The Attack - Ron's PoV
Early August - 1997
You would think that a year out of school Fred and George would have moved out…nope. And what about Percy? Well fortunately he moved out to his own place near the Ministry after he claimed that Fred and George were too loud to work but we all knew that he was ashamed of doubting Harry and Voldemort's return so he'd moved out to hide away from us. Not that I blame him! Bill had also moved out and was now living with Fleur somewhere nearer to London. I really didn't care for seeing Fleur again, not after everything at the Triwizard tournament. All in all, even though they had moved out the house was still as noisy as ever, add to that Hermione's ever constant chatter with Ginny and you got quiet a headache! But Hermione wasn't here for the next two weeks. Last night she'd left for Scotland to see her grandparents so I was left with nothing to do really. Harry had decided that he would revert to tricking Emma and playing tricks on her, to keep his mind off whatever he thought about. Ginny was usually going to Fred and George's new shop in Hogsmeade. They had joined forces with Zonkos to make Zonkos and Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Not quite as catchy as before but they made huge amounts of money…or they would once they'd fixed the shop in Hogsmeade.
"RONALD!" Mum shouted up the stairs. I opened the door and looked out curiously.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Come here at once!" She shouted. She sounded angry. I quickly pulled on some socks and ran down the stairs. She was sitting at the table reading Witch Weekly.
"Mum?" I asked her.
"Rhia wants to talk to you." She said calmly. I scowled at her and turned around. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I saw Rhia's head floating in the fireplace. Nothing unusual but I wasn't expecting it.
"Hi." Rhia said with a smile. "What are you doing today?"
"Um, nothing, why?" I asked.
"I think Harry needs cheering up but I'm busy." Rhia said.
"Busy doing what?" I asked her.
"Oh, some photo shoot I'm doing for a quidditch magazine." She said nonchalantly.
"But you're a singer." I said feeling slightly confused.
"I know but it's something to do with my dad. I don't get it myself but what can I do? My life isn't mine anymore." She muttered.
"It is, but I'll get to Harry's as soon as I can." I said. Rhia beamed.
"Thank you so much!" Rhia said.
"Where will you be?"
"Um, they've got the photo shoot at the Harpies stadium." Rhia told me.
"Ok." Rhia's head disappeared and I looked to mum. "Can I go?"
"Yes but be careful. You know what happened to you last time you tried to sneak off." Boy did I remember. I had tried to apparate to Hermione's house but me, being the novice that I am, had left all my clothes behind and my hair. Needless to say Hermione was highly embarrassed and mum very very angry.
"Oh, I'm just going to go by Floo powder." I said, pointing at the little jar above the fireplace. Mum looked at me and gave me a smile.
"Ok dear." She said. I raised an eyebrow but made my way to Harry's house anyway. I came out of the living room fireplace covered from head to foot in soot.
"Good morning Ron." Lily said as I walked in. She hadn't even looked at me.
"How do you know it was me?" I asked her.
"I just knew." Lily told me, looking at me.
"How's the -"
"Baby? Why does everyone ask me that?" Lily sighed, "It's ok"
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" I asked.
"I'm hoping a boy because Emma's expensive enough as it is." Lily muttered. I smiled and looked at the door.
"Harry here?" I asked.
"Yeah, he's either in his room or down by the lake." Lily said, flicking through channels on the TV. I made my way up to Harry's room to hear some music coming from it. I recognised the voice of the singer, it was a collection of Rhia's songs. I knocked on the door and opened it. Harry was laying on his bed staring at the ceiling.
"Hey." I said.
"Hi." Harry muttered. "You know, there are five different shades of white on my ceiling." Harry said. I looked up at his ceiling. What?
"Um, ok." I said uncertainly. "Do you want to go out at all? I'm bored."
"Yeah, why not. Where can I go though without being spotted?" Harry asked, sitting up and looking at me. I shrugged.
"I don't know. We could always go and visit Rhia." I said.
