Ron I

Tirdas, 19th of Last Seed

Ron wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten into the situation he was in, but he couldn't exactly complain. He and Neville had woken up in the middle of a forest, completely lost and with nothing but the rags on their backs. The two had wandered aimlessly for well over a day before they found themselves across a canyon from a settlement.

After crossing the bridge to get there, a town they later learned was named Dragon Bridge, they had ended up being sent to the Four Shields Tavern. Faida, the innkeeper, had been generous enough to allow them to stay at the Tavern for a bit, as long as they would pay her back later.

After that, they had scrambled around to try and find a job to pay for their stay. Neville happened to get lucky, as the local mill was in desperate need of an extra pair of hands. While he didn't know the whole story, apparently the owner's wife and brother happened to have run from the town to who knows where, and now the owner needed someone to work on the lumber mill while he sulked. That's what he understood, anyway.

It apparently paid five Septims (what the small gold coins were called) per tree sawed, and two per log chopped. So Neville would be able to pay for his own stay and Ron's, if it weren't for one problem.

They had nothing.

They needed to pay for food every day, which already knocked them down, but with needing new clothes and anything else they may need to buy, they were trampled underfoot as well.

Honestly, with years of experience being Harry's friend, he had expected it to be worse.

Right now, Ron had been walking around the town for most of the day, searching for some way to get money. It was harder than he had actually expected, especially since the entire town was completely muggle.

He wasn't used to not being able to use magic to do things, or even seeing people do things without magic. Wizards seemed to do everything from fighting to working to even simply throwing away trash with magic, and until now Ron hadn't actually been able to appreciate magic as much as he should have. Though, he had to admit, he had gained a new amazement for how much muggles got done without magic.

He had asked everyone if there was something he could do as a job, or even just some menial task that they might pay him for. Everyone rejected, whether because of his lack of experience or otherwise, he couldn't get any work. Not even the sulking lumber mill owner would give him a job.

Ron sat next to Neville in the tavern, eating less than he ever had at Hogwarts or home for dinner. Neville was sitting besides him at their table, telling him about his work. He apparently had to go out into the forest to cut down trees for the mill. It was more dangerous than it seemed, Neville had said.

"It's not just as straight forward as go out into the woods and cut down a tree. Hell, that's not even as simple as it sounds. But while I'm out there, I have to be prepared to be attacked by anything. Wolves, for the most part. I've only seen two so far, though." He shuddered, "first time I killed one, I probably would've been sick, if not for the other wolf attacking me. Apparently, there might occasionally be something called a frostbite spider, which are like arcomantula, but with the ability to spit venom across long distances." Neville smirked a bit a Ron's horror stricken face before continuing, "There is also a chance of running into some weird people called 'the Foresworn', and even the rare chance of running into a vampire!"

"A vampire?!" Ron gaped at him incredulously.

"Yeah, but they're rare around here. Apparently they are more common in some place called 'Hjaalmarch' to the East."

Ron leaned back as he tried to take that in. Actual vampires. He hadn't expected that kind of danger. Suddenly he was a lot more grateful they had managed to get to Dragon Bridge safely.

"Varnius!" He heard Fadia yell from the counter. "What news do you have from Solitude?"

A man walked up to the counter, sighing, "Not good, I'm afraid. At most, all we'll get are a couple extra soldiers. At worst, nothing."

"Damn," Fadia sighed, "Well, you went all that way, so we may as well get you something. Here, let me get you a bottle of spiced wine, on the house."

Ron looked at Neville and said, "I'm going to go see what they're talking about."

He got up and walked over to the bar and sat down before asking, "So, what was that?"

She turned to Ron and sighed, "We've been having trouble, recently. Lots of locals have heard strange sounds coming from Wolfskull cave up north of the town. We've been trying to get the capital to send someone down to check up on it, but so far, no luck."

Ron thought for a moment. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to go check out a cave. The muggles were probably just overreacting. Probably.

"How about this," Ron said slowly, "I'll go check it out, and in return, I get to stay here free for a week."

He had thought that was a little much, so he was surprised when she seemed to look relieved and say, "If you find out what's wrong, I'll let you stay free of charge for the next year!"

His eyes widened in surprise, before he grinned and said, "You've got yourself a deal!"

Really, how bad could it be?

