The time on the alarm clock showed 5 am, the last hour of the night before the sun brought light into the world, it was the time when most people in this world, whether they be muggle or magic, were still sleeping.

And the Weasley household wasn't an exception to this, as even Molly Weasley the earliest riser of the household, didn't usually wake up until after six, which meant that almost the whole family was deep asleep at the moment... well almost the whole family...

The silence of the burrow was broken by the sound of the door of the topmost room opening slowly with a loud creak that rang throughout the house.

Ron slowly and silently tiptoed out of his room, before gingerly closing the door behind him. He was dressed in comfortable pyjamas and an old short-sleeved T-shirt, the only piece of 'sportswear' Ron had available to his name.

Having washed his face with cold water earlier, he was now wide awake. His ears strained to listen to any hint of noise, Ron cautiously went down the stairs, making sure not to wake anyone up.

Thankfully, all the nights he spent roaming the Hogwarts castle were coming into use at the moment as he reached the front door without making a single loud noise despite the squeaking stairs.

The moment he came out the front door, he was hit with a breeze of cold air, that instantly rejuvenated him and sent a burst of energy into his body.

After taking a couple of deep breaths filled with the fresh morning air, Ron took off running, "Let's go!"

The Burrow was located on the outskirts of the village Ottery St. Catchpole, and it had a barn, chicken coop, vegetable patch and everything else that one needed to be called a proper magical countryside home.

The house was surrounded on three sides by vast rolling fields, with a simple rugged road in the middle leading towards the village. On the fourth side which is the backside of the house, there laid a wooded area about a hundred meters away, that even had a river flowing through it and that... was where Ron was going at the moment.

It took Ron approximately ten minutes of slow jog before he managed to reach the river bed, the place he had decided would be his personal training area during the summer, and the moment he stepped foot into the clearing beside the river, he fell onto his knees and began huffing and puffing like an eighty years old man.

His legs were aching and shaking fiercely, his lungs felt as if they were on fire, and he had a massive stitch at his side that was hurting like hell, and all that was from a 10-minute run, 'God! I never knew I was this unhealthy...'

After a rest, that was way too long, Ron finally managed to stand up and slowly began the workout routine that he had decided on last night.

In his previous life, Sam had been a casual gym goer, the kind that spends more time watching gym videos than actually going to the gym, and while the knowledge from those videos may not have been particularly useful in his previous life, they were now helping him in creating a proper workout for himself.

Ron's body was that of a complete beginner as he had never regularly done any kind of physical activity in his life... well unless you count those few hours a week he spent during the DA meeting a workout, but those meetings were more about using his magical ability than his physical one.

So he had decided on a full-body workout every day, to begin with. It was a newbie workout that is a bit less strenuous on the body but hits almost all the muscles equally.

He began with a quick warm-up, making sure to heat up all his joints and tendons rigorously as the last thing he wanted was an injury due to carelessness.

After about five minutes of that, his body was sufficiently warmed up and so he began with the most basic exercise that everyone in the world knows about... Push-ups.

And he managed to do a complete total of... twelve.

And those too were divided into three sets of six and then four and then for the last set he barely managed to do two before his arms gave out.

'Damn! To be so skinny, and still only be able to do a dozen push-ups. Merlin! It's embarrassing...'

But as they say, 'No pain! No gain!' so there was nothing to do other than work on it,

The next exercise on his list was pull-ups.

For which he went to a nearby tree, with a sturdy branch at a proper height, before he jumped and hung onto it. He went up and down for a complete total of two times, which couldn't even be considered a full set, and his arms refused to budge from there... and after a few seconds of trying, he had to give up and let go only to fall on his butt.

He wasn't too surprised by his weakness this time so he didn't waste any time before going onto the next exercise—Squats.

Thankfully, his legs didn't completely betray him as he managed to do a decent amount this time— specifically, three sets of 10, and while they couldn't be called much, at least the number wasn't as embarrassing as his pushup count, 'It seems climbing all those stairs during school was useful for something after all..."

After a few minutes of break, he began the next one—sit-ups.

And then he tried Burpees...

And then a few mountain climbers...

And a few more for the back and shoulders...

Before he ended it all with three sets of half-minute-long planks...

And the second he finished with all the exercise goals that he had set himself to do for the day, his body immediately gave out as he fell onto his back... completely limp.

