I am so terribly sorry for the long wait, I've been busy, and Tumblr has been...distracting :P This chapter is pretty much a filler chapter, and its written in Ron's POV which I've never done before, so I'd appreciate it if you let me know how I did when you review :)

So, I'm trying to plan out the rest of the story, and I'm thinkin' another chapter after this one, 2-3 more for the third task(Yeah, ALOT is going to happen in the third task so get ready ;) ), and 1 or 2 for the conclusion and then its over D': But I'm considering writing a sequel that takes place in the OOTP...what do you guys think?

Enjoy & Review! :)

Ch. 21: House of Ferrets
Ron's POV

"What are those for?" I asked Hagrid, pointing to some crates he had sitting out. A month had passed since the second task, and this had pretty much gone back to normal. Hermione, Harry, Nina, Fabian, Mara and I had gotten to Care of Magical Creatures a bit early to talk to Hagrid.

"Not more skrewts, are they?" asked Harry, eyeing the crates suspiciously.

"You'll see." Hagrid replied mysteriously, and Harry, Hermione and I exchanged worried looks. I hoped he hadn't gotten more skrewts, that would be nightmare...

Finally, the rest of the class arrived, and Hagrid explained that there were nifflers in the crates, not skrewts(The whole class sighed in relief when he said this).

"Useful little treasure detectors." said Hagrid happily. "Thought we'd have some fun with them today. See over there?" He pointed at mounds of freshly turned earth over by the pumkin patch. "I've buried some gold coins. I've got a prize for whoever's niffler finds the most."

We each took a niffler and gathered around the mounds of dirt.

"Ah, yeah, yeh might want to take off all yer valuables, or else they'll go for them." said Hagrid, after Amber screamed bloody murder when her niffler went after her charm bracelet. I quickly removed my watch before letting my niffler loose.

Overall, it was probably the most fun we've ever had in Care of Magical Creatures. My niffler brought up loads of gold(Shame it was leprechaun gold that disappears after a few hours, I could've used it for the next Hogsmeade trip) and I ended up winning a giant slad of Honeydukes chocolate because my niffler brought up the most gold.

"Nice job, Ron!" said Mara as she, Harry, Hermione, Nina, Fabian and I walked back up to the castle after the lesson. Since she and Harry had started dating, she had been hanging out with us a lot more recently. Which was okay, I guess, she was nice enough, but when she and Harry start acting all lovey-dovey it makes things weird between Hermione and I. Even though we had agreed to be friends, it was still uncomfortable when it was just the two of us. And it doesn't help when Nina and Fabian are there too, because they're so obvious about liking each other it makes me sick. Seriously. If I catch Fabian staring longingly at Nina in Charms class one more time, I will be sick.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you Wealsey?" said a drawling voice behind us when we walked into the entrace hall. Malfoy. "For once in your life, you actually had the most gold."

I felt my face grow hot. "Shut it, Malfoy." I snapped. I was sick of him making cracks about my family being poor!

"And by the state of your house, you could use some gold." Malfoy sneered. Crabbe and Goyle guaffawed behind him.

"Get stuffed Malfoy." said Hermione. "C'mon."

We turned to leave, but Malfoy called after us. "Wait, Weasley! You might want to see this."

We turned back to see him smirking and holding out a Daily Prophet clipping from a few months ago. "Mayhem at the Ministry." he read. "It's about your loser of a father, Weasley. How he messed up at the World Cup a few months ago."

I was shaking with fury. Everyone in the entrance hall was listening at this point.

"And look, there's a picture!" Malfoy flipped the paper over and held it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house-if you can call it a house! Your mother couls do with losing a bit a weight, couldn't she?"

I launched myself at Malfoy, but Hermione and Fabian grabbed the back of my robes to stop me. Furious, I tried to break free. I was sick of that stupid arse insulting my family!

"Shut up, Malfoy!" said Fabian.

"Oh yeah, Potter, Granger, didn't you stay with them this summer? So tell me, is his mother really that porky or is it just the picture?"

I made another furious lunge for Malfoy but was held back by Hermione and Fabian again.

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry, he too seizing the back of my robes to keep me from atacking Malfoy. "That expression she's got-like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were there?"

To my delight, Malfoy turned pink.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut then." said Harry, turning away to leave.

There was a BANG! and something white flew between Harry and Nina.

We all reached for our wands, but before I even touched mine, I heard a second loud bang and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.

"OH, NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

We spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the staircase, his wand pointed at a pure white ferret sitting in the exact spot where Malfoy had been standing a moment ago.

