Chapter 5: Rom

"'Mione?" Ron asked sleepily from his bunk as she swallowed down her next scream into whimpering.

Harry was already climbing down to go to her, "Hermione?"

Ron stayed where he was, knowing she was still skittish from the Manor. Her eyes were huge and dark, her arms clutching at Crookshanks. Harry perched tentatively next to her, "It's ok, you're safe."

Ron sat himself up, rubbing sleep from his eyes, glancing over at the instructions on Bill's stupid moon poster. "Bill said everyone's been telling you what happened when Mum went mental. I bet they've all been telling you I couldn't read."

She nodded, flinching slightly as Harry tried to get some of her hair out of her face. "Harry, it says she can have firewhiskey or vodka to help her sleep if she won't take a potion. Hermione, I absolutely could read already."

"Why then?" Her voice was tight and tense.

Ron shrugged, feeling embarrassed, but if it helped her, it helped her and that was the goal. Besides, he didn't want her thinking he was an idiot. "Reading lessons were the only alone time I got with just Mum." He shrugged, "It was all about Bill and Charlie when they were home, so the twins, Percy and I were pretty much ignored."

"Ginny?" Harry asked.

"No, Mum kept Ginny close because she was so little and everyone kept getting annoyed with her pestering them. Mum was also really busy that summer sewing new clothes for Bill because he'd starting growing like a weed and making dresses for Ginny." He shrugged, "You probably saw me in some of what she made that summer, I ended up with most of Bill's stuff after it went through Percy."

Harry commiserated, "Better than Dudley's old clothes."

Hermione took a sip of the firewhiskey and glanced towards the door and Ron knew she was hoping Bill would come back soon. Ron went on, "So I could read and all, but it was nice just having all of Mum's attention. She was really big on educating us, barely ever got cross with us during lessons. I think she yelled at Bill and Charlie for throwing the quaffle in the house more than she scolded me. Anyway, Mum bound me with Percy when she went mental."

She gave a small smile at the face he made. "Perce was for the most part alright when we were young, except when you bothered him, which was real easy to do. When Bill got made a Prefect a few days before Mum went off the deep end, Percy loved the idea of getting to enforce rules and started acting really pompous and putting rules up in our room." He rolled his eyes. "Wanted to wear Bill's badge around, it was so stupid, but he kept playing prefect. Charlie constantly took the piss out of him for it, which only made it worse because he would try and dock points from Charlie. The twins retaliated heavily, on Percy's behalf, a few years later when Charlie unexpectedly got made Prefect and was completely embarrassed by it."

Hermione gave a small smile and Ron shook his head and laughed, "McGonagall later said they'd done it in hopes that Bill would keep him in line as Head Boy, didn't work."

"They teased Percy so much about it though." Harry said.

Ron shrugged, "Sibling alliances changed and Percy had been being a prat to them at school. I'd forgotten Percy got so into playing Prefect during those days that he'd made a fake containers with different colored marbles and everything. Bill and Fred got to be Ravenclaws, Charlie and George were deemed Slytherins, Ginny and Mum were Hufflepuffs and he and I got to be Gryffindors. He got so mad at Fred when he caught Fred messing with his marble counts and Fred got mad at Bill for being a bad lookout, then Percy got mad at Bill too for messing with his stuff because he'd been flipping through Percy's idea book and Percy went and tattled to Mum."

"Did Bill get in trouble?" Hermione took another sip of the firewhiskey, settling Crookshanks in her lap and starting to pet him more normally over clutching at him. She gave Ron a tentative smile.

"Not as much as he would have, Percy was outraged when Mum asked if there were any good ideas and told Bill to help him with them. Perce had been hoping Bill would get stuck with bathroom cleaning duty. Anyway, I've got Percy wanting to practice tutoring on me because Bill tutored other kids at school. Bill and Fred weren't cooperating though, Bill refused to sit around and watch Percy try and teach me to read to give him tutoring tips and Fred was very wholly on his side." Ron sighed before smiling, "Percy was a complete bundle of nerves because he'd convinced himself he was going to get his Hogwarts letter early because he'd been studying already. We woke up at midnight on his birthday to start looking for the owl. Charlie's best friend got to go to Hogwarts early, so Percy was so convinced he'd get to."

"Did they tease him?" Hermione asked sounding slightly more normal, rubbing her eyes at Harry's miserable look. "Ginny told me about it, Harry. Ralph should have started school already, but his parents freaked out and thought a cult was after them so they moved to England."

