One of those days
This wasn't fair! It was only one week until Christmas. But instead of giving them an easy week the teachers had tortured them with difficult lessons, tests and... wet feet.
On their way to Hagrid's hut for their Care of Magic Creatures lesson Ron had stepped into a puddle of freezing cold water.
Muttering curses under his breath, Hermione shot him a look that he knew way too well. It said, "Ron is it really necessary to swear in this situation? You know, swearing doesn't make it better, don't you?"
Ron gritted his teeth and walked a bit faster as he felt his toes starting to freeze.
By the time they'd reached the edge of the forest, Ron felt like the tips of his toes had already died. So he swept the snow off a nearby log and sat down on it to take his shoes off.
"Nice socks you got there, Weasley!" he heard a familiar voice say from behind him and turned around. "Did you buy them second-hand?" Malfoy sneered, while the group of Slytherins that were with him sniggered in the background.
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Ron barked as he quickly put his shoes back on.
Before Malfoy could reply, they heard a little cough and saw Professor Umbridge walking towards them.
"Mr Weasley," she said in her typical sickly sweet voice, "we don't insult our fellow students. Five points from Gryffindor. And be happy, it wasn't more!"
Ron, Harry and Hermione walked away from Umbridge who was now complaining about Hagrid being late and taking notes about it.
"This day is just getting better by the minute," Ron muttered.
Harry didn't seem to have heard him. "Where's Hagrid?" he asked and looked around nervously.
"Don't worry, he'll show up," Hermione reassured.
"How can I not worry? Can't you see Umbridge taking notes on that stupid-"
"Alright, everyone!" Harry was interrupted by a loud voice as Hagrid came walking through the thick trees. "Today'll be the last day we'll work with Thestrals. I jus' want ye te look after them an' I'll walk aroun' te see if ye doin' it right."
He dropped a fresh half of a dead cow onto the forest floor.
Ron sighed. At least it would be the last time he had to deal with those creatures he couldn't even see. Looking around at the others, his eye caught Hermione, who was also looking around without seeing anything. Then he followed Harry's eyes, who were obviously watching one of the Thestrals coming closer.
He watched the footsteps in the snow approaching the dead animal when suddenly a sharp pain seared his foot.
"Ouch!" One of these unseen monsters had stepped on his toes. And it seemed like they weren't dead after all.
When the bell rang, Ron was one of the first to walk up the track to the castle where he could warm himself up again.
In their Transfiguration class Ron finally got the chance to take off his shoes. One of his socks was drenched.
"Shall I dry it for you?" Hermione asked as she sat down next to him, already raising her wand.
"I can do it myself!" Ron snapped back at her, not mentioning that he'd actually learned this charm from Hermione last winter.
Ron performed a complicated move with his wand and when it blew hot air on his sock he looked at Hermione complacently.
When Professor McGonagall entered the classroom, Ron just lowered his wand and continued to warm his feet because it felt so nice after they'd felt so numb.
Their Transfiguration teacher started to tell them what they had to do today (vanish slugs) and collected their homework.
But before handing out the slugs she asked them some questions.
"What do we have to keep in mind when we cast a vanishing spell on spineless creatures?"
Hermione's hand shot up in the air in an instant but Ron didn't pay attention to it. He had just come up with a good come-back for Malfoy and imagined himself saying it to him and watching his arrogant face turn even paler, when...
"Mr Weasley!"
Ron literally jumped up from his seat.
"Wha…what?"
"Were you even listening to what I was saying, Mr Weasley? What have you got there under your table? I hope it's not another of those horrible trick-wands." She approached their table.
Ron made a quick movement with his wand to show her his empty hands, which wasn't the best idea, as he realized moments later when his feet started to burn and Professor McGonagall wrinkled her nose and said, "Is something burning in here?"
Ron jumped up again and tried to pull his shoes and socks off, which had caught fire.
Professor McGonagall directed her wand on them and a jet of water extinguished the flames.
But now Ron's socks were soaked once again.
"Go to your dormitory and get a dry pair of socks, Mr Weasley."
