![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
my_thestralPairing: Ron/Draco
Word count: 1822 (this part)
Rating: PG-13, language I suppose
Disclaimer: Me, singing - "Youuuu could be mineee..." - but unfortunately, you're not, dear characters, and isn't it lucky for you. I never meant to make any money off you and I never will.
“So he hasn’t woken up yet?” Ron inquired quietly, as if he was afraid his too-loud words might do just that to his best mate, still lying exactly as he left him on the big cosy couch in the Burrow’s living room, breathing peacefully.
Ginny, puffy-eyed and looking lost, shook her head tiredly and then made a point of speaking to him adamantly: “We have to get Healers, we have to, Ron! I don’t care how embarrassed he’s going to be about his behaviour later, but I’ll take embarrassed over “not conscious” any time. You haven’t told us a thing about how this had all come to pass, but frankly, I don’t care for your big Auror secrets at the moment! I just want my Harry back, I don’t know what to do with this empty shell!”
She looked ready to start crying again and Molly quickly closed her arms around her and whispered a few words of comfort in her ear, while glaring at her youngest son scarily over her shoulder.
“Alright, then.” Ron closed his eyes and tried to focus. He needed to do this right, no one else needed to get hurt. He just… wished he was more up to the task ahead. As it was – he was all but confident about his abilities to do this right, but it was what it was: he needed to at least appear to be in control to his distressed sister and outraged mother. As a Senior Auror issuing orders and taking charge should at least be something he was familiar with. Here goes nothing, then…
“Ginny, wait here by Harry’s side in case he wakes up. Let me try something before we bring in the cavalry, as the Muggles call it. Mom, I need a word...”
Puzzled, but without a mind to question his son, Molly Weasley followed him into the hallway.
“Mom... we will need to move Harry into our old room, I will need some peace and quiet for this; some privacy to do this right. And I need you to keep Ginny away for as long as it takes. Please, mom, it’s necessary – it’s for her own good, she’s been through enough. “
But Molly Weasley has had it with this crazy night full of unknown characters running in and out her home and people she cared about getting hurt. She all but stabbed her fists into her waist defiantly and barked at her son with a barely tamed voice:
“Ronald Weasley, this is my daughter and my son-in-law you’re talking about and your codes of secrecy or whatever rot you Auror types have do not apply to me! You will tell me this instant what this is all about, who has done such a wretched thing and what to do, or I will not move another finger to help you!”
“Mom, please...” Ron tried to calm her down, but one look at her stormy eyes told him that ship had already sailed. “Bloody hell.... fine!” he then threw his arms in the air as if he was giving up and looked he straight into the fuming face.
“It’s something called the Talia curse,” he said quietly and once the recognition dawned on her, he saw her gasp and her features freeze in the mixture of worry and confusion.
“The Sleeping Beauty curse? But how? It’s been banned for centuries; I didn’t know anyone still had the knowledge… But - this cannot be... Ginny’s been up and down Harry’s face a thousand times, she must have showered him in a thousand kisses and still he won’t... oh .”
Finally she realized what was the issue at hand and her hand sprang to her mouth to cover the expression of shock.
“One’s true love, mom,” Ron said quietly, suddenly Weasley-red in the face and looking at his feet in a mixture of embarrassment, regret and heartbreak. “If it was Professor Snape on that couch, he would have slept himself to death.”
“But who...?”
“I can’t tell you unless I have your word never to reveal this to anyone, and I mean anyone - Harry, Ginny, anyone. Honestly, mom, I can’t! They will be given a different version of events, I’d be hurting good people if I let that slip!”
This time his voice was so adamant, the reflection of her own obstinacy so clearly written in his face, that she knew there was no way around it:
“My lips are sealed, Ron,” she nodded solemnly at her son, strangely proud of his integrity, and saw his shoulders relax a little.
“It was Narcissa Malfoy,” Ron confessed and explained to her dumb-struck face. “She saw her son happy with me and she’s gone out of her way to protect us from being torn apart by Lucius. Harry... was helping Lucius, mom. Please don’t tell Ginny that, she hates that man, he caused her so much sorrow,” Ron blurted out and looked at her mother pleadingly and, much to his relief, saw his mother comply once more with a small exasperated nod.
“Anyway, Narcissa knew of Harry’s... affection for me - apparently he had come to them and informed them about Draco and I, and confessed to... oh, screw it, to loving me, to ensure their cooperation in breaking our relationship apart. And he would have succeeded, too, mom, if it wasn’t for her!” said Ron feverishly, trying to convey the gravity of situation to his shell-shocked mother.
