Happy Valentines Day Freckles

It was a simple thing.

Ron had offered to help McGonagall tidy up Dumbledore's office after the Headmaster took flight. He knew it was the one place Umbridge would never be able to interrupt with another cough and decree that would make everybody's life a misery. It was a sombre job; McGonagall didn't say a word to him, Harry or Hermione while they worked.

Well she did say one thing eventually.

"Mr Weasley, you are the tallest of us all, would you be so kind as to reach up for that box on top of the dresser please?"

"Yes Professor," he mumbled, setting down the tinkling bottles of memories labelled with names Ron had never heard of, Gaunt and Ogden.

McGonagall had explained briefly, before they began their clean up mission, that everything was to be done by hand to prevent them summoning something that was dangerous to touch. Ron had assumed that meant secret Portkeys. He wiped his dusty hands on his trousers and stepped towards the dresser. He reached up and curled his fingers around a wooden box.

McGonagall stepped forward as he lowered the box down and took it from him with a nod of thanks. Ron thought he heard something rolling along the top of the dresser and stepped back cautiously. Harry dumped a pile of damp and mouldy parchment in the middle of the floor and frowned at him.

"What's up?" the dark haired wizard said as he shook the gunk off his hands with a wince.

Ron waited and nothing rolled over the edge and onto the floor.

"Sounds like he's got a remembrall or a snitch up there rolling about. Here, give us a leg up mate." Ron said as he lifted a leg and braced himself against the side of the dresser.

Harry moved forward and crouched. He locked his fingers together beneath Ron's foot and lifted his friend up a little way with a grunt. Ron grabbed the edge of the dresser and squinted through the disturbed dust.

"Be careful you two," Hermione said from her spot at the bookshelves, alphabetising the books that had been scattered all over the room.

"Yes mum," they both replied sarcastically before grinning at each other.

"So what is it?" Harry grunted, "You're heavier than you look y'know?"

"Typical seeker," Ron muttered, "No upper body strength."

"What are you boys doing?" McGonagall finally snapped.

"There's something rolling around up here Professor," Ron called over his shoulder before shaking his sleeve over his fingers and fumbling around blindly for whatever he's heard.

"Well don't touch it if you don't know what it is you foolish boy!" The old witch was wide eyed and marching over to the weakening Harry.

"Seriously Ron...too much cream cake at dinner, you need to go on a diet!"

"Oh sod off, I'm thinner than your arm!" Ron scolded before his eyes widened and he pulled his arms back, "Ah, got it!"

"Good!" Harry said as he dropped Ron back down heavily.

Ron stumbled and McGonagall steadied him.

"Thanks, sorry!" He flushed in the face and ears at McGonagall's wrinkled hand pressing against his chest.

"Honestly boy, I've seen you trip over your own feet in an empty corridor, one of these days you'll grow into that body of yours."

Ron's embarrassment grew and he cleared his throat before looking down at the object he was holding with the cuff of his school jumper. He frowned and saw a glass ‘S' shape with smoke swirling inside it and some kind of tarnished brass frame around it to keep the glass from breaking should it be dropped. The frame was like three wire hoops overlapping to form a sphere and the smoke glowed orange as Ron and McGonagall leaned in close to peer at it.

"What d'ya think? A fancy remembrall?" Ron asked as he scrunched up his nose.

"No," McGonagall said with curiosity, "If I'm not mistaken it appears to be one of the earlier attempts to make a reusable time turner."

"Ooh!" Hermione said brightly as she set down the pile of books she was sorting and made her way over to have a look at this magical artefact.

"There's no chain though," Harry frowned, "how does it work?"

"I've no idea?" McGonagall shrugged lightly as she leaned back, straightening up and lifting her chin, "For all we know it doesn't. If it were any good as a time turner then we would be using then rather than the traditional hourglass version."

Ron gave a disappointed tut.

"So it doesn't even work?" he grumbled before taking it in his other hand to give it a good hard shake.

"Mr Weasley what did we say about bare hands?" McGonagall hissed with worried eyes but the bright orange smoke seeped out of the glass ‘S' and swirled around Ron's hand.

"Ron!" Harry said fearfully, lunging towards his friend.

"Don't touch him!" McGonagall held out her arm as a barrier to keep Harry back.

Ron tried to drop the wire orb but it was as if he had pins and needles in his hand and couldn't feel or move it in any way. The smoke was growing and creeping up his arm to his elbow now, and Ron turned his wide blue eyes on his teacher and terrified friends.

"I can't let go!"

McGonagall drew her wand and pointed it at the smoke, which now passed Ron's shoulder and was numbing his chest and throat. Ron lifted his chin and turned his head away so he didn't breathe any of the orange vapour in, but he was almost engulfed now.

"Finite Incantatem!" McGonagall said with a commanding glare.

As the spell whooshed from the tip of her wand Harry and Hermione cried out and Ron was blinded by glowing orange smoke.

---

"What d'you think it is?" a voice echoed inside Ron's head before seeming to break out and rattle the walls of whatever room he was in.

"Practice snitch I bet," another voice lazily replied, causing his head to spin a little more.

"Oh come off it Padfoot, he's too bloody big to be a seeker!" somebody snorted derisively.

Padfoot?

Ron forced his eyes open and gasped as the bright light stung his retinas. He was in the middle of attempting to sit up when he brought his hands to his eyes with a wince and fell backwards again.

"Shit, get Madam Buhb now!" a worried voice snapped and Ron heard footsteps running away from him.

"Who? Madam...Padfoot?" Ron tried to take in everything he'd just heard that made no sense while laying back on the pillow.

He was in bed and stuff hurt. That could only mean the hospital wing.

"Madam Padfoot!" somebody chuckled, "Oh I've got to tell him that one when he comes back."

The person's mirth ebbed away and a hand gently shook his shoulder while the tone of the person at his bedside softened.

"Hey Freckles, it's alright, the school nurse is coming and she'll fix you right up."

Ron cracked his eyelids open a fraction and tried to focus upon the person who was talking to him. He saw pale skin, round glasses and dark hair sticking up at every angle.

"Harry?" he winced before gritting his teeth and forcing himself to sit up.

"Whoa there freckles!" the familiar face but unfamiliar voice said as Ron felt suddenly sick and swayed dramatically, "Easy kid, we'll find your mate and get you home but let Buhb sort you out first okay?"

"Buhb?" Ron grimaced as he rubbed his sore head and looked back at Harry's face.

"You don't go to this school do ya? Which leads to the question how did you get in but I happen to know a few ins and outs that aren't really permitted so let's not go there, eh?" The slightly wrong sounding Harry winked cockily.

Harry wasn't cocky, never, not even in the slightest.

