A/N: Wee! This is getting' kinda fun, isn't it? ~wink~ Read… read away!! I've made this chapter in a different way; a POV version. Cookies to those of you who guess who it is ^_^ (You'll basically know right off, though)
Snuffles' Stay
Chapter Thirteen
Often times, they push me aside. Go figure. Seriously, all I ever do is sit around and listen to them. I'm the tag along… the person that cleans up the aftermath. The only special skills that I have are that of my Chess playing technique, and my Keeper abilities on the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team.
I'm just another Weasley.
Harry and Ginny… I don't know what to think of those two. They get into rows like there's no tomorrow, and then, the next minute, they're apologizing to each other. Haven't I taught Harry anything? You would think that, by now, he would know how to treat a woman. Just look at how Hermione and I used to be! That's the way he should be.
Well, maybe I'm being hypocritical. It's just… kind of strange, being the only one out of us three that still has his spine in order. I don't know what's gotten into Hermione… the way that she and Sirius were hanging all over each other on the Hogwarts express really made me mad… but I didn't say anything. He's twenty-one years older than I am! He'd crush me into little, itty bitty pieces.
I wonder what Harry would do?
Yeah, that's right. I always ask about Harry's view on things… all except when it comes to my own Misfortunate disasters that always seem to keep me predicting in Trelawny's Divination class. That crack-potted woman won't drop it, at all. The more deranged the prediction, the higher the grade. Well, at least that's another one of the good things that I have kept in check. I can always please that crazy old nutter.
Mum sent me off to school this year with a box of mince pies; you know, the ones that she usually sends Harry for Christmas. Oh, yes. She can send Harry a sweater, socks, and some mince pies… but what does she send her children? Well, to me, she sends a gaudy old Maroon sweater, socks, and a note. No mince pies! To her own son, even! How crude.
I think I'm getting off of the subject. You want me to tell the damned story or what? Then quit asking me so many questions!
Most of the complications started after the Beginning-of-the-Year Feast. Hermione's mind seemed to be elsewhere. She hardly paid attention to us when we began talking about Quidditch again… Not that she ever has paid attention, mind you, but she has also never had a faraway, dreamy expression on her face.
That woman is like a mad Griffin with talons the size of old Buckbeak's… beak! One false move and you're sure as well castrated. I suppose that she's been rather touchy lately 'cause of her Mum, but there's no reason she should carry out that attitude now. She's back at Hogwarts, now, after all!
I showed Ginny and Hermione by Quidditch Bean collection; Ginny was particularly interested in the Quaffle flavoured bean, but Hermione didn't look like she gave a damn. She simply smiled, nodded, and said, "My, Ron. You really have a talent for observation if you've found those."
Nutter.
By the way she went on about things, you'd think that I was as mad as Dumbledore! Honestly! I'm not that bad, am I? Harry says that I'm not, so I guess that's all right.
We were sitting by the Common Room fire; Harry and I were playing a game of chess again, and Ginny was rubbing Harry's shoulders, whispering moves into his ear. With Ginny's instructions, they managed to put me on my run, but I won, nonetheless. I'm the master of chess… Hermione sat in the chair by the fire, nose stuck in some stupid school book, like always. She always knows how to put down a good mood.
After our game, we dog-piled on top of Hermione. She squealed, the book flew from her hands, and wriggled around to no end. I think she was mad, but she didn't show it. She actually laughed and shoved Ginny off of her lap. Harry, who was holding himself up with his hands on Ginny's back, fell on top of Hermione's lap.
Ginny was laughing uncontrollably, rolling around next to the foot of the chair, holding her ribs like they were going to crack and her insides would spew out. Spew… Haha… I remember that! Anyway… Harry slid off of the chair and began rolling on the ground with Ginny. A few first years, who were walking up the Dormitory stairs, saw this and started laughing at us. Upper classmen noticed us, too, and began laughing at us as well.
I, of course, still sat on Hermione's lap. She really didn't seem to mind, but she kept pinching my damned shoulder. When I asked her why she was pinching me, she just smiled, and shoved me off of her lap.
