Chapter 12 – The Inspection

Disclaimer – me no owney Harry Potter.

Thanks to my reviewers as always and thanks for letting me know what ending you want.

Jessica-McConell,
Kendra is cheese ­– what is it you're confused about? Hopefully it should all become clearer soon but if not just ask.
Mental357,
Harry kid –I'm not so sure about a sequel as it may be pretty boring but I may do a prequel at some point. I'm not so sure yet.
Sehila,
Blah,
Bhekie,
Harry57love,
D-daygirl,
Miligurl08.

A/N – ok most of you want a happy ending so that's what this one will be, there may still be death in it though. Sorry if you wanted a tragic ending but if there's anything that you really, really, really want to see happen let me know and I'll try to fit it in here somewhere. Sorry if this disappoints anyone but I gotta go with the majority.

A/N2- Tracey! Me beta reader you are wonderful thank you thank you!

Monday morning loomed and Ron dragged himself out of his nice warm bed cringing at the coldness all around him as he stepped into the bathroom. He was thankful that the candlelight wasn't too bright as his eyes still needed to adjust to being open again. Looking in the mirror he flattened down his bed hair splashed water on his face and reached for his toothbrush. He soon finished in the bathroom and pulled on some robes before joining the crowds going into the great hall for breakfast.

He ate quicker than his usual pace and stood up to leave the Hall, saying goodbye to the teachers as he left. He opened one of the big oak doors and

Professor Cape walked in before he had chance to take a step. Malfoy was coming along the hall from the front door and stopped to allow Ron to pass.

"Good morning Professor Cape." He smiled warmly at her, wanting to get on her good side so he would get a good report especially as she had walked in on he and Hermione kissing.

"Oh morning Wea- Professor Weasly." She gave him a quick strained smile before walking quickly up the Hall to the teachers' table.

"Hi Malfoy." Ron said as he walked past him.

"Early start Ron?" Malfoy asked looking at the clock and trying to work out if he had ever seen Ron up before eight thirty this year.

"Yeah. I forgot to plan my lesson so I've got to get everything ready. And I want to clean my broom, I haven't had chance this week yet." Ron said goodbye and, darted around a group of giggly gossiping third-year girls, went straight to the front doors. He reached out to grab a handle but the door flew open before he gripped it. Michael Bedorven walked through, hands in pockets, eyes on the floor.

"Morning Michael." Ron said coldly "What were you doing outside?" He didn't like Michael, he had heard the warnings from the other teachers, he was in Slytherin and he acted like he didn't care about anything. All those traits got on Ron's nerves. A lot. Which made him have quite a short temper with the boy where he would be lenient with others.

"I was just going for a jog, Sir, it's good to keep in shape, especially if we're not all good at Quidditch like you." Michael smiled and quickly walked off. Ron sighed and shook his head at the retreating figure of the boy before walking out onto the grounds. Taking in a big breath of the cold air to wake up his senses he started a jog to the storage shed. He pulled out the brooms he would need for his sixth year lesson and lay them on the ground before pulling his own broom out too. He had been the proud owner of a Firebolt for two years but the broom still looked as good as new due to the amazing care he took of it. For the next ten minutes he polished the wood and trimmed the twigs making sure they were all perfectly in line.

The students for his first lesson finally joined him and he explained the moves that they would be practising. Ron put them into four groups and handed them each a quaffle before sending them up into the air. He stayed on the ground for a while checking over the snitches and bludgers before flying up to see how each group was doing. He rose from the ground and flew to the nearest group, staying quiet for a minute to see them run the play all the way through before correcting anything they were getting wrong.

"Here, let me show you something." Ron said to one of the girls as he took place in the play. The group started to run through it again and Ron caught the bludger and headed towards the point the group were using for a goal.

Suddenly, the broom came to an abrupt halt, before lurching forward again. It continued to do this before also starting to swing from side to side. Knuckles white from trying to stay on, Ron tried to stop the broom to no avail.

Finally after a few more lurches Ron was thrown from he broom and started to fall to the floor. Everything went in slow motion as he fell towards the ground.

He saw the student's faces to turn to panic and they all tried to make a grab at him to stop him hitting. Unfortunately no one was close enough to him so he hit earth with a painful thud followed by the crack of many braking bones. He felt a moment of blinding pain before all fell black.

"OH MY GOD, GO GET THE NURSE!" One of the students yelled as others flew down to crowd around Ron. He had cracked his head on the mud that had hardened into stony clumps from the lack of rain but was now soft from the amount of blood being soaked up.

"Is, is he… is?" Another of the students stammered, not being able to finish the sentence.

A few minutes passed with the students trying to get Ron to wake up before the nurse came and took him away on a stretcher floating in front of her. He was put into a bed. His head was stitched and he was given a blood transfusion to make up for the amount that he had lost. The potion to heal his bones was given to him through a drip as he had still not woken up. The cuts and bruises on his face remained as it may have harmed him if they were healed while he wasn't awake.

