Chapter 9: Treacherous Rat
The Burrow
Ronald Bilius Weasley
July 4, 1989, Tuesday
When Ron went down to the kitchen for breakfast, he found everyone already there.
He said good morning to everyone, then sat down in his chair, but his greetings were lost in the argument at the table.
Only Ginny, sitting next to him, responded. "Good morning, Ron. Will you braid my hair again today?"
"Sure. After breakfast, okay?" he said, and she nodded.
He tried to understand the reason for the argument at the table, but apparently the twins had been up to their usual mischief, doing something to annoy Percy.
And now the others were trying to calm things down and warn the twins not to do it again. Whatever they had done.
Ron quickly lost interest. The twins were twins, and he didn't think that would change anytime soon. In fact, he didn't think it would ever change.
Perhaps in another alternate world, things might have calmed down for George after Fred died. But in this world, Ron wasn't going to let that happen.
After his mother set his breakfast before him, Ron thanked her, then quietly began to eat.
But the argument at the table showed no sign of ending.
Or rather, it seemed the twins thought they hadn't done anything wrong and showed no intention of apologizing.
Finally, Ron couldn't take it anymore and leaned toward Ginny, asking, "Ginny, what did Fred and George do this time?"
"They painted Percy's rat pink. Percy has been furious since he woke up this morning," Ginny said, then continued eating her breakfast.
But what she said left Ron stunned. Not because of what the twins had done, but because of who they had done it to.
'Percy's rat... Scabbers... Peter Pettigrew... Damn it. How could I have forgotten the treacherous rat?'
But, given the seriousness of the situation, instead of lamenting to himself, Ron chose to focus on the problem at hand and consider what he could do.
However, no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't come up with a method that would definitely work for him at the moment.
After all, the spells he could currently cast were only those from his first two years, and he could only cast them wandless. This significantly reduced the power of his spells.
And considering his weak magic power scale, he didn't think he had a chance if Peter Pettigrew tried to resist.
After all, even though Pettigrew was inconspicuous among his peers, he was an adult and had seen battle. Ron had no chance against him in a one-on-one fight.
If Ron was going to make a move against Pettigrew, he had to find a plan to neutralize him before he had a chance to resist, and he didn't think he could do that without becoming stronger.
Also, Peter Pettigrew was important for things in the big picture, like Sirius Black, and Ron didn't want to arouse his suspicion and make him run away.
Additionally, he couldn't use it in deadly ways like poison. Even though ending a traitor's life with rat poison sounded poetic, he couldn't do it.
He had to capture it alive and hide it somewhere only he could access until the time was right.
As for informing the Aurors... Ron knew that the Ministry of Magic and the Aurors themselves contained many Death Eaters and Voldemort's supporters.
Even if he somehow convinced them that there was an Animagus in his house, Pettigrew's disappearance would be imminent once he was captured and registered.
To prevent this, Ron needed to increase his influence and gain allies within the Ministry and the Wizengamot. And he needed time for that.
As for telling his family... Ron didn't think they would believe him. And even if they did, he didn't think they would take it very seriously.
And a lighthearted approach would likely result in Pettigrew's escape. After all, the rat was truly skilled at slipping away.
And the only person in his family who could stand up to Pettigrew was his mother, Molly Weasley. His father, Arthur Weasley… wasn't exactly a skilled fighter.
But even if his mother caught Pettigrew, they would eventually hand him over to the authorities, and the rat would be back in the system.
No. Ron had to figure this out himself.
That meant waiting until he was stronger and had a solid plan.
Looks like there was nothing he could do right now. At least Percy kept his pet, Scabbers, in a cage in his room at all times.
This prevented Pettigrew from roaming freely in their house.
'I'm sorry, Percy, but you'll have to keep sharing your room with an old man for a while longer,' Ron thought, and focused on his breakfast again.
He wanted to finish his breakfast quickly, then go to his room and enter the Workshop.
But after finishing his breakfast and putting his plate in the sink, he was about to head up the stairs when he heard Ginny call out to him. "Ron, are you going to braid my hair now?"
For a moment, he forgot the promise he'd made to Ginny, but realizing he had a psychopathic pet in his house had that effect.
However, even though he desperately wanted to go to the Workshop and focus his training to become stronger, he wouldn't let it blind him.
Wasn't his primary goal to improve himself, become rich and powerful for his family?
He didn't want to be someone who forgot his purpose and lost himself in the means to achieve it.
So, Ron smiled at Ginny and said, "Of course, Ginny, come on, let's go to the living room."
Then Ron braided Ginny's hair, just like yesterday.
And honestly, it didn't take much time. Ten minutes later, Ginny was looking at her braid, a smile on her face.
Then she looked up and said, "Thanks, Ron, will you play gobstones with me again today?"
Ron paused for a moment.
Playing from afternoon to evening, as yesterday, meant he wouldn't be able to go to the Workshop for 6-7 hours, which equated to almost 50 days in there. He couldn't risk losing that much time right now.
But on the other hand, he didn't want to disappoint Ginny. So, he thought of a compromise.
