Chapter 4
Sitting in the Gryffindor common room, Harry held his hands in his lap. No one had seen Ron all day. It was time for Quidditch practice, but he couldn’t go. Ron came first, the others would have to understand. Hundreds of scenarios had played out in his head since this morning. Had Voldemort taken him? Was it the work of some angry spirit? An unknown monster? Or had he really run away? His clothes and personal items were still there, so Harry doubted that. Still, no one had had any luck finding him. Hermione had even checked the library twice. Harry had to face it; Ron wasn’t at Hogwarts.
Abruptly the Fat Lady swung her portrait open and Albus Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall stepped in.
“Mr. Weasley still hasn’t been found?” McGonagall inquired. Harry shook his head. McGonagall looked worried. Dumbledore’s normal calm expression had been replaced by one of concern.
“Mr. Weasley’s mood of late has been melancholy, I’ve been told.” Dumbledore said, regarding Harry’s anxious eyes.
“Yes. He’s been skipping meals, staying in our dorm, been unusually quiet and spending a lot of time by himself.” Harry explained. Dumbledore and McGonagall’s expressions turned grave.
“Oh Albus, you don’t think…”
“I hope not,” Dumbledore replied. “Harry, where are Ron’s things?” Harry pointed up the stairs and the headmaster headed for them. With Harry trailing him, Dumbledore entered the fifth year’s dorm. After being shown which bed was Ron’s, he set about searching through parchment and pulling out clothes. Not sure what the older man was searching for, Harry stood back and watched.
Dumbledore’s gaze finally fell on Ron’s Transfiguration homework from the day before. Snatching up the parchment, Dumbledore scanned it. His eyes closed and he took several deep breaths. Turning he moved with surprising speed down the stairs.
“Professor, find Miss Virginia, Mssrs. Fred and George. I need to speak with them immediately. Harry, get Hermione to help you start calling for Ron here.” Dumbledore ordered. His voice was grave. Harry didn’t understand what was going on. McGonagall obviously did. She paled and hurried away with an ‘of course, right away’.
“Professor Dumbledore?” Harry asked fighting a sudden knot forming in his stomach.
“We need to act quickly while Ron is still here. It’s up to his friends and family to find him. Call out his name, convince him to return.” Dumbledore told him as he handed Harry the parchment.
Glancing at it, he read the words he couldn’t make out the other day. ‘I am nothing’. They glared out at him amongst the finished homework.
Seeing his scared and confused face, Dumbledore spoke.
“We have to hurry. If he’s become what I think he’s become, our window of opportunity is short. Call for him, talk to him. He’s here somewhere and hopefully he’ll hear and come back.” Without another word, he left the Fat Lady closing behind him.
“He’s not nothing, he’s my friend. How could he even think that he wasn’t?” Harry asked himself as he stared down at the parchment.
When she’d said `someplace more cheery’, he didn’t think she meant Paris. Yet here they were sitting on top of the Eiffel Tower gazing out over the City of Lights. Miss Nothing, as Ron had decided to call her, was playfully swinging her legs through the observatory roof. It didn’t seem unusual to her that only moments ago they’d been at Hogwarts.
“How’d we get here?” He asked as his eyes followed a crowd of tourists walking around the tower below them.
“We just did. That’s lesson one of being Nothing. Just think of a place and you can be there in a blink of an eye.” She told him lying back on the metal roof.
“But I didn’t think of this place.” He protested.
“I did and since you were following me, you came too.”
“I see.” Ron said slowly beginning to understand. “So if I want to be on the ground then I just think of it and I’m there?”
“Precisely.” She replied holding up one finger. “Let’s try. I’ll follow you, so think that you want to be on the ground. If it helps, say the words out loud.” Sitting up, she took his hand. “Go ahead.”
Taking a deep breath, Ron wished he were standing below the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly he was there. Miss Nothing let go of his hand and smiled broadly.
“Congratulations! You’ve now successfully mastered getting somewhere. Easy, wasn’t it?” For a few minutes Ron just stood there wondering if this was anything like how Apparating felt. Something told him not quite, but close enough.
“Ready for lesson two?” Miss Nothing inquired after about ten minutes of practicing getting somewhere followed by walking around tourists and making faces at photographers.
“Sure, what’s next?” Ron said hopping down from a bench he’d been walking across.
“You’ll see.” She grabbed his hand and they returned to the top of the Eiffel Tower. “Lesson two, Nothing can do anything. We aren’t subject to the same physical laws as Something. Which means we can do this without worrying about getting hurt. Not that Nothing can be hurt or die anyway.” As she spoke she stepped off the tower. Ron gave out a short cry as she fell.
Miss Nothing plummeted halfway down then came to a sudden stop. Then she swam back up to the top. Acting as if she’d just climbed out of a deep swimming pool, she pulled herself back up on the roof. Flicking her braid back over her shoulder, she smiled.
“You weren’t listening. I said, Nothing can’t be hurt or die.” She wagged her index finger at him making ‘tsk tsk’ sounds with her tongue. “Now you need to try. Come on, it’s easy.”
“Easy she says,” Ron muttered looking down. The ground looked hard and unforgiving. Mustering what courage he had, he jumped off.
“Just stop when you feel like it!” Miss Nothing called after him.
Air rushed past his ears as he sped towards the ground. The steel beams that made up the tower whizzed by nearly colliding with him. From above he heard a gleeful shout and suddenly he wasn’t alone. Miss Nothing caught up with him in an instant. Her face alight with joy as they fell. Ron waited until he was three quarters down before he decided he’d had enough. Throwing out his feet like he was slamming on a car’s brakes, he willed himself to stop. He froze in the air as did Miss Nothing.
“See? Wasn’t that easy?” She asked flipping herself so that she stood with her feet towards the ground. Ron tried the same maneuver, but couldn’t quite pull it off. She had to help him up.
“That was crazy and scary and…fun!” Ron exclaimed. “It’s like flying a broom, except no broom.”
“Want to do it again?” She asked grinning madly, apparently elated that she had someone to play with.
“YES!” He kicked off and sailed back up. Giggling, Miss Nothing followed and soon they were doing cannonballs off the roof. Ron hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. It felt great to just let go and be free from everything he’d been.
“Ron, watch this!” Miss Nothing called. She did a series of cartwheels off the tower then walked back as if she were on a tight rope. He laughed as she pretended to almost fall. The world was open to possibilities that he’d never dreamed of.
“Want to go somewhere else?” She asked after a while.
“Sure, there are tons of places I’ve never been to.” Ron told her.
“Then let’s go!” She exclaimed. He grinned and grabbed her hand. Suddenly they were outside the Louvre museum. Miss Nothing looked a bit confused about the choice until he admitted he wanted to see what the Muggles thought was so wonderful about this place.
“Really neat paintings,” she replied, skipping ahead of him. “Come on! There are some stupendous statues we can sit on.”
“Lead the way,” Ron said running to catch up.