Ron grunted as he trudged through the snow. He was carrying a pack filled with enough provisions to last him three days (if he didn't eat how he normally would, that is), and a steel mace in his hands. Neville had given it to him, saying that even though he had no actual training, he needed a weapon and a mace was just a glorified beaters bat.

He grimaced as he trudged further. If the map he had was correct, he would be there soon. It apparently took a full day to get there, what with it out in the mountains.

He collapsed on a stone outcropping on the side of the road. Groaning, he pulled a half loaf of bread out of his pack. As he chewed on the half frozen morsel, he began to wonder if this was such a good idea. Even if he turned back now, he could probably just tell them he found nothing and leave it at that.

Crap.

He stared at his hand, now devoid of any food. He stared at it for a few seconds in shock, before he jumped up and grabbed his mace.

"Who's there?" He yelled out, spinning wildly.

All that he got in return was a creaking noise.

Suddenly, a skeleton burst out from the trees behind him. It wielded an ancient looking sword, and before he realized what he was doing, he swung his mace, splintering the upper part of the skeleton to pieces. Its legs stood there for a moment, before collapsing into a pile of bones.

Ron stood there for a moment, trying to calm his breathing. He lowered his mace, before muttering, "Bloody Hell was that?"

He probably would have stood there longer, trying to figure out if he had actually just fought a skeleton, if his nose didn't suddenly get a shallow cut in it.

Eyes widening, he spun around, seeing another skeleton standing a bit away, already reloading an arrow into its ancient bow.

Not giving it a second thought, he charged the undead, bringing the mace up with a yell and slamming it down on the skeleton's head, crushing it all the way down to its collarbone. He tensed a moment, before sighing in relief as it fell apart like its predecessor.

Ron looked around, trying to make sure there were no more skeletons waiting to ambush him. Instead, he found a barely visible path on the ground, with a small outcropping of stone next to it, a decorated wolf's skull sitting on top of it.

Blinking, he shook his head. There was no way it could be that easy. Still, he dug around in his pack for a bit before pulling out the instructions he had been given for finding the cave

Looking down at them confirmed it; that was the marker for the cave.

Deciding not to question his good luck, he picked up his pack and walked down the path.

Ron grunted as he held his mace up, blocking the zombie (because what else could it be?)'s sword. He had walked down the tunnel from the surface of the cave for about fifteen minutes so far, and had ended up coming across the zombie when it nearly cut off his head.

Scowling, he shoved the sword away from him, before stumbling backward, grimacing at his sore arms. Shaking it off (because he really couldn't focus on that now), he brought his glorified club behind him and swung it forward, shattering the zombie's sword. Grinning in triumph, he swung the mace again, preparing to break the zombie like its skeleton brethren, he nearly groaned when it caught his mace on its shield.

It shoved him back, before stiffly walking forward. Or, it would have, if its arm hadn't fallen off.

Ron stared at the arm on the ground for a moment, because really, and just barely stumbled back quickly enough to avoid the other arm trying to grab him.

Regaining his bearings, he tensed before swinging the mace once more with a grunt, hitting its middle and causing it to break in half.

Grinning tiredly, he collapsed on the ground, taking in deep gulps of air.

He sat there for a moment, just staring at the broken form of the zombie. He had come, and found out there were zombies. Technically he didn't even have to go any farther. He could just turn around and tell the town that there were zombies down here and let the professionals deal with it.

But…

But, he couldn't. All his life he had been shoved behind as the sidekick, never getting to actually be the hero, and never being able to say he had really tried. Up until fifth year, he had never actually done anything productive.

Sure he won them the chess match in first year, but he never even made it to the end. He was blocked off with Lockheart in his second year from saving his sister, and in third year he was stuck in the hospital wing. And the less said about the Triwizard the better.

The point is he was never the hero, and for once he wanted to be the one to vanquish evil and save the day.

Ron looked at the zombie's (corpse?) and felt his resolve harden. Walking over to it he picked up the shield from its dismembered arm and strapped it to his own. Turning back toward the tunnel he continued on.

Crouched behind some moss hanging from the cave Ron watched two robed people preforming some sort of ritual to a body on the ground. He watched with morbid fascination as they chanted, before his eyes widened when he saw purple lights spend from their hands, being absorbed into the body.

