Pale in the Shadows

Part I Magick in the Air – A Light Contrast Chapter 7

About: What exactly is the difference between the Dark families and the Light families?

Warning: Of course, the way that I portray some much-loved Rowling character might be found offensive to some. I apologize for offending anyone; however, these portrayals do serve their purposes, but they might not be apparent for a while.


Ginny waved goodbye to Cedric, who had begun the trek back to his house in the fading light. They had spent the day running around the forest chasing salamanders to a smoldering woodpile and watched as the lizards sparked and ran about the forest, leaving the mast untouched as they torched on and off in vibrant blues and reds. Sighing, Ginny began to climb up the hill towards the Burrow—a magickly constructed house of odds and ends that towered three stories, and had a small tower branching off just above the shed. Reaching the grassy top, she looked at the chickens pecking about the front yard, one of which squawked loudly as a gnome plucked one of her larger feather.

Shaking her head, she reached the front steps waving to the gnomes mulling about doing their daily business. Ginny liked the brown rugged gnomes and faeries who claimed the Burrow area as their home. The gnomes traded with her mother rocks and bugs for knickknacks, and they also kept the garden with the faeries. Gnomes were much better at growing vegetables and the like, while the faeries kept flowers and fruits in exchange for cloth and twilseys. The Weasley family had one of the best gardens in the area thanks to their cooperation with the magick peoples.

Opening the door, Ginny kicked off her muddy sneakers and stepped barefoot onto the wood floor. The smell of fresh bread and roast filled the house. Heading to the kitchen, she found her mother peeling potatoes while a spoon stirred itself in a pot on the stove. Looking up while nudging a strand of curled auburn hair from her eyes, Molly gave her a warm smile. 'There you are dear. I was about to send Ronald to go find you.'

Smiling timidly, Ginny went to the sink and washed her hands off. She grabbed a stool, dragged it to the stove, and took over stirring. 'Sorry. Cedric and I had to put the fire out before coming home. We got about seven salamanders, too!' she said, watching as the gravy bubbled and steamed. With the sound of the chair pushing back, Molly came over with the potatoes, and with a wave of her wand and muttered charm, a wisp of cubed light wrapped around and sliced the potatoes into chunks, which then fell into the gravy.

'Seven? That's quite a few at this time of year. I'm surprised they aren't preparing to hibernate,' Molly muttered absentmindedly, her attention quickly turning to a giant clock-like device in the corner of the kitchen. It was made of willow and mahogany, and had nine carved hands on the face with the Weasley names carved in gold lettering and twined with a hair from each family member. Two of the hands no longer functioned as they should. Bill had graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that June and begun work at Gringotts Bank shortly thereafter. Part of his work included working in foreign banks to understand the security measures other wizards took to guard their most precious artifacts and treasures. Charlie, though in his last year of school, was attending a Ministry sponsored event in China learning about the dragon breeds in East Asia. Both of her brothers spent so much time outside of home, Ginny hardly remembered her oldest brothers; however, the hands reminded her that they did indeed exist, though they were too far from the clock for the charm to work.

Four other hands were spread over a small plaque etched with "Home"—Molly, Ginny, and her two brothers, Percy and Ron. Percy was more than likely upstairs in his room studying and doing his summer coursework. The twins, Fred and George, were over a plaque reading, "Ottery Village's Hollow", which was the name of the small wizarding community that they lived stretching from the Burrow to Cedric's home on the other end of the hill and forest. Beyond the Hollow was a nearby muggle community, Ottery St. Catchpole where Molly worked in the mornings. She ran a shop with Elena Diggory that sold holistic medicines and goods, and between them and two other witches they ran a café out the backside.

The last hand was quickly traveling between a plaque reading "Ministry" and making its way to "Home". 'Your father's going to be here soon. I want you to go and get Ronald and Percival from upstairs; I'll take care of the twins.' Molly waved her wand absently letting bread sail out of the stoneware oven and land steaming into a basket on the table, then the flames under the pot on the stove went out, and the oven popped open a few inches letting the smell of meat juices covered in apple honey glaze further fill the room. Rolling up the sleeves of her dress, she marched to the screen door leading out of the kitchen, letting it slam behind her, leaving Ginny to sigh as she took one last look at the hand reading, "Arthur Weasley".


