Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Inside the DOM:

"It doesn't matter!" said a man's voice. "There are other ways in —WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!"

Harry spun around. They were back in the Brain Room and, sure enough, there were doors all around the walls. He could hear footsteps in the hall behind them as more Death Eaters came running to join the first.

"Luna — Neville — help me!"

The three of them tore around the room, sealing the doors as they went: Harry crashed into a table and rolled over the top of it in his haste to reach the next door.

"Colloportus!"

There were footsteps running along behind the doors; every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one, so it creaked and shuddered. Luna and Neville were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall — then, as Harry reached the very top of the
room, he heard Luna cry, "Collo — aaaaaaaaargh . . ."

He turned in time to see her flying through the air. Five Death Eaters were surging into the room through the door she had not reached in time; Luna hit a desk, slid over its surface and onto the floor on the other side where she lay sprawled, as still as Hermione.

"Get Potter!" shrieked Bellatrix, and she ran at him. He dodged her and sprinted back up the room; he was safe as long as they thought they might hit the prophecy —

"Hey!" said Ron, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering drunkenly toward Harry, giggling. "Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, ha ha ha, isn't that weird, Harry?"

"Ron, get out of the way, get down —"

But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.

"Honest, Harry, they're brains — look — Accio Brain!"

The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Harry, Ginny, and Neville and each of the Death Eaters stopped in spite of themselves to watch the top of the tank as a brain burst from the green liquid like a leaping fish. For a moment it seemed suspended in midair, then it soared
toward Ron, spinning as it came, and what looked like ribbons of moving images flew from it, unravelling like rolls of film —

"Ha ha ha, Harry, look at it —" said Ron, watching it disgorge its gaudy innards. "Harry, come and touch it, bet it's weird —"

"RON, NO!"

Harry did not know what would happen if Ron touched the tentacles of thought now flying behind the brain, but he was sure it would not be anything good. He darted forward but Ron had already caught the brain in his outstretched hands.

The moment they made contact with his skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.

"Harry, look what's happen — no — no, I don't like it — no, stop — stop —"

But the thin ribbons were spinning around Ron's chest now. He tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight against him like an octopus's body.

"Diffindo!" yelled Harry, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Ron before his eyes, but they would not break. Ron fell over, still thrashing against his bonds as the tentacles completely ensnared Ron's head underneath them...

It was at that exact moment an accident happened.

There was no way for anyone to know why it happened... Maybe it was because of the numerous broken time turners wreaking havoc in the surroundings... or maybe it was just the magically charged atmosphere or maybe it was something else entirely but suddenly in that exact moment everyone and everything in that room... froze.

From the death eater's malevolent gazes to the panic in the eyes of the teenagers, from the floating dust particles to the spell fizzling through the air, everything was frozen in time.

It was as if the room had been completely isolated in a different dimension where time had completely stopped. And amidst the frozen chaos in the middle of that room, a tiny crack appeared in the space... an unusually stable crack.

The crack was only there for about a nanosecond before disappearing. But that minuscule amount of time was enough for an invisible little soul to escape from the crack straight into the suspended chaos in the room.

The little soul was unconscious, but... not completely.

It was as unconscious as a plant and, just like a plant knew where to send its roots to survive, the soul too knew what it had to do to survive.

The soul moved through the frozen air, unbothered by any obstacles in its path, towards the only empty space where it could reside and survive, towards—the closest tentacled brain.

But the soul didn't find the cosy little home it was looking for in there... because the brain as it turns out, wasn't actually made to house a soul (well, at least not a human one) so sadly it was immediately expelled through the feelers... straight into the red-haired human in its grasp.

But the soul didn't leave the tentacled brain empty-handed.

The soul was a cheap stake in his previous life, the kind who couldn't stay in a fancy hotel and resist grabbing a few free towels along as souvenirs. And that ingrained habit worked its magic here too... and it grabbed something miraculous from the brain, something out of this world.

The souvenir it took from the tentacled brain was something that came from a much higher dimension.

It was a system, a one-of-a-kind artificial intelligence made by a higher lifeform for their own use... and sadly it had been left to rot in this brain ever since it was fished out of The Veil by the Unspeakables, who weren't smart enough to understand its mysteries. But finally, this miraculous system got the chance to boot up again... in the brain of one Ronald Weasley.

[GAMER SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]

[BOOTING...]

[BOOTING...]

[ERROR S9009: WORLD INCOMPATIBLE]

[ERROR #@##$...]

[SEARCHING...]

[SOLUTION FOUND: FOLLOW PROTOCOL LIZARD]

[REMOVING UNESSENTIAL COMPONENTS]

[REMOVING INVENTORY...]

[REMOVING DUNGEON SKILL...]

[DISCARDING REWARDS...]

[DISCARDING SYSTEM STORE...]

[...]

[GAMER SYSTEM DOWNGRADING...]

[MAGE SUBSYSTEM RETAINED...DISCARDING THE REST]

[FINALIZING...]

[WELCOME HOST—]

[NEW ERROR DETECTED!!]

[ERROR 201: FOUND TWO INDIVIDUAL HOSTS]

[SEARCHING...]

[SOLUTION FOUND: FOLLOWING PROTOCOL X101]

[SOUL CHECK...]

[SOULS COMPATIBLE]

[PERFORMING EMERGENCY SURGERY...]

After unexpectedly finding two souls in the brain of the red-haired human it had inhabited, The Gamer System—No, the Mage System, decided to... merge them.

It acted not unlike an overworked housewife, who after not finding the desired vegetables in the refrigerator, decided to just mash up everything available and call it a new dish.

The new dish or the new soul would have both the memories and the qualities of Ron Weasley from this Wizarding world and the wandering soul of Sam from the modern world.

Now, as for who was Sam, and how he came to be in this room in the DOM? Well... to know that we need to go back a few...

Sam was a little-known struggling stand-up comedian in a small city.

He grew up in an orphanage and got a normal 9 to 5 Job after graduating from community college. But he lost that Job soon after, because of COVID and then whilst unemployed he tried his hand at performing gigs at local bars.

He has always been someone who doesn't have much of a filter on his mouth and has a particular talent for making mean jokes.

Sometimes his jokes get him laughs from his surroundings and other times, punches, but it was entertaining for everyone nonetheless. So he decided that since he couldn't stop his mouth anyway, why not monetize this talent to earn some money.

And that turned out to be the stupidest decision of his life and also the thing which got him killed...

How did comedy get him killed, you may ask?

Well, it went something like this...

It was a rainy day, and he was at his usual jaunt performing a gig on the stage and getting some good laughs from the audience here and there and it was all going fine...

Until the door opened and entered the big bad Villain...

Well, calling him a Villain is a tad overdramatic but since he's the reason Sam died... he didn't care...

Anyway, the Villian looked like your typical Jock who had never moved on from his 'college phase', as they call it. He was wearing a tight football T-shirt that barely covered his beefed-up muscles, a blond girlfriend by his side and three indistinguishable lackeys following behind him laughing at all his sexist jokes.

Things were all calm at first, they took their seat, ordered a few drinks and started talking among each other ignoring the gig, which was fine by Sam. But then, The Jock, who probably got bored or something, suddenly started heckling and interrupting him to get some laughs from his lackeys.

It was the usual... "Oh! That was so not funny!" "Am I supposed to laugh at that!" "You are so ugly, Bitch!" "You dress like a woman" "You are so gay,"

Of course, it wasn't Sam's first gig so he was professional and ignored the guy with ease and continued with his thing. But it seems the Jock wasn't satisfied with that... as he seemed to take being ignored as a personal insult and started doubling down with his heckling, making even the customers around him uneasy.

A few minutes later, he crossed a line and Sam felt that he's had enough...

"Your mama teach you those jokes, Gayboy... you should send her to me for a few days and I'll teach her some funny new things...HAHA,"

Now, Sam wasn't the type to be usually bothered by these things, because, firstly, he never had a mama. And secondly, because he had an unusually thick skin (one of the perks of growing up in an orphanage,).

Still, that day he just wasn't in the mood to suffer in silence... he didn't know if it was because he'd had a few to drink before the gig or if it was because the guy looked so much like his high school bully, but.... he decided that he was going to retaliate.

Now, the one thing you need to know about comedians is that they are usually very good at reading people.

They have to be; to come up with good jokes spontaneously to make their audience laugh. But another perk of that skill is you can come up with the most incisively hurtful things at the most opportune moments to deal with your prey... you can easily determine the hidden insecurities of your target and bring them out into the open to make them cry. And Sam decided to do just that...

"You know "Dude" just because God gave you a mouth, doesn't mean that you need to use it, and bring down the collective IQ of the whole room..."

He picked apart the jocks' defences one by one, from his clothes to his face, to his teeth, he didn't leave anything behind. He completely opened the tap on his usually repressed inner thoughts and he went at him.

The boisterous laughter from the audience invigorated him and he started getting even more personal. He went for all the insecurities, real or not, from the guy's daddy issues to his mommy issues and even his sister complex.

The audience was laughing their asses off by then and the Jock's face was getting progressively redder with that sound. Sam should have stopped there at that moment and spared him as he could see that the forced smile on that guy was only an inch away from a crying one... but he didn't.

He dug the final nail in the coffin with, "Tell me, 'Dude', is it true what they say about steroids and small dicks...Oh! Never mind, you don't need to answer that. Your girlfriend's sniggering tells me everything," and that was the final straw for the man.

Humiliation and testosterone were a very bad combination, Sam found out that day.

Safe to say there was immediately a bar fight and Sam being not much of a fighter and outnumbered meant that he ended up as a casualty.

*Sigh*

Anyway, the next time he opened his eyes, he was inside some kind of an office, it was a small cluttered one with a giant worker with huge dark circles sitting behind the desk, perusing through a green file that had Sam's name on the outside.

The worker immediately began telling Sam in a drone-like voice that he was in the Afterlife office and that he would be shortly told where his next destination would be.

Now, according to the file, that contained the summary of his life, he only had two of the usual three options available to him as the option of Heaven was closed for him because apparently he made fun of too many people in his gigs and now he would have to pay for it...

Ugh... Who would have thought that you could get retribution for making fun of people... Fuck you, Ricky Gervais!!!

Anyway, since he couldn't go to heaven the other option would have to be hell, and Sam was terrified of that.

He could recall all sorts of horrible stories the nuns at his orphanage used to tell him. About things that happen to sinners in hell, from being boiled alive to being made to dance naked on burning flames... he didn't want to go through any of that.

So he hurriedly began to recall his whole life to come up with some of his good deeds so that he could persuade the worker to let him off, but... unfortunately, he came up short.

Fuck! Should have listened to those preachers about doing one good deed a day.

Alas, it was too late to regret and now he could only hope that he could sell his soul to the devil or something and wouldn't have to suffer too much.

"You're lucky, boy... you get a third option," said the overworked worker.

It seems he wasn't a complete arsehole and did a few good deeds here and there so the worst scenario didn't come true and he wasn't left to rot in hell and was given the third option which was a chance to be reborn back on Earth.

But there was a hook... he would have to first spend a few lifetimes as a lower life form before he was allowed to go back to being a human. And the worker in front of him was "kind" enough to give him three options to choose from... A Male Ant, A Male Bee and a Male Sea Horse.

"..."

Now, anyone with even simple biology knowledge would notice a pattern here. It seems once again he was punished for being a comedian. Who the hell knew that doing Comedy would be such a very dangerous job?

"W-Why? Why those three? Was it because I made fun of feminists during my gigs? But that was all in good jest... You have to believe me!!. In fact, I-I identify as a feminist! I swear!!"

Sam tried very hard to plead his case to the after-life office worker but it was all useless and the man didn't budge at his half-hearted explanation, "Please, hurry. I have to go to a party after this," he said impatiently.

"Fine!" Sam whined in defeat before picking up the piece of paper in front of him to select the least uncomfortable option out of the three he was given.

If he chose to be reborn as a male ant, his only purpose in life would be to mate with the queen, along with a hundred other ants (Ugh!) and then die shortly afterwards. The life of a male bee wasn't much different they too only live to serve as genetic material.

"So it seems like the Sea-horse is the best one in this...at least I would live a little longer..." Sam sighed and finally decided on his choice but just as when he was about to tick Sea-horse on the paper, the door to the "room" suddenly slammed open.

"S-Sir!! T-The mistress is causing chaos again!!" said a translucent ghost midget with no legs in a high-pitched anxious tone.

"Ah! Fudge! Not again," The worker groaned before getting up from his seat, "And, you, boy! You better be done with this by the time I get back here or I'll chuck you straight to hell," he warned menacingly before rushing out of the door along with the midget.

"Sure! Sure!" he replied sarcastically while sending a middle finger behind the worker's back for his self-satisfaction before turning back to the task at hand, "huuu... so it's a goodbye to being human, huh..."

"That seems like a really hard choice..." a squeaky voice abruptly said came from beside his ear scaring the crap out of him.

"Argh! Fuck!" Sam cursed as he jumped and fell from his chair while quickly turning his head to see who it was.

A tiny fairy with transparent red wings behind her was blinking innocently at him while waving both her hands.

"W-What the fuck are you?" he blurted out while trying to get his breathing under control.

"Me? Oh...Umm..." the girl thought for a suspiciously long time about her job before answering, "I am...a part-time worker! That's right I am a part-time worker here."

"If you say so 'part-timer', " Sam sighed before shaking his head, he picked up the chair and took back his seat.

Too many things had happened one after the other, so he was kind of immune to weird things by now and had just decided to go with the flow. "What do you want, Part-timer? If you can't see I am a little busy being miserable here, so why don't you scram and leave me alone to my misery..."

"But none of these choices looks very good, do they?" the little fairy commented in an innocently squeaky tone while unceremoniously taking a seat on his shoulder, "Won't you be very miserable if you choose one of them?" she asked swinging her legs back and forth

"Of course not! It's my lifelong dream! I've always wanted to see what it would be like to live as a simp ant or a bee in a queen's harem and to be exploited by her daily,"

"Really!" she exclaimed in shock as her eyes widened comically.

"No, you idiot!" he said while rolling his eyes, "I was obviously being sarcastic,"

"Oh! Sarcastic! Wow..." she said with a look of amazement on her face while clapping her hands as if she was hearing sarcasm for the first time.

"It's not like I have a choice here..." he mumbled in a depressed tone, "That ugly duck face only gave me these three options to choose from. and I'd rather choose one of them than go to hell..."

There was silence for a few seconds before the fairy spoke again, "Hmm, Maybe... Maybe I can help you with this..."

"What? For real? Y-You can send me back to Earth as a human!!"

"Ah! No-No! I can't do that," she said shaking her rapidly, "I am not in charge of that."

"You aren't?" Sam asked as the hope which had risen up in his stomach slammed back down into the ground, "Then what good are you?"

"Well I can't do anything on Earth, but I..." she said with a hesitant look on her face before suddenly asking, "But first tell me do you have a favourite novel?"

"Hmm...Who knows..." That was such a first-date question, that Sam answered unconsciously, "A song of ice and fire, Lord of the Rings, Maybe... Harry Potter?"

"Ah! Harry Potter's perfect!!" she exclaimed with a pleased smile on her face, "Now wait a second..." she said before flying above his head and closing her tiny eyes for a few seconds and then she opened them again with a delighted look, "I got it! I know just the place to send you and the timing is perfect too,"

"Send me?" Sam asked in a bewildered tone, "W-What are you—"

"Oh No! He's coming back!!" she cried in an alarmed tone while looking at the door "Quick! You need to leave!" she said before waving her hand through the air and creating a small crack in the space in front of Sam.

Sam's eyes immediately widened as he suddenly realised that the girl wasn't just some small part-time worker but knew some serious magic.

But he also remembered at that moment the choice of novels he had given her and realised that he had made a huge mistake.

"No! Wait!! I haven't read all the Harry Potter books—"

"Bye! Bye! little boy!!" she smiled while waving her tiny hands and sending his soul straight into the dark abyss of the crack, "Have fun in the Wizarding World!!"

///

Chapter Text

[ASSIMILATING...]

This mechanical sound was the first thing he heard when he became aware.

But the weird thing was, that while he was aware, he still wasn't fully awake...if that made sense.

He was in some kind of an intermediate state, where he seemed to be dreaming but his mind was fully alert.

It was like one of those lucid dream things, where you're asleep but you still have some control over your thoughts and your actions...

He slowly looked around him and noticed that he was in some kind of a void but... it wasn't a completely empty void.

No, all around him he could see rolls and rolls of big and small films, filled with all kinds of vivid images, they were somewhat like those reel-things people used before the invention of digital cameras.

Sam didn't know why but he somehow had the feeling that these 'rolls of films' were in fact... memories. Memories that he could browse through.

On the whole, the memories seemed to be placed in no particular order and were just haphazardly lying in all directions. But there seemed to be some kind of an invisible line that divided the chaos of memories into two with him in the middle, with the memories on the left side having a much higher quantity of reels than the ones on the right.

Just as Sam was trying to find a way to look closer, he was startled when a reel abruptly leapt from the left side and came to a stop right in front of him and before he could comprehend the situation, the film started rolling and showing him the memories inside it.

But it wasn't anything like watching those flickering old movies... No, every time an image passed on the screen in front of him, Sam was suddenly transported into the memory it represented as if he was reliving it... It felt like a VR but a hundred times better.

But the memories moved quite fast... as if he was watching a day's worth of content compressed into just a few minutes. Only if he really focused did they slow down enough for him to understand them.

Sam didn't have a body in this void so he couldn't move away from the screen and was somewhat strapped to a seat and forced to watch these memories.

The first few memories were those of his childhood...

When he was brought into this world (Ugh!), when he was abandoned a few days later by a young girl (which he definitely didn't care about, Humph!!), and then began the oh! so wonderful life at the orphanage.

But it wasn't long before a change occurred...

Instead of coming from the left, this time a memory jumped out from the right side...The memories still seemed to be those of a toddler, it's just that this time instead of a brown-haired toddler this one contained a red-haired one...

Unlike the embarrassment and irritation, Sam felt while watching his own toddler days, he was kind of fascinated by these new ones because... they were magical.

The memories began alternating from the left and the right side from then on... and he only needed to watch a few more from the right side to realise who the red-haired kid was...

Yep! It was none other than the youngest son of the Weasley household, the third pillar of the infamous golden trio, the man who was always accused of putting his foot in his mouth, and the man who somehow got 'the girl' in the end... Ronald Weasley.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sam was stuck with this weird feeling of Deja vu, as if he was forgetting something, as if he should know why he was being made to watch the memories of a character from the Harry Potter series... But for the life of him, he just couldn't get to the answers.

It was almost at the tip of his tongue but he just couldn't remember it.

It was as if... as if his thoughts were being suppressed by someone as if they were being restricted so that he could only focus on the memories... and Sam didn't mind that too much because he absolutely loved the Harry Potter series.

He could almost be considered a part-time Harry Potter nerd, who had not only watched all the films when they were released but had also read the first five books front to back. So, of course, he was very interested in watching Ron's memories.

As a fan of the series, going through these memories was as if he was being given a unique opportunity to watch additional behind-the-scenes content that had never been released to the masses... it was all very exhilarating.

He sat through the magical memories of Ron with his full focus while fast-forwarding through the boring memories of the orphanage.

But even when he was completely focused, the roll of memories still moved fast enough that he barely had time to savour them, and could only vaguely remember one after it was finished and the next one began.

But they were still very entertaining so he didn't mind it too much...

One after the other, he went through the unseen life of Ron in the Weasley household, of when the red-haired boy took his first steps, of when he spoke his first words, of when his little sister was born, of when he saw magic for the first time, of when he was pranked by the twins for the first time, of how delighted he was when the first word out of Ginny's mouth was Ron, of when he stole his mother's wand and was punished, of how sad he felt when everyone forgot his birthday because they were too busy, of how jealous he left when Ginny got a brand new Harry Potter book set for her birthday while all he got was pair off hand me down gloves, of how lonely he felt when all his brothers left for Hogwarts...

Sam didn't notice it but every single memory had emotions accompanying it and they were having a very profound impact on his psyche... but Sam was too excited at the moment to feel it as it was finally time for the best part, the memories of Hogwarts.

They began of course with the journey to the train station, then came the first awkward meeting between the golden trio, then the sorting, then the troll, then the quidditch match, then the duel, then the mirror, then the investigations into Nicholas Flamel, then the dragon Norberta, then the exams, the obstacle course behind trap door...and then finally the knockout by the chess piece.

The first year ended with the year-end celebrations... and the second one began immediately with the summer rescue, then came the Weasley-Malfoy feud in the bookstore, then the flying car, then the detentions, then the petrifications, and so on... until the year-end celebration.

Another year ended and the third began with the news of the Azkaban breakout...

On and on the memories went one after the other and the years slowly started blurring into each other as Sam lost himself in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. His mind had gone numb at some point and he was just soaking up all the memories like a hungry sponge...

It was only when Ron started going through puberty, and as his already intense emotions became even more extreme, that Sam began to notice the effect the red-haired boy's feelings were having on him.

Every time Ron felt envy, jealousy, anger, lust, or any other emotion, Sam felt them too, and ever so slowly these emotions began to resonate with him... until it became hard to distinguish between them.

At this point, Sam slowly had lost all his initial excitement and started to feel that it might not be such a good thing to go through these memories if he was going to lose his sense of self at the end.

But there was nothing he could do other than just focus a bit less on the painful parts so that they pass by a faster.

The fourth year came with the Triwizard tournament and brought along its own share of a new range of emotions, most particularly among them being... betrayal, envy, guilt, loneliness, fear and a few more of the good stuff.

He didn't know when but at some point, his mind had gone completely blank.

He didn't even notice when the fourth year ended and the fifth began... but one thing he was thankful for was that the fifth was a lot calmer than the fourth. It seems that Ron had finally matured a bit, plus instead of the shitty teenage emotions, the most prevalent emotion this year was fear... fear of You-Know-Who.

The year was also a lot more hectic, what with all the studying for the owls and the DA sessions.

So nothing too simulating happened to Ron until the near-death experience of his Father with Nagini, which hit Sam's psyche like a ram and left him teetering for quite a while.

So that the next time he woke up, the fight in the DOM had already begun.

He didn't know why but the memories of the DOM were unusually clear and sharp, it was as if all this time he was watching 720p and now suddenly he was gifted with 8k...

Sam watched through Ron's perspective as all of them ran and fought and got injured by the Death Eaters before a stray spell hit Ron and made him go a bit wonky...

The images were a lot blurry after that and the next clear memory was of him stupidly summoning a brain with tentacles towards him.

This memory was also the last one as the moment the brain wrapped around him, the roll of films ended and everything stopped.

Sam was only a little disappointed as he mostly felt relieved that the memories were finally over and that maybe he would finally get to leave this place...

But of course, that didn't happen...

Instead of him getting out of the void, the most loathful thing happened... the memories restarted. They began jumping in front of him once again and that too from the very beginning.

'Argh! Fuck! Let me go! I don't want to see them anymore' his soundless screams echoed in the void but it was fruitless, as the memories didn't care about him.

He thrashed, he screamed, he tried to close his mind, but nothing worked, the films went on regardless...

After the second time came a third time, then a fourth and then a fifth...

He didn't know how many iterations he had passed through... maybe ten, or maybe a hundred...

All he knew was that the memories of Ron were ever so slowly infiltrating his mind and with every iteration, they began to get clearer and more cemented.

All the holes were slowly being filled, and he began resonating with Ron's emotions more and more until at last... they became his own.

[ASSIMILATING...]

[ASSIMILATION COMPLETE]

There was suddenly a sense of relief as if a huge pressure had been lifted from his brain and when he became aware, he realised that the movie of memories had finally stopped.

'Ugh... is it finally over,' he thought while moving 'his eyes' all around him but he could still only see darkness, 'Am I still in the void, but where are—Wait! My eyes?! I have eyes!!' he suddenly realised he had eyes and that he was back inside a body.

He still couldn't see where he was but that didn't matter as he was absolutely sure that he was human once again.

'Thank Merlin...' he sighed in relief, 'Wait! Why did I say that? I've never said that before...or have I? Wait a second... Who am I? Am I Sam? Or Am I Ron?.... Ugh! Which one am I...'

Thankfully the restrictions that he had been under for so long were no more, so he was able to think a lot more clearly and was only confused for a few moments before realising what had happened to him.

'So the little fairy really sent me into the Harry Potter world, huh...' he was still a bit dazed about it all but was slowly coming to accept the situation.

'Now should I call myself Ron or Sam...'

'Hmm...I guess I'll pick Ron since Sam's already dead...' he thought after a while and it wasn't a very hard decision to make as he didn't have much of an attachment to his previous life.

'Though, Is this all even real? And what about my previous world, was that real? Or has this all been a simulation from the start...'

Fortunately, before his mid-life crisis could begin to have a hold on him, Sam or rather Ron crushed those thoughts into oblivion using his twenty years of experience as a depressed adult.

'Ah! Fuck it! Who cares,' he decided to leave the panic attacks to a later time when he was safe and sound because he knew from the most recent memories of Ron that currently he was inside the DOM with that brain thingy wrapped around his head... and that was not a very safe place to be in.

'First thing first, let's get out of here...,' Ron thought while moving his hands upwards to remove the abomination constricting him and squeezing the shit out of him. But the moment he moved, it seemed as if time started moving again and he suddenly heard a very loud shout.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" (Ginny?)

Before he could comprehend the situation, he felt Ginny try to roughly tug that thing right from his head, but before she could succeed, there was suddenly a sizzle and in the next moment he felt Ginny go flying into the air and slam into the wall with an uncomfortable thud.

Ron immediately froze in his bid to remove the tentacles as he realised and remembered that there was still a fight going on.

"STUBEFY!!" shouted a retaliatory voice that he knew belonged to Neville, "STUBEFY! STUBEFY!!"

But the passionate scream/spells didn't seem to have any effect as there was only a cackling from several adult voices.... and spells once again rained towards their direction like arrows. Ron shivered and crouched on the ground as he felt spells passing him by and leaving craters in the wall.

Several things simultaneously happened in the next second, one of the lighter footsteps, probably Harry, ran like a rabbit straight towards the back while shouting at the top of his tongue.

His bid to attract the Death Eaters' attention seems to have worked as Ron felt the heavier adult footsteps run right behind Harry, knocking chairs and sending tables flying along the way.

None of them seemed to pay the rest of them any attention and seconds later the room had fallen completely silent except for one other person's laborious breathing right beside him.

"Ugh... Dob't borry, Bon. I-I bill get you out." Neville grunted while pulling hard on the octopus thingy on Ron's head with all his might, and Ron immediately joined him in the effort, and a few seconds of heaving later, the thing finally came off his head.

"Hu...hu...hu....Abright, Bon!!" Neville asked with an ugly smile.

"Huh? Ah! No, I am fine," Ron replied instinctively to the teen who looked quite awful at that moment. His nose had been completely crushed and he also seemed to have bitten his tongue, plus his whole face was splattered with blood, making him look almost unrecognisable.

"I-I ab sorry, Bon but I have to go... but I probise I wib come back for you—," Neville said apologetically while hobbling towards the door at the end of the room. After sending one last apologetic glance towards Ron he disappeared into the same room where the others had gone to see if he could help Harry.

"Going into a fight when can use magic... the boy's definitely a Gryffindor..." Ron murmured in a somewhat impressed tone before he shook off his daze and began to stand up while looking around himself. His body was still a bit sore but other than that he was having no problem moving any parts of his body.

The Brain Room, which had looked quite pristine and empty when they had arrived earlier, now seemed as if a hurricane had passed through.

There were shards from broken tables, and chairs lying all over the floor, and the green liquid from the brain tank had also dribbled onto the floor making the bodies lying around wet, and not to forget the brains squiggling on the—Wait! Bodies?!

"GINNY! HERMIONE!!" He shouted instinctively before running towards the bodies of the girls.

Ron hurriedly pulled them out of the rubble before placing them in a relatively dry place. He also found Luna along the way who seemed to be almost sleeping, with the serene smile she had on her face.

"Shit! What do I do now..." Ron murmured in a panicky voice while scratching his head.

While he knew from the movies from his previous life that they were all ultimately going to be fine with no long-term repercussions, it still felt a bit wrong to just leave them lying around like this..."Wait! That's Right! I can use magic now." he exclaimed before hurriedly turning around and scrambling towards the rubble.

"My Wand! Where's my wand!" It took a while but ultimately he managed to pull out the familiar piece of wand made of willow with a core of unicorn hair, from under a table.

The moment he touched the wand, Ron immediately felt a rush of energy course through his body, not dissimilar to the one he felt when he had held it for the first time in Ollivander's store.

"Cool..." He was quite fascinated by the phenomenon, but only for a few seconds before he pulled himself together and ran back to the girls.

"Right, let's do this..." he said before taking a deep breath and raising his wand.

While Ron had never learned any kind of healing magic, there was one piece of magic he had practised a lot during his DA sessions that he felt could be useful here.

"Rennervate!" He cast while pointing the wand towards his sister and thankfully, the spell worked perfectly as the moment the blue beam stuck Ginny, her body began to twitch and her eyes began to flutter as if she was about to wake up.

Now, a bit more confident he tried the spell once again while pointing towards Luna and Hermione.

"Rennervate! Rennervate!" But he was disappointed this time as it seemed that the girls were hit with something other than stunners.

"Mmm..." He suddenly heard a moan and quickly went back to his sister who had opened her eyes by now.

"Are you alright, Ginny?"

"Ugh, Ron? What are you— Wait? Where is everyone else?!"

"Harry attracted the Death Eaters attention and ran through the door and Neville went after him—"

"What? Why didn't you say that earlier? C-Come on, we need to help them!" Ginny cried and tried to stand but Ron immediately put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back before she could put her weight on her broken ankle.

"Don't be stupid, Ginny! You can't even stand up. How will you help them?"

"B-But we need to help them!!" she said angrily while glaring towards her leg, "They could be out there dying or getting tortured, we need to do something—"

"Calm down, no one will die."

"How can you know that?!"

"Because I—" He wanted to say that he knew because of the memories of a book, which said that all of them would pull through this alive in the end, so there was no need to put themselves in unnecessary danger—"Oh! Shit! Sirius!!" he swore as his head instinctively swirled towards the door with dread on his face as he suddenly remembered the only casualty of this fight.

"What? Don't you remember, Ron, Sirius isn't here... It was all a ruse to lure Harry," Ginny said confusedly, "Are you alright, Ron? Did the brain thingy mess with your head?" she asked in a concerned tone.

"Huh? Oh no, I am alright." Ron said absentmindedly before looking down as his mind began working furiously, trying to come up with a solution to this problem... and the only way he could think of was to go into the messy fight and save Sirius himself. And It didn't take long for Ron to make his decision.

If he just had the memories of Sam from the modern world, then he may have even hesitated a bit because of the danger. But he had memories of Ron too and Ron would never hesitate if he had a chance to save Sirius... after all, Harry would, and had already done the same so many times for his own family.

"You're right. They need help," Ron nodded to Ginny.

"That's good, Let's go then."

"No. I'll go but you need to stay here."

"B-But—"

"No Buts, Ginny," Ron shook his head firmly, "You won't be much help out there, and besides someone needs to be here to take care of Luna and Hermione, in case someone else attacks.

"Ugh..." she groaned in dissatisfaction but after seeing the vulnerable bodies of her friends, she didn't argue any further, "Fine! But be careful."

"Don't worry, I will," he said with a smile before standing up. "Oh right... Accio Ginny's Wand!" he waved his wand and almost immediately a smaller wand came flying out of the rubble and Ron easily caught it from the air.

It seems he not only had the complete repertoire of Ron's spells, but they also seemed to be working a lot more smoothly and fluently than he could remember.

It felt as if he had practised each of them countless times... even though Ron only ever practised them for assignments...

'It seems that being in the void for so long was useful for something after all...'

"Here take this," he handed over the wand to Ginny, "Just in case," he said to her and she nodded her head grimly.

Ron took one last deep breath before walking towards the door, 'Let's go save, Sirius' he thought firmly.

But just as he was about to open the door a light blue screen suddenly appeared in front of his face startling him.

[Quest Created: Save Sirius]

'What the fuck is that?'

