Chapter Two- Ron's Story
Ten minutes later, Hermione and Ron had seated themselves in the nearest burger bar and Ron had been supplied with more food than he had had in the past four years put together - chips (warm this time), onion rings, salad, burgers, sausages, ketchup ad a few bottles of lemonade. Ron wasted no time in piling as much as he could of it into his mouth in case it was a mirage and everything disappeared. Ron attracted some funny looks from the other customers and the staff because of his clothes and dirty face, but he took no notice.
Hermione watched him with a mixture of two very powerful feelings. The first was concern : what had this poor man been through over the last four years? Was he in such a terrible state he couldn't even afford to write, even once a year? And, she thought, eyeing his very thin chest and bony arms, just how little HAD he eaten? Was finding a few cold chips three nights ago considered lucky for him? Was he really serious when he said he was used to it? Hermione watched him tearing at his bun and chewing it hurriedly. He's eating like he's never seen food in his life, she thought to herself. Then she reminded herself (and felt even more desperately sorry for him) that this was probably how he felt.
The other emotion was a familiar one. It was the same twanging at her heartstrings she felt every night as she lay on her bed for hours, gazing dreamily and anxiously at the photo of Ron she kept on her bedside table. It was the same wonderful light-headed feeling that nothing else in the world mattered she often felt when Ron used to write to her during their first year out of Hogwarts and the same jolt in her heart she always got when she was in his company. She knew her parents thought she was being foolish, clinging faithfully to her love for Ron even after four years of lost touch, but she took no notice. Somehow, she'd always known her feelings for Ron wouldn't be easy to shake off.
"So," said Hermione, unable to contain herself any longer. "What's the story? How did you go from being one of the Ministry's best Aurors to, well, what you are now."
Ron swallowed the mouthful of chips he was chewing and grinned. "You mean a tramp."
Hermione was too eager for an explanation to correct him.
"Well," said Ron, swallowing the onion ring he had thrown into his mouth whole. "As you know, the year after you, Harry and I left Hogwarts I became an Auror. I don't know why I went for that job. I suppose I just didn't want office work like Dad and Percy. Well, it took me a while to get into it, but pretty soon I got the hang of it and managed to round up quite a few of the Ministry's trickiest Death Eaters."
"Anyone I know?" Hermione asked, smiling.
"Oh, yes." Ron's grin grew wider. "Most of the Slytherin House Quidditch Team if you remember them : Derrick, Bole, Puecy, Montague, Warrington, Flint...."
"Flint? Oh, I freed their house-elf today," Hermione remembered. Ron smiled at her.
"I was doing pretty well. I got quite a few interviews and pictures in the Daily Prophet and some people reckon I was the most successful Auror the Ministry's seen since the great Mad-Eye Moody himself."
Ron's ears went pink with a kind of embarrassed pride. Hermione was glad Ron had something to be proud of in a life of being overshadowed by many more successful brothers.
"Aurors get pretty well paid, too," Ron went on. "So after almost a year of hard work I bought myself my own flat. Nothing fancy, but just right for me. I was dying for you and Harry to come and see it. For the first time in my life I felt...... special. I wasn't just another Weasley, I was good at my job and got the recognition for it…I'd never felt special before. I was always just Weasley number six or Harry's sidekick…"
"Oh, Ron, don't be silly," Hermione said soothingly. "You've always been a VERY special person - to me" she added, though not as quietly as she would have liked, because Ron stared at her.
Had Hermione just said what he thought - and desperately hoped - she said? Did she really mean...? No! Ron's natural characteristic pessimism caught up with him. No, she didn't. All she meant was that he was a very good, close friend of hers and that she enjoyed their friendship at Hogwarts and after, that's all. He was quite sure Harry would have said the same. Or would he? Harry wouldn't have said Ron was SPECIAL to him. He would have told Ron he was a great, terrific friend or that he was a mate, but special to him? On the other hand, what was he thinking? He was a filthy vagabond and she was the same beautiful pure Hermione she had always been, probably happily married with a couple of kids and a handsome burly husband….Why did he even think she….?
Hermione went slightly pink at her last words, so to cover the silence, she asked, "So, what went wrong? If you were doing so well, I mean."
Ron's pride and grin vanished. His face contorted with a mixture of mental pain and boiling inward fury.
"I'll tell you what went wrong," he growled. "My dream come true became a nightmare."
"What dream was that?"
Ron took a steadying breath then said, "What I wanted more than anything else in the world, and that was probably why I went for the Auror job in the first place, was to catch Malfoy and put him in Azkaban."
This was a lie, of course; Capturing Malfoy was only Ron's second dearest wish - his first was Hermione's love, but he wasn't going to tell her that. Well, not yet, anyway.
"So - so you caught him, then?"
"Oh, I caught him all right," the note of pride was distinguishable once more in Ron's voice. "I spotted Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle performing the Cruciatus Curse on an old Muggle. I managed to Stun them before they even saw me, did a Memory Charm on the Muggle, then took the three of them back to the Ministry."
"And?" Hermione prompted eagerly.
"And they were arrested. They snapped their wands in half and disposed of the pieces. Then they sat in Azkaban for about a week until the Ministry could clear a date for their trial. Best part of my career, that was. Until the trial that is," Ron added, his pride fading once more.
"Why, what happened?"
"On the day of the trial, I saw Malfoy knocking out this Ministry wizard and grabbing his wand. I was asked to come to the trial, of course, but I didn't have any time to report Malfoy again. I was convinced he'd get his fair share in Azkaban anyway."
