As the third and final task was now four months away and without the prospect of anything more demanding than school work on the horizon, Ron managed to convince a reluctant Fleur to take a few days break from her normally busy schedule.
In an attempt to take her mind off anything tournament related, Ron tried to treat her to a good time, even going so far as to seek the advice of the older Gryffindor girls regarding successful dates they had had. Ron and Fleur had already seen most of the castle and grounds together by this point, but he was still able to introduce her to the various magical creatures that Hagrid kept for lessons. He impressed her by approaching and petting one of the hippogriffs and she had positively beamed with delight when one of the unicorns permitted her to brush its flank. Ron earned himself a kiss on the cheek by jumping in when one of the nifflers got loose and went for Fleur's earrings. He managed to fend it off, but received a dozen tiny scratches on his arm for the trouble.
They enjoyed another official trip to Hogsmeade, but Fleur didn't want to be around so many people, students or otherwise, so they just walked away from the village and into the surrounding mountains and wilderness for the whole day. Fleur was used to such excursions, as she spent most of the year in the Pyrenees, but it was something new to Ron. To his pleasant surprise, he found that simply walking up and down hills was bizarrely satisfying, like finishing a long piece of homework or getting to the end of a double potions lesson in the last week of term.
One evening, he borrowed broomsticks from Harry and Katie and took Fleur on a moonlit tour of the Hogwarts grounds. Katie had sworn that when she had done it, it had been the most romantic evening she had ever had, though she refused to say who it was with. Ron privately thought it could have included a loop-de-loop or two.
One sunny Saturday afternoon, about a week after the second task, Fleur and Ron were joined by Harry and Ginny as they sat and relaxed by the lakeside.
"It's much nicer when viewed from dry land," Ginny said, giving a pointed look towards the water.
"You're telling me," Harry shot back.
Ron glanced at Fleur, to see if this reference to the most recent task had upset her, but she was fine, still concentrating on her sketchbook.
Apparently, art was one of the hobbies that Fleur's mother had tried to force upon her at a young age. Fleur had resisted, as much as an eight-year-old could, but had secretly enjoyed it. Currently, she was sketching the mountains in the distance, her face the picture of concentration.
Ron returned to his own task. The topic of the previous day in charms had been Animation spells. Well, actually it had been the topic of the whole week. Hermione had successfully made her wooden figurine dance during the lesson and had spent the remaining time making a 'paper aeroplane' fly around of its own accord. Something about it had entranced Ron, and he had been trying to replicate Hermione's achievement for the last hour.
He had not been successful.
While Ron was engaged in charms practice, Fleur in her sketching and Harry and Ginny were talking about… whatever boyfriends and girlfriends talked about when relaxing on a picnic blanket by the lake (Ron was trying not to think about it too much), Hermione walked over to them, which wasn't unusual, accompanied by Krum, which was.
"Afternoon everyone," she said, receiving a smattering of responses in reply. "I hope you're all well. I… uh… that is, Victor has something that he'd like to say."
This got a larger reaction out of those present. Even Fleur raised an eyebrow as she glanced over the top of her drawing. Krum was famously quiet, even in the comfort of his own school, the one exception being when he was with Hermione.
"Yes, I want to apologise," he said in his thick accent. "To you too, Delacour, but especially to you, Potter."
"Why?" Harry asked, rising to his feet. "What did you do?"
"There was a… what word did you say, Her-my-ninny?"
"A plot," Hermione said, taking over. "From what we've been able to determine, once Victor had worked out the clue for the second task, some of the other Durmstrang students, as well as some Hogwarts students, coordinated to hide certain books from you."
"What?!"
"Well," Hermione continued. "I thought it strange that something as useful as the Bubblehead Charm doesn't appear in the Hogwarts Library, so I went and performed a Word Search."
"A what?" Ginny asked.
"A Word Search Charm. It looks around you for certain words and makes them glow, so that they're easier to find."
