Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it is the property of the brilliant J.K Rowling. This story is the product of her marvellous characters and world and my imagination.

Any constructive criticism or reviews are welcome - I love feedback of any kind. Enjoy the chapter.

This is the first of the 'Interlude' chapters and from Ron's POV. It'll be a little more lighthearted than some of the previous chapters since I find Ron an amusing character a lot of the time.

Interlude: Ron

Ron woke up as late as he possibly could, he always had and it despaired his poor mother no end when there were things to be done or places to go. He also always woke up hungry, but then again he was a growing teenage boy. His brothers always said they never ate as much as him but he ignored them, his brothers liked to be annoying. Ginny told him he was a greedy pig, but she was always insulting him like that so he was used to it by now.

He'd risen that morning at 10 am and he was only up that early since Harry had dragged him out of bed to eat breakfast quickly and go check on how Hermione, Ginny and Luna were faring after yesterday's escapades. Ron, contrary to popular opinion, wasn't completely oblivious to relationships and he knew that when Harry mentioned the three girls names it really meant he wanted to use the attack as an excuse to spend all his time with Ginny.

Ron supposed he was glad that Ginny had Harry for a boyfriend rather than anyone else, at least he knew Harry was a decent bloke and wouldn't hurt his sister, at least not deliberately. But that didn't mean he wanted to watch as the pair were nauseatingly sweet together or when they got a bit heated in their kisses.

He didn't really have an interest in getting a girlfriend at the moment, he had spent a lot of his sixth year embroiled in a bit of a love triangle with Lavender and Hermione. Lavender was pretty and all, but way too whiny for him and she had a tendency to be sickeningly girly and jealous.

Hermione was pretty too, he knew that and he had thought he might fancy her for a while, but soon he realised she was just a best friend and found out from her that she was jealous not due to feelings for him, but because she felt a little left out and didn't want to lose one of her best friends to an over-clingy girlfriend.

She was also a bit worried about never getting a boyfriend, having only ever dated Viktor, so she'd needed a bit of a pep talk from Ginny. Both he and Hermione had laughed about their brief five minute attraction later on and they both knew they'd never be anything but friends, just as Hermione and Harry would never think of dating.

But anyway, back to breakfast, he did hope they'd have those pancakes they'd served last Tuesday, they'd been delicious. He, Harry, the twins and Neville descended the stairs to the common room at the same time as the three girls. "Morning, Gin, Mione, Luna," he said sleepily, acknowledging each with a nod of his head.

Hermione and Ginny shared a look and glared at him, "honestly Ronald," said Hermione in a voice scarily reminiscent to his mother's, "you can't be tired, most of us were up two hours ago being productive." Ron just ignored them, he'd learnt long ago that there was no point arguing with Hermione or Ginny, you could never win.

Everyone set off for breakfast, breaking into pairs to talk; the twins were discussing a new invention, Harry and Ginny were staring sappily at each other and Hermione was talking about the properties of some magical plant with Neville. That left him with Luna and he didn't know if he could handle Crumple-Horned Snorlacks and Nargles this early in the morning.

"Morning Ronald," said Luna dreamily, "what are you up to today?" Ron scratched his head as he tried to remember his schedule, "err, charms, transfiguration, some free time and then attack class. What about you?" Luna smiled, "the same as you, though I may use my free time to have a look round the charms corridor, there's a strange aura around there and I suspect that Nargles are the cause."

Ron sighed, there she went again with the Nargles, well at least she'd managed five minutes before she brought them up. Outwardly of course he nodded politely, "yeah, that sounds nice Luna, I might play some quidditch with the rest of them, though I'm betting Hermione will be in the library again."

Luna nodded, "yes, I have warned her that if she spends too much time there then the 'Dust Snoracks' will make her lose her concentration, but she didn't seem too worried." Ron didn't even bother asking what Dust Snoracks were, glad that they'd just reached the great hall.

Luna went and sat down by Ginny and Ron made his way over to where Fred and George were sitting, there was no point trying to talk to Harry, who was making goo-goo eyes at Ginny. His mouth watered as he saw the breakfast spread and he began helping himself to everything, delighted to see that the pancakes he so loved were present.

