Chapter Seventeen
Ron's Secret Admirer
The month of January was coming to a close and the professors piled on the homework for the seventh years so that their weekends were not as fun as the holidays were. Harry also piled on the practices for Quidditch in preparation for their next game against Hufflepuff. He, along with Hermione, were both very busy with keeping order in the corridors. They both caught Peeves, being as cruel as usual, with several bottles of frog spawn that he pasted in the corridors to infuriate Filch and throwing them not only at Filch and Mrs. Norris but also at passing students.
Peeves was not the only one who was causing trouble. The sweets the Creevy brothers had seemed to have invaded all the houses of Hogwarts with the exception of Slytherin. The Potter Pasties, as they were called, seemed to be the most popular of the pranks that Fred and George Weasley have in stock. Several Potter clones could be seen in the corridors and several others getting severe headaches. It seemed that the headache part of the sweets were not left out to allow some revenge against the Slytherins. Snape loathed seeing several Potter clones around the castle and gave detention to those who ate the sweets and detention to those who gave the Slytherins the sweets.
To top it all, the Slytherins were out for revenge for those who had pulled a prank them and for strutting around as Harry Potter. Malfoy had been rumored to be the head of the one who authorized and allowed the revenge to happened since he had been reinstated as prefect; in which Snape had constantly pushed. The Slytherins were also out for blood against Harry for Malfoy's humiliating defeat in their last match against Gryffindor, but that seemed to fail when there was several students around the team or with the professors in the area.
Quidditch and homework was not the only thing Harry was worried about; it was also Ron's avoidance of him. Ron hadn't spoken to him nor Hermione since the time Harry snapped at him for laughing at Hermione's predicament with the Potter Pasties. Harry asked Ginny about Ron but she said that Ron was getting uneasy with any girl around him; especially his own sister! Ron had been receiving owls by someone every other day and he just buried the letters into his robes before leaving the Great Hall. He also lost his daring when Malfoy started to question, if not insult, his letters. Ron only snapped when Malfoy took it too far along the lines of 'no girl go out with a poor Weasel like him' or 'no girl would want to have a Muggle loving in-law in the family.' Ron earned several severe detentions from Snape and outrageous point deductions for his actions. Hermione also deducted a civil amount from Malfoy after Snape was out of earshot despite Harry's attempt to take off more than that was needed and some well deserved detention for his actions. That didn't get Ron down since he had gotten some 'sweet revenge' against Malfoy several times. He had enlisted, unbeknownst to Harry and Hermione, his twin brothers to help get revenge against Malfoy. They sent packages of their Potter Pasties disguised as gifts of sweets from a fanatic of him in Quidditch.
Malfoy started to rub it in Harry's face that he had someone sending him sweets and also tried to make Ron upset, but that was not until the Pasties went into effect. Snape was furious about that and tried to give detention to everyone in the area, with the exception of Slytherin, but that proved futile without any evidence and the fact that the package was sent to Malfoy and only to Malfoy alone. Hermione knew that Ron was doing this and warned him that he will get caught eventually or worse; expelled but Ron just denied those allegations. Harry knew that Hermione already knew how those owls were getting into Hogwarts unnoticed. They seem to have some sort of charm on the package to hide who actually sent it and it could have been anything or anyone writing the letters. This continued until Slytherin's next game against Ravenclaw. Malfoy had received a package from home packed with sweets, but this would have disastrous consequences during the game. Slytherin was leading Ravenclaw by 20 when it happened. Malfoy was chasing the Snitch along the ground of the Pitch when he took a nasty Bludger to the head and Ravenclaw's Seeker caught the Snitch. It wasn't too bad but that was not until Malfoy was in the hospital wing. He started to let out a death screech of pain complaining about a headache and Madam Pomfrey gave him a potion to quell the pain but that didn't work. She tried everything to stop the pain and had to resort to using a Silencing Charm on him until she could bring Professor Dumbledore and Snape into the room. However when she did, the pain went away and he was out like a light as if nothing ever happened. Harry heard rumors that a message was visible when Malfoy was taken to the hospital wing that read:
You have just been pranked by the Revered Prank Master(s) of Hogwarts!
On the bottom of the note was a crude drawing of a Slytherin serpent being skewered by a sword with the other representatives of the Hogwarts houses feasting on the carcasses of countless other serpents that belonged to Slytherin. It also contained a crude drawing of Malfoy screaming in pain while clutching his forehead.
A few days after Malfoy's stay in the hospital wing; Ron started to skimp off on his prefect duties. He started to come in late for their library meetings and coming late in class at times. Harry didn't know what was happening in Ron's head since he has been awfully quiet since Hermione was still bugging him over the Pasties that Malfoy had been receiving for the past few weeks before the Quidditch match. However, they would find out what was exactly going on in Ron's head on a night of patrolling the halls one night.
