Author's Note: Sorry about the time it took to update this. I was busy with other things.
It had taken some time, but by the following week, Beth and Alex's father had been hired as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Stephan had stipulated that it would only be for a year, so as to avoid having some disaster fall upon him due to the curse. The only reason he offered to teach was to prevent the Ministry from installing an insider, as it had passed an Educational Decree three days ago that allowed it to appoint teachers if the Headmaster was unable to fill a position.
With the Defense position filled, the Hogwarts letters finally arrived two days later. Alex, Neville, and Ron were talking in their room when Sirius came in and handed them their letters. Alex had skimmed through the letter and was about to look at the booklist when he heard a choking noise from Ron.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked, looking up at the same as Neville.
There was no response from Ron, who was standing very still with his mouth slightly open, gaping at his letter from Hogwarts. "Something in his letter must have surprised or upset him," Neville surmised, moving around Ron to look over his shoulder at the parchment. Neville's mouth fell open too, and as he stared incredulously at the letter, exclaimed, "But that's great news, Ron!"
"What's going on?" Alex demanded impatiently, wishing that his friends wouldn't continue leaving him in the dark. Just then, something scarlet and gold fell out of the envelope in Ron's other hand. Alex bent down to pick it up and saw that it was the Gryffindor prefect badge.
"You're the new Gryffindor prefect?" he gasped, straightening up with the badge in his hand.
"That's what it says in Ron's letter," answered Neville, since Ron still couldn't seem to speak.
There were two simultaneous cracks as Fred and George Apparated into the room. "Alex, do you have any idea why Uncle Stephan assigned two Defense books?" George asked.
Since Alex had been distracted before he could look at the booklist, he didn't even know that his dad had assigned two books. Before he could say this, Fred had noticed Ron's expression and asked, "So what's up with you, Ron?"
Since Ron was still unable to speak, Alex replied, "He's been made prefect."
"Wait, what?" demanded Fred, snatching the letter out of Ron's hand so he could see for himself. "There's been a mistake. No one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect."
"It's not a mistake!" retorted Neville. "I think Ron would make a great prefect!"
"Yeah," seconded Alex. "And he'd be less stuffy at it, unlike Percy. Here's his badge."
The twins didn't even glance at the badge, instead staring at Alex. "Maybe so, but we thought you were a cert!" said Fred in a tone that suggested Alex had tricked them in some way.
"We thought Dumbledore was bound to pick you!" exclaimed George indignantly.
"Actually, I don't want to be prefect," Alex said firmly. "I've got enough going on with my life, now that Riddle's back and all. I really don't think I could handle having to deal with younger students and discipline misbehaving ones. Besides, neither my biological dad nor adoptive one were prefects, so it doesn't matter to me. All I really care about is becoming Quidditch captain, like my bio dad, next year."
The twins stared even more at him, only turning when the door banged open. Hermione came tearing into the room, her cheeks flushed and her hair flying. Beth, who looked amused, followed behind at a more sedate pace and there were envelopes in both girls' hands.
"Did you – did you get –?" Hermione spotted the badge in Alex's hand and let out a shriek. "I knew it!" she said excitedly, brandishing her letter. "Me too, Alex, me too!"
"No," said Alex quickly, thrusting the badge into Ron's hand. "It's Ron, not me."
"It – what?" Both Hermione and Beth looked rather blankly at Alex.
"Ron's prefect, not me," he said. "His badge fell out of the envelope and I happened to pick it up."
"Ron?" said Hermione, her jaw dropping. "But…are you sure? I mean –"
She turned red as Ron looked around at her with a defiant expression on his face.
"It's my name on the letter," he said, speaking for the first time since the Hogwarts letters had arrived.
"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Beth, giving Hermione time to recover from her shock. "I'm sure you'll be a great prefect. I know Alex didn't want to be prefect, so I figured that you or Nev would get it."
"But what about you, Beth?" asked Neville. "You'd make a great prefect too."
Beth laughed. "Out of the Gryffindor girls in our year, Hermione and I would be the logical candidates, and frankly, she'd be extremely disappointed if she didn't get it. Me, I'm not bothered by it. Besides, Hermione's grades are better than mine, except for Potions, and she's slightly more responsible."
The door pushed open wider and Mrs. Weasley and Ana came into the room, piles of freshly laundered robes in their arms. "Sirius said the booklists had finally come," Ana said, glancing around at the envelopes as she made her way to the bunkbeds and set down the pile in her arms on Alex's bunk. "Since things are rather iffy at the moment, it'd be best if you guys give them to us and we'll go over to Diagon Alley this afternoon and get your things."
Mrs. Weasley was sorting out her stack of robes into two piles, and placed one of them on top of Ron's bunk and the other on Neville's. "Ron, I'll have to get you more pajamas, these are at least six inches too short, I can't believe how fast you're growing…what color would you like?"
"Get him red and gold to match his badge," said George, smirking.
"Match his what?" asked Mrs. Weasley absently, placing a pair of maroon socks on Ron's pile.
"His badge," said Fred, with the air of getting the worst over quickly. "His lovely shiny new prefect's badge." Fred's words took a moment to penetrate Mrs. Weasley's preoccupation about pajamas.
"His…but…Ron, you're not…?" Ron held up his badge. Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione. "I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"
"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbors?" demanded George indignantly, as his mother pushed him aside and flung her arms around her youngest son.
"Wait until your father hears! Ron, I'm so proud of you, what wonderful news, you could end up Head Boy just like Bill and Percy, it's the first step! Oh, what a thing to happen in the middle of all this worry, I'm just thrilled, oh Ronnie –" Fred and George were both making loud retching noises behind her back, but Mrs. Weasley did not notice; arms tight around Ron's neck, she was kissing him all over his face, which had turned a brighter scarlet than his badge.
"Mum…don't…Mum, get a grip," he muttered, trying to push her away. She let go of him and said breathlessly, "Well, what will it be? We gave Percy an owl, but you've already got one, of course."
"W-what do you mean?" asked Ron, looking as though he didn't dare believe his ears.
"You've got to have a reward for this!" said Mrs. Weasley fondly. "So what would you like?"
Ron thought for a moment. He would have asked for a new broom, except he had a perfectly good one already, and if he did manage to make the Gryffindor team this year, he would be using one of the team brooms, not his own. Finally he replied, "Erm, I guess you could get me a Chudley Cannons jersey, or a pair of Keeper gloves, Mum. That'd be great."
"Of course, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, beaming at her son. "Come on, Ana. We'd better go if I'm going to have enough time to pick out Ron's gift."
Ana's eyes danced with amusement, but she said nothing other than to congratulate Ron and Hermione on being prefects and then followed Mrs. Weasley out the door. Fred and George, still looking disgusted at their mother's behavior, left the room, and Beth and Hermione left as well after the latter asked if she could borrow Hedwig so that she could tell her parents about becoming prefect.
"I can't believe I'm a prefect," said Ron, now gazing at his badge in awe.
"You'll do great," said Alex. "Why don't you put away the badge somewhere safe, or Fred and George could come back here, accuse you of acting like Percy, and threaten to stick the badge on your forehead or something."
"Good point," said Ron, who shook himself out of his reverie and carefully wrapped up his badge in a pair of maroon socks and stuck it in his trunk. The three boys then began putting their clean clothes away.