Shazzia Normal Shazzia 4 30 2003-08-12T20:43:00Z 2003-08-12T21:18:00Z 1 918 5238 World Wide 43 12 6144 10.4219 Clean Clean MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
AN: Just want to give a huge thank you to my beta, Jori, who's the best in my little chunk of the world! Happy reading, guys!
Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own anything except the plot and sadly enough it's not worth all that much.
Chapter 1
Warm rays of sunlight filtered through the curtains of the Burrow kitchen only to land on a bored Ron Weasley. There sitting amongst the empty chairs at the kitchen table sat Ron, hunched over with head resting on his propped arms, staring vacantly at nothing with an expression glazed over with that of utter boredom.
Surprisingly, the Burrow sat quiet and still with not even the ghoul in the attic making a sound. The Weasley family members were either out and about at work or at home quietly (for once) going about their tasks. This left Ron all alone with no one to pass his time with as the twins, who were always dependable for a laugh, were busy at their joke shop and Ginny was holed up in her room with explicit instructions not to be disturbed and no one with a sane mind wanted to be at the receiving end of one of Ginny Weasley's vengeful hexes. With Charlie and his Dad both at work, Ron couldn't occupy his time with hearing dangerously exciting tales about dragons or couldn't tinker around with his fathers Muggle things in the garage (as they were off limits). With his mother off doing some quality knitting, which was an activity Ron would never take up no matter how convincing his mother or Hermione sounded (the latter had repeatedly tried to get him and their mutual best friend, Harry Potter, to knit hats in hopes of joining SPEW - to free house elves).
Thus led to Ron's current predicament - one of utter boredom.
Who knows how much time had passed with Ron hunched over watching dust settle in the warm glow of sunlight as the silence continued to stretch around him.
The sudden stillness broke as Mrs. Weasley swung the kitchen door open causing Ron to jump and overcome his exceptionally glazed over expression (making him seem like he was a real life animate being instead of a lump of clothes sitting there at the table).
"Dear, have you seen my "Spunky Stitch Techniques for the Modern Witch" magazine anywhere? There's a new design I'd like to try and I just can't find it anywhere!" Mrs. Weasley asked as she crossed the kitchen to the bookcase lining the far wall.
"Haven't seen it. Don't exactly read manuals on how to cross stitch while creating 'spunky designs.' Not exactly my type of reading material, mum," Ron replied with a yawn.
"Oh, hush you! What's gotten into you?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she rummaged through the bookcases.
"Nothing. Just bored to my wit's end." Ron answered dully. "There's nothing to do."
"Why don't you write a nice letter to Harry? He could probably use it at Grimmauld Place."
"Already did."
"How about to Hermione, then?"
"Her, too."
"How 'bout going for a nice fly on your broom?"
"Done that already."
"Read the new Quidditch Weekly mag?"
"Read it. Twice"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake! There must be something for you to do around here," Mrs. Weasley huffed as she stood exasperatedly looking around the room.
Ron yawned again in reply.
As Mrs. Weasley's eyes roamed around the room they settled on the weekly grocery list magically pinned up to the refrigerator.
"How about heading into town to run some errands? It's better than wasting away here," Mrs. Weasley asked, triumphant that she was able rescue her youngest son from a dire situation.
"What?" Ron sat up with a start. "You actually trust me to go into a town full of Muggles and run errands?"
"Well it's a nice day outside and you've got nothing to do. Besides if I sent your father out like I normally do he probably wouldn't return for hours! You know how he gets around Muggles. Why just last week he gave a young boy a frightful scare badgering him about - what do you call it - skatetrouds or something? The things with wheels on the bottom of a shoe."
"Wheels? Why would anyone put wheels on the bottom of their shoes?" Ron asked, shaking his head at the audacity of it. "Those Muggles are a loony bunch!"
"Well never you mind. Do you think you can handle it then?"
"Sure, mum. It'll be no problem."
***
Ron trudged along the many sidewalks of Ottery St. Catchpole with his pockets clinking with Muggle money and a look of awe and bewilderment adorning his face as he observed the Muggles around him.
"Who would have though of paying a parking eater for time?" Ron thought in amazement while staring at the grey post-like objects lining the sidewalk. "These Muggles really are barking mad!"
Ron continued to make his way through Ottery St. Catchpole finally coming to a stop in front of the local grocery store and was immediately surprised when the doors automatically opened for him in greeting without the use of magic (Ron checked of course)!
Ron scratched his head in bewilderment at some of the Muggle products lining the selves. "Why would anyone need feminine napkins? Aren't the normal white ones good enough? Mum uses them all the time when setting the dinner table and they work just fine!" Ron thought to himself only to shake his head again at the things Muggles came up with.
Walking up and down the aisles, Ron slowly gathered the items on the grocery list and with his head bent down he (tried to) manually add up the prices of the items (so he would be somewhat prepared when paying for the items with muggle money).
Not looking where he was going, Ron didn't notice another figure coming around the same sharp corner as him nor was he able to prevent the resulting collision as both him and the other person (who was decidedly female) tripped and fell on each other with their grocery items flying across the clean tiled floor.
With Ron's vision filled with dirty blonde hair and a distinctly warm female body beneath him, he could only blink in confusion as to what had just happened to him.
After a few seconds passed and Ron hadn't made a move to get up, a soft voice cut through his confusion.
"Ronald?"