There were a few seconds of silence while everyone was trying to figure out what was going on, but then when people started putting two and two together and realizing that Malfoy was the ferret, everyone started laughing.

Moody pointed his wand at Malfoy the ferret, and started bouncing him up and down.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponents back is turned." he growled. "Never-do-that-again!"

I was doubled over in laughter, clutching a stitch in my side, and so were Harry, Nina, Fabian, Mara and Hermione.

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice. Professor McGonagal stood at the top of the steps, clutching a stack of books.

"Hello, Professor McGonagal." said Moody calmly, as if bouncing a bully-gone-ferret was perfectly normal.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"Teaching." replied Moody, still calm.

"Teach-Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagal, dropping all the books she was carrying.

"Yep." said Moody.

"No!" Professor McGonagal shouted, hurrying down the steps. She waved her wand, and with a BANG! Malfoy reappeared, pink-faced and lying on the ground.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said McGonagal. "Surely Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah." replied Moody, looking unconcerned.

Harry caught my eye and grinned. Just last night, we had been talking about how Moody was brilliant-but mad.

"Nobody talk to me." I said, as we sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later.

"Why not?" asked Hermione, looking surprised.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever..." I replied, closing my eyes. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."

Hermione, Harry, Fabian, Mara and Nina burst out laughing, causing some Slytherins walking past us to scowl, evidently having heard what we were laughing about.

"So, Ron, did Percy reply yet?" Nina asked. We had written to Percy a few weeks ago, asking if he knew anything about Mr. Crouch's mysterious illness after Harry told me about seeing him break into Snape's office on the Marauder's Map.

"Oh, er, yeah. Last night." I replied. "He said he didn't know anything and for us to leave him alone."

They exchanged glances with each other. Sometimes I got the feeling they were hiding something from me-I would see them whispering to each other, but stopping abruptly when they saw me, or sometimes they would all just disappear and not come back for a few hours.

We quickly finished eating and hurried up to the common room to finish our homwork. The teachers had been steadily increasing our workload, so most times we were up well into the night completing it.

I sat in my usual seat next to Hermione, who had come up earlier than the rest of us to work on her Ancient Runes Essay. She was writing furiously. Some of her hair had fallen in front of her face, and I resisted the urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear.

Was that a normal thing for a friend to do to another friend? Or was it because I thought of Hermione as...more than a friend?

I shook my head to clear it, and pretended to be looking for my Divination homework while watching Hermione out of the corner of my eye. There was no way I could like her like that...or was there? I had asked her out, and kissed her at the Yule Ball...but...

Hermione glanced up at me, interupting my thoughts. "Hey." she said.

"Hi." I replied, still searching my bag for my Divination homework.

"So, I was thinking-" she began.

"When aren't you thinking?" I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha. On the next Hogsmeade visit, I was thinking of going around to all the shopkeepers and asking them to join S.P.E.W. so they could promote it, and hand out flyers to all their customers and stuff."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. Would she ever let this spew thing go? "Good luck with that."

"Will you help me?" she asked.

"No." I said flatly.

"But-"

"Hermione, no shopkeeper's going to want to do that." I relied.

She let out her breath in a huff. "Fine, I'll find someone else to help me."

"Good luck with that." I said again.

She glared at me, and walked over to sit next to Harry, presumably to ask him to help with spew. I shook my head, and joined Nina and Fabian in making up horrible stuff that was going to happen to us for our Divination homework.

We were all very amused in our next Divination class, when Professor Trelawney told us we had gotten top marks on our homework, and read portions of it to the class. However, we were less amused when she told us she wanted another month's worth of predictions.

Scowling at the amount of homework we had to do, I put away my books and watched Professor Trelawney point out the "fascinating effects" of Mars. It was boiling hot in the room, because Trelawney never put out that stupid fire, but thankfully Harry opened a window which made it a bit better.

I sank into a doze, no longer listening to Trelawney. I wondered what Hermione was doing in Arithmancy, maybe she was-

All of a sudden, Harry collapsed to the floor, shouting and clutching his scar.

So there ya go (: I know that in the book, the ferret incident happened way earlier in the year, but its one of my favorite so I just had to add it in :D Even though this chapter was a total filler, I still like reviews! Let me know how I did with Ron's point of view! Thanks! (: xxx

Oh, and follow me on Tumblr if you wanna! I'm accio- potter- book . tumblr . com except without all the spaces because Fanfiction won't let me post a link. :)

Review! :)