by squidward
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A/N: Folks, I'm really very sorry if I'm updating pretty late these days. Damn schoolworks! But don't worry, I haven't forgotten this fic and I'll try my best to update sooner next time. If you wanted to know the current status of my fanfics you could check my blog that I purposely created for fanfic updates (the link is in my profile page). Btw, thanks to all those great people who reviewed the previous chap!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.
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Chapter VI: Suspiciously Suspicious
"What took you so long?" Harry demanded. He glanced from Hermione's worried face to Crookshanks's wounded leg and realized that he should have asked 'what happened' instead.
"Just some annoying business with her cat," Crookshanks replied coolly. Harry raised his brows and turned to Hermione, who turned crimson just in time.
"Well, Crookshanks was not feeling well and for some reasons, he, er, attacked Ron," Hermione explained sheepishly. Harry waited for a retaliation insisting that the cat had been mad all along but it didn't come. Instead what he heard was a soft scrambling and after a few seconds saw Crookshanks holding a quill and a parchment, looking very prepared to take down notes.
"What's up with him?" Hermione heard Harry whispered to her but she was spared from answering when Professor Binns came out from the blackboard and told them to pass their homeworks.
Harry, Hermione and Crookshanks sat quietly, listening (in Harry's case, drifting) into Professor Binns' monotonous voice. Crookshanks was listening raptly at the lecture. He was hanging on Professor Binns' every word as if his life depended on it.
Hermione, trying hard to concentrate, couldn't help but notice this absurd behavior. Ron was acting unexplainably strange, she thought. She chanced a glimpse at Harry, who was staring longingly at the window, and planned to ask him if he knew something. But she quickly dismissed the idea when she realized that it had to involve her telling him what had happened between her and 'Ron' moments ago.
Exactly what was keeping her from telling Harry, she didn't know. What happened earlier seemed to be too private to share even to her other bestfriend. Lucky it was only Crookshanks who witnessed it, she thought with relief and her eyes landed at the doorway where Ron was still standing, glaring furiously at their direction. She looked frantically at Crookshanks, as if he would explode if he saw her cat there, but he was too engrossed in taking down notes it seemed that everything was oblivious to him. Hermione gave up on that thought, mentally cursed herself for not paying attention to the lesson and started taking down her own notes.
Harry, finally getting bored from counting the falling leaves of the nearby tree, searched the room for other interesting object to stare at. Just then he caught sight of Ron, who was unblinkingly glaring at them. He pointed this out at Hermione, but she just hissed something about leaving her cat alone and listening to the lecture.
Harry, however, continued to watch the ginger cat and noticed something funny about it. He knew that Crookshanks was grumpy and always looked like a dungbomb was placed under his nose but Harry rarely saw him this angry. He was irresistibly reminded of the Ron-in-bad-mood.
'Crookshanks' had been glaring at their direction for a very long time and Harry didn't have to be a genius to guess that that almost fatal glare was intended for 'Ron'. He looked at the red-haired figure beside him to see if he had noticed this but Crookshanks was still attentively listening to Professor Binns as if he was the most interesting teacher ever.
The hours went on without nothing more exciting happening than Seamus dropping his quill noisily, so the sixth years (except Crookshanks and Hermione) left their classroom as empty as they did when they entered it, yawning and stretching as if they had just woke up from bed.
Hermione stuffed her notes inside her huge bag, glanced furtively at her cat and sighed with relief that he was still standing there as healthy as he had been an hour and a half ago.
"Let's get going, we don't want to be late for Potions," Harry said, who, among the three of them, was the only one not putting any notes inside his bag.
"Honestly Harry, you should start taking your own notes too," Hermione muttered as she put her bag on her shoulders, "Ron has been starting to do everything on his own."
"I bet Ron just ate something funny at breakfast, didn't you-, where is he?" Harry asked and Hermione looked around to see where their redhead friend had gone.
"He's just standing there seconds ago," Hermione said. Then they heard a loud clunking noise, looked for the source of the sound and went out of the room. There stood Crookshanks, standing at the middle of the corridor as if he had waited for them to come out of the room for decades.
"Did you hear something funny?" Hermione asked. Crookshanks just shrugged.
"I thought you guys already followed me out of the room but when I looked back I saw no one but me walking on the corridor. Let's just go then," and he turned on his heel. Harry and Hermione shared significant looks and followed Crookshanks bemusedly.
When they were descending on the marble staircase Hermione noticed what was missing. Her cat was nowhere to be seen. She swore she still saw him when she was packing her notes. He couldn't have gone far from them…
HermioneWhat happened to Ron and where he was exactly was a complete mystery to his friends, as Harry and Hermione were still seeing Ron's physical body walking along with them, though Hermione was growing worried about the current whereabouts of her cat.
"Harry, have you seen Crookshanks?" Hermione whispered as they went down the dungeons for their Potions class. She was careful not to let Crookshanks hear what she was saying. She was still thinking that he was still angry with him because of the biting incident and thought that he would get more furious if he heard her looking for him.