///

Chapter Text

[Quest Created: Save Sirius]

"Wait! What? What the heck is this?!" Ron's eyes widened dramatically as the absurd situation that he was in became even more ridiculous.

Not only did he get transmigrated into the Harry Potter world but now he could even see one of those infamous system alerts in front of his eyes...

'But is this really a system though...'

"S-Status!" Ron whispered hesitatingly, as if afraid that someone was going to jump out of the corner of the room and scream APRIL'S FOOL, but thankfully his worst fear didn't come true and a much bigger status screen replaced the quest alert and appeared in front of him just like in the legends.

'I actually got a golden finger,' Ron thought in awe as the shock from suddenly seeing the blue screen wore off and he finally realised what he had gotten.

His face gradually lit up like a lumos spell as he considered how much easier this world, where children are tortured at the drop of a hat, would be with the help of a cheat.

Of course, Sam had read all about those so-called systems in his previous life. During his depression phase, he had shut off his mind and had binged as many Chinese, Japanese and Korean novels as he could find online. So he knew that these systems, he knew that they could be a mighty help for any transmigrator, reincarnate or regressor.

Of course, some systems could be more of a hindrance than help but those were the rare few ones and thankfully he didn't have to worry about that problem as this 'system' didn't seem to be a sentient one.

"This is awesome! now I finally feel like I have a chance against the—Wait!! What the fuck is this?! Why is this..." Ron blinked rapidly at the screen as if hoping to refresh it but it remained the same no matter how many times he did it, "Why is this all greyed out?!"

[Gamer System] [Mage System]

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 15 (15/320)

HP:

MP: 180/240

Physique (Max.): 6 (10)

Dexterity (Max.): 5 (10)

Spirit (Max.): 8 (15)

Perception (Max.): 4 (10)

Endurance :

Charisma :

[Skills]

Dungeon Lv0, Inventory Lv0, Gamer Mind Lv0, Gamer Body Lv0, Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv7, Observe Lv1 (New)...

...

'Did I get a faulty system? What does this even mean...' Ron scratched his head as he looked at the half-greyed-out sections of the screen in front of him, which looked as if the developers had pushed out the half-finished product due to deadline issues.

'Oh! Maybe the Logs could tell me something...'

He raised his finger towards the Logs option beside the Quest button in the overhead Menu, but before he could even touch it, the Logs window opened automatically...

'So it can be operated mentally, good to know,' Ron thought before looking at all the information in the Logs window, which told him with a simple glance about what had happened while he was asleep, 'So that's the reason, huh...'

The infamous Gamer System seems to have been incompatible with this Wizarding World, so not only had it been forced to downgrade itself to a subsystem called the Mage System, but it also had to discard many of its other functions, such as Inventory, Dungeon skills, Gamer Mind etc.

'Well, something is better than nothing, I guess...' Ron shrugged and quickly got over the letdown, and went back to checking the status screen.

'Hmm... I guess the physique here represents strength and speed compressed, dexterity is probably about reaction speed and flexibility, and spirit is obviously related to the soul and the amount of mana, and perception... hmm I don't know... could be about feeling the magic or something...

'But why the hell are endurance and charisma greyed out...'

'Is it because of the same reason as the HP? Just because they are related to that Gamer Body skill?' Ron mused for a while before finally turning his attention to the skill section of the status window, 'There are quite a few here, huh...'

It took a while but he understood that most of the skill levels here probably corresponded to the Hogwarts year he was in.

Since Ron had just finished his OWL exams this week, most of his skills were Level 5, which meant that he would probably have to study the next year's material to level any of them up.

Flying was self-explanatory and Duelling was probably higher level because of all the duelling practice Ron got during the DA lessons.

And as for the other skills—

"Ron?!" Ginny's voice abruptly startled Ron out of his musing and he turned around to find her looking at him with a worried gaze, "Are you alright?"

"Huh? N-No I am fine, just spaced out for a second,"

"Are you sure? You don't have to go if—"

"No, it's alright, I am going," Ron firmly said before turning back towards the door, 'I'll check out the rest of the things later...'

Considering that the quest to save Sirius would probably be time-constrained, Ron didn't dilly-dally anymore and immediately opened the door that Harry and all the Death Eaters had left through.

On the other side was the room with Revolving doors, that had given them as much trouble as help during their fight with Death Eaters.

Fortunately for Ron, there was only a single door open on the opposite side so he didn't have to waste time opening every single door to find the Veil Room.

He crossed the length of the room in a few quick steps and before even reaching the open door, Ron could already hear the loud bangs and piercing cries from the fierce battle going on there.

Instead of immediately jumping in, Ron took a quick peek inside the room to see that there were about half a dozen different battles happening in there making the situation extremely chaotic.

With the veil on the dias in the middle, the battle spread out unevenly on all sides.

The battle must have only just started because most of the Order members were still only halfway down the steep stone steps of the room. They were raining spells down on the Death Eaters while jumping from step to step towards the sunken floor.

Ron could easily identify who the Order members in the battle were through their distinct features.

Even though the Death Eaters outnumbered the Order Members, the battle was still even as some of the members such as Kingsley, and Mad-Eye were handling two opponents at the same time leaving members like Tonks to focus on handling harder opponents like Bellatrix.

'Ah! There they are...' Ron breathed a sigh of relief when he finally caught sight of the two teenagers crawling along the side of the bottom-most bench while trying not to get hit by the red and green flashes of spells flying by.

'Now, to reach them...' Ron quickly scouted everything happening in the room, before deciding that barreling into the fights while screaming his head out like a typical Gryffindor wouldn't work here, and instead sneaking in silently would be much better and safer.

So he decided to do just that... he slowly but quickly lowered himself onto the uppermost bench and then began silently leaping down from step to step while always moving through the emptier area of the room where no battles were happening.

He also made sure to keep his eyes on all the nearby battles at all times, so that no stray spell could take him down or blast him to pieces accidentally.

But sneaking down silently meant that he was a lot slower and since magical battles usually don't last very long, Ron got a front-row seat to watch as the battles started going sideways for the Order.

He watched as Mad-eye took down one of his assailants and was in turn taken down by his other opponent, Dolohov.

Dolohov, then immediately went for the Gryffindors, he first took down Neville with the tap dancing spell, Tarantallegra, and then got into a fight with Harry which the kid almost lost in just two exchanges, but thankfully Sirius intervened at that exact moment and distracted the brute which gave Harry the chance to sneak in a Petrificus Totalus, and take him down.

But then before Sirius could help the boys, Bellatrix managed to take down her opponent, Tonks and once again joined the fray so Sirius was forced to engage her in battle.

With his wand held tightly in his hand, Ron was tempted quite a few times to intervene and help the Order members in their battles but ultimately he controlled himself and held back as he knew that almost all of them would make it through alive so instead of complicating things, he should focus on the only one who didn't...

By the time Ron made it to his friends, they had gotten already entangled with another Death Eater, this one without a mask.

But this time Ron didn't hesitate for a single moment and immediately took his chance while the Death Eater had his back turned towards him.

"Stupefy," he shouted while flicking his wand.

Lucius didn't even get a chance to turn his head as the red beam struck him squarely in the back freezing him and rendering him unconscious.

The blond Death Eater's limp form toppled towards the ground, freeing up Harry, whom he was threatening at wand point to get the Prophecy.

"Ron!!" Harry breathed in disbelief and relief before lowering his wand as his best friend jogged up to him while crouching down and dodging a stray spell, "How did you—are you back to being sane now?!" he asked while looking into Ron's eyes to see if the Death Eater's spell which had made loopy still help effect.

"Huh? O-Oh, Yes, I am fine now," Ron hurriedly said while waving his hands, "Fit as fiddle, the Brain thingy shook me awake from the spell,"

"Oh?!" Harry nodded his head with a confused look on his face but didn't ask any more about it, "A-And what about the others?"

"They are alive. Ginny's awake and keeping watch over them," Ron answered grimly before turning towards Neville whose legs were still tap dancing irrespective of his will, "Here let me help you, Neville. Finite."

"Thanbs, Bon—" Neville couldn't even finish expressing his gratitude as his legs abruptly stopping mid-dance had the adverse effect of unbalancing him and making him slip.

"Ugh!" Neville barely managed to grab the steps at the last moment to save himself, but he couldn't do the same for the prophecy ball he was holding onto, "Oh! No!" The glass ball slipped from his hand and he could only watch helplessly as it smashed against the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.

All three of them stared at the place where it had broken as a pearly white figure with large magnified eyes rose into the air. Its mouth was moving but amidst all the crashes and screams, the sound was completely inaudible. When the prophecy was finished, the figure dissolved into nothingness.

"I'b sorry, Harry. I dibn't bean do—"

"It doesn't matter! I-I don't care about it—" Harry began while shaking his head but was interrupted midway.

"Harry, round up the other and go!" shouted Remus as he passed them by while battling fiercely with a masked Death Eater.

"Y-Yes!" Harry yelled back, "He's right, we should move, Neville. Can you stand up on your own." he asked and Neville nodded his head while propping himself back on his feet which felt a bit like jelly after all the dancing. "Let's go then. Come on, Ron... Ron?!"

Harry turned around to find his best friend intently focused on the battle happening in front of the Veil between Sirius and Bellatrix while ignoring everything else.

The battle was so intense and fast that both of their hands were nothing more than a blur and neither of them seemed to be in the mood to use anything less than fatal spells.

They saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

But the next jet of spell sprung from her wand immediately after, and Sirius's carelessness meant that he wasn't in any position to dodge it.

"Porteg—" cried Ron the moment he saw the jet of light leave her wand, but unfortunately even though he was ready, Bellatrix's spell was still insanely fast and hit Sirius squarely on the chest before Ron could complete the incantation and his shield could materialize.

"Sirius!!" Harry's grief-filled scream echoed in the room as he saw with a horrified gaze the exact moment, his Godfather's recklessness cost him his battle.

Sirius seemed to take ages to fall, his face still held a trace of laughter while his eyes were filled with surprise. Harry tried to raise his wand but he was too slow to do anything but watch as his only family in the world fell towards the misty archway of the Veil.

But unlike Harry, Ron had been prepared for something like this so after failing with his first plan, he immediately went for the second, "Accio Sirius!"

It was only as the magic of the summoning spell left his wand did Ron belatedly remembered an inane point that Professor Flitwick had emphasised during the Charms class, that the summoning charm doesn't work on living things, "Oh, No!"

But miraculously the spell worked... and Sirius's body stopped just short of the Veil.

Then as if he was dragged by an invisible hook, Siruis flew through the air towards the Gryffindor boys, but along with the body came the attention of one of the most dangerous person in the room.

Bellatrix's blazing eyes looked down at them with such extreme anger that it made Ron instinctively shiver in fear.

Then without saying a single word, she slashed her wand and sent a purple spell screaming towards him.

The spell was in front of Ron before he could even think about cancelling the Accio charm... but thankfully his friend was there to back him up.

"Portego!" screamed Harry with all his might... but it wasn't enough as the sheer force of her spell almost tore through his shield and blasted him off the floor.

Thankfully, the shield managed to absorb most of the impact and deflected the rest into the air making it harmless. But Bellatrix wasn't done yet and sent her next spell almost immediately after.

"Portego!"

Fortunately, Ron had managed to secure Sirius's body by then so he was able to protect them from her attack this time. But similarly to Harry, he wasn't able to endure the force of her spell and slammed into the wall right next to Harry.

The collision with the wall had taken all the breath out of him and he had just barely managed to hold onto his wand but it was useless as neither he nor Harry would be able to recover in time and Bellatrix wasn't in the mood to show any mercy.

"Avada Ked—" but unfortunately for her, she was once again interrupted before she could kill the teenagers, this time because of a red beam of light courtesy of Kingsley. She spun out of the way of the spell and sent a counter in his direction straight away.

Fortunately, Kingsley was up to the mark and required Bellatrix's full attention so the boys could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ugh!" Harry groaned as he immediately got up and crawled towards Sirius who lay unmoving in the exact place where the summoning spell had dropped him.

"Sirius! Sirius, Wake up!! Rennervate! Rennervate! Sirius!" Harry anxiously shook his Godfather and repeatedly cast the reviving spell, but there was no response even after a while, "R-Ron! why isn't he moving, Ron?!"

"L-Let me see," Ron pushed Harry's shaking hands away and placed his fingers in front of Sirius's nose. Dread pooled inside Ron's stomach as a second passed and then another... but he could still feel no sign of life.

"R-Ron?" Harry's cracking voice was so heartbreaking that Ron couldn't bear to look at him so he tried once again and placed his fingers on Sirius's neck this time, but... the result remained the same, so he finally looked at Harry and said in a sad tone, "T-There's no pulse..."

///

Chapter Text

"...T-There's no pulse,"

The words repeatedly echoed inside Harry's mind but he refused to accept them. He could not accept them. Ron has got to be wrong. He must have made a mistake... he must have...

"Harry?" Neville slid down to kneel beside Ron and asked gingerly with a confused look on his face, "Harry... Was dat man — was Sirius Black a — a friend of yours?"

Harry just woodenly nodded his head, while Ron quietly said, "H-He was Harry's Godfather..."

"Oh...I'b really sorry—" Neville started to offer his condolence but halfway through, the words died in his throat when he noticed something shocking, "D-Dumbledore!!"

All three of them looked up to realise that at some point in time, Dumbledore had entered the room, stopping almost all the fights just with his presence.

The startled Death Eaters screamed and immediately scrambled up the stairs to flee the room, knowing that the fight was done for with his arrival.

But Harry felt no relief while looking at the Headmaster's familiar visage... instead, the only thing he felt was emptiness and anger... anger that he was too late... if only he had arrived a little earlier...just a little earlier... then maybe...

"Move! Let me see!" Remus abruptly intervened amidst them while roughly shoving Neville aside to get to Sirius, and then frantically began waving his wand over Sirius.

Hope once again began to rise inside Harry's chest at that, 'Surely, Remus will tell Ron that he's wrong, that Sirius is just unconscious, that he's not...'

The spell Remus was casting was somewhat familiar to Harry as he had seen Madam Pomfrey cast the same one many times in the Hospital wing.

It was a spell meant to show the main vitals of a patient, to show how much blood they had and if they needed any blood replenishers and things like that... But Remus was casting it all wrong... it was supposed to show green numbers... N-Not Red...

"W-What is it, Remus? What is wrong with Sirius?" Harry asked anxiously when Remus suddenly stopped casting with a devastated look on his face.

Remus quietly shook his head instead of answering and then his eyes wavered before he began casting the spell again... and again... but the result remained the same.

"H-He's gone..." he let out with a pained expression on his face as his wand hand fell down powerlessly beside him.

'No, No, NO!! It can't be true...' Harry screamed internally in anguish with a look of despair on his face. 'It can't happen again... I can't have lost my only family in this world... I can't be all alone once again...'

Harry couldn't even bear to look at Sirius's face when it was so empty... so he tightly closed his eyes but it didn't help as he could still vividly see the last expression on Sirius's face as if it had been stamped inside his mind, he could remember the mangled look of fear and surprise on his Godfather's wasted once handsome face when the spell had hit him...

Dumbledore was rounding up the rest of the Death Eaters in the background and had most of them grouped together in the middle as if immobilized by invisible ropes.

But it didn't matter to Harry... to him, it was all pointless... because Sirius was gone...

There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais, and all of them looked back to see Kingsley, yelling in pain, hit the ground.

Bellatrix turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it. She was halfway up when Harry abruptly jumped up and ran after, "Harry—No!"

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" bellowed Harry. "SHE KILLED HIM— I'LL KILL HER!" And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches.

"Harry! Stop—" Ron shouted along with the others but while Remus had taken off after Harry, Ron didn't as he was suddenly distracted by a blinking red exclamation in the corner of his vision.

He looked up to see that it was the quest alert notification from before and when he focused on it, it expanded to become the earlier window.

[Quest: Save Sirius]

[Status: Ongoing]

'Why... Why is it still here?' Ron thought with a perplexed look on his face. He was unable to understand why the quest was still showing an Ongoing status when Sirius clearly had no pulse in him, which even Remus's spell verified.

Neville was confused by Ron's sudden vacant gaze wondering if the brain was still having an effect on him, when he suddenly noticed that Remus had come back into the room... but he was alone...

"P-Probbessor?! Whad aboud Harry?"

"D-Dumbledore went after him. He should be fine." Remus said quietly before coming to stand behind Ron silently.

There were a few moments of silence before Kingsley appeared behind Remus while holding onto a wound on his arm, courtesy of Bellatrix.

"Dumbledore gave me some Portkeys before he left so I've already sent Mad-Eye and Tonks to St. Mungos," Kinsley supplied quietly to Remus who just nodded in reply, "Is there... is there any chance for Sirius..."

Remus just shook his head and whispered, "I-It was Bellatrix's Heart Stopping spell, so..." his voice sounded as though every word was causing him pain.

"Oh..." Kingsley said before lowering his head sadly, he knew about that infamous Dark Spell that kills you the moment it hits you, "T-Then we should move his body before—"

"W-Wait! What did you say?" Ron abruptly turned around and interrupted them while looking at Remus with a shocked look on his face, "D-Did you just say the Heart-Stopping spell? A spell that just stops the heart?!"

Remus was confused by Ron's sudden outburst but was just too exhausted to question him so he just nodded his head.

'So that's why...' Ron's face lit up with an enlightened expression as his eyes went back towards Sirius's prone form. 'If it's just his heart that has stopped then... then maybe there's still hope...'

Maybe in the wizarding world, they consider it over once your heart stops... but in the muggle world, it's not over... until you're broke.

There was no time to muse about it, so Ron immediately went to work and turned his thoughts into action.

While he knew that it would be better for Sirius if there was a defibrillator here, but there wasn't and neither was there any time to get it, so Ron did the only thing he could...

He placed his hands, one atop the other, on Sirius's chest and started pumping up and down in a rhythm while singing a song.

"Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh... Staying Alive... Staying Alive..."

Sam had never taken any proper training on how to perform CPR, and the only place he had even seen it being performed was on TV series online.

The scene which immediately came to his mind was the one belonging to a comedy series he had watched many many times, in which the office manager calls a professional to teach them CPR, and the professional shares this trick of pumping the chest with the rhythm of this song.

Ron just hoped for Sirius's sake that the show in Sam's memories wasn't joking about this particular trick...

"W-What... What is he doing?" Kingsley asked in a bewildered tone, as he watched the youngest Weasley boy jump up and down on top of Sirius's dead body as if he was trying to break all of his chest ribs, "Is he mad?"

"I-I thinb dhad maybe dhe brain thingy is sdill affecding hib..." Neville said hesitatingly before he raised his hand to stop Ron from dancing on Sirius Black's dead body.

"Wait!!" Remus shouted abruptly stopping Neville in his tracks, "D-Don't interrupt him!"

"Remus?!" Kingsley asked as he turned to look at Remus with a strange expression on his face, "Do you know what he is doing?"

"I-I think it's a muggle healer thing..." Remus replied in an uncertain tone, "I've heard about it from some of my muggle-born friends... I-It's supposed to help restart the heart...I think..."

"Really?! Muggles can revive people," Kingsley asked in a bewildered tone before turning back to Ron who hadn't stopped pumping or... singing for a single second since the beginning, "But is this really..."

It wouldn't have been so weird if Ron wasn't also singing a merry song along with his procedure because adding the song...

"Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh... Staying Alive... Staying Alive..."

... adding the song just made it seem like a strange superstitious ritual to Kingsley and the others.

"I... don't know..." Remus was also getting sceptical by now but just as he was about to intervene something happened... something that they weren't expecting but were hoping dearly for...

"ARGH—" Sirius's eyes abruptly flew open, making Neville scream and scaring the crap out of him.

"Hu-hu-hu..." Ron immediately raised Sirius's head when he saw him struggling to breathe. Sirius rapidly inhaled and exhaled as his dazed eyes took in the people around him.

"Sirius?!" Remus and Kingsley finally shook off their shock and shouted simultaneously while dropping to their knees before Sirus's head.

"Har..ry...whe..where's...Harry..." Sirius managed to ask in a barely audible voice.

"He's alright, Sirius. He's alive, but you need to keep your eyes—" Ron replied quickly but before he could get out more than a few words, Sirius's eyes abruptly rolled back upwards and his head tilted sideways.

"SIRIUS!!"

"It's fine, it's fine," Ron said hurriedly in reply to Remus's scream after placing his fingers on Sirius's neck, "There's a pulse, and he is still breathing... he just fell unconscious..."

Remus sighed in relief at that, but he still raised his wand and cast the same vital check spell again just to be sure and even though he had somewhat expected it, he was still astonished to see the numbers come out in a green light, "H-He is really alirght..." he said in a stunned tone.

"This... this is just miraculous..." Kingsley said in a similar tone to Remus while looking at Ron in awe. As an Auror, he had come various shocks in his long life but this... this one took the crown, "How did you even—"

"The questions can come later, " Ron abruptly cut off the Auror's question, "Sirius was dead just a few seconds ago and his pulse is very weak at the moment so he needs a healer... urgently!"

"O-Of course. You're right! I'll send him to Mungos immediately," Kingsley said while taking out a portkey from his pocket.

"No, Don't!" Remus shouted urgently stopping Kingsley from touching Sirius with the portkey at the last moment, "He is still a wanted man, we can't risk taking him to St. Mungos."

"Shit! I forgot about that," Kingsley cursed at himself while taking back the portkey and suggesting, "Hogwarts then?"

"No, I think it would be better if you take him somewhere more discrete...to the Tonks's house perhaps," Remus said hurriedly while getting to his feet, "Ted will let you in, while I will try and get Andromeda back from Mungos as soon as I can. She'll know what to do."

Andromeda Tonks nee Black currently worked as a senior healer at St. Mungos, and while she wasn't in the know yet about her cousin's innocence, Sirius had been working on rectifying that with Dora and Dumbledore, for the last few weeks... And Remus felt, that now was the perfect time to reunite these long-separated relatives.

"I am on it," Kingsley nodded his head and then without saying anything else he took Sirius in his arms and Disapparated from the room with a crack.

"Ron, Neville, I am very sorry but can you get back on your own..." Remus asked distractedly while taking out a small piece of green rock from his inner pocket.

"We can," Ron replied immediately while getting up.

"Great," He said hurriedly while handing Ron the rock in his hands, "This is a portkey created by Dumbledore and it should take you straight to the Hospital wing, you just need to touch your wand on it and say "Pomfrey,"... Do you understand?"

"Got it." Ron nodded while taking the rock from Remus's hand.

"Good! now you need to hurry and round up the others and leave while the wards around here are still down," Remus explained hurriedly, "And Ron, I can't thank you enough for what you—"

"Go, Professor. We'll talk later."

"Thank you," he repeated before taking a step back and Disapparating just like Kingsley.

Finally, the only ones left behind were the two Gryffindors, Ron and Neville... Oh and of course the half dozen bound Death Eaters.

"R-Rob! W-Whad do be do wid dem," Neville asked while pointing a shaking finger towards the unconscious Death Eaters.

"Oh! We can just leave them as is... unless you want to off some of them..." Ron said with a meaningful look while making a slashing gesture at his throat, "Because if you do, I promise not to tell on you..."

"W-W-Whad?!" Neville asked with a horrified look on his face while backing a few steps away from Ron in fear.

"Haha, I'm joking, of course," Ron said while waving his hand with a chuckle but Neville didn't laugh or even so much as twitch his lips.

It seems Sam's flavour of sarcasm wouldn't be popular among the wizarding folks of this world.

"Ahem! The Aurors should be down here any moment now, so we can just leave them alone," Ron said before hurriedly changing the subject, "Anyway, can you move on your own? Because we should get to the others and leave before anything unexpected happens..."

"Y-Yes, I can walk..."

"Let's go then."

Both of them began climbing the steep steps back towards the revolving door room, and while they were doing that Ron finally got the time to check the system notification that he had been ignoring until now.

[Quest: Save Sirius]

[Status: Complete]

[Reward: Stats +2, Exp +300]

'Oh, that's not too bad..' Ron mused internally. He didn't really save Sirius for the sake of rewards... but it felt good to get it nonetheless. 'Now let's check the Status...' But they reached the brain room before he could do that.

Ginny vigilantly looked up at the sounds of footsteps but then immediately lowered her wand when she saw who they were. She instantly frowned when she noticed that only two of them had returned, "Where's Harry?"

"He wend afder Belladrix..." Neville replied helpfully making Ron roll his eyes at his unnecessary honesty.

"What?! T-Then we need—"

"Don't worry, Ginny. He'll be fine."

"How can he be fine—"

"Because Dumbledore is with him," Ron said simply, which immediately took all the wind out of her sail.

"Oh..."

"Yeah, so we don't need to be worried about him...but I can't say the same about Luna and Hermione," he said while pointing towards their friends who were still unconscious, "They need to get to the Hospital wing as soon as possible, so..." he took out the portkey and said, "Let's go."

Not wasting any more time, all of them huddled around each other with Ron carrying Hermione and Neville, Luna.

After making sure that everyone was in touch, Ron immediately activated the portkey, "Pomfrey!!"

And the five teenagers disappeared in a swirl from the Department of Mysteries as if they had never been there.

///

Chapter Text

Headmaster's Office I Hogwarts

"So he only heard . . . ?"

"He heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort. Consequently, he could not warn his master that to attack you would be to risk transferring power to you — again marking you as his equal. So Voldemort never knew that there might be danger in attacking you, that it might be wise to wait or to learn more. He did not know that you would have 'power the Dark Lord knows not' —"

"But I don't!" said Harry in a strangled voice. "I haven't any powers he hasn't got, I couldn't fight the way he did tonight, I can't possess people or — or kill them —"

"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries," interrupted Dumbledore, "that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight.

"That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you—"

Dumbledore abruptly stopped speaking and his head suddenly jerked to the window behind him as if something had called him. But a confused Harry could see nothing out there except for the quidditch grounds—but, out of nowhere, something large and silver appeared in the distance closing in towards them, and before Harry could even blink, the silver Lynx landed in the middle of the room.

"Wha—" Harry began to ask but Dumbledore silenced him with a raised hand, his blue eyes staring intently at the silvery patronus, which immediately began to speak in the deep, low voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Dumbledore! Sirius is alive! I can't explain how, but we are at the Tonk's house and you need to come quickly! Oh! And Sirius wants Harry!"

With its message delivered, the patronus burst into a shower of silvery lights, leaving the occupants of the room stunned for a few moments.

"Wha—Who—How is he—" Harry felt as if the Hogwarts Express had slammed into him, his brain felt as if it was malfunctioning, he was having trouble breathing, and while his stomach was still stuck in the depths of despair it had been in since Sirius had died, his heart had now begun to beat furiously with rising hope... hope that Sirius was... "W-What did that message mean?"

"I... don't know," Dumbledore replied in a rare stunned voice. It was probably the first time in many many years that the Headmaster had felt this off guard and genuinely surprised about any piece of information.

After his short talk with the Minister, Dumbledore had only made two brief stops before coming here for his talk with Harry, one was at St. Mungos to check on Mad-Eye, and Nymphadora and the other one was at the Hospital Wing, where Madam Pomfrey had all the students in a potion induced sleep.

While he had been a bit surprised by Kinglsey and Remus's absence at that time, he hadn't thought much of it, just assuming that they were tired and had gone home to sleep, but now... it seems something monumental had happened during those few minutes... something that he had been kept out of the loop for, which was quite jarring for the old man, who was usually the most informed in any room.

"Could it be true? Is S-Sirius really alive?" Harry asked in a broken whisper, his voice filled with so much hope that it hurt. He knew that it would only break him more if he got his expectations too high, he also knew that he had seen for himself that Sirius hadn't been breathing before... But no matter how he tried to explain to himself, his heart just refused to stop hammering with hope.

"I don't know," Dumbledore repeated before he gathered himself and said, "but we can find that out at the Tonk's house," He abruptly stood and walked around the table towards Harry, "Are you coming?" he asked even though he knew the answer.

"Y-Yes." Harry replied immediately while standing up, his legs still felt like jelly but he thankfully managed to stay on his feet without falling, "How are we leaving? Are we taking Fawkes-Ah!" midway through his eyes caught sight of the little featherless Fawkes sitting in the ashes under her perch and remembered that she'd recently taken the Killing curse for Dumbledore couldn't teleport them.

"No, we are going to take the normal way," the Headmaster replied and for a moment Harry wondered if he was talking about brooms before he noticed him approaching the fireplace and realised what he meant by normal.

"Take this," Dumbledore handed Harry a pinch of floo powder from the nearby flower pot, "The place is called Tonks' Cottage..." he said before waving him into the fireplace, "Go on, you can go first."

Harry nodded his head and after taking a deep breath to somewhat calm his frayed nerves, he stepped into the fireplace. Throwing the floo powder towards the floor he shouted clearly, "Tonks' Cottage!"

Almost immediately an emerald fire sprang up and covered him making him disappear in a swirl of fiery colours.

It wasn't the first time Harry had used the floo, but the dizziness and the nausea were as worse as the first time. He felt as if he was being propelled through a very narrow tube, many random fireplaces were blurring past him and he even heard some indistinct voices, before the pressure around him abruptly disappeared and he was expelled through the fire.

And it was only as he was being thrown out that Harry remembered that he needed to land on his feet but it was too late by then, and fumbling so late only made his balance worse and he fell straight onto the floor face first, "Ugh!!"

"Harry!!" shouted several voices simultaneously, but Harry was far too dizzy and disoriented to look up and see who they were.

"No! Stay down, Sirius, you need to stop moving so much—" snapped an unfamiliar adult female voice irritatedly.

"But I feel completely fine, Andy, you just worry too much..." The moment the familiar voice entered Harry's ears, it cleared all the fog in his head and jolted him awake immediately.

"Harry?" Remus's concerned voice sounded somewhere beside his head but he wasn't listening, no all his focus had gone towards that voice, Harry woodenly looked up from the floor to see his Godfather lying on a sofa in the middle of the living room, looking at him with that handsome grin of his, alive and breathing.

"S-Sirius?" Harry whispered in a scared voice.

"Hey, there, Harry, you've grown up quite a lot since—"

"Sirius!" he cried and stumbled and ran straight for him ignoring everything and everyone else in the room and dived straight into his godfather's arms, "Sirius!!" he cried again while hugging his godfather tightly.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! it's alright! it's alright! you're fine," Sirius said in a soothing tone while rubbing Harry's back up and down as he bawled his eyes out, "Look I'm fine, aren't I? Come on, now, don't cry, It's alright, Shh..." Sirius said as he tried to console his godson as best as he could.

A few minutes passed as the silent sobs racked through Harry's body, before finally someone interrupted them, "That's enough, lad. Get up from there, he's still a patient, and you shouldn't jump on him like that—"

"Oh! Shove it, Andy,"

"Um..." Harry coughed and slowly raised himself away from Sirius while wiping his eyes as his embarrassment finally caught up to him. His face immediately flushed as he realised that he had been crying like a child in front of a stranger. He took a deep breath before turning his head towards the voice that had reprimanded him, "I'm sorry about—Y-YOU!"

"Oh, no, no," Sirius hurriedly said as he stopped an angry Harry's hand from moving towards his wand, "She's not—I mean, Harry I'd like you to meet my most favourite cousin, Andromeda Tonks,"

"I-I-She is-What?!" Harry was too bewildered to articulate himself as the face of the person he hated the most was just a few feet away from him, standing nonchalantly.

But it was only when he looked closely a few moments later that Harry realised that while she resembled Bellatrix quite a lot, there was some distinct difference between their features, most prominent among them was that her eyes didn't scream insane, "Tonks?" he questioned turning to Sirius.

"Yeah, she's Tonks'—I mean, Nymphadora's mother," Sirius replied nodding his head, "I know what you mean—Even I was shocked that Dora turned out to be such a blast with her as her mother..." he then lowered his head to whisper, "You know, I like to think that it may just have been my influence on her that saved her..." he finished with a wink at Harry.

"Nymphadora was only six the last time you saw her, Sirius." Andromeda's witty reply came equally quickly, "You know before you decided to dive headfirst into Azkaban,"

"Aw! How can you hurt my—"

"Um, Sirius," Harry knew that he was interrupting and that it was rude, but it had been a very long and exhausting night so he just couldn't keep his emotions and questions bottled up anymore, "How did you—Why are you—I mean, how are you..."

