If you've read Draconian, you probably have seen my recast of the characters. Not that there's anything wrong with the original actors, of course—Tom Felton is, after all, perfection. But readers have often asked me how Iimagine them, and it especially works in this story since the characters become much older later on.
Feel free to imagine them however you want, but also feel free to enjoy the gifs I'll provide of my reimagined cast every chapter. (You will love the Theo one. Just saying.) I mean, Rupert Grint is lovely and all, but—
Linus Wordemann as Ronald Weasley
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x Noelle
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IT FEELS LIKE something out of a Wizarding fairytale. An empty hallway lit in a soft glow; the stars visible beyond the open window. She casts a surreptitious glance up at Harper and tries to quell the butterflies in her stomach. He'd been stunning in the match against Hufflepuff earlier, which makes her feel so special because he'd chosen her.
Her.
Not her sister Daphne, or any of the other girls in Slytherin. Her—Astoria.
Harper brings her to a halt in a dark alcove. He squeezes her hand and she squeezes back. Oh, she knows what's going to happen. She's heard Daphne giggling with Pansy Parkinson and Tracey Davis about what goes on in dark alcoves all summer, and now it's her turn. She eases back against the wall and smiles up at him when he tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. Then she closes her eyes, waiting, waiting, waiting...
A sudden patter of footsteps, then a rustle nearby. Her eyes fly open, and she barely catches a glimpse of Harper's own puckered lips before he's shoved aside. She shrieks and reaches for him, only for an angry voice to cut her off.
"What the bloody fuck, Astoria?!"
She whirls around. Ronald Weasley looks all kinds of livid as he glares at them. Flared nostrils, flaming red hair and flashing eyes. If looks can kill... She shrinks back under the force of his wrath and watches as he hauls Harper up. It's true that Ron has grown in the past year. Harper is tall, but Ron towers over him despite being only a year older.
"Go away," Ron snaps.
"Fuck off, Weasley—"
"I said go away! Or do I have to dock points from Slytherin?" Ron flashes his Prefect badge and Harper blanches. The Slytherin doesn't even bother looking back as he disappears down the hallway, leaving her alone with Ron.
The moment Harper is out of sight, she turns back to Ron and makes a frustrated noise. "Why'd you do that? Our date was going so well!"
Ron whirls around, disbelief etched in his features. "You call this a sodding date? Do you even know what couples do in places like these?"
"Snogging, of course, what else?"
"What else—?" He pinches the bridge of his nose in clear exasperation. "Forget it, go back to your room."
"Urgh, fine!" She storms past him, grumbling under her breath. She's not usually this short-tempered, but he's just ruined what she'd been looking forward to all month. "I can't believe you've ruined this for me," she mutters under her breath. "Now I'll never have a first kiss!"
He hears her anyway. "A first kiss? You're only thirteen, for Merlin's sake!"
She whirls back around. "Yes, and Daphne was fourteen when she had hers! Theo Nott, at a Christmas party, while I had to go home early because Mum wouldn't let me stay up past ten. And I will not—I will not!—lose to my sister again!"
Ron falls silent. All the ire in her disappears as quickly as it comes, and she slumps back against the wall.
"I just... All my life, Daphne's always been ahead," she says in a small voice. "Daphne's the prettier one, the smarter one, the one boys like. Mum and Dad like her better. They don't say it, but I can see it. She has more friends and everyone just puts up with me because of her. But me... No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I'm always... I'm always just second best."
Ron is silent for awhile. But when he speaks, his voice sounds just as resigned. "Yeah, I get that. In my family, I have five older brothers. Even if I do something amazing, it's like—what's new anymore? And now I'm best friends with Harry Potter and... I mean, he's great. He's like my brother. But he will always be the Boy Who Lived and I'm just...me."
"Well, you're a Prefect. Harry Potter isn't."
Ron quirks a wry smile at that. "That's true. And, you know, you're prettier than Daphne."
Her eyes light up. "Really?"
"Yeah, trust me. Maybe it doesn't really show yet, but you'll see."
She beams widely at him. "I hope so. Maybe then I'll get my first kiss before Daphne got hers."
"Are you still hung up on that?" he scoffs and shakes his head. He hesitates for a moment, then seems to come to a decision. Her eyes widen when he takes a step closer, and raises a hand to her cheek. She suddenly forgets how to breathe. He tilts her chin up and lowers his head. "Honestly," he whispers, "first kisses aren't that big a deal."
His lips brush hers. A featherlight touch that's barely there. For all intents and purposes, it almost feels as brief as a peck on the cheek. He pulls back before she can even shut her eyes. But in the moment that he lingers, with his lips a hairsbreadth away from hers as he breathes her in, she's struck with an absolute certainty that he will not only be in her future.
Ron Weasley is her future.
She blinks and the moment is lost. Ron steps away from her, and even in the dim light, she can see that his cheeks are flushed.
"Go on," he tells her, motioning towards the nearest stairwell. "Before one of the Professors catch you out of bed."
She goes, but she can't help throw a backward glance. Ron is still rooted to the spot, his eyes fixed on her. Her lips quirk up in a tiny smile as she hurries away.
