The Dead Badger

4th January 2007 (Ron is 26)

RON: Harry and the Aurors were closing in on a Death Eater safe house in Norfolk when I apparated to the agreed point to be greeted by Eldridge.

"Agent Weasley, what's so urgent?"

"This mission has been compromised sir, there's been a breach in security, you can't let any of your team go inside the safe house. It's not safe."

"What? How do you know this?"

"How else?" I shrugged.

Eldridge put his wand to his throat and muttered the amplification spell before bellowing to the various Aurors under varying degrees of cover.

"Recalling all Aurors, abort the mission and recall all Aurors immediately!"

After returning his voice to normal again Eldridge turned to me, putting his wand away.

"I thought you said you weren't able to change the future, it was set in stone and what not."

"I'm not changing anything sit," I was sick of explaining the rules of time travel over and over again, "I'm not saving any lives so I'm not messing with anything important."

"Well in that case why can't we go in just to be sure?"

Just as I opened my mouth to respond the building exploded and Eldridge and myself were knocked off our feet onto the ground. As the debris fell several feet away from us multiple cracks sounded all around us as the recalled Aurors apparated back to the rendezvous point.

"Ron what are you doing here?" Harry said as Eldridge helped me back up to my feet.

"Agent Weasley discovered that this tip-off was in fact a trap," Eldridge said as he cast his eyes over his team to make sure they had all got back to him safely.

"Another one?" Parker said with an arched eyebrow.

"Yeah," I said as I took a step towards him, "another one."

Harry pulled me away from the others to ask me the same question Eldridge had asked me moments earlier.

"Listen mate I didn't come here about the explosion, that never hurt anybody, I didn't change anything by stopping you guys."

"So why did you come then?"

I looked Harry in the eye and hoped he didn't ask too many questions about this.

"Because I'm supposed to stop you."

Harry blinked and became slightly edgy.

"Stop me what?"

"Killing somebody."

Harry looked at me and seemed to lose a pint of blood from his face.

"What?"

"Not on purpose, it's an accident, there's going to be an accident and someone gets killed. That's still going to happen, it's going to happen very soon, and I know it won't be your fault if I'm here distracting you like this."

Harry shook his head as if he was trying to order his thoughts.

"This is a life though," he said, "you always said you couldn't change anything like life and death, you said it was impossible to interfere."

"I'm not changing the fact that somebody's about to die Harry, I've told you a billion sodding times I can't do that, I'm changing the type of freak accident that kills them so you don't blame yourself."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Auror Davis flinch and Auror Cavendish hushed the group, pointing his wand into the woods to their left. Davis, Parker, Eldridge and the others followed suit.

"Everybody keep quiet," Davis whispered, "I think I heard something moving over there."

Harry cast a meaningful look my way and I nodded as we took a deep breath and withdrew our own wands.

"Let's just ask Agent Weasley what it is," Parker mumbled while keeping his eyes fixed upon the woods, "I mean he does have all the answers doesn't he?"

I glared over at the dark haired Auror but his black eyes were still scanning the shadows in readiness for an attack.

"Shut up Parker," Davis hissed, "I'm trying to listen."

"Is this it?" Harry whispered to me as he peered in amongst the tree trunks and bushes just ahead of us, "Which one of us is it Ron?" Tell me who to protect."

I covered the rear with my own wand, more to keep my head turned away from a suspicious Auror Parker than anything else as I hissed back at Harry in annoyance.

"Don't you ever fucking listen? I can't change that somebody dies, I can't change it if somebody is injured or blinded or any life-altering event, shit Harry I can't even change what you'll have for breakfast tomorrow. It's already done for me. Once it's done it's past and can't be undone."

"This isn't the bloody past Ron, Harry growled at me with frustration, "this is the present, this is now and I can stop it if you just tell me who to protect."

"It never stops!" I bellowed at him, causing the jumpy young Auror who had been on the team for all of three weeks to flinch and send whatever non-verbal spell he had been preparing himself to attack with shooting out into the woods.

As we all looked at the stunned rookie a cry of pain sounded out from the woods and a flock of birds left the canopy of the trees in shock. I ran for the trees, Harry in hot pursuit, and threw myself into the thicket. I lit my wand tip and searched around for the man I knew to be fatally wounded but couldn't see a thing.

"Where are they? Who were they Ron?" Harry called out as he too scanned the area with an illuminated wand.

"I don't know, I just know what she told me," I muttered.

"Who told you?"

I looked to my best friend, glancing around to be sure that the other Aurors who were now searching for the body couldn't hear me, and let out a sigh.

"My daughter."

Harry's jaw hung open for several seconds before a voice called out from an overgrown area a little way away from us.