"But that would be unfair to you." Harry said, "I mean, your fiancé is in Scotland and it would be unfair for us to visit my girlfriend. I can't believe you 're getting married." Harry added after that. I grinned. Just the thought of Hermione made me grin like an idiot. The thought of spending the rest of my life with her made me feel even better, like my life couldn't get better. I must have been out of it for a moment or two because when I next spoke up Harry had moved to his wardrobe. I jumped in surprise.
"What-" I pointed at him. Harry smirked.
"You were daydreaming." Harry said. "I reckon it can't hurt to go see the Harpies, maybe we could get in on a practice session and pick up some tips." That sounded like a plan to me!
"Also I think they're playing the Cannons tonight." I added. Harry grinned.
"Even better." Harry said.
The stadium was enormous. I'd been to quidditch stadiums before but this stadium was like the world cup stadium. How on earth did they keep this place hidden? We had come in through Sirius' office. He had then given us two tickets for the VIP box and told us to feel free to wander around the stadium. We sat on some seats just behind the benches that the players kept their things on. We stared up in the sky to see the Harpies perform manoeuvre after manoeuvre.
"Wow." I heard Harry gasp.
"I hope you're not eyeing up the players!" came a Rhia's rather impatient voice. Harry and I both jumped and turned around to look behind us. Rhia was standing behind us in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that revealed almost all of her midriff. There were two people with her, one was meddling with her hair and another was dabbing her face with some kind of make up thing. Rhia's blond hair looked sort of straight but there were some curls in it too, it looked rather good on her I thought, every inch a star.
"What? No." Harry said quickly. I was glad that my girlfriend wasn't here. Rhia swatted away the witch and the wizard who were following her.
"Go away and do yourselves up for a while." She muttered to them.
"Your shoot is in less then five minutes." The make up witch told her.
"I know, just bugger off for a while…please" Rhia added sweetly. The make up Witch and hair wizard looked at each other uncertainly before stepping aside.
"You look fantastic." I told Rhia.
"Thank you, but what are you doing here?" Rhia asked, she looked at me then at Harry, who's mouth had dropped open at the sight of Rhia. Rhia calmly shut it for him and rolled her eyes with a smile.
"We were hoping to train with the Harpies." I told her, glancing at Harry, who was slowly recovering.
"Um…I'll see what I can do." Rhia said.
"Oh, no, it's ok, your dad's already seen to it." I told her. Rhia nodded and glanced at Harry worriedly.
"Um, Harry?" She asked. Harry shook his head.
"Um, sorry, you look beautiful. What are you doing a photo shoot about?" Harry asked.
"An article with dad or about dad or something. Some Quidditch Magazine thought they'd do an article with me and him, uprising star and her quidditch manager dad who also happens to be some famous hero!" Rhia said as if reading a headline.
"Oh, right." Harry said with a frown. "Um, ok."
"TWO MINUTES!" someone shouted to Rhia from the other side of the pitch. The witch and wizard immediately pounced on her again. Rhia rolled her eyes and said her goodbyes as she walked across the pitch, dodging a bludger that decided to come to the ground and to where there were some cameras set up. We watched the Harpies for a bit longer before they came flying down to take a break. The captain, Charlotte Winters, was a lovely young woman, as my mum would say. She was taller then Hermione, she held herself well with shoulders back and a rather nice walk. She had long light brown hair that was tied up at the moment.
"So, we have two boys joining the team." She said with a smile.
"Only today." Harry replied. Charlotte looked at both Harry and me then looked at her team.
"Right, what positions are you?" Charlotte asked.
"I'm seeker and he's a keeper." Harry said. Charlotte nodded and looked at her team.
"Don't you have a coach?" I asked her.
"We did but since Sirius got promoted we've been training each other. We don't want a new one at the moment in case they turn out to be a death eater." Charlotte said. "Olive and Fay, come here." Charlotte said. Two women came to her. One had a similar body shape to Charlotte's and was about the same height as her. The other was a bit smaller, more like Rhia's height and had short black hair.
