CHAPTER EIGHT

Enemies


Ron and Hermione went to sit at Gryffindor with Harry and Blaise, who were already there.

"Are you okay Hermione?" Harry asked Hermione who was grinning ear to ear and still giggling, wiping the tears from her eyes – with Ron's old handkerchief.

"Yeah," She breathed, "Ron cursed Malfoy in the corridor, he was vomiting up slugs!" Hermione told them – rather loudly, it certainly got the attention of the Gryffindor boys nearest to them, and the twins, who taught him the spell.

"Big fat slimy slugs!" Hermione giggled as she told the story.

"Bugger deserved it." Ron said. But between Ron and Hermione telling the story of what happened they had the Gryffindors closest to them doubled over with laughter.

"I don't know…" Hermione began, "What does it mean?" She asked Ron quietly, after the laughter had died down and the small audience they had turned their attention elsewhere.

Ron looked uncomfortable. "It's a really bad word to refer to a muggleborn, it means dirty blood. He shouldn't have said it." Ron told her. "Some people, like the Malfoys think they're better than everyone else because they're pureblood – so pretty much all of Malfoy's relatives are wizards, course it also means a lot of Malfoy's relatives probably married their cousins because there's really not that many wizards in the world." Ron shrugged, glad to see Hermione offered him a weak smile. "They have a term for everyone, Harry'd be a half blood, because his dad was a pureblood and his mum was muggleborn and I'm a blood traitor, because I'm a pureblood who reckons that muggle parents or not I'd have my arse handed to me if I went into a duel against you, Hermione."

"Thanks Ron." Hermione said, smiling at him.

Malfoy didn't show up for lunch, Ron noticed, and he and Blaise got Harry and Hermione up to speed with what they knew about the stone – and their proof that Quirrel was going to steal it.

"I don't think you should tell Snape," Harry admitted, "I just don't trust him. Why don't we go to McGonagall?"

"You're all forgetting something," Hermione added, they all looked at her expectantly, so she continued. "Dumbledore!"

"So?"

"Dumbledore is the only wizard You-Know-Who was afraid of," Hermione continued, "As long as he's here we're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around the stone can't be touched."

The rest of the day was actually pretty fun, until it became strange. During dinner Ron and Blaise both got a note summoning them to Snape's office and after dinner they both made their way there.

Their head of house considered them for a moment. The first years shifted uncomfortably.

"I am concerned that you two are not showing much loyalty to your house."

"Er." Ron shrugged, Blaise looked at the floor. Snape waited, apparently they'd have to come up with some sort of reply.

"Our house hasn't given us much of a reason to be loyal, sir." Ron pointed out, it was better than it had been, but there were a lot of his housemates who sneered, glared and even went as far as calling him names (blood traitor was pretty prevalent). As far as Ron new, Blaise's only crime was being his friend, but seeing as they were both spending more time around Harry and Hermione maybe it would get worse.

"Weasley you need to be smarter about this. You're making enemies, both of you and its only your first year."

"I'm not going to pander to them, I'm proud to be a blood traitor!" Ron insisted, his ears turning red and jumping up out of his seat. "We've done nothing wrong!"

"Sit down Weasley!" Snape snapped, he put a hand over his eyes, then pushed the greasy curtains of hair off of his face. "It doesn't matter who's wrong or right, but you're both going to isolate yourselves and end up with no allies in your own house. Slytherin house is a valuable resource – you're both being complete idiots about this."

The boys had nothing to say to that.

"Start showing a bit of house pride," Snape snapped at them, "Show your classmates that you're both useful and stop ruffling feathers. Now get out."

With that they were dismissed and headed back to the common room. Ron didn't really know what to say, and Blaise was pretty quiet about it too. Aside from wiping the floor with the whole house in chess Ron really hadn't had many overly positive experiences with anyone from his house – for the most part he just ignored them, and they more or less ignored him with a few stand out exceptions like Malfoy. Adrian Pucey was also a bit of a git what with Ron being best friends with the first year who wiped the floor with Pucey in his first ever Quidditch game (Pucey was another example of a Slytherin who was not well liked for his spectacular defeat in Quidditch).

Ron and Blaise went to bed, Ron only now remembering that after the slug vomiting incident today he had certainly made an enemy of Malfoy who was not in the dorms yet, even though Crabbe and Goyle were back. The five boys – as quiet Theo was on his bed reading. Got ready for bed and by the time they were all settled and the lights went out Malfoy still wasn't back.

"Ah!" Blaise woke up when he heard the exclamation and looked at the bed where Ron was sitting up, confused and groggy, "Ow!" He yelled again, suddenly, reaching down.

"You 'kay?" Blaise muttered.

"No, shit, My leg really hurts." Ron kicked off the comforter and grabbed his wand for light.

