I do believe that before I begin, I need to write a forward for this chapter. As I start writing this, my story has eight reviews, so that's six more than what I had for the previous chapter, or a 300% improvement, so thank you so much for that. Please keep reviewing this fic because it gives me motivation.

I apologize for the forward, but I feel like I need to write this-

The treatment Ron receives on this website is appalling. I recently got back into HP fanfiction after a long time, I'd left because of all the stories that just seemed to bash him left and right, and maybe I should have done something about it, perhaps I should have tried to fix it by writing a story in which Ron was treated right, I don't know, it was just infuriating.

I'm 21 years old, and I did grow up with the books. I read the books before watching the movies, and the character of Ron always spoke to me more profoundly than any other character, because he seemed like someone you could easily relate to. We all grow up with several insecurities, and while Harry and Hermione are prodigies (one is the Chosen One, the other is amazingly smart), Ron is average even when compared to his siblings. Among everyone in his family who can fly, his flying is depicted in the most negative manner (not once has any other Weasley performed bad in a quidditch match ever), his love life isn't anything to write home about, his grades are alright, they're nothing special. In short, he's average.

I related to him being average, because I consider myself to be just about average. I related to not having much of a love life, I related to him being overshadowed by more successful siblings, he was a real person who had serious flaws, he was a jealous git, but it was okay because sometimes, we are all just big, jealous gits. We are all emotionally insecure at that age too, another thing that drew me to him. But despite all of that, Ron was still a wonderfully brave character. I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes, he did, but he did do good things, his moments of stupidity have been well punctuated by his moments of greatness, like every, other person ever.

I re-watched the movies, and then the Ron hatred became clear. It's done by people who watch the movies, or tend to base their writing on the movies more than the books (which is alright by the way) All the great moments Ron has in the book, are given away to Hermione, rendering him nothing more than a buffoon who provides comic relief (a well played buffoon, Rupert Grint was by far the best actor in that trio). I don't know why I never picked that up, maybe I was too young, but I felt outraged at how Ron was treated so horribly by the scriptwriters of the movie. He's not actually like that in the books.

Another problem was the chemistry between Radcliffe and Watson, which led to people shipping Harry/Hermione (a ship I've made my peace with now), and many of the 'Harmony' shippers tend to just throw Ron by the wayside, I've read some pretty bad instances (one instance where Hermione literally dumps Ron for having a small organ) of this happening, and it's not fair.

Why did I say all this? Because I want to change that. I want to write about the Ron in the books. The emotionally insecure, but with a heart in the right place, Ron Weasley. He has his issues, but who doesn't? He doesn't deal with them in the best way always, but who ever does? I want to write about the Ron who stood up (literally) on a broken foot in front of Harry and told Sirius Black that if he wanted to take Harry, he was going to have to take him too. I want to write about the Ron who braved his fear of spiders so he could help save his best friend. I want to write about the Ron who's been loyal to a fault, yes, his loyalty has slipped, but he hasn't been malicious on purpose, like any other human being, he's had moments of stupidity, and he's had to face the consequences.

There aren't many Ron-centric fics here, which pisses me off because Ron Weasley is my favorite character. This story here is an attempt to change that.

Sorry for the long forward, but I felt like I had to write this.

I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. ENJOY THE STORY.

"I've seen Weasleys with dungbombs, and caught Weasleys in a compromising position before, but never have I seen even a single one in the library at this hour of the day"

I whipped my head to see Albus Dumbledore smiling at me. He hadn't changed much. I suppose it wasn't common for people as old has him to change, and maybe that was why I didn't notice anything different about him. He did seem to have full use of both his arms, and I know for a fact that the last time I had seen it, something had happened.

I had found out later that it was a horcrux that was responsible for this whole thing.

"You mean to say you've caught my mum and dad shagging haven't you?" I asked him bluntly, there was no point beating around the bush, plus Dumbledore was the kind of guy who'd find me saying all this really hilarious, and he did, because he began chuckling.

"I wouldn't quite put it like that Mr Weasley" he said with mirth in his voice. "But yes, I believe it was Minerva who caught them, and as she told me later on while reporting to me, they were indeed, copulating"

"That's disgusting" I said to him, and Dumbledore chuckled again. What was it with old bearded men chuckling all the time?

