Authors Notes: Hi all, just a quick update today to tide you over. Not sure when the next update will be coming after this- unfortunately at little thing called 'real life' has been popping up over the last few days and will keep popping up for about a week, which is leaving me very little time to write. I do have the next bit written, but I'm very unhappy with it and want to do a total rewrite basically. I know where I want to take this, it's just getting there lol…
Twelve
Harry had lunch with Ron and was very surprised at how downcast he was. They hardly spoke as they ate and it was only as they were leaving that Harry found out why.
'I guess I should go back,' Ron said, very darkly. 'Wonder if I could just skip off home, if he'd notice…'
'Is everything ok?' Harry asked, drawing on his cloak and following Ron out to the back of the bar to go out into Diagon Alley.
'I hate working for George,' Ron said suddenly. 'It's obvious that I'm not as good at this as Fred or Ginny and he's just hanging out for Ginny to finish Hogwarts.'
'Ron, that can't be-'
'I can understand why, I mean, I'm basically Percy. Just with a sense of humour.'
'Ron, that's not-'
'And I mean, what else can I do? I'm not as brilliant as Hermione, and I'm not as talented as you. Face it- I'm pathetic.'
'Ron, don't-'
'I should be going,' he said, still looking very downcast as they entered Diagon Alley. 'Thanks for lunch.'
He was swallowed by the crowd of wizards doing their shopping. Harry, distracted by what Ron had been saying, turned around and ran straight into something solid. He shook his head and looked closely at the person and wondered how much worse his day could get.
'Potter,' Draco Malfoy said in his usual drawl . 'You should watch where you're going.'
Harry didn't say a word, just stepped around him and kept walking. He hadn't seen Malfoy since the day of his trial, one of the first ones they did. He and his mother had actually become a wealth of information for the ministry. His father, though terrified through the last days of Voldemort's reign, had sided with the Death Eaters and would still be in Azkaban for a long time. Draco and Narcissa had received minimal sentences', though Harry wished they could've locked them up for life.
He was still thinking about Malfoy and Ron when he arrived back at the Ministry and rode the lift up to his office. He was so distracted that he had sat down and started working before he realised that Hermione was standing behind the door and he jumped so suddenly in shock that he put his back out.
'Jesus,' he said, massaging his heart. 'Say something next time, alright?'
'Sorry,' she said looking sheepish and coming over to sit on the chair opposite his desk. 'You looked thoughtful.'
'I ran into Malfoy.'
'Oh.'
'And had lunch with a very downcast Ron,' he added, picking up his quill and starting to play with it. 'He doesn't seem to be liking the joke shop anymore.'
'I gathered that at dinner,' Hermione said. 'It might be good when Ginny finishes school and joins George.'
'Ron thinks he'll be pushed out of a job, and started talking about that he couldn't do anything else,' Harry told her. 'I'm thinking of giving him a job.'
'What!'
'Well, Ron is good at this sort of stuff. He might not cotton on to things as quickly as you'd like, but he's got his own way of thinking about things. And face it, I could use someone friendly.'
'You know how Ron feels about getting things out of pity.'
'I know, I know. That's why I've got to think of a way to do this where it doesn't seem like pity.'
~*~
Harry spent the next few days thinking hard about how he could offer Ron a job without it seeming like pity. By the time the weekend had come, he'd gone out into the field with different Auror's and had some hands on work (the most satisfying was catching Mundungus Fletcher selling Manticore eggs and then discovering a whole next of nasty creature eggs in his house).
In the end, he just decided to do it. On Saturday morning, he dressed and ate a quick breakfast and headed over to Ron's flat. He was knocking at the door for ten minutes before Ron opened, unshaven and smelling like he'd been bathing in Firewhiskey.
'Are you ok, Ron?' Harry asked concernedly. Ron went to nod and then shook his head.
'Monica,' he said, flopping down onto the lounge and picking up the Firewhiskey and drinking straight from the bottle. 'She dumped me.'
'What!' Harry exclaimed in shock.
'The day I had lunch with you,' he slurred. 'She said that it wasn't working out.'
Harry made a mental not to ask Hermione what had happened at that lunch she'd gone to.
'I'm sorry mate,' Harry said, clapping him on the shoulder with one hand and taking the Firewhiskey with the other. 'But you can't just sit around here. Have you left the flat at all?'
'Nope,' Ron said, laying back and closing his eyes. 'Haven't gone to work or nothing. Don't want to. I'm just proving how pathetic I am.'
'No you're not,' Harry said, standing up. 'Well you are, actually. By sitting around here, getting drunk and moping? Yes, that's proving how pathetic you are. You need to go have a shower. You need to shave. You need to eat. And then you need to go tell George that you're leaving, as you've got a better job.'
'I don't have a better job.'
'Yes you do,' Harry said firmly, grabbing Ron's arm and pulling him upright. 'Starting Monday morning, you're an probationary Auror. I expect you in my office at 9am sharp.'
Ron started to look like he was going to protest, but Harry disapparted, hoping Ron would do what he said.
~*~
'I feel horrible,' Hermione said miserably as Harry told her about what happened at Ron's house. 'Monica mentioned at lunch that she didn't think things were working, but I thought Maddy had talked her out of it. I just stayed quiet, I didn't really want to get involved.'
'Well, she dumped him that night,' Harry said, stretching and laying back further on the lounge. Hermione repositioned herself so that she was laying back onto his chest.
'Do you think he'll come to work with you?'
'I hope so. I hope George can manage the shop on his own until Ginny leaves Hogwarts.'
'Speaking of Hogwarts,' Hermione said, circling his knee with her finger. 'I heard something today.'
'What?' Harry felt nervous.
'McGonagall is organising a ball,' she said lightly. 'On the anniversary. The school year is finishing up early and it will be like a memorial service as well.'
'Oh,' was all Harry could say.
'And I thought, well, that it might, you know, be nice if we went.'
'Hermione-'
'I know, I know. You don't want everyone to know. But will it really be that bad if they knew? And I want to go to this ball with you. I want to dance with you and spend a fun night together.'
'We spend lots of fun nights together.'
'I know, but this is different.'
'I don't like balls,' Harry said miserably.
'You only didn't like the Yule ball because you were 14 and went with a girl you didn't like,' Hermione snapped. 'Look, I'm going regardless if you are or not, even if I have to take someone else.