Ron felt exhausted. It had been a long day - well, actually a long night, but it was all the same to him - and, even though he knew what was going to happen, it all just felt like too much, too fast, and it was all he could do just to try to keep up.

Malfoy had left shortly after an awkward exchange - looking back, he knew it must have seemed much stranger to poor Harry and Hermione - which Ron knew wouldn't be the end of it, but then -

Well. Then came the whole mess with Winky, and the Dark Mark, and Crouch, and - Ron tried his best, he really did, but between trying to respond to Hermione's burgeoning elf activism, trying to keep Amos Diggory from accusing the three of them (and damn, was it uncomfortable to argue with the man, remembering what had happened to Cedric- what would happen- he made a note to himself to see if he could change that, because he was feeling guilty already), and then trying to get the truth out of what had really happened with the Dark Mark casting - he had tried to bring up Crouch's son, but that had backfired spectacularly... it was just, a mess.

It was so frustrating, he could remember what had happened, but everything was happening so fast, and he didn't know how to explain it, or how to prove it. It was infuriating, thinking of all the deaths Barty Crouch Jr. was going to cause, and what a hypocrite Crouch was - it was all Ron could do to keep from screaming, when Crouch started talking about how he was going to punish Winky, when he knew full well, that it was at least much Crouch's fault, if not more so. No wonder Hermione had founded SPEW, even if it had backfired badly.

Younger-Ron wasn't speaking that much, Ron suspected he was too shocked by the Barty Crouch plot Ron had told him about, but he didn't know. He wanted to give him some privacy. Merlin knows they could both use some.

Because, to top it off, Ron had showed some knowledge when the topic of Death Eaters, and the Dark Mark, and so on came up - too much knowledge. And he had said "Voldemort." Not "You-Know-Who," but Voldemort. He knew he should have let Younger-Ron take over, but he was just tired. Maybe it was thinking about the War and the death toll, but he just couldn't bring himself to care about wasting time pretending not to know things, not now.

Well, he could at least get some sleep now. He could use it, for the next morning, especially considering how late it was already. Ron turned over, and...

Charlie was snoring. Of course. Perfect. Ron groaned, and shoved his pillow over his head. It was already early morning, but it was going to be a long night.

Chapter 2 Now!

Like I said: I've already written the first four chapters, so the next two chapters will also be uploaded quickly, but, after that, it will take longer to update, and may not update regularly.

Please review if you can, and let me know what you think.