Ron stared at the picture before him for the longest moment. Even if the animal had chosen him, Ron still couldn't see the connection. He could understand an owl, an eagle. He smiled a little bit, thinking about it, yeah he could understand something majestic like an Eagle. But. A weasel? Ron grumbled a little looking at the picture before him. The weasel didn't even have any useful properties! That was to say, any magical properties.
A lion. Symbol of his house. Lion's were brave, strong, quick, cunning, the King of Cats! That's what he'd wanted to change it to. Professor Langdon disapproved it though, insisted that lion wasn't practical. After all there weren't any lions running around in London.
"Stupid weasel." Ron muttered slamming the book in front of him shut. "A weasel. Me." Ron hated it even more than it would probably encourage people to make the connection between Weasley and weasel. He was a seventh year for Merlin's sake, he was not about to be teased again. Ever. He'd helped defeat the dark Lord. If that didn't deserve some damn respect he didn't know what else could!
"You think your animal is bad? Try having your animal be a raven." The voice from behind Ron was wonderfully soft. Soft, it caressed him, wrapping around his senses. The voice accompanied a wonderful smell, floral, like freesia, orange blossom, and something else. Ron didn't know, hell he didn't know anything about flowers. He knew those two because they'd littered Percy's wedding to Penelope. That smell had overloaded his senses, this smell though, was lighter, different.
"A raven, why the hell is that so bad? At least you'd be able to fly." Ron's head turned following the long legs as they sat in front of him. Connected to Daphne Greengrass. Ron was shocked, extremely shocked, the Slytherin girl was talking to him, more than that he wanted to talk to her. Ron hated to admit it, but he'd never noticed how gorgeous the girl was, with long, sleek, straight black hair, so different from Hermione's. Her steel blue eyed pegged him where he sat.
"I suppose, if I wasn't terrified of flying. That and Raven's get a pretty bad wrap. Not just in the wizarding world. When I was doing my research it would seem that they are a bit of a bad omen in the muggle world." Ron stared at Daphne, unsure of what to say. She looked at the book in front of her, reading something quickly before her eyes shot up to Ron's face. "Well are you going to say something or continue to look at me like I'm speaking parseltongue?"
"Why are you talking to me?" Ever the literary giant, Ron couldn't help the worlds that tumbled out of his mouth. Daphne's back stiffened and she closed the book, her thin lips disappearing in a hard line.
"I'm sorry. I'll just leave you alone. I figured as we both hated our animal we might have something to talk about." With that Daphne stood up gracefully, walking away from Ron, the hels she wore clicked softly on the carpet of the library. As she walked away Ron slapped his forehead grumbling to himself. He always managed to do dumb shit like that. Leaving the book he'd grabbed on the table Ron grumbled all the way to the Gryffindor common room, until he was sitting beside Harry who was busy talking Quidditch tactics with Ginny.
"Are you going to tell us what you're so irritated about or leave us to guess?" Harry asked after a good ten minutes of listening to Ron muttered under his breath. Harry hadn't cared to try and make out too many of the words. After all Ron had a tendency to be a little dramatic. That and, even though he hated to admit it, Ginny was the only one he'd ever shared it with, Harry didn't feel the same towards Ron since he'd left. Sure, the ginger haired man had came back but, not for Harry. No, he'd come back for Hermione.
"He's mad about his animal for one. Seamus told me earlier that he was going up to do some research on the weasel." Ginny spoke up pulling her legs off of Harry's lap at the glare Ron shot at them. He didn't like how Harry's hand had slowly been higher, and higher on his sisters thigh.
"Shut up Ginny. Why don't you go and pester someone else instead of sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong. Where's Hermione?" Ron asked not caring at the very pissed off girl who abruptly stood almost taking Harry with her.
"You're such a git Ronald. It's not wonder that Hermione's with Malfoy right now!" Ginny knew what she was saying, knew that it would get under Ron's skin the most.
"Oi! What do you mean she's with Malfoy?" Ron asked sitting up straight. "Ginny, you get back here and explain!" The furious look on his sister's face stiled Ron.
"You cannot order me around Ronald Billius Weasley! I am not some play thing. I'm your sister, and I deserve some damn respect. God knows I'm the only reason." Ginny stopped her words, blue eyes narrowing. "Goodnight Harry, I'll see you in the morning." Her voice changed, genuinely sweet as she left, heading up to the girl's dormitories.
"Now you've done it." Harry muttered putting the papers don't he'd been holding, throwing himself back against the sofa. "I've got to deal with that now." Harry waved at where Ginny had disappeared.
"Sorry mate." Ron did look sorry, so much that Harry waved him off. "You know, it's scary how much he looks like Mum sometimes." Ron's head was down, voice low as he spoke. Harry didn't say anything, but nodded. He'd come to terms with it a long time ago, one day he would be married to Molly Weasley, just in Ginny Weasley form. He was surprisingly okay with the idea.
"Hey, what did she mean by Hermione's with Malfoy? Are they off doing some Head duties that you're not included in?" Harry looked at Ron, a little astonished that he didn't remember. They had all been at the library earlier. Was he really that thick? What in Merlin's name got him so wound up he forgot Hermione had her animagus training?
"No mate, remember, Professor Langdon slotted Hermione and Malfoy to do their animagus training tonight." Harry chose his words carefully, trying not to get angry with his best friend. Immediately, light hit Ron's eyes as he remember.
"Oh, oh yeah." Ron's intelligible answer made Harry roll his eyes.
"So, are you going to tell me what it was that had you in such a rut when you came into the common room?" Harry asked knowing that Ron still felt they were best friends.
"Yeah, I was in the library studying and well." Ron stopped talking, rubbing the back of his neck ashamedly. "Daphne Greengrass sat down to talk to me." Harry felt as if his eyes would pop out of his skull.
"Daphne Greengrass?" Harry was shocked. Normally girl's didn't talk to Ron. Well, at least not many girls. In his opinion Lavender didn't count. She had been some banshee out of the lowest depths of Merlin's cauldron. Pretty girls, pretty Slytherin girls especially didn't talk to Ron. "What did she say?"
"She started to talk about her animal, as if we had conversation on an every day basis! I had no idea what to do." Ron admitted. "I sort of panicked." Harry groaned knowing what probably came next.
"I, I sort of insulted her." Harry shook his head looking at Ron.
"Way to go mate."
"The thing is though, I wanted to talk to her? She smelled so good, and man her legs just didn't stop. I want to talk to her, but Harry she's a Slytherin." For a moment Harry felt his blood run cold listening to his best friend talk about the girl who'd talked to him at the library.
"Yeah mate. That's the important part." Harry held his tongue as best he could though he wanted to say a lot more. "Remember how you messed up talking to the Slytherin girl, and not how you forgot about Hermione." Ron stared daftly at his best friend as he stood, making his way up to the boys dormitories.
(A/N - LunarPotion, I hope this clears a few things up. I'll have another chapter up tomorrow, maybe later tonight depending, so don't fret too much!)