Summary: Have you ever wanted to take your own life? Not
just think about it, but seriously really consider it, turn it
over in your mind. Ron does so every day. But can he
actually do it? He's the middle pillar holding up a tall
building and if he were to cease existince, so would everyone
else. But does Ron know that?
Rating: R. It'll get extremely dark in upcoming chapters. Lots of angst. Suicide, death, and much more. You have been warned.
Disclaimer: The characters and situations in this story belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Warner Bros. The writer is making no money off of it and does not claim ownership over it. And other citations will be made where necassary.
Dedication: I'm dedicating this to JK Rowling, who's imagination and amazing mind has put together an incredible story that has inspired me to write this fanfic. Please don't sue me Joanne, I do not claim to own this, for my mind could never compare to yours. Thanks for helping me decide where I want to go in life.
Author's Note: After almost a week, I've gotten a total of two reviews! Yes! I'm so happy. No sarcams at all. I'm absolutely ecstatic.
As always, thanks to Scott. You're an awesome beta-reader! I love you!
XOXOXOX
Chapter 1
*** What about friendship? What about friends? You said the whole world was against you, And it all had to end.
Maren Ord, Perfect. ***
"Harry," Hermione huffed, slamming her fork down on the table, "you have to eat something." Harry looked up angrily.
"I said I'm not hungry!" Harry said, exasperatedly. I tried to ignore the new argument. They had been going at it like this for months. They fought over everything. Usually, they were back to talking five minutes after the argument. It was December and nothing I tried worked. Ignoring them, staying neutral, choosing sides, or whatever else came to mind. This argument started because Harry wasn't eating and Hermione was worried. And I.... I was reading Hogwarts: A History. Funny how Hermione nags me to read things and when I finally start, she doesn't even notice. I turned the page, completely enthralled in what I was reading. I had never known Hogwarts was so interesting. I had almost tuned out Hermione and Harry's conversation when I caught a few words and listened anyway.
"... so damn stubbourn!" Hermione said. Ooh.... Hermione cussing. She was mad now. The next thing that happened came and went very fast. Harry's hand shot out and he grabbed Hermione's wrist. For a boy who didn't look very strong, he sure did pull Hermione far into the table. She gasped for breath as Harry kept his grip on Hermione.
"Hermione Granger, keep your big nose out of other people's business. If I'm not hungry one morning, it's nothing to go balistic over!" Harry growled and the next thing I knew I'd reached across the table, grabbed Harry's hand and loosened its grip on Hermione's wrist so she could pull free. She looked absolutely terrified. We were seeing Harry in a new light. And not necassarily a good one.
"Harry," I said angrily, but he shot me a look and I changed what I'd wanted to say to something more appropriate, "why did you do that to Hermione?"
"She pissed me off," he answered. Oh how I wanted to connect me fist with his face. I didn't of course. That would be something for the real me to do. I looked up at Hermione and could see she looked very hurt and was on the verge of tears.
"But you've made her cry," I said and that did it. Harry's head rose slowly and he saw that indeed Hermione had tears rolling down her face. I'm sure that if there had been no table between them, Harry would have launched himself forward and thrown his arms around Hermione comfortingly. But all he did was whisper an apology to her and then ask Hermione to show him where he'd done it. She did and I was surprised to see she had nail marks in her wrist. But I decided to divert my attention back to Hogwarts: A History and continued reading. Maybe this time Hermione would notice.
****
I walked into class and sat down. We had Double Potions and I was not very happy about it. But instead of skiving off, like I'd wanted to, I placed my homework on my desk and put my bag next to my cauldron.
While I waited for Snape to come to class, I pulled my book out of my bag and began to read again. Suddenly Hermione sat herself down on the right side of me, Harry on the left. I had a feeling they weren't speaking to each other. It made me think of all the times Hermione and I had fought, or the one time Harry and I had fought. I didn't want to put myself in the middle so I continued reading. Hermione leaned forward and read over my shoulder and wildly stood up, pointing.
"My goodness Ron!" she shouted and I was inwardly pleased, "Reading Hogwarts: A History!" I tried not to blush, but I knew I was.
"Yeah, well I -" I began.