"Indeed Mr Weasley, I'm sure it's not something kids like to hear about their parents, yes" Dumbledore continued. "But I've grown old in this school, I've seen plenty of such incidents. Love blossoms here at Hogwarts, and it tends to give life to new people, almost like a way of giving back to the school" he continued saying. "Because of the love your mother and father have for each other, Hogwarts has gained six students, with another shortly on the way. I strongly believe that they're all meant to do great things Mr Weasley"

This hadn't happened the last time. Dumbledore and I had barely talked the last time, I don't think he even directly addressed me at any point, maybe when my father was attacked by You-Know-Who at the ministry while on guard duty, but I certainly couldn't remember any other instances. And yet this man had left me a deluminator.

The thing about Albus Dumbledore was that he planned. He was a chess player, much like me, and he planned his moves, like any other good chess player. The only problem was that Dumbledore was capable and influential enough to treat people as real life chess pieces, I didn't have that capability. I couldn't help but feel bitter over how he had gone about 'instructing' Harry on how to get rid of You-Know-Who, if you could even call it that. He'd given us fuck-all, had he told us what to do, I feel like we would be in a better place. For one thing that locket wouldn't exist, and whisper all the things that it whispered to me, and that alone could have held us together till we found the next one.

"So" Dumbledore said, mirthfully. "I see you are reading a potions book? Favorite subject?"

"No, Fred told me that Snape is really very hard on students of every other house and just looks for excuses to dock points from all of us, I'm just trying not to give him an excuse" I told Dumbledore, who seemed to frown a little bit at that. I wondered if anyone in the school was capable of really pissing off. I hadn't seen his duel with You-Know-Who at the Department Of Mysteries in our fifth year, but according to Harry he was really angry back then.

"Professor Snape, Ronald" he told me. I don't think I had ever been called that by him before. "And yes, I agree, he does behave harshly with his students, but he would never not reward genuine talent" he said to me. "He is far too honorable to not do that"

'And yet he was not honorable enough to not murder you' I thought bitterly when I heard Dumbledore defend Snape's honor.

"Oh my" Dumbledore said suddenly. "Look at the time, Ronald" he told me. "It's almost eight in the morning, now you wouldn't want to miss breakfast now, would you?" he asked me.

I shook my head.

"Well then off you trot" he told me. "And keep up the good habit of trying to, as the muggles in America say, 'keep your bases covered'" he said to me whilst chuckling. "Five points to Gryffindoor for preparation"

'CONSTANT VIGILANCE' I thought to myself. Mad-Eye was, well, mad, but I couldn't help but be fond of him. And it was with mixed emotions I left the library, and headed my way down to eat some breakfast.

-x-

"Where were you?" Harry asked me when I came to the table. He was sitting with my ever so jolly twin brothers, Fred and George, or as they often preferred being called, Gred and Forge.

"I'd gone to deliver an owl to mum, but then I realized I'd forgotten my quills so I went around the castle looking for a quill, when I didn't find anyone to loan me a quill, I decided to give up and came to the breakfast table" I told Harry. I had spent a lot of time with Hermione and I had long since realized that going to the library is not a bad thing at all, but an eleven year old Ron Weasley going to the library was not the kind of shocking news I wanted to be given.

I had a reputation as a third wheel to protect.

It took dying for me to realize just how desirable the position of the third wheel was. There wasn't much expectation on you, and yet you got your fair share of the glory, what more could a man want?

I am not going to lie to myself though, I want to beat Hermione at her own game this time. She was always the top student, always the one with the answers, I just wanted to see the look on her face when she would realize that someone had beaten her at her own game. Nothing like friendly competition to make friends.

"Ickle Ronnikins" Fred and George simultaneously exclaimed. It was amazing how in sync the two of them were.

"It's a shame-"

"That our mum-"

"Raised such a-"

"Forgetful child" George finished. Harry watched the entire exchange with an open mouth, which made me laugh.

"Shut your mouth or a blubbering humdinger is going to go inside it" I told him with a laugh, which made Fred, George and Harry laugh.