And she was quite right. Crookshanks was so furious with Ron. So furious that he shut him up inside the nearest armor suit when Hermione and Harry had turned their backs. He took the chance when Hermione was busy putting her notes in her bag. No one was looking, so he dashed sneakily out of the room, grabbed Ron (who was too shock to react) unceremoniously and shut him inside the suit of armor. "Now I don't have to worry about you interfering with my plans," he said as he watched the armor shook slightly.
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On the other hand, Ron was feverishly scratching the metal trapping him, furiously cursing Crookshanks. He was screeching noisily it was a miracle no one was coming to his spot to shut him up. But someone telling him off was the least of his worries. He had to escape from that place in any way possible. He tried to jump out, shaking the armor to make it fall. But the armor seemed to have a great sense of balance it only moved slightly at his every attempt to knock it down.
But the rattling inside didn't go unnoticed for after several long minutes Ron heard loud footsteps approaching. It halted, and when it did the dark inside of the armor brightened, and for the first time in his life Ron was delighted to see Filch's grouchy face greeting him.
"Who put you in there?" Filch snarled as he roughly grabbed him out of the suit. Ron meowed gratefully at him, never believing himself that he would be happy that Filch ever existed.
"Peeves wasn't it? That slimy bloke, I'll let the Headmaster know about this," and he scampered away with Mrs. Norris on his back, both looking gleeful that Peeves might be chucked out soon.
Ron, however, didn't care about anything but getting out of that metal. That bloody half-kneazle would pay for this, he thought angrily and he dashed down to the dungeons to get his sweet revenge…
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The Potions class had been as normal as ever - meaning Snape was still bullying the Gryffindors mercilessly. Harry was so furious with Snape his suspicions about 'Ron's' strange behavior flew out of his mind. Hermione, on the other hand, was concentrating hard on brewing her potion, not wanting to be the subject of Snape's insults. Crookshanks was concentrating hard on his potion too, though his face was still lighted with the same academic aura he had during their History of Magic class. Clearly, he was treating Potions as normal as any other subject.
The dungeon was already filled with smokes when Ron arrived. His eyes automatically searched for his target. Without any difficulty he spotted Crookshanks, carefully stirring his potions beside Hermione, who was doing the same. Ron watched them silently, trying to control his anger from bursting. Then he saw Crookshanks offering to return her unused ingredients to the cupboard, making Hermione turn red. Ron had turned red too, though unlike Hermione it was not because of embarrassment, instead it was because of mounting fury. How he wanted to drown Crookshanks in his cauldron at that moment…
Snape's voice rang in the room, commanding everyone to pass a sample of their potions for marking. Ron hid himself in the shadows, careful not to be spotted by their vindictive professor. Then after a few more minutes the students went out of the dungeons. Malfoy, who was looking as arrogant as ever, walked passed him together with his cronies. Ron wanted to trip him but controlled himself. He was saving his energy for his vengeance.
Alas, they went out. Crookshanks was coming out of the room, carrying Hermione's extra books, with a disgruntled Harry bringing up the rear. Snape was smirking at them when they passed which made Harry angrier. Ron suspected that Snape did something foul to him again.
"Crookshanks!" Ron heard Hermione squealed and before he could turn his back Hermione's face was already brushing with his. Ron's face flushed and his stomach flipped. Hermione's warm cheek was sending an electrifying feeling on his back which was weakening his knees. He saw Crookshanks watching them with narrowed eyes.
"Where have you been? I was looking for you earlier!" she said, looking at him worriedly. Ron could still feel the heat coming out of his face but tried to focus his mind on what he had to do. Fighting the temptation to stay in Hermione's arm, he jumped out from her embrace and made his way to attack Crookshanks.
"Crookshanks, no!" Hermione screamed. She and Harry restrained the furious Ron from doing anything violent while Crookshanks was just watching them with bored expression.
"That ruddy cat is out of order. Let's just go up for lunch, I'm starving" Crookshanks said coolly and he wheeled out of the dungeons without a second look at them.
"What was that?" Harry asked confoundedly. He turned to Hermione for an explanation. Hermione's cheeks went pink and pulled Ron closer to her. Admitting that she couldn't keep the biting incident from Harry anymore, she started on telling him what had happened on their way to History of Magic class. Ron listened irritably to her narration while Hermione almost melted with embarrassment as she told Harry about Crookshanks touching her hand and cheek.
Harry, however, was seeing the incident at a very different perspective. "I noticed he was being unusually sweet to you. Do you think he wanted you to do his homework?" Hermione looked at him incredulously while Ron snorted. Harry was thicker than they expected.
"Y-yeah, probably," Hermione replied. Ron noted that there was disappointment in her voice. "But he did well on his homework yesterday, I don't think he needs my help."
Harry just shrugged and turned his attention on Ron. "He and Crookshanks are fighting more than usual today. Still furious about their little quarrel about his Potions homework?"
"I guess so," she mumbled sadly. Ron just grunted. Harry and Hermione were unaware of the real reason. They were not fighting over a rubbish Potions essay. They were fighting for a more special cause.
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