"I'm so happy!" Hermione cried and plonked herself down on her chair again because Snape had entered the classroom. Snape decided not to ask why Hermione was so happy and simply did the attendance. When Hermione's name had been called she immediately grabbed my arm.
"You're reading!" she cried. And she sounded as though she meant in general, "I'm so happy. Where are you?"
"I'm here," I said.
"No, I meant -"
"Weasley," Snape called.
"I'm here," I said for the second time. I closed my book, knowing I was the second to last person on the list, and put it back in my bag. I looked up and saw that Hermione looked slightly put out.
"I just got past the part about not being able to apparate on Hogwarts grounds," I answered and her eyes lit up.
"So," Snape began stepping forward, "Today's potion will be rather easy but I want to be sure that you do it correctly. In teams of three that you may choose as I don't really care if you fail on this test." There were many choruses of 'yes!' and 'all right!' "What are you waiting for? Go get the proper ingredients to make the Anti-Allergy potion." Hermione opened her textbook to the page and took charge right away.
"All right Ron, go and get some lace wings, some armadillo bile, some spiders and fill the cauldron with the potion Snape has on his desk. Harry, you and I can start with the proposal." Harry merely nodded and I stood up to get the ingredients. I found the lace wings and the armadillo bile all right but when I got to the spider jar it was fairly obvious these spiders had to be put in the potion alive. I turned around, went back to the desk and put the ingredients I had found on the table. Then I proceded to fill the cauldron. I placed it on our table and sat down.
"Er - Ron...." Hermione began, "the spiders aren't here." It seemed she had forgotten my enormous fear of spiders. "Go get them, we really need them for this potion." She looked rather busy crushing the lace wings while Harry was stirring the potion with the ladel.
I slowly made my way to the cupboard with the ingredients in it. The only other person there was Malfoy and he was standing in front of the jar of live spiders. I stepped up, pretending to busy myself with the lace wings.
"Weasley.... I hear you don't much like spiders," Malfoy said and I turned to look at him.
"They're not my favourite animal, no." I glanced at the jar Malfoy was holding and visibly shuddered. "I need a few of those actually, so if you woudn't mind passing me the jar, I would be grateful." I was surprised at my politeness.
"Oh this jar?" he asked taking the lid off the jar.
"Yeah that jar..." I said trying to steady my voice. I could see they were rather big spiders.
"Why of course you can have it...." he said, "catch." And he tossed it lightly.... but there was no top on it. I stepped aside and it made contact with the floor, smashing into many pieces. The spiders scuttled around and the only thing my brain was telling me was to get away from them. So I quickly jumped on top of one of the stools. Malfoy turned and walked back to his desk, leaving me standing on the stool, spiders all around it. Not to mention the entire class was staring at me, including Professor Snape.
"Weasley! Get off that stool," Snape ordered.
"No way," I answered, my voice a few pitches higher than normal.
"What happened?" Snape demanded, stepping up to the spiders. He said an incantation and the spiders were back in the (fixed) jar. I got off the stool.
"Malfoy threw the jar at me and I stepped aside to avoid it," I answered.
"Is this true Mr Malfoy?" he asked.
"Of course not!" Malfoy cried in fake outrage. It was enough for Snape.
"Ten points from Gryffindor and as a punishment you're going to take the spiders you need out of this jar and put them in the potion yourself." I stared dumbfoundedly at the potions teacher.
"Like hell I am," I said and walked over to Hermione and Harry. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I picked up my bag and left the classroom, slamming the door loudly behind me.
****
After storming out of Potions class, I retired to the Gryffindor Common Room. I'd already been interrogated by half of the people there and it had only been an hour. Hermione, Harry and I were doing our homework. People kept interrupting us to ask me questions and it was getting highly irritating.
"Where should I look to find information on these ridiculous house movement things?" I said in a rather frustrated tone of voice. Hermione looked up at me distractedly and said;
"Have you tried the Divinition textbook?"
"Oh," I said, and opened Unfogging The Future to the right page. I raised my quill to write something down but it was wrenched out of my hand and thrown to the ground. I looked up, absolutely furious. Fred and George had seated themselves at our table.
"All right!" George shouted, "who did it?"
"Yes... spill." Fred said. (A/N: It rhymes! LOL!)
