Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
POV: Ron
After leaving Quidditch practice, Ron headed to the Great Hall for dinner. He spotted Neville sitting by himself about half way along the Gryffindor table.
"Hi, Neville" said Ron sitting down next to him.
"Hi, Ron" answered Neville getting up.
"Where are you going?" asked Ron.
"Oh I was going to go to the library and do some homework" said Neville.
"Well wait for me, I'll come too" said Ron.
"Alright then" said Neville happily sitting down again.
At the staff table, Ron thought that Umbridge was looking rather suspiciously at him and Neville.
"I'm just imagining things" he told himself firmly as he helped himself to some beef stew. Neville poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice which he sipped slowly while Ron ate his dinner. Fifteen minutes later they left the Great Hall.
"What homework do you have to do, Ron?" asked Neville as they entered the library.
"All of it" said Ron gloomily, fiddling with his prefects badge. "What about you?"
Neville also had a large amount of homework, though not as much as Ron.
"Still I don't reckon I'll do to good in the O.W.Ls" said Neville even more gloomily than Ron. "Gran won't be too pleased when she sees my marks"
"Don't worry about it" said Ron "Fred and George only got three O.W.Ls each."
"That's probably two more than I'll get" said Neville "The only thing I'm any good at is Herbology. I'm always the worst in the class at everything else"
"No you're not. Hermione's worse at Divination" said Ron trying to cheer Neville up "Even Trelawney said she was hopeless at it. And you were good at fighting Boggarts in our third year"
"I hate Defence Against the Dark Arts" said Neville miserably. "I mean I used to like it when Professor Lupin was teaching us. And that fake Moody was a good teacher even if he was a maniac. But now it's just boring and Professor Umbridge is an awful teacher. Even Snape would be better than her."
Ron thought that Neville must really hate Umbridge's lessons if he would rather be taught by Snape.
"How would you like to have real Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, Neville?" whispered Ron.
"How?" asked Neville.
Ron looked around to make sure no Slytherins were within earshot and spotted Dean Thomas at a nearby table.
"There's Dean. He'll be interested in this, come on" said Ron in a low voice. Ron and Neville joined Dean at his table. He appeared to be alone, but Ron spoke quickly in case Seamus Finnigan was close by.
"Dean, I've just told Neville we're going to start having real Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons" whispered Ron. "You'll be in it, won't you?"
Deans eyes lit up.
"You're joking!" he said loudly
"Keep your voice down" hissed Ron urgently.
"Sorry" said Dean. "It's just – how are we going to learn real defence. We need a teacher for one thing"
"And we've got one" said Ron "Harry"
"Harry?" repeated Dean
"Yeah Hermione got the idea that he should teach Defence Against the Dark Arts to anyone who wants to learn some proper spells" said Ron. "There's a group of us meeting in the Hogs Head. You should come if you're interested.
"Well I wouldn't mind knowing how to do some real defensive spells" said Dean "And Umbridge obviously isn't going to teach us. Is the Ministry really saying that Dumbledore's a nutter?"
"Yes" said Ron darkly. "It was in the Daily Prophet all summer. Didn't you see any of it?"
"My family are Muggles, we don't get the Daily Prophet" said Dean "I only know what Seamus told me"
Ron felt his ears turning red as they always did when he was angry.
"Why did you go asking Seamus for?" he snarled
"I had to find out somewhere" said Dean defensively "And Harry hasn't said anything about You-Know-Who coming back or what happened with Diggory. I didn't even know about Dumbledore getting chucked out of the wiggengamot…"
"Wizengamot" Ron and Neville corrected him.
"What is that anyway?" asked Dean.
"You don't know" said Ron incredulously.
"Of course I don't know!" hissed Dean. "I hadn't even heard of it until the first day back here. And there was that other thing, the International something"
"Confederation of Wizards" said Ron.
"That's a great help. I've never heard of that either" snapped Dean. "You two are pure bloods; you know what's going on!"
"No we…" Ron started to say but Dean cut him off.
"Do you know how awkward it is to go back to the Muggle world every summer?"
Ron shook his head.
"It's almost impossible" said Dean. "My family are always asking questions about Hogwarts. And if I tell them everything that goes on here, my mum and stepfather wouldn't let me come back."
"What about your real dad?" asked Neville.
"He walked out on me and my mum years ago" said Dean.
"What happened to him?" said Neville.
"I don't know and to be honest, I don't really care" said Dean. "I don't remember him. I haven't seen him or had a letter or a telephone call since he left. He's never even bothered to send me a card for my birthday. Anyway, when I go home for the holidays I have to pretend I'm a normal person - I mean a Muggle"
Ron didn't know what was so hard about this. Dean was Muggle born after all. He must know all about the Muggle world.
"Of course I do" said Dean when Ron pointed this out. "But not everyone knows I'm a wizard, just my mum and stepfather and my brothers and sisters. If visitors come around to my house they're always asking me things like what I'm doing at school, mum's told everyone that I go to a Muggle boarding school. I have to lock all my school stuff in my stepfather's study so my friends don't see it if they come over. Or they ask what films I've seen or what I think about something on the news. And half the time I haven't seen any films or I don't know what's on the news. When I'm here, I don't know what's going on at home. When I'm home, I don't know what's happening here. "
Ron, being a pure blood, was always well informed about goings on in the wizarding world and his father's fascination for muggles gave him enough knowledge of what to do on the rare occasions when he had to venture into the muggle world. But even though his best friends had both grown up with muggles he had never thought about those from muggle families having to adjust to what was, for them, a strange environment, and then try to go about their normal lives when they went home.
"Yeah that's what Harry said too" said Ron "He came to stay with me in the holidays and when he arrived he was really mad because he'd been stuck at his aunt and uncle's place for a month and no one had bothered to tell him what was going on"
"I can't blame him" he thought. "I'd be mad too if I didn't know what was going on. But I don't know anything either. Dad and Bill and everyone only told us…"
Ron's thoughts were interrupted partly by his own realisation that what little he had been told about Voldemort's return was a great deal more than what his fellow students knew (with the possible exception of Draco Malfoy) and partly by Neville tapping him on the arm.
"Er Ron, weren't you going to tell us about having defence against the dark arts lessons from Harry?"
"Oh yeah" said Ron "Well Hermione had the idea that we should learn it ourselves because there's no way we'll learn anything useful from Umbridge. And she's here to stay because Fudge passed a decree saying the ministry can appoint teachers if Dumbledore can't get anyone and made her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher"
"Yeah I read that" said Dean.
"My gran says that Fudge is the worst Minister for Magic we've ever had" said Neville. "He only got the job because Dumbledore didn't want it. I'll come to Harry's lessons, Ron"
"I will too" said Dean.
"Good" said Ron "just don't tell Seamus. I don't think Harry will want to teach him"
Authors notes:
I know that Dean's dad is dead, but he doesn't
elvengirl9, at the time this story takes place Ginny has given up on Harry and she has a boyfriend.
