Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. Halfblood heroes (Book 3)

Chapter 8

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that neither Harry nor Percy couldn't see how they'd ever makeup.

Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks'sattempts to eat Scabbers seriously hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers.

But when Harry tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, she lost her temper with Harry too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabberswas," said Fred bracingly "And he's been off-colour for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly —one swallow — he probably didn't feel a thing."

"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.

"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"

"Yeah, that's true," said Harry.

"His finest hour," said Fred, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stands as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy anew rat, what's the point of moaning?"

In a last-ditch attempt to cheer Ron up, Harry persuaded him to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practice before the Ravenclaw match, so that he could have a ride on the Firebolt after they'd finished. This did seem to take Ron's mind off Scabbers fora moment.

Madam Hooch, who was still overseeing Gryffindor practices to keep an eye on Harry, was just as impressed with the Firebolt as everyone else had been. She took it in her hands before take-off and gave them the benefit of her professional opinion.

"Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail end — you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Clean sweep, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows — a pity they've stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too. . . ."

She continued in this vein for some time, until Wood said, "Er — Madam Hooch? Is it okay if Harry has the Firebolt back? We need to practice. . . ."

"Oh — right — here you are, then, Potter," said MadamHooch. "I'll sit over here with Weasley . . ."

She and Ron left the field to sit in the stadium and the Gryffindor team gathered around Wood for his final instructions for tomorrow's match."Harry, I've just found out who Ravenclaw is playing as Seeker. It's Cho Chang. She's the fourth year, and she's pretty good. . . . I really hoped she wouldn't be fit, she's had some problems with injuries. . . ." Wood scowled his displeasure that Cho Chang had made a full recovery, then said, "On the other hand, she rides aComet Two Sixty, which is going to look like a joke next to the firebolt." He gave Harry's broom a look of fervent admiration, then said, "Okay, everyone, let's go —"

Percy saw how fast the firebolt was. Harry caught the snitch in ten seconds. The team cheered madly. Harry let the Snitch go again, gave it a minute's head start, then toreafter it, weaving in and out of the others; he spotted it lurking near Percy's knee, looped hereasily, and caught it again.