Sometimes, unconsciousness was much preferable to awake. You never had any worries while you slept, at least in Ron's experience. He knew that Ginny used to get pretty bad night terrors, but nothing bad had ever happened to him.
Sadly, Ron could feel himself returning to consciousness and in the half conscious state that he was currently in, all he could remember is that he had a very good reason not to want to return to the waking world. But he couldn't remember what that reason was so he grudgingly allowed his body to pull him back to awareness.
The first thing that Ron felt was how good he felt. Like seriously good. To be honest this might be the best that Ron has felt in the entirety of his life. It felt like there was a manic sort of energy just simmering under the surface of his skin that was telling him to go run laps around the pond. Ron thought that he might even be shaking a little bit from all of the pent up energy that he had in him at the moment.
The next thing he noticed was that he didn't really know where it was that he was laying. From the wooden walls and ceiling he was staring up at he must be in some kind of house, but he couldn't tell what house that was and he was pretty sure that he had never been there before.
Sitting up, Ron tried to take stock of the room. There was a cot that he was resting on and a table nearby in order to rest a few things, but besides that it looked like the room was pretty much empty, with no personal items to be seen that would identify who the room belonged to.
Ron shifted off of the bed and marveled at how smoothly he had done it. It felt like his muscles were currently twice as strong as they had been before. He lifted his legs up and down a few times experimentally and bounced on his toes a little. The power that was coursing through him was really something amazing although he didn't really have a word to describe it.
Ron took stock of what he was wearing and noticed that all it was was a simple tunic and pants that didn't seem to be that complicated. It definitely wasn't his though, which was weird. The only clothes that he actually owned were handed down to him from the twins and some of his older brothers, but he was quickly growing out of them because he was probably going to be bigger than them in a few years.
Ron shook off his idle thoughts on his clothing and moved out the door of the room. Then he realized where he was. He was standing in the middle of the local inn and had just been placed in one of the rooms they rented out. He could see a lot of people that he recognized sitting in the main room of the inn.
He saw his parents, some neighbors that he recognized, and the mayor of their village, Mr. Diggory. They were all wearing very serious expressions and were involved in a very serious conversation which caused them to miss him coming out into the room.
"What's going on?" Ron asked.
The group collected together all started, several of whom stood up from the shock. Mum actually let out a little bit of a yelp and ran up to him and trapped him in a bone crushing hug. Although the hug didn't seem to be as painful as it used to hurt whenever she gave him a ferocious hug. Ron noticed belatedly that Mum was sobbing uncontrollably into his chest. He patted her awkwardly back.
"Ahh, Mum?" Ron asked. "Why are you crying so hard?"
That only seemed to make her sob all the harder Ron could barely make out her say. "Y-you a-almost d-d-died!"
Ron's body went stiff as the memory suddenly flooded back into him. The clearing. The devastation. The Red Cap.
The magic.
"Ahh… Bollocks," Ron said.
Ron couldn't even start to process all of the implications of him having magic had. He was a Chosen? He had to become a soldier? He was going to leave forever? He was going to leave like Charlie? He had magic? Would he have to work for the king?
Ron shook his head sharply. This wasn't the time to panic. He had to calm down and think about this rationally. Where would be the best place to start?
Alright, just start with the fact that he had magic in the first place. Ok, he could explain that. Most humans that were born into this world were born more or less normal. Some were a bit stronger than others, sometimes a bit faster, or even a bit smarter, but more or less humans were mundane. However, sometimes, through what seemed like complete random chance, a human child is born into the world with the ability to control magic. They could do something with the magic and then cause the flashy things to happen. Alright, Ron was one of the lucky, or unlucky, ones to be born magical. Where did that leave him?
Well, that would lead to what is going to happen to him now that he knows that he's magical. Well, that probably explains why he's suddenly become so much stronger and why his mother's hug didn't hurt as much as it usually did. And did he always used to think this long on any one thing at a time? He couldn't be sure. Well that's a rundown of how he's feeling and the effects the magic is having on his body.
Well what was going to happen to him with the king. Any one who is discovered to be magical is conscripted into the service of the king. It has been like that since the end of the war.
And well that could be pretty bad. The king, Lord Voldemort, had taken to collecting anything that might be considered a risk to his reign. From the way his parents talked about it, he got the idea that the king wasn't necessarily a very good person. Not that they would ever dare to say those things aloud, but it was more in the way that they didn't say certain things, and how they tended to avoid talking about a certain wayward son of theirs.
Ahh, right, Charlie. Ron really hadn't been old enough to remember him much, but he of course learned about him. It had been when Ron was only a couple of years old. Charlie, who was about eight years older than Ron, had awakened to his magical abilities and within a day, was being picked up by officers of the King and taken away to be trained to become a soldier. His family didn't talk about him much, only a few mentions every once and a while. Only Bill and Percy were really old enough to have any memories of their brother and they always got quiet when Ron made mention of him.
Ok, he was going to be like Charlie then.
That really didn't make him feel good. Ron knew that it was taboo in The Burrow to ever bring up Charlie in front of either of his parents, but especially his mum. Ron did so one time and had nearly had a nervous breakdown about how his mum had acted in general for about a week afterwards.
