Arthur was up and running for the floo.
Molly yelled, "They'll all be in the Great Hall for breakfast."
"Right!" Arthur barked back.
He stopped for a moment, thought, and ran to grab the only remaining broom in the house. It always sat next to the back door.
Snatching it up, he ran back to the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of floo powder and tossed it in the grate.
"The Three Broomsticks!" he barked.
As soon as the flames turned green he stepped in and was gone.
Molly hurried back to the kitchen to stare at the clock - and prayed her husband would be in time.
― ― ―
Harry was so focussed on Ron he didn't even realise the little Runes Professor had also seen the idiot boy and was already moving to counter him.
Ron's eyes immediately snapped to see the clearly angry professor, his new Head of House with McGonagall gone, charging down towards him from the dais and paled only slightly.
"Professor," he snapped. "There are two slimy―"
"Weasley, be silent!" she barked.
― ― ―
Arthur came out of the fireplace in the Three Broomsticks and didn't even slow down in his run for the door.
As soon as he had the door open, he ran through - diving off the top step, mounting the broom as he went - and urged it as fast as he could for the gates. Diving through them, he urged the broom as fast as it could go for the main doors of the castle in the distance.
― ― ―
When she was only four feet away from Ron, just past Harry and the others, Babbling stopped and said, "You will keep your mouth shut, you will not say a word, you will not make a single utterance, you will listen with your mouth firmly closed."
When she saw the boy was doing exactly what she'd told him to, she said, "I do not know why it is that your ears suddenly snap close when food appears before your eyes, but you should know that if you had finished saying what I highly suspect you were about to say, there is no doubt in my mind it would have ended badly for you!
"Last night it was leaked by a pair of stupid girls that Miss Daphne Greengrass, one of those two witches wearing the green trim you were being scathing towards, has entered into a written formal relationship agreement or contract with your ex-friend, Lord Potter. If I had allowed you to continue to say what you were clearly wanting to say, I have no doubt Lord Potter would have dealt with you."
"Yes, Professor; I would have," said Harry, quite firmly. "I personally warned Mister Weasley... to his face... only a couple of weeks ago of the consequences of verbally attacking me or mine. It appears he is Hell-bent on committing suicide."
When Ron flicked his eyes to Harry's all he could see looking back was coldness that spoke of death.
"Pay attention, Mister Weasley," barked Professor Babbling.
That had Ron snap his eyes back to the professor's.
She was about to open her mouth again when Arthur Weasley came running in through the doors of the Great Hall, which had everyone turn their eyes to him. He was carrying a broom in his offhand with his drawn wand in the other.
― ― ―
As soon as he saw his youngest son, still alive, Arthur slowed down and visibly sagged in relief for a moment. Then fortified himself and strode forward.
The Headmistress called out, "Arthur? I take it you are here because of something changing on that famous family clock of yours?"
"Yes, Gr- Headmistress Lady Marchbanks," he clearly replied, still walking forward. "My youngest son's hand suddenly moved from 'At School' to 'Mortal Peril'."
By then he had reached about five steps from Ron and glared at the boy.
Ron turned ghostly white and began visibly shaking in fear, before he spun to again stare at Harry. Harry was grinning at him with a cold grin that still promised death.
'How could I have been so stupid!' he thought.
Forcibly pulling his gaze away from Harry, he was just in time to hear the new Headmistress ask, "And your intent, Arthur?"
Arthur's gaze flicked from Ron to Harry and then to Marchbanks. He replied, "It is my intent to immediately withdraw my youngest son, Ronald, from Hogwarts and enter him into a home-schooling environment in order to save him from his own fool mouth."
Ron closed his eyes and mentally groaned. He knew what that now meant.
"Granted, Arthur," said Marchbanks. "I believe it will be saving your son's life, withdrawing him from Hogwarts. I shall forward on the required parchmentwork as soon as I am able.
"I trust you to return it via floo with all due haste."
"Thank you, Headmistress," he nodded back, barely taking his eyes from Ron to look at the Headmistress.
"Professor Babbling," called Marchbanks.
Babbling spun on the spot to look at the Headmistress.
"Please escort both Misters Weasley to the Gryffindor tower, so Mister Ronald Weasley may pack," she said. "Then, see him on his way via the nearest floo, if you don't mind."
"Yes, Headmistress," replied Babbling, before she spun back to Ron and indicated the door. She simply but firmly said, "Go."
As Ron quickly hurried from the Hall, his father and Professor Babbling followed a little slower.
― ― ―
At the Burrow, Molly slumped into tears of relief when Ron's hand moved from 'Mortal Peril' back to 'At School' with a 'Dong! Ding!'.
Twenty minutes later it moved briefly to 'Travelling' before moving to 'At Home'.
Her youngest son was now a Hogwarts student only in name. When his father received, signed and sent back the relevant parchmentwork, he wasn't even that.
― ― ―
When Mister Weasley the eldest and Professor Babbling walked out the door after Ron, Harry had to yet again endure the stares of his fellow students.
That remark about some special family clock that showed Ron Weasley's hand at 'Mortal Peril', after getting upset about two Slytherins sitting at the Gryffindor table, was not lost on them. They might not know what magic was involved, but they knew magic did not lie. If the magic of this clock said Ron Weasley was in mortal peril, then Ron Weasley's life was in imminent danger.
Based on what they had been witnessing of the boy until then, that mortal peril had to be as a result of berating the Lord Potter about the two Slytherins sitting at the Gryffindor table. That meant Lord Potter considered both, one or the other to be under the protection of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter.
For those who hadn't realised until then that Lord Potter and 'his' were definitely hands-off, they did now.
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