Chapter 4- Carrier Monkey
"Roger Davies!" Ron declared as he sat down between Hermione and Ginny, not bothering that they had just been in a deep conversation.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Don't like it do you?" Ron accused. "How does it feel being left out of what's going on?"
"Stop being a prat, and tell us what you mean," Ginny said, irritated.
"Roger Davies," Ron repeated, as if it answered their questions. When they gave him impatient looks, he continued. "He's the only logical start of this mono stuff," he said.
"You're so articulate," Hermione said. "How do you figure?"
"Pomfrey told me that it started with someone in Hogsmeade—"
"She shouldn't have done that, should she?" Hermione asked. "That's rather confidential information."
"Well, she more hinted at it. I tried to get that information, but she couldn't give it," he said. "The point is, she hinted it was a patient from Hogsmeade that started it, and the most likely person that still resides there is Roger Davies."
"That's rather assuming of you, though," Hermione said.
"No, think about it," he said. "Every time he was seen with a girl, it was a different person. Fleur was with him at the ball, Harry said he was sucking face with that blonde girl when he was dating Cho, Marietta, Brittney, Carla—"
"We get the point," Ginny said. Her temperament was short, but Ron didn't say anything: doing so would probably cause her to explode at him, and that was almost as bad as egging on his mum's temper. "What are you going to do about it?" she asked.
"Well, Hogsmeade weekend starts tomorrow," he said.
"Please tell me we aren't wasting our entire day on this—"
"I know how little you care about Harry—"
"I care a lot about him, which means I respect his privacy—"
"Well, I just have his best interest in mind and—"
"Best interest?"
"Yes, best interest."
"Will the two of you stop it," Ginny demanded, looking between the two. "I'm sure both of you care enough for Harry, but I'm questioning your feeling towards me, as you're purposefully giving me a headache."
"Shut it, Ginny," Ron snapped without thinking. He watched as she glared at him, then stood from the table and walked out of the hall.
"Great, Ron," Hermione said. "That was brilliant."
"What?" Ron said, trying to avoid the guilt that was surging up inside of him.
"Ginny was about to tell me something about Harry, just for your information," Hermione said.
"Harry? What about him?" he asked, a sudden interest.
"I don't know now," she said, frustrated. "Nothing too urgent I'm sure, but Merlin Ron… why do you have to do that?"
"What did I do?" he asked, putting down his fork.
"Make her feel useless."
"I don't—"
"You do," Hermione said. "She's told me so."
Ron couldn't resume eating for a moment. "I…. Well, I didn't mean to. Honestly, Hermione, maybe she's just—"
"Ginny knows you care," Hermione said quickly. "But think about it… she's the only girl with six older brothers. Don't you think she'd already feel a bit out of place?"
Ron had never really considered this. Ginny wasn't a topic that was brought up often, and had never been done so in this light. "It's not my fault she came along when she did… or that she's a girl for that matter."
"You really are dense sometimes," Hermione said, following Ginny's lead by walking out of the Great Hall.
"Fine, I'll figure it out on my own," Ron said to himself, remembering his original reason for anticipating an opportunity to see Hermione. And Ginny, he added to himself.
The week had come to a close after a long line of classes in which Ron had been deciding how he was going to approach Roger. Ron had never been on great terms with the guy, himself, but hoped to persuade some information out of him.
Somehow, though, everything he had planned left him the moment he was standing at the porch of a less than fancy house. It stood on a side street along some other homes; homes more well-kept than this, though it was obvious to Ron why the flowerbeds were littered with weeds, and the grass patched with dead spots when a clan of boys were heard in the house after the knock. "I'll get it," one finally said, and shouted warnings to the others to keep their mouths shut as he had his company over as he went to the door.
Ron felt his hands become clammy as his throat went dry. "H-hi Roger," he said, his voice squeaking a bit.
"Do I know you?" Roger asked, skeptical.
