Woodgreen Academy Archive

Summary: Mister Won-won finally finds his peace but elsewhere war breaks, as always. This is Ron’s nightmare, a neverending cycle of getting caught in the middle.

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Ron knew something was wrong the moment he stepped through the double doors of South Wing. One developed a kind of instinct to these things after having lived in the same building for four straight years. The first indication was the time; it was almost ten o’clock and a few minutes before lights out.

All light sources that led to the Wings to the very hallways of the four buildings would be shut promptly from the main plant, wherever that might be. It ensured that everyone was back by curfew or risk navigating through complete darkness until they reached their own rooms. It was fully normal that by ten, the lobby, the halls and all the rooms of the ground floor were empty. And the outside was no better in its pitch blackness. South Wing was a far cry from the norm but tonight the lobby was completely deserted, and the halls were silent. It was too normal.

Ron pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to think of the worst. He wouldn’t put it beyond his housemates to run off – en masse — into other buildings and stay there for the night until they were caught and kicked out by the respective prefects. He consoled his thoughts by believing that his housemates weren’t that cruel to him.

In an attempt to strengthen his faith, he said it out loud, “They wouldn’t.”

Nonetheless, he did his routine-check and opened each door into the suites to confirm that no one was pulling a slumber party with a ghost theme again. He was about to climb to the second floor when someone stepped out from the kitchen door.

Ron breathed in relief when he saw who it was, “Ron.”

“Ronnie.”

Blanching at the nickname, “You’re calling me that, now?”

Meiran started to climb the stairs, falling in step with him, “Not really, Weasley. I do have to point out that the name isn’t supposed to be insulting.”

“I know,” he sighed. “I just have too many names as it is. Ronniekins, Won-won…” he cringed, “Roonil Wazlib. Honestly! Where did that come from? Then this year, Ronnie — I have a new name every year.”

“I figured you were used to other cultures by now. You do know why they call you ‘Ronnie’, right? Though, I still find it weird to call you ‘Ron’.”

At this, he grinned, “I cringe every time professors refer to you as ‘Miss Ron’.”

They both laughed, as if sharing a private joke.

When Meiran first arrived in Woodgreen, her name was Long Mei Lan. The people had a hard time approaching her simply because they couldn’t pronounce her name. The Japanese had a hard time with the ‘L’ up until the ‘Long’ morphed into ‘Rong’. She then became known from ‘Miss Long’ to ‘Miss Wrong’. No girl — not even a tomboy — would stay silent when her name was being butchered left and right; especially when the name was well-respected, even revered, from the country of her origin.

So she had her English name changed and removed the problem, the letter L. She then became Ron Meiran the following year. Unfortunately, there were some who thought ‘Ron’ was her first name.

Then she met Ronald Weasley in South Wing. It was the year that she was ‘Ron’ and he was ‘Won-won’ to everyone in Woodgreen High, even to the professors. She had been assigned in South ever since.

‘Mister Won-won’ drove him crazy. ‘Miss Ron’ did also because there was always someone who would look at him first in confusion, then to Meiran with some comprehension. Ron was very frustrated when he was a sophomore and the proximity of Meiran did not help any.

Their names made Ron stay away on purpose because his friends defaulted on ‘Mister Won-won’ whenever she was around. They had never been particularly close or had the chance to be more than the passing familiar faces one saw everyday. Occasionally, they worked in the same group project but he bet his professors were just being sadists and did it on purpose just to have an excuse.

They reached his door first; hers was still on the fifth floor. It felt slightly uncomfortable for Ron to be walked to his door by a girl but it seemed instinctive on her part because she just stood by the landing until he had turned the knob before continuing the next flight.

“By the way…”

She stopped and tilted her head to look at him without turning completely.

“You changed your name again. When I first saw it, I thought I had a different girl in my wing.”

“It’s just my English name and all other legal documents that are in English. Is there anything wrong with my school records?”

“It wasn’t a spelling error in this case but it’s already been processed to the registrar’s office before the list was given to us. I just… I’m curious, I guess.”

Her smile thinned. “I’m still the same person. It’s just a name.”

“You know you can talk to me.”

“Comes with the job description, hm?”

“You can say that.” He gave her a smile.

“See why everyone calls you ‘Ronnie’?” Her eyes crinkled on the sides in silent laughter then she nodded. “If you don’t like the nick that much, I’ll call you Da Ge. I’ve never really had a brother.”

He grimaced, “Ugh, my Mandarin’s horrible. Even if I knew what that meant, it’d take a while to register.”

She smirked. “Remind me to thank Sohma in the morning. Goodnight, Ronnie.”

“I suppose this means we’re on a first name basis now?”

