Harry Potter Short Stories

Kings Cross incident

"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron, "but no pressure."

"Ron!"

Lily and Hugo laughed, but Albus and Rose looked solemn.

"He doesn't mean it," said Hermione and Ginny, but Ron was no longer paying attention.

[...]

"So that's little Scorpius," said Ron under his breath. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Ron, for heaven's sake," said Hermione, half stern, half amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, sorry," said Ron, but unable to help himself, he added, "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a Pureblood."

Harry had tried to keep silent for the sake of keeping the peace, but he couldn't stand it any longer. "Ron," he said through gritted teeth. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Ron gawped at him. Harry blamed the Firewhiskey. Ogden's Best was good in limited quantities, but not if you used it as your primary source of hydration. "Are you defending the Malfoys?"

"No, you idi- Purebloods. Are you forgetting something, Ronald Weasley?"

Ron frowned. Harry lost his temper.

"You're a Pureblood," he snarled, leaning close to Ron. "As is 'Granddad Weasley'. As is my wife - you know, your sister?" When he glanced back at Ginny, she was glaring daggers at her brother. "As was my father, as was my godfather, as are so many people in my life. Don't pull this posturing rot like you're so much better than the rest, Ron. Just because the Blood Purists wreaked so much havoc upon this world is no reason to toss all Purebloods in the same boat, especially because you're one!"

Ron looked taken aback for a moment, and then regained his confidence. "But I'm not like them," he asserted, puffing himself up. "I mean - I'm practically a Muggleborn myself." Now even his wife was shooting him an incredulous look, but he remained oblivious. "I've got a day or two a week I go slumming in Muggletown, I've got a few eletkreek things just like the Muggles do, I've got a real Muggle driver's license... I've even got a Muggleborn wife." He chuckled. From the expression on Hermione's face, Ron was much closer than he knew to getting a Muggleborn divorce. "I'm not like those bigoted, backwards Purebloods who don't keep up. I'm a real man of the times."

"I can't think of anything more bigoted and backward-Pureblood than threatening to disinherit your own daughter for going in the wrong House," Harry snapped, "which you were doing just a few minutes ago. The Blacks didn't do that, Ron. The Most Ancient & Pretentious House of Black."

"I didn't really mean it," Ron drawled. He looked down and elbowed his daughter, who looked as though she were attending her own funeral. "Not really," he said with a broad grin and nasty tone that said, actually, he did.

"Do you know, Ron, that I nearly 'wasn't in Gryffindor'?" Harry said through his teeth. Ron's head snapped up to look at him.

"What? You're making that up."

"The Sorting Hat originally suggested Slytherin," Harry said, looking his best friend - at this rate, former best friend, and it was some time coming - in the eye. "And do you know why I didn't go there, Ron? Because I was so repulsed by Draco Malfoy, and because you seemed like a decent bloke." He resisted the urge to add 'back then'. "If you'd been acting like you are now, I don't know where I would have gone - Hufflepuff? Ravenclaw? But definitely not to Gryffindor or Slytherin." He stood back and looked down at Rose, who looked up at him with wide eyes. "I'll support you no matter where you go, Rose." He glanced at his younger son. "That goes for you too, Albus. I don't know how long he's been pouring this poison in your ears, but the sort of person you become is infinitely more important than a mere Hogwarts house, and -"