Chapter One:
Ronald Weasley sat in his office, staring out the window. He ran a large, calloused hand through his thick red hair, and blew a strand out of his face. Sighing, he folded the leaflet on his desk in half, then in quarters, and then growing angry, he tore it apart, before throwing the pieces behind him.
He was just starting to bang his head on the desk when he heard a knock at the door.
Without bothering to ask who it was, he shouted, "Come in."
Harry Potter opened the door and stood on the threshold, before waving at Ron. The last time they'd been together, they'd had a fight, the same fight they'd been having for the past 2 years.
"What do you want?" Ron said.
Harry frowned, before coming farther into Ron's office.
"I want…" he said. "I want to apologize for… for the fight we keep having. I just- I just still can't believe you're married, even after 2 years."
"Why not, Harry? Am I so disgusting and argumentable that no woman should ever have wanted to marry me? Is that what you're saying?"
"No," Harry said. "I just can't believe you're married to her. Of all people! Lavender Brown! You said so yourself in third year that she was driving you insane! That all she wanted to do was snog you senseless and… I just don't get it."
"Yeah?" Ron asked. "Well, get this. I married Lavender because I love her and she loves me and that's not going to change. Who I love is not your choice, Harry Potter. Just because you're the Boy Who Lived, or the Chosen One, or whatever they call you, bloody hell, does not give you the right to tell me how to live my life!"
Ron stood up and his chair toppled out from behind him.
He grabbed his coat from a hook behind him and faced Harry, his eyes wide in frustration and anger.
"Don't come around anymore if you're just going to… whatever."
He threw his coat on and practically ran out the door. Harry shouted to him, "Your family misses you. They wish you'd come around more than once a year. Especially my wife."
"Piss off," Ron shouted back at him, without looking back, and then he turned on the spot and disappeared.
Ron appeared outside the flat he and Lavender lived in, and made his way to the door, before sticking his key in the lock. He closed the door behind him and sprinted up the stairs, before putting his second key in the lock to his door.
He walked through the short hallway to their kitchen and angrily threw his coat on a chair, before grabbing a firewhiskey from the pantry. As he sat down and the barstool squeaked on the linoleum, he heard Lavender yelp, and the sound of the closet door closing quickly.
"Honey?" he yelled out, and Lavender appeared in the doorway to their bedroom, wearing her bright pink robe, her cheeks flushed, and her hair wild.
Ron took another sip of his firewhiskey, still staring at her, and realized he found her quite appealing at that moment in time. He looked her up and down, grinning, and Lavender blushed guiltily.
"You're home early," she said, wrapping her robe around her even tighter, before walking into the kitchen. He nodded, but didn't explain.
She didn't question him further.
"Well," she said. "I have to go get ready for my girls night out."
She turned to go, but Ron stood up quickly and grabbed her wrist. She turned around and Ron leaned in close to her, their chests almost touching.
"I missed you," he said, and then looking at her chest closely, he realized the robe was all she was wearing.
"Are you naked underneath there?" he said. He grabbed her hips and tried to kiss her but she pulled away.
"I just got out of the shower," she said, pushing him away and walking to their bedroom door.
Ron frowned, looking at the back of her head. "Your hairs not wet."
She stopped walking and turned back to him. "Oh, right, erm… I was about to get in the shower." She laughed artificially and Ron felt something akin to unease bubble in his stomach.
He ignored it though, and sat down on the couch, picking up the Daily Profit.
Harry was featured on the first page, unsurprisingly, and Ron scoffed, before turning to the Quidittch section.
An article there immediately caught his eye.
It stated at the top:
Hermione Granger, head of the Department of Equal Treatment of Magical Creatures, seeks to convert famous Quidittch players from enslaving their elves to paying them.
Ron flinched. He'd never seen her in the Daily Profit before, and he didn't even know she'd become head of a department.
Sighing, he flipped the page. He refused to read it, though his heart was telling him he should.
An hour later, Lavender apparated from their flat, after quickly kissing Ron on the cheek, after his insistence.
He sat back down on the couch, and closed his eyes. Without realizing he was doing so, Ron began to twirl his wand and gasped when cold water hit his face and soaked his shirt. Sighing, he stood up and went to his bathroom in the bedroom, pulling off his wet shirt and throwing it in the bathtub.
He walked into the bedroom and rifled through his drawer for another t-shirt. After putting in on, Ron glanced around the room, and realized that the bed was in a mess. The pillows were by the window and the sheets were tangled. He was sure Lavender had forced him to make the bad that morning, and once again, Ron felt worried.
But once again, he shook it off, and then he walked into the kitchen and made himself some dinner, downing another firewhiskey.
He hated fighting with his friends, though…
But he forced himself not to think about the one other friend he'd ever fought with.
Soon after, Ron collapsed on the couch, another firewhiskey in his hand and dozed off.
He dreamed that he was standing in the middle of Diagon Alley, alone on the street. He turned and looked to find Flourish and Blotts soon on his left, and Madame Malkin's robe shop on his right.
He was just turning to leave for the Leaky Cauldron, when he heard his name.
He turned to his right, and there was Lavender, her hair blowing in the wind, and wearing close to nothing. She smiled at him cheekily and he was about to go to her when he heard his name again.
On his left, coming out of Flourish and Blotts with a boatload of books in her arms, was Hermione.
Ron gasped as she stared at him. She was wearing the robes she had always worn at Hogwarts, the ones he had always loved her in. He stood between the two women, utterly confused and he was about to turn left when he woke up, sweating, and on the floor.
He pulled himself up, and sat back on the couch, before looking at the clock on the wall.
7:50 it showed.
Ron cursed, because he knew he was going to be late to work, and then would probably have to stay at work for an extra amount of time to make up for it.
After showering quickly, and throwing on his work clothes, he shouted to Lavender, who was half asleep on their bed, that he would be home late, and then he bounded out the door.
Lavender sat up in her bed, fully awake, and hummed a scandalous Weird Sisters song to herself. She pulled a quill and piece of parchment from beside her desk, and scribbled something, before hopping up, and reaching for her owl on his perch near the window. She tied the letter to his leg.
"Send this to Draco," she said, and the owl hooted before flying out the open window.
Lavender opened her closet door, grinning again, before pulling a red lace top out of an inconspicous box on the top shelf.
Ooh! Kind of a cliffie…. Any guesses as to what will happen next?
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