Then he saw the body rise, stumbling around like it was drunk. Really, there was only one thing to say in this situation.

"Bloody Hell."

Both necromancers turned towards him, and before he could react lightning arced from one of them. Ron's eyes widened as he jumped away just in time to avoid the blast. He noticed a flash of purple-blue light out of the corner of his eye and nearly groaned when he realized he would have to fight another zombie.

Quickly running forward, as he figured his best option was to charge them, if he had been any faster he would have probably run straight into the wall of ice.

Looking up, he realized what the purple flash was.

"That's not a zombie," he muttered blankly, staring up at the ice giant in front of him

He quickly had to shake himself out of his staring, and stumbled to the side just in time to dodge the giant's ice arm(?).

Running around the thing, he came face to face with the necromancers. Before he could realize what he was doing, he swung his mace at them, taking off the head of the one to the right (as it seemed neither had expected him to go around the ice giant).

Ron froze for a moment, staring at the bloody stump of what was once a human head. He snapped out of it a second later when he heard what sounded like an explosion behind him, causing him to jump to the side, thinking he was about to get crushed.

While no icicle arm came down to crush him, he did dodge a lightning bolt from the remaining woman, who let out an enraged shriek.

Risking a glance back as he ran in zigzags trying to dodge her lightning, he couldn't seem to find the ice giant anywhere. That meant it was either much more stealthy than he gave it credit for, or he now knew what that explosion was. (He hoped it was the later.)

He quickly turned back, not wanting the necromancer to figure out what he was doing. He had been spending the last couple of minutes dodging the lightning bolts in random patterns. He had managed to get her to blast her own skeleton apart, and was gradually getting closer to her.

Grimacing as he practically felt the last bolt, he was caught off guard when he saw the woman pull out a dagger and charge him.

Confused on what she was doing (as she had been getting closer to hitting him), he barely managed to pull the shield up fast enough to block a slash to his throat. Shoving the shield, he managed to push her back. As she stumbled, he swung his arm around the shield, slamming into the side of her ribcage with a sickening crunch.

Shuddering as he watched her fall, he dry heaved, just barely stopping himself from losing his lunch. He looked down at the body of the necromancer and choked, seeing the amount of blood pooling around her body.

Taking a couple deep breathes, he slowly sat down. He dropped his mace, his knuckles white from how tight he was holding it. He nearly groaned in relief as he rubbed his arm. It burned something fierce, and now that the adrenaline was fading, he could barely hold it up.

Sitting down in the cave, surrounded by mutilated dead bodies, he decided he could take a break.

Ron crouched on top of a stone outcropping. He had made his way through more of the cave before eventually coming upon the massive room he was in now. It was what looked like a ruined tower, half buried in the ground, with purple lights swirling around. He could hear people chanting in the distance, calling upon spirit named Potema.

He held his breath as he slowly maneuvered himself above the necromancer below him. Standing a couple feet away from the necromancer was another zombie. The two were blocking his path, and if he wanted to get to the summoners, he needed to take care of these two.

Quietly taking a deep breath, he pushed off of the ledge and dropped, bringing his mace down on the necromancer's head before he could react. Grimacing at the mess under him, he quickly brought his mace around in the direction of the zombie, getting a lucky hit and managing to slam the axe out of its hand, ripping off the hand in the process.

Backpedaling away from the walking corpse, he held the shield in front of himself, watching warily as the zombie charged him, now disarmed. He suddenly stopped, swinging his mace and crushing the chest cavity of the zombie.

He let out a small breath and continued forward.

He tried staying low to the ground, not wanting the people to know he was there. He wasn't entirely sure he'd survive an encounter with one of them if they were ready. Not only could they do magic- wandless magic- when he couldn't, but they could also summon anyone he killed to fight for them again.

He crouched, leaning around a stone pillar. He had made it to the first staircase of the main tower, and there were two people up at the top.

He took a calming breath, before silently charging them. There was no way he would be able to make it to the top without getting noticed, so he decided to take the direct approach.

The necromancer spun around when he heard Ron getting closer. His hand lit on fire and blasted it at him. Quickly stopping and nearly losing his balance on the stairs, he pulled his shield up, blocking most of the blast and nearly falling over from the force.

Another two fireballs hit him before he risked a glance over his shield, just in time to see the zombie in front of him, its battle axe raised to drop on his shield.