"That sounds… ridiculously useful," Ginny said. "Why am I just hearing of it now?"
"It's a relatively new charm," said Hermione. "It was only in Charms Monthly last August. And it's not easy, NEWT level, at least, but when I heard of it, I just had to learn it as soon as possible."
"Well, can you show it to me later, anyway?" Ginny asked.
"And me, too," Fleur added.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Hermione said. "Anyway, I looked for references to the Bubblehead Charm and there were dozens, but it seems that all the books that mentioned them had been borrowed out of the library, up until after the second task. And whose names do you think we're on the borrowing record?"
Harry didn't even need two seconds to think.
"Draco Malfoy," he said.
"And other Slytherins and Durmstrang students," Hermione said. "But some Hufflepuffs, too."
Harry grimaced.
"But, it wasn't my idea," Krum said gruffly.
"Oh, of course. Victor had no idea," Hermione emphasised.
Harry rubbed at his head.
"Well, that explains that," he said. "Umm, apology accepted, I suppose. If you didn't know about it, then I can hardly blame you, can I?"
Krum shook Harry's hand soberly and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.
"I mean, of all things," she said. "It strikes at the very purpose of the library." Harry and Ron smiled at the very Hermione-like reaction. "I bet that they wouldn't like it if the books that they needed disappeared before exams. Not that I'm planning anything like that," she added hurriedly. "I'm just making a point."
"It's very well made," Ron said. "We know that you'd never strike at the very purpose of the library," he added with a grin.
Hermione stuck her tongue out at him childishly in response and Ron tapped his latest paper aeroplane with his wand. He intended for it to fly over and hit her on the forehead, but instead, it wobbled a few feet and then crashed into the ground.
"Urgh," Ron complained. "How did you do it, Hermione?"
Hermione pulled out her own wand, summoned the crashed aeroplane to her and set it off, flying in rings around the group.
"It's just the same Animation Charm," she said. "I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it helps that I've actually flown in a real Muggle aeroplane."
Ron pulled out another piece of parchment, determined to get it right, but Fleur stopped him.
"Try a different design," she said. "If the Muggle contraption is confusing you, try with something you do understand. 'Ere." Then she tore a page from her sketchbook, used her wand to straighten the edges and, with sure, practised movements, folded it into a new shape. A few moments later, she passed a tiny paper bird to Ron.
"Oh, an origami crane," Hermione said. "It's beautiful, Fleur."
"A what?" Ron asked, examining the construction in his hand.
"Origami. It's the Japanese art of paper folding," Hermione explained.
"My mother gave me lessons when I was young," Fleur said. "But, this is the only one I remember."
"Oh!" Ron exclaimed in realisation. "A tsuru."
Now it was Hermione's turn to be confused.
"A what?"
"A tsuru. It's the Japanese word for crane… I think."
"How do you know that?" Hermione asked. She was not the only one looking at him strangely.
"There's a Japanese broomstick called tsuru," Ron said defensively. "I saw it in Seeker Weekly."
"Ah," Krum said. "I know the one. I had to fly against Kobayashi on one of those. That was tough."
"Urgh," Hermione groaned. "Can I say again how jealous I am that my boyfriend is so worldly and well-travelled?"
Krum gave an uncharacteristically warm smile.
Ron was still staring at his paper crane.
"Think about 'ow a bird flies," Fleur said to him. "Imagine zat the flapping of the wings is what gives it flight."
Ron stared at the paper construction a moment longer before tapping it with his wand, mumbling under his breath. Slowly but surely, the bird flapped its wings then slowly took to the air. It wasn't that the wings flapping was providing lift, but it seems as if the imagery had been enough for Ron to get the spell to work.
"There you go," Fleur said, watching the crane fly out over the lake. "I knew zat you could do it."
Ron grinned at the praise. He watched as the bird flew higher and higher, when suddenly, something shot out of the sky and crashed into it. Everyone watched as Ron's paper crane was shredded to pieces before what little remained of it fell into the dark waters of the lake.
