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Chapter 4 – Breakfast and Books
By the time Ron was showered and dressed, the delicious smell of cooking bacon was wafting up the stairs. His stomach growled its opinion for anyone to hear, and Ron hastened to obey its command to be fed immediately.
Going down the stairs, he realized that his legs were once again feeling rubbery. He hoped that the weakness wouldn't get too much worse; if him mum thought he was really ill, she might cart him off to St. Mungo's, no matter the expense. Worse, the magical traces of the time-turner magic would still be clear to anyone who knew to look for it. Alternatively Molly might dose him with Strengthening Solution or Pepper-Up Potion – potions Ron had already been taking secretly. At some point his body would have a reaction to too much of the potion in his system and reveal his duplicity.
His only hope was that he wouldn't seem ill enough to require that attention from his mum. It was a long shot; she was notorious for her overprotective tendencies.
Ron poked his head into the kitchen. His mum was there, plating up sausages by the stove. Arthur Weasley was at the table drinking tea and reading the Daily Prophet and Ginny was nowhere to be seen – probably still be sleeping. Ron slid quietly into the seat across from his father and poured himself a cup of pumpkin juice.
Arthur looked up from the Prophet at the noise of the pitcher setting back on the table. "Ron! Heard you had a bit of a scare yesterday, how are you feeling?"
"Better." Ron said, feeling his ears flush in embarrassment.
Arthur set aside the paper and gazed at Ron with a serious expression. "You know, I'm happy to see some honest curiosity about spells but one has to be careful not to jump in over their head, yes? You can seriously hurt yourself and your magic by trying things your body just isn't prepared to handle. I thought you knew that, Ron."
Ron stared at the surface of the table, feeling oddly ashamed. He knew his father didn't really understand what had happened, but his good opinion had always been very important to Ron. A brave Gryffindor who was also as loyal as a Hufflepuff – to violate his father's trust was tantamount to sacrilege.
"I do know Dad, I just…" Ron trailed off, unable to think of a good lie.
"Missing your brothers already? I know it's only mid-September, but the holidays are right around the corner."
"I'm sorry."
"It's perfectly natural to miss them – they're family!" Arthur said cheerfully. "Now, I want you to promise me that you won't try any advanced magic again."
Surprised, Ron looked up from the table in time to see his father give him a little wink. Arthur had always been very encouraging to pranks and mischief as long as no one got hurt. It wasn't surprising that he would approve of his children experimenting with simple spells.
Ron gave a little smile. "I promise, Dad."
"Excellent! Now, I don't want to hear any more about it." He picked up the Prophet and went back to reading.
Molly came over and set platters of sausages and toast in the middle of the table and set plates out for the four Weasley's still at the Burrow. She moved back towards the stairs and paused behind Arthur's chair to squeeze his shoulder before leaving the kitchen. A few seconds later Ron heard her on the stairs, calling for Ginny to wake up.
Sunlight filtered through the windows, giving the kitchen a lazy, comforting atmosphere. Arthur hummed tunelessly as he leafed through the Prophet, and Ron could hear Ginny's sleepy protests against waking up.
Ron's skin was crawling. To see this, to feel his family at peace, felt wrong.
How could he relax, when the last memory he had of his father was stepping in front of a curse meant for his baby sister and then bleeding out at her feet? His mum had kneeled at his head unheeding of the battle raging around her and begged him to open his eyes, while Ginny and Percy guarded her back with tears streaming down their faces. Ron had lunged forward to go to his family, but the battle swirled around him and soon he was too busy fighting for his life back-to-back with Hermione to try and cross the ruined Entrance Hall of Hogwarts. That was the last time he had seen any of his family alive, until yesterday.
Reconciling that gore-filled memory with his father sitting, whole and healthy, at the same table was jarring to say the least. Ron's nerves were stretched, as if he were expecting an attack at any moment. It was absurd and it was giving him a headache. Ron determinedly nibbled on a sausage, trying to quell his anxiety with food.
