Chapter Twenty Three - See You on the Other Side

"Ron, stop now, we've finally done it," Dumbledore was smiling when Ron opened his eyes after his near half hour of meditation at St Nectan's Glen.

What's he on about?

"You purged yourself of the last of the toxins at long last. You've beaten it my friend," the ghostly wizard said with a twinkle in his eyes, "you've beaten it in the physical world and in the metaphysical one. You have been purged of all the damage I did to you."

Ron was about to thank him when the headmaster was swallowed up within a brilliant white light and Ron felt himself sinking backwards into the darkness, something soft and warm cushioning him as he did.

Something seemed to shake him awake from the inside before he felt his physical body waking up rapidly and the sensation of somebody shaking him bodily from the outside as well. He blinked in the bright daylight and struggled to sit up.

"Ron on your feet we've got trouble," Harry was whispering for some reason as he scanned the glen with his wand out.

"What?" Ron frowned while Hermione pulled him up to his feet and withdrew her own wand anxiously.

Several loud cracks sounded around them, in different areas of the glen, and Ron recognised them immediately as the sound of apparition. People were apparating into the glen from all over the place and Harry and Hermione were prepared for attack.

Oh shit!

"How many of them are there?" Hermione was asking Harry while Ron pulled out his own wand and tried to pick out any abnormalities on the horizon, "I can't see anyone."

He joined Harry's side and swallowed, he didn't like how quiet the glen was now, where were they all?

"This is not good Harry, something's really wrong."

"Ron there's something I think you need to know," Harry began.

"What?" he frowned.

"Last night I..."

"Avada Kedavra!"

A whooshing sound and a bright green light flashed from somewhere behind the three of them and then Ron felt Hermione's body slamming into him, knocking him into Harry, and the three of them hitting the ground just as the killing curse zoomed above their heads.

Ron felt himself freeze as he looked up into the red snake-like eyes of Lord Voldemort, he had never seen him before, not conscious at least, and it chilled him to the bone.

"You're stupider than I thought Voldemort," Harry scowled as he jumped to his feet and cast a bubble shield charm around Ron and Hermione as they helped each other up, "you just saved me the job of looking for you to finish you off."

Voldemort laughed a laugh that sounded like a crackling fire before hurling a curse at Harry which he deflected with ease. This filled Ron with confidence in his friend, in all of them, Harry wasn't afraid of the monster who had murdered his parents in cold blood. He was confident that he could beat him, he would beat him, and this gave Ron the confidence in his own abilities to grab Hermione and pull her over to his side so he could whisper his plan to her while they were still enclosed within the bubble shield.

"Hermione we need to cover him from the others attacks, you take the left, and I'll take the right ok?"

"When?"

"As soon as the shield drops, I shield the rear, we attack Voldemort to buy us and Harry some time and we move to our positions," Ron said as he scanned his right to find a place with some decent cover from attack.

"What do we hit him with?"

Ron saw a large bolder resting against the rock face, there was no way he could be blindsided if he attacked from there.

"I've no idea, what do you think Min? Do we defend or do we attack?"

As Hermione thought it over Ron glanced over to his left to find an equally secure place for her to take cover and saw a crack in the rock that jutted out, almost like a shield with it's very own arrow slit built into it, and decided that that was pretty good, pointing it out to her as she nodded.

"We attack, defending will only get us half way but he'd have to recover from an attack and then formulate his own, that buys us all more time. Not much but its better than nothing isn't it?" she said as the shield began to falter around them.

"Attacking's good, I like that plan," Ron nodded as he raised his wand in readiness for the shield to fail.

"We cut him ok? He's cut us all over the course of this war; I think it's about time we made him bleed for a change."

Ron cast a glance at Hermione who was staring through the flickering shield at Voldemort with ferocious determination.

"I worry about you sometimes," he muttered as he focused back out at the dark wizard as he did battle with Harry.

"Sorry Ron," she said as she swallowed while retaining her focus once again, "it's the hoops; I'm still feeling a little primal from time to time."

There was nothing he could say to that so he didn't.

"Good luck," she said as the shield fell and the two of them became exposed to attacks from all round.

"Sectum pulpa crebro!" they both yelled as Voldemort turned his wand on them with an evil gleam in his red slit-like eyes and multiple cuts slashed the dark wizard's body.

