Year Seven: Harry Potter & The Blood Debt by GringottsVault711
Chapter 13: Ron’s Secret
“Ron, what “ ?”
Harry stared open-mouthed at the glowing scars on Ron’s arms, and looked imploringly at his best friend. Ron blinked back at him, looking almost ashamed.
“I was having a bad dream,” he said shakily, quickly pulling his robe back on, covering his arms.
“What’s going on, Ron?” Harry asked him. “Why are your scars…?”
“I’m fine,” Ron answered. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll worry about it if I want to,” Harry replied. “Something is really wrong with you; you haven’t been sleeping, and you’re completely out of it half the time! Tell me what’s going on.”
Ron made to leave the dormitory, but Harry stood between him and the door.
“I’m just concerned, Ron,” he said consolingly.
“And I don’t want you to have to be concerned! You’ve got plenty of your own problems to deal with without worrying about mine!”
Ron pushed past him and left the room, taking the steps two at a time down into the common room; Harry quickly raced after him, and was very glad to see that Hermione was there still seated in the armchair he had left her in. She looked up at the two of them as they reached the bottom of the staircase and immediately sensed something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” she asked the two of them quickly.
“Ask him,” Harry said, gesturing at Ron.
Caught between the two of them, Ron seemed to sense defeat. He pushed his hair back and sighed, and looked at Harry and Hermione hesitantly as though still trying to think of a way out of his predicament. Finally he surrendered.
“Alright, you want to know?” he said.
“Yes, we want to know,” Harry answered.
“Not here, let’s go upstairs,” Ron sighed.
Harry and Hermione wasted no time in heading back up to the boys’ dormitory where they immediately sat on Ron’s bed. He joined them shortly, and the two of them waited with bated breath as Ron began to fill them in on his troubles.
“I’ve been having nightmares,” Ron said slowly. “They aren’t mine though; they’re someone else’s.”
Hermione looked perplexed, but Harry quickly but together what he had seen with what Ron was telling them.
“When I was attacked by those brains in the Department of Mysteries,” Ron explained further. “They left thoughts inside of me.”
“But why now?” Hermione asked. “Why not a year ago?”
Ron swallowed hard as he looked away guiltily.
“I did have them a year ago,” he said guiltily. “But I didn’t say anything. Not to either of you, anyway. Sirius had just died, and my problems didn’t seem like anything anyone needed to worry about…But I told Dumbledore. He explained what he knew about the Brain Room, and he helped me stop the nightmares. And the thoughts.”
Harry felt terrible; his best friend had been suffering by himself, because he hadn’t wanted to burden him with any more worries. As though Ron’s well being wasn’t as important as his own.
He turned to see Hermione’s reaction; her eyes were watery and could tell that there were a million questions whirling around in her mind, and that she was only hesitating as she decided which one to ask first.
“What did he tell you about the Brain Room?” she asked finally.
“The brains aren’t really brains “ in a physical sense at least. They are a collection of memories and thoughts donated by witches and wizards. Most of them aren’t happy, just things people wanted to live without.”
“If you stopped the nightmares…” Harry asked. “Why are you having them again?”
“I was fine for a while, but then…Dad died,” Ron said throatily. “And I started having them once in a while. But it was bearable, nothing I couldn’t deal with…”
He paused, and his eyes looked very red.
“But ever since Ginny…”
He didn’t say any more, but he didn’t need to; Harry and Hermione understood perfectly. Ginny’s death had been the finally blow to Ron’s defenses, and the nightmares had been growing steadily worse since then.
“And why haven’t you gone back to Dumbledore?” Harry asked.
“I just didn’t,” Ron answered. “I don’t know why; I guess I felt he had more things to worry about, too.”
The sobs Hermione had been so valiantly holding back finally broke through as she wrapped her arms around Ron.
“Oh, Ron “ you need to tell us these things,” she choked. “We care about you. I’ve been so worried… I had no idea…”
“Yeah, mate,” Harry added. “Don’t ever think I have too many problems to hear about yours. I’m not any more important than you.”
“That’s debatable,” Ron said with a small laugh.
“You have to start sleeping, Ron,” Hermione said seriously. “You can’t do this. You have to go back to Dumbledore, and you have to tell him you’re having the nightmares again so he can help you get rid of them.”
“Okay, I will,” Ron sighed.
“Promise?” Hermione said.
“I promise,” he replied, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“So… who’s this Aurora woman, then?” Harry asked after a quiet moment or two.
“No idea,” Ron said uncertainly. “She was murdered… for the wrong reason. I think she was my sister “ or well, you know his sister. Whoever he is.”
“Looks like we’ve got a lot more to figure out this year,” Harry sighed. “Voldemort, the prophecy… and now this.”
“We don’t have to…” Ron started.
