InsaneJournal

The moment Harry got word that Ron had arrived, he almost ran off to try and find him but then he remembered how overwhelmed and worried he was when he arrived and that all he wanted to do was sit down somewhere comfortable and sleep or something so instead of running off, Harry decided to wait it out in his apartment. Because he had immediately sent back that Ron needed to take the third bedroom. He figured that James wouldn't mind -- how could he? -- and they needed a third roommate anyway.

Harry was pacing, gripping his wand tightly as he did so. What if Ron was old? What if he was as old as Sirius was? What then? No, Harry thought, he couldn't think of that. Ron wouldn't be that much older, would he be? Harry sure hoped not. It was weird enough having his parents and Remus here and around and his age. Things couldn't get so much weirder that it meant that Ron was as old as a dad. That would just be seriously mucked up and mental and Harry really didn't think he'd be able to handle that.

He stopped pacing and stared at the door. Bloody hell, what would he do if Ron wasn't his age? He needed Ron to be, well, Ron. Sure, he had Ginny, but was that enough? Maybe, if the future said anything about anything, but that was a future that probably didn't even exist for Harry anymore. He needed Ron.

The door opened, and Harry took a big breath.

--

This was easily, without a doubt, the weirdest day Ron had ever had. It had started out pretty good, actually. They’d won the quidditch cup, even with Harry at detention instead of playing his position like he should have been there was a party in the common room to celebrate and Ron’s spirits were so high that even watching Harry snog his little sister hadn’t fazed him. Much. They were definitely going to have a chat about that later, though.

Things hadn’t gotten really weird when he’d started up to the boys dormitory to go to bed, though, Harry and Ginny still weren’t back (oh, yeah, they’d definitely be having a talk), but Ron was exhausted and he decided he didn’t want to wait up any longer.


As he was heading up the stairs, he saw that weird light. It was like a crack in the ceiling, but he could see stars and planets through it and.. that was the last night he remembered before the searing pain that seemed to engulf him for what felt like hours. Just as he thought he couldn’t take anymore, he was standing in a room he’d never seen before. With a bunch of.. Muggles? American muggles?

That was weird.

It took him forever to get through the questions and the medical exam. Ron wasn’t a patient person by nature and it was torture, all this waiting around, especially after he was told that Harry and Ginny were both here, as well as a bunch of other people, both those he knew and those whose names he had only heard in passing.

Finally, they gave him some kind of key thing that looked like no kind of key he’d even seen before, something they said was a fellytone or tellyphone or whatever it was called - it was so small and there were no wires, though - and he was sent on his way with brief directions to the room he’d be staying in at someplace called Potts Tower.

Right. Okay then.

He found the room without too much trouble and let himself in. Of course, Ron being Ron, his immediate thoughts (after finding Harry and Ginny) were of food. He was starving. His stomach was forgotten, though, when he pushed open the door to find Harry standing there.

“Bloody hell, Harry! What is this place?” Harry had to have the answers, right? Barring Hermione, who apparently wasn’t here in this place, Harry was the person who usually knew what was going on.

--

Harry breathed out suddenly, thankful to find Ron not much different than he looked when he last saw him. "Good, you're not like thirty years old," Harry said with relief. "I was half expecting you to walk in here with a beard." He passed a hand back through his hair, ruffling it up, then shoved his wand back into his pocket. "James isn't here. He's our roommate. He's from some comic book or something. I don't know. I didn't look it up. This place is mental."

He pointed to the third bedroom door, the one that's closed. "That one's yours. Nice to have your own room, really, if you get right down to it. You all right, though?"

It was weird, and Harry didn't know what to say or how to say it. He supposed he should just get it all over with. "We're a book," he said. "You and me I mean, we're in a book. Characters from a book. Here, that is. This world is some other world and all sorts of people have been turning up but most everyone turning up is fictional. Some from the telly or film and some from books. Like us."

--

This was a lot to take in. Harry was right when he said this place was mental, but it seemed like an understatement. Ron had seen a lot since meeting Harry Potter, but this was something completely different from their other adventures.

And not just because they didn't seem to be in any immediate danger of dying. That was a good thing, though.

"We're... Huh?" They were characters from a book? Fictional? As it not real? That made absolutely no sense, not that much of anything about this whole situation, did.

"Are we sure this isn't just some elaborate prank the twins have thought up?"

Really, it seemed like something his brothers would do. Maybe he'd eaten the wrong end of one of their products.

--

Harry shook his head. "No, mate, sorry, no pranks. It's true. I guess it's like -- well, this world has all sorts of books and films and such and everyone coming through is from one of them and it doesn't matter how they came through. Like Ginny's here, right? And she's older than me. And Sirius is normal but like --" His face reddened a bit. "My mum is here and she's only seventeen. So that's really, really weird. It's a bit hard to get used to but you'll sort of get used to it."

He rubbed his face. "I'm just glad you're here. It's about time you know. I can get through this if you're here now."

--

Ron nodded. He didn’t know what else to do. This whole situation was completely mad. He agreed with Harry on one point, though. This would be so much easier to get through together. Harry looked a bit different than he remembered, younger, but not by much and he was still Harry.

“Gin’s older? How old is she? How old are you?” Ron knew Harry couldn’t be much younger than he was, but he’d said Ginny was older.

“Your mum is my age. Bloody hell, that’s weird.”

--

"I'm fifteen," Harry said. "Last thing I remember is Sirius falling behind that veil thing in the Department of Mysteries, then I end up here. Ginny's from a bit later than that, just before her fifth year, our sixth year. So she's already fifteen but I'm not quite yet sixteen and I haven't got any idea how birthdays are going to work or anything like that. I would have had just a few months left but now I've got half a year." He shrugged. "I'm not really understanding all of it yet, or how it decides when I nab us. I mean, Sirius is just like I remember, but then my mum's seventeen and Remus is sixteen or something, maybe younger I haven't really talked to him at all."

--

“Bloody hell.” Ron was probably repeating himself, but he couldn’t think what else to day. This whole thing was mad and the more Harry told him, the more insane it all sounded. Harry was two years younger than he was. That was completely mental.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I just had my birthday last month, but now it’s December, so does that mean I’m 18 in a few months?”

Mental seemed like an understatement. He just couldn’t think of a good word to describe all of this. “Oi, it’s making my head hurt! You wanna go get something to eat or something?”

That was Ron. When in doubt, have something to eat.

--

Harry blinked a few times behind his glasses at the sudden change in subject but then he laughed because obviously it would be Ron who would say that the world has gone mental but can we have something to eat, please? "I've got food here but if you'd rather go out and explore, we can do that too, sure."

He grabbed his coat from the back of a chair. "It's a lot to take in," he said. "I know it."

--

What? It had been a rough trip. Ron was hungry! It was a lot to take in and he thought it might be easier if he had something to eat.

"Let's go exploring. I've never been to New York. I bet the food here is brilliant."

Okay, so maybe he just wanted to avoid talking about how mental this place was. Maybe he just wanted to pretend that everything was normal, even if it obviously wasn't.

--

Pulling on his coat, Harry nodded. "Yeah yeah, we'll go find you something to eat," he joked, shaking his head. But he knew even Ron couldn't avoid the subject forever.