"Okay, Ginny, we can play again after lunch, but this time I can only play for an hour. After that, I need to go back to reading my books. Otherwise, I won't be able to make new games for us."
"Okay. As long as you play with me, it's fine. I'll show Mum my braid," Ginny said, and with a smile, she went to the kitchen to show her mother her braids.
Meanwhile, Ron, with a smile on his face, set off for his room.
The most important thing for a family was being there for them when they needed you. Everything else came second.
He understood this better now, and he had no intention of forgetting it.
As soon as he reached his room, he lay down on his bed and entered the Workshop.
He had about five and a half hours until lunch. He wanted to spend this time learning new spells and then improving his magic power scale.
And so, he did.
During his three weeks in the Workshop, Ron had learned all the spells for the third year of Hogwarts and had even become able to perform them silently and wandless.
He had initially planned to move on to fourth-year spells, but as he expected, the spells were becoming increasingly complex, and although learning them didn't take long, perfecting them and learning them wandless was starting to take time.
Cheering Charm, Seize and Pull Charm, Freezing Spell, Lumos Maxima, Banishing Charm, Boggart-Banishing Spell, Lapifors Spell, Draconifors Spell, Felifors Spell, Hardening Charm, and other transformation spells.
These were the spells he had learned this time.
And after learning them, he began to spend the rest of his time training to make all his spells stronger and faster wandlessly.
He even requested from the magic practice hall for an opponent to duel with, and a mannequin capable of wielding a wand appeared before him, against which Ron tried to counter with wandless spells.
This helped him improve both his reaction speed and reflexes, and also gave him the habit of knowing which spell to use in which situation.
Obviously, he would have preferred to duel with a wand, but he couldn't yet use the Pathlighter, and the training wand wasn't suitable for dueling.
However, with every minute he continued to practice, his magic power scale continued to improve, and when Ron left the Workshop for lunch after Alfred's warning, it had increased by another 8 units, reaching 82 units.
Ron believed that he would reach 100 units this night, and then he would be able to use his wand like an actual wizard.
After lunch, Ron and Ginny played gobstones for about an hour.
Then, instead of going straight to his room after showering, Ron went to the kitchen. He wanted to skip dinner this evening, if possible, and needed his mother's permission.
"Mum, could you make me some snacks? I want to stay in my room and read Hogwarts books instead of coming to dinner tonight."
"What? Ron, you don't have to push yourself so hard, sweetie. At least you can take a break for dinner," said Molly Weasley.
"I know, Mum. But I really enjoy reading, and I don't want my focus to be disrupted."
"Oh, my... You are so diligent. Okay, I'll make you some snacks, but you can't make this a habit, okay?"
"Hmm. I understand. Thanks, Mum," Ron nodded.
Then his mother prepared him a plate piled with sandwiches, cookies, and pies. And Ron immediately went up to his room with his snacks.
And without wasting any time, he re-entered the Workshop.
It was currently 3:36 PM, and he planned to spend the entire day there, except for a short break for an evening snack.
As soon as Ron entered the Workshop, he began working on fourth-year spells.
Summoning Charm, Bombardment Spell, Scouring Charm, Entrancing Enchantments, Counter-curse, Hex-deflection Spells, Twitchy-Ears Hex, Aqua Eructo, Vanishing Spell, Bouquet Spell, Snake Summons Spell, Color Change Charm, Beetle into Button, Lovebird to Love Note, Herbivicus Charm, and other transformation spells.
The number of spells learned in the fourth year was greater than in the third year.
The main reason was that, with the addition of third-year elective courses, students felt the pressure; therefore, instead of teaching new spells, the focus shifted to reviewing those learned in the first two years.
But after students got used to the workload of elective courses, new spells were added to the curriculum again in the fourth year.
After learning fourth-year spells, instead of immediately moving on to fifth-year spells, Ron focused on perfecting them wandlessly.
Among the fourth-year spells were quite useful ones, such as Summoning Charm, Bombardment Spell, and Vanishing Spell. Ron wanted to become proficient in using them.
Once Ron was able to comfortably use all the spells, both normally and in duels, he moved on to fifth-year spells.
But first, he took a short break to have a snack. After all, he had a growing body.
Then Ron rededicated himself to training. The number of new spells taught in the fifth year was quite large – over 30 new spells. After all, the fifth year was the O.W.L. year.
Silencing Charm, Disillusionment Charm, Descending Charm, Deprimo Spell, Confundus Charm, Homenum Revelio, Protective Enchantments, and Stunning Spell were among those Ron valued most.
And Ron, having learned and used his fifth-grade spells normally, silently, and wandlessly, was dueling against a dummy opponent in the magic practice hall when his focus was interrupted by a notification sound around 4:30 in the morning.
-Ding
[Your Magic Power Scale has reached 100 units, Master Ron. Congratulations, you have now achieved your second awakening.]
-Ding
[One of the Hidden Achievements has been accomplished: Young Genius Phase 1. You have achieved an awakening much earlier than usual, placing your name among the genius wizards.]
[Reward: 100 magic power scale units for each year the awakening is achieved early.]
End of Chapter 9.