"What on earth?" Blaise had climbed out of bed and by the light of Ron's wand could see his left calf was swollen, bruised and bleeding from two little pinpricks.

"Ha, the calf vampire got you." Blaise said, jokingly. Ron nodded, frowning.

"It got me." He said, the smile fell from Blaise's face.

"Ron?"

They'd woken the other boys in the room, Crabbe and Goyle were both glaring, Malfoy still missing and Theo had come over to see what the fuss was.

The pain must have been intense, by the grimace on Ron's face he looked sick and was swaying a bit as though the room were spinning. The bruise was rapidly getting darker, spreading up his leg.

"What the hell is happening?"

"Can't breathe. 'S hurts. Stop." Ron muttered faintly, his nose had begun to bleed, he wasn't making sense and was wheezing, scarily, possibly even more pale than before.

"What do we do?" Theo asked, panicked, both he and Blaise were just staring at Ron as his condition got worse and worse.

"I'll get Snape." Crabbe grunted, the two beefy boys had come to see what was happening, Goyle looked a little sick.

"Yeah, I'll come with you!" Theo said, seemingly glad for the excuse the leave the room.

Ron was now doubled over, blood pouring from his nose, muttering nonsense and crying. Blaise looked at his friend worried.

"It will be okay, Ron they're getting you help."

The time between Crabbe and Theo leaving the room and their return with Snape felt like forever – Ron didn't get any better, the bruising was now covering his whole leg, it was puffy, red and swollen, he'd been sobbing for a while, mumbling incoherent things, blood had started to come out of the ear which was against the pillow and he'd vomited once.

"What the devil is going on here?!" Snape demanded, coming in on a scene where Blaise was uselessly hovering over Ron Weasley who had been reduced to a crying, bloody, bruised mess.

"He-he-he stopped breathing Sir! Help him!" Blaise sobbed, obviously distressed by the state his friend was in.

"Mr. Goyle get madame Pomfrey, Mr. Nott can you please get the headmaster, go, now!" Snape snapped, already waving his wand over Ron, who was slowly turning blue.

"What happened?"

"He-he w-woke up with his leg all bruised, here," Blaise pointed out the two puncture wounds on Ron's leg, Snape had already fixed Ron's breathing and stopped the bleeding – he was unconscious.

Snape placed two fingers against the boy's wrist, frowning.

"Goodness Severus what happened?" Poppy Pomfrey, still in her nightclothes came in wand at the ready and an assortment of medical supplies floating behind her.

"He was bitten by a cursed snake." Snape said, "Get out of the way!" He added to Blaise, who took a big step back to let the healer through.

"Here, Severus," Pomfrey began to hand Snape unmarked potions vials in different colours which he then fed to the unconscious Ron, cradling his head with unexpected gentleness and massaging the liquids down his throat. Slowly the swelling receded and Ron's breathing returned to normal.

Dumbeldore was the next to enter the room, followed by McGonagall and Theo.

"Mr. Weasley needs to go to the Hospital wing," Pomfrey declared, the teachers all spoke in hushed undertones, seemed to come to an agreement and Snape stormed from the room. Madame Pomfrey conjured a stretcher and levitated the still unconscious Ron onto it, then floated him out of the room.

"Is he okay?" Blaise asked, finally finding his voice.

"Mr. Weasley is very lucky to be alive, but yes, he will be fine, now boys, Professor McGonagall will clean this up for you and you all best get back to bed." As Dumbledore gave the instruction, McGonagall started cleaning the blood and vomit off of the floor and bed.

"Hold on, how did a cursed snake get in?" Theo asked, "Where is it now? We're not safe in here! I'm not going back to sleep!"

McGonagall glanced at Dumbledore.

"We suspect this has been an ill-advised prank by a student." Dumbledore said sadly, "The snake itself, having served its purpose has disappeared and-"

"It was Malfoy!" Theo said, "He's been missing all night."

"And he's got it in for Ron!" Blaise insisted, remembering the slug story Ron was telling them thisafternoon. Even Goyle was nodding.

"Mr. Malfoy is in the common room with Professor Snape, boys I assure you that you are safe for tonight – go back to bed, I will ask for the two of you to come and see me tomorrow morning and we will clear this up."

McGonagall had finished with the bed, now clean and made as though Ron hadn't been there at all. Blaise actually found it a little unsettling. The others went to their own beds.

"Rest assured boys, your head of house will be aware of any other disturbances in this room – magical or otherwise." McGonagall warned them.

"It's a bit late for that," Blaise grumbled, looking at Ron's bed and wiping the tears from his face.

McGonagall put her hand on Blaise's shoulder. "He will be okay Mr. Zabini." She assured him again, to which Blaise just nodded.