Vol 1 Chapter 1

In a small farmland near the village of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, England, an oddly-shaped building that was several stories high with five chimneys stood out near a pristine pond. The building seemed like it would topple over any second, but it did not, seemingly held in place by sheer dumb luck, or perhaps magic. In front of the house, a family of nine could be seen trying to board various vehicles.

The couple shared an affectionate kiss before heading in separate ways. The husband got onto a sky-blue Ford Anglia 105E and headed for work while the wife, directed her remaining six children to get into the taxis that were waiting for them.

"Charlie dear, have you made sure all your belongings have been packed into the car? Bill, sweetie, can you help your brother double-check it? Percy, would you like to in the first taxi with your big brothers? Fred, George, quick get in the car and don't fight over who gets the front seat. Ron, mommy will be back by lunch. Can you look after Ginny while I'm gone?"

"Sure thing mum. I'll make sure Ginny behaves and I'll also feed Sally and the baby chicks while I'm at It." replied the young red-haired boy.

"That's my boy. Stay safe now." Saying so, she proceeds to get into the second taxi and leaves for the railway station, waving at the boy and girl as their images gradually shrink and fade into the horizon.

Meanwhile, the two children who are left behind at the house turn to each other and the little girl flashes an excited grin towards her brother and says, "Brother, can I have some cookies? Can I? Can I?! Can I?!!"

Ron sighs at the adorable antics of his sister and ruffles her bob-cut hair saying, "Sure thing Ginny, but let's feed sally first, poor girl's probably not eaten anything all morning." To which she yells out 'Yay~' and proceeds to hop onto her brother's back while wrapping her limbs around him for her routine yet impromptu piggy-back rides.

He then carries his sister and a pail full of wheat to the barn adjacent to their house and proceeds to open it, causing a hearty moo and rambunctious chirps to come from the inhabitants within.

" Mornin' Sally and hello sweet birbs. Sorry I'm late."

A wandless incantation of the levitation spell <Wingardium Leviosa> causes the pail to float up into the air and float towards the tiny pen on one side of the barn and as the pail gets tilted, its contents pour down on the ground. A subsequent <Alohomora> unlocks the latches to the grow-out pen and the cow shed. As the chicks rush to get outside and peck the grains, a 1 year old Hereford cow walks up to the siblings and playfully nudges them with its snout.

Ron lovingly caresses Sally's head and uses the <Locomotor> charm to move a bunch of hay from one end of the barn onto the feeding tray. Sally, by virtue of habit patiently waits by his side, and once the hay landed on the tray, she proceeds to eat it.

"You're getting really good at wandless casting brother." [Ginny]

"Yup. Who would've thought raising animals would count as effective practice." [Ron]

After feeding the animals and cleaning the barn, the two closed the barn and headed into the Burrow where Ginny quickly rushed to the dining room and sat down on a chair. Meanwhile Ron went to the stove, boiled the milk in a kettle and allowed the milk to cool down while he used <Locomotor> to move the cookie jar from the top shelf, onto the table. After setting up a plate and transferring the still hot milk into two cups, the siblings begin to enjoy their treats. Half-way through their snack, a brown furry rat hops onto the table and moves towards the plate. Ginny breaks a cookie in two and hands one half to the mouse which proceeds to greedily nibble it.

"Scabbers' sure gotten fatter hasn't he?"[Ginny]

"mhmm what did you expect? All he does is eat and sleep all day."[Ron]

After they finished eating, Ron cleaned up the table and Ginny went to her room. Once she got into her room, Ron quietly snuck behind her and used a sleeping charm non-verbally to make his sister doze off. He then laid her on her bed and tucked her in before kissing her forehead and leaving the room. Then he discreetly took note of Scabbers' location and then headed back to the kitchen.

'All right. Let's get this over with, while nobody's at home.'[Ron]

Making sure that he was out of sight, he took out a little bottle that he had hid inside one of the cupboards and opened it to pour its contents onto a box of Berty Bott's Every flavour Beans. He then took the box to the hall, where his pet rat was currently roaming and then placed it on the ground near the rat.

"Hey Scabbers, want some Flavoured beans? The taste is disgusting."[Ron]

The rat got closer to the opening of the box, sniffed a little, paused for a while, and then proceeded to shove its entire head into the box while nibbling. Ron stood still by the side and watched his pet rat eat its fill.

In no time, the box was emptied and Scabbers started moving its head around with the empty box still stuck on its head. Ron slid his hand under Scabbers' belly and carried the little rodent outside the house.

'Any minute now…' [Ron]

In a small clearing located in a remote area of the orchard behind the house, he set the rat down. But instead of moving about like usual, Scabbers seemed to stay still with its head lowered till it was nearly close to its belly. Soon it began to writhe about and Ron had to step on it to prevent it from running away. He then took out an awl he had prepared from his pocket and crouched down while aiming its tip at the rat's head. Then using both hands, he plunged the awl through Scabbers' head in one swift motion, puncturing its head and granting it a swift death.

