Chapter 23

AN: Sorry for the wait. Real life is a drag. Anyway, this chapter gets rid of a character which I refuse to write. Next chapter loses one more. Hope you enjoy my efforts. Soon I will be back in the swing of things and then the story will get back to where I wanted it to be. Love and kisses..

Hogwarts

Headmaster's Office

After the incident with Ron Weasley and the House Elf Mippy, things quickly returned to relative normality in the boy's dorm rooms.

Word of the event rushed through the castle faster than a Snitch could race around the Quidditch field and quite unlike how it normally would work; the story stayed the same all the way.

Headmaster: Sit and explain yourself.

Ron: I did nothing wrong dad. So I bumped the elf, big deal. Potter was just showing off. Why does everybody think he is some kind of hero? He is just a braggart and a pampered prince. I for one will not stand by and watch him do whatever he wants.

Headmaster: What gives you the idea that Mr Potter is showing off as you say? And why are you acting like a spoiled child? We did not raise you or any of the other children to act like this! It almost seems as if you are jealous of Mr Potter!

Ron: JEALOUS! I am not jealous of that pounce! He is a show off and has you all wrapped around his little finger. He is the one who walked in here thinking and acting as if he owned the place. Not me!

Headmaster: Ron you will stop calling Mr Potter names this instant! And for your information, HE DOES OWN THE PLACE!

Ron was quiet for all of a few seconds before the dam of jealousy burst like a massive air balloon. The profanity words that flowed from his mouth sent his poor father into shocked silence.

Arthur Weasley never would have thought any of his kids to ever know any of those words, let alone his youngest son.

Arthur sat there in silence and allowed his son to VENT his anger and jealousy. It took the better part of almost 10 minutes before Ron showed signs of cooling down.

At that point Arthur hit his son with a Stunning hex and watched him slump in his chair.

ARTHUR's P O V:

What the bloody hell just happened? Where did Ron even hear those words? Why is he acting like this?

Molly will have a massive heart attack if she ever heard of this.

I cannot believe that one of my children could ever sink this low.

It is almost as if he has been spelled to act this way… will have to beg Miss Pomphrey to have a look at him as soon as possible. Things cannot continue this way.

Mr Potter has shown great patience with Ron thus far and I really don't know how long that will hold.

I will not be able to afford to keep Ron separate from the other children and have private tutoring.

Even as the Headmaster of the school, I have little to no power over the demand Mr Potter made in regards to the honour of his name.

I just can't believe how Ron is acting. He used to be such a happy child.

I will have to let Molly know about this. I just hope she will be able to help me come up with a solution if this turns out to be something that is not normal.

Oh bugger!

Arthur Weasley sat at his desk and looked at his stunned son. His mind was racing with all the possible reasons for his behaviour and all of them wished for it to just be simple jealousy that would eventually go away with enough punishments.

But even that thought seemed wrong.

His son was being a mean spirited bully who took out his anger on others simply because he did not LIKE what was happening around him. Like he wanted it all for himself?

Eventually Arthur stood from his chair and picked up his son in his arms and carried him to the infirmary.

Arthur: Poppy are you here?

Poppy: Yes Arthur, how can I help you? Oh dear what happened? Is he ok? Come, come… put him on the bed here and let me have a look at him!

Arthur: Relax Poppy, my son is just stunned. I… STUNNED him after what happened in the 1st Year Boy's Dorm earlier.

I beg of you to run every possible scan you know of on him please Poppy!

Ron was acting very aggressive earlier when we had a chat in my office and was not the boy I raised.

I believe he has a Hex in him because I did not raise children who would swear in front of their parents and behave like jealous assholes… pardon my French.

Poppy: I… Wh… Yes yes ofcoarse! Just give me a few seconds to calm down.

Poppy calmed herself down after hearing what Arthur had to say about his youngest son and his odd behaviour. She knew about teenage angst and how to treat it, but what Arthur just described did not fit into any of the descriptions for Angst, rather it fit into the category for Anger and Resentment.

After taking a few steadying breaths, Poppy raised her wand and began casting a series of highly complicated spells on the stunned form of Ron Weasley.

Her wand movements became more complicated as the time went by and she began to chant slower and slower. Her words ending more pronounced and with more power behind them.

At the end of almost half an hour, Poppy sat down heavy in a chair she conjured.

Her brow was sweaty and her hands were shaking slightly.

Arthur: Poppy, are you alright?

Poppy: Just give me a second to catch my breath Arthur, but yes I am okay for now.

It took more out of me to trace what was wrong with your son and I am afraid it is not good news.

Arthur: Oh Gods, please tell me it is something that can be fixed!

Arthur almost fell to his knees after hearing Poppy's words and lowered his face into his hands.

Poppy: I am sorry Arthur, but I am just not the right person to give you that answer. As far as I can read the diagnosis, your son has some very bad Runes edged into his bones. They are very old and were most probably done to him when he was but a toddler, even as young as 1 or 2 years old.

Whoever did this knew what they were doing as the runes were timed to activate in the presence of a certain person.

As far as I can see, your son will slowly loose his mind from anger and resentment towards this person up to the point where he will physically do bodily harm to them just to rid himself of some of the anger.

I am truly sorry Arthur, but for your son's sake I will have to notify St Mongo's of this and have him transferred as soon as possible without even waking him.

I will need your permission to have him moved though.

Arthur: Yes, of course, please do whatever is necessary to help him. I will sign his release form as soon as you have them ready.

