Chapter 3, Burrowing the Past
Genre: Angst, Adventure
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter he would not be such a walk over and Voldemort wouldn't be such an idiot. Ergo I don't own Harry Potter.
Warning(s): Dark (not Evil) and Slytherin Harry/Hermione/Ron, Good Draco, Bad Voldie, some bad language
Summary: Common story with a major twist. The Golden Trio, due to various reasons, are dark Slytherins to the core.
"speech" – speech
^speech^ - parseltongue
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Ron Weasley's life was changed in one simple day. He watched someone die. No it wasn't his mother or father or even a distant cousin, it was a teenage muggle. Hell Ron hadn't even really been able to see it properly until he approached the still figure.
The boy had been attacked on the outskirts of the muggle village near by the Burrow. No warning just a single stab and then dead. It could have happened to anyone. As the attacker ran away whooping Ron Weasley realised that everybody dies. He had always known it but was never fully real before that day, before it was just a story told to scare him.
As he approached the dead teen he could hear his own heart beat in his ears. He could feel his chest constricting. Ron let out a harsh breath as stopped about two meters from the boy. His legs wouldn't work. He was too scared of getting nearer to the body, that death might be contagious.
A small muggle boy of about ten saw him so Ron called out.
"Get someone, he's dead!"
The small boy nodded and ran away. Ron turned and left for the Burrow all the while trying to process what had just happened. He tried to reason his fear of the harmless dead body.
Lying in his warm bed he noticed that he was still shaking. In one day Ron had developed a fear of dying. He wasn't even at school yet, nowhere near ready to die. And from that fear Ron started to change his behaviour. He started to analyse possible threats and escapes every time he entered a room. He became more withdrawn and quite, preferring to watch his surrounds then be the centre of attention.
Ron redecorated his room. He took down most of the Cudley Cannon's gear and put it away in his cupboard. They were still his favourite team by having that much stuff everywhere was a fire hazard. Now his very neat, almost empty room was up to his new standards he delighted himself with the frivolity of changing the colours of his room; the walls were grey, all wood was black and his carpet, bed and lamp were bright yellow.
There was also a large coil of rope tied to his window that went without comment until one day, a few months out from Hogwarts letters, when he caught his mother looking at it closely.
"What are you doing?" he asked softly.
"Just tiding up your room, dear. Do you need the rope still?" his mother asked overtly cheerful.
Ron eye's narrowed, "Yes."
His mother very casually pressed further, "And what are you using it for?"
"It's a ladder. Do you know that our house has no fire escapes? It's very unsafe," Ron said sitting down on his bed with a text book stolen from one of his other brothers.
Molly Weasley nodded unsurely as if she didn't believe him. "Reading again?" (1)
"Yes mum," Ron sighed, "I'm starting the second year course spells."
His mother nodded unsurely but simply continued to find a fault in the perfectly tidy room. Ron ignored her in favour of his book.
When she got to the cupboard Molly exclaimed, "Don't you like the Cannons anymore?"
Ron looked up with raised eyebrows, "Yeah."
"Then why is everything just shoved in your cupboard, Ron Weasley?"
"Because it clutters everything up. I like the Cannons but I have more important use for my room then being a shrine to their players," Ron said with a huff turning back to his book.
Ron looked up as his mother as she sat beside him looking down in concern, "If anything is bothering you, you can always talk to me and your father about it."
Ron smirked, "Nothing is wrong I've just had a change of heart and grown up a bit. Mum, don't worry."
Mrs Weasley smiled and pinched one of Ron's cheeks, "I'm a mother; it's my job to worry."
She left. Ron lent back shaking his head and curling up with The Standard Book of Spells Grade Two by Miranda Goshawk.
Aside from a few odd instances, like Ron's refusal to play Quidditch, life at the Burrow went smoothly. And by the time Hogwarts letters came the rest of the family was used to Ron's new behaviour.
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"Ron! Hogwarts letters are here!" Ginny squealed shrilly.
Ron groaned and closed his copy of Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles by Wilhelm Wigworthy.
Trudging down the stairs he yelled, "I'm coming!"
Once in the kitchen he could see his whole family, minus Bill who was in Egypt, reading their various letters with excitement. Ginny gushed about what Hogwarts might be like His mother passed his own letter over as a conversation about the new Defence Professor broke out.
Ron smirked as he read the booklist. He had read, and surprisingly memorised, most of the books on the list. It seems that teachers set the same books every year. That was a useful advantage Ron thought.
"Tomorrow we'll go to Diagon Alley," Mrs Weasley yelled over the babble.
Ron smiled at the small pile of galleons that he still had from his birthday. He knew exactly what he was going to buy.
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(1) I got sick of writing his mother all the time so her name changes quite a lot.
Sorry this chapter is shorter than I originally planned by I fitted everything I wanted into it.
NEXT CAHPTER IS DIAGON ALLY!
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