"Because you weigh as much as a Hippogriff, Ron! Honestly! You'd better work off that access gut of yours before Quidditch Season… or you won't be able to stay on your broom."
I knew she was joking, though, 'cause I had weighed myself with some Muggle scale and it told me that I weigh 175. It's all muscle, baby!
We all seemed to fade away into our own little words for the next time passing. I noticed that Hermione's eyes danced with the flame from the fire-place, her pupils enlarged. That was a beautiful look, I had told myself. She was always beautiful like that… except when she had those big bucky-beaver teeth, but I had gotten used to them. I said my goodnights and went upstairs into my dormitory. Harry and I shared one this year, by ourselves, because we're the top two prefects of Gryffindor… and after all, this is our last year at Hogwarts.
I'm not sure when Hermione or Ginny went into their dormitories… Hermione has one of her own. Lucky wench.
Harry sat on his bed, the curtains open still. He stared at me with some sort of expression on his face that I didn't quite remember him using before.
"What do you think they're up to?" he asked me simply.
"Who?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in question.
"Sirius and Hermione. You saw how they were on the train… all clingy and such. And he spent the summer holiday with her… something might of happened."
"Nah, Hermione's not that kinda girl. We've known her for too long to know that!" Harry laughed in response to my answer. "Maybe she's just found some new Muggle that she's taken a fancy to?"
"No, I don't think so. Couldn't you see the way they looked at each other? And when she walked off with Sirius to meet Dumbledore? There's something going on, I just don't know what."
"I reckon you're getting paranoid in your old age, Harry."
Harry bent over and picked something up off of the floor. My stomach twisted into knots. "What's this?" he asked, holding the thing he picked off from the floor.
My teddy!
I made a snatch for it, but Harry's reflexes from all of those games of Quidditch proved more advanced than mine. He pulled my teddy away, laughing uncontrollably at me. "Seriously! What is this?" he asked between spurts of laughter. I felt my face contort into a steely glare.
"That's none of your business, Seeker-Menace," I answered simply, grabbing for my ridiculous ragged teddy bear once more. We had come up with our own nicknames over the years… I called Harry Seeker-Menace because of some Muggle movie we watched at 'Mione's house the summer of Fifth Year. Star Wars, or something…
For a long while, Harry taunted me over my choice of sleeping possessions… I laughed at him because he had something hanging out of his nose, and didn't notice it. What a loser.
Anyway; we didn't have patrol tonight, so we were just to go to bed, and have classes tomorrow. I was getting tired; I had stayed up the whole night before for no reason in particular, and sleep was making my eyelids very heavy. I said my goodnight and threw my curtains around my four-poster.
When I heard Harry shut the curtains around his, and heard his mumbled 'Goodnight,' I could have sworn he added in a 'bloody nut case' at the end, but I decided to disregard it. When I heard his labored breathing that meant that he had fallen to sleep, I picked open his trunk, grabbed the cloak, and slipped into the common room, and up the Girls' dormitory stairs, down the hall, and into Hermione's bedroom. She never kept her door locked.
She wasn't in her room yet; I had seen her in the common room, books piled around her. I'll never have that woman figured out. I'll never understand the way that mind of hers works.
I sat down in the corner, waiting for her to come in. It was hard to keep awake; the warmth of the fire and the dancing shadows on the wall of her dormitory were making the hue of sleep more and more welcome… but I continued to fight against it.
But somewhere along the line, I had fallen asleep. I knew that I had fallen asleep, because I woke to something standing there, before me. Two somethings, actually… though, I didn't know what it was.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked at the somethings. There, I saw Hermione, wrapped in the arms of… Sirius Black? I rubbed my eyes again, just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
Yes, it was Sirius Black.
I watched for a long while, saw them kissing and cuddling, curled into each other's embrace. It made me flinch inwardly; why hadn't they told us on the train? Didn't they trust us with this? I don't know what they were thinking, but it was beginning to piss me off.
