FOUGHT IN A WAR
by Sa1boy

Chapter 11: Rosemuld Badbule

Ron put his hand out awaiting the night bus, which strangely enough ran in the daytimes also, to be interrupted by a strange character in a convertible Triumph Vitesse that pulled up along side the curb in front of him.

"Where ya going to sunny, can I give you a lift?"

The driver of the car was a forty something year old witch with loose fitting flowery clothes and a headscarf tied around her huge curly auburn hair. Ron could tell from the American accent that she wasn't local, and as he had a wizard to kill, he was in a hurry to get to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. He decided he would accept a lift off anyone.

"Hogwarts" Ron answered keeping the tone flat but not angry, he was positively seething but had to try and control it.

"Can't say I know where that is sunny, do you have a map?" the American witch enquired

"It's in the north, no wand to get map sorry" Ron replied head down looking as tense and as agitated as he was feeling.

"Oh let me do the honours then," and with that the witch snapped her fingers together and a map appeared in Ron's hand, then clicking her fingers again the passenger door swung open inviting Ron to climb inside

"Get in Sunny; we can be there by nightfall if we get moving."

Ron sank into the old car's red leather seat and looked out of the window as the car sped away from wizarding London.

"So tell me then sunny-"
Ron interrupted her in mid sentence; he didn't like to be called sunny, telling her that his given name was Ron; she apologised and offered her name in an attempt to keep the conversation going
"Well hi Ron, my name is Rosemuld Badbule, but please call me Rosie for short, looks like you want to get to this Pigspot in a mighty big hurry honey?" She said chirping away as she drove down country lanes.

"Its Hogwarts and yes I do actually."

"Oh really, that's nice. Tell me, what have you got planned when you get there honey?"

Rosie decided to see how much info she could actually get out of Ron before he clamed up and spoke no more.
Indicating that they were just about to go around a sharp bend in the road and flashing a not so pretty smile, she started to repeat the question, but was cut off by Ron's answer.

"I'm going to kill my best friend, and then slaughter a ferret,"

Ron didn't look at the driver after he had made his confession, he didn't care that she could be scared or regretting the Good Samaritan deed she had just done, he just wanted to reach his target and as she was the way to do that he would humour her, for now. Ron couldn't have cared less what she thought, he could drive, and if he needed to he would kill her as well. He was quickly taken away from that train of thought by the remark the lady next to him made.

"Excellent, those dirty little betrayers deserve to die."

Ron looked at this mysterious woman and wondered how she knew about the two people he wanted to kill.

"How did you know that they betrayed me?"

"I'm a seer dearie, that's why I found you. Your mother sent me to make sure you got to your target."

Ron didn't venture further into the conversation, he just sat there pensively. Listening to the witch next to him, feed his hate of Harry. Spitting little one liner in, every now and then, quotes his mother had apparently said about Harry and his boyfriend, Ron didn't even know that Malfoy was Harry's boyfriend, but like so much at the moment, a thought could easily lodge and then be forgotten by Ron.

"Your mother speaks to me all the time. She hates that her killer is now happy and fucking the Malfoy boy, she wants you to torture them both." The witch said in an overly sweet sickly voice. She continued by telling Ron how she found it disgusting, how his girlfriend couldn't cross over because she was being held captive by Harry. This caused Ron to flame in his anger bashing the dash board in front of him as he was listening

"Poor Hermione is in a glass cage that only Harry can open, her essence is so weak she may never be able to haunt," mournful tones expressed this information forcing Ron to scream out in his anger fuelled frustration. She continued to get Ron to the point where he couldn't return from. She told how Harry had probably killed his mother because he hated that Ron had one, how Harry was planning to have his entire family wiped out

"Your mother says it was jealously that led to his betrayal, he is planning to kill all your family now also -"

Ron cut the witch off in mid stream-

"Shut the fuck up and drive, unless you want to be the first person I kill today." Ron spat at the witch, he wanted to just end this bitch, she talked way too much, he hated when Hermione nagged him, and he loved her. .

"Pull over. NOW." Ron demanded, he so wished he had his wand, he hadn't seen it since he went into hospital, but then as if he had subconsciously summoned the wand it was in his hand. Then all of a sudden the woman in the seat changed form and no longer that of the witch, this time she appeared like his mother, face twisted in anger. Each crease he remembered; twisted into a warped parody of goodness, the car stopped and his mother voice screamed at him, he didn't know if he was hallucinating or seeing the real thing.

"Mum, how?" Tears streamed down his face as he reached out to touch her, his mothers form spitting in his face, stopping him in his tracks. Looking wounded he listened as his mother spouted incoherent words and phrases

"Useless fucker Ronald Weasley, never as strong as Harry, at least he had the decency to fuck me before he killed me."

"NO, shut up, stop this car, your not real, dar dar dar you're not real, you're not real, dar dar dar, you're not my mother, its all in my mind-"

"Oh shut up Ron."

"Hermione is that you? Oh Hermione mums just been here saying terrible things, Hermione I think I'm losing my mind, help me please" The car had stopped and Ron had jumped out, the figure in the car now resembled his late beloved Hermione Granger.

"Merlin you are PATHETIC," the figure spat at him with venomous contempt.

"You were always so weak, thank heavens I felt what it was like to be with a real man before you betrayed me, Harry told me all about your deceit, while Draco and he were fucking me together, and they were both more man than you could have been, god I wasted my life with you, TRAITOR.".

"NO……………… Who are you, why are you doing this to me, I didn't do anything, I love you, stop it…. Please."

Lifting his wand up in front of him he started to cast the de-glamouring spell and then all of a sudden there was a click and the figure and car disappeared.

"I love you Mione, I would never betray you," keeling over on to his side sobbing uncontrollably, Ron seeing mental pictures of his mother being seduced by Harry, who then touched his lover, Ron had finally lost his mind, there was only hope now, that he could be stopped.

Ron lay on the floor and cried until he fell asleep.
Expertly hidden from wizards eyes under an Invisibility Shield, Albus Dumbledore stood laughing his head off, still in his glamour he was congratulating his own acting abilities and the effect they had on a troubled mind, he was now certain that Ron just needed to be pointed in the direction of the school and hate would take care of the rest.

I did say expertly hidden from wizards eyes, Badbule was as visible as the day was long to the passed ones, the dead. And one person who had been watching the day's events quite closely was the one person perhaps capable of saving Ron's life, his mother Molly, or more accurately his mother's ghost.

She had to warn Harry and also try and stop Ronald from killing any innocent person, for that she needed help, and the only person who could help was trapped between realms, not accepting her fate. Because of this Hermione was in the in between. Until she accepted death and all the benefits it bought, she was destined to stay in limbo forever; Molly had to reach her before Ron got to his target, Harry.

She vowed that she would hunt the mysterious shape shifter down and make her pay for what she had done to her son, all the while wondering who this woman was.

She hoped that he would sleep for a while so passing through him, and trying with every part of her being to leave even a trace of the enormous amount of love she had for him, and all her family with him, she floated away to see Harry.