Homework
"Potions with Slytherin, what could be worse?" Ron stirred his porridge with a dejected expression. Friday was not his favourite day; it was absolutely as far from his favourite as was possible, in fact as the day rolled on it got progressively worse, ending in double-potions with Slytherin. The thought of sitting in the rank little dungeon room only feet away from Malfoy and Snape made him feel ill and on top of that his homework was abysmal.
"I be' i'coul' be worz'...yuh coul' roun' the day orf wi' dedention too..." Harry chimed in thickly. His mouth was full of toast and he sent a shower of crumbs down onto his plate when he spoke. Ron gave him a very dark look over a glass of pumpkin juice and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't tempt fate. Once Snape reads my homework he's probably going to pickle me in one of his jars or string me up from his dungeon wall and use me as a test subject for Neville's potions..."
"Hey!"
"Sorry Neville..." Ron muttered after the indignant cry. He sighed heavily and then looked around the table. Something was missing. It felt like he had forgotten something but he couldn't place it. He had his wand in his bag, his quills and ink, spare parchment and all his homework. He knew he had it all because he had been up until midnight finishing it off by firelight. With a minor shake of his head he turned back to Harry,
"What're you so cheery about anyway? You're usually the first one to have a go at Snape for being a magnificent pain in the arse."
"No reason," Harry said, swallowing his last bite of toast, "I've got Quidditch practice tonight, that's all. Nothing Snape could do today could possibly spoil this weekend."
"Oh, the Hufflepuff match tomorrow, right. I forgot."
"It can't be that bad Ron, I thought Hermione read through it for you?"
Ron huffed, "Well I couldn't find her last night, could I? She was probably in the Library or something; she's been going on about how noisy the common room is at night. So I dunno. It's probably a load of pants. I hate Potions homework," He looked around suddenly, as if the last and extremely vital piece of the puzzle had just slotted into place.
"Thinking about it, I haven't seen Hermione this morning either..."
"Her cat got stuck in a tree."
Harry and Ron both turned their heads to look at Neville again. He was eating soggy cereal and had the spoon halfway to his mouth, dripping milk onto his robes as it hovered there, though he didn't seem to notice it.
"Crookshanks," Neville continued, "He got stuck in a tree down by the lake, and she's been trying to get him down since five o'clock this morning. I think he's been there all night."
"Good." Ron said, "Stupid ginger git. I hope it stays up there forever."
Harry rolled his eyes and glugged down the remainder of his squash while Neville frowned disapprovingly. He obviously felt that Ron's animosity towards Hermione's rotund ginger tabby was entirely unfounded. Ron in return was not impressed by the expression Neville was giving him.
"You've got milk on your robes." He said shortly, and vacated his seat, leaving Neville looking down at the mushy cornflakes and then down at his robes with an exasperated noise. Harry got out of his chair and followed after Ron who was already stalking into the hallway.
Potions came around despite Ron's wishes. He found himself seated next to Harry in the dungeon listening to Snape have yet another go at Neville for his potion ending up a thick grey paste rather than the brilliant turquoise blue it was supposed to be. His own was navy blue. Close enough in his book, but most likely not in Snape's. Hermione's potion was perfect as always, but oddly enough Snape didn't seem to have seen it as he walked past. After samples of everyone potions were labelled and placed on his desk, Snape ordered the pupils to start their next potion, all apart from Neville who was supposed to try the first one again. Malfoy got a good laugh out of that.
"Prat." Ron growled, chopping up liquorice root with his knife. Harry was blocking out Ron's low comments, he'd been making them under his breath every few minutes of the first hour of their double-lesson and in accordance with his statement at breakfast he was retaining his good mood despite Ron's sour mood and the gloomy dungeon. Hermione looked across at the pair, however, focussing on Ron.
"What's wrong?" she asked. Her hair looked bushier than ever on this particular Friday. Harry had actually plucked a leaf out of the back of it before their first lesson, when Hermione had hurried to catch up with them breathless and afraid of missing anything.
"Nothing."
"It doesn't seem like nothing, you've been sulking all day."
"Well, it is nothing, alright? I don't want to talk about it." She made a face and looked away. Ron shrugged as he moved on to the next stage of his potion, trying not to sound too apologetic when he next spoke. He was still angry at her,
"How's your stupid cat?"
Hermione blinked, Ron thought she looked upset for a moment but she smiled a little bit, forcefully saying, "Silly thing went and got stuck up a tree. I can't seem to get him to come down and I've tried everything..." she trailed off, "But... but you know how cats are. When he's hungry he'll come looking for me."
Ron nodded. He didn't know how cats were at all but something in Hermione's voice told him that she didn't believe in what she was saying one hundred percent. She loved that stupid cat for some bizarre reason and Ron felt kind of bad that Hermione felt bad that her grouchy fat cat was stuck in a tree. He absently dropped his handful of wolfsbane into his bubbling cauldron.
"Oh, Ron!" Hermione hissed suddenly, making him jump, "You're supposed to put the liquorice root in before the wolfsbane..." The potion had indeed started to change. It smelt like overcooked eggs and had gone a sickly shade of pink where it was supposed to be yellow; Snape had picked up the scent and was bearing down upon Ron with a smug sneer curving his lips at the corners. Ron dropped his head.
"Crap." He said.
