Just Pretend - R.Weasley

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE - ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END

Ronald Billius Weasley, yes he never too understood the meaning of having a name similar to his older brothers as his middle name, had realised he had hit rock bottom a few weeks back now. Or at least he thought he had hit ultimate rock bottom, but like the weathers impact upon sedimentary rock, it crumbled to show him there was still feet further down of which he could fall. 

And fall he did. 

He had thought he had finally lost control of everything to the point where the universe had finally had enough. Where Mother Magik had had enough of playing and was finally going to ease up a little bit on him. Make things easier, happier, brighter, better. Anything along those lines would have been something he had expected. But his hopes had been too high and things continued to crash and burn around him. Like he was the smouldering fire that nobody could quite put out. 

It had all started the moment he had returned from a work trip to find the shared house he had with his long-term girlfriend empty. Barren. As evidence of her leaving only continued to mount with every shaky footstep he took around the place. As his best friend turned girlfriend turned what he thought was going to be his life partner left. Got out as she felt stuck, as if she had missed a vital part of her young adulthood and needed to get away. As she felt as though they didn't share the same goals, the same dreams. 

Hermione Granger had left him in the dirt, completely. And things only continued to go downhill from there onwards. 

The next big blow to hit him was a redundancy from his area at work. Ron had to admit he wasn't exactly academically inclined, not as much as any of his other siblings. He had excelled at the practical sessions, classes and exams but the moment he had been asked to put pen to paper he had drawn blank. He had really lucked out when it came to the Auror programme when they had still taken him in despite his poor grades due to physical evidence of what he could do. Until they could no longer do that anymore, where budget cuts had to occur and he was one of those to have been cut from the system. Kicked out and sent to search for another job, of which he was unsure where to even start considering his grades were not working in his favour. A heavy pay cut had followed and an increase in hours as he went from being on the streets fighting crime and doing something that made him feel useful, to being stuck behind a desk in the complaints area as a clerk.

He had then lost the house he had been renting, no longer able to afford the prime location in London on a single person wage rather than a couples wage. And he had resorted to renting a tiny one bed studio flat which was nowhere near as nice and was much more cramped than he could happily live in considering his 6 foot 1 stature. 

With his luck down in the dirt, his emotions well and truly destroyed and his self of worth diminished Ron thought that there was nothing more left for him to experience or do now. But his mother had other ideas. Molly Weasley was the matriarch of the family and it was very clear that she was the head of the Weasley family. What she said went, and if she didn't like something it would never happen again. Therefore, when Molly Weasley requested that Ron find himself someone he could bring to the family events they had planned in the upcoming summer he knew he was on borrowed time. 

As his best friend, none other than his school roommate Harry Potter, was already going to be attending these events he had nobody else to turn to. With Hermione out of the picture the 24 year old was stuck. None of his other friends were close enough of which he felt comfortable to ask them to come with him. And he did not feel even the tiniest bit ready to find himself someone new who he could bring along either. He wasn't ready for the dating scene. But his mother wasn't taking no for an answer and Ron was coming up short. 

"Just offer someone to come along as a fake date?" Harry had suggested that evening, as they gathered inside of Ron's studio flat, both with a glass of whiskey in front of them.

"A fake date? What shit has my sister put you on now?" Ron scoffed in response, trying not to feel bitter at the fact that his best friend was dating his younger sister, something he wasn't sure he would ever fully get over. 

"I mean think of it this way, you can bring the same person along to everything over the summer from Percy's wedding, your mum's birthday party and that holiday over to France. And then when its all done, you can 'breakup' and go your separate ways. It would get your mum off your back and prevent you actually having to go and find someone each time." Harry's idea was mental but there was a chance it could work. Stupid but also possible at the same time. 

"Who's going to be stupid enough to agree? I'm not exactly a catch or able to offer them anything in return."

"There will be loads of people lining up to take a chance with you." Harry reassured him but even to Ron it was clear the other man did not believe his own words. 

It would turn out there was not a queue of people who were willing to be his fake partner for over the summer. Ron had been right in his own estimation of the reception to his request. And they were cutting it close. As Spring began to fade out Ron's options began to completely fade away. 

However, there was one person he had yet to ask. Well not exactly but there was one person around his workplace he could ask, and have a legible backstory to how they met easily, he had yet to ask which seemed appropriate. Kind of. Okay Ron had to admit to himself he had completely lost the plot and was off his rocker at the final person he was going to ask. For he had become a little bit lovestruck by one of the other people he worked with. Maybe lovestruck was a bit of an overstatement. But Ron had his eye caught repeatedly by one of the lawyers he frequently worked with and his mind in a fog had decided he was going to ask her to be his fake girlfriend for a couple of months. 

This Lawyer was a pretty brunette by the name of Claudia Parkinson. As in the younger sister of one of his school mortal enemies. She was incredibly pretty, seemed very kind and approachable. And was possibly the only member of that team he was not completely petrified of. And that was how he found himself outside of her tiny little office tucked away in the legal department of the Ministry of Magic. Hand raised to knock upon her door, aware that he was about to make a massive blunder of himself but unable to prevent from doing so. 

A clean sharp knock would announce his presence and he knew there was no turning back. 

"Come in."