Harry threw up a shield charm before all of them as Ron spun around and did the same behind them. He could see movement across the glen now and knew that the multiple attackers were just waiting for instructions from their master.

"Protego sempra!" Ron yelled as the shield sprouted from his wand and covered Harry's blind side.

"Death Eaters," Voldemort bellowed with rage, "rid me of the two pests and leave me to duel with Potter in peace!"

Ron turned to Hermione.

"Like we planned it yeah?"

She nodded.

"Good luck," she said once more before running for the shelter to her left.

As the various curses zoomed in from every direction Ron ran for the boulder and dove behind it just as a green flash sliced through the air beside him and exploded onto the rock face, scattering shrapnel everywhere. He looked over to see Hermione was safely protected behind the rock shield, throwing out curses with a real look of rage on her face, and knew that she was going to be fine. He just had to concentrate on covering his side of the battlefield.

He jumped up from behind the rock and cast a small protection spell over himself before going on the attack.

"Contego! Oppugno! Absisto! Adficto! Depulso!"

The protection spell fell away from him and he ducked back behind the bolder while multiple spells hit it and sent debris and sparks showering over him. The rock shook but wasn't in any danger of being breached so far, his judgement had been pretty good as far as the rock being a good place to shelter was concerned. He waved his wand above his head and cast another shield charm.

"Protego!"

Two more spells hit the rock face in front of him as the whizzed above the top of the bolder and when Ron saw the light of the fully formed shield glowing above him he jumped back to his feet again and resumed his attack.

"Captivas! Compescor crebro! Everbero indentiem! Impedio adstringo!"

Something shattered his shield and he flung himself back down onto the ground just in time to avoid the red and green flashes that broke through and headed right for him. He pressed his back against the bolder firmly to make sure there wasn't any angle he could be attacked from and tried to think of something they wouldn't be prepared for. They seemed to have an answer to most forms of defence or attack and he needed to take them by surprise somehow.

He winced as something exploded several feet above him and a pile of loose rocks tumbled down towards him. He raised his wand and levitated them before they buried him and jerked his wand over his shoulder to send them flying at his attackers. He racked his brains for a spell. How could a teenage wizard who hadn't finished school hope to beat this over privileged ruthless army?

The same way I beat Wormtail.

He remembered that his household spells always took the arrogant Death Eaters by surprise, they never did a practical thing in their lives, always left it up to their house elves, and then he knew that that was the one thing they wouldn't have any pre-conceived defence for. He tried to think of the novel ways he and the twins had always found to do battle when they were supposed to be doing chores and then it came to him. He was the runner bean pole javelin champion of the Burrow. And those things were sharp as hell. He sprung up from behind the rock, not even taking the time to cast a protection spell before himself and let his spell rip.

"Asser indentiem!"

The long thin rods shot out of his wand tip and flew out, burying themselves into trees, shattering against the rocks on the far side of the glen where the Death Eaters were sheltering, and impaling several robed figures who fell to the ground and rolled around screaming. More and more of the rods kept coming one after the other and Ron was assaulting all sides of the battle field with them now, beating back the attackers and incapacitating many of them with the same sweep of his wand.

One of the Death Eaters managed to send out a killing curse and Ron ducked back down behind the boulder, pressing his back against his faithful shield once again and yelped as he saw Draco Malfoy in front of him pressing his wand to his throat and holding his own wand arm flat against his side.

"Very impressive Weasel and all without Dumbledore as well, you were almost brilliant except for you not having noticed me sneaking up from the same place you just came from."

Ron's eyes widened, Malfoy knew about Dumbledore, he knew that he was an oracle. He didn't know what to do, if he killed Malfoy that would only be the beginning of his troubles now that he knew his secret. He pushed against the haunted looking young Death Eater but the Slytherin was already moving back, keeping his wand on Ron at all times. Ron lifted his own wand again and held it to Malfoy's face.

"So you know what I am then? Good for you ya sneaky little ferret, but I bet your dark lord won't be too pleased if you went ahead and killed me would he?" Ron hissed as he tried to remind himself to stay covered from the attacks raining in from behind him.

