January 8
I can't stand Hermione Granger! Stupid know-it-all twit! Oh, sorry…
SIR RON
Anyway, I wish she would just mind her own business and stop acting like she cares about me and Harry. If she really cared she wouldn't have gotten his Firebolt taken away, now would she? Harry's really pissed too but of course he won't say anything, I wish he would quit being so bloody noble all the time!
I do hate to interrupt Master Weasley, when you are having such an extraordinary rant… But what on earth is a "Firebolt" and what has Miss Granger done to have it taken away?
What is a Firebolt?!?! Only the greatest racing broom on the face of the planet! It can reach 150 miles an hour in 10 seconds, it's got a perfectly balanced ash handle and all of it twigs are clip to be perfectly aerodynamic. It's super wicked and Harry actually got one for Christmas!
Sounds fantastic sir.
It's better than that. But apparently it's "too good to be true". So Hermione goes and spouts off about it to Professor McGonagall and she gets it taken away!
Is it possible that this is an act of subterfuge against your team?
You'd think wouldn't you? But, no, Hermione is a Gryffindor too…
Well what does the lass have to say for herself on this charge?
She says that she thinks it was sent to Harry by Sirius Black. How ridiculous is that? The Ministry is tearing apart the countryside looking for him, it's not very likely he could just stroll into a Quidditch store and buy a racing broom. In fact it's down right impossible!
I'm sorry sir, but I seem to be missing something again, who is Sirius Black?
Man, Rupert, you really don't know much do you?
I'd like to think I do, young sir. It's just that being dead for a couple hundred years tends to make a person a bit behind the times if you don't mind.
Oh, sorry. No offense Rupert.
None taken sir, I'm just trying to bring myself up-to-date, so that I can be of better use to you.
Yeah, whatever. Anyway back to Sirius Black. He's this really nasty wizard. He was supposedly You-Know-Who's right-hand man. But he was working undercover, and when He was destroyed, Black went nuts. He killed 13 people in broad daylight, blasted them apart with one curse. It was a square full of Muggles and one wizard who had hunted him down, all they ever found of the wizard was his FINGER!
Oh, dear me. But I thought that all of that happen years ago?
It did. And ever since then he's been locked away in Azkaban. But he escaped…
ESCAPED! From Azkaban? In my day that fortress was impenetrable. It was guarded by these horrible creatures called Dementors. Oh, my dear boy, pray you never come across one of those foul creatures.
Too late. They're here at the school.
WHAT! They allowed those hell-born creatures near students! How is that possible!
Rupert, you should end a question with a question mark, not an exclamation mark.
Touché, sir. But please tell me why on earth anyone in their right mind would let those foul beasts within a hundred miles of children?
Because they're looking for Black. They think he'd be coming here.
But why? What would a murder want with children?
Not children, one child. Harry to be specific.
Harry? As in your friend Harry? Oh dear. Are you safe sir?
Of course were safe here in the school. Well except when he tried to break into the tower—
INTO THE TOWER! You mean he has been inside the school?!?!
Yeah, back at Halloween. He ripped up the portrait entrance to the Gryffindor common room, but to honest that's not what I'm scared of.
You have nerves of steel, master Weasley if that doesn't concern you. But what then?
It does bother me a little… Harry's not scared though, I figure it anyone should be it would be him. Anyway, right before Christmas we snuck Harry into Hogsmeade. He needed to get out of the school and he was perfectly safe with me and Hermione. Anyway we were at the Three Broomsticks and we sorta overheard something we were supposed to…
I don't like the sound of this Sir Ron…
Story goes like this: Harry's Mum and Dad knew they were being hunted long before You-Know-Who ever ended up at their front door. So they performed this really complicated spell to keep themselves safe, called a Fidelus Charm. The way I understand it they hid the secret of their location inside another soul. That way, the only way He could find them was if the other person told. But what Harry's folks didn't know was that their secret keeper was actually working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named—
Not this Black fellow!
Way to spoil it. Yes, Black, Sirius Black. Apparently he and James Potter, Harry's Dad, were best friends in school. It gets worse though…
How is that possible?
Shut up and I'll tell you. You know sometimes you can be worse than talking to Hermione. Well not only was he James Potter's best friend, he's also Harry's godfather.
Oh no…
Yep. And to tell you the truth Rupert, that's what scares me. Not that Black is out there and he's hunting for Harry, but that now that Harry knows why he may go looking for Black.
He wouldn't!
I used to think that too, but you should have seen him. I've never seen him that mad before and it chilled me straight to the bone. It's not like when my Mum gets mad for something stupid I've done, or when Hermione gets mad for one stupid reason or another (I never could understand her). This was different, it was like he was a completely different person than my friend. He was cold and far away, completely irrational. He was ready to go tell off our friend Hagrid for not telling before. To be honest I don't blame Hagrid for keeping quiet, there are something better left unsaid, and this is probably one of them. I can't imagine what it must be like for him, growing up without a family and all, but to know that he lost his family to the one person who they really trusted, trusted enough to make his godfather…. That would be unbearable.
Watch him close Master Weasley. I don't like the sound of any of this. Please keep in touch. I would hate for anything to happen to you.
Don't get all mushy on me Rupert, you sound like a girl. And I will watch out for him. Speaking of which I'm gonna go see if I can cheer him up about his Firebolt.
God speed, good sir.