A/N: Hello again! Many apologies that this chapter is rather...er...short. The next should be a bit longer. Anyways, enjoy!

Oh, and many thanks to my two betas Jane and Gwena...you guys are great!

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 3: Second Verse, Same as the First

"My mouth fills with unconscious ramblings..."

Ron sat in Charms, not listening to Professor Flitwick give his lecture, not even attempting to take notes. He sat in a kind of stupor, staring at his fellow Hogwarts students, staring at Harry and Hermione who had become other people. Ron's world had been turned upside down and he didn't quite know what to do.

The day had begun differently from the previous two. The storm had still been raining down when Ron had actually managed to wake up on time; early in fact. None of the other boys had been awake when he had slipped out to the boy's bathroom. He had also been one of the first students down to breakfast in the Great Hall. Enjoying the extra time, Ron had begun a big breakfast and listened to the steady patter of the raindrops on the castle roof.

Eventually, the Great Hall filled up and Harry and Hermione had appeared.

"Good morning!" Ron said cheerfully feeling truly awake for the first time in weeks.

They didn't answer, didn't even glance in his direction. Both sat down wearily and began to eat their breakfast. Figuring that both were exhausted from studying so late the previous evening, Ron left them alone.

Harry and Hermione concentrated on their food; therefore, breakfast was mainly silent. As Ron was finishing the last of his eggs, Hermione suddenly looked up at Ron and made a face. "I was just thinking how much you resembled a pig when you eat. How can you eat so fast?"

Ron stared at her, the forkful of egg frozen halfway to his mouth. He put down the fork and looked at her. "Hermione, you've really got to come up with better insults. You've overused that one!"

However, before Hermione could say anything back, Pig appeared out of nowhere and swan-dived into his eggs.

"Pig!" exclaimed Ron out of complete surprise. On cue, the Gryffindors who had noticed what had happened began to giggle.

"Hey, Ron!" called out Fred (or was it George?). "Fancy some owl with your porridge?"

Ron swiveled his head and stared at his brother. "But I'm having eggs for breakfast!" He turned back to see that Hermione was busily wiping the egg yolk off of Pig.

"There. Now he's the Formerly Porridge-Covered Owl." She took a last swipe at the feathers and neatly flung the small owl up into the air. He fluttered clumsily for a moment and then flew away.

"Hermione, you were cleaning off eggs, not porridge!" Ron said desperately, staring at his friend. However, she didn't answer and both Harry and Hermione stood to leave for class. They paused a moment and turned to look at Ron.

"Well?" said Harry, one of his eyebrows lifted.

Severely confused, Ron grabbed his book satchel and stood up. He followed them both as they went up the staircases. At first he didn't recognize where they were going but when they passed a familiar suit of armor he pulled up short.

"Hey, Harry, Hermione, we're headed in the wrong direction! We have Transfiguration today. If you go that way, we'll be going to..."

Ron paused as Harry and Hermione opened the Charms door and went inside.

"...Charms?" Ron shook his head, uncertain as to what to do. The other fifth year Gryffindors were streaming around him, entering Flitwick's classroom, seemingly unconcerned that they were supposed to be heading for McGonagall's classroom.

"Well, you're not going to fool me then!" muttered Ron and he turned around and headed towards Transfiguration. He didn't bother to hurry, for while he was going to be late, the rest of the class was going to be later.

Pulling open McGonagall's door, he entered into a classroom full of Hufflepuff first years. He stopped in surprise. Professor McGonagall didn't stop her lesson (turning pencils into straws) but she glared at Ron.

He stood there for a few unsteady moments. Slowly, the rest of the class turned and began to frown. Before long, he was under the gaze of about thirty pairs of angry eyes. Taking the unspoken hint, Ron backed carefully out of the room into the empty hallway. The entire time, McGonagall never let up on her lecture.

Not knowing what to do again, Ron headed back to Charms. He stopped outside of the door and listened as Flitwick began to talk about their quiz for the class period. He opened the door to find that yet another teacher was glaring at him.

"Sorry," said Ron but Flitwick didn't stop his instructions. He didn't do anything differently until Ron sat down. Then the furious look that Flitwick was shooting him disappeared and he looked normal. At this point, Ron was sure that he had lost it.

The quiz had gone exactly as the day before. Even Ron had performed the same way as the previous day he was so flustered. Professor Flitwick, predictably, had made sure he was okay after knocking his head on the ceiling and then had subtracted points from his grade. Going to his desk, Ron sat and slumped in bewilderment.

After finishing the quiz, Flitwick had launched into the same lecture he had given the day before. It was like another world. Word for word, gesture for gesture, the Charms professor was repeating everything. When he looked around, Ron saw that no one else found this strange.

Summoning up all his courage, Ron stood up. "Professor, please, you taught us about variations on Fire Charms yesterday! You're giving the same lecture!"

Professor Flitwick merely glowered at Ron and continued. "...And of course there is the cold variation on the Fire Charm. The flames are usually a light purple but still malleable..."

"Professor, please stop! Is this some sort of joke?"

As Flitwick spoke right over Ron, the rest of the class (even Harry and Hermione) began to look angrily at Ron. Defeated, Ron slowly sank back down into his seat and sat silently for the rest of the lesson.

After class, Ron walked with Harry and Hermione to the Great Hall for lunch. He sat and quickly noticed that lunch was turkey sandwiches, the same as yesterday. He ate slowly, gazing warily at his two friends. They began the same conversation, making spaces for Ron's dialogue even when Ron didn't speak.

"Honestly," Hermione said, daintily eating her sandwich, "can't you calm down just a bit?" She shot a glance at Ron's hand that wasn't tapping or doing anything unusual. It was just holding a sandwich.

"Hermione, I am calm," Ron said quietly.

"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."

"Harry, can't you hear that it's raining outside? It's been raining since yesterday afternoon!" Ron said rather desperately, forgetting his sandwich and grabbing Harry's wrist.

Harry shook it off as Hermione nodded in response. He stood up but paused before leaving. His eyes traveled to the ceiling and his face fell. On cue, groans echoed around the Great Hall and Harry slowly sank back to his seat. Ron turned to Hermione and waited for her to poke her nose in.

"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..."

She paused and listened for Ron's retort that he couldn't bring himself to make. After waiting a second or two she said, "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. He watched mournfully as she swept off in a huff.

Later when Harry went to the Owlery, Ron followed. He tried to send a message to someone, to anyone through an owl; however, none of the owls would even acknowledge his presence. What spell had been cast was clearly affecting all living things in the castle. As he left the Owlery, Ron wondered vaguely what people were thinking, getting the same owl posts day after day from the same students.

The rest of the day continued just like the one before. Everything repeated. Conversations, classes, even meals. Whenever Ron tried to point this out to anyone, they either ignored him or looked like they were about to kill him. After suffering fatal glares from his best friends, Ron didn't even bother to try to interrupt the rest of the day.

Obviously something was wrong, very wrong. Ron didn't know what to do.

The next day he woke up, hoping that the previous had been a nightmare. However, when Harry and Hermione showed up for breakfast, they continued with the same routine, same conversations. He spent the lecture part of Charms thinking seriously about what to do. Finally, he came to some conclusions. He couldn't discover what was happening on his own. He didn't know what spell had been cast or how to lift it. He needed more knowledge and he needed to do some heavy-duty research in the library.

What he needed was Hermione.