Ron, whose ears and head had assumed the colour of a ripe tomato, walked to the door, not looking anybody in the eye, while he heard Parvati and Lavender giggle in the last row.
Great, he could almost feel his popularity plummet to the ground.
Well, at least, he was able to skip Transfiguration. Considering his luck today, it would only have ended in a total fiasco.
He took his time, walking through the cold corridors to Gryffindor Tower.
When he finally reached the Boy's Dormitory and searched his drawers for a clean pair of socks he muttered to himself, "House-elves are no longer, what they used to be."
When he'd finally put on a pair of socks, Ron went down into the Common Room and wondered if he should look over his DADA essay again but then decided that he just wasn't in the mood for it. Instead he decided to go down to the Great Hall for an early dinner.
When his classmates joined him fifteen minutes later, Hermione had another unpleasant surprise waiting for Ron.
"Professor McGonagall gave you an extra task because you missed the rest of the class. You have to write an essay on vanishing spineless creatures," Hermione said as she sat down next to him.
He groaned. Well, at least dinner was steak and kidney pie. So maybe things were slowly getting better and he had a feeling that Hermione would help him with his essay later.
But first he had to go through double DADA with Umbridge which he certainly wasn't looking forward to.
The lesson started off just as great as his last one had ended. In front of Umbridge's classroom he found Dean and Seamus imitating him jumping up and down and pulling off his shoes. The worst of it was, when he wanted to complain about it to Harry, he had the impression that he had been quietly chuckling to himself about their stupid joke, too.
When Umbridge let them into the room, Ron was almost happy to take out his books. But this feeling only lasted for about a minute. As usual, Umbridge had told them to copy a chapter from Defensive Magical Theory. Apart from the fact that this book bored Ron to death, he just wasn't in the mood for copying down page after page. He glanced over at Harry to see if he might have one of his fits of rage again. But Harry was just writing his lines with a grim smile on his face. And Ron was pretty sure that he was thinking of Dumbledore's Army while he was writing down useless information by Wilbert Slinkhard. Well, it looked like he would have to grit his teeth and start writing.
The lesson stretched like one of Drooble's Best Blowing gum and when it was over Ron hadn't gotten nearly as far on copying the chapter as he'd hoped.
"Those of you who spent their time on other things rather than reading and writing down chapter twelve will finish it later this evening so that we can talk about the chapter tomorrow." Umbridge announced at the end of the lesson with a wide smile on her face, which made her look even more like a huge toad.
"Ready for Quidditch?" Harry asked as they left the classroom.
Ron just nodded. The truth was that he wasn't even in the mood for it. Umbridge's lesson had made him unbelievably tired; he had loads of extra homework to do for tomorrow on top of the rest and he felt like he was getting a cold. So the last thing he wanted to do now was go out into the freezing dark night to spend his evening at Quidditch practice, which would certainly turn out dreadful, too.
When Ron and Harry left the Great Hall early, Ron had a feeling that Hermione had gave him a sympathetic look but he didn't have much time to think about it because Harry, who seemed to be in an almost euphoric mood, kept talking to him about the practice.
"And maybe we can try out the Sloth Grip Roll again. I talked to Angelina yesterday and she agreed that it might come in handy for our next match."
"Yeah, that could be fun!" Ron replied, who was getting annoyed by his friend's good mood. He liked the Sloth Grip Roll. Especially because the first time he'd done it, it had been by accident and Angelina had praised him for it. And when she'd asked him to do it again in front of the whole team, it had been a success.
After they'd quickly changed in the dressing-room, Harry and Ron joined the rest of the team on the frozen Quidditch pitch.
"Now, that we're finally all ready," Angelina said and her eyes narrowed for a moment, when she looked at Ron and Harry, "we can start off as usual. Let's fly some laps around the pitch to warm up and then we'll practise with the Quaffle."
They all mounted their brooms and kicked off from the ground. While they flew lap after lap around the field, Ron started to feel a bit drowsy. He was probably coming down with a cold. It was no surprise after he'd spent the morning with wet feet in the forest.
"Alright!" Angelina called out after a while. "Gather round here so we can practise with the Quaffle."