His whole body was aching from top to bottom, his chest was heaving up and down as if he was on his last breath, and for ten long minutes he could do nothing but just lay there on the riverbed looking at the sky... but after those ten minutes he was able to finally get his breath under control and move once again.

It still took him three tries before he was able to get back on his feet and even then his legs kept shaking like crazy.

Removing his sticky T-shirt with some effort, he slowly and gingerly went towards the river to clean himself.

The cold water of the clean fast-flowing river felt like a balm to his muscles as it sent a shock into his nerves and removed quite a bit of his fatigue from his body.

He repeatedly splashed all over his upper body until at last he felt alive once again...

Just as he was finally satisfied with the amount of water he had splattered on himself, Ron caught the image of his own body on the water's surface, and for the first time he saw what his body looked like with his new eyes and it... wasn't very pretty.

Weak flabby arms with little to no muscle definition, a chest that was mostly skin, and in the middle his stomach consisted of two tyres filled with nothing but unhealthy fat.

He was what one would call the very definition of a skinny fat physique...

People with this physique have fat but don't have the fat people's strength, and they are skinny but don't have the skinny look, that good-looking people have, so they get all the drawbacks with none of the benefits...

It is a most stubborn kind of physique that is quite hard to get rid of...

"Ugh! Hope it doesn't stay like this for too long..." He prayed before shaking his head and standing up.

After reluctantly wearing his sticky wet T-shirt once again, he set off towards the Burrow, this time walking there instead of running as his shaky legs didn't seem like they could take any more of a beating.

By the time he reached the Burrow, the sun had risen quite a bit and when he came close to the front door, he could already hear the clanging of pans from inside the house, indicating that his mother had already woken up.

'Well, she'll know sooner or later, so may as well...' He shrugged as he opened the door and went inside and just like he expected his mother had quite a few questions for him.

"Ron? Why are you—When did you wake up? And why are you sweating like that?"

"I am fine, Mum. I just went to do a little bit of exercise, that's all..."

"Exercise?!" she repeated as if it was a strange word, "But why? Is everything alright?" she had such a concerned look on her face as if he had told her that he was on drugs.

"Yes, Mum. Everything's fine. I just... I just want to keep my position on the quidditch team and I know that I am not good enough yet... so I wanted to prepare for it during the summer," he replied telling her the excuse that he had prepared beforehand.

Not that it was a complete lie anyway, as he did want to be on the Gryffindor team and he knew that Harry would hold a tryout for all positions whether someone had been on the team before or not... so this could be like two birds with one stone.

"That... is good then," Molly replied with an unsure look on her face, as on the one hand, she didn't want to discourage him from doing training, but on the other hand she wanted him to put more of his focus on his studies rather than dangerous sports like quidditch

But considering how most of her children had turned out, she knew that it was a lost battle having any of them give up the broom, so she didn't even try, "Then why don't you go ahead and brush your teeth? I am sure you must be hungry after your training and I'll have the breakfast ready in a bit."

"That's perfect." Ron said with an eager look on his face as he indeed was quite hungry at the moment, "I'll be back in a five..." he shouted as he ran up the stairs to his room, and came back down less than five minutes later, with his sweaty T-shirt and pyjamas changed into his everyday clothes.

But as it turns out, he wasn't the first one to take a shot at breakfast that morning as his father, Arthur Weasley, was already at the table, wearing his work robes, calmly reading the morning prophet and eating his breakfast.

"Ah! Ron! You're up early," Arthur exclaimed in a mildly surprised tone.

"Your boy here woke up earlier than even me today," Molly answered before Ron could while setting her son's plate on the chair in front of Arthur, "He was out there training hard for quite a while and came back just before you came down."

"Training? What for?" He asked Ron with a raised eyebrow.

"It's nothing serious, Dad. I am just preparing for quidditch, I want to keep my position on the Gryffindor team and I know I have to be a better player to do that..."

"That... is quite mature of you, son. I am proud of you," Arthur said with a warm smile on his face, "I am sure they'll make you the Keeper of the team again for sure, and like I always told you, as long as you put your mind to it you can do anything."

"Thank you, Dad," Ron replied with a small smile on his face, he was a bit embarrassed but also quite happy with his father's compliment which he was rarely the target of.