"I would like to know the same," came the quiet voice of the Headmaster from behind him.

Dumbledore had arrived silently into the room immediately after Harry, but he didn't want to interrupt Harry's moment so he just quietly stood in the corner while watching the reunion with a merry twinkle in his eyes.

"Dumbledore!" Sirius greeted with a serious expression on his face while trying to sit up.

"I swear, Sirius, I will not hesitate to stun you into oblivion if you try to get up one more time," Andromeda warned with her wand raised dangerously.

"Fine, fine, Jeez," Sirius said as he raised his hands in surrender and lay back down before turning back to Dumbledore, and Harry to answer their questions, "Um, you see I was a bit busy being dead at the moment when I was saved so I don't think I can answer you properly... but you can ask them," he pointed towards Remus and Kingsley standing quietly in front of the kitchen.

All eyes curiously turned to the two of them, and after exchanging a glance with Kinglsey, Remus began speaking, "It's a bit hard to explain but the short answer is... Ron did it." he said with a shrug, "He was the one who saved Sirius..."

"What?!" Harry exclaimed with a bewildered look on his face, and Dumbledore too had a puzzled expression on his face, "How? How did Ron save Sirius?"

"It happened when I asked Remus about the spell Bellatrix had used on Sirius," Kingsley intervened in his deep voice when Remus was having difficulty coming up with a way to explain what had happened, "And when he heard that it was the Heart-Stopping Spell, Ron seemed to remember a possible cure for it and went to work on him immediately..."

"What? I didn't hear about that part before?" Andromeda suddenly exclaimed with an interested expression on his face, "I never knew there was a method to revive someone after their heart had stopped... What method did he use? Was it an ancient spell? Or did he use a potion?"

"That's the interesting thing... It wasn't a magic spell," Remus replied with a bemused expression on his face.

"What?! How can someone revive a person without using magic?"

"It's true," Kingsley nodded his head calmly, "Even though I thought in the beginning that it was some kind of a dark ritual...."

"You did?" Remus asked with a strange expression.

"Yes, but what else was I supposed to think when the boy suddenly started jumping up and down on Sirius's body while chanting, 'Staying Alive!' 'Staying Alive!'..." Kingsley replied with a shrug, "Anyway, apparently it's supposed to be a famous muggle procedure called CeePee—something..."

"I think it's called CPR..." Remus added helpfully.

"Wait! CPR?!" Harry exclaimed in a disbelieving tone.

"Yes. Do you know about it too?"

"Y-Yes! I mean—I've never performed it myself but I know how it is done... I think everyone in the muggle world knows about it," Harry replied reflexively, as his mind was still reeling from the fact that such a simple thing had helped save Sirius... and to think if he hadn't chased after Bellatrix in rage, then maybe he could've helped too and wouldn't have almost lost Sirius... Thankfully Ron had been there and had managed to save him, otherwise...

'Wait! But how did... where did Ron learn CPR...' Harry mused with a confused expression on his face.

"Fascinating..." Dumbledore murmured with an impressed expression on his face while caressing his long white beard in excitement.

"I agree..." Andromeda breathed out with a pondering expression on her face, "To think we healers simply discarded all the muggle healing methods simply because their machines couldn't work near us... and now somehow such a simple commonly known method of theirs has managed to cure a Dark Spell, that would leave even us stumped..."

While Dumbledore and the healer cousin were captivated by the novelty of muggle healing, Harry didn't think much about it and turned back to his godfather and asked, "Umm, where are you going next, Sirius? Are you going to stay here or are you going back to Grimmauld Place?"

"I guess back to the Grimmauld..." Sirius answered with a sigh before he forced a peppy expression on his face to not worry his Godson, "But don't worry kid, I've redecorated that place so much that it almost resembles the Weasley house now, Haha—"

But Harry wasn't fooled by his fake excitement, while there had been a multitude of factors that had led to his death... Harry knew that staying inside that house as a prisoner had been chief among them, and now for him to be forced to go back and live there...

"Maybe... you don't have to, Sirius," Dumbledore suddenly intervened with a ruminating expression on his face.

"W-What do you mean?" Sirius asked with disbelief on his face. After all, Dumbledore was the one who was most adamant about him not leaving that house, (he knew that it was for his own sake but still...).

Instead of answering Sirius, Dumbledore turned to the other Marauder in the room, "Tell me, Remus, am I right to assume that no one from the opposite side knows about Sirius' continued survival..."

"Yes." Remus nodded immediately, "Except for the people in this room, only Ron and Neville know about Sirius..."

"Excellent," Dumbledore responded with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

"But how does that help Sirius, Professor?"

"Because If we play our card right, then maybe... we could get Sirius his freedom back without too much of a hassle..."

"How?!" Sirius immediately asked with a hungry expression on his face. Only he knew how suffocating it was for a man like him to stay hidden in that home all alone while others were out there fighting with their lives on the line.

"Well, it all depends on whether you can agree to remain "dead"," Dumbledore explained in a conversational tone, "Because if you do, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get your name cleared posthumously... After all, if I am right in my assumption then even the pureblood members of Wizengamont who Voldemort is secretly funding wouldn't waste their time opposing something they consider as foolish as honouring a dead man..."

Unknown to Dumbledore, this was what would have happened in the cannon, if Ron hadn't saved Sirius and changed the course of future... The ministry wanting to get closer to Harry had pardoned Sirius after the battle, as with him being dead there had been no chance of an embarrassing and long public trial to make them look stupid.

But the Headmaster didn't know that, in this instant, he was just an old man who hadn't expected to get a second chance... a chance to rectify his mistake. And now that he got that chance, he just wanted to make amends to a man he had wronged so much.

"If your name officially gets cleared, then it should be quite easy to remove your magical signature from the main ward, Sirius," Kingsley added with a serious expression, "This means that you wouldn't have any restrictions and could freely wander anywhere without fearing an Auror ambush..."

Not many people knew, but there laid a massive ward over the whole of Great Britain. It came under the purview of the Minister of Magic, and while it didn't have many defensive functions considering how big it was, there were some miscellaneous functions that it could perform very well, one of which was that it could routinely scan for magical signatures of people that the Ministery considers wanted fugitives.

This ward was also the main reason that Sirius either had to remain on the run or hide under the heavy wards of Gimmauld place, because if he remained in the open for too long then the ward could pick up his signature and alert the Aurors even without him performing any magic.

"So, what do you think, Sirius? Will you be fine with everyone in the wizarding world assuming you are dead?"

"I was already dead for most of them when I went to Azkaban, so I don't really care what they think," Sirius said with an uncaring shrug, "As long as the people I love know that I am alive it's enough for me," he finished with a quick glance at Harry.

"Does this mean he could go anywhere he wants and wouldn't have to stay confined anymore?" Harry asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Of course, he will still have to take some measures of stealth, such as using the polyjuice or transfiguring his face, but other than that, I don't see any reason why he has to stay indoors any longer..."

"T-This is great, Sirius," Harry said with a genuinely happy expression on his face, he couldn't help but imagine how great his summer holidays would be if Sirius could come and meet him whenever he wanted to.

"Alright! I think this is enough reunion for the day," Andromeda suddenly interjected with a glance at the clock, "Now, I will have to ask all of you to leave so that Sirius here can get the rest he needs..."

"But Andy—"

"No, buts, Sirius." Andromeda shook her head firmly, "While you may look fine from the outside, you are really not. That spell did not just stop your heart harmlessly, after all, it was a dark spell and they always leave their marks. So unless you want to die of heart attack, the next time you see a girl's skirt flip down the street, I suggest you take your potions and go to sleep..."

"T-That is indeed quite serious..." Sirius nodded with a scared expression.

"Andromeda is quite right, Harry" Dumbledore said nodding his head at Harry, "I think it is time for us to get back to Hogwarts too,"

Harry nodded his head before he turned and looked towards Sirius with a reluctant gaze. He was quite scared that it was all a dream and that if he left, his godfather would disappear.

"Don't worry, Harry. I am not going anywhere," Sirius said squeezing his shoulder comfortingly, "And besides you can always use your Christmas present to contact me at any time..."

"I-I didn't open it yet..." Harry said in a somewhat embarrassed tone.

"Oh... Well, then you should when you go back. I am sure you'll be pleasantly surprised..."

"I will," Harry nodded his head vigorously before he finally stood up and moved towards the fireplace. He took a pinch of floo powder from the pot and after taking one last look at Sirius he threw the powder into the fire and stepped in.

"And don't forget to thank Ron for me—" Harry heard Sirius's shout as he disappeared in the emerald flames.

//

Chapter Text

[Quest: Save Sirius]

[Status: Complete]

[Reward: Stats +2, Exp +300]

"Now, let's see," Ron mumbled with an excited look on his face, "Where should I add these points..."

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 15 (315/320)

MP: 240/240

Physique (Max.): 6 (10)

Dexterity (Max.): 5 (10)

Spirit (Max.): 8 (15)

Perception (Max.): 4 (10)

Stats: 2

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1 (New)...

Ron was inside the Hospital wing's toilet at the moment, which was surprisingly muggle for being inside a magical school. But then again there may just be something akin to a vanishing charm down there, who knows...

Anyway, the reason that he was accessing his status in here and not outside on his allocated bed was simply because Hermione was already up and about reading a book. And Ron didn't want to seem like an idiot staring at an imaginary screen in the air, or answer any unnecessary question so he went to the only safe haven he could find in the Hospital Wing.

Besides, Madam Pomfrey was already after his ass, trying to make him drink some kind of mind-correcting potion, along with Dr Ubbly's Oblivous unction that he was already using for the scars by the Brain tentacles, to correct all the wrong that had been done to him in the brain room.

Thankfully, he had somehow managed to dissuade her that he was alright and didn't need the potion, but he was still taking as many precautions as he could to not seem too different to force her to use the potion and 'correct him'.

Coming back to the topic, Ron didn't want to haphazardly add his only two points into random stats, as he didn't know when the next chance to get them would come.

After all, if even something as big as saving Sirius only gave him two points and three hundred experience then he didn't know what else he would need to do to get more...

So he wanted to carefully go over all the options in front of him to see which were the best for him at the moment...

Physique, Dexterity, Spirit and Perception...

Among them adding points to Physique seemed simple enough. It should lead to an increase in strength, speed, and stamina, as all of these usually come under the physical body's umbrella. And safe to say, he remembered quite clearly from Ron's memories that his stamina, while not atrocious, wasn't the best.

And if he ever wanted to play quidditch, which he definitely did (I mean who wouldn't), then it was in his best interest to have a lot of stamina, as the sport was supposed to be a very physically intensive game and at the moment Ron probably couldn't even fly for more than an hour.

Putting point in Spirit was similarly straightforward as it should lead to an increase in MP and probably something like better magic recovery after exhaustion.

He was doing a lot guess work here because, for some goddamn reason, the system was ridiculously non-user friendly at the moment and was refusing to give him any explanation of what was what. Thankfully, Sam had played a lot of games in his previous life so he didn't have too many problems approximately guessing what each stat meant...

In any case, moving on to the next one, putting the point in Dexterity would probably mean an increase in hand speed, reaction speed and flexibility and while all these were kind of essential to improve his combat ability, Ron knew that he wouldn't be having any deadly magical battle any time soon, so he felt that this stat could be left for later.

Now, Perception was somewhat of a curve ball as it was the stat that Ron was most doubtful about. It could mean a lot of different things depending on what game he was playing and what build he was using.

For example, if he was going for a warrior build, perception would directly correlate to his physical senses such as his eyesight, his hearing range, and his sense of smell among other things, and in addition, it could also indicate his ability to slow down very fast objects in his vision so that he could perceive them. For ex. during the DOM battle, Ron could barely see Bellatrix's hand move because of how fast she was, so he knew that it could help with that.

But on the other hand, if it was Mage's build, perception could also imply his magical talent, and how good he was at perceiving the mana or the magical elements surrounding him and Ron knew that talent meant a big deal in this world as one only needed to see how the two magical titans outpaced the rest of the world to understand it.

And in this instant, the perception here could mean any of the above things or even all of them. But even though it was his worst stat, Ron felt that it would be somewhat of a gamble at the moment to put his points in it as there was no way to be sure if it would pay off or be a bust.

So after a lot of thought, Ron decided to go for the safe bet and decided to add his points to his physique and his spirit stat. Maybe if, in the future, he gets some easy points, he can experiment and see where the perception stats take him.

'Now how to go about it—Oh!' Ron had barely thought about putting it into action and a system alert appeared in front of him.

[Physique +1, Spirit +1]

'Well that's convenient,' he thought before hurriedly closing his eyes to see if he could sense any changes in his body.

But no matter how long he waited he could feel no changes in his body, no tingling sensation over his skin, no feeling of suppressed strength, no sense of magical fullness from the inside, not even that legendary burst of clear-headedness that you were supposed to feel when your stats increased. He felt nothing...

'What the fuck,' Ron thought in bewilderment before hurriedly opening his eyes and saying, "Status,"

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 15 (315/320)

MP: 243/243

Physique [Max.]: 6.1 + 0.9(Pending) [11]

Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.1 + 0.9(Pending) [16]

Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]

Stats: 0

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1 (New)...

Ron quickly browsed through the now familiar screen and it only took him a few glances to see where the discrepancies were.

Physique [Max.]: 6.1 + 0.9(Pending) [11]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.1 + 0.9(Pending) [16]

'Wait! What does this mean?' Ron thought with a confused expression on his face while scratching his head, 'Wait! I think I've seen this before...' he closed his eyes and concentrated deeply and ever slowly a long-forgotten memory was dragged up to the forefront. 'Ah! So that's where...'

He had read about this particular situation in an obscure unpopular webnovel where the world was filled with people who had the gamer system. And in that world, people don't immediately have access to their stat gains, instead, they would only get the small amount of increment that their body can handle at that moment, and for the rest of it, they would have to work hard at exercising and eating nutritional meals to gradually digest the gains over time.

'So I need to work for my stats, is that it?' Ron groaned while slapping his face with a tired expression on his face, and on cue, his stomach grumbled loudly with a bone-deep hunger, solidifying his guess as the correct one as he felt at that moment as if every cell in his body was starved and craving nourishment.

'Damnit! You couldn't have just let me have an easy win could you?' Ron groused as he aired his grievances against the imaginary puppet master before standing up and leaving the bathroom with a sigh.

...

"You were gone for an awfully long time," commented Hermione as she saw him come back from the bathroom.

Ginny only had a broken ankle so Madam Pomfrey had been able to fix her in jiffy, and Neville similarly was only physically injured so he too was immediately healed and released from the hospital wing.

And while Luna had a case of bad concussion, Madam Pomfrey had given her some potions and as long as she took them for two, she should be fully healed, so she too had been freed which meant that only he and Hermione had been left behind to be at the healer's mercy.

"What can I say, the longer I take a dump, the emptier my body... and the emptier my body, the more I can eat..." Ron replied with a snicker while lying back on his bed, "It's all very logical, you know,"

"Ew! Ron! That is so disgusting," Hermione said her nose curled in distaste, "How can you be so gross? I swear, you're becoming worse as you grow up and I can only pray that—"

Thankfully, before she could get into a full rant she was interrupted by the door to the Hospital wing opening. And both of them turned to see the last missing piece of the Golden trio entering the wing.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed in happiness, and for a moment it looked as if she would run straight towards him to hug him, but then she looked at him and noticed his condition, "Why are—" she had a frown on her face as she asked, "Why do you look like that, Harry? Did you not get any sleep last night?"

Hermione was right in that, Harry looked very messed up at the moment. He looked as if he had come here straight after the fight in DOM. But that wouldn't make any sense as the fight should have concluded somewhere around midnight, and it was around Seven O'Clock in the morning right now, which should have been enough time for him to... 'Maybe his talk with Dumbledore took longer than intended...'

"Harry, what happened? Ron told me that you were alright—" Hermione tried again when she got no reply from him, but Harry still didn't answer or even look at her, as he only had eyes for a single person in that room.

"Umm... What's up, Harry?" Ron asked with a nervous expression on his face as the Boy-Who-Lived, stared at him with such an intense expression that he thought for a moment that he had found out about him, "Why are you looking at me like that, Harry? Haha, Don't tell me you want to kiss me, because you know that I don't—"

Ron's nervous attempt at humour was rudely interrupted as Harry launched himself at him and hugged him with all his might. "T-Thank you," he said earnestly, "Thank you!" and he kept repeating himself with a tremor in his voice.

"Hey! Hey! Come on, get yourself together, Mate," Ron said with an internal sigh of relief while patting Harry on his shoulder, "Come, on now, Hermione's going to get the wrong idea if we keep at it any longer... Look she's already looking at us kind of funny..."

"No, I am not!" Hermione denied hotly with a flushed face but Ron's tactic had worked as Harry chuckled and disengaged from the hug while wiping his eyes, "Wait! Why are you like this, Harry? What happened after I was unconscious? Did someone get hurt? Will one of you please just tell me what this is about?"

"It's nothing too big," Ron replied waving his hand casually, "I just helped Padfoot a little bit during the battle and Harry here is being overly dramatic about it,"

"He's being humble," Harry quietly contradicted with a small smile on his face, "He brought Sirius back from the jaws of death and saved his life... I-We both are very indebted to him and I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay him..."

"What? Ron saved Sirius?" Hermione asked with a shocked expression on her face as if the very notion of it was absurd, "How did he—I mean, How could he—Wait! Does that mean that you know healing magic?" she asked Ron in a half-accusatory tone as if blaming him for learning something as interesting as Healing alone without including her.

"No, of course, I don't know healing. It was just a simple mundane something that I knew about and it helped him," Ron replied without mentioning CPR as he didn't want to go into that whole rabbit hole of, 'How do you know about it? Who told you about it?' at the moment. So he immediately turned to Harry and tried to change the subject, "And Harry, what debt are you talking about? Because I didn't know were keeping count and if we were... then shouldn't I first thank you for saving my Father. But I didn't at that time, did I?"

"You did, in fact," Harry said as he nodded his head with an amused expression on his face, "And your father even told me that saving a life without expecting anything in return creates a very strong magical bond called Life-debt and that—"

"Then how about when you saved my sister from Basilisk in the second year, Huh? If we count all the times you've saved me or my family, I think I come ahead by a lot..." Ron countered quickly as both Ron and Sam were quite uncomfortable with all this talk of Debts and favour between friends, "So why don't we cancel it all—"

"But then don't you remember saving me from prison and starvation during the summer before the second year—"

"Oh Yeah! Then what about that time—"

Hermione's head jerked from left to right and back as she watched both of her best friends bicker and go back and forth, trying to one-up each other on who was more heavily in debt.

They left the serious life-saving graces after a while and went into the smaller nitty-gritty favours, things such as who gave whom an extra quill on that Sunday or who helped with that particularly hard potion homework that one time.

"Then what about that one time you held the door open for—"

"Um... Harry," Ron interrupted softly while leaning forward, "If we're going to be doing this for a while, then I think we should get some food because all this talk has made me quite hungry," his stomach had been silently growling and begging for food all this while due to the small stat increase and now his body was entering the territory of being dangerously starved.

"Oh, Um, Sure, Do you want me to call, Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asked back in a whisper, "I am sure she can get us some food."

"Ugh! No, I don't want to eat any hospital food," Ron replied with a grunt of aversion, "But I've got a far better idea on where we can get our grub—"

"What—"

"What are you two whispering about?" Hermione suddenly interrupted with narrowed eyes, she had been enjoying the back and forth between her friends when they suddenly stopped, taking away her entertainment.

"No, Nothing," Ron replied as he hurriedly looked up, before taking a serious expression, "Er, Hermione, can you go away and give us privacy for a few seconds to have a talk between us,"

"What? Why?"

"What do you mean, why? Did Harry and I ever ask you why, when you wanted to have the "girl talk" with Ginny? No, right! Then you should give us the same privilege, shouldn't you?"

"B-But, That's different!" she stuttered with a flustered expression on her face.

"And how is this different? Unless... don't tell me, you're discriminating against us just because we're boys? he asked before shaking his head in disappointment, "Tch! Tch! I thought better of you, Hermione,"

"No, I didn't mean—"

"Oh, You didn't? That's good then. Thank you, for giving us the time to have some boy talk, Now shoo!!"

"Ugh! Fine!" she huffed as Ron immediately threw the curtains around his bed, shielding them from the view of a very irate Hermione.

"Un, Ron... What did you want to talk about, specifically?" Harry asked with an uncomfortable expression on his face. All this talk about "Girl Talk" and "Boy Talk" was making him scared that the red-haired boy wanted to talk to him about the bird and the bees.

"Call Dobby! Quickly!" Ron immediately urged in a whisper.

"What?! Dobby? Why do you want—"

Before Harry could even finish asking his question, a soft pop interrupted them as the elf in question appeared amidst them with a giddy look on his face, "The Great Harry Potter has called for Dobby—"

"Shh!! Dobby, not so loud," Ron said in a panicky tone while glancing towards the closed curtain, "Do you want us to get caught?"

Dobby immediately understood the assignment and nodded his head, "What does the great Harry Potter and his weasel friend want Dobby's help with?" he asked in a conspiratory whisper as if they just needed to ask and he would the job, no matter how illegal.

"We need food, Dobby, Food! Can you get it here?"

"Of course! Dobby can!" Dobby squeaked as he nodded his head with a pleased expression on his face, "Dobby will go and get it right away."

"Good! And try and make it as healthy and nutritious as you can, will you."

"Dobby will," the elf nodded and then disappeared with a click of his finger.

Ron immediately sighed in relief before he noticed a peculiar expression on Harry's face as if he was seeing Ron for the first time, "What?! What happened?" he asked while going over his words, checking if he had messed up somehow.

"Healthy? You asked for healthy food?" Harry asked with a strange almost concerned expression on his face, "Are you sure, you're alright, Ron?"

"Oh! Stuff it, Potter!"

...

Hermione impatiently paced in front of her bed while frequently glancing towards the curtain with an intensely curious expression on her face, 'What could they be talking about for so long?'

Finally, when more than five minutes had passed without a single squeak from inside, the girl lost her patience and went towards the curtain before loudly announcing, "I'm coming in!"

"No! Dob't cobe ib," came Ron's panicked voice but it sounded as if his mouth was stuffed with— Hermione's eyes widened and she immediately ripped open the curtain only to see both Harry and Ron sitting on the latter's bed with a large sumptuous spread in between them with both of their mouth's filled with food and both looking towards her with wide alarmed eyes.

It took the smartest witch in her class only a single glance to understand what all this cloak and dagger had been about all along, "You! You didn't call for Dobby, did you?" she immediately asked while looking at the boys with an accusatory glare.

Ron first swallowed the food in his mouth before answering Hermione with an indignant look on his face, "Hermione Granger, that is so insulting of you, how could you even think that we're capable of such a crime!" he knew that he couldn't be on a backfoot when in a conversation with the stubborn girl so he immediately went for the offence.

"Then, how did you—"

"We obviously used magic to bring food in here, didn't we, Harry?"

"Umm..."

"See! Even Harry agrees with me,"

"But you can't use magic to create food." She immediately shot back with a triumphant look on her face, "Gamp's law of elemental transfiguration states that food cannot be created with magic—"

"I know that," he didn't "But don't you remember that I said 'bring' and not create, Tch, Tch, Tch! Don't professors always say that the devil's in the details? I expected better from you, Miss Granger," Ron said while shaking his head with a disappointed expression on his face that was eerily similar to one stern Head of House, "That'll be five points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger,"

"You!" Hermione let out with an absolutely scandalous look on her face, "How dare you, Ronald Weasley—" but her reprimand abruptly died in her throat as she looked behind Ron with a horrified expression on her face.

"Was that an impression of me, Mr Weasley?" quietly said a voice that immediately sent shivers down Ron and Harry's spines.

Both of them gulped and slowly turned their head to see their head of house, Minerva McGonagall, standing there with a very unimpressed expression on her face.

///

Chapter Text

"Was that an impression of me, Mr Weasley?" hearing Mcgonagall's stern no-nonsense voice from behind him, just seconds after making fun of her was the stuff of nightmares that even a boggart couldn't conjure. All of them gulped and turned around towards her.

The Deputy Headmistress was carrying a tartan carpetbag in one hand and leaning
heavily on a walking stick with her other. She had been injured during their Astronomy final while defending Hagrid from the Aurors and it looks like she had arrived here directly after getting discharged from St. Mungos.

"N-No, Professor. I-I wasn't!" Ron denied as he hurriedly shook his head. He would rather die than admit to the charges.

"Is that so..." McGonagall replied quietly before scrutinising Ron over her glasses for a few moments, "Nonetheless, I'll take five points from Gryffindor as a lesson, and in addition, you'll serve a detention with me for the rest of your days here. Is that understood, Mr Weasley,"

"Y-Yes, Professor—" Ron mumbled quietly but just as he was about to nod and silently accept his punishment, he suddenly remembered a pesky little detail about points... and then before he could stop and think any further, he blurted out, "But you can't do that, Professor."

Both Harry's and Hermione's heads swirled towards him and their jaws almost fell to the floor at Ron's brazenness. Their eyes looked towards him as if he had gone mad. Even McGonagall was taken aback by his reply before she raised an eyebrow and asked back, "And why not, Mr Weasley?"

"Um..." Ron hesitated briefly, while inwardly cursing his thoughtlessness. Still, he knew that he was already on the tiger's back and couldn't jump off now, so he may as well... "Because Snape—I mean, Professor Snape, Umbridge, and her Inquisitorial Squad already took all of Gryffindor's points... so we've got nothing left for you to take, Hehe."

The professor was silent for a while before turning towards Hermione, "Is that true, Miss Granger?"

"Yes, Professor," Hermione nodded her head with a reluctant expression on her face as if wishing that she could give a different answer to her favourite professor.

'Teacher's pet,' thought Ron and Harry simultaneously.

"I see..." McGonagall replied before turning back to look at Ron and the others with such a stern look that immediately had him squirming in his seat like a naughty student even though he had the memories of an adult Sam, "I heard about all of your adventures in the Department of Mysteries from... somewhere,"

"S-Sorry, Professor,"

"No, you don't need to apologise, Miss Granger," she said while shaking her head, "While it was undeniable that what you did was stupid, reckless and brash... It can't be denied that what you did was instrumental in bringing You-Know-Who into the open, so you should be applauded for that, and I would like to reward you for that...Hmm, let's see, How about 70 points to each of you from Gryffindor, and Luna Lovegood as well... Yes, That should do it."

"Really!" Hermione replied jubilantly before her eyes widened as she realised something, "But t-that would put us right head of Slytherin for the house cup..."

"Will it? That's good then—Oh! but, I nearly forgot," McGonagall eye's suddenly turned back to Ron, "It seems I can finally take the points, Mr Weasley. So that would be 10 points from Gryffindor... Ah, but that would mean that Gryffindor would lose the cup just by five points... such a shame,"

"T-They would kill me," Ron gasped in a horrified voice as he understood what McGonogall was implying. He knew how obsessed the Gryffindors were with their house points, he remembered how many times their housemates had outcasted him and Harry because of them losing a few points, and if they knew that they lost the house cup just because of him...

"I know," McGonagall replied with a twitch of her lip before turning around and hobbling out of the hospital wing, she had only arrived to see if her lions were alright after their encounter with the Death Eater, and now that she had, she could finally retire to her room and rest.

"She—How did she even get into Gryffindor? She would fit better with the Slytherins considering her pettiness," Ron murmured with a blank look after the door had closed behind their Head of House.

"I know," Harry replied, nodding his head dumbfoundedly.

"Ron!!" Hermione snapped while fiercely slapping him on his arm.

"What?!"

"Y-You! You just lost us the House Cup!!"

"See, Harry!" Ron said to his friend in a scared voice, "It's already started. What am I gonna do now?"

The door to the Hospital Wing opened once again at the moment and in came the rest of their squad including Neville, Luna and Ginny.

"Why was Professor McGonagall here?" Ginny asked curiously while placing a basket of chocolate frogs beside Ron's bed.

"Professor McGonagall gave all of us points because of the DOM fight, and we were winning the House Cup, but Ron here lost us Ten points and now we're not winning," Hermione supplied very helpfully.

"YOU DID WHAT?!!"

...

A few hours later, Ron was sitting on his bed all alone, fiddling with his status screen. Madam Pomfrey had kicked all the visitors out of the wing because of all the ruckus that they were creating at the end.

And because Pomfrey was quite irate with the fact that Hermione wasn't getting the rest that she should with her injury, since apparently "READING IS NOT RESTING, MISS GRANGER!!" so the brightest witch of their year had been force-fed a sleep-inducing potion and was now knocked out on her bed dreaming peacefully.

Only three beds were occupied in the Hospital Wing at the moment, his own, Hermione's, and the last one was an unknown as the curtains had been drawn around it since Ron had arrived here and only Madam Pomfrey went in to check every once in a while.

Anyway, since he was all alone in the wing and bored out of his mind, he decided to mess with the system to see if he could find any kind of new function that would help him in the future, something like a way to increase his stats, or a way to level up skills or maybe a way to amass experience.

Of course, he had thought about that obvious method of improving his magic skills by casting them repeatedly, but unfortunately, you were forbidden from casting any form of magic in the Hospital Wing so he couldn't experiment with that at the moment, and was left trying to find alternate methods... which was turning out to be frustratingly fruitless at the moment.

"Ah! Damn it! You stupid system! Why are you so useless—" he let out with gritted teeth while pouring out his irritation by randomly clicking on the status screen, when unexpectedly something actually happened when he double clicked on the Charms skill, "Oh..."

[Charms Lv 5 (15%)]

1. Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (70%)

2. Lumos Lv 5 (70%)

3. Expelliarmus Lv 6 (90%)

4. Alohomora Lv 4 (80%)

5. Stupefy Lv 6 (25%)

6. Protego Lv 6 (35%)

7. Accio Lv 4 (40%)

...

..

"...so you need to double-click to open the drop-down menu for the skills..." Ron murmured while inwardly cursing himself for missing something so obvious.

And then he immediately began clicking away at all the rest of the skills, and sure enough, Transfiguration, DADA, and Potions, each of them had their own menus. While Transfiguration and DADA had their associated spells underneath them, the Potions skill had all the various Potion recipes that Ron had ever worked on under it.

But nothing showed up when he clicked on active skills like Flying and Duelling, which meant that it only worked on the various branches of magic and not simple skills.

"Well, at least, I learned something new..." Ron murmured with a satisfied expression on his face, as he knew that this new function would be a lot of help when he began levelling up his skills, even if nothing else.

"But wait! What if..."

Ron wondered aloud as his hand skipped over the Status and went towards the overhead menu with Status, Inventory, Quest, and other sections, out of which only the Status, Logs and Quest Sections were not grey.

He then tried double-clicking each of them and while unfortunately none of the greyed-out features gave any response, the Quest Section did...

[Quests]

[1. Active Quests]

[2. Quest Search]

'Ooh, this is new...'

Out of the two options underneath the Quests function, the Active Quests one was empty which made sense but when he clicked on the Quest search option, it began blinking rapidly with a blue light. And in the next moment, he felt a pulse originate from his body and cover the whole room.

The next time he blinked, Ron noticed that two exclamation marks had appeared in his vision. One was above the entrance to Madam Pomfrey's quarters and the other one was above the closed curtains around the third occupied bed.

"Ah..." Ron was shocked for a moment at the new revelation before he immediately clicked on the mark above the healer's quarters.

[Healer's Initiation (1)]

[Objective - Get the healer to agree to take you under her wings as her assistant and teach you all the intricacies involved in healing minor wounds and ailments]

[ Reward: Healing Lv 1, Exp +100]

[Requirements: Read Ten Basic Books related to Healing, Episkey Lv 6, Charms Lv 7, Potions Lv 7]

"Wow, This is quite good..." he breathed out while nodding his head. Even though he was a bit disappointed that he couldn't just get the quest right away, at least he now knew what he had to do if he wanted to become a healer. And he definitely would try to become one if he got the chance since it was a job that would definitely come in handy in the upcoming years when the war began, "Let's see what the other one is..."

[The ???? Curse (1)]

[Objective - Find out who the person behind the curtain is and what curse is afflicting her.]