"Spill what?" I snapped, angry that they were being so idiotic. I'm acting like Hermione. I must stop that.
"Which one of you did the remarkable, the unthinkable, the I'm- Gonna-Die-Tomorrow-So-I-Might-As-Well-Do-It?" George blubbered on. The three of us stared at George.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
"There's a rumor going around school that a student - a male student - is dating Professor Snape. Do we have reason to suspect you?" Fred questioned.
"Hmmmm, let me just scan my memories for one where I'm dating Snape..... nope, don't see one. You're insane," I added shortly. Fred and George burst into hysterical laughter and fell to the floor. They lay like that for many minutes, cluthing their chests, revelling in their own strange humor. When they'd finally finished, Fred got to his feet and clapped me hard on the back.
"Good work Brother, we're tremendously proud of you!" he announced. Ah, so that's what this had been about. I grabbed my brother and twisted his wrist around.
"Go get me the quill you snatched out of my hand moments ago!" I ordered him and let go of his hand. He grabbed it and threw it on to the table.
"Getting strong Ronniekins, but we'll always be able to tell when you're joking. Almost had me thinking you were going to throw me into that table over there," Fred drawled, and laughed a bit more. I scowled and began reading the paragraph I had to recopy onto my parchment.
"You're no fun," George said and plopped himself down on a chair next to Fred. Hermione and Harry were talking to each other about a Transfiguration report, "well that's not quite true. You did walk out of Snape's class and that's rather impressive. But why would you do homework on a day like this?"
"Gee I dunno, maybe because it's due tomorrow," I answered and saw Fred and George exchange a glance.
"Ooh Ron.... where's this new disdainful side of you come from?" Fred demanded. I ignored him. Fred sighed.
"So.... you're still taking Divinition?" George wondered aloud, snatching up a previous report I'd done on it, "Cor! 90 %. My dear brother, you have been studying!" Harry and Hermione looked up curiously.
"You got a 90?" Hermione asked. I nodded.
"My word!" shouted Fred loudly, "Hogwarts; A History!?" This was it. I'd never live this down.
"Oh get lost why don't you?" I said exasperatedly. The pair looked around the table, bid their farewells and skipped over to Ginny, who had just entered the Common Room. I shook my head, feeling it was hard to believe they got more irritating every year. Then I proceded to continue with my homework.
"Ron!" Hermione cried, "how come you didn't tell me you got an 89 % on the paper for McGonagall?" I looked up and saw she was holding up my Transfiguration homework from last week and shrugged slightly.
"Not that big a deal," I answered simply.
"Not that big a deal?" Hermione shrieked and began reading aloud, " 'The Moribilus Charm and its Defects, by Ron Weasley. According to Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five the only proper spell to change the color of something is the Moribilus charm. Any other spell is inefficient. The Moribilus charm is used to change the color of any object, but can have disastrous consequences. For example, Stuart the Stubbourn, who refused to disist using this charm in a contest to see how many different colors he could turn a pig in a minute, found himself all of these colours with the pig on his head.' " She stared at me with a look of amazement on her face.
"Hey!" I said, glancing at my watch, "I promised Seamus I'd play chess with him. I'll catch up with you guys later." I leapt to my feet, gathered my stuff into my bag, which was looking as though it might break if I put anything else in it, and bounded out of the portrait hole.
Okay, so I lied. I'm not really going to play chess with Seamus. But lately I've found myself going down to Hagrid's hut to do my homework and talk to Hagrid about Harry and Hermione. I walked down the hall toward the entrance hall when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and saw Snape.
"Weasley. You missed my class today. Thirty points were taken from Gryffindor. I also wanted to tell you that if you misbehave like that again I'll have to give you detention," Snape said.
"I'm sorry for leaving class Professor," I apologized, "it won't happen again."
"Good," Snape replied and stalked off.
I still can't understand Snape. You'd think after amost five years of being his student I would somehow understand why Snape is the way he is. I've come to realize it must be pretty awful. I know that he was once a Death Eater, so that must make him spiteful. But Harry's been faced with evil and he's not completely spiteful. Yeah.... I'm fooling myself. Harry's turning into Snape. Not quite but seriously, that might be it.