"You called?" asked the small one.
"Yep, Harry, Ron, this is Olive" Charlotte said, pointing to the short woman, "She's our seeker and this is Fay, our keeper." Charlotte pointed to the other woman.
"What are they doing here?" Fay asked.
"Oh, we're giving them some training tips." Charlotte said. "Boss's orders." She said with a tone that told the rest of the team that that was the end of the discussion. Olive was looking at Harry curiously. I saw him flatten his hair over his forehead.
"Are you Harry Potter?" She asked.
"Um…yeah." Harry muttered.
"And Ron Weasley?" She added to me.
"Yeah." I answered.
"This should be good." Fay said with a grin.
"According to Rhia they're quite good." Charlotte said.
"But she's dating one of them isn't she." Fay replied.
"I believe her." Charlotte said. "Ok, Karen, get them some brooms and we'll get on with this."
About ten minutes later we were in the air. I was with Fay at one end of the goal post. She was showing me some goal keeping techniques that she used. One move that she was showing me required me to zoom around the goal hoops at an alarmingly high speed. I didn't know how she did it. I had noticed that she had a firebolt, same as Harry, which meant it was an incredibly fast broom. I swallowed the little saliva I had in my mouth as she suggested I try it. I started going slowly then started going faster and faster until everything seemed to be a blur.
"STOP!" She shouted. I stopped so suddenly I was nearly bucked off my broom. "When you go around, try and keep an eye on the quaffle. I'm going to take a quaffle and try and throw it at the goal post. I want you to stop it, remember keep an eye on the quaffle." She said, holding the large red ball. I nodded and started going around the goal posts as quickly as I could. I tried to keep an eye on the quaffle but I only managed to get a glimpse of it for less then a second before Fay decided to throw it. I hadn't seen it until it collided with my face. I stopped suddenly and held my face.
"OW!" I shouted. My face stung as it would if you did a belly flop into water. Fay had the slightest of smirks on her face but flew over. She looked at my face and got out her wand. She touched it slightly and the pain disappeared.
"That's why you keep an eye on the quaffle." She told me. I grumbled and muttered as she seemed to smile more. "Ok, next move. This is called the Starfish and Stick" Fay suddenly seemed to launch herself from her broom but held on with one hand and a foot.
"Um, I think I'll pass on that move." I said uncertainly.
"Come on, what kind of man are you? You can face Voldemort but not a simple Quidditch Manoeuvre?"
"They're slightly different." I told her, feeling rather annoyed
"Ron." Harry said in the interval of the quidditch match. The match was going so badly. The Harpies were beating the Chudley Cannons almost three hundred to thirty. I sat tearing up a program with a list of players. Harry poked me in the side.
"What?" I asked him testily.
"Does the fight against Voldemort seem to have paid off?" He asked.
"What?" I asked him, curious now rather then angry that my team was loosing!
"Well, there doesn't seem to have been too much point to it. I mean nothing has changed." Harry told me. What on earth was he going on about! Of course it was all worth it, well some people shouldn't have died but at least their death wasn't in vain! I told him my views.
"…Everyone is freer now and at least we know that we're safe, the Death Eaters don't have any leader-"
"But doesn't that make them more dangerous?" Harry asked.
"Not necessarily." I told him. I'd had this discussion with Hermione so I just used all her arguments. "They won't be as eager to kill people or if they do they'll probably try and attack someone high profile, like you, whose got lots of protection even if you don't know it." Harry turned to look at me with a smile.
"You've been talking to Hermione haven't you?" He asked with a laugh. I could sense some of the old Harry coming back. Maybe he was beginning to forget about everything that had happened, or at least beginning to get over it. The crowds outside the VIP box began screaming and cheering again as the teams came back onto the quidditch pitch. Harry and I sat up straight.
"Come on Cannons!" I muttered.