"What the…?" Ron exclaimed.
The attacker revealed itself to be another paper creation, a bird-of-prey of some sort, a kestrel or an eagle maybe. They all watched as it flew elegantly across the lake to a group of students on the other side. Draco Malfoy's blond hair visible in the centre of the group. He turned and looked towards Ron and the others, a victorious smirk on his face.
Hermione harrumphed.
"Just ignore him, Ron," she said.
"Don't ignore him," Fleur immediately disagreed. "You don't 'ave to take zat from him. You are twice the wizard zat 'e is."
Hermione frowned, but Ron stared into Fleur's challenging eyes, before nodding slowly.
"Alright," he said. "Can you make me another crane?"
"A crane is 'ardly the most effective aerial combatant," Fleur said.
"I thought you said you didn't know how to make anything else."
"Are you a wizard or not?" Fleur shot back.
Hermione snorted in a very un-ladylike fashion.
"Sorry," she said. "A private joke."
Ron's brow creased in concentration before the obvious answer came to him.
"Oh, of course."
A few minutes of concentration later, he had transfigured a few sheets of paper into a creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
"A gryphon," Fleur said approvingly.
Ron spent an extra minute adding a few extra charms before animating it again and sending it across the lake.
As it neared the Slytherins relaxing on the other side, the gryphon roared angrily. The charms that Ron had added made the challenge ring out across the lake. Malfoy hurriedly sent his bird back out to fight. Paper talons raked across paper bodies, paper beaks tore into paper wings, but it was hardly any contest. After a very brief flurry of paper violence, Malfoy's bird fell from the sky and the gryphon roared in victory. Malfoy began demanding extra parchment from his fellow Slytherins while Ron received congratulations from his own group.
The gryphon came back to Ron for repairs, while the Slytherins started production.
"They're making more than one," Ginny said, squinting across the lake.
"Well, I'm not going to miss out on all the fun," Harry said.
He and Ginny began making a tiny wizard flying a tiny broomstick and, still not approving of the childish behaviour, but also not wanting to be left out, Hermione, with Krum's help, made a small-scale copy of Muggle 'fighter plane', something she said was called a 'Tornado'.
Fleur watched with an amused smile when battle was rejoined above the surface of the lake. The Slytherins outnumbered the Gryffindors plus Krum and had sent half-a-dozen birds, a pegasus and a flying snake out, but the Gryffindors didn't back down.
Harry and Ginny's broomstick and rider out sped everything else and shot through the enemy formation, slicing through wings as it did. Ron's Gryphon managed to get its beak around the middle of the snake and proceeded to drown it in the water. Hermione and Krum's aeroplane shot miniscule missiles into their opponents that exploded into confetti.
By this point, many minutes had passed and they had received a significant amount of attention from other students enjoying the nice weather and in true Hogwarts fashion, it soon descended into madness. A group of Muggleborn Ravenclaws managed to put together what Hermione labelled an aircraft carrier, with its own wing of aeroplanes. The various groups of Hufflepuffs watching joined together to create a massive, flying badger. That badgers weren't supposed to fly didn't seem to bother them. The airspace above the lake became a massive, chaotic free-for-all.
Fleur seemed content to watch the show, until Malfoy's latest creation, a large Ukrainian Ironbelly, broke through their defensive lines and flew over them, spitting out a wad of wet paper. Krum effortlessly shielded them all from the mess, but Fleur was enraged anyway. Ron instinctively grabbed on to her allure as it flushed and grew in unison with her outrage.
"I'll show them a dragon," Fleur had declared, before ripping a page out of her sketchbook and enlarging it with her wand.
