Finally! Chapter 7! Poor Ron is Traumatized [capital "T"]

Disclaimer: No own HP Characters! Yes own Negation-Accommodation program!

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Down the hall, into the corridor on the left, and three doors to the right, a startled Draco Malfoy toppled over his seat, knocking the table over and sending his lunch flying and flying and flying -

And crash-landing on his face.

Ever since the "bagpipe incident", his ears were fine-tuned to even the softest of the bagpipe tones. Quickly assuming that Ginny had snuck off to try the bagpipe again when she should be practicing, he began to bellow at the top of his lungs.

"VIRGINIA WEASLEY! I DISTINCLY TOLD YOU NOT TO GO NEAR THOSE BLOODY BAGPIPES AGAIN!"

He hurriedly wiped his face clean of the remnants of his lunch and was nearly out the door when -

Plunk!

- a piece of rosin rebounded off his head and onto the floor. Patience wearing thin, he picked it up and turned around to face the perpetrator. He came face to face with a very irate Ginny Weasley.

"Malfoy, DON'T you DARE assume that it's me without checking first!"

Malfoy's jaw fell open. What the - why was - how…how did she get here so quickly? The room with the bagpipe was - no wait…that can't be right. That atrocious bagpipe sound is still going. Who else would have the lack of brains to enjoy such vulgar music? Malfoy snarled.

Weasley.

He looked up to see Ginny watching him.

No, not that Weasley. The other one. Weasel Weasley.

Ginny frowned, although she was vastly amused as his face twisted from one expression to another. She began tapping her foot impatiently. "Well, Malfoy, are you just going to stand there and continue displaying your limited number of facial expressions? Oh…I see you're stuck on the scowl. No no…you've already done 'the snarl'! Try something new."

Malfoy growled in annoyance, then dashed off towards the room where the blasted sound was coming from. Ginny smirked self-satisfactorily and followed suit.

~

Ron grinned madly, clutching the bagpipes closely. Now, THIS is something exciting Malfoy had. He placed his mouth on the pipe again and drew a large breath. He had to hear the sound again, the alluring, mysterious, wonderf -

"WEEEEEEEAAAAAASLEEEEEEEY!"

Bugger. He'd been discovered.

Ron had the grace to look guilty as Draco pounded down the door to the forbidden room, followed closely by Ginny and Lupin. He tried hiding the bagpipe behind him, but the pipes poked out every which way.

"You…have…touched those….those…." Draco's voice was filled with loathing and rage as he shook, unable to bring himself to say the word 'bagpipe'.

"Bagpipes?" Lupin suggested helpfully.

"That!! You have been playing That! Could you not see all the bloody signs around it that said "Hands off the- the- the…"

"Bagpipe." Ginny inserted.

"--? Could you not?! They're only all over the sodding room!!!" Draco continued, raging at Ron, who began looking around and noticing the big, neon warning signs for the first time.

"Well, so there are! How absolutely fascinating! Say, is that elkilterity that's making them light up like that? How attractive…" He noticed the warning signs on his sister's and Lupin face and fell silent.

"…Sorry, Malfoy…uhm. Ron sort of…inherited Dad's love of er, Muggle artifacts." Ginny explained weakly as she noticed the steam coming up in trickles from Draco's ears and nostrils. He swung his decimating glare on her and she quickly turned around and ran out of the room.

"Yeah, I think I'll go work on that uhm. Song now. Right. Bye!"

Lupin meanwhile, mouthed at Ron to 'put the bagpipe down and step slowly away from it! Yes! Now would be a good time!' while keeping a wary eye on Draco.

"Listen, Draco, I'm-I'm sure Ron didn't mean to ah, upset your bagpipe display. So-so why don't you…return to lunch, and let me take care of this…?" Lupin said soothingly, tentatively jerking the bagpipe from the reluctant hands of Ron and stuffing it pack in its plexi glass case.

"Aw, Malfoy, it's just a bagpipe. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

"And what if I wear boxers?" Draco growled venomously. Ron shuddered.

