Kapitel 26: ch 26
I did not cry.
I could not cry.
Funerals had never meant much to me in my past life. Why should it now? I thought to myself. Working at a funeral home at a young age, and being exposed to so much death made me ...numb to it all. My brother's soul passed on three days ago, what does his vessel mean to me?
It's your brother, you fucking hearless piece of shit.
The casket being lowered into the ground broke me out of the thoughts tormenting my mind. I locked down on them with my occlumency, having let my shields slip trying to draw out some emotion for the vessel of my brothers soul. None came.
Truth is, I have never been close to any of my siblings. The past two years have only driven an even further wedge between us.
I started to think about why it was that I had allowed some relationships in my life to whither and die.
I avoided Hermione because I didn't want to love her because I was SUPPOSED to, if it was to happen, then it would, naturally. Turns out, distancing myself just let me see the differences in maturity level between us. I concluded as I analysed my actions directly after the 'merge'.
My siblings ...well Ron's resentment and my past life wasn't a good combination. A loving family with just as many siblings, it felt like replacing my old life with this new one. That repulsed me ...so once again, I distanced myself.
I knew all of this a long time ago. But it was the first time the consequences of my actions were laid out in front of me so ...directly.
Fleur's warm hand in mind made me realize that my occlumency was slipping again. I took a deep breath and exhaled before turning to her.
She looks as elegant in black as she does with anything else. I concluded as I drank in her form. But I don't ever want to see her in it again.
Her puffy blue eyes told me that she cried more than I did at my own brothers funeral.
"Are you ready?" I asked while looking around. We were the last people at the gravesite, lasting even longer than my parents.
Only the funeral workers remained, and they had already covered the hole with dirt and were leaving.
Fleur nodded in confirmation. I thought she wouldn't speak at first, I was wrong. "Are you ok, love?"
I stopped, not expecting the question. I looked at her again, and this time her eyes held the strength I had grown accustomed to.
I gave her a small smile that I knew didn't reach my eyes.
"I will be."
'POP'
'POP'
Our feet caught the floor, without stumbling, at 12 Grimmauld Place, in the bedroom I designated as my own close to a year ago.
Has it been that long since the end of the Goblet of Fire? I wondered as I realized that in a couple of weeks it would be a year to the day.
I put the thought away in the back of my mind as Fleur's hands shrugged my black peacoat off of my shoulders. I barely reacted fast enough to catch her lips on mine.
Her hands dropped the coat to the floor and found the tie on my neck almost immediately. Once that was deposited, she broke off the kiss.
"You are thinking too much." She told me as her hands reached to her own clothes and I realized that she was down to her last layer.
Her breasts spilled into the air.
I couldn't help but agree with her.
Funerals really do make women horny. I thought as we descended the stairs, looking immaculate after our round of love making.
"The others will wonder where we have been." I whispered in Fleur's ear, taking her hand as we continued our descent.
"It would have been quicker if you didn't ruin my hair and make-up." Fleur whispered back in my ear with a smile.
I felt a slight twinge of guilt at my better mood, knowing that what we did could have waited and was inappropriate for the situation. Another part of my mind thanked her for the distraction and resetting my brain after the emotional morning.
"Thank you love." I told her just as we reached the second floor. The noises of everyone mingling reached my ears around the same time.
We walked into the sitting room to see the whole of the Order besides Snape in attendance, along with some of my family and Hermione. Even Dumbledore was present chatting to my parents, wearing a somber smile.
Bill chatted with Kingsley in a corner. Harry and Sirius were sitting close to one another having a hushed conversation, one that had both of them smiling and giggling. No doubt about women.
Tonks and Moody. Mcgonagall and Ginny. The twins looked like they were talking to Remus about some potion mixture that would, inevitably, turn into a prank.
At least that was what they were doing before we walked into the room.
The eyes of the Order turned to us, although I noted that the stares were directed at me, and not my beloved. I noticed that nearly everyone had signs of the battle on their person somewhere. Scratches from debris on their faces, favoring a leg or arm, or some other ailment. In fact, the only ones who seemed untouched were me and Dumbledore.
