Ron Weasley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alwaysreturns) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riddlelog2017-09-05 01:56 pm
alwaysreturns) wrote in riddlelog2017-09-05 01:56 pm
But I went down to the demonstration
The Closet (you can't always get what you want)
[Making the decision to absolutely not register wasn't a hard one to make. After all, it can't be much worse from the way he's been living, can it? He's spent a few weeks on his own since leaving Harry and Hermione - since trying to get back to them, he corrects himself - and they definitely weren't good weeks or weeks he really wants to repeat, but the important point is that he survived them. So. He can survive in 1980 where things are worse and better at the same time, can't he?
Probably. Yes. Merlin.
In any case, Ron survived by bumming his late nights and early mornings in seedy pubs, where he quickly learned they asked fewer questions than the more upright establishments. The muggle ones were safer, but the first time he tried to order had gone miserably ("do you have Capuchins?") and so Ron tried to lean on the wizarding establishments that were less likely to rat him out.
He's really not sure how that brings him to this part of London, but here he is late at night, worried about being caught with the curfew, and unwilling to lean on Bill for a place to sleep. The Closet (the Closet, he wonders, really?) looks as seedy as it gets, and Ron tugs his stolen muggle baseball cap lower over his face as he steps inside. At least, he reckons, he doesn't have to worry about people recognizing his face much in this year.
On the other hand, he's not too keen on how many names and faces he's recognizing on people in power.
A quick look around tells him this was probably the most massive bloody mistake he's ever made in his life to date; there are a lot more people inside than he thought there would be. Ron slides into a booth that's in as dimly lit a corner as he can find, trying to look as unobtrusive as he can and running through the names of purebloods he went to school with who aren't part of the Sacred twenty-bloody-eight.]
Lurking Outside the Ministry (but if you try sometimes)
[Ron knows at least a few of the muggle entrances to the Ministry, and he spends the better part of his day staking them out. It twists his stomach up, and he tells himself it's just because he got splinched after their last escapade inside, but really it's because he's doing this alone and he wishes to Merlin he wasn't.
He knows he could ask Bill, maybe even find Dean to watch his back a bit, but it's not the same. Besides, right now he just feels like he'd be a danger to them. What if they've decided to register? Ron wonders if this is what Harry felt like, the night he arrived at the Burrow. Wanting to leave to protect everyone else.
It's probably hypocritical to stick to his own, but he's been weeks on his own, after all. Silly to change that now, isn't it?
Yes. Very silly.
So it's a stake out. A very long, boring stakeout of at least three different entrances. He tries to make note of faces, match them to names that fit older versions. He doesn't like what he sees much at all, and he likes his prospects of getting into the Ministry and down to the Department of Mysteries even less. If Harry isn't born yet and Riddle is Minister, is there even a prophecy? Bill brought it up, and Ron hasn't been able to let it go.
He also hasn't been able to let go of the fact that his best mate might not ever exist in this world, and that teases all kinds of things that he is just not equipped to think about. Better to be doing something, definitely.
Even if what he's doing is technically doing nothing. Shouldn't he have donuts for something like this?
Ah, there goes his stomach. Where can he get donuts?]
Closed to Hermione (you get what you need)
[Being stuck out of time, in the wrong past, is exhausting. Ron doesn't understand how this administration came to be, doesn't understand how this curfew could have gone on for a decade without something like the Order popping up to fight it. Or if it does exist, it's hiding itself bloody well, and maybe that's just as bad. People are disappearing, and if his conversation with Harry's mum (that is a whole different issue that he is doing very, very badly with) is anything to go by, no one even expects Riddle or his lackeys.
It's enough to make a bloke wonder if hes' gone loopy. Or at least go loopy enough to start putting graffiti on walls. 'Death Eaters Among Us,' maybe, or 'Don't Trust the Ministry.'
He's never wanted to graffiti something so bad in his life.
Maybe it's the frustration that makes him find the deluminator in his pocket. He clicks and unclicks it, treating it like a ye olde fidget spinner that's only moderately more annoying what with its light theft. He doesn't even think about it as he leans against a building in Diagon Alley, staring at the building that ought to be Fred and George's joke shop. He could really use a laugh right about now.
Ron.
He stares blankly for a moment, wondering if he imagined it. Is he just imagining things now? But no - no. That was Hermione's voice, calling him. Calling him. Maybe he is going loopy, because he's suddenly so certain. It couldn't have been more than a whisper, but it was her.
