Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Sakura ❯ Year Five: Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

Disclaimer: My name is not J.K. Rowling nor am I part of the wonderfully talented Mangaka quartet known as CLAMP.

Title: Sakura

Pairing: RWxDM

Warnings: Slash and Angst

Spoilers: OOTP

POV: Ronald Weasley; passive

 

Chapter 15

 

The next morning Ron woke up to a tapping sound on the window above his bed. Groaning he rolled over and buried himself deeper into his blankets. The annoying and persistent tapping continued though and was soon joined by Pigs overexcited hooting.

“For Gods sake would you shut that damn bird up,” Harry groaned from his own bed on the other side of the room.

Biting his tongue Ron threw the covers off and turned to the window to see who was causing all the trouble. What he saw was a large eagle owl sitting outside on the windowsill. He immediately recognized it as the bird that brought Draco his daily packages from his mother. Attached to its leg was a medium sized green velvet bag with a small card tied to it causing the bird to balance awkwardly on the outside window sill. Jumping up out of bed he stumbled to the window and pulled it open.

He was met with a rush of cold wind and a colorful prose of curses from Harry as the bird flew in and landed on the headboard of his bed. He shut the window and quickly jumped back into his bed to pull a blanket over his shoulders as the other boy tried to bury himself deeper into his blankets.

He stroked the big owl on the side of its head, brushing away some of the snow as he did, and untied the bag from its leg and put it off to the side. He opened his chest at the foot of his bed and rummaged through looking for Pig's owl nuts while the little owl continued to excitedly flap around in his cage.

“I thought I said…” Harry started, sitting up and throwing the covers off of himself but when he saw the owl he stopped, a look of plain shock taking over his face. “Is that Malfoy's owl?”

“Yeah what of it?” Ron snapped back as he finally found the owl treats and sat back up to feed some to the eagle owl. He smiled as it gingerly took the treats from the palm of his hand, giving a soft hoot as though to say thank you.

“What the hell is that filthy bird doing here?” Harry yelled. Hedwig, who had somehow been able to sleep through Pig's hooting and flapping, jumped awake at her master's outburst.

“Sod off will you,” Ron yelled back. “It's only doing its bloody job.” Holding out his arm the owl obediently climbed up onto it and then onto Ron's shoulder.

“That bird belongs to a death eater,” Harry yelled. “It shouldn't…”

“It belongs to Draco,” Ron yelled, cutting Harry off. He grabbed the bag that the owl had brought.

“Malfoy is…” Harry started but Ron cut him off again.

“His father is,” Ron said, “but Draco isn't.” He walked out after that, making sure to slam the door behind him. He didn't care if he woke anybody up though he was impressed that the large owl on his shoulder didn't even seem bothered by it.

He walked down to the basement where the kitchen was. When he walked through the door he saw his mother and Lupin sitting at the table drinking tea. Both of them looked up at him. His mother immediately looked back at her mug as Lupin stood up to greet him.

“Good morning Ron.” Ron mumbled a “good morning” in return as Lupin looked at the owl perched on Ron's shoulder. “And who might this beauty belong to?” Ron glanced at his mother who turned to look at them. Her focus was on the owl though, not Ron.

“It's Draco's,” he said after swallowing the lump in his throat. His mother's eyes snapped back to him but with an angry look in them. He braced himself.

“Draco's?” she yelled. “Draco Malfoy's? What do you think you are doing letting that thing into this house.”

“Now Molly,” Lupin said stepping between her and Ron. “Ron has every right to be exchanging letters with whomever he chooses. And it's not as though…”

“Anything that boy sends is undoubtedly cursed,” she screamed cutting him off. “His father's a death eater and very well known and liked within the ministry. There's no question that Lucius already knows all the details about what happened to Arthur.” She was nearly purple face as she pointed her finger at Ron. “Anything that this bird brought for you put it on the table now.”

“But mum…”

“NOW.”

Ron looked at Lupin for some support but he just shook his head and with an apologetic look said, “Better do as she says Ron.”

Feeling utterly defeated he placed the green bag with the card still attached onto the table. His mother immediately snatched it up and handed it to Lupin who hesitated to take it. She took out her wand and with a wave conjured up a large bird cage.

“Bird too,” she said looking sternly at Ron. He didn't argue, couldn't argue really, though the owl certainly did. By the time the owl was finally in the cage Lupin had a rather large gash on his forearm and was dripping blood ever where. Ron felt a pang as some of the droplets landed on the green velvet bag that Lupin had placed back on the table.