The sight was beginning to piss me off. I stood up, making sure that the cloak covered me entirely, and slipped out of her dormitory. This would be a story to recite to Harry.
A story, indeed.
Chapter Thirteen
Often times, they push me aside. Go figure. Seriously, all I ever do is sit around and listen to them. I'm the tag along… the person that cleans up the aftermath. The only special skills that I have are that of my Chess playing technique, and my Keeper abilities on the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team.
I'm just another Weasley.
Harry and Ginny… I don't know what to think of those two. They get into rows like there's no tomorrow, and then, the next minute, they're apologizing to each other. Haven't I taught Harry anything? You would think that, by now, he would know how to treat a woman. Just look at how Hermione and I used to be! That's the way he should be.
Well, maybe I'm being hypocritical. It's just… kind of strange, being the only one out of us three that still has his spine in order. I don't know what's gotten into Hermione… the way that she and Sirius were hanging all over each other on the Hogwarts express really made me mad… but I didn't say anything. He's twenty-one years older than I am! He'd crush me into little, itty bitty pieces.
I wonder what Harry would do?
Yeah, that's right. I always ask about Harry's view on things… all except when it comes to my own Misfortunate disasters that always seem to keep me predicting in Trelawny's Divination class. That crack-potted woman won't drop it, at all. The more deranged the prediction, the higher the grade. Well, at least that's another one of the good things that I have kept in check. I can always please that crazy old nutter.
Mum sent me off to school this year with a box of mince pies; you know, the ones that she usually sends Harry for Christmas. Oh, yes. She can send Harry a sweater, socks, and some mince pies… but what does she send her children? Well, to me, she sends a gaudy old Maroon sweater, socks, and a note. No mince pies! To her own son, even! How crude.
I think I'm getting off of the subject. You want me to tell the damned story or what? Then quit asking me so many questions!
Most of the complications started after the Beginning-of-the-Year Feast. Hermione's mind seemed to be elsewhere. She hardly paid attention to us when we began talking about Quidditch again… Not that she ever has paid attention, mind you, but she has also never had a faraway, dreamy expression on her face.
That woman is like a mad Griffin with talons the size of old Buckbeak's… beak! One false move and you're sure as well castrated. I suppose that she's been rather touchy lately 'cause of her Mum, but there's no reason she should carry out that attitude now. She's back at Hogwarts, now, after all!
I showed Ginny and Hermione by Quidditch Bean collection; Ginny was particularly interested in the Quaffle flavoured bean, but Hermione didn't look like she gave a damn. She simply smiled, nodded, and said, "My, Ron. You really have a talent for observation if you've found those."
Nutter.
By the way she went on about things, you'd think that I was as mad as Dumbledore! Honestly! I'm not that bad, am I? Harry says that I'm not, so I guess that's all right.
We were sitting by the Common Room fire; Harry and I were playing a game of chess again, and Ginny was rubbing Harry's shoulders, whispering moves into his ear. With Ginny's instructions, they managed to put me on my run, but I won, nonetheless. I'm the master of chess… Hermione sat in the chair by the fire, nose stuck in some stupid school book, like always. She always knows how to put down a good mood.
After our game, we dog-piled on top of Hermione. She squealed, the book flew from her hands, and wriggled around to no end. I think she was mad, but she didn't show it. She actually laughed and shoved Ginny off of her lap. Harry, who was holding himself up with his hands on Ginny's back, fell on top of Hermione's lap.
Ginny was laughing uncontrollably, rolling around next to the foot of the chair, holding her ribs like they were going to crack and her insides would spew out. Spew… Haha… I remember that! Anyway… Harry slid off of the chair and began rolling on the ground with Ginny. A few first years, who were walking up the Dormitory stairs, saw this and started laughing at us. Upper classmen noticed us, too, and began laughing at us as well.
I, of course, still sat on Hermione's lap. She really didn't seem to mind, but she kept pinching my damned shoulder. When I asked her why she was pinching me, she just smiled, and shoved me off of her lap.
