Chapter Text
Ron walked through the doors of Central High and took a deep breath. Senior year. This was it…his final year of high school. There was so much to be excited about this year. He was at the top of the totem pole, so to speak. An upperclassman. All of the other classes would look up to him—and not only because he was one of the tallest in the school.
He was also one of the starting wide receivers for the Central High School Chiefs football team—for the third year.
He had homecoming and prom to look forward to, as well as the senior trip.
But there was also so much he was dreading. Ron tried not to dwell on those things as he located his new locker near his homeroom. He sighed and swiveled the dial to enter his code—then tried again when his locker refused to open. On the fourth try, it finally unlocked. Typical.
Central High wasn’t rundown or anything…but it definitely wasn’t new. Everyone knew that the lockers rarely opened on the first try.
“Weasley,” came a voice from beside him.
“Potter.” Ron leaned against his now-closed locker and watched his best friend fiddle with his own, just three lockers away. “So, you can drive to my house, eat my mom’s breakfast, pick up my baby sister, and just ignore the fact that your best friend was sleeping right upstairs?”
Harry laughed as he shoved his gym bag into the locker. It had only taken Harry two attempts to open it, Ron noticed with annoyance.
“Your baby sister is a junior now and would put you in your place if she heard you call her that.”
“She could try,” Ron chuckled. “Now back to why you didn’t wake me up.”
“Well, when your mom told me that you were still asleep, I didn’t see the point in trying to wake you.” He closed his locker and faced Ron. “We all know you wouldn’t wake up until you were ready. I’m honestly surprised you made it on time.”
“I’ve perfected my morning routine and got it down to three minutes flat. And I ate breakfast on my way.”
“You did not eat oatmeal while you drove!” Harry stared at him wide-eyed.
“The trick is,” Ron threw his arm around Harry as they headed to their homeroom, “you put a bit more milk in it, throw it into a mason jar, and then you can drink it like a shake. No spoon needed.” Ron grinned at Harry, clearly proud of himself.
Harry sighed and shook his head. “I can’t figure out if you’re ingenious or ridiculous.”
“Bit of both I would say,” came a sharp voice from behind them. Ms. McGonagall had just entered the room behind them. “More ridiculous, but most of the smartest people are.” She smiled at Ron and Harry. “Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter. Enjoyed your summers?”
“Morning Ms. McGonagall,” they both said as they sat near the front.
“We did, thanks,” Ron continued. “Did you?”
“Well,” McGonagall placed her bag on her desk as more students filed into the room, “summer school was quite boring without you two. But I was glad for your absences nonetheless.”
Dean Thomas, who’d just taken the seat on the other side of Harry, snorted. Ron side-eyed him briefly, then grinned at McGonagall. “We missed you, Ms. M. But not summer school.”
Ron and Harry had spent the previous two summers in summer school with McGonagall catching up. But, with some extra help the previous year as well as many threats of being benched in their senior year by Coach Moody, they had both been able to finish their junior years strong. Neither one of them had any plans to be benched senior year. For one, outside of seeing Harry every day, football was the only daily thing Ron looked forward to in school. During the winter and spring they trained and ran track to keep active, but football was always their main event.
On top of that, scouts for the colleges they’d both applied to would be watching, and full scholarships were on the line. Ron was a fantastic wide receiver, and Harry was one of the fastest running backs in the state. They knew that several schools had their eyes on them, including Western University, where they both hoped to go.
The bell rang and McGonagall started to close the door just as Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini slipped through. Both sat and smiled at McGonagall innocently.
“Don’t be cute,” McGonagall scowled. Then she turned to begin attendance as the morning announcements started over the intercom.
The bell rang again ten minutes later and Harry ran off to his first class. Ron stayed in his seat since he had English with McGonagall first period. A few others stayed put too—both of the Patil twins, Blaise, Dean, and Lisa Turpin.
A flash of blonde hair entered the room and Ron cringed. Damnit. Of course.
Lavender Brown smiled coyly at Ron and took the seat in front of him, next to Padma Patil. “Morning Ron,” she cooed.
“Hey,” Ron said simply, praying that she would turn towards the twins for gossip or some kind of cheerleaders mini convention rather than try and hold a conversation with him. They’d dated sophomore year for a couple of months, and ever since then she’d continued to try and get him back. Apparently, the fact that Ron hadn’t dated anyone since her, though there was no shortage of options at Central, told her that Ron was still interested.
Ron was not interested.