Approximately five hours later Ron was sitting by himself in the Library. He had been given lines by Snape which he was trying to complete on the anti-cheat paper he had also been given by the potions master to make sure he didn't bewitch several quills to take care of the lines for him or employ the services of some unwitting first year for the same result.
"I hate potions." Ron growled. Everyone else was having fun in the common room and Harry was at Quidditch practice, Ron had wanted to be alone anyway. Friday's were the worst, this Friday especially. He was annoyed at everyone and everything; Harry for flouncing off in his good mood to Quidditch, Hermione for disappearing again and especially for not checking his homework for him. She knew much he hated potions and how bad at it he was. Even Harry was better than him.
"Stupid Crookshanks." He tossed his quill down in annoyance, only an eighth of his one hundred and fifty lines completed. He couldn't stop thinking back to the Potions lesson a few hours ago; Hermione's smile was repeating itself in his head. This would be the second night she'd be trying to get that cat to come down he guessed.
He packed up all his things, shoving them down into his bag unceremoniously, and stomped out of the Library, still thinking about Hermione. He didn't see why she was so stressed about it, Hagrid would be able to get the fur ball out of the tree in an instant, and he could probably reach it without even stretching. Harry could zoom up there on his broom and get it down too. Wasn't she a witch, the best in their year at that? Couldn't she Win-gar-dium Levi-oh-sah it down?
Ron found himself wandering out towards the grounds. It was time to talk some sense into Hermione for once and not have it be the other way round. He found her down by the lake, not far from the school, standing beneath a silver birch tree and looking up into the branches, cooing.
"Come on Crookshanks, please come down." She stretched out a hand, "Look I have treats for you, you don't want to be stuck up there in that nasty cold tree, you usually sleep at the end of my bed, remember?"
"I've never found him a very good conversationalist, you know." Ron stated, hands in his pockets as he stood a few feet away watching the silhouette of Hermione and the ginger blob that was Crookshanks, half way up the tree, clinging to as branch with a disgruntled expression.
"Oh! Ron! Good grief, you scared me."
"Sorry."
"No, it's alright." She sighed and turned her back on Crookshanks, "I'm not getting anywhere with him anyway..."
Ron shrugged, "I was going to say, couldn't you just use your wand to get him out of the tree, you're a witch, remember?" There was a long pause during which Hermione stared at Ron and he stared back. He was taken completely off guard when Hermione suddenly burst into tears, "H-Hermione? I-I didn't mean... I mean... what's wrong?"
"Oh...Ohh it's stupid. You'll think I'm crazy." Hermione sniffed.
"Too late, I already know that's true." Ron grinned lopsidedly, she didn't respond and he fumbled through his pockets to find a handkerchief for her, eventually extending one covered in lint. She looked at it and he shook it out. Hermione took it and blew her nose.
"I-I just wanted to be able to d-do this one thing without m-magic." She choked, "Books and s-spells and things like that... I shouldn't n-need them to look after one stupid, fat, ginger cat should I?" she looked at Ron with orb-like eyes, nibbling her lip.
Ron laughed. "Hermione..."
"What's so f-funny!" she demanded through her tears.
"You!" Ron took a moment to catch his breath, "That's what this is all about? You think that by getting Crookshanks down without magic you're proving something? God you're crazier than I thought!"
He walked past her towards the tree and looked up at the cat, their eyes locked and Ron grinned slightly. He started to climb the tree. It wasn't really hard at all, the branches were close together and there were no leaves to block his view of Crookshanks in the autumn chill. He honed in on him quickly and soon enough was able to wrap an arm underneath the animal's front legs and lift him into his arms. Crookshanks growled loudly but Ron ignored him and hastily started the climb back towards solid ground. Once down there he palmed the creature off into Hermione's waiting arms.
"Ron! Thank you! I wish I had thought to climb the tree..." she had stopped crying but his hanky was nowhere in sight. Ron didn't bother to ask for it back. They started to walk back to the school, Hermione cradling Crookshanks in her arms.
"No problem." He shrugged.
"Can I ask you something, though?" Ron shrugged again and Hermione took that as a yes, "What was wrong in Potions, I thought you were angry with me or something..."
"Oh. It was nothing..."
"Ron..."
"It doesn't matter."
"Please?"
He sighed, "Well, you said that you'd look at my Potions homework last night, but you disappeared off to find that idiotic animal and I was just, you know, annoyed. My essay was awful and... I just really hate Fridays."
There was silence for a few paces, Ron looked at Hermione.
"Ron, did you read it before you handed it in?"
"Well, no. Not after I finished it, it was too depressing."
Hermione nodded to this and they continued in silence in the moonlight, Ron was watching his feet as they went and Hermione was stroking Crookshanks lovingly. After a minute she looked sideways, shaking her hair off her shoulder so she could see Ron,
"I did read it, before I came after Crookshanks." She said quietly, "I only made a few spelling changes here and there. I thought it was actually the best potions essay that you've written all year."
Ron blinked and returned Hermione's gaze, "Really?"
"Really." Hermione smiled through a fog of receding tears.
"Oh." Ron finished lamely, hiding a smile of his own. Hermione knew his well enough to know that that as much as amounted to an apology from him. She accepted it, thinking of his handkerchief tucked up warm and safe in the sleeve of her robes.
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