Chapter 3: The Lion, the Snake and the inexcusable friendship
The following days he was doing his best to ignore Daphne, not letting himself get caught in a corner by her, in fact he seemed to be avoiding quite a lot of people. Malfoy was being a pain in the arse, and kept mocking me about the chess game, with professional fake laughers Crabbe and Goyle doing great in winding him up, he was also avoiding the Twins, in case they had a prank lined up for him.
Tending to avoid the Slytherin common room, he started hanging out with Harry or Theo in the library, but after about a long 2 hours of boredom and homework, he deemed that he did enough work, and started exploring the castle.
Eventually he ran into Percy on a corridor on the 4th floor, who gave him his full support, "there is nothing wrong with being ambitious Ron. Most Slytherins go on and have a successful career in the Ministry, I'm sure if you apply yourself over your time at Hogwarts you will have a great career in the Ministry." Percy prattled on about the Ministry and its greatness, ditching Percy he went back to the common room.
Unfortunately for him, as he entered Daphne was there waiting for him, and confronted him straight away, Rolling his eyes as she approached, he angrily said," What do you want?"
"I came here to talk you, and you know exactly what about. And you're not going to try and squirm your way out of this chat," she said stomping her foot down, as if she won't allow me to pass further into the common room, and to a comfy bed beyond.
"Fine let's have this chat, you desperately desire with me, but let's do it away from everyone" She gave a big smile at his response. Ron gestured her to go out the Common room and into the corridor outside.
Once outside she went straight into a speech that seemed well rehearsed, "I, Daphne Greengrass apologize for my brother's action against you, the way he handled it was in poor taste, he should not have done it in front of all the Slytherins, in an attempt to humiliate you. However… what my brother just did was a gift to you, he gave you a valuable lesson that you should abide by. And I believe you should not let anger allow you to ignore what he had to say. If you take heed of his words, then you will start to play chess not just on the board but in real life, that's what he was telling you. And you have certainly proven yourself to have potential at being able to be manipulative and cunning, through your chess skills. Remember, you did not shame yourself in front of the Slytherins, in fact being able to play such a good game of chess as a 1st year has gained you some respect in the house, so to conclude you should be thankful for what my elder brother did," she finished, giving a smile that seemed like a trademark for her.
"Wow, how long did it take you to come up with that?" Ron retorted back
"about as long as the time you've been avoiding me" as Ron didn't say anything in response she pressed for an answer on the matter, "why have you been avoiding me…Ronald," she teased.
"Don't call me that" he scowled back.
"Answer the question Ronald."
Sighing, he replied, "the reason I've been avoiding you, is because I made a right fool of myself in front of you, I thought you would laugh at me," his ears burned red in embarrassment
"Oh Ron that's so sweet. You didn't embarrass yourself at all, instead you defeated my brother a 5th year at chess, and not many people could say that," she said with her hand on her heart, looking everything like an innocent 11 year old girl. If it was even possible Ron's ears burned even redder, "thanks," he whispered.
"now let's get back to the common room before people think we've been doing something else," Ron as an 11 year old boy didn't really get what she said, so it didn't have the intended effect. Yet he followed her back and got ready for bed, as he had potions with his head of house tomorrow.
Once everyone was settled down in potions, Snape started with a roll call, but he paused at Harry's name.
"Ah yes," she said quietly, "Harry potter. Our new…celebrity," he drawled out
Draco and his cronies sniggered. Well Professor Snape clearly doesn't like Harry.
Professor Snape gave a speech that grabbed everyone's attention, "You are here to learn the subtle science and art of potionmaking. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death. If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
Wow, he actually makes potions sound like it could be interesting, But its not exactly a noble cause like duelling, its pretty much just advanced cooking to Ron.
Before Ron could think if maybe there was more to potions than reading a list. Snape went on the offensive against Harry, giving impossible questions that no 1st year should know, unless you did advance reading. Ron was stumped on the answers even though he did some background reading on potions, during the time he seemed to be avoiding everyone. Ron confronted Harry during the class when they were getting equipment for a potion to cure boils, "Unlucky Harry, it seems like Professor Snape doesn't like you." Harry Grimaced in return, knowing he would be in for a tough time in all his potion classes.
"Do you want to Come to the library Harry?" Ron said after the lesson
"I Can't sorry, I'm meeting Hagrid," after a while of contemplation he added, "You can come and meet him as well if you want?"
"Alright then I will," he said with a cheery tone, knowing he didn't have to hang out in the library.
"What about the Library Ron?" harry said as they started walking to Hagrid's hut.
"I would rather be anywhere than the library."
Crossing the school grounds they finally made it to Hagrid's hut which clung to the edge of the forbidden forest. Harry knocked on Hagrid's, both boys heard several loud barks coming from within.
