Chapter 8—Homecoming

Charlie was eating some of the pastries Sally left the night before when Ron woke up. He could tell it was early, but the sun was up. He stretched out and blinked, his eye adjusting to the morning light.

"Christ, you snore," Charlie said. "I'm glad I fixed your nose."

Ron looked at Charlie bleary-eyed. "Help yourself," he said drolly.

Charlie grinned. He took the last bite and walked around the hospital room. He touched all the interesting gadgets. "Looks a bit like St Mungo's, doesn't it?" He said. He leaned over Ron and touched the small strips that were used to close the cut over his eye.

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen," he said pushing down hard. Ron winced and slapped his hand away.

The door swung open and both Ron and Charlie looked at the young woman who was coming in with a food tray. She blushed at the attention she was getting.

Charlie smiled his most charming smile. "Hi," he said in a low, sexy voice.

She blushed redder and struggled to put the tray on the little table.

"So you're taking good care of our ickle Ronnikins, are you? He's very special to us and we really appreciate you taking such good care of him." Charlie was leaning in very close to the woman, and she didn't stand a chance. He touched the identification badge she wore around her neck. "Adrianna," he said reading her name. She smiled and blushed and smoothed her hair.

"You know next week our little Ronnie is going in for that surgery to, you know, get his wanker enlarged. Tragic thing, really. Sad little thing—" He was interrupted when Ron threw a pitcher of ice water at his head.. The lid to the pitcher shot off dousing both Charlie and the unfortunate young woman in the face.

Ron and Charlie both were laughing but poor drenched girl ran out of the room.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!" he said laughing hard, throwing the pitcher back at him.

"I'm injured, you arse!" Ron said, trying to look hurt.

Charlie took the cover off the breakfast tray and looked at the food. He wrinkled his nose, but took the container of milk and had it opened and drunk before Ron could stop him. He made a face and looked at the carton. "Two percent? What the fuck is that?"

Ron took the plate of egg and sausages and hung on to them tightly. He made a sandwich from the toast and ate quickly. Once he'd stuffed everything into his mouth, he swiped the paper napkin across his mouth and smiled serenely. "I was hungry," he said.

He looked at his brother. "So why aren't you in Romania?" he asked.

Charlie sat back in the chair after wiping ice and water out of his face and hair. "The wedding, of course." He said, pleasantly.

Ron looked at him strangely. "What wedding?"

"Oh, that's right; you've been gone for almost three fucking years, haven't you? Well, believe it or not the family has managed to move on without you. And despite what we all believed to be an impossibility of nature, our dear brother Percy confunded a very nice looking young witch to abandon all hope and agree to become his bride. The wedding's this Saturday. I think Mum and Dad would love to have you come. Mum was going to tell you all about it when she visited, but," Charlie looked away.

Ron looked down at his hands. He was feeling ashamed of himself. He cleared his throat. "What else have I missed?"

"Let's see," he pretended to think. "We found out shortly after you left that Angelina Johnson was pregnant with Fred's baby, a little boy; she named him Fred. That was a shocker. And," he sighed heavily. "Fleur and Bill had a baby girl. They named her Victoire. She's about a year old now." He took a picture from the inside of his coat pocket and handed it to Ron.

"She's beautiful," Ron whispered. The picture was of Bill and Fleur holding on to a very cute bouncing baby girl. Her hair was white as snow and her eyes were piercing blue. Charlie took the picture back and looked at it. "She's a sweetie for a drooling stinky little kid."

Ron was very quiet. He looked out the window and couldn't look at Charlie. He had missed so much.

He remained quiet and moody while Charlie ignored him. He was too fascinated with all the gadgets and gizmos in the room. The balloons amused him the most. They were round and in heart shapes with cute "Get well soon" messages on them. When he finally got bored looking at everything, he sat back down on the chair and put his big feet on the bed. He was reading a muggle newspaper, but it didn't make any sense to him. Finally, he threw it down and cracked his knuckles.

"So, little bro, you were going to explain your plan to me?" Charlie said.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, not as determined as he had been the night before. "I've decided that I'm going to stay here in the muggle world but I'm not going to abandon my magical roots, either."

Charlie looked at him blankly. "That's it?"

Ron reddened. "Yeah, something like that."

Charlie sniffed. "I bet it sounded better in your head."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked. He had obsessed over his decision for days.

"You're going to stay a wizard, but you're going to move in town? I'm assuming you mean you're going to keep working and screwing around, right? You're not going to bring the little muggle girls home are you? Because you're not going to tell them you're a wizard, right? And you'll be home for birthdays and holidays and shit like that."

