An Unwanted Christmas Present

"Just tell me. How bad can it be?" Ron's question was met with a deafening silence.

Finally Hermione stirred and she and Harry shared an unreadable look. "Harry, why don't you go make sure that no one is trying to get up here. I'll do this."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Go on."

Harry grudgingly crossed the room, though it was with a sigh of relief that he closed the dormitory door behind him.

"Is it really that awful?" Ron asked anxiously.

Hermione turned and faced him on the bed. "Now you must remember that this isn't your real family-"

"But Hermione-"

"No Ron, listen to me. Your Mum and Dad are at the Burrow waiting for their children to come home, your brothers are safe and happy-"

"Well that's debatable."

She ignored him and continued as if he hadn't spoken, "And Ginny is at your Hogwart's now, probably endorsing whatever lie Dumbledore concocted to explain your disappearance."

"So what happened here? What happened to his family?"

She paused to gather her thoughts. "Ron's death hit his family hard," her voice threatened to choke but she brought it back under control. If she was going to convince Ron not to take this too hard then she would have to raise her own barriers, "and morale was low anyway. Newly created departments within the ministry had made Mr Weasley's job irrelevant. They shifted him to a kitchen cupboard of an office, removed what little staff he had and lowered his wages with the silent warning that any protest would result him being sacked and blacklisted, in effect he would be made unemployable. That was about a year ago and things have been incredibly tight since even though your- Ron's brothers try their best by sending what they can home to keep their mother well."

"So my brothers are okay then?"

Hermione wanted to remind him that it what he meant to ask was if her Ron's brothers were okay but bit her tongue instead as she didn't relish the idea of answering the question, whatever way it was phrased.

"Hermione are they okay?" he pressed getting increasingly worried by her silence.

"Sort of." She twisted her hands in her lap and stared at the bed coverings.

"Sort of?"

"Physically- yes they're all alive and well…"

"But?"

She gave up the avoidance. "But Bill's had trouble finding a job in England and he so desperately wanted to come home after… well… after he lost his brother."

"And Charlie?" Ron hadn't really thought about the effect the loss of his life on the rest of his family. Oh, after the horrifying boggart moment last year he knew his mother would care but he had never really thought about how his brothers would react. Maybe it was just another way of denying the war was happening and that he really could die- this world had proved that that could happen- or maybe it was yet another sign of his low self-esteem; after all there were several others to take his place- what a stupid thing to assume! Inwardly Ron cursed himself for thinking such a thought. When he worried everyday if Percy was acting of his own free will, if Ginny was staying away from anyone male who wasn't blood related or Harry, if Bill was going to come across a curse that was just too strong then it was very unlikely that they wouldn't think about him as well.

"Charlie is doing the best out of all of them," Hermione's voice brought his concentration back to the moment at hand. "Apart from some extra movement on the black market for dragon parts he's fine."

Ron breathed a sigh of relief.

"The twins on the other hand…"

"What could possibly break the twins!?" Ron asked agape.

"Maybe the death of their brother!" she chastised at his thoughtlessness, "Just because they tease you it doesn't mean that they don't care."

Ron glanced away. "Sorry," he muttered, inwardly cursing his loud mouth.

"That's okay," Hermione softened. "It wasn't just that though. They never made enough money for their dream joke shop so they ended up drifting from job to job. But it's been since this Christmas that I really worried about them."

"Why?"

She held back again.

"Hermione why?"

"There was an attack on the Burrow the day before Christmas Eve."

"An attack?" Ron's voice became hoarse with the force of emotion that had appeared in a flash flood at the unexpected news. With the world ripped from under his feet he replaced the sudden feeling of loss with anger.

Hermione nodded and reached to touch Ron's shoulder in an effort to offer comfort but he shrugged her off. He began to pace the room in agitation and she hurriedly went to colour in the details in a poor attempt to divert the building rage she could feel coming off him in waves, "We think the Death Eaters were rushed though because there was only one person in the house at the time. Or maybe they just wanted to add more terror by taking everyone one by one."

"As much as I'd love to heat your analysis of Death Eater behaviour maybe you could tell me who was home!"

He barely heard Hermione whisper the name. "Ginny. The others were out on errands for Christmas and her job was to make a start on the decorations. The Order hadn't even heard a murmur of what was going to happen," her words fell over each other at the recollection of the scarring memory, hurting even more because of his harsh tone, "and then I came back with the others after getting the final part of her present and…oh god the mark." She fought against her tears and her voice dipped in and out between racked, stifled sobs," I was first back through the fire place… there was this dark stench over the house... it was so horrible… her body… oh god the twitching."

Ron's pacing had paused when he'd had to strain to hear the long awaited answer. And then as Hermione had lost control of her voice he'd longed to offer her some comfort but his legs wouldn't move, paralysed by shock his feet were glued to the ground. At the news of his Father's death his mind had been overflowing with words and messages that his brain didn't have time to comprehend but at the report of his little sister his head had blanked. There was nothing there at all. Breathing was too difficult and he had to force every mouthful of air. Even that was too much to think about as he concentrated on inhaling, exhaling, breathing in, breathing out.