Hermione was waiting for her class to settle down from having the first ever inspection with Cape in the lesson they had just come from. The students were gossiping about what had happened and how the teacher had gotten nervous. She had kept on messing up really easy things that anyone could have done. She listened to the chatter, feeling nervous as she was being inspected in one of lessons the next day and Hermione wasn't looking forward to it. She had her lesson plans out on the desk so she could check it and make sure she knew exactly what she had to do. Hopefully there would be no chance of messing up like the poor teacher she had just heard being talked about.

"Right class, your work is on the board, please sit down and write notes on the topic. I need to plan the perfect lesson for tomorrow so don't bother me unless you have set yourself on fire or something of that nature. Else I shall blame you when it all gets screwed up and I get fired." Hermione smiled a smile only a very stressed person can achieve and sat back at her desk to write out the lesson notes she would need.

All was calm for about five minutes before a lot of noise started coming from outside the class.

"Oh for god's sake!" Hermione snapped starting to feel irritated. "How the hell does anyone expect to get any work do in that bloody noise!" She got up and yanked the door open with great force so it slammed against the wall before bouncing back shut behind her. In the hall there was a group of sixth year students sat and stood about, doing nothing.

"What are you all doing?" Hermione demanded.

"Well we were supposed to have double flying practise but Professor Weasly got sent to the Hospital Wing so we haven't got anything to do."

"What Ron's hurt? How? What happened?" Hermione asked, forgetting all about her annoyances and focusing on worrying about Ron's well being.

"Well it was really weird he came over to show us how to do something in the

Arrow Head play and his broom started thrashing about, threw him off and the ground was hard so he split his head open." One of the boys cringed as he explained.

"Oh god!" Hermione whispered as her hand flew to her mouth. "And is he ok?"

"Well he hasn't woken up and he needed a blood transfusion but Madame Pomfrey said that he'd be fine when he woke up."

"Oh thank god." Hermione exclaimed and set off down the hall intending to visit him.

"Er, Miss?" A student called after her. She turned and they all pointed at her classroom door where a lot of noise was coming from.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about them." She laughed and quickly went to control her class.

That afternoon she had a free period last lesson so she went to visit Ron in the

Hospital Wing. She sat by his bed and looked at him. He was very pale from lack of blood and his red hair showed this off even more. The left side of his face was badly bruised and had a few scrapes. She just sat for an hour starring blankly into the space above his bed. Hardly moving. Not speaking. Just looking.

She was made to leave by a nurse who came to check Ron's drip at four. She went to dinner and picked at her food, staying out of conversations before going to her office to try and get on with her lesson plan. She got little done and finally gave up, choosing instead to go take a long, warm bath before having an early night.

The next morning Hermione dragged herself out of bed and got ready to face the day's hard task. She dressed in her best robes and made sure her wand was polished and shiny. She stopped off in the Great Hall to grab a piece of toast and some pumpkin juice she carried them down to her class to make sure everything was in order.

After arranging the books, straightening out the desk and getting rid of a few layers of dust around the room she quickly went to the Hospital Wing to visit Ron until the bell rung.

It wasn't until her final lesson that Professor Cape finally arrived to see her and Hermione was feeling slightly frazzled by doing such fun and interesting lessons all day. But still she pressed on and explained a new spell to her second year class. After making sure they were all practising it ok she went around and collected the homework from all the students, deducting house points and giving detentions to those who hadn't done it. She took the rolls of parchment to her desk and putting them in the box that was marked with a '2' which showed it was for second years' homework.

"So tell me, who do you expect to be the one in charge of the detentions you just gave?" Professor Cape asked from where she was stood behind the desk.

"Oh I will, I try as best I can to oversee the detentions that I give out, it's not fair to the other teachers otherwise." Hermione replied and watched as Cape scribbled something down on a piece of parchment she had with her.

"Do you mind if I ask the students some questions?" Cape asked when she finished writing.

"Not at all, please go ahead." Hermione said and sat at her desk to watch as

Cape went around the room making students nervous as she questioned them.

The bell finally rung signalling the end of the lesson and Hermione dashed out, thankful to have that over with. It had been uncomfortable being in the same room as Cape for so long. She still couldn't understand what it was that was making her so uneasy about the new staff member but she didn't dwell on it too long as she went to visit Ron again.

She went along to the Hospital Wing and walked to the bed where Ron had been this morning to find it empty. The worst-case scenario instantly flew to mind and she panicked.

"Oh my god where is he?" She asked the nurse who had just come out. "Ron where's Ron?"

"Calm down dear, you'll give yourself and ulcer or something. Mr Weasly is in the back room now he is awake but he still needs a lot of treatment and care so he will be staying in for a while. You can go and see him if you wish but not for too long."