Ron shook his head, "Yars, huge part of why Percy hates him. My brothers may push the limit, but they're not cruel about stuff like that and it was a really big deal to Perce. When the owl hadn't come by the time breakfast had finished Fred even suggested it got lost and Bill and Charlie went on about how the owl bringing Bill's letter got caught in a storm and hit a tree so he didn't get it until like 2 am." He paused, "Ok, maybe Charlie was a little cruel to Bill there, just kept taking the mickey out of him. Bill seems to find his freakout and subsequent attempt to run away to start his squib life extremely funny in hindsight."

"What?" She asked, completely startled.

"I'm too young to remember it, but when Bill didn't get his Hogwarts letter by the end of his 11th birthday he packed a backpack, wrote goodbye letters to everyone and stole the Ford. A new owl caught him, think he still has both letters, one's addressed to him in the Ford." Ron couldn't stop from smiling at the incredulous look on Hermione's face.

"Mine was always addressed to wherever I was." Harry said thoughtfully also looking rather shocked that the put together Bill Weasley who they all viewed as an adult had at one point been an insecure kid having a breakdown about not being magical.

"So of course Percy didn't get a letter and was completely bummed, actually threw a book across the room when Mum gently told him it wasn't going to happen and that he had to wait until he was eleven." Ron tried to remember, "He was in a foul mood, nicked Mum's wand and I'm not entirely sure what he did to me when I was pretending not to be able to read. Knocked me out for sure, but I woke up knowing Latin."

"You don't know Latin." There was a familiar scoff in her words, even if her hands shook on the bottle.

Ron's hackles rose a bit, "Yes, I do. Never asked you for help in knowing what a spell's supposed to do off its incantation, have I? Just how to do it."

She closed her mouth and focused on scratching Crookshanks, looking to the door again. Ron caught Harry's eyes and Harry shook his head, Ron took a deep breath, letting the urge to bicker go. "Well, we had cake and Perce opened his presents. I gave him a chocolate frog card he wanted, Ginny had gotten ahold of scissors and cut off a lock of her hair because of some muggle story Bill had told us about knights and tokens. The twins gave him jax, which looking back they probably won off muggle kids. Bill and Charlie gave him real gifts, like school books or something."

"Better than my birthdays." Harry said, moving to sit on the floor.

Ron grinned at him, "Mum was so mental and disconnected from reality she told Bill he should teach Percy to drive the Ford. I mean Bill and Charlie talked about flooing Muriel to intervene because Mum just had completely given up on rules and they thought she might be broken. Except then they thought they could convince Mum that they should have a motorcycle." Ron shook his head, "Thing is, the car was still a little spotty and Bill wasn't the most careful driver himself. She should have asked Charlie."

"What happened?" Hermione asked softly, her eyes starting to droop.

"Well, we all piled in, except Ginny and Mum. Perce got us airborne and was doing ok, then Bill started trying to explain the clutch and Percy was listening so intently he didn't swerve, Charlie and Bill both tried to grab the wheel, but were too late and we crashed into the roof of the house." Ron laughed, "We were all screaming like mad and Bill was cursing at all of us to shut up and calm down. Mum had to levitate us out of the car one by one and it stayed stuck up there until Dad got home. Pretty sure she purposely dropped the charm after she had Fred on the ground to punish Bill for his language, because he just dropped the six feet and landed on his face and she didn't apologize or check on him. If you think of the Burrow you can see the different wood where we crashed, it's below where my bedroom is now, they added another story when they rebuilt Percy and my room. Dad was pissed because they'd just added the story for Percy and I to have a room because neither of us wanted to share with the twins. I had to go back to the nursery with Ginny and Percy went back to Bill and Charlie's room."

"Percy crashed a car?" Hermione sounded it out, curling back into her pillow, letting Harry fuss her blanket.

"Yeah, there's a photo of him with it." Ron said easily enough, "George thinks it's Percy's coolest moment and constantly tried to get him to use it to pick up girls." He yawned, "George and Charlie still don't know Percy and I were letting Ginny's gnomes into the house and helping them hide."

"They attacked Charlie." Hermione said sleepily.

"Charlie deserved it, he was at that awful moody stage and being a prat to everyone. Nobody liked it when somebody made Ginny cry so we allied with her and the gnomes."

She didn't respond, eyes fully shut and Crookshanks settled down with her, letting them know she was fine. Ron snuggled back into his bunk, thinking if she woke up he'd tell her how he flew broomless.

Fin. Other upcoming this weekend in preparation for the final epilogue of ST and take down: Brotherly Love (with a new chapter), possibly another outtake of Dean and Cho's cut story if anyone wants to read that.