"R-Ron, Ron Weasley," he said. "You know, from—"
"Weasley? Really?" Roger said. "You do have red hair," he said. "Come on in," he said, opening the door to allow Ron entrance. "Aren't you still at Hogwarts?" he asked, inviting Ron into the shabby living room. There were traces of food swept under the couch, Ron noticed, and a pile of crumbs in the corner.
"Yeah, I am," Ron said.
"How's Quidditch this year?" Roger asked.
"It's good," Ron answered vaguely.
"You certainly got better last year. Remember when you first started? Merlin you were horrible."
"Yeah, I remember," Ron said getting pink in the face.
"Sorry about the mess. Tidying up a bit now," Roger told him, flicking his wand to get a broom going, but all it did was dance about, scattering the neat pile of crumbs around. "Never works for me," he said, dejected, as he stopped the broom and started cleaning the Muggle way. "So what are you doing in my humble abode?"
"I actually needed to ask you something," Ron said, taking a gulp. "I wanted to know how you got Mono."
Roger stopped at looked at Ron before his head looked every which way, making sure no one had been listening. "Do you want to ruin me Weasley?" he asked in a harsh whisper. "Smart of you just talking about it like that," he said, then made the way around the room, charming the door, closing the blinds, and continuing every manner of mad behavior Ron could think of. "What's it to you anyway?"
"There have been a lot of cases going around, and I have a feeling it started from you," Ron said, not wanting to rat out Madam Pomfrey, who had helped him a great deal in this case. "My friend has it now, and I want to know how he contracted it."
"He?" Roger said. "Are you telling me Harry Potter has got himself a case of Mono?" he continued with a laugh. "Oh that's good! That's really good!"
"Hey, we're not talking about his problems right now, we're talking about yours," Ron snapped, which caused Roger to immediately stop his jest. "Now, I would like to know how you got it and who you had been kissing from as far as one month and a half before you felt ill."
"Why that much time?" Roger asked, incredulous. "What's it to you?"
"I've told you I want to find out how Harry got it," Ron said. "Mono has a long time period where you could be handing it off to other people. You could have been carrying the virus up to seven weeks before and passed it on to anyone you kissed."
"And you're telling me that's the only way to spread it," Roger answered doubtfully.
"No, but it's the most likely way to catch it," Ron said, resisting a roll of his eyes for having to mention this again. He had a feeling it would be explained many more times before this was over.
"Right, Weasley," Roger said. "You're officially crazy, and I'm not going to be telling you that." Roger stood and tried to let Ron out.
"Yes you are," Ron retorted, standing, but not following Roger to the door. "You'll give me all the information I need."
"What makes you think that?" Roger asked with a scoff.
"Because if you don't," Ron said with a grin. "All those lovely girls at Hogwarts are going to find out who started this bout of Mono through our prestigious school."
Just as Roger was looking unsure about this threat, there was a soft knocking at the door. Roger looked between the door and Ron.
"Roger? Are you home?" a girl from the other side of the door said with another knock when no one answered.
"Fine," Roger hissed. "Come back in two hours. Out the back door, if you please. No reason for rumors to get started."
Ron agreed with this as he left through the kitchen with a grin spread across his face.
A/N: I must say this was a fun chapter to write. I love Ron and his… inquisitive nature :D Hope everyone is having as much fun with this as I am! If you are… please drop a line and say so. REVIEW! I try and always respond back, so it won't be a waste of your time. And for those newbies out there: You don't have to be singed up to review. That's something I learned after a month or so of reading fanfic, so just a tip from one fanatic to another;)
Thanks:
Countess Mel: My theory on Ron is that all he needs is a bit of motivation... and needing to know who's snogging his best friend has done it! hehehehe
Shading in Grey: Ron has his ways. And now you actually know who started it :D I couldn't resist bringing in a class A lip slut!
Speckled Bird: It does happen once in a while ;) Ron's actually going to be quite smart in this story (albeit nosy).