While she worked, Ron's gryphon was finally defeated after one of the Ravenclaw planes gave its life in a dramatic kamikaze attack directly into the gryphon's body. Harry and Ginny's broomstick rider tried its best, but was finally swallowed whole by the massive badger. Meanwhile, Hermione and Krum's tiny Tornado had run out of paper missiles and was now limited to flying at high speed just above the surface of the lake. It was throwing up huge plumes of spray, which were preventing the Ravenclaw planes from landing on the aircraft carrier deck to re-arm.
Finally, Fleur was ready. Her Welsh Green, a surprisingly accurate recreation of her first task opponent, if a little smaller, took to the air. Ignoring the other participants, the Welsh Green went straight for the Ukrainian Ironbelly. Ron knew enough about dragons to know that the Welsh Green would ordinarily end up the loser in such a contest, but Fleur apparently didn't care for such odds. The Green outmanoeuvred the Ironbelly and managed to get above it. Malfoy's creation tried to dodge away, but the Green was both faster and more nimble, the result of Fleur's good charmswork, Ron was sure. The brief chase was ended when the Green got its paper teeth around the neck of the Ironbelly. A quick shake and all vitality disappeared from the Ironbelly's body. As the defeated dragon's body sank beneath the waters, the victorious Welsh Green roared at the Slytherins. It was loud and realistic enough that a few of them even fell down.
That left only two serious contenders left in action, Fleur's Welsh Green and the Hufflepuff's flying badger. For a long moment, they stared the other down. Both were huge, easily as large as the troll that Harry and Ron had fought in their first year, and, despite being made of paper, rather intimidating.
Cheers erupted from dozens upon dozens of spectators when the two behemoths crashed into each other. Paper exploded as talons went up against claws and paws went up against wings. The Hufflepuffs may have worked as a team, but Fleur wasn't the Beauxbatons champion for nothing and she had something to prove after the task a week before. Eventually, the badger fell into the lake and one of the Hufflepuffs conjured a large white flag as a show of surrender. In show of respect, Fleur had her dragon grab the body of the badger before it sank and bring it over to the Hufflepuffs. They levitated the body ashore and began construction of a giant paper boat. It seemed they were going for a Viking funeral.
Ron and then other Gryffindors cheered Fleur, while the other participants clapped politely, except for the Slytherins, naturally. The dragon flew around the lake, the uncontested champion of the afternoon.
Or so it seemed.
RATATATATAT!
The dragon roared in imitated pain as dozens of tiny holes appeared in its body. Something else roared as it soared by the dragon.
Hermione gasped.
"That's a fighter plane!" she exclaimed. "A Second World War one… Made of paper… and there's somebody in it."
Ron could indeed see the similarities to the aeroplane that Hermione had made, but, as well as being in a different style, it wasn't scaled down. It must have been forty feet from wingtip to wingtip and the engine screamed as it turned back for another pass at Fleur's dragon.
"They must be mad," Hermione said, half to herself. They could just about see a figure in the cockpit of the plane, but it was moving too fast and was too far away to see who it was.
The dragon turned to keep track of the plane, but without a ranged attack, it had to wait for the plane to get closer. The plane struck again, the wings flashing and more tiny wounds appearing on the dragon. The dragon tried to dart closer and claw at the plane's wing as it passed, but the pilot was too quick and banked away hard.
Hermione used a Summoning Charm to collect one of the projectiles that the plane had shot.
"It really is a paper bullet," she said.
A third pass was all that was needed for the plane to claim its victory. A final RATATAT and the dragon succumbed to its injuries, falling down to the ground.
There was another round of applause, but this one was tinted by confusion. Who was the mysterious late addition to the day's impromptu contest?
"WHOEVER IS IN THAT RIDICULOUS MUGGLE CONTRAPTION, GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"
McGonagall's magically amplified voice rang out across the grounds. She was running over the grass, her wand pressed against her throat, angry enough that her Scottish accent was leaking through more than normal.
The plane dipped its wings back and forth in acknowledgement, before banking left and lining up for a long clear section of grass.