(A/N: This is based on a study I read online during my research for my personal project. The study conducted on lab rats, showed that a 65µl dose of cyanide can cause harm to mice somewhere between 30 seconds to even many hours, beyond which the mice were euthanized out of pity… or something like that. I am not sure about the exact details, but my stable genius brain was able to learn that cyanide = bad for rats.)

After pulling out the bloodied awl, he then proceed to puncture its head again and again from various angles, just to make sure. For finishing touches, he then lit its body on fire using the < Incendio> charm. But because he had casted it wandlessly, he lacked control and the flame output was low. So, with the help of some dry fuel nearby as well as a few more tries of <Incendio>, a decent fire was set up which set the corpse alight in a bright flame.

~ {Ron's POV} ~

Standing in front of the flame, I decided to act like my victim was still alive and proceeded to give a dramatic speech to my imaginary wounded foe.

"I'm glad to know that the cyanide was effective Scabbers, or should I call you Peter now? It took me years to gather the materials and execute this plan. Professor McGonagall was right, you really are stupid. For 6 years, I concocted this plan under your nose and you were blissfully unaware of our impending doom.

Hmm? What's that? Are you wondering how I figured out your identity? …Well my furry friend you can die in the suspense. Sorry I wasn't able to give you a proper send off, I can't afford to take any chances after all. Oh! And before I forget, don't take this personally Peter. It's just that, if I don't do at least this much, I won't be able to look at Harry in the face in the future."[Ron]

For the next hour or so I continued to add more fuel to the fire and made sure it was isolated enough to not cause any accidents. Soon all that remained of my foe were ashes and bone fragments. So I buried the remains and erased all possible evidence related to my involvement. Just like that, one of the most annoying villains in the story had been killed.

I made my way back to the house after cleaning the awl and disposing the bottle containing cyanide. I had considered to use potions to do the deed, but witches and wizards are awfully sensitive to stuff like that. Peter would have recognized the potion from a mile away. Chemicals on the other hand are an entirely alien concept to wizards. All it took was accumulating dried apricot seeds and using the Soxhlet extraction using some alcohol to make cyanide.

(A/N Yes, dry Apricot seeds have nearly 5% concentration of cyanide. This should be obvious, but I'll say it anyway. Please don't try this at home. Not because it's dangerous, but mainly because it'll be a huge waste of time if you can't carry out the process in Laboratory conditions.)

I was skeptical of the potency of the cyanide produced through this process, but it turns out I was worried for no reason. The only problem with my hasty movements was that it will be harder for me to prove Sirius Black's innocence in the future. Meh, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Besides, he is Harry's godfather, not mine.

Allow me to make things clear, if for some reason you are still clueless as to what's going on. My name is Ronald Weasley, or shall I say that's my current identity. Previously, I was a college student in another world where the Harry Potter series was but mere fiction. I don't know much about my life there or how I died, nor do I care, for the past is the past and I intend to keep it that way.

What I truly care about is this second chance at life that I am given, in a world of magic no less, and I intend to make the most of this life. I was never a man of huge ambitions, and I still am not. So my plan is to spend my life as inconspicuously as possible.

For that, my first goal was to get rid of Peter Pettigrew, one fourth of the infamous Marauders, and backstabbing C*nt. After betraying Harry's Parents and killing innocent civilians in his escape, he pinned the blame on Sirius Black and faked his own death, thus becoming a martyr in the eyes of the public. In reality, he had transformed into his Animagus form, a mouse and went into hiding as a pet rat in the Weasley household.

Peter came to the Weasley household when I was a year old. From the moment I laid my eyes on him, I had secretly begun plotting his eventual death. I had to make sure to be discreet about it though, for even though Peter was a mouse, his mind was still that of a conniving man. But to my great luck, the slimy b@stard didn't even bother to suspect li'l ol' me.

Still, my greatest fear was that upon killing Peter; his body would revert back to being human, thus making it nearly impossible to get rid of his body. Thankfully it didn't happen.

There were several plausible theories suggesting that once an Animagus stays in his/her animal form for a long period of time, they will be unable to revert back to human form without the help of another Witch or Wizard.

Even in the canon, Peter reverted back to being human after 12 long years due to the intervention of Professor Reemus Lupin. The same could be said for the cat Crookshanks who many people suspect is a Wizard trapped in his Animagus form.

'But I'm relieved this risky gamble paid off in the end. With the backstabbing rat out of the picture, I can finally have a relaxing childhood until I get to Hogwarts.' [Ron]

Having such thoughts, I made my way back to the Burrow (Weasleys' home) and erased the remaining evidence of my involvement in this matter. Then, I headed upstairs and found Ginny still asleep in her bed. 'Kids our age need do sleep a lot for a healthy growth.' I thought.