[Reward: Exp +10, The Curse (2)]

"So this is also a chain quest..." Ron pondered while looking at the number behind the quest title, and the reward... "The experience reward is just perfectly what I needed to level up and it doesn't seem like it would be a hard quest either... Let's go then," he immediately nodded his head and got up from his bed.

The bed with the curtain was in the middle on the opposite side and thankfully there was a window by its side so he could pretend he wanted to enjoy the sun while trying to spy. Ron took a deep breath and then nonchalantly began to wander towards the other side.

He came to stand in front of the window, out of which he could easily see the sprawling quidditch ground that was empty at the moment and the sun that was almost halfway up to the top.

He then casually stretched his hands above his head while faking a yawn and peeked at the bed from the corner of his eye. And what he saw made his eyes twitch wildly and left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

The little girl sitting on the bed looked about 11 or 12 years old and had blond hair and blue eyes. She had an unusually pale face and looked so thin as if a strong wind could knock her over.

The girl had a quill balanced above her lips, and her hands laid behind her head as she rested against the bedrest. She had a bored look on her face and her eyes were on the ceiling instead of the homework assignment spread out in front of her— In essence, she looked like the perfect picture of a student procrastinating and daydreaming.

While Ron was reminiscing about his past and sympathising with her, the girl's eyes suddenly turned towards him and caught sight of the Gryffindor spying on her.

After being shocked for a few seconds, she hurriedly sat up straight on her bed and sent a glare his way, "What are you—"

"What are you looking at, Pipsqueak?" Ron asked irritatedly before the girl could, leaving her stunned.

"W-What?!" After the bewilderment at being called out as the victim wore off, she once again sent a glare his way while puffing her cheeks in anger, "This is my bed. What are you doing here? And what did you just call me?"

"Pipsqueak," Ron replied, selectively answering only her last question before he casually opened the curtain and went inside. He looked down to see that a chair was placed beside the bed so he took it and moved it so that it was facing the window before taking a seat on it with his legs on the windowsill.

Sam had been quite a frequent visitor of his Old Orphanage in his previous life, so he knew that the best way to deal with children was to disorient them so that they couldn't do anything other than reply.

"Y-You what are you doing? Why are sitting here?"

"What does it look like? I was bored with the view from my own bed so I came here to get some sun," he replied with a shrug as if what he was doing was completely normal and not rude at all, "You're a Slytherin, right?"

"S-So what if I am?" she asked while gripping her bedsheet tightly, "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing," Ron answered while ignoring her defensive glare at being called a snake, "Just wondered who you were since I haven't seen you before... So which year are you in, pipsqueak, First year, or Second year?"

"I am a third year," she shot back with a flushed face. It seems he had touched somewhat of a nerve by indirectly calling her short, "And don't call me a pipsqueak!"

"Well... what else am I gonna call you, you haven't told me your name yet, have you?" he replied as if it was all her fault.

"Y-You!" she was speechless for a while before reluctantly replying, "Fine! I am Astoria Greengrass—And you haven't told me your name either."

"My name's Ron." he replied shortly while skipping his last name, "But, Wait! Don't tell me, you're the little sister of the Ice Queen?"

"Ice Queen?" the little girl replied with a perplexed expression on her face.

"Daphne Greengrass. The Ice Queen of Slytherin. Aren't you, her sister?"

"I-I am... but I didn't know sis was called that," she replied with a confused look on her face, "Wait! Who else calls her that?"

"I think, everyone in our year does..." Ron replied immediately at the curious interest in the little girl's eyes, "Don't you know about, how she has an ice-cold expression on her face all the time, and the way she looks at everyone around her as if they were just unruly children... I swear people would believe her to be Sanpe's daughter if she wasn't so pretty,"

He wasn't actually making it all up as Ron had thought all of these things during their classes with the Slytherins when he was bored and talking with the other Gryffindors like Dean, Seamus and the other.

"T-This is perfect!" Astoria said with a delighted expression on her face, "I can't believe sis never told me these things," her face looked the perfect representation of a triumphant younger sibling who had finally gotten a chance to get to one-up her older sister.

Ron let her bask in her happiness for a few moments before asking the main thing, "So what happened with you... what are you in here for?"

"What?" Astoria immediately had a defensive expression on her face, "Why should I tell you?" her defensive tone suggested that she didn't want to divulge that information.... but Ron couldn't abide by that for the sake of his quest.

"Hmm... I can't see anything outwardly wrong with you," Ron knew that the best way to make someone especially a child open was to make assumptions about them, "So maybe you have an internal problem... like a girl problem or something..."

"What?! W-What is a girl's problem?" Astoria asked back curiously despite herself.

"Huh. You don't even know something basic like that?" Ron replied with a tilt of his head while looking at the girl as if she was dense, "What are your parents even doing?"

"Don't talk about my parents like that!" the girl replied hotly, "And if you're going tell me, then do it otherwise, get lost."

"Fine! Fine! Calm down, I'll tell you, jeez... now I am definitely sure that you have the girl problem," he murmured the last part softly.

"What? What did you say?"

"Nothing." Ron quickly shook his head, "Anyway, if you want me to tell you something, then you need to give something in return,"

"What? Why?"

"Are you really a snake?" he asked while looking at her with a sceptical look on his face, "Isn't your house all about give and take? How can you not know that?"

"I-I know that!" she replied with a flushed face before hurriedly shaking her head, "Anyway, what do you want to know in return?"

"Hmm... Let's see, I don't think you can tell me anything useful... so why don't you just tell me about the reason you're in here?"

"W-Why do you keep wanting to know about that?"

"No reason, just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Astoria was hesitant for a few moments before her curiosity won over and she replied, "Fine, it's not like it's a secret or something."

"That's good then," Ron shrugged casually before continuing, "Well, the girl problem I was talking about—Wait, How old are you again?"

"Thirteen!"

"Hmm... well that's old enough... so I guess it's fine," In the decade that Sam came from, these things stopped being taboo or something to be ashamed of so he didn't have any problem educating a kid, "Anyway, lend me your ear..." he leaned in and then began to whisper all the secrets involved in the so-called "girl problem", Why it was exclusive to girls? Why did it happen? How did it happen? And why does it happen only once a month? And why she should begin to panic if it doesn't arrive at its usual time...

Astoria's face turned progressively red as the Gryffindor whispered in her ears the taboo knowledge that she had only vaguely heard from her mother, and finally when he began talking about how to have safe se—"STOP IT!! I don't wanna know that! You Pervert!!"

"What? How did I become a pervert?!" Ron replied in a defensive tone, "This is just common knowledge that everyone knows about. Besides you're the one who asked me—"

"Shut up!" she replied, the colour crimson not fading from her face, "And who told you that everyone knows about it? My friends don't"

"They don't? They definitely should. It's important. In fact, I give you my permission to spread this knowledge as much as you want," he said waving his hand generously.

"No, I won't," Astoria shot back, "And besides why do you even know about it, you're a boy."

"Tch! Tch! Tch!" Ron shook his head disappointedly, "That's quite the backward thinking you have there, little girl. Everyone should know about it whether they are a boy or a girl. What if you suddenly need it and you don't know about it? That's going to be quite embarrassing, wouldn't it?'

"W-Why would you need it?"

"Well... what if I have a daughter in the future? Who would tell her about it?"

"Her mother would, obviously,"

"Well... then what if my wife died tragically sacrificing herself to save us, then what?"

"Y-You!! You shut up!!" the girl just couldn't believe how shameless he was.

"Fine, then, Anyway, now it's your turn..." he said while waving his hand towards her to divulge her part of the deal.

"Fine, If you want to know so much," Astoria murmured while folding her hands and looking away morosely before replying in a small tone, "I-I have something called a bloodline curse..."

[Quest Complete]

///

Chapter Text

[Quest Complete]

[Reward: Exp +10, The Bloodline Curse (2)]

[Quest Alert!]

[The Bloodline Curse(2)]

[Description: When you hate your foe so much that you want them and their descendants to suffer for a long long time... that is when you place this curse on your enemy. An ancient family placed this curse on the Greengrass line and now their youngest daughter, Astoria Greengrass suffers because of it. This curse randomly afflicts a person every third generation and is thought to be incurable. Symptoms include: a frail physique, weakened magic, weak immune system, and intolerable bursts of pain during the days around the New Moon.]

[Objective: Find information about three possible cures for the Bloodline curse.]

[Reward: Exp +150, Curse Breaker Lv 1, Stat +1 ]

'Oh, this is quite good—'

[Level Up!]

[Stat +1, Skill +1]

'And now, this is just the cherry on top, Hehe!' Ron was jumping up and down internally at the continued merry surprises and immediately commanded, 'Open Status'

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 16 (05/340)

MP: 243/243

Physique [Max.]: 6.1 + 0.9(Pending) [11]

Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.1 + 0.9(Pending) [16]

Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]

Stats: 1

Skills: 1

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1...

'Not only a stat point but also a Skill Point! A level-up is just awesome—' Ron was having a hard controlling his inner happiness from showing up on his face as he knew that it would be a disaster-level screw-up if he showed a delighted expression on his face immediately after the girl just told him about her terminal illness.

"Why do you look so constipated?" Asotira asked with a tilt of her head as she saw the severe frown on Ron's face as if he was having a stomach ache. Unlike the usual pity she got when people learned about her curse, he was looking at her with such a foreign expression that it baffled her... "Do you even know what it means?"

"Of course, I do." Ron retorted after taking a deep breath and smoothing his expression while mentally closing the status. It seems that he would need to learn Occlumency as soon as he could otherwise it would be tough for him to explain to people why his expression kept changing abruptly.

"Doesn't the curse just mean that every full moon, you'll turn into a bloodthirsty bunny..." he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "and then you'll appear above your sleeping enemies and drink their blood until they beg you to stop and agree to become your slave..." he finished in a grim tone and even gave a full body shudder for added effects. "...for the rest of his life."

"Wha—Who told you that ridiculous crap!!" she shot back with an affronted look on her face, "Of course, I don't turn into—" she was about to tear into him when she caught sight of the mirth in his eyes and halted, "Y-You were joking?" she asked incredulously.

"No, No, I really thought that you turned into a cute little bunny every—"

"Oh, Shut up!" Astoria huffed with a pout on her face after seeing the small smirk on Ron's face. But she wasn't really angry though as it was quite a novel experience for her to not be treated like a fragile flower who could break at a single touch or worse to be looked at as if she was a scourge who could spread the curse to him and run away in fear.

"So what is this curse about... I mean what do you turn into, if not a blood-thirsty bunny," Ron asked casually while comfortably leaning back on his chair with his eyes focused on the view out the window; his entire posture screamed lazy as if he really was here just to soak in the sun.

"Well... firstly I don't turn into any animal, and for the most part, I am still just a normal girl..." she shrugged before continuing, "A normal girl who can't perform any of the more demanding magics or fly on a broom for a more than a minute... and of course, I need to stay here in Hospital Wing for a few days every single month to drink disgusting but very expensive potions so that I don't go insane from the excruciating pain that hits me around the New Moon..." she stopped before her expression abruptly changed to a bright one, "Except for all that, I am just a normal Slytherin girl."

"...Yep, that sounds exactly like every other girl out there," Ron nodded after a while before he shook his head with a sigh and tried to move on to something brighter, "But, hey, that must mean that you hate your sister, right..."

"Huh? Why would I hate my sister?" Astoria asked with an absurd look on her face.

"Oh! Come on, Your sister, "the overachiever", the one who's always in the top three of our year, the one who could've gotten the "prestigious" top spot if Hermione didn't spend half her year in the library," Ron ranted with the addition of air quotes for emphasis, "I bet someone uptight like that wouldn't be happy if you got less than satisfactory grades—"

"My sister is not uptight," Astoria interrupted with a wide-eyed angry look, "I mean, she does get a little mad when I get bad grades, and I guess she can be a little fanatical when it comes to doing homework on time, and I agree that she can be little mean if I am a bit lazy—Ok, fine, I admit that she's a little uptight, but that doesn't mean that she's a bad person," she said which made Ron roll his eyes, "No, really, she always helps me with my studies, and it is mostly because of her that I am still in the top ten of my class even though my practical skills suck."

"Wait! You're really in the top ten of your class?" Ron asked with a somewhat sceptical look on his face, "Damn... I would have never guessed from the way you were slacking when I first saw you..."

"Hey! I-I wasn't slacking," Astoria immediately responded with a flushed expression on her face, "I was just taking a b-break..." she explained but her evading eyes told Ron otherwise.

"Sure you were, and I completely believe you," Ron said with such a fake smile that it made Astoria want to punch him in the face, "Ahem, Anyway..." Ron coughed and stopped grinning after seeing the irritated look on her face, "About um this bloodline curse of yours— you don't happen to know of any cures for it, do you?"

"Of course not... Don't you think I would have already been cured if there was such a thing available," she answered before sighing and leaning back on her bed, "This is a very ancient curse that was rarely used even during the old times before it was banned, because of it's absurdly high costs, and even the old pureblood families of past hardly ever used it. And since it was so rare, there are hardly any books about it left lying around, and even if you scour the libraries of the Ancient and Noble families, you'll probably only find the way to cast this curse and not the way to cure it..."

"Ah...that's a bummer," Ron said with a disappointed look on his face, "But then... do you know why your line was cursed and which family the person who cast this curse belonged to?" He asked, hoping that it was some deranged Black ancestor who had cast this stupid curse so that at least he would have a clue as to where to start with the search for a cure otherwise he would be completely blind and would have to depend on luck to stumble upon it...

Because he knew that there was definitely a cure out there, otherwise the system wouldn't have assigned it to him as a quest.

"I think... it was about something like, 200 hundred years ago... an ancestor of mine spurred off one of her suitors and ran away from her home, and apparently her 60-year-old suitor belonging to the family of Gaunt didn't take it very well and decided to use most of his family's wealth to punish my family and take revenge for this 'outrageous' insult..."

"Ooh, talk about a petty man..."

"I know," Astoria nodded in agreement, "But don't worry, karma got them in the end as their family was declared bankrupt soon after... and now I think their family has even gone extinct... So I guess, all in all, our family got the better end of that deal..."

'But they are not completely extinct yet...' Ron didn't say it out loud as he didn't think it was appropriate to tell a child that their ancient enemy still had a descendant out there, who was not only very strong but was also pinning for world dominance.

He didn't think the little girl would take that information very well so he immediately tried to change the subject, "...So how much do these medicines of yours cost?" he asked while pointing at the bottles of potions on the table beside her bed.

"Hmm... about a thousand galleons, I think..."

"W-What?! A thousand galleons!" Ron squeaked with his eyes almost bulging out of his socket, "Damn your family must be rich..."

And wasn't that an understatement, because as far as Ron knew, their whole Weasley family, including the two oldest siblings, not long ago survived on their Father's measly salary of just 100 galleons, and now he finds out that this little girl just drank away that amount every single month... They were right when they said that 'Comparisons are a thief of joy'.

"We may not be rich for long..." Astoria darkly murmured under her breath. Even a relatively rich pureblood family like hers couldn't afford this expense every month easily. And even though her parents had never let her know anything about it, she knew that they had been under financial pressure for a long time.

"S-Say, um your Father wouldn't happen to be looking for a son-in-law, would he? And is your sister currently single or..." Ron tried to ask it in a forced casual tone but was failing badly at it.

"Wha—Haha!!" Astoria burst out laughing when she comprehended what Ron was getting at, "Y-You think that you have a chance with my sister—HAHA!!"

"Hey! That's very rude," Ron said in a somewhat indignant voice as he saw the girl laughing her ass off while rolling on the bed holding onto her stomach, "What's wrong with me? I'll have you know that many people think that I am quite the tall and handsome—"

"HAHAA!!!" It just made the girl laugh even harder.

"Hey, will you please stop—"

"What is happening here?" came an ice-cold bell-like voice from right behind Ron and along with it came the distinct sensation of a wand on his back making him shiver in his seat and raise his hands in surrender, "Um..."

"Eh! Sister! You're here..."

...

Daphne was late.

She was supposed to meet her sister more than an hour ago to take her out of the hospital wing, but she'd been so engrossed in a recent addition in the library named "The New Ancient Curse 3" that she had lost track of time, and now she was having to rush as fast as she could so that her sister didn't throw too much of a tantrum.

The hallways were mostly empty and she barely met any students along the way as most of them were either on the grounds soaking in the Sun or they were in their rooms packing their things so that they could depart immediately after the end-of-year feast.

And to be honest, Daphne was quite relieved that she didn't meet any of her housemates as she knew that there would be only one thing that they would want to discuss after the reveal on the front page of the Daily Prophet that morning and she was not ready to have that conversation yet...

Especially not so soon after the Fathers of many of her housemates got thrown into Azkaban as she didn't think it would be very healthy to tell them while their emotions were heightened that she still wanted to remain neutral regardless of last night's events...

So she had been cooped up in the library since before even the first one in her house had woken up so that she wouldn't get dragged into the lively discussion her housemates were surely having at the moment in the common room about who was going to join 'the group' and who would dare become a traitor to their crusade to kill all the so-called 'filth' of the wizarding world...

*Sigh*

There hadn't been too many times in her Hogwarts years that Daphne ever regretted not having many friends, or alliances as the Slytherins like to call it, as she did during this period... She felt that this all would have been a lot easier if she had some friends to guard her back or to take her side so that she didn't feel so... lonely.

After all, Potter had already proved that time and again that having friends was very useful. Just last night he had somehow convinced five of his fellows to go on a suicidal fight against adult Death Eaters in the Ministry...

Oh, their names hadn't been mentioned explicitly in the paper, but such was the prowess of Hogwarts rumour mill, that even before the morning paper arrived... most people had somewhat of an inkling about what the golden trio and their friends had been up to at the Ministry last night...

But alas, even if she wanted to, she knew that it was too late by now... after all, over the years she had always ignored all the offers from her housemates and her classmates to gather and mingle among like-minded people. Besides she didn't think that it would be a good conversation starter to tell them that she only wanted them so that they could be good canon fodder and take the heat off of her.

Thankfully, unlike her, Astoria was quite the happy kid and had many good friends in all the houses despite her... disadvantages.

But sadly, Daphne knew that these friendships wouldn't last very long because soon lines were going to be drawn in Hogwarts... and since most in their house were on the extreme side of how their society should be run, they would surely be forced to see things their way.

But Daphne, like her father also believed that being neutral was far safer and economically better for their family... not that they would have much of a choice in the future if things went the way that the news in the morning prophet was implying.

But in the end, she didn't care too much about it... she didn't care about the Purebloods, she didn't care about the muggles, she didn't care about the agendas or the mission from either side of the war, she didn't care that a lot of her housemates were going soon going to join the same secret group as their parents, she didn't care that most teenagers in Hogwarts were soon going to be embroiled in cruel war...

All she cared about was whether her sister and her family survived the upcoming upheaval, that's all.

She knew that the moment even a whisper of war was heard, her father would take the sisters out of Hogwarts and then out of the country without hesitation... and she agreed with him on that.

Of course, she'll be a bit sad that she wouldn't have access to the massive library of Hogwarts, or that she wouldn't get to prepare for a Mastery in Charms and Wards under Professor Flitwick, which would mean that her chances of becoming a successful Curse Breaker would become much thinner... but as long as the few people she loved were safe, she didn't care.

Finally, she reached the Hospital Wing about ten minutes later and after taking a deep breath she opened the front door.

The moment she entered, her eyes immediately went towards the only occupied bed. She could see that Granger had her eyes closed and that she was deep in sleep, probably recovering from last night's escapades, so she ignored her.

But after only taking a few steps towards her sister's bed, Daphne froze as she heard more than one voice coming out from behind the curtains.

The moment she realised that the voice was that of an older boy, Daphne immediately became alert and took out her wand... while she knew that they were quite safe inside Hogwarts and especially in the Hospital Wings...

She also knew that there were more ways to harm someone other than just the physical or magical ways.

She slowly and silently stepped closer to the curtains and just as she was about to enter, she heard her little sister's delighted laughter ringing out of the curtains... Daphne's expression became weird as Astoria sounded more joyful than she had heard in quite a while.

"Don't laugh!"

She heard the male voice say as she sneakily lifted the curtains sideway and when she saw who it was sitting on the chair beside the bed, most of the tension left her shoulders. She knew that red hair and Gryffindor were far better and easier to deal with than anyone from Slytherin, not because she thought that Gryffindor couldn't be evil if they wanted to... but because they wouldn't be too sneaky and smart about it.

While she could see that her sister was fine, Daphne still decided to be on the safe side and placed her wand on the Gryffindor's back before asking, "What is happening here?"

"Eh! Sister, you're here," Astoria said with a grin on her face as she finally stopped laughing after suddenly seeing her sister's face.

"What is Weasley doing here? Was he bothering you, Tory?" Daphne knew that Potter's red-head lackey wasn't the kind of person who was capable of doing anything wrong to children... but then again she about knew about his well-known distaste for the "Slimy Slytherins" as he called it, so she still wanted to be on the safe side.

"Hmm, let me think..." Instead of immediately helping her new friend, Astoria placed her hand under her chin and took on a thinking pose as if debating on what to answer.

"Uh...Pipsque—I mean, Astoria, this is not a joking matter," Ron gulped as he felt the distinct sensation of a wand on his back. While he knew logically that there was very little chance of the Slytherin behind him using any lethal spell on him, he also wasn't ignorant of the kind of things people here could achieve with just a piece of wood so he didn't want to take any risk, "You should quickly tell your sister and clear the misunderstanding here before..."

"But why would I do that? Weren't you very mean before, and making fun of me?" she replied in a sly tone.

But Daphne had already taken her wand off of Ron's back the moment she saw that her sister was just teasing.

"Sorry, Weasely." She nodded without a change in her expression before going to stand beside her sister's bed.

"N-No problem," Ron replied as he hurriedly got out of the chair and went to stand in front of the window before glaring at the Pipsqueak who just stuck her tongue out at him, "Um, Daphne, I was just talking with her and I didn't mean her any harm—"

"I believe you, Weasley," Daphne interrupted the Gryffindor with an indifferent expression on her face, "But I would still prefer it if you didn't talk with my sister after this."

"Oh." Ron let out with a somewhat hurt and awkward expression on his face, "You don't have to—"

"Yes, sister. Ron and I were just talking and he's—"

"Shut up, Tory," Daphne silenced her sister with a single glance before turning her ice-cold eyes towards Ron, "I am sure you understand what you and your friend's action in Ministry yesterday implies to everyone in Hogwarts... And I don't want any of my housemates to misunderstand and make it hard for my sister in Slytherin."

"I-I understand." Ron nodded his head before turning away from the green emotionless eyes of the big sister to the sad blue ones of the little one and said, "Then, I'll see you—Or I guess I won't see you...later." he said awkwardly, "Bye then." he said before leaving the Greengrass girls.

"Why did you have to be so mean, sister, he was such a funny boy and—" Ron heard from behind the once again closed curtains as he walked towards his bed.

"Shut up, Tory. And quickly pack up your things, we are leaving."

"Humph! He was completely right about you being an uptight ass."

"An uptight What?!"

Ron instantly jumped off of his bed and ran towards the bathroom... making the decision to not come out until much much later...

///

Chapter Text

Three days...

For three-whole-bloody-days! Ron had to stay cooped up on the bed of the hospital wing with only Hermione and the occasional visitor to keep him company.

Until finally, the Honourable Madam Pomfrey deemed them well enough to leave her sanctuary.

With half of his soul being that of a Modern man, it was almost torture for him to waste three whole days just lying idly, without the help of any form of entertainment from things like a Mobile, PC or even a TV.

The only thing Ron could do to pass the time was to stare blankly at the ceiling, which didn't even have a fan, or eat the chocolate frogs that his friends had sent them, but even the bouncing frogs made of chocolates lost their novelty after he ate the tenth one.

He was a bloody wizard inside a bloody magical castle for fucks sake. So to confine him to just a bed in the Hospital Wing while being told that he couldn't perform any kind of magic with his wand...was inhumane and a form of mental abuse.

It was the same as placing a premium 200 hundred-year-old wine in front of a person suffering from alcohol addiction and then forbidding them from drinking it.

'Ah! Man, speaking of that, I sure could use a drink right about now... especially the magical kind,' Ron almost drooled at the thought.

While Ron himself had never tasted alcohol in his life, Sam in his past life had a very good relationship with alcohol, and a week hadn't gone by since he became old enough to drink, that he didn't drink some good alcohol. So he was quite excited at the thought of savouring the magical kind that this world possessed.

Anyway, coming back to the topic, when Ron was finally freed from his prison, he was, safe to say, quite ecstatic.

Just like when a prisoner who has finally finished his sentence, Ron had also already imagined all kinds of scenarios, of all the things that he would do the moment he got out.

He had made a long imaginary list in his mind of all the magical things that he wanted to experience as soon as possible.

Some of the things on that list include things like going to the Potions lab to create a magical potion, or taking the new broom that he had gotten from his parents just last year for becoming Prefect for a test ride or simply finding an empty classroom and then performing all the magic that he could from start to finish to see if he could perfectly cast them...

His brain was already overflowing with dopamine just at the thought of doing all those magical things...

But sadly all of that came crashing down with a simple comment from Hermione when he expressed his wish to go to the Quidditch grounds for a fly.

"What are you talking about, Ron? It's our last day at Hogwarts. The end-of-the-year feast is in just a few hours, and we will leave in the Hogwarts Expresses tomorrow morning. So we need to go and pack our stuff. Besides, even if you wanted to, the grounds should have already been closed to students by now..." Hermione continued but Ron wasn't listening to her anymore, as he was simply too stunned by the news...

To have the opportunity to explore the magical castle of Hogwarts, to wander its hallowed hallways, to take in its ancient beauty, to climb its ever-changing staircases, to use as much magic as you could inside one of its empty classrooms without anyone charging you with the Restriction of Underage Sorcery act...

And then to have that opportunity ruthlessly be snatched away at the last moment... to be delayed for two months...

It was just too much. And it could become even more appalling if that theory of pureblood children being allowed to use magic in their homes turned out to be wrong.

Because of that devastating piece of information, Ron had become quite depressed and his mind had also become numb.

His body just unconsciously followed after Hermione as they left the hospital wing.

He didn't even notice when they reached the Gryffindor tower, or when he climbed the stairs towards his dorms, or when he finished packing his stuff with the help of Harry, or when he finally came down to sit in their usual place in front of the fireplace.

He noticed nothing as his body was completely on autopilot, and the next time when he came to he was playing wizard chess with Harry, to pass the remaining time until the end of the year feast.

"It's your turn next, Ron," Harry said, finally making his move on the chess board, after five minutes of brain-storming.

"Rook, sacrifice yourself," Ron commanded without missing a single beat, with a bored expression on his face.

"What? Why would you do that?" Harry asked with a confused expression on his face, "Wouldn't you lose that way?" he asked as he tried to see why Ron chose to sacrifice his Rook for just a pawn.

"Harry... I think that's a forced checkmate in three moves," Hemione replied quietly with a somewhat impressed expression on her face. She was sitting on the sidelines on a nearby chair spectating on the chess match between her friends just like always.

She was in fact a better player than Harry but she almost never played against Ron after the few times in their first year. Her official reason was that it was a violent and barbaric game while unofficially she just couldn't stomach losing to Ron so many times in an intellectual game like chess.

"Ugh! Really? But it's only been something like ten moves," Harry groaned with a sullen expression on his face, as the pieces on board did exactly as Hermione had predicted before his King took off his crown and kneeled before Ron's Queen, "Did you somehow get even better at this Ron?"

"Maybe," Ron shrugged not denying it as he did, in fact, get a lot better at chess, mostly because of Sam's memories.

While Sam wasn't exactly a professional chess player in his past life, he was still a very determined enthusiast of the game with a lot of time on his hands. He had watched a lot of YouTube videos about all the opening theories, gambits, and all kinds of chess tactics in his free time.

And that modern knowledge along with Ron's already sharp strategic acumen almost made him thrice as good as before, meaning that even people who could somewhat challenge him before wouldn't be able to last more than a dozen moves against him.

"I think I am going to go to the library for some last-minute reading and check out a few books for the summer," Hemione sighed while getting up from the sofa as she finally got bored of watching Ron destroy Harry at chess after the fifth match, "Either of you want to come with me?" she asked casually, without any kind of expectation on her face.

"Now? I don't think—"

"Library... Hogwarts Library..." Ron muttered in a low voice as his eyes gradually lit up with excitement once again, "Yes, Let's go to the library." He exclaimed while immediately jumping up from his seat.

Ron had been so downcast about not having any time left to explore the castle and all its magical places that he had forgotten that there was still one place in this castle that he could make use of in the limited time that he had left.

"Really? You want to go the library..." Hermione asked with a weird expression on her face, "You want to read books... on the last day of our year?"

"Yes, let's go," Ron replied with an excited smile on his face and then without waiting, he immediately led the way towards the portrait hole.

"Is he alright, Hermione?"

"I don't know," Hermione answered, mirroring Harry's concerned expression, "I mean, he has been behaving kind of strangely since the battle... but I don't think anything is wrong with him as he's mostly still the same... he's just a little weird..." She had noticed over the last few days that Ron was a lot more tactful and mature than before but in its place, he had also become a lot more sarcastic and... funny.

But it wasn't like it was a bad thing, just that it was throwing Hermione off... "Maybe, he decided to change and become a good student after the battle..."

"Maybe..." Harry replied with a sceptical look on his face.

"Are you guys coming or what?" Ron asked impatiently while looking back into the common room with half his body outside the porthole.

"Coming!" They answered before immediately following after their red-haired friend as he briskly led them towards the Hogwarts Library with peppiness in his steps.

The reason Ron was so excited to go to the library was that it was the only place in Hogwarts where it was possible for him to get resources that could be mighty useful for the whole summer in just the few hours that he had left.

'Just around here right—Oh!' Ron exclaimed inwardly as he abruptly froze in his steps the moment the library came into his view.

Not because he was stunned by the sight of thousands upon thousands of bookshelves, as even though Ron had not been a frequent visitor of this place, he had still been here enough times that he wouldn't be so shocked at its sight.

No, the reason he was so shocked was because of a very familiar red shiny exclamation mark blinking at the top of the library entrance. Then, without wasting a single second Ron mentally clicked on that alert notification.

[Quest Alert!]

[Conquer the Library (1)]

[Description: The Hogwarts Library with its illustrious history has long been considered a treasure trove for all the book lovers in the Wizarding World. Scour its infamous bookshelves and devour all the valued information in its countless books to solve all mysteries of magic.]

[Objective: Read at least ten books. (0/10)]

[Reward: Exp+20, Conquer the Library(2), Reader Lv1]

'Awesome, This is just awesome!!'

"Ron? What happened? Why did you suddenly stop?"

"Ahem! Nothing." Ron replied immediately clearing the excitement from his face before walking into the library, "Say, Hermione, are we allowed to take the books out of the library for the summer, and if we are then how many do you think we can check out?" he asked as three of them occupied a nearby table and placed their things on it.

"Hmm... normal students can borrow a maximum of five books for the holidays but because I have always taken such good care of the books I borrowed, Madam Pince makes an exception for me and lets me check out as many as ten books for the summer," she stated with a proud expression on her face, "But you on the other hand..." she looked at Ron with pity, "I'll be surprised if she even lets you check out a single book for the holidays."

"W-What? Why?"

"Why? You're asking me why?" Hermione asked with an incredulous look on her face, "In your five years at Hogwarts, you've taken a total of three books out of the library, and those too were just to help with your homework, and when you even bothered to return them... Not only were you late, but every single time you managed to damage them either by spilling something on them or tearing pages in them," she hissed angrily as if the damage to the books was a personal affront to her, "Madam Pince glared at me for a whole month after that just because I was your friend!"

"Really? I-I guess I forgot about that," Ron said while scratching his cheek sheepishly.

"You forgot, but I bet she didn't," Hermione replied with a snort, "Forget for the whole summer, I would be surprised if she even lets you check out a book for a single evening.

"I don't believe you," Ron said shaking his head before standing up from the table, "I'll go and see for myself if the librarian really is so petty..."

Ron nodded his head and then left resolutely towards the librarian counter but not even a few seconds after he left, Harry and Hemione watched as he dragged his feet back towards their table with a sullen expression on his face.

