The Pluto Blues

R.W to G.W. and L.L.
Neville Longbottom

"It's just a coincidence," he said, although the hair on the back of his neck prickled peculiarly.

"What, another R.W just told a different G.W and L.L something about Neville?" she sniped. Ron had been glad that she finally decided to act like herself this year, instead of a stuttering glob of pudding, but at that moment she sounded like their mother and the twins combined. Scolding and sarcastic, telling him what she thought was obvious and making him furious.

Its a coincidence... there must be plenty of R.W.s around. Certainly if I were a... someone would have told me! I would have known! Ron thought frantically for an explanation... what would Hermione say if she were here? Probably something to the effect of....

"Oh, dont be silly Ron, youre not a Seer, these are prophecies from the famous Robert Welks! Now stop staring and start thinking of a way out of here!"

"Look, all of these are from you! R.W. to H.P., Arthur Weasley," she read, pointing to a globe that had a dim light inside. "R.W to H.P and H.G., Tom Riddle," she continued, this time the orb was dark. He hated to admit it, but there were too many coincidences on the shelves. Maybe this was all just a trick, he just wished he was a Seer and had somehow stepped into the Mirror of Erised. Of course, if he was in his own hope for the future, then why was he being chased by evil wizards? He gulped as he reached for the first one with R.W. on it, at the far end of the shelf. It glowed brightly and read, "R.W to M.W and A.P.W.B.D. (?)Harry Potter, (?) Hermione Granger, and (?) Ron Weasley." There was only one way to find out.

"I found them! They're behind this case!" They all heard someone, a Death Eater cry out. Ron broke his gaze from the delicate orbs as Luna led them to a door which read. "Do not touch the planets." He slammed the door closed after them.

He wasn't just running from the Death Eater...

~*~*~

"What in the h-?" As if everything that happened today wasnt enough, now they were in space... at least, something like space. He felt like he was underwater, but there was no pressure and he wasnt having trouble breathing.

"The door has disappeared... wherever we are, I think were stuck," Ginny stated curtly. She was trying to tie her thick hair into a ponytail to keep it from floating into her eyes. She didnt have a footing though, and any movements she made with her arms caused her to speed backwards a bit, throwing her hair into her eyes again.

Luna, though, seemed to be in her element. She didnt care where her hair was and she wasnt disoriented by the fact that she was upside-down, but Ron figured that to her they were the ones who looked odd. Then again, this was Loony Lovegood he was talking about, she had probably even forgotten they were being chased.

"We need to keep together and find an exit... Were near Mars now, see?" Luna said suddenly as she pointed out a red ball that was a tall as she was, "If we keep heading out towards the edges of the solar system I think there will an emergency exit. The Death Eaters will probably come out around Jupiter which is completely on the other side of the Sun right around now." Ron decided he was too quick to think Luna was an airhead.

He heard Ginny cast a spell. She threw a rope over to him and said, "So what, just keep the Sun behind us? "

Ron looked over towards the fiery sphere that he knew must be miles away... even on this scale. "Looks like we have a plan, lets go find the others, hold on tight!" He made sure they had both tied themselves to the rope and muttered a whirlwind spell Fred and George had once used to clean their room. It had gotten their room clean, but unfortunately dumped all their stuff outside and scared the ghoul out of its mind, as if it had one to begin with.

At first it was tough going. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was choked with rocks ranging from tiny pebbles to ones about the size of his fists.

"This is why they have this room," Luna said to him.

"What, to get pelted by hundreds of thousands of pebbles?" Ron flicked another rock away from his eyes.

"No, so they can easily destroy anything that could mean trouble for Earth. There have been plenty of rocks that could have wiped us out, like they almost did for the dinosaurs, but we can certainly get rid of the threat easily if we can just knock it away with our fingers."

"First off, where did you get that idea from, and second, what do you mean, like they almost did with the dinosaurs?" Ron meant for it to sound questioning, but he wasn't having a very good day. It sounded more ticked-off than anything.

Luna looked startled and turned red. "First, I got it from the Quibbler! My dad wrote it himself! Second, what do you think dragons are?" Then she swam off, going as far as the rope would allow, looking hurt.

They putted along at fantastic speeds. Soon they saw Saturn way off to the left and as they passed Uranus both Ron and Ginny burst with laughter, glad to get rid of some of the tension. Luna looked at them both questioningly, but when they offered no reason, she just smiled and continued looking at the shifting constellations.

The unwanted side effect to all this traveling was that it gave Ron time to think, something he didnt want to do at the moment. Ginny was lost in her own thoughts... and Luna¼ well, he had already tried talking to Luna.

He hoped the other group had found a way out and were currently sending in all of the Order to take all of the Death Eaters to prison. He wished, at least, that he wasnt floating uselessly around a model of the solar system so he could help and get his mind off of the shelf in that hallway... Had he ever said anything to his mother and Dumbledore about Harry, Hermione and himself? He couldnt even remember a time when Molly Weasley and the Headmaster had been in the same room... Then again, he thought putting together the things he had seen on the orbs, I was right about Myrtle...