They silently ate breakfast for a few minutes after that conversation, before Molly decided to go up the stairs to wake up the rest of her lazy good-for-nothing brood(her words, not mine,).

But Molly's absence finally gave Ron the chance to interrogate his father for a very important piece of information.

"Dad! Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, son. What is it?" He replied not taking his eyes off the fifth page of the prophet that he was reading, it contained a public list of all the wizarding deaths that happened in the last week, natural or otherwise.

"Is it true... that the Decree for the Reasonable Underage Magic, is skewed in the favour of Pureblood's?"

That finally made his father take his eyes off the paper and look at his son with a curious gaze, "First of all, it is called the 'Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery'. And secondly, why do you think so?"

"Hmm, I don't know... Hermione was talking about how it is very unfair that pureblood children can cast magic whenever they want during the summer and they won't get caught but if Muggleborns do even a simple Lumos they will be punished heavily..."

"You're a pureblood and you can't cast magic, can you?" he replied with an amused smile on his face.

"But that is only because you two don't allow us," Ron replied while rolling his eyes, as there indeed was an alert over the house that instantly let Molly know whenever any of her children tried to cast any magic when they weren't supposed to, and then... only hell awaited them, "But, if you were to allow it, then we can cast as much magic as we want without the ministry every knowing right? Then isn't the law in favour of Purebloods?"

"Usually I would agree that quite a few of the Ministry laws are indeed like that, but this one... is not like that." Arthur explained in a calm clear voice that makes you want to listen closely, "The law is not about the 'blood' son, whether a child is a pureblood, half-blood or a muggle-born, magic in the hand of any child is a very dangerous thing both for the caster and the people in his/her surroundings, a child's curiosity can become a very dangerous thing when they have the power to affect reality in their hands..."

"I understand that it's dangerous but still at least I have the option to cast magic if you allow it, while even if one of the muggleborn's parents wanted to give him permission to cast magic under their supervision, they can't actually do it, are they?"

"That is true, but once again it is not about the blood what it is about is the area where the magic is cast..." Arthur replied with a tiny smile on his face, he was quite happy to have his usually not-so-curious son ask him questions, "As long as one lives in a wizard area like Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley or Godric's Hollow, any child is able to cast magic as long as they are under the wards of that place, and quite a few of the muggle-born parents choose to do exactly this for convenience sake among other things..."

"Really?"

"Yes. In fact, it works for the opposite side too, for example if a pureblood child were to go to a muggle area and try to cast magic then he would be caught immediately no questions asked, so again it's not really about the blood but all about—"

"The wards! It's all in the wards." Ron breathed with an enlightened look on his face.

"Exactly. Even here, if you tried to cast any kind of magic outside the wards of our house, you would be in trouble with the Ministry..."

"But how would they even know? Aren't the ones in the Ministry not supposed to know who was the one to cast the magic... Otherwise, Harry wouldn't have gotten a warning for magic cast by Dobby during his second year, right?"

"Ah! That is indeed right, they don't have the ability to know who was the one to cast the magic but they do know the type of magic that was cast around the area. So if they just search the general area, then they can ask around to see whose wand that particular piece of magic was cats out of... that is if they ever bother to get up from their chairs to do anything other than send warnings," He mumbled the last part in a voice so low that Ron heard him, "Anyway, why are you suddenly so interested in this? Any particular reason..." he asked with a curious look in his eyes.

"N-No, just curious..." Ron shrugged trying to act as nonchalantly as he could but he could still see a hint of suspicion in his eyes so he decided that it was time for him to scramble, "Mum, I am finished. I am going back to my room to study now." He called before he immediately ran for the stairs and climbed towards his room.

"Studying? Did the boy just say studying or are my ear not working?" Arthur asked with a bewildered look on his face.

"Yes, you heard it right." Molly replied with a look of pride on her face, "My little boy's grown up now, he promised me that he is going to study every day from now on for the whole summer... Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Studying? On his first day back from school..." Arthur was still mumbling with a baffled look on his face, "Is he alright? Did something happen?"

"He's fine. My son's just become mature now."

"Are you sure?" Arthur asked sceptically, "Maybe we should get him checked..."

"Enough! He's perfectly fine. Now, shoo! He may be on his vacation but you're not... so go do your job." she said, kissing him on his cheek before pushing him towards the door.

