Sorry if this chapter was long in coming, I've had a rough week with quite a bit of writers block... I hope this chapter is as good as the others, but I'm not sure it is.

Feel free to point out spelling errors and typos...a lot of times I type the wrong word, so spell check doesn't catch it b/c it's not spelled wrong, it's just the wrong word. I've already caught a bunch, but there's probably some I missed. I'll probably redo it at some point.

And still, less than nothing...

It took Ron quite a lot of effort to get out of bed the next day. Between Hermione still being angry with him, the howler he was sure to get from his mother, and not to mention the incredible lack of sleep that goes with worry and stress, Ron was not sure at all that it wouldn't just be better to pretend to be sick and stay in the tower all day. He did, after all, still have a Skiving Snackbox or two left somewhere. But then he realized that it was a Wheeze's product that had caused all this in the first place, and the likelihood of a Wheeze's product helping him any was slim to none.

Besides, he needed to be there for his plan to work. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but he figured it would probably work better if he was there. After all, Hermione had a way of being extremely stubborn, and might not quite believe him.

And so, Ron forced himself to get out of bed and make it down to the Great Hall for breakfast before the owl post arrived. The trip to the Great Hall itself was rather uneventful. Ron did, however, feel bad for Harry, who was stuck walking between Ron and Hermione, neither of them having any reason to be mad at him. Somehow, Harry had managed to stay out of the whole argument, which came as quite a shock to most people. It was nearly impossible not to take sides in Hogwarts. They walked in silence for the most part; Hermione cast Ron several scathing looks which clearly said "imgoingtokillyouifyousayanything," all of which Ron promptly (and wisely) ignored.

The three of them arrived in the Great Hall about five minutes before the post was due to arrive, so they had just gotten themselves situated and ready to eat when the stream of owls began.

Usually, Ron enjoyed watching the owls swoop around the enormous ceiling, darting back and forth, trying to find the owners of the various letters and parcels that they were carrying. Not today, however. It didn't take him long to find Errol among the hundreds of owls that were now filling the Hall; after all, the scarlet envelope was a dead giveaway.

Ron moaned, covering his face with his hands as Errol landed with a thud on the table about 2 feet away from him, and then managed to bounce several times and land in his plate of scrambled eggs. If it had been any other morning, he would have found it highly amusing that an owl could actually bounce. Today, however, was a different story entirely.

Shaking slightly, Ron reached out and took the howler, noticing a very smug look on Hermione's face as he did so. Her parents didn't know about howlers.

Drawing a deep breath, Ron opened up the letter.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out across as the Great Hall fell silent. Everyone looked at Ron. Of course, by now, the whole school knew about the fireworks incident, but nobody could help but be interested in the howler; they were so highly entertaining as long as you weren't on the receiving end of one. Ron blushed scarlet, and sank as deep into his seat as he could, even failing to notice the snickers coming from the Slytherin table at the use of his middle name.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU! YOU'VE DONE SOME INCREDIBLY STUPID THINGS IN THE PAST, BUT THIS REALLY TOPS THE CAKE! OF ALL THE IDIODIC, HAREBRAINED... (she continued along this line for some time, much to Ron's chagrin)...AND THAT'S NOT EVEN THE HALF OF IT!"

There was a pause, as if Mrs. Weasley hadn't taken a breath for the entire first part, and now had to stop to inhale. Harry had to give her credit; she had an amazing lung capacity. It seemed as if everyone was waiting anxiously to find out what the half of it really was, and they didn't have to wait long to find out.

"IF YOU ABSOLUTELY INSIST ON GETTING YOURSELF INTO ALL SORTS OF TROUBLE, YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO DRAG OTHER PEOPLE DOWN WITH YOU. I'M SURE THAT THE WHOLE THING WAS ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT, BUT YOU JUST HAD TO DRAG POOR HERMIONE INTO IT TOO, DIDN'T YOU. HONESTLY, DON'T YOU EVER USE YOUR BRAIN? ONE MORE INCIDENT LIKE THIS AND I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE YOU!"

