Here it is, the second chapter! I know it took a while, but we were busy... Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: This story isn't mine; it's a translation from angelique444. The original title is ''Comme un château de cartes''. I don't own anything about Harry Potter; all of this (books, movies, idea, etc) is the property of JK Rowling and others. All of the characters and the places are not mine.

Chapter 2: Back home

Well, he had to admit it was a rough way to say goodbye. Not that he really cared.

Ron apparated on a country road. Away, the sun shone with all its brightness between the hills. Home. It was so good to be home again. He couldn't count the times he and his brothers had played together on this land, swimming in the lake, playing hide and seek in the forest, running from one place to another always finding exciting new games to try. And, in the middle of it all, stood the Burrow. Crooked and unlevelled as it was, Ron could only smile at the sight of it.

He knew he couldn't show himself to his parents looking like this –covered with soot, blood, burns and dirt – without giving them a stroke so he took a little path on his right and followed it for a good ten minutes. His footsteps echoed in the quiet landscape, screeching the hard soil. It was obvious that it hadn't rain in days; the grass was of a yellowish color and the wind carried clouds of dust that made it hard to breathe. He knew these hot summer days, these moments when nature burnt under the glowing sun and he closed his eyes for a few seconds, letting it sink into his skin.

Then, further down the road, he saw what he was looking for. Ron's heart leaped painfully at the view; the last time he had been here the house had been in ruins. It was like new now, a secret and peaceful haven for his sister and famous best friend. He had helped rebuilding it at first but his mission had taken him to the other side of the world before the end of the renovations. It was amazing how a few months had changed so many things. The redhead slowly climbed up the few stairs leading to the door and knocked.

No answer. He knocked again, looking through the window. It was dark and quiet; Harry and Ginny were probably at the Burrow. Ron unlocked the door with his wand, sure that they wouldn't mind if he took a shower while they were gone. He stayed a long time under the burning water, cleaning his body from the dirt and the memories. Ron sighed heavily, wishing some of the water could wash away the regrets he shouldn't be having at that moment. There was no place for them in his mind or his life. This mission was over. Another one would begin. Period.

He borrowed a jean and a long sleeved shirt, making sure that all of his injuries were hidden. They were a bit small since Harry was a few inches shorter than he was but even with a charm he couldn't do much to fix them. It would have to do for now. He still had a few clothing items at the Burrow, he could change if it annoyed him too much, but right now the only thing he could think about was that he was starving and that only a mile separated him from his mother's divine meals.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he walked back to his childhood house. He had missed his family while he was away; had his father been promoted as he had expected? Had his mother changed her mind on becoming a brunette? Had Georges' wife given birth to their last one yet? Was there already another one on the way for one of his brothers' wives? It wouldn't surprise him…after all, his family was well known for its fertility.

Ron stopped on the front porch. He could hear laughs and screams through the door. He even recognized Fleur's high-pitched French as she tried to deal with her quarrelling daughters.

For Merlin's beard, it was like he hadn't seen them in ages!

-'Is there anybody in here?'

The young man had stepped in without knocking. He hadn't wanted his coming to cause some kind of "the lost son finally returning home after months of absence" drama but, as always, his arrival provoked quite a scene. Loud shouts resounded from the kitchen and in a matter of seconds several redheads poured into the living room. Mrs Weasley threw herself on her son, crying, while Mr Weasley smiled widely. He had grown older, Ron noticed, his red hair were striped with more white than he remembered. Behind his father all of his brothers were staring at him with bewilderment, talking excitedly and incoherently. Georges had a sleeping baby in his arms, undisturbed by the noises.

-'What a beautiful surprise!' Bill exclaimed as he came forward. 'You remembered you old brother's birthday, Ronnie?'

-'Ehhhh... Yes, of course,' Ron lied as he hugged him. 'You're what, 80 years old? Hi, Dad. Hey Fred.'

The little boy, named Fred in honour of the lost twin, was jumping in front of him to be the first to be taken. He had grown so much! Could he really be only 4 years old?

-'Did you mess around while I was gone?' Ron asked, lifting his nephew in his arms. 'Did you make your father go insane?'