When he pulls the deluminator out, turns away from the main road and clicks it, a little ball of light comes out. The few lights on around him stay lit, but that ball just hovers in front of him, and somehow he's not afraid at all when it floats toward him, through him, right into his heart. He touches his chest, and he just knows.
She's here. And the deluminator will take him to her. Ron closes his eyes and disapparates.]
The Dog House; Closed to Harry, James, Sirius (We decided that we would have a soda)
[After leaving Lily with the address to James Potter and Sirius Black's house - and don't worry, the fact that he will eventually have to think about leaving Harry's mum's shop to go to his dad's and godfather's home is going to lay him up - Ron wastes no time. Last he saw Harry, they fought. Last he saw him, Ron told him so many terrible things, and he hates the bloody locket for making him say it, but he mostly hates himself, for the way a piece of You-Know-who brought that out of him.
He feels shitty, and the only thing to do about it is fix things in the most awkward, teenage boy way. So, par for the course.
When he reaches the address Lily wrote down for him, he stares at the door, looks between it and the paper in his hand. All right, Ronald. Apologizing isn't so hard, is it? (Yes it is. It is so hard.)
Well, if he keeps steeling himself, there was no point in practically breaking Lily's door down, was there? So. He shoves the paper in his pocket and knocks, and somehow resists the urge to knock again after three seconds, and again three seconds after that.]
[Making the decision to absolutely not register wasn't a hard one to make. After all, it can't be much worse from the way he's been living, can it? He's spent a few weeks on his own since leaving Harry and Hermione - since trying to get back to them, he corrects himself - and they definitely weren't good weeks or weeks he really wants to repeat, but the important point is that he survived them. So. He can survive in 1980 where things are worse and better at the same time, can't he?
Probably. Yes. Merlin.
In any case, Ron survived by bumming his late nights and early mornings in seedy pubs, where he quickly learned they asked fewer questions than the more upright establishments. The muggle ones were safer, but the first time he tried to order had gone miserably ("do you have Capuchins?") and so Ron tried to lean on the wizarding establishments that were less likely to rat him out.
He's really not sure how that brings him to this part of London, but here he is late at night, worried about being caught with the curfew, and unwilling to lean on Bill for a place to sleep. The Closet (the Closet, he wonders, really?) looks as seedy as it gets, and Ron tugs his stolen muggle baseball cap lower over his face as he steps inside. At least, he reckons, he doesn't have to worry about people recognizing his face much in this year.
On the other hand, he's not too keen on how many names and faces he's recognizing on people in power.
A quick look around tells him this was probably the most massive bloody mistake he's ever made in his life to date; there are a lot more people inside than he thought there would be. Ron slides into a booth that's in as dimly lit a corner as he can find, trying to look as unobtrusive as he can and running through the names of purebloods he went to school with who aren't part of the Sacred twenty-bloody-eight.]
Lurking Outside the Ministry (but if you try sometimes)
[Ron knows at least a few of the muggle entrances to the Ministry, and he spends the better part of his day staking them out. It twists his stomach up, and he tells himself it's just because he got splinched after their last escapade inside, but really it's because he's doing this alone and he wishes to Merlin he wasn't.
He knows he could ask Bill, maybe even find Dean to watch his back a bit, but it's not the same. Besides, right now he just feels like he'd be a danger to them. What if they've decided to register? Ron wonders if this is what Harry felt like, the night he arrived at the Burrow. Wanting to leave to protect everyone else.
It's probably hypocritical to stick to his own, but he's been weeks on his own, after all. Silly to change that now, isn't it?
Yes. Very silly.
So it's a stake out. A very long, boring stakeout of at least three different entrances. He tries to make note of faces, match them to names that fit older versions. He doesn't like what he sees much at all, and he likes his prospects of getting into the Ministry and down to the Department of Mysteries even less. If Harry isn't born yet and Riddle is Minister, is there even a prophecy? Bill brought it up, and Ron hasn't been able to let it go.
He also hasn't been able to let go of the fact that his best mate might not ever exist in this world, and that teases all kinds of things that he is just not equipped to think about. Better to be doing something, definitely.
Even if what he's doing is technically doing nothing. Shouldn't he have donuts for something like this?
Ah, there goes his stomach. Where can he get donuts?]
Closed to Hermione (you get what you need)
[Being stuck out of time, in the wrong past, is exhausting. Ron doesn't understand how this administration came to be, doesn't understand how this curfew could have gone on for a decade without something like the Order popping up to fight it. Or if it does exist, it's hiding itself bloody well, and maybe that's just as bad. People are disappearing, and if his conversation with Harry's mum (that is a whole different issue that he is doing very, very badly with) is anything to go by, no one even expects Riddle or his lackeys.