“You’ll feel better when you know,” Harry said simply.
“Thanks, Harry,” Ron said gratefully.
“Don’t mention it.”
---
For the first time since term started Ron got a good night’s sleep, and it showed the next morning. He still looked fatigued, but the hours he had slept had restored a good amount of his energy.
“Perfect timing for Quidditch, too,” Harry commented as they left Charms class the following afternoon.
“Yeah,” the re-energized Ron replied. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing the new team at work.”
“Did you schedule practice for Friday?” Hermione asked suddenly.
“Yeah,” Ron said. “Why?”
“Oh,” Hermione replied, looking a bit disappointed. “No reason “ just curious…”
“Hermione “ what “ ”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said quickly. “You two should get ready for practice.”
With that she sped off, for the library no doubt, leaving Ron and Harry very confused.
“What’s on Friday?” Harry asked.
“Dunno “ her birthday is Thursday, though “ oh, bloody hell!” Ron said, with the air of dawning realization.
“What?”
“It’s our anniversary!” Ron exclaimed. “I’m such an idiot “ I can’t believe I forgot that.”
“Err… Ron “ do you and Hermione count your anniversary from your first date?” Harry asked slowly.
“Yeah “ why?”
“That means it’s my anniversary with Katie, too…” Harry groaned. “She’ll kill me. She will literally come here and she will kill me.”
“Katie doesn’t know you forgot, though,” Ron said. “I practically just told Hermione I had no clue!”
“Yeah “ but it’s more important that I remember…” Harry said, thinking of their recent engagement.
“What “ why?” Ron asked.
“Oh… er… no reason,” Harry answered quickly, trying to think fast. “It’s just “ that, well… I need extra time to come up with something, you know… long distance.”
“Oh… alright,” Ron said, seeming satisfied with Harry’s excuse. “Makes sense. Yeah, you’re right… you have it worse.”
Harry heaved a sigh, before hoisting his slipping book bag back over his shoulder and making his way down the stairs to the Entrance Hall, Ron taking his lead. They reached the grounds quickly and set off for the Quidditch stadium, where they found one of the new team mates already waiting for them.
“You’re Zahira?” Ron asked, shaking the girl’s hand; she nodded in reply.
Zahira Kadar, one of the team’s two new Beaters, was a tall Arabic girl with long black hair, which even tied up high in a pony tail reached her hips. She had dark skin and deep brown eyes that shone brilliantly in the sun. Despite her height, her frame was rather petite and Harry had nearly fallen off his broom when he had seen the surprising amount of force she had hit the Bludgers with.
Harry nodded hello to Zahira before he and Ron retreated to lockers to change into their Quidditch robes.
“She’s a bit intimidating, eh?” Harry said to Ron.
“She’s a girl…” Ron said dubiously.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Harry asked. “We’ve had plenty of girls on the team before.”
“Not Beaters…” Ron answered.
“Yeah, but Zahira’s brilliant…”
“I know “ why else would I have picked her?” Ron answered. “I’m not sure… it’s just strange; having a girl Beater, you know?”
“Whatever you say,” Harry said. He pulled on his gloves and went back out onto the pitch. Zahira was up in the air zooming around on her Nimbus X “ the newest broom in the Nimbus series. On a bench next to the stands Harry found Euan with the two new Chasers, Ryan Healy and Erimentha Patrons. Ryan had a mop of dark curly hair, bright blue eyes and a handful of light freckles, while Erimentha was short with olive skin and short brown hair that looked as though it had been lightened by the sun and nearly matched her skin tone.
Harry greeted both of them with a welcoming grin.
“Good to have you on the team,” he said.
“Good to be here,” Ryan said, with a charismatic grin that reminded Harry strongly of Sirius.
Erimentha remained quiet, but gave Harry a nervous smile.
“Erimentha, right?” Harry asked her.
“Yeah… but you can call me Minty,” she answered. “Everyone else does.”
At this moment, another boy came running up with a broom in his hand. He was stocky with auburn hair that fell in his eyes, and Harry recognized him as the other Beater, Derry Oaks.
“Hi,” he said, slightly out of breath. “Sorry, I’m a bit late…”
“No worries, Ron’s still in the changing room,” Harry told him. “Mind you, he can be a bit of a drill sergeant when it comes to Quidditch, especially when we’re preparing for our Slytherin match - which is first game of the season; so you’ll all want to be alert.”
“Turning the new team members against me already?” Ron said with a smirk, coming out of the dress room, looking very sharp in his Quidditch robes.
“Just giving them fair warning,” Harry answered.
“Well, what are you all doing down here?” Ron asked. “You should be doing some warm-up laps; come on, let’s go.”