"I don't...I go to Hog...This isn't my school?" Ron began to look around him too quickly and totally lost his bearings. "Where? What?"

As if the room had flipped upside down and then began revolving around him at high speed Ron felt him body being pulled by gravity and flung out his arms to break his fall.

"Shit!" Harry said as Ron felt arms curling around him and the room turning right way up again, "You've got vertigo haven't you kid? That must've been some whack on the head."

"Somebody hit me?" Ron mumbled before closing his eyes tightly and trying to remember being in a fight.

"You don't even know you were hit do you?" Harry...no...Harry putting on that weird voice said as he eased Ron back onto his back and pulled the covers over him again, "Bastard. If I find out who did it I'll-"

"See, James is looking after him," the other voice returned along with clippy-cloppy footsteps and a soft feminine hand upon Ron's brow.

"Thank you Mr Potter, Mr Black," The woman said.

"Sirius?" Ron blurted as he tried to sit up and see straight again.

"You know him?" Harry said in shock.

"I've never seen him before in my life!" the voice that sounded like Ginny doing an impersonation of Sirius replied.

"Oh Godric," Ron sighed as he slumped into his pillow wearily, "I've been confunded."

"Bastards!" Harry said again.

"What?" The fake Sirius said.

"Slytherin Bastards!" Harry yelled.

"Language if you please!" the nurse that wasn't Madam Pomfrey snapped harshly, "Get out of my hospital if you want to talk like you're in a locker room."

"Sorry Miss," both ever so familiar yet all too wrong voices replied shamefully.

Ron tried to blink his eyes back into proper focus again but the two robed boys were leaving and hissing to each other darkly.

"He said Godric, he's one of our lot and some fucker from Slytherin's had a go at him while he wasn't even looking."

"Let's see what Snivellus knows about this."

"No wait," Ron called after them but he was held down on the bed by the firm hand of the nurse.

"Lie still dear. Let me give you something to relax you while your head settles itself and all your thoughts are back in order again."

Ron looked at the nurse, younger than Madame Pomfrey but older than his mother, and shook his head.

"Where's Harry and Hermione? That wasn't Harry."

"Shhhh," the woman smiled as she lifted Ron into a sitting position and brought a small glass bottle to his lips, "Drink this you poor thing."

"No," Ron batted at the woman's arm lazily, "McGonagall! I was with her, helping her tidy and...and... Where's that time remembrall thing?"

The woman tipped the potion past Ron's lips and into his mouth while he put up a pathetic fight and then grew heavy in her arms.

"I'll speak to Professor McGonagall about your detention or homework or whatever it is you're fretting about. Don't you worry dear. You just rest now."

This dream was pissing him off anyway, Ron thought, he'd let himself sleep normally again.

---

Ron sat on the windowsill of the hospital wing and looked out over the grounds of Hogwarts. He was amazed at how sprightly the Whomping Willow tree looked before realising that it had only just been planted. It was February and the trees were still bare. The Hospital wing was warmed by the blazing fire and somebody had very kindly placed a vase of daffodils on his bedside table

McGonagall had come to see him and asked him how he knew her name and why he thought he'd been called to the school to help her with ‘busywork'.

The fact that it was Hogwarts and yet not Hogwarts, McGonagall and Dumbledore were there and yet didn't have a clue who he was, and that Sirius Black and Harry's father were still alive and young made Ron think it was probably best to play the amnesia card.

James, it felt so odd for Ron to think of Harry's dad as James and not Mr Potter, had been stopping by to chat with him every few hours. He came by at breakfast, lunch and dinner and vowed to drop by again after Quidditch practice. Apparently he and Sirius had been to everybody in the fifth year asking them if they were a friend of Ron's and nobody had even heard of him.

Sirius had shrugged him off and said that he was probably some squib trying to bluff his way into Hogwarts, but James had brought some sweets with him on his last visit and casually asked Ron how he managed to make himself more invisible than he could.

"I've got an invisibility cloak and I've nearly been seen loads of times," James had shrugged, "Yet here you are, taller than me, better looking than me," Ron had blushed at that, "bright red hair and yet nobody even saw you."

Ron smiled and turned away from him.

"I come from a big family; I'm used to nobody seeing me."

That had been when it happened.

James had shuffled forward and put his arm around Ron. He told him he'd always be looking out for him from then on. He mentioned something about betting Ron would make a good fox for Padfoot and Moony to play with and Ron struggled not to blurt out that Wormtail shouldn't be trusted.

He remembered something Hermione had told him about when she used her Time Turner in the third year. She'd said that you didn't really change anything the second time around, you just saw the same events from a different perspective and sometimes saw how you accidentally influenced a change. Ron worried that he'd only mess things up for Harry if he interfered.

He refused to meet the other ‘Marauders' and chose to stay in the hospital wing.

Madam Buhb, that wasn't her name as it turned out - James and Sirius had named her Madam Broomstick-Up-Her-Backside, had been on at him to give her his home address but the Burrow wasn't even built yet. He told her he didn't remember where he lived or his parents' names, all he knew was that he was called Ron and he went to Hogwarts and McGonagall was his teacher.

Something inside Ron had felt woozy for a moment and he could've sworn that Dumbledore had performed Legilemancy on him but the man's eyes twinkled and he turned away and left. Ron had asked after the toy snitch he told them he remembered having before he got confused, but nobody thought he was thinking clearly and the experimental Time Turner was soon pushed to the back of his mind by thoughts and fears about what he was going to do all on his own with so much knowledge about the future.

He jumped as the doors to the hospital wing banged open and James strode in with a huge grin on his face and threw Ron a currant bun before sitting on the sill with him and looking out at the grounds, purple and pink from the light of the setting sun. Ron picked at the bun and kept his eyes fixed on Hagrid's hut.

"Sorry it's so plain but everything else for dessert was pink. Valentines Day is coming up. Anyway, my mates are feeling neglected Ron," James said, nudging Ron's knee with his foot and grinning widely when Ron shifted his eyes up briefly to meet his, "Padfoot thinks I fancy you. He's writing his best man speech now."

James waited for Ron to laugh. He didn't.

"Look Freckles I'm sorry if we ignored you and I'm sorry nobody remembered you or..." James began to realise that what he was saying would only make somebody in Ron's situation worse, "But I'm here now and I'll be your friend."

James slapped Ron on the arm and tried to coax a smile out of Ron with his confidently winning grin.

Ron gave a half-hearted smile and looked back out at the great lake with a deep sigh.

"I had a friend," he said, so quietly he was amazed the James even heard him.

"Yeah? What's his name?"

Ron swallowed.

"Doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters!" James said, shifting along the window sill and lifting Ron's chin with his hand, "Look Ron, people drift apart but I promise you they never stop caring. I still think about the kid I used to climb trees with when I was a tyke an-"

"He wasn't a childhood friend. He was my real friend, my best friend." Ron felt his eyes stinging and struggled not to blink and send the tears out over his cheeks.