Hagrid eventually opened the door, and Ron looked up to see a giant of a man standing in. front of him, with a massive black boarhound besides him, he knew that this was not a man to get on his bad side. If truth be told, he looked rather like a savage, with unruly black hair, and long bushy beard, his unkept hair almost engulfing his face. He looked like a man who takes better care of his pets and animals than himself Ron mused, though that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Hagrid let them both inside. Once entering the room both boys smelled raw meat, and adjusting their eyeline upwards they noticed Ham and pheasants hanging from above. Steam was pouring out of a kettle on the open fire in his hut, drowning out any noise coming from outside.
"make yerselves at home," stated Hagrid who let go of Fang the boarhound who ran straight to him, and started licking his face.
"This is Ron," Harry said, while Hagrid was preparing the tea.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid glancing at his face, he looked like he was about to say something, but then his eyes went down to his robe and tie, and his black eyes looked fierce for a split second before returning to normalcy. "An' also a Slytherin, you must be the first Weasley in Slytherin for countless generations, if there's ever been a Weasley in Slytherin before you."
Great Hagrid really knew how to make someone feel better, just like his Rock cakes, that he bit into moments before.
Ron just replied the first thing that came to his mind, "Yeah, blame it on the sorting hat"
"Just member your Gryffindor side, and yer will make a fine wizard," Hagrid stated, obviously Hagrid is not the biggest fan of Slytherins.
"Cheers Hagrid," was the only thing he could come with it.
The conversation moved on to other topics, lie how our first week was, eventually Harry picked up the Daily Prophet, and was looking at it at interest.
"Hagrid! That Gringotts break in happened on my Birthday! It might've happened while we were there!" this perked up Ron's interests, something was definitely going on here, Hagrid would not meet Harrys eyes. Hagrid did not respond but instead offered another Rock cake to Harry.
With boys weighed down by the rock cakes in their pockets, Ron asked Harry what was all the business about the Gringotts break in. Harry said that Hagrid took something out of that vault earlier, "I'll let you know if anything else comes up," said Harry before going off to the Gryffindor dormitories, while Ron went down in to the dungeons.
What Harry had said to him was certainly interesting, it raised a lot of questions, where was this mysterious package? Was this what the thieves were looking for? Ron mused on these questions before heading back into the common room, where Theo nodded for him to join him by the murky green window in the common room.
"You know that Slytherins are talking about you being friends with a Gryffindor, and Harry potter no less," Theo whispered.
"Why does it matter that I hang out with Harry" Ron said back to him, not understanding why he had to bring this up.
Theo looked at him as if he was loony, "Why does it matter?" Theo repeated but his voice getting louder, "It matters a great deal. A Slytherin hanging out with a Gryffindor is inexcusable, Slytherins and Gryffindor's don't mix, ever since the feud between the founders themselves. It will do no good for your reputation in Slytherin that you start hanging out with a Lion. And Potter no less Weasley! He is not well liked in Slytherin, considering he defeated the Dark Lord who is the heir of Slytherin! If you hang out with him, you will alienate yourself in this house, and you will not be protected, if you get my meaning," Ron perfectly got his meaning, he was being threatened to not hang out with Harry. Theo kept up his rant, "You need to do everything you can to improve your status in Slytherin. Your chess game helped but you are still very low, yet considering you are a blood traitor and poor, you are lower than Crabbe and Goyle, and kneazles are smarter than they are!"
"So I'm not allowed to hang out with Harry because it will make me less popular with the Slytherins, right that is ridiculous, Harry was the first person I met at Hogwarts, I won't stop being friends with him all because I wont be 'popular' in this house, who only cares about people based on their status" luckily the common room was buzzing with activity or the whole house would have heard him.
"Ron if you want not only to survive but thrive in this house, then you must stop hanging out with him in public." Theo retorted back
"I think you're just jealous that hanging out with him instead of you," Theo looked offended at that.
"No Weasley, all I'm doing is trying to help a friend, who is too stubborn to see what's right in front of him. Also, if you start hanging out with Potter, then my father wont allow me to be friends with you, meaning I'll have to cut ties with you. And so both of us will be friendless in this house." Theo said with a dark look mangling his face.
Ron looked out of the window and into the green murky waters beyond, and not meeting his eyes, whispered, "I'm sorry Theo, I didn't know. I do not want to stop being friends with anyone. I'll figure a way round it."
"You better Weasley."
"it's Ron, not Weasley Nott", both boys laughed at the immature joke, and any tension was broken, and talk went into less serious matters, and talking about their childhood.
Ron presumed that it was all Aristocratic nonsense that Theo did as a child, but there was more to it than learning all the different ways to hold a knife and fork. Ron learned that Theo was an elder brother, with a sister called Marian 4 years below him, and from the sounds of it, very protective of his sister. He would teach her quidditch and mess around with her all the time in the house to the nuisance of his parents, unless of course they had other adults coming around, then they would be on their best behaviour. Maybe Slytherin Purebloods went so different to his lot at all, Ron mused.
