A/N: Yes, this is quite a short chapter. The next might be as short as well. Many apologies. If you feel like reviewing, go right ahead. Of course, whether anyone leaves a review is irrelevant. I'm going to keep writing anyways. But if you do review, don't bother being gentle. I can take it rough (the reviews, that is!)

Disclaimer: Nothing in this belongs to me. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling who is neither a god or goddess, but a simple mortal. May we all follow her example.

Never Is Enough - Chapter 2: Familiar Surroundings

"Distractions swirl about my head
clotting up my thoughts into a jumble..."

The next day, unfortunately, began much like the previous had.

Ron awakened suddenly to realize that he had again overslept. Muttering about friends who let friends sleep late, he skidded into the main hall with enough time to grab a pile of toast. He was halfway through the stack when he saw that Hermione was looking at him.

"What now?" he said irritably.

"I was just thinking how much you resembled a pig when you eat. How can you eat so fast?"

Ron frowned. "Yeah, well since you said that yesterday, I'm not even going to repeat myself. Oh, by the way..."

Suddenly getting a strange feeling in his stomach, Ron looked up and just in time managed to scoop his breakfast off the table. Pigwidgeon landed with a thud right where his toast had been a moment earlier.

"Honestly Pig, you've got to learn to land better." Discovering that the owl had no letters for him, Ron shooed him away and gulped the rest of the toast down. He, Harry, and Hermione quickly got up and went to Charms.

The class started off much better than Transfiguration had the previous day. He had managed to remember his Charms homework but that didn't help him for the rest of class. His attempt at the Self-Levitation test had failed miserably; he had slammed into the ceiling and fallen to the ground in a heap. Points had been taken off his grade, after Professor Flitwick had determined that he was all right. Fortunately a couple of other students had misperformed the spell much like he had, so Ron didn't feel quite so badly.

At lunch, Ron sat and eagerly watched Hermione and Harry finish their turkey sandwiches. They had a break before Herbology and Harry had promised that Ron could fly his Firebolt for a bit.

"Honestly," Hermione huffed, "can't you calm down just a bit?" She shot a glance at his rapidly tapping fingers.

"Sorry," Ron hastily said and absentmindedly began to tap his foot against the floor. He didn't often get to try out Harry's magnificent broom, due to their steadily increasing workload, and he relished every chance that he got.

"Well, I'm done," Harry said, wiping crumbs off his front. "Hermione, why don't Ron and I go ahead? You can meet us outside."

At Hermione's distracted nod, Harry and Ron stood up to get the Firebolt and go outside. Unfortunately at the moment, a sudden boom cracked and the sound of a thousand raindrops hitting the roof echoed through the hall.

"Oh..." Ron groaned, the sentiment echoed by others. Apparently he and Harry weren't the only ones planning to take advantage of the good weather. "Oh damn, Harry. I can't believe it started to rain now!"

Harry's face had fallen as well. He slowly sat back down as the pounding over their heads proved that it would not be stopping soon.

"Damn," muttered Ron again as he sank back down to the bench. Hermione looked up from her book, pity warring with satisfaction on her face. Ron knew exactly what Hermione was going to say before she said it.

"Well, you can get a bit more studying in now. I mean, after that Charms test, I think you need to work a bit more on..."

"Hermione, I don't need to hear this," growled Ron as he sulkily reached for a turkey sandwich from one of the big silver platters.

"All right! I'll shut up! I'll be in the library since its clear that you'd rather die than be prepared for class!" She gave Ron a dirty look and stuffed her book into her bag. Before he could say anything to her, she left.

Ron was too depressed to follow and apologize. Harry looked just as down as he felt. Lunch passed in relative silence and the break did as well. Ron didn't get any studying done as he listened to the storm above their heads. Harry left after a while, presumably to see Hedwig in the Owlery.

After break, the Gryffindors ran out to Herbology in waterproof cloaks and rubber boots. Their lessons, now as fifth years, had become incredibly more complex. They were now dealing with plants that were much more dangerous. This term had begun with the raising and care of Flesh-Eating Venus Plants.

"Ow!" Harry exclaimed from the next table as one of the baby Venus connected with his fingers. In the beginning, the plant's teeth had been small and hadn't hurt. However, they had grown some in two weeks and their playful bites now hurt.

