The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter Fourteen: Getting Nowhere Fast

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry at the other that Erica couldn't see how they'd ever make it up.

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

Hermione, meanwhile, 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- something which Erica had a good laugh about once somebody finally decided to fill her in on that story.

Personally, Erica reasoned that it was probably likely that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers seeing as all the evidence did point his way, but when she tried to point this out to Hermione she lost her temper with Erica, too, so she maintained to stay out of their feud after that.

Ron had taken the loss of his rat very had indeed.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," Fred said 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."

Erica was still getting used to how vicious Fred could be. It reminded her, surprisingly, of herself, and they traded particularly violent fantasies sometimes, when something annoyed them. So far Erica was winning, but by a very small margin that was only growing smaller every time they spoke.

"Fred!" Ginny, unfortunately, did not share in Erica's delight at this discovery.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," George nodded, prodding at his mashed potatoes with a particularly bored expression.

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

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

"His finest hour," Fred rolled his eyes, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as 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?"

That, unfortunately, had been the wrong thing to say. Ron had stopped talking to them, storming off with spectacularly red ears to sit next to Percy, shooting glares every so often in their direction throughout the remainder of dinner.

"I love you," Erica started, leaning up to peck his chin as Fred looped his arm around her shoulders, leading her from the Great Hall, "but maybe you should apologise to Ron. He's in a... very delicate place right now."

"Delicate place," he repeated, eyebrow raised, and it was only a matter of seconds before they were both laughing in short fits as they made their way to the History of Magic classroom for their usual session with Jeremy.

"Okay, so maybe that was exaggerating things a little bit too much," Erica relented as her giggles finally subsided. "You should still be nicer to Ron though. He just lost Scabbers."

"The rat he hardly even gave a second thought to until it died," Fred nodded, smirking. "I'm beginning to see your point here, Erica, and you do promote such a compelling argument."

"Sometimes you don't notice how much you love something until it's gone," she sighed, reaching up to lace her fingers with the hand by her shoulders, "and then you realise how much you took it for granted. I know Ron's being stupid, but that's Ron, and maybe we should just let him be stupid for now. He'll get over it in time."