Always the Sidekick

Chapter 10

Ron was back in the dark circular room. He saw the long armchair and the long bony fingers tapping it.

"It has been done, My Lord," Lucius Malfoy said.

"Good," Voldemort said.

"I can assure you my son is none too happy about this plan," Malfoy said again, timidly.

"He knows what is expected of him. He will do as I ask."

Malfoy nodded and the room faded away and became a Quidditch field where Ron was following something that looked remarkably like Pig.

"Had an odd dream last night," Ron said at breakfast that morning. Hermione bewitched her History of Magic book to float in front of her so she could read it while she ate. "Something to do with You-Know-Who and Malfoy."

Ginny dropped her spoon into her cereal and looked at Ron. Her face had drained of color and she looked terrified. She leaned close to Ron and whispered, "Me too."

Ron looked at her. That's odd, he thought. "Well, you want to tell me?"

"Not here," Ginny said; she now had fear in her eye.

Ron got up and Ginny followed him out of the Great Hall and into a deserted classroom. "So, what about this dream?"

"He was sitting in a large velvet armchair. And in a semi-circle around him were Death Eaters. They were talking about Harry and how to bring him to You-Know-Who. Something about a Prophecy I didn't understand." She stopped and looked down as if trying to remember.

"If it's about Harry, shouldn't he hear this too?" Ron asked.

"No, it's not about Harry. It's about you." Her eyes shot up to his.

"Me? But you just said..."

"Let me finish." She used a tone so similar to the one Hermione used he had to try not to smile.

"You-Know-Who said he couldn't penetrate Harry's mind anymore. He said he was sure he was practicing his Occlumency now. So he said he had to find another way to get Harry to him."

"Me," Ron said, catching on.

"Yes. He said it was so effective to make Harry believe he had Sirius that it would work again for you. He was certain of it. I don't know how he could be, Harry swore last year he would tell Dumbledore if he ever felt the need to rescue someone again. But he seemed certain." She paused, and then continued. "But it was only a dream."

"You've had dreams about him before." It was a statement, not a question.

Ginny looked startled. "How do you know?"

"That summer at Grimmauld Place. You talked in your sleep. You called him Tom. Told him to leave you alone and to get out of your mind."

She looked pale again. Ron should have kept his mouth shut, he thought.

"I do still have nightmares about him," she whispered.

"Why don't you tell Mum and Dad?"

"After what happened? I spent a whole month in St. Mungos under psychiatric care after my first year. I won't do that again. If they knew I was still having dreams about him, I'd spend the rest of my life there."

"Ginny, it upsets you. It disturbs your sleep. Mum and Dad should know."

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," Ginny said. She stood up. "I thought you weren't going to be all big brother about it. I never told Fred and George cause I knew they'd react the same way you are, but I hadn't thought you'd go to Mum and Dad." She stormed out of the room. Ron had forgotten about the dream now and sighed, going back to breakfast.

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September went by so fast Ron was almost surprised when their first Quidditch match was the first Saturday in October. October brought mild weather and Harry made them practice three times a week. Though, he was nowhere near as fanatical as Angelina was. Harry would ask him on occasion about certain moves, and if Ron had any ideas to make the team better, but overall, Harry managed the team by himself.

Ron was much more confident about his Quidditch skills this year. After the success he had at the end of last year and the practices he and Ginny put in this summer, he felt he was a pretty good Keeper now. They had added Ginny and Seamus Finnigan as Chasers along with a third year, who wasn't half bad himself. The Beaters were a fourth year named Nicholas Tyler and a second year girl named Maud Macmillan.

"You going to be alright playing against your brother, Maud?" Harry looked stressed.

She looked nervously at the Hufflepuff team and her brother Ernie. "I think so."

"Good." Harry mounted his broom and they waited for the whistle.

It was possibly the quickest game in Hogwarts history. They had just started playing the game, Ginny getting the Quaffle and heading toward the Hufflepuff Keeper when the whistle blew to end the game.

Harry looked as if he'd accidentally caught the Snitch, but it was still there in his hand and the announcement came, "Gryffindor wins 150 to 0."

The crowd seemed confused and exited the stands, many of them not even seated yet. Well, thought Ron, that was an easy win.

As Ron was leaving the Great Hall later that night a voice stopped him. An airy, distant voice.

"Oh Ron," it said.

Ron shot around and saw Luna Lovegood standing not a foot from him. He backed up a little, and then forced a smile. "Hello," he said.

"I was just wondering if you were planning on going into Hogsmeade next Saturday?" She asked.

Ron was afraid he knew where this was going. "Um, yes I am," he said.

"Would you like to meet me there?"

He couldn't come up with a reason not to. "Sure." He said. "Where would you like to meet?"

"I don't know Hogsmeade very well," she said airily. "Try not to go there very much. Too many people. There is that place Hermione took me to last year. The broomstick place."

