Chapter 11

Exams had come quicker than anyone in the fifth or seventh years had wanted. The halls were silent, the library was a scary place to be, meals were subdued, the courtyards had students stuffed between benches and against walls, the empty classes dedicated as study rooms were always half full and the practice rooms were nearly impossible to get. Hermione was beside herself trying to study, go to faculty meetings, take care of the students, and, on top of everything, help organize the charity quidditch match being held at Hogwarts the day after exams.

Despite the extremely tense atmosphere and the way every student not in fifth or seventh year tiptoed around so as not to be distracting, Ron was finding it nearly impossible to revise. He hadn't been able to concentrate on much of anything since he had left the Burrow the week before, and having Ginny staring worriedly at him every time they came within eyesight just sent him more on edge. If he hadn't spent so much time in the previous month studying (and yes, though he was ashamed to admit it, he was avoiding his friends) then there was no way he would have been ready for the finals; he still wasn't sure he would be up to par as it was.

However, that was all a moot point really, because soon there would be absolutely no chance that he would be an auror, or a professional quidditch player, or much of anything really. Because honestly, who was going to hire a bloody chaneller? Everyone would be so afraid of him that even his family would avoid him. He'd be England's only vagabond that came with a full platoon of auror's guarding him, and wasn't that something Mum and Dad could be proud of. The biggest aggravation of all was that he couldn't blame anyone for this. He couldn't blame the wizarding world, he couldn't blame Voldemort, and he couldn't blame Ginny and her damned insightfulness. He was the only one that could be held accountable for who he was, and that was exactly how the wizarding world was going to react to him.

A chaneller. He was a bleedin chaneller, and though he had been living with this knowledge since the beginning of sixth year, having Voldemort call him on it before Harry snuffed him had set Ron's knowledge in stone. He had been hoping that he'd read all the signs wrong until that point, but that was no longer possible. Of course, he'd been scared to the point where he made himself physically sick in the past, and on one instance Harry and his friends had ended up lugging him to Madame Pomfry because he allowed himself to get so worried. He had tried hard, really hard, to not let it get to him or to interfere with how he acted around people, but apparently he hadn't done enough if his sister had noticed.

Ron had started noticing something was different with him just before sixth term started, and if it hadn't been for the insightful glimpses of knowledge that the brains had injected into him at the department of mysteries, it might have taken him much longer to notice that he was…off. Of course, he had also been dealing with the development of his sixth sense at the time and had been able to concentrate most of his worries on that problem instead. It was when he had almost killed his kid sister he had begun to silently panic.

They had been practicing quidditch and Ron had been manning his posts, as usual. Ginny, who had one hell of an arm (he was damn proud of that!) had been in a position that allowed for a fantastic shot, and Ron had been completely focused on blocking it. He hadn't even thought about his actions, only reacted on instinct, and he had burst into action with an energy that wasn't normal for him. It had been a brilliant save, but that had mattered little when Ginny had almost toppled off her broom in weakness. He had taken some of her energy without even realizing it, and she had nearly died. Because that was what a chaneller did: they took other creatures' energies, magic, life forces.

Nobody knew how this gift worked, it had never really been studied before seeing as it was extremely rare for any wizard, regardless of their magical strength, to possess such an ability. That had become all to clear to Ron. During that quidditch match he knew he had somehow caused his sister her pain, and he could have done that to any one of his teammates, but it hadn't been until that History of Magic class that he had started realizing how big his problem was.

A chaneller, Professor Binns had dully stated, is a wizard or witch who was born with the rare ability to purloin the energies of another witch, wizard, or life force that he or she chooses. Not much is understood about this magical power, seeing as most of the people who had it were killed for treason against humanity while the others were hidden in the depths of the Ministry of Magic. Awful people they were, too powerful to do any good. It is a gift that is feared, and rightly so, by even the most powerful of wizards. Of course, another reason for such a lack of knowledge about this power is that there have only been fourteen known instances where this fashion of magic has been publicly practiced, though I do place emphasis on the known.

It had only taken a few boring lecture sentences from a professor who wasn't even properly alive, to teach Ron how awful people with his ability were. Chanellers were known as the most feared terrorists of the wizarding world. Doytil had been a chaneller, and in the famous war of 1713 he had, with his bare hands, drained his enemy's army of their energy, of their power, and of many lives. One person had done all that! It was no wonder chaneller's were so feared! Then there was the minister's assassination in 1458, because that chaneller hadn't needed his wand to kill. Galindral had formed an entire army of werewolves (though they still didn't quite understand how he convinced them to join him) and he had been a chaneller. They killed hundreds! The last chaneller known in history had been a serial murderer. They never released her name, but she had realized that if you took all of a wizard's life force, killing them, you could somehow keep their wizarding powers. She had been on her twelfth victim, and was the wizarding world's most feared villain, when she had been smote by a muggle bombing during WWI. Thank god for that too, because she had been approaching an unmatchable magical level, and would have been five times worse then Voldemort had ever dreamed of being if she had continued to steal lives.

So it hadn't been difficult at all for Ron to realize, once he understood the power he was capable of, that he was a threat to the entire wizarding world, and they would react in kind. They couldn't be blamed for this, they had had to many horrible experiences with chanellers to feel any other way. Ron himself was sick at what they had done, and terrified of what he was capable of doing. He had worked hard to control the bubbling energy inside him, but as the days progressed his body had naturally started to absorb the energy of the life around him. He didn't understand how he did this, just that he could. The only other time he had taken enough energy to hurt had been when he summoned the paper to him in a moment of complete and utter stupidity. It hadn't even required thought on his behalf, he had wanted the paper and had summoned it by drawing on the magical strengths of those around him. They had become dizzy.

On top of stealing energy from people, he had noticed that he couldn't refuse it when it was thrust at him. Students with excess energy allowed it to ooze freely from them, and if he was around he automatically absorbed it; he couldn't rebuff it really. There had been times when he couldn't sleep at all because his body was literally overwhelmed with energy, especially after quidditch matches, and most nights he only caught four hours of shut eye. He dealt with it, tried to hide it, and went on with life. Perhaps it was selfish of him, to want to be as normal as possible. He should have told Dumbledore what he was, and allowed the powerful wizard to take necessary action, but he hadn't wanted to lose his life. As the year stretched on he was under no illusions as to how everyone would react. Harry and his family would try to be supportive, but they would always be worried that he would suck them dry like some kind of malicious vampire. The public would panic (and word would get out to them, Harry's past experiences with the paper taught Ron that) and demand that he be locked up. The ministry would want to study him, and then perhaps use his powers to their advantage. He would lose his life, and he was too selfish for that. He wanted to keep his family, he wanted to keep Harry and his other friends, he wanted to keep his life.

But now Ginny had figured something out, and Bill and the twins knew. They would discover the truth soon enough, because there was no hiding anything from them. The worst part was that their reactions would be justified: there was no telling what he could do to hurt people, despite his best intentions. He was a threat, and they would react to that.

Exams were over in three days, and he could no longer hold onto the illusion that everything would be okay.

TBC

Notes: Thank you so much for your continuing comments, I really appreciate them! Reviews let me know whether or not people are enjoying the story, and I love all the feedback I can get ;)

Next Update: Aug 10, 2005