Ron's POV

Through Hogwarts Halls

Harry was ranting about all the trials that had nearly stopped him.

"So, a house elf shows up in my room, we can't get through the platform, we almost get killed by a tree!" Kinda sounds like he's setting up for a bad joke. "Clearly someone doesn't want me here."

He's sorta right. I mean, these aren't even counting what I've done.

Well, except for the tree. But he is right about even the fact that there is a murderous tree on the grounds. I figured out about it on a walk through the grounds last year, memorizing them for better use. But Hermione's gonna freak when she learns about it.

Then we heard a malicious voice float over.

"Well take a good look lads. This night might well be the last you spend in this castle." I felt my spirits rise as I heard Filch's voice.

"Oh dear, we are in trouble…"

His smile was unmistakable, as he led us off to a professor's office.

And, wouldn't you know it, things kept looking up!

Instead of bringing us to anyone who might be sympathetic, he escorted us to Snape's office!

I don't care how many times Hermione's protested about how Snape saved Harry last year on the Quidditch field. He didn't. She did. And we only had the word of a loopy guy with Voldemort growing on his head as proof that Snape was a good guy.

As far as I was convinced, he was the closest thing I had to an ally.

And as he ranted on how we were about to be expelled (with me feeding his rage with a few sardonic jibes) I was convinced something was going my way.

Until Dumbledore and McGonagall showed up.

At first I thought No way can they excuse this! Harry just got an official warning over the summer!

"We'll go get our stuff, then" I said, hoping to clue in our head of house on what our punishment should be.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Weasley?"

No no, this couldn't be happening!

"You're going to expel us, aren't you?" I prompted.

"Not today."

That was all I heard before I tuned her out.

Impress on us the seriousness of our actions, give us detention, whatever.

Never underestimate the power of blatant favoritism.

Hermione's POV

Herbology class

Greenhouse 3

I really don't understand what Ron could possibly be complaining about, when he says that Harry's lucky.

The Whomping Willow? What on Earth is the Whomping Willow? A house elf (who has nothing to do with Ron or I) tries to get him expelled. Then the boys nearly kill themselves crashing into the barrier.

To make things even better, there just happens to be a flying car hanging around.

I mean, what is wrong with the world?

Now, we're repotting mandrakes.

Yes, mandrakes.

And although Professor Sprout told us they were only babies, I knew Ron would manage to sneak in a grown up. Not to mention, sabotage a pair of earmuffs.

And I was right. I could sense that one earmuff had less magic on it than others.

As Professor Sprout pulled her mandrake out, however, I realized there may be something to Ron's luck theory.

"Uh, Longbottom's been neglecting his earmuffs?"

"No mam, he just fainted!"

Whatever. This wouldn't have worked, even on Harry, because Neville was unconscious. If Harry had those earmuffs (as Ron had intended) he'd be unconscious, but that would give no lasting harm.

There must be something else…

There was. The adult mandrake among the group wasn't an adult after all. It was a specific one, keyed to Harry's ears, that once it screamed for a certain amount of time, the magic would build enough to kill him.

But I couldn't tell which one was it, because the screaming muddled my mind. It muddled all of ours, but mine was the only one that counted right here, right now.

I could tell there was something off in one of the cries, but couldn't tell which one…

Then, briefly, it stopped.

I looked to see Malfoy had stupidly stuck his finger in a mandrake's mouth. Painful, but it saved Harry. By the time he freed his finger, I had gotten the curse off.

Ron's POV

In his dorms

I was rummaging through my bags later that morning, right before lunch, when I found a package that wasn't clothes or other normal belongings.

Upon closer inspection, I felt my heart pick up. Could it be that I had stowed away a few trinkets that might help?

My suspicions were confirmed!

Inside were about seven thick glass orbs, each containing a swirling black mist. Or shadow.

Commonly called Shadow creatures, by the few that knew about them, they were monsters that only existed in shadows, and did not have corporal forms. However, what they could do was drag their victims into the shadows. A human can't survive as just a shadow, so this kills them.

And they're really hard to defeat. Well, except that a stunningly bright light will kill them quickly.

But if I sic enough of these on Harry, well, by the time Hermione's blasted numerous bright lights randomly (not to mention when she starts jumping at every shadow), well, eventually Harry's gonna question her sanity.

And if one gets by (they're hard to sense), well, I'm home free.

Just then I received a message in a two way mirror, responding to my request of a new wand from my agency:

R.T.