I knocked hard on the door of Hagrid's hut. He came to it and when he saw me he smiled and opened the door wider.
" 'Lo Ron, I was expecting yeh," Hagrid said cheerfully, and I sat down at his table, "Harry and Hermione arguin' again?" He placed a plate of cookies and a pot of tea on the table.
"Well not exactly. The other day they fought really badly. It almost resulted in physical fighting," I said and picked up one of the cookies. I peered at it carefully and decided Hagrid had not baked it. I took a bite out if it and looked up at Hagrid.
"I've known you three fer almost five years. I've never once seen you hurt each other physically. This surprises me. Harry and Hermione fightin'. What was it about?" Hagrid asked. I noticed that his drawl had really started to improve. However, I have reasons to believe Madame Maxime has been coming to visit him during the weekends.
"Well if I tell you, you have to promise not to worry about anything. That we'll deal with it ourselves..." I said looking at Hagrid hopefully.
"Ron, when you come here the talk to me, what you say stays right here." I nodded and took a sip of tea. I wanted something stronger but tea would do fine.
"All right. Well.... ever since the attacks we read about in the Daily Prophet started, Harry hasn't been eating. I mean, he eats a bit during dinner, but not enough for Hermione's satsifaction. And that's where the argument came from, because a worried Hermione can be a nagging Hermione. And I guess Harry didn't want that right at that moment because he grabbed Hermione's wrist," I said, miming it with my own hands," and pulled her into the table so that she couldn't breathe." I looked up to see that Hagrid looked very suprised.
"Was Hermione all right?" Hagrid asked.
"Oh yes. I pulled Harry off of her. But the damage was done. I'm not sure what's up with those two. They won't stop arguing. Every time I come into the room they're either fighting or not talking," I complained and suddenly I was yelling at the top of my lungs, "WHEN WILL THIS STOP? IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! All they do is fight, fight, fight. Then they look to me expecting me to agree with one of them, and only one of them. I'm always stuck between them and I totally hate it!"
I suddenly felt much better. Not "Oh I think this world really is beautiful!" better, but more like "I got this off my chest..." better. But I still felt empty inside. Like I'd never be completely better. And in a sense, I wouldn't. I took a long sip of tea and looked at Hagrid.
"I'm wonderin' if maybe that's how Harry felt when you and Hermione fought..." Hagrid said gently.
He's right. Hermione and I did put Harry in the middle of our fights. Very often. Maybe it's my turn. But it's so annoying. I guess Hermione had her turn last year and so maybe this is my turn.
"Okay, maybe it is my turn. Maybe I do deserve to be miserable. With hardly anyone to talk to about it and-" I stopped. I was giving out too much information for safety, "with Harry and Hermione, I mean." Hagrid gave me a searching look and I felt rather uncomfortable. "Anyways. I should do some of my homework." I took out my Transfiguration homework and began work on it. Hagrid walked around the hut feeding Fang, watering his bizarre plants and giving me some help on my essay whenever I needed it.
"Hey Hagrid, I got 89 % on the last essay!" I said and grinned proudly. I'd worked really hard on that essay. Just as I was working hard on this one. Hagrid clapped me hard on the back and sent me face first into his table.
"Great Ron!" Hagrid beamed, as he'd helped with that one. I'd never have realized that Hagrid was good at Transfiguration when he was at school. Even though he was expelled from Hogwarts, he's very smart. And he has a lot of information on Transfiguration.
"Yeah. Apparently the example with Stuart the Stubbourn really helped my essay. McGonagall called me up to her desk yesterday and told me if I kept up the good work I could maybe find myself beating Hermione. I doubt that but it was still a very nice compliment!" I said. Hagrid nodded in agreement. I looked at my watch. "Whoa! It's six o'clock! Care to accompany me to the Great Hall?"
"Sure. Just a moment. Let me get my coat and we'll go," Hagrid said and grabbed it from his coat hanger and we set off to dinner. Okay, so life wasn't as bad as I always said it was, but if I could choose to switch lives with someone else, I definitely would.
That was the first chapter. It isn't interesting yet, but there'll be action in the next one. I promise! Thank for the two reviews. You have made me a happy camper. Please review again and to anyone else, read and review!!!!!