A few minutes passed before Molly re-entered the kitchen with Ginny trailing grumpily behind her. When Ginny saw Ron her eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything as she sat down other than a simple "Good morning".
Breakfast passed quietly, which was actually fairly normal for a meal in which the twins were absent (and no one had gotten their mum angry over something). Ron still felt horribly out of place, and Ginny kept sneaking glances at him that promised trouble later. The silence pressed on Ron and he felt exposed, like Filch had just caught him tossing dung bombs in the Great Hall during dinner.
Ron stayed at the table only until Molly stopped piling more food on his plate and then made his escape out to the living room.
Maybe it's a good thing that I've come so far back in time. Ron thought. There's no way I could handle being at Hogwarts now, or seeing Harry and Hermione. I'd go totally spare.
Quiet sounds of cutlery moving and murmured conversation between Arthur and Molly drifted from the kitchen. Now that Ron was in the next room and by himself, he found the sounds of his family to be soothing instead of stomach-churning; a background hum that said "peace, peace" to his unsettled psyche. The pressure on his chest seemed to ease, and he took a deep calming breath.
Feeling more composed but too weak to escape into the orchard or climb the stairs to his room, Ron ambled over to the bookshelf and looked over the titles. He'd never actually taken the time to look over his father's books, being too young before Hogwarts and too lazy to read when he was home afterwards. A yearly exposure to the study-crazy Hermione had turned him off reading if he could avoid it.
Ron smiled wistfully, thinking of his favorite bushy-haired witch. He wondered how she was doing right now, before she knew anything about the wizarding world. He rather thought she was lonely. Hermione had never shared much about her life before Hogwarts and Ron thought the lack of mention of any muggle friends was telling. Hermione had probably run into the same problem in primary school that she had her first months at Hogwarts – few people looked past the know-it-all bookworm to find the kindhearted girl underneath.
The thought of reading still didn't appeal to Ron, but he knew there were things he needed to learn if he wanted to make any changes. Plus he was so weak right now there wasn't anything else for him to do. Hopefully among his father's books there would be something useful or at least mildly entertaining.
Ron started picking books out at random, looking for any interesting titles. Many of the books were on muggles, which Ron was expecting. What was surprising was the number of books on muggles whose authors we clearly pureblooded – names like Black, Higgs, Hopkirk, Scamander… Ron wondered if those books had any accurate information, especially after he flipped through and saw chapter titles like "Are Muggles Morons?" and "Brute Force: Automobiles are Powered by Pedaling!"
Ron shook his head and tried to put The Elusive Muggle by Helena Diggle back, only to struggle as the book refused to slide back on the shelf. Pulling the book back out, Ron stood on tiptoe to see what was jamming up the space and saw a thin book shoved back behind the other books. Ron pulled it out so he could put Diggle's book away, cursing that he was so short that he couldn't see the high self properly.
The book in Ron's hand was slim and looked pristine, as though it had been a gift Arthur had never opened. The title was Muggle Weapons and Means of Defense. Ron's eyebrows went up and he opened up the book to take a closer look. On the inside of the cover was a handwritten note:
Arthur,
I know we haven't talked since school, but I wanted to congratulate you on your promotion to the head of the Department of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. I wrote this book when I realized that adult wizards seem to know less about muggles than muggles do about wizards! I've kept up with my regular studies even though I went to Hogwarts (I'm muggleborn, you know), and I thought this book would be invaluable for research on non-magical means of defense. It's not selling well at all, I blame all the rise of anti-muggle activity and You-Know-Who. At this rate Flourish & Blotts will never agree to a larger printing – at least I never really wanted to be an author, but it would have been a nice way to earn some extra galleons! Anyway, I hope this helps with your new job – watch out for dangerous muggle 'artifacts'.
- Sam Boggs
Ron gave a low whistle. This might be useful. Maybe there's something I can practice when I can't do magic, and if it's really effective it might be something we can use against You-Know-Who.
