Title: Friend to Fame
Author: boyblue

DISCLAIMER: All characters, terms, names, trademarks, and settings,
whether implied or stated, are the sole property of J.K. Rowlings with
distribution and marketing rights held by Warner Brothers, and Scholastic,
Inc publishing.

Year: Beginning of sixth year
Time: Late August
Pairing: [Ron/Harry]
Rating: PG
Summary: Ron discovers he has some fanatic fans.
Spoilers: Some minor Sorcer's Stone references
Date: 1/10/2002
Summary: Fame takes a stange twist.
Warnings: All Slash references have been removed from this version.

Notes:
The Sequel to 'Friend to Fame' is 'The Chess Club'. Character from these
story, reappear in my other stories. 'Friend to Fame' and 'The Chess Club'
stand together as a separate and unique story. Although, references are
made to these stories in my later stories.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Friend to Fame [Ron/Harry]

Harry and Ron are in Diagon Alley, picking up supplies for their sixth
year at Hogwart's. To get away from the crowd at the Weasley house, Harry
and Ron had rented a room for a week at the Leaky Cauldron.

Ron and Harry strolled down Diagon Alley pondering what they should do
next.

"..aaaaaaah!!...", Harry heard the scream of a small boy.

"...aaaaah!..it's him ...it's has to be him, look at his hair", came the
voice of a second boy.

Harry and Ron turned toward the voices, two small boys about 9 or 10 years
old, are both stunned, wide eyed, and pointing at Ron and Harry.

'Oh, no this again', Harry thought, 'why can't people just leave me
alone?'

The two excited boys rush over and stood with smiles beaming up at Harry
and Ron. "Are you Harry Potter?", the blond boy asked.

Ok, Harry thought, go through the motions and get it over as quick as
possible. Harry lifted his hair to show his scare, because everybody
always wanted to see the scar. "Yes, I'm Harry Potter."

"I knew it!", the dark haired boy exclaimed to his friend, "As soon as I
saw his hair, I knew it had to be him!"

Two beaming smiles turned back up to Ron and Harry. Except that's not what
happened, Harry noticed, two beaming smiles turned toward Ron.

The two boys looked back at each other, their eyes so wide Harry thought
they would fall out, their smiles so big, he wondered if their faces would
break.

"RON WEASLEY!" "Ron Weasley!" the boys screamed at each other.

Then came a torrent of question.

"Ron Weasley! It's really him." "You are Ron Weasley, right?" "Of course,
it's him. Isn't it?"

The boys had each grabbed one of Ron's hands, and were so excited, they
were jumping up and down, tugging on Ron's arms. Ron was dumbstruck. He
wondered what was going on. Who were these kids, and what did they want?

"Were you scared?" "Did you get hurt bad?" "Did you have to go to the
hospital? Of course, you did." "Did you see him? Did you see he who must
not be named?" "Was he scary?" "What did look like?" "How big were the
pieces?" "Did you play a strategy?"

"Wait, wait, wait", Ron tried to calm them, "what's going on? What are you
guys doing? What do you want?"

"You're Ron Weasley?"

"Yes", Ron replied.

"I knew it!, I told you!", shouted the dark haired boy.

"You're our hero. You played the game of chess that defeated Lord Volde...
he who must not be named!?", the blond boy said still excitedly tugging on
Ron's arm.

"Yes, how do you know about that?", Ron asked.

The two boys looked at each other stunned, still beaming huge smiles but
stunned, as if the answer were so obvious, they could imagine that anyone
would even ask the question.

"What do you mean? Everybody knows." "Is there anybody, who doesn't know?"
"It's all we talk about in our wizards chess club." "Can we get a picture
of you for our chess club."

"PAPER!!" screamed the blond boy. Screamed like he had just see Lord
Voldemort himself. "Paper! Paper! I need paper!"

A middle age witch who was passing by, stopped, looking a little annoyed
that the boys were creating such a disruption, and pulled a folded piece
of parchment from her purse.

"A PEN! I need a..."

Before the boy could finish, the witch held a muggle pen in front of his
face. The witch stood looking down at the boys like stern teacher.

"Can we have you autograph. Please?" "Please? Please?" "Make mine out to
Sammy. This is Freddy, he's my best friend." "Wait, give us four, two more
for our friends."

Ron, took the pen and parchment, he spoke as he wrote, "To my good friend,
Sammy. From your pal, Ron Weasley."

"Weasley?", the witch asked, "Ron Weasley? Make that five. No six, one for
my daughter too. ...You must be Harry Potter then, pleasure to meet you."
But she didn't offer to shake Harry's hand.

Ron, signed the paper six times and handed it back to the blond boy, who
started tearing off the two autographs for the witch. The witch took the
autographs, got her pen back, shook Ron's hand, and walked off.

"Can I send you an owl? Will you write back to me?" "Can we get a picture
for our chess club?" "Will you come to our chess club?"

"YES!!", the two boys scream together.

"Please, will you come to our chess cub? Please!" "Please, please,
please..." "You have to come. Please?" The dark hair boy is suddenly hit
with the realization that, "We'll be famous! Please, you have to come."

The boy beg and pleaded with Ron. "Ok.. Ok... enough now" Ron tried to
clam them. "I tell you what, you can send me an owl at Hogwart's and we'll
talk about it. Then I'll see if it can be arranged."

"YES!!", the boys scream again.

"We'll be famous", added the dark haired boy.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." "Thank you.", the dark haired boy
turned to his friend, "He's going to come. I know he's going to come."

The two boys turned and ran down the street, staring at the autographs as
they ran.

Ron and Harry stood looking at each other bewildered. Ron shrugged is
shoulders as if to say that he was clueless about what just happened.

"So, what should the famous Ron Weasley and his trusty sidekick Harry, do
now?", Harry asked Ron.

With a very melodramatic gesture, Ron put the back of his hand to his
forehead, turned his head to the side, and did his best Gilderoy Lockhart
impression, "Oh Harry, dear dear Harry, I've grown so weary of fame. It
can be trying at times. But a famous person such as myself, can't be
bothered with such mundane decisions. I leave it to you my trusted and
faithful companion." Ok, Shakespeare it's not. Ron turned his face toward
Harry grinning.

"Ice cream?", Harry asked.

"Ice cream.", Ron acknowledged.

They put their arms over each other's shoulder, shook their head still
amazed by what had happened, and walk toward the ice cream parlor.

As they walked, Harry said to Ron, "Say, Ron, I know this guy who can get
you a great deal on a 100 eight by ten glossy photos."

Ron just shook his head as he walked.

...fade to black....