"...you were right, Hermione," Ron replied at the amused look on their face while laying his head on the table with a depressed look on his face, "She is still quite cross about the books, and wouldn't let me check out a single book for the summer..."

"I thought so..." Hermione said nodding her head quietly, feeling a bit sorry after seeing the morose expression on Ron's face, "Why... why did you want to take out books from the library anyway?"

"I... thought now that OWLs were finally over, and that we were going to be in the sixth year. That it was a good place for a fresh start," Ron replied with a shrug, "I guess I wanted to become a better student next year to become a more suitable Prefect and role model for the younger students," he said all these things with such genuine emotions that both Harry and Hermione immediately believed him.

"If it's for that, then I... I guess I can use three of my slots to take out the books you need in my name..." Hemione supplied with a reluctant expression on her face, "But you need to promise to take good care of the book this time."

"I promise! Thank you so much, Hermione," Ron exclaimed while jumping up with his eyes lighting up in excitement as if the previous sullen expression was just a lie. In the next moment, his face turned towards his other best friend with an expectant look.

"Yes, Ron," Harry replied while rolling his eyes with a smile on his face, "You can use my slots too..."

"Thank you, Harry. I won't forget about it..." he said with a wide grin on his face before immediately taking off towards the bookshelves to scour the books that would be the most useful for the summer.

Behind him, Harry and Hermione exchanged glances with wry smiles on their faces before going back to their books, with Harry reading a book about Quidditch while Hermione was reading the course books for the next year.

Ron hurriedly passed one bookshelf after the next only scouring the names and nothing else as he had very limited time at the moment.

He had already decided on the most important topics that he needed to read for the summer and would only focus on finding them.

First of all, he would take any and all books that were very slim, because even though he only had a few hours left before the library closed, he felt that if the books were thin enough with just a few pages in them, then maybe he could still finish the quest 'Conquer the Library' on this very day.

But his main objective was still to take as many books as he could with the following keywords in their names: "Occlumency", "Silent Casting", "Dueling", "Apparition ", "Defensive Magic and Shields", and "Wards". And of course, if he found any book with other interesting topics he would take that too.

He had to make a few trips but finally, after spending half an hour, Ron managed to gather as many books as he could on the table where Hermione and Harry were sitting.

"Ron, why did you bring these many books?" Hermione asked with wide eyes as she looked at the dozen books that Ron had placed on the table, "And what are these? Did you just bring the smallest books that you could find?" she asked while pointing towards a different pile that only had books with fewer than a dozen pages in them.

"Hehe, Yes," Ron nodded his head embarrassingly, "I figured I should start easy and practise reading and increasing my concentration so that I don't get easily discouraged."

"That is so stup—"

"I think it's a good thought," Harry interrupted Hermione while sending Ron an encouraging smile, "Starting slow is a good strategy and after all, don't they say, 'Slow and steady always wins the race..."

"Thanks, Harry. I thought so too..." Ron nodded with a grin before he immediately sat down, opened the thinnest book in the pile and started reading it.

It was a simple book that explained a long-forgotten method to grow a rare species of plant. It was a very dry read and was filled with a lot of big words that Ron could barely understand. But for the sake of the quest, he didn't let his concentration slip in the slightest and kept on reading it.

Finally, fifteen minutes later, he managed to finish the small book that barely contained five pages.

'Ugh! It seems like this would be a very painful journey...' Ron groaned while staring morosely at the big pile in front of him, but he didn't lose his determination and opened the next one, a potion recipe book, containing archaic potions before they were improved by Modern Potion Masters.

And just like that, Ron read one book after the other, and with each book he finished the headaches that reading these boring books caused also increased.

So almost two hours later, when Hermione's voice shook him out of his concentration, as he was finishing the eighth book... Ron didn't mind it too much.

"The Library is about to close, you two. We should leave now if we want to check out the books before Madam Pince kicks us out."

"You're right. Let's go." Ron said with a groan while massaging his aching eyes. \

Ron had decided to give up on completing this quest today as now that he had read about 8 books, the quest could be completed at any time, so it didn't really matter too much if he completed it right now or at a later time.

"Wait for me, I'll put this book back," Harry said as Ron and Hermione began gathering the books that they were going to check out for the summer.

"Hey, wait! What is that book you were reading, Harry?" Ron asked with a curious expression on his exhausted face.

"Oh, this. This is just a Quidditch book that contains all the exercises and practices that you should do to become a better Quidditch player."

"Is that so..." Ron said with a contemplative expression before abruptly looking up, "Then do you mind checking this one out too? I want to read it during the summer."

"Eh! Sure, I've already read it, anyway... But why do you want it?"

"Because... I've decided to become a better Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team before the next year starts."

"Really? That's awesome, Ron."

"I know," Ron replied with a small smile, the thought of playing in an actual quidditch game excited him too much, "But that means that you'll need to help me practice during the holidays when you come to our house."

"You got it," Harry replied nodding enthusiastically.

A few minutes later, all three of them exited the Library with their hands filled with books with all kinds of magical subjects.

"We need to quickly put these away in the dorms and come back or else we will be late to the feast," Hermione declared as she hurriedly led the way towards their dorms.

"Ugh! My brain feels like a hippogriff has trampled it into a mush," Ron said while cracking his stiff head, 'Man I could use a drink right about now,' he thought for the second time that day with a craving expression on his face

"That's what happens when you rarely use your head... But Ron, I was really proud of you before as I didn't think that you could even last a whole hour..."

Ron was barely listening to Hermione at this point as his mind was suddenly stuck with an amazing epiphany, 'Wait! Why can't I... drink?'

"Eh! Ron? Why did you stop?"

"Harry," Ron looked at Harry with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face, "I need to borrow three things from you: The map, The Cloak, and The mirror to talk to Sirius."

///

Chapter Text

"What are you two up to?" Hermione asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she saw the two of them sneakily talking to each other and immediately heading for the stairs the moment they had entered the Gryffindor tower.

The two have been acting strange since Ron whispered something to Harry outside the library. And while she didn't know what they were planning exactly, she knew that it couldn't be anything good as her trouble sensors were tingling like nothing else.

"Um... Ron was asking me—"

"Nothing! We're doing nothing," Ron hastily interrupted Harry while immediately pushing his friend up the stairs so that he didn't give away the game, "We just wanted to quickly pack up all these books in our trunks and get some rest," he said with a smile while gesturing towards the stack of books in his hands, "You know since all that reading in the library was really tiring..."

"Really? You just want to rest?" Hermione asked while raising a sceptical eyebrow and Ron immediately nodded his head, "Well, you can't." she said factually, shaking her head, "Since the end-of-year feast will start in just a few minutes, you need to immediately come back down if we are going to reach the Great Hall on time..."

"Ah! About that," Ron replied while scratching his cheek, "I think I am going to skip that,"

"What? Why?!"

"B-Because of...er... my headache," Ron said hurriedly coming up with an excuse, "Ah! Yes, a Headache! I have a very bad headache due to all the reading I did so I think I am going to skip dinner and go straight to bed,"

"You?! You are going to skip dinner?" Hermione asked with a bewildered look on her face, "A-Are you alright?" she asked in a concerned tone.

"Hey! What's with that reaction?" Ron retorted in an offended tone that was a bit exaggerated, "There was no need to be so shocked just because I am not going to dinner today. I am not a pig you know." Ron snorted with a fake sneer worthy of Draco, "It's quite tactless of you, Hermoine," he finished before immediately stomping up the stairs leaving behind a completely dumbstruck Hermione.

Only after a few minutes had passed did Hermione come to her wits and almost instantly her face turned a crimson red as she realised what had happened.

The sheer irony of being taught tact by Ron was just too much for the girl and she immediately jogged up the stairs to the Girls' dorms to hide in her room for a while.

...

"You need to be very careful during dinner, Harry," Ron warned Harry in a serious tone as they climbed the stairs, "You can't let Hermione grill anything out of you about what we are going to do tonight..."

"B-But I don't even know what I am not supposed to say?" Harry replied with a helpless expression on his face.

"That's exactly right," Ron nodded his head with a satisfied expression on his face before he pushed the door to their dorms with his leg, "Oh you're all here, that's perfect," he said loudly with a wide grin attracting the attention of the rest of his three roommates.

"Oh! Hey, Ron," Neville said from his position beside his bed where he was in the midst of some last-minute packing, "What's perfect about us being here?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, what's happening, Ron?" Dean asked mirroring the confused expression on Neville's face. He was sitting on Seamus' bed and both of them were playing a game of Gobstones to pass the time before the feast started.

"Gather around, you three. I have something important to tell you," He said beckoning them with an eager tone, "Here, Harry. Place these books on my bed and quickly get me those things I asked you about."

"O-Oh, alright," Harry nodded distractedly, taking care not to drop the wobbly stack of books in his hands while moving towards their beds beside the window.

"What did you want to talk about, Weasley," Seamus asked curiously as three of them came to stand before him.

"You guys must have saved up quite a bit of pocket money over the last year, right?" Ron asked and all three of them nodded their heads with some hesitation "Well, I want to ask you to give all of those savings to me," he said with a wide smile as if he was doing them a big favour.

All three of them had bewildered expressions on their faces at that absurd request by Ron, "And... why in Merlin's name would we do that, Weasley?"

"Yeah, Why would we give you all our money, Ron?"

"Because we're all going to have a party tonight, right here in our dorms to celebrate the end of OWLs," he said in an excited tone, "After all, this is going to be our last year before NEWT's and this is also our last day before we leave for the holidays... so all in all, we have a lot of reasons to celebrate, won't you agree?"

"That... sounds great and all, but what kind of party is it that you need to take money from us? We've had countless parties in the common room, but we never had to spend any money, did we?" Seamus asked with a sceptical look on his face and Dean nodded in agreement.

"That is a secret for now. You just need to know that it's going to be the most special night of your life... a night you'll remember for the rest of your days," Ron said in a mysterious tone, "So are you going to trust me and give me all your money?"

"... sure,"

"Um..."

"Merlin, No!"

One said yes, one was undecided and one gave an unflinching no... So all in all it was what Ron had expected from the start.

"Neville! I knew that you would come through for me," Ron said jubilantly while patting the shy boy's shoulder affectionately, "Now, how much are you going to contribute to this sacred endeavour?"

"Um, I have about two galleons in my trunk, I think..."

"That's perfect. Go and bring them immediately," Ron said pushing the boy towards his trunk, "And Harry you can also bring two galleons for your share,"

"Er, sure," Harry nodded unsurely before turning back to the task of putting his most precious possession in a small spare bag for Ron. He was quite confused at seeing how frank Ron was with asking money suddenly when he had always been so... uptight about even the smallest of sickles. But other than that, he didn't have much problem giving his best friend his gold... and even if he had asked for a lot more, Harry wouldn't have hesitated in the slightest.

"Good," Ron nodded his head as if he had expected it before turning back to Dean and Seamus, "Now, for the two of you... Come closer I need to tell you something..." he lowered his head and then began whispering into their ears.

At the start, both of them had doubtful expressions on their face but as they listened to what Ron was saying their mouths gradually fell open and finally a few seconds later, their eyes widened in shock and Seamus involuntarily exclaimed, "What?! You can get that?!"

"Shh!! Not so loud," Ron hissed before making sure that Harry wasn't looking towards them before replying to him, "Of course I can get it. Why else would I be asking for your money?"

"T-Then you can have it all," Seamus immediately said in a rush, his thick Irish accent coming out in his excitement, "I was saving the money for something... But it doesn't matter. This is far more important," He replied as he happily ran towards his bed to open his packed trunk.

"And now what about you Dean?" Ron asked with a satisfied smile on his face while turning to the last one who still had an undecided expression on his face.

"Um... I like the idea and all, but aren't we going to get into big trouble if P-Professor McGonagall finds out about this?"

"And what is she going to do, give us detentions?" Ron scoffed while rolling his eyes, "This is our last day before holidays, mate. There's not a lot she could do. Besides this is only if she or anyone else finds out... and no one's going to, so don't worry,"

"Alright then," he said while nodding his head with a small smile before turning away, "I'll go get the money, then,"

A few minutes later, Ron was kneeling on the ground with a bag beside him and counting gold, silver and bronze coins laid in front of him. There were four gold galleons courtesy of the rich heirs of the old wizarding families while the sickles and knuckles were the entire savings of his remaining two not-so-rich wizard roommates.

"Hmm... About seven galleons," Ron nodded his head before scooping up all the coins and dumping them into the bag Harry had given him, "This should be just enough..."

"Wait! Aren't you going to add your contribution too," Dean asked bewilderedly.

"My contribution is that I am going to be the one to procure our goods and take all the risks," Ron replied nonchalantly with a raised eyebrow, "Or do you want to be the one to do it... and risk the chance of running into, let's say, someone like Snape and explain to him what you're carrying?" he asked with a smile while holding the bag out to him.

"N-No, It's alright."

"If you say so," Ron replied with a shrug before putting the bag on his shoulder, "Then, I'll be on my way," he waved while turning towards the stairs, "And, oh yes, before I forget. Try to sneak in as many snacks as you can from the feast, especially if you can find something crunchy and salty. And if you can't find any in the Great Hall, then Harry knows the way to a secret magical place where you get anything you order. See you later, then." he saluted, then immediately bolted down the stairs.

There was silence for a few seconds before Seamus suddenly asked, "Um, did Weasley seem a bit different to you today?"

"Yes!" Dean immediately breathed in relief, "Thank Merlin, I wasn't the only one."

"I-I don't know, I guess he was mostly the same, just..." Neville said with an unsure expression on his face, "He's a bit more confident and more like an adult ever since the—"

"Ahem, So will you guys tell us what Ron was whispering to you about before?" Harry said, interrupting Neville before he could say the wrong thing, "Do you know where he is going exactly?"

"Uh-Uh," Seamus tutted while shaking his head with a smirk, "Ron especially warned us that both of you are potential risks and that if you two know about it then Hermione will somehow force the secret out of you and then the plan will be ruined... So sorry, but you're just going to have to wait for the surprise,"

"Oh! Come on!"

...

Using his almost half a decade of memories roaming these walls, as well as the infamous map in his hands, Ron was able to choose the quickest paths on the way and move towards the entrance hall without encountering any student, professor, or ghost, since most of them were at the feast.

He could have used the cloak for more stealth but that would have been far too slow and it would be much more useful on the way back.

When he finally reached the last corridor before the exit, Ron stopped and searched for an empty classroom. And he easily found one at the end of the hall and immediately entered it before closing the door behind him.

Placing his bag on a nearby desk, he began to rummage inside it before bringing out the first and most useful tool in his arsenal for the night's mission— The mirror.

"Sirius!" he whispered while holding the small mirror in between his finger and thumb. And almost immediately the mirror began pulsing and glowing as if it were a malfunctioning light bulb.

Sirius must have been keeping the mirror on his person because only a couple of seconds later, the blank surface on the mirror was replaced by the scene of a widely grinning Sirius standing in front of... an aisle of biscuits.

"Hey, Harry! How are you doing— Ron?" Sirius's grin immediately froze as he saw that the face on the other side of the two-way mirror was not his godson's, "Ron? What are you doing here—Where's Harry? Is he alright?" He hurriedly asked with a panicked expression on his face immediately assuming the worst.

"Calm down, Sirius. Harry's alright, I just borrowed the mirror from him because I wanted to talk to you," Ron said in a rush, wanting to quickly assuage the man that his godson was not in a life-threatening situation this time.

"Oh..." Sirius replied with a stunned expression before his face slacked in relief, "I thought..." The sheer trauma that flashed in the man's eyes for just a moment made Ron flinch, knowing that no one could ever understand what it was like to live with all that guilt.

"Um! So where exactly are you right now," Ron asked trying to awkwardly remove the awkwardness from the air.

"Oh, this..." Sirius replied distractedly while looking around, "This is some kind of a massive muggle shop called the... er... Mental store or something, and it's bloody awesome." He said with sudden wonder in his eyes, "You can find almost everything in here, from soaps to towels, to T-shirts, to snacks, to drinks... Everything!" he gushed in the exact same tone that a muggle child uses when he first walks into Diagon Alley.

"Mental Store?" Ron asked in a flabbergasted tone, he didn't of any store in the muggle world called the Mental Stor— "Wait! Do you mean the Departmental Store?"

"Ah! Yes. That's exactly the one," Sirius replied eagerly nodding his head, "I'm impressed Ron, I didn't think you could recognise what it was immediately. Have you ever been to one?"

"Er, No. It's just I heard Hermione mention it once, that's all," Ron said while looking away and scratching his cheek, "B-But is it alright for you to roam openly like this... Isn't it dangerous? What if someone recognised you?" As far as he remembered, even the muggles had an announcement about Sirius being a wanted criminal on TV a few years ago so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that someone remembered seeing his face.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I've been completely taken off the Ministry's watch list with Professor Dumbledore's help, and even the Death Eaters all think that I'm dead. Besides I was under a facial transfiguration just a few moments ago and only removed it while applying a notice-me-not so that I could use the mirror."

"Ah, that makes sense..."

"So... what did you want to talk with me about, Ron? What can this old dog do for you today?" Sirius asked with a warm smile before a confused expression appeared on his face, "And why are you not at the feast with Harry and here in an... empty classroom?"

"That is because I have a big favour to ask of you... Something that only you can help me with..."

"Eh! What is it?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow, "If it's something I can help with then I definitely will."

"I need your help procuring some stuff from Hogsmeade..." Ron said in a conspiratory whisper, "Stuff that's not exactly allowed inside Hogwarts... Do you get my drift?"

"Huh? There are a lot of things that are not allowed inside Hogwarts.... So which ones are you talking about?" Sirius had a weird expression on his face as he thought out loud before his expression abruptly changed, "Wait! Isn't it supposed to be your last day at Hogwarts? In fact, your last night there, so what could you want—" Suddenly out of nowhere Sirius's eyes lit up with enlightenment, "Ah! I get it, you guys want to have a party right?"

"Hehe, I knew you would get me immediately," Ron said while rubbing the back of his face with an embarrassed expression on his face.

"Of course, I would," Sirius said puffing his chest proudly, "You think we didn't try to do the exact same thing back in my days? After our sixth-year final, James and I had this big plan to have a massive adult-theme party in our dorms..." he then suddenly shook his head, "but alas at the last moment Remus chickened out and told Lily... and since they had just started going out around that time, James was easily cowered into dropping the plan. Ah...that henpecked idiot," he said with a nostalgic sigh.

"So that means that we'd also be fulfilling the legacy of Marauders by doing this," Ron said with a cunning smile, "Then it is almost like your duty now to help me accomplish this, isn't it?"

"Of course, it is." Sirius said with a wide grin, "What kind of Marauder would I— Wait! Molly!" he abruptly gasped with a horrified look in his eyes, "W-What about Molly? What if she finds out about it... or even Minerva? She'll turn me into a rat if she finds out that I had a hand in supplying alcohol into Gryffindor Tower."

"But—"

"Oh, No, no, they will all kill me if they even get a whiff of this. Not to mention Remus or Dumbledore or..." Sirius's imagination was spiralling out of control as he imagined the worst-case scenarios, "The amount of people who would come after me is just insane... I'll probably have to back into hiding. I am sorry Ron, but it's just too risky and I-I am an adult now so I can't do things like this..."

"Oh, come on, Sirius. You've always considered yourself the funniest uncle, right?" Ron asked and Sirius hesitatingly nodded his head, as he had proudly held that title ever since Harry was in the womb, "Then you can't just suddenly shrink from your responsibility like this. You have a reputation to hold up to, don't you?"

"I guess..."

"And besides, no one's going to find out about it. And even if they did I promise that I won't rat you out." Ron said in a beseeching tone, "Please, you've got to do this."

"Ugh! Fine," Sirius finally accepted while scratching his head furiously, "I guess I can help you with this."

"Haha, Great," Ron said with a triumphant expression on his face, "So where should I go? The Three Broomsticks?"

"Of course not. Rosmerta's cool enough but she'll immediately give you up if she finds out that you're an underage kid trying to sneak alcohol into Hogwarts. No, you'll need to go to a less-know shop where the locals get theirs but first, you'll need a few things to help along the way. You'll of course need the Invisibility Cloak—"

"Got it, right here."

"And the Marauder's Map—"

"Here!"

"Good, it seems you're well prepared," Sirius said with an amused expression on his face, "You know you would have a perfect Marauder during my Hogwarts years,"

"I know," Ron said with a wide grin.

"Anyway, do you know the voice-changing charm,"

"I do,"

"Then what about any disguise? Know about any transfiguration or charm to help change your face?"

"Uh, no. But I got this cloak," he said while picking up a big dark cloak from his bag before wearing it, and completely covering himself so that his face was in the shadows. Covered from head to toe like this, he wouldn't have looked out of place in the Knockturn Alley amidst Hags and Vampires.

"Hmm... You're tall enough so there should be no problems, I guess," Sirius said before nodding his head, "Alright, you're well prepared. So we can begin immediately."

"Let's go get some booze then..."

///

Chapter Text

The village of Hogsmeade looked a completely different place after 7 pm, the exact time after which the curfew for the students at Hogwarts began.

The locals closed their candy shops and their joke shops and gathered in droves inside the only two pubs in the Village.

They stop minding their words so much and start cussing to their heart's content, letting out all the things that they had to keep repressed around children.

But while some people liked to meet up with their friends and drink in the middle of a rowdy crowd there were others who liked to sit in their homes in front of their fireplaces with their favourite book in their hands and drink their firewhisky in solitude.

That is why for these people there was a third shop in this village where anyone could go and buy alcohol as a take-away and at a far cheaper price than it was available at the inns.

The shop was situated in an out-of-the-way alley down the high street, and the different thing about this shop was that—unlike others which opened during the day and closed late at night, this one only opened after the sun went down which meant that not many students even knew about its existence.

But today... a student has somehow managed to reach its front doors and was hiding in the shadows waiting for its doors to open.

"Are you sure this is it?" Ron whispered in a sceptical voice while looking at the shop across the street.

It was a small two-story comely cottage with a shop on the ground floor and a house on the second. This shop looked like every other candy shop in Hogsmeade except for the fact that shelves behind the see-through mirrors were empty as if the shopkeeper didn't want to show what he was selling.

"Of course." came Sirius's voice out of Ron's front pocket, where he had placed the mirror so that it was out of sight but they could still talk in low voices, "This is a well-known shop and has been famous among the locals since the village was first established. In fact, a century ago it was a shop that used to stay open in broad daylight, but then a few too many students were caught sneaking alcohol into Hogwarts and the Headmaster at that time became furious with it and talked the owner into only opening after Hogwarts gates closed..."

"Oh..." Ron said nodding slowly at the impromptu history lesson by Sirius.

"Yeah, so don't worry. This family has been making their alcohol for a long time and their potion recipe is famous—"

"Wait! What?" Ron suddenly interrupted in a bewildered voice, "They've been making—Do you mean to say that Fire whisky is like a potion and is made in a... potion lab?"

"Of course, it is a potion. Where else did you think it was made... In a factory?"

"No, I just..."

"Don't you know that alcohol is the main reason that Potion Masters are all so wealthy? Or did you think that they earned their keep from Pepper-ups that any fifth-year could make?"

"No... I just never knew..." Ron let out in a shocked voice as if a whole new world had been opened up to him. If there was a chance for him to get a recipe like that in the future and if he became a good potioneer then maybe he could become... rich.

"Look! The door's opening!" Sirius clamoured as he saw the door open through the basic see-through charm that he had taught Ron and made him apply on the outside of the pocket, "It's time for you to go in. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Ron immediately nodded his head before he took his wand out of his pocket and pressed it against his throat to apply the voice-changing charm, "Check! Check! OK It's working," he said in a deep grown-up voice making him feel a bit weird.

"Good. Now remember to speak confidently and act like you belong there, alright." Sirius instructed as if he were a handler sending his agent on a spy mission, "And what are you going to ask for when you go in there?"

"Um...Two bottles of Fire whisky and a vial of Soulfreeze," Ron replied before a confused look appeared on his face, "But what is this Soul freeze, I've never heard about it. Is it any good?"

"Oh, It is the best, believe me," Sirius replied in a very smug tone. A tone that would immediately send chills down the back of anyone who knew Sirius and send prank alarms ringing in their head, but unfortunately for Ron Remus wasn't here so... "Mixing a little bit of Soulfreeze in a glass of Fire whisky is the best way to drink it. Trust me."

"Really? But I've never—"

"Hurry, now. Don't dilly dally." Sirius abruptly urged, "Go in before any of the other customers arrive and complicates the situation."

"Oh, right." Ron nodded his head and then after taking another deep breath, he crossed the street to the shop and went inside.

"Welcome! What can I do for you?" the shopkeeper droned in a lazy voice without looking up from the evening prophet he was reading from his seat behind the counter.

"I need two bottles of Fire whisky and a vial of Soulfreeze," Ron immediately replied in a deep tone.

"Sure coming right—" The shopkeeper immediately froze when he finally looked up from his newspaper and saw the customer covered from head to toe in a dark cloak that showed not an inch of his skin.

A suspicious look appeared in the Shopkeeper's eyes as he began to scrutinize Ron as if trying to see beneath his hood.

"Is there a problem?" Ron asked in a calm voice that felt a little forced.

"N-No... Nothing," The man shook his head after a few seconds, thinking that he was just being too paranoid. He then got up and went to the shelf behind him to bring the required bottles. "You're buying Soulfreeze, so I am sure you know how to use it accurately."

"Of course, I do," Ron replied in a tone of false bravado but inside he was a little confused about what the shopkeeper meant. Was there another way of using it aside from mixing it with fire whisky as Sirius had told him... He then shook his head, deciding to leave it for later, "Anyway how much is it?"

"That'll be seven galleon—" The man began to say before he abruptly realised something, "Wait! You don't know how much these costs?" he asked in a doubtful tone as the suspicion in his eyes deepened.

"That's because... I-I don't drink," Ron said in a somewhat flustered tone, "I am buying these for a friend... as a gift."

"Really?" he asked as his eyes slowly narrowed and flicked towards the prophet on the counter where the front page was showing the moving images of the recently caught Death Eaters who were awaiting their trials and retrials. His eyes struggled with indecision for a moment before they firmed up with resolve, "Show me your face." he commanded as his hands slowly and sneakily began moving towards the counter.

"What? Why?!"

"Why?" The man scoffed in a hostile tone, "Because you're being too bloody suspicious and I need to know that I am not selling my shit to the wrong sort. So prove to me that you're not a Death Eater."

"I'm not," he said in a somewhat panicked tone as things began to go sideways.

"Then just show me your face?" he barked inching closer and closer to the drawer below the counter.

"I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because I-I..."

"Dragon Pox," came the whisper of an almost inaudible voice breaking the tense atmosphere.

"What?!" asked the Shopkeeper in an incredulous tone.

"I-I have Dragon Pox," Ron said hurriedly, repeating the excuse that Sirius had supplied him with, hoping with all his might that it would work.

"Oh..." Almost immediately the Shopkeeper froze as the hostility in his eyes slowly went away, and he began looking at Ron with something akin to pity, "I... I am sorry. I guess I was too high-strung... What's with all the news about you-know-who coming back and... Anyway, I am sorry."

"It's alright," Ron replied in an even tone trying to keep the relief out of his tone. He was still tense but had somewhat calmed down from his panicked state.

"Here is your order," the shopkeeper said quickly wrapping the bottles and the vial in a paper bag and sliding it across the counter. "Hope you have a good day."

"Thank you," Ron said with a small tremor of excitement in his voice. He hurriedly placed the galleons on the table before immediately going for the bottles.

Finally, he was going to get his hands on the magical alcohol... 'the stuff of legends' that he had only ever read about...

"Wait! This...You—" The Shopkeeper abruptly cried in an astonished voice as his eyes gaped at the hands grabbing the bottles... hands that looked hairless and young, just like that of a... "You're a student!!" he let out in a horrified gasp.

Ron didn't blink, he didn't think, he didn't speak... he just grabbed the bottles and bolted for the door, "Thank you for the drinks," he shouted as he ran out of the shop.

"No wait! Come back!! You can't—Ugh! Where's my wand?" he groaned in a frustrated voice as he rummaged through the drawers from his wand.

But he knew that it was too late as the boy was already long gone...

Besides it wasn't like he could do anything even if he had his wand with him as he couldn't actually hurt him could he? He didn't want to lose his right to live in Hogmeade, after all.

"Ah! Found it, now then..." he murmured as he came up to the empty store and then looked at the door with an indecisive look in his eyes. He was hesitant about whether he should run after the boy or if he should just alert the school... but then there would be all that commotion and then he would have to answer all the questions of those smug bastards at school and then he may even be forced to close the shop for a while...

"Ugh! Fuck it!" he cursed while falling back into the chair and giving it up as a bad job, "He'll probably just get caught at the gate anyway..." he murmured before shaking his head and decided to just forget about it.

But Ron didn't get caught at the school gate since he didn't go through the gate instead he went through one of the seven secret entrances into the school...

And just like that... for the first time in a century, a student has successfully managed to sneak alcohol into Hogwarts...

It was almost legendary...

...

"Ron!! You never told me that you have lady hands." Sirius abruptly exclaimed in a bewildered voice as Ron ran away from the shop with all his might.

"I do not have lady hands!" Ron retorted indignantly as they passed through the empty streets towards the entrance to the secret path that would take him straight into Hogwarts, "I just have no hair on my hands..." his face became a little flushed as he admitted something that Ron had always been a little insecure about.

"I can't believe it," Sirius murmured in a shocked tone, "You almost got caught because of your lady hands, this is just..." Ron became redder as he heard the speechlessness in Sirius's voice, "Maybe you should sneak in as a girl next..." he supplied helpfully after a while.

"Oh! Shut Up!!" Ron hissed before immediately taking out the mirror, and switching it off with his wand.

He had no need for the old dog now that his objective had been achieved, "Ugh! He's never going to let me live this down now, is he..." Ron mumbled in a depressed tone, "I just hope that he doesn't tell anyone else..." But even as he said it he knew that it was vain hope.

...

Meanwhile, back in the Boy's dorm, all four teenagers were sitting in a circle on the floor, their eyes frequently darting towards the door, anxiously waiting for their fourth member.

All kinds of snacks such as crisp french fries, crunchy potato chips and a few others were placed on plates in their middle.

But the weird thing was that some of the plates were already almost half empty...

"Will you just stop, Neville?" Seamus asked in an exasperated tone, "If you go on like this, you'll finish it all before Ron even gets here..."

It had taken them a lot of hard work and almost two careful trips from the kitchen to the Gryffindor tower before they managed to sneak all this food into their dorms and now Neville was destroying all of that before their party even started.

"But I am hungry..." the boy moaned pitifully but still reluctantly put the crispy pakora back on the plate.

"Didn't you just eat at the feast?" Dean asked amusedly, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, "How could you be hungry already?"

"I-I was just too nervous at the dinner trying to avoid Hermione's eyes to keep the secret... so I couldn't eat my fill..." the chubby boy said morosely.

"You didn't even know the secret!" Seamus said speechlessly, "So how could you be nervous trying to keep it?"

"My mind knew that... but my stomach wouldn't understand it..." Neville replied with a sigh before he looked towards the door. "But shouldn't Ron be here already... Do you think he got lost on the way?"

"He didn't get lost, Neville. He's not you..." Seamus said while rolling his eyes.

"But he is quite late though..." Dean said worriedly.

"He's not that late..." Seamus countered nonchalantly, "He must have gone all the way to Hogsmeade so obviously it would take him time..." he said that but his eyes were still darting towards the door nervously, after all the chances of Ron getting caught by a teacher were quite high...

"What?! He went to Hogsmeade?" Harry, who had been silent so far, abruptly jumped and asked in an alarmed tone, "Why would he do that? Doesn't he know how dangerous it is now? Especially at night!" he said hurriedly getting his wand from the ground, "Tell me, where he went in Hogsmeade? And why did he go there at night?"

"Um..." Seamus backed away a little after seeing the seriousness in Harry's eyes and hesitated on whether he should tell him about it or not.

"You need to tell me immediately, Seamus. This is serious. He could be in danger at this very moment." Harry said in an urgent no-nonsense tone, "Don't you know that Voldemort's back now and how dangerous it is for him to—"

"I am back, boys!!" came an ecstatic voice as the door to their dorm was slammed open and in came Ron, swaggering in as if he had just vanquished Voldemort on his own. "And look what I got," he said waving a bag in his hands smugly.

