AN: I'm sooooooooooo sorry that I haven't been able to update sooner. I've been having a little family drama making me not want to write. Please, forgive me!

My last chapter didn't seem to get much liking. Only two reviews. (sighs)

Disclaimer: I do not owe any HP characters or Dumas novel.

BARON RÖNNSKÄR

CHAPTER 16 THE LONG LOST WEASLEY

The scene in Burrow was almost bizarre. Molly Weasley was trying very hard to make dinner to the entire family. Arthur was reading Daily Prophet with the headlines "MALFOY SENTENCED FOR LIFE! The case of Ronald Weasley opened again". With them were Hermione and Melissa Krum, Ginny, Harry and James Potter and both twins. The funny thing of the scenario was the surprising silence in the house. Only the little ones were making noise while they played.

Everybody knew what they wanted to talk about but nobody dared to open the subject. Not until hot-tempered Ginny had enough.

"Enough of this damn silence. We all know what we want and need to talk about. We might start it already. Harry and I questioned Malfoy thoroughly. We don't know how he got veritaserum to his drink but it worked. Ron" her voice softened little here "was never executed. Malfoy sentenced him to Azkaban".

There was silence in the room again. Arthur stayed still, looking his daughter while Molly was pacing around the soon-to-be dinner. Both twins had their heads down, as if floor was suddenly interesting. It was finally Fred whose voice was heard.

"Bastard…"

"Have you found him?" Arthur asked, putting his paper away. "I take it you must have at least sent someone to Azkaban for searching him".

Harry yawned. "I went last night. I had to give a strong piece of mind before they started to work with me. We went through archives and cells but…I didn't found him. Their records say that someone was brought there ten years ago but nobody was allowed to know his name as he was "a political prisoner". They say that he must have died because we couldn't find him. I'm trying to locate the guards who worked there then. All of them were transferred to other duties three years ago".

"You don't seem to be too surprised" George suddenly said, watching Hermione.

All attention was suddenly directed to the brown haired woman. Hermione was quite for a moment before sighing. "I am not".

It seemed as if everyone, except Molly, wanted to say something but couldn't find words. Hermione continued. "I've known for some time now. So has Molly".

Attention was now at the cook. She moved her eyes to her children and husband. "I only suspected" she finally admitted in a low voice and returned to her cooking.

Before even twins had time to say anything Hermione was back in voice. "I suspected only first also. I didn't say anything because I was afraid to give false hope, in case I had been wrong. I became sure just few days ago then. And I was sworn to keep it a secret".

Ginny jumped up from her seat. "Sworn to keep it a secret? By who!" she demanded.

"By me" said a voice from the door.

Everyone turned to look to the door to see a tall man dressed in jeans and a warm shirt. He had bright red hair, freckled face and sky-blue eyes. He looked much older, even when everyone knew that he wasn't much more than thirty.

Before anyone could even blink an eye Molly Weasley jumped from her place and hugged her son like there was no tomorrow. Ten years ago Ron would have tried to squirm out of her grip. Now he had no intentions of doing anything of that sort. He hugged her back, while others looked at them, not really sure how to react.

"I knew it…I knew it…" Molly repeated while sobbing on her much taller sons shoulder.

"Son" Arthur said carefully, as if not believing his own two eyes "is that really you?"

Ron looked at his father with sad eyes. "What is left of me anyway".

Arthur put his hands to his wife and son, hugging them both. Ron scanned through the room. Twins seemed to have stopped breathing. Ginny didn't know whether to cry or shout, Harry was having some sort of a shock and Hermione…had that unreadable look on her face.

Ginny finally seemed to decide what to do. "Where have you been? Why didn't you come to us?" she demanded.

Ron had a sad smile as he put his well practised Scandinavian accent on. "Really, rouva Potter, one would think that auror as trained as you would have figured it out" he said.

Everyone except Hermione gasped. It took everything Ron had not to burst laughing, seeing their stunned expressions.

"You ARE the Baron!" Harry exclaimed.

"The same" Ron sighed.

"But how-"

"I will explain everything to you, but first I think I smell some food that is about to burn" he said, waking his mother from her trance, making her jump back to the foods, pushing Arthur away.

About three minutes later the entire group was sitting around the table. Ron took a potato and put it to his mouth almost as a one piece. He closed his eyes.

"You have no idea how I have missed to have your foods again, mom" he said, not bothering to swallow when he spoke. Nobody said a word about it.

Ron drank a glass of juice and then took a deep breath. "I'll take it you won't be able to eat if I won't start my story now. Still, it's not a happy one".

