Fallen from grace

Chapter nine

Ron made his way to the Great Hall for some company and advice from some of the guys about Mione and why she was being frigid and of course his number one priority in life food. Unfortunately he didn’t find Harry or Dean to discuss his problem with, but did find teary eyed Lavender who huffed and sighed at him through most of his meal.

Just as Ron started his quiet lunch his ancient family owl Errol made one of his more spectacular entrances: he swooped in to the Great Hall attempting to land in front of Ronald unfortunately due to old age his sight either miscalculated his distance between himself Ron and the bowl of buttery peas or failed to see it all. It ended with a shower of peas raining down on a small portion of the Gryffindor table and Errol face up covered in butter and peas his leg with the message attached stretched out to the ceiling.

Giggles and snickers were heard across the hall and three fourth years who had been showered by peas each gave Ron a rather dirty look and muttered obscenities under their breath about the relic of a bird; Ron took the note and shoved it in his pocket for another time before cleaning up the mess of peas and Errol and sending the bewildered bird out of the Great Hall.

He didn’t give Lavender much notice until he was three quarters of the way through his meal and felt her hurt gaze directed solely at him. As she stood to leave he decided he should try to see if see was alright after the funeral believing that was what had upset her today.

“Wait up Lav’ I will walk you up to the tower if that’s where you’re headed.” Quickly gulping down a couple of new potatoes and chicken he got up and jogged to catch up to Lavender who was just exiting through the doors.

As Ron caught up to her Lavender she just made a small noise of annoyance turned away with her chin up high and sped up her pace slightly trying to leave Ron behind her. “Lav what’s wrong? Are you angry about getting peas in your hair because of Errol, ‘cause if you are I am really sorry, I mean I don’t know why my mum insists on still using him as a post bird, I mean ….”

“Ronald it’s not about your bloody owl that has one foot in its bloody grave ok so just shut it!” Lavender turned to face Ron to yell at him as soon as she had finished her tirade spun back on her heels and continued forward, leaving a flabbergasted Ron in her wake.

Ron decided he was having a small run on bad luck with women due to the last hour consisting of two events one with Hermione and then one with Lavender; it wasn’t his fault though but the stress of the day taking their toll on the two women causing them both to be much more emotionally highly strung than usual. He followed after Lavender though to try and make it up to her just in case he didn’t get another chance before they left for the summer break.

“Lav I am sorry, I know today has been really taxing on everyone and I don’t want us to separate on bad terms before the summer you know just in case you know we don’t come back next year or something.” Scratching the back of his head nervously caught up to Lavender’s side as she had slowed her pace as Ron beseeched her to stay on friendly terms.

“Oh Ron I don’t want to go away on bad terms either but I don’t know what to do around you.” Blushing she looked at the portraits that adorned the walls surrounding the corridor they were strolling down “I mean I still have strong feelings for you, but you seemed to have moved on already to Hermione.”

“Lavender I still have feelings for you to but I am not sure that they are …. well …. you know … like you like you .. kinda I mean.” Completely stammering over his words and almost tripping over his feet that he was currently staring at as if some how magically they would give him the same kind of confidence Malfoy used to have with the opposite sex.

Ron was trying to think fast on how to keep the situation from getting messy as he didn’t want this to end in a big fight like it did with Hermione but he wanted to keep Lavender on side because if things fell through with Mione he would need a back up plan and girlfriend.

“Ok I guess I understand, I think” Lavender looked away her eyes filling with tears again and she stepped up her pace so Ron didn’t catch her but he caught he elbow and stopped her.

“I think we should be friends for now and as for Mione I don’t know what is going on between us I mean she isn’t really talking to me at this moment in time” not a complete lie he decided on his part so he couldn’t be held accountable for the fall out of anything later.

A small spark of hope ignited in Lavender and she decided she would try to stay as closely in contact with Ron as possible over the summer so if changed his mind she would be there. “I guess I can understand where you are right now I mean everything is very topsey turvey so we should stay in close contact over the summer and maybe meet up at some point in time?”

