It was Sunday morning, and the great hall was about half full with students enjoying a late breakfast when a rumor started to swirl about someone having broken into Snape's personal store room. Half the students talked about who would have the sheer gall to both cross Snape and conduct a crime that would surely lead to expulsion. The other half excitedly discussed what Snape could have locked away that would be worth such risk in stealing.

"Someone would have to be crazy," George said as he loaded his plate with scrambled eggs and sausage. He noticed Hermione giving him a surprised look. "Crazier than us. I'll joke about stealing from Snape. But actually doing it would be mental. Do you imagine he could be in a fouler mood?"

Harry looked over at Ron, who would normally be happy to join in on such a conversation, but with his situation with Snape already at a low, he sat there quietly, barely eating. Neville sat nearby, silently staring at his food. Harry then had a thought. "You and..." Harry caught himself before he added 'Hermione' and caused further damage. "You were in that part of the castle last night," Harry started, referring to the detention. "Did you see anything suspicious?"

Ron shook his head, hardly looking up from his plate. "Malfoy showed up and was surprised to see us there. But I think he was just there to kiss up to Snape."

Hermione tried to look chipper, clearly glad to have detention behind her. She looked at them over the top of The Daily Prophet. "It will serve someone right. They'll catch whoever did this. Until then, we're all going to suffer."

Seamus had been listening, and joined in. "But what do you think was taken?"

Fred nodded his approval of the topic. "It could have been the cauldraunus, but I bet Snape has a lot of cool things worth taking, to include some dangerous spell components. You always hear stories of students secretly trying to brew up something either dangerous or forbidden."

Harry and Hermione made eye contact and exchanged knowing looks as they nodded at that very real possibility.

George picked up where Fred left off. "Of course, Snape has confiscated enough interesting items from students over the years, and rumor has it has a regular treasure trove of interesting and useful items."

Fred agreed. "The student who can get his hands on that is worthy of envy."

o O O

Two weeks had passed since the excitement of the break-in, and the castle had quieted down a bit. Students had grown tired of discussing what might have been stolen from Snape. Ron and Neville were attending an extra remedial potions session with Snape every week, and Harry noticed that both Ron and Neville were getting much better at potions.

Neville's transformation had been virtually overnight. This wasn't horribly surprising because Neville always paid attention in class and gave everything a good effort. The very next class Neville had produced a spot-on potion which would have received a passing grade had he not clumsily knocked his cauldron on the floor before it could be inspected by Professor Snape. But what startled Harry is how quickly Ron was making progress and that he was no longer looking about for help when brewing potions.

o O o

A few days later Harry found himself again in potions class working feverishly on a difficult potion. He stirred slowly, hoping his potion would turn a light, bubbly lavender. At the moment it was dark blue, and he was perhaps imagining it starting to lighten up. He looked over at Hermione who was already ahead of him. Her potion had attained the lavender color and she was now adding her ground Mandrake leaves. He glanced over at Ron and Neville and was slightly surprised they had just about reached the right color. Harry wasn't great at potions, but he shuddered at the thought that his would be the worst potion at the table. He kept trying to sneak peeks to see if Ron or Neville might try to use a cauldraunus. Every time he looked up, Ron seemed to notice and give him an irritated look in return.

Ron's extra session with Snape was only one night each week, but Harry noticed it was getting harder and harder to find Ron even on nights when he didn't have a session with Snape. He would invariably return at the last moment when the other students had to be back in their house's common rooms. At first Harry left him alone, but as his concern increased, he started asking Ron where he had been. Ron was always very vague about what he had been doing and where he had been, as if just annoyed about the whole ordeal.

That night in the common room, Harry discussed with Hermione what was bothering him.

"Ron has been acting very odd lately." Harry began. "Like tonight. Where is he? When he comes back really late, I ask him, and he just gets irritated."

Hermione wasn't nearly as interested as Harry was. "At least his potions are improving. That's what we should be focused on. Perhaps he's in the library studying."

Harry practically snorted with laughter, but quickly composed himself when he realized Hermione was serious. She was always serious about studying. But Harry didn't want to admit he had already thought about the library and had checked there a number of times hoping to find Ron.

Some in the school were ready to accuse Ron of stealing the cauldraunus, and even suggested Harry had helped him since they were best mates. Harry had been the subject of much worse rumors, but still, he and Hermione had discussed this repeatedly when Ron wasn't around, which was often.

His improvement at potions was impressive, and the question that lingered was whether studying alone would help Ron that much. Hermione, always a champion of studying, was having a hard time admitting that perhaps it couldn't help Ron that much, after all. They agreed to watch Ron more closely, hoping the cauldraunus rumor was just that: a rumor.