Song identification: Perfect by Maren Ord. I love this song. It's just such an amazing song.
-Tine
Rating: R. It'll get extremely dark in upcoming chapters. Lots of angst. Suicide, death, and much more. You have been warned.
Disclaimer: The characters and situations in this story belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Warner Bros. The writer is making no money off of it and does not claim ownership over it. And other citations will be made where necassary.
Dedication: I'm dedicating this to JK Rowling, who's imagination and amazing mind has put together an incredible story that has inspired me to write this fanfic. Please don't sue me Joanne, I do not claim to own this, for my mind could never compare to yours. Thanks for helping me decide where I want to go in life.
Author's Note: After almost a week, I've gotten a total of two reviews! Yes! I'm so happy. No sarcams at all. I'm absolutely ecstatic.
As always, thanks to Scott. You're an awesome beta-reader! I love you!
XOXOXOX
Chapter 1
*** What about friendship? What about friends? You said the whole world was against you, And it all had to end.
Maren Ord, Perfect. ***
"Harry," Hermione huffed, slamming her fork down on the table, "you have to eat something." Harry looked up angrily.
"I said I'm not hungry!" Harry said, exasperatedly. I tried to ignore the new argument. They had been going at it like this for months. They fought over everything. Usually, they were back to talking five minutes after the argument. It was December and nothing I tried worked. Ignoring them, staying neutral, choosing sides, or whatever else came to mind. This argument started because Harry wasn't eating and Hermione was worried. And I.... I was reading Hogwarts: A History. Funny how Hermione nags me to read things and when I finally start, she doesn't even notice. I turned the page, completely enthralled in what I was reading. I had never known Hogwarts was so interesting. I had almost tuned out Hermione and Harry's conversation when I caught a few words and listened anyway.
"... so damn stubbourn!" Hermione said. Ooh.... Hermione cussing. She was mad now. The next thing that happened came and went very fast. Harry's hand shot out and he grabbed Hermione's wrist. For a boy who didn't look very strong, he sure did pull Hermione far into the table. She gasped for breath as Harry kept his grip on Hermione.
"Hermione Granger, keep your big nose out of other people's business. If I'm not hungry one morning, it's nothing to go balistic over!" Harry growled and the next thing I knew I'd reached across the table, grabbed Harry's hand and loosened its grip on Hermione's wrist so she could pull free. She looked absolutely terrified. We were seeing Harry in a new light. And not necassarily a good one.
"Harry," I said angrily, but he shot me a look and I changed what I'd wanted to say to something more appropriate, "why did you do that to Hermione?"
"She pissed me off," he answered. Oh how I wanted to connect me fist with his face. I didn't of course. That would be something for the real me to do. I looked up at Hermione and could see she looked very hurt and was on the verge of tears.
"But you've made her cry," I said and that did it. Harry's head rose slowly and he saw that indeed Hermione had tears rolling down her face. I'm sure that if there had been no table between them, Harry would have launched himself forward and thrown his arms around Hermione comfortingly. But all he did was whisper an apology to her and then ask Hermione to show him where he'd done it. She did and I was surprised to see she had nail marks in her wrist. But I decided to divert my attention back to Hogwarts: A History and continued reading. Maybe this time Hermione would notice.
****
I walked into class and sat down. We had Double Potions and I was not very happy about it. But instead of skiving off, like I'd wanted to, I placed my homework on my desk and put my bag next to my cauldron.
While I waited for Snape to come to class, I pulled my book out of my bag and began to read again. Suddenly Hermione sat herself down on the right side of me, Harry on the left. I had a feeling they weren't speaking to each other. It made me think of all the times Hermione and I had fought, or the one time Harry and I had fought. I didn't want to put myself in the middle so I continued reading. Hermione leaned forward and read over my shoulder and wildly stood up, pointing.
"My goodness Ron!" she shouted and I was inwardly pleased, "Reading Hogwarts: A History!" I tried not to blush, but I knew I was.
"Yeah, well I -" I began.
"I'm so happy!" Hermione cried and plonked herself down on her chair again because Snape had entered the classroom. Snape decided not to ask why Hermione was so happy and simply did the attendance. When Hermione's name had been called she immediately grabbed my arm.
