron look up to its owner while it ruffled his hair.
"Well if it's not that important, then try cheering up some more, Ronnie." Charlie said with a teasing grin on his face, as energetic and cheerful as he always should be. "Can't have our future Hogwarts student being so down on his special day, eh? Mum's gonna throw a fit!"
Doubt that, was the instinctive acerbic rejoinder but Ron squashed it with a grin back. "Don't you mean your special day, Charlie? Leaving us behind to live your dream of chumming up with the dragons?"
Charlie's laughter was a comforting boom in the backdrop of Ron's migraine. "Aww, what's this? Little Ronnie's gonna miss me too much?"
You have no idea. "As if! Now there's only Fred and George I gotta worry about in Hogwarts!"
"All right, children, that's enough." Bill said over the two with barely smothered laughter. "Go on back, Charlie. I can take it from here now."
The second oldest brother gazed at Bill again before making a show of stretching his arms and yawning exaggeratedly. "Well, this late-night impromptu thing has been fun, but I need my sleep. See you in the morning, Ronniekins!"
Ron scowled half-heartedly as he watched Charlie exit the room with a wave. "He could have slept through the whole thing, the git."
"Language, Ronnie." The last remaining Weasley chided lightly. "And you should be getting back to sleep too. Last I checked, it's only two in the morning."
"'M not a baby anymore, Bill. And you need to get some sleep in too." Ron said, his mind finally having caught up with this life's current timeline. "You just got back from Gringotts a few hours ago. You must be dead tired. I'll be fine by myself. Sorry again for waking you."
A flicker of surprise passed by Bill's face as Ron helped himself back on his bed, making Ron raise a brow in confusion. Was it something he said? "Err, Bill?"
"Nothing, it's just—" Bill shook his head. "You don't have to apologize for something like that, bud. And it doesn't matter how old you are all going to get, I'll always play big brother whenever I have to be."
I know. Ron had to smile at the thought while Bill arranged the blankets over him.
Back then, it had been a bit frustrating for Ron that he was never truly able to break out of the baby brother image that Bill and Charlie seemed content to fit him into. But after having been through everything he did, Ron realized that his brothers' support and care for him was one of the many things he stupidly took for granted.
That whenever they had been around (however rare that may be), the two oldest brothers had always done their best to be the parental figures Ron barely had in his life because his parents were too busy with something (everything) else.
"Thanks, Bill." He said as sincerely as he could, even if Bill would never know that it wasn't just for tonight that Ron was thanking him for.
Bill looked taken aback for the second time that night before smiling softly and smoothing out the hair Charlie had ruffled carelessly earlier. "Anytime, Ronnie." He said before planting a kiss on the boy's forehead.
I'm not letting that bastard Fenrir hurt you again, Bill. I won't let you or anyone else die, not if I can help it. Ron felt for the deluminator he hid under his pillow. I'll be the invisibility cloak that will keep all of you from meeting It until you're all old, graying and ready to go.
He tightened his grip on the cool metal, and felt it hum in power.
I promise.
The whole July 21st party had been as lively as Ron remembered it.
To start off, his whole family—parents and siblings—were all in attendance. His mother prepared a mouthwatering feast of roast beef, mushroom cream pasta, Yorkshire pudding, chicken legs and treacle pudding topped off by a three layer chocolate sponge cake. There had been no shortage of gifts either for both the new Hogwarts student and the new dragon tamer, as even Ginny managed to give him and Charlie something.
And Ron threw himself into the celebrations as was expected of him: acting the entitled future Hogwarts student while rubbing his acceptance letter in the faces of his non-believing brothers (Charlie and the twins), gorging on the all the food he could get his hands on, and joining his siblings' Quidditch games.
But try as he might, Ron couldn't bring himself to muster the giddy energy he remembered having years ago. In fact, he felt that everything he had been doing was so forced he was worried it would show. Yet so far, no one called him in on being off or anything, making Ron inwardly shake his head.
What was I worried about? It's not like everyone's paid enough attention to me to notice.
Before, the thought of that would send Ron in a spiral of self-pity and bitterness. But there none of that now; to be quite honest, Ron was thankful for his ability to remain invisible. It gave him breathing room to think.
The red head made a mental check of the timeline. So I've gone as far back as the day I got my Hogwarts letter. That means Charlie will be leaving tomorrow, and Bill, on Thursday. We won't be going to Diagon Alley for my additional supplies until late August. What can I do before then?
He directed a pawn forward against Percy's as he thought on this. The two brothers ended up playing a chess game on the newly cleared kitchen table at Ron's request while the other siblings restarted another Quidditch match. Percy had been pleasantly surprised when Ron did so, but did not turn down the invite.
It gnawed at Ron's chest to see Percy unashamedly happy over this. While Ron won't deny that the bespectacled red head can be annoying with his pompousness, self-righteous air and being a stickler for the rules, Percy was also insightful in his own way, acting with his family's best interest at heart, and was eager to help all of his siblings should they only ask.
