Chapter Twenty-Nine - Study Lessons
"So how many weeks?" Harry asked and Ron grimaced
"Till the end of term, and then if I haven't learnt my lesson, then more next year too" he replied, he thought hitting Draco would be fun, but his punishment was just one short step from suspension. He was given detention every night till the end of the year with the possibility off them continuing for the next year, what was worse was he was had to apologize to Malfoy, with Lucius Malfoy watching, the humiliation was burning inside him whenever he thought about it. Right now however, him and Harry were getting ready to return to Hogwarts, the funeral was over and they had to get back to revise for their O.W.L.S. Ron was not looking going back, but he knew one thing and that was he would be on his best behaviour, his [parents reaction to learning what he had done was worst off all, his mother had been so ashamed of him for using physical violence and his father had berated him for acting so recklessly, he never wanted to see them like that again.
Ron and Harry quickly found themselves at Hogwarts via the floo network, they had said goodbye to the family, Fred and George didn't have to return yet, with no impending test they had more time but they promised they would return, Ron knew they didn't want to return to school but they didn't dare leave now.
"Ah Mr Potter, Mr Weasley" McGonagall welcomed as she looked up when they fell out off her fireplace "welcome back, Mr Weasley you will report to me later for your detention" she continued as her voice turned slightly more icy and she motioned them both to leave which they did, as they walked through the corridor in silence they turned the corner to see Neville walking towards them, his prefect badge stuck to his chest
"Harry!, Ron!, you're back!" he smiled and Ron couldn't help but smile back
"Hey Neville, you made prefect I see" he smiled and he could see Neville looked slightly awkward "don't worry about it, never liked the job anyway" and Neville seemed to relax
"So what's going on here since we left?" Harry asked and Neville began to fill them in, Umbridge was still making up new rules, Gryffindor was looking at a record loss in the house cup thanks to Ron and now everyone in fifth year was stressing out over the upcoming exams. Ron wasn't looking forward to walking into the common room, he had cost Gryffindor the legendary amount off points and he guessed he would not be the most likeable person.
No one talked to him. In lessons he was ignored completely by everyone who was not Harry or Neville, the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws were annoyed with him because he had given Slytherin their biggest lead in decades. Harry and Neville tried make him feel better but after a while Ron decided to remove himself from their company, no point in dragging them down with him. Lessons finished and not really looking forward to returning to the common room, Ron decided, and he couldn't believe he had come to this conclusion, that it was best to go to the library and start revising for his O.W.L.S.
"Hello Ronald" a familiar voice spoke out from behind him and he turned to see Hermione Granger walking behind him, a slightly smile on his face "how are you?, after everything?" she asked and Ron gave her a awkward smile, at least someone was talking to him which was much more than what he was expecting after the day he had. "I'm fine, just heading to the library"
"oh well me too!" she smiled happily "so you've finally started to revise" she continued and he would hear the relief in her voice, he got the feeling that if someone wasn't revising at this point in the year would cause her to have a panic attack on their behalf, Ron just smiled and nodded.
They entered the library and found themselves sitting at the same table having a idle conversation that seemed to have travelled through many topics since it had started, Hermione picked a book that he guessed had something to do with History of Magic given the title on the cover, Ron himself decided that he should start on potions, its where he needed the most work, plus he had just been given a essay and decided that it might be a good idea to do these essays when handed to him, not at the very last minute, and even more importantly, do them now while this new attitude he had lasted, because even he knew that sooner or later he would slip happily back into old habits.
"So who's the new Gryffindor prefect?" Hermione asked as Ron sat down
"Neville, he'll probably take it more serious than me" he slightly lightly and he could see her narrow her eyes at him "what?" he asked defensively "he will, I never understood why I got the badge in the first place"
"Maybe they thought they could trust you" she replied, and Ron couldn't help but feel disappointed with himself as he heard her words, they had trusted him, and he had let the whole Gryffindor down, he'd let the teachers down, he'd let Dumbledore down and he'd let his family down, and worse off all he knew that even though he had hit Malfoy, the ferret had still got one better than him, he could hear his mother's words in his mind.
