“Ginny. You remember that Nott bloke? I’ve been thinking about him…�

“Why?� she asked curiously, popping a leftover Christmas chocolate into her mouth.

“I saw him the other day…�

*******

“I’m sick of it! Every time I ask you for a small favor, you grumble and complain about it as if I asked you to bring China back to me!� Hermione screeched.

“I went grocery shopping this morning – all for you – and I haven’t even got to eat a morsel of it. You’ve been eating everything! And there’s a blizzard out there; we’re probably snowed in. You want me to go out in that?� Ron retaliated at his pregnant wife. She was seven months along, but she behaved as if it was her ninth year of pregnancy. If she was bossy while they were in school, she was positively tyrannical as his wife.

Hermione was having dreams about the baby’s sex, as most witches with child do. Even without one single dream, though, Ron knew it was going to be a girl. Surely a boy wouldn’t be this pushy and demanding?

“Yes,� she cocked an eyebrow and sat back on her heels while triumphantly folding her arms. “You’re a wizard. You can Floo. And don’t come back without pickled pigs’ feet.�

“I may not,� he grumbled while trudging to the door, slipping a scarf around his bare neck. He glared at her as he pulled on his heaviest wool cloak. She only scoffed back with a shadow of a grin hiding behind her mask. He hunched over in preparation for his very chilly Floo experience, but his wife stepped in front of his path before he reached the powder. “What?� he muttered, annoyed.

“I love you,� she said softly and kissed the end of his nose.

“Bloody….mad…women,� he said under his breath and tossed a flick of Floo powder into a burst of flame, rendering it a violent green color. Stepping into it, he gave Hermione a flicker of a smile before saying, “Bernhart’s Cabinet.�

He was off more quickly than he expected. The wind was quite strong – very dangerous while Flooing. He blew hard to the left for three seconds before he managed to control himself somewhat. But then a burst of snow blew across his path and he could no longer see. There’s a reason why no one travels during blizzards, Hermione! A furious howling filled his ears and he saw his ankles fly above his head, and then he was tumbling down. Gravity caught hold of him, and his brain screamed in panic as he saw the rich-colored bricks of a foreign chimney.

Ron landed hard on his knee and elbow, only barely softened by a intricately woven rug. When he stood, he found himself on the inside of a grand house. The most impressive place he’d ever been was Hogwarts up until this point, but the grandeur of this mansion clearly eclipsed the castle. He turned to inspect the fireplace out of which he toppled like a wadded-up spitball. The mantle was made entirely of white marble. The flooring was hard wood, but obviously waxed continuously to bring it to a reflective shine. The sitting room was beyond formal. The dark gray furniture lurked in the room like a cognizant entity, creepily biding its time.

Ron moved sideways against the wall, crossing one foot in front of the other slowly, afraid that he might creak the floorboards and find himself face-to-face with some ancient weapon. In some effort to find out where he landed, he looked curiously at the tapestries adorning the imposing walls. One look told him he was at least in a wizard’s household, as the figures on the tapestry were engaged in some odd ceremony that apparently required quite a bit of blood.

The next was a family tree – or something like that. Here and there were dark holes where a name might have been, and in truth, it reminded Ron a lot of the tree in Grimmauld Place. Skimming quickly to the bottom, the names he saw there caused an involuntary spasm of nerves to creep along the back of his neck. Malfoy! He turned back toward the receiving room, less afraid now. Surely no Malfoys would be here now. Draco (a.k.a., the would-be-murderer) would no longer be here. He’d run off a few years before on the infamous night Dumbledore died. No one had ever seen him or even heard from him since. Not that that was a huge loss. Malfoy senior of course was killed right around the same time. Everyone saw that coming and Ron didn’t feel the least bit terrible for thinking so.

Narcissa Malfoy could have possibly been here, of course. But what mother in her right mind would want to stay in this old, dusty house – least of all at Christmastime?

He moved through the room, less cautious, but not overconfident. He wanted to search through the entire house and unearth some previously unknown fact, but … Hermione jumped into his brain just then, and he realized he’d wasted entirely too much time. He wasn’t exactly keen on jumping right back into the Floo Network only to be thrown out again. Who knew? Next time he could land in a Muggle house, and Merlin knows how bothersome that would turn out to be!

I should really go, though.

Yes, you should.

Ron turned back toward the dominating mantle in the room, but a spark caught the corner of his eye. It looked as if it was veinwork inside the walls. He wandered closer and saw a dark figure hunched against the wall, his cold fingers stroking the wallpaper carefully.

“Oi. What are you doing here?�

The figure stood straighter.

“None of your business. I could ask the same of you and would get the same answer.�

He was right. That was the reply waiting in his throat. “Right. So we’re both here illegally. I’m here by mistake and….what is it that you’re doing?�

“Oh hell. Don’t you irritate me now. I would worry about you if you didn’t look the doormat type.�

Ron could feel his face heating up against his will. “I am not a doormat!�

“It’s a bad blizzard out there,� he stated nonchalantly. “Why would a randy bloke such as yourself be out in a blizzard…unless….he was ordered to run out to get something for his witch?�

Ron narrowed his eyes in response and huffed to the side. The man chortled mean-spiritedly. “That’s what I thought. Now step back. This wall here will open soon.�

“Oh, and is a great magician like you going to coax it open by molesting it, then?�

“Pathetic insult from a pathetic Weasley. Listen and learn. Everything in this life will accommodate you if you only please it a little. Some things are harder to please, like this door here. All that means is that,� he tapped his forehead, “you’ve got to think a bit harder at what it will like more.�

