'Harry could tell they had rehearsed this conversation while he had been asleep.'
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, British Edition, Page 159.
Ever since I read this line, I wondered what it was like for Ron and Hermione to 'rehearse' their conversation. I wrote this missing moment to find it out for myself.
Ron yawned and climbed out of bed, pulling the curtains of his four-poster apart. He peered anxiously at the bed to the right of his, but its hangings were drawn. He could hear Harry's light snores and breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was asleep now.
He opened the dormitory door and climbed down the staircase to the common room to be greeted by the sight of a freshly dressed Hermione, sitting on a chair close to the fire, her work spread over three tables, her nose buried in a huge text book. He climbed down the staircase silently, and settled himself in an armchair by the fire.
"How's Harry?"Hermione asked suddenly.
Ron started. He didn't think Hermione had noticed him, deep in schoolwork as she was.
"He's sleeping now. Don't think he slept well last night though," he replied.
"Of course he hasn't slept well, Ron, he's just found out that Black, who was a huge supporter of You-Know-Who and the person who practically murdered his parents, was his dad's best friend and his godfather!"Hermione said, her voice getting more anxious with each passing word. "We have to do something!"
"What do you mean Hermione?"asked a puzzled Ron. "What on earth are we supposed to do something about?"
"Well, Ron, what do you think Harry will feel when he wakes up?" She asked exasperatedly.
In his mind's eye, Ron saw Harry, with a look of pure hatred on his face, wanting to go after Black to take revenge. He conveyed this thought to Hermione, receiving a prompt "Exactly" from her.
"We need to think of some way to stop him from doing anything reckless," she said.
Ron's stomach growled at that point, interrupting their conversation. "I suppose you'll want to eat breakfast first," said Hermione. "Just be back quickly. Everyone's probably still in the Great Hall."
"What about you? Aren't you coming?"
"Oh, I've already eaten, I got up at seven thirty to study and I've already said goodbye to everyone. You'd better hurry up. It's already ten thirty and the train leaves in half an hour."
"Come down with me, won't you? Can't you take a break for a while?"
"No, Ron, I can't! Too much work to do. Do you realize the amount of work I've got for the holiday? I've got a lot to do, even if you have next to nothing!" Hermione sounded slightly hysterical, as she always did, when anyone told her to stop working for a while.
"Alright, alright, I'll go down myself then, Hermione!" Ron said, going up to his dormitory to dress, after which he went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast and say goodbye to Percy, Fred, George and Ginny, who were going home for the holidays.
After he'd eaten a lengthy breakfast, and waved his siblings goodbye, Ron went back up to the common room. Now, stomach filled, and out of his sleepy state, he really began to feel worried about what Harry would think of doing when he woke up.
He sat himself in an armchair and impatiently waited for Hermione to finish the introduction to her next essay. "Hurry up Hermione, Harry will wake up any time now, and maybe you'll know what to say, but I'm not good at this kind of thing, so I won't know what to do if he tells me that he wants to do something rash!"
Hermione put down her quill and looked up at Ron. "Well, we know he'll want to go after Black, so the first thing we have to tell him is not to do anything stupid for his own safety. Okay?"
"Yeah, got it," said Ron. "But, Hermione, do you think that'll work? I mean, has Harry ever given his safety a lot of importance?"
"Ron, we have to say that! You know Harry, he'll be so full of hatred for Black that he'll try to go after him and put himself in danger without thinking! Black's not worth dying for, Harry needs to know that. We need to make it clear to him that there's nothing he can do, he needs to leave it to the Dementors and the Ministry people! He'll be playing into Black's hands if he goes after him!"
"Remember," Hermione continued, "try to change the subject the first chance you get and when it isn't insensitive to do so."
It was all very easy for her to say, Ron reflected, and probably to remember too, but he didn't find it at all easy to recall things like this. He had never tried to explain anything much to anyone before, and wondered if he would remember and say everything properly.
"Hermione," he said, panicking, "how am I ever going to remember all of that?"
"We just need to go over it a few times, that's all. Hopefully, we'll be able to get through to Harry about this," said Hermione.
After going over all their explanations twice, both anxiously looking at the stairs that led to the boys' dormitories every few minutes, Hermione decided to get back to her work.
For a while, Ron sat in silence, only hearing the sounds of the crackling fire and Hermione's scratching quill. When he began to feel hungry again, he went up to the dormitory and got out a box of Peppermint Toads that he had bought from Hogsmeade the previous day, and walked down to the common room once more, after noting, with relief, that Harry was still asleep.
It was nearly lunchtime when, as he was thinking that he would have to wake Harry himself, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the staircase leading to his dormitory and knew it was Harry. He and Hermione exchanged a look as a depressed and bothered looking Harry descended.
Author's note: Please review! This is my first attempt at fanfiction.