But what did Percy get in return? Merciless teasing, being treated like an embarrassment, never feeling like he belonged in his own family.
Ron had no right to be furious over Percy leaving the Weasleys. Actually, none of them had. With the way Percy had been treated by most of them, Ron realized that Percy having enough was only a matter of when.
Seeing things at hindsight was both enlightening and frightening.
Ron frowned while he watched Percy's knight thrash his pawn. I was such a foul git those years ago, too busy moaning over my problems and wallowing to see that you have had it worse. We could have been there for each other. I could have really stopped you from leaving the family, but I let you down first, huh, Perce?
"And you, I thought you would be different. I thought we would have something in common. That we could really be brothers!"
"Hey, Perce?"
"Yes?"
"Err…" Ron paused before taking a breath. "I was looking at the book list I got from the acceptance letter, and, well, some of the subjects sounded really interesting."
Percy gave him an approving smile behind horn-rimmed glasses. "It's good that you're showing interest in your studies so early, Ron. That's a sign that you'll go far. Which subjects are you referring to?"
"Defense Against the Dark Arts." Ron said automatically. "And Charms. Transfiguration too, though from what I've been hearing from Fred and George, it's downright hard."
"Transfiguration is a very delicate subject which requires the right amount of concentration, intent and the proper recitation of the incantation." Percy explained. In the past, it may have sounded standoffish, but the Ron now could hear the hint of warmth in the words. "It is indeed a challenging subject, and the current teacher, Professor McGonagall can be strict to the point of intimidating. Still, Transfiguration is a worthy branch of magic should you choose to invest time and effort in it. The same can also be said of Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms."
"But don't worry." The older brother said reassuringly after directing his rook into Ron's territory. "They won't be giving you anything too complicated for now. Your first two years are more of helping you get used to tapping into your magical core to more direct applications of magic, after all."
"Thanks, Perce." Ron waited for his Queen to finish pummeling Percy's knight before adding. "And, uhm, I know you're still studying for your OWLs and all, but maybe…if you have some time, you could…?"
"Help you go over the First Year material?" Not that Ron needed it (he's technically a seventh year! Not even he was that stupid!), but the beaming smile he got from Percy when he nodded in assent made him firmly believe that he made the right decision. "I would be delighted to, Ron! You'll be getting Charlie's old books, right? I believe he and Bill wrote some helpful notes on the margins that we could start with!"
Ron listened obligingly to his older brother's excitement—over helping him, of all things—while his mind went back to what Percy casually mentioned.
Notes. That's right! If Ron wanted to make sure that he will have everything covered for the next seven years, he'll have to write down as much as he could remember from all the crazy shit that had happened to him, Harry and Hermione. Since he was already making the first step in changing the future by reaching out to Percy, what better time to start doing that than after the whole party?
But first, Ron smirked over the board. He had a chess game to win.
After all of the food had been eaten, all the gifts had been unwrapped and all the games had been played, Ron was finally able to rest in the privacy of his attic room, Charlie's old things and his gifts all laid out on the bed.
But at the moment, only two things mattered to him: the blank notebook he had gotten from his father, and the cage that contained the source of Ron's current ire.
Peter motherfucking Pettigrew.
Percy had gotten Hermes from their parents during the party as a reward for becoming Prefect. Ron, in turn, had been given "Scabbers" so that the youngest Weasley boy will have his own pet by the time school came.
It took all of Ron's strength to just scowl begrudgingly at the over-sized rodent instead of flinging the cage to the wall like he really badly wanted.
How dare this sniveling excuse of a coward not only betray Harry's parents to Voldemort and leave Sirius to rot in Azkaban, but also use his family as a shield and a lookout point for more than ten years?
The implications of what could have been had only truly hit Ron when he came clean with his family about Pettigrew on his Fifth year. He remembered how distraught Molly had been over what Pettigrew could have done to their family, especially to himself and Percy, during the 12 years they've had him. The sickening thought came crashing back to him while he gazed on the fat rat snoozing quietly in his cage.
Damn you to hell, Peter Pettigrew, you sniveling bastard. Ron clenched his fists while shooting his most venomous glare at the pathetic creature. Oh how sorely tempted he was to grab a wand and hex the right bastard to high heaven right now. But now wasn't the time to do anything about the rat. He didn't even have a wand with him at the moment. Charlie won't be sending over his old wand until mid August.
What Ron needed was a plan—not just with Pettigrew, but with the rest of his mission.
That was where the notebook he got from his father would come in handy.
Ron was grateful for his father's foresight in the gift. It was a simple enough brown leather bound notebook, but with the added feature of privacy charms that would keep nosy eyes (siblings) from seeing the contents without his magical signature acting as the key to unlocking it.
Definitely the right notebook for the job, Ron noted to himself as he sat on his bed with his notebook and a quill, with Pettigrew's cage positioned on his desk as far as possible from him.