Laughter sets off a chain reaction, because soon Dean was laughing, as was Seamus. By the time Neville started laughing on the table I was sure that now people were laughing just because other people were laughing, and the meaning of the joke was lost. Our laughter didn't go unnoticed, as from the teacher's table, we saw McGonagall give us a disapproving stare, and at our very own table, almost like clockwork, Hermione threw me a disapproving stare.

'Rubbed off the wrong way Granger?' I thought to myself. This was fun, riling up Hermione. I always had fun with it, but when I realized that I was in love with her, and I was in love with our arguments. Her disapproving stare was very brief, as she quickly averted her eyes and went back to chatting with Neville, who looked significantly cowed at whatever she was saying.

"Blubbering Humdingers Fred?" George exclaimed.

"Why yes George" Fred said, dramatically.

"Where did our little brother-"

"Hear about such inane tripe?" they finished.

"Will you two stop doing that" I said. It was certainly endearing, but not for too long. I was happier that George had both ears to be listening with. "You're freaking Harry out"

"Ickle Ronnikins-" Fred continued.

"Defending his bestie?" George asked.

"Why certainly you are not-"

"Asking for a pranking"

"This food is really good George. I really want to enjoy it" I said to him, it was starting to get annoyed now. "Why don't you annoy Percy?" I asked him. Percy, who was not sitting far from us looked up and shot me another look of disapproval. It seemed like they were free and being handed out left and right to me.

"Percy!" Fred exclaimed with a look of horror on his face.

"Don't you mean" George said, and then there was a pause, I already knew where they were going with this.

"Yes, I know, Percy The Prefect" I told them. The twins began giggling and snorting again. Apparently being born on April Fools Day meant that you had the behavior of a fool.

Hermione had started talking to Percy at this point, she was going to be asking him about classes. They were very similar, both of them. Academically inherited, and had a hard on for the rules. They both took their prefect duties seriously as well, the only difference was that Hermione would never betray Harry and me, but Percy already had turned his back on our family.

I didn't have much moral ground on this either, because before I died for the very first time, I too had betrayed my best friend and the love of my life, and it was something I was going to fix in this life. My betrayal wasn't a very happy subject and a scowl began developing on my face, because all of a sudden, the twins stopped their chatter and began eating their food, and Harry looked worried.

"You okay mate?" he asked me with a certain amount of trepidation. I waved him off.

"Oh yeah" I told him. "They can get annoying sometimes, but they're still my brothers and I love them" I told him, which seemed to calm his nerves. I had never noticed how on edge Harry had been the last time we had done this. Why would I? I was different, and my emotional range was probably smaller than a pinch. I realized that it was new to Harry, all of this, and he was worried about what was going to happen. "I can't say the same for you though, you look nervous"

"I don't know" Harry trailed off. "What if I am complete pants as a wizard and they throw me out of Hogwarts?" Harry asked me. I gave him a once over. Over the years, Harry and I had become brothers in all but blood. He could talk to me about everything, I didn't know when it came to be that way, but I suppose surviving trolls, murderous plants, chess sets, spiders and every other god awful contraption that was invented in our world that we had to deal with as a team. We had to be ready to face a lot more, and if I did things right, then we were going to have to deal with a certain nose-less dark lord too.

"Don't worry" I told him, patting his back reassuringly. "I know you didn't grow up with wizard parents and have limited knowledge of this world, but a lot of muggleborns come here and they seem to get on just fine. You're not going to be pants as a wizard" I told him. "And if they throw you out, I'm coming with you" I told him. Harry had a grateful look in his eyes when he heard me say that.

"I'll say" Fred said, he had heard what I had said to Harry.

"Ickle Ronniekins has gotten sappy" George finished.

"Wow, marmalade" I said, purposefully ignoring the twins, and it set us all off again as we began laughing.

"Hey Harry" I told him, it had taken me a while to remember what Snape's first class was like, but I knew the questions he was going to ask Harry, and I wanted him to be prepared.

"What is it Ron?" he asked me as he buttered his toast.

"I've heard something positively scandalous" I told him with as much dramatic flair as I could. There was some childlike glee in Harry's face now, he was eager to hear what I had heard.

"Oh yeah?" he asked me. "What is that?"

"Apparently, if you add a powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood, you get something called The Draught Of Living Death" I told him. "Isn't that amazing?"