"Oh they are so losing!" Harry said with a smile on his face. The Chudley Cannons were in the air as well as half of the Holyhead Harpies. We saw Charlotte Winters talking to a fellow team member. They both got onto their brooms but as Charlotte got about three meters into the air a green light shot out of the crowds. Charlotte saw it just in time and spun on her broom like she was dodging a bludger. The spell shot out of sight into the sky.
"What the Hell!" Sirius shouted from behind them. "Get security down there. Make sure the medic gets there and checks Charlotte over, go now!" He shouted at a man standing by the door. Harry and I stood up and looked down at the crowd. I could just make out a man running to the exit of the stadium.
"He's there!" I said, "Leaving through that exit." Sirius looked at where I was pointing.
"Get to exit six now!" Sirius said to a man who had come into the room.
"Yes sir." He said. He left to send a message down the hall.
"What happened?" Sirius said to himself.
"Charlotte Winters was attacked." Harry told him.
"I know that Harry!" Sirius said, "My top player was attacked." Harry and I looked at each other then down at the pitch. Charlotte Winters was flying up to the VIP box where we were sitting. She gave us a thumb up to show she was ok but she looked incredibly shaken and her face was white. Sirius shook his head and left the room.
"You were saying?" Harry said, referring to our conversation we had moments ago.
"Hey, it was Hermione's point, not mine!" I said defensively.
"I think we should go down there." Harry said. I nodded my agreement then turned to make my way to the door. The man at the door slammed the door shut and looked at us.
"Excuse me, we need to go to the loo." Harry said to him. The man drew his wand and looked at the two of us. Unfortunately it was only the three of us in the VIP box.
"Not so fast." The man said. He pointed his wand at the window of the VIP box. "Obscurea" The glass fogged up until it was a misty white colour. Harry and I looked at each other uncertainly before we both drew our wands.
"Who are you?" I asked him. The man seemed to change before out eyes, I'd seen the effect before. Polyjuice potion! He had short black hair and a look in his eyes that showed the want to kill. He was a middle aged man and had a smirk that reminded me of Lucius Malfoy. I recognised him from somewhere. Harry obviously recognised him as he whispered,
"Rudolphus Lestrange." Rudolphus smirked.
"Avada Kedavra!" He shouted. The green light shot towards Harry.
"Expelliarmus!" I said as Harry dove out of the way. The light very nearly touched the end of his fingers. The disarming spell hit Rudolphus Lestrange, he went off trying to catch his wand as Harry got to his feet.
"The window!" He hissed at me.
"What?" I asked him. Harry looked at the window before turning to look at Lestrange. I looked at him confused before I realised that a curse was coming my way. I dropped to my knees as soon as I noticed it. I felt it skim the top of my head and maybe killing some of my hairs. It took me several minutes for me to realise that I was holding my breath. I crawled to the seats and sat behind them. This was bad, very bad, though that was a little obvious. I put my head against the floor so I was able to look under the seats. I watched Lestrange's feet pacing the room like he was guarding the door. Why had Sirius left! I heard someone behind me, I nearly shouted in fear when Harry tapped me on the shoulder. He put his finger to his lips.
"Jump out the window?" He mouthed.
"What!" I mouthed back, surprise was probably written on my face.
"Only way out!"
"We'll die!"
"No we won't, quidditch players out there, they'll catch us." He mouthed back. I glanced under the seats and saw that Lestrange had stopped in his pacing.
"And you're the one who defeated our master? You more of a wimp!" He snarled. I looked back at Harry, he held up three fingers…two…one… Harry got to his feet, sent five curses quickly at Lestrange then turned to the window.
"REDUCTO!" He shouted. The window shattered into glistening fragments. He looked at me and started at a run to the windows. I felt panicked, my heart was racing. I stood up and looked after Harry. I turned to look at Lestrange who was covered in purple blisters and was slowly getting to his feet.
