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 Sort of a long update…I've taken longer though. I've had a very strange couple of weeks, chocked full of bad news and problems. I'm starting to feel normal again though, finally got some inspiration for this chapter. This chapter is probably not what you expected, because it's not at all what I expected. I don't know, I just woke up at like four in the morning and starting writing, this came out.

Also, while I am in agreement and understand the uneasiness (some were disgusted) about the mention of Harry/Hermione, do not fret. If you know and love Ron you know that he sometimes is prone to jump to conclusions. There will be no H/Hr in this story, because, quite frankly, that plot is a little too clichéd for my tastes.

Chapter Sixteen

Piecing Together the Confusion

I woke without any recollection that I had fallen asleep. I was in an unfamiliar bed which I knew at once was not my bed at You-Know-Who's lair. It was white, pink, and it had…flowers?

This was not an evil lair. Evil hideouts do not have bloody flowers. In a moment of false hope I lifted up the sleeve of my shirt. The dark mark was still there. Still mocking me in all its hideous glory. A panic washed over me, I would go to Azkaban! I knew how the death eater trials went, dark mark equals automatic pass to prison. Do not pass Go; do not collect two hundred dollars.

Then in my ever-present insanity I began to laugh. I could remember Hermione ranting about how utterly dull most wizarding games were, she insisted that we play a muggle game. Monopoly was introduced and became strangely addictive…I think it has something to do with most people's subconscious desire for world domination. Case in point, that feeling you get when you own Park Place and Boardwalk with hotels on each and someone lands on Boardwalk. Practically an indescribable sense of bliss. Or perhaps that's just me…

While contemplating the genius of the Monopoly game something crept into the room, escaping my attention. However, it did not escape my attention for long as it immediately came over to my area and kicked me roughly in the shin.

As the sharp pain eased in my leg I looked down to see Perseus. This was of course unexpected, but so many things shocked me as of late that even my shock had become greatly subdued.

"Hello?" I said incredulously.

"Why in the world," he began clearly irritated, "are you in my mother's room? This is highly unorthodox, not to mention improper."

I narrowed my eyes and concentrated very hard on the fact that I would not let him know that I was not entirely sure what unorthodox meant. "As I was not aware that this is your mother's room, you can't be mad at me."

He regarded me with great suspicion before ultimately accepting the information that I had given him. "Why are you here?"

"I was really hoping you could tell me that. Is your mother here?" He nodded and led me out of the pink and white room. With a call down the stairs we were met by Melissa at the bottom of them.

"Ron," she breathed. "You're awake!"

This was beginning to weird me out. "Funny thing about falling asleep, you almost always wake up at some point." Sarcasm is always an easy resort…and that resort is usually pretty pleasant to stay at, the equivalent of sunny beaches and all that. "However, one usually wakes in the spot where they fell asleep, and at some point will recall having fallen asleep in the first place. Neither of these things were blessed enough to happen to me."

She nodded solemnly, "we need to talk." She motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen, "if you would excuse us Perseus."

Once we were alone with the kitchen door safely shut behind us I turned towards Melissa in confused anger. "Can you please explain to me just what the hell is going on?"

"I felt bad," she snapped irritably. "I felt like a bloody kidnapper because you had no idea what you were getting yourself into to."

"I have the dark mark!"

She looked down at the floor, "I know. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry," I repeated sarcastically. "Well that just makes it alright then, now doesn't it?"

Gaining back her usual bite and courage she glared up at me. "I didn't think that he would force it on you, I never dreamed that he would do this. But since he has then it's up to me to protect you."

"I don't need your protection," I snapped. "Just leave me alone. You got me out, which I'm sure was difficult for you, so thanks. But I'm capable of making it on my own, and I'm leaving now. Do not attempt to contact me again."

"Ron," she sighed in an exasperated tone. "You don't understand anything that's going on around you. Perception, unfortunately, is not one of your strong points. You are trusting people that you should not trust-"

"Like you?" I cut off.

"Fine," she said defeated. "If you want to leave, go. I'm not going to stop you, just let me give you a word of advice, don't put too much faith in Mark. He isn't a good person for you to be trusting your life to."

Having nothing left to say to her I turned my back and walked out of the kitchen and rapidly towards the front door.

"And Ron," she called to me, "find Dumbledore."

I hesitated briefly before continuing out the door. I didn't care what she had to say or what "advice" she had to offer. I had the dark mark and I put the blame mostly on her doorstep. She sacrificed me to him, I didn't want her apologies and pity now.

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I didn't want to find Mark. He didn't give a damn if I lived or died. He was his job, nothing more. Which wasn't such a horrible thing, but it didn't evoke a lot of trust in me for him.

So I would not go back to Melissa's, I couldn't go to Mark…I was homeless. How wonderful. The thought of the Burrow came to mind, but I knew that was an impossibility. I was one of them now; I didn't belong at the Burrow. I was tainted.

