Going back home!
Going home was the least of Ron’s worries, he’d figure it out when he got there, they’d be going home next week, finals were almost completed, he only had his potions and Charms finals, he’d join Hermione for studying in the library, she was worrying about it all week.
“Ron, you may act carefree, but there is no guarantee that you will get top in our year.” Hermione said, flipping through her History book. “Honestly, I’m not very worried about it, if I pass, I pass, if I fail. I sue Dumbledore, and end up passing regardless.” He responded by writing notes on Potions. Hermione rolled her eyes and continued reading. Ron wasn’t too worried.
Hadrian would’ve gone to the library with them today but he was currently having a talk with Malfoy that Ron was too lazy to attend. They’ve been having a lot of talks lately, mostly about Ron though. Ron and Draco had been at odds. Actually, it was kind of a one sided battle with Ron not even knowing there was a battle to begin with.
It started out like this.
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It was a few days after the announcement that Hagrid would be on trial, Ron had been casually eating when he noticed Malfoy Glaring at him. Ron hadn’t bothered to care of course because, one, he was eating, two, Lucas and Samuel were trash talking about Duncan again and Ron was too focused on joining in.
“Seriously, who does that guy think he is? He acts as if You're the second coming of You Know Who, you aren’t even his main target!” Samuel stated, frustrated. “He only acts like that towards me, probably because I have no substantial backing unlike Hadrian and he can freely act however he wants because he’s Dumbledore's puppet.” Ron remarked casually, taking another bite of salad.
Ron’s notice of Malfoy’s staring but giving no remark about it seemed to be an invitation of something equivalent to a wizard's duel, so Malfoy was extremely bitter about it. So from that day on, Malfoy would throw insults to Ron everyday, sometimes right in his face. But Ron was either not listening or zoning out. Which annoyed Malfoy even more.
It was oddly hilarious to the other students, by the next week of the whole ordeal, students were making bets on when Draco would just outrightly throw something at Ron just to get his attention, that bet ended up spiralling to if Ron would even notice.
Ron didn’t even know anything about everything until someone told him about it. By that time, Ron was relaxing and studying and sometimes gossiping along with Samuel and Lucas. So Ron didn’t even care about it, he was just too busy to deal with an 11 year olds temper tantrums.
But someone who did have a problem with it? Hadrian, for good reason too. Hadrian had told Malfoy that he was dishonouring his own family name by acting like this. Throwing a temper tantrum was not befitting of the heir of Malfoy. Oddly enough, Malfoy had not listened to Hadrian’s advice and continued smearing the Malfoy name and tarnishing his reputation. How he still had friends. Ron didn’t know, and quite frankly, he wasn’t going to care. It wasn’t his problem and it was fun watching Malfoy dig a deeper hole for himself.
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Neville joined them soon enough, it’s been a while since Ron, Hermione, and Neville were alone. Samuel and Lucas were in detention for blowing Duncan’s stuff up. He could almost hear them thinking it was worth it.
“I got most of the ingredients, but what the heck do you need last!” Neville whispered as he clutched his head, Ron took one quick look at his notes and said. “A snake fang.” Neville looked at him as if was a saint and mouthed ‘thank you’ before writing it down. Hermione was now writing her own notes when a few hours had passed, Ron looked up from his book. “It’s been a few hours, let’s take a break.” He said, Hermione was reluctant but let go of her parchment nonetheless
Neville seemed grateful he had even mentioned a break and slumped away on the chair. “Do you think Hadrian and Draco are still arguing?” Ron asked absentmindedly, Hermione shook her head, Neville chimed in. “Likely not, Hadrian might be trying to get Draco to hear him out. But with Draco’s stubbornness, it’s likely they won’t be talking to each other for a while.”
“Eh, I don’t care. Let’s get out of here, when’s lunch again? I’m starving.” Ron said, looking at his nails and clutching his bag. Hermione looked at the schedule and said. “Well, it’s currently 11:00 exactly, so lunch is in an hour.”
Neville, Hermione and Ron then just walked around the castle, talking about the latest news and drama. It had seemed, they had been converted by Samuel and Lucas.