"Oh of course he wouldn't, he'd have my head if I blew you away Weasley. You and I both know just how valuable a weapon you would be to him, horcruxes or none he'd definitely be immortal them wouldn't he? As long as you were and I can really see him doing the whole horcrux thing again through you. How do you fancy a shattered soul Weasley?"

"How do you fancy a shattered nose Malfoy?" Ron snarled.

The blonde laughed and put his wand away. He actually put his wand away. Ron didn't know what to make of this.

"I'll kill myself before I let you hand me over," Ron warned before ducking a powerful spell that shattered through the top of the boulder.

"Well I'm sure if you stay crouched here they'll be only too pleased to do that for you because you see Weasel, none of them know about your little gift."

Ron suddenly realised that this had to be true, they wouldn't be trying to kill him if they or their master knew he was an oracle. He looked to Malfoy who was also ducking from the spells as the broke through the bolder little by little.

"Why would you keep it from them?" he asked with great suspicion.

"Because none of them can be allowed to come back after they die, none of them can be allowed to continue on once we rid ourselves of them," Malfoy said coldly, "It's like my father always said to me, the dead really have no business interfering in the living world, to die is to fail and nobody wants a failure to outstay their welcome."

The bolder cracked right through the centre and Malfoy grabbed the front of Ron's sweatshirt and pulled him back down the slope towards the sandy banks of the lakeside again. They half ran, half fell, and slammed down flat on their faces as the boulder exploded into hundreds of smaller rocks that showered down upon them. Ron found himself dragging Malfoy into a small sheltered area in the rock face, out of instinct to protect a fallen companion more than any desire to save the boy from a pummelling from above, and he aimed his wand at the wannabe Death Eater's chest.

"So what is it you do want Malfoy?"

"I want to take Dumbledore up on his offer," he panted as more rocks fell from above them.

"What?" Ron frowned.

"He said he could protect me, I could join them and fight with them and change the course of my life, Severus Snape and I have been fighting them from the inside and now we want our better life thank you very much."

Ron's eyes were wide; Snape was on their side after all?

"We want him stopped, we want this war over and we want our dues for what we've done. The great Potter isn't the only one who's been doing his bit to win this war y'know and I'm not letting him fuck this up and die a martyr."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, you don't expect me to believe this shite do you?" Ron said, not quite knowing what kind of trap he was getting himself into.

"Why didn't I go straight to the dark lord and blab about your little imaginary friend then Weasley? Tell me why I kept that to myself? Tell me why I've been fucking shielding you?"

"You what?" Ron sputtered incredulously, "When was this 'cause I didn't see you around."

"When you were sending out your bloody spears, very impressive by the way, you must teach me that one some day, and not getting hit by a single hex or curse in return. Remember that Weasel? You didn't cast your own protection spell that time did you so why aren't you bloody dead?"

Ron stared at the livid looking boy, who was staring back at him with unashamed disgust, and wondered how he could fight alongside somebody he so clearly hated.

"You can't stand me."

"No I can't," Malfoy said matter-of-factly, "but I'll stand with you, I'll fight with you and I'll finish this bastard with you. Same goes for Potter and Granger."

Ron hoped his judgement wasn't letting him down and lowered his wand with great caution. Malfoy shook his head and scoffed.

"Finally."

"Don't relax too much ferret boy I still don't trust you as far as I could throw you and I'm willing to see how far that is."

Malfoy laughed a genuine laugh at this.

"You know I never believed it when I heard people saying it but you are actually quite funny."

Ron raised both his eyebrows and folded his arms across his chest. Malfoy wanted something and he wanted to know what it was now.

"Well let's get the old man out to finish this shall we?" Malfoy said as he took a step towards Ron, "That is how it works isn't it? I put you to sleep and he wakes you up and the two of you do wandless magic that can take down an army in five minutes, that's how it is right?"

Ron shook his head.

"Not quite."

"Well what then, we need Dumbledore, we need you all super charged like you were that day at Pevensy, how do we do that?"

Ron tried to remember everything he had been told about his own condition and cursed his inability to remember exactly what went on himself.

"Well we've got a new spell that draws him out right away, that's sopor, and then there's the thing about the fever of course. That time I wrecked the Burrow, I was really ill after and after Gringots too..."

Ron was talking aloud to himself more that to Malfoy but he seemed to be getting excited by this information and took a step toward him and withdrew his wand again.

"So I'll send you to sleep with a fever and you'll be strong?"