Ron jumped to the side, just barely managing to avoid getting sliced in half by the undead. He quickly turned and ran down the stairs, deciding that fighting where he was was a very bad idea.

He tripped just as he go to the bottom, a fireball flying over his head as he fell. Rolling onto his back, his eyes widened as he just barely managed to pull his shield up in time to block the axe. He hissed in pain as he felt the blade cut through the shield, cutting an inch into his arm.

Blindly, Ron swung his mace up at it. While the first swing missed, the second collided with the axe still in his arm, making a large cracking sound as the ancient stone shattered under the force of a relatively average sixteen year old.

He sighed in relief before scrambling backwards, gasping as he pulled the blade out of his arm. He looked back up at it, and his eyes widened as the zombie brought what remained of the handle of its axe down on him. He barely managed to twist his body out of the way before he would have been impaled.

Jumping to his feet, he spun, his bloody steel club slamming into the side of the zombie, crushing part of its torso. He quickly back pedaled away from the creature, surprised that it survived the blow, considering how weak the others were. Suddenly, his instincts flared up, causing him to stumble to the side, just barely managing to dodge a fireball. He had forgotten about him.

The zombie charged him, the splintered stone in its hand raised high. Ron pulled up his shield to block it, gritting his teeth against its unnatural strength. His eyes widened when it grabbed the shield with its free hand, pulling it to side. He circled around the zombie, trying to keep the shield between them. Suddenly, his instincts flared again, causing him to duck down just in time to dodge a fireball to the back.

Have been dodged, the fireball slammed into the zombie's head, exploding on contact and singing Ron's hair. As the headless, charred corpse of the undead fell, he turned around to finish off the necromancer, who looked to be severely regretting his mistake if the swears Ron could hear were any indication.

He slowly walked up the stairs, holding his shield in front of him to block the fireballs. He looked through the new crack in his shield to keep an eye on the necromancer. He swore in pain as the first fireball hit, seeping through the cracks and burning his wound. He pushed through the pain, slowly moving forward. He probably would have continued that until he reached him, if something hadn't happened.

"Yes, yes! Return me to this realm!" a woman yelled, her voice echoing throughout the cave.

The necromancer twisted to look at the tower, and Ron, getting over his surprise, took his chance.

"As our voices summon you the blood of the innocent binds you Wolf Queen!" a different, 'older' woman chanted.

Charging up the stairs, he let out a war cry as he brought his mace around to kill the necromancer. The man only had a second to turn in fear before his brains were splattered against the ground.

"Summoned with words. Bound by blood" was chanted repeatedly through the air.

Ron shuddered, gasping for breath.

"What? What are you doing, you fools! You cannot bind me to your wills!"

He grimaced as the voice echoed in his head, before centering himself and running forward. He had managed to make it around the tower and halfway up the stairs when the woman roared again.

"You ants don't have the power to bind me!"

He pushed himself harder, bursting up the stairs and onto the roof of the tower. Several robed people stood in a circle surrounding a large stone, a mass of purple energy floating above it

Some of the necromancers turned to look at him, but before any of them could react, the voice of the summoned spirit yelled again.

"Fools! You ants cannot bind me! Now, die!"

Suddenly a streak of purple light burst from the mass of purple and slammed into the massive stone between them all, causing it to glow for a moment before exploding. The blast fried the bodies of all the necromancers, throwing them off the tower as well. Since he was far enough away, Ron was only hit by the shockwave of the blast, causing him to fly back and crash into one of the pillars behind him.

He coughed up blood, choking slightly as it poured from his mouth. Groaning, he lifted his head to stare blankly at the dais, the purple mass of energy already dissipating, floating up through the top of the cave. His body hurt all over, his cauterized wound the worst, and he couldn't help but wondering, "Why, exactly, did I want to be the hero again?"

So, yeah. Update.

Now, I will say this now, I plan for this to be a pretty long story. Romance won't be a big thing in this story. Maybe if I actually finish it and make a sequel I'll add romance, but for now, it's a moot point.

Also, as you can see, don't expect quick updates. It took me about six months to get this out. I might have another chapter of this half done right now, but don't expect it for a while. (I have a horrible concept of time).

Thank you to all of you who have reviewed, followed ad favorited this story.