"Do you think she would have been done by now?" Fred whispered while sneaking a peek at the silent door of their house.
"I think so... I mean, it's been more than an hour by now, even she shouldn't have the stamina to shout for that long. Would she?" George replied crouching beside his brother as they hid behind a bush some distance away from their house.
The twins knew better than to come home immediately and get in the way of their mother's anger so they dawdled as much as they could at the station.
They talked to their friends, ate some tasty station food, and just passed the time until the last of the students had left the station and only when the Hogwarts train finally began its journey back to Hogsmade, did they decide to come home.
"I don't know about that," Fred replied unsurely, "Don't you remember about the day we fled from Hogwarts... I swear she shouted at us for days on end from morning to night," he shivered while thinking about those dark days.
"So you think we should wait and come back at dinner—"
"Ugh! Seriously! You guys are such cowards." Ginny snorted before abruptly standing up from behind them.
She had two pieces of luggage standing beside her, the one with Piggy's empty cage was hers and the other was Ron's. Their Father had apparated out, soon after their Mother had left with Ron, saying that he had work, which meant it was left to these idiots to apparate her home, which was definitely not a pleasant experience.
"Then why don't you be our guest, dear sister and enter before us?" The twins said simultaneously while waving her along the entryway of their house with innocent smiles on their faces.
"You think I won't," she snorted before squaring her shoulder and confidently walking towards the house.
But just a few seconds later as she got closer and closer to the house, her steps began slowing down. The eerie silence coming from the house seemed ominous and when she remembered the look of wrath on her mother's face she had seen at the station, her feet halted abruptly.
Her face scrunched up as she stood there hesitating for a few seconds before she finally groaned and turned around to look at her brothers with a forced smile on her face, "Together?"
The twins first sent a smirk towards her before they looked at each other, nodded their heads and stood up, "Together!"
Slowly, ever so slowly, the three siblings walked up to their house as if they were walking towards a lion's den.
They kept straining their ears with each step as if expecting to hear screams, shouts, and breaking plates at any moment, but even when they were almost at the door, they heard nothing... which confused the hell out of them as they looked at each other with bafflement.
"Is it already over?" Fred asked in a whisper while scratching his head.
"Only one way to find out," George replied before gingerly pushing the door open.
The three slowly went into the house but a single peek at the scene inside, left them stunned in their place. Their eyes went wide, their mouths fell open, and Ginny even pinched herself to check if she wasn't dreaming.
"Here, take some more, dear," Molly said warmly while filling her son's plate with delicious pasta, Ron's favourite food.
"No, mum, I can't eat anymore, I am already full," Ron replied his mouth filled with food, but his hand never stopped shovelling food into his mouth showing that he was merely paying lip service.
"Nonsense, you're a growing boy, you need to eat at least this much," she said with a warm smile on her face while tenderly caressing his hair, "Oh! That reminds me, I had some pie left over. I'll bring it out immediately," she said before immediately going inside with a happy smile on her face, all the while ignoring her other three children as if they weren't even there.
Ron finally looked up from the food towards the three entrants standing at the doorway, the ones who had happily left him to be sacrificed, with a smile on his face, "So you're finally home..."
"You... How... Why... How..." Fred was too stunned to even speak while George was like a broken recorder unable to form proper sentences in his mouth.
"H-How did you..." Ginny finally managed to ask in an amazed whisper, "...do it?"
The scene they were expecting(and hoping) to see and the one they had actually seen was so drastically different that it had completely fried their brain, and now they were having trouble moving their thoughts.
"Oh, that," Ron replied airily waving his hand toward the direction their mother had gone in, "Well, let's just say that we had a heart-to-heart conversation and it was decided that what happened wasn't actually my fault after all... so she let me off easy," he shrugged with such nonchalance, that it was clear he was trying hard not to brag openly.
"Let... you... off... easy..." Fred repeated the words with a dumbfounded look as if not able comprehend the meaning of the words coming out of his younger brother's mouth.
But while Fred was having trouble accepting reality, his twin brother George was quick to get over his shock and realise what was more important at the moment, so he placed his hand on Fred's shoulder and said, "Snap out of it brother,"
"But—"
"It has happened, my dear brother," George said shaking his head with a serious look, "We need to face reality now. Our younger brother has exceeded us and achieved something that we could only dream about,"
"Y-You're right," Fred said before taking a deep breath and then after exchanging a single profound glance between each other, they nodded and turned to look at Ron with a determined look on their faces.
The twins slowly strode until they came to stand in front of their little brother, who got a little scared by the peculiar expressions on their faces, and then without any hesitation, they kneeled in front of Ron and shouted with their heads down, "Teach us! Master!!
"Ah!— O-Oh! Ho!" Ron immediately lowered his hands and tried to act nonchalantly as if he hadn't just flinched like a little girl, "Ahem! So you both want my secrets, huh?" the twins hurriedly nodded their heads, "Hmm, I don't know about that..."
Ginny stared at the scene in front of her with an unsure look on her face.
But after a little bit of hesitation, she bit her lips as her eyes firmed and she slowly moved up to stand beside her brothers, and then with a look of absolute embarrassment on her face she kneeled beside the twins, "T-Teach me too..."
....
"Ah! That sure was satisfying," Ron murmured as he rubbed his stomach with a content look while closing the door behind him.
Seeing the adoration and curiosity on his traitor siblings' faces, the same ones who had left him to die on the station, was quite exhilarating.
He had kept them on the hook for hours without telling them anything before they finally gave up asking him with a reluctant look on their faces.
The scene outside the window showed that the sun had set a few hours ago, and Ron was just now coming after having finished dinner with his family.
He had spent most of the time from lunch to dinner talking with his siblings, listening to twins talk about their shop, and helping his mother in the kitchen.
So all in all it was a very relaxing first day home. But now it was time to get back to work...
He moved towards his bed before kneeling beside it to pull his trunk from underneath it.
After opening the trunk, he slowly began pulling all his yearbooks as well as the special books he had borrowed from the library.
These weren't the only books he had available, as he knew that the attic in the burrow was filled with the course books all his older brothers had used during their school years. And while they might be a bit outdated, he knew that they would be perfect for what he had in mind for the summer.
He had a bit over two months of time before the holidays were over and he had to go to school.
And he wanted to be a completely different person from the Ron Weasley that people knew, on the other end, and while he knew it would take a lot of hard work, he was more than ready for it.
'But first... Status'
[Status]
Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)
Level: 16 (05/340)
MP: 258/258
Physique [Max.]: 6.2 + 0.8 (Pending) [11]
Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]
Spirit [Max.]: 8.6 + 0.3(Pending) [16]
Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]
Stat Points: 1
Skill Points: 1
[Skills]
Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1...
"Hmm, let's see... looks like I am almost done digesting the point I had spent increasing the Spirit, but on the other hand, the one in physique has only been digested by 0.1. It seems I was right that I would have to move my body and properly exercise to digest those gains. Well, nothing I wasn't already expecting about that..."
Ron also spent a lot of time trying to figure out all the ways in which he could improve his skills but most of it hinged on the premise of whether he could perform magic here or not without the Ministry charging him with Underage Magic, otherwise the most he could do was brush up on his theories.
Of course, even if for some reason he couldn't use magic, he could still improve other skills like 'Flying' and 'Observe', and not to mention he also had to see if he could get new skills from just reading about a particular subject...
So all in all, he was going to get very busy starting tomorrow, but he was looking forward to it.
'It's time to grind...'
///