It was a normal night of patrolling when Harry and Hermione met up in one of the corridors after shooing off a demented Mrs. Norris when they heard a sound on one of the nearby broom closets.
"What was that?" Hermione asked nervously as she pointed her wand towards the door.
"I don't know," Harry replied as he also pointed his wand towards the door, "it might just be Peeves screwing with our heads again."
Harry slowly reached for the door knob and mouthed to Hermione 'on three.' He counted to three and opened the door as they both pointed their wands at what was in the closet. What was in the closet both caught them by surprise. It was two students dressed in Gryffindor robes and Harry knew both of them since one of them had flaming red hair as they had both of their lips locked together oblivious to the opened door.
"Ron!" Harry said at the same time as Hermione said, "Parvati!"
They both unlocked their lips and turned to face both the Head Boy and Girl blushing heavily that it matched Ron's hair.
"Hermione it's…" Ron trailed off.
"So that's why you've been on acting uneasy around any other girl!" Hermione said amusedly despite the significance of the situation that they were in.
"I think I better get Parvati back to the common room before we both get into trouble," Ron said as his blushing started to fade away.
"I think that is a good idea, Ron, and I'm letting you off with a warning for kissing in the corridors."
"Thanks Hermione," he said as he walked off with Parvati.
"One more thing," Hermione said and they stopped walking, "five points from Gryffindor for being out in the corridors at this hour, Miss Patil."
Ron and Parvati both walked off, or rather ran off, before anymore points could be taken off from their House. Harry just chuckled at the scene when Ron and Padma ran off, but his chuckle didn't go unnoticed by Hermione.
"What's so funny, Harry?" as she playfully punched his forearm.
"I just didn't think that Ron would do something like this and behind our backs," as he pointed his wand at her face as it illuminated the features on her face despite the dimmed surroundings.
"I didn't think so either and I hope this isn't some sick joke set up by someone to hurt his feelings."
"A joke? No one is that low. Maybe a Slytherin but no one else."
"A joke, yes! Anybody can be low enough to play a pathetic joke on somebody with a secret admirer," Hermione was now on the verge of tears and Harry put a protective arm around her.
"What's on your mind, Hermione?"
"If you want to know. This happened a few years before I started at Hogwarts. My class had this Valentines party and we exchanged Valentine cards. I, however, didn't get any and a unspeakable joke was played on me. A few weeks before the party; I received letters from a secret admirer and some of the girls in my class started to tease me, but I was used to the teasing. I receive a message from him the day before to meet him somewhere after class. I went to only get thrashed with chocolate pudding that ruined my new dress!"
Harry couldn't believe it that somebody, let alone a Muggle, would be that cruel to somebody and Harry knew cruelty since he lived with the Dursleys.
"The ones that did this laughed at me and told me that nobody would want a 'know-it-all' for a girlfriend. However, they didn't expect a witness to be near the scene and they were all given a months worth of detention and my parents weren't very pleased about what happened. I don't necessarily look forward to Valentines Day at all. On a lighter note," she added with a chuckle, "the ones that did this all had serious things happen to them. From a severe skin rash to dyed hair that flashed different colors that wouldn't fade for weeks or even months!"
"It could have been worse, Hermione, and I know cruelty when I see it," Harry said serenely as he stroked her hair as she looked at him expectantly. "I know of something else that happened to me near that same day. We also had a party on that day and I didn't have any Valentines to give out since the Dursleys wouldn't let me have any nor did I receive any. I sat in a corner away from the others as they had fun since I would be in trouble if something 'abnormal' at the party. When our teacher stepped out; that's when Dudley and his gang cornered me there. I rather not repeat what he said but I snapped when he hit one of my nerves and I don't remember what he hit. I hit him and I broke his nose and Dudley came and knocked a few of my teeth out. I was lucky," Harry added at Hermione's shocked face, "that it was only some of my baby teach that got knocked out. We both go detention for a few days and I got the cupboard for a few months. Dudley had gotten much more detention when a witness who was brave enough to anonymously step forward got Dudley two weeks more detention. Somehow during my stay in the cupboard; all of Dudley's clothes were dyed pink when they came out of the wash and it persisted for a few more weeks. I wasn't punished since I was stuck in my cupboard at that time."
"I should jinx those relatives of yours for what they did to you and turn that oaf of a cousin of yours into the pig that he is!" Hermione said fiercely as she pushed away from Harry.
Harry mentally chuckled as he pictured Dudley like the pig he is and kept quiet since he did want to get Hagrid into trouble since Hagrid had tried to turn Dudley into a pig when they first met but only got a tail out of his fat backside. "Shouldn't we get back into the common room before we get into trouble?"
Hermione nodded and they walked back through the corridors back towards the common room in silence and Harry silently agreed with himself to keep what he and Hermione saw a secret lest repercussions were to happen.