Students rushed to clear out of the way and Ron, Fleur and the others walked over to join McGonagall, curious as to who was flying.
Despite McGonagall's severe expression, students cheered when the plane touched down smoothly and rolled to a stop just in front of the angry Deputy Headmistress.
"You're looking at a month of detention, at least," she said, her voice had returned to normal volume, but hadn't lost its dangerous edge or its Scottish tint. "Of all the reckless, dangerous and irresponsible things that students come up with… Albus?"
Other spectators had similar reactions to learning the identity of the pilot.
"The Headmaster?"
"No way!"
"I should have guessed."
"Ah, Minerva," Dumbledore said cheerfully and he clambered out of the cockpit and, surprisingly athletically, jumped to the ground.
"Professor Dumbledore…" McGonagall seemed at a loss for words. "I…"
"Just a little fun," Dumbledore said to her, with what was clearly meant to be a winning smile.
"Have you… have you been listening to music again?" McGonagall asked. Dumbledore gave her a guilty look and McGonagall sighed. "Who was it this time? Elgar? Holst?"
"William Walton," the headmaster admitted.
"Well, that explains it," McGonagall said, shaking her head.
"Is that a Spitfire, sir?" Harry asked, staring at the paper plane in admiration.
"Don't be silly, Harry," Hermione said, walking around the plane. "Look at the profile. It's clearly a Hurricane."
Dumbledore gave an impressed nod to her.
"Quite right, Miss Granger. Do you have an interest in these machines?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No, my dad is the real aeroplane nut, but it's impossible not to pick up some knowledge by osmosis. My question is how do you know about it, sir?"
"First hand experience, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said with a wink. "A trainee pilot in the RAF got lost in bad weather back in forty-one. When his plane crossed over the boundary of the Hogwarts grounds, his engine cut out. He managed to make an emergency landing, but both the pilot and plane were rather badly damaged. While the pilot recuperated in the Hospital Wing, the charms professor at the time and I worked to repair his aeroplane. Naturally, I couldn't consider the vehicle repaired unless I had taken it for a test flight."
"My dad would be so jealous of you, professor," Hermione said. "And it was a very impressive performance considering it was made entirely of paper, not to mention, such an outdated plane."
Dumbledore gave her a look of surprise.
"Miss Granger, I'm afraid I haven't kept up with such things since the war, but this is the plane that won the Battle of Britain, only fifty years ago mind you, and…"
"Fifty years is ages ago in aeroplane design, sir," Hermione interrupted him. "Any modern fighter jet is faster, more manoeuvrable and carries a more destructive arsenal."
The various onlookers followed this discussion with interest, even if a lot of them didn't know anything about the topic.
"I don't know, Hermione," Ginny said. "You saw what that thing did to Fleur's dragon."
"Yeah, it tore it to shreds," another person spoke up.
"It's a single engine prop plane!" Hermione objected, facing the crowd. "Back me up here, Harry."
"Sorry, Hermione. I only know about the Spitfire because we studied the war in school. Dudley and my uncle were more interested in cars than planes."
"Gah! It's practically a relic!" Hermione cried out, gesturing wildly at the paper machine.
"Just because something is old, doesn't necessarily mean that it's outdated, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said reasonably.
"Yes, but…"
"You think that you could do better than the headmaster?" one of the Slytherins said sceptically.
"If he insists on flying this thing, then of course I can," Hermione said, her temper flaring.
"How long would you require?" Dumbledore asked seriously.
"What?" Hermione said, startled by the question.
"To create a modern aeroplane that can do all that you claim."
Hermione blushed.
"I wasn't actually challenging you, professor. I was…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Malfoy said, laughing with his Slytherin housemates, earning themselves a severe look from the headmaster.
Ron and Harry, as they knew Hermione so well, saw the mental process play out in her mind. Nervousness crashed against pride and her resolve grew. They could see her review her schedule for the near future and saw the moment that she threw it all away.