"It started little while after we had won the war. If you remember Mad-Eye Moody had been badly injured during the final battle. He had asked to see me just a couple of days before he went to coma and died. He told me that they had some belongings of Oliver Wood that connected him to the Death Eaters. In his belongings there was a letter addressed to someone named "Elisabeth". Mad-Eye told me to use some of those…not-so-legal sources that we used to find out about Death Eater movements to have some info of this Elisabeth. By the time I got to Wood's belongings Mad-Eye had died and the letter was in the Ministry.

"It was the same day we had that party here. I went to the Ministry and I said that I needed to check-out something. When I thought I was alone I slipped the letter to my pocket to ask questions about it later. What I didn't know was that someone had seen me taking the letter. This someone happened to be envy me, because I had suddenly become so celebrated and he hadn't".

The entire table was listening intently.

"It took me long time to figure out who had seen me but it truly hurt when I did. I had never wanted to be better than him and yet he decided my fate for me" Ron said sadly. "Percy chose to imprison me just out of envy".

Molly gave a loud gasp and Ginny stiffed. Fred and George were suddenly talking. "We're going to make that brat pay!"

"He has already paid" Ron said calmly and continued his story, ignoring the quizzical looks around him. "Percy didn't inform the ministry that I had taken the letter. He couldn't become known as accusing his own brother. So he made someone else inform the ministry. Someone, who also envied me" Ron said and turned to look Hermione.

"Victor" she said quietly.

Harry cut his potato with a knife little too loudly.

"I would have probably been let go if it hadn't been Malfoy who questioned me. I don't know if you already know this but it turned out this Elisabeth was Narcissa Malfoy and Wood was her lover. Malfoy of course couldn't let peoples to know about this, not after everything he had done to make up Lucius mistakes. So he decided that "out of eyes, out of mind" could work. They knocked me out and I woke up in a cell in Azkaban. That cell was my world for the next seven years".

Ron could see that everyone around him was looking uncomfortable. He continued anyway.

"After two years I was starting to loose all hope to see you all again. Even when Dementors weren't anymore guarding that place it felt like I couldn't be happy anymore. The next three years the idea of suicide came to my mind often".

Sharply both Harry and Hermione looked intently on Ron. He noticed that they were both keeping their anger inside of themselves.

"It wasn't until five years after I had lived in the hell when a miracle happened. Another prisoner had been building a tunnel in order to escape. After making a slight miscalculation he ended up in my cell. For two years we dig that tunnel until one night, after so many efforts I once again felt the wind on my face" Ron said, seeming to be in ecstasy. Then he turned to Harry and Ginny. "I'm sorry, truly sorry, but I am not going to tell you who the man is. He helped me so I won't betray him, even when I haven't forgiven his sins".

Harry and Ginny looked each other and then muttered something that Ron should continue.

"Malfoy had made it so that he was informed the moment I escaped. He transferred the guards so no-one could ask them questions. Also because he didn't want anyone to know that I was still alive he couldn't have wanted posters of me or the other prisoner. Think if you had caught him and he would have told that I was alive. I wonder how nervous Malfoy had been because of that. He probably had you all watched, so I couldn't come to you. I left the country soon after I had updated myself. Malfoy must have thought I died.

"But I didn't die because there was something two H's kept me alive. Hope and hate. Hope that one day I would see you all again and hate towards Percy, Malfoy and K-Victor. By a lucky chance I became Baron Rönnskär. I have become known as a benefactor, man who gives great donations to St. Mungos and other places. I have built an empire by my merchants between Asia and Europe. But what I was truly aiming at, as terrible as it sounds, was revenge.

"My planned worked. I have cleared my name. Malfoy is now suffering the fate he made me to have. I wanted Victor Krum to have the same fate but he obviously had other ideas" at this point Ron turned to Hermione. "I am sorry for the grief I have caused to you and your daughter but I regret nothing.

"Then there was Percy. I have arranged it so that he will live rest of his life as a muggel. He will not come even near the wizarding world or the angry mob of clients of his bank will probably kill him. If you want to visit him sometimes" Ron said looking his parents "I will tell you where he is, but there is no way he can return to his old life. Just like I he also had to learn to live as someone else".

Ron kept a pause and then looked everyone in turn.

"Now you know my story and you know what has happened to me. And it is time for you to give me my final judgement. I would want to be Ron Weasley again, but you must know that I can never return to be him completely. Almost everything of him died in Azkaban but with your help I may become something of him again. But if Ron you knew has been dead to you for too long to return then say so and you will never see me again. I have resources to disappear and I swear I will be out of you lives for good.

"Now, what say you?"

AN: Next; the final chapter!

I am sorry for any spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.

Reviews are welcome.