Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 63

Published July 2, 2016

Harry POV

I awoke the next morning feeling slightly confused by a series of dreams in which Ron chased me with a beaters bat, but by midday I would have happily exchanged the dream Ron for the real one. Ron had not only was cold-shouldering Ginny and Dean, but also treating a hurt and bewildered Hermione with an icy, sneering indifference. He was also becoming as touching and ready to lash out as a Blast-Ended Skrewt. I spent the whole day attempting to keep the peace between Hermione and Ron with no success; finally, Hermione departed for bed and Ron stalked off to the boy's dorms after swearing angrily at several frightened first years looking at him.

To my dismay, Ron's new found aggression did not wear off over the next few days. Worse still, it made his keeping skills worse, and that made him more aggressive so that on the final practice before Saturday's match, Ron failed to save every single goal the chasers aimed at him. It didn't stop him from yelling at everyone so much he reduced Demelza Robins to tears.

"You shut up and leave her alone!" Peakes, who was about two-thirds Ron's height, but carrying the Beaters Bat.

"ENOUGH!" I bellowed. Things were about to get out of hand. "Peakes, go pack up the Bludgers. Denelza, pull yourself together, you played really well today. Ron..." I waited until the rest of the team was out of ear shot, "you're my best mate, but carry on treating the rest of the team like this and I'm going to kick you off the team."

I really thought Ron was about to hit me, but then something worse happened. All the fight went out of him. "I resign, I'm pathetic."

"You're not resigning and you're not pathetic!" I said, seizing the front of his robes. "You can save anything, it's a mental problem you've got!"

"You calling me mental?"

"Yeah, maybe I am!"

We glared at each other for a moment, then Ron shook his head wearily. "I know you haven't got any time to find another Keeper, so I'll play tomorrow, but if we loose, and we will, I'm taking myself off the team."

Nothing I said made a difference. I tried boosting his confidence all through dinner, but Ron was too busy being grumpy and surly with Hermione to notice.

"Potter, here is your update," said McGonagall from behind me, holding out a rolled parchment.

"Thank you, Professor," I said, unrolling the parchment.

"Well?" said Hermione eagerly.

"Her wrist is fully healed, but fagile like all old broken bones are, her ankle is taking more effort to heal since she hurt it at the Ministry last year, remember?" I asked them and they nodded. "But with the regular spells, it should be fine in a few days time. And her ribs are fully healed so that leaves--"

"Her fracture in the arm," Hermione finished. "Have they scheduled that yet?"

"In a weeks time, by then the other spells will have worn off so she doesn't become worse, overdosing on healing spells has horrible out comes."

I persisted Ron in the common room that evening, but his assertion that the whole team would be devasted if Ron left was somewhat undermined by the fact that the rest of the team was sitting in a huddle in the distant corner, clearly muttering about Ron and casting him nasty looks. Finally I tried getting really angry again in the hope of provoking Ron into a defiant and goal-saving attitude but the strategy did not work any better than encouragement. I brought up how Lily would hate to see him quite the team, but he didn't seem to care about someone who wasn't even here thought. Ron went to bed as hopeless as ever.