Ron looked up at Malfoy and knew what had to be done.

"There's something else you have to do as well."

"What's that?" the pale faced and very tired looking boy blinked.

"While I'm in the trance, as soon as I'm in the trance, you've got to wake me up with the ennervate spell."

"But that'll just bring you back the way you are now won't it?" Malfoy frowned.

"No it won't, it'll give Dumbledore full control and send me away, it'll give Dumbledore my body entirely and all the powers that the fever will accumulate too."

Malfoy's eyes lit up and his chest swelled at this news, Ron knew what he was thinking. They were going to bring the only wizard Voldemort was ever afraid of back to life to face him.

They were going to win.

"Ronnie, hey Ron get up, it's all right, it's only us."

Ron opened his eyes and felt as if he was falling despite the fact that he was laying on the ground.

"Don't worry, it'll pass soon enough, I remember when I got back from visiting your mother that time I couldn't tell up from down could I Fabian?"

Fabian?

"It was like he was drunk," another, very similar voice said as he felt his body drifting upwards into the standing position.

Except he wasn't standing, he was kind of floating as well, like he was walking on the surface of very deep snow and wondering why he wasn't sinking down into it. He didn't have a body either now that he thought of it; he just had a presence, a form, but no substance. He felt a fizzing sensation on his arm and saw that he was being touched by a silvery hand. He looked up into a face he had only ever seen in photographs, as far as he remembered anyway, and shuddered.

"Uncle Gideon?" he said in a voice that was felt rather than heard.

The man smiled at him and let him go.

"You've been doing so well little man Prewitt, I am so proud, and after all the visits as well...well you blew me away you really did."

Ron couldn't quite understand what was happening to him. He looked around himself and saw what looked like several different lace patterns of landscapes surrounding him. It was as if he was in a transparent room of frosted glass and through that he could see a transparent street and then a glacial village and further still through all the translucent layers trees and mountains going on forever as if they were ice sculptures. He looked back at his twin Uncles and tried to find the words for all his questions.

"Where...? What happened?"

The quieter of the two brothers smiled at him and answered his vague questions.

"You sent Dumbledore out to fight with your friend Harry. He's gone to finish it once and for all, for all of us."

"It...It worked, Malfoy woke me and he came out like he was supposed to?" Ron asked as he drifted forwards and backwards a little until his uncle Fabian held him in place by the shoulders.

"It worked perfectly Ron, it is working, and we're winning."

Ron let himself smile as he looked around himself again and wondered where everybody else was.

"We're winning," he repeated to himself absent-mindedly while his uncles shared a confused glance at each other before looking back at him.

"Hey baby Prewitt, what are you looking for?" Gideon said.

"Are we the only ones here?" Ron asked, wondering why his uncle kept calling him Prewitt.

Fabian smiled again.

"You poor sod, that nightmare you had when you were going nutso really stayed with you didn't it? We're the only ones Ronnie, us and Dumbledore, we're the only ones that know so we're the only ones here. There's nobody else out to get you I promise, I swear, there's only ever been the three of us."

Ron felt himself shake as he relaxed to such a degree that he almost floated off into the rafters of the invisible house, his uncle Gideon pulling him back down by his feet.

"Where you off to mate?" he chuckled, "there's nothing for you up there."

Ron tried to plant his ghostly feet on the floor and keep them there.

"Sorry, I'm not used to this, how do you stick where you want to?"

Fabian held him down on the ground, pushing on his shoulders, the fizzing feeling of his touch intensifying as he did so, and tried to explain.

"You just tell yourself that this is where you really are, this is where you want to be and this is where you're staying," he let go of his shoulders and Ron felt secure on the ground for the very first time since he got there, "and you should be able to stop your mind carrying you away like that see?"

He sighed and grinned up at his uncle.

"Cheers uncle Fabian."

The two brothers smiled at each other before something in the invisible house shook and then turned back to Ron with serious expressions on their faces. It was Fabian who spoke; his mother always had said he was the more mature of the two of them.

"Listen we are going to ask a huge favour of you, well Dumbledore is asking through us really, he's fighting out in the living world and he needs you to fight from down here as well."

Ron nodded.

"Of course what does he need?"

Again the twins looked at each other with apprehension.