"Merlin help me." I muttered. I turned to the window and leapt out into mid air. I shut my eyes as I plummeted to the ground flailing my arms wildly. Memories of Fred dropping me on my first ride on a broom came to mind as I fell. I bit my lip but after a few moments I felt as though I wasn't falling anymore, the windw as coming from a different direction. I opened my eyes and watched the crowds mellow me gawking at me. I looked up and saw one of the Holyhead Beaters holding me by the back of my shirt. I glanced around to see that Harry was sitting behind Charlotte Winters. We all went to the ground where I stumbled to my feet. Sirius came running out of the stands and ran to us. He looked like he was going to hit us.
"Are you crazy? What made you pull a stunt like that!" He demanded, taking Harry and myself by the shirts.
"Someone attacked us." I stammered. We looked up to see a figure disappearing from the window. Sirius cursed and muttered as he pulled Harry and me to the stands where Sirius frowned, bossed about some people then turned to Harry and me.
"What are we going to do now?" Harry asked. Sirius scowled.
"I'm going to have to cancel the match." Sirius said.
"No, you can't!" Harry and I shouted together. Sirius was about to say something when there was a flash in our faces. I tried to blink away the flash that kept appearing in my eyes.
"Rita." Sirius snarled while I was trying to get rid of this annoying flash.
"You didn't think I'd miss a match between the best and worst team in the league did you?" Rita asked. "Great story, Harry Potter jumps out window with his best friend for publicity stunt." She said. I watched as Sirius turned progressively redder and redder until he ordered security to take Rita out.
"YOU DID WHAT!" Mum screamed in my ear. "RONALD WEASLEY, I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU DID! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT PEOPLE ARE AFTER YOU? WHY DID YOU JUMP OUT OF THE VIP BOX! WHAT POSSESSED YOU TO DO SUCH A THING…" I think I must have zoned out after that, I can't remember what she'd been talking about. I glanced towards the door where Ginny was mimicking mum's speech. I saw an owl nearly collide with her holding a bright red envelope. She seemed to grin then knocked on the door.
"WHAT IS IT GINNY?" Mum asked spinning around. Ginny held the envelope forwards.
"It's for Ron." Ginny said to her. She turned to me next. "It's got Hermione's handwriting." I felt as though someone had shot me in the stomach. Uh oh, Hermione had a really sharp tongue at times. Mum looked at me expectantly as I took the envelope uncertainly and cautiously.
"Well?" Mum asked me. "Aren't you going to open it?" I placed it gently on the table.
"No, I think I'll leave it." I said.
"You know it's better if you open it." Ginny said innocently. I used my want to open the envelope as Hermione's voice came screaming out of the envelope.
"RON! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF BEFORE WE GET MARRIED? DO YOU REALLY HATE LIFE SO MUCH? WAIT UNTIL I MEET YOU, YOU BETTER HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR WHAT HAPPENED, BOTH YOU AND HARRY!" The howler suddenly exploded, singing my eyebrows. Mum seemed to think I had enough punishment after the shouting from my fiancé.
"Now go to your room!" She said.
"You can't order me to do anything I don't want t-"
"RONALD GO TO YOUR ROOM!" She shouted, I darted from the room as quickly as possible with Ginny laughing behind me, until mum shouted her name as well
A/N:-That was a fun chatper to write, hehe, took less time (total writing time) then i thought. Next chapter is Draco Malfoy with Obsession! God i miss this kinda thing, so glad i went back to 1st person. Lots of ideas, all good and all fantastic though some are out of character. Ok, Lily's about 7 or 8 months pregnant at this point...I may go back to writing hte month/dates at the top of the chapters, makes it easier to track, yeah i'll do that, excuse me while i change this one...Daddy got the Aviator for me...WOOHOOO! I'm gonna be on TV this week! WOOHOO! I'm performing in WImbledon Tennis on my sax with my band, cause we're so fantastically good! last year NBC got lots of lovely footage of me as they shoved their damn cameras in my face for 4 hours, grrr... anyways, got a reheasral to get to, stuff to revise and chapters to write (one more exam left YAY!) then i'm freeeeeee MWAHAHAHAAAAA