He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, before nodding, not quite sure what to make of this information.

-x-

Classes began in earnest, and I had to say, they were quite boring. I hadn't realized how easy it was, but I had been a first year the last time I had attended first year.

Don't you just love redundancy?

Tonight we were going to have to look in the sky. Hermione had once told me that the muggles had put a man on the moon, which was incredible in and of itself. I had no idea that that was even possible, but apparently it was. However it had ended in another row when I had pointed out the uselessness of sending someone to the moon, after all, Hermione herself had told me that it was nothing more than a bunch of rocks. To me, it looked like a big ball of cheese that would be really delicious to bite into and something those pretentious rich people enjoyed while drinking wine. So that was Astronomy, and apparently we were going to have to study that soon.

Then there was Herbology, and Neville was the resident Herbology genius, I made a mental note to go over and ask him questions regarding our coursework in Herbology. It was a respectable field and everything, but I could never really get into it. After this war situation was sorted out, I wanted to be an auror, so maybe I was going to have to focus on Herbology a lot more. Professor Sprout hadn't changed much either, still plump and matron like. Reminded me of my mum.

Then there was the History Of Magic. I groaned as I saw Hermione take down copious amounts of notes. This was a completely useless subject and I wasn't going to make much of an effort to pass this, it was not like I was going to return and take this after my OWL year anyway, so what was the point. I decided to spend that class playing Hangman with Harry, which was fun. It wasn't much fun when Binns caught us, but we managed to throw off the ghostly teacher by telling him we were really just talking about history. He gave us both five points each.

'Take that' I thought to myself, 'I'm on ten points already. Hermione would go spare if she found out.'

Flitwick was fun, not only is he a very clever teacher, I had learned last year that his size was only present to fool people, underneath that squeaky exterior was a fierce warrior and duelist you did not want to cross, and he didn't need liquid luck to be good either. It was however hilarious to see him topple out of sight when he read Harry Potter's name in the register.

The two classes I was personally looking forward to were Potions and Transfiguration. I wasn't bad at either, but I wasn't good either. Hermione had often told me that if I had practiced, I'd be just as good as anyone else could be, and I hadn't believed her. However the thing with Hermione Granger was she often tended to be right, and I had decided to practice. These first year spells were pretty easy anyway.

The great thing about McGonagall was how much of a softie she really was. IT was well known that she was a die-hard quidditch fan that'd put me to shame if it came down to exhibiting our knowledge about the game. She was also a wonderful chess player, although I had beaten her chess set and I was looking forward to maybe beating her some day too.

We were almost late for her class, courtesy of Harry getting lost and me waiting for him outside the class to arrive. When we entered, we saw her standing there, looking very imposing and regal.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." she told the entire class. I couldn't help but believe her when she said it, she really was a no nonsense kind of woman.

Then she changed her desk into a pig, and I looked around, and everybody's faces were wide with anticipation. I laughed, we weren't going to be doing anything awesome like that for quite some time. I probably shouldn't have laughed out loud because McGonagall looked at me, and she was most definitely not impressed.

"Is anything funny Weasley?" she asked me icily.

"No" I said, rather too quickly. There were some sniggers upon seeing my predicament. McGonagall shushed them all just by raising her wand. It was clear to me even back in the day that she was capable of maintaining the order of her classroom without having to say very much.

"During my time teaching here, I've dealt with two different kinds of Weasleys" she told everyone. "They are either studious, or they are looking to make trouble"

'Great, well done Fred and George' I thought to myself.

"I really hope you are the former Weasley, because if you're not, then you're going to be in trouble, much like your older twin brothers" she told me.

"Message received" I told her. I shouldn't have done that, she docked me a point for being cheeky and thus earning me the scowls of my fellow Gryffindors.

This was followed by something I was most certainly not looking forward to, and that was note taking. There were notes, copious amounts of notes. I had done well in Transfiguration, well enough to understand all of this, but I also had the advantage of reliving my life and getting to keep all the memories. Some others were not so lucky. I watched as the notes continued being taken, and people started getting lost. The only person who seemed to not be bothered by it was Hermione, who continued furiously scribbling whatever McGonagall was telling us.

