Ch 8 Uptight Ass Part 1

[Quest Complete]

[Reward: Exp +10, The Bloodline Curse (2)]

[Quest Alert!]

[The Bloodline Curse(2)]

[Description: When you hate your foe so much that you want them and their descendants to suffer for a long long time... that is when you place this curse on your enemy. An ancient family placed this curse on the Greengrass line and now their youngest daughter, Astoria Greengrass suffers because of it. This curse randomly afflicts a person every third generation and is thought to be incurable. Symptoms include: a frail physique, weakened magic, weak immune system, and intolerable bursts of pain during the days around the New Moon.]

[Objective: Find information about three possible cures for the Bloodline curse.]

[Reward: Exp +150, Curse Breaker Lv 1, Stat +1 ]

'Oh, this is quite good—'

[Level Up!]

[Stat +1, Skill +1]

'And now, this is just the cherry on top, Hehe!' Ron was jumping up and down internally at the continued merry surprises and immediately commanded, 'Open Status'

[Status]

Name: Ronald Weasley (Sam)

Level: 16 (05/340)

MP: 243/243

Physique [Max.]: 6.1 + 0.9(Pending) [11]

Dexterity [Max.]: 5 [10]

Spirit [Max.]: 8.1 + 0.9(Pending) [16]

Perception [Max.]: 4 [10]

Stats: 1

Skills: 1

[Skills]

Transfiguration Lv5, Charms Lv5, Herbology Lv5, Potions Lv5, DADA Lv5, Astronomy Lv4, Flying Lv6, Dueling Lv6, Observe Lv1...

'Not only a stat point but also a Skill Point! A level-up is just awesome—' Ron was having a hard controlling his inner happiness from showing up on his face as he knew that it would be a disaster-level screw-up if he showed a delighted expression on his face immediately after the girl just told him about her terminal illness.

"Why do you look so constipated?" Asotira asked with a tilt of her head as she saw the severe frown on Ron's face as if he was having a stomach ache. Unlike the usual pity she got when people learned about her curse, he was looking at her with such a foreign expression that it baffled her... "Do you even know what it means?"

"Of course, I do." Ron retorted after taking a deep breath and smoothing his expression while mentally closing the status. It seems that he would need to learn Occlumency as soon as he could otherwise it would be tough for him to explain to people why his expression kept changing abruptly.

"Doesn't the curse just mean that every full moon, you'll turn into a bloodthirsty bunny..." he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "and then you'll appear above your sleeping enemies and drink their blood until they beg you to stop and agree to become your slave..." he finished in a grim tone and even gave a full body shudder for added effects. "...for the rest of his life."

"Wha—Who told you that ridiculous crap!!" she shot back with an affronted look on her face, "Of course, I don't turn into—" she was about to tear into him when she caught sight of the mirth in his eyes and halted, "Y-You were joking?" she asked incredulously.

"No, No, I really thought that you turned into a cute little bunny every—"

"Oh, Shut up!" Astoria huffed with a pout on her face after seeing the small smirk on Ron's face. But she wasn't really angry though as it was quite a novel experience for her to not be treated like a fragile flower who could break at a single touch or worse to be looked at as if she was a scourge who could spread the curse to him and run away in fear.

"So what is this curse about... I mean what do you turn into, if not a blood-thirsty bunny," Ron asked casually while comfortably leaning back on his chair with his eyes focused on the view out the window; his entire posture screamed lazy as if he really was here just to soak in the sun.

"Well... firstly I don't turn into any animal, and for the most part, I am still just a normal girl..." she shrugged before continuing, "A normal girl who can't perform any of the more demanding magics or fly on a broom for a more than a minute... and of course, I need to stay here in Hospital Wing for a few days every single month to drink disgusting but very expensive potions so that I don't go insane from the excruciating pain that hits me around the New Moon..." she stopped before her expression abruptly changed to a bright one, "Except for all that, I am just a normal Slytherin girl."

"...Yep, that sounds exactly like every other girl out there," Ron nodded after a while before he shook his head with a sigh and tried to move on to something brighter, "But, hey, that must mean that you hate your sister, right..."

"Huh? Why would I hate my sister?" Astoria asked with an absurd look on her face.