“I’d prefer that. It’s been three years, after all, and I would’ve called you ‘Ron’ a long time ago if it wasn’t my name. And if you weren’t such a…”

“Jerk?”

“I was thinking along the lines of… a wimp.”

Her eyes gleamed at his indignant glare.

“Wimp?”

“Yes —- being bothered by the innuendos of ‘Miss’ Ron and the whole Mister Won-won silliness. It was so immature.”

“I’m not having this conversation at this time of night. You should go back to your room before the lights go out.”

She grinned but let him be, climbing up the stairs to her floor.

 

Ron couldn’t help but feel glad. That was the most they had talked in three years without someone going Won-won and Miss Ron somewhere just to say the cursed names and he’d make a fool of himself with a sudden retreat. The few times that they did talk, they got along fine and Ron felt a little guilty on treating her differently than the others. He knew she noticed it, because she began to be dismissive of him just as he did her.

He never did like living in the same roof with someone he consciously avoided and he knew that between the two of them, he was the one who was awkward. She just lived on like he wasn’t important enough to spare a glance. He didn’t like that feeling either.

His mind was still busy contemplating on his other relationships with his various housemates he had forgotten about the fact that the second floor was as empty and silent as the ground floor. Other than Meiran, there hadn’t been any other person he came across at all.

When his door refused to open even as he pushed his weight against it, his mind was jostled back to the reality of things. He heard a few grunts and mumbles from inside his room and his mind raced.

“Oh no, they didn’t.”

Ron doubled his efforts to push, wondering about the probabilities of kicking his door open without breaking anything.

A few more curses and more strange noises from within and the door finally cracked wide enough for Ron to peek inside. Naturally, he cursed first, then reached in and grabbed the nearest person and yanked the person out.

It took a while but the colossal boy was able to squeeze through the gap.

Gregory Goyle.

“I knew he was too big! Goddamn, I think I almost suffocated in there.”

The next one to come out was Edward Elric, blond hair all rumpled and looking disheveled. Even his trademark braid was loose and strands of hair were trailing down his back.

“We told you to go in last. You could’ve climbed up and stayed over our heads instead of being smothered near the floor.”

“I won’t let you call me LITTLE! Come out and face me like a man!”

Before Ron could stop the elder Elric, the boy already went back inside and was trying to drag out who Ron assumed was the poor guy who insinuated the taboo. There were snarls and then two boys rolled out, Edward and, to Ron’s horror, Jason Todd.

Edward barely reached the brunette’s shoulders and it wouldn’t have mattered whether the blond was a member of the karate club. Jason Todd was a member of the Taekwondo varsity team and the boy wasn’t known to pull back with his kicks.

Ron tried to go between the two as fast as his legs could carry him. He ended up receiving the knee in the gut meant for Edward.

“Todd, I am going to strangle you,” Ron managed to gasp and lunged on Jason in the next heartbeat.

Jason’s blue eyes widened, obviously only realizing that he had hit his senior. He raised both arms to block the incoming attack from the taller redhead when a blond blur jumped him on the side.

“UZUMAKI! Get off me! Elric started the damned fight.”

“You kneed Hokage, stupid! You think I’ll let you get away with that?”

“Fuck! Get off, you tattooed freak!”

“Weasley, just say when and we’re ready to rumble,” Millicent stepped out of the door, pushing it wide open for everyone else to file out. She looked like she was going to enjoy the very idea of a legal rumble, mandated by the prefect.

Mercifully, Usagi managed to crawl out from the back and stand between the currently involved people and those who seemed intent on joining. Her petite frame would hardly be enough to stop even the smallest person from the crowd if it came to a shove but she stayed put, her mere presence forcing a demarcation line not to be crossed. She was so nice to everybody that going against her felt too much like bullying a baby.

Confident that no one else would get involved as long as Usagi acted as the human barrier, Ron concentrated on the current wrestlers. Ron grunted and tried to pry off Naruto from Jason.

The two were trying to grapple each other to the ground, hardly succeeding when their arms were too busy trying to block the torrent of punches. It took every ounce of Ron’s reserves to not bodily step on anyone while he tried to pull the other off. He saw Edward walking forward from his periphery and growled, “Stay where you are.”

He ended up straddling Jason, his knees on both of Jason’s arms, while hooking Naruto by the armpits, hands firmly gripping the struggling wrists. Naruto’s legs were still free but Ron was grateful enough that the boy wasn’t putting up much of a fight anymore. He thanked heaven for being tall and having long limbs. It was very useful.

 

Any normal day, it would look strange. Right now, Ron didn’t even want to know why everybody came out of his room.