Then came the practical part of the class, we had to change a matchstick into a pin. Simple enough, even first years didn't have a problem with it, but as I watched other people struggling (which included Harry) I realized just how not prepared we were to deal with anything at that age, and yet Harry had found a way to beat You Know Who.

Well, he had gotten lucky, but you've gotta have some bollocks to even face that guy. Grown ass men couldn't do it, Harry himself had lost his parents because their best friend had betrayed them, all out of fear for the man.

"She is really harsh isn't she?" Harry commented as I watched Hermione scratching her chin. In five years, I was going to find this incredibly irresistible.

"Come on" I told Harry, trying to put his fear at bay. "She's a sweetheart deep down" I told him.

Harry just stared at what I said before finally saying- "Maybe, probably really deep"

He wasn't joking, it was just childish sincerity with which he said it, which made me almost laugh. I held it in but I had made a sound, and McGonagall was onto me again.

She came over and looked at me with a stern expression on her face.

"We have got to stop meeting like this" I told her, before slapping myself. This was Ron Weasley going out of character, I screamed internally, don't do this. I was fully prepared to face detention, and maybe an even worse docking of points, but McGonagall had a slight grin on her face, almost like I reminded her of someone. I wondered what that was.

"You fancy yourself as a funny man Weasley?" she asked me, ever the same icy expression on her face. I shook my head.

"Go on then" she told me. "Let's see how funny your transfiguration is, I haven't seen you try even once" she told me.

I had two options, fail miserably like I would in my old life, or do well and impress McGonagall. If I impressed McGonagall, I'd impress Hermione too.

'I need to stop thinking about everything like I'm trying to impress Hermione' I chided myself.

"Mr Weasley, are you going to wait till tomorrow?" McGongall asked me with an impatient look on her face. "Go ahead and perform the spell" she told me.

I had done this several times over, I knew how to do this well, I knew how not to do this well, but there was no middle ground. I waved my wand and said the incantation, and my match changed into a needle.

There was a gasp and the entire classroom was silent after that. From the corner of my eye, I could see a wondrous expression on Harry's face. I was tempted to take the transfigured needle and drop it on the floor and I was sure I'd hear it hit the ground.

It seemed like a while before I saw a smile on McGonagall's face. She was impressed.

'AHA' I said to myself.

Harry began clapping, and the rest of the class joined in. Hermione Granger didn't, she was looking at me with an unreadable expression on her face, and I felt my heart sink like a stone in water. I was sure that this stunt was going to earn me her admiration, then why wasn't it?

"Would you look at that Weasley? It seems like you're quite talented at transfiguration" McGonagall told me with a hint of a smile on her face. "But that doesn't give you free reign to joke around in my class, is that understood?" she asked me.

"Yup" I said, waving my wand and changing the needle back into a matchstick. McGonagall raised her eyebrows at my display.

"Ten points to Gryffindor" she said, if you could hear it carefully, I swear there was a certain amount of pride. It wasn't very big, but it sure was there.

The class ended soon, but no one else had managed to change the matchstick. Hermione had managed to get her matchstick silver, and pointy, and had earned a look of approval from McGonagall, but I was the only one who had managed to do the spell properly.

"That was brilliant mate" Harry told me earnestly, and I thanked him.

"It wasn't that hard really, as easy as getting a bezoar" I told him. Harry's eyes widened, he hadn't heard of that before.

"What's a bezoar?" he asked me.

"It's a powerful stone found in a goat's stomach" I told him. "It cures most poisons." I said seriously. 'Saved my sorry arse once too' I didn't say that last part out.

"Ugh Ron?"

"What is it Harry?"

"Bezoars don't really sound very easy to get" he told me.

-x-

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

I knew why nothing had been taken, Hagrid had taken away the package with Harry. I came across the newspaper cutting just lying on the floor like that and had picked it up.

I hadn't mentioned anything about a break in on the train, it had happened on his birthday, when Harry saw me holding the article, he asked to borrow it for a minute.

I wasn't sure if I wanted Harry to go down this road again, I could use my knowledge of the future to secure the stone, but if Harry wouldn't have the experiences he had while doing all the things he did, he wouldn't be the wizard he was today. I couldn't stop him from having adventures, but I sure could watch his back while he had them.

