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Ch 15 How'd you do it? Part 1
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 16:25:14 +0000 UTCAs 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.
