Life in Hogwarts seemed to be back to normal and Ron and Harry were getting bored.
"Wonder what happened to Hagrid?" Harry said offhandedly one day at the library.
"Yeah. He told me last year he'd be back before term started. But then, remember what happened a few years back with the giants and all," Ron said, leaning dangerously far back in his chair and eating a doughnut.
"Want to know what I think?" Hermione inquired.
"What?" Harry and Ron said in unison.
"I think you need to keep your nose out of Hagrid's business. Because if you recall, the last time we got nosy we wound up taking care of a giant."
Ron scoffed. "Oh please! I wasn't even there! It was your fault for agreeing to do it!"
"Yes, but if you think back even further it was your fault we went to see Hagrid in the first place!"
"What? What are you talking about, woman?"
"You suggested that we go see him, Ron!"
"Are you mad?! I remember clear as day you saying something like 'This will cheer you up, Hagrid's back'."
"Yes, I did say that, but then you suggested going down and seeing him!"
"So? Just because I wanted to see him doesn't mean it was my fault he stuck us with that giant!"
"If we hadn't gone down to see him that night he never would have told us about the giants and we never would have known therefore he couldn't have imposed Grawp on us!"
"All right fine. Let's just say for a moment that Grawp was my fault. He did prove to be useful didn't he? With the centaurs?"
"He would've come anyway even if we hadn't known about him, Ron."
"Yes, but he wouldn't have recognized you as Hermy," he retorted, rocking in his chair.
"So?"
"So he would've eaten us."
"You guys are made for each other," Harry said, patting the table and standing up. "I apologize for cutting this short but Ginny's gone Nazi with Quidditch practice and we've got one starting in ten minutes."
Ron's chair fell backwards and he landed loudly on his butt.
"Ron!" Hermione shrieked, rushing to his side.
"I'm all right. It was this ruddy chair. Stupid wood..."
"Maybe it was the way you were sitting in it," Hermione said sharply.
"What's wrong with the way I sat in it?"
"You were rocking back and forth on two legs! Did you expect not to fall?"
"Yes! Just because you're uncoordinated-"
"I'm not the one who fell out of a chair!"
Ron grumbled and stood up, ignoring Hermione's helping hand.
"So, what, we have practice now?" he said cantankerously. But Harry had already left. "Where in blazes did he go?"
"I think he left."
"Well I gathered that," he snapped. "Where did he leave to?"
"Well I don't know! You should be able to gather that since you're so smart," she said huffily.
"Fine. I will. I'm going now."
"You do that."
Ron did leave to go to the Quidditch field, where he did indeed find Harry. Oddly enough, he was chatting with Hermione.
"What the- how did- where did you come from?" Ron asked, befuddled.
"You're a slow walker," Hermione said smiling. "I came to watch you practice. I've never seen a practice before."
"That's because we usually don't allow spectators," said Ginny, who was walking up behind them. "But since you're a family friend I'll let you stay."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well that's very sweet of you, Ginny."
"What about me? Do I get to bring friend to practice?" Candi asked.
"What? No," Ginny said shortly. "We don't need another cheerleader."
"But that's not fair! Ron gets to have a friend and I don't!"
"That's because we all know her and know that she's very nice."
"You know my friend too! I think..."
"Do we?"
"Pleeeeeeeeease! I don't think I'd play very well if he wasn't watching," she begged.
"He?"
"Yeah!"
The team turned around to see Draco Malfoy and his two goons making their way onto the field.
"That's your friend?" Ron asked.
"Well duh. He mostly wants to talk to you though, Ronnie." Candi said winking.
"Oh jolly good," Ron muttered under his breath.
Malfoy approached them haughtily, sporting a new mink scarf.
"Hello Weasley," he said, sneering.
"What do you want?"
"Mainly to talk about what you've done to my cousin, Candace. I hear you made... physical contact with her?"
"Really. Did you know she's the one who started everything? She kissed me?"
"I don't believe you," he said coldly. "I don't believe that a relative of mine would kiss a blood traitor like you."
"Well she did. Isn't that funny? Your cousin has a crush on me!"
Malfoy's lip curled. "And what did you do when she 'kissed' you?"
"I punched her," Ron said blandly. No sense in lying to him, he probably knew the whole story already.
"You punched a Malfoy?"
"Yes. Would you like to experience this first-hand?"
Hermione saw Malfoy's hand tighten around his wand and was willing Ron to stop egging him on.
"I'd rather just talk about your Quidditch team, actually. Is Miss Granger on it? Tell me, when did they start letting Mudbloods on the team?"
Everyone on the team went white with anger, except Candi.
"Oh don't worry Draco, she's not on the team. I suspect we won't have a Mudblood here for a long time," she said.
"That's good I suppose. Wouldn't want to dirty the ground if we were to have a nasty fall, now would we?"
"Take it back," Ron said through gritted teeth.
Malfoy stepped closer. "Are you going to make me?"
Ron drew his wand to hex him into hell but Malfoy was quicker. He had thrown a curse at him before Ron had even thought of one.
Everyone rushed over to Ron to see if he was ok and when they found nothing wrong he smirked.
"Ha! Âû òåðÿåòå!" He bellowed.
Everyone stared at him.
"ß ñêàçàë, ha, êîòîð âû òåðÿåòå!" He said again, a look of horror flashing across his face.