"Look junior," Gideon said bracingly, "this sucks, and when you hear what we want to do you're going to shit yourself but you trust Dumbledore and you trust us right?"

Ron didn't like the sound of this.

"What the bloke who put me in a coffin with a dead guy and the two prats who left me in the snow in my pyjamas when I was little, yeah I trust ya!" he nodded sarcastically.

"Bloody hell he sound's just like Molls," Gideon said with shock as he turned to his twin.

"Don't say that!" Ron said, slightly offended.

Fabian laughed before quickly frowning again and sighing before he explained the plan from their side of the battle.

"The thing is, we need to send another dead person's spirit out there to finish the job, Harry's going to give them corporeal form with one of his patronus' and we need you to let her into this room with us in order to do that."

"What does letting somebody into this room entail exactly uncle Fabian?" Ron asked with caution.

Again the twins shared a look before answering the question; Ron was beginning to hate that.

"Well junior..." Gideon began.

"My name's Ron!" he snapped back at the more difficult and somewhat patronising of the two of them and he jumped back.

"He's definitely taken after our Molls!" Gideon said as he turned to his brother, quite affronted at being shouted at by his 'baby' nephew.

Fabian leaned over him and gripped him by both shoulders firmly.

"Ron, we are asking you if you can invite somebody in, tell a person who is already dead that you are an oracle and invite them to join us so Dumbledore can send her into Harry and Harry can send her out through his patronus."

Ron felt as if the invisible room had just flipped upside down and left him hanging in mid-air.

"What?" he said with a shake of the head.

"You need to let somebody else know what you are, nobody can come into this room, your room Ron, and visit you in your sleep like the three of us have done unless they know about you," Fabian said as he released him and took a step back.

"So what Dumbledore needs us to ask you is to invite somebody in, to let one other person know about you so they can help him defeat Voldemort," Gideon said, strangely seriously now.

Ron stared at them both with hurt eyes before turning away and pacing the invisible room several times. Neither of his uncles said a word while he did. So many more people in the living world already knew his secret and now he was being asked to spread the word amongst the dead as well? This room of his was going to get awfully crowded. Would there even be room for him by the time this was all over? He stopped pacing and looked back over to his uncles who were watching him anxiously.

"Who is it?"

Again they looked at each other nervously, Ron finally snapped.

"Will you stop doing that? I'm over here!"

"It's his mum," Gideon blurted out in shock.

Ron frowned at this.

"Dumbledore's mum? He wants his mum?"

Fabian actually chuckled at this and shook his head.

"No mate, not Dumbledore's mother," his face fell back into seriousness again, "Voldemort's mum. He wants you to bring in Merope Gaunt and send her up to help them take down her wayward son."

Ron's eyes were wide with horror at what he was being asked.

"Dumbledore wants me to invite a Death Eater into my...what ever the fuck this is, he wants me to let a Death Eater know my secret and not just any Death Eater but the mother of the most evil wizard in history?" Ron exclaimed, "Do me a favour!"

"She's not a Death Eater, she's practically a squib," Gideon defended himself, "and she's on our side. She loved a muggle, she doesn't believe in anything Voldemort stands for. She's one of us."

"You're having a laugh aren't you?" Ron said as he began to pace back and forth again.

His uncle Fabian seemed to appear in front of him as if he had dissolved from one side of the room and re-materialised in Ron's path in an instant.

"Ron you're right this is a terrible idea and the three of us have tried to come up with something, anything better than this, but we can't. This is all we've got, this is the only plan we have to stop him, and this is the only way we can think of to help your friend defeat him for good. She's a decent person Ron and she won't use you I swear, I promise she won't."

"On your life?" Ron snorted before his uncle Gideon materialised before him as well.

"We won't let her and she wouldn't try anyway Ron and I promise you on the eternity of abuse I will get from your mother when she eventually joins us if we lie to you!"

Ron saw it in his eyes, the same fear that occasionally struck Fred and George when their mother's wrath was in full swing; Gideon Prewitt was not going to do anything to piss off his sister any more than he already had.

"I believe you," he said as his head dropped and he heaved a sigh of resignation before looking up at them again, "ok so how do I invite her in?"

"You grant me permission to bring her," Fabian smiled as he extended his hand, "you shake my hand and I go out into the spirit world and bring her in, I'll explain everything to her on the way and I'll make her swear not to trouble you ever again after this alright?"

