𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 || Harry J. Potter [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 13 ✎

"She's a tough one, our Hermione. She'll be okay."
________________________

Third Person POV

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that Harry nor Jilly could see how they'd ever make up.

Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him - and Hermione was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds.

She maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

Personally, Harry and Jilly were almost sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and when they tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence pointed to that way, she lost her temper with them too.

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

Jilly sighed. "There was blood Hermione, I don't understand how it can't have been Crookshanks."

Hermione ignored this, continuing with her work.

Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed. "Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," 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!" Muttered Ginny indignantly.

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

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

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

"It was funny." Jilly admitted.

"His finest hour." Fred looked away, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new 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 for a moment. "Great! Can I try and shoot a few goals on it?"

So the boys and Jilly set off for the Quidditch field together.

Madam Hooch, who was still overseeing Gryffindor practices to keep an eye on Harry and Jilly, was just as impressed with the Firebolt as everyone else had been.

She took it in her hands before takeoff 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 Cleansweeps, 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 Madam Hooch. "I'll sit over here with Weasley..."