Always the Sidekick

Always the Sidekick

~The Chronicles of a Weasley~

"Another bleeding boy. They pulled us out of school for another bleeding boy," a stalky red haired eleven-year-old said under his breath. "As if we don't already have enough."

"Charles," a pudgy light-brown-haired woman scolded, licking her finger and straightening out a cowlick on the boy's head, "Does your mother know you talk like that?"

"Sorry, Aunt Virginia," Charlie muttered.

"Everyone ready?" Virginia Hatcher asked watching the proud four-year-old Percy fasten the buckle on his shoe. "Bill, did you find the twins?" She hollered up the stairs when he had successfully fastened it.

A tall, thin, thirteen-year-old appeared at the top of the steps, clutching two squirming toddlers by the ears. "They were hiding in the cauldron cupboard," he stated.

In this family, it was not unusual to have things like cauldron cupboards. They were as common as a broom cupboard would be to a Muggle. That's you, by the way. Muggles are people with no magical talent. To someone like a Weasley, a Muggle is as strange as a Wizard would be to you. "Honestly boys," Virginia said, eyeing the twins who were being lead downstairs covered in black cauldron dust. "They'll never let you into Esmeralda's Maternity Ward looking like that." She pulled out her wand and produced a washcloth that proceeded to scrub the two-year-olds clean.

"Virginia," a voice came from the fireplace in the kitchen.

"Arthur," Virginia abandoned her attempt to clean the boys and hurried to the fireplace, where a man with hair the color of orange flames sat.

"We are all ready." She said, slightly out of breath.

"Good, Molly is asking for the boys."

Virginia became distracted by the crashing noise coming from the other room.

Arthur sighed, only knowing too well what his sons must be doing. "Well, we'll see you soon. I'll wait by this fireplace." And with a pop Arthur Weasley's head was gone.

The baby boy, wrapped in his proud mother's arms, was now sleeping quietly. He had no idea of the life that lay ahead of him. He had no clue that it would be more difficult than the journey he'd just taken down the birth canal. All he cared was that now he was warm and a comforting voice was singing quietly to him.

Hush hush my boy

Little Weasley boy

Hush hush abye.

Over the next several years, this baby, Ronald as they would come to call him, grew. His playmate, someone he couldn't remember life without, his sister, growing all the while beside him. And where Virginia, or Ginny as she would be known, was the girl they'd always wanted, most of the time Ron got shunted aside. When Ron took his first steps it was not a big deal, but when Ginny stood up for the first time, only three days after Ron's first solo ride on a broomstick around the yard unnoticed by anyone, the whole house erupted in applause.

"Oh she's a clever one," Arthur would say. "Just barely eight months old and standing already." He beamed at the little girl who had just enough hair to know it too would be flame red.

"I stood at eight months too," Ron said quietly. At least that's what his mother had told him. But nobody seemed to hear him. Ron picked up his teddy bear and toddled out of the room.

And so seemed to be his luck. His whole childhood was overshadowed by two rowdy twins, always making mischief, a brother who was too smart for his own good, and a little sister, who was a dream come true to every other Weasley. And on occasion, Ron would admit, she wasn't that bad, but she got whatever she wanted. Mum seemed to remember her favorite color was pink and always made her Weasley sweater that color. Mum seemed to know what her favorite meal was. When she made Ron's favorite dish, it was merely coincidence. Ginny didn't have to wear her older brothers' drawers because it seemed foolish to buy new ones when there were so many already in the house. She wasn't forgotten, as Ron was, in the potions store one day left wondering if they would ever notice he was gone.

There were simply too many Weasleys, and more times then he liked to think, Ron felt he was the easiest to lift out. He was the one they were hoping was the girl. He was the one that didn't seem to fit anywhere. The twins, well, you couldn't not notice them. Percy was brilliant and would succeed at anything he did. Plus he was the miracle baby that they'd had when Molly wasn't sure she could conceive again. Charlie was the best Quidditch player Hogwarts had seen in years, and Bill was Head Boy. Ron just tried to stay out of the way.

So was the case when he boarded the Hogwarts Express on September 1, 1991. His first day at Hogwarts. They hadn't made as big of a deal about it as they had when everyone else started. The twins had bewitched the doors on the house so they wouldn't open, and it took Molly ages to fix it. They nearly missed the train. He just wanted to find an empty compartment and be by himself, something he didn't get much of at home. Instead he found a compartment with one lone boy in it. A boy he'd heard about since he could remember hearing about anything. A boy who would change his life. He found Harry Potter.