Ron couldn't figure out at first what she was talking about, then realized, "Oh, the Three Broomsticks. Yes, that would be fine, Luna," he said again. He saw Hermione and Harry walking out of the Great Hall and put on a larger than normal smile. "I'll see you then," he said. She turned around slowly and seemed to float away.

"What did she want?" Hermione asked when they reached him.

"She wants me to meet her in Hogsmeade on Saturday," Ron said.

Harry burst into laughter. "Loony Lovegood?" Ron tried hard not to join in his laughter.

"What did you tell her?" Hermione asked, not finding this amusing at all.

"I told her I would." Ron said. This made Harry laugh harder.

Hermione just stalked away.

The first Hogsmeade weekend seemed busier then usual. Ron met Luna in the Great Hall and they walked with Harry and Hermione to Hogsmeade.

"So, Luna," Hermione said, in a voice full of resentment, "I heard you had quite an experience over the summer. Something to do with fudderpillars in Armenia?"

Luna didn't sense the tone of her voice. "They were tonywillers and it was Algeria. Father thought it would be good for us to go there. We had to pick up my cousin Mina. And when we headed into a large forest..." she kept talking, but Ron was finished listening. He couldn't take his eyes off Hermione. She had an expression on her face Ron had seldom seen before. He couldn't place it, but he remembered where he'd seen it. It was the exact face he'd worn when Ron talked to Fleur Delacour. Maybe Hermione just didn't like girls, Ron thought. But she didn't look that way at Ginny.

Ron was startled back to Luna when he felt something reach for his hand. It was Luna and before he could pull his hand away she had her fingers intertwined in his.

"You're jealous of Loony Lovegood," Ron taunted Hermione later that night in the Common Room.

"Oh, stop. I am not, I just don't like her. She's ditzy and...and," she stopped and watched Ron hold in laughter, "and weird. I can't believe she's a Ravenclaw. I used to have so much respect for them."

"Hermione's jealous," Ron taunted again to Harry. Harry smiled.

"Why would I be jealous?" She snapped.

"Well, a strapping young lad like Ron, who wouldn't be jealous." Harry was unusually cheery. "I'm even a little jealous." Harry laughed at the puzzled look he got from Ron.

Ron broke into a sort of little jingle. "Hermione's jealous," he sang.

"So, you're jealous of Viktor."

Ron stopped laughing. "That's different," he said bitterly.

"How?"

"It just is," Ron said. And before she could answer again he was gone to his dormitory.

Their workload at school was a bit smaller then the previous year, with OWLS out of the way. It was still difficult stuff though. Transfiguration was the worst. When Ron was supposed to turn a cushion from a chair into a cat his cushion meowed and wet itself, but it definitely wasn't a cat.

At dinner that night, Erroll floated in, causing much distraction, and flew directly to Ginny and Ron. They looked at each other, then Ginny pulled the parchment off the owl. Her face turned pale immediately.

"Fred's been arrested," she whispered so only Hermione, Ron and Harry could hear. "Mum didn't give details, but she says he's got a trial at the Ministry on the eighth of November."

"What do you think he did?" Ron asked, wondering if he had made some sort of sweet that made someone explode or something.

"I don't know. What about Angelina? They wanted to get married on Christmas." Ginny, having been closer to the twins then Ron, seemed pretty upset about it. "Maybe she'll let us go to the trial?" It was a far-fetched idea, but she was grasping at anything.

Ron put his arm around her. "Maybe," he said.

Their next Hogsmeade trip was the first weekend in November, and once again Luna had asked Ron. After the owl Hermione received at breakfast the morning from Krum, Ron was determined to make this trip into Hogsmeade with Luna more meaningful.

He put on some nicer robes - at least, they were ones that weren't too short on him or had too many tears, and made sure his hair wasn't sticking up before he left his dormitory. He entered the Common Room to a few teasing whistles. Hermione snarled at him and walked out of the room without saying a word. He left and went to the Great Hall to meet Luna.

The snow was falling so much in Hogsmeade that when Ron and Luna entered the Three Broomsticks they were afraid they wouldn't be able to see their way back to the castle when it was time to leave.

They sat across from each other, butterbeers in between. Nothing was said for a while until Ron reached across the table for Luna's hand. She looked startled and pulled it away. Ron turned pink.

"I'm sorry, but what are you doing?" She asked.

"I just thought, you know, it'd be nice...I mean we're here and..." he stopped and looked into his Butterbeer. All he wanted to do at that moment was to run back to his dormitory and hide under Harry's invisibility cloak.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Oh. The thing is you don't fancy me. You told everyone you loved Hermione." She took a sip of butterbeer as if she'd just asked him how the weather was.

"What?" She never ceased to surprise Ron.

"Last year, at the Department of Mysteries. You said..." but she stopped when she saw the look on Ron's face.