Are they resentful of the fact? I wondered as I squared my shoulders and met their gazes confidently, I knew Fleur was doing the same as we walked forward towards the drink table.
That was when I noticed the Daily Prophet sitting on the coffee table, with the front page for all to see.
'Ministry official, assigned to Hogwarts, MISSING!'
My mind ran a mile a minute and I forced myself not to look away. I changed our trajectory to the table in front of the couch. Fleur moved gracefully beside me to the new destination. I snatched up the paper and forced myself to act shocked as my eyes scanned the page without actually reading the article.
I decided that it was enough acting after a few moments, and put a smirk on my face as I put the page down. Hopefully my performance would convince everyone that I had nothing to do with it. My open happiness was to because no one in their right mind who thought they could be guilty would act happy. Everything was faked.
My eyes rose to the room again and noted who was still watching my actions closely.
Kingsley, Moody, Dumbledore, and McGonagall? I thought, taken back by the last one.
"Go find a place, love. I'll grab us a drink." I spoke to Fleur as I met her eyes. Normally she would protest, saying that she was a big girl and didn't need a man to do these things for her. The look in my eye stopped her. She just nodded her head, doing as I asked.
Who will it be first? I thought as I made it to the drink table and started to pour a cup of punch for each of us.
It was Harry that appeared beside me first, and I was caught off guard for a second.
"Hey mate, how are you holding up?" Harry asked, seeming like a good friend. His eyes spoke a different story.
"As to be expected. It has been hard." I responded, the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
"Well I have something to take your mind off of it. I've been interested in wandlore recently and I wanted to ask you about your wand. It is Willow and Unicorn hair right?" Harry asked.
I froze, figuring it all out, but managing to nod at Harry. Harry knew about my new wand, he had known for a long time now. My willow and unicorn hair wand sat in the second slot of my wand holster on my arm, cold to my skin. It was only used as a back up and to escape notice from the law.
Switch your wand. Harry was saying.
"It is normally prone to melancholy, so I want you to watch out for that in this hard time." Harry told me with a hand on my shoulder before moving back towards the couch with Sirius.
I wasted no time in picking up the drinks in my hand and finding Fleur talking with Tonks in a corner, with her back to a wall.
Good.
They saw my approach and both smiled at me. I handed the drink in my hand to Fleur and leaned over to kiss her cheek.
My right hand moved to her lower back, a normally affectionate thing to do when kissing your woman. What everyone didn't see was my wand flicking into my hand and being shoved down into her waist band.
"Aurors, am I right." I said jabbing my elbow towards Tonks while giving her another look.
I will be arrested soon. Aurors may be on their way. I said to myself, knowing that she got the hint.
Tonks laughed at my jab. Fleur gave me a look that told me not to tease her so hard. She never even flinched at the wand between her cheeks.
God I love her.
"I was just telling Fleur thank you. It could have been much worse for me if she hadn't stood by my side. It would have been easier to just run and leave me." Tonks said to both of us.
"I was only doing what's right." Fleur answered, seemingly embarrassed at the praise. "Plus, I think Harry wants your thanks more than I do. I know he was impressed with what he saw."
I groaned at Fleur's proclamation, knowing Harry would now be teased endlessly by Tonks.
Tonks eyes lit up and a smile split her face. "Oh? Do you think so?" She said while looking his direction. What made it even worse was that Harry was actually staring at her ass at the same time.
Harry didn't even bother looking away from her, just meeting her eyes and smiling.
Atta boy! I thought, never prouder of my friend. Never look away after being caught.
"Who knows what he may have done to you with that tongue magic of his." I said innocently with a shrug.
Tonks laughed at the comment and her eyes narrowed at Harry. "Well, I wonder…"
I nearly spit out the liquid in my mouth, from just taking a drink.
When was Teddy born again? I couldn't help but think. Her and Remus should be getting together soon.