As usual they formed a circle and started off throwing the Quaffle to each other. Ron had some difficulty catching the ball with his cold fingers and was hit straight in the face by it when Fred threw it at him just when he sneezed. Ron was pretty sure Fred had done it on purpose. But when he wanted to throw the ball back at his brother, Angelina announced that they'd start practising the Sloth Grip Roll.
"Ron, can you fly around the pitch and when Harry throws the Quaffle at you, do the roll?" she asked him.
Bursting with pride because Angelina had picked him to show how the Roll was done, Ron set off.
But when the Quaffle came flying towards him, Ron acted too quickly – and fell off his broom.
He hit the frozen ground hard. Luckily he hadn't been flying very high, so he didn't seriously hurt himself. But when he'd pulled himself up again, the whole team had already landed around him. And while Harry and the girls looked rather concerned, the twins were leaning on each other with laughter and Angelina ended the practice.
After a warm shower Ron felt a bit better. But when he entered the Gryffindor Common Room, he was reminded of all the work he still had to do.
Harry was still in the shower so he sat down at a table next to Hermione who was reading a book about Wizarding Laws.
Ron decided that it would be best to do his extra task for McGonagall first so he took out his Transfiguration book and opened the chapter on Vanishing.
Hermione looked up when she realized that somebody had sat down next to her.
"Ron, you look awful!" she exclaimed when she saw his face.
"Thanks," Ron barked back at her. What was she talking about? He wasn't here to win a beauty contest after all.
"No, honestly. Are you alright? You already looked pale at dinner time..."
"It's just been one of those days," Ron said. For a second he was torn between writing his essay for McGonagall and complaining to Hermione about his day. But then he decided on the essay. He probably really wasn't alright when he made this decision.
"Is there any chance you could help me with this essay?" he added in a hopeful tone.
Hermoine sighed. "I can read it when you've finished," she finally offered, before she stood up from her seat and left the Common Room.
"She's probably gone to the library," Ron thought and went back to the chapter on Vanishing.
But after staring at the first page for five minutes and not taking anything in he realized that it was no use. He couldn't concentrate on what he was reading. Let alone write this essay.
Ron leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes for a moment.
Suddenly he heard steps approach him and Hermione's voice next to him, "I've got something for you."
Ron opened his eyes.
Hermione was standing in front of him and holding two mugs of steaming hot chocolate in her hands and a wide smile on her face.
Ron had to blink twice before he was sure that this wasn't a dream.
"Here you go," Hermione said as she handed him one of the cups and gestured to one of the sofas for them to sit down.
"Wow, thanks," was all Ron could mutter when he took the mug from her. This had to be a dream; he thought when he took a sip of the hot drink, which tasted even better than it looked.
"Hmm..." Ron even closed his eyes when he tasted the intense chocolate together with the sweetness of the cream along with the melted marshmallows and the vague taste of peppermint. Hermione smiled when she saw his face.
"So I guess, you haven't been to the library. Or does Madam Pince secretly make the best hot chocolate in the world?"
Hermione looked at her feet, "Well, not really."
"Then where did you get it from?" Ron asked eagerly.
"From the kitchen," Hermione said quietly.
Ron almost choked on his hot chocolate, as he laughed out loud.
"What? You went to the kitchen? Against all of your rules and beliefs?"
"Well, you know what they say, sometimes rules are meant to be broken," Hermione answered and a tiny smile appeared on her face.
"Wow," Ron said again, "Thanks for that. You're really great, Hermione. And always full of surprises."
"You really looked awful tonight so I thought you needed something to make you feel better. And you know what? I think you have a bit more colour in your face now."
Ron just looked at her sceptically and didn't reply.
After a while Hermione tentatively asked, "So, how's the essay going?"
"Oh, don't ask," Ron replied.
"You know what; I'll help you with it later. But let's just enjoy our hot chocolate for the moment."
So they sat side by side on the sofa and did just that.
Written for the "Hot Chocolate Competition" and the "Canon and Could Be Canon" Competition.
And a huge thank you to my great beta MrsBates93, without whom this story would have been filled with embarassing mistakes!