The Hokage title came out again and Ron wasn’t really familiar why Naruto kept referring to him as such. He thought it was another big brother term of endearment at first but the kid seemed to have developed some strange possession over the title. Maybe it was something bigger than Ron had concluded. He filed that in the back of his mind along with wanting to talk to Naruto later. For now, his hands were full. Literally.

From out of nowhere, yet another blond blur came and Ron fell on his back, freeing both Naruto and Jason. He was worried they’d resume where they’d left off but when nothing happened, he finally looked at his new attacker.

“Hello, Momiji.”

“Ron-nii! Are you okay?” Big hazel eyes peered at him worriedly.

His gut still hurt, a few black and blues on his arms, and now a bump on his head, but all in all he was fine. “I am. Now let’s get things straightened out.”

Then the lights went out. Ron’s paranoia flared but sobered when he hadn’t gone totally blind. There was light coming out from his bedroom door, which only reminded him once again that everyone in the hallway right now came out from that small hole.

He pushed the door wide open to let more light filter through before glaring at everybody. He just came from work and he was very tired, all of them were in the butt end of the day’s annoyance. “Now, tell me what you’re doing in my room. You know you can leave me notes on the board!” He jerked his thumb behind him, right on the corkboard that was already full of pinned folded notes and post-its from them.

“It was a good idea at that time,” someone said from the back.

“What was?”

“You have a bigger room than the rest of us, and you have your own bathroom, too. Then, someone started a betting pool on how many people can fit inside,” Lavender tried to explain after she was pushed forward by someone she couldn’t see. No doubt she was being used as the human shield if the reaction was bad — being the ex granted her this privilege; Ron wouldn’t hurt her. She turned slightly, trying to find the moron who pushed her.

Ron turned to look at Usagi who was twisting a few strands of hair with her fingers, “And you allowed this?”

“I was curious.”

“If you squeeze everyone in, we can probably go seventy. We’re sixty-seven.” Edward looked as if he hadn’t been in a fight earlier. He was all smiles and almost gleeful at the prospect of reaching that number in such a small space.

“I’m sure we could’ve shoved in the whole wing in there if we let the lighter ones sit on people’s shoulders.” Jason nodded. He was still nursing the bruise that was forming on his cheek, courtesy of Naruto.

“Oooh, I know you’re hinting on something again!” Edward yelled.

“Stop it already!” Usagi stomped her foot and glared at Edward.

He glared right back, enjoying the fact that she was among the few he could glare down. He was short, but she was shorter and older than him. And that made all the difference.

Ron sighed. “Okay, so who won?”

Silence. Then they began to talk amongst themselves as if Ron wasn’t there to begin with.

“Did someone actually organize the pool?”

“I… don’t know….”

“We were too busy getting people to go inside.”

“Geez… you mean all that for nothing?”

“We’ll try again next time. Someone organize that.”

“Aim for ninety. Maybe a hundred, including Ronnie.”

Somehow, this turnout didn’t surprise Ron anymore. He cleared his throat and reminded them that he wasn’t part of the shadows. “Ahem! Back to your rooms now and let tired people sleep. We’ll talk about house rules tomorrow at breakfast. I think we need to change a few things.”

After the unanimous booing, everyone finally went their separate ways, not bothered at all with the dark. When Ron closed his door, he could still hear the low murmur of life from the hallway. It was never silent in this place; people walking in on each other, barging in each other’s rooms, stereos playing despite the late nights. It was comfortable.

“Time for bed,” Ron yawned the words out and stretched. He would have to cut his work hours at this rate or just shift his schedule. Yawning again, he pushed all thoughts out of his mind and stripped his way to the bathroom.

“Ron-nii?”

Ron froze from unzipping his fly and whipped his head back, staring at the little creature named Momiji Sohma, “You’re still here?”

“Well… it’s not like I’m afraid of the dark hallway or anything.” Momiji shrugged as he stared his wide misty eyes at Ron.

Predictably, Ron’s planned reply crumbled. Momiji was a freshman, the smallest in South Wing thus far, even smaller than Usagi who was already at 4’11”. When he first arrived last week, his uncles cornered Ron in this room and explained that this was Momiji’s first time to stay in a dormitory and with no living relative on the same island.

There was a family issue that the uncles didn’t bother explaining. Ron wasn’t keen on knowing too much either. But, to put it simply, they threatened to castrate him if Momiji sheds so much as a single tear and that they would know about it eventually.

A few days with Momiji proved to Ron that he didn’t need any threat. The kid was so small and cute and warm and cuddly and sweet that Ron had a hard time trying not to think of Momiji as a teddy bear. Ron, as a kid, was overly protective of his teddy bear and the trauma of when his twin older brothers replaced the toy with a bag full of spiders in his sleep never left him.

