Hogwarts Memories

Ron Weasley didn't like cemeteries. In particular, he didn't like the Hogwarts Cemetery. Possibly, he was afraid of it. But either way, Ron avoided going there where possible. It was only on special occasions that he would go to the Hogwarts Cemetery, and, should he have done so, he had always taken someone with him, usually Hermione Granger. However, he couldn't keep avoiding the Hogwarts Cemetery forever because, unfortunately for him, two extremely important people to Ron happened to be in the Cemetery. This meant for Ron that he had to go and visit the Cemetery to see those two important people. Here is one of those special occasions (in this scenario, Harry's birthday) where Ron, unaccompanied, did visit the Hogwarts Cemetery.

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Ron Weasley walked through the gates of the deserted cemetery a little anxiously. Cemeteries, once upon a happier time, had not scared Ron. Not that they did now, but since the Second War, cemeteries had taken on a new meaning. They were places Ron avoided. They were places that had a lot of grief attached to them for Ron. This was because the Last Battle had made the Hogwarts Cemetery in particular a painful place to visit because there were people close to him buried in it.

There were two people Ron had to see this evening. The first of these people was his younger sister, Ginny Weasley.

Ron trod the well worn path to Ginny's grave. While Ron had not gone to the cemetery terribly many times himself, he knew that several members of his family and many of his friends had. After only a few moments of searching, he found himself in front of Ginny Weasley's grave. With a flick of his wand, Ron conjured a deck chair on which he sat while he was with his sister. He thought back to those days at Hogwarts. They had been some of the best in his life. But Ron's days at Hogwarts had been many years ago now. Eleven years ago, now that he thought about it. Eleven years that Ginny had not lived. A life that could have been at least eleven years longer had been destroyed during the Final Battle. Ginny fought like the hero she was. Unfortunately, she had died like the hero she was too. Ginny was so bright and fiery, she had so much going for her - she really shouldn't have died that young.

Ron looked up at the large ancient castle on the top of the hill. He had always loved the Hogwarts grounds, ever since that memorable boat trip across the lake with Hagrid and the other first years. While his older brothers had told him about Hogwarts, it was not until Ron was actually there that he could fully appreciate what a beautiful place it was. There was a slightly wild look about the Hogwarts grounds now though. Not the usual well kept appearance that Ron remembered from his school days. Without the caretaker, Argus Filch, Hogwarts Castle had come to be an abandoned, derelict building, mangled with untamed ivy and waist high grass which highlighted only too well how much effort the caretaker put into keeping Hogwarts appealing to look at. Ironically, though, Ron and many other Hogwarts students heartily disliked Mr. Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris.

After reminiscing for several minutes, Ron decided that he needed to keep moving so that time wouldn't get the better of him. With a flick of his wand, he caused a bunch of delicate yellow and white flowers to appear. Ron placed them near his younger sister's headstone. With another swish and flick of his wand, Ron levitated his chair which preceded him as he walked to Harry Potter's grave.

Ron found that he could not pretend the site of Harry's grave that year did surprise him a little. For the first few birthdays Harry had after his death, thousands of people from far and wide had come to see the grave of the Chosen One. But that apparently wasn't the case this year. Overgrown grass was tumbling over the grave and wilted flowers lay near the headstone, as dead as Harry himself. Ron pulled out his wand without hesitancy to do a bit of pruning. Flicking his wand repeatedly in a horizontal sort of motion, the overgrown grass was hacked away to a more suitable length. And with the muttered word "Evanesco" the dead flowers were disintegrated. Ron sat down on his deck chair that he produced at Ginny's grave and pocketed his wand. Come on, Ron,he thought to himself, think rationally here for a moment. You knew this might happen. The amount of attention Harry receives these days was always going to drop. It was years ago since he defeated Voldemort, or at least to the general public it was. It was just yesterday to Ron and the others in the Order. That last battle was still haunting their dreams over a decade later. But then Ron suddenly realized something. Hang on, the amount of birthday cards Harry gets doesn't really matter. Birthday cards are a poor way to measure attention. Harry was always pretty modest, really. He wouldn't have liked all that attention he used to get. No, he concluded to himself. No, Harry would just have been happy that I, and many of his other close friends had come to visit him diligently every year. Ron stared down at his best friend's grave for a moment before observing something that he hadn't before.

Upon Harry's grave, near the headstone, there was a card and an unrecognisable green onion. Ron, being a little wary of the onion, picked up the card. He grinned at what he saw on the front. It was a photo, a photo that showed six people Ron suddenly remembered so vividly. Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter and Ron himself were beaming out of the photograph. It was taken during one of their last couple of years at Hogwarts. The six of them were on the Quidditch Pitch after yet another victory made for Gryffindor. Harry, the captain of the Quidditch team was still on his broom, beaming, one hand on the snitch. Harry had always loved Quidditch. He had been an excellent player too, far better than Ron could ever have dreamt of being. Ron's insides lurched when he remembered that this was Harry's last match. Ron saw himself in the photo to have one arm around Harry and the other around his sister Ginny. Ginny was another excellent player. She had her broom in one hand and was laughing at something Luna must have just told her. Neville, Luna (who was bearing her unique roaring lion topped hat) and Hermione had joined the other three on the Pitch to congratulate them.

Ron opened the card to see what was inside. In quite messy hand writing that was almost unfathomable, someone had written:

Dear Harry,

Of course, thought Ron only Luna would give Harry a Gurdyroot for his birthday. Ron had not forgotten Luna Lovegood. While he had not seen much of her since the Last Battle, he had always thought that he should try and work out where she went and catch up with her. But then it had been eleven years since Ron had decided this so that was a clear indication of how motivated he was to visit Luna. However, Ron really did feel there was no better time than now to go and visit Luna Lovegood. Maybe Hermione would come with him. He replaced Luna's card back where he found it on Harry's headstone. After leaving another bunch of flowers (this time red and yellow for Gryffindor) Ron walked out of the gates of the cemetery a little more confidently than he had entered it.