The boy smiled timidly, unsure of the answer he should give. Georges nodded for him and Fred blushed deep red.

-'That's great, keep it up,' encouraged Ron, putting the kid back on the ground. 'You're a good boy.'

-'That's cruel,' groaned Georges. 'His mother and I already have enough troubles with Lydia. Who would have thought that my only daughter would be my most exasperating child?'

The said girl was standing right beside the door, an impish smile on her lips. She was 7, if he recalled well, but her eyes betrayed a sharp intelligence.

-'Oh Ron, you must be starving!' said Molly, wiping off her tears. 'Come and sit at the table, sweetie, we were about to have lunch. Make room, children, give him some space so he can breathe!'

The redhead smiled sheepishly, hoping that it wasn't the rumblings of his stomach that had betrayed how hungry he was. As all the little Weasleys retreated to the kitchen, Ginny and Harry came forward to welcome him.

-'Well, well, well, what a surprise.' commented his sister casually, but Ron could see that her eyes were shiny with joy. 'We missed you, you were gone a long time.'

He squeezed her tightly in his arms, a little awkwardly because of her expending belly. He had been right; the last years had proved to him that not a month could go by without one of the women of his family being pregnant.

-'Hey, isn't this one of my shirt?' Harry noticed, frowning. 'What happened to it?

Ron looked down. 'I've never been good at fixing clothes…Sorry. Did I ruin it? I would gladly get changed and give it back to you but there is something important I must do beforehand.'

-'Let me guess. Eat.' Replied Ginny, rolling her eyes. 'You will never change, Ron.'

-'Nor do I want to. Food is life. And right now if I don't get some in me I'll swear I won't live through the next hour.'

The table was already set up when he came in the kitchen. His mother had cooked all morning and the room was filled with the sweet aromas he knew so well: hot potatoes with butter, chives, bacon and sour cream, steamed vegetable greens, pork chop, meat loaf, ragout, chicken, gravy, butternut squash soup and, last but not least, freshly baked bread. His mouth was watering at the sight of that feast.

-'Man, it feels good to eat something else than beef jerky and canned beans,' sighed Ron when he had finished his first serving and was helping himself to the second. 'I wish I could learn to cook like that, it would make my life easier.'

-'Don't overeat, I need you this afternoon.' Warned Ginny, whose plate was as big as his. 'I need you to check on my changing table, something is wrong with it and not one of my unskilled brothers here wants to help me. They tell me to buy another one instead but I want this one.'

Ron shrugged. 'I have two weeks off. I'll have plenty of time to fix it, don't worry.'

Harry gave him a little nudge. 'Come as soon as you can,' he whispered. 'She's insomniac about it; she's completely obsessed with the baby's room and this stupid changing table.'

Seeing the despair in his friend's eyes, Ron burst into laughing and agreed on coming this very afternoon.

-'Did you read the newspaper this morning?' asked Bill, suddenly serious. 'Apparently, Hermione has canceled one of her press conferences for unknown causes. It's strange, isn't it?'

Ron chocked on a pork chop. Hermione. It had been so long since he last heard her name.

-'Hermione? Canceling a conference? That hasn't happened in what, 4 years? You know, when she got pneumonia after her trip to the Antartic. Even then, she was pressured into canceling or else she would have gotten up there and coughed up her speech until death followed.' Commented Georges.

-'Poor girl, she's overworking herself!' said Mrs Weasly disapprovingly. 'She does so much, it is no surprise if she gets sick. The body needs to rest from time to time!'

Hermione... Ron hadn't seen her in a long time. A very long time. He had lost her in less than a year after they had left Hogwarts. She had chosen to travel all over the world for her studies in Foreign Relations and if at the beginning she often wrote to Harry and to him, after some time the owls became rarer. Then they only got official birthday and Christmas cards. And, one day, nothing. She had totally disappeared from their lives. Well, not completely. With the years, Hermione had climbed the ladder of popularity and had become someone important for the Minister of Magic. So it was quite impossible to forget about her when her face was printed all over the wizard world and in all the newspapers. Ron didn't mind; he did not pay attention to all of this. He had become expert in ignoring everything that had to do with her. He had closed that drawer a long time ago and had buried it deep within himself to never open it again.

