*NOTES* Okay so I have to tell you all that I'm slightly buzzed on lack of sleep and coffee, but the chapter is done. Duh you are going to read it after you read this. And Do you really read my notes? If you do good on you and if not well whatever floats your boat.
Now a slight warning, this chapter is shorter then the pervious ones but it is really good. At least I think so. Another warning I cried while writing this chapter, but that is just me being emotional, that does not mean that Ron is dead or alive or anything. Oh and I can't wait to read your reviews about what you think is going to happen and what you liked or didn't like about the chapter. Please review. Just because I never responded back doesn't mean I don't enjoy them. Some of you people are a hoot, which is a great thing to be. Okay so if you do my ramblings then you are probably getting tired of my babbling. So on with the story. ENJOY!
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After the twins had molted and successfully glared at everyone they looked at the letters they held in their hands. Quickly George noticed he had the one address to Hermione so that could only mean Fred had one to Harry. They looked at each other for a long moment and then switched letters.
"Okay in my hands," Fred looked at the envelope to make sure it was still there as he flourished it about. "I am holding on letter written to Hermione from our dear Ron." He turned the letter over and looked at the back of the envelope, "huh? Cool seal." And then he ripped into the packaging surrounding the letter.
Dear Professor,
Somewhere along this crazy journey Harry and I began calling you that, Hermione. You just kept pouring text after text on us while we were looking for Hufflepuff's goblet. If I thought we had to do a lot of research it is probably one-fourth of what you did. Thanks to you I could probably go and take my NEWTs and pass without having taken any classes this year. But I guess that I won't be able to.
It is killing me to write these letters. I know with each word that I won't be able to cream you in chess again. I won't be able to yell and bicker with you, but most of all we just won't be us anymore. And I don't mean us in the romantic sense (we all know how badly that turned out), but I mean us as in the trio.
This year has been hell. I wanted to be able to play Quidditch not chase after Voldemort's wacky souls. I wanted to be able to do so much, but you, you Hermione, could have had it all. McGonagall made you Head Girl and you turned it down in order to help a friend. You had one of your dreams right there in your hands and you gave it up for Harry. That is something I have aspired to be Hermione, I want to be selfish like that. Hey, and maybe I am or was.
I know that each of us thought that this was it. This battle with Voldemort was going to kill one of us, if not all. But I think I knew that it wasn't going to be you. You had to survive and keep living. Even if you couldn't do it with your two crazy best friends. You know the ones who are always getting into trouble so you could bail them out?
Remember around Halloween when Harry and I went to that muggle pub, guys night out we called it, and got into that brawl. Harry was the one who called you on that fellyphone of yours. The one you got incase we ever got caught in a muggle emergency. You actually came to the jail and bailed us out. I'm sorry about that Hermione. It was my fault and yet I stood by and let you yell at Harry. He told me that he should take the fall because you would go easier on him. Well, if you went easier on him then I don't want to know what you are going to do to me, especially if I am alive. But I thought you should know that.
I can see you right now asking what else you don't know, but there isn't anything else. Mostly because you never let us do a boys night out again without you along and even then we usually had to pull you out of the bar. Yes, Hermione, I am thinking about that fight you got into with that muggle girl. Wow, I haven't seen you punch like that since the time you hit Malfoy.
Anyway enough about bars and fighting. I am sure you've had enough of fighting right now. So off to the past we go. I really did think you were quite the annoying first year and second and third and fourth. I guess I never really appreciated how much effort you put into everything until fifth year. When you helped start the DA or how you aced all your OWLs even with everything else going on. Plus you, besides Harry and Neville, took out a lot of Death Eaters. We wouldn't have gotten very far without you and I guess you knew that. Why else were so adamant about coming with us, and don't give me that sexist crap.
I guess I should thank you for helping me all those years. You made sure I had all my homework done and correct; except for when I pissed you off and then you didn't touch it. I should also thank you for all the times you stopped me from doing something stupid. Or you at least tried to stop me. Remember the time I tried to curse Malfoy and ended up cursing myself. I still cringe at the sight of slugs.
Right now you and Harry are sitting beside me as I write. Occasionally you glance at my paper I know you are dying to know what I've written. And now I guess you do but it came at a cost.
Harry asked me this morning if I would look after you when this all ended, I told him I would. Hermione I know you don't need coddling anymore then I do but we are all going to need help through this. We have to adjust back to normal lives. And that means no holding yourself up in a room looking for something to help us even if we are lying in a coma in St. Mungos. It just isn't worth it because we did what needed to be done.
I could keep going on with the whole remember this and remember that but I know that it would just piss you off. Take care of Harry for me. Make sure he sleeps and eats and laughs and cries. But most of all make sure that he plays a game of Quidditch for me. I'll be checking in on you two from time to time.
With all my heart,
Ron
Fred put down the letter and looked at his twin. If that letter held so much in so little what would Harry's hold. He avoided his mother's eyes and tried to smile.
"Well it sounds like our little Ron knew more than he let on to," Fred said after forcing out a laugh. "Kind of morbid isn't it?" He looked to George and they both glanced at Harry's letter.
"No time like the presence," George said. Hastily he looked at the thick envelope and then turned it around. Breaking into the seal was easy but actually opening the letter was a challenge as he stared at it for a couple of minutes before taking out the letter. It was written in deep blue ink and the handwriting was Ron's untidy scrawl.