"I've found blood, lots of it!"

We ran to the scene and saw Eldridge shaking his head.

"Sir?" Harry frowned, still somewhat dumbfounded by my revelation.

"Whoever they were they're pretty much dead already."

"How d'you mean?" I asked as I tried to push my way forward to get a look at the body.

Eldridge put his hand on my chest to stop me proceeding.

"They managed to disaparate, either that or they had a portkey on them, but the amount of blood they lost before they did," he shook his head again, "they had no hope, not even if they managed to apparate into a bed in St Mungo's surrounded by the best medi wizards and witches we've got."

Harry swallowed and looked me in the eye. I think he gets it at last. No matter what I tried to do whoever it was would always die. At least Harry's conscience was clear. It was then that we heard the young Auror who had let loose the powerful curse into the woods running towards us, white-faced and breathless.

"Davis said you found blood sir, is it...I didn't...did I sir?"

Eldridge was about to deliver the bad news to the poor guy when Harry stepped forward, slapped the kid on the shoulder, and laughed as if they were sharing a joke at the pub after work.

"It was a badger you berk, you went and killed a badger, I hope you're suitably ashamed of yourself?"

The young Auror heaved a sigh of relief and bent over, putting his hands on his knees.

"Oh thank Merlin. I thought I'd hurt somebody," he said meekly, "that sounded so much like a person."

I laughed along with Harry as we guided the other Aurors back out of the woods and away from the pool of dark red blood.

"You know my wife is very into badger rights and I'm sure she wouldn't approve or your being so happy to have killed one."

Harry chuckled while the kid stammered.

"Oh but it's still awful, I mean I wouldn't have set out to kill some poor innocent creature at all, it's just that if I'd have killed a person, Godric I don't think I would have been able to live with myself."

Auror Davis shoved the kid and rolled her eyes.

"They're winding you up ya big softie!"

We laughed as we made our way back up to the rendezvous point. Eldridge nodded to Harry, thanking him silently for sparing the poor bloke the guilt of being a murderer three weeks into the job, and ordered the Aurors back to HQ for a de-briefing. Harry hung back to look at me in the eye, the fake smiles we had both been wearing melting away instantly.

"So that would've been me then?" he asked, "I'd have killed whoever that was if you hadn't come?"

I shrugged.

"That's the way I understand it."

"But you did come and they still died anyway."

I didn't say anything to that. There was nothing to say.

"You really can't do anything to change what happens can you?"

I shook my head and slipped my wand into my pocket. Harry did the same with his and we stood in silence for a moment before Harry frowned at me.

"You have a daughter?"

15th October 2012 (Ron is 24 and 32 and Hermione is 33)

HERMIONE: I have been sitting at Ron's bedside for eight hours now and he's still not showing any signs of improvement. Ron's Mum and dad have been with me the whole time and the rest of the family come and go at regular intervals but other than that it's just been the four of us in this quiet room waiting for him to open his eyes like we all know he will.

He came back to Ginny hexed within an inch of his life and Healer Wanless has been working on him ever since he was brought in to St Mungo's. Poor Ben's shift ended five hours ago but he's still here. It looks like the cruciatus was used among other things. The thing that has been causing the healers the most problems has been the blood clots. They've tried to thin Ron's blood but until they work out what exact spell was used to thicken it there's not a lot that can be done other than catch the clots as they form and remove them magically.

There was a close call in the last hour and we were all asked to leave while they tried to deal with a clot in the heart that was swelling at an alarming rate at exactly the same time two more were beginning to form around Ron's brain.

Molly and I keep telling each other that we know it's all going to turn out fine, we've both spent plenty of time with Ron after this day and he's his old self so what's the point in worrying eh?

There is not point but we still do. We can't stand to see him suffer. We can't stand to think that that somebody out there in the wizarding world is so determined to hurt him. He's our Ron. Who would want to hurt him?

"Mrs Weasley?" I looked up from Ron's still form and see a very sombre looking Auror Cavendish at the door to Ron's room.

"Hello Lee," I try to give him a smile to let him know that I'm doing ok and he can relax but as he edges into the room Harry steps out from behind him, "Harry, we've been trying to reach you, where have you been?"

Harry doesn't seem to be listening to me, instead he stares at Ron and moved past Cavendish to stand at Ron's bedside and take in the sight of his eerily still best friend. Ron's never been a still sleeper, tossing this way and that and laying in the most undignified positions whenever I wake up beside him in the mornings, so the sight of him laid out and not moving as if he was a living corpse sends shudders through the both of us.

"He was working on another problem when I found him and then he wasn't sure whether or not he should come," Auror Cavendish looked down at his feet and shuffled uncomfortably, "what with the situation with Agent Weasley's sister and him. He didn't want to upset her any more than she must obviously be already."