They all mounted their brooms and kicked off from the ground, joining Zahira up in the air. After about ten minutes of warming up, Ron started them on his infamous training drills. He had Euan, Minty and Ryan working on the Hawkshead Formation while Derry and Zahira learned the Sloth Grip Roll while holding their Bludger bats; it was something Harry had never seen attempted with much success. In the meantime, Harry did Wronski Feints, pulling up not before he hit the ground but whenever Ron’s whistle signaled him; it proved more difficult than merely pulling out of the dive at the last moment, because Ron’s signals came repeatedly without warning.
After what seemed to be an eternity of drills, Ron finally blew his whistle three times indicating that practice was over. Harry breathed a sigh of exhausted relief and flew down to the grass, quickly dismounting from his Firebolt. As usual after Ron’s Quidditch practices, his body ached. Ron told the team that Friday practice was cancelled, which they all seemed thoroughly grateful for, and they all left for the showers
A refreshed but still aching Harry arrived at dinner alongside Ron, still talking at great length about that afternoon’s practice. Famished, Harry barely took notice of what he was eating before he began shoveling it into his mouth.
“…I think Oaks needs to work on his aim; he’s very powerful “ but not accurate. Kadar, on the other hand, has nearly perfect technique, but she needs to work on her communication skills. I don’t think I’ve heard her say a word, and that’s not going to work if she’s going to be part of the team…”
“Uh-huh,” Harry said mindlessly as Ron continued rambling.
He looked up at the entrance to the Great Hall, keeping an eye out for Hermione who had not yet arrived. Instead of finding her, he spotted Siobhan who entered quietly and took a seat at the very end of the Slytherin table, away from everyone else.
“Siobhan!” Harry called.
She looked up, a bit shocked at hearing her name called from across the hall. Harry gestured for her to come over and sit with him and Ron. She got up and joined them, with a small smile and a casual ‘hey’, before she began to eat silently just as she had the previous evening.
“…Healy’s a good flyer, but every time Patrons looks at him he tries to show off and ends up dropping the Quaffle…”
“Ouch!” Harry interrupted, feeling a small sting on the tip of his finger, causing him to drop his fork with a loud clatter.
“What’s the matter?” Ron asked, sounding only barely concerned.
Harry looked at his finger, and saw a tiny cut where he had felt the sting.
“Cut myself…” he answered.
“How’d you do manage that?” Siobhan asked.
“Must have accidentally put it in the way of my knife…” Harry said, shrugging as he picked his fork back up and returned to his bacon and cabbage.
Siobhan looked at him like he was a bit of an idiot and shook her head with a small laugh, as Ron continued talking about practice. Quite soon, they were joined by Hermione who walked in rather briskly and said a stiff hello to Ron, before greeting Siobhan emphatically; Siobhan gave her a patronizing smile and returned to her quiet eating.
“Cancelled Friday practice,” Ron told her.
“Oh? Why would you do that?” Hermione asked.
“More time to spend with my girlfriend on our anniversary,” he answered.
“You remembered!” she said happily.
“Yeah “ sorry, I needed just a tiny reminder…” Ron said apologetically.
She gave him a kiss, and Harry looked at them with just a small pang of jealousy, the distance between him and Katie bothering him even more.
“Well,” Ron told Hermione. “You might want to eat quickly, because we have a meeting with Dumbledore today. You wanted to ask him about the ball, right?”
“What ball?” Harry asked.
“I want to have a Halloween ball… like last year,” Hermione explained. “I think it would be good fun.”
“She wants it to be themed, too,” Ron added.
“What kind of theme?”
“You have to go with someone from a different house…” Hermione told him, barely containing her excitement. “It will be a perfect opportunity to unite the houses.”
“But what about you and Ron? Are you really going to go with different dates?”
“We’re Head Boy and Girl… so we’ll be supervising, and we’ll be too busy to have our own dates, so no,” Hermione replied.
“That’s a clever excuse,” Harry said, raising his eyebrow at her.
“I think the ball sounds like a grand idea…” Siobhan said, surprising the three of them by actually entering the conversation.
“You do, really?” Hermione asked delightedly.
“Yeah,” Siobhan said. “Though the Slytherin turnout will be a bit low…”
“But a good few will come, right?” Hermione asked.
“Oh, sure…” Siobhan answered. “We’re not all snobs.”
“Excellent,” Hermione said. “Now we just need Dumbledore’s approval.”
“Oh, and while we’re getting Dumbledore’s approval,” Ron said. “I wanted to ask him about…something else, too.”
“What?” Hermione asked.
“Can’t tell you now…” Ron said, with a not-so-suave gesture at Harry.
“Alright,” Hermione answered with a grin. “Well, I think I’m done here, let’s go.”
“See you later, mate,” Ron said with a wink at Harry. “You too, Siobhan.”
With that, the two of them got up and headed for Dumbledore’s office, leaving Harry in total bewilderment as to what Ron was up to.