Flower Petals

-13-

As Ron fell to the ground he had but one thought. Alstroemeria. So it is not a preconceived notion to assume that this is the reason why all of his thoughts during his brief lapse of consciousness were also about Potter. He remembered so little about how he came to love her, so few details, his mind had them stored away in a cabinet of curiosities labeled 'do NOT fall in love with your best mate's sister'. Hitting the ground as hard as he did, they all came loose, flying in a frenzy like fairies let out of their cages.

The first time he met Alli was at the train station, she held Harry's hand for dear life, so hard in fact that her knuckles were white. Her Uncle Vernon stared at her, boring holes into the back of her head. Harry had a ticket, she did not. What an awful fate for a little girl, doomed to a year alone. She cried into his back begging him to stay. She must love him very much Ron thought.  Ron held his hand out to her first. 

"Ronald Billius Weasley, at your service." She looked up at him and he met her eyes. They were hazel, Ron had an affinity for chocolate and in her eyes he saw pools of it, drizzled with caramel. They had a sweetness in them.

"Don't worry, he'l be safe with me." Ron said reassuringly. 

"It's not him i'm worried for..it's the cabinet" she whispered. 

Harry thought then that even if he had to delay his schedule by a year, that he would stay to keep his sister safe, but just as he turned to tell Uncle Vernon to drive them home Ron tugged at the sleeve of his mum. 

"Mum, this is, um, what's your name again?" 

"Alstromeria" 

"Yes yes, Alstr-alstroe-mer-ee-a? And this is.."

"Harry. Harry and Alstroemeria Potter." Molly was stunned. The potter's were in front of her! Making friends with her precious boy! 

"Molly Weasley." she said pulling the two in for a rather large hug. Neither of them had quite experienced a hug like that before. 

"Alstroemeria can stay at the burrow while we are at Hogwarts right mother?" Ron asked. 

"wha-" Molly started before Ron kicked at her ankles. Molly stared down at Alli. She was terrified and exhausted, she was skinny, her hair was sprinkled with patches from hair loss due to stress, she was all but 10, but unimaginably broken. Molly saw her hair, red like a fine wine, and though the color wasn't near the firey orange that her children had, she saw one of her own in Alstroemeria. 

"Why of course she can dear." she smiled down at her.

"I will visit" 

"and so will I!" Harry and Ron said. "You'll be safe with Mum. I promise Alstr-alstroe-mer-ee-a. Oh bollucks that wont do. What kind of a name is Alstr-alstroe-mer-ee-a anyways?!" He said, irritated. 

"Ron!" Molly hushed.

"It's a type of lily. A flower." she whispered. 

"Why then, Flower it is. A much prettier name indeed. My Flower."

Alstroemeria spent the year with Molly, Ginny and Arthur. Ginny was quite excited to have a sister, and the Weasley's welcomed anything but another boy. Molly taught her how to braid her hair with ribbon, Ginny taught her to jinx annoying people, and Arthur brought her home things from the muggle world he thought would bring her joy. Once he brought her a pen, 

"You don't have to dip it in ink! It just" he motioned through the air "writes!" 

Those stories are of course, for another time. 

Ron spent the year, in all his free time of course in between three headed dogs and viral Dark Lords, thinking about her, how she was doing, always thinking back to those chocolate eyes, and strawberry hair. He wrote her constantly, more frequently then Harry even to tell her of the adventures they had, every time signing the bottom, 

See you soon Flower! 

Ron.

Ron thought about these moments over and over again in his head. How she wrote him back every time with a letter filled with even more excitement then the ones he wrote her. He thought about the restless nights he had, just lying in bed, thinking about her. He thought about how at 11 years old he should've known.

He thought about when they went shopping in Diagon Alley, and Molly brought Alli along, that she didn't buy anything except a lettering kit, to ensure Harry wrote to her, and a jumbo-pack of chocolate frogs for Ron. She asked Molly the night before what his favorite was, and she delivered. Nobody had bought Ron a gift just because before, he rather liked it. 

He thought about how when he broke his wand, and was forced to use Percy's old one, that a wand showed up to Hogwarts with his name on it, carried by Alli's owl.

He thought about how when his fear of spiders escalated to a new high, Alli bought him a can of  muggle bug repellent, she said that she hoped it helped, though neglected to tell Ron to use it sparingly, so he accidentally gassed out the common room with poisonous gas.

He thought about the time, months after the triwizard tournament that he saw Cho Chang, sobbing on the back steps. She was so broken after Cedric had died, it was like she'd never heal. He selfishly though about Alli, he thought how hard it would be to exist separate from her. It created a hole in his chest even thinking about living without her smile, her laugh. If he had to pick between the two of them, he'd pick her.

Ron thought, about staring up at the stars with her, on the grass outside the castle after Sirius died. She was gone from herself, consumed with grief not only for herself but for Harry. Her eyes were empty, it terrified him to see the girl who smiled, who rolled through the grass in new robes, still, silent, and afraid. Ron took her hand. He rolled over so he was on his side, facing her. 

"Flower," he said "come back to me. We're alive, I'm alive. Lay your pain on me, i'll take it." He meant it too, he would take the pain from her if he could. If even to make her life just a little easier.

She moved her head to look at him, her face was slack, there were tears threatening to spill out at the bottom of her eyes.

"I don't know if i can do it anymore Ron. Losing everyone i love, watching Harry lose everyone he loves." 

"You haven't lost me.  You haven't lost me Flower. You never will." he leaned in, planting a kiss on her nose "You are so loved" 

What Ron should've done was kiss her. He should've leaned in and kissed her. He should've said that he loved her. Which he did. Ron loved her with his whole being, everything he had was Alli's. His soul was forever wandering in her shadow, his mind was always following in her footsteps, he heard her in his dreams, he smelled her in gardens and in fields, he saw her in poppies, in daises. He saw her in chocolate and in the sun when it rose in the morning. He thought of her when his mind drifted in class, she was the last thought he had before bed and the first thought he had in the morning. No Lavender, No Hermione, in comparison they were nothing to him if he had to choose. He loved Alstroemeria Potter with the heat of a thousand suns, he wanted to give his heart to her, even if he knew she'd break it. 

If she was responsible for the breaking, it would still be only hers to shatter. 

Alli was like watching the streetlights reflect on wet cement, she was like grass stains on jeans, like rain falling in the mountains. Alli was not his, but he was hers. 

There was a poem Ron's mother read to him when he was a child. Something about a boy who always found his way back to his house, despite monsters and obstacles littered in the woods. 

Ron was always meant to find his way to Alli, it just took him a while, perhaps too long. He was empty without her, he was attached to her like an addict. The journey he'd been on in life, had lead him straight back to where he started, thinking of his flower. He'd grown, he was a stupid boy and now, a stupid man. A stupid man who was determined to show her, in every breathe and blink, that he loved her.

Ron loved her. He loved her with everything he had. He had since he was 11 years old.