"And did he?"
"Nope."(Hermione looked shocked) "No, he pulled out this wand he stole, used a Summoning Charm on the judges and lawyers to get their papers, changed all the documents and prosecution and evidence and everything. Then he did Memory Charms on the jury, judges and lawyers so they'd forget they saw him do it. In fact, they forgot everything. When they looked at their notes and papers they were convinced I was the defendant, that I did the Cruciatus Curse and that I was using my new-found power as an Auror to bear schoolboy grudges on poor, innocent people like him. They fished out a load of Death Eaters I caught from Azkaban because of this. All the evidence was suddenly against me and Malfoy conjured up some more on the spot. He was set free along with most of the Death Eaters I spent the year rounding up, and before he left the court he yelled "I'll get you back for that week in Azkaban, Weasley! Mark my words, you'll pay for it!" Well, I paid for it, all right. By rights I should have been sent to Azkaban myself, but instead, they blew up my wand, confiscated my flat, my savings, all my money, fired me from my job and did a good few Memory Charms on me so I'd have trouble finding help. Good job Pig was out hunting that night or they'd have taken him, too."
Hermione's mouth was wide open, as Ron took a sip from his lemonade in a morose sort of way. When she found her voice she asked, "Well, if you had Pigwidgeon, why didn't you write to us for help?"
Ron's expression turned ever sadder at this. "Well," his voice trembled slightly. "Pig didn't last too long. I couldn't afford to feed him enough, and the food I could afford wasn't the right stuff for him. Pretty soon he became ill, too ill to hunt for himself, and eventually I had to hand him over to the nearest RSPB bird sanctuary. I don't know what's happened to him since."
"But - but why didn't you go home?" Hermione asked.
"I told you, the Magical Law Enforcement lot did a load of Memory Charms on me. I didn't have a clue WHERE The Burrow was, or how to get to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade or to Harry's place or yours or even Hogwarts. I couldn't go anywhere you might find a witch or a wizard. And they modified my memory so I'd forget how to Apparate as well."
"So what did you do?"
"Just wandered from one shelter to another. I passed through alleyways, the quieter parts of the Underground, parks, abandoned sheds....anywhere that might help me make it through a sleety night or a rainstorm without catching pneumonia."
Hermione felt too sorry for Ron to be able to think of anything to say to him. Ron finished his food in silence. Then he looked up at Hermione and wondered if she WAS spoken for after all. Before he could stop himself, he found himself blurting, "Hermione, are you married?"
Hermione, whose beautiful face had been in her hands, looked up, surprised. "No, no I'm not, why - "
"Are you engaged?" Ron went on, before he lost his nerve.
"No...."
"Are you seeing anyone? Have you got a boyfriend?"
"No, Ron, there isn't anyone," she replied softly. "There never has been, not since Viktor and I haven't had my eye on anyone since I…"
Hermione caught herself just in time to stop herself blundering on to reveal her true feelings for Ron. Ron was staring at her with what looked like a desperately hopeful look in his eyes, so she looked around for subject to take them off the one they were on.
"It's raining," she said, glancing out of the window.
"Is it?" said Ron, sending his gaze to window as well. "Blimey, I'd better get back to the alley and straighten out the cardboard awning so my dry spot doesn't flood."
He made to get up, but spotted Hermione goggling at him, a disbelieving expression on her face. "Don't tell me you thinking of going back to that - that side-street again? In this weather?"
Ron shrugged and replied grinning, "that's home sweet home."
"Oh, Ron, this is ridiculous!" said Hermione, standing up, too. "You can't go back there. Come home with me."
Ron was sure there was something wrong with his ears. "Sorry?"
"Come home with me," Hermione repeated. She looked determined. "You can stay with us for a while. Mum and Dad won't mind, they'll be dying to meet you again. Last time they saw you, your dad and Lucius Malfoy had that fight in Flourish and Blotts in our second year, remember?"
Ron still looked doubtful, so she added, "Oh, come on, Ron. Please?"
Ron grinned. "Your mum and dad won't want me in the house. You don't know where I've been. I might tear up the furniture, or give you all rabies."
Hermione didn't find this very funny. "You know that's not true. Mum and Dad'll love you….. though not as much as I do or ever will," she added, but this time she made sure she kept her voice down, so no one but herself could hear. "Is that a yes?"
Ron looked at her determined face and felt there was nothing he wanted more in the world than to spend some more time with Hermione, and there was definitely no better way than to do so than to live under the same roof for a while. After the past four years, he felt he could really do with some friendly company, Hermione's especially. It would give him plenty of chances to tell her what he really felt for her too, if and when the time was right.
"Yeah, all right," he said, his thin, unshaven face breaking into a grin that made Hermione's heart stand still.
"Fantastic! You just wait, Ron, in a few days' time you won't even recognise yourself. A good few meals, a few good nights in a proper bed with a proper roof over your head, and you'll be a new man. Then we'll get you a new wand and go down to the Ministry and see if we can get your job back."
Ron doubted the last bit, but the rest of it - with Hermione's company to cap it all - sounded too good to be true.
Hermione paid at the till, then the two of them left the burger bar, both privately feeling that things could only improve from here......
A/N Next chapter is all H/G, then chapter four'll be back to the R/H. Bear with me – the two stories'll tie in together. Even if you don't like Harry/Ginny, just…read it, okay? It should be up soon.
Oh, and review!!!!!!!!!!!