Ron shoved the book in his pocket, sure that the title would upset his mum if she saw it – he could look at it in the privacy of his room later and his dad would never miss it. He went back to examining the bookshelf, and picked out one more book on muggles that looked reliable, Muggle Inventions of the Last Century. That one he put on a nearby table – it would be safe to read downstairs.
On the rest of the shelves the only book that caught his interest was Chess Strategy, Combat Strategy, which joined Muggle Weapons in his pocket. The rest of the books were nothing special, but the old schoolbooks might come in useful for brushing up on his spells and creating a cover for his knowledge when get to Hogwarts. It would have to be enough until he could get to the school library or get some galleons to spend at Flourish & Blotts.
Grinning slightly at the thought of attempting to overcome his ingrained apathy towards reading (and learning in general), Ron sank into an overstuffed armchair and opened Muggle Inventions to the first chapter: "Muggles Stand on the Shoulders of Giants (Figuratively Speaking) - The Lasting Effects of the Industrial Revolution". It was surprisingly good, written as a funny narrative instead of a long list of names and descriptions and Ron thought he might not perish from the boredom of enforced idleness in the days of recovery he needed to endure.
A quarter hour passed peacefully with Ron in the living room and his sister and parents in the kitchen. Arthur came to check on Ron before he left for work, and was shocked nearly speechless to see his son engrossed in a book – a book on muggles no less.
"Ron! I had no idea you were interested in muggles!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Er," Ron said, "Well, it's more interesting than reading about spells I can't practice or anything." He gestured at the bookshelves full of old schoolbooks.
"I suppose so." Arthur said affably. "Well, I'm off to work. Maybe I'll see something in the office worth bringing home to show you. Those muggles think up the most ingenious things." Arthur gently slapped his son's shoulder and went back to the kitchen. Ron heard him say goodbye to Molly and Ginny and leave the house, and then a distant crack as he apparated away.
Ron hoped that his father wouldn't think that he was planning on studying muggles when he grew up. Arthur was usually so gentle that it would be torture to let him down. But the Weasley household really did lack for interesting books. Bill and Charlie had taken most of theirs with them when they left home, and Ron knew Percy's books were all about getting ahead which would be tedious at best. Too bad Ron wouldn't see his oldest brothers until Christmas, no doubt they could find him something useful…
An idea occurred to Ron, and he realized that he knew the perfect way to kick off his plan to expose Wormtail and free Sirius. The first step in his plan had always been the vaguest, but he just needed to keep reading where everyone could see him. It was a perfect cover, and for it to work Ron would have to become a bit of a bookworm.
He made a face at the thought of months of diligent attention to books, but returned to Muggle Inventions with renewed vigor.
Not long after Arthur left Ron heard someone else come into the living room. Looking up, Ron was surprised to see Ginny standing right in front of him with her hands on her hips.
"H-hi Ginny." Ron said. He looked at her in some alarm – she had a gleam in her eye that usually meant trouble for whoever had the misfortune to piss her off. Ron frantically searched the memories of his younger self, wondering if he had played any pranks on her recently.
Ginny leaned in close, and what she whispered next nearly made his heart stop. "I know something big happened yesterday, and we're going to talk about it very soon." She gave him a sunny smile that did nothing to hide the intensity of her gaze, then backed off and went upstairs.
Ron gulped. What on earth was he going to tell Ginny?
End Chapter 4
Notes: Real Life interfered (as it will continue to do, I'm sure) with getting this chapter done, but I also ran into a bit of a block getting through the kitchen scene. Hopefully future chapters will get finished faster, but I make no promises.
I know a huge cliché of time-travel fics is the traveler gets their hands on some books, study a lot, and then become super-intelligent. That is NOT my plan, as it would totally go against Ron's character. But I think it is feasible that he would make a good faith effort to learn more because of the pressure of knowing that the war against Voldemort can be lost. Plus there's his plan to expose Pettigrew…