Thank you Poppy for your help.

I will go now and notify the Aurors of this.

Arthur was on auto pilot as he turned away from the bed his youngest son was laying on and walked out the infirmary doors back to his office.

He entered his office and sat down on his chair behind the desk.

Arthur was a sensible, kind, generous and soft spoken man.

He was father to 6 boys and 1 daughter.

He was married to a wonderful woman.

He had a good job before he became Headmaster.

He worked hard to provide for his big family and found pride in every day he brought home the "BACON".

But now… Now Arthur was not even sure what day it was.

His mind was playing the words Poppy just spoke to him over and over, running on an automatic loop.

"Runes edged into his bones"…

"As young as 1 or 2"…

Magic was slowly building around Arthur as he sat and tried to come to grips with what just happened.

His youngest son had CARVINGS of runes into his bones.

Runes that were making him behave like a jealous madman.

A madman that was behaving like a bully towards kids his own age.

Ron was acting like everybody owed him something, like he was wronged in some way and that everybody else was in the fault.

His poor child was being manipulated by runes that were carved into his bones when he was but a baby!

What kind of monster would carve runes into a child?

Why did it happen to his child?

Question after question rolled through Arthurs mind as his magic steadily built up around him, sparking off the walls and blowing stacks of paper off the table and shelves.

Harry was notified by the Castle that the Headmaster was in danger and that he had to go and help him immediately.

Harry grabbed his sword and ran as fast as the castle allowed him to the Headmaster's office.

When he got to the door he could feel the expanding wild Magic from the Headmaster and called upon Mother Magic to assist him in his time of need for the safety of the man inside.

Magic: I hear your plea MY child and I will not allow his magic to hurt you, but you need to go in there and get him to see reason and calm down before I can enter and neutralize the excessive magic.

Harry nodded his head and swallowed hard before he set his shoulders back and slowly opened the door.

What he saw almost broke his heart.

Before him sat a man so deep in thought that he did not even feel his magic burn his skin.

Harry: Headmaster Weasley! Sir can you hear me?

Harry spoke in a neutral voice, scared to cause the man to have a fright and maybe cause damage to him or the school if his magic were to react badly to him.

Harry however was not prepared to hear what came out of the distraught man's mouth.

"Runes… into his bones… only a baby!"

Harry stood still as a statue and simply stared at the man before him.

Was he talking about Ron? What happened?

Harry tried again to get the attention of the man before him and this time got the reaction of at least getting Arthur to turn his face towards Harry.

Harry: Sir you have to calm your magic. It is doing harm to your body and is very close to escaping into the school.

I do not know what happened, but I promise you now that we will get through this and that I will do everything in my power as the Guardian to Magic to help you in your time of need.

Please Sir, you have to calm down and retract your magic.

Harry spoke in an even voice and coaxed the trembling man to retract his violent magic back into himself.

Soon Magic entered the room and drew the excess wild magic into Herself before She floated over to Arthur and kissed his forehead.

Magic: Your pain is great and your sorrow heavy, yet you have the word of MY Champion to assist you in your time of great need. WE will not abandon you or your family as WE seek the one who has wronged your child. Let it be known here and now that the act that was done against your son shall not go unpunished and the one who did it shall suffer MY wrath.

Magic turned to Harry and kissed him on the head also.

Magic: Before you lay a dark task MY child. A great injustice has been done to this man's youngest son and I task you now to help him bring the evil to justice. Find them and bring them before ME. I will not allow evil like this to fester further in MY world.

Magic nodded HER head once to Harry and then once to Arthur. They both nodded their heads to HER and SHE faded away back to the plane of Magic.

Harry: Are you able to explain to me what happened sir?

Arthur: After what happened in the dorms, I brought Ron back here to find out what caused him to act the way he did.

At first it sounded as if he was just being a jealous kid, but once I called him on it, he…

Arthur swallowed hard and cleared his throat while rubbing his hands through his hair.

Arthur: He became enraged almost instantly, swearing and cursing you. He was not my son then. He was not the kind kid I raised.

I allowed him to rant for almost 10 minutes before he showed signs of calming down.

I then stunned him… I stunned my own child…

Harry stood and listened to every word that came from the distraught man before him.

His heart going out to the man and almost burning with the need to take away his pain.

To help make it better.

Arthur: After I stunned him, I carried him in my arms to the infirmary. I begged Poppy to run every known test to determine what could be wrong with my son.

I told her what happened and why I had to stun him.

She agreed and started to run every scan she knew on him.

She was busy for close to half an hour.

When she finished she had to conjure a chair to sit in as she was close to collapsing.

She…

The scans showed that Ron had runes carved into his bones that was causing him to act the way he was.

The runes were locked onto you to create the feeling of jealousy and anger.

She said that…

*sniffing broke the silence that followed for a few seconds*

She said that the runes were carved into his bones as early as 1 or 2 years old.

The runes are part of his very being.

She can't help him and has asked to have him sent to St Mongo's.

Some monster carved runes into my infant son's bones!

Who would do such a thing to a child?

The pained look Arthur gave Harry broke the kid's heart and all he could do at that moment was grab hold of the man and hug him as hard as his small arms allowed him.

It was all that was needed as Arthur broke down and cried his fatherly heart out onto the shoulder of the kid hugging him.

That was the scene that greeted Poppy as she walked into the Headmaster's office.

The Med Witch's heart broke and she walked over and embraced the two crying bodies.

Adding her tears to theirs in a silent plea to help in whatever way she could.