"Yes, mam, as you command," he said with a cheeky bow before taking off with a merry chuckle.

...

Back in his room, Ron also had a wide smile on his face as he realised that one of his most pressing problems of not being able to do magic in his house now finally had an easy solution.

Ron's memories had already clued him into the fact that one couldn't do magic inside the house without incurring Molly's wrath, so he had been on the lookout all this while, and luckily his prodding of his Dad for information worked out in his favour...

Now he knew that as long as he was inside the wards around the house but not inside the house, he would be in an absolute safe zone where neither his mother nor the Ministry could find out about him casting any underage magic and best of all he knew for sure that the wards around the house were extensive and covered a whole lot of area...

He was unsure about the exact extent but as long as he took into consideration the area where his father dailyApparated out of and then formed a circle from there with the house as the centre then he should have a pretty good estimation and if he was picturing it right, then maybe the wards even extended a few dozen meters into the wooden area behind the house, which was just perfect for practising while hiding from view.

But that was all for later when he was outside and working on his practical skills... for now it was time for him to work on his theoretical skills and for that, he started at the very beginning by taking out the most basic magic book he had, the first-year charms book—The Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk.

It detailed almost all the charms and spells that a child was qualified to learn during their first year, and included spells like Levitation, Wand lighting, Fire making, Softening, Knock Back Jinx and a lot more, for a complete total of 30 spells.

Of these Flitwick, only taught fifteen of the more important spells during class, and just had the students practise these spells repeatedly until everyone got it right... instead of teaching them new ones.

And only a very few dedicated 11-year-olds, cue Hermione, ever managed to learn the rest of them during their free time using books and a little help from the Professor, for some extra points. After all, there was a reason that Hermione scored 112% on this exam during her first year.

Anyway, after taking out the book from a wooden storage rack over his bed, Ron sat on his desk before opening the somewhat dusty book.

"Charms is a branch of magic considered the most versatile and most widely used..." Ron began reading from the very first page with his complete concentration.

The book was a thick one, with each charm having a huge amount of explanations, delving into their history, detailing how and when they were invented, all the changes that had transpired since its creation, and even some of the famous accidents associated with people experimenting with the charm...

It was quite a dry read honestly, and if it was the usual redhead then he would have given up long ago, but Ron had the assistance of Sam's intense curiosity regarding all things magic this time to keep him going and so he held on... religiously going over every single piece of information no matter how mundane...

He was almost halfway through the book when his mother called him down for lunch.

By this time he had gotten completely immersed in the book so he was quite reluctant to stop but the call of his stomach was almost impossible to resist so he had to stop...

After placing a bookmark on his current page, Ron ran out of the room and down the stairs at his fastest speed.

On the dining table, his plate was already ready and waiting for him so he didn't wait a single moment before diving in.

He was halfway through his food when Ginny joined him at the table, but other than a simple 'good morning', to which she replied half-heartedly, he didn't stop.

Ginny, and his mother, were the only other ones at the table at the moment as the twins were still at the shop, and since the two women were already used to his eating habits they didn't question his haste in shovelling food.

And so it was in record time that he managed to finish his food and get back inside his room.

Without wasting a single moment, he immediately jumped back into the wonderful world of beginner charms.

But sadly his happiness didn't last very long, as after hishis stomach, the next organ to become an obstacle to his desire to study was his brain...

'Having a filling lunch wasn't such a good idea after all...' Ron thought as his eyes began to feel unusually heavy.

He tried to resist it for as long as he could but in the end, sleep always wins... and then without his consent, the book fell from his hands and Ron unwillingly fell into a deep sleep.

...

..

.

He didn't know how long had passed but the next time he opened his eyes, Ron felt completely refreshed, he felt better than he ever had.

He felt like a completely different person, in fact, he felt that all the aches in his body from pushing it so hard in the morning had completely disappeared which was... unimaginable.

He stood up from his bed with a confused look on his face as he immediately felt a noticeable difference, his body felt considerably lighter and his every movement felt smoother than before. And when his hand accidentally touched his stomach, he felt something that completely baffled him...

He hurriedly took off his T-shirt and went to stand in front of the small mirror hanging off the wall and what he saw stunned him, "How the hell..."

/