"This was on my birthday!" Harry exclaimed. He showed me the date under the headline. "Can you believe that? I was there" he told me excitedly. "In fact, before we got the money from my vault, Hagrid picked up a small package from-" he paused, his overactive imagination running wild.

"Wait a second" he said to me, we were descending the steps that would take us to the dungeons. Neville and Hermione were with us too, although both of them looked unhappy. I knew why Neville was unhappy, he had heard scary things about Snape, Hermione's displeasure on the other hand was probably directed at him, something he didn't understand.

"Harry" I told him, trying not to be too harsh. "I know what you're trying to say, but let's not get carried away here" I told him. Harry looked kind of disappointed that I wasn't willing to run with that, but then he shrugged it off.

"Do you know the gamekeeper? Hagrid?" he asked me

"Yeah, he's an alright bloke" I told him, Harry nodded and smiled.

"Well, he invited me to his cabin, do you think you'd like to come along?"

"Yeah sure" I told him. "But I won't be there too long because I really have to go and owl my mother" I told him, Harry nodded.

"Hey Hermione" I called out to her, Neville and Harry, who by now were aware that she disliked me immensely looked at the scene with bated breath.

"What is it?" she snapped.

"I bet you can't tell me the difference between monkshood, wolfsbane and aconite" I challenged her.

"Everyone knows that they are the same thing" she told me, with a smug smile on her face.

"Wow" I said appreciatively. I dug in my pocket and pulled out a knut. "I did not expect you to get that"

"It's really very simple" Hermione almost snapped. She saw me holding the knut in my hands and waved it off.

"Keep it" she told me. "From what I heard about your family, I think you really need it" she said.

The temperature around us dropped nearly thirty degrees. Harry and Neville stared at Hermione with wide eyes, we had stopped walking. Even they knew it was not the right thing to say, hell, even the look on Hermione's face told me that she had said something wrong, because it was clear that there was a look of guilt on her face.

I'd heard comments about our family's wealth, it had bothered me and I could never say I was over it, I hated accepting charity when Harry even offered it to me, but as long as it was someone I hated, I could deal with it, because my friends never said something like that to me. However coming from Hermione, it was like a punch to the gut.

'I deserve it, I'm getting punished by the universe for being a traitor' I thought to myself. I wondered what I had to do to get Hermione to like me, maybe it really was hopeless till Halloween, and I would indeed have to save her from a troll again. Either way, hearing it from her wasn't something I was expecting and I couldn't deal with that, so I walked away in a huff.

-x-

"You should ignore her Ron" Harry told me, but I really wasn't in the mood to say anything. Harry sensed that and shut up, I couldn't have talked to him any longer than that anyway, because Snape walked in. And there was an awed silence when he entered. We were doing the classes with the Slytherins too, and I was really not in the mood to deal with any of this right now.

I was angry, not at Hermione, I was angry at myself. She was a child, eleven years old, she could say some things and not mean it, but why the hell was I letting it affect me. I had to be stronger than this, I can't let things like this bring me down.

"I told her off for you Ron" Harry told me, trying to reassure me. I looked at him and I smiled, just so he could stop feeling bad himself. It worked because he grinned, however we had drawn Snape's attention.

Snape did not like Harry.

Okay, that was an understatement. Snape hated Harry.

I really hoped all the information I had dropped was something that Harry had remembered, and that they were indeed the right questions, because it had taken me a whole hour to actually recollect that one class.

"Harry Potter" he said, disdain evident in his voice. "Our new celebrity"

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. I was struck by his eyes. His eyes were cold, and dark.

'The eyes of a murderer' I thought to myself. I didn't know if it was possible to hate a man as much as I hated Snape. Dumbledore had put his trust in him, and all it had gotten him was a knife in the back. If I wanted to earn detention, I would spit on him. I was almost ready to do it.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but I was sure that the class caught every word. Much like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "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."

He looked at me when he said it, I groaned internally. I knew that the potion we were going to brew was a simple solution to cure boils, so I was prepared, but I could see that even with preparation, it was hard. Snape had the tendency of making you extremely nervous.

