Authors Note/Disclaimer: Just a silly 'lil piece, a little 

serious towards the end but not too much. Just needed a 

little levity where Ron was concerned, just finished writing 

another chapter for this long story I'm working on, and I'll 

tell you ahead of time, things are looking rather grim for our 

good friends the Weasleys... But anyway. Pretty much 

everyone mentioned besides Berach Hastings, Cleo the 

toad, and the Wonderful Wizard Guy (all of whom belong 

to me:) belong to Ms. Rowling and Scholastic. Nothin' new. 


Stepping on Cracks 

     "It's not fair!" seven year old Ron Weasley yelled, 
stomping his foot down and crossing his arms, face nearly 
as red as his hair. 

     "You'll find life seldom is," his mother answered 
stubbornly, pulling a shirt over his little sister, Ginny, "Now 
get up to your room and get ready right now. We're leaving 
in thirty minutes." 

     "But mum..." Ron whined. 

     "But mum nothing," said his mother severely, "Do you 
think Harry Potter would talk to his mother that way? Get 
up to your room before I get mad!" 

     Ron didn't want that, so he left, kicking his way up the 
stairs, muttering to himself. 

     Dumb Harry Potter. Ron hated him almost more than 
his mother and Percy at this moment. Whenever he did 
anything wrong, it was always "Do think Harry Potter would 
do that?" Ron was quite sick of it. What did he do that was 
so great anyway? Beat You-Know-Who? Big Deal. It didn't 
make him perfect. 

     Perfect. He snarled at the word. It reminded him too 
much of his brother Percy, the reason for his bad mood. 

     So he got accepted to Hogwarts. Big deal there, too. 
Ron didn't see why his parents were making such a big 
deal about it, dragging the whole family to Diagon Alley to 
shop for his supplies, especially when he already had two 
brothers that went there. Bill had just graduated this year 
and Charlie was going into his fifth year. They were both 
perfect, too. 

     Ron sighed and flopped himself onto his bed in his 
small room. He felt that he had entirely too many perfect 
people in his life. It was starting to make him look bad. 

     Well, George and Fred certainly weren't perfect. But 
everyone loved them anyway. And Percy wasn't entirely 
perfect either. Ron grinned evilly too himself at the 
knowledge he wasn't supposed to know. One of the 
reasons Mum and Dad had been so excited about him 
getting in was they had been afraid he had been too 
entirely normal. A squib. A common muggle. 

     But he wasn't. He was just a regular wizard, like them 
all. Ron wondered, not for the first or last time what it must 
feel like to be a muggle. He was oddly, morbidly fascinated 
by the idea. He knew he had a cousin who was an 
accountant... what an exciting and different life that must 
be! 

     Before he could think about it, he was off his bed and 
opening his window, his head alight with plans... somehow 
he could make his way to the Muggle city of London... 
apprentice himself to some friendly accountant... and his 
new life would be on it's way! 

     He looked around his room for things he would need- a 
couple chocolate frogs, just in case he got hungry... a few 
Quidditch trading cards... the Berach Hastings rookie card 
was really too valuable to leave behind... his lazy pet toad, 
Cleo (a hand-me-down from Bill, who was moving to Egypt 
and wouldn't need her anymore)... and a change of 
underwear. His mother would be mad enough at him 
running away, but if she learned he had neglected to take 
clean underwear with him, he feared she would be livid. 

     So without a second thought Ron crawled out the 
window with his small package and looked expectantly at 
the world outside... just where was London? No road signs 
so far... 'twas darned inconvenient. 

     He sighed and closed his eyes, twirling himself around 
in a circle, and when he stopped, the direction he was 
standing in was the direction he would go. 

     Unfortunately, he was still so dizzy he didn't realize his 
chosen direction let him directly in a small pond. He 
muttered darkly to himself as he pulled himself out and 
checked over his stuff... the underwear was a bit wet but 
nothing was ruined... although the picture of Berach 
Hastings kept waving his broomstick at Ron mutinously. 

     He sighed again to himself and started again, this time 
down the road. No one ever said that achieving ones 
dreams was going to be easy. He had to expect a few 
downfalls before he became that world renowned 
accountant. 

