February 4

SHE'S GIVING IT BACK!!!!!

SIR RON, sorry I keep forgetting that.

Anyway, McGonagall was just here. And she had Harry's Firebolt with her! He's still in his lesson with Professor Lupin so I have to wait at least fifteen more minutes before I go find him… I had to tell someone! Do you realize how we are going to STOMP Ravenclaw? They won't have a chance with Harry on that broom!

Oh, bully! That's wonderful news, sir.

Yeah! And they didn't find a single thing wrong with it! That's a relief…

Master Weasley, forgive me, but it seems as though you are relieved that there was nothing wrong with Mr. Potter's broom.

Of course I'm relieved. What do you think, that I want him flying on a jinxed Firebolt?

Well of course not sir. But your relief implies in a way that you were at one point concerned…

So… maybe I was, just a little.

Then is it possible, dear sir, that perhaps Miss Granger wasn't so terribly in the wrong for at least having it checked?

Bloody hell, Rupert! Whose side are you on, seriously. Okay, fine, maybe it was okay that she got it looked over by a teacher. But she still didn't have to go behind our, I mean Harry's back about it.

Perhaps not sir. But perhaps she was just overly stress by the activies surrounding your young friend as of late.

Why are you pleading her case so bad?

Well, my noble Master Weasley, it's only that she really does seem to have a good heart—

Wait! How do you know that?!?! Are you going behind my back—

Never sir! On my honor I would never talk to anyone besides you about the things you confide here. It's just that I had a small conversation with Miss Granger at the Enchanted Stationers. She is the one who selected me to be your journal, and seemed like a quite fine young lady.

Bloody hell! So you have been talking to her behind my back.

I swear to you sir, that was before I ever knew you. If it wasn't for her I might never of had such a fine, upstanding, noble Master to be in the service of—

Okay, okay. You can quit kissing up, Rupert, it does suit you. Fine, maybe Hermione's not that bad. And maybe she did rat out the Firebolt out of honest concern. But I'll tell you one thing, it wasn't from the stress of whatever's been happening to Harry… No there's something else going on with her, I just haven't figured it out yet.

But that'll have to wait 'til later. Right now I have to go find Harry and tell him McGonagall's ready to give his broom back. Maybe he'll let me ride it! That would be wicked!

Later Rupert! I'll tell you how it rides.

Until the next time, dear sir—

~*~*~*~

SIR RON

Sir, I hate to be a stiff, and I realize you were excited and all, but please, the slamming—

He's dead.

Oh dear lord! What happen! Oh no, it wasn't Sirius—

NOT HARRY! Scabbers, my rat …

Oh dear.

I spent the last twenty minutes calling her every name I could think of, but now…

Sir?

What.

I'm dreadfully sorry, sir. But didn't you just say Scabbers was a him?

Yeah. So?

Well then… Who is "she" that you've been calling names?

HERMIONE!

Ah, I see.

About time.

Actually… no, no sir, I don't see. What does Miss Granger have to do with anything?

IT'S HER FAULT HE'S DEAD!

Miss Granger? That's just awful sir! I mean I know you were mad at her, but that's no reason for her to take it out on your pet. After all you were justified in being perturbed by the broom incident, but to take it out on poor Scabbers, in the prime of his life, well that's just barbaric!

Damn it Rupert! ARGH! First of all, she didn't do it because I was mad at her… her cat did it. He's had it out for Scabbers from the very beginning. And secondly, he wasn't in the prime of his life. He was a hand-down from Percy, like everything else in my life…

Oh…

She still won't even admit that her fleabag did it either! I mean what more proof does she need? That beast is violent, evil, and hated my rat. Scabbers' blood was all over my sheets. And practically a carpet of cat hairs on the floor. There's only one cat in the whole castle that's that ugly orange color! All of that and she still won't admit that he did it, shows how smart she is.

I understand that you must be angry sir…

I am angry. But more than anything I feel… drained. I mean I know Scabbers was old, and fat, and lazy, and already sick, and I never really liked him that much to begin with… but he was still mine. Sure he was a hand-down from my brother, but what of mine isn't a hand-down from someone else? You know that rat has slept on my bed with me for the last seven years, ever since Percy's first year at Hogworts. He didn't want him anymore then because he didn't think it was very cool to have a rat as a pet. He wanted something that stood out, something special. So finally my parents got him an owl for making prefect. How stupid? I mean Scabbers had been a perfectly good pet to him for five years, and then he just cast him aside because he wasn't anything extraordinary. I loved that rat. He still wasn't anything spectacular, but then again neither am I. He was just a common rat like a million others in the world. And I'm just another Weasley like so many others around here. I always promised that I would take care of him even when my brothers looked over him because he wasn't Head Boy or Quidditch captain or incredibly funny or—

Uh, sir, are we still talking about the rat?

Of course we are! What else would we be talking about? I'm really going to miss him. Fred said that we should just go to the village and replace him. What makes him think that people, I mean pets… What makes him think pets are that easy to replace? He didn't love him like I did.

We shall mourn the loss, Master Weasley. In honor of brave Scabbers…

Yeah…

Sir why don't you try and get some sleep. Maybe you'll feel better in the morning. Perhaps then you could help Mr. Potter get ready for that big game, I'm sure he's going to need lots of practice getting used to that fine broom, now that he has it back.

That's not a bad idea.

G'nite Rupert

Goodnight, Lord Weasley. I shall pray to the four winds for happier days ahead.