I looked around, Harry was scared, Neville looked like he was going to piss his pants at any time. Hermione had a detached look on her face, I could tell she was feeling guilty about what she had said. Malfoy and his cronies looked confident, the others wanted to prove they weren't dunderheads. An admirable goal in life, I think.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked at me with a wide expression on his face, but it wasn't because he didn't know the answer, it was because I had told him. I pretended to look really shocked at the coincidence.

"Is the answer written on Weasley's face?" Snape asked him. More sniggering from the Slytherins, even Pansy Parkinson got on with it.

"No" Harry said defiantly.

"Do you know the answer?" Snape asked him.

"Yes"

"Yes, sir" Snape said coldly. "Now don't stand there like an idiot, answer the question"

"Draught Of The Living Dead? Sir?" Harry said, not quite sure about the answer.

Snape looked surprised, as did Hermione. That was weird, because I was pretty sure the last time Hermione had raised her hands to answer the question, maybe she was too distracted this time.

"Seems like someone has read the book on Potions before the class has started" Snape said, I couldn't help but feel like he was slightly surprised at the fact that Harry had answered.

"Let's see if that's a fluke" Snape continued. "Tell me Potter, where would one find a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat sir?" Harry said, he looked just as shocked as Snape and Malfoy did, and I figured it was my turn to snigger.

"Five points from Gryffindor for laughing" Snape said sharply, whilst turning to look at me. He glared at him, I figured that I'd rather not piss him off and just averted my eyes.

"Potter" Snape continued, he wasn't done by a long shot. "What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" he asked me. This time Hermione raised her hand, it seemed like she had gotten over her shock, or whatever she was feeling.

"They are the same thing sir" Harry said, more confidently. "It also goes by the name of Aconite" he told him with a measure of pride in his voice.

"Five points from Gryffindor for providing me with information I don't need" Snape said coldly. This fucked just wanted to dock points for the hell of it. However he left Harry well enough alone after that, at least in terms of asking questions.

"Pair up" he said to all of us, and we did. I went with Harry, because we were going to need it. Hermione was paired up with Lavender, I couldn't help but not be struck by the irony of that situation.

'You won't be pairing up in the sixth year' I said to myself with a smile on my face.

"What a moron" I whispered to Harry as he came over with the ingredients that were on the blackboard, as I recalled (correctly), it was a potion to cure boils. Which was good, because I had practiced.

Turns out Hermione was right, because my study of potions and ingredients meant that I knew exactly why things were being done in a particular way, and I worked with Harry. It was amazing that although this was a new life, we still gelled as well as we did towards the end of the previous one. I even managed to get Harry to perfectly crush the snake fangs.

Snape swept around the classroom like he was a bat in a cave, hovering from cauldron to cauldron, none were safe from his thinly veiled insults and criticisms. Someone had improper snake fangs, another did not do the measuring correctly. Malfoy wasn't criticized, which made me snort. Figures that Snape would be kind to Malfoy, he did murder Dumbledore for him after all.

"What is this?" Snape said as he came over our cauldron. "You've actually managed to do it right Potter, Weasley" he said to the both of us. "Who knew that the Weasleys had someone who was competent in the family?" he asked the entire class. I looked over towards Hermione, and she seemed like she was struck by another guilt pangs.

'Welcome to my world' I muttered, which made Harry ask me what I was saying.

"Concentrate Potter" Snape said to Harry. "It seems like you've taken after your mother when it comes to potion making"

That was interesting, hadn't heard that from Snape before. This was already different and fresh, however one thing was the same, and that was Neville screwing up the potion. I had completely forgotten about that, and now the cauldron that Seamus had, had melted and become a twisted blob.

Trying to be as discrete as possible, I conjured up a vial. Go figure, I actually know how to conjure things, and as Snape criticized Neville, I nicked some of the potion and put it in the vial, without getting any on myself, which was a great achievement. I was going to be more mature this time, but that didn't mean that I was not going to involve myself in petty revenge.

Seamus was excused from the class so he could take Neville (who had erupted in nasty boils) to the hospital wing while we were docked a point for not helping Neville. Snape wasn't biased at all.

-x-

"What a complete git" Harry said after the class was done. We had managed to make a potion that according to Snape was 'passable' (personally I thought it was brilliant) and we were docked another point because Harry wasted some potion while scooping it up.