"I cant be a Seer," Ron said loudly, mostly because saying it aloud would make it seem more like the truth.

"Well, why not? Anyone can be a Seer really... plus, dont you have lots of older brothers?" Luna said still looking dreamily at the stars.

"Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with it?"

"Seventh sons are almost always Seers... though Muggles used to think they would be werewolves or vampires as well... So thank your six older brothers for the gift." She shifted around to make sure they werent being followed.

"Sorry Luna, Im not a seventh son, Im a sixth son. So your theory falls through there." He felt a bit better knowing one of her silly, nonsense ideas was finally wrong.

Ginny looked at him as if he were an animal Hagrid had bred. "What... you dont know..?" she was bewildered.

"Know what?" Ron felt another shocker coming on.

"Its hard to say out loud... I cried when I first heard it... Mum had a baby between Charlie and Percy, a boy... had to take him to St. Mungos straight after he was born. He only lived 4 hours..." her voice cut out and she turned away.

She was right... it was sad. It explained why his mother was so protective, and he wanted to go straight to her and hug her.

"Something better happen today to make me laugh..." he muttered to himself. It had been mental blow after mental blow. "Id rather be choked than have my world turned upside-down again."

A cry from Ginny broke him from his reverie. He turned sharply around to see four Death Eaters following them, and gaining speed.

"Are you all right?" he asked, pulling the rope to bring them closer together.

"Im just fine... only I think my ankle is crushed..." she said through gritted teeth. Ron was thankful that they were floating in space and didnt have to run, and that the spell had hit his sisters foot and not her head.

"Quick! Were almost to the end... I can see Pluto coming up, the exit must be just after that, keep heading in that direction!" She shot a thin purple saber of light at one of the Death Eaters, who wasnt expecting it and went swirling off, away from them. Thankfully the dark wizards hadnt thought to lash themselves together. But now the others were ready for combat and Lunas beams bounced off them or just dissipated without effect.

"Get Pluto between them and us!" Ginny yelled to him, then pulled herself towards Luna. He couldnt hear what they were saying, but Ginny whispered frantically, gesturing wildly like their father. Luna nodded and soon they were all clumped together.

A realization came over him as Luna raised her wand, but before he could tell her not to, A spell mumbled by one of the older wizards hit him in the chest. He saw Luna blow Pluto to bits, and the Death Eaters were all pushed away from the blast. As the two groups throttled in the opposite directions Ron tried to get his bearings, but he felt his mind slip away.

Heh... Uranus... he giggled. Something had made him laugh.
~*~*~

It was several days before Ron was alone again. At first he had been too busy recovering from the random giggle-fits he would go into or trying to get Hermione to stop talking about Sirius. He had even had some fun torturing Umbridge with sounds of hooves.

He wanted to speak to someone about it. Harry would be first choice, but he had too much to think about, and it seemed petty to be worried about being a Seer when the world was at stake. Hermione would certainly listen, but even with the new discovery that some prophecies were true, she wouldn't believe one bit of it. He understood, he hardly believed it himself. He could talk to Firenze, but his comments would all be veiled, and he was certainly not going to see Trelawney!

He looked up from his wanderings and found himself in front of the Divination room. "What the hell," he muttered and he opened the door. He suddenly wished he hadn't.

The room was still a replication of the forest outside, but pink poufs and tables full of tea cups and crystal balls stood between the trees, covered in vines. Professor Trelawney was rushing around, scribbling things on star charts and fiddling with a tiny orb that showed the positions of the planets. Firenze was watching her, torn between his usual calm and being as frantic as she was.

"Whats the matter?" Ron asked.

"It's Pluto! All the charts have to be re-written, what will happen to those who are ruled by it! It's a disaster!" she said, not paying any attention to who she was speaking to.

"It... is an odd omen..." Firenze seemed spooked.

"You mean to say... that Pluto... the real Pluto is gone?" Ron asked. He was amazed, though he supposed he should have known... for several reasons.

"Yes, When you and your sister and Ms. Lovegood blew those Death Eaters apart you also caused the real planet to no longer be. It was quite a sight to see." The centaur the went over to the brook and filled up a kettle and asked, "Would you like some tea?"

"Not really, but... I did want to talk about the prophecies in that room."

"I am forbidden to speak of the contents of the prophecy, for it's dire that the information contained within it does not get into the wrong hands," Trelawney said holding her nose high in the air.

"No, no, It's not that one... it's just when I was there, I saw quite a few of... you see there were a whole bunch of glowing orbs that... you know... never mind. " Ron started to back out of the room.

"It's okay to be afraid, you know, it'll get easier," Trelawney said in a misty voice, she then smiled and went back to fixing the star charts.

At first, Ron was stunned that she knew what he was talking about, but the he just smiled and began to walk to Gryffindor tower.

"Maybe it'll be a happy ending after all," he said to himself, walking to find his friends.

It was.