As George spoke the first words of Ron's letter to Harry the clock in the mantel did something odd. Ron's hand went from mortal peril to traveling and then back to mortal peril. But no one noticed this as they were all glued to the words George spoke.
Harry,
Okay Mr. Chosen One, boy-who-lived, and my best friend it is time you started living life for yourself. And don't give me that I had to fulfill the prophecy crap because we both know you didn't have to do shit if you didn't want to. But you did fulfill the prophecy, either that or George is reading this letter. I doubt they know that Hermione put a charm on these letters so only certain people could read them out loud. She is one heck of a witch isn't she?
And you are a great wizard and the best friend anyone could wish for. Ugh, now I'm starting to sound like her. We really have been hanging out way too much this year and with such close quarters getting into major arguments isn't as easy.
Now enough about that, I'm sure you have had enough of our bickering. Isn't it weird to think that we met seven years ago on the Hogwarts train? But then again that is how most friends meet at Hogwarts, on the train.
You actually seemed surprised that anyone would want to sit with you and I get that now, but back then it surprised me. I mean you were the boy-who-lived. I got to know you as someone unselfish, okay I forgot that sometimes. After all it was you who went back and tried to save Hermione first.
During our first year we faced more than any grown wizard. Remember Norbert or the troll or Snape's potions classes. And the challenges seemed to get harder as the years went on. Not only did we face deadly foes but also homework and girls and everything else.
Now we would have been in our seventh year. You would have been Head Boy and heaven only knows what trouble we would have gotten into. I can just see Filch coming up with unique detentions for us.
But instead we have been coped up in Grimmauld place looking for lost treasure. Not that I blame you mate. I mean you had to do it and I respect that. Hey, I even went with you. Not that I am one to be left behind. I've been there from the beginning and I was damn well going to help you finish the bastard off.
Harry I have to tell you that during our friendship I have been scared. I was scared during first year when we faced Fluffy for the first time. Okay, anyone would have been frightened to meet a three headed dog. I was scared during second year when Ginny was taken into the Chamber. During third year I was scared that Sirius was going to kill us all until we found out the truth and then I was scared that Scabbers was going to kill us all until he escaped and then I was scared that Professor Lupin was going to eat all of us. I think that that year I was scared a lot. Fourth year came and went much like third. All those tasks you had to do and that ball. God I don't think I've ever been so terrified then when I asked Fleur out and now she is my sister-in-law. Funny how the world works, isn't it? Then fifth year there was Death Eaters escaping and the Ministry being assholes.
I really wanted you to be right about Sirius being down in the Ministry, Harry. But I wanted you to be wrong about my dad. I think I wanted you to be right about Sirius after we got there and found out he wasn't there. Does that make sense?
Sixth year was interesting. I mean I turned into a complete prat. First the whole Lavender thing, and then the whole not believing in you about Malfoy. I mean you have always been right about this sort of thing, but I think I was still reeling from the Department of Ministries. I know that doesn't make it right but it explains part of my reasoning.
This year has been hard on all of us...when I came home for Christmas it was when I realized that there was a gap between my family and me. It was a big gap too. One caused by the war and what we have done. I wanted to tell my mum and dad everything. I wanted to tell them that I've kill three Death Eaters while searching for Hufflepuff's cup. I wanted them to cast me out because I didn't feel worthy of their love and I didn't like what I had become. But I knew that if I didn't kill those three humans Hermione wouldn't be here sitting beside me.
After we found the cup you didn't destroy it until I got better. You and Hermione sat at my bedside for four days trying to get me to eat and be Ron again. I remember that it was Hermione smacking me that got me to actually look you two in the eyes again. Harry, I was ashamed of what I had become but even worse I knew I had done the right thing. I knew that taking those lives had been right.
George stopped reading and everyone looked at him. He got up from the table and walked into the living room. Silently he sat down on the couch; he just couldn't finish the letter. He needed to remember Ron as his brother and not as this person he had become. Ron was right there was a gap between himself and the family.
"George," a voice came from beside him and he turned, his eyes filled with tears, to see him mother sitting beside him.
"Mum I failed," he choked out as he gripped his mother's shirt as he hugged her. "You told me to look after him and I didn't. I thought that Harry was someone safe and someone great for Ron to hang out with."
"Oh George, Harry was someone great for Ron to hang out. He and Hermione taught Ron so much." Molly felt the helplessness of her son's words sink in. She had given the twins a talking to before they left for their third year at Hogwarts. She told them to look after Ron, make sure he found good friends, is what she said. And she was so excited to hear from them that Ron had made friends with Harry Potter. It had to be a good sign, she thought so many years ago, but now they saw that even good things have a price. But what she would never do was blame Harry for any of the things that happened.
Molly led her son back into the kitchen but not before glancing at the clock on the mantel. She sighed to see all three names still at mortal peril. George quietly sat back down at his seat and picked up the letter.
Now we sit in the kitchen at Grimmauld place and neither of us mentioned what we have done this year. We promised ourselves at the beginning of this to not talk about the things we have done until it is over and then we are going to hire a really good shrink. Though I still don't understand why we want to become little all of the sudden.
So this is to you mate. Thanks for being my best friend and for everything else you have done for my family. When you are all well and better go back to our Hogwarts dorm and put our names someplace so everyone will know that dorm was the dorm of two great wizards.
Ron
George sat the letter down on the table. He met Remus's eyes and nodded to the werewolf. This war had changed everyone and now they knew that Ron was not invincible to the changes.
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