Mrs. Wealsey's irate voice finally petered out, leaving Ron sitting, mortified, and trying, ineffectively, to disappear. Hermione, on the other hand, was practically glowing. She was actually smiling for the first time in two days, even if it was more of a smug grin.

The laughter eventually died down, until the Slytherins were the only ones left making jokes at Ron's expense. Everyone had returned to eating, except for Ron, who was trying to brush scrambled eggs of a very uncooperative Errol, and was muttering "ruddy owl" under his breath every so often.

A few moments later, Hedwig swooped in. Nobody really took any notice; it wasn't unusual that an owl or two would come in late. She landed (much more gracefully than Errol had) in front of Hermione.

"Harry, I think you owl is confused," Hermione said, as Hedwig refused to budge from her spot next to Hermione. Hermione took the letter from the owl, and handed it to Harry.

"I don't think so, Hermione, this letter is addressed to you," he said, handing it back. Hermione looked baffled, but took the letter, slitting the seal with her knife. She pulled the letter out, and as she did so, a small gold object fell out onto the table. Hermione, unfortunately, failed to notice this. So did everyone else. She read through the letter quickly (Ron hadn't written much), and looked vaguely confused. She rechecked the inside of the envelope and scowled. She turned to Ron, and said the first words she had voluntarily said to him in two days.

"Ron, you great bloody git," she said. At first glance, one might think that she was calm. However Ron knew that she was, in fact, so angry that she was beyond yelling.

"If you think that this is at all funny," she waved the letter in front of his face, "you have another thing coming." She didn't wait for an answer, but turned on her heel and stalked out of the Great Hall. Ron just sat there, gaping.

It was Ginny who spoke next, which surprised Ron because he hadn't even realized that Ginny had been sitting across from Hermione.

"What was that all about?" she asked, just as confused as Harry and Ron.

"I don't know," Ron replied.

"What exactly did you write?" Harry asked, thinking maybe Ron had unwittingly insulted Hermione in his apology letter.

"All I wrote was that I was sorry for dragging her into this, and that I went to McGonagall and explained what happened and that I got McGonagall to reinstate her as prefect, and here was her pin back. That was it, and I put the pin in the envelope and sealed it and sent it off with Hedwig. Well, I sent it off after I told Hedwig to come in after the howler was done so I could talk to Hermione," Ron said. He then put his head in his hands and moaned. (A/N Ron seems to be doing that a lot this chapter doesn't he...or is that just me?)

The three of them sat in silence for a few moments, until Ginny happened to look across the table.

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed, reaching across and plucking something from the tabletop beside Hermione's plate.

"Is this Hermione's prefect pin, the one you put in the envelope?" she asked, holding the pin out to Ron.

"Oh bloody hell!" Ron nearly shouted. "She never even saw it... she thought I was just...." he trailed off, unable to finish his thought. "Oh bugger! Now what?"

"Well," said Harry carefully, "you could always just let me give it to her and explain the situation for you..."

Ron looked up and started to say something, and then thought better of it. He was just too bloody tired to put up with this anymore.

"Fine," he said, defeated, "just fine."

"Oh no!" Ginny squealed looking at her watch, "I'm late for class!" she said, dashing out if the Hall. Ron and Harry looked at each other in horror.

"Potions!" they said in unison, and dashed out behind Ginny. It was going to be another very long day.

Ok, next chapter is the last, I promise! So much for the 4 chapters I had planned.... Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, by the way!

Brooke Monica Sorry that you thought the last chapter was frustrating... this one probably was too, huh? I promise it will get better!

Niteflite: I'm glad you enjoyed the "grudge-age." It was really fun to write! And the Grinch is the Greatest... YAY!

And thank you also to Solo Flora, e, Mental, and Some one for ch. 5 too!

Hopefully this will be finished by the end of the weekend, but I doubt it seeing as how I have a paper due for cellular biology... blech!