“Lav that’s a great idea I mean none of us know what is going to happen over the next few months with well … I mean you know who. I definitely don’t want to put you in any danger cause of well you know who I am.” Ron felt much more confident and suave than he was a minute ago and decided that if Malfoy was in this situation he would probably put his arm around the girl be all macho and walk the girl back to her common room so that’s what he decided he would do as well.

Ron had always been jealous of Malfoy even before he had really met him his dad always moaned about the Malfoy’s family wealth and how they could afford to have anything that they wanted whenever they wanted where he had to put up with hand me downs from five brothers. Then when Draco was at school he soon started to hate him because of the way he treated him, his looks and his popularity which only grew as he got older and more and more girls became attracted to him.

Even this year when he was meant to have his Dark Lords seemingly impossible task, Ron always saw him with a girl sometimes two at the same time, off whispering in dark corners and even when Malfoy was rude and even cruel towards them they would still trail after him like love sick puppies.

As he mulled over his hatred of the ferret he kept half an ear on what Lavender was saying about her up coming summer vacation plans and he interjected with interested ‘Oh’s and Ah’s’ at what he thought were the right moments.

Soon they were back at the portrait of the Fat Lady and Lavender come to a stop and turned to look at Ron and held his hand, “promise that if I right to you over the summer you will right back and if we can meet up?”

“Of course Lav, unless it becomes too dangerous and if it does I will try to write and let you know then if you won’t be able to get in contact with me ok.” Ron really was confident that even if his plans of seducing Hermione fell through or if he got bored of her he could rely on his back up Lavender.

Lavender flung herself in to his arms and nearly started to sob again “Oh Ron please keep safe for me I don’t know what I would do if you were hurt in any way.” They both leaned in to one another and kissed briefly before Lavender pulled away and walked through the portrait in to the common room and straight up to the girls’ dormitories to pack for tomorrow with a huge grin plastered on her face.

Ron followed behind her smiling to sit in an armchair next to the huge windows in the tower over looking part of the Hogwarts grounds and black lake. As he sat he noticed the letter in his pocket that his mother had sent him about half an hour ago.

‘To Ron and Ginny, I am sure you are both pleased to hear that Bill is being discharged today from St Mungos and he and Fleur will be staying with us at home for a week or so to recover and plan the wedding. So I thought that it would be nice if you two invited Hermione and Harry over as well for a week so we can all spend some nice quality time as family and friends. I understand it is quite short notice for the two of them but we can either pick them up at the King’s Cross tomorrow or they can arrive later on in the week after they have gone home and spent time with their families. Lots of Love Mum.’

Just as he had finished reading the letter Ginny walked up and joined him on e opposite armchair “What you got there big brother?”

Ron looked up at Ginny and saw that her eyes were red from crying and thought that women in general were usually way too much hassle especially when they were over emotional as it usually went problems for the men around them. “Oh err its just a letter from mum saying Bill is getting out to day and will be staying at the burrow for the next week..”

“Oh that’s great it means we can talk to him as family and tell him what a big mistake he is making with that stupid blonde bitch,” Ginny looked gleeful in the prospect of trying to destroy the relationship.

“Unfortunately she will be there as well making wedding plans,” Ron watched as his sisters face dropped and became dark and brooding “but she wants us to invite Mione and Harry so that won’t be too bad.”

Ginny liked the idea of that piece of news she could spend more time with Harry trying to get him to change his mind again about his decision to break up with her and her face immediately brightened now it was just a matter of convincing him which shouldn’t be too hard as he hated the Dursley’s, in fact he could spend the whole summer at the burrow.

“Oh that’s great you tell Hermione and I will tell Harry”, and before Ron could make a reply she shot off out of the common room, leaving a slightly confused Ron behind on how he was going to get to Hermione in the girls’ dormitories.