"Because you weigh as much as a Hippogriff, Ron! Honestly! You'd better work off that access gut of yours before Quidditch Season… or you won't be able to stay on your broom."
I knew she was joking, though, 'cause I had weighed myself with some Muggle scale and it told me that I weigh 175. It's all muscle, baby!
We all seemed to fade away into our own little words for the next time passing. I noticed that Hermione's eyes danced with the flame from the fire-place, her pupils enlarged. That was a beautiful look, I had told myself. She was always beautiful like that… except when she had those big bucky-beaver teeth, but I had gotten used to them. I said my goodnights and went upstairs into my dormitory. Harry and I shared one this year, by ourselves, because we're the top two prefects of Gryffindor… and after all, this is our last year at Hogwarts.
I'm not sure when Hermione or Ginny went into their dormitories… Hermione has one of her own. Lucky wench.
Harry sat on his bed, the curtains open still. He stared at me with some sort of expression on his face that I didn't quite remember him using before.
"What do you think they're up to?" he asked me simply.
"Who?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in question.
"Sirius and Hermione. You saw how they were on the train… all clingy and such. And he spent the summer holiday with her… something might of happened."
"Nah, Hermione's not that kinda girl. We've known her for too long to know that!" Harry laughed in response to my answer. "Maybe she's just found some new Muggle that she's taken a fancy to?"
"No, I don't think so. Couldn't you see the way they looked at each other? And when she walked off with Sirius to meet Dumbledore? There's something going on, I just don't know what."
"I reckon you're getting paranoid in your old age, Harry."
Harry bent over and picked something up off of the floor. My stomach twisted into knots. "What's this?" he asked, holding the thing he picked off from the floor.
My teddy!
I made a snatch for it, but Harry's reflexes from all of those games of Quidditch proved more advanced than mine. He pulled my teddy away, laughing uncontrollably at me. "Seriously! What is this?" he asked between spurts of laughter. I felt my face contort into a steely glare.
"That's none of your business, Seeker-Menace," I answered simply, grabbing for my ridiculous ragged teddy bear once more. We had come up with our own nicknames over the years… I called Harry Seeker-Menace because of some Muggle movie we watched at 'Mione's house the summer of Fifth Year. Star Wars, or something…
For a long while, Harry taunted me over my choice of sleeping possessions… I laughed at him because he had something hanging out of his nose, and didn't notice it. What a loser.
Anyway; we didn't have patrol tonight, so we were just to go to bed, and have classes tomorrow. I was getting tired; I had stayed up the whole night before for no reason in particular, and sleep was making my eyelids very heavy. I said my goodnight and threw my curtains around my four-poster.
When I heard Harry shut the curtains around his, and heard his mumbled 'Goodnight,' I could have sworn he added in a 'bloody nut case' at the end, but I decided to disregard it. When I heard his labored breathing that meant that he had fallen to sleep, I picked open his trunk, grabbed the cloak, and slipped into the common room, and up the Girls' dormitory stairs, down the hall, and into Hermione's bedroom. She never kept her door locked.
She wasn't in her room yet; I had seen her in the common room, books piled around her. I'll never have that woman figured out. I'll never understand the way that mind of hers works.
I sat down in the corner, waiting for her to come in. It was hard to keep awake; the warmth of the fire and the dancing shadows on the wall of her dormitory were making the hue of sleep more and more welcome… but I continued to fight against it.
But somewhere along the line, I had fallen asleep. I knew that I had fallen asleep, because I woke to something standing there, before me. Two somethings, actually… though, I didn't know what it was.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked at the somethings. There, I saw Hermione, wrapped in the arms of… Sirius Black? I rubbed my eyes again, just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
Yes, it was Sirius Black.
I watched for a long while, saw them kissing and cuddling, curled into each other's embrace. It made me flinch inwardly; why hadn't they told us on the train? Didn't they trust us with this? I don't know what they were thinking, but it was beginning to piss me off.
The sight was beginning to piss me off. I stood up, making sure that the cloak covered me entirely, and slipped out of her dormitory. This would be a story to recite to Harry.
A story, indeed.