Dumbledore. Perhaps that would be a good idea…

Except, I really had no desire to go to Dumbledore. I hadn't spoken to him since I agreed to play the role of the spy and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to. He and Mark both could just forget about me helping them anymore. I was hardly as ignorant as they thought, they surly must have known about the true seer factor. Or, at the very least, suspected of it. They used me as their bait and expected me to simply comply when I found out.

I had nowhere to go and Melissa lived in the damn country. And I still didn't know how to apparate. With a long string of curses under my breath I turned my heel and walked back to Melissa's house.

After a moment to gather courage and humility I knocked on the door loudly. It opened to reveal a surprisingly cheerless Melissa…with tears in her eyes, of all things.

"Um, Melissa," I began, thoroughly embarrassed now. "I need to use your fire."

She glared through her tears before permitting me entrance. "By all means."

I stopped in front of the fireplace before taking another look at her. She looked pathetic, which is one word I never thought I would use to describe Melissa. Her small body looked frail and her eyes were glistening with fresh tears. I felt horrible, which made me feel even worse because I didn't want to feel bad for her.

A sigh escaped me; if I didn't do something to ease her pain I would likely feel like shit for the next week. "I'm sorry," I mumbled. "It wasn't completely your fault that I ended up in this situation. I went to that meeting of my own free will, therefore it is mostly my own fault. Though you could have warned me about You-Know-Who replacing Harry with me in his obsession area."

She gave that choked laugh that comes out while crying. "I am sorry Ron. You don't deserve to be anyone's pawn."

I nodded and grabbed a fistful of powder. But not before turning to her one more time. "Melissa, what did you mean when you warned me off of Mark?"

She sighed and gestured for us to sit down, this would obviously take a while. I shook the floo powder back into the dish on top the fireplace before joining her.

"Mark," she began heavily, "is -was- a lot more to me then you know. When I first became a…you know, I was forced. Not forced in the way that you were, but I consider take the mark or die forceful. So I went to a bar in attempts to drink my problems away, something I've noticed you can relate to. And he was there, in his goofy, happy, teasing manner.

"He intrigued me, so I went back to that bar; he was always there waiting for me. As the saying goes, the young will be dumb…and we were. We weren't conscious of the things, which would drive us apart; all we saw was that the other took away the pain for a temporary basis. I got pregnant, got scared, and left. He found me six months later, I couldn't exactly hide the fact that I was pregnant and he couldn't hide the fact that he was pissed about it. He got so angry it frightened me more than anything else ever has. He is not a good man, Ron. When Perseus was born he tried to 'get rid of' him. Don't trust him, please."

I sat in shock. Mark tried to kill his own child? "I…" what the hell did you say in response to that? "I have to go." Well, that's one way to show sympathy; bolt. Seemed to be my way of showing that I cared as of late.

She nodded and wiped away her tears. "Just stay away from him," she warned one last time.

I nodded back in acknowledgement before heading back to the fireplace. Take note that I did not actually promise her anything; I didn't want to stay away from him now. Oh no, I longed to give Mark a piece of my mind, and then my fist. Then I would stay far away.

Tossing in the powder and going back to the house that I had been given, I knew that I would find Mark there. Benefit of the whole seer thing, you always get nice pieces of information like that, always know exactly where to find someone.

Mark was waiting with a bemused look on his face. "Heard you had quite an interesting few days." He walked over to me briskly and pulled up my sleeve, "well my God, it's true. He got you kid."

I yanked my arm away, "he didn't 'get me' he branded me against my knowledge, not to mention will. I heard some interesting things about you as well though. While I will admit that the whole death eater thing is quite attention-grabbing on my end, it's nothing like your attempted baby killing."

His face turned serious as he backed into a chair behind him. "Talked to Melissa did you?"

"What do you think?" Evasiveness truly is a glorious thing.

He smiled in an almost bitter way, "well do I get to tell my side of the story or are you just going to stick with her motherly cry of foul play?"

I raised an eyebrow, "I see no reason why I shouldn't believe her."

"She got you the bloody dark mark kid, you see that as some sort of bond of trust?"

"You're the one who sent me in there," I shouted, losing my cool persona. "You set this all up, you fed me to the wolves so you could get the intel that you wanted!"

"It was your job Ron," he stressed, "you took this assignment under no false pretenses. You knew the risks, I'm sorry that you fell victim to them, but that's how the game goes sometimes."

"Under no false pretenses? You knew the reason that he wanted me and yet failed to inform me. I would call that a 'false pretense.'"

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I didn't know for sure about the seer thing, but I can see now that I was right. I did not know that his search for a seer had been narrowed down to you; if I had I would not have let you go to him. Believe me Ron, I don't want to see you on the dark."

"I'm sure you don't," I spat angrily. "Just say what you want to say so I can leave and be done with all of this."