"You're reading!" she cried. And she sounded as though she meant in general, "I'm so happy. Where are you?"
"I'm here," I said.
"No, I meant -"
"Weasley," Snape called.
"I'm here," I said for the second time. I closed my book, knowing I was the second to last person on the list, and put it back in my bag. I looked up and saw that Hermione looked slightly put out.
"I just got past the part about not being able to apparate on Hogwarts grounds," I answered and her eyes lit up.
"So," Snape began stepping forward, "Today's potion will be rather easy but I want to be sure that you do it correctly. In teams of three that you may choose as I don't really care if you fail on this test." There were many choruses of 'yes!' and 'all right!' "What are you waiting for? Go get the proper ingredients to make the Anti-Allergy potion." Hermione opened her textbook to the page and took charge right away.
"All right Ron, go and get some lace wings, some armadillo bile, some spiders and fill the cauldron with the potion Snape has on his desk. Harry, you and I can start with the proposal." Harry merely nodded and I stood up to get the ingredients. I found the lace wings and the armadillo bile all right but when I got to the spider jar it was fairly obvious these spiders had to be put in the potion alive. I turned around, went back to the desk and put the ingredients I had found on the table. Then I proceded to fill the cauldron. I placed it on our table and sat down.
"Er - Ron...." Hermione began, "the spiders aren't here." It seemed she had forgotten my enormous fear of spiders. "Go get them, we really need them for this potion." She looked rather busy crushing the lace wings while Harry was stirring the potion with the ladel.
I slowly made my way to the cupboard with the ingredients in it. The only other person there was Malfoy and he was standing in front of the jar of live spiders. I stepped up, pretending to busy myself with the lace wings.
"Weasley.... I hear you don't much like spiders," Malfoy said and I turned to look at him.
"They're not my favourite animal, no." I glanced at the jar Malfoy was holding and visibly shuddered. "I need a few of those actually, so if you woudn't mind passing me the jar, I would be grateful." I was surprised at my politeness.
"Oh this jar?" he asked taking the lid off the jar.
"Yeah that jar..." I said trying to steady my voice. I could see they were rather big spiders.
"Why of course you can have it...." he said, "catch." And he tossed it lightly.... but there was no top on it. I stepped aside and it made contact with the floor, smashing into many pieces. The spiders scuttled around and the only thing my brain was telling me was to get away from them. So I quickly jumped on top of one of the stools. Malfoy turned and walked back to his desk, leaving me standing on the stool, spiders all around it. Not to mention the entire class was staring at me, including Professor Snape.
"Weasley! Get off that stool," Snape ordered.
"No way," I answered, my voice a few pitches higher than normal.
"What happened?" Snape demanded, stepping up to the spiders. He said an incantation and the spiders were back in the (fixed) jar. I got off the stool.
"Malfoy threw the jar at me and I stepped aside to avoid it," I answered.
"Is this true Mr Malfoy?" he asked.
"Of course not!" Malfoy cried in fake outrage. It was enough for Snape.
"Ten points from Gryffindor and as a punishment you're going to take the spiders you need out of this jar and put them in the potion yourself." I stared dumbfoundedly at the potions teacher.
"Like hell I am," I said and walked over to Hermione and Harry. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I picked up my bag and left the classroom, slamming the door loudly behind me.
****
After storming out of Potions class, I retired to the Gryffindor Common Room. I'd already been interrogated by half of the people there and it had only been an hour. Hermione, Harry and I were doing our homework. People kept interrupting us to ask me questions and it was getting highly irritating.
"Where should I look to find information on these ridiculous house movement things?" I said in a rather frustrated tone of voice. Hermione looked up at me distractedly and said;
"Have you tried the Divinition textbook?"
"Oh," I said, and opened Unfogging The Future to the right page. I raised my quill to write something down but it was wrenched out of my hand and thrown to the ground. I looked up, absolutely furious. Fred and George had seated themselves at our table.
"All right!" George shouted, "who did it?"
"Yes... spill." Fred said. (A/N: It rhymes! LOL!)
"Spill what?" I snapped, angry that they were being so idiotic. I'm acting like Hermione. I must stop that.