"Er. Right. Right, boxers," Ron amended, his head wondering wildly why he had to know the answer to boxers or briefs. "Now let's all get back to lunch, right?" he turned and nodded wildly at Lupin, then back at Malfoy, who was still radiating hell fire.

"Oho…no, you don't." Draco shot out one hand and grabbed Ron's collar as he tried to scuttle past him. Ron suddenly found himself face to face with a man with features of an angry, starved bulldog. For a long moment, Draco just growled at him. Then, he twisted his face into a smile. Ron had to remind himself not to piss in terror.

"If you like bagpipes so much, then I have just the thing…" Rudely, he grabbed Ron's wrist and jerked him out of the room, and stomped down the long hallway. Gibbering madly, the poor Weasley tried to call out for help and free himself of the mad man. He spotted Ginny, who was hiding behind a giant Ming vase, sending him apologetic looks and Lupin, who was shaking his head. Malfoy suddenly stopped and turned to the green wallpapered wall.

"Come here, Weasley." Ron stood stock still, so Draco shoved him at the wall. There was a wild thought of 'Oh my god!! Malfoy's really gone homicidal!' before Ron fell through, a la Platform 9 ¾.

Dazedly, the red head crawled to his feet, rubbing his wrists and trying to stop his legs from shaking. The room was in total blackness, and he blindly groped for his wand.

"No need for your wand, Weasley," Draco's voice suddenly sounded out of thin air.

"M-Malfoy?! What have you done to me!! Let me out! I'm-I'm not a prisoner!!" Vainly, Ron tried to knock up against where he had fallen through, and found to his growing dismay, that the plaster was back in place.

There was an evil laugh, and Ron shuddered. Lights suddenly turned on in the room, and momentarily, he was blinded. When his rodopsin had finished burning up, he took a careful look around the room. And then he wished that the light really had blinded him. Anything would have been better than…

Barney-in-Scottish-kilts posters all over the wall, with Scottish-Barney! sing-a-long tapes on constant rerun mode in the VCR and stereo.

Ron whimpered.

He hated bagpipes.

~

"Are-are you sure my brother's going to be okay?" Ginny asked nervously as a loud wailing came from behind the wall. She and Lupin winced as loud, repeated thuds sounded from the inside. Draco carelessly flung a silencing spell over the hallway.

"Of course not," he told her cheerfully. "But don't worry. He loves bagpipes."

"I thought that was the problem in the first place," the literature professor muttered. He patted Ginny's hand sympathetically, and followed an excessively gleeful Draco to the living room.

Ginny was back in the "Room of Doom", as she had so fondly named the music room. Once again, her eyes squinted as she slowly screeched her way through the song. Occasionally, a scream of anguish would pierce through the house, and Ginny would wince. Whatever Ron was going through, it must be painful.

Just as she was randomly lifting her fingers off and on the string in a very complicated trill, Draco frolicked (yes, frolicked) in, obviously still happy about Ron's predicament. As he listened to Ginny's "progress", though, his big grin began to tremble and droop.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Weasley, your playing could really ruin someone's day, even a day as good as the one when I best your Weasel brother," he snapped, his mouth forming a big huge frown.

Ginny glared at him, still scratching away at the violin when a loud cry resounded through the hallways. Ginny winced.

Draco, however, immediately swung back to his frolicky mood. "Well, I must say it serves him right for touching those blasted bagpipes," he crowed happily, a smug look pasted onto his face.

Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes before setting the violin down. "Where DID you push Ron into?"

"Where did I push him into?" Draco resounded, his grin practically splitting his face in half. "Why, it was an ingenious idea on my part – " Ginny snorted. Draco glared at her and continued, " – that the absolutely terrific room is in existence. I call it a Negation Accommodation, where a person's most recent obsession is examined, and then it is turned around on him to give him the worst nightmare he has ever had, making him absolutely loathe whatever he had liked. Genius, isn't it? I knew that it would come in handy one day," Draco explained, proudly patting his self on the back.

Despite feeling a bit terrified by the purpose of the room, Ginny couldn't help be a bit fascinated. "So what is Ron seeing right now in that room?"

Draco's mouth slowly curled into a smirk. "What is purple, big, and wears a Scottish kilt?"