I closed the door to her room and headed to the washroom to clean myself up and washed off the slight bloodstains from my clothes in the Scullery and later hung them out to dry outside. At this point the spring sun was directly overhead. I thought, 'Mom and the twins should be back from the station any moment now. '

Not too long after, the sound of a car's door being shut and the excited shouts of children could be heard, following which the door was swung open and the twins rushed inside talking excitedly among themselves.

"Now with Percy gone to Hogwarts as well. It's just us, Ron and Ginny left in the house. I wonder if our chores will increase because of that."[Fred]

"Of course it will. You don't think Mum's gonna let us off the hook now do ya? At least there's four of us to carry out the chores."[George]

Molly who walked in behind them overheard their conversation and chuckled saying, "Oh come on boys, don't be ridiculous… There's no way I'll let sweet Ginny do the chores. Speaking of which, have you cleared the gnomes in the back yard?"

"Of course mum! I've made sure that they won't be anywhere near our house for a couple of days." I cheerfully replied, coming out from the kitchen, 'Wouldn't want any witnesses after all' I added inwardly.

"Thank you sweetie. Did you and Ginny behave yourselves while we were gone?"[Molly]

"Yes mum. Ginny is asleep in her room right now. I've finished doing the laundry and hung out the clothes to dry."[Ron]

"Wonderful! Now why don't you wake Ginny up while I prepare lunch?"[Molly]

I headed upstairs to Ginny's room and softly nudged my sister awake.

"Mornin' princess. Did you have a nice dream?"[Ron]

"When did I fall asleep?"[Ginny]

"A bit after eating your fill. Don't worry, mum doesn't know about the cookies, that'll be our little secret. So why don't you wash up and head downstairs for lunch hmm?"[Ron]

"Okay." [Ginny]

As I left her room and headed downstairs, I heard George call out to me.

"Hey Ron! Have you seen Scabbers? He's not coming out no matter how much I call out his name?"[George]

"Hmm? Nope, haven't seen him all day. He's probably scurrying somewhere as usual. Give it a day or two. He'll be back. Why do we even have a bloody rat as a pet?" I said.

"Well Bill wanted to have a pet rat for his birthday so Dad got him one. Still, it's strange how the Lil' guy's been around for so long. "[George]

"Well the old thing's bound to die soon. Hey, do you think dad'll get me a pet for my birthday?"[Ron]

"Are you kidding? We're already poor as it is. Do you really think we can afford another pet?"[George]

"Well, it never hurts to ask. By the way, have you finished reading that comic I lent you?"[Ron]

Like so, I tactfully evaded the topic about our pet pest. I'm pretty sure no one is going to do a thorough search for him any time soon. Unless they cast the summoning incantation <Accio>, which they won't, since they think he may still be alive.

Now that I think about it, I could have just used <Accio> on Scabbers from a faraway place to kill him. But, without a wand, the chances of me failing and alerting Peter are high. I'm better off with my way of eliminating him. No one's going to suspect a kid for murdering a rat like a serial killer in the 80s… right?

(A/N: Based on my research, <Accio> is generally not cast on living creatures. Since the object is brought instantly to the caster at the speed of light, it may kill the living thing. Feel free to share your thoughts on this matter.)

After a mostly blissful lunch with the whole family, everyone set out to do their own things. Mom sat in the living room knitting a scarf for our cousin's upcoming birthday. The twins went to their rooms on the fourth floor to binge on comics, while Ginny and I went back outside to play with sally and the baby chicks.

In the evening, Dad came back from work, and we had our dinner filled with quips and banters. Afterwards we decided to call it a day. Technology was not widespread among the wizarding community at this time period since most techs fail to work due to the presence of magic in the air. It wasn't until later in the nineties that technology compatible with Magic, began circulating around the wizarding community.

This is primarily the reason why most witches and wizards dress and act like they're in the 19th century. Most people are satisfied with their current lifestyles and hardly bother to change. A lack of awareness of the developments in the muggle society also plays a significant role.

But hey, this kind of lifestyle suits me just fine. I've gotten fed up with the hustle and bustle of Cities in my previous life.

A life in the countryside is something I have been dreaming about for a long time. The burrow is located in a magically concealed area, only surrounded by few magical households such as the Diggory's and the Lovegood's. This means most of the surroundings are pristine and I can enjoy nature in all its glory.

I make my way to the 5th floor of the burrow and enter my room. Just like in the books, nearly everything in my room seemed to be in a violent shade of orange, making it seem like I had stepped inside a Furnace. The only difference is that while Canon Ron's room was covered in posters of the Chudley Canons, mine had none of those. I preferred a more simplistic room, with little to no decorations.

I wished good night to the Ghoul living above my attic, before plopping down on my bed. Today was surely a long day. With Peter Pettigrew's death finally crossed off my bucket list. I finally feel liberated. Trust me, it's hard living under the same roof as a sniveling rat for years while hiding your true motives.

A lot of things could've gone wrong today, but apparently lady luck decided to smile on me. But I am not careless enough to assume that such will be the case in the future. Thus, it is paramount that I become powerful to protect my loved ones in the future. Well, for now, let's take things one step at a time.