Shadows
Rating: PG-13
Summery: "He painted a pretty picture for you, didn't he Ron, what with all of his colorful lies and empty promises, how could I possibly compete with that?" A series of events leads Ron to the dark side, can anyone bring him back?
Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize I don't own
A/N Hmm, well for once I don't really have anything to say. I feel like I should pat myself on the back though because it's been a while since I had a next day update on anything. Oh yeah, and the morning part is basically me in the mornings, lol!
Chapter One
The Longest Day
"RON WEASLEY WAKE UP THIS ISTANT!" And that is how I awoke the very next morning, by the lovely sound of my mother's shrill voice carrying up the stairs.
I gave the traditional groan, mumbled, "five more minutes," into my pillow and attempted to go back to sleep. Ah, sleep was good. However, unfortunately for me I live with Fred and George who are 'morning people' so my standard self-inflicted snooze was quickly cut short by the unpleasant sounds of a herd of elephants bounding down the stairs.
And by a herd of elephants, I do mean that literally. It was their newest invention, guaranteed to get the laziest person out of bed or your money back. I gave one final moan before dragging myself away from the warm comforts of my bed and down to the chaos that is the Weasley kitchen.
I immediately began to pile food onto my plate; if I had to be up I was going to eat. Fred or George, it was too early to tell which one, made some snide comment about that herd of elephants that they heard must have been my stomach growling. I was about to respond but Hermione beat me to it. I gave her a grateful smile as my best comeback probably would have been shut up you stupid git.
"So Ron," Hermione began way too cheerfully, "you are coming to Diagon Alley with us today, aren't you?"
"Why are we going to Diagon Alley?" I asked without much enthusiasm.
Hermione gave a frustrated sigh and shot me a look that clearly said that she was disappointed in my memory of the 'important event.' "We are going," she said stiffly, "so I can pick up the books that I need for my summer reading before I go to school."
I sighed myself and gave her an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry that I forgot Mione'."
"It's quite all right." And thus the argument, if you could even call it that, ended. Everyone at the table looked up in shock, you could hear the sound of knives, forks, and spoons being dropped to the floor. I rolled my eyes at their reactions, we didn't have huge fights that often, did we?
"The fight is over?" I heard Ginny whisper.
Harry nodded dumbly to her and Fred and George immediately burst into tears and began to proclaim that their ickle little Ronniekins was growing up. I growled at their antics and stood up from the table.
"I'll meet you at the fireplace in one hour," I said to Hermione only.
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Have you ever noticed that a shower can fix everything? No matter how depressed or upset you are when that hot water is streaming down your body and you are getting rid of all the dirt and grim that covers you, you can't help but feel like it's a new day, and nothing is really that bad.
So once I was freshly clean, I felt awake, forgiving, and ready to take on the world. I went down the stairs to the area that the fire was located exactly one hour later and found Harry, Hermione, and Ginny waiting beside it.
I wordlessly grabbed a fistful of floo powder, stepped in the fire and loudly yelled, "Diagon Alley." It took a few minutes for the others to follow, but they did eventually do so. Ginny was the last one out but the first one to leave. She seemed very nervous about something but she quickly scampered off claiming that she had plans to meet up with some friends of hers.
I shrugged off her strange behavior and accompanied Hermione along with Harry to the bookstore. I felt my spirits lifting as I watched Hermione practically skipping to the bookstore in happiness; sometimes even the most simple things can fill you with complete joy.
After about two hours Harry and I finally dragged Hermione out of the bookstore and onto somewhere more interesting, Quidditch Supplies. She allowed exactly thirty minutes of us wandering around the shop in awe before she began to excessively complain about what a childish and pointless sport it was. We, in turn made her wait another half an hour before finally leaving the store empty handed.
But it was at the ice cream parlor where we found the real action of the day. As we passed I looked through the large glass window and a flash of red caught my eye. It was such a distinctive color that I knew that it had to be a Weasley, and being that the only other Weasley in Diagon Alley was Ginny I put two and two together.
I forced my friends to stop as I spied on my baby sister. There was someone else with her, but I couldn't see who as she was blocking them and they were in the back of the shop.
"Come on Ron," Hermione said clearly agitated, "lets just go, I'm sure that Ginny is just with a friend."
"It's not a friend," I growled. "I can tell that it's a guy and I want to know who she is with."
She sighed and attempted to psychically drag me away from the parlor. "Please Ron, lets leave. I thought that you were over being all protective of her anyway. Remember how we agreed that she was old enough to make her own decisions?"
I easily yanked my arm away from Hermione as I was much larger and stronger than she, and quickly resumed my spot at the window. She should have really known better than to think that I was over that, Ginny was the baby of the family her role was to be protected.
Suddenly Ginny threw her head back in laughter and I got a glimpse of who she was dining with. He had blonde hair. Hair so fine and blonde that it looked almost silver. Malfoy.
Hermione shot a panicked look at Harry who shrugged in return before grabbing onto my arm. "Come on mate," he pleaded, "just leave her be."
"Leave her be?" I asked slowly. I pointed at the window in frustration, "do you see who she's with? She is with bloody Malfoy Harry and all you can say is leave her be?" I didn't wait for his response as I stormed into the store with Harry still hanging on to my arm.
When the door was slammed open Ginny's head shot up in surprise. She took one look at my angry face before immediately standing up in front of Draco.
"Uh, hi Ron," she said meekly. I glared at her and felt my facing burning red with anger, why on earth would she be in here, laughing with MALFOY? I roughly pushed her aside and the man that I had despised all of my life stood up and mirrored my glare.
"Ron!" Ginny cried, attempting to gain my attention, "it's not what you think."
I turned to her, "what is it then Virginia?" I asked in a dangerous voice.
Her eyes filled with tears and she turned to Hermione, who for once, was speechless. She let out a sob and once again placed herself in between me and the ferret. "Please don't hurt him," she pleaded with me.
I saw him place a gentle hand on her arm and pull her out of the middle of the fight. His glare softened when he looked at her tear stricken face, but only for a moment. As soon as she was out of the way he turned his sneer back on and faced me once more.
"All right then Weasley," he drawled, "I think that we both know what's coming so why don't you just go ahead and get it over with."
I did a quick glance to make sure that Ginny was out of the way, "gladly Malfoy." I then raised my fist and made contact with his pale pointed face.
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A/N Ah, I always love a fight. Lol, I have problems. So speaking of problems, as you can see, Ron's are just beginning. I was going to have this chapter be longer but I have the mosquito bite from hell on my hand and I keep having to stop typing every minute to itch it. It will probably be a couple of days before I can update again because I have to leave Sunday morning to go on college visits…with my parents…until late Monday night…oh joy. I'm glad that you guys are getting this story and hopefully it will be developing into something soon.
A huge thank you goes out to:
Ace of Spades (glad that you're trying to get into it even thought your not a big R/Hr fan!), bumble-bee (thank you for saying that it's original), Silent Bob (is coolios a word? Lol, I'll have to use that one), spidermonkeesrcool (I'm glad that you think that R/Hr are meant to be, I completely agree!), fantasyangel (Hmm, I don't know what's going to happen to his friendship with Harry *evil laugh* guess we'll just have to wait and see), and Evil Jasmyne (I agree with you on Ron making the books funny, he had me laughing out loud several times in OotP) I really appreciate all of your reviews!