A/N: Welcome, fans of Ron Weasley! (If you're looking for Ron-bashing, you won't find that here.) I hope you enjoy my contribution to the world of Ron-centric fic.

Confession-this is my first Harry Potter story, and I'm scared and intimidated beyond words. Please let me know what I've done well and what I've gotten wrong, but may I ask that you do so gently on the latter? Thanks! I want to improve, so I do welcome constructive criticism-just of the kind and gracious variety.

I will note now that this story will end with canon pairings-Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. Because of the alternate realities Ron is visiting, sometimes it may not seem that way. But that is the endgame.

PART ONE

Chapter One

As stubborn and cantankerous as she was, Ron had kind of figured his Great-Aunt Muriel would outlive all of them. She did live to a ripe old age, but one unseasonably cool night in October, she died quietly in her sleep.

Her huge old house was filled to the brim; she'd practically been what Hermione said Muggles called a hoarder. Ron didn't look forward to digging through it all.

But he'd never figured out how to say no to his mum.

"I need your help, Ronnie," Molly said. "Aunt Muriel accumulated so much stuff over the years. And no one's really sure what all of it is. Some of it might be priceless family heirlooms; it's important to preserve those. But it's all jumbled together with just old junk. We won't know what's what until we get in there."

Which was how Ron Weasley found himself helping his mother sort through what seemed to be a couple hundred years' worth of crap in Aunt Muriel's attic.

He wasn't sure what made him pocket the small item he found in a dark, grimy corner, buried underneath various odds and ends that they were able to conclude were useless and could be vanished. Maybe it was just that he didn't know what the object was and didn't feel comfortable vanishing it.

But even as he told himself that, he knew there was more to it. Something about the little silver globe drew him. He could've just asked his mum if she knew what it was. He should do that.

He didn't.

Instead he took it home with him. And that night, as Hermione worked in the office she'd set up in their home, Ron took out the unknown item and studied it.

Just an ordinary silver ball. What was it that drew him to it so?

He turned it around in his hands, examining it more closely. Was that a dent? No, more of a notch. He ran his thumb over it.

The globe had been perfectly smooth other than that almost invisible notch, but once he brushed it a circlet opened up in the top. Ron could now see swirling liquid inside the orb. It looked almost like the inside of a Pensieve. He leaned closer, fascinated.

Since it was so much smaller, he couldn't put his head in like he would've done with a Pensieve. He placed his right eye as close as he could get to the hole filled with swirling liquid.

And felt the whole world shift and tumble around him.

It was the strangest sensation-almost like his sitting room melting away, dissolving around him, then reforming into something entirely new and different. He pulled the silver globe away from his eye and looked around.

He was still on a sofa. But not his sofa. He was in what appeared to be a sitting room. But not his sitting room. Panic began to swell within him. Where was he? What the hell had he done? "Hermione?" he called out weakly.

"Did you say something, dear?" A woman's voice floated to him from another room. That was definitely not Hermione's voice. What in Merlin's name was going on here?

"Ron?" Crap, the voice was moving closer. "Is everything all right?"

And Padma Patil entered the room.

Ron didn't think he'd seen her since...bloody hell, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen her. He didn't see either of the Patil twins too often these days. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure how he knew it was Padma. The girls were identical, and it was hard enough keeping twins straight when you knew them well; Fred and George had always been proof of that. Ron had never known either Patil girl terribly well. And it wasn't like Padma was currently decked out in Ravenclaw house colors. But somehow he knew for absolute certain it was her.

What he didn't know was where he was or how he'd gotten there or what she was doing there with him. "Wh-where am I?" He tried, he really did, but he didn't manage to keep the alarm out of his voice.

Padma frowned at him. "If this is one of your jokes, Ronald Weasley, I'll have you know that it isn't funny!"

"I'm not joking, Padma, I swear. I just...look, I'm really confused right now. Where am I?"

"You're at home, Ron!" Oh, look. Now he wasn't the only one panicking. Who even knew a human voice could reach that pitch.

"Okaaaay...this doesn't look quite right...where's Hermione?"

"Hermione?!" Now Padma's expression was a bizarre combination of terror, bafflement, and a wee bit of ire. "Why would Hermione be here? It's the school year! She's at Hogwarts!"

"With Rose and Hugo? Did something happen?"

"Who? Ron, you aren't making any sense!"

"Okay, back up. Why's Hermione at Hogwarts?"

The ire melted, leaving only confusion and fear. "Because she teaches there! She has for years! Panju is in trouble with her almost daily!"

"Panju?"

"That's it, we need St. Mungo's." Padma strode toward the fireplace. As she waited for the floo call to connect, she asked over her shoulder. "Do you remember hitting your head or anything like that? Did you get hit by some sort of spell?"

"You think maybe one of George's jokes went wrong?"

"George's jokes? Ohhhh, that might do it. Did you see him today?"

Ron stared at her. "I see him every day?"

Padma laughed. "Since when?"

"Uh...since I left the Aurors and went to work with him at the shop?"

"Work with him at the shop? Aurors? Ron, you're scaring me!" Padma turned back to the floo as a head appeared.

The head in the fireplace was an older wizard, and St. Mungo's emblem was clearly visible on what showed of his collar. "Yes?"

"Please, you have to help my husband! Something is terribly wrong with him!"

Husband? The world spun again, and this time, Ron felt himself plunge into blackness.