We've processed your request, and will create you a new wand. As you should know, it will take a few weeks. Afterward, you must create a bond with it, so that its loyalty will always remain with you, even in the case of defeat in battle. This is also necessary so that wand's magic will remain in peak form.

However, this process of bonding is time consuming, and requires an extensive amount of magical equipment. We will only be able to proceed once you arrive back at the base. We trust that you are aware of this, and have, consequently, not made any actions that would require you to receive your wand now.

Dark Moon

Something in the message made me bristle.

It was clear that, by this last sentence, they knew that I had made a foolish decision.

I felt like throwing the mirror down, after rereading the message until it faded away.

I had too much to prove with this mission, and I couldn't afford certain superiors to think I wasn't cut out for it.

I always had worked my hardest all throughout my training. I always performed better than the other trainees. Still there were some who had doubted that the child of non-Dark Moon agents could ever surpass the children born into the Dark Moon. Many of our senior agents, who had fought against, and defeated, our rival assassin agency, Nightshade, said any infant children of the deceased Nightshade agents should not even have been taken in. Most of the children who were partial agents, or agents in training, had their minds wiped, and were sent to orphanages. The few infants were taken in by Dark Moon, to raise as new assassins.

My point is, there are a lot of people watching and judging my performance, and my mistake with my wand is giving them something to comment over. I would have to work harder, to prove myself, but with my wand broken, this was gonna be really tough. Right now, it felt impossible.

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Great Hall

Resigned to the fact that I would need to use a broken wand for the rest of the year, I started grudgingly taping my wand together.

This whole fiasco with my wand was not only hampering, but highly humiliating.

"Say it," I muttered to myself, glancing over at Harry. "I'm doomed."

He heard me, and nodded all condescendingly. "You're doomed."

Anger and humiliation were already irking me, and this last thing set me off.

I released a Shadow creature from my pocket.

Hermione perked up slightly, sensing dark magic, but it would be too late.

The monster, lightning fast, reared up to attack him-

"Hi Harry!"

Flash!

"I'm Colin Creevey! I'm in Gryffindor too!"

Who the hell is 'Colin Creevey'?

Really, I just happened to have a great attack, and a kid with a huge camera materializes out of nowhere to join Harry's fanclub?

Then we all heard an owl's cry, and I released another shadow creature.

It would be my luck that, just as the horrible owl crashed (I had bewitched the useless thing to try and dive bomb Harry with magically poisoned claws but it wasn't strong enough to get that far), another flash went off, killing the second.

Patience, I thought to myself, seething. Use them later. Look at your surroundings. Find what maybe a potential threat, and make it so.

The owl held a howler. This may work to my advantage.

For the second time that day, I used a spell (it took a few tries) and added a mandrake cry to the howler, one keyed to Harry.

It was a little faulty. It would come at the end. Hopefully Hermione hadn't noticed.

I was having a horrible day. Listening to that witch I was supposed to call my mother scream at me for wrecking the car, not to mention the amused, scared, and, in Harry's case, bewildered expressions, just made me angrier.

This had better work.

Hermione's POV

I really don't understand Ron's reason for destroying his wand. It baffles me.

All it's done right now is make his spellwork unpredictable, shoddy, and messy.

It wasn't even much of a challenge to get the mandrake spell off (I actually had to replace it).

And at first I relished the look on his face, trying to hide his fury with a look of shock and terror at being scolded by his mother.

But as the howler blew a giant raspberry at him, the look in his eyes was so full of uncomprehending at this nightmare of a day for him, that I almost flashed him a look of sympathy. Fortunately, I disguised it as a look of disgust (presumably because the howler had shredded itself on my book.)

I wasn't sure what Ron was so angry about.

He'd been foiled before, many times. It probably had something to do with his wand, and I'm sure Mr. Weasley isn't the only one who will receive inquiries at work. No agent is supposed to harm their host family, physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially… And by destroying a prized asset of theirs, well, he'd be in trouble for sure.

And there was the matter of his wand…

Whatever the reason was, it was the first time I'd felt a little sorry for him.

Being an assassin can't be easy.

Especially, the more self-confident part of me thought, with a top level protective agent safeguarding your target.

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Hey all! Glad to see you guys are still reading! I feel horrible about how late my last chapter was :( I'm really trying to turn more out. And I swear, the more reviews, the more updates!

So please review!

(And to Hermione fans, sorry if there aren't as many POVs from her. Book two is interestingly Ron focused, but I'm trying to strike a balance when I can.

Please review!