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 Hey sorry that the last chapter focused so much on Ginny, she has a role in this story but it isn't one of the main ones. So if you don't like her, don't worry you won't see her that much. Oh and warning this chapter is a little…strange. I like supernatural stuff and this kind of deals with that, if you don't like it the entire story is not going to be like this, probably just this chapter.

Chapter Three

A Strange Day

Have you ever been outside really late at night? When the fog for the night is just starting to set in and that of the chilling moon provides the only light and with just one look you know that you are completely alone. You have that sinking feeling in the very pit of your stomach that tells you that if you were to die at this instant by the hands of another the whole world would sleep through your screams.

This was one of those nights. After my final fight with Ginny I didn't feel much like company, so I took up wandering, one of my favorite pastimes at Hogwarts. But there was magic surrounding the entire grounds of the school and at night, no matter what time, all you saw were the stars and you always felt safe and protected.

But here, in the woodlands of my very own property I felt none of that, for the first time in my life I felt utterly alone. Growing up with six other children in the house, it's hard to achieve that feeling but I felt it now; and I felt it hard.

I sat down ungracefully on the ground and allowed my thoughts to overtake me. When you're young it always seems as though life is going to work out exactly how you planned, you are going to find the perfect job, the perfect spouse, have the perfect children, and you'll all live merrily ever after in the perfect house. But I had none of those things, and for the moment I felt like I would never have them.

I didn't have the perfect job. Hell, I didn't have any job. I was nowhere close to having the perfect spouse as I didn't even have a girlfriend. So, that eliminated the perfect children. And that damn perfect house could go right down the drain with them.

I heard leaves rustling behind me as if the wind was picking up. But just as quickly as the wind had started it stopped, and the leaves along with the rest of the forest were still once more.

"Ronald Weasley?" A misty sounding voice called out. I quickly got up from my place on the ground and whirled around in every direction searching for the voice that I knew belonged to no one that I had ever known.

"I've been searching for you for a long time now Ronald," the voice spoke again in the same eerie tone.

"Where are you?" I called out apprehensively.

"Over here my son," it called to me. My eyes darted around looking for someone, or something. They finally rested on a silvery mist that was a few feet behind me, just at the entrance to the woods.

I walked towards it and felt a feeling of remembrance come over me, as if I had seen this thing before. But the logical part of me knew that I hadn't, surely I would have a clear memory of a silver mist talking to me, but still…

"What are you?" I asked but somehow knew that I would not receive a straight answer.

"I am your past, present, and future. I am everything that you are, everything that you desire, and everything that you can be. I am you protector but at the same time the one you need protected from, I am every wish from you soul and every nightmare from your subconscious."

"Uh, all right then."

The mist ignored my confusion and continued to speak to me in a soothing manner. "You are unhappy Ronald. You always been unhappy, that is why I have not been able to find you."

"But why did you want to find me? What is so special about me, I'm just Ron." Even as I said the words I felt hope raising in my chest, whatever this thing was it was quite clear that it wanted me and for a moment, I felt special. It didn't want Harry or Hermione and for some reason I didn't even think that it even cared who they were.

"You know why I have been searching for you Ronald. Search within yourself to find the answers that you desire."

And then it was gone. I wasn't quite sure if it was a figment of my own delusion, but every fiber of my being was shouting at me that it was real. Search within yourself to find the answers that you desire.

What answers did I desire? I began to think logically, I obviously wanted to know what that thing was and what it wanted with me. I wanted to know what to do with my life and I wanted to know if I would ever find that person that I would love more than anything.

But at the moment, the only thing that I desired was sleep. My mother always used to tell me that everything would look better in the morning. If you are confused, sleep on it, and maybe when you wake up you'll have a new perspective and everything will be clearer.

So I walked back into the house and tried not to make much noise as I took the stairs up to my room where Harry was still asleep. And as I lay in my bed I found that I didn't feel quite so alone anymore.

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When I awoke the next morning I found that my mother's theory had been proven wrong. I didn't feel enlightened, I didn't have a new perspective, and I was still confused as hell about the entire situation. And most of all, I found that I didn't feel rested. I was every bit, if not more, tired than I was when I had went to sleep the night before. I felt as though I hadn't even sat down through the entire night, as though I had been running for hours or something.

But since I was awake I figured that I might as well try to 'search for answers inside myself.' Sounded like a self-motivation program to me.

I feigned sleep until Harry left the room and immediately placed silencing and locking charms over the door. I cleared all of my junk off of the floor and sat in the middle of it, and attempted to do that meditation stuff that we had learned in divination.

I was never one to believe in divination; hell I was actually never even one to pay attention in it. But I had briefly dated Lavender during sixth year and she placed all of her faith in it. You cannot have a relationship with her without coming out of it with a new outlook of divination. She didn't just believe in Trelawnly, she believed in the art of it all, the gift that was given to a precious few. There is something innocent about it, something pure.

And given my situation I figured that meditation was the best route to finding my answers. After all, that's what meditation is, searching within yourself. So I sat on the floor and folded my legs together in the traditional fashion, closed my eyes, and wandered my mind.

It's easy to get lost when you are attempting to search your own soul, you can't go too far in for you might never come back out. The soul is the most precious thing that you own, it is your essence, your very being. But I didn't get lost because I didn't find anything. As a wizard when you mediate you literally go inside of your mind and your soul; but when I went soul searching I made the most shocking discovery of my young life; there was nothing there.

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A/N God I swear that sometimes I even weird out myself, lol! Again, sorry about the shortness but when I start out stories, it's easier for me to just write short chapters, I don't know why. But as the story progresses so does the chapter length. If I confused you with this chapter I apologize, please just leave questions and comments in a review and I will try my best to clear it up. And if you don't have questions or comments, leave a review anyway!

I'm pretty sure that I got all of your reviews but either my computer or ff.net is messing up so sorry if I missed someone.

Hplova4eva (thanks for all of your reviews!), S.e.a (don't worry, I'm not offended at all, I love your new summery! And I completely get what you're saying about how people write Ron and Draco automatically being friends because Ginny is with him, it bugs the crap out of me, lol!), Ace of Spades (Lol, yes even though it is not seeming that way now it will eventually be a R/Hr. I seem to just have problems with getting to the main points of stories. And Ron is the person that they were talking about but not in the way that you think.), Eveningstar (I'm so glad that you found the irony in the last lines of the chapter! You were the only person to mention it. Sorry that Ginny turned against Ron, but come on, he needs some reasons to push him over the edge, lol!), Kagome (I know, right now it seems as though he barely even notices Hermione, but I've dropped a couple subtle hints and I feel like Ron is incredibly thick and it would take something huge to get him to realize if he feels something more.), RonandHerm4eva (I must admit that it was your story The Other Side of Hermione that got me wanting to write my own R/Hr. I finally got around to reading it and I left you a review but for some reason ff.net won't let me send reviews so I'm not sure if you got it. If not then I loved it so much and I am now reading the sequel. I'm really glad that you are liking this story, and I'll try to leave you more reviews, but sorry if you don't receive them!)