2001
It had been the coldest start of the winter in decades. It was unusual to have this much snow in the middle of December, but Ron didn’t mind. It meant he could spend more days indoors with Hermione or his friends. Like today, when they went over to Grimmauld Place to hang out with Harry and Ginny. What they didn’t anticipate was that the snowfall would get so bad to the point that the floo network ended up being completely blocked off.
So now he found himself in the sitting room of Grimmauld place about to watch a muggle Christmas movie about a kid who got left behind by his family and now has to defend his own house against some random blokes. Hermione and Harry had insisted, ‘it’s a muggle classic’ they had said. Ron couldn’t have cared less about whether this was a classic film or not, he knew it was gonna be stupid.
“Give it a chance,” Hermione insisted.
“It sounds super unrealistic,” Ron argued.
“You’re literally a wizard,” Harry groaned.
“So?”
“Just shut up and start the film,” Ginny said, finally ending the discussion.
Ron rolled his eyes but sat down next to Hermione on the sofa. She put a loving hand on his leg and squeezed it lightly and mouthed 'thank you'. Suddenly the idea of watching this film didn’t seem that bad anymore if he had her next to him. Hermione rested her head on his shoulder and Harry started the movie.
The film started with the chaos that is the McCallister home, a rich family living somewhere in the US that Ron had never heard of.
“Chicago is a big city in the midwest,” Hermione explained.
“I still don’t know where that is,” Ron shrugged.
As they got introduced to the main character Kevin, a stupid name Ron thought, he couldn't help but notice how bloody annoying that kid was. When Ron voiced his opinion, Ginny made sure to comment on the fact that he was the youngest son, earning her a pillow thrown directly in her face, which was shot right back once Ron argued that Kevin was the youngest in the family.
The four of them continued watching and soon enough Ron was invested, loudly complaining that it is unacceptable behaviour of the family to forget Kevin at home and that someone should have noticed.
“Ron, it’s not that deep,” Harry complained.
“I’m sorry, you got how many siblings again?” He shot back.
Harry raised his hands in defeat and shrugged, turning his attention back to the film. The story continued, and Ron laughed a little too loudly at the ecstatic eight-year-old boy on the screen. Hermione smiled to herself and sometimes got lost in her boyfriend's reactions.
“Okay so you're telling me, that little brat is gonna outsmart two grown adults?” Ginny questioned.
“Don’t call him a brat,” Ron defended.
“Okay calm down,” she shot back, “I’m just saying there is no way this is at all gonna work.”
“You grew up with Fred and George, and you think this isn’t gonna work?” Harry asked her, placing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her to him.
“That are two entirely different scenarios,” she muttered.
“Can we please just watch the film?”
The four of them settled back into a comfortable silence filled with the occasional chuckles from Ron. As they watched the burglars fail at robbing the house Ginny had the hardest time not losing it, because she found it stupid. Harry tried his hardest to calm her down and kept telling her that it was just a film and that it is not supposed to be too realistic. Ron, in contrast to his sister, enjoyed every second of the break-in montage and couldn’t stop laughing. Hermione found it adorable and noted to put on this film a lot more in the future.
When the sound of a way too upbeat version of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ filled the room, Hermione took the remote and turned off the film.
“That was,” Ginny started, “the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
“- the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Ron says at the same time.
“You can’t be serious!” Ginny shouted, staring at Ron completely flabbergasted.
“No, I’m not. I’m Ron.”
Hermione hid her giggle in Ron’s shoulder and Harry failed to hide his own laughter. Ginny sighed loudly and rubbed her face with both hands, before massaging her temples with two fingers each.
She took a deep breath, “Ron, did we watch the same thing?”
“You tell me?” He was sitting up straight now, prepared to hex his sister as soon as she said something slightly insulting. Ginny mirrored his movement and leaned forward onto her knees.
“You cannot tell me, you actually enjoyed this?”
“Matter of fact, I did.”
Ginny shook her head, sighed loudly and rolled her eyes all at the same time, “Your sense of humour is questionable.”
“You’re just boring.”
“Take that back,” she glared at him.
“No,” Ron grinned.
“Ronald Bilius Weasley. You. Take. That. Back.”
Ron took a deep breath and leaned forward onto his knees as well before slowly parting his lips, “No.”
Ginny snatched a pillow and threw it at Ron. Unfortunately, she forgot about the keeper reflexes of her brother, who caught the pillow in an instant and threw it right back at her, hitting her in the face.
“Nice try,” Ron said grinning.
This pushed her over the edge and she jumped up and the siblings began tackling each other. Hermione and Harry, who were used to this situation by now slowly stood up to get out of the ‘severe injury zone’. They stood beside each other, watching their significant others.
“You would never guess that they’re both like 20,” Harry whispered.
“As if you’re any better,” Hermione retorted and left to walk over to the kitchen.
“Hey,” Harry shouted at her before following behind.