“Hello!” Hadrian had noticed them and ran up to them. Seemingly only noticing Ron. Neville and Hermione snickered and walked away, leaving Ron and Hadrian alone. Ron was about to run after them when Hadrian led him somewhere. “Hey! Where are you taking me?!” Ron shouted, his arm being gripped by Hadrian's hand.
“One of my friends wants to talk to you.” Hadrian said calmly, Ron was quiet for the rest of the ride and then he was led to the quidditch pitch. Where he found Theodore Nott standing. “Okay, so you want me to meet Theodore Nott? Why?” Ron found himself asking as Hadrian quietly said. “It’s about Neville, Theodore wants to get him something, he doesn’t really want me around though to hear what he wants to give.” Hadrian said.
Oh
Oh
Theodore likes Neville, oh my god. How had he not noticed, well Ron did see Theodore and Ron getting closer lately but he thought of that as nothing more than just Theodore being a really good tutor… “Wow, I’m so dense.” Ron thought as he saw Hadrian walking away.
“Okay Weasley, wait you’re not a Weasley anymore are you?” Theodroe said, realizing his mistake. Ron shook his head, “no, yeah, you can just call me Ron, I’ll be a noname unless the Prewetts still recognize me.” Ron said sheepishly.
“Okay Ron, this is sudden but I want to get Neville something in advance, I just need to know if the gifts I want to get him would fit him.” Theodore said, taking in a deep breath. Ron had found this look of Theodore a bit funny to be honest, young love was always so sweet. He wouldn’t know, he never had a boyfriend.
“Alright, well go for it.” Ron said, smiling. He had already forgiven Theodore for using Hadrian to drag him all the way here, how did Hadrian even agree to that?
“Well, I wanted to get him some books for Herbology but I don’t know if he’d like that, so then I thought about getting him plants, but I don’t know what his favourite plants are, so I thought I would get him something heartfelt but then I started contemplating on what I should get him and its really confusing, I’d never really gotten gifts for someone like Neville and was deciding if I should ask Granger but I don’t know if she’d trust me, so you are actually my only hope.” Theodore ranted, by the end of it. Ron was snickering.
He had never seen someone so invested in getting a gift, especially for a person. Theodore seemed so helpless, it was comical to hear. But he also felt a bit bad. He must’ve never gotten a gift for someone that wasn’t involved nor interested in the political state of the world, how depressing.
“Alright, I can help you. But may I ask when you are giving this gift?” Ron asked,
“On his birthday, I want to get it for his birthday.” Theodore said, Ron gave a sigh of relief and said. “Oh you’re good, get him a… What is it called again, swore I know it. Wait, oh I got it, get him a Mimbulus mimbletonia. I still can’t pronounce that correctly. Nevilles been raving about the plant, get him one and you’ll be his favourite person.”
Ron said and then Theodore was about to hug him but then coughed and awkwardly shook his head. “It’s a rare plant, so you should probably try and get it quite early, but I’m sure Neville will be happy with whatever you give him!.” Ron said teasingly and walked out on a confused Theodore.
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Today was the day they’d hop on the trains to go back home, Lucas and his parents had to go to his grandmother's funeral, she had died a few days earlier and Lucas had been crying about it for the entire time, for good reason too. His grandmother seemed amazing, Ron could only have sent his condolences.
Lucas managed to go home earlier to go to Norway for his Grandmother's funeral. So Ron couldn’t stay over at Lucas’s and Samuel’s parents were going to Greece for the break. So Ron’s last choice was the Leaky cauldron, which honestly was the best choice for him.
The scores for the finals were expected, he was second in the year, Hermione just being below him. It seemed like she didn’t care if she was first or not, she just wanted to do good. Eccentric in her ways, but hey. Everyone was. Neville had made great progress in potions thanks to Theodore and Duncan had somehow managed to get 8th. Dumbledore must’ve pulled some strings. The guy is extremely stupid. Draco had gotten 5th, he was devastated and told everyone his father would hear about this matter to anyone who would listen.
He was sitting in the train with Hermione, Neville and Samuel, Neville and Samuel were deep in conversation about Herbology, Ron wasn’t extremely bothered about that, Hermione and Ron were playing chess with his new set he got from Samuel.