James seemed to shift uncomfortably before scooching closer and putting his arms around Ron's shoulders.

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know," Ron shook his head and shrugged.

James' hand lifted to Ron's face and his finger stroked the copper hair back to tap at the side of his head with a sad smile.

"Lost in here is he?"

Ron stared back at James and nodded.

"You'll get him back."

Ron couldn't stand looking at the very person he was talking about, the same but different in such important ways, and pulled his head away from the gentle hand beside it to wipe his eyes with the heel of his palm.

"I'm really sorry Freckles. Don't you like me so close?" James said; face falling and sliding back to put some distance between them again.

"No I'm just...this is all really weird, everything not just you. I know how he felt now."

"How d'ya mean?" James tilted his head to one side and forced Ron to meet his eyes again.

"My friend, he had nobody, he was invisible and nobody missed him. Nobody gave him birthday or Christmas presents. Nobody gave him the time of day until I spoke to him and he was so grateful y'know? As if being friends with me was like...an honour." Ron spoke about Harry as if he was in awe of himself and his friend.

"I'm sure it is," James said, hand moving forward again, very slowly this time, "is this alright Freckles?"

Ron wiped his eyes again and sniffed, nodding his head. James smiled and curled his fingers around Ron's limp hand and held it gently.

"Look, you should go back to your mates," Ron said with a forced smile, "don't worry about me, Dumbledore'll find somewhere for me to go soon enough."

"But you belong here," James said as if Ron was overlooking the blatantly obvious.

"I don't belong anywhere," Ron shook his head, "The place I belong doesn't exist and by the time I get to belong again it'll be too late."

---

Aurors, Healers, Ministers and even the sixth year prefects from each house had been summoned to be questioned on how they ever missed, and never noticed this redhead.

James would keep stopping by. He never told anyone, not even Sirius, that the kid remembered more than he was letting on. James knew he wasn't lying about being lost and having nowhere and no one though and that broke his heart. It hurt just like it did when they first met Remus. James would sit beneath the tree in the grounds with the lads and toss around the home made snitch the kid had on him when they found him passed out in the headmaster's office. Sirius would torment Snivellus, Remus would roll his eyes and sigh, Peter would giggle behind his hand.

James lost heart in bullying Snape though. He couldn't laugh at the lonely slimeball's humiliation when Ron was sitting in the hospital wing with nobody missing him, looking for him, caring that he'd been hurt.

"Hey Prongs," Sirius called out, slightly annoyed at James' sudden departure, "where ya going? Finally got the balls to ask Evans out for Valentine's Day tomorrow?"

"I'm gonna see if they found that kid's family yet, don't get your knickers in a twist Padfoot." James winked at Sirius cheekily.

"I was planning on twisting Snivillus' knickers but there's not much point with no bloody audience is there?" Sirius huffed as he slouched back against the trunk of the tree.

"No fun these days is he Padfoot?" Peter giggled.

"No Wormtail, he isn't," Sirius muttered as he folded his arms.

"It's called growing up and acting your age Sirius," Remus said with amusement, "Maybe you'll both give it a try one of these days."

"Never!" Sirius said in mock outrage.

"Never!" Peter squeaked and chuckled.

James could barely hear Sirius' grumbles now and continued tramping through the grass.

"Giving up on one red head and settling for another is it?" Sirius called after him, "Hate to break it to you James but you do know the confunded kid's a chap don't you. Got a willy and everything!"

"Ignore him James," a soft voice said from a patch of grass to his left, "I think it's wonderful that you're talking the time to keep that poor boy company."

"Cheers Evans," James smiled before catching something she tossed his way.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away," she grinned.

"You what?" he frowned.

"Say that to him and if he pulls that face you know he's a pureblood," Lily laughed as she got to her feet and set off for class.

James threw the apple in the air and caught it before polishing on his robes.

"Nothing wrong with Muggleborns if you ask me," James grinned.

"Didn't say there was," Evans called back to him, "I just thought you'd enjoy knowing something about him that even he might not know."

"Cheers Evans," James called after her thoughtfully.

"Happy Valentines Day, James," she said with a wave.

He watched her go before continuing on his way to the hospital wing.

---

"Where did you find it, Ronald?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

Ron shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot before nodding up to the top of the dresser in the Headmaster's office.

"Ah yes, I had a student with telekinetic powers once, puberty meant that had no control over balls."

Ron's eyes widened.

"Oh yes, balls flying everywhere, most inconvenient, although very good for Quidditch practice I seem to recall."

Ron almost snorted with laughter. He managed to restrict himself to a smile.

"Tell me Ron; are you a Prewett or a Weasley?" Dumbledore smiled as he looked over the rims of his glasses at Ron.

"Sir?"

"You must be one or the other, I see so much of the twins in you and yet...the hair screams Weasley."

"The twins!" Ron gaped.

"Fabian and Gideon."

"Oh," Ron said before laughing and nodding, "they're my Uncles sir."

"A Prewett!" Dumbledore said with delight.

"No, Weasley, my mum was a Prewett."

Dumbledore sat back in his chair and looked faintly proud.

"Molly's boy," he whispered before clapping his hands and springing up from his chair, "Righty-ho then, let's take a look shall we?"

"Huh?" Ron blinked as he watched the Headmaster make his way over to the dresser, "Oh right!"

Ron got out of his chair and stooped over to give Dumbledore a leg up.

"Watch out for the box of memories in bottles," Ron called out as he lifted the Headmaster upwards by his bare foot.

"I see no box of memories up here Ronald," the man said before looking down at him with a glint in his eye, "but never fear, I will know where to put them when I acquire some."

Ron laughed at this and watched as Dumbledore felt around for the Time orb thingy.

"Careful you don't touch it, that's what set me off sir."

Dumbledore hopped down to the floor with the wire framed glass ‘S' between what looked like two thimbles and beamed at Ron with delight.

"There! Do you know what this means Ronald?"

"It means you know I was telling you the truth," Ron smiled widely.

"Oh dear boy," Dumbledore chortled before pulling Ron into his side with one arm, "I've always known you were telling the truth, an Occlumens you are not. No, this means we can send you back home."

---

James felt his stomach lurch as he wandered into the hospital wing to find it empty.

"Professor Dumbledore took him away earlier," Madam Buhb said as she stripped the kid's bed, "seems we've found where our lost boy belongs at last."

"He's...He's gone home?"

James didn't know why this unsettled him so much. He told himself it was just that he'd have liked to have said goodbye. Maybe he wanted to keep in touch with the kid, give him someone to turn to. But it was more than that, Freckles had lost so much and James enjoyed being something, someone he had found. There was something in the way those brightly coloured eyes would look at him, it felt as if the kid had known him for years...really known him.