"Gred and Forge told me that Snape docks points from all Gryffindors" I told him sympathetically. "It's no big deal, just ignore him"

"Do you actually call them Gred and Forge?" Harry asked me with an incredulous look on his face. I just nodded. I then looked at Hermione looking at me as we were exiting the dungeons, she was looking at me.

"You go on" I told Harry. "I have an apology to accept and a friend to make"

"You still didn't tell me how you knew-"

"Later Harry" I said impatiently, and he left. Hermione just stood there, grateful that I had sent Harry away.

We stood there, I didn't say anything because I wanted Hermione to look really, really guilty.

It was a whole minute before she finally spoke.

"I just wanted to apologize" she said to me, as slowly as she could, like it was killing her that she had done something wrong.

"Why?" I asked her. "You were telling the truth. We are poor" I told her, a little bit of bitterness began creeping in, but this was not the Hermione I was going to argue with, even if I did want to. She wasn't there yet.

"But it was such an awful thing to say" she told me.

"Yeah, it was, maybe I deserved it, I shouldn't have hugged you like that, I don't know what came over me" I told her.

"It's not the hug" she said to me. "It's that you're so good at classes-" she trailed off.

I raised my eyebrow.

"I've always been the best at studies" she said to me. "Always, everywhere. I thought I was the best here too quite frankly" she said, slowly regaining the bossy tone in her voice. "But you-"

"Here's some breaking news Hermione" I told her. "There is always someone better. I come from a family with seven children. My younger sister Ginny is the first daughter to be born to either the Weasley's in five generations. My older brothers have been Head Boy, Quidditch Captain, and Prefects. They're all good at studies and even Fred and George manage to get good grades" I told her. "No matter what I do, I'm always going to have to deal with the fact that someone in my family has done it before me"

Hermione looked aghast at that. "How can you say that?" she asked me. "You transfigured the match before anyone else, on your first try. I bet none of your brothers have done that" she told me.

"It doesn't really matter, what I want to say is that you can't feel bad because someone is better than you, because that is going to be your downfall" I knew what these words meant. I've been there, I'm living my downfall right now.

"Plus, I don't know everything, there are some things I want to know that I think you can teach me"

"What are you talking about?" she asked me. "You've done well in every class"

"Not class related" I told her. I figured that we needed to talk about something, and I knew just the thing. "You see, my dad is a nutter for Muggle made objects, goes barmy for them if I say so myself"

Hermione giggled when I said that. I continued- "And I want to thank him by giving him a gift, I thought I'd buy him something, but as you already know, we're poor" I said, and she began looking guilty again. "But I'm very interested in what Muggles make too, so what can you tell me about the fellytone?" I asked her.

Hermione laughed, and it wasn't a cruel laugh. She was amused. Good, things were returning to their status quo. "It's telephone Ron" she said.

"Yeah, I know, so how about it, you help me with muggle stuff because I want to know, and I'll help you in whatever way we can, we can benefit from the mutual arrangement of helping each other" I told her.

"It sounds like I want to be friends" she said to me.

"Yes" I told her. "Do you have any?" I asked her. She didn't answer for a while, before shaking her head.

"That's too bad then" I told her. "Because I think you'd make a great friend"

'Yes Ron' I thought to myself. 'Pump up that self esteem, give her a compliment, go on, just like the book'

"You really think so?" she asked me.

"Yeah, you're obedient, I'm disobedient. I need someone to keep me in check, and who better than you?" I asked her, smiling as I stuck my hand out. "Friends?" I asked her.

"Friends" she said, taking my hand and shaking it. "And I'm really sorry about the-"

"Oh forget about it" I said, I really meant it. I had forgotten about it. "Sorry about the hug" I told her.

"Sorry about your cousin" she said to me.

"There was no cousin, I had just gone barmy, sorry about that" she looked aghast at that.

"Sorry about your cousin if she had existed"

"What is this?" I asked her. "An apology contest?"

She giggled again, and I laughed. It felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulder.

"Now let's go, we're gonna go meet a half-human, half-giant" I told her. Her eyes widened.

"Are we really?"

"Yep" I said pulling her with me.

"Thank you" she said. "For offering to be my friend"

I waved it off. "Thanks for not making me fight a troll" I told her, laughing again at her puzzled expression.

-x-

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