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The Warren by xelan
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The Warren

xelan

A/N: A bit ago, a reviewer expressed disbelief that Ron Weasley, a pureblooded wizard, could possibly know to use the term 'gosh' due to it being Muggle in origin. Honestly, I thought it was a little funny; especially if you consider Arthur Weasley's job and hobbies and that Harry and Hermione are both Muggle raised, it didn't seem too far of a stretch that Ron might have picked something up by osmosis. Taking it a step further, I wrote this…

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*Pop*

Arthur Weasley, head of the Office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts and father of seven, appeared on his front doorstep. The door was unlocked and he stepped through the doorway to exclaim to his family, "Two raids! Two! Perkins and I must have had to modify the memories of a dozen Muggles!" He pulled out a large polka dot handkerchief and began blotting his face vigorously.

"Mundungus again, Dear?" came Molly's voice from the kitchen. She was standing by the stove making sure the pudding was coming along all right.

"Mundungus and Ravenscroft, though I can only prove Ravenscroft's involvement. One of these days, I'll catch Fletcher in the act, mark my words!"

"'A course you will, Dad," Ron idly commented from his chess game with himself. His attention was focused almost solely on his game and he didn't want to stretch his resources too thin. THIS TIME he was determined to win. Somehow, and I'm not exactly sure how, but Ron Weasley always seemed to lose whenever he played against himself. Normally when playing against oneself, you win as often as you lose, but in Ron's case he seemed to lose twice as much. Odd, that.

"Oh, there you are Ronnie! I learned the most wonderful new Muggle word when Perkins and I followed Mundungus into a Muggle Kinema (or Cinema for you Muggles out there). It was dark and there was this great big talking dog!"

"Yeah, that's great Dad, but can you just hurry up and tell me this new word? I'm kinda trying to play a match here and I really think I have a chance this time."

"All right, the word is 'gawrsh'. And from what I can tell, it's used to express surprise, amazement, or pleasure."

"Gawrsh, huh? Sounds kinda silly." He smiled as he pictured Marvin the Mad Muggle using the term, "I'll have to remember that one."

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-Years Later-

"For the 27th time, Ron, it's pronounced 'gosh' and not 'gawrsh'. You sound like a complete moron when you say it wrong."

"Shows what you know, little Miss Know-it-all," he sneered. "I owled my Dad and he agrees with me, he even remembers where he heard it for the first time."

Hermione, who was sitting on Harry's right while Ron sat to his left, just rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Okay, fine. Keep sounding like a moron if that's what you want. Don't come crying to me if people who hear you think you're mentally challenged... well, at least not due to you saying 'gosh' wrong." Hermione quietly went back to working on her essay and playing footsie with Harry.

Harry, who had never seen a cartoon in his life, agreed with Hermione and thanked the stars above that his girlfriend could multitask and that his girlfriend was even kinkier than her hair.

Ron pushed his untouched parchment back and slid out the tiny travel chess set Harry had given him for his birthday. He was always fascinated by the little Magi-nets that Harry had said kept the pieces on the board even when you held it upside down. Of course, since it was a Muggle set, the pieces didn't move, but it was much easier to sneak into the library than his older and louder wizard set. Today was the day. Today, he was determined to finally win against himself!