"Lavender! Parvati!"

"Oh no Lav, just keep walking. Heads down," Parvati whispered frantically. The two girls put their heads down and sped up their pace.

"Hey," Ron said, out of breath. It was apparent that he had just run the thirty yards distance that had been there only seconds before.

"Oh… hey Ron," Lavender said, feigning nonchalance. Parvati eyes were flashing every which way trying to find an escape.

Suddenly, her eyes seemed to zero in on something and she proclaimed, "Oh! There is my sister! Padma! Sorry guys got to run."

Lavender silently cursed her best friend.

Ron took a couple steps closer toward her and in response she backed up. The breath was knocked out of her in a woosh though, as her back connected with the wall.

She needed an escape. She looked to the left: more wall. She looked to the right: more wall. She looked in front of her and met the miserable gaze of Ron. There was no escape. She was cornered.

"Oh Lavender," Ron cried, anguished. "It's just been such a terrible week. Monday, Fred and George pulled a prank on me. Again. They stole my underwear! You know what? That's not even the worst part. They replaced them with girly knickers! I'm wearing lace, Lavender. LACE!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ro-"

"Tuesday! Oh, Tuesday…. Snape gave me a detention! Why you ask? Because I coughed! COUGHED!"

"Ron, I-"

"And then there was Wednesday. What could have gone wrong on such a nice day as Wednesday? Why would you even say it was nice? It wasn't! It was downright horrible. Harry had this- well…. Oh man. This just adds to the horrible, miserable week list. I can't even tell people how awful Wednesday was! Stupid Harry, making me keep secrets…. Well, anyway. Harry got all the attention because of his stupid, secretive secret. Err…"

"Well, Ron, I really need to-"

"That was the better part of my week. Wednesday? That was nothing compared to Thursday. Thursday Harry woke me up at three in the morning with his bloody screaming! His tossing, his turning, his moaning…. A nightmare! He woke me up to tell me that You-Kn- AH! More secrets…. Geez…."

"That's terrible Ron, but I-"

"Friday. The next day-"

"RONALD WEASLEY!"

Lavender's head swung so she could see over Ron's shoulder, where Professor McGonagall was standing. The woman looked slightly irritated.

Ron glanced back as well, but then turned back to Lavender. He looked like he was deciding whether or not he should respond to her, or ignore her and go back to is miserable week.

McGonagall decided for him. Giving me a barely perceptible wink, she shouted once again, "Ronald Weasely! Come with me. You have detention right now for shouting in the corridors."

"What?" Ron said, outraged.

"You heard me, Mr. Weasley. Go on ahead to my office. I will be there momentarily."

Ron gave Lavender one last longing glance and then began the trek to the professor's office.

As soon as Ron was out of sight, McGonagall gave Lavender one last wink, a small attempt at a friendly smile, and a farewell nod. She headed off after Ron.

Lavender blinked, dazed. What just happened?

She pondered it for a few minutes, but decided it did not matter, so long as she was free from Ron's incessant babble.