"One week," she said.
Ron walked through the dimly lit hallways that evening. It had been quite an eventful day, especially for a Saturday.
Professor Dumbledore had agreed to compete against Hermione in a week's time. Professor McGonagall had tried to put her foot down, but in a very rare show of authority, Dumbledore had overruled her. Knowing that it was a lost cause, McGonagall consoled herself by ordering everyone who had contributed to The Great Aerial Paper Battle of 1995 to clean up the paper that littered the grounds and lake.
After that, Ron had walked Fleur back to her carriage, but she didn't sneak him inside today. Instead, she said that she was ready to get back into her training for the tournament and wanted a proper night's rest. Ron agreed to join her for as long as she wanted him the next day. Fleur certainly seemed more recovered to Ron's eyes, as if the thrill of competition had reignited the fire in her that had been put out in the lake.
The castle was quiet, so Ron was aware of the panicked voices approaching him long before the owners of those voices came into view. He was slightly wary, goodness knows that he'd run into his own share of truly dangerous situations in the castle, but it was probably nothing more than Peeves, which was why Ron was surprised when his twin brothers came stumbling around the corner.
"You said it was this way!"
"No, I just said it wasn't that way!"
"There were only two choices!"
Ron stared at them nonplussed. They were each carrying a box and looked very stressed.
"What's going on?" Ron asked.
"Ron!" George exclaimed, suddenly noticing him for the first time. "You've got to help us."
Looking at their expressions, Ron realised he was wrong, they weren't stressed, they were manic.
"Help you with what?"
"Filch is out to get us and we're lost," Fred said.
"You're lost? Don't you know this castle better than anyone?"
"Somebody's cursed us! We can't remember how to get anywhere."
"Eh? And why is Filch out to get you? What's that you're holding?"
"It's ground up Goblin Fire Pepper seeds," George said. "We were going to sprinkle some outside of the Slytherin common room. Which is why we can't be found with it."
Ron had a sudden feeling that him and the twins running into each other was not a coincidence.
"Didn't that Ravenclaw girl spend a weekend in the Hospital Wing last year when she got some of that stuff in her eyes? What did the Slytherins do to deserve that?"
"Why do you care? They're just Slytherins."
Ron gave Fred a strange look. Did he really come across like that kind of person? Sure he didn't like the House generally, but mostly his ire was focussed on Malfoy and the other wannabe dark wizards.
"You do know that there are eleven-year-old Slytherins too, right? Hard to imagine what they've done to deserve… potential hospitalisation?"
Fred opened his mouth to retort, but Ron cut him off.
"Why does it matter anyway, just dump them in some empty classroom and pretend you're just out for a walk."
"Our hands are stuck to the boxes," George said. "We can't let go. And before you ask, we can't find our wands, either. When we find out who did this to us…" he left the sentence unfinished, but his expression was dark.
Ron was becoming more and more certain that something strange was going on, that someone was orchestrating this for his sake. That being the case, he thought that he knew what role he was meant to play, but he wasn't sure exactly what the script expected to him to say.
"It seems to me that maybe you should get caught," Ron said quietly.
Both of the twins' eyes widened before their expressions darkened further still. They took a step forward in unison, but Ron already had his wand out.
"Careful… You don't have wands, remember? Besides, Fleur's taught me some pretty nasty curses, lately."
Fred looked like he wanted to try his luck, regardless, but George tried a different tack.
"We're your brothers," he pleaded.
It took all of Ron's self-control to bite back the first response that wanted to leap from his mouth. So was I, every time you were cruel to me. But Ron didn't want to get into a proper argument.
"I'm sure there are plenty of siblings in Slytherin," he said instead. "Come on, you two are seventeen in a few weeks. Picking on little kids, really?"
Fred rolled his eyes, but George, ever the voice of reason for the two of them, though that wasn't saying much, asked Ron, "if we promise not to play jokes on first years, will you help us out?"