-'I got a letter from her last week,' said Ginny, thoughtful. Of all of them, Ginny was the only one who still kept in touch with her. 'She's fine. She did not mention anything about being sick.'

-'She wouldn't have told you,' Ron replied curtly. 'She is too proud for that.'

A silence settled. Everybody knew that Ron and Hermione had gone out together before and that the redhead had refused to talk about her since then.

-'Oh, have you seen that the Butterbeer's price has risen?' exclaimed Mrs Weasley to change the subject. 'Again!'

Even though whisky had replaced butterbeer a long time ago, all the Weasley brothers gladly commented on it, aware that this topic was safer in Ron's presence than talking about Hermione.

At tea time, Harry and Ron ended up sitting on the couch aside from everyone, catching up on what had happened since the last time he had visited. Most of the talk turned around Ginny being a pain as a pregnant woman, as Ron understood under all the sweet words of his best friend, and he couldn't help laughing at how hormones could alter his sister's personality.

-'I swear, sometimes, I need to get up in the middle of the night to bring her ice cream and chocolate cake.' Whispered Harry, making sure she was out of earshot. 'And she won't let me have one little tiny bite of it.'

-'She shouldn't eat that much, she seemed to have doubled in weight.' Ron said, eyeing her.

-'Don't you dare to tell her!' exclaimed the future father, alarmed. 'She's going to kill you! The other day I made the mistake to say that her favorite shirt didn't fit her anymore and I had to sleep on the couch for three days.'

Ron snickered. Ginny had always had a little temper. It was only normal, after all; she had been raised with six brothers older than her, all of them having tempers of their own.

-'That being said, she is still beautiful to me.' Harry said with a little smile. 'And I still can't believe that I'll have a baby. It's really weird.'

Ron didn't answer. Deep down, he felt a little jealous. Yes, Harry deserved to live a peaceful life with a wife and lots of babies after all he had been through, but he couldn't help but wished he had all his best friend had. Their lives had changed so much since Voldemort had died and if Harry had escaped all of this with a few nightmares and a heavy conscience, Ron felt that he still had to fight every day for a world who will never be right.

-'I'm organizing a baby shower for her next week,' he said in a low voice. 'I really want you to come. I don't want to be the only man there.'

-'No, no... I really don't want to be in the middle of hysteric women debating which diaper is more absorbent. Forget about me. You need to face it all by yourself, like a big boy.'

-'Don't do that to me! You can't refuse, you have to come.'

-'No.'

-'Yes.'

-'No.'

-'Yes.'

-'For Merlin, no!'

-'There will be food.'

Silence. Ron thought about the deal for a minute.

'Who's cooking?' he asked warily.

-'Everybody brings something. It will be like a giant buffet.'

It was a tempting offer.

-'Fine,' Ron gave up. 'I'll be there.'

Harry seemed satisfied. The redhead took a sip his "slightly" whisky flavored tea and contemplated the scene before him. It felt strange to be surrounded by all of his family, all of them happy, loving, caring, laughing. His brothers kept slapping him on the back and telling bad jokes, each of them having to explain vaguely what they meant to their children. It was weird to see them as fathers and not as the boys they used to be in school, fooling around, playing tricks, making his life Hell on Earth. They all seemed so…grown up. Had he really been away for only a few months? Why hadn't he realized before that everyone had moved on and become a mature version of their old self?

-'Ron?' Molly timidly asked, afraid to bother him. 'I think there's going to be a little problem…You see, you haven't told me you were coming and it took me ages to sort everything out so everyone has a space to sleep this week. The only place left is here, in the living room, on the couch…But the kids wake up early and the little ones play here while we prepare breakfast.'

Damn it. His cozy bed and precious hours of sleep were gone in a matter of seconds.

-'Mrs Weasley, we have a bed for him at home,' Harry suggested, noticing his friend's despondent expression. 'Ginny and I would be happy to accommodate him.'

