Chapter 4

Light of the Moon

Sunday, 10th of July 1994


It wasn't until Ron sat in a large chair, opposite Eddie still wearing pyjamas, that he understood just how early he had come.

"So, you're here a little early" she said, with her eyebrows raised.

"Um, yeah" he responded, dumbly.

"You do know that the shop opens at half nine on Sundays right? My da- Martin did tell you?" She replied.

"Uh, actually, I forgot to mention that to Ron yesterday." Interrupted Martin, who turned away from the pot of porridge to admit his forgetfulness.

"Sorry, again Ron" he added.

"It's no trouble Martin" he replied back.

As Martin turned back to his cooking, Ollie walked into the kitchen and her eyes locked with Ron's.

"You're here early" she remarked, a small smirk on her face and her momentary surprise brushed off.

"Martin's fault" Added Ellie.

"You didn't tell him," the older girl remarked.

"Yeah, well I forgot didn't I" Martin answered, guiltily.

Ollie smiled at her dad's discomfort as she turned back to Ron. "And you're wearing dad's shirt?..."

"Got caught in the rain" Ron replied simply. Ollie gave him a look of sympathy.

The rain was still hammering down, adding a strange atmosphere to the relatively light conversation.

"I hope it gets better dad, if this keeps up we won't get much business today" said Ollie, as she took a seat next to her sister.

"Not to worry Olivia" Martin said, making sure to emphasise Ollie's full name.

Ollie rolled her eyes, as Martin turned off the stove and started serving the porridge into 4 bowls.

"I'm pretty sure the weather is supposed to clear up by ten anyway, and let me worry about business Ollie, you concentrate on your football."

Ollie nodded, frowning, and Martin turned to Eddie.

"Eddie, get some honey for me"

"Can do gov" Eddie replied, in a shoddy impression of Martin's accent. She excitedly jumped from her chair, and started rummaging through a cupboard she could barely reach.

The porridge was very different from other porridge he had eaten. As Martin told him before, it was made with cornmeal instead of oatmeal, and coconut milk instead of ordinary milk. So Ron ate with very little hesitation, and quickly finished his breakfast along with the hungry muggles he sat with. Martin looked at the empty bowls with an expression of vindication slapped on his face. Ron made sure to thank Martin for the meal.

"Glad you liked it Ron, it's about the only thing I can actually cook"

"Don't say that Martin, you cook good curry as well" Eddie argued.

"Oh is that it? I can cook porridge and curry and nothing else" Martin replied teasingly.

Eddie rolled her eyes, "Not but they are the best things you make".

"Well they're my mada's recipe anyway, she taught me both of them that day I moved out"

"And when I move out you'll reach me too" Ollie finished, with a fond smile on her face.

"That's right, as long as you don't do something stupid like-"

"Like joining the Army when I'm eighteen" Ollie finished again. "Like you".

"Yeah, like that." Martin said.

"You were in the Army?" Ron asked, genuinely curious. The ministry didn't have a standing army, and he wondered why the muggles would need one.

"I was", Martin replied, "for most of the eighties I was soldiering". He said pleasantly.

"He won a medal," Eddie added, pointing to a small glass case on top of the black piano. Inside the case, a cross shaped medal with a small lion on it was on display.

"What did you do to get that?" Ron asked, rather bluntly.

Martin frowned a bit, before Ollie answered for him.

"It's for bravery, it's the highest award you can get in the Army" she said, looking proudly at her dad.

Martin smiled awkwardly. "I just did my job," he said.

Ollie frowned, but said nothing.


It was nine o'clock now, and Ollie had long since left for football practice. Martin was getting showered up himself, and Ron was sitting at a table near Eddie, who was practising piano.

The tune she was playing was slow and pretty, and sounded somewhat familiar.

"Did you write this?" Ron asked.

Eddie stared back at him incredulously. "This song is like a hundred years old."

"So, no" he replied, making her giggle.

