Percy Jackson and the Locket of Salazar [Book 6]

34) Ron Gets Pumped on Pumpkin Juice

I don't know if Ron or Ginny ever apologized to each other, but I do know that Ron was not his usual happy self in the following days. He got frustrated more often, and didn't hear us when we were talking to him, stuck in his own head. He was downtrodden and quiet, and it was starting to freak me out — had my yelling made him that way, or was it the fight and the stress of everything else?

During the last practice before the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Ron didn't block any of the shots thrown at him and screamed at Demelza until she cried.

Harry gawked, turned to me with a pleading expression, then asked for Ron to stay back while everyone else packed up, saying, "you're my best mate, but carry on treating the rest of them like this and I'm going to kick you off the team."

Ron was a fairly aggressive guy at times. Maybe not as much as Harry, but he could blow a fuse when upset. I was honestly expecting that, and probably would've preferred it. Instead, he sagged and said, "I resign. I'm pathetic."

"You're not pathetic and you're not resigning!" Harry cried as if he hadn't just threatened to throw Ron off the team.

"You're a good player, dude, you've just got a bit of a problem with nerves, that's all. It's all in your head," I said.

"You calling me mental?"

"Aren't we all?"

Ron shook his head tiredly. "I know you haven't got any time to find another keeper, so I'll play tomorrow, but if we lose — and we will — I'm taking myself off the team."

***

Harry's plan was surprisingly clever. Normally he wasn't the plan guy — more of the good at improvisation type. I was proud of him (though that definitely did not last throughout the school year).

At breakfast the next morning, after he smiled at the cheering Gryffindors and ignored the booing Slytherins and Ron did the opposite, Harry offered Ron a drink. "Tea? Coffee? Pumpkin juice?"

"Anything," Ron said, somehow turning eating toast into a sad event.

Hermione sat down with us. "How are you both feeling?" The question had been asked to both Harry and Ron, but we all knew she was only interested in one answer — we all were.

"Fine," Harry said when Ron said nothing at all, eyes zeroed in on the glass he was handing to Ron. "There you go, Ron. Drink up."

I saw the motion. If I weren't the son of Poseidon, I probably would have believed it, too.

"Don't drink that, Ron!" Hermione snapped sharply.

"Why not?" Ron frowned.

She was gaping at Harry, aghast and startled. "You just put something in that drink."

"Excuse me?" Harry said, the look on his face a bit too innocent to be real.

"You heard me. I saw you. You just tipped something into Ron's drink. You've got the bottle in your hand right now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry said as he obviously put the bottle in his pocket.

"Percy, didn't you see that! You can't let him drink it!"

"Why not?" I leaned casually on my fist, lazily eying the pumpkin juice.

"Because it's cheating," Hermione hissed quietly. Ron blinked down at his drink. "Aren't you against that? Remember when you wouldn't let the others tell you what the first task was in the Triwizard Tournament?"