He turned to George, whose plate was marginally less full than his, "you really should try these pancakes George, delicious." Ginny disentangled herself from Harry for a moment, "yeah well you should know Ron, you ate seven of them last time." The table burst into laughter and Ron was a bit put-out, so what if he'd had a lot, they'd been good pancakes. Anyway, 'waste not, want not' and all that.

After a couple of helpings of pretty much everything he was feeling rather full and incredibly glad that he had charms rather than attack first. They worked on non-verbal spells in charms and he was pleased with himself when he finally managed to cast 'accio' without saying a word.

In transfiguration they were given a lecture on animagus transformations, in case they wanted to try and become one in a few years for Order work. He almost fell asleep during that lesson, but it wasn't his fault that it was so boring and that he had no real interest in becoming an animagus.

He noticed that Hermione was paying close attention, but she would be attempting the transformation before them all. Malfoy, Ginny, Harry, Luna and Neville looked like they were trying to pay attention. Fred and George were doodling new designs for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and though Blaise was paying attention he did notice him stare at Luna quite a bit. Did he fancy her? He wasn't sure, but though Blaise was ok he didn't know if he'd like seeing the dreamy Ravenclaw with a Slytherin of all people.

He was pleased to have some free time after the two rather tedious lessons. They all grabbed some lunch and then all the youngsters but Hermione and Luna headed off to the quidditch pitch, joined by Sirius, Remus, Kingsley, Bill and Charlie. They considered asking Tonks, but she had never been very good at quidditch, her clumsiness on the ground continuing on in the air. Neville went to sit in the stands and watch while the others split into two teams.

In the end they decided that since there were 12 and not 14 of them they would play with only one beater on each team. The first team had Harry as seeker, himself as keeper, George was beater and the three chasers were Ginny, Charlie and Remus. The other team had Malfoy as their seeker, Bill as keeper, Fred as beater and their three chasers were Blaise, Sirius and Kingsley.

The game lasted almost an hour and was very fierce, he noticed it took all of Fred's willpower to not hit his bludgers towards his two slytherin team mates, especially Malfoy. Ron, for his part, was thankful there were no Slytherin choruses of "Weasley is our king", it never did help his concentration.

Both teams were drawing on 140 points each when Harry finally managed to snatch the snitch just before Malfoy and there was great celebration in his team. Kingsley, Bill and Blaise didn't seem too bothered by losing, but Sirius, Malfoy and Fred looked sullen, they did take quidditch very seriously. When he'd mentioned this to Ginny she'd just rolled her eyes and told him that he would have been worse if their team lost. He wasn't that bad really, he just enjoyed winning.

He traipsed happily back into the castle for attack class, but he had to admit that playing quidditch right before it may not have been the best idea. He was exhausted from the game, as were most of the others and that meant the only people whose spell casting was strong were Hermione, Luna and Neville (who was improving in leaps and bounds), as well as Harry and Ginny who never seemed to falter in their hexes no matter how much exercise they had been doing.

After a tiring two hour session they were informed by Kingsley that there would be an Order meeting after dinner to discuss the attack in Hogsmeade the day before. Ron noticed that Hermione especially went a little tense, he couldn't blame her what with the chance that it was aimed at them because 'You Know Who' knew Hermione's heritage.

Still, he had dinner to look forward to before the meeting and regardless of whether anyone else had an appetite he was certainly going to eat, the training session had left him ravenous. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little sick after, he had no idea why though, he'd only eaten three helpings of chicken & gravy pie, a huge dollop of mashed potatoes, two sausages, vegetables, a hunk of bread and a dessert consisting of chocolate cake, trifle and éclairs, washed down with pumpkin juice.

Harry looked shocked when he'd voiced the question about his stomach ache out loud and Hermione just looked sickened, obviously neither of them were used to eating such big meals. Ginny of course decided to butt in with a comment wondering why he hadn't grown to the size of a house yet but he'd just told her that he was a growing boy and smacked her round the head lightly for her cheek.