After an immeasurable time that could have been thirty seconds or thirty years filled with the sounds of tears and gasping breaths the world returned to its normal working order and Hermione wiped away the salty water from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she hiccupped, "so sorry."

"Was she murdered?" Ron recognised his own toneless voice speaking but didn't remember sending the order to his brain for it to do so.

"No she's alive, if you can call it that. She's at St Mungo's in a long-term ward. Ron she's been unconscious ever since it happened, the question has even been raised of if they should end the life support spells. Her magical aura is thin at best, I've seen her Ron, she's just a shell of a body."

He collapsed on the floor, leaning the back his head against the side of the occupied bed, facing away from Hermione. His mouth worked on autopilot in a vein attempt to solicit more information from his friend to take away the thought of his fiery sister lying cold in a stark hospital bed.

"You said you've been worried about Fred and George since it happened," Ron's lips sounded.

Hermione too used the slight change of subject to regain control of herself, "Yes. Well, let's just say that they've thrown themselves into their less known work for the Order."

"Which is?" he prompted.

"From what Harry and I have been able to piece together they're helping with weapon development for the capture of Death Eaters during attacks. But they are very, very intense and sometimes their inventions turn up where they shouldn't do or they do much more damage than requested. It won't be long before their thrown into Azkaban on a charge of criminal damage."

Ron's brain had finally caught up with his mouth as he could focus on something other than depression- hate. "Can you really blame them?" he asked.

She thought for a moment before answering. "No. Not really."

"So that's it then," Ron breathed, "That's the great Weasley family."

Hermione fidgeted uneasily, "Well not quite."

"Oh yeah, Percy," Ron silently berated himself but worried for a moment about how easy it was to separate his toad of a brother from the others.

"Yeah Percy." Again Hermione shifted with apprehension but Ron was still too far-gone to realise, "Look Ron I don't know how far gone he is in your world. I mean in respect to how close he is to the ministry-"

"Licking their backside," he offered.

"Right." The word had a touch of hardness to it in reaction his terminology but Hermione chose to carry on without any real reprimand, "Well, here he's been worming his way up to the point of complete corruption by the machiavellian politics. The Order thinks that the Death Eaters will try to initiate him within the next year or so after the little rat has completely forgotten his family. Though I wonder if that hasn't already happened."

There was a knock at the door and Harry carefully re-entered.

"How's he doing?" he asked Hermione after glancing at Ron's lonely, motionless figure on the floor.

She glanced quickly at her lost friend, her face laced with worry, "I'm not sure but I think he'll be alright. I hope he'll be alright." She was thankful for the reprieve the interruption gave. The memories she'd had to deal with were ones she'd hoped she would never have to remember again and thinking about Percy's desertion always got her riled up.

But though Ron may still have seemed to be staring into nothingness something important was happening, that missing part had finally clicked in his brain- 'worming his way up', 'the little rat'. Pieces of the puzzle finally fit.

"Oh, I am such an idiot!" he yelled into the room.

"Ron?" Hermione questioned with a nervous look in her red eyes.

He stood quickly and turned to Harry, "What did the man who killed me look like?"

"What?" Harry was at a loss to see where his friend was going with this.

"Your Ron, the night he was murdered. What did the killer look like?"

"It's all a bit blurry I'm not sure-"

"Harry this is really not the time for a lapse in memory!" Ron grabbed him by the shoulders and starred him straight in the eyes. "Now what did he look like!?"

Harry glanced at Hermione in alarm and mumbled out what he could, "Erm…barely taller than me, looked like he should have a bit of weight on him, thin hair and I think his face was pointed but really Ron I don't know what this has to do with anything."

"I knew it!" Ron leapt in triumph.

"You knew that Harry doesn't have any idea what you're on about?" Hermione asked in complete confusion.

But Ron ignored both of them and hurried to the door. "We've got to see Dumbledore. Now!"

"Ron?" Harry and Hermione watched his retreating figure in bewilderment and hurried after him when his dramatic exit suddenly sunk in.

They could hear him muttering to himself as he ran down the stairwell. "We can't be sure how much damage has been done. Next time Hermione should defiantly be the one to open the wrong bloody door! "

Back in the dormitory a silent rat made its way back to its owners, feeling vey pleased with itself.


AN: I really can't thank you enough for the reviews andIknowI say this every chapter but thank you and thank you again! Also too to nattieb for without heryou would probably be very confused by now- if you aren't already.

Now to question time:-

Pureangel- here's your answer to Ginny's whereabouts. I do watch sliders now and again but lack of access to Sky TV kind of limits what programs I can watch so I've only seen a couple of series.

Maygin- I cannot believe that you quated my own work at me- that was definatly a first! I hope that this chapter meets with your expectations it's a little daunting to know that somebody really reads your work. Thank you again.

sea-me-surf- Now I can't really tell you how the story is going to end can I? It would take all the fun out of it. But rest assured that Ginny is not dead.

Till next week bub bye