"And what!" she shouted "you thought that physical violence would make it better did you!"
Hermione seemed to have noticed his reaction because she quickly said "I'm sorry, I mean I didn't mean to upset you, but I think that you were given the badge for a reason, I think you just can't see why"
"Doesn't really matter now does it" he smiled lightly at her and she smiled lightly back but both knew that both smiles were forced and they returned to their work in silence.
"How long do Lacewing flies have to be brewed to make polyjuice potion?" he asked and Hermione looked up "some idiot has spilt something on the recipe, can't make the number out?" he smiled, automatically showing her the page as if to prove it.
"21 days" she replied, quickly glancing up at the book before returning to her much larger essay, Ron placed the book down and returned to write it into his essay which was slowly wearing away at his patience. In the corner of his eye he saw Hermione place her quill down with a satisfied look upon her face and for a second Ron thought she was finished but then reminded himself she couldn't have finished in such a short amount of time, however it soon became apparently that she had indeed finished
"you've finished already!" he exclaimed in shock, and he noticed she was blushing slightly and seemed to be preparing herself to argue back if he offended her.
"and? She asked rather defensively
"nothing, its just I'm not even half way through, I wasn't even aware it was possible to finish work that fast" he smiled and he saw her physical relax as if now that she was sure he was not insulting her
"I just like learning" she shrugged "I can have a look at yours if you want" she smiled and Ron quickly handed her the essay, to which she quickly began to read, he could see the confusion in her face
"that bad?" he asked and she shook her head, although not too convincingly
"it's not bad, you're just not very clear and you're spelling is quite terrible"
"Ah" he sighed "I'm using one of my brothers self spelling quills, the magic must be wearing off" he sighed throwing his quill down "I'm going to have to do it again aren't I?"
"oh no" Hermione quickly said "I can easily fix this" and with that she took out her wand and began to tap the misspelled words, correcting them instantly. Ron couldn't help but smile
"Did anyone ever tell you you're amazing" he said without thinking as he threw himself back on the chair , he felt his ears burning as he looked up at the roof, not noticing Hermione's face which was blushing furiously.
Once Ron had finished the essay (with some more help from Hermione) the two of them left the library with different destinations in mind, Ron had to get to McGonagall to start his first detention while Hermione was heading back to the Ravenclaw common room which for the time being was in the same direction
"so do you know what you're punishment is?" Hermione asked and Ron shook his head "I think for now its anything and everything, there's a rumour that McGonagall asked every teacher if they needed anything done, I'll be doing whatever they ask I guess" he mumbled
"How long do you have detention for"
"until further notice"
"Oh, how you going to get work done?, if you had detention every night" she asked and Ron stopped, he hadn't thought of that and he could tell it showed on his face "because, if you want" Hermione continued "I'll be in the library most afternoons, and we could work together if you liked" she said nervously, and Ron smiled brightly "yeah, that'll be great" he smiled and Hermione smiled brightly and stopped plucking at her sleeve, something which she had been doing since they left the library
"I'll see you tomorrow then" Hermione smiled and Ron noticed the staircase to the Ravenclaw common room was in front of them
"see you tomorrow" Ron smiled as Hermione smiled one last time before turning and walking up the stair case, Ron watched her leave before turning the corner and heading to detention, unable to wipe the smile of his face.
A/N - Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I posted it so soon because I was really not happy with the previous one so I thought I'd treat you to one I was happy with. One thing I've noticed in the reviews is the feeling that Ron seems to be getting away with the things he's done, which has indeed been happening quite a lot, so I tried to show in this chapter that he is being punished (both officially and not) for his actions in the previous chapter. I'd love to see you're opinions on the chapter, so please review.