The truth was, none of the girls at Central had ever caught Ron’s eye. They all seemed to be the same. And any who showed interest in Ron, likely only did so because of his football fame. None ever seemed to want to get to know him. Even Lavender only wanted Ron in order to portray the perfect All-American high school power couple—cheerleading captain and football champ. They’d be shoe-ins for homecoming king and queen. Maybe even prom king and queen. Ron knew this was the case even though they were no longer together, which put a damper on two events he was otherwise looking forward to. He knew Lavender would be expecting a Homecoming ‘proposal’ or some such nonsense.
It would never come.
Ron sighed in relief when Lavender turned to her two best friends.
“The new girl was in my homeroom,” Lavender whispered. Ron’s ears perked up.
Damn, starting at a new school senior year must suck, he thought.
“Oohh, I heard something about a new girl…what’s she like?”
Lavender shrugged. “Super quiet. And spacey. She didn’t even answer Flitwick when he called her name! He had to tap on her shoulder. I seriously can’t tell if she’s a nerd or a ditz. And her hair! She really could do with a straightener.”
Ron rolled his eyes. Lavender, Padma, and Parvarti were all cut from the same cloth. They believed that hair should be pin straight and makeup should be flawless at all times. And they weren’t the only ones. Ron felt as if there were very few real girls at their school. They were mostly stuck on status and beauty. Superficial things.
Ron wanted real.
His sister Ginny was one of the realest girls in their school. He loved that she never fell into those obsessions like hair and makeup and such. Ron figured that was partly due to being a female athlete. Her best friend Luna, however, wasn’t an athlete and yet was just as real—though a bit odd. Ron thought she was good value though. She was always fun to have around.
As McGonagall welcomed everyone to Senior English, Ron pulled out his notebook and pushed himself to focus. At least he knew Harry would be in his next couple of classes.
“Hey, Ron!”
“Sup Weasley!”
“Hey! Weasley!”
“Ron! What’s up!”
Ron smiled and waved to anyone who greeted him as he made his way down the hall after lunch. Being a starter for three years running gave him a level of popularity he never expected. He was invited to all of the parties, sat at the big table at lunch, and was widely known throughout the school.
And yet he’d never felt so lonely.
Aside from Harry, he hung out with Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, and Neville Longbottom, all members of the team, but not to the same extent as with his best friend. And now that Harry was splitting his time with Ginny…
Ron got it, even if it did take him a bit to warm up to the idea. If he had a girl, he’d want to spend time with her too. But Harry had always been Ron’s person. Not that Ron felt he needed a new person…but it would be nice to have someone like Harry had Ginny.
But there was no one at Central who—
A small body bumped into him as it sprinted passed and Ron just caught a whiff of vanilla and berries. It was soft and inviting, so unlike the overwhelming perfumes so many of the other girls wore.
Ron looked up and watched as long brown curls floated down the hallway. She was looking at the door numbers as she passed them and seemed lost.
As she ran, a small book fell out of her half-closed bag. Ron ran forward to grab it.
“Hey!” He called as she continued on. “Hey, wait! You dropped your book!”
She finally stopped in front of Snape’s science classroom, which happened to be where Ron was headed himself. She stood in front of a woman Ron had never seen before—a substitute? he thought hopefully—and held up one hand while she seemed to catch her breath. The woman simply smiled.
“Hey,” Ron said catching up to them. “You dropped this.” He held out the book to the girl’s heaving back but she didn’t turn. “Excuse me?”
Ron caught the woman’s eyes curiously and she tapped on the girl’s shoulder and pointed over it. She finally turned around and Ron’s breath caught.
She was beautiful, in a very normal way. She wore no makeup but didn’t need it. Her eyes were the perfect shade of brown, like melted chocolate. There was the perfect amount of freckles splattered across her slightly upturned little nose, so unlike the freckles that covered just about every inch of Ron’s body. Her hair was long and curly, with some frizz around the edges. Ron could imagine pulling on the tendrils and watching them spring back into place.
She looked up at him expectantly, and he remembered his mission.
“You dropped your book,” he said lamely.
Her eyes watched his lips as he spoke and he felt a shiver run through him. He’d noticed her lips too. Was she thinking the same as he was? Was she wondering how her lips would feel against his or…?
Her eyes dropped to the book and widened. She took it from him and gave him a brilliant smile and a nod before ducking into the classroom.
“Thanks for that,” the woman said with a smile, before following the girl into the classroom.
Ron made his way into the room a bit confused. Even more so when he noticed that his greasy-haired science teacher was, in fact, present. So who was that woman? She was young, but definitely not young enough to be a student. And she was dressed professionally, like a teacher or a staff member or…something.
As he took a seat closer to the back, and further away from Snape, his eyes darted to the girl. She sat near the front but off to the side. The woman sat on a low stool in front of her.
And as Snape began to talk, the woman’s hands began to move in rapid sign language.
Deaf…the new girl was Deaf.