Title: Tell me what I want
Name: calendae
Fandom & Pairing: HP, Ron gen
Rating: PG
He takes a room in his uncle's flat. The accountant uncle who, as it turns out, is not a squib at all. Just a quiet, scared little man. Went into hiding during the first war and somehow forgot how to be a wizard.
He says nothing when Ron shows up at his doorstep, still in his rumpled bedclothes from St. Mungos, just steps aside and points to a room.
It's a nice room with a window.
The owls start coming on the second day.
The bookshelf in the corner is filled with manuals and history books and Ron reads them all.
He's worked out the television and the toaster and can use the hot plate to make soup from a can. His uncle leaves things outside his room at night and Ron doesn't leave his room.
He watches a program about refugees from Africa, orphans who get sent to America because everyone is dead. The lady onscreen wears glasses. She cries a little when she talks about teaching the boys to use a can opener or put food in the refrigerator.
Ron nods along, and wonders what'd be like if there where others. But that's stupid, because it's only him.
There are transit passes in the bag his uncle leaves for him. Ron carries a travel guide to the bus stop and hands his token to the man in the hat.
The movie theater is playing a movie about space and aliens. The lights go dim and the screen fills with explosions. When the heroes beat the ugly alien overlord and the main guy kisses the girl he's been arguing with since the first encounter, he grabs at the seat next to him, grinning.
His face falls when he grasps at empty air.
It's raining when he takes the bus home.
He gets a bad cold in October and is miserable. His nose rubbed raw by the cheap tissues his uncle leaves outside his door. There's also a catalog for open university and some pills.
Ron takes one of the pills and opens the catalog. His uncle has circled a few of the accounting courses. Ron's vision starts to blur and he closes his eyes.
He can breathe through his nose, but his head feels light, like there's nothing there.
He's felt like this before. Sometime in the beginning, before they all knew, after the war.
It's nice, he thinks.
The accounting classes are long and there's nothing about ledgers and computers that Ron is fond of. He doesn't know the answers.
But it's good to be swept up in a crowd of muggles.
He wanders to the other end of the building and into another classroom. He sits down in the back.
The professor speaks slowly and gestures constantly while pointing to pictures. The other students look just as confused as Ron.
The girl next to him looks like one of the Patils and smiles while the professor explains what a can opener is.
He goes back the next day.
In November, Hermione is in his room when he gets back from language class. She's over at the bookshelf in the corner looking at the stack of unopened mail.
He slides past her to sit on the bed.
She bites her lip and looks down at the floor before speaking.
"Your mother is dying of worry, Ronald. You haven't answered any of her owls."
Ron shrugs and takes his coat off.
"You left St. Mungos in the middle of the night."
Ron watches her mouth.
"It's not so bad, is it? Being a muggle. It was just your magic, Ron."