Broken ties: Ronald M. Weasleys

  E2-E4 — this is more likely: he could have been accidentally possessed by the spirit of a powerful dark magician who wants to drive him crazy and take over his body. Or having fun in the afterlife, torturing the living — it's strange, but why not. Restless spirits sometimes go crazy, especially if they weren't friends with their heads during their lifetime. Was he possessed by such a madman? Ron remembers all the long, thin paws in his chest and winces involuntarily. But there is a third option, F1-H3, which is precisely his memory. About his past life, in which he himself was a dark magician.

  Bill and Charlie said that when they were kids, they were scared of Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his servants. "If you behave badly, You-Know-Who will come and take you to the Death Eaters!" Percy did not confide in Ron, believing that such information would damage his authority as an impeccable older brother, but surely he was told something like that too. Maybe that's why he grew up so proper and obedient. But when the twins grew up, the One Who had already disappeared, and the other monsters did not frighten them much and for a short time. When they were five years old, they were not afraid to climb into the attic of the Drone, however, they got nuts both from their parents and from Gul itself. He kept grumbling about "little brats who don't understand that if someone calls themselves a Gul, then this someone won't be happy to uninvited guests."

  And he, Ron, was in a previous life... The death eater. Death. Not in the sense of "the servant of the One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Called," but in the most direct way possible. Merlin, cooking half-baked infernals in soup is something you should have thought of!!! Yes, even the servants of That One, the darkest of the dark ones were, and they would have been disgusted. And this Marietta, at least that. If the servant didn't work out, there would be dinner, it was rotten, of course, but after preserving the potion and unsuccessful sorcery, it would be suitable for cooking. Just a little more onion to beat off the taste. It was for Marietta and others... well, how to cook oatmeal: for three cups of milk, one cup of cereals, salt and sugar to taste, and there's nothing to talk about. Ron remembers her hands, so habitually pouring out a terrible concoction, her light brown eyes, almost yellow like a vulture's in the firelight, and he starts to feel sick again.

  He had imagined dark magicians differently before. I thought they were dark because they liked to torture and kill people. For example, they apply a Crucio and laugh, looking at how a person writhes in pain, there were such rumors about Bellatrix Lestrange. But for a human, even a dead one, and like oatmeal?

  I still can't wrap my head around it. And you won't understand what is better and what really is. And what happened to him anyway. G2-G3-G4, ugh, these are not moves anymore, but Mordred knows what. Ron runs his palm over the board, brushing away imaginary pieces. Once again, and from the beginning...

  "Can I borrow your frog album?"

  Ginny. Well, she's always inopportune. She got in with her frogs, and he, by the way, solves important issues, one might say, of life and death... literally, hehe... Wait a minute, why does he have such a desire to make puns on this topic, and even for no reason?! Ginny. Well, she's always inopportune. She got in with her frogs, and he, by the way, solves important issues, one might say, of life and death... literally, hehe... Wait a minute, why does he have such a desire to make puns on this topic, and even for no reason?!

  "Ron, what are you doing? The head? Should I call my mom?"

  "It's okay," the temptation is great, but showing your weakness in front of a girl was not enough. "Take it and go already."

  Ginny shrugs her shoulders, saying, as you know, and goes into the room. She's dressed up-her favorite dress, a new ribbon in her braid, everything is clear, in a word. I'm going hunting. Ginny does not collect chocolate frog liners, but Cedric Diggory, the first handsome man in Ottery and the surrounding area, collects them. Well, he graduated from the second year, passed all the exams with "Excellent", and this year he was accepted as a seeker in the faculty Quidditch team! Although Ginny says that's not the main thing. She doesn't say what the main thing is, but she's hunting Cedric seriously, and her bait is just the inserts from the chocolates, which she supposedly collects and is always happy to trade if there's something. Ron would have laughed, but he has his own advantage: the cards exchanged from Cedric add to his collection, and a good relationship with his sister is worth a lot. Even if she's still a little girl, but you can trust her. Not all of them, of course, but...

  "Ginny?"

  "What?" She's already standing at the door with an album under her arm.

  "Listen, what happened when I fell?"

  "I don't know, to be honest. I was in the room... I only came out when my mother called the healer. And what?"

  "Just like that... Fred and George claimed that I said something in Latin. About death or something like that... So I'm trying to figure out if they're kidding or not."

  Ginny scratches her nose.

  "Did you tell Mom?"

  "Not yet. That's why it's important to figure out whether to tell her or if it's just a stupid joke" he's already pretty sure it's not a joke, but he can't tell his sister. Now it's important to find out exactly what happened to him in order to figure out what to do next.

  "Well... It could have been a joke, of course..."

  "but?"

  "Look, first I heard something bang, and you screamed, well, I haven't noticed yet. Then there was some kind of fuss, and then I heard the twins, only they weren't talking nonsense, as usual, but something like "stop it, it's not funny anymore." Then I became alert. Then it was "we didn't want to," and Mom had just returned, so I went to take a look. I go down — there's blood on the stairs, you're lying down, the twins are sniffing, mom is dictating a message to the patronus for the Mungo on duty."

  "And then?"

  "The healer apparated, said you had a concussion, prescribed potions, and stayed in bed. And mom pulled the twins by the ears and ordered the stairs to be cleaned, well, dad added on his own when he came... You know the rest", By the end, she's already babbling. "Well, I ran... We'll talk later, okay?"

  "Yeah, good luck."

  She runs away. Ron wrinkles his forehead, trying to remember, and he succeeds. Some faint fragments of images, strange...

  He hit his head on a rock-where the hell did a rock come from on a wooden staircase? Why would he think that?

  This is Ronald Bilius Weasley... has been afraid of spiders since childhood...

  I'm waiting for a defender...

  where are the children from?

  The cold of the spell is from the palm of the hand to the chest and further along the body...

  I won't give in to you, creatures. Neither alive nor dead...

  Where's the patronus Ginny was talking about? Although... The patronus... After all, this is the defender. Expecto patronum, waiting for the defender, Latin. Which he understood as his own, without even realizing at first that it was a spell. Then neither alive nor dead, non vivem non mortem — that's it, which is Latin and about death, comes by itself, as if it was just waiting to be remembered.

  He understood Latin before the arrival of the healer on duty and understands it now. If he'd been cursed or possessed, he'd have been sent to Mungo's right away, not left at home. And there the curse would have been lifted or the spirit exorcised, and the knowledge of Latin would have gone with it, whatever it was. All these days that he was lying at home, no one came to him, except for family members and the healer himself. Yes, a person with bad intentions would not have been allowed to see a sick person: although the old man is malicious, he guards the house perfectly, this cannot be taken away. There was nowhere, in short, to get the curse for these days.

  The stone staircase, dark, ancient, built of large slabs-he remembered it now-had appeared to him immediately after the fall. From the stairs. The castle and the terrible meal — after he was considered healthy, at dinner. And in both cases, he felt like himself, as if remembering that something similar had already happened in his life...

  Ron bangs his forehead against the chessboard with feeling. A dark magician, a death eater. In a way that makes me sick to think about. Why was he always so unlucky?

  1) In the canon, the Wizle ghoul is called ghoul. In this case, Gul is a name that will only be translated in exceptional cases.

Part 3. Turn to Ottery