"I'm gonna go tease him." Tonks grinned while walking in his direction. I silently sent a prayer for my friend.
"My parents are going to be pissed if they hear you get arrested." Fleur whispered so that only us two could hear.
Fuck. I thought not even thinking about them. "I'll have to meet them properly to make up for it." I realized out loud.
She looked sharply at me. "You mean it?" She asked.
I gave her a confused look. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?" I asked.
Fleur just smiled. "You never brought it up after you met maman."
"Yea, I had kind of forgotten about that to be honest. I would love to." I answered her. "But first."
I nodded towards the two aurors walking in my direction, Moody and Kingsley. I smiled at them as they approached, acting as if I was just greeting them.
"Ron." Kingsley began. "Can we have a word somewhere private?" He asked and Mad-eye just glared at me with his mad eye.
"Of course." I agreed and pecked Fleur on the lips as I followed them. "I'll be right back."
They led me past the rooms I would have expected and we reached the front door to the house.
I really am getting arrested. I realized as I noticed Harry and Hermione were nowhere to be found also. At my brother's funeral ...someone is catching an ass whooping at the end of all of this.
We walked outside and the summer air hit my skin. "What's going on guys?" I asked as any scared teenager would.
"You can drop the act, Weasley." It was Moody that spoke. "You know why we brought you out here."
Deny till you die.
"No sir, I do not." I told him.
"We're bringing you in." Kingsley filled in the blanks. "For a few questions about the disappearance of Delores Umbridge. You have the right..."
I tuned him out then as they grabbed my arm and slapped a set of cuffs, glowing with runes, on my wrists. I felt the magic that normally circulates through my whole body, get muffled around my hands. It felt like when they fall asleep, static.
Idiots. That missed my wand holster, if I wanted I could still cast from my wand. Even I can use an unlocking charm, although that may not work. I thought as I analyzed the situation. I didn't make any movement, not wanting to seem guilty.
"You don't seem surprised." Mad-eye said with his eyes narrowing.
I just stared at him.
It was shocking, the parallels that aurors had with muggle police.
I was portkeyed directly into an interrogation cell, and then they left me alone to stew in my thoughts for a moment.
I sat in the chair, barely moving, looking calm as ever, waiting for them to get over the mind games.
It took them an hour.
I didn't recognize the auror that sat down in front of me. He put a file on the table that looked a little too new, the papers inside it didn't look as if they had anything on it. Ten bucks says he doesn't open it.
Then he set my backup wand and a butterbear down in front of himself.
"Hello. I am.."
"I don't care." I said, interrupting him, taking control of the situation.
He stopped with his routine and looked in my eyes. I used the opportunity to use a well practiced skill of mine: legilimency. It was not a practiced probe, any decent occlumency user could detect and deflect it easily.
The auror was not a decent occlumency user.
This kid hasn't moved. They said it would be easy to get something from him. The auror was thinking hard on what to do now.
He broke eye contact and looked down to the file, a meaty finger coming to point at it. "Do you know what this is?" The unnamed auror asked me.
"I know what you want me to think it is." I answered. "You want me to think that brand new manilla folder is full of evidence that can put me away." I was done with the games, he met my eyes once again and I was in his mind faster than ever. "I know that you waited approximately an hour to come in to try and psych me out. I know that the butterbear is because you think I will ask for a drink and subconsciously rely on you to provide me for one. I know you laid my wand there to show you have power over my magic. I also know that you are so green you can't shit without asking someone for permission first." I was on a role, and my anger was building. His mind immediately produced a number when thinking about how long he had been an auror. "Three months?"
The door burst open then, and I smiled, finally getting someone productive.
A blond woman walked in with an air of authority and confidence, Kingsley trailed behind her. "I told you." Kingsley said to the woman before anything could happen.
"Get out." The blonde woman said while looking at the rookie auror, she was livid. "And practice your Merlin-damned occlumency! My niece could see he was in your mind!"
The rookie auror practically sprinted out the door. I couldn't help but smile at the site.