"Which one of you did the remarkable, the unthinkable, the I'm- Gonna-Die-Tomorrow-So-I-Might-As-Well-Do-It?" George blubbered on. The three of us stared at George.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
"There's a rumor going around school that a student - a male student - is dating Professor Snape. Do we have reason to suspect you?" Fred questioned.
"Hmmmm, let me just scan my memories for one where I'm dating Snape..... nope, don't see one. You're insane," I added shortly. Fred and George burst into hysterical laughter and fell to the floor. They lay like that for many minutes, cluthing their chests, revelling in their own strange humor. When they'd finally finished, Fred got to his feet and clapped me hard on the back.
"Good work Brother, we're tremendously proud of you!" he announced. Ah, so that's what this had been about. I grabbed my brother and twisted his wrist around.
"Go get me the quill you snatched out of my hand moments ago!" I ordered him and let go of his hand. He grabbed it and threw it on to the table.
"Getting strong Ronniekins, but we'll always be able to tell when you're joking. Almost had me thinking you were going to throw me into that table over there," Fred drawled, and laughed a bit more. I scowled and began reading the paragraph I had to recopy onto my parchment.
"You're no fun," George said and plopped himself down on a chair next to Fred. Hermione and Harry were talking to each other about a Transfiguration report, "well that's not quite true. You did walk out of Snape's class and that's rather impressive. But why would you do homework on a day like this?"
"Gee I dunno, maybe because it's due tomorrow," I answered and saw Fred and George exchange a glance.
"Ooh Ron.... where's this new disdainful side of you come from?" Fred demanded. I ignored him. Fred sighed.
"So.... you're still taking Divinition?" George wondered aloud, snatching up a previous report I'd done on it, "Cor! 90 %. My dear brother, you have been studying!" Harry and Hermione looked up curiously.
"You got a 90?" Hermione asked. I nodded.
"My word!" shouted Fred loudly, "Hogwarts; A History!?" This was it. I'd never live this down.
"Oh get lost why don't you?" I said exasperatedly. The pair looked around the table, bid their farewells and skipped over to Ginny, who had just entered the Common Room. I shook my head, feeling it was hard to believe they got more irritating every year. Then I proceded to continue with my homework.
"Ron!" Hermione cried, "how come you didn't tell me you got an 89 % on the paper for McGonagall?" I looked up and saw she was holding up my Transfiguration homework from last week and shrugged slightly.
"Not that big a deal," I answered simply.
"Not that big a deal?" Hermione shrieked and began reading aloud, " 'The Moribilus Charm and its Defects, by Ron Weasley. According to Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five the only proper spell to change the color of something is the Moribilus charm. Any other spell is inefficient. The Moribilus charm is used to change the color of any object, but can have disastrous consequences. For example, Stuart the Stubbourn, who refused to disist using this charm in a contest to see how many different colors he could turn a pig in a minute, found himself all of these colours with the pig on his head.' " She stared at me with a look of amazement on her face.
"Hey!" I said, glancing at my watch, "I promised Seamus I'd play chess with him. I'll catch up with you guys later." I leapt to my feet, gathered my stuff into my bag, which was looking as though it might break if I put anything else in it, and bounded out of the portrait hole.
Okay, so I lied. I'm not really going to play chess with Seamus. But lately I've found myself going down to Hagrid's hut to do my homework and talk to Hagrid about Harry and Hermione. I walked down the hall toward the entrance hall when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and saw Snape.
"Weasley. You missed my class today. Thirty points were taken from Gryffindor. I also wanted to tell you that if you misbehave like that again I'll have to give you detention," Snape said.
"I'm sorry for leaving class Professor," I apologized, "it won't happen again."
"Good," Snape replied and stalked off.
I still can't understand Snape. You'd think after amost five years of being his student I would somehow understand why Snape is the way he is. I've come to realize it must be pretty awful. I know that he was once a Death Eater, so that must make him spiteful. But Harry's been faced with evil and he's not completely spiteful. Yeah.... I'm fooling myself. Harry's turning into Snape. Not quite but seriously, that might be it.
I knocked hard on the door of Hagrid's hut. He came to it and when he saw me he smiled and opened the door wider.