Ron nodded and took his uncle's hand.

"I give you permission to invite Merope Gaunt back here."

There was a sudden surge of energy that grew into a yellow ball of light around their clasped hands and Fabian broke away and disappeared before Ron's eyes with a smile on his face. Ron turned to Gideon and tried not to look as if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

"It'll be alright little...Ron, I won't let anyone fuck with Molly's boy, send me to hell if I do."

Ron smiled at him.

"What's with all the baby Prewitt crap anyway?"

Gideon grinned.

"I just like that we didn't get wiped out that's all, I thought your mother was the only one left and she was all alone out there, but you...you're one of us."

Gideon slapped him on the shoulder and Ron frowned and shook his head.

"You think she's lonely? You are aware that she has seven kids right?"

Gideon threw back his head with laughter and Ron sniggered both at the subject and at the situation he found himself in. He was joking around with his dead, uncles in his own afterlife, before he was actually dead but after having been buried.

"Do you know there was a time when I thought I was going to have an uneventful life?" Ron mused to himself and his uncle howled with laughter again.

"Oh man I really like you," Gideon said as his laughter subsided, "I really wish I could have...I dunno, just been there, in your life."

"Me too," Ron nodded.

There was what felt like a breeze but wasn't and the shape of his uncle Fabian reappeared in the room with a young and very haunted looking woman at his side.

"Merope, this is my nephew Ron," Fabian said as he introduced the spirit of Voldemort's dead mother to him, "Ron this is Merope and she has come to help Dumbledore."

"Hi," Ron said in a surprisingly small voice.

"Hello," she said in a similarly weak one before taking a sudden step forward and whispering to him, "I've never made myself a nuisance, I've never stayed where I'm not wanted, so don't worry about me bothering you. I won't, I promise."

Ron looked at her as she pulled back from him and smiled a sad smile at him and he leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"Thank you," before kissing her on the cheek.

She shimmered in front of him and smiled before looking around at the invisible house and asked Fabian where she needed to go.

"We just wait and Ron will be given a signal as far as I know," Fabian said, explaining the plan to both Merope and Ron, "and then Ron sends you up there."

Ron blinked in panic.

"I don't know how to do that."

Gideon smiled and patted him on the back.

"You'll know."

They only seemed to wait several seconds before something shook Ron inside and he fell to his knees, clutching his head.

"Ron," Gideon said as he knelt at his side with concern, "Ron what's the matter?"

'Ronald is Merope there with you?'

He and Dumbledore were together, in both places at the same time, and Ron could feel his physical form and his mental one being torn in two as they connected. He tried to answer Dumbledore but he couldn't speak. Speech was for his body and he didn't have one of those right now. He tried to answer him with his thoughts, hoping that Dumbledore could read minds as a ghost.

'Yes'

Dumbledore's presence was pulled away from him for a moment and Ron looked up to see his uncles on their knees looking at him with fearful eyes.

"Ron what was that? Are you ok?" Fabian was saying.

"Dumbledore was asking me if I was ready," he said as he tried to clear his mind, "if Merope was here."

On hearing her name Merope stepped between the twins and took one of Ron's hands with both of hers.

"I'm ready Ron, I'm here."

Before Ron could say anything to her the incredible presence inside his head came back and Dumbledore's voice seemed to be booming as if it was thunder directly overhead.

'Send her now Ronald!'

Ron opened his eyes and grabbed Merope, a hand on either side of her head, and thrust her into his silvery ghost-like body where she disappeared and he felt both her and Dumbledore leaving him. He fell back down onto the soft, non-existent floor, and found himself unable to get himself back up.

"It's ok Ron, you're about to go back, this happened to you when you were a little boy, just before Gids came back to me, just lie still and wait for it," Fabian was saying with a smile.

"You did it Ron," Gideon was saying as he laid a hand upon his head, "you done Molls proud, it's been good to meet you properly little man. Sorry, force of habit."

Ron smiled before feeling as if he was sinking and seeing the clear silver forms fading into a dull grey.

"That's ok Uncle Gideon," he said weakly, "I'll see you around."

Just as the two identical faces faded away he heard his Uncle Fabian saying one last thing.

"We'll see you on the other side."