Ron stared absently at the ceiling, a feeling of guilt and anger tugging at him. He hadn't told Molly about what had happened the other day when Arthur had taken him and the twins to Diagon Alley. His dad had strictly forbade them from saying a word to their mother. Even at eight, Ron knew that many members in the Ministry mocked his father; he had heard hushed conversations from his parents who lived in the room next to his. It was two of his dad's superiors that had held him up at the ice cream store for a few hours.

The one man, Lawrence Flagstaff, was a transfer from the United State's British Wizarding Embassy. Tall, broad shouldered, and the colour of milk chocolate, the man was a family friend; however, there was a look of disappointment. 'Arthur, we hate to do this in front of your kids,' Lawrence winced as he glanced at Fred, George, and Ron who had each paused while spooning globs of sweet ice cream into their mouths. Digging into his trench coat pocket, he pulled out three galleons and passed them to the boys. 'Why don't you three go and check out the emporium?' All three nodded, Fred and George unusually obedient.

Ron had followed his brothers just around the corner before running into their backs. 'Why'd you stop? They don't want us listening in on them.'

Snorting, Fred reached into his jeans' pocket and pulled out a strange gooey blob, breaking it in two. 'Yes, of course they don't want us to listen in on them Ronny.'

'Ronny, why thank you for stating the obvious,' George said rolling his eyes as he and Fred let the glob drop to the ground. 'But what the adults don't know…'

'…won't hurt them.'

Ron, a slight shade of red at his nickname, was too distracted to retort. He watched in awe as the glob oozed along the dirtied street and along the side of the wall. 'What's that?'

'Newest invention.' Fred muttered a quick charm which Ron vaguely knew meant 'listen'. The glob began to emit sound, growing a little louder and more clear as the glob neared the adults. George muttered a stopping charm which froze the glob near the tables, where Lawrence and a balding and rotund man sat; all three ducked around the corner, squatting down to listen to the glob in Fred's outstretched hand so the adults wouldn't notice them.

'If it wasn't for Bulstrode noticing some errors in inventory in correspondence to your cases we never would have noticed,' the other man's voice was harsh and disproving. 'We are here to give you the opportunity to turn in all the confiscated items from your cases that mysteriously went missing before we conduct an investigation of your home and property. The search is unavoidable at this point; however, we are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. This is considered strike one, though. You know very well that each of the recovered items must go through the proper deconstruction channels so the Ministry can categorize new charms and decide the outcomes of cases. Bulstrode also pointed out that some of the missing inventory is considered highly dangerous, which is why she alerted us in the first place. You can't just take enchanted items from the Department, Weasley!'

George frowned. 'Arthur really did steal that stuff then.'

Angry, Ron hissed, 'Dad would never do that! They're obviously lying!'

The twins traded a knowing look. 'Ron, Arthur really did. Mum was talking to Elena about it the other day, and two nights ago we overheard them arguing because Mum found a teapot covered in blood in the shed. Arthur told her he'd been doing a spell that used the blood of a chicken, but when we checked the shed the gnomes told us that the blood was cat and only a few weeks old. Didn't you ever wonder where Percy's familiar went? Why he's been holing up in his room? Arthur got his familiar killed.'

'Dad would never and the gnomes are greedy liars! Dad always complains about missing stuff all the time!' Ron spat only to stop as Lawrence's voice came over the glob.

'…teapot with a blood stealing curse? Why the hell would you take that?'

The sound of Arthur's shaky drawl was like a knife in Ron. 'I-I just wanted to understand how the teapot functioned before it was stripped. I've never seen an electric one. I wanted to see how the coil and plug worked. I-I didn't mean any harm…I-It ate the cat, though.'


Ron woke up with the sound of pounding and Ginny shouting. With a sigh, he got out of bed and shuffled to the locked door. Opening it, he glared at his young fiery sister. 'WHAT?'

'It's dinnertime and Father's nearly home,' she replied, bottom lip pouting out. 'Really, Ron, don't be such a grump.' With that she stomped off to the stairwell leading to the attic.