Luckily the adults arrived to take them up to the meeting before Ginny could release her bat-bogey hex in revenge for the head slap.

Dumbledore called the meeting to order once everyone was comfortably seated and listening attentively. The meeting was only because of what had happened in Hogsmeade, at least as far as he knew. Dumbledore got straight to the point.

"Due to the attack in the village yesterday we have decided that there will be no more Hogsmeade trips for the foreseeable future. For anyone thinking of sneaking in another way," here he turned his gaze on Harry, "I have followed the advice of our two marauders and any passageways are blocked, including the one to Honeydukes."

His stomach sank, where was he supposed to get all his sweets from if he couldn't get to Honeydukes. No Zonko's either. He looked round to see how the others had taken it, no one else seemed too bothered, though he guessed that Hermione wouldn't like being unable to visit the bookshop.

Dumbledore ignored the small grumbles, most from himself and the twins, and turned to Snape. "Severus, if you could please explain what we have discovered about the motivations for the attack on the three girls."

Snape stood up and though Ron had no desire to listen to the greasy git he knew that the man had information and so he listened reluctantly. "I was summoned soon after the incident yesterday and the discovered that the Dark Lord had come upon the information that the three girls were in Hogsmeade at the time quite by chance. I did not know because I wasn't there at the time. The Dark Lord picked six of his followers and they were told to capture the three girls. The Dark Lord has still not connected the dots and remains unaware of Miss Granger's powers."

He let out an audible sigh, he'd been worried Snape would have bad news, but at least the death eaters were still unaware of Hermione's gifts. Everyone else seemed happier and Hermione was much more visibly relaxed now the stress had been relieved.

Dumbledore called for quiet and then motioned for Moody to stand, he definitely paid attention now. Not only did he think Moody extremely cool but he knew that with his magical eye he would be caught out if he didn't pay attention.

"Well the four scum were interrogated by Shacklebolt, Nymphadora and myself at the Ministry," he began, pointedly ignoring his protégée's annoyance and whispered complaint at being mentioned by her first name. "They corroborated Snape's story under the influence of veritaserum and were given a rather short trial before being moved to Azkaban after being convicted of possession of the Dark Mark, murder, attempted kidnapping and attempted murder. I doubt they'll be out any time soon." He smirked at the last part, everyone knew Moody loved nothing more than to nail dark wizards, the more the better.

Dumbledore nodded at the information, "good, good. Well I believe that is all for tonight, but I must urge you all to be careful, especially you younger ones. It would be best if you travelled in groups and Miss Granger, as much as it may pain you I don't want you anywhere at night or outside the grounds on your own."

He saw Hermione nod, well she wouldn't like that. Then again she never was one for midnight excursions like he and Harry were, unless it included the library that is. He groaned inwardly, she better keep any visits to the library to daylight hours, he didn't mind staying with her to keep her safe but, he'd prefer to do it somewhere he liked and not the library.

Everyone began to disperse and wander out in different groups. He saw Harry walk off with Ginny and knew he didn't want to witness whatever they were going to get up to. Hermione had headed off for a late night duelling session with Sirius, Remus and Kingsley and that was just confusing for him. He still couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to duel late at night, especially with three such powerful wizards. Then again, Mione could definitely hold her own in a duel, he'd discovered that more than once.

Blaise and Luna were heading off to search for some other magical creature that probably didn't exist, he'd learnt not to ask. Malfoy was talking in the corner with his mother and Snape. Neville had disappeared off to their dorm room to read some Herbology book. That left him on his own, just great.

Still, he thought as he headed down the corridors aimlessly in search of something to do, it had been a whole hour since he'd eaten his dinner. He'd never gotten to try to scrumptious looking toffee cheesecake that had been on the table, too busy with his other desserts.

"That settles it then," he said to himself out loud. He was going to kitchens and he was going to enjoy the huge slice of cheesecake the Hogwarts house elves would hopefully bestow upon him.

Of course he just had to make sure he didn't throw it all back up thinking about what his sister was doing with Harry in the girl's dorms.

Well I hope you enjoyed that little look into Ron's head and the next chapter will be up in a few days as normal.