THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH | RON WEASLEY [BOOK FIVE]

1. HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY

Gene shot up in bed in agonising pain.

Her hand clutched her neck where her scar was in an attempt to soothe the pain, but it hardly made a difference. She felt a terrible feeling form in the pit of her stomach, her scar having not hurt for months now and the nightmares had disappeared, more or less. Until last night.

She could hardly recall the nightmare, but it was so realistic that her scar had begun to burn so badly, that she had thankfully woken up from it. Gene wasn't quite sure which outweighed the other.

Gene did her best to distract herself, thinking back to a particularly enjoyable dream she had the other night. It involved Ron, but if she thought about it any longer, a rosy blush might have formed across her cheeks permanently.

The thought of him alone already had her heart rate slowing, her breath evening out and she was calm again. Gene missed her friends quite a bit.

Gene had kept in touch with Harry, Ron and Hermione over the summer, of course. She told herself that Ron and Hermione would certainly get their wits about them, and drop out of the Horcrux hunt last minute, but it was beginning to seem unlikely. She had been dying to tell Aurelia too, but she knew she would only try to stop them from leaving.

There was a knock at the door, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Gene? Are you up yet?" Aurelia asked from beyond. Gene gave a low hum in response, leaning against her headboard.

Aurelia opened the door, her face lit up by a small guttering candle that had been stuck into a small cupcake, her lips pulled into a wide smile as Gene gasped.

"Happy birthday, bug." she tip-toed over, sitting at the edge of Gene's bed as she began to shuffle over to make space. Gene gave a laugh when she saw the messy number seventeen scrawled across the white frosting in green.

"My birthday's tomorrow." Gene said pointedly to which Aurelia had waved a dismissive hand.

"I wanted to celebrate with you early. Just us." she smiled sadly.

They were headed to The Burrow that afternoon, in time to pick Harry up from Privet Drive and for Bill and Fleur's wedding which was to take place the next day– Gene and Harry's birthday.

But first, they were visiting Andromeda and Ted Tonks.

Gene gave a small sigh, still smiling before squeezing her eyes shut to make a wish. Her wish, which she didn't dare repeat in fears of it being jinxed, was said in her head before she gently blew out the candle and they fell into darkness, leading them to burst into laughter.

"I love you, kiddo." she pressed a kiss to Gene's forehead before standing up, placing the cupcake at her nightstand. "Oh, and we're leaving in twenty."

Gene's jaw went slack as Aurelia rushed out of the room before she could catch any of the curses that Gene threw her way, the door slamming shut behind her. She quickly began to gather any last-minute belongings, shoving them into a backpack before getting ready herself, with only eight minutes to spare.

She gave the inside of her backpack a quick once-over, ensuring that she hadn't left anything essential before nodding to herself in assurance. Gene had been subtly storing her most prized possessions inside it, including a few pictures of her parents and a letter from Aurelia that she hadn't looked at since she was fourteen.

The only reason for this was that she wanted to be prepared to leave whenever she could. Their hunt for the Horxcruxes could have begun any minute, and they had no way of predicting how it could have turned out. Therefore, she couldn't risk anything.