Although I understood Harry's reasons for wanting to keep out of Ginny's way I wondered if Harry realised just how much Ginny had wanted him there with her when she first arrived at the hospital. She had grown increasingly more anxious until her fiery temper took over again and then she was livid that her ex-husband was so tied up in his feud with her that he would abandon his best friend in his hour of need. Their split had been so hard for Ron and I, torn between family and friends as good as family. Life was getting really tough on everybody these days.

"The thing is Mrs Weasley," Cavendish said as he took another step closer, "we've got a situation in France, a dispute with their ministry and I just thought I'd let you know about it. I didn't know if you would want to...but of course you wouldn't want to leave this one...I mean your husband, this version of your husband. He's your present..." Cavendish huffed and shook his head, "Agh I'm getting this all wrong."

"There's a Ron from the past in a French prison Hermione, I've been trying to get him out but they won't let our ministry interfere with their business," Harry said when he finally pulled himself together to remember what he came here to tell me, "we thought that maybe Fleur could help us negotiate with them and get him out."

I looked down at my own Ron and squeezed his still hand.

"Fleur took Cam home a little while ago, he was causing a scene," I found myself saying.

"Oh right, well I'll go and..."

"If he's travelling can't he just escape like he used to if he got arrested when this first started up again?" I asked as I looked up at Harry and Cavendish who were about to make a move to leave.

Harry lowered his head. Cavendish swallowed.

"Well Mrs Weasley the thing is they've got him on mood stabilisers so he can't induce a panic attack and get himself out of there. We only found out they had him a week ago and he's been in their custody for a month now already."

"What?" I gasped with outrage at the same time as Ron's parents had joined the conversation.

"They can't do that," Ron's father was saying with his paternal outrage almost exploding out of him, "wether or not he's within the jurisdiction of our ministry he still has rights. How dare they!"

"Arthur, keep your voice down," Molly was saying as she tugged at his sleeve.

"Why Molly," Mr Weasley pointed over at Ron in his bed, "we both know I won't wake him up!"

Molly began to cry and her husband suddenly came back to his usual gentle self and embraced her with words of apology and comfort.

"He never said anything to me about this," I whispered as I looked down at my own unconscious Ron, "you said he was a younger Ron?"

Harry nodded.

"That means he's already gone through this and he didn't tell me," I was actually getting angry with him now and I screamed down into his pale face, "You didn't tell me! How could you not tell me you spent a month in prison Ron?"

Auror Cavendish and Harry each grabbed an arm and lifted me bodily out of the hospital room. They set me down in the corridor and Harry grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me hard in they eyes.

"Hermione neither of them need you like this right now. If you want to stay with your Ron then that's fine, I'll go to Fleur's and take her to Calais with me but if you want to come and give the twenty four year old Ron you are so mad at the bollocking you think he deserves then let's go now."

I blinked at Harry and my eyes began to water.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I hate having to talk to you like this but I want him out of there now, not tomorrow, not in another couple of hours, now!" Harry said with determination.

I heaved a shuddering sigh and looked back into Ron's room.

"I can't leave him Harry, I can't I'm sorry."

He smiled at me and pulled me into a hug.

"Hey that's ok, there's nothing to feel guilty about, you know that the twentyfour year old Ron comes back home safe and well but you don't know how this pans out yet do you so don't you feel guilty about staying with him alright?"

I sniffed and nodded just as a slight but confident-looking Auror with permanently startled looking eyes and windswept sandy hair cleared his throat to get Cavendish and Harry's attention.

"Cavendish, Potter I heard about Agent Weasley, the other one I mean, and I think I might be able to help."

Harry smiled at the Auror and introduced us.

"Hermione this is Auror Boyer, Nick this is Mrs Weasley, Ron's wife."

RON: I miss food.

I've been having dreams about food. Nice food. I mean they don't starve me or anything but everything they give me just smells so bad and you should see the state of some of the cheese. If my mother saw cheese like that in her fridge she'd throw it out thinking it had gone off. They gave me this thing called Camembert the other day that was practically liquid.

I let out another sigh, that's all I seem to do every three of four minutes these days; it's the mood stabilising potions they sneak into my water. I did try a hunger strike for the first few days but they'd just wait until I got so weak that I passed out and then poured the stuff down my throat so I didn't bother with it after that. I don't bother with a hell of a lot really.

I saw a spider the other day and I thought 'Oh look, it's a spider, I hate those' and watched as it crawled onto my foot and up my leg and by the time it reached my belly I lost all concentration and began to count how many bricks I have in the wall of my cell.