Happy that he had been given an opportunity to clear himself Mark put his hands together and began his story. "I first met Melissa after my first major assignment had been completed. It wasn't a happy mission, and I was miserable after I pulled it off. So naturally, I went to go get drunk the second I could. She came in, we talked, and she left. It continued in this pattern for quite some time before one thing led to another and, you know, nature took its course. She disappeared and I pulled out all the stops to find her…I thought that she had been tortured and was now dead. When I did find her she was far from dead, she was pregnant. She was carrying my child and she didn't even see it fit to tell me. Melissa is an extremely selfish person; you should realize this as she took you to Voldemort herself. I wanted custody, she refused. In an act of random insanity I tried to take Perseus from her when he was a baby, she pretends to mistake my attempted kidnapping for attempted murder. She isn't a good mother Ron; I've been fighting the legal way to gain any sort of access to my son for years. Don't let her fool you; she is selfish enough to keep her child from his father out of her own anger and spite. Remember, she's a death eater, do not trust her."

I looked at him in utter confusion. Now just who the hell was I supposed to believe here?

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A/N Well if I did a decent job here you should be attempting to decide who you believe right now. I would love it if you left a review to let me know, it always helps for future chapters to know what people are expecting. If you didn't like the chapter, well, it was late and I kind of like it so…there you go, I suppose. Reviews are always welcome!

Oh, and I know that I've been promising the return of Hermione for a while but when I say soon now I mean it! Next chapter she will be back…of course, not back for good, but what can you do?

My handy dandy thank you list:

RonandHerm4eva (Yes, that would suck to wake up with the dark mark on your arm, lol. And I don't think that I could stomach writing H/Hr, it's jus Ron jumping to jealous conclusions. Lol, it'll make their confrontation so much better.), Hplova4eva (Haha, I actually didn't expect that to happen last chapter myself. Just kind of came out…Thanks by the way, I was ridiculously happy about getting into the college that I want, lol.), ShellRae007 (Lol, sometimes I tend to bitch about writing in the first person, but only because at times I get tired of the character. I enjoy writing it in this style though, and you're right, I don't think it would have worked as well without the "I" factor. Thank you for telling me that you like it this way, it means a lot to know that it's working out alright.), orli- enthusiast (Well how can I resist the pouty face? Lol, consider yourself forgiven…again. And Ron's luck will turn around, I just enjoy torturing him so much! Harry and Hermione are not together though, so at least he doesn't have that to worry about.), UAngel05 (*cheers and screams* You're an Ohio State fan! Awesome, now I want to run up and give you a hug…er, a cyber one that is. Lol, sorry I just never met anyone on here that's a bucks fan, it excited me. Glad you're liking the story!), EnchantedSpirit (Hmm, well can't really relate on the whole science project thing, I avoid science at all costs. Glad you like the last chapter though, always nice to know my evil schemes are clever, lol.), tiffiany-45 (Aw, I love Pirates of the Caribbean! I too, have seen it way too many times, lol. Two words, Johnny Dep. I haven't seen Finding Nemo though, is it good? Glad that you liked the last chapter and especially glad that I surprised you with the dark mark thing, lol, element of surprise is key.), weasley13 (Thanks so much, I always appreciate positive comments. You are definitely right though, Ron does rule. Lol, I always end up wishing that J.K would write more about him instead of Harry.), Funness (Lol, well it's nice to know I can make you laugh when something serious happens. I try not to make the story too dramatic. And don't worry, however odd you are I am ten times more odd. Perhaps I should stop watching television, I need to start conserving brain cells also.), Trempush (My, my aren't we the observant one? Lol, just ignore me. The potion knocked him out and then Voldemort gave it to him. Good question!), linda_ishtar (Lol, here is the rest…well obviously not the entire rest, but you know, some of it. I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and really glad that you like the plot!), DaOnlyWolfGurl (Thank you so much! I'm really glad that you think this makes sense, I've been trying to take it somewhat slow so that it does eventually make complete sense for Ron to go dark. Major events will occur until something pushes him over the edge. Glad you're enjoying the story!), Veanna (Hola amiga! Que eres tu? Lol, that's about the extent of my Spanish and I think that I messed it up. Glad that you're liking the story though and I'll do my best to keep up the good work!), bluehoax (Lol, you can dry off from your cleansing shower now, no H/Hr in sight. And there seems to be a lot of drunkenness going around in this story…oh well. Haha, Ron is going evil baby, you don't sound excited though, lol.), Shakespeare's Muse (Yes, I was talking about The Ohio State University and relax, I would never add H/Hr to my story…that's just wrong. Lol, glad that you enjoyed my evil cliffhanger, I didn't leave one this chapter though.), Me (No problem about not reviewing, and sorry about the cliffhanger. Lol, I couldn't resist leaving one. Glad that you're liking the story still!), Wacky Watermelon (Lol, I know that it takes a while to get used the evil Ron, but there is still a while to go before we get there so you have time to prepare. Glad that you like the story!)