"Huh?" Ginny thought for a moment. When realization dawned on her, her mouth immediately dropped open, emitting a disbelieving laugh. "Barney?! Scottish Barney?! Are you serious?!"

Draco chuckled. "As I said, it's a genius plan."

Ginny stood there, mouth gaping open as she wondered whether to laugh at her brother's expense, or to run to the room and try to help Ron out.

As if reading her mind, Draco pointed to the neglected violin sitting on the couch and commanded, "Practice. I've got something planned, and you better be ready for it." Ginny picked up the violin as Draco flung a flyer onto the table. She leaned over and began to read aloud the contents.

"'A night of music with Orla Quirke, violinist extraordinaire. Learn the magic of music!' Orla?" Ginny paused, trying to recall the familiar name. "The Orla who graduated from Hogwarts? From Ravenclaw [or whatever house she was in]? That Orla?"

Draco nodded. "I heard she is rather talented on the violin. But anyway, we're going to go listen to her concert, see if it'll inspire you to play better."

Ginny huffed at the last comment, but let it slide. "Does Professor Lupin know about this?" She looked around, as if expecting to see the professor pop up suddenly. "Where is he, anyway?"

"The professor was the one who found the flyer. He's currently setting up better enforcements on around the bagpipe." His superior look returned as the idea of his deed returned. "Though I doubt it'll make any difference, as Ron will be so terrified of the bagpipes to stand the sight of it."

Ginny chuckled nervously, making a mental note not to touch the bagpipes or any other instrument without Draco's consent.

A silence descended upon the house. Draco was the first to notice.

"Seems like your brother has been quiet for quite a long while," he pointed out, reaching over to pick up the flyer again. "Think it's time to check up on him?"

Ginny jumped, partly because of Draco's sudden speech, and partly because of her worry for Ron. "Yes! C'mon … let's go!"

~

They freed Ron from the Accomodation-Negating room [poor thing, Ginny could understand only three phrases that babbled from her brother's mouth; "flying kilts," "no underwear," and "he's got two!"] and also called the professor from his work.

"Ah, good. I see Ron has learned his lesson?" Remus asked mildly, taking in note of Ron, who was now huddled in a corner, shaking.

"Admirably," Draco purred in satisfaction. The sound drew chills up and down Ginny's spine.

"I don't think he's going to ever recover," she said mournfully, unconsciously playing a scale on the fingerboard of her violin.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine," Draco waved off her concern. "Now, let's try the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Start slow, that's it. Long bows, don't press, your fingers have to lift…"

~

Over the next two weeks, nothing of interest happened very much, except that maybe Ginny's technique had improved somewhat. Ron was noticeably subdued, due to his unfortunate…experience, and Remus was busy analyzing Fantasia and asking Draco obscure questions. The music professor himself spent his time alternating between griping at Ginny, smirking at Ron, and giving Lupin encyclopedia-sized answers.

However, one Monday morning, Ginny woke up and found to her surprise, that Draco for once hadn't woken her up with a metronome set at Presto. Instead, he was leaning against the doorframe and was rapping his knuckles on the wall.

"Wha- I'm up! What-where's your metronome? Did you conveniently drop it into the English Channel?" Ginny asked hopefully, rubbing her eyes with sore fingers.

"Nonsense. Get up, Professor Lupin's going back to his classes today."

"Is that it?" she groaned, collapsing back on the pillows. "You can tell him that I'll miss him, he's a great teacher, see him soon, bye."

Draco rolled his eyes and flicked his wand at her, whereupon her bed disappeared and she fell to the ground with an undignified yelp.

"Pink knickers. Very cute," Draco observed, amused, dodging the alarm clock that came winging his way. "But I think you've misunderstood. We're to accompany the good professor to his class, whereon I shall lecture, and you shall be my visual." He smirked in some private amusement and left the room.

"By the way, were those yellow ducks I saw on your behind?"

"They're geese! Geese, you moron!" Ginny growled, chucking her slippers after him. 

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WAH! HA! HA!

We actually had this written about two months ago, just haven't gotten around to checking it, and stuff.

Too lazy, what with AP and finals and summer school… =] [yes, that was a blatant excuse]