"Amelia Bones." The woman said before she turned back to my direction and addressed me.
"Ron Weasley." I answered her. "And I am royally pissed off. I would suggest you release me, we both know you don't have any evidence. If you did, I would be in Azkaban and not sitting in your smelly fucking room while you fish for me to incriminate myself."
The woman stood there, unflinching during my tirade.
"And fuck you for doing this on the day of my brothers funeral. After I saved one of your aurors not three days ago…"
"Ron!" Kingsley interrupted me. "It was all a formality, we know you didn't do it."
That's what you think. I couldn't help but think to myself.
"We were put under ...political pressure. I got a floo call from people I never get a floo call from." Bones said, without flinching at my rant. "You and your friends have been attracting all the wrong attention." Then she sat down in front of me.
I sat back in the chair and the angry look on my face dropped, contained by my occlumency.
I really am a good actor aren't I? Maybe I'm a sociopath… I pondered for a moment.
"Not much of a choice when you're Harry Potter's friend." I retorted. "So do actually have any leads for that cunt Umbridge?" I asked, letting my opinion of her bleed through my thoughts.
"Oh yes, you, Harry, and Hermione are our leads. But there are facts that don't add up. Student witnesses put you as the last people to see her. We checked your wand for spells from the past month, and it doesn't make sense, nothing conclusive. But then again, there is no record of spells we know you used during the battle a few days ago either, in self-defense of course. So that tells me you were tipped you would be snatched up and this wand…" She said pointing to the wand. "...is your backup."
Then she turned around and looked at Kingsley. "Check your shit."
"I didn't tip him boss." Kingsley answered her immediately.
"He didn't." I admitted. "And that isn't my backup. Umbridge has been torturing kids for the last year, I have proof. Maybe one of their parents got wind, and didn't appreciate it. Regardless you're looking in the wrong direction." I misled her.
Her eyes narrowed as I revealed the information. "Why didn't you let anyone know then? I could have had a reason to lock that toad up."
"The devil you know." I answered her quickly.
She looked at me for a few moments then, processing the information. She finally reached down and touched the cuffs at a specific spot and they fell off of me. Then she grabbed my wand and handed it to me.
"Do me a favor?" She asked me. "Lay low for a bit. You've made powerful enemies. And get me that proof of Umbridge."
"Yes ma'am." I answered taking the wand from her and holstering it immediately.
"Kingsley." She barked as she sat back down, obviously thinking.
"Come on Ron." Kingsley said, with a bit of anger in his voice.
What the fuck is he angry at? I thought. I'm the one who should be angry.
I followed Kingsley out of the door and into the hallway where my parents and Fleur waited on me. Arthur had a tired look on his face, as if he hadn't slept in a week, which was probably the case. Molly was barely keeping it together.
I expected a warm welcome, I expected them to be angry at the situation. I was wrong. Only Fleur approached me and welcomed me with a hug. She was warm to the touch, something that only happened if she got angry.
"Sorry about that." I told her, unhappy that she had to see me like this.
"We'll talk about it later." Fleur mumbled in my shoulder.
We broke apart and I looked towards my parents. "Mum, dad." I greeted them.
"Meet us at the Burrow, Ron. Alone." Arthur answered me. "We have a lot to talk about."
"Why alone?" I challenged him, not in the mood.
"Don't talk back, just obey." Arthur grit out.
I took a deep breath knowing that they had both just buried one son and had to pick the other up from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "WE will meet you there." I told him as I walked out of the building.
As soon as we broke through the ward lines, Fleur grabbed my arm and nodded to me. I twisted and we were gone.
'POP'
Fleur and I arrived in the field behind the burrow, the field I used to play quidditch with my siblings on before the 'merge'. Now I can't remember the last time I had even been to a match.
"Here love." Fleur said immediately out of the apparition. She held out my Blackthorn and Phoenix feather wand out towards me.
I grabbed the wand and immediately felt a rush of power run through my body, I took a deep breath of air. I thought about turning around and heading inside, where my parents would be waiting, but instead I looked towards Fleur.