I sighed again and decided to put my head down for another nap when the door clunked open and a startled-looking man with hair at funny angles wearing Auror robes stepped into my cell and the door closed behind him. He grinned at me and gave a cheery wave.

"Hello Agent Weasley, it's me!"

"Hello you."

Who is this funny looking bloke?

He crouched down in front of me and looked into my eyes for a few seconds. I decided to do the same back. His eyes were blue and he had blonde eyelashes. I started to count them.

One...two...three...shit he blinked! One...two...three...

"They've really doped you up haven't they Agent Weasley?"

I could see my reflection in his eyes now and tried to see if I could count my own eyelashes.

"Agent Weasley?"

"What?" I said as I looked at the odd smiley man who was crouching in front of me.

"Do you remember me? I killed the badger," he said cheerfully.

I wondered why somebody would be so proud of killing a protected species of English wildlife. Maybe the badger was an Auror code word for a dangerous Death Eater. I patted him on the arm and smiled.

"Good on ya son!"

He frowned at me.

"Agent Weasley don't you remember me? How old are you now?"

I took in a deep breath and looked down at the floor. I knew this; this was an easy question, how old am I?

"Um..." my eyes drifted over to his feet and I realised that we had something in common, "...hey I've got a pair of boots like that!"

The man lifted my head with both hands and forced me to look him in the eye.

"Oh Godric what are they giving you?"

I sighed again.

"Well they tell me its cheese but I have my doubts, you're not supposed to pour cheese are you?"

"Listen, don't worry alright? I can get you back home where you came from, I might get into a bit of trouble but you did save all our lives that time when that mansion exploded and I killed that badger..."

Again with the badger, why is he so proud of that?

"...you see they wouldn't let the British Aurors in but I've got duel nationalities, my mother is French, so I managed to bluff my way inside telling them I wanted to question you. This means they let me bring a wand in with me and you know what that means don't you Agent Weasley?"

He looked really excited. I was pleased for him. He had got over that whole badger slaying and was now a French diplomat or something, I don't know I wasn't really listening, I just smiled at him and nodded. Then I remembered.

"Twenty four!"

"What?" the startled-looking man's eyes seemed to pop out of his head a little more when he said this.

"I'm twenty four," I smiled, "I always knew I was."

"Yes very good Agent We...wait twenty four? Well there you go then, we haven't met yet, now I understand why you don't know what I'm talking about. I haven't even joined the Aurors yet let alone become a badger murderer."

"The badger lives?" I said, wondering what kind of mystical badger he had managed to find with regenerative powers, "The resurrection of the badger!" I raised both my arms in celebration and the startled looking man smiled at me.

"You poor sod, it's a good job those potions aren't addictive."

I sighed again. This guy was nice enough but he did like to change subjects a little too rapidly for my liking. One minute the badgers dead, then it's not dead, then he wants to know how old I am and then he's blinking so fast I can't count the bricks in the wall. I began to wonder where that spider had disappeared to and glanced around me on the floor.

"Look at me, Agent Weasley, pay attention now," he was saying as he lifted my chin and made me look at the end of his wand, which was pointing at my face.

Wands shouldn't point into my face. Bad things always happen when wands are pointed directly into faces. It always amazed me that Olivander didn't print a warning on the boxes of every wand he sold. Warning: Do not point wand into face. I wondered why I wasn't more worried about this whole wand in face situation. I really should be more worried about things like that these days. I should be a tad concerned about being in prison as well. I never knew that France had such high penalties for streaking in the ferry port.

"I'm going to send some sparks out in front of your eyes, Potter tells me that's a sure fire way to send you back. He said it gives you a magical seizure or something. So here goes alright?"

Potter? You'd think that Harry might have tried to get me out of prison wouldn't you? I wonder where he is.

Suddenly flashes lit up my face and I felt sick, my head was spinning and I couldn't see anything. I was going to be ill, it was coming up, and I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Ron!"

Hermione was screaming at me for puking on her pristine kitchen floor and I wiped my mouth and crawled over to the bedroom.

"Well it's all very well for you to just go to bed, don't worry about the mess, I'll clean it up shall I?"

I nodded but I don't think she saw me. I reached the foot of the bed and burrowed my way under the covers, tunnelling my way all the way up to the pillow to rest my head and then I sank down into my lovely soft duvet and began to fall asleep.

I was woken a little while later by Hermione crawling in beside me.

"I'm sorry I shouted at you," she was whispering as she snuggled into my back and wrapped her arms around me, "you just made me jump that's all. You'd only just that second disappeared and then you were back. Were you gone for long at your end? You seem so tired."

"Badgers," was all I managed to say before drifting off to sleep again.