"Oh! Come on, Your sister, "the overachiever", the one who's always in the top three of our year, the one who could've gotten the "prestigious" top spot if Hermione didn't spend half her year in the library," Ron ranted with the addition of air quotes for emphasis, "I bet someone uptight like that wouldn't be happy if you got less than satisfactory grades—"

"My sister is not uptight," Astoria interrupted with a wide-eyed angry look, "I mean, she does get a little mad when I get bad grades, and I guess she can be a little fanatical when it comes to doing homework on time, and I agree that she can be little mean if I am a bit lazy—Ok, fine, I admit that she's a little uptight, but that doesn't mean that she's a bad person," she said which made Ron roll his eyes, "No, really, she always helps me with my studies, and it is mostly because of her that I am still in the top ten of my class even though my practical skills suck."

"Wait! You're really in the top ten of your class?" Ron asked with a somewhat sceptical look on his face, "Damn... I would have never guessed from the way you were slacking when I first saw you..."

"Hey! I-I wasn't slacking," Astoria immediately responded with a flushed expression on her face, "I was just taking a b-break..." she explained but her evading eyes told Ron otherwise.

"Sure you were, and I completely believe you," Ron said with such a fake smile that it made Astoria want to punch him in the face, "Ahem, Anyway..." Ron coughed and stopped grinning after seeing the irritated look on her face, "About um this bloodline curse of yours— you don't happen to know of any cures for it, do you?"

"Of course not... Don't you think I would have already been cured if there was such a thing available," she answered before sighing and leaning back on her bed, "This is a very ancient curse that was rarely used even during the old times before it was banned, because of it's absurdly high costs, and even the old pureblood families of past hardly ever used it. And since it was so rare, there are hardly any books about it left lying around, and even if you scour the libraries of the Ancient and Noble families, you'll probably only find the way to cast this curse and not the way to cure it..."

"Ah...that's a bummer," Ron said with a disappointed look on his face, "But then... do you know why your line was cursed and which family the person who cast this curse belonged to?" He asked, hoping that it was some deranged Black ancestor who had cast this stupid curse so that at least he would have a clue as to where to start with the search for a cure otherwise he would be completely blind and would have to depend on luck to stumble upon it...

Because he knew that there was definitely a cure out there, otherwise the system wouldn't have assigned it to him as a quest.

"I think... it was about something like, 200 hundred years ago... an ancestor of mine spurred off one of her suitors and ran away from her home, and apparently her 60-year-old suitor belonging to the family of Gaunt didn't take it very well and decided to use most of his family's wealth to punish my family and take revenge for this 'outrageous' insult..."

"Ooh, talk about a petty man..."

"I know," Astoria nodded in agreement, "But don't worry, karma got them in the end as their family was declared bankrupt soon after... and now I think their family has even gone extinct... So I guess, all in all, our family got the better end of that deal..."

'But they are not completely extinct yet...' Ron didn't say it out loud as he didn't think it was appropriate to tell a child that their ancient enemy still had a descendant out there, who was not only very strong but was also pinning for world dominance.

He didn't think the little girl would take that information very well so he immediately tried to change the subject, "...So how much do these medicines of yours cost?" he asked while pointing at the bottles of potions on the table beside her bed.

"Hmm... about a thousand galleons, I think..."

"W-What?! A thousand galleons!" Ron squeaked with his eyes almost bulging out of his socket, "Damn your family must be rich..."

And wasn't that an understatement, because as far as Ron knew, their whole Weasley family, including the two oldest siblings, not long ago survived on their Father's measly salary of just 100 galleons, and now he finds out that this little girl just drank away that amount every single month... They were right when they said that 'Comparisons are a thief of joy'.

"We may not be rich for long..." Astoria darkly murmured under her breath. Even a relatively rich pureblood family like hers couldn't afford this expense every month easily. And even though her parents had never let her know anything about it, she knew that they had been under financial pressure for a long time.

"S-Say, um your Father wouldn't happen to be looking for a son-in-law, would he? And is your sister currently single or..." Ron tried to ask it in a forced casual tone but was failing badly at it.

"Wha—Haha!!" Astoria burst out laughing when she comprehended what Ron was getting at, "Y-You think that you have a chance with my sister—HAHA!!"

"Hey! That's very rude," Ron said in a somewhat indignant voice as he saw the girl laughing her ass off while rolling on the bed holding onto her stomach, "What's wrong with me? I'll have you know that many people think that I am quite the tall and handsome—"

"HAHAA!!!" It just made the girl laugh even harder.

"Hey, will you please stop—"

"What is happening here?" came an ice-cold bell-like voice from right behind Ron and along with it came the distinct sensation of a wand on his back making him shiver in his seat and raise his hands in surrender, "Um..."

"Eh! Sister! You're here..."

///

To read ahead, go to: pa*reon.c*m/lazywizard