Fred made an inarticulate noise of outrage, but George held up a hand.
"Fred, please. Well, little brother?"
Ron hadn't actually expected to get this far.
"No tricks against fourth years or below," he said.
"Second years," George countered.
"Third."
"Deal."
Ron stepped forward and cast an analysis charm on the boxes they were holding. It was just a simple Sticking Charm.
"And that's a promise? A real promise, yeah, not like when you promise mum that you'll tidy your room."
"Yes," George said.
They both looked at Fred expectantly. He scowled for several seconds.
"Fine!" he spat out. "Now get these things off of us."
A couple of charms later and the twins were rubbing their hands in relief.
"And the common room?" Fred demanded.
"Turn left here and the Fat Lady is on your right."
Fred strode off immediately, but George hesitated for a second, looking at Ron uncertainly.
"… Thanks," he said eventually.
"Sure," Ron said.
Ron stood in place for a good thirty seconds after the twins had disappeared around the corner.
"Twenty points to Gryffindor," said a voice behind him.
Ron turned around.
"Oh, so it was you," he said to the headmaster.
"Did you suspect it might have been someone else?" Dumbledore asked.
"Perhaps Moody."
"Professor Moody," Dumbledore corrected Ron, "is more likely to admonish them for being caught, than anything else. But the points are well deserved, young man. I doubt that I could have extracted such a promise from them."
"Did you orchestrate the whole thing?" Ron asked.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"If you mean their getting lost, losing their wands and having their hands stuck to the evidence, then yes. Using ground Goblin Fire Pepper seeds against the Slytherin students was entirely their idea, naturally. When the kitchens sent word that an entire years supply had gone missing, your brothers were at the top of a very short list of suspects."
"And leading them to me?"
"A very light Confundus Charm to make them forget how to find Gryffindor Tower and the image of Mister Filch just behind the last corner to direct them to you."
"And their wands," Ron asked.
"In their pockets, right where they left them. Rest assured that their knowledge of where their wands are and how to navigate the castle will return to them by morning."
"That's a shame."
Dumbledore chuckled.
"What would you have done if I couldn't have talked them down," Ron asked.
Dumbledore paused thoughtfully for a second.
"Sent a letter to your mother," he said. "And when that didn't work, I'd write to William."
Ron nodded. Bill always did have a certain way with the twins.
"Right," Dumbledore said, clapping his hands. "As fun as it was to chase your brothers through the castle, I really should return to my more ordinary duties."
"Right," said Ron. "Goodnight, Professor."
"Good…"
"Halt, thief!" a new voice sounded from down the hallway. Filch was hobbling up to the two of them, Mrs. Norris at his heels.
"Ah, Mister Filch," Dumbledore started.
"Not to worry, headmaster," Filch said, casting an angry look at Ron. "I'll handle it from here. You," he spat venomously at Ron. "My office, now!"
"Uhh," Ron said, looking at Dumbledore.
"Don't you 'uhh' me," Filch said. "You've been caught red-handed by the headmaster himself. A whole year's worth of the stuff." Filch reached down and picked up both boxes of ground up peppers. "What were you planning to do with it, huh?"
"Uhh," Ron said again.
"Argus," Dumbledore said, before Filch could work himself up any further. "Mister Weasley here is not the culprit. Indeed, he is responsible for recovering the stolen goods."
"Not the… then who was it?" Filch demanded.
Dumbledore looked at Ron expectantly.
"I, uhh, didn't see their faces," Ron said. "They ran as soon as I spotted them."
"Well, next time hit them with a curse of something," Filch said.
"Argus…"
"Fine, fine."
Filch grumbled as he took the boxes back down the hallway. Mrs. Norris stared at Ron creepily before turning and speeding after her owner.
"Now, where was I?" Dumbledore said. "Oh, yes… night, Mister Weasley."
Ron rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling when he slipped in through the portrait hole and sat down with Harry and Hermione.