Ron’s difficulty was addressed about ten minutes later when Hermione came down the stairs with a book in hand. “Oi Mione over here” Ron waved her over and although she was reluctant to speak and even see him so soon after what had happened she still loved and him and was willing to listen to what he had to say.

She walked over to the windows but didn’t sit down but stood next to the armchair Ginny had just sat in “What do you want Ronald?”

He always knew he was in trouble when she called him Ronald it was just the same with Ginny and his Mother, he thought quickly about what to do and decided an apology for the argument earlier and he was being stupid and insensitive that should cover all his bases and get him out of trouble.

“Mione I am truly sorry for hurting your feelings earlier when we argued I was being completely insensitive and stupid, can you forgive me?” He could see Hermione’s face change from slightly scowling at him to a soft smile as soon as he got to insensitive; brilliant apology advice that he remembered Seamus talking about around six weeks ago when he almost lost his Hufflepuff girlfriend of time over him looking at a Ravenclaw.

“Oh Ron that’s very sweet,” she walked over to red headed teenager and kissed him sweetly and sat down opposite and started to open her book.

“Mione, my mum wrote earlier and she has invited you and Harry over to the Burrow for the first week or so as Bill has gotten out of hospital today and he and Fleur will be staying resting and organising the wedding. What do you stay it will keep me from being bored out my mind while everyone talks about flowers and dresses pleeease say yes?”

He then tried to give her big puppy dog eyes which she giggled at but nodded in agreement “but only for a week and I need to write to my parents and let them know and check if it’s ok.” Ron then proceeded to thank her and pick her and spin her around in his arms laughing.

Hermione than rushed off to write a letter and post it and hoped that her parents would be okay about it, she assumed they would want to speak to her as she was sure they had received a letter about the Head masters death and the early end year start.

Ginny had a lot more trouble than her brother in finding Harry and unfortunately for her it didn’t o as well either. She eventually found Harry sat under the shade of a tree by the Black Lake almost completely hidden she nearly walked straight by him only seeing him at the last second out of the corner of her eye.

“Ginny what are you doing out here I thought I said you should go back in to the castle.” He sounded and looked quite angry at her but she sat down next to him any way deciding that he would be happy about the news she was going to give him.

“I know but Ron and I got a letter from mum an hour or so ago and I thought you would want to know the details sooner rather than later.” As she said this she plucked a dandelion and started to blow the seeds off the stem.

“Is everything ok with Bill, he’s not worse is he?” Harry was started to get a bit frantic in his movements jerkily pushing his glasses up his nose and pulling out a clump of grass.

Ginny calmly put her hand on top of his left one and looked in to his beautiful expressive green eyes, “no Harry the opposite actually,” at this Harry heaved a great sigh of relief and removed his hand from Ginny’s. “He’s been discharged actually, mum wants you to come and stay with us tomorrow and I was thinking you could spend the whole summer with us and not have to go back to the Dursley’s at all. What do you think?”

Harry just sighed and looked away “that would be nice Gin but I can’t I have to go back to the Dursley’s this summer because of some spell according to Dumbledore, it would be nice but I think it’s for the best this way for you and me, I’m sorry Ginny I really am.”

At this Ginny became spiteful yelling at him “but you hate at that house you never want to stay there, they hate you as well, they think you are a freak of nature.”

At this Harry stood up and looked down sadly at Ginny “I know but it’s not to do with them it’s to do with my mother ok, see you later Gin,” and he turned and strode of to the castle and hopeful he thought some peace.



Sorry that this is such a short chapter everyone, hope it's keeping everyone who likes it entertained. Just a couple of points in the last chapter I did have Bill at the funeral but I have changed it Charlie and I meant to imply that Mr and Mrs Weasley weren't at the funeral because of Bill. Also the girls that Malfoy was talking to all year if you didn't guess were Crabbe and Goyle LOL!!! Scarlet witch your review was lovely really what I needed to hear after a bit of writer's block and manly laziness, I was also wondering if you beta at all and if so could you beta my work? Cookies to all reader's and review please if your not feeling lazy.! Pickles