If You Love Her (Ron Weasley)

Two.

Meeting Professor Umbridge is one of the most unbelievable memories I have. From the moment I looked in her direction, I truly thought she was a prank. Dumbledore wasn't quite that mad, but still I wouldn't have put it past him. 

As she stood at the Headmaster's podium, the most smug look I have ever seen on any face peering back at me, I thought I had never wanted to punch someone in the face quite so badly. 

She had the look of a pigmy puff, everything about her was pink. From head to toe. It was nauseating and off putting. I was never the most feminine girl in the world, and Merlin, she wasn't making me any more 'girly', dressed like that. 

"Blimey, if she was chocolate she'd eat herself," I remember Seamus whispering in my ear, and I tried to choke back a laugh, but ended up spluttering on my own saliva and having a coughing fit in the middle of the Great Hall. With hindsight, most likely the first time I had attracted the attention of more than three people at any one time. 

I looked around at all of the faces staring at me, and I wanted nothing more than to go up to my dormitory and hide under my quilt for several days. How Harry did it, I never understood. He was gawped at daily, but he never seemed to mind it much. 

"What the fuck are you looking at?!" I heard the sharp voice of my brother, and rolled my eyes. Naturally, he was out to murder everyone who was paying me attention. However, when I turned to scold him for being so rude, I was surprised to find he was directing his frustration at two people in particular. 

"Aoife... She was choking," Ron Weasley looked at Seamus, straight faced and unbothered. Of course, he didn't yet know that Seamus was furious with Harry and anyone who happened to believe a word he said.

"Don't look at her again, you got that?" Both Ron and Harry had appeared bewildered at Seamus' outburst, he was never the angry type. Well, not to them anyway. They had never accidentally dropped his favourite dinosaur on some train tracks, which would indeed cause a manic outburst. If you ever wanted to upset him, there's some advice for you. But proceed with caution, because in the dead of night he will sneak into the kitchen to butcher the hair off your favourite doll. It is worth noting that Seamus was 12 when this incident occurred.

I digress. 

Professor Umbridge had finished her speech during Seamus' completely insane moment of madness, and the entire Hall had fallen into an uncomfortable silence, nobody quite knowing what to say. 

"Well... Tuck in!" Dumbledore clapped his hands awkwardly, and the tables filled up with food. 

Hogwarts feasts were, admittedly, fantastic, and I miss them very much even to this day. I think about them every day. The start of term ones were always the best, the biggest, the most extravagant.  Very enjoyable. 

"Nev, you're going to choke," I had laughed at him, as he shovelled at least four pork pies into his mouth at once. 

"I'm not going to-" Famous last words, naturally. Neville did, indeed, choke. It took several blows to his back by Dean for the pies to dislodge and fly across the table, landing directly on Ron's dinner plate, missing his chicken wing by millimetres.

"Christ alive, Neville," Ron's ears went red, and I wondered whether that was down to embarrassment or anger, but judging by his next move, I had assumed that was potentially just something his ears did. He picked up his napkin, and very calmly scraped the mushy pie onto the table beside him, before picking up the chicken wing and taking a large bite, totally unphased by the entire ordeal. 

"You're joking," I had whispered under my breath, but evidently Ron had heard my comment, and he looked up in my direction, his mouth still stuffed to the brim with chicken. 

"Wha'?" I just about managed to make out through his mumbled speech, and it made me laugh. 

"That was Neville's spit on your plate, and you don't care. How hungry are you?" I asked, still laughing at his casual demeanour as he shrugged in response. 

"He's always hungry," Harry interrupted their conversation, and this attracted the attention of Seamus, who was sat two seats down from the famous wizard. 

"What did I say about talking to her?" His voice was slightly raised, attracting the attention of the students around us, but not quite loud enough for the Professor's to have noticed the tension. 

"I was just-" Harry began to defend himself, but Seamus punched the table, making us all jump. 

"Yeah, well don't. Just leave her alone!" Seamus shouted, and Harry gulped, but anger was evident in his eyes as he glared at my brother. I was too embarrassed to do anything other than look down at my lap, and hope Seamus would calm down soon. I would have ideally liked to either run away and never look back, or apologise to the two boys for his behaviour, but I could only have imagined Seamus' reaction if I had done either of those things, so I remained firmly sat. 

"What's the matter with you?" Harry questioned, and Seamus' face got even more red, if that were possible. I had never seen him this angry, even during the aftermath of the dinosaur incident of 1991. 

"Wouldn't you like to fucking know," Seamus muttered, stabbing his fork into a potato and shoving it into his mouth. 

The whole table had gone incredibly quiet now, and I still hadn't grown enough balls to look up and see what the general reception was amongst my fellow Gryffindor's. Really, I just wanted Dumbledore to say it was bedtime, so I could go to bed and leave this horrible tense atmosphere behind me. But, he didn't. Not yet, anyway. 

It was a good few minutes before some conversation began again, and Neville and Dean began quietly discussing the upcoming Quidditch season, which eventually drew Harry in, who was obviously Gryffindor's star player. I could still hear Seamus' knife and fork angrily sliding against the metal of the plate, every squeak making me want to curl up into a tight ball and rock myself to sleep. It was so awkward.

When I finally looked up again, I could feel eyes on me, and I looked across the table to find Ron looking right at me, and if I didn't know better I'd say his eyes were concerned. I worried initially that if Seamus noticed where Ron was looking, all hell would break loose, but Seamus was far too angry to notice what was going on around him. 

"Are you alright?" Ron mouthed, and I nodded in response. I smiled at him, hoping it would portray my thanks, and his curt nod demonstrated that it had. 

I decided I would try and get Ron and Harry alone somewhere, so that I could explain why Seamus was so angry with them, but little did I know, it would be far too late for that by the time I saw the boys again.