     The road led on, and he followed cheerfully, passing 
the time trying to think up all the possible things that an 
accountant might do. Were they super-heroes, like the 
Wonderful Wizard Guy in his favourite comic books? The 
WWG, as his fans affectionately called him, was supposed 
to live in the wizarding village of Gothapolis, and every 
night he would save the world from attacks from 
werewolves and vampires... it was all dreadfully exciting. 
Ron hoped his new life as an accountant would involve 
such daring. 

     When he grew bored of that, he got out a chocolate frog 
and munched happily while amusing himself by stepping 
on cracks in the road. What was the old muggle rhyme he 
had heard? 

     "Step on a crack, break your mothers back," he 
suddenly remembered aloud to himself, feeling rather 
pleased. Dumb old Mum. She deserved a few broken 
backs. 

     "Do you really mean that, Ron?" came a pleasant voice 
from off the side of the road, and when he turned he saw a 
tall, thin man with long gray hair and moon shaped glasses 
over twinkling eyes. He looked vaguely familiar but Ron 
was too startled to remember where he had seen him 
before. 

     "Who- Who are you?" he asked, feeling his eyes go 
wide in surprise, "How do you know who I am?" 

     The man laughed, but it was a pleasant laugh and Ron 
didn't feel the slightest as if he were laughing at him, "Your 
hair rather marks you as a Weasley, Ron. And I just 
happen to know that just a few minutes ago your mother 
frantically discovered you weren't home- so I made an 
educated guess. As for who I am, you may know I am a 
friend. Would you like to walk with me?" 

     Ron gave a wide-eyed shrug and followed the man as 
they began walking down the path. 

     "Quite an interesting game you were playing there, 
stepping on cracks," the man remarked, "But I suppose the 
question at hand, young Weasley, is this: how do you 
happen to be so far from home?" 

     He felt himself blush as he muttered, "I was running 
away." 

     The man didn't looked shocked or angry, as Ron would 
have expected. Instead he looked rather amused, "Tired 
so quickly of this life?" 

     "I don't wanna be a wizard," Ron answered, defiantly 
continuing to step on cracks. The man didn't seem at all 
scandalized and Ron felt rather annoyed, "I wanna be an 
accountant like my cousin." 

     The man gave him a side ways glance, "I have known a 
few accountants in my life, Ron, and I think it a shame to 
turn your back on wizarding before you even begin to learn 
what it has to offer." 

     "It's stupid," said Ron stubbornly. 

     "If your sure that's the way you feel, I have a bit of 
magical abilities myself and could offer you a choice. 
Choice one: I transport you to muggle London right now, 
and you live as a son to this infamous accountant cousin of 
yours. I can tell you now it will be a very pleasant life, 
blessed in happiness and prosperity, if a bit boring at 
times. But it will not bother you, as you will not remember 
this way of life nor will you family remember you." 

     "They- won't remember me?" Ron asked, looking 
stricken. 

     The man nodded gravely, "Nor you them. But you have 
a second choice: go can go back home right now, back to 
your brothers and sister and parents. In a few years, you 
too, might be accepted to Hogwarts and you might feel 
rather pleased with your choice. Oh, it won't be easy, there 
will be plenty of pain and heartbreak, but nothing worth 
happening in this world comes without a price. You might 
find that in giving up this dream of accounting, you gain 
many more. But it is up to you." 

     Ron glanced down at the small package in his hands. 
Berach Hastings had stopped waving his wand around and 
looked as if he were trying to go to sleep. There wasn't 
Quidditch in the muggle world, was there? And the thought 
of never seeing his family again, not even Percy... 

     He looked up to tell the man he had decided to stay, but 
he was no where to be found. Instead, he found himself in 
his very own front yard, with his very own mother standing 
anxiously on the doorstep... 

     "Mum!" he yelled, running towards her and giving her a 
ferocious hug, "I didn't break your back!" 

     Mrs. Weasley looked quite surprised, "Of course not, 
dear. Now come inside, we're about ready to leave." 

     "Okay," he said, wiping his eyes with the back of his 
hand and taking one last look at the road which had so 
nearly taken him so far away from everything he loved... 
"Hey mum, d'you think Harry Potter has ever thought about 
becoming an accountant?" 

     The door closed behind them and the man chuckled to 
himself as he made himself visible again, "Well chosen, 
Mr. Weasley. Very well chosen." 

The End