“Harry – he was completely beside himself, he kidnapped me and tied me up while trying to confess his love for me... you should have seen him, he was off his rocker, not my Harry, not the Harry I know at all! But then Narcissa hexed him from behind and gave me a chance to salvage the situation. She knew he would be alright with this hex, she had said, as long as he had one true love...”
Ron stopped abruptly, unable to continue, eyes flashing nervously between his mother’s face and his feet.
“Oh, honey...” his mother finally managed. “Oh, what a blasted mess!”
She looked worried and distressed and sad and Ron would have done everything and more to have the expression wiped off her face.
“I suppose he can’t help whom he loves,” his mother finally sighed and she looked at her son with a mixture of sadness and regret and then a sudden flash of defiance crossed her face:
“But don’t you go having any second thoughts about doing what needs to be done, young man! I know you have your... boyfriend, partner, oh, whatever that Malfoy boy is to you – I know you have him to think about now, but this is Harry , your very best friend, a boy who came to your rescue, to the rescue of every member of this family more than once, you do what you need to do, Ron!”
“Yes... I know, mom... I know .” Ron ran fingers through his hair nervously, knowing that what he needed to do will take the delicacy he so sorely lacked, but unfortunately there was no way around it. “You deal with Ginny, then. Have her help you move Harry to my old room, keep her occupied, make her brew some useless concoction for him or whatever else it takes to make sure she doesn’t come near the room until one of us comes out. It would cause all of us a lot of sorrow, if she did. I need to wake up Harry ... somehow... and afterwards we need to talk and I need Harry who walks out of the room to be OK with Draco and I… and willing to stay with her... bloody hell, talk about loading my plate full!” he sighed unhappily.
“But my first duty is to Draco,” he finally covered his face with the palms of his hands as if he suddenly felt all the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I need to talk to him, at least try to explain.... Don’t worry, I will do whatever needs to be done to wake Harry up regardless of his reaction,” he lifted his head and put her objections to peace hastily, before she could bring them up. “But I don’t want to go behind his back with this, he needs to understand his own mother put me in this position and I have no choice!”
“And if he doesn’t?” his mother asked unexpectedly. “What if he doesn’t understand, Ron? What if he’s not going to see things with your eyes? What if he thinks you don’t mind the opportunity to be with Harry, that this is some sort of choice between Harry and himself? What then, Ron?”
His mother has spoken out his deepest fears so plainly, he closed his eyes as if he couldn’t stand looking at his miserable meagre options.
“I hope it does not come to that,” he finally said quietly, sounding every bit wretched. “I hope Draco understands... I need to help Harry, for everything good he’s ever done for me. The man who loves me has to understand that I would never abandon a friend in need, even if that friend is my ex-lover who’s treated me less than fairly. This is my Harry we’re talking about, he saved us all at one point, himself included! How could I not help him? Sometimes I think I was born to stand by his side, for Merlin’s sake, none of us would be alive, if we weren’t there for each other. Not helping him - it would go against everything I am! If Draco doesn’t find it in his heart to accept who I am... I guess I’ll just have to keep on looking.”
His voice was barely audible in the end and it broke Molly’s heart to see him in such state.
“Oh, Ronnie...” she hugged him fiercely. “He’s a right fool of a Malfoy if he can’t tell where your heart lies. For all it’s worth, in all my years with Arthur, I don’t think I’ve ever had him kiss me more passionately than that – how do you children call it? – snog , you two exchanged earlier – and that’s saying something, coming from a mother of seven children!”
Ron smiled through the tired tears that he felt dwelling at the end of his eyelashes and he let his mother comfort him for a moment longer. Fuck all - a 25 year old man, a father himself – but this was his mom and he was always kind of starved of her affection. But then Ginny opened the door and peaked out on the corridor, sniffing in a barely audible voice:
“Mom? What shall we do now?”
And as always – the moment for cuddling Ron Weasley passed too quickly.
There was no point in delaying: once more Ron decided to put his good prospects on the line for Harry and hoped Draco Malfoy could find it in his Slytherin heart to trust him.
~ End of Part 16/1 ~
Next: ( Choices 16/2 )
See also:
( Choices, Part 2 )
( Choices, Part 3 )
( Choices, Part 4 )
( Choices, Part 5/1 )
( Choices, Part 5/2 )
( Choices, Part 6 )
( Choices, Part 7 )
( Choices, Part 8/1 )
( Choices, Part 8/2 )
( Choices, Part 9 )
( Choices, Part 10/1 )
( Choices, Part 10/2 )
( Choices, Part 11/1 )
( Choices, Part 11/2 )
( Choices, Part 12 )
( Choices, Part 13 )
( Choices, Part 14 )
( Choices, Part 15/1 )
( Choices, Part 15/2 )