Ron managed to shove his bottle of warmed blood into his Venus' mouth without getting nicked. It sucked eagerly, and he struggled to find something to say to Hermione who was working with him at their table. She still looked a bit miffed as she held her bottle to the mouth of her Venus.

"Uh, Hermione?" She looked his way, her eyebrows drawn together. "Sorry...for earlier?"

She sighed. "It's all right Ron. I'm just irritable. Didn't have a good night's rest I guess."

Ron still shook his head. "No, I've no right to get upset with you anyway. You can't control that it's raining." He threw a quick glance out of the greenhouse at the wet, wet world.

Hermione followed his glance. "Maybe it'll clear up by tomorrow? You can fly Harry's broom during the break then."

Ron sighed. "We don't have break tomorrow Hermione. We have double Potions, remember?" His Venus had finished with the bottle and was now tearing the rubber nib. He pulled it roughly out of its mouth.

"Oh, right."

"Well, maybe this weekend. The frigging rain should stop by then, I would think."

* * * *

Dinner was relatively normal. Harry and Hermione chattered about Quidditch and the upcoming season, while Ron thought about nothing in particular. Even though school had only been going on for two weeks, Madame Hooch had already determined the slate of games. Gryffindor's first game was to be against Hufflepuff.

"Harry, who do you suppose will be their new captain?" Hermione said carefully. Most students at Hogwarts tried to avoid Cedric's name as much as possible. Ron pricked up his ears; he was interested in knowing this as well.

"Hmm, don't know," answered Harry absently. "There are a couple of fifth or sixth years that could do. But we won't know until they have their tryouts, you know that Hermione!"

"Well, yes." She paused, a wary look on her face. "And when are the Gryffindor tryouts?"

Harry dropped his fork of chicken with a clatter. "I'm NOT trying out for captain!"

"Did I say that? I didn't say you were! Its just...well...Harry, why don't you want to be captain?" The curiosity on Hermione's face was plain.

"I just don't want to be. I have enough to do without that responsibility. Besides, I don't think I'd be that good of a captain. I don't know tactics like Wood did, and I'd look stupid trying to imitate him." Harry screwed up his face and reluctantly picked up his fork.

"But Harry," Hermione persisted, "You surely know that everyone expects you to be captain. I mean, you're the Seeker and a fifth year."

"Yes," grumbled Harry. "And they'll be horribly disappointed when I don't try out for the position. But I don't care. I'm not going to try out for captain just to make people happy!" As if to prove his point, he jammed a fork full of chicken and mashed potatoes in his mouth and nearly choked.

Ron slapped his back as Harry spat the chicken out and regained his breath. "Hey Hermione, I just don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Well, okay," she said doubtfully.

They fell into silence and Ron listened to the rain, which was still beating down unmercilessly. "Geez, this storm is still coming down. I wonder if its going to be done by tomorrow?"

"I hope it is," mumbled Harry from around his dinner. "We can go flying during break then."

Ron let out an exasperated sigh. "What, are you guys trying to trick me or something? Hey, I may not be the smartest but I do know that we don't have break tomorrow! So you can just stop trying to confuse me, alright?"

Harry looked surprised. "I wasn't trying to trick you! I just...well...forgot."

After dinner, they headed to the Gryffindor common room. Hermione immediately requisitioned a table and began emptying her book satchel onto it. Ron followed her and began to resignedly work on the essay that McGonagall had assigned the class the previous day.

He'd been working for a while before Ron noticed that Harry was reading his Herbology textbook. "Harry, you reading about the Venus' growing patterns already? You're done with the essay that McGonagall assigned?"

"What essay?" said Harry back distractedly. "I'm reading about feeding the Venus'."

Frowning, Ron looked over at Hermione. She had her Charms textbook before her, opened to the page of Self-Levitating Charms. "Hermione, why are you reading about Self-Levitation? We already had the quiz!"

She looked at him, her brown eyes a little cloudy. "Oh...yeah. I guess I just want to read a little more on them. Never know when Self-Levitation will come in handy..."

"Have you done your essay then, already? The one on the ethics of Transfiguration for McGonagall?"

"I..." Hermione paused. "I don't think I have yet. But I've got the rest of the night. I really want to read more about Charms." She then buried her nose into the book.

Wondering if his friends had cracked under the workload that their professors had assigned them, Ron decided to let things be and finished his essay.