The End of the Innocence

Ron turned his back to the smoldering structure. The last scream inside died long ago, and the snapping of the fire and the creaks and groans of the old house giving way were the only sounds he heard. It glowed in the dying evening light like the rosette on a cigarette. The light filtering through the smoke and trees was orange, Chudley Cannons orange. Somehow the haze of smoke and orange intensified the ruddy maroon of the dying embers. The air was thick with the scent of smoked flesh, and if Ron closed his eyes, he could pretend it was a suckling pig he was smelling.

The mask on his face was hot and sweaty from standing too close to the blaze. He pulled it off and ran a hand through his hair, ungluing it from his scalp. Red hair fell down in his face and he pushed it back. He pulled the heavy black robe off and stuffed it into a rucksack and dropped the mask on top. He could almost hear his mother nagging him to fold his robe or it would be all wrinkled when he needed it. Ron laughed the thought off nervously. His mother lay dead, not two feet in front of him.

He kicked over a tricycle as he started toward the garden. The artifact he needed was probably in the house, but his mother might have buried it in the garden. No use in leaving that stone unturned. A little doll, one of Ginny's old toys, lay on the patio. Penelope and Percy's daughter had been playing with it not twenty minutes ago. Now it was forgotten, along with the other toys scattered across the yard. The Burrow had been brimming with young life an hour ago. Penny and Percy had three children. Charlie and his wife had one. And Harry and Hermione...

Ron didn't want to think about Hermione.

He kicked the doll aside. It landed face down on the concrete and screamed, "Mama!" at the top of its little mechanical lungs. Ron squatted down and started sifting through the topsoil in his mother's potted plants.

A shriek pierced his thoughts almost immediately. He turned to the source and plunged his hand in his wand pocket.

Ginny sank to her knees in the wake of the destruction. The Burrow was reduced to its very foundation. Draco caught her half-way down and was trying to pull her to her feet. Ron relaxed his grip on his wand and walked toward them.

"Ron!" Ginny said through choked sobs. "Who would do this?"

Ron affected an innocent look. "I don't know."

Draco pulled Ginny closer as his eyes raked over Ron's bare forearm. "How could you?" He asked quietly.

"Ron?" Ginny stared up at him with tears streaking her mascara. "Did you--?"

"Stay where you are," Ron said coldly, aiming his wand at Ginny. His eyes were on Draco. "Don't act so surprised, Malfoy. After all, I'm not the only one here who's killed their entire family."

Draco glared, but he knew that glaring was all that he could do. Ginny shivered at the ice in her brother's voice. "Mum...and Dad...and Bill...Charlie...Percy...Fred and George...Penny...the kids...Harry...Hermione..." She spoke each name like an incantation. "But why?"

Ron laughed at her. "Because I'm a Death Eater."

Draco shifted Ginny's weight a bit. Carefully, he reached for his wand. Slowly, subtly, so not to attract Ron's attention.

"Don't you get it, Draco?" Ron asked condescendingly. "If you pull your wand, I'm going to kill her, not you. So why don't you just give BOTH your wands to me." They hesitated. Ron sent a shower of crimson sparks at Ginny. "Now."

Draco reluctantly handed Ron his wand, but Ginny's hands shook too much. Draco eased the wand out of her coat pocket and threw it at Ron's feet.

Ron gleefully snapped the two wands in half and threw the pieces at Ginny's feet.

"What happened to you, Ron?" Ginny asked.

"About twenty years of living with impossible standards," he said dryly. "You know what's great about being a Death Eater, Ginny?"

She shook her head.

"I don't have to be perfect anymore. He loves me as I am. He doesn't expect me to be the next Bill or Charlie or--gag me--Percy. In His infinite wisdom, He understands that I just AM. And He loves me...in a way that I can't even explain." Ron's eyes held the glazed look of a fanatic. He smiled at both of them. "I do as He asks me to. I serve him well."

"Even murder? Even...us?" Ginny gestured to the Burrow, still burning.

His eyes lost their glazed look and softened. She could almost see him as he had been, back when he laughed with Harry and Hermione at Hogwart's. "Never you, Ginny. I waited...I waited for you to leave. You were always my favorite and...Why did you have to come back?"

"Forgot the theater tickets," Draco mumbled.

Ron nodded and the cold returned to him. "Not that it matters now. I'm looking for an artifact and you will help me, Ginny. If you don't, I'm going to finally get to see what color your guts are, Malfoy."

Ginny shifted her gaze from her brother to her lover who looked far paler than usual. She disentangled herself from Draco slowly. Draco released her, but kept his contemptuous glare on Ron. "If you hurt her--"

Ron smirked. "You'll what?"

Draco settled back into his sullen silence.

"Cavea Infragilis!" Ron commanded. Thick steel bars sprang from the ground and wrapped around Draco, forming a small cage.

Ginny wiped her tears away and gently pulled on Ron's sleeve. She didn't look back at Draco as she lead Ron to the gnarled oak tree that used to have a rope swing and a family of particularly feisty gnomes living in it. The tree was naught but a scorched shell and a half-consumed gnome lay dead under the fallen swing. Ginny's hand shook as she pointed to a small gap between a gnarled root and the ground.

"There?" Ron asked softly. His voice was reverent, suitable for one so close to the Holy Grail of Dark Magic. "Under that root."

"Buried," Ginny said softly, sinking to the ground. "Please don't take it Ron. You'll be unleashing something...something even your master cannot control."

"He is strong," Ron reprimanded sternly. "Stronger than you could imagine."

Ginny's eyes pleaded with him. "Please, Ron. You're still so hurt because of Harry and Hermione. Please just think about what you're doing. Just think...Don't do this, Ron. There are better ways to pick up the pieces of your life...than Voldemort."

Ron's eyes narrowed. "You don't know anything." He turned his back to Ginny. "Confodio!"

The earth parted at Ron's command. The old tree snapped in two with a sound like a giant firecracker. Ron's eyes were rapt on the parting ground and the spray of loose dirt. Otherwise, he might have seen death coming at him in the guise of his little sister.

Ginny thought it would be harder than this. The gun was in her boot. Daddy bought it for her last year. And Draco paid for them both to have lessons. Both of them insisted that she always carry it. Death Eaters were ill-equipped to deal with Muggle technology, Daddy had said. She just thought about Draco, in that steel cage...of Harry, Hermione, Penny...of her brothers...of her Mum and Dad...She just pointed and squeezed the trigger, and it was over.

Ron fell backward and stared up at her with a shocked expression. He whispered her name as she unloaded the barrel into his face.

She took in deep, ragged breaths as she pulled the wand from his pocket and ran back to the front of the house. She almost tripped over her old talking doll. She picked up the little thing with shaking hands, "Merlin's beard..." she thought, "you survived..." She turned the doll over and aimed Ron's wand at its back. "Alohomora!" she cried. A hidden panel popped up out of the smooth plastic. Gold letters glowed on the obsidian box inside as the spirits within gave a low groan. The letters spelled out, "Pandora."