Shadows

Rating: PG-13

Summary: "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 Sorry about the long updating time, I meant to update before I left but ended up not having time. Lol, if it makes it any better I had a wonderful vacation and wrote most of this during it.

Chapter Thirteen

Setting Up the Pieces

I read the paper in a surreal state. I couldn't figure out who I hated more as I tore through the article, Mark for giving it to me in the first place, or myself.

They had no clue where I was. Mark was supposed to have made up something…anything. Instead he hadn't done a thing, not one.

Damn him anyway. On second thought, damn myself…if such a thing is possible.

Harry had put up a substantial amount of money for anyone who had any information regarding my whereabouts. He had actually been quoted in the article saying, "Something happened to Ron, he's one of the best people that I know…he wouldn't run away from anything." Shows what he knows.

Typical Harry, loyal and trusting to a fault. I had been a coward to leave them in shambles like that. But that wasn't even the worst part of the article. Oh no, it got so much worser than that…and I am aware that worser is not technically a word.

Hermione didn't go to school. Instead she stayed behind to head up my search party with Harry. There was a picture of her on the front page. She looked so terribly sad and it was all my fault.

I wished so much that I could find a way to comfort her. I wished that I didn't feel so justifiably guilty and self-loathing whenever I even thought of her. I wished a lot of things, but most of all I wished that she would find me. Save me from the hell that I was walking into with my eyes wide open.

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When I was little I remember that above all else I longed to be rich. I never understood why my family was so desperately poor, why everything that I owned was embarrassingly used to the point of falling apart.

My first robes had been Bill's, and then Charlie's, then Percy's, then Fred's, and finally tossed after I outgrew them. How I used to hate Malfoy and those like him with such a raw passion; why should they be wealthy and have an unlimited supply of nice new things?

I had associated money with happiness. Slightly disillusioned concept, I know. Bitter was my disappointment when I discovered no sense of satisfaction or joy when I found that Mark had opened an account at Gringott's for me with a very healthy amount inside of it.

Money didn't bring happiness, love did…Hermione did. And for a brief insightful moment I understood Malfoy's character a bit. With nothing but gold keeping you company proved to be a lonely existence indeed. But like I said, it was a brief moment, didn't make up for the fact that he was still a complete bastard.

Thoughts of Malfoy quickly led to thoughts of Ginny. Something was off with that relationship, and this wasn't just because of my biased view of it. I knew my sister…or at least I used to.

She hated the Malfoy's with the same passion that every Weasley preceding her had. She had never liked him in the slightest. This one hundred eighty degree mental turnaround was completely out of her character.

I'm not a complete insensitive prick, if I thought that she truly loved him, and he her, then I would have eventually found some sort of terms to come to with the situation. I could have made some sort of peace…

When Ginny was little she used to be the biggest little drama queen within a three thousand mile radius. She used to put on these huge tear-jerking performances whenever she was asked to something that she didn't want to do, like wash a single dish. She was good too, very believable to all whom watched with the exception of me who knew her best.

I had also spent most of the summer with Ginny following the "incident" in her first year of school. She would cry on my shoulder for hours. If you asked something of her she would comply without protest and perform the task at hand in a lifeless sort of manner. Her eyes in the few weeks following the end of the school term haunt me still. Her usual animated and vivacious deep brown eyes took on this amount of hurt and sadness that was so far beyond her years…

When we had our confrontation about Malfoy I had thought of both of these above-mentioned incidents; and she held an uncanny resemblance to the temper-tantrum throwing child that was merely putting on a show.

I didn't have time to further my thoughts on it though as Mark literally popped in. I was greeted with an overly friendly, "hey kid!"

I mustered up my best glare and not for the first time wished that I was able to best Mark in a duel. As I could not, I settled for glaring…ha ha, let him take that!

He gave me a strange sideways glance; I suppose my glare wasn't as menacing as I had hoped for. "Anyway," he began after my glare had ceased, "I just wanted to let you know that the next meeting for the dark will take place in two nights time. I expect you to be there and to report back within twenty-four hours of that meeting with any information that you find."

