Chapter two
"A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling." Arthur Brisbane
Ron Weasley was a wellknown Auror. He was no longer a sidekick of the Boy-who-lived. He was a grownup. A man. But why did that fucking gash on his back hurt like hell and why the hell was he trying to hold back his tears, like he was some baby? His boss called it a routinejob, just rounding up some of the lowerrank Deatheaters, who fled a long time ago and returned to Great Britain. It turned out to be a complete gathering of ex-Deateaters, with a plan to resurrect Voldemort. The losers, he thought. Harry killed Voldemort into tiny little pieces. Rememberingthe fact that Harry wasn't that far away from him, gave him the shivers. He felt somewhat quilty, because he didn't visit Harry for a while now. It hurt him to see his best friend like this. Like some drooling babbling idiot. Well maybe he wasn't drooling, nor babbling. The empty look in his best friends eyes was unnerving. Trying to move on the examinationtable, his gash stung again. He was biting his lip in pain, till a Healer would arrive.
The door opened to the examiningroom and a familiar voice made him cringe "Well, if that isn't Ronald Weasley. It's been a long time." Ron looked up, only to see the face of a familiar Slytherin. Pansy Parkinson. To acknowledge her presence he curtly nodded. "Never saw you as the silent type. But please do tell me, what is troubling you?" Pansy picked up his chart and scanned it for information. Impatiently he huffed. "When is the healer coming? I've been waiting for ages and that cut on my back is hurting like bloody hell." Pansy smiled serenly, while she replied "Well, mr Weasley. The healer allready has arrived and only ten minutes after you entered this building. Nice to meet you, I'm healer Parkinson." Ron absolutely looked terrified. "Oh no, you're not! I want a real healer." Pansy's face fell for a moment, but she maintained a serene smile. "I can garantuee you I'm a real healer, complete with certificate."
Grudgingly he muttered his consent. Pansy sat down and started on examinating his back and even tried to make some smalltalk. "I must say I was surprised, when Shacklebolt called me, you were coming in. Never saw you as an auror, to be quite honest. So how are you doing these days?" Surprised Ron looked behind him. Only to get her hand pushing his face back. Never before had he seen Pansy speaking so civilly to someone else, let alone to him. "I'm reasonably fine, considering the fact I have a huge gash on my back. And to be truthful, you were the last person I expected as an Healer. I mean, you were maintaining a pretty bad reputation as an superficial airhead at Hogwarts." Just to be sure, Ron didn't add the fact, she was mostly considered as a slut. There was no need to be nasty, he decided
"People change, Ron. So did I. During the war I saw things that actually made me stop in my tracks and motivated me to actually use my brains for a time. I put that to good use." She laughed again. "I can see you put your time to good use as well. When did you stop look like a gangly teen?" Ron smirked "The day I started Auror-training. You'd be amazed on what they let you do there." Even though she was healing his back, he somehow knew Pansy was smiling. "I can only imagine. Healer-training wasn't all fun either."
"That reminds me, if you are a healer here, you must work with my little sister." Curious he looked behind him, but Pansy turned his head back. "Well, we work at the same place, but technically we don't work together. She is a Healer at the third floor, which is Potion and Plantpoisoning, as you may be aware off and I work here at Spell damage. Only at complicated cases we work together. But we do meet up at lunch sometimes. Can't get around her, ever since she and Draco are friends. Lovely girl though, I can see..." Ron turned around again and in a flash stopped her hand, which tried to get him turned back around. When she looked up, she really couldn't remember the time she saw anybody that livid. "What do you mean, ever since she and Draco are friends?"
Funnily she looked at him. "Ever since the war ended, they're having lunch every week. I thought you knew that. Looked like everyone in your family knew that. I know for a fact your older brother Bill went along for one of their lunches and if my memory serves me right, you're mother did to. I believe they're out to lunch right now as well." Ron lept up and groaned, because his back wasn't fully healed and stung again. "Do you know where they are?" Ron growled at her. Pansy stood up as well and faced him. "Does it matter? Now sit down, so I can heal you properly and so I will not be sued for malpractice." Pansy didn't sound as serene as before and she didn't feel like that anymore. "I want to know what Ferretboy is doing with my sister. He has no business with her. He's a goddamned.."
Before he could finish his sentence, she grabbed him and pulled him down. She looked him straight in the eye and yelled at him. "Why do you still hold on to prejudices, that allready brought so much hurt to a lot of people, not so long ago. Your best friend is insane, because he fought against that. You fucking dimwit!" Taken aback he didn't know what to say. But she did and she continued yelling at him. "Why does it matter that your sister is having lunch with Draco. If she didn't consent to it, I highly doubt she would be going back and might I remind you, that Draco fought for the Light? He helped your best friend. Harry was working with him, why don't you trust your best friends opinion. It shouldn't matter he's only two doors away now. O wait, it does. Because now that Harry is a freaking lunatic, he isn't your best friend anymore, I suppose. Because you hardly visited him these last couple of years. Now he's out of sight and you think you're fucking allmighty and you can continue with being a prejudiced prat. You sicken me. Now sit down and let me finish my goddamned work."
Not knowing what to say, he sat down and remained silent. Pansy hurted his feelings, by reminding him of Harry. She was right. He hardly ever visited Harry anymore. He kept on blaming it on Aurortraining, but deep inside he knew he was just postponing the visit, because he could bare looking at Harry anymore. Even though he hadn't seen Harry for a long time, the memory of those vacant eyes and the lack of recognition kept him from visiting. It was making it harder and harder to stop by. Ron thought about his sister, probably joining Malfoy for lunch and couldn't help feeling left out about the fact she didn't tell him about that. Pansy was right about that one too. He was prejudiced. About Malfoy and about Pansy and about a lot of other things.
"I'm done. Check yourself out downstairs and let Shacklebolt contact me." Pansy said, while interrupting Ron's contemplations. She laid one last look of discontent on him and left the examinationroom. Ron got up and put his shirt back on. He felt even more like shit, then when he walked in and nobody could heal this for him.
When he walked out the door and trough the hallway, he looked at a door on which it said ward 49 and in big letters above 'Janus Thickey Ward' the ward for for longterm resident ward. It was the ward where Harry was on. Not being able to cope right now, he swiftly moved on and left St Mungo's.