First things first, Ron wrote on the section he titled "The Pettigrew Problem", have his mother charm the cage so that "Scabbers" stays locked in his cage. Ron made his displeasure on having a rat for a pet quite clear to everyone so it won't be suspicious to Pettigrew as to why his new master acted so sullenly around him. That will keep that rat where Ron wanted him until something better comes up.
The next order of business would be to relearning First Year material. While he was sure that he can cast First Year spells in his sleep, Ron knew that he needed to catch up on theory. On the section he designated for First Year Material, he listed the subjects in order of how much effort he needed to put in on them.
History of Magic, Transfiguration, Potions, Astronomy, Herbology, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Ron looked over his list with a thoughtful hum after a few revisions here and there.
In Ron's opinion, his current strongest subjects—one where it won't take him too long to relearn theory and practice— are Charms and Defense. And since he still knew squat about History of Magic after all this time, he resolved to double his efforts on learning it this time around, though he would most likely deviate from Binn's curriculum. Ron felt that had he paid attention to history, in particular the first Wizarding War, he may have learned more about both sides of the second one. They were born from the same ideology after all.
"Not bad." Ron murmured to himself, still half in disbelief over the fact that he was actually planning his moves when in the past he would have just lazed around until school started. He promised Death and Snape that he wouldn't be slacking off this time around.
Snape. Ron groaned. Facing him in this timeline won't be any easier. After everything he'd learned of the man, it would be difficult for him to not look at Snape with some form of empathy that the Legilimens will most likely easily pick up on. Not to mention Dumbledore. Ron didn't know how to look at the Headmaster either.
He's a tough one, all right. Manipulative and secretive. Ron mused. Someone like that will definitely not like things being kept from him. Well too damn bad, Dumbledore, but this is one secret you're not going to let yourself into so easily.
He had already decided that he wouldn't be telling anyone about his time travel, not anytime soon. Too much was riding on not changing things beyond Ron's control, and he didn't trust Dumbledore to not make his own plans once he got everything he wanted from Ron. But there were things Dumbledore did that Ron begrudgingly admitted were for the best: not immediately telling Harry about the prophecy, for one.
Telling Harry at eleven was a stupid move, obviously. There was also the question on how Ron got his hands on such sensitive information that will force the time traveler to keep quiet about it. Perhaps on their Fourth or early Fifth year would have been best, but with Harry being a walking raging disaster at the time, was it really? The more Ron thought about it, the more Ron figured that the Prophecy had put Dumbledore in a difficult position. It was one that Ron wasn't certain that he would be able to make the correct decision were he in the old man's shoes.
But what about the rest of Dumbledore's actions regarding Sirius and Pettigrew, Snape and Malfoy? And the incident with the Philosopher's Stone that's about to come?
"Shit." Ron banged the back of his head against the wall, knowing full well that the ghoul wouldn't mind the noise. This is a whole lot more complicated than I thought it would be. And I haven't even gotten to the part on what to do about Harry…or Hermione…
Merlin, how he missed his friends. How he missed her. They'll certainly be able to do a lot better than he is now. Bitterness clenched at his chest. Why couldn't it have been them who had this chance? Why did it have to be the good for nothing Ronald Weasley?
The boy took a breath to calm himself before glancing down his notebook again.
"Thinking that way won't get you anywhere, Ronald." Ron said in the most Hermione-like way he could make himself sound. Think of the lives you have to save. The lives you can change for the better if you succeed.
Ron flipped his notebook back to the very first page that he left blank and, with a stern blue gaze, scribbled down.
Cedric Diggory. Sirius Black. Severus Snape. Lavender Brown. Colin Creevey. Remus Lupin. Tonks. Albus Dumbledore.
Harry Potter.
It was a short list, woefully incomplete, but for now it was enough of a reminder.
Ron read and re-read the names before steeling himself again.
He was Ronald Bilius Weasley, eighteen years old, war veteran, time traveler, a man on a mission.
And by Merlin, he will succeed if it's the last thing he'll ever do.
Happy New Year's, everyone! How's that for the start of Book 1?
I know Charlie technically didn't show up until the second half of the Wizarding War (right when Harry showed up "dead" then Gwarp and the centaurs came charging in), but let's just say that Charlie went ahead of his mates from Romania to check on his family then went back to lead the charge, eh?
...
Oh come on, work with me here please? :D
I forgot to add this, but the scene back in the last chapter with Ron being ignored by Harry and Hermione while they were looking for a spell for their homework was inspired by a scene in Stay Standing by Windschild8178. Honestly, the way she wrote it was way better than how I did mine. Check out her fanfics! They're all worth the read! She's a huge inspiration for this fanfic so shout out to her and her glorious works!
As I always say with my fanfics, I am NOT abandoning this. It just takes...a while before the rest of the chapters follow. Ahem.
Please and kindly leave a review if you liked the story! Thought, comments and suggestions are always welcome!
Have an awesome year end, everyone!
UP NEXT:
The summer before his First Year, Ron's got his work cut out for him, from pulling a Hermione to bonding with his family. Because as everyone knows, everything starts with the foundation, and Ron better make it good.