He sighed deeply and walked over to Freckles' stripped bed as Buhb left and sat down. He picked idly at the mattress and tried to tell himself that this was a good thing that had happened to the kid.

"Don't be so bloody selfish, Prongs," he muttered to himself.

"Why are you being selfish?"

The sound of Freckles' voice made him jump to his feet. James forgot himself for a second and gave the kid a delighted smile.

"I thought you'd gone."

"I'm going tomorrow morning," Ron said, "Dumbledore wants to make sure he does it right...the thing he has to do to get me home safe."

"Complicated Portkey is it?" James said, his overwhelming sadness swelling around him again like a rain cloud appearing out of the clear February sky.

"Something like that," Freckles shrugged, taking a step forward and folding his arms across his chest.

"You don't have to go y'know. You could stay. You could go to school here, get sorted and stay at Hogwarts. It doesn't matter if you get sorted into my house or not, I'd still be your friend." James hated how desperate he sounded but the truth was he was desperate.

He didn't want the kid to go.

"You don't want me hanging round you and your mates," Freckles smiled as he sat beside James, cross-legged, and stared down at the floor.

"Why do you say that?" James asked, wondering what he'd done to make the kid feel unwanted, "I come here all the time don't I?"

The blue eyes turned and fixed on him, soon the freckled face followed them and the corner of the kid's mouth twisted up into a lop-sided kind of smile.

"Yeah, thanks for that."

James laughed sadly and shook his head, swinging his arm around the kid's shoulders casually and leaning his head against the mop of copper hair beside him.

"I'm gonna miss you."

"Come off it," the kid blushed.

James marvelled at this. He made Freckles blush. He could feel the heat from the tips of his ears through his hair. It felt nice.

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend having pink confetti thrown into your tea and feeding each other chocolates shaped like hearts or something?" the kid asked, changing the subject.

"I don't have a girlfriend," James shrugged.

"Of course you do!" Freckles said with a ‘pft' sound.

James shoved the kid onto his side, causing the redhead to chuckle, and began play fighting with him.

"What's that supposed to mean? Why have I got to have a girlfriend?"

"Because you do, I know you do!" The kid was teasing him.

James pinned the freckled arms to the bed by the wrists and loomed over him mock threateningly.

"You think you know a lot for a guy who doesn't know anything Freckles!" James smirked before realising that the kid wasn't struggling beneath him any more.

The kid wasn't struggling or giggling and yet James kept on holding him. They stared into each other's faces, blinking occasionally, and catching their breath. James was shouting at his brain to sit up and brush himself down casually but instead he was lowering himself down on top of the kid and breathing slowly and deeply.

The kid's eyes were huge and his pupils ate up all the blue around them leaving two big black pools that reflected James' image back at him. He could feel the shallow breaths coming from the slightly parting lips and sensed which way to turn his head at the same moment the kid turned his the other.

James' head screamed inside to stop. What was he doing to this poor confused fifth year? Why did it feel so right? It's the red hair and bright eyes, he reminded him of Evans. It was Evans he wanted. It was Evans not the kid.

"Not Harry," Freckles whimpered to himself as he closed his eyes and opened his mouth, ready to receive the kiss.

James suddenly felt disgusted at himself, holding a confused sixteen year old down and trying to snog him, he threw himself away and jumped up off the bed.

"Oh Godric Freckles, I'm sorry."

"James?" the kid frowned as he sat up a little and called after him shakily, "I'm...it's my fault, my fault for teasing you. I didn't know you were...I thought you were with...I didn't mean..."

James turned and stared at him.

"Nothing's your fault okay kid? Whoever keeps telling you that is an idiot. Don't listen to them Freckles. You deserve better. Remember that when you go home."

James turned and ran from the hospital wing.

---

Ron found James waiting for him back at the hospital wing and things had been awkwardly comfortable between them.

"I'm gonna miss you." James said as he tightened the one armed hug around Ron's body.

"Come off it," Ron shifted uncomfortably; this was so hard to get his head around.

Was he embarrassed because he liked having somebody who looked just like Harry being so physically affectionate with him or was it because he liked James?

He felt James' head pressing into the side of his face with a sigh and willed his bloody ears to calm themselves down and not glow beneath his hair. James or Harry, this was wrong either way, and Ron couldn't mess up the future by making Harry Potter's dad all gay. Harry wouldn't even be born. That alone made Ron feel terrified. He had to make sure that Mr and Mrs Potter would get married and have Harry. Maybe that was what he was there for.

"Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend having pink confetti thrown into your tea and feeding each other chocolates shaped like hearts or something?" Ron said, desperate to bring Lily into the conversation somehow.

"I don't have a girlfriend," James shrugged.

Ron knew that was a lie, Harry had told him that Sirius and Lupin told him James and Lily got together in seventh year. It was February so they must be at least casually going out.

"Of course you do!" Ron said with amusement as if he knew what game James was playing with him and why.

James gave Ron a two handed push and he toppled over onto his side, not having a lot of stability sitting cross-legged after all, and he gave a chuckle. This was alright; this was like fighting with his brothers and Ginny. This was like when he'd tickle Hermione in the common room. This was like getting rough with Harry at Quidditch practice. Maybe he needn't worry about James and his love life at all. Maybe James just saw the little brother Sirius and Lupin could never be. His Marauders were equals and friends, and one sycophant traitor, but James probably liked having a younger brother to tease and take care of.

Fair enough, Harry had said his dad had an ego in his youth, so maybe that was part of it too. Maybe James liked that Ron looked up to him. Ron had caught himself just gazing at James in awe; after all, he was Harry's dad! He was the person Harry was always compared to. James Potter was the original and Harry was the copy. What wasn't impressive about that?

Ron had some play fighting moves up his over-long sleeve though. He was a pro after having to see off five older brothers. Merlin even Percy had pinned him down and recited History of Magic revision notes to him in his first year. Ron chuckled and squirmed like an eel. Every time James tried to grab a flailing limb he'd twist away and give the older wizard a dig in the ribs, making him flinch and grow even more frustrated at not being able to get a hold if the wriggling redhead.

"What's that supposed to mean? Why have I got to have a girlfriend?" James panted as he managed to shove Ron backwards by the shoulders before his hands were batted away.

"Because you do, I know you do!" Ron leaned forward and made a sappy face, the one Fred and George always made when they were winding him up about Hermione.

Ron sniggered and dropped back down, flat onto the bed, at the annoyed and embarrassed expression on James' face. His guard lowered, he wasn't fast enough to dodge the two hands that lunged for his wrists with the reflexes of a Chaser and held him down firmly.