Not once did she falter in her playing, and even though Ron had seemingly never heard this song before, he knew she was playing it perfectly.

"It's called Clair De Lune" she told him, continuing to play, moving her shoulder down with her arms as she hit some notes harder.

"Who did write it?" he wondered out loud.

"Claude Debussy" she replied, not taking her eyes off the piano. "Ollie said he was a french composer".

"Did Ollie teach you this song?" Ron asked.

"Nah," Eddie replied, the song slowing as she spoke, "I taught myself this one. Truthfully, Ollie isn't very good at piano, she's much better with a guitar".

"Does Martin play anything?"

"Martin could Probably play anything" Eddie replied "But he plays guitar mostly."

The song was now getting quieter, and Ron decided to let her finish it in peace. The last part of the song was very similar to the first, and Eddie's touches of the piano became far lighter and gentler than before, as the song slowly ended.


"Alright, so when the customer hands you money, you count it, and open the till using this key, you put the money in their till, and you give them their change with the record. You know how to count right?" Martin asked with a cheeky grin.

"Does two plus two make five?' Ron replied.

"Smart arse" Martin laughed, shaking his head at Ron's joke.

"So When I'm not stacking shelves or organising anything, I Clean and serve customers?"

"That's right, pretty easy work, but you're the one who deals with customers, which can be tough sometimes."

Ron nodded, remembering the bloke from yesterday.

"So if I take Eddie to the park with her friend for a couple of hours, can you take care of any customers for me?" Martin asked.

"Yeah I can do that" Ron said, trying to sound sure of himself.

"Good, Then I'll see you at lunch time." Martin replied, Putting surprised look on Ron's face.


The Day was going pretty well so far. Ron had gotten all his cleaning and restocking done, and he served three customers already. He was stacking shelves as Ollie walked in, her England jersey soaking in sweat.

"Hey Ron" she mumbled, walking past him to get to the stairs.

Ron couldn't help himself but stare at her as she walked up the steps, clearly exhausted. He blushed and continued his work.

After her shower, she came down stairs looking only slightly more energetic before.

"You wanna listen to some music," she said tiredly.

"Sure"

They both sang and danced along to 'don't stop me now', a song he already knew this time. Ollie seemed to find her energy once the music started playing, and Ron couldn't help but pick some of it up as well.

As they gave an enthusiastic rendition of 'we are the champions', Ron realised just how much space had been closed between them. Heavy breathing had given out to heavy laughter, and pretty soon they were both lying down with their backs on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

"Would be better if there were stars or something to look at" Ollie told him

"I suppose so" Ron replied, "but then how would we be able to see the rot at the corner of the roof?"

Ollie smiled, appreciating the humour. "That's not rot, that's just the moon"

"Oh, and I suppose those cracks are the Gemini Constellation" he returned, grinning.

Ollie turned her head to face him, with barely an inch between their noses.

"You certainly know your constellations?" she questioned.

"Teach 'em at school, astronomy class." Ron replied simply, looking back at the ceiling.

"What kind of school teaches astronomy class"

"Um, mine I guess" He offered. Did muggles not learn astronomy? Hermione said that muggles had actually been to space, so he found it hard to believe that wizards knew more about it than them.

As soon as Hermione was brought to his mind, he suddenly felt uncomfortable with how close he and Ollie were. So he got up, and lent her a hand.

"Come on, I don't think your dad would appreciate me laying around instead of working" he told her, lifting her up.

"You're watching the shop aren't you. I think he just needs you to watch the shop while he's busy anyway".

Ron nodded absent-mindedly as he made his way back to the till.

"So, speaking of busy, are you doing anything next Friday?" Ollie said, a little too quickly.

Ron was taken by surprise slightly. "No, uh, I'm not doing anything."

"Well, me Eddie and her friend were gonna take the bus up to Bristol so we could visit the cinema, would you like to come?" she asked, with a slightly hopeful expression on her face.