It was an irrational fear but Ron often thought that Momiji might turn into something ghastly and sordid if left to meander on his own too long. He wondered, again, why the cute kid was assigned in South instead of West or even North, where it was more normal and stable.

“I’ll walk you to your room. Let me get dressed first.” Ron slipped on the shirt nearest him and began to reach out a hand for Momiji to take. He quickly retracted the hand with a mental reprimand that Momiji was fifteen and not some ten-year-old.

The little blond prince didn’t move from his perch on the bed, however. He just tilted his head then dived underneath the duvet.

Sighing, Ron turned the air conditioner on and closed the window. “I thought we agreed that it’s just for the first week? You have to get used to your own room, eventually.”

“It’s so small and empty,” was the muffled reply then the small head poked out of the orange covers. “Goodnight, Ron-nii.”

“Goodnight, Momiji.” Ron switched off the light and waited until the kid nodded off to sleep before entering the bathroom. It was times like this when he wanted to call Bill just to say thank you, I miss you and I love you. He never did, though. He was too old for that. Nonetheless, he still relished the thought of an older brother who cared so much and wondered how much of a burden he had been when he clambered in Bill’s bed all those years ago.

But this was different. By the time Ron was ready for bed, he had reorganized his table, his bag, and even his schedule. Eventually, he had to give up and submit to his fatigue. He lightly pushed the sleeping boy to the wall and crawled in, promising himself to stay on his side of the bed.

His sleep was short-lived. The kid was a cuddler and he was awake as soon as he felt the unmistakable warmth from his back. He could feel the small frame scoot closer and bury itself between the sheets and Ron’s body.

He pondered his options and reconsidered dumping Momiji in Usagi’s bed once more. She was, after all, more suitable for cuddling kids. The fact that Momiji sometimes murmured ‘mama’ only made the option all the more rational. But Ron had to remember that Momiji was fifteen even if he looked no more than thirteen, and that would always kill all the arguments Ron had when it came to putting the boy in a girl’s bed.

Buying a stuffed toy came to mind. It should be big enough, and soft enough. He mentally noted to ask Usagi the following day if she could spare one of hers temporarily until he could buy one.

A warm arm snaked around Ron’s neck and all he could do was blink at it. He let it go and tried to sleep again. And failed. He was wide awake by the time Momiji settled down from finding a more comfortable position for sleep. As it were, Ron found himself to be the human bed. Again.

The first time Ron woke up with Momiji on his chest and straddling still fast asleep, he camped in the Prefect HQ for three nights. Sometimes Ron wondered if his only source of body heat was his groin. The kid could rape him in his sleep trying to look for a heater.

——

When Draco walked in the Prefect HQ, all he wanted was his brand of coffee. It was his morning routine and considered the stroll from Wings to the clubhouse a daily exercise. When he was more awake, he would jog back and then officially start his day.

Today, something was different. It wasn’t an unfamiliar scene, but Draco didn’t expect a repeat of that incident.

He silently made his way to the pantry and fixed himself the caffeine that made him human in the ungodly mornings. With equal quiet care, he pulled a chair and set his mug on the table then waited for the other occupant to wake up.

There was the scent of something strong and sweet that stroked Ron’s senses to come alive. It had taken a few deep breaths of that aroma before he had had enough strength to move. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by a very familiar gray, mocking and amused.

“Good morning, pauper. Squatting again, I see.”

“Malfoy,” Ron rasped. ‘What a thing to wake up to,’ he surmised. He pushed himself to sit up, bones creaking from the uncomfortable sleep. “Just shut up. It’s too early. What time is it?”

“You haven’t overslept.” Draco took a sip and turned to look at the lone window in their office. He wore a thoughtful expression for a second before finally giving in to his curiosity, “What’s really happening in South Wing?”

“Nothing.” Ron finally stood up and stretched, groaning. “My back’s killing me. I can’t keep this up.”

“Whose fault is that, I wonder. We might as well buy a new table later since your acidic drool left a permanent mark on it by now.”

Too groggy to think of a witty reply, Ron simply trudged towards Draco’s chair and leaned. After glaring point blank at the surprised gray eyes, he took the mug and finished it all in one gulp. Without another word he left the office, pointedly ignoring the burn in his tongue.

TBC

notes:
[1] Hokage = it’ll come later
[2] Da Ge = Chinese for ‘big brother’
[3] Ron-nii = ‘niisan’ means big brother in Japanese. Some people use the ‘nii’ as a suffix and in Momiji’s case, he used it for Ron.

In case it still needs explaining… Momiji’s Ron-nii nickname morphed into Ronnie for everyone else in the whole South Wing. XD Ickle Ronniekins is now everybody’s big bro.