James' eyes gleamed triumphantly as he forced Ron into submission. He smiled widely and panted heavily into Ron's face. Ron was also breathing quickly from the exertion of the wrestling match but he'd stopped fighting long ago. He just lay beneath the dark haired wizard and stared up at him as he hovered over him like a predator.

"You think you know a lot for a guy who doesn't know anything, Freckles!" James gloated cockily, before looking at him in a way that made Ron mouth fall open slightly.

Ron just lay beneath the older boy's body; arms still pined above his head, and tried to get his brain to function again. If this had been one of the twins he'd be thrashing and hollering until he bucked them away and the fight would continue. This wasn't one of the twins though, this was James, this was James who was almost lying on top of him and lowering himself down and gripping Ron's wrists as if frightened of what would happen if he let go.

Ron swallowed and stared up at the familiar face that was ever so slightly wrong. No green eyes, no lightning bolt scar, no burden or self doubt weighing heavy on him. He was confident, arrogant, funny, kind, loyal James Potter and he was still lowering himself down closer to Ron's face. Ron tried to calm his breathing but he couldn't while he was torn between excited and petrified.

He found himself lifting his head away from the mattress and tilting his head to one side. His eyes were wallowing in every detail of James' face, every tiny difference between father and son, every little thing Harry never got to see. Ron had the thing Harry longed for but he seemed to have him in a completely different way. Ron felt himself reaching for James' lips as they parted and his steaming hot breath caressed Ron's face.

This wasn't about Harry any more. This wasn't Ron using James to replace his lost best friend. This was about a person who saw him for what he was. He didn't see a Weasley, or anyone's brother, he didn't see shabby clothes or an emotional mess. He saw Ron and Ron saw James. Red hair and freckles did not make him the same as all his brothers, and glasses, messy black hair and oh so familiar features didn't make James the same as Harry.

"Not Harry," Ron breathed before closing his eyes and letting his mouth open wider, needing...wanting...craving James' kiss.

James released Ron's arms and took a backwards leap away from Ron as if he had suddenly realised that the boy was covered head to foot in stink sap.

"Oh Godric Freckles I'm sorry."

Ron's eyes snapped open and he pushed himself up on his elbows, utterly lost at what he had done wrong.

"James?" he called out nervously, before realising he'd just made a move on somebody who he'd just been trying to get together with his wife-to-be. "I'm...it's my fault, my fault for teasing you. I didn't know you were...I thought you were with..." Ron's voice was becoming lost to tremors of panic, "I didn't mean..."

James turned and stared at him.

"Nothing's your fault okay kid? Whoever keeps telling you that is an idiot."

James' words warmed Ron inside. He just understood, he just knew him so well and Ron hadn't really told him anything.

"Don't listen to them Freckles. You deserve better. Remember that when you go home." James said hoarsely before sprinting from the hospital wing.

Ron flung himself from the bed and set off after him.

"James!" he called after the billowing black robes ahead of him.

Ron was taller than any Potter and his legs could catch up with a running Potter with no problem at all. He upped his pace and pumped his arms.

"James I'm sorry, wait up!" He yelled.

The dark haired figure slowed and turned with a huff before catching Ron about the shoulders just as he was about to run right into him. The dark eyes stared into Ron as fingers drove deep into his upper arms and he shook Ron with a frustrated snarl.

"Go back and leave me alone kid! I wanted to say goodbye before you left and I did and now I've got to go down to the Valentines Day party in the common room and you've got to go home and everything'll be back to normal again."

"Back the way it should be y'mean?" Ron said, breathlessly.

"Exactly!" James said, giving Ron another bracing shake before realising what he was doing and letting him go, "Don't you ever feel you owe anybody...that...just because they were nice to you kid. I wasn't coming to see you every day because I wanted to...to..."

"I didn't think you wanted me," Ron shook his head and tried to smile reassuringly, "don't worry."

James' whole face darkened again and he shoved Ron into the tapestry behind him and crushed his lips against Ron's roughly. Ron's eyes widened in shock before he let his mouth be pried open and moved his hands around behind James' back to pull him even closer.

James was holding Ron's face and driving his tongue deep inside with urgent moans and grunts of passion before changing the angle of his head and sucking on Ron's tongue as if it was the greatest frustration in the world that it was inside Ron's mouth other than his.

Ron rubbed his tongue against the underside of James' and began to claw at the robe and shirt to get at bare skin. James' hips pressed into his and Ron gaped at the sensation of a hard cock digging into his thigh.

James released Ron's face and stepped back. His cheeks were red and his lips were swollen. He wiped his chin with the back of his hand and his eyes look wide and wild as he stared at Ron the way Ron would stare at chocolate cake.

"This is why," James panted darkly, "you have to go away."

James turned on his heel and stormed off down the corridor with heavy, booming strides. Ron was left gasping for breath and doubling over his hardening cock as he slid down the wall and put his head in his hands.

"Oh fuck!" he whimpered.

---

As Ron lay on his newly made bed in the Hospital wing and tried to sleep through the sounds of fireworks, parties, Professors yelling that the parties had to stop and his own brain calling himself all the names under the sun, he felt a hand glide softly over his hair. He forced his eyes shut so Madam Buhb didn't try to force a sleeping draught down his throat.

The hand lingered and the fingers slid through his locks. Ron opened his eyes again, if this was the school nurse than she wasn't acting very professionally. Ron rolled over and his eyes bulged as he saw James leaning over him, fingers idly sliding across his fringe, his cheek, his jawbone and his thumb stroking along Ron's bottom lip.

"You're really confusing me kid," James said, his voice cracking as he spoke.

"I'm sorry," Ron whispered, daring not to lean in or move away from the tender caress.

James sat on the edge of Ron's bed and supported his weight with his left arm, hand pressing into the mattress on the other side of Ron's head.

"Shhhh," James said with a sign of resignation as he leaned down and kissed Ron's lips softly.

Ron lifted his chin and eased into the kiss gently. It was brief at first, just a delicate brush across the soft pink flesh, before James moved his head back to look down at Ron. Then it would happen again, as before, a feather light touch of the lips and a lingering gaze that they were both still okay with this. Soon enough Ron licked his lips during one of James' pauses of wonderment and adoration and the older boy's hand curled around the back of Ron's freckled neck and he dove forward to sink into real kiss.

"Oh Godric," James sighed with resignation and desire as they began to taste each other as if they were sucking upon the most delightfully sweet toffee.

Ron let his hand lose itself in black hair and thrust his tongue into James' mouth so he would know for sure this time that this was what he wanted. James moaned into Ron's mouth and his velvet tones spoke against his welcoming lips.

"Is this okay?"

As he asked the question he swung his leg over Ron's body o he was straddling him. He waited before lowering he weight down onto Ron's body. Ron nodded and reached up to pull James' face back down into more deep lingering kisses.