It's enough to make a bloke wonder if hes' gone loopy. Or at least go loopy enough to start putting graffiti on walls. 'Death Eaters Among Us,' maybe, or 'Don't Trust the Ministry.'
He's never wanted to graffiti something so bad in his life.
Maybe it's the frustration that makes him find the deluminator in his pocket. He clicks and unclicks it, treating it like a ye olde fidget spinner that's only moderately more annoying what with its light theft. He doesn't even think about it as he leans against a building in Diagon Alley, staring at the building that ought to be Fred and George's joke shop. He could really use a laugh right about now.
Ron.
He stares blankly for a moment, wondering if he imagined it. Is he just imagining things now? But no - no. That was Hermione's voice, calling him. Calling him. Maybe he is going loopy, because he's suddenly so certain. It couldn't have been more than a whisper, but it was her.
When he pulls the deluminator out, turns away from the main road and clicks it, a little ball of light comes out. The few lights on around him stay lit, but that ball just hovers in front of him, and somehow he's not afraid at all when it floats toward him, through him, right into his heart. He touches his chest, and he just knows.
She's here. And the deluminator will take him to her. Ron closes his eyes and disapparates.]
The Dog House; Closed to Harry, James, Sirius (We decided that we would have a soda)
[After leaving Lily with the address to James Potter and Sirius Black's house - and don't worry, the fact that he will eventually have to think about leaving Harry's mum's shop to go to his dad's and godfather's home is going to lay him up - Ron wastes no time. Last he saw Harry, they fought. Last he saw him, Ron told him so many terrible things, and he hates the bloody locket for making him say it, but he mostly hates himself, for the way a piece of You-Know-who brought that out of him.
He feels shitty, and the only thing to do about it is fix things in the most awkward, teenage boy way. So, par for the course.
When he reaches the address Lily wrote down for him, he stares at the door, looks between it and the paper in his hand. All right, Ronald. Apologizing isn't so hard, is it? (Yes it is. It is so hard.)
Well, if he keeps steeling himself, there was no point in practically breaking Lily's door down, was there? So. He shoves the paper in his pocket and knocks, and somehow resists the urge to knock again after three seconds, and again three seconds after that.]
no subject
[After hearing everything Ron just told her, she doesn't hold back from giving Harry a hug, too. With everything that's going on back home on top of it, seeing him safe is always a relief.]
I just got here, ran into Ron at the Diagon Alley. [She explains as she pulls away.]
no subject
Thought it best to come here, after dropping the ministerial bomb on her.
no subject
[ Harry squeezes Hermione real quick before stepping aside to let them both in. He knows there's no real need to be paranoid about anyone catching sight of the Famous (or Infamous) Trio, but it's hard to break a habit like that. ]
I'm glad you're here Hermione. I'm glad you're both here.
no subject
Although, I dunno which I'd prefer. Being together back home with the horcruxes or here where-- [Voldemort has a lot more power than there. Possibly. But she just finishes with a one-shouldered shrug.]
You alright, Harry?
no subject
[ Harry looks a little perplexed at the strange term Hermione had just used, having never actually heard it before himself.
Yes.
Hermione, Ron, you're about to learn just when your best friend is coming from.
Harry isn't even sure why it hadn't occurred to him to see where they were at. He'd had entire conversations with Ron and it'd never come up, mostly because he'd taken it for granted that the three of them would always be in sync. ]
no subject
Harry asks and now Ron's entire thought process goes blank.]
The horcruxes, mate. [He stares at Harry like he's gone a bit daft, first, then wonders if it's something to do with the magic that brings them here, then wonders if it will happen to him and Hermione--
And only after that does he turn very pale, looking between Harry and Hermione.]
When's the last time we were all together?
no subject
[ Obviously.
Harry frowns.
Something suddenly doesn't feel right. Something in his stomach sinks low, lower, lower. ]
Before we all left Hogwarts for the summer. I - [ He swallows. ] - we'd just lost Sirius.
no subject
[Hermione looks over at Ron with wide eyes then back at Harry.]
So you don't know anything about the Horcruxes? [Or Dumbledore or their whole plan to get the horcurxes destroyed and...]
How is this possible?
no subject
It's not like Harry's always got the answers, in fact it's usually Hermione that comes up with the brilliant plan - but the idea of Harry being...behind, somehow, is making Ron's stomach hurt.]
Dunno.
[He looks up at Hermione again, wanting to ask what the last thing she remembers is - but he's a bit afraid of the answer.]
What if it happens to us? Forgetting?