Ron nodded.

"Shit, that's not so complicated." He shook his head. "Leave it to a moron like you to think you've made an earth shattering decision."

Ron looked angry. "But I really wasn't going to come back at all."

"Oh." Charlie rolled his eyes. "You've broken your mother's heart for almost three fucking years, and this is the best you can come up with?"

"Fuck you, Charlie." He looked away from him.

"No, Ron. Fuck you, you immature little prick. Ickle got him feelings hurt so you ran off. Poor fucking you!"

They both sat in stony silence.

"So Angelina had Fred's baby?" he said after a while.

"Apparently. She moved away, but George talks to her a lot. He's helping her out with stuff. Ugly kid. Looks just like Fred. Shame, too. Wish he looked like Angelina. She's a knockout."

Ron laughed. "I didn't know they were, you know."

Charlie shrugged. "Nobody did. I guess George knew. He wasn't all that surprised at the news.

"Look, Ron. After you left, it tore Dad and Bill up. They didn't mean the bullshit they said. Not really. It was a bad time for all of us."

"I know." He sat in silence for a long time. What about Harry and Hermione?" he asked.

"Both in school, I reckon. Harry still practically lives at the Burrow. He and Ginny are still "dating". Hermione? God, she's gotten really hot. She told me what she was studying, but I was too busy looking at her arse to pay attention. Healing or law. Who the fuck knows?"

He cleared his throat. "Is she, um, seeing anyone?"

Charlie smiled to himself. "Just me."

Ron looked up quickly. "What?!"

"Yeah, I take her out when I'm in town." He smiled a private smile.

If Charlie had been looking at Ron, he would have seen all the color drain from his face. He clutched the light blanket and held it in a death grip. He was about to say something when the door to his room opened and in popped his friends: Melanie followed by Candace, Derek, David, Sally, Aidan, and Collin. Melanie was carrying another pastry box. She put in on the table and kissed Ron on the cheek.

"Hi , honey," she said cheerily. She saw Charlie.

"Hello," she drawled. "Who are you?"

Charlie extended his hand. "I'm Honey's brother, Charlie. Pleasure." He shook her hand.

"Aren't you gorgeous? Except for the hair you two don't look anything alike." Melanie said.

"I know," said Charlie, "But he looks just like the guy that delivers the milk."

Melanie laughed, but none of the others seemed to get the joke. "I like you," she said.

The others were busy saying hello to Ron. Sally and Candace seemed to be fighting for his attention. Sally made a big deal of kissing Ron and touching him intimately. Candace gave her a dirty look and kissed Ron on the mouth. Charlie, who was watching them clandestinely, plastered a shit-eating grin on his face. Ron looked at him and Charlie just shook his head.

Ron introduced everyone to this brother.

"So you're the Charlie with all the girlfriends," Collin said after the introductions were made.

Without breaking stride, Charlie said, "Oh yeah." He rolled his eyes at his brother.

"So, Ron hasn't told us much about you. What do you do?" Melanie asked.

"I live in Romania. I work at a drag—" Ron shook his head frantically. "Uh, I work at a wildlife preserve," he said recovering quickly.

Sally asked, "What kind of wildlife?"

"Oh you know, magi--, ur, wolves mostly. That sort of thing. Lots of wolves. Some elk. Deer. Rabbits. Snakes. Ferrets. Bunnies. Cows."

"There are wild cows?" Candace asked.

"Sure," Charlie said smoothly. "Feral cows. Quite vicious."

Ron rolled his eyes again and covered his face with his good hand.

"Guys, I'm going to be taking some time off once the doctor releases me. I hope I'll have my job when I get back." Ron said.

Sally looked distraught. "How long? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to my parents' house for a while until I'm able to come back to work." He held up his braced hand. "I can't be the perfect server with only one hand."

"And unfortunately," Charlie interrupted, "That's his wanking off hand."

"Fuck off, Charlie," Ron said, laughing. "I'm serious."

"Yeah. Seriously," Charlie nodded to the others.

"How long will you be gone?" Sally asked again.

"Maybe just a couple of weeks. We're fast healers." Ron reassured her. "Ill be back."

"Ill miss you," she said sweetly.

"Aw," said Charlie. "Tell you what, why don't you come with us?"

This time Ron wasn't smiling. He frowned at his brother. "No," he said too quickly and too loudly.

Sally looked hurt, but Candace smiled a sly smile.

"Not this time," he said giving Charlie a very nasty look. "Next time. I promise." He told her.