"Ron! You're back!"

"We were so worried mate!"

"You really got it! You actually managed to get it!" Seamus asked in an awestruck tone, unable to stop himself from shaking in excitement.

"Of course, I did. Who did— Eh! Harry? Why are you intimidating Seamus, like that? Did something happen?" Ron asked in a confused manner as he saw Harry towering over Seamus as if trying to interrogate him.

"Uh..."

"You went to Hogsmeade at night, all alone." Harry asked with a frown on his face while standing up, "Are you out of your mind?"

"Ah! So that's what it was about..." Ron said with an enlightened expression on his face before he waved his hands casually, "But don't worry, I wasn't in any danger..."

"How could you have known that? Anything—"

"Because I had help with me all the way!" Ron interrupted with a meaningful look on his face, "Help that you gave me..." he said while taking out a paper bag from Harry's leather bag before handing it back to him.

"Oh..." It took a few seconds before Harry realised that Ron was talking about the mirror, "Oh, then alright I guess..." he said as he sat back down sheepishly while placing the bag back on his bed.

The others were confused for a moment but Seamus didn't care about it as much and was only worried about one thing and one thing only, "Is that it? Is it in the bag..."

"Oh, Yes. It is." Ron smirked while taking the two pristine glass bottles out of his bag and shaking them in the air, "Now who wants to drink some booze!!" he hollered in an excited voice.

///

Chapter Text

"Alright, Seamus. Did you get the glasses?" Ron asked as he impatiently sat between Harry and Neville on the floor.

"Huh? Oh, Yes." Seamus hurriedly nodded his head and turned back to pull a small bag from under his bed before taking five intricate goblets out of it, "These were the only ones I could nick from Great Hall..."

"Haha, No matter," Rob replied jubilantly as he picked up the goblets and began placing them in a circle, "With these, we shall drink like uptight Purebloods today, my friends, Haha— Eh, No offence, Neville."

"N-None taken?" Neville replied with a confused look on his face.

"Aren't you a pure blood too?" Dean asked with a weird look on his face.

"Huh, I guess I am." Ron nodded with a look of realisation on his face before he decided to forget about it and shrugged, "Anyway, Let's drink!" he exclaimed gleefully while excitedly taking out a bottle of Fire whisky from the paper bag.

The boys looked on as Ron opened the intricate but simple crystal cap on the bottle with a pop and then without any further ado he began pouring Firewhisky into the goblets.

"Hehe, I am so happy," Seamus almost squeaked with eagerness in his eyes as he looked at the amber liquid filling up the goblet with an almost hypnotised gaze.

"Wait, Wait, Wait! Are we actually doing this?" Harry abruptly asked with a panicked look as if he had just broken out of his stupor and realised what they were about to do, "Are we really going to drink alcohol in our room?"

"What do you think?" Ron asked with a sly look on his face as he finished filling up the goblets equally and began placing one in front of each of his friends.

"B-But—it's not—aren't we going to—" Harry stammered as he kept trying to come up with a way for them to understand how insane this was, "What if the professors find out?"

"Who is going to tell them? Are you?" Ron asked cheekily.

"No, but still... look at Neville!" Harry said while looking around and grasping for a solution before abruptly he pointed towards the chubby boy who seemed a little out of it, "He hasn't blinked ever since you entered the room with alcohol... Aren't you worried he is going to have a heart attack?"

"Eh! You're just fretting too much. This is already our last day at Hogwarts and it is just a celebration... so nothing's going to go wrong." Ron said waving his hand nonchalantly, "And besides, I am sure Neville is also very excited to have his very first drink with us... his best friends," he said before turning towards Neville and patting his shoulder, "Isn't that right, Neville?"

"I-I Yes of course," The boy replied nodding with an unsure smile on his face, partly from peer pressure and partly from having found a hint of courage from somewhere deep inside of him. Then after taking a deep breath, the shy boy picked up the goblet in front of him with shaking hands—now whether they were shaking from fear or excitement, no one knew.

"That's the spirit! I knew you had it in you," Ron chortled, heartily patting the shy boy on his shoulder, "Now, pick up your drinks boys." he commanded the rest and they all complied except for Harry who still looked a little hesitant, "Come on, now, Harry. Take it already. Don't make poor Seamus wait any longer..." he said pointing towards the Irish lad who was barely holding himself back from upending his first glass of alcohol.

"You're really going to get us killed this time... or worse," Harry murmured to himself while shaking his head but in the end, he still picked up the goblet while trying to hide a small smile of excitement on his face.

"Perfect! Now then, come closer everyone," Rob called to his friends, "Gather your goblets around like this... Exactly," he nodded as all of them raised their goblets and touched them in the middle before a serious expression appeared on his face as he looked into his friend's eyes, "Boys! This is not just a small drink but... an awakening, a ritual of growth." he declared solemnly, "A ritual to signify that after we empty these goblets, we shed the skin of boys and we become MEN!!"

"YEAH!!" shouted Dean, Seamus and even Neville with a face flushed with excitement.

"Then... CHEERS!! AND BOTTOMS UP!!" he shouted and immediately followed his own order and guzzled the alcohol in his own goblet with others following soon after.

Almost instantly Ron felt the familiar but unfamiliar burning sensation as the Firewhisky seared his throat.

He felt as if he had consumed liquid fire... it felt hot and cold at the same time. But a second later he forgot all that as an unreal feeling of courage filled him as if he could do... anything. He felt as if he could go challenge Flitwick to a duel, steal precious potions from Snape's lab, pull on Dumbledore's Beard or even go see if—

*Cough!!* *Cough!!*

His friends' coughing brought him back to the present from his momentary delusional state and he looked at his friends struggling from their very first drink before he exchanged glances with Seamus, the only other person who wasn't hacking his lungs out and both of them burst out laughing.

"HAHA!!"

And just like that, began the most memorable night in the five boys' lives... memorable for more than one reason...

...

A short while later, the five boys were now half-drunk kneeling on the floor staring intently at a bottle spinning between them.

To give some context... a few minutes after they had begun and after all of them had a few to drink and some snacks to eat, things had become properly loosening up with the five Gryffindors enjoying themselves and spontaneously bursting into laughter at the simplest of things.

And in the middle of this stupidity, Ron had suggested playing some drinking games as traditions dictated them to... but sadly none of his ignorant friends like Harry, Seamus and Neville knew of any such games and could only suggest things like Cards, Chess and Gobstones.

But thankfully Dean came in the form of a saviour and suggested a muggle game called Truth or Dare that he had heard about from one of his older cousins... which had honestly saved Ron as he was also on the verge of suggesting the very same thing and that would have forced him to explain where he had learned about it from... and honestly he didn't want to get into that, especially in inebriated state.

Now the game had commenced in a very tame manner, with Harry being made to do fifty push-ups, Dean being made to sing, and then Neville being made to do a weird tribal dance on one leg without a shirt(he had a feeling Seamus was just making that up).

But then that one topic came up... a topic that was guaranteed to be brought up whenever a group of young boys got together to drink... no matter the universe—GIRLS!

About half an hour after they had started, one of them(Seamus) finally decided to be naughty and slyly asked Dean who his crush was and then didn't let up until the flustered boy was forced to confess that he liked the Ancient Runes Professor Bathsheda Babbling.

"I didn't know you were into older girls Dean," Ron said with an impressed look on his face, "You've been hiding from us, eh,"

"Older girls! That is not an older girl, that is an OLDER WOMAN!" Seamus exclaimed with an overly excited expression on his face—yes, the Irish boy was the kind that got progressively louder as he became drunk— "Haha! I always knew you were a sneaky little shit," he sniggered while giving his friend a noogie.

"Fine, Fine!! Can we get on with it now," he cried out with an embarrassed look on his face while pushing away Seamus and then before they could get the chance to tease him further, he went for the bottle and spun it on the floor.

The bottle rapidly spun a few times before slowing down and landing on Ron with the other end pointing towards Dean who immediately squeaked gleefully at getting the chance to have some revenge so he didn't waste any time before repeating the same question he had been asked, "So tell us, Ron Weasley," he asked in a sing-song tone, "Who do you like the most at Hogwarts?"

"Hmm, let me think," Unlike his friends who became nervous virgins at the very topic of girls, Ron had a serious frown on his face as if he was considering the recipe of an OWL-level potion, "I think it would all depend on the criteria. Because if you go by the body, then I would surely pick Lavander or maybe Susan Bones, because... you know," he then made a lewd gesture that immediately had Harry blushing crimson red and slapping Ron on the back hard enough to make him flinch but he went on regardless, "But if you go by the facial features, personality and just overall attractiveness... then I would definitely go with Daphnee Greengrass," he nodded with a smile on his face satisfied with his choice before looking up to see all of them staring at him with stunned looks on their face.

"What?!" Ron asked with a confused tilt of his head.

"I...It's just... I didn't expect you to be so..."

"Frank." Semaus provided helpfully while having the same bewilderment on his face.

"T-That's it," Dean quickly nodded his head at that, "And going for a Slytherin..." his voice took on an impressed note at that, "You're giving us a lot of surprises today, Ron."

"Eh, The heart wants what it wants," Ron shrugged with a helpless expression on his face, "What can I do..."

"Hear, Hear," Seamus said nodding his head while raising his goblet with a sagely look on his face.

"Alright, you guys continue. I am going to get a refill" Ron said while feeling a bit awkward at the look of awe in Neville's eyes as he looked at him before he stood up while taking his empty goblet. He was wobbly for only a few seconds before he walked towards the paper bag that lay forgotten beside Seamus's bed.

As Ron kneeled down and opened the bag to take out the second bottle of Fire whisky, he found an extra something that he had completely forgotten about— a small vial of crystal clear liquid.

It took a few seconds for him to remember that it was something called the Soul-Freeze, a liquid potion meant to enhance the taste of Firewhisky by ten times... or at least that's what Sirius had told him... but the shopkeeper had something else, hadn't he...

'Something about a warning... um..." Ron frowned as he tried hard to remember what the shopkeeper cautioned him about but it just wouldn't come to him, 'Eh, it's probably unimportant anyway,' Ron shrugged before taking out the vial from the bag, 'Maybe I should see what this actually does...'

Behind Ron the game continued and this time the bottle turned towards Neville whose face alternatively turned a deathly pale and a blushing red, as he rapidly began shaking his head knowing what was coming.

"Come now, Neville. You know what we wanna know..." Seamus asked with a pure evil smile on his face.

"N-No, I-I don't like anyone..." he said with his head down absolutely refusing to look up at his friends as his blood rushed to his face.

"Now, Now, don't be so shy," Dean teased in an innocent tone, "We are all friends here, aren't we? No one's going to make fun of you, I promise. So you can safely tell us..." he said while hiding his crossed fingers behind his back.

"Yes, tell us, Neville," Seamus nudged with a sly look on his face, "Besides I remember you having quite the fun laughing when it was Dean's turn so you can't sneak out of it now..."

"You have to do it, Neville," Harry said loudly with an enthusiastic look on his face. It had taken a while but he had gotten into the groove of things by now and even began chanting in his excitement.

"DO IT!" "DO IT!" "DO IT!"

The other two joined Harry in mounting the pressure as Ron came back to his seat with an open bottle and an empty goblet in his hands before noticing what was happening. None of the others had noticed this but Ron had made the startlingly that drunk Harry, the Boy-who-lived was actually a... sadist.

"DO IT—"

"Hannah!!" Neville abruptly yelled with his eyes closed and a flushed look on his face, "I-I like H-Hannah," he let out while looking as if he wanted the earth to swallow him whole.

"Haha! I knew it!" Seamus laughed loudly while slamming his fist in his palm, "You were always sneaking your eyes at her every time we had classes with Hufflepuff, weren't you?"

"Um..."

"No need to be embarrassed Neville, she's quite the catch." Dean said elbowing his friend with a teasing look on his face, "You have good taste, my friend."

"So... when are you to ask her out," Seamus asked while wiggling his eyebrows.

"W-What?!" Neville stammered as he once again began rapidly shaking his head, "N-No! I-I can't... T-That is just..." his face which had barely begun to regain its colour turned red once again.

"Oh, come on, Neville, you have to do it at some time. So do it while you still have the chance," Dean advised before he shrugged, "Because a pretty bird like Hannah isn't going to stay single forever so you need to do it soon... After all, you don't want to see her get together with another guy, do you?"

"NO! Not...I mean...but..." Neville let out with a confused and miserable look on his face.

"Jeez! Leave him alone, guys," Ron interrupted with a glare at his somewhat apologetic friends, "Here drink this, Neville" he said filling Neville's almost empty goblet with the new bottle of Firewhisky he had gotten with that little shot of something extra in it, "You'll feel better after a drink—"

Ron didn't even get to finish his sentence as Neville clutched the goblet as if it was the elixir of life and immediately poured it into his mouth making him cough and hack but he finished it all nonetheless impressing Ron and Seamus.

"I think you need to do it today, Neville..." a quiet but determined voice suddenly interrupted them.

"What?" All three of them turned to look at Harry who had an unusually serious look on his face as he looked at Neville who had his face down and looked out of sorts after finishing that goblet of Firewhisky.

"You should confess to her, Neville," Harry said to Neville in a sober voice, "This is our last day before holidays... Maybe you won't get another chance so you should just do it today."

Now, all three of them were looking at Harry as if he was insane because suggesting that "Neville" go to Hufflepuff at this time of the night to confess to his crush in his drunken could only be lunacy and nothing else.

"Hehe, nice joke, Harry," Dean chuckled nervously while exchanging worried glances with Ron.

"You know what," Seamus suddenly interrupted in a subdued voice before nodding to himself, "That's a great idea," he agreed loudly before turning to Neville with an excited look on his face, "I agree with Harry, Neville. You really should go to Hufflepuff dorm and ask Hannah out... tonight."

"A-Are you both out of your mind," Dean finally cried in a panicked manner as he saw Seamus adding wood to the fire, "It is almost midnight and there's a curfew out there! Prefects, Teachers and who knows what else could be roaming the hallways out there... and you want him to go to the Hufflepuff common room right now."

Harry didn't know why he said it... maybe it was just FIrewhisky making him unusually reckless... but when he saw Neville talk about his crush with that innocent expression on his face, he suddenly realised that he could never have that... that he could never genuinely like someone without being afraid of putting them in danger... of them being used against him.

And then he remembered the conversation that night with Dumbledore in his office... knowing that Neville could have easily been in his place in another universe and he in Neville's, because of the damn prophecy... so he wanted him, no, he needed him to have what he himself couldn't due to the threat of Voldemort...

"If not now then when," Harry muttered while ignoring Dean and staring straight at Neville with a determined expression on his face, "Neville, if you really like her and want to ask her out, then I will come with you all the way to the Hufflepuff dorms, no questions asked,"

Nevile hadn't looked up ever since he had that drink, his eyes were half-closed and he felt as if an explosion had happened in his head clearing away all the debris of useless thoughts and feelings that filled his mind, leaving him with an unusually serene clarity for the first time in his life.

He felt as if he could do anything at that moment, he felt that even if Voldemort appeared in front of him at that moment... he wouldn't be scared and that he could fight him without hesitation... which was weird considering he wouldn't even be able to say his name a few seconds ago.

He felt oddly light as if he was sitting on clouds as if his entire being was filled to the brim with... courage! courage to do anything...

"Harry, I think you've just had a bit too much to drink—"

"I will do it," came a tranquil voice as Neville looked up with an eerily calm smile on his face. He nodded towards Harry and then without waiting for anything immediately got up and walked towards the door with his back straight and his walk without a single wobble.

All of them were left stunned in their places as they saw the shy boy leave the room without hesitation. Only when the door to their dorm closed before did they manage to break out of their stupors.

"No! Wait, Neville!!" Dean cried as he scrambled to go after the boy to stop him but someone else was faster than him.

"I am going with him," shouted Harry as he immediately ran after the boy with an oddly determined look on his face.

"Huh? Is he actually doing this? Are they actually doing this?" Seamus asked in a stunned voice as he looked at the door with amazement on his face.

"Ah! You idiot! We need to stop them! Or we'll all be expelled!"

"Who the fuck cares," Seamus shouted in an exhilarating tone, showing that he was well and truly drunk, "Let's all go to Hufflepuff!" He laughed loudly as he then followed after the two.

"I-I... Ron! What are we going to do?" Dean asked in a panicked tone to the only other person left in the room.

Ron had an odd look on his face as his gaze alternated between the door and the bottle in his hands with suspicion in his eyes, 'Was all that because of the drink...' he thought as he oddly felt compelled to drink the Firewhisky which had been mixed with Soulfreeze to check its effects...

"RON!! What are we going to do!!"

"Huh? Um..." Ron quickly shook his head after he was broken out of his daze by Dean and placed the bottle on the table without giving in to the temptation of drinking a possibly mind-altering thing, before answering Dean, "There's nothing really left for us to do here, mate. Other than just support our friend." he then patted Dean's shoulder with a smile and left after the others.

Dean stood in his place with a dumbfounded look on his face for a few moments before he cursed, "Arght! Fuck it!!" He immediately ran around the room and began collecting all the evidence of their party before he vanished them with a wave of his wand. And only after making sure that there was nothing incriminating left in the room in case it all went to shit he left the room to follow the suicidal Gryffindors he called friends to join them in this suicidal venture.

///

Chapter Text

"What happened? Why did you stop here?" Dean asked in a bewildered whisper as he hurriedly ran out of the portrait hole, with the Fat lady snoring in it, only to find all four boys standing there outside the Gryffindor common room whispering to each other with confused looks on their faces.

All four of them awkwardly looked at each other before Harry cleared his throat, "Dean, you wouldn't happen to know where the Hufflepuff common room is, would you?" he asked with a small hopeful smile.

"No," Dean replied slowly, "Of course, not. Why would I?—Wait! Is that why you're still here? You don't even know where the dorms are?" he asked with a weird expression as if not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "You really are idiots..." he said shaking his head, "but I guess that means this plan is a bust..." he had a small amount of relief in his voice, "I am sorry Neville,"

The oddly determined expression on Neville's face crumbled into a sad one as Seamus bemoaned in annoyance at losing the chance to have a fun trip.

"No, Wait!" Ron abruptly spoke up with an enlightened expression on his face, "There is still something I can do," he let out as he began backing away towards the common room, "Harry! Is the, um, MM still in that bag I gave you?"

"Huh? O-Oh! Yes! It's still there right on my bed." Harry nodded with excitement as he belatedly understood what Ron was getting at.

"Perfect! You guys just wait here, I will be right back." he shot back as he dashed into the portrait hole.

"...It's not like we can go anywhere," Seamus murmured while scratching his head before turning towards Harry and asking curiously, "So what was Weasley talking about? What is MM?"

"Oh! That... um... I think, uh, it's the..."

"Wait, was he talking about MnM?" Dean asked with a confused expression on his face, "The muggle toffee's?"

"Yes!" Harry exclaimed immediately latching on to that opportunity, "It is surely that one..."

"But why? How is a Toffee going to help us with—"

"I'm back!" Thankfully a huffing and puffing Ron came out of the portrait hole at that exact moment so Harry didn't have to work his half-drunk hazy mind to come up with any more excuses.

"You have it?"

"Yes, I found it," Ron answered Harry while patting his pocket with a wink, "Now, Let's go, boys. I'll lead the way," he commanded the others before moving down the hallway with Neville and Harry following after him immediately.

"Wait! What did you get? How did you find out where the room was?"

"Don't worry about it. I just asked some old friends..." Ron whispered back with a mysterious smile on his face, "Now come on. You just need to trust in me and follow..."

"But—"

"Come on, you heard the man," Seamus said while excitedly slapping Dean's back, "Let's go!"

"Fine." Dean sighed helplessly but followed after them nonetheless.

And just like that the five drunk boys sauntered down the deserted hallways of Hogwarts to go on a noble quest of love for their friend.

All of them were moving in a straight line looking left and right sneakily with Ron leading from the very front.

Every now and then the red-haired boy would look down at something, that the other boys couldn't see, and take random five-minute stops before continuing. It confused the three not in the know but they were too nervous to talk in these empty hallways where even their steps echoed loudly.

"We're close now, boys," came a happy whisper from Ron about 15 minutes later after they climbed down some stairs into a deserted hallway, "The Hufflepuff common room is just about two hallways away now,"

"But isn't that where the kitchen is?" Dean asked confusedly, "Harry took us there to get the snacks just before the feast."

"You're not wrong about that." Ron replied distractedly, "But apparently, the Puff's common room is just beside the—Oh! Shit! Prefects!" he abruptly cried in a shocked tone while halting mid-step, his eyes once again down at his hands.

"What from where?" Harry asked hurriedly, looking left and right.

"From both sides," Ron answered looking panicked for the first time.

"But how do you know—"

"There isn't time for that, Dean. We need to—" Harry cut off impatiently as his eyes suddenly caught sight of a broom closet a few steps down the corridor, "There! Inside that! Go! Go! Go!" he hissed leading them towards the big closet, "Hurry get in here," he urged after being the first one in.

None of them hesitated too much as one after the other the boys piled up inside the big but not-so-big closet, stuffing themselves against brooms, buckets and each other's bodies as Ron, the last one in, closed the door behind him shrouding them in the darkness.

"Ugh! Neville you're crushing my toes!"

"Oh! Sorry—"

"Damn! I so didn't think that my first time in a closet would be with a bunch of guys," Seamus lamented in a tragic voice.

"Shh!! Keep quiet!" Ron hissed shutting the boy's whining, "They are almost here."

And he was right as at that exact moment footsteps sounded from both sides of the hallways leading to the broom closet, and there weren't just one or two but at least four people out there making the boys sweat even more, as the four people, two from either side, came to meet in the middle.

"Why are you here, Montague." a boyish asked from the left side, "Aren't you a bit far from your dungeon."

"The same reason you're here, Davis." a sneering male voice replied from the right, "We too felt the proximity ward trip around here so we came to check if there weren't any ickle puffs roaming around that we can... punish," he said the last words in such a greasy voice that it immediately sent shivers down the boy's spine.

"You—"

"No, Don't!" cautioned a girl's voice from beside the first boy on the left, "He is just trying to bait you. And you two! Even if there is someone breaking the rules here they would be handled by us as this area comes under our purview, so you better leave unless you want me to call the professors."

"Are you threatening me—"

"Ugh! Don't be such a brute, Montague," a new girl interrupted the Slytherin prefect coolly, "I don't want to waste my time arguing with these idiots. Let's go, besides it was probably that damn cat again..." the voice was already moving away before she even finished speaking.

"Humph! Fine." Montague snorted before following after his fellow Slytherin prefect, relieving most of the tension from the boys.

"Let's go," the girl from Hufflepuff said as the other two also went away from there down the opposite hallway of Hufflepuff dorms, and things finally went silent for a few seconds.

"Should we—Mmph!" Harry's hands covered Seamus's mouth before he could blurt out more than a few words, all the while nervously craning his ears to hear if any of the prefects were coming back.

Only after a full five minutes passed did Harry and Ron, the two most experienced with these kinds of excursions, breathe a sigh of relief, "I think we're safe now," Ron nodded into the darkness towards where he thought Harry was before slowly opening the door. He peeked down at either end of the hallways a few times as added measures before finally the last of the tension left his shoulders and he exited, "You can all come out now,"

"Argh!!" One after the other the boys stumbled out of the broom closet, their faces red and they were taking deep heavy breaths and sweating as if they had just run a marathon.

"That was close, wasn't it?" Seamus mumbled while wiping his sweat, "Can you imagine what would have happened if they managed to find us in that closet, " he snorted with a grin, "Just thinking about explaining to them what five young boys were doing inside that closet...ugh..."

"It's not a laughing matter you idiot," Dean hissed with a fearful expression on his face, "We were almost caught, so maybe we should—"

"The path is clear," Ron abruptly interrupted while placing something in his pocket, "Let's hurry before they come back," he said and then immediately took off towards the hallway leading towards the Hufflepuff dorms.

"Let's go," Seamus said while patting Dean's shoulder before following after the other three. Dean groaned in frustration but had to follow after the boys nonetheless as he knew that it was too late to turn back now.

They took a left at the next intersection and then a right at the end of that corridor leading them straight into a wide hallway.

This corridor was somehow warmer than the other ones and had long lines of brightly lit torches set into iron brackets along the walls.

They passed by the inconspicuous portrait of the bowl of fruits on the left wall that also served as the entrance to the kitchen before finally reaching a stack of large wooden barrels touching the ceiling.

"Here, this is the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room," Ron announced waving grandly towards the barrels.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked sceptically while searching but not finding any hint of a door or a knob anywhere.

"I am. This is it."

"Perfect. Then, what's next..." Dean asked looking behind them nervously, "Do you also have the password with you or do we need to guess or answer some stupid questions..."

"Ah! But that's the best part." Ron replied with a triumphant grin while taking out his wand, "There is no such thing as a password here..." Ron smirked before he went to the barrel two from the bottom and middle of the second row and tapped in the rhythm of 'Huffle-Puff'.

Almost immediately the barrels started rearranging themselves as if they were puzzle pieces and a few seconds later a deep cave-like entrance appeared in front of them leading straight to the Hufflepuff common room.

"That... is so stupid," Dean murmured with a bewildered expression on his face, "Wouldn't anyone be able to access their common rooms then?"

"Maybe that was the point. Helga Hufflepuff was quite well known to be welcoming towards every one..." Ron shrugged. He had also been a bit sceptical after reading the method to enter the common room written in the Marauder's Map, but thankfully it had worked or he would have made quite a fool of himself.

"Eh! It's the puffs. What else can you expect..." Seamus snickered.

"Alright, stop dilly-dallying people." Ron clapped his hands softly, "We are at the final step so let's enter before something goes wrong," he said leading the way into the cave of barrels, and after about a dozen steps it opened up into a common room that screamed... warm, homely and cosy.

The room was decorated in cheerful, bee-like colours of yellow and black, which were further emphasised by the highly polished, honey-coloured tables made of wood. And there were two round holes in the wall with stairs leading to the boys' and girls' dormitories.

"This is good," Harry murmured while looking at a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, toasting her students with a golden cup, over the fireplace.

"Hmm, but I like ours better," Seamus shrugged.

"Well of course, no one can compare with Gryffindor," Harry replied as the boys shared a smirk at their house pride.

"Can you stop admiring the room and get to work, or did you already forget why we are here?" Dean said while rolling his eyes at seeing the boys scattered around admiring the room as if they were a bunch of tourists.

"Hehe, Sorry."

They mumbled their apologies as they gathered to stand in front of the stairs with Neville standing at the very front looking at the staircase leading into the girl's dormitory with a resolute gaze.

"I guess this is it," Neville nodded his head and then immediately tried running for the stairs only to be held by his collar at the last moment by Dean's hand.

"Are you stupid, Neville? Don't you know that there is a charm on the stairs to prevent boys from entering," Dean said while pulling the boy back.

"Oh, I forgot..." Neville replied with a frown, "But I should at least give it a try, what if..."

"No, Dean's right. You shouldn't," Harry interrupted while shaking his head, "There could be an alarm on the stairs that alerts everyone that there are intruders here and then... we will be doomed..."

"So how do we do this then?" Seamus asked aloud as all of them unconsciously turned towards Ron.

"Hey, don't look at me. How should I know?" Ron replied with a shrug, "I can't have all the answers."

"Hmm, maybe we just need a way to somehow get a message to Hannah," Dean murmured after a few seconds, "I am sure she'll come down... out of curiosity, if nothing else."

"Maybe if we had Hedwig, she could..."

"Yeah, right." Harry rolled his eyes at Ron's suggestion, "And how am I supposed to call for her? By sending her a letter? Besides I don't think she'll be of much help when there is probably a door barring the way into her room..."

"How about we just call her name loudly? I am sure that'll get her down," Seamus suggested with a tipsy smile on his face.

"Yeah sure, why don't you try that." Ron snorted with a shrug.

"If you say so. HAN—Mph!!"

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Dean hissed his hands on Seamus's mouth muffling the idiot from waking the whole Hufflepuff house and he wasn't the only one, all of their eyes were wide with panic and were looking at Seamus with horror-filled eyes.

"You bloody idiot! I was just joking," Ron said, sweating at the close shave.

"Oh, Sorry, then." Seamus grinned sheepishly while scratching his head.

"Ugh! So what are we going to—No, Wait! I know! The Patronus Charm!" Ron suddenly exclaimed with a wide grin on his face, "Harry! Do the Patronus Charm."

"What? How is that going to help us?"

"Don't you know that you can send messages with them," Ron replied with an excited look on his face.

"Really?"

"Yes. Just conjure it and give it a try."

"Fine." Harry had a sceptical look on his face but he still took out his wand. He closed his eyes and tried to bring up his happiest memory... which surprisingly turned out to be a very easy thing because of his intoxicated state, "Expecto Patronum!!"

A silvery stag immediately jumped out of his wand and ran around the room bathing the room in its silvery glow trying to find an enemy before it finally came to stand before its caster, "Now, what?"

"Hmm, Maybe just tell it to send a message to Hannah..." Ron said with an unsure tone.

"Er, Hello, Prongs, um, can you send Hannah the message, 'Can you come down, Hannah? Neville wants to speak to you.' " he finished feeling like a fool talking to an apparition but miraculously it actually worked as the bright stag nodded its head and ran up the stairs of the girl's dormitory.

"Wicked," Seamus breathed in an amazed tone.

"I know." Ron nodded his head with a grin before turning towards the protagonist of the night, "Are you ready, mate?"

"I am," Neville replied after taking a deep breath while looking towards the stairs as if he was about to go to a battlefield.

"So what are you going to tell her?" Seamus asked curiously while waiting for the girl to hopefully come down, "Are you going to say 'I Love you,'" he sniggered in a teasing voice.

"Of course, he is not," Ron shot down immediately with a look of aversion on his face, "That would be far too soon, and he'll come down as stupid and desperate. Believe me, man, you just need to say that you like her and ask her out on a date. That's all, sweet and simple."

"I don't know... Isn't that too lame," Dean retorted with a raised eyebrow, "After coming all the way here in the middle of the night... just to say he likes her,"

"Maybe he should just ask to marry her and be done with it—"

"Guys, you're freaking him out," Harry said cutting the discussion short, "Don't listen to them, Neville. You just need to tell her how you feel when you see her... I am sure your heart will tell you the answer you need."

"Yes. Thank—"

"Wait! I hear footsteps! Shit, we need to go!" Ron said hurriedly pushing Neville towards the stairs, "Neville you go get her. Everyone else. Hide!" he ordered before bouncing behind a big cushy chair along with Harry.

"But why—"

"Just go." Dean hissed shoving a reluctant Seamus behind the other chair beside the Fireplace.

A few seconds of silence went by as the boys peeked from behind the chairs when suddenly they heard whispering girl voices from the stairs.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I remember seeing it in the DA meetings. That was definitely Harry's patronus."

"But why would he..."

"I don't know. So you stay here and let me check in case it's dangerous."

"But—"

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." they heard Susan say before the boys saw the red-haired girl slowly come down the stairs.

"Neville?! You're really—What are you doing here?" Susan asked in a stunned voice while lowering her wand as she saw the Gryffindor boy standing in the centre of the common room. She was wearing loose red silky night robes that made her body and hair stand out even more.

"I wanted to talk to Hannah," Neville asked while looking at her imploringly, "Can you call her down?"

"Er, Sure." Susan replied in an unsure tone a bit taken aback by the calm tone of the usually shy boy, "Hannah! Neville wants to talk to you." she shot back up the stairs.

"What? He is really here?" came the shocked voice of Hannah as she raced down the stairs, "Neville?!" she breathed in a dazed voice, "W-What happened? Why are you here? Is everything alright?" she asked in a concerned tone while rushing to stand before him.

"Yes, everything's fine," Neville said in a cool confident tone, "I just had something I wanted to tell you and I couldn't wait."

"Eh? What is it?" Hannah asked curiously, tilting her head to look into the unusually intense eyes of the cute boy.

"I don't know if you know this but I... have had a massive crush on you since our third year," Neville said clearly, his voice filled with passion.