"God Ron stop being weird," Ginny said looking disgusted.
"ß íå ìîãó! Êòî-òî ïîìîãàåò ìíå! Ñâÿòåéøèé oh ìîé áîã ÿ íå ìîãó ïîãîâîðèòü àíãëèéñêóþ ÿçûê!"
"Ron stop! What's going on, be normal!" Hermione said frantically looking worried.
"Èäåò äàëüøå? ß íå ìîãó ïîíÿòü âàñ!"
Hermione looked around nervously to see if anyone else had noticed his abrupt change of language.
"Ooooo Malfoy what in bloody hell did you do to him? What is he saying?" she screamed, stomping closer to him.
"Oh, nothing. Lets just say it's all Greek to me."
"You idiot! He's speaking Russian!" Natalie hollered.
Malfoy raised his eyebrows. "Is he? Hmm...interesting." He flashed one last dazzling smile, turned on his heel, and left, his two loyal goonies following him.
"Oh Ron! Ron what did he do to you?" Hermione squealed, squeezing his hand tightly.
"Hermione he can't understand you! There's no point in asking... Maybe we can take him to Madam Pomfrey," Harry said rubbing her back, trying hard to stop her from crying.
"What? We've got Quidditch practice!" Ginny said angrily.
"Your brother is stuck speaking Russian Ginny. Have a heart."
"I do have one! I know that he'll feel better after a bit of flying. Besides, what's so wrong with Russian?"
The team stared at her.
"Oh fine. Go ahead; take him to the hospital wing. But when we lose the Quidditch Cup you're all going to be sorry."
With that they left for the castle.
One hour later...
Madam Pomfrey had not let the team and Hermione stay in the room, so they waited on bated breath outside the door, and when it opened they all toppled over.
"What in the name of Merlin is going on out here?"
She got mixed replies.
"We were waiting for Ron!"
"Is he ok?"
"Can he talk right again?"
"Is he able to play Quidditch?"
Madam Pomfrey let out a flustered yelp.
"Quiet you lot! Your friend will be ok eventually. He had a linguistic curse placed on him, but we should be able to lift it with a Memory Remedy. Professor Snape has agreed to get right on that when he returns from his business trip."
"Business trip? What business trip?" Harry asked testily. He hadn't noticed Snape's absence.
"That is none of your business, Potter," she answered curtly.
"Well, when will he be back?" Hermione inquired politely.
"Three weeks time."
"Three weeks?!" repeated the group, outraged.
"Yes, and the potion takes two weeks to prepare, so expect you friend back back mid-November."
The group protested so loudly she had to yell again.
"QUIET OR YOU'LL ALL RECEIVE DETENTIONS! THIS IS THE WAY IT WILL BE AND I CANNOT CHANGE THAT!"
"Fine," they mumbled angrily.
"Well can we at least visit him?" Ginny asked, very agitated and angry.
"'Fraid not Miss Weasley. We had to give him a sleeping potion so he would shut up. Kept babbling on in Russian. So as long as there's nothing you can do please leave my wing."
The group started shouting again and Madam Pomfrey stepped back inside the room and closed the door. Fox was the only one who heard the lock click.
"This is an outrage! I am going to kill that bastard Malfoy!" Harry shouted pounding his fist into the wall.
"Yeah why isn't he getting in trouble? It's his fault Ron's going to miss a month and a half of his life!" Hermione added furiously.
"Really now. This is absurd. I mean, how's he going to play keeper if Madam Pomfrey won't let him out of the hospital wing?"
"Er- Ginny? Did you know there might be a little bit more to this situation than Quidditch?" Harry asked, in all seriousness.
Ginny didn't reply.
"Well unless one of us speaks Russian, Ron's screwed over big time for the next month," Harry said again.
Six heads all turned toward Natalie.
"What?"
"You're the one who knew what language he was speaking. You're the best bet," Hermione said nervously, a bit intimidated by her looks.
"Well...I did dabble in it a few years back, I'm not exactly fluent," she answered modestly.
"Maybe tomorrow we can talk to him then," Ginny suggested. "Assuming you'll translate for us that is," she added quickly noticing Natalie's apprehensive stare.
"I'll give it a shot. But I can't just keep translating forever. We need to find a cure quicker."
"True. A month and a half is a long time to not get any work done. He could lose his badge," Hermione agreed sounding extremely worried.
"He'd also be missing a lot of games. We'd need a new Keeper," Ginny added.
"GINNY! IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED WE ARE TRYING TO HAVE A SERIOUS CONVERSATION!" Hermione yelled.
"She's right though, we will need a replacement Keeper," Harry said, sounding embarrassed that he was admitting it.
"Fine, whatever. Can we move on?"
Ginny nodded.
"Good. Now, what do we do?"
"I say we figure out our plan to illegally make an extremely advanced potion in some place other than the middle of the hall," Natalie said impatiently.
"Right. So to the Common Room?"
"Too crowded," Harry said.
"Library?"
"Too many people listening. It's very quiet," Ginny said.
"Er- outside?"
"Too cold," Tamara pointed out.
Hermione was running out of suggestions. "Empty classroom?"
"Too suspicious," Harry said in an already bored voice.
"All right then where?"
Natalie smiled slyly.
"The place where we're going to get the ingredients, duh!"