It was extremely maddening for Hermione and super fun for Ron, she was so confused about his skills. It seemed as if chess skills came naturally for the body he was in, it was like instincts. Which was pretty cool.
Just then, as they were in the middle of a game. The compartment door opened, revealing a smug face Malfoy standing in front of them. Hermione glared at the blonde haired git and Neville Slightly shook but Samuel held his arm. “Look what we have here, a bunch of outcasts with their no name.” He sneered as Hermione glared at him even further. She would’ve thrown a spell at him right then and there but Ron held her back.
“Your father must be pissed, you, his pureblood son. Being beaten by a blood traitor and a muggle-born? You must be ashamed.” Ron said calmly, placing his next move on the chessboard. Hermione turned away, annoyed and then focused on the game. Draco seemed to redden up and then scoffed. “You think you're better than everyone else? Hadrian would never like a blood traitor like you, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Ron had looked at him and then laughed silently. He must be really obsessed with Hadrian, but that was just wishful thinking on Draco’s part. Ron knew that much at least, Samuel and Neville were quiet so Draco picked on them next. But before a word could even get out.
“Malfoy, that’s enough.” It was Daphne’s voice, she seemed annoyed and slightly pissed. The blonde git rolled his eyes and sneered at her next. “Who are you to tell me what to do, Greengrass? My family is higher in stature.”
Ron's eyes were smiling as he realized what Draco had just said. Insulting the Greengrass heiress, a completely unbeneficial situation. Lucius must be rolling in his… House? He's not dead, not yet at least so he’s not in a grave.
Hadrian then cut up the tension and then apologized to the compartment and dragged Draco away, his face darkening slightly.
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After that ordeal, no one interrupted them so they spent the rest of the train riding calmly. When they got off the train onto Platform 9 and ¾ Ron was itching to get off, he was a bit sick from the ride and stretched the moment he got out.
When he had gotten off, he spotted Molly Weasley standing in front of the train, he promptly ignored her and helped Hermione get off. Hermione had agreed to drive Ron to Diagon Alley.
Hadrian had sulked when he told him about when he told him he was staying at the Leaky Cauldron and would only let it go when Ron told him he would send letters and could stay over after 2nd year. Ron was kind of praying that Hadrian would forget about that soon enough. He did not want to meet present Voldemort, he was absolutely terrified at the prospect of meeting Voldemort.
When Samuel, Hermione, and Neville got off the train, they were going to walk straight out of the barrier and out of a dumbstruck Molly who had obviously thought Ron would’ve walked straight to Molly and apologize for not doing her bidding. But before they could even take a step out of the barrier. Molly’s ear piercing shriek caught the attention of everyone and unfortunately affected Ron’s ears as well.
“RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY, GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO IGNORE ME YOUNG MAN. HOW DARE YOU GET INTO RAVENCLAW, DUMBLEDORE HAD BEEN SO NICE TO LET YOU INTO A RESORTING BUT YOUR STUBBORNNESS HAS CAUSED US THE GREATEST DISHONOR.” Molly screamed.
But Ron was having none of it. “You literally disowned me, make it make sense.” He thought. Unluckily for Molly, Ron was having none of it and instead of responding. He ignores her, he honestly could not have cared less. That was his mindset when he came into this world, and it will be his mindset for whenever he… Leaves? Dies? Who knows, his past life was horrible and he’d much rather leave it in the dust than go back.
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When she saw that brat of hers walk away from her, she felt rage surging in. How could Ronald get away, she had made sure everything was perfect for Dumbledore, she had made sure Ron took his potions, how come Ron completely stopped caring, she must’ve been careless, yes, that’s it. She will punish herself, all for the sake of the greater good.
Molly had completely and utterly lost it. She stood still on the platform, muttering incomprehensibly that the only words you could hear were “The Greater good” and “How dare he.”
Everyone on the platform was staring at her, uncomfortable and even her own children had started distancing themselves. Hadrian was looking at the barrier, wondering how on earth he let Ron stay with such a mother, if he had it his way. Ron would’ve stayed with him.
Molly didn’t notice anything, she was too busy doing whatever she was doing. But she didn’t notice Rita Skeeter eyeing her carefully.