Ron watched the cloaked man fondle the wall for a bit longer with a disgusted twist to his nose before it occurred to him to ask, “Who are you?�

“No one,� the man snorted. “I know you, of course. Ron Weasley. The real question is who’s the lady – Ah! Here we are!�

“Er…It’s a wall.�

“No, moron. Come here.� As Ron suspiciously moved closer, the man’s face became more visible. He recognized it from somewhere…but couldn’t quite place it without seeing more. While he was distracted by the pockmarked skin, the man grabbed Ron’s wrist and thrust it though the wall. He expected it to hurt and even closed his eyes, but instead, it was as if his hand slipped through a cold fog. Amazingly, when he dared to crack his lids upward slightly, he couldn’t even see his fingers. “Walk through.�

“Why me?�

“Because you’re expendable. Go.�

“You-“ he tried to shout but he was quite unceremoniously shoved through the wall. On the other side, he waited only moments before the thin man slipped calmly in behind him. “Where are we?� he asked in awe.

“Well, a secret storage chamber, I suppose.�

A light inspection of the many shelves and cases proved something solidly fearful to him, and his lungs clenched, causing him to gasp. “These are dark magic!�

“Don’t be stupid. All these things exist on their own, or come from things that exist anyway in nature. It’s not the materials that are evil, it’s the wizard who weilds them for harm.�

Ron ventured to ask the question that had been on his mind the entire time. “And..� he swallowed, “are you a dark wizard?�

The hood of his cloak was grasped by a calloused hand and pulled down. A young man was revealed, about Ron’s age. He was thinner than Ron previously thought, and looked disheveled, as if caught at doing something naughty. He was even around Ron’s height, which surprised him, as the figure looked much taller before now. “Theodore Nott,� he said more to himself than the other.

“And hello to you too.� Nott’s cloak flowed with the breeze behind him as he moved to look at all the various items in turn.

“You didn’t answer my question,� Ron shouted, far too loudly in the small room. It echoed back at him tenfold, making him cringe.

“Am I a dark wizard? I don’t think so. I do what I have to do, and it’s as simple as that.�

“And that isn’t evil?�

“Isn’t it survival? It doesn’t matter, all this philosophical nonsense. I will get mine, and you will get yours, and it’s as simple as that.�

“Fair enough, I guess.�

“You didn’t answer my question either,� Nott said quietly without turning to face Ron in any way.

“Which?�

“Who’s the lady, and what are you getting for her?�

Ron narrowed his eyes and was painfully aware that he was right near the door…if only it hadn’t closed up on him already. Now would not be a good time to run smack into a wall. “Why do you want to know?�

“Curiosity is all.� With a chuckle, he added, “I’m not going to attack her. I had a witch of my own a short while ago. She broke it off though.�

“Erm…sorry to hear that.�

“Doesn’t matter. She was good in bed and that’s what matters. So…if you won’t tell me, I’ll guess Hermione Granger.�

“You knew that anyway then.�

“No. But it was pretty obvious in school.� Ron found himself blushing once again. And he hated it. “So are you off getting a light potion for her cramps?� Nott snickered.

“No! She wanted pickled ….something….�

“Ha! Good job of her for sending you for it!�

“I’ll just bring her something else.�

“You know I envy you.�

“Whu-?� the red-head gaped disbelievingly, going over in his head to make sure he didn’t hear it wrong.

“You always had your friends and your close family. That’s more than a lot of people have. I saw someone in my family die a long time ago, and I never forgot it.� The dark boy turned to finally look Ron in the eye from beside a large jar of red floating things in a jar. “The problem was that no one else forgot it either. I have spent my whole life feeling like and being made to feel like I was at a funeral. No one thought, ‘Perhaps he’s over it and would like to move along!’. See, you’ve coasted through life – yeah, I know you’ve done some extraordinary things and whatnot, but you’ve had it pretty easy. Family to adore you no matter how stupid you act, friends who would do anything for you, though I never understood why. Even if I don’t necessarily see your charms, someone else did. Many people did. And that’s far more riches than one man should have in his life. It’s more than I have…�

Nott returned to his inspection. After several minutes of hearing nothing but the taps of Theodore’s shoes and an occasional scuffle as he moved one item or another, Ron realized his presence was no longer noticed or wanted. Slowly and as soundlessly as possible, he backed toward the wall, feeling for it so he didn’t thud his head on an impenetrable object. However, before he knew it, he was back at an intersection of corridors, with the receiving room sitting elegantly as ever on his right. He all but ran to the fireplace and threw the Floo powder in.

“My house in Mary’s End!�

He had to concentrate hard, and felt his body being jerked in many directions. His muscles tensed as he worked his hardest to hold true to his destination. Finally, he fell out of a fireplace and recognized the sitting room as his own. Hermione stood before him looking like hell froze over.

“Where have you been?� she shouted in a voice reminiscent of Mrs. Weasley.

Instead of showering her with excuses though, his heart began to beat wildly. The tangled web of her hair, those beautiful brown eyes…that swollen belly from the child she carried – his baby. Hermione was the woman he loved, and he appreciated her in a fresh, new light. Wordlessly, he swept her up into a close embrace, kissing her neck as he held her tight.

“What’s all this about?� she mumbled into his chest.

“I don’t appreciate you the way I should…or I haven’t. But I will. I love you so much.�

With a squeeze back, her hunger forgotten, she said sweetly, “I love you too. Merry Christmas, Ron.