"Couldn't stop thinking about you," James said as he changed the angle of his head and set about sucking and kissing down the side of Ron's neck.

"I'm not..." Ron paused to let out a gasp of pleasure before gripping James' hair tightly and throwing his own head back, "It's not just because I'm lonely. It's ‘cause it's you."

James pulled back and he looked at Ron, face breaking into a delighted smile.

"Exactly," he nodded, "it's just you, something about you."

Ron reached forward and pulled James back into him, nuzzling and nipping at his neck now that he knew how wonderful it felt. James made a blissful sound and both his hands were running over Ron's back, then his chest and then his arms before he pulled backwards with a grunt and began pulling Ron's far too baggy t-shirt over his head and throwing it aside to get at Ron's skin.

"Godric Freckles," he gasped before trailing kisses all over Ron's chest, "so many freckles."

Ron laughed before tugging at James' shirt, pulling it out from his trousers and setting about the buttons.

"You too, wanna see you," Ron muttered as he hurriedly fumbled with each button in turn before James huffed and ripped the shirt open. Ron was incredibly impressed with this, "Wow!"

He ran his hands all over the perfectly unblemished skin, never having seen so much un-freckled flesh this close up before, and kissed all the way along James' collarbone.

"I love your skin," James marvelled before sinking his teeth into Ron's shoulder lightly and sucking upon the smooth salty flesh, "like a hard peach. My favourite fruit peaches."

Ron was panting as he turned his head and pushed his way before James' face with his long nose and smiled against the older boy's lips.

"Speckled peaches?" Ron joked before stroking James' lips apart with his tongue.

James opened his mouth to receive the kiss and made a slurping sound against Ron's tongue that caused them both to chuckle.

"You're making my mouth water," James shrugged, his eyes gliding all over Ron's face and his hand stroking his hair, "so fruity!"

Ron licked his lips and drew circles around James' nipple with the pad of his thumb.

"I always preferred strawberries myself," he said before tugging at James' bottom lip with his own, "cherries," James moaned and Ron took the plush red lip deeper into his mouth and sucked upon it decadently, "big juicy plums."

James growled and pushed Ron down onto the bed.

"You know exactly what you're doing to me don't you?" he said as he ground his hips against Ron's.

"I know exactly what I want," Ron smiled up at him hopefully.

---

So what if he was only just sixteen? So what if he was lost and alone? So what if he was a bloody he?

James wanted him. He wanted him now and he wanted the same thing.

He lingered above the kid's body as if he was flexed to do some push ups before Quidditch practice, one hand flat on either side of those gorgeously freckled shoulders, and he rubbed his hard cock against the firm bulge in the younger wizard's pyjama bottoms. He almost came just from the sight of the kid biting his bottom lip and writhing with pleasure beneath him.

"James...please!" the kid said breathlessly.

"I want you," James said as he lowered himself down, resting his chest upon the delightfully freckles and fascinatingly narrow one beneath him.

Freckles nodded urgently before sliding a hand down James' bare back and beneath the waistband of his trousers. James' smile grew wide and he thrust hard into Ron's groin with his own straining dick.

"You've done this before eh?" he grunted in an animalistic way.

The kid swallowed and shook his head before pushing James down by the small of his back and jerking his hips up to meet him halfway and grind their pelvis' together. James suddenly felt that caretaking part of him who he had sent to bed some time ago wake up with a start.

"You've never...You're a virgin?" he blinked down at the sexiest thing he'd even seen in disbelief.

"Uh-huh," the kid said as his head tilted back and his eyes closed, a crinkle between his eyes forming as he began to rock his hips rhythmically.

While James' cock and libido roared with delight at the sight of the kid arching his back away from the bed and whimpering with unfulfilled need his head warned him to be gentle. He pounced hungrily at the teasingly wet lips and eased the kid's pyjama bottoms down over the curve of his arse. James' cock almost ruptured through his underpants and trousers as Freckles moaned and shimmied his hips to aid the removal of his last item of clothing.

"Fuck you're too sexy for a virgin!" James grunted as he thrust his groin hard into the gyrating hips beneath him, so bony and lithe.

He was so slender James thought he might be able to get his fingers and thumbs to touch if he curled them around his waist.

"You're sexy," the kid strained back, through the throes of desire and fleeting satisfaction he was experiencing with every thrust.

"Yeah well...Padfoot's a randy dog some nights," James confessed, never imagining he could ever tell such an important secret to anyone let alone a stranger he just met.

The bright blue eyes bulged and James wondered if he'd just blown it with his revelation. The kid's chest rose and fell rapidly and his mouth was, as it always seemed to be to James, tantalisingly open with breathless wonder.

"Please fuck me," those beautiful glistening lips said with an audible breath.

James almost bit through his lip...hell his whole lower jaw almost shattered.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said, internally beating himself senseless for attempting to talk the kid out of this when he looked so bloody hot.

"You won't..." Freckles pleaded, "you don't...you couldn't. Please?"

James growled and kissed the breath out of the kid before dragging his lips down his throat, passed the collarbone, down the breastbone, on a guided tour of the haphazard dusting of freckles all over the taut stomach, down to that divine well of a belly button where a trickle of sweat edged agonisingly slowly towards the edge only to be lapped up hungrily by James' tongue.

Still he moved downwards.

His hands gripping gyrating hipbones and holding them steady. His dick leaking a little at the wonderful sound of protest that came from the back of the kid's throat now that he couldn't rub against James' body anymore and the sight of stomach muscles straining against the firm hands that held him still.

"James please!" he gasped and James tried to take a mental picture of this moment forever, he'd never seen or felt anything quite so beautiful in his life.

James' head lowered further, hands still pressing the writhing pelvis down into the mattress, and pushed his tongue down the length of the kid's cock all the way to the head. He heard the kid's breath hitch and couldn't stand to tease him any longer.

"If you were gonna ask me to stop," James spoke in a deep rough voice against the hard dick surrounded by wiry copper curls, "we're way past the point of me being able to."

"God please don't," Freckles cried out, "don't you fucking dare stop now!"

James smiled and swallowed the dick all the way down to the root and began manipulating the kid's balls with the tip of his tongue. The kid's back, his whole body arched away from the bed and he gripped handfuls of the sheets while appearing to forget how to breathe for some time.

The kid thrust into James' throat and he swallowed against the tip of his penis.

"Oh shit...oh fuck...oh Merlin...oh yes!" the kid panted as he finally remembered to breathe.

James swallowed again and slipped his hand beneath the kid's bucking body and pushed his middle finger up his arse, something he'd learned from Sirius.

"Gjifah!" Freckles exclaimed, apparently no longer able to articulate his euphoria with actual words, and ejaculated into the back of James' throat.

