Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor do make money.
047. Flame
"Ron," his mum asked so startled by his entrance, she slipped a stitch in her knitting. "I thought you were downstairs with everyone else."
However, it wasn't long before she started looking at him with concern before gently asking, "Is everything okay?"
"Um," he said slowly trying to control his thudding heart at the moment. "I need to talk to you and dad about something important and you aren't going to like it."
"Okay. So what aren't we going to like?" his father asked, looking up from the Muggle magazine on automobiles.
"I would like my set of bands," Ron replied quietly, his courage suddenly failing him.
His mother just stared at him while the magazine fell from his father's hands as he furiously whispered, "Excuse me?"
Taking a deep breath, Ron repeated, "I would like my set of bands please," louder and firmer; trying to hide the shaking his insides were doing at the moment.
This time his mother completely dropped her knitting as Arthur lept to his feet and approached his son furious. He was face to face with Ron before growling in his face, "I'm going to pretend you didn't ask me that because I know you aren't daft enough to ask me for those after your brother asked."
"You can pretend all you want, Dad, but I'm still standing here asking you for the bands," Ron replied, not completely sure why the sudden surge of defiance was grounding his courage.
"Fine, so explain to me why if I refused Bill his bands, why would I allow you?"
"Please know that if it wasn't important, I wouldn't be asking you. But I'm not asking for me Dad."
Ron watched his father start to say something but stopped mid-word. His father's whole demeanor changed from anger to confusion, before he tentatively asked, "Then why are you asking? You know those bands only work for Weasley males."
"I know."
"Then why?"
Taking a deep breath, Ron explained, "It's for Pansy. After she was attacked last time, the ba—her attacker hit her with an heir charm. According to research Hermione has helped with, there is reason to believe that the Weasley marriage bind could alter it enough to protect her. Dad you have to understand that I refuse to stand by and watch whoever attacked her force her to carry his child."
His father took a seat on the end of the bed defeated, not looking at Ron or his wife. Ron could tell he was fighting an internal battle between what he wanted to do and what he knew he had to do. He could only hope that his father would side with him and Pansy on whatever side the marriage bind fell on.
"Arthur," his mother whispered after several minutes had passed. "You need to give them to him. You know how damaging these charms are, you just can't condemn her to it or make Ron watch it. No matter what you promised. Our family needs to come first here."
But his father didn't respond, he kept looking at his hands, twirling his wedding band.
After what seemed like another eternity, his father finally spoke, "Did we ever explain to you and your brothers why we don't use the bind anymore?"
"No," Ron sighed painfully, his hope and belief that his father would give him the bands faded with every passing second after hearing the weariness in his father's voice.
"Several generations ago, a Malfoy was scheduled to marry one of your grandfathers. Like most Malfoys, her father did not approve for many reasons but the strongest one being was that we Weasleys have always valued our daughters; as they had always been a special part of our world since before even the founders of Hogwarts. Well, during their binding ceremony, the Malfoy heir charm was cast at the same time as the marriage bind, effectively altering the bind. It had been five hundred years since that fateful day. Five hundred years passed between births of daughters. All this time, we sons have refused to use the bind in the hopes of returning daughters to our lines. To return our daughters to our world."
"What about Ginny?"
"When my father was very young, a well-known and well-respected seer took upon him in the street and told him that the longed for daughter would return when she sacrifices her own blood for her chosen blood. Till this day no one has ever made any sense of it because when Ginny was born we thought she was it but the prophesy never seemed to apply to her. The only explanation we have ever come up with is that she is the seventh child of a seventh son of a seventh son," his father said before falling quiet again. "So you see, if I give you the bands to protect one, to protect someone not of our blood, then I risk condemning the Weasley family and our world to more generations passing without daughters; and it's just not our branch, it's all of us."
"I'm sorry son but I can't do that."
Ron nodded, his eyes fixed on his father, as the last flickering flame of hope faded into extinction.