"W-What?!" Hannah stuttered out as her eyes widened and her face turned bright red at the sudden confession.

"Oh, my!" Susan let out with an amazed look on her face.

"Yes. Ever since the day that you complimented me during that one herbology class about my talent with plants, I can't seem to forget about you. Every single day I crave the chance to have a conversation with you. Every single night my dreams are filled with your face, your laugh, your eyes... your body."—"EEP!"—" I just can't seem to get out of my head Hannah." Neville finished in a single breath his eyes filled with love and adoration.

"Mm!!" Susan slammed her hands on her mouth as she silently screamed in excitement while looking at the confession scene with sparkling eyes. On the other hand, all four boys looked at the scene with horror in their eyes, their spines tingling with cringe from the pure sweetness radiating from the scene. They could never imagine that the usually silent boy could come up with such cheesy lines...

"I-I-I..." The poor girl looked like a deer in headlights, her brain was fried and it seemed as if steam would start coming out her ear any second now.

"The point is... I like you," Neville continued without hesitation, "So today I came here to ask you what I have wanted to do since that Herbology class. Tell me, Hannah Abbott, will you be my girlfriend?"

There was silence for a few seconds after that as the girl just kept staring at him with a dazed look on her face as if she hadn't heard him.

"Answer him, you idiot!" hissed Susan, coming with a much-needed assist finally bringing Hannah back to the earth.

"I-I-I—" Hannah stammered and blushed violently, unable to answer no matter how many times she tried so she finally looked down, away from those intense eyes of his and answered in a very tiny whisper, "I will..."

"YES!!" Susan squeaked immediately as she jumped up and down in happiness and she wasn't the only one as the four Gryffindors also jumped out from behind the chairs as they cheered and hollered in their excitement, "YOHOO!!!"

"You—W-Why are you all here?" Susan asked in a stunned voice. She had assumed Harry was here because of the Patronus but she didn't expect to find half the boys from her class hiding in her common room.

The sudden intrusion of more people embarrassed Hannah even further as the girl ducked her head in shyness to hide from the new audience that had apparently been there all along.

"Um, w-we are here as moral support," Harry chuckled nervously as he got caught up in the atmosphere and jumped out with the others without thinking things through, "Here to cheer Neville on...Yay!"

"You're absolutely right, we are!" Seamus yelled in excitement, "Neville, my boy, I can't tell you how proud of you I am,"

"Pipe down, You idiot—" Dean hissed as he tried to silence the boy drunk out of his mind.

"I am sorry about them," Neville said while looking down at Hannah with an apologetic smile.

"I-It's fine," Hannah said looking up at him with a sweet smile on her face, and just like that both of them became lost in each other's eyes once again.

"Don't just look at her, you idiot," Ron abruptly whispered out of the corner of his mouth "You need to seal the deal with a kiss!"

Neville's lips quirked up in a smile at that but he didn't waste a single moment in asking his new girlfriend, "Can I kiss you, Hannah,"

Hannah's eyes went comically wide once again but before her mind could even process the question her body followed her heart and she nodded her head unconsciously.

Neville, to his credit, didn't disappoint and without letting the chance go he immediately leaned in as their lips touched for his, for their, first kiss.

"WOHOO!!!" The boys as well as the one girl cheered at the top of their lungs absolutely letting go in their excitement, with Dean surprisingly being the loudest this time.

"This is the best night ever!! HaHa—"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Mr. Finnigan." a low irritated voice abruptly cut through the festive atmosphere dousing the common room in stillness as all five boys shivered simultaneously at the voice straight out of their worst nightmare.

In the sudden pin-drop silence Ron gulped and noticed for the first time that the ruckus they had created in their drunken excitement had gathered quite an audience.

No one knew when they had appeared but at that moment standing atop the stairs to both the dormitories were quite a few Hufflepuff boys and girls looking down at the group of Gryffindor with amused expressions on their faces.

But the worst and most scary part for the boys was that at the entrance of the room stood the Hufflepuff prefects they had escaped from just half an hour ago and behind them stood a confused Pamona Sprout, the Herbology professor, and a very irate Professor McGonagall glaring at the boys murderously.

"Um, w-we just got lost, Professor," Ron tried with an ugly nervous smile as a last ditch effort, "S-Sorry but we will just be on our way now—"

"I think not, Mr Weasley. I think when I am done with you, you five will never be lost in your life... ever again." she finished with an ominous glint in her eyes.

///

Chapter Text

"Seriously! What in the world were you even thinking?"

"Ugh! Hermione," Ron groaned while trying to shield his face from the morning rays coming from the window, "Please, not so loud!!" The poor red-haired Gryffindor wanted nothing more than to merge in his seat and disappear from this loud overly-bright world.

Last night's events were somewhat of a blur after they had been caught red-handed during their invasion of Hufflepuff.

One moment they were being pulled by their ears towards the Deputy Headmistress's office and then the next they were now sitting in their usual compartment in the Hogwarts Express on their way to London.

The compartment was filled with the usual gang sans Neville, with Ron sitting at the farthest corner from the window, and beside him sat Harry, while on the opposite seat sat the trio of girls Hermione, Ginny and Luna.

And at the moment, Ron was so miserable, so uncomfortable, so nauseated, his throat so parched and his head aching so much, that he wanted nothing more than to go back in time using the time tuner and beat the ever-living shit out of his past self who dared to assume that drinking magical alcohol would be a great idea. God! What was he even thinking...

And the worst part was that for some reason every single student in the school somehow seemed to be aware of exactly what had transpired last night with the five boys (even though none of them had said anything), which meant that the morning breakfast in the Great Hall had been something akin to a nightmare with people constantly coming to ask the hungover kids, in horrendously loud high-pitched voices, if the rumours were true.

And now Hermione, not satisfied with the 'short' lecture she had given the two during breakfast, was continuing to let her displeasure know of what exactly she thought of their nightly adventure.

"But did you, not even for one second, stop to think about what the consequences of your actions would be?" Hermione dressed down the boys with her eyebrow twitching fiercely, "What if you had been expelled, huh? What would you have done then?"

"We really are sorry, Hemione." Harry mumbled with an apologetic smile, and, for some reason, he looked to be in a remarkably better condition than his best friend sitting beside him, "We were stupid and... just didn't think that we'd get caught..."

"Oh, really? You didn't—"

"Hermione, please!" Ron pleaded with an exhausted look on his face, "We already had to listen to the Professor's lecture, the whole night! so I don't think my mind can handle any more of it," He was already running on fumes because their vindictive Head of House hadn't allowed the boys to have even a wink of sleep last night...

The woman had been so angry with them that she had kept them in her office the entire bloody night.

She had gone on and on about all the rules they had broken, how irresponsible they had been and all the other things that Ron couldn't even remember... he didn't know where she got it from but their Head of House had shown immense stamina and had gone on and on without a single break.... and she had only let them go, very reluctantly, just a few hours ago, just before they had to leave Hogwarts so that they barely had time to freshen up and pick up their luggage.

"And you know, I just knew that something was wrong when you were acting so sneakily," Hermione went on, completely ignoring Ron's pleas, "But I just thought that even you wouldn't be so stupid as to do something on the very last day... but then you go ahead and sneak alcohol into the school of all things," Hermione said with an exasperated look on her face, "Seriously, Ronald! How you, of all people, can do this when you yourself are a prefect? In my opinion, the Professors are letting you off too easily after what you all did..."

"But you're wrong Hermione, McGonagall didn't let us off easy," Harry interrupted hurriedly, trying to stave off the girl from getting too worked up, "She said that we would all have to spend at least a whole month in detentions cleaning trophies, classroom and maybe even toilets when we get back to Hogwarts. So our punishments are just delayed..." he exaggerated a little to placate the young girl.

"Ugh! Don't remind me of it," Ron whined before turning to look at Harry with an accusatory glare, "And why the hell do you look so fine when I am so miserable," The-boy-who-lived looked as if he hadn't even been partying with them last night and didn't seem to have any kind of a hangover at all.

"Well, because unlike you guys, who guzzled the Firewhisky like there was no tomorrow, I moderated myself and barely drank two glasses," Harry replied with an amused smile on his face, "So I am still in the safe zone..."

"That is... just not right, man." Ron said shaking his head with a disappointed and betrayed look on his face, "You... you let down your friends mate..."

"Don't worry, Ron. You're actually not the worst one in this," came his sister's lively voice from the opposite seat, "I heard from Dean that Seamus hadn't been able to sit up straight since we boarded the train, and in fact, he had already been to the washroom twice to puke his guts out..." she supplied helpfully.

"Ah! That's good then," he murmured with a relieved smile on his face as his eyes slowly began closing, knowing that someone out there was suffering far more than him was like a healing balm to his wounds and the tension slowly left his body as he fell into an uneasy sleep but unfortunately for him, only after what felt like seconds he was woken up by a loud commotion happening right outside their compartment.

"Arr! What's with all the noise? Did the bloody dementors come once again?" he asked grouchily while rubbing his bleary eyes.

"It's Neville." Ginny replied with an amused smile on her face, her face stuck to the window as she looked at the show outside, "He's become somewhat of an overnight celebrity,"

"What? Why?"

"Well, he bravely charged into a different house's territory and confessed to the love of his life in the middle of the night. It was all... very knightly, you know, just like in those fairy tales. So they all are calling him a hero out there, a rebel, a phoenix rising from the ashes, and some are even saying that he's better than the Twins, especially after considering his previous reputation as... um someone not-so-brave." she shrugged before taking back her seat.

"So he gets the girl and praise while we get all the punishment... ugh, that is so unfair!!" Ron shook his head with a depressed expression, making everyone in the compartment snicker at his expense.

The door to their compartment abruptly opened at that moment and in came the grinning boy of the hour who had finally lost his singlehood status the previous night.

The boy didn't quite have the same confident self-assured look that he had on his face last night, after drinking that glass of Firewhisky mixed with soul freeze (which, a short talk with a loudly giggling Sirius had informed them, would increase someone's confidence by 100x and make them do an incredibly stupid things that they secretly desire, things along the lines of dancing naked in the great hall or confessing your eternal love to your teacher.)

"Um, Hey, guys," said the shy boy while waving his hand at his friends.

"Hey, Neville!" replied everyone except for Ron who murmured, "Hey, Traitor," with a discontent look on his face.

"Huh, What do you mean Ron—"

"Come on, Neville. We'll be late." came Hannah's voice from somewhere outside.

"Oh, right! I am coming." Neville replied before turning back to the compartment, "I um Hannah wants to make some plans to meet during the summer so I just came by to say goodbye in case I don't meet you on the platform...Um so bye," he said with a blush and every one replied back before he hurriedly left after his new girlfriend.

"Disgusting," Ron muttered while disapprovingly shaking his head at the boy who left his friends behind after getting the girl.

"Hey, why are you complaining when we are the ones who helped him get the girl," Harry said with a snort.

"Oh! Shut up, Harry."

"By the way, did you see the look on Hannah's face," Ginny said to Hermione and Luna in a gossipy tone, "The girl was positively glowing since this morning and I hadn't seen the smile leave her face even once... She got quite lucky there, didn't she," she said with a faint hint of jealousy in her tone, making Hermione unconsciously nod her head in agreement.

And that was how their journey back home went, the others gossiping in low voices and Ron trying his best to get as much sleep as he could.

Draco and his goonies had apparently tried to start something at some point with Harry when he was on his way back from the bathroom but apparently, they had been very unlucky and had been retaliated against by the whole of DA before being thrown into an empty compartment with various shades of facial disfigurement but other than that the trip was relatively peaceful.

This meant that when the train finally pulled up to the platform, Ron could positively say that he felt like a human once again.

"Ah! I can't wait to get home and eat some real food after so long..." Ron muttered with a happy smile on his face as he pulled his luggage from over the racks. Sam had no memories of what it felt like to have a home where a loving mother cooks for you, so safe to say it was something he was looking forward to very much.

"Um, Ron," Harry's voice abruptly came from his place where he was looking out the window, "From what I am seeing, I don't think you'll be getting anything to eat for quite a while... "

"Huh, Why? What happened—" Ron's question abruptly got stuck in his throat and his eyes widened dramatically because when he glanced outside at the platform 3/4, he found waiting for him almost half the Weasley family including the Twins, in their new fancy clothes, Arthur Weasley and a very angry... Molly Weasley.

The Weasley Matriarch was just standing there silently but the aura she was realising was so ominous that her own family was giving her a wide berth and were looking at her sideways with wary eyes as if she was a pressure cooker on the verge of exploding and Ron just knew that he was the fuse that would set her... off.

"Er... you don't think she found out about the... night. Do you?"

"Do you not remember Mcgonagall's face from last night... I tell you, that woman was out for blood. I bet she sent letters to the parents the moment we were out of her office... Thankfully I don't have to worry about anything with the Dursleys," Harry answered with a strange look on his face. He never imagined that there would come a day when he would be grateful for the fact that the Drursleys were his official guardians.

"I'll pray for you, Ron," Hermione said sympathetically, patting Ron's shoulder while looking at him as if he was a dead man walking, "Good luck."

Ron wanted nothing more than to hide in the train and to let it take him back to Hogwarts but the others didn't think it was a viable idea and they convinced him that the more he delayed the more dreadful it would get so he should just get it over with. 'Easy for them to say it, those bastards...'

And so Ron was forced out of the train, kicking and screaming(metaphorically), and the moment he got down, the eyes of the entire Weasley family zoned in on him, picking his familiar red hair from the crowd of students easily, making Ron flinch.

Especially when he felt the heat of his mother's gaze... Ron shivered as if he was being attacked by Dementors and the urge to run away rose up in him once again.

Being afraid of his mother was so ingrained in the boy's body that not even the memories of Sam, who had been an orphan his whole life, could help him.

Thankfully, it didn't seem like she was going to start screaming right there and then, which would have been quite humiliating... but her eyes— were spitting fire at him as if she wanted to immolate him and they promised untold amount of pain, and they showed that she was quite close to losing it.

"Um, Harry, do you think I can come with you?" Ron asked hesitantly as he dragged his feet as slowly as he could towards his family, "The Dursleys can't be that worse, can they?"

Harry snorted, "Well, if you can tolerate mild starving and doing innumerable amounts of chores, then sure they aren't that bad..."

"Argh! Shit!" If there was one thing this body couldn't handle, then it was starving... because after all, only the soul inside had been modified, and the physical side of things had mostly remained the same.

Along the way they also met, Madam Longbottom who was searching for her grandson. She stopped the three to thank them for bringing Neville along for the ride when they went on these brave adventures.

Though, it was kind of hard to tell from her face, whether she was talking about the fight in the DOM or the Hufflepuff invasion last night. And neither Harry nor Ron were interested in asking her.

But no matter how much Ron dragged his feet, destiny is inevitable... And so they arrived in front of the Weasleys, and the traitors that they were, Harry and Hermione took one look at Ron's mom and immediately decided to distance themselves from him.

They gave him a wide berth and went around the Weasley Matriarch to meet with the other order members standing behind them, including Tonks, Lupin and Moody, and Ginny Weasley, the little critter, who had been even faster than Harry and Hermione and had scurried away at the first chance, with ease of long practise, from Ron at the first sight of her mom so that she didn't get dragged into the mess.

And so Ron gulped as he found himself standing alone in front of his mother, who somehow managed to tower over him, despite her diminutive height.

"Um, Molly—"

"Arthur." Mrs Weasley interrupted her husband in such a calm tone that it made, both the father and the son flinch simultaneously, "I am going to take Ron home first. You can bring his luggage and others later."

"I... Alright." he sighed before turning to look at his son with something akin to pity and then decisively turning his head away so that he didn't have to look at the plea in his son's eyes and feel guilty.

Ron's face paled even further at that, he had been hoping to have the presence of his family with him to dilute her anger, and now to find out that he would be facing her alone... it was all turning out to be the worst-case scenario.

The twins would have especially been helpful for that, but when he looked towards them with a beseeching gaze all he found was pride, respect and a little bit of sympathy, their eyes were looking at him as if he was a martyr sacrificing himself for the good cause, 'We'll remember you, brother,' They mouthed while saluting him.

"Let's go," Molly said or rather commanded quietly and then without waiting for Ron to speak, she took her son's hand off his trolly and then in the next second they side-apparated out of the platform.

The last view Ron saw before he was whisked away, was of his friends and family standing there silently their gazes filled with sympathy, guilt and a little bit of schadenfreude, but not a single one of them gathered up their courage to step out and help him.

In fact, he even caught a glimpse of money changing some hands which meant that those cruel bastards from the order even had a bet going on about his fate, which was just... salt on the wounds.

It all just honestly made him lose his trust in humanity as a whole and made Ron wonder if... joining the dark side wouldn't be a healthier choice for his future.

///

Chapter Text

As he stood in front of his furious mother inside the kitchen of the Burrow, the house of the Weasley family, Ron was faced with a dilemma on how to deal with the situation he was currently in...

There were currently two schools of thoughts warring inside of him, two ways to soothe his furious mother, one stemming from the memories of Sam, and the other from Ron... and he was confused as to which one he should follow...

The memories of Sam told him that, there was nothing wrong with what he did, that he did no crime by simply having a drink, and that he should just have an honest conversation with his mother.

If he could simply apologize for his mistake, then everything would be alright as his mother would surely see that he was almost an adult now and that he could make his own decision...

As an orphan in his previous life, Sam's thoughts on his present circumstances could be succinctly summarised in four words, 'What's the big deal about drinking?'

But Ron on the other hand, would have been absolutely horrified with that very thought, for he knew that as deep a shit as he was in at the moment, talking like an 'adult'... would only make it worse for him.

He knew from his long experience of watching his mother tear ruthlessly into his older brothers(for blunders far smaller than his,) that acting like a grown up, and trying to weasel out of his mistakes by telling her that 'He was now old enough to make his own decision,' would get him nowhere but in deeper shit.

He knew that if he didn't want to spend every second of his summer holidays grounded in his room, with his broom confiscated, and to only be let out occasionally out of his room, that too to 'help' with housework, weeding the grass and de-gnoming the garden, then he had to be very careful with how he handled this situation...

Now, Ron's usual way of dealing with his mother's anger was to sulk, look down at the floor petulantly, silently listen to her angry ranting until she was tired of it and then be sent to his room with no food and all his privileges revoked.

It wasn't the best way sure, but that was how the boy had handled things for years...

But perhaps, now that he had the memories of both Sam and Ron, he could find a better way...

"Do you have something to say for yourself?" Molly asked in a dangerously calm tone. She was standing on the other side of the table with her arms on her waist and was looking at Ron with such a calm expression on her face that it would have absolutely terrified the twins and sent them running for the hills.

Ron gulped but he knew that he had to speak soon or the storm brewing in the form of his Mom would soon erupt, and that was the last thing he wanted.

So he hurriedly scoured his brain with all his cunning, so that he could find a way that may save his hide in this time of need, and miraculously... he was hit with a brilliant idea, which he could execute immediately...

"M-Mum!" Ron cleared his throat as he looked up and began, "I-I am really sorry!" he said with a deep remorseful look on his face, even letting his voice tremor for added effects.

His expression was as if he was a guilty murderer coming to confess in front of the judge to get a lighter sentence.

"Hmm?" a simple hum and a raised eyebrow was all the response that Molly gave her son's apology. As the mother of seven, she had seen it all before, so a simple crude act like this wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"I-I know that I've disappointed you... that I let you down, b-but I didn't do it for myself or just to have fun... I had reasons for it..."

Molly's eyes narrowed at that, "What reasons could you possibly have for drinking alcohol at school." she asked with gritted teeth.

It still rankled her to know that her son dared to do something like this, but still... she tried to control her anger as she wanted to listen to what he had to say.

Normally, they wouldn't have been having a calm conversation and she wouldn't have been waiting for an explanation either after he did something like this... because Ron wasn't the type to apologise or be regretful in the first place.

He was the type who responded to confrontations like this in two ways, either his pride would get hurt and he would get red-faced and angry, following which it would dissolve into a shouting match with him getting grounded, or at other times when he knew that he did wrong, he would get embarrassed, unhappily brood, and then get grounded.

So seeing her son look so regretful, threw Molly a bit off her game, so she was forced to listen and see what he had to say for himself...

"I-I did it for my friends. For Harry, and Neville..." Ron let out reluctantly with his eyes tightly shut as if he was letting out a big secret, 'I am sorry, guys,' he apologised internally for throwing his friends under the bus.

"What?!"

"Yes, for them," Ron quickly nodded his head, "You know about the fight in the ministry, right?" he asked and Molly nodded with a frown as she remembered that there was one other reason she had to be angry about, but before she could think about it any further Ron went on, "Well, in that fight we came face to face with the worst the Death Eaters had to offer, so safe to say, all of us very shocked," he shivered for extra dramatic effect, "But while the fight was scary what was scarier was that in that fight we came so close to losing the people we were closest to..."

All of Molly's anger left her at that, her face paled and her lips quivered as she saw her boy's pained face as he tried to relive that memory.

"Harry almost lost the closest thing he had to a father in Sirius, and Neville... well Neville had to come face to face with his parents... attackers," Ron hesitated a bit at that, wondering if it was alright to use his friends like that but when he saw how invested his mother was, he decided to go all in, even if it felt a bit dirty.

"So it was clear that it wasn't the best day for them, and I... I think they were even having nightmares after that, so I decided that as their friend it was my duty to help them cope, to give them one happy memory of this year before school ended so that they aren't completely miserable at home, so that their summer is not spent reliving the worst but the best memory of this year..."

Ron almost couldn't believe the tale he was spinning here... when he had started he just had a faint idea in his mind. He had never imagined that it would go so well, 'I never knew I was such a great actor and storyteller... I guess all those years spent watching late-night soap operas were useful for something after all.'

"Oh! My poor baby!" Molly cried as she hurried to hug her son with all her might, "I am so sorry! I-I never knew that it was so bad, and it was all our fault... we should have been there to protect you..." she exclaimed angrily, "Y-You should never have had to fight those... those monsters. I swear, that it will never happen again, I'll never let you out of my—"

"D-Don't worry, mum, it's alright now," Ron said hastily cutting her off before she went on a tangent and did something unimaginable in her emotional state...

Something along the lines of pulling him out of Hogwarts and keeping him at home to keep him safe, and considering that this was Molly Weasley we were talking about, that was definitely a possibility so Ron had to quickly avert that, "It was just a coincidence we got involved in a fight like that, Mom, so I don't think anything like that is going to happen again.

"Besides, I know that things are not going well in the outside world and now that Vol—I mean, You-know-who, is out in the open so I don't think those people have the time to care about us children," Ron didn't actually have much of a problem saying Voldemort's name now that he had Sam's memories, but he didn't want to get into that bad habit considering that it could still be made into a taboo during the war, "A-And I know that you and everyone else are doing the best you can to protect us, so don't worry too much, Mum..." he said hurriedly, trying to soothe her worries.

"Oh, Ron! Since when did you become so mature," Molly smiled warmly with tears in her eyes as she held Ron's face lovingly in her hands. She had such a moved expression on her face that it embarrassed the hell out of Ron... but now that he had come so far, he felt that he might as well finish the job.

"And, Mum, about the drinking..." he continued with a guilty expression on his face, "I know that even did it to help my friends (Again! Sorry, Guys!) I know that what I did was very wrong, so I am ready to take whatever punishment you decide to give me," he said with a determined look on her face.

"Um..." Molly had a hesitant look on her face as she wavered on whether to still punish him or not.

"How about this, Mum? I'll finish my holiday homework during the very first week of holidays and I will study for at least five hours every day," he said with a pained expression as if he was making a great sacrifice. He didn't know where he heard it from but he knew that it was a good tactic to suggest punishment from your side if you wanted something lighter, "And on top of that whenever you need help in the kitchen I will do it without hesitation."

"Ah, Ron! You didn't have to do that..."

"No, Mum! I want to do it. For you!"

"Oh! Ron!" and the crying renewed as she hugged him again.

"There there, Mum," Ron said patting her back as she let out her emotions, 'Oh, that went quite well... I wonder what my siblings would think about this,' he mused with a smirk on his face.

....

"Do you think she would have been done by now?" Fred whispered while sneaking a peek at the silent door of their house.

"I think so... I mean, it's been more than an hour by now, even she shouldn't have the stamina to shout for that long. Would she?" George replied crouching beside his brother as they hid behind a bush some distance away from their house.

The twins knew better than to come home immediately and get in the way of their mother's anger so they dawdled as much as they could at the station.

They talked to their friends, ate some tasty station food, and just passed the time until the last of the students had left the station and only when the Hogwarts train finally began its journey back to Hogsmade, did they decide to come home.

"I don't know about that," Fred replied unsurely, "Don't you remember about the day we fled from Hogwarts... I swear she shouted at us for days on end from morning to night," he shivered while thinking about those dark days.

"So you think we should wait and come back at dinner—"

"Ugh! Seriously! You guys are such cowards." Ginny snorted before abruptly standing up from behind them.

She had two pieces of luggage standing beside her, the one with Piggy's empty cage was hers and the other was Ron's. Their Father had apparated out, soon after their Mother had left with Ron, saying that he had work, which meant it was left to these idiots to apparate her home, which was definitely not a pleasant experience.

"Then why don't you be our guest, dear sister and enter before us?" The twins said simultaneously while waving her along the entryway of their house with innocent smiles on their faces.

"You think I won't," she snorted before squaring her shoulder and confidently walking towards the house.

But just a few seconds later as she got closer and closer to the house, her steps began slowing down. The eerie silence coming from the house seemed ominous and when she remembered the look of wrath on her mother's face she had seen at the station, her feet halted abruptly.

Her face scrunched up as she stood there hesitating for a few seconds before she finally groaned and turned around to look at her brothers with a forced smile on her face, "Together?"

The twins first sent a smirk towards her before they looked at each other, nodded their heads and stood up, "Together!"

Slowly, ever so slowly, the three siblings walked up to their house as if they were walking towards a lion's den.

They kept straining their ears with each step as if expecting to hear screams, shouts, and breaking plates at any moment, but even when they were almost at the door, they heard nothing... which confused the hell out of them as they looked at each other with bafflement.

"Is it already over?" Fred asked in a whisper while scratching his head.

"Only one way to find out," George replied before gingerly pushing the door open.

The three slowly went into the house but a single peek at the scene inside, left them stunned in their place. Their eyes went wide, their mouths fell open, and Ginny even pinched herself to check if she wasn't dreaming.

"Here, take some more, dear," Molly said warmly while filling her son's plate with delicious pasta, Ron's favourite food.

"No, mum, I can't eat anymore, I am already full," Ron replied his mouth filled with food, but his hand never stopped shovelling food into his mouth showing that he was merely paying lip service.

"Nonsense, you're a growing boy, you need to eat at least this much," she said with a warm smile on her face while tenderly caressing his hair, "Oh! That reminds me, I had some pie left over. I'll bring it out immediately," she said before immediately going inside with a happy smile on her face, all the while ignoring her other three children as if they weren't even there.

Ron finally looked up from the food towards the three entrants standing at the doorway, the ones who had happily left him to be sacrificed, with a smile on his face, "So you're finally home..."

"You... How... Why... How..." Fred was too stunned to even speak while George was like a broken recorder unable to form proper sentences in his mouth.

"H-How did you..." Ginny finally managed to ask in an amazed whisper, "...do it?"

The scene they were expecting(and hoping) to see and the one they had actually seen was so drastically different that it had completely fried their brain, and now they were having trouble moving their thoughts.

"Oh, that," Ron replied airily waving his hand toward the direction their mother had gone in, "Well, let's just say that we had a heart-to-heart conversation and it was decided that what happened wasn't actually my fault after all... so she let me off easy," he shrugged with such nonchalance, that it was clear he was trying hard not to brag openly.

"Let... you... off... easy..." Fred repeated the words with a dumbfounded look as if not able comprehend the meaning of the words coming out of his younger brother's mouth.

But while Fred was having trouble accepting reality, his twin brother George was quick to get over his shock and realise what was more important at the moment, so he placed his hand on Fred's shoulder and said, "Snap out of it brother,"

"But—"

"It has happened, my dear brother," George said shaking his head with a serious look, "We need to face reality now. Our younger brother has exceeded us and achieved something that we could only dream about,"

"Y-You're right," Fred said before taking a deep breath and then after exchanging a single profound glance between each other, they nodded and turned to look at Ron with a determined look on their faces.

The twins slowly strode until they came to stand in front of their little brother, who got a little scared by the peculiar expressions on their faces, and then without any hesitation, they kneeled in front of Ron and shouted with their heads down, "Teach us! Master!!

"Ah!— O-Oh! Ho!" Ron immediately lowered his hands and tried to act nonchalantly as if he hadn't just flinched like a little girl, "Ahem! So you both want my secrets, huh?" the twins hurriedly nodded their heads, "Hmm, I don't know about that..."

Ginny stared at the scene in front of her with an unsure look on her face.

But after a little bit of hesitation, she bit her lips as her eyes firmed and she slowly moved up to stand beside her brothers, and then with a look of absolute embarrassment on her face she kneeled beside the twins, "T-Teach me too..."

....

"Ah! That sure was satisfying," Ron murmured as he rubbed his stomach with a content look while closing the door behind him.

Seeing the adoration and curiosity on his traitor siblings' faces, the same ones who had left him to die on the station, was quite exhilarating.

He had kept them on the hook for hours without telling them anything before they finally gave up asking him with a reluctant look on their faces.

The scene outside the window showed that the sun had set a few hours ago, and Ron was just now coming after having finished dinner with his family.

He had spent most of the time from lunch to dinner talking with his siblings, listening to twins talk about their shop, and helping his mother in the kitchen.

So all in all it was a very relaxing first day home. But now it was time to get back to work...

He moved towards his bed before kneeling beside it to pull his trunk from underneath it.

After opening the trunk, he slowly began pulling all his yearbooks as well as the special books he had borrowed from the library.

These weren't the only books he had available, as he knew that the attic in the burrow was filled with the course books all his older brothers had used during their school years. And while they might be a bit outdated, he knew that they would be perfect for what he had in mind for the summer.

He had a bit over two months of time before the holidays were over and he had to go to school.

And he wanted to be a completely different person from the Ron Weasley that people knew, on the other end, and while he knew it would take a lot of hard work, he was more than ready for it.

'But first... Status'

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 16 (05/340)

MP: 258/258

Physique [Max.]: 6.2 + 0.8 (Pending) [11]

Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.6 + 0.3(Pending) [16]

Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]

Stat Points: 1

Skill Points: 1

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1...

"Hmm, let's see... looks like I am almost done digesting the point I had spent increasing the Spirit, but on the other hand, the one in physique has only been digested by 0.1. It seems I was right that I would have to move my body and properly exercise to digest those gains. Well, nothing I wasn't already expecting about that..."

Ron also spent a lot of time trying to figure out all the ways in which he could improve his skills but most of it hinged on the premise of whether he could perform magic here or not without the Ministry charging him with Underage Magic, otherwise the most he could do was brush up on his theories.

Of course, even if for some reason he couldn't use magic, he could still improve other skills like 'Flying' and 'Observe', and not to mention he also had to see if he could get new skills from just reading about a particular subject...

So all in all, he was going to get very busy starting tomorrow, but he was looking forward to it.

'It's time to grind...'

///

Chapter Text

The time on the alarm clock showed 5 am, the last hour of the night before the sun brought light into the world, it was the time when most people in this world, whether they be muggle or magic, were still sleeping.

And the Weasley household wasn't an exception to this, as even Molly Weasley the earliest riser of the household, didn't usually wake up until after six, which meant that almost the whole family was deep asleep at the moment... well almost the whole family...

The silence of the burrow was broken by the sound of the door of the topmost room opening slowly with a loud creak that rang throughout the house.

Ron slowly and silently tiptoed out of his room, before gingerly closing the door behind him. He was dressed in comfortable pyjamas and an old short-sleeved T-shirt, the only piece of 'sportswear' Ron had available to his name.

Having washed his face with cold water earlier, he was now wide awake. His ears strained to listen to any hint of noise, Ron cautiously went down the stairs, making sure not to wake anyone up.

Thankfully, all the nights he spent roaming the Hogwarts castle were coming into use at the moment as he reached the front door without making a single loud noise despite the squeaking stairs.