Ronald's doctor came right after that and the happy group was shushed from the room. Charlie stayed where he was, unintimidated by the doctor. Dr. Singh commented that he couldn't tell that Ron's nose was broken and that he was healing remarkably well. Ron asked him when he could be released and he was told he wanted him to stay one more night since he was making such progress.

After the doctor left, Charlie settled back into the comfortable chair by the bed. Ron could tell he was getting bored, but honestly didn't want him to leave.

"So," Charlie said. "You have a girlfriend?"

"Not really," Ron said. "But Sally thinks she is."

"The ditzy one? Blond?" Charlie asked.

Ron nodded.

"What about the one with the big tits?"

"Melanie. What about her?" Ron asked.

"You slept with her, too?" Charlie asked.

"No."

Charlie looked at him incredulously.

"She's a lesbian." Ron told him.

"No shit?" Charlie was imagining the possibilities. "Wow. That would have been fun."

Ron laughed.

"You were mugged, right?"

Ron nodded. "Sort of. I think I ran into a drunk and he was pissed about something else. His friends joined in."

"I think we ought to go find them and show them what a wizard can do without laying a hand on them." Charlie ginned at that prospect.

The group came back in and they all went to the roof for a smoke. Charlie couldn't believe his baby brother was smoking. His mother had mentioned it, but he wanted to see that for himself. Ron coughed again when he lit up, but his ribs were feeling much better.

Charlie spent the rest of the day watching Sally and Candace fight over Ron's attention.

"Ron tells us he's from the country," Derek said to Charlie.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah. Ronnie our little country mouse who made it to the city. He seems to like it here."

"He's a good man and a Helluva server. He can charm the knickers off anyone."

"A Weasley trait." Charlie said.

"Yeah," said Sally. "It's like he casts a spell over the patrons. They just love him and he gets the biggest tips."

Charlie snorted a laugh. "That's our Ronnie. Casting a spell." No one else could figure out why Charlie found that so amusing.

The group stayed until they had to report to the restaurant. Ron reminded them that he'd probably be released early the next morning and then he and Charlie would be leaving.

"Will we see you before you leave?" Candace asked.

Ron shook his head. Probably not, he told them. He'd be back as soon as possible. They left in a flurry of hugs and kisses and weeping. Charlie was impressed. Once they'd gone, Charlie patted his brother on the back and smiled at him.

"I can see why you didn't want to leave your friends," he said. "They seem really nice."

Ron agreed. "Yeah. They are the most accepting bunch I've ever met. I like them a lot."

The next morning Dr. Singh announced that Ron could leave the hospital. He and Charlie were out the door by 10 o'clock. Ron showed Charlie his flat and took his brother to the Blue Ginger for lunch. Candace was extremely excited to see him. He had come to see her and not Sally. She would make sure she told Sally that he dropped in to see her before he left.

Charlie was impressed with the restaurant and the food. He waited patiently while Ron explained to his boss that he need some time off to recover from his injuries. His boss asked him for a telephone number so he could get in touch with him, but Ron told him his parents didn't have a telephone and that he would call them. The people at the restaurant wished him well and said they were looking forward to his return.

Ron packed a small bag with his new clothes and he grabbed his wand. There was nothing in his refrigerator to throw out. He talked to his landlady and paid a month's rent in advance and said he'd probably be back in a week or two.

One more look around, he and Charlie disapparated inside his apartment. They apparated outside the fence at the Burrow. There were a lot of people in the yard getting everything ready for the wedding. He saw his mother from a distance and she looked harried. Percy and his fiancée Audrey were yelling out instructions on where to set things up. Ginny and Harry were helping hang paper lanterns. He recognized George and Arthur running around the yard, playing with a little boy. Must be Fred, he thought. A beautiful black woman was making garlands smiled serenely as she watched them play.

Ron's eyes misted over and he felt a deep pain in his chest. His family was there. Charlie started to go through the gate, but Ron stopped him. He wipes his tears on the back of his hand and gave Charlie a shaky smile. He blew out a loud breath.

Suddenly, his mother looked up and saw him. She let out a shriek and the whole family turned to look. They dropped what they were doing and ran to him, enveloping him with their love. Arthur picked up baby Fred and walked over to Ron. He had a strange look on his face and Ron recognized the yearning because he felt the same way. He reached out and embraced his father.

"I'm so sorry, Dad," he said, crying openly now. "I should have never run away."

"Forgive me, son," Arthur said, weeping.

"There nothing to forgive, Dad, I was wrong. I'm so sorry I put you and Mum through hell."

Molly was by his side, reaching out to him. He kissed his face and held her in her arms.

Ronald Weasley had come home.