The kid thudded back onto the bed, a sweating, panting boneless heap and he stared up at the ceiling, glassy-eyed for quite some time.

James kissed the inside of the freckled thigh and turned his wrist beneath the weight of the kid's body to remove his finger before the glazed blue eyes blinked and he shook his head and cleared his throat.

"Don't."

"What?" James frowned.

"Don't take it out," Freckles breathed heavily before licking his lips and lifting his heavy head to look right into James in an unnerving way, "I like how it feels, how you feel inside me."

James smiled and began to work his finger in and out of Ron's arsehole before adding a second finger.

"You like that do you?"

"Yeah, oh yeah," Freckles said, eyes closing and head falling back against the pillow, "More!"

James began to bend and flex his finger inside the kid while pushing in deeply and then relaxing. Soon the kid's breathing mirrored the rhythm of his movement and he drew his knees up and pushed his lower half up off the bed.

"Do it."

"Do what Freckles?" James blinked, not daring to hope he understood what the kid meant.

"Do me, do me now," the kid said, sounding determined but nervous, "I want you inside me."

James wanted to give him some reassurances, maybe some warnings. He wanted to tell him he could ask him to stop at any time but he didn't. He didn't say a word because he wanted to do it too. He rose up on his haunches and looked down at the perfect freckled body before him, skin glittering with sweat and moving hypnotically with every breath, and grabbed the kid by the ankles.

"Put your legs over my shoulders Freckles," he instructed, voice as raw and rough as gravel, "and hold on tight to the bed posts."

Aided by James the long pale legs settled upon each shoulder. He shuffled forward on his knees and rubbed both hand reassuringly up and down the sparsely freckled thighs against his chest. He watched as the kid gripped the metal bed frame tightly and rolled his shoulders to get a little more comfortable. The blue eyes looked back at him and the lips pulled into a nervous smile before he nodded his head once.

"I'm ready."

James kissed the inside of the kid's knee and pulled a tube out of his back pocket. He unscrewed the top and emptied the contents into the palm of his hand before throwing the small tube to one side.

"What's that for?" the kid frowned.

James smiled and kissed the inside of the other knee while coating his dick in the warm gel and easing his slick fingers back inside Ron's puckered hole.

"It's so I won't hurt you Freckles," James said as his free hand unbuckled his belt and unzipped his trousers, freeing the needy cock from its torture chamber of fabric and his trembling fingers helped the hard-on out of his underwear.

"I know you won't hurt me," the kid said before his body contorted as his finger hit a sensitive spot and he clenched his teeth.

"It's gonna be nice like that okay?" James said before removing his fingers as the kid nodded his head and gasped, "I'm going to take it nice and easy at the start alright."

James pushed his cock into the kid's tight arsehole. He felt the muscle clench instinctively and stroked his hand up and down the quivering thighs and around to his arse cheeks.

"Relax for me Freckles, I know it's strange but you gotta trust me okay?"

The kid gripped the bed frame so hard James was surprised blood didn't seep between his fingers and clenched his teeth before nodding frantically.

"You gotta breathe too babe," James said kindly before feeling the muscles relax ever so slightly and pushing himself all the way in with a deep grunt.

The kid cried out and drew in a lungful of air that he then expelled before he could use any of the oxygen and repeated this a couple more times before James had to reign himself in and run his hand across the kid's stomach reassuringly.

"You're hyperventilating on me now Freckles. You have to calm own or I can't do this. I won't fuck you if you pass out on me."

The kid laughed through his laboured breaths and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm himself down. James pushed his hand up the freckled torso.

"Let it out kid," then he dragged his hand back down to the stomach, "and breathe it in slowly," against he pushed his flat palm up the trembling body towards his chest, "then let it out."

The kid was calming down and James was being tortured by how hot and tight he was around his cock. He wanted to fuck this sexy redhead through the mattress but he couldn't, at least not yet.

"Just do it, I'll be fine," he said, definitely sounding calmer now, although undoubtedly uncomfortable.

"I'm not going to hurt you," James said again, beginning to rock his hips ever so slightly, "That's not an aim, that's a promise!"

James maintained the rhythm of the kid's steady breathing pattern with his hips and watched as the modest muscles in his arms bulged as he clung onto the bed frame. He followed the fascinating contours down his arm to his shoulders, along the kid's shapely collarbone, and his eyes lingered along the side of the ribcage as it moved in time with his gentle thrusts.

James' need seemed to grow and he began to ease out a fraction before pushing back in and his eyes feasted upon the sight of the body moving with him, against him, beneath him...

He pulled out a little more and thrust back, causing the kid to rattle the bed frame and yelp.

"Shit," hissed James as he pumped into the kid again, like one of those randy stray dogs unable to stop himself.

Again the kid's face twisted and he let out a desperate cry.

"S'okay," he gasped before stifling another moan, "s'good noises. Good noises...Keep goin'!"

James felt like kissing the kid, if that was physically possible, and began to pick up the pace and pump his hips deeper and harder into the tight heat.

"Fucking gorgeous!" James grunted as his fingers dug into the white thighs covered in fair downy hairs.

He could feel the kid's quadriceps rippling beneath the skin, he would bet money on this kid being good on a broom with thighs like that, and continued to push into him and watch his lean stomach flex and contract with every thrust. The redhead gave another whimper and blindly changed his grip on the bed frame. James remembered that feeling. He remembered how incredibly uncomfortable it felt but how he didn't want it to stop for anything. He saw the kid criss-crossing his arms above his head and clinging onto the bedstead for dear life. Sweat beaded and trickled over his whole body, pooling in the valleys and snaking around the hills, and the red hair darkened and stuck to the damp skin beneath.

He shifted forward a little more, standing right up on his knees and pushing the kid's legs in front of him, and pounded hard. He knew it was alright. He knew he could be tender again when it was all over. He knew he could hold the kid and make sure there were no regrets afterwards. Right at that moment though he just had to keep going, pushing, thrusting, deeper, harder, stronger, longer...

"Ohmigod...Ohmigod...Ohmifuckinyes!" James panted as his orgasm overtook him.

The kid's toes were curling and his whole body was shaking. The bed was shaking. James could have sworn he heard the framework of the whole bed groaning with the strain of their shag. The bed posts were definitely rattling loose with every thrash from the kid.

How could he let this go?

How could he let this kid go?

James' thought were wiped clean away as he saw spots and came deep inside the sweetest white arse had ever seen.

---

Ron shifted around to face the person who was snuggled into his back. James' eyes were staring at him sadly while his lips smiled as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"You okay Freckles?"

He nodded and shifted forward to rest his forehead against the older boy's. He closed his eyes and settled down to sleep.

"Don't go."