"Two days?!" I repeated incredulously. "I have to find how to get in to a bloody gathering of You-Know-Who's minions in just two days? Like that will just be simple."

"You already have your in," his tone raised to a sterner level, "make contact with her and tag along to the meeting. Honestly Ron, if you think this is some high level of difficulty I'm not sure what I'm going to do with you." Mark gave me a hard reprimanding gaze that made me uncomfortable as if I was a child being chastised; "if you can't do it, tell me now."

"I can do it," I replied automatically with as much conviction as I could rally…I still had my pride after all.

He smiled slowly, "good."

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I paced back and forth in front of the fireplace. What the hell was I supposed to say to Melissa to get and invitation to her death eater meeting? Yeah, there's a conversation that I could really see happening, "hey Melissa, would it be to much trouble for us to just hang out today…and if you have some sort of evil gathering to go to, well, I wouldn't mind coming with you." Uh-huh, this had disaster written all over it.

I heard the clock to my left chime seven times. The meeting was at nine, she would leave by eight, and I was still here, pacing at a rapid pace. With a defeated sigh I took a fistful of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace, shouting the name of Melissa's residence clearly. Disaster or not I figured that I had no logical choice other than to give it my best shot.

I stumbled out of Melissa's fireplace while coughing up ashes…really not the best way to travel. I looked up and to my surprise saw Melissa sitting calmly on her sofa facing me with a mischievous expression.

"Uh, hey there," I greeted lamely.

She nodded in response. Not really sure what to do in a situation such as this I made my way toward her and began to sit in the vacant chair next to her when she raised a hand in protest, "you are not sitting on my nice clean chair covered in soot."

I smiled sheepishly and pulled out my wand, muttering a cleaning spell for myself as I thought of how much Melissa strangely reminded me of my mother with her almost shrill voice of protest.

"Now then," she started up, "took you long enough to get here. We leave in forty-five minutes, would you like something to eat first?"

"Leave," I echoed, "where?"

She cast me a strange look not unlike the one that I had been given by Mark a few days earlier. "To the meeting of course. That is why you are here is it not?"

"The-but-how?" I stuttered out in an incoherent string of random words. How did she know that was what I wanted? And furthermore, why was she giving it to me? Why would a death eater escort a strongly suspected spy straight into a secret meeting?

"I have my ways," she answered with a sweet smile. "You do want to go don't you?" I nodded as my voice had yet to return. "Well," she continued, "then like I said, we leave in forty-five minutes."

"Why?" I finally managed to croak out.

"Because being early is a sign of punctuality of course." I almost smiled as she expertly avoided my question.

"So," I searched for a subject change to let her off the hook, "did you mention something about food?"

She smiled and walked into the kitchen, "I fixed some grilled chicken for Perseus earlier unaware that he woke up this morning and decided to become a vegetarian."

A laugh escaped me at hearing the words, "where is Perseus anyway?"

Melissa bit her lip down in contemplation before busying herself with preparing the chicken for me. "So how much chicken do you want?"

I eyed her in suspicion but decided to let it go for the time being, it probably wasn't my place anyhow. As she put the grilled chicken onto a plate I took in a deep breath and had a sudden longing for my mother. There is no food like homemade food after all.

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A/N…should I end the chapter here? Eh, I made everyone wait long enough I'll go on. And yes, this note is pointless.

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Exactly forty-five minutes later I walked willingly into the gates of hell…a metaphorical hell of course.

I looked around the site with a great deal of interest; we were the first ones there so nothing seemed frightening in the least. It wasn't at all what I expected. Granted, it was a graveyard but it was a nice graveyard. There were a lot of pretty flowers.

I exhaled a deep breath and felt a bit sorry for the death eaters. Melissa had given me a standard black robe to wear, with my hood up of course, and these things are bloody heavy! Not to mention unbelievably hot when mixed with the already warm weather that was still lingering from summer.

I turned to Melissa, feeling the need for some conversation, "so," I began, "this is how you all do your meetings huh? I always thought that you were called by your, uh, you know-"

"Pleasant little snake and skull marking," she finished for me. "Death eater myth," she said while shaking her head, "he used to do it that way but decided that he liked it better when we were all waiting on him, rather than the other way around." She appeared thoughtful for a moment, "we have a call list you know."

