Class the next few days was interesting. Never a dull moment at Hogwarts. Sometimes Ron had to wonder if that was just the way school was or if being best friends with The-Boy-Who-Lived was responsible for that. It was sort of like wondering what it would have been like if he had been born in another country. A million things that would have been different, yet probably so many things would have been exactly the same. It was far too late now to change any of it. And that wasn't just because Ron's best friend was The-Boy-Who-Lived, but because his best friend was Harry. The only other kid on the train who had seemed even more lost than Ron. The same friend who never talked about his home because he didn't really have one – or rather, what he had was horrible enough to make Ron really grateful sometimes for everything he did have even if he didn't normally want to admit it. And because Harry was always going to be the one to stick his hand in the fire for one reason or another. Maybe because he had to, maybe because he wanted to, but more often than not it was because Harry thought that if he didn't then someone else would be forced to and he would rather it was him.

Somebody had to be the best friend of an idiot like that and try to protect him from himself. Watching Harry try to both avoid and follow the same person was a good example as why.

Harry had taken to sitting as far away from Uchiha as he could manage at the breakfast table, going as far as to invade Firstie territory just to put some space between them. Being good friends, Hermione and Ron had followed suit, though Ron privately felt like his mealtime was the one most ruined by the change in location. Hermione spent most meals reading very large tomes about maladies and staring at Harry like she thought he might have one. It wasn't a bit subtle but unfortunately it wasn't the most cringe worthy thing happening in their little group right now. That honor belonged to Harry as usual. It was depressing, really. Watching Harry alternate between hunched over shoveling food in his mouth with a single minded focus that almost looked painful it radiated 'I-do-not-care' so hard, versus the even more painful sight of watching Harry try to subtly contort himself around enough to see pass the Firsties to check on what Uchiha was doing.

And Uchiha didn't even glance in their direction. Not even once. The bastard. Apparently he didn't feel as miserable as the rest of them were.

"Want to drop a dung bomb in his bag?" Ron offered, being a good friend. He had a more than generous supply, provided by his twin brothers. And even though it was little consolation for the years of torment he put up with at their hands, he was more than happy to share them around for a good cause.

Harry nearly went cross-eyed, the look on his face at once both horrified and greatly amused. "Ah, no. Bad idea. Nin, remember? We'd never make it. And if we even got close enough to try, we probably wouldn't like the response."

Which was probably true. Most people didn't take kindly to a thing like that and a little bit of pay back was to be expected. Ron had lashed out at his brothers enough times over such a thing. But things were different now, weren't they? Or rather, now Ron and Hermione knew just exactly how literal Harry was when he talked about his new cousin being a bit high-strung. When Harry said it wouldn't be good, he meant it in a very honest and violent kind of way.

Ron shook his head. "Real piece of work," he grumbled. "Fine. Screw him. He doesn't deserve it anyway."

"Doesn't deserve a dung bomb?" Harry asked. There was a bit of a snicker, a suppressed laugh, in his voice that made it quite clear that he at least still understood that his cousin was a first class ass who probably deserved whatever he had coming to him.

Ron shrugged. "Doesn't deserve getting off so light. We'd dung bomb one of the other boys. They'd get the point, and that would be that. Maybe they'd put one in our dorm, but by next week it'd be old news, you know?"

Harry grinned back. "Too light a punishment for your tastes?"

"Too light by far," Ron agreed. And if it wasn't for the fact that Hermione was on a non-violence kick, he'd be half tempted to go wallop the other boy a good one. Make sure he knew how it felt. But they were supposed to be taking the high ground, or something like that. And to be honest, Ron was a bit worried his grand gesture wouldn't work out the way he pictured it in his head, and he didn't really want to see what the fall out would be of him not managing to get the upper hand on one of them.

It wasn't easy avoiding someone who was technically a part of your house, but they managed a decent job of it. Sakura had tried to come up to them after breakfast, but Hermione had grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him off so they could talk homework. The pink haired girl hadn't tried very hard after the glare Hermione sent her way, and Ron had followed along with only one last gloating look back. No, they weren't going to make things that easy for these people. They had hurt their friend, and Ron and Hermione had a long history of sticking up for Harry.

But as soon as they had stepped into DADA, there had been the great shift back the other direction. It wasn't exactly a secret that Northstein hated Professor Kakashi and by extension all three of his students. It didn't help that Uchiha couldn't manage even the most basic protective charm. Ron was fully prepared to enjoy a class of watching the other boy's arrogant, bullying ass getting handed to him. But then Harry had made a bee line for hovering just off of Uchiha's shoulder, always trying to nudge things along so that people were more occupied looking at Harry than whatever current spectacular failure Uchiha was today. Ron had just sighed and went along with it with only a minimum of grumbling. He guessed it was bad form to mock a guy for not being able to manage magic, but it certainly was nice to have the reminder that no matter what Uchiha thought about himself, he wasn't that great.

And Uchiha didn't say a word the whole time. Not to Harry, certainly not to Ron or Hermione, not even to Professor Northstein even though the man went on a bit of a bender berating the boy for not paying attention in class. The stony silence might have been a sign of guilt in anyone else, but with this bastard it just came off cold. Like he didn't care that he had hurt Harry or how hard it was, that even after all that, Harry still wanted to help the other boy. It pissed Ron off. Sure, the plan had been to keep Harry away from him, and they certainly hadn't wanted Uchiha talking to Harry right now, but the silent treatment was even annoying.

And watching Harry cave to it was the absolute worst. Where was that ornery stubbornness Ron was so familiar with? When they had a fight, Harry sure seemed willing to keep up a head of steam for weeks. But his cousin ignoring him over a fight that wasn't even Harry's fault had him mopping about like someone canceled Christmas. By the time classes had ended, Harry looked like he was thinking about going over and apologizing.