“No I'm fine Molly,” he said as she tried looking at it. Ignoring further attempts he took the cage and the bag and with another apologetic look at Ron, walked out of the kitchen.

Sighing, his mother threw herself down into one of the chairs. Ron kept standing, staring at the spot on the table where his package from Draco had been. He felt tears trying to shove their way to the front of his vision but he held them back. Everything about his mother he hated at that moment. He didn't care how tired or drawn she looked right then or how she must be feeling with everything that was happening. He hated her. Finally she looked at him.

“Sit down Ron,” she said calmly though Ron could hear a slight shake in her voice. “We need to talk.”

“No.”

“Excuse me,” she said.

Ron shook his head. “No.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen

“Ronald Weasley,” She yelled. “You march yourself back into this kitchen right now or so help me…” he didn't hear the rest of what she said though. As he walked up the stairs he bumped into Harry. He could feel the anger and frustration running through him as he shoved the boy wonder back and into Mrs. Black's portrait, setting off her usual screams.

As the chaos began and people started filing out if their rooms to see what all the noise was about, Ron reached his and Harry's bedroom. Slamming the door shut he picked up his wand from the table beside his bed. After locking the door he turned and threw himself back into his bed. He pulled the covers over himself and covered his head with the pillow.

He knew that he just blew his chance to talk to his mother about everything. He knew that if he had just sat down and explained she would have listened and everything would have started to get better. He hated himself for being so stubborn but somehow at that moment he hated her more. He hadn't even gotten to see what was inside the bag Draco had sent him. He wasn't even able to read the card.

It was because Draco's father was a death eater and a pretty powerful one in everyway that counts. It was only natural that nobody would trust Draco. In everybody's minds Draco was just as evil as his father and more than likely willing to help him in any scheme to thwart the Order. Ron had to admit that they were right, that Draco was the perfect candidate for a future death eater but a part of Ron disagreed with himself.

It was that part of Ron that reminded himself that Draco was different. He knew that because he saw the part of Draco that the Slytherin never let anybody else see. Draco couldn't be evil because Ron knew that he was just as human as he was. Somebody as evil as they claimed him to be wouldn't be able to shed tears the way he saw Draco shed them that night or call out for someone the way he had called out for Ron. There was no way anyone could fake what Ron saw in Draco that night.

At least that's what he hoped.

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Ron stayed in the room for the rest of the day and most of the next, only coming out when the need to relieve himself became unbearable. By that time everybody had given up on him and decided that it was probably better to pretend he didn't exist. Harry took the opportunity to move all of is stuff upstairs to the twins' room. Ron didn't care anymore though. He liked it better that way.

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Ron's new routine for the rest of the holiday consisted of sleeping or sitting in his room all day and only coming out at odd intervals for the bathroom and food, usually in the middle of the night. It was during one of these late night trips to the kitchen that he got the large slap in the face that he probably deserved.

It was the night before they were leaving to return to Hogwarts. He had spent most of the evening and that night packing, unpacking, then repacking. It gave him something to do and made him look busy if anybody decided to come up to see his progress. Nobody did though.

He was about to open the door to the kitchen when he heard a sound on the other side. He couldn't hear it very well so he put his ear up to the door to listen. It was somebody crying and he was pretty sure it was his mom.

He stood there feeling torn. He was still upset with his mother but at the same time he knew that he was the reason she was crying. Taking a deep breath he turned the handle and opened the door.

He mother was sitting at the table but when she saw him standing in the doorway she jumped up. They stared at each other for a few seconds before she turned away from him, wiping her face with a handkerchief.

“Oh it's you Ron,” she sniffed. She paused for a few more seconds, still dabbing at her eyes. “Oh you must be hungry. Haven't seen you all day. Is all of your packing done then?” She began busying herself with the stove, pulling down pots and pans. She was still crying.

“Mum?” she stopped bustling about, listening, waiting for him to continue. But he didn't know what he should say. No words could describe how horrible he felt right then. He walked up behind her. Placing his hand on her shoulder he turned her around and before she said anything pulled her into a hug.

She was surprised at first but soon he could feel her arms wrap around his neck as she began to cry into his shoulder. Resting his chin on the top of her head he held on to her tighter.

His mother was human after all too.

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A/N: So if you've made this far into my insanity then I thank you and I hope you enjoyed it. I've been writing this fic since the beginning of September and I was originally uploading it to FF.net. Then I remembered about this site so here it is. I figured it could use another Harry Potter fic and I don't think I've read a single Ron&Draco fic on this site yet…though that could just be my lack of effort of course.