"I did it." I told her.
Her face scrunched up. "Did what?"
"I killed Umbridge. The night of the battle, it's what I wanted to tell you just before we left for the Hall of Prophecies. I decapitated her out of anger, she hit Hermione with the torture curse, and then she admitted to handing Percy over to Voldemort. Then her head was rolling on the floor." I told her, the words practically vomiting out of my mouth.
I forced myself to look at her, to see how she would react to knowing her boyfriend and lover is a murderer. I had no idea what I would see.
I didn't expect her features to soften. "You are worried I will leave you?" She asked me as her hands reached up to my cheeks.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. She meant too much to me to lose.
"I am not going anywhere Ron Weasley. She was planning on torturing students. I would have done it myself if I had to." Fleur answered me and relief flooded through my body.
I wrapped my arms around her and brought her into a kiss. "I was terrified you would think me monster." I admitted after we broke away.
"In bed maybe." She replied wiggling her eyebrows.
I laughed at her inability to not make a sex joke.
"Now that doesn't mean you can murder who you want. But some people deserve it." Fleur continued. "And I saw you kill that rat man, remember."
"Yea but that's different, that was in self-defense." I reasoned. "Officially…"
"Unofficially, I would have done it anyway."
"Ron!" I heard someone call out from the house.
"We'll continue this later ok? You're staying with me." Fleur told me as we turned and walked towards the house.
Yes ma'am. I agreed with no complaint about staying with her.
We didn't speak again and continued walking towards the house, hand in hand. It didn't take long until we walked past the threshold. Arthur and Molly were sitting at the kitchen table, not speaking. Obviously they knew what they were going to say.
"Have a seat, son." Arthur stated.
I pulled out a seat for Fleur and then sat beside her, facing my parents.
"After you take your NEWTs this week, you are no longer welcome in my house." Arthur said to begin the conversation.
I didn't react, genuinely taken back by the proclamation. I didn't get mad, I didn't get sad, I didn't shout, but I couldn't just sit back and take it.
"I haven't been welcome in this house, for a long time." I said, standing up, ready to leave. "And I haven't needed this house for a long time."
I looked at my mother, she couldn't even look at me.
"I'm ashamed I have raised a murderer." Arthur commented, not willing to leave it unsaid.
I stopped in my tracks on the way out. I should have kept going, I just couldn't.
"And I'm ashamed of the Weasley name. A name synonymous with weakness, and cowardry. I'm ashamed to have been raised by a pussy." I couldn't hold the words back, the events of the day catching up to me.
"Ronald!" Molly roared in response, before I interrupted her.
"And who did I murder? Huh father? Who?" I said turning around and approaching him.
"Pettigrew, and although I can't prove it, I know Umridge is on that list too, I can feel it. I wouldn't be surprised if Percy is dead because of you!" Arthur shouted, the words coming fast as if he had thought about it for a long time.
That's when I realized that this was a combination of his emotions at losing a son, and my independent streak. No doubt he had a conversation with the aurors about reigning me in, controlling me. He was done with me it seems.
"Percy died for us! He died because he got sloppy! He got sloppy and he got caught. A written note to Dumbledore, not even written in code! Written proof of his betrayal of the Minister of fucking Magic! You know what Fudge did? He handed Percy over on a silver platter!" I told him, revealing a truth that only a handful of people in the world knew. "Fudge knew Voldemort has been back, he's known this whole time. He hasn't cared!"
Arthur stood there, shocked at the information. Did he even know that Percy was a spy? I wondered. How out of touch with your children are you?!
"And if I did kill Umbridge. Why would I do that? IF I did, it would be because she confessed all of this to me. It would be because she tortured Hermione, it would be because she was going to torture many more students. And you know what! IF I did do it, I would have enjoyed it as her head rolled at my feet!" I told him, making sure that I didn't incriminate myself while telling him the truth.
"Get out!" Arthur sputtered out.
"With pleasure!"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein