The burrow was a great place, out in the middle of nowhere with no one to bother you. The Weasley boys and Ginny had grown up with a large playground, as there were no houses around for miles in any direction and the town of Ottery St. Catchpole (for which one of their closest friends was named) nearby. It was in the lake in front of the house where late nights, Ron and his brothers and friends would go skinny dipping. Lake Weasley they called it, and on hot summer nights that is where the boys cooled off, from the weather and their hormones. Adolescent romance might have been on everyone’s mind, had been for some years for some of Ron’s schoolmates but not he. Ron Weasley like Ottery was of the always-late-to-the-party party, and neither had realized quite what had happened to the girl’s around them. It was obvious that the girls were madly in love, either with boys or the idea of love, but the love part was easily lost given the fact that Ron believed girls to normally be mad. Something we can excuse our hero for because he had been raised in a household full of boys. For example, his sister Ginny, who was such a tom boy, and had suddenly become very popular with the boys; his mother who one minute was the sweetest of women, was insane with rage the next, but whatever else he thought of Molly, Ron loved her, but there was no denying she was barking. And to top the list Hermione and of course, Luna Lovegood. Both of them confusing as all get out, if opposite sides of the same coin. There was no denying they were both intelligent, but Hermione seemed to have a never ending romance with books and the library, and Luna always seemed lost in thought, and whenever she said something it surprised Ron. Should he laugh, or was it something Luna had meant seriously? In all girls were too confusing, mostly mad creatures to be admired from a distance. Of late however, he had noticed they were more interesting to admire from up close.
Ron Weasley lay on the ground staring up at the sky, thoughts of Hermione parading across his mind. It hadn’t been that long since they’d last seen one another at the end of term, but he missed her. Ron Weasley didn’t know why exactly that was, they were always arguing about everything. But the odd thing was, it was infinitely more pleasant to argue with Hermione about anything than it was to spend time having anyone agree with everything he said.
“What are you thinking about Ron Weasley?” a familiar voice seemed to emanate from around him.
As the boy lay on his back on a log which lay a few feet away from the shore under the night shade of a weeping willow that sat with a foot in the lake and another on land, not unlike a giant walking out of the water, he smiled up at the full moon before answering.
“Nothing. Just … thinking.”
Ron wondered why suddenly the voice in his mind had suddenly started to sound like Luna Lovegood.
“Thinking about love? It is a full moon night, you know. In the olden days people used to believe that full moons would drive people crazy,” the girl sat next to him on the log.
“Luna!” Ron exclaimed looking up and seeing Luna looking down at him.
“Who else did you think it would be Ronald?” the girl asked.
“I … uhm, well … what are you doing out so late? Are you looking for Ginny? Because she‘s asleep.”
“No. I just … I got up to go
snoozlefoo hunting, but I thought I heard something in the distance. I started chasing this dark form through the forests and I saw it come this way.”
“Snoozesingflu?”
Luna stood up, and took out her wand suddenly causing Ron to jump back a bit, as she pointed the weapon at him. He hadn’t meant anything by it, Ron didn’t think he deserved being hexed.
“Luna wai--.”
“Lumos,” she remarked.
Ron turned to look away from the jinx that never came and saw a form standing beside the willow tree. It was a wolf. Ron jumped back again and took his own wand out, pointing like Luna did at the shadow beside the tree. The wolf beside the tree was improbably large, and Ron saw that it was standing. It was a werewolf and it was smiling, almost laughing.
“Ron Weasley? You’re Harry Potter’s friend aren’t you?” The werewolf snarled. The creature began to shift back into human form. “You can put those wands down. If I had wanted either of you dead I would have done it already. I could smell your friend scent there from miles away. As for you … you’re as noisy as a train wreck.”
“If you’re threatening us,” Ron started, but stopped as Luna put her hand on his arm. Ron noticed she had put her wand away.
“If I wanted you dead, you would be,” the boy standing there smiled. He was a handsome boy, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a wicked grin. To Ron’s way of thinking this was the kind of guy that he and all the regular boys hated, cocky, smart, and just plain annoying, someone who woke up in the morning and didn’t have to care if he impressed anyone because he simply did it just by being. “I was sent by … a mutual friend. I just came here to deliver a message. I’m here to warn you about your friend Harry Potter. He’s in trouble. Your friend Ottery has already been caught, and they’re targeting members of the Order.”
“So tell us something we don’t know, Death Eater.” Ron replied.
“I’m not a Death Eater, and if you don’t get to your friend Harry before daylight, he won’t be around for you to get too, later.” The boy was smiling wickedly.
“You know you’re naked?” Luna remarked and Ron blushed as he noticed the boy was standing undressed in front of them.
“One of the drawbacks of being a werewolf,” the boy smiled without the slightest sign of being ashamed.
♥