Chapter 3
The Weasley boys ran in the Burrow like a stampede of hippogriffs. Mrs. Weasley passed out the letters to each of the boys and the letters barely touched their shaking hands before they were being torn open.
"Yes! I got my Care of Magical Creatures class that I wanted with Hagrid!" Charlie shouted out. Ever since Christmas two years ago, Charlie had been obsessed with magical creatures, especially dragons. Ron had gotten him a book on dragons that year and it quickly turned into Charlie's forte. He would stay up all night reading it and reciting exciting lines at the breakfast table about how fierce the Hungarian Horntail was or how majestic the Norwegian Welsch was. He turned into a star student of Hagrid's (even though he technically wasn't in any of his classes last year, but Hagrid liked Charlie so he made an exception) and the family was so proud of him. Ron didn't really mind that he didn't get any recognition; he was pretty well used to it.
Percy had a very disgusted look on his face. No one needed to ask why. He had requested third year classes but of course, he was denied. Percy thought he was better than most students in his class and wished he could take courses of higher caliber. "Percy, dear, you don't need to move ahead. Just slow down and enjoy yourself at Hogwarts. You'll still be able to get a job at the ministry if you go at regular pace, I promise," Molly said while hugging Percy who looked like he was about to bust out into tears.
"This school is ruining my life and you aren't helping," Percy said smuttily, giving one last look to his mother, and then heading up the stairs.
Molly sighed. Percy was always difficult. He expected everything to be high class and he always gave his parents a hard time about not having any money. He vowed that one day he would get out of the Burrow and would actually have a house and life that he would be proud of.
"Alright, well, tomorrow we'll all go to Diagon Alley and get everything so you're ready to go to Hogwarts this weekend," Molly barely finished her sentence before she was heading up the stairs to see if she could talk to Percy in private.
Ron's heart sunk. He dreaded the school year. Bill and Charlie were always really nice to him and hung out with him, but when they were gone he was often the victim of Fred and George. His twin brothers were die-hard pranksters. When Ron was four they turned his favorite teddy bear into a spider while he was sleeping. He hasn't been able to stand the sight of a spider since. Not to mention the time they turned his hair green for a week, or the time they glued his shoes to his feet. Sometimes Fred and George did really funny things, but most of the time they just bullied Ron. They used to pick on Ginny, but Mrs. Weasley put a stop to that after they made her favorite blanket turn into little bugs. Mrs. Weasely, however, never yelled at them for anything they did to Ron.
Ron looked up to Bill and Charlie more than anything. They taught him basically everything he knew. When his parents weren't looking they taught him little spells and told him tales about Hogwarts. Ron couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts. He was most excited to take Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, even though Bill and Charlie told him that she was the hardest teacher to please; he wanted to be able to transfigure things to get back at Fred and George. The class he was least looking forward to was Potions with Professor Snape. Bill and Charlie had horror stories about Snape. He was a greasy man with long black hair who spent most of his time in the dungeons thinking of ways to torture the students. One time, Bill said that Snape locked a student in the dungeon for the whole school year for not doing their homework.
Charlie's favorite teacher was Hagrid, the games keeper. The way Charlie described Hagrid was terrifying. Charlie said Hagrid was a twelve foot tall giant with more hair on him than all of the students at Hogwarts combined, and he had hands the size of dinner plates. In his free time, Charlie said that Hagrid would wrestle dragons, but Ron tried not to believe everything Bill and Charlie told him.
Bill looked over and saw Ron's face and went up and threw his little brother over his shoulder. "Don't look so grim, kid, we'll come back for Christmas break, we promise," Bill said running towards the staircase. Ron laughed uncontrollably while he bounced over his shoulder and tried to hang on to the bottom of Bill's shirt for support. Charlie followed them, chuckling to himself.
Bill carried Ron all the way up three flights of stairs and into his own bedroom, and plopped Ron on his bed. Bill and Charlie sat down on either side of him to give him their yearly speeches. "Alright," Bill started, "Charlie, Percy and I are heading off to Hogwarts in a few days and that means you'll have to survive here on your own with Ginny and the twins. You're getting older and that means that the twins will probably try to practice more of their shenanigans on you, especially since mum won't let them do anything to Ginny anymore. Now, we got you a kids' wand and you can do little things back to them. Do you remember the spells we taught you?"
"Yeah.. you taught me lumos, that makes light, and uh, avis, that makes birds so if I need to get away real quick I can cause a good distraction. Oh and there's nox, that one puts out the light on my wand."
"Good memory, Ronny," Charlie said looking proud. Now, be sure that no one see's your wand, only use the spells if they are absolutely essential. There's one more we want to show you, though."
"This one is called obscuro. It will make the person you cast it on unable to see anything for a few seconds so you can get away. Want to practice?"
Ron shook his head yes. He loved it when Bill and Charlie taught him spells. He usually wasn't very good at them, but he practiced quite a bit. Bill stood a few feet in front of Ron and began to give him instructions. "Okay, now what you're going to do is point the wand at my eyes, swish up, to the left, and then down. While you're doing this say OB- SKEWR – OH, nice and clear, I don't want to lose an eye."
Ron stood up and cleared his throat. He took his wand, which looked like a poor excuse for a stick, and pointed it right at Bill's face. He cleared his throat again and started to swish his want and slowly said, "Obscrewoh." A little spark of static electricity jolted out of the tip of Ron's wand and hit Bill in the forehead. It barely left a mark. Laughing, Charlie grabbed the wand over where Ron's hands were and helped guide him. "Alright, you about blew his head off, be sure to pronounce it right," Charlie said, still laughing. Together, Charlie and Ron swished the wand around and said, "Obscuroh."
A small cloth came out of the tip of the wand and fastened itself around Bill's eyes. Charlie and Bill both clapped and cheered for Ron.
"Nice one! You only needed two tries to do that one!" Bill said while unfastening the cloth. "Now, try it on your own this time, and do it to Charlie."
Ron puffed out his chest a little bit; he was feeling very confidant. Pointing the wand at Charlie's face he said, "Obscuro!" loud and clear. A thick black cloth fastened itself over Charlie's eyes. Bill cheered and picked up Ron and hoisted him onto his shoulders and ran in circles around the room. "My little brother will be the best wizard of all time!"
Ron couldn't help but to laugh out loud, but in his head he was still upset. This was Bill's last year at Hogwarts, which meant that he would be moving either right after the school year, or at the end of summer. Ron considered Bill and Charlie to be his best friends. They watched out for him and guided him along in almost everything. The twins would have probably killed him by now if it hadn't been for them. Bill and Charlie were also the only ones in the house who actually took time to notice Ron. His parents were either arguing with Percy or watching Ginny. Ron often hoped that someday he would do something that would gain him a little bit of fame from his family.