It was then agreed that Ron would sleep at Harry's and the redhead was so grateful he almost hugged him. He waited until Molly had returned to the kitchen –quite precipitately due to a suspect broken glass noise – to thank his friend warmly. As much as he liked this family reunion, spending the next week running after children was not really what he had expected.

It was already dark outside when he settled in the guest room, having fixed the changing table for the last hour, and at that moment he wanted nothing else but to sleep. Ron had taken a few clothes at the Burrow and was putting them in the dresser distractedly when Ginny showed up. She slowly sat down on the bed and waited. After a moment, he lost patience.

-'Are you going to stare at me like this for a long time? I know I'm cute but I'm your brother, don't forget it.'

-'Idiot,' she laughed, throwing a pillow at his head.

He caught it, laughing too, and then he let out a growl as he felt a sharp pain on his left forearm.

-'Are you OK?' asked Ginny worriedly. 'Are you injured?'

Ron shook his head, trying to smile. Merlin Almighty, it hurt like Hell.

-'Of course not, nobody can touch me.'

She wasn't convinced. She rose heavily and went to him, her face serious.

-'You're lying.' She said. 'Because I don't think this is ketchup.'

She pointed at his arm. He looked at it and saw that his injury had started to bleed again and that the bandage hadn't make it; an expending blood stain had appeared on his sleeve. He tried to hide it, but Ginny grabbed his hand and forced him to show it. Ron pulled a face.

-'It's nothing Gin. Let it go.'

She carefully lifted up the fabric and took off the bandage. It wasn't a beautiful sight; the wound was infected and a weird mixture of mud, dried blood, fresh blood and greenish pus was bubbling from it. This was not good at all.

-'Ron! This isn't nothing!' exclaimed Ginny, horrified. 'Why didn't you take care of it? You should have gone to the hospital! And how on earth did you manage to make it bubble? What did you put on it?'

The redhead quickly snatched away his hand and tried to put the bandage back, unsuccessfully. He gave up with a groan and threw the soiled linen into the garbage can near the bed. He had no doubt now that he shouldn't have "borrowed" the cream at the health care tent in Caraghe. He looked for it in his pocket and before he could do anything Ginny took it from his hand and read the description.

-'You didn't put that on your injury, did you?" she said, frowning.

-'I thought it was a disinfectant.' Ron breathed as the pain grew stronger.

His sister tried her best not to burst into laughter. 'Learn to read, Hercules, this is not a disinfectant. It's a cream against hemorrhoids.'

Ron closed his eyes for a moment, feeling utterly stupid. He could at least have read what was written on that little jar instead of assuming it was all disinfectant.

-'Damn it, Gin, don't you have something in that nurse bag of yours that could take the edge off at least?'

-'Yes, I do have something for you, Mr Invincible. You're lucky your little sister has many tricks up her sleeve or else you would be at St-Mungo's right now, getting laughed at by all the pretty nurses.'

-'Just…get on with it.'

-'I didn't hear you.'

Ron sighed exasperatedly. 'Please.'

-Good boy.'

She came back a little while after with a small leather bag, from which she took out a flask. Then she handed him a bottle of rum and he eyed it suspiciously.

'You asked me something to take the edge off.' She said, trusting it into his hand. 'Drink a good shot because it's going to be painful.'

He obeyed, wondering why she seemed to take so much pleasure into telling him this. Ginny carefully soaked a fresh cloth with the violet liquid and then squeezed it over his cut. It immediately began to foam.

Ron felt nothing at first but it wasn't long before he did; a million needles seemed to pierce his skin, digging right to the bone, and he cursed loudly as it grew even stronger, cleaning deep.

-'What's that thing?' he gasped when he finally could breathe. 'It's terrible! We should use it for torture, not as a curative potion.'

Once the injury was sponged, cleaned and stitched, Ginny wrapped a new bandage around his forearm.

-'There. Tomorrow I'll apply a cicatrizing potion. Meanwhile, you should sleep. You look horrible.'

-'Not as much as you,' yawned the redhead. 'Good night, sis. And thank you.'

-'Welcome home.' She replied with a smile.

As soon as she was out Ron shut the door and the light, undressed and fell on the bed. In less than a minute, he was out.

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