The moment he came out the front door, he was hit with a breeze of cold air, that instantly rejuvenated him and sent a burst of energy into his body.

After taking a couple of deep breaths filled with the fresh morning air, Ron took off running, "Let's go!"

The Burrow was located on the outskirts of the village Ottery St. Catchpole, and it had a barn, chicken coop, vegetable patch and everything else that one needed to be called a proper magical countryside home.

The house was surrounded on three sides by vast rolling fields, with a simple rugged road in the middle leading towards the village. On the fourth side which is the backside of the house, there laid a wooded area about a hundred meters away, that even had a river flowing through it and that... was where Ron was going at the moment.

It took Ron approximately ten minutes of slow jog before he managed to reach the river bed, the place he had decided would be his personal training area during the summer, and the moment he stepped foot into the clearing beside the river, he fell onto his knees and began huffing and puffing like an eighty years old man.

His legs were aching and shaking fiercely, his lungs felt as if they were on fire, and he had a massive stitch at his side that was hurting like hell, and all that was from a 10-minute run, 'God! I never knew I was this unhealthy...'

After a rest, that was way too long, Ron finally managed to stand up and slowly began the workout routine that he had decided on last night.

In his previous life, Sam had been a casual gym goer, the kind that spends more time watching gym videos than actually going to the gym, and while the knowledge from those videos may not have been particularly useful in his previous life, they were now helping him in creating a proper workout for himself.

Ron's body was that of a complete beginner as he had never regularly done any kind of physical activity in his life... well unless you count those few hours a week he spent during the DA meeting a workout, but those meetings were more about using his magical ability than his physical one.

So he had decided on a full-body workout every day, to begin with. It was a newbie workout that is a bit less strenuous on the body but hits almost all the muscles equally.

He began with a quick warm-up, making sure to heat up all his joints and tendons rigorously as the last thing he wanted was an injury due to carelessness.

After about five minutes of that, his body was sufficiently warmed up and so he began with the most basic exercise that everyone in the world knows about... Push-ups.

And he managed to do a complete total of... twelve.

And those too were divided into three sets of six and then four and then for the last set he barely managed to do two before his arms gave out.

'Damn! To be so skinny, and still only be able to do a dozen push-ups. Merlin! It's embarrassing...'

But as they say, 'No pain! No gain!' so there was nothing to do other than work on it,

The next exercise on his list was pull-ups.

For which he went to a nearby tree, with a sturdy branch at a proper height, before he jumped and hung onto it. He went up and down for a complete total of two times, which couldn't even be considered a full set, and his arms refused to budge from there... and after a few seconds of trying, he had to give up and let go only to fall on his butt.

He wasn't too surprised by his weakness this time so he didn't waste any time before going onto the next exercise—Squats.

Thankfully, his legs didn't completely betray him as he managed to do a decent amount this time— specifically, three sets of 10, and while they couldn't be called much, at least the number wasn't as embarrassing as his pushup count, 'It seems climbing all those stairs during school was useful for something after all..."

After a few minutes of break, he began the next one—sit-ups.

And then he tried Burpees...

And then a few mountain climbers...

And a few more for the back and shoulders...

Before he ended it all with three sets of half-minute-long planks...

And the second he finished with all the exercise goals that he had set himself to do for the day, his body immediately gave out as he fell onto his back... completely limp.

His whole body was aching from top to bottom, his chest was heaving up and down as if he was on his last breath, and for ten long minutes he could do nothing but just lay there on the riverbed looking at the sky... but after those ten minutes he was able to finally get his breath under control and move once again.

It still took him three tries before he was able to get back on his feet and even then his legs kept shaking like crazy.

Removing his sticky T-shirt with some effort, he slowly and gingerly went towards the river to clean himself.

The cold water of the clean fast-flowing river felt like a balm to his muscles as it sent a shock into his nerves and removed quite a bit of his fatigue from his body.

He repeatedly splashed all over his upper body until at last he felt alive once again...

Just as he was finally satisfied with the amount of water he had splattered on himself, Ron caught the image of his own body on the water's surface, and for the first time he saw what his body looked like with his new eyes and it... wasn't very pretty.

Weak flabby arms with little to no muscle definition, a chest that was mostly skin, and in the middle his stomach consisted of two tyres filled with nothing but unhealthy fat.

He was what one would call the very definition of a skinny fat physique...

People with this physique have fat but don't have the fat people's strength, and they are skinny but don't have the skinny look, that good-looking people have, so they get all the drawbacks with none of the benefits...

It is a most stubborn kind of physique that is quite hard to get rid of...

"Ugh! Hope it doesn't stay like this for too long..." He prayed before shaking his head and standing up.

After reluctantly wearing his sticky wet T-shirt once again, he set off towards the Burrow, this time walking there instead of running as his shaky legs didn't seem like they could take any more of a beating.

By the time he reached the Burrow, the sun had risen quite a bit and when he came close to the front door, he could already hear the clanging of pans from inside the house, indicating that his mother had already woken up.

'Well, she'll know sooner or later, so may as well...' He shrugged as he opened the door and went inside and just like he expected his mother had quite a few questions for him.

"Ron? Why are you—When did you wake up? And why are you sweating like that?"

"I am fine, Mum. I just went to do a little bit of exercise, that's all..."

"Exercise?!" she repeated as if it was a strange word, "But why? Is everything alright?" she had such a concerned look on her face as if he had told her that he was on drugs.

"Yes, Mum. Everything's fine. I just... I just want to keep my position on the quidditch team and I know that I am not good enough yet... so I wanted to prepare for it during the summer," he replied telling her the excuse that he had prepared beforehand.

Not that it was a complete lie anyway, as he did want to be on the Gryffindor team and he knew that Harry would hold a tryout for all positions whether someone had been on the team before or not... so this could be like two birds with one stone.

"That... is good then," Molly replied with an unsure look on her face, as on the one hand, she didn't want to discourage him from doing training, but on the other hand she wanted him to put more of his focus on his studies rather than dangerous sports like quidditch

But considering how most of her children had turned out, she knew that it was a lost battle having any of them give up the broom, so she didn't even try, "Then why don't you go ahead and brush your teeth? I am sure you must be hungry after your training and I'll have the breakfast ready in a bit."

"That's perfect." Ron said with an eager look on his face as he indeed was quite hungry at the moment, "I'll be back in a five..." he shouted as he ran up the stairs to his room, and came back down less than five minutes later, with his sweaty T-shirt and pyjamas changed into his everyday clothes.

But as it turns out, he wasn't the first one to take a shot at breakfast that morning as his father, Arthur Weasley, was already at the table, wearing his work robes, calmly reading the morning prophet and eating his breakfast.

"Ah! Ron! You're up early," Arthur exclaimed in a mildly surprised tone.

"Your boy here woke up earlier than even me today," Molly answered before Ron could while setting her son's plate on the chair in front of Arthur, "He was out there training hard for quite a while and came back just before you came down."

"Training? What for?" He asked Ron with a raised eyebrow.

"It's nothing serious, Dad. I am just preparing for quidditch, I want to keep my position on the Gryffindor team and I know I have to be a better player to do that..."

"That... is quite mature of you, son. I am proud of you," Arthur said with a warm smile on his face, "I am sure they'll make you the Keeper of the team again for sure, and like I always told you, as long as you put your mind to it you can do anything."

"Thank you, Dad," Ron replied with a small smile on his face, he was a bit embarrassed but also quite happy with his father's compliment which he was rarely the target of.

They silently ate breakfast for a few minutes after that conversation, before Molly decided to go up the stairs to wake up the rest of her lazy good-for-nothing brood(her words, not mine,).

But Molly's absence finally gave Ron the chance to interrogate his father for a very important piece of information.

"Dad! Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, son. What is it?" He replied not taking his eyes off the fifth page of the prophet that he was reading, it contained a public list of all the wizarding deaths that happened in the last week, natural or otherwise.

"Is it true... that the Decree for the Reasonable Underage Magic, is skewed in the favour of Pureblood's?"

That finally made his father take his eyes off the paper and look at his son with a curious gaze, "First of all, it is called the 'Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery'. And secondly, why do you think so?"

"Hmm, I don't know... Hermione was talking about how it is very unfair that pureblood children can cast magic whenever they want during the summer and they won't get caught but if Muggleborns do even a simple Lumos they will be punished heavily..."

"You're a pureblood and you can't cast magic, can you?" he replied with an amused smile on his face.

"But that is only because you two don't allow us," Ron replied while rolling his eyes, as there indeed was an alert over the house that instantly let Molly know whenever any of her children tried to cast any magic when they weren't supposed to, and then... only hell awaited them, "But, if you were to allow it, then we can cast as much magic as we want without the ministry every knowing right? Then isn't the law in favour of Purebloods?"

"Usually I would agree that quite a few of the Ministry laws are indeed like that, but this one... is not like that." Arthur explained in a calm clear voice that makes you want to listen closely, "The law is not about the 'blood' son, whether a child is a pureblood, half-blood or a muggle-born, magic in the hand of any child is a very dangerous thing both for the caster and the people in his/her surroundings, a child's curiosity can become a very dangerous thing when they have the power to affect reality in their hands..."

"I understand that it's dangerous but still at least I have the option to cast magic if you allow it, while even if one of the muggleborn's parents wanted to give him permission to cast magic under their supervision, they can't actually do it, are they?"

"That is true, but once again it is not about the blood what it is about is the area where the magic is cast..." Arthur replied with a tiny smile on his face, he was quite happy to have his usually not-so-curious son ask him questions, "As long as one lives in a wizard area like Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley or Godric's Hollow, any child is able to cast magic as long as they are under the wards of that place, and quite a few of the muggle-born parents choose to do exactly this for convenience sake among other things..."

"Really?"

"Yes. In fact, it works for the opposite side too, for example if a pureblood child were to go to a muggle area and try to cast magic then he would be caught immediately no questions asked, so again it's not really about the blood but all about—"

"The wards! It's all in the wards." Ron breathed with an enlightened look on his face.

"Exactly. Even here, if you tried to cast any kind of magic outside the wards of our house, you would be in trouble with the Ministry..."

"But how would they even know? Aren't the ones in the Ministry not supposed to know who was the one to cast the magic... Otherwise, Harry wouldn't have gotten a warning for magic cast by Dobby during his second year, right?"

"Ah! That is indeed right, they don't have the ability to know who was the one to cast the magic but they do know the type of magic that was cast around the area. So if they just search the general area, then they can ask around to see whose wand that particular piece of magic was cats out of... that is if they ever bother to get up from their chairs to do anything other than send warnings," He mumbled the last part in a voice so low that Ron heard him, "Anyway, why are you suddenly so interested in this? Any particular reason..." he asked with a curious look in his eyes.

"N-No, just curious..." Ron shrugged trying to act as nonchalantly as he could but he could still see a hint of suspicion in his eyes so he decided that it was time for him to scramble, "Mum, I am finished. I am going back to my room to study now." He called before he immediately ran for the stairs and climbed towards his room.

"Studying? Did the boy just say studying or are my ear not working?" Arthur asked with a bewildered look on his face.

"Yes, you heard it right." Molly replied with a look of pride on her face, "My little boy's grown up now, he promised me that he is going to study every day from now on for the whole summer... Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Studying? On his first day back from school..." Arthur was still mumbling with a baffled look on his face, "Is he alright? Did something happen?"

"He's fine. My son's just become mature now."

"Are you sure?" Arthur asked sceptically, "Maybe we should get him checked..."

"Enough! He's perfectly fine. Now, shoo! He may be on his vacation but you're not... so go do your job." she said, kissing him on his cheek before pushing him towards the door.

"Yes, mam, as you command," he said with a cheeky bow before taking off with a merry chuckle.

...

Back in his room, Ron also had a wide smile on his face as he realised that one of his most pressing problems of not being able to do magic in his house now finally had an easy solution.

Ron's memories had already clued him into the fact that one couldn't do magic inside the house without incurring Molly's wrath, so he had been on the lookout all this while, and luckily his prodding of his Dad for information worked out in his favour...

Now he knew that as long as he was inside the wards around the house but not inside the house, he would be in an absolute safe zone where neither his mother nor the Ministry could find out about him casting any underage magic and best of all he knew for sure that the wards around the house were extensive and covered a whole lot of area...

He was unsure about the exact extent but as long as he took into consideration the area where his father daily Apparated out of and then formed a circle from there with the house as the centre then he should have a pretty good estimation and if he was picturing it right, then maybe the wards even extended a few dozen meters into the wooden area behind the house, which was just perfect for practising while hiding from view.

But that was all for later when he was outside and working on his practical skills... for now it was time for him to work on his theoretical skills and for that, he started at the very beginning by taking out the most basic magic book he had, the first-year charms book—The Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk.

It detailed almost all the charms and spells that a child was qualified to learn during their first year, and included spells like Levitation, Wand lighting, Fire making, Softening, Knock Back Jinx and a lot more, for a complete total of 30 spells.

Of these Flitwick, only taught fifteen of the more important spells during class, and just had the students practise these spells repeatedly until everyone got it right... instead of teaching them new ones.

And only a very few dedicated 11-year-olds, cue Hermione, ever managed to learn the rest of them during their free time using books and a little help from the Professor, for some extra points. After all, there was a reason that Hermione scored 112% on this exam during her first year.

Anyway, after taking out the book from a wooden storage rack over his bed, Ron sat on his desk before opening the somewhat dusty book.

"Charms is a branch of magic considered the most versatile and most widely used..." Ron began reading from the very first page with his complete concentration.

The book was a thick one, with each charm having a huge amount of explanations, delving into their history, detailing how and when they were invented, all the changes that had transpired since its creation, and even some of the famous accidents associated with people experimenting with the charm...

It was quite a dry read honestly, and if it was the usual redhead then he would have given up long ago, but Ron had the assistance of Sam's intense curiosity regarding all things magic this time to keep him going and so he held on... religiously going over every single piece of information no matter how mundane...

He was almost halfway through the book when his mother called him down for lunch.

By this time he had gotten completely immersed in the book so he was quite reluctant to stop but the call of his stomach was almost impossible to resist so he had to stop...

After placing a bookmark on his current page, Ron ran out of the room and down the stairs at his fastest speed.

On the dining table, his plate was already ready and waiting for him so he didn't wait a single moment before diving in.

He was halfway through his food when Ginny joined him at the table, but other than a simple 'good morning', to which she replied half-heartedly, he didn't stop.

Ginny, and his mother, were the only other ones at the table at the moment as the twins were still at the shop, and since the two women were already used to his eating habits they didn't question his haste in shovelling food.

And so it was in record time that he managed to finish his food and get back inside his room.

Without wasting a single moment, he immediately jumped back into the wonderful world of beginner charms.

But sadly his happiness didn't last very long, as after his his stomach, the next organ to become an obstacle to his desire to study was his brain...

'Having a filling lunch wasn't such a good idea after all...' Ron thought as his eyes began to feel unusually heavy.

He tried to resist it for as long as he could but in the end, sleep always wins... and then without his consent, the book fell from his hands and Ron unwillingly fell into a deep sleep.

...

..

.

He didn't know how long had passed but the next time he opened his eyes, Ron felt completely refreshed, he felt better than he ever had.

He felt like a completely different person, in fact, he felt that all the aches in his body from pushing it so hard in the morning had completely disappeared which was... unimaginable.

He stood up from his bed with a confused look on his face as he immediately felt a noticeable difference, his body felt considerably lighter and his every movement felt smoother than before. And when his hand accidentally touched his stomach, he felt something that completely baffled him...

He hurriedly took off his T-shirt and went to stand in front of the small mirror hanging off the wall and what he saw stunned him, "How the hell..."

///

Chapter Text

"How... is this possible..." His eyes shot wide open, and with his jaws slacked, Ron just stood there for a whole minute like an idiot, so shocking was the image he saw in the mirror.

His body, which just a few hours ago was the epitome of unhealthy with little to no muscle and a whole lot of fat in the middle, now looked like...

Well, it now looked exactly like he had expected it to look like if he continued on with his workout routine for the whole summer, that is... he got the body one should get after two months of hard work in just a single workout of one hour.

The arms that were previously long and thin like pipes, had actual muscles on them now... they weren't much but still, they were now prominent enough that if flexed he could actually see his biceps.

His shoulders had also widened a little bit, and his chest had gotten a slight definition too, but the most drastic change was seen in his stomach...

His bulging protruding ugly belly had now been reduced by a complete 50%... FIFTY PERCENT!!!

Where before he couldn't even suck in his stomach even if he wanted to, now... well, now he was sure that if he just wore a loose t-shirt, then his gut wouldn't even be visible.

He felt like someone had taken all of the fat in his stomach and converted it into muscle before distributing it all across his body.

He went from looking like someone who's never touched grass in his life to looking like a healthy teenager who plays soccer every other day... It was such a drastic change, especially considering that it occurred in a matter of hours.

'And it came completely out of nowhere...' Ron mused while admiring his new body in the mirror, "No, wait, not out of nowhere!" he exclaimed as he suddenly remembered that he knew about one such cheat that was designed to do things just like this, "Status!"

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 16 (05/340)

MP: 258/258

Physique [Max.]: 6.5 + 0.5 (Pending) [11]

Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.6 + 0.3(Pending) [16]

Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]

Stat Points: 1

Skill Points: 1

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1...

"Ohh... so all this was because of these 0.4 points increase in physique..." Ron said with an enlightened look on his face, "It looks as if my body was just waiting for me to make an effort to digest those points, but still, all this for less than half a point..."

'It makes one wonder how I would look when I reach the physique of 7 or even 8 points...' Ron mused while putting his T-shirt back on, 'And it looks like I would need to buy some new clothes too when that happens..." he murmured while looking at the T-shirt that felt just a little more fit.

'Meh! But that's all for future Ron to worry about, because for now...' Ron's eyes gleamed with an excited look, 'It's time to check, if the hardware update was purely cosmetical or if it also translated into improved strength and endurance...'

While people were usually advised not to exercise twice a day, especially if they were beginners, it didn't matter much to Ron as he didn't feel any soreness anywhere in his body, in fact, he felt completely rejuvenated, as if his body didn't even remember breaking down this morning...

So he decided it was the perfect time for another training session and for him to compare his numbers to see how much he had improved from his morning workout.

More than a little excited now, Ron impatiently ran into the washroom to wash up his face and change out of his shorts.

When he came out, he happened to catch a glimpse of the clock and saw that it was 3:15 pm...

It was a little early for an evening workout, but it didn't really matter since he was on holiday and his personal gym was situated beside the river.

"Oh, Shit! I completely forgot about you,"

Just as Ron was getting ready to leave his room, his eyes fell upon the charms book carelessly spread on his bed, the same one that he had been so keen to complete before his nap.

For a few seconds, Ron just stood there scratching his head, hesitating on whether to complete the book before leaving but in the end, his curiosity about his current abilities won out, "I'll just finish you before sleeping..." he murmured before picking it up and placing it on his bedside table.

Finally, after wearing his sneakers, Ron set off from his room...

But not even two minutes later, he rushed back in, going straight towards his drawer before opening it to take out the item most precious to him, "Can't believe I forgot about you..." he apologized sheepishly while picking up his wand.

"I should break out of this bad habit..."

He had previously decided that he would do his magic practice in the evening for which a wand was essential, but even without that it, was dangerous for a wizard to go anywhere without his wand, and he didn't want to get it into a problematic situation in the future, only to find out that he forgot his wand at home like an idiot.

"It's decided, I'll always carry it with me from now on," he promised himself before placing the wand in his front pocket and then, once more ran out of the room.

Ginny was lazing around in her room and his mother was probably taking her afternoon nap so Ron was able to leave the house without anyone asking him any questions.

After stretching for a few minutes in the backyard, Ron took off running straight into the woods.

Moving between the trees, he was shocked at how different it felt compared to his run in the morning.

He was not only having no trouble breathing, but his legs were also not jarring with every single step making his movement smoother... and, he even felt that his reaction speed had improved just a little bit.

But the most astonishing thing was that he reached the river barely seven minutes later without getting winded in the slightest.

In fact, Ron sensed that he could go on for a whole lot longer, compared to this morning when he was kneeling on the ground heaving like an 80-year-old man, his stamina now was a world apart.

"Oh! This is going to be good..." he muttered with an enthusiastic grin on his face and then without waiting for anything he jumped into his workout.

And it indeed was quite good...

Just like in the morning, he did specific exercises targeting all his muscle groups, focusing on destroying them as much as he could, but the difference from his workout in the morning was the sheer volume... as he managed to do almost thrice as many reps as he could do in the morning.

For example, the push-ups... of which he could only do twelve in the morning, and now actually managed to do three sets of twelve, for a total of 36 reps before reaching failure... a very respectable amount for a beginner.

And for the pull-ups, he could now do a total of twelve reps divided into three sets... and while it may not seem like much in numbers, it was a massive improvement from his pathetic two-half pull-ups in the morning.

In fact, he was feeling so good, that he decided to add two more exercises to his regime, mostly focusing on complex movements involving his legs and his core muscles.

In the end, he worked out for almost an hour and a half... overdoing a little bit in his haste.

But even when he was lying there on the ground with his chest heaving up and down, and even though every single part of his body was screaming in protest, a smile hadn't left his face for even a second.

Unlike in the morning, this time he was feeling a good kind of pain, and instead of feeling miserable like he did after his first workout, he was feeling quite the rush at the moment.

And it seemed his recovery had gone up too as barely five minutes later, he was good to move... so after a short clean-up at the river, Ron slowly made his way back towards his house.

The calm walk through the woods surrounded by the sounds of birds chirping was quite soothing and worked like a healing balm to his sore muscles.

He didn't even realise the time as he suddenly came out of the woods, with the backside of his home right in front of him.

But instead of going in, Ron went around the burrow towards its front side, and then with the front door as his starting point he began walking towards the surrounding fence while counting his steps.

"One, Two, Three... Twenty, Twenty-one... Fifty-two, and that's it. So a total of fifty-two steps, huh? Hmm, let's round it down to fifty just to be on the safe side."

Nodding his head, Ron went around the burrow toward the back and this time he took the back door as his starting point and once again began counting his steps.

"One, Two...Fifteen, Sixteen... Twenty-six and Twenty-seven," he stopped as on the twenty-eighth step he entered the boundary where the wooded area behind his house began.

"This is quite good," he murmured with a pleased expression before he took ten more steps, where he reached a small open area between the trees.

While this place was not completely hidden from his house, it was still shaded enough by the tree branches that unless someone was purposefully looking at him with just the right angle, they wouldn't be able to see what he was doing.

He then looked around before picking a sharp rock from the forest floor, using which he began marking the trees in the area as a boundary to be used as a reference later on.

"Phew! And now for the real test." Ron said before taking his wand out from his pocket.

He knew from his memories that Ron had never tried to cast any underage magic, at least not outside his house.

This meant that even if for some reason his deduction turned out to be wrong, and the ministry was able to pick up on his magic, he would still not be in too much trouble and wouldn't get anything more than a warning and maybe get grounded by his parents at most.

So there was no need for him to worry too much...

After taking a deep breath, Ron lifted his wand, pointed it towards a small rock in front of him and then flicked it while incanting, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Almost immediately the rock rose up in the air following the direction of his wand. His heart sang at the feeling of being able to cast magic out here in the open and he wanted nothing more than to keep on going but he knew that it wasn't the time yet so he reluctantly cut off his magic and let the rock fall.

And then he just stood there... waiting.

A minute passed, then two minutes passed... and then five... but it was only when a whole ten minutes had passed without any owl sightings, did the tension in Ron's shoulder finally left him, "WoHoo!!" Ron exclaimed while jumping happily.

Then without waiting a single more moment, he let loose...

"Lumos!" "Stupefy!" "Accio!" "Protego!" "Petrificus Totalus!" "Expelliarmus!"

And he went on and on... with every single one of his cast being a success. He felt such a rush of adrenaline course through his body, at being able to cast his magic, that he wasn't able to contain himself...

It took a complete total of fifteen minutes before he came down from the high and by then his surroundings looked significantly different.

He also began to feel a little winded, and it only took a single glance at his status screen to find out the reason why...

MP: 30/258

While the spells themselves had been the magic-heavy kind, little by little they had added up and in the end, he was now down to almost one-tenth of his magic.

But it wasn't too much of a problem as he found out, much to his delight, that his magic recovery was quite exceptional.

In fact, when he calculated it roughly, he saw a single-point increase in his Magic Power every three seconds, which meant that it was just a matter of a little more than ten minutes for him to recover his magic completely.

"Uff! Still, that was quite fun..." Ron said with a satisfied grin before he shook his head and stood up straight.

"Alright! It's time to get serious now... so which one should I go for first," he mused while opening the drop-down menu for his skills.

[Charms Lv 5 (15%)]

1. Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (85%)

2. Lumos Lv 5 (78%)

3. Expelliarmus Lv 6 (90%)

4. Alohomora Lv 4 (88%)

5. Stupefy Lv 6 (25%)

6. Protego Lv 6 (35%)

7. Accio Lv 4 (40%)

8. Spongify Lv 1 (20%)

...

..

One interesting discovery he had made while reading the first-year charm book was that even just consuming theory about a spell increased its proficiency.

Not only that it seems that even if he had never cast a particular type of magic before, for example, the softening charm—Spongify, as long as he had read about its casting method and all the details regarding its function, he could still get the level one of that skill, which was just fantastic and he knew for sure that it would come incredibly handy in the future, 'For now, let's start with you...'

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (85%)

There were two reasons he chose this one to start practising in.

The first one, was simply because this spell was on those very close to levelling up, and the second reason was that this spell was the kind that could become insanely useful in a fight if he could bring its level high enough...

"Now, Let's begin! Wingardium Leviosa!"

He began by casting the Levitation charm on a normal rock and then just simply began floating it up and down, but even after keeping that up for almost five minutes there was no progress in the proficiency percentage of the skill, so he decided to spice things up.

He began by trying all the variations in which he could use the levitation charm.

From trying to lift different materials, to lifting them to different heights, and then he tried moving them faster, moving them slower, he tried sending them up, down, left, right and in all kinds of complicated patterns.

He tried every single method that his brain could conjure up, no matter how stupid it seemed, and in the end... it actually worked quite well.

Almost half of the exercises he tried gave him some proficiency points, but the difference was how long it took for him to earn those points.

Some took twenty minutes to earn just three points while others gave him a point for every minute of that particular exercise.

But the most efficient exercise turned out to be the simplest and the hardest one. It gave him three points in proficiency for every minute that he could handle it.

The exercise was simply... heavy lifting, that is, by lifting the heaviest weight that he could manage with the Leviosa spell and then holding it for as long as he could at an appropriate height. In this way, he was able to train the floating charm at the fastest speed.

And it wasn't easy work, by any means...

Every single second of it was spent like hell, he felt as if he was lifting a hundred kg barbell with just one hand, making it a battle of mental will.

Every step of the way he had to grit his teeth and spend all his concentration just to hold on. He held on to his wrist with his left hand as his wand kept shaking due to the strain from maintaining his grip, and while he knew that it was probably all imaginary and that his wand wasn't actually that heavy... knowing it didn't help him much.

And even after all that, most times he wasn't even able to hold on for a little more than a minute...

In addition, he had to spend a few minutes recovering his mental strength and physical strength after each session of this exercise otherwise his results would degrade and he wouldn't even be able to last ten seconds.

But while it was an excruciating exercise, in the end, it was worth it as the rewards were just as sweet.

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (93%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (94%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (95%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (96%)

...

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 5 (100%)—> Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (01%)

Seeing his proficiency rise as if it were on steroids put a massive grin on his face and made him forget all his pain.

When he levelled up the skill, he noticed that it became a little bit smoother to cast the magic and even the massive rock he was lifting became somewhat lighter for him to lift, not giving him as much strain as before.

But he wasn't satisfied with just this level up. He was already quite close to the next level even before he began the exercise, so it didn't feel that sweet.

So he decided that he wouldn't stop today until he reached the next level.

Seeing that the weight wasn't enough, he just decided to add more heavy rocks lying nearby on top of the previous one to increase the weight, and then he just kept on adding them until they were enough to give him a hard time.

The increased concentration required to juggle the rocks to keep them from falling was just an added bonus.

And that's how he spent his time...

He would spend two minutes or so straining himself with as much weight as he could and when he was at his limit, he would stop and take a few minutes break to recover before repeating it again... and again.

After every few rotations of these exercises, he would have to take a longer break to have his magic power recover but still all in all he was making good progress as his skill was slowly but surely improving with every single minute. He also had to add progressively more rocks to feel the strain...

So much so that towards the end...he was lifting almost 250 kg of rocks, which was a lot...

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (25%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (26%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (27%)

...

And little by little he was reaching towards his goal...

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (85%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (86%)

...

And in the end, just as he had fallen onto his knees and was almost on the point of reaching his limit for the hundredth time that day, with his magic, mind and body completely spent, the result that he had been waiting for finally arrived

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (99%)

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 6 (100%)—>Wingardium Leviosa Lv 7 (01%)

"Hooh! Finally!" Ron breathed out with a wide grin as he fell on his back, letting the big tower of rocks tumble to the ground with a loud thud. "Haha!! I can't believe reached Level 7 in just a single day. It's now the highest level of almost all my skills so it's gotta have some amazing effect to it, shouldn't it?" he thought with a gleam of anticipation in his eyes.

And then after a short five-minute break, he was ready, not to go back to his exercise as he felt that he was done for the day, having already stretched his mind to the limit again and again he was now exhausted enough that only sleep could help him recover, but still, he was good enough to use a few rounds of spells.

"Now let's see, what you can do Leven 7 charm..."

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

...

..

"Hmm, That's weird... is there no change," Ron murmured with a frown of confusion on his face, "Ugh! This shitty system, not even giving me a proper explanation..."

But he didn't whine for too long and instead, he began repeatedly casting the spell, trying different ways to use the spell each time, to see if anything was different...

"Wingardium Leviosa!""Wingardium Leviosa!""Wingardium Leviosa!"

And he found out that the spell had indeed improved...

He could now lift almost twice as much weight, i.e almost 500 kg, and the speed at which he could manoeuvre an object had also doubled, and the spell also felt a little smoother making it easy for things to follow complex paths and his command over the object had also improved as the rock he was levitating followed his will almost instantly.

Oh, and most importantly, he could now float two objects at once now...

"But still, is that it..."

It was all well good but Ron had expected something better, something more... and so he kept trying and trying...

"Wingardium Leviosa!""Wingardium Leviosa!""Wingar—" He was so immersed in his casting that he didn't even notice which object in his surroundings he was casting the spell on and during this spell marathon of his, he stumbled upon something amazing, "Wait! Why is it already up in the air? I didn't even... complete the spell..."

Ron's eyes widened comically when he noticed that even without fully completing the incantation, the rock he was pointing at was already up... floating off the ground.

'Wait! Was that it!' Ron exclaimed inwardly, and then too excited at the unexpected reward he had stumbled upon he didn't wait and immediately tried it once again.

'Wingardium Leviosa!'

He cast the levitation for the hundredth time that day, but this time without uttering a single syllable out of his mouth.

For a second, nothing happened and he became a little lost wondering if it had been a fluke before.

But then slowly... ever so slowly the rock he was casting the charm on began rising into the air.

Ron's eyes widened as his heart began to beat rapidly in his elation but this burst of excitement broke his concentration and the rock fell to the floor, but he didn't care and just whooped in excitement, "Haha! This is even better than I expected. I can now cast silently! I am an elite wizard now!"

'Wingardium Leviosa!'

He tried it again and... again, on all kinds of objects from small to big and while in the beginning, the floating objects were a little wobbly and his concentration broke frequently.

But with each cast, he got a little better and began to be able to hold the silent cast for a longer duration.

And all this practice even got him some sweet proficiency points...

Wingardium Leviosa Lv 7 (03%)

However, it seems that proficiency points are coming a little slower now.

Regardless it was time to end his practice for the day as without him noticing the sun was now almost down to the horizon, and he knew that he needed to go back immediately or his mother would come looking, and he didn't want that.

'But all in all, this was a very fruitful day,' Ron had quite a wide smile on his face as he went back home.

However, what Ron didn't know was that this level-up wasn't the only surprise waiting for him that day... because before the day was over he would get one more reward, a reward that was going to lay the foundation for all his achievements in the future.

///