"Oh, uh, sure. I can go to the cinema with you guys" He answered, slightly excited by the prospect of seeing a cinema movie. Harry explained at once, but he didn't seem very interested, and Hermione's explanation was too technical to understand, so he was glad he could actually see one.

Ollie gave him a big grin. Ron felt a small churning in his stomach when she smiled at him like that, and it reminded him of Hermione for some reason.

"Cool, so were probably all gonna meet at the bus stop at around half past eight, is that okay?"

"Sounds like a plan Ollie, I'll be there" He replied, trying in vain to his excitement.

"It's a date!" Ollie said, her smile growing wider.

Ron's stomach continued churning for quite some time after that.


Ron found himself walking through his front door at half past five that evening, and the smell of his mother's cooking was floating through the house. Following his nose, he made his way to the kitchen. By this point, Ron had already changed into the clothes he was wearing that morning, as Martin had put them out to dry when the sun came out.

"lo, Mum" he said kindly.

"Hello, Ronnie" She replied, making Ron grimace. "Dinner's almost ready dear, why don't you help me set the table.

As Ron was putting bowls on place-mats, he spoke up again.

"Mum, I got a letter from Harry this morning" He said, tentatively.

"Ooh lovely, How is he dear?" Asked Molly kindly.

"Not good mum," he replied. "They're putting his cousin on a diet, and making Harry follow it as well."

Molly paused, a small frown visible on her face. "But he is far too thin already." she said, mirroring Ginny's remarks from that morning.

"I know, I already sent him some sweets, but I was hoping we could send him some other food as well". He told her earnestly.

"You're a good boy Ronald, A good friend. Of course I'll help you get some food for Harry." She smiled.

Ron felt a small swell of pride from that statement. "Thanks Mum". He wasn't sure if he was thanking her for the compliment, or for agreeing to help Harry.

"You know I never said" Molly said carefully, "it was very irresponsible last year kidnapping Harry that way".

Ron was about to interrupt, and remind her that she had indeed said that before, quite a few times actually, but his mother continued before he could.

"But, it was a very noble thing to do. Between you and me, Harry's relatives are terrible people, who have no business raising a child, let alone raising someone else's".

Ron nodded. Sometimes he wished Harry could stay here. He didn't know how his other siblings felt, but to him, Harry was and honorary Weasley anyway. It looked like his Mum agreed.


"You know, It's awfully fishy, how much time you spend down in the village" Said Molly calmly, leaning over to serve dinner into bowls.

"As fishy as this fish stew", replied Ron earning him a small, almost knowing smile from his father, and a deep frown from his mother.

"Don't worry about it Mum" Said Fred, poking Ron in the side.

"Yeah, Maybe he got himself a girlfriend in the village" Finished George, poking Percy as he did so.

"Don't be stupid George" Replied Ginny dismissively.

"You're probably right Gin" George replied.

"Our Ronnie could never find a girlfriend, he's far too ugly" added Fred, munching on a piece of potato.

"Don't be rude you two" Snapped Percy, "I don't seem to remember either of you having much luck with girls at school"

"Ahh, but that's because we're very good at keeping our female company away from leering prefect-ial eyes Percival", Responded George.

"Plus" started Ron, with a cheeky smile "I'm pretty sure our Fred enjoys male company more than the female variety anyway".

This earned a great deal of laughter, even from Fred, who recovered from almost choking on his food.

"Alright, that's enough of the bickering lads, Anyone of you could find girlfriends, I'm sure" Said Molly, as she sat down next to her husband". "You are all very handsome boys. Now tuck in and eat before your food gets cold". Needless to say, They all did as they were told, including Arthur.

"Could I get a girlfriend too mum" Ginny remarked innocently, earning another round of hushed laughter.

It was good to see Ginny making jokes again, Ron thought to himself. His last summer had almost been defined by the near death of his sister, so even with the absence of his two oldest brothers, it had been far too long since the Weasley family was this happy.