Ron was suddenly very worried for his parents. And that worry triggered a memory of his brother facing off against a Red Cap all alone.
"Bill!" Ron exclaimed suddenly. "And the others! Are they ok!" Ron pulled away from his mother to look into her eyes for a second. She looked surprised for a second, shocked out of her tears, and then pointed into one of the spare inn rooms. Ron didn't wait for anyone else to talk before spinning around and running into the room his mum had pointed to.
Inside he saw his brothers laid out throughout the room. Fred, Percy, and George didn't seem to have that bad of wounds, all things considered. Audrey was sitting by Percy while Angelina and Katie sat by Fred and George. Ginny was in the room kneeling by one of the beds. The last person that slept in the room was the one that caught his attention, though.
Bill did not look like he was going to survive. The bandages that they had wrapped him in were already red, despite how thick and how many of them there were. His face looked incredibly pale and was glistened in a thick layer of a deadly sweat. Bill's chest was uncovered and Ron could see the criss crossing of the wounds across it. Ron's stomach rolled uncomfortably at the sight of him.
Everyone looked up and Ron could see that most of them were teary eyed. Some of them were sad, angry, or even scared. Scared of him, Ron realized.
Ron staggered forward awkwardly and collapsed onto his knees next to Ginny. He took a hold of one of Bill's hands and barely kept in a sob from escaping.
This was his fault. This wouldn't have happened if he just hadn't run away like a coward. He could have stayed and gotten his magic to come and then defeated the Red Cap without Bill having to sacrifice himself like this. He shouldn't have been so weak.
Ron struggled to think what was going to happen after this. Both Ron and Bill leaving forever might actually kill his mum. He didn't want to think about what her reaction would be in the coming days. His dad would have to fight to stay strong, but Ron knew he would be hurting just as bad as his wife on the inside. Ron's throat was already getting dry and he couldn't even bring to think about his siblings' reactions.
Ron could feel the grief well up inside him as a sob escaped out of his lips. That sob seemed to break the damn and all of a sudden, Ron was a blubbering mess on the floor, sobbing into Bill's hand.
Ron didn't know for how long he sat there, just sobbing over his dying brother, but he was broken out of his mourning by a loud gasp coming from right next to him. He opened his eyes to look out at where Ginny had been before his sobbing but was surprised when he couldn't see her sitting there.
In fact, he couldn't see much of anything at the moment. A bright golden light was surrounding his vision. He couldn't see anything past it. He looked around the room but the light was drowning out everything else in the room. Everything except one.
Ron could still make out Bill's body. Well, not exactly his body, but just a collection of black spots in the golden light. Black spots that just so happened to coincide with the locations of where the bleeding had been pooling in the bandages.
Ron didn't even think he was fully in control of what his body then decided to do. His hands reached over to place themselves on either side of Bill's chest and then pushed. Not like physically pushing, but more of a pushing out of that strange energy that had been filling him up since he had awoken.
Ron didn't notice a change at first, but after a minute of doing it, he noticed that some of the black spots in his vision were starting to shrink. On all sides, the black lines were getting smaller and smaller. The wounds, Ron realized, were being healed by the magic that Ron was pouring out of his body.
A few minutes later and the black spots had seemingly completely disappeared. Then, the golden light that had changed his vision disappeared and Ron was left looking down at a Bill that was blinking up owlishly at him.
"Ron?" Bill asked.
All Ron could do was back up in shock as Bill was swarmed by the surrounding group of gingers. Ron staggered out of the door and slid down the wall back in the main room. Ron could see his parents rushing past him, attracted by the happy exclamations, no doubt.
All Ron could do was stare across the inn in wonder of what he had just done. Had his magic just saved his brother's life? Had he just saved the life he had doomed when he ran away? Ron couldn't do anything to stop the tears from falling.
The group that had come together were all staring at him in wonder as they realized what must have happened. The shock and awe was plain to see on their faces, as well as the not so small bit of fear they held of him as well. Which was kind of silly to be honest, before today he had always been the most useless of the Weasley's. What were they doing here now, acting like he was an avatar of the Old Gods or something.
Although there was one person in the crowd that didn't seem to be reacting much to the news of his magic. An old man with long white hair that Ron had never seen before was just casually sitting at one of the tables in the back, with no one reacting to his presence like it was anything odd at all. Even though they barely ever got travelers and his presence surely would have been noteworthy to have come to Ron's ears but he had heard nothing of a traveler in town.
Ron then noticed that no one seemed to be reacting to the presence of the stranger. Even more odd when the stranger stood up to come and stand in front of ron.
The old man looked down on Ron.
"Hello there, young Mage," the man said. "May I interest you in becoming my traveling companion?"
A/N: Whoa I actually made a second chapter of this, that's crazy. Anyways I think I'm going to try to keep up this weekly thing and see how it goes for me. At least 2k a week and maybe I'll try to go double length once I'm better and doing the whole writing thing. Did I mention that the purpose of this story is to make me better at writing for The Dueling Tournament? Because that story is like a child to me and I want to be better at writing before I try to write that.