Ron was looking over Luna's shoulder at the blonde haired Ravenclaw girl. And even though she was standing across the room he could tell her eyes were blue. She caught his eye and smiled, then to his horror started walking toward him.

"Luna, I've been looking for you," she said. Her voice was like a song.

"Mina," Luna said in an annoyed tone. "This is Ron Weasley."

"Mina Lovegood," the blonde girl said stretching out her hand.

Ron took her hand. "Lovegood? Are you..."

"Cousins," Luna mumbled. Obviously she wasn't pleased with the family tree.

"This is my first year at Hogwarts, sixth year in school. I came to live with Luna and Uncle Thornton when my parents passed this summer." She said it casually, like it was no sweat to her to be an orphan. Ron may have found that disturbing, but for some reason he didn't. He noticed now on closer inspection of them that her eyes weren't blue, but violet.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about your parents," Ron said, pulling a chair from the table next to them and motioning for her to sit in it.

They talked all afternoon. Ron found her funny, charming and smart. She seemed perfect to him.

When the sun started to set they knew they had to hurry back to Hogwarts for dinner. "You ready Luna?" Ron asked, turning for the first time to her chair. But she wasn't in it. "Where'd she go?"

Mina laughed a small but sweet laugh, "She left ages ago. She said goodbye, didn't you hear her?"

Ron felt awful. He hadn't heard her. He'd been so wrapped up in Mina he'd completely ignored Luna.

After a play-by-play commentary to Harry about Mina Ron had decided that she was the one who was going to help him get over Hermione.

"She sounds too good to be true," Harry said smiling.

"Oh, she really is," Ron had a stupid grin on his face and way lying on his bed, his hands under his head.

That night he had another dream. This time it was of Mina. She was sitting by the lake at the Burrow and she was crying, but Ron couldn't get to her. When she turned around to look at him she turned into a spider and crawled away.

"Weasley," Professor McGonagall stood in front of Ron's desk that Monday. Ron was writing the answers to the notes she had put on the board. He looked up, wondering what he was doing wrong. "I need a word with you," she said again.

Ron caught Harry's eye and he followed Professor McGonagall into her office. Standing by the door, looking very nervous herself was Ginny.

"We've received notice about your brother. It was his trial today and Dumbledore was there."

Ron heart did a somersault. How could he have forgotten that today was Fred's trial?

"He has been found guilty of conspiring against the Ministry and is going to Azkaban for three months."

Ginny gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Ron crossed the room and put his arm on her shoulder.

"Your mother has said you may return home for a couple of days while your family copes with this. She will be here to take you home this evening."

The mood at the Burrow that night was solemn. Everyone was there. Everyone except Percy. George muttered constantly under his breath about Percy being a git. Angelina sat in a corner next to Ginny looking tragic. What would Fred and Angelina do now?

"It's just for three months, it's not like he died," Bill said. It didn't seem to help.

But it was his mother he was most worried about. It seemed George wasn't the only one to notice the absence of Percy and Molly was in fits about it. "His own brother. How can he not be here? Sure he's angry but still, his own brother," she muttered.

Ron looked at Bill who had a disgruntled look on his face. Bill whispered, "I think the coup d'etat is a bad idea."

"What exactly happened to Fred?" Ron asked.

"He was trying to promote the WWHM, Wizards and Witches for an Honest Ministry, and accidentally told a Ministry worker about it. He didn't know that's who the bloke was. Anyway, this guy told Fudge, and you know how fearful Fudge is about losing his job. Well he arrested Fred. And the rest of the family doesn't know this yet, but they fired Dad too."

Ron gasped. The quiet room looked at him. He said nothing, and a moment later they were back into their own worlds.

"What's Dad going to do?" Ron asked.

"He's going to try and get a job somewhere else. But who will hire someone as old as Dad and his only experience is with Muggle artifacts? And, let's face it, Dad's not particularly normal is he?"

Ron shook his head. Unbelievable, the problems this family had to face.

"I'm going to help out as much as I can," Bill went on, "And Charlie is quitting his job in Romania and coming here to work. It's the most we can do. This way he'll be closer to the Order too."

Ron thought once again about quitting school and getting a job. As if he was reading Ron's mind Bill chimed in, "Don't worry. Dad will find a job and it will all go back to normal. You just work on school." Now this was the big brother Ron knew from a few years ago. The paternal brother, not the pal brother he'd been the past few months.

Ron looked over at Ginny and Angelina. "I think we're just going to have to wait until the baby is born," she said sadly. "What else can we do? I hate to think of him in that horrid place," her voice broke.

"But you can visit," Ginny said sadly.

"Yes, I can. I plan on it. He told me yesterday that no matter what happened I'm to keep finding a place for us and plan the wedding." Angelina swallowed and Ginny placed a comforting arm around her.

Ron wondered when their family would get a break. The days when Percy was making them all mental, and Fred and George were exploding things in their bedrooms seemed like another life.