" 'Lo Ron, I was expecting yeh," Hagrid said cheerfully, and I sat down at his table, "Harry and Hermione arguin' again?" He placed a plate of cookies and a pot of tea on the table.
"Well not exactly. The other day they fought really badly. It almost resulted in physical fighting," I said and picked up one of the cookies. I peered at it carefully and decided Hagrid had not baked it. I took a bite out if it and looked up at Hagrid.
"I've known you three fer almost five years. I've never once seen you hurt each other physically. This surprises me. Harry and Hermione fightin'. What was it about?" Hagrid asked. I noticed that his drawl had really started to improve. However, I have reasons to believe Madame Maxime has been coming to visit him during the weekends.
"Well if I tell you, you have to promise not to worry about anything. That we'll deal with it ourselves..." I said looking at Hagrid hopefully.
"Ron, when you come here the talk to me, what you say stays right here." I nodded and took a sip of tea. I wanted something stronger but tea would do fine.
"All right. Well.... ever since the attacks we read about in the Daily Prophet started, Harry hasn't been eating. I mean, he eats a bit during dinner, but not enough for Hermione's satsifaction. And that's where the argument came from, because a worried Hermione can be a nagging Hermione. And I guess Harry didn't want that right at that moment because he grabbed Hermione's wrist," I said, miming it with my own hands," and pulled her into the table so that she couldn't breathe." I looked up to see that Hagrid looked very suprised.
"Was Hermione all right?" Hagrid asked.
"Oh yes. I pulled Harry off of her. But the damage was done. I'm not sure what's up with those two. They won't stop arguing. Every time I come into the room they're either fighting or not talking," I complained and suddenly I was yelling at the top of my lungs, "WHEN WILL THIS STOP? IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! All they do is fight, fight, fight. Then they look to me expecting me to agree with one of them, and only one of them. I'm always stuck between them and I totally hate it!"
I suddenly felt much better. Not "Oh I think this world really is beautiful!" better, but more like "I got this off my chest..." better. But I still felt empty inside. Like I'd never be completely better. And in a sense, I wouldn't. I took a long sip of tea and looked at Hagrid.
"I'm wonderin' if maybe that's how Harry felt when you and Hermione fought..." Hagrid said gently.
He's right. Hermione and I did put Harry in the middle of our fights. Very often. Maybe it's my turn. But it's so annoying. I guess Hermione had her turn last year and so maybe this is my turn.
"Okay, maybe it is my turn. Maybe I do deserve to be miserable. With hardly anyone to talk to about it and-" I stopped. I was giving out too much information for safety, "with Harry and Hermione, I mean." Hagrid gave me a searching look and I felt rather uncomfortable. "Anyways. I should do some of my homework." I took out my Transfiguration homework and began work on it. Hagrid walked around the hut feeding Fang, watering his bizarre plants and giving me some help on my essay whenever I needed it.
"Hey Hagrid, I got 89 % on the last essay!" I said and grinned proudly. I'd worked really hard on that essay. Just as I was working hard on this one. Hagrid clapped me hard on the back and sent me face first into his table.
"Great Ron!" Hagrid beamed, as he'd helped with that one. I'd never have realized that Hagrid was good at Transfiguration when he was at school. Even though he was expelled from Hogwarts, he's very smart. And he has a lot of information on Transfiguration.
"Yeah. Apparently the example with Stuart the Stubbourn really helped my essay. McGonagall called me up to her desk yesterday and told me if I kept up the good work I could maybe find myself beating Hermione. I doubt that but it was still a very nice compliment!" I said. Hagrid nodded in agreement. I looked at my watch. "Whoa! It's six o'clock! Care to accompany me to the Great Hall?"
"Sure. Just a moment. Let me get my coat and we'll go," Hagrid said and grabbed it from his coat hanger and we set off to dinner. Okay, so life wasn't as bad as I always said it was, but if I could choose to switch lives with someone else, I definitely would.
That was the first chapter. It isn't interesting yet, but there'll be action in the next one. I promise! Thank for the two reviews. You have made me a happy camper. Please review again and to anyone else, read and review!!!!!
Song identification: Perfect by Maren Ord. I love this song. It's just such an amazing song.
-Tine