If You Love Her (Ron Weasley)

Fifteen.

Christmas was suddenly upon the castle, and time was flying by. I'm not sure if it was all of the tension in the castle, or the amount of pressure on us for our O.W.Ls, or probably a little bit of both, but it felt as though I blinked that year and the Christmas trees were adorning the Great Hall, and snow was littering the ground outside.

The final DA meeting of the year was bittersweet for everyone, attending had become the most exciting thing in most of our lives, and we never really realised before just how much Harry knew, and how much he could do. It was mesmerising, watching him come out of his shell and gain more confidence every week.

However, I have to admit, arriving to the Room of Requirement that day to find the room adorned with Christmas decorations, including a very large banner containing the words "Have a Harry Christmas!" and a bunch of mistletoe on the ceiling , I did think perhaps the confidence had tipped over into arrogance.

"It's... interesting, Harry!" Neville tried to compliment, as I chuckled behind him. Harry went bright red, insisting that it was the work of some house-elf called Dobby, but it didn't make it any less hilarious.

"Mistletoe, Harry?" I pondered, and Harry went even more red, if that were possible.

"I swear! It wasn't me!" I only laughed at this, stepping to the side to allow more people to enter the room, equally as confused and amused by the decorations.

"Well, we've replaced you!" Angelina called as she entered the room, trying to sound positive but vaguely failing, with an overwhelming feeling of nervousness in her voice.

"Sorry?" Harry asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"We've replaced you, Fred and George," She clarified, and a lot of heads turned towards her, mostly Gryffindors, eager to hear who would be playing for the house. "Ginny Weasley is our new seeker,"

"Ginny?" Harry asked, and Angelina narrowed her eyes at his tone.

"Yes, Ginny," Her tone was sharp. "She's very good actually. Not as good as you, nobody is, but she's good,"

"And the beaters?" He asked, his voice strained as he attempted to contain his frustration.

"Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper." Angelina's voice didn't attempt to hide the disappointment this time, as the two boys were not part of the DA. "Shit compared to Fred and George,"

The conversation was stopped in its tracks as the room suddenly filled up, the remaining members flooding in, though it was challenging to ignore the frosty glares Angelina continued to throw in Harry's direction over the course of the evening.

"I thought today might be a good opportunity to just go over the stuff we've learned this term, with it being our last meeting before Christmas-" Predictably, Harry was cut off by the most boring, dull voice I ever heard.

"We're not learning anything knew?" Zacharias Smith, naturally. "If I had known that, I wouldn't have bothered coming,"

"Merlin, Harry, why didn't you just tell him?" Fred grumbled, and snickers sounded around the room, causing Zacharias to blush bright red.

"We'll begin with the Impediment Jinx, if we can all partner up..." The same routine that we had participated in for weeks unfolded, and I found myself stood opposite Ron, who had become somewhat accustomed to duelling me, by this point.

The room was flooded with students shouting, which would result in their partners freezing for a moment, only their eyeballs rolling around as they watched the scene around them, unable to move anything else.

"Impedimenta!" Ron yelled, pointing his wand directly at me, and I felt my entire body turn to stone, my eyes moving around, but somehow always landing on him. He grinned at me, when he realised I couldn't move, and though I tried to, I couldn't smile back at him, which created quite a serious tension between the two of us.