A call list? Well, there's something you just don't normally associate with evil. A moment later a few more of Melissa's colleagues joined us. I nosily peered at them, trying to see who it was. No such luck though, they all had their hoods up.

A few more moments went past, a few more death eaters showed up, and so on, and so on until nine o'clock came and everyone froze, holding their breath for the intended moment. Anticipation built through the air until a loud pop signified the dreaded moment. Well, dreaded for me at least.

I found that You-Know-Who is not unlike those muggle train wrecks that Hermione told me about…you want to look away, but yet you find you cannot. He was hideous and every bit as snakelike as I recalled him to be. But I had never seen him up close before this moment. I averted myself from having to look into those horrid red eyes of his, which was just more than I could handle at the moment.

He took a few minutes to ramble on about his own greatness and everyone bowed. Of course I had to bow also, but not without giving him the finger from underneath my robe while doing it. I really hope those red eyes don't give him x-ray vision…

After everyone had proclaimed their love to him he ordered everyone to lower their hoods. I looked around in panic as all hoods went down. What was I supposed to do? My hands began to shake as they refused to lower my hood, I couldn't be seen at a death eater meeting! What if it got back to my family, to Hermione?

Somehow my eyes lifted up to where You-Know-Who stood and to my shock and dismay he was staring directly at me, almost through me.

"Well now," he hissed, "this is interesting. I see that someone has brought me a new recruit."

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A/N Okay that's the end of the chapter for real. Lol, I had to end it on somewhat of a cliffhanger, I haven't done one of those in a while…I was beginning to have withdrawal! Sorry again about the delay, I would swear not to do it again but I have finals next week so it's doubtful I'll get another chapter out until the week after…we'll see though. Reviews could motivate me to skip studying and write though *cough* hint *cough*

Million thanks to:

God, for always being a constant figure in my life. My parents for their support and guidance. My friends, my-

Oops, wrong thank you list…my bad

Hplova4eva (*blushes* Now now, if you keep giving me compliments I might…love you! Lol, I'm a little hyper at the moment, you'll have to excuse me.), swim fan (Ron is going to like Melissa, but not in a romantic way. They are platonic friends, so have no fear for Hermione.), Hurdlingbaybee06 (Aw, I always love it when people who are not fans of particular genres or characters like my story despite it. Makes me feel all warm inside, lol. Hope that you continue to enjoy it!), Arynnl (Lol, I'm working on a way to get the clothes into the story…it's harder than it seems, lol. Perhaps it can be his initiation to be a death eater to wear leather and spiked hair?), RonandHerm4eva (Glad that you like Melissa and nice to have another fan of Greek mythology! I was going to make the child a girl and name her Medusa but I felt that might have been a touch on the cruel side, lol.), Penny Wishes (Thanks so much for your review! It meant a lot to me when you said that you found it so interesting that you thought of it long after you read the latest chapter, that is so awesome! I hope that you continue to love it!), Gen Eveningstar (I'm so glad that you like Melissa! I always love it when people like my original characters, so I'll send you some brownies or something!), Stompy-Sanji (Thank you so much for all of your wonderful compliments! It means so much to me that you think that I am a great writer, and I'm so glad that you are excited about this story. I'll try to update again soon!), Shakespeare's Muse (Yes! Someone guessed correctly on who Perseus's father is, so glad to know that one didn't go over everyone's head. Good job on figuring that out and I'm so glad that you are enjoying the story! So you don't trust Mark huh? We'll see how that works out…), Trempush (Lol, I'll try to get your attempted seduction scene in sometime soon and glad that you are enjoying the story!), Angl (Lol, I wish that I could see you chasing Bob around with a pitchfork…now is this a real pitchfork or an imaginary one? Does it really matter?), Enchanted Spirit (Glad that you like Melissa and I'm so happy that you are liking the story!), marzoog (Perseus is actually a name from Greek Mythology…nothing to do with Percy Weasley, lol. So I hope that clears some things up for you.), Perfect Something (I'm so glad that you are enjoying the story, I hope that you continue to do so!)