Ron's eyes sprung open.

"What?"

James was staring at him and his eyes were shining in the moonlight.

"Don't go. Stay here. Stay at school. Stay with me."

"I can't," Ron said sadly, cupping James' cheek with one hand while feeling the stronger, more muscular, leg curl around his and both arms curl around him tightly.

"Why not?" James growled petulantly.

He really was an only child, always used to getting his way with a tantrum or two.

"I don't belong here James, I have to go back."

"But they didn't even miss you!" he snarled, "People who don't pine for you when you're gone don't deserve to have you back."

Ron sighed deeply and pulled James' head into his chest, stroking and patting the back of his head as his mother used to do for him when he was a little boy.

"I was missed. I know I was missed. I always think nobody notices me but...if I was gone there would be so many people who would notice, so many people who would tear the world apart to get me back."

"Then where are they?" James growled into Ron's skin, lifting his leg so his thigh now rested over Ron's hip.

Ron smiled to himself. James had helped him through the discomfort of the physical side of love but he needed Ron to help him through the emotional side of it. If Ron was a master of anything it was expressing his emotions.

"They're waiting for me."

Again James clung to him tightly.

"They can't have you. You're mine now."

"No, you're meant for someone else and I'm meant for some other time."

James looked up and pouted at Ron in a way that Harry never would. James was a lot of things that Harry could never be and manipulative was one of them. Ron could deal with James and understand him better than he ever could Harry.

"Put that bottom lip away you or I'll bit it off and take it with me," he grinned.

"You'll take a piece of me with you?" James' face lit up.

"Always," Ron said with a smile and a kiss to the very lip in question.

"And you can suck on it and think of me?"

"Sounds good."

"Okay so that means I get something in exchange. You have to leave part of you for me to play with while you're gone."

Ron arched his eyebrow and smirked before nodding.

"Go on."

"Leave me your arse!" James grinned.

"A lip for an arse is hardly fair y'know?"

James pressed his mouth into Ron's and spoke into their kiss as his eyes closed.

"Take ‘em both then."

Ron opened his mouth and enjoyed the last moments they had together before dawn. He thought about going back to a world with Umbridge and people trying to kill Harry and people hating Hermione because of who her parents were. He thought of the terrifying spectre of You-Know-Who who wasn't hanging over this world. He thought of that git Percy and exams and Dumbledore driven out of Hogwarts. He thought of the mess he had waiting for him.

He couldn't wait.

But then he thought of one last thing, one thought as he kissed James goodbye and felt his eyes begin to leak with tears, he thought of that bloke in the photograph beside Harry's bed.

"Hey," James said on hearing Ron's sniff and puling away to see him crying, "Oh Freckles I'm sorry, if you've got to go you've got to go. I didn't mean to upset you kid. Please don't..."

Ron put his hand over James' mouth and smiled through his tears. He looked at the person he knew would die not long after he was born. He stared into the eyes that would stare glassily into space. He looked at the man he knew was going to be murdered so that Ron could have a best friend and a great life to go back to. He looked at James Potter and smiled.

"You'll find somebody with red hair and bright eyes and a wicked temper who won't take any shit from you," Ron said, pausing to kiss James on the forehead, "You'll find that person right under your nose and you'll hold on to that one."

James nodded, his own eyes spilling over. Ron wiped the tears away with his thumb.

"You'll find them and you'll be ready to love them properly now that you know how to do it."

"What about you?" James said with a meek voice as he took Ron's hand in his.

Ron laughed to himself and shrugged.

"I've got a couple of options."

James leaned forward and kissed Ron briefly before letting his eyes travel all over every inch of his face to memorise it.

"I'll see you around Freckles."

"You never know," Ron said as he sat up and watched James shuffle off and begin to dress.

Just as he pulled his button-less shirt on James leaned forward and gave Ron a peck on the cheek.

"Happy Valentines Day Freckles!"

Just as James winked cheekily he heard footsteps and voices approaching and rummaged around in his robes for the invisibility cloak and draped it over himself, disappearing from view just as Madam Buhb and Dumbledore walked into the hospital wing, chatting quietly.

"Ah Ronald, you are up!"

Ron could have sworn he heard a whisper of ‘Ronald?' and tried not to laugh.

"Yes sir."

"And for some reason, naked." The cheerful old wizard said as he looked up at the ceiling and began to whistle.

Ron flinched and covered himself up, ears almost blazing at the sides of his head with the ferocity of his blush.

"Never fear, we've all seen the like before," Dumbledore sighed before glancing down to check that it was safe to look once again, "Oh good. Now I have set things right I believe," he pulled the time remembrall type thing from his robes, clutched in a handkerchief and held it out to Ron, "all you need do is touch it and you will be transported back to where you came."

"Oh thank you sir," Ron said with a sigh of relief and some of his natural colour returning to his face again.

He reached out for the small wire framed orb encasing the glass, smoke-filled ‘S' but paused when the Headmaster sucked air in through his teeth and winced.

"What, what's wrong sir?"

"Did you come to us from a naked utopia dear boy?"

"What?" Ron frowned.

"He means put on some clothes dear," Madam Buhb said with a roll of the eyes.

"Oh!" Ron said as he scrambled around over the side of his bed and hurriedly dressed beneath his sheets.

He really hoped that James had gone. He pulled his t shirt over his head and pushed his feet into his unlaced trainers without bothering to put socks on.

"Now you will feel quite ill again I'm afraid, headache and the like, but I will make arrangements for the member of staff in question to know exactly how to deal with you alright?" Dumbledore said with a kind smile.

"Yes sir, thank you sir," Ron nodded before swallowing and stepping towards the man's extended hand and reaching out for the time turner prototype.

He hesitated and looked up into the twinkling eyes of the old man who knew so much while appearing to know nothing of any consequence.

"Do you have any messages for...anyone?" Ron asked.

"No thank you Ron. I'm sure news of your safe return will be enough."

Ron smiled and took a deep breath before grabbing hold of the wire ball tightly and feeling the smoke numb his fingers, his hand...

As the smoke rose to his elbow Ron heard a flurry of robes and James appeared, looking worried and holding an identical time travel device in his hand.

"No wait, this was his one! You have to stop it; he's going back to the wrong place. I've got his one here!"

The smoke reached Ron's shoulder and James ran forward to grab him but Dumbledore held him back and took the small wire frame with his long fingers.

"Don't fret James, this is the one I have to leave for him to find."

Just as James looked in confusion from Dumbledore to Ron the smoke engulfed him completely.

---

When he opened his eyes he was in the hospital wing. His head was pounding and people were talking around him. Somebody was raking their fingers through his hair idly, somebody who could have been Harry or could have been James.

Ron smiled to himself and closed his eyes again.

It really didn't matter.