Feeling apologetic, Ron scratched at his messy hair, and shuffled down the stairs in his sweats and T-shirt. He heard the sound of Fred and George coming through the screen door, chatting lively about hanging out with Lee Jordan who had come to visit his mother for the summer. 'Lee showed us his mum's collection of spiders! It was wicked!' came one of the twin's excited voices. 'Definitely want one of those when we go off to Hogwarts next year.'

Ron reached the kitchen just as Molly snorted. 'Never mind the fact that your father is scared witless of them and would beat the two of you senseless if you brought one in this house.'

'Hey, Mum,' Ron said, yawning widely.

'Would you help the twins set the table, Ronald?'

'It's Ron,' the boy muttered, but went to the cabinet and began to grab plates while his brothers were setting silverware and cups. 'Are you going to get Percy a new cat?' Molly stopped what she was doing causing Ron to watch her in surprise. She stared sadly out the window and with a sigh turned and gave him a sad smile.

'Ron, honey, that's not how it works. Right now your brother is in a lot of pain. Once he heals more, maybe, but we can't just get a new one. That would feel like we were replacing his cat, and you can't replace life. Each life is precious in its own and must be grieved for in its own.' Before she said anything else, the sound of Arthur opening the front door made her lips grow tight. 'Your father's home.'

He realized that Molly knew of his father's involvement in the death of Percy's cat, and again the guilt and anger filled him. He couldn't tell if he was angry at himself, his mother, or his father, nor could he place why he felt guilty. It wasn't until after the entire family had settled around the table, Molly giving grace to the Mother Goddess and blessing the me, that Ron really looked at his family. He and Ginny always sat around their father, the others all sat nearer to their mother. He had never thought of it before, but it seemed like their house was somehow divided. As he took a bite of roast, Ron promised himself that he would stick with his father no matter what.


Ginny was in the shed, going through every nook and cranny at the request of Ron. The two had come out as soon as Molly and Arthur had gone to work, and had been at it for over an hour. Moving another box out of the way, the girl sneezed at a cloud of dust. 'If we asked the gnomes to help us find anything magicked or cursed it would go faster,' she said, swiping at her nose. 'This is ridiculous, Ron. It's not like we can go through all of Dad's boxes and tools. We don't even know exactly what to look for.'

'Shut-up! We can do this without the stupid gnomes. They're just lying thieves anyway.'

The younger girl frowned at her brother's distaste and stopped what she was doing. Despite their only being a year apart, Ginny often felt much older and wiser than her brother. She couldn't place why, but there was a defeatist attitude that plagued Ron, something that none of her other brothers seemed to have. Her other brothers each had some kind of talent either academically or magickally—Bill had aced many of his classes with ease and even won awards academically, Charlie had a gift with dragons that had never before been seen in British wizards, Percy was much like Bill and also had won the attention of his teachers, and even Fred and George despite their age had mastered spells many newly wanded wizards were just learning about. Ron, though, she had realized was always filled with doubt.

'Ron, you've had accidentals, you know,' Ginny finally said. 'You're not a squib.'

Her brother stopped and sniffed. Big tears began streaming down his dirtied cheeks leaving curved tracks and dripping off his chin. 'I know. If it wasn't for Dad I would've thought I was.'

Ginny came over and hugged her brother, tightly. 'I never once thought you were a squib.'

'I know,' he said, hiccupping as he tried to stop sobbing. 'I-I know.'

Pulling away, Ginny really looked at her brother. 'What's wrong beside that? You know that Dad and Mum love you, that all of us love you.'

He couldn't contain it anymore and told Ginny about overhearing their father's thievery. Ginny didn't say anything for awhile, and instead stared numbly at the floor before she spoke. 'You know, Dad is a good person, but even good people do things that can be bad. Just like Fred and George can pull a prank and they don't mean bad by it, but they end up scaring someone or even hurting someone. It's the same for Dad except he's an adult. You wonder why the others call him 'Arthur'? It's because to them he is on the same level making the same mistakes they do. He's not a father, but a child.'

'He is our father though,' Ron insisted, glaring at her.

Smiling, patting her brother on the arm, Ginny rose stretching. 'Remember that I call him 'Dad', too.' With that she went out to the garden to ask the gnomes for help.