Harry Potter & the Wizards of Waverly Place Book 2: 7th Year at Hogwarts

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Ron was angry. More than angry. He was sick of stupid Gryffindor and all of its stupid Heroes. He couldn't go anywhere without being reminded of how he had been abused. Any feelings that he was ultimately responsible for breaking up with Hermione had long vanished. They had disappeared the afternoon that Harry had showed up at Shell Cottage, snogging Hermione and Alex.

Ron still was angry at George for setting him up, but any feelings based on rational thought were pushed aside by his paranoid feelings. And now Harry had become the ultimate villain of the piece. Harry knew how Ron felt about Hermione and him, and Harry knew that Ron didn't have anybody else, and Harry knew that Bill Weasley was Ron's brother. Harry had to have known that Ron would be there that day.

Bill would have told Harry that Ron was going to be there.. (In actuality, Bill hadn't told Harry because George had brought Ron around unannounced). So when Harry had shown up with a girl under each arm-one of them being Hermione, and the other being a beautiful girl with black hair-he was just rubbing it Ron's face how much of a Loser Ron was.

Ron was also thinking about what a bitch Hermione was for going along with Harry's dirty trick. He didn't know why he had ever liked her. She had always been bossing him around, making him feel like he wasn't good enough for her. And somehow, he knew that Ginny had something to do with it... palling around with that asshole brother of Alex's.

During the summer, when George and Ginny had gone to America to look for Hermione and Harry, Ron had just been harbouring resentments. He'd had no intention of returning to Hogwarts for 7th year, which he had missed, due to hunting horcruxes with Harry and Hermione-like a pathetic second rate sidekick for two superheroes Ron thought.

He should never have gone. Except for saving Harry and killing Tom Riddle's horcrux locket, Ron had felt pretty useless. The vision which Riddle had shown him had been bang on target he thought-he really had been pathetic, and Harry and Hermione really had been carrying on behind his back. Though come to think about it, Ron was the one who had also figured out how to get the basilisk fangs. Ron began to think that maybe he hadn't been that useless, but rather, that he was under-appreciated.

Ron wondered darkly what would have happened if he hadn't saved Harry's life and killed the Horcrux, and he felt even angrier. He had saved Harry Bloody Potter's life, while the whole time he had been shagging Ron's girlfriend behind his back. Maybe he should have let Harry die and then killed the Horcrux.

But a small voice in the back of his head which Ron had been ignoring, managed to finally send a signal to his frontal lobes. Harry had never cared about dying, he just cared about saving people. And he had saved the entire wizarding world from Voldemort. It would have been useless if he'd let Harry die then.

But even that ounce of self-serving rationality couldn't stop Ron from wondering how long it would take for him to snap and do something to really hurt Harry.

In any case, Percy Weasley had managed to convince his mother that she should send Ron back to Hogwarts for 7th year.

"If he doesn't, he'll never get on with his life. Ron won't have a proper job and he'll just be miserable all the time." Percy had said wisely. That had won over Molly Weasley, who would have otherwise been just as keen to home-school Ron and keep him under her thumb. The last thing she wanted was for Ron to continue suffering for his whole life. So she and Arthur forced Ron to either go back to Hogwarts-or go to live elsewhere.

Ron's parents, Arthur and Molly, knew that Ron couldn't bear to be parted from the comforts of home again, and Ron had finally acquiesced to their demands. It was after Ron saw Harry at platform 9 3/4 when Ron had begun wondering what would have happened if he had let Harry be killed by the horcrux.

That's when Ron met Derek Ainsworthy on the Hogwarts Express-a good looking blond boy who looked about 12 or 13 going to Hogwarts for the first time.

"Is anyone sitting here?" Derek asked politely. "All the other compartments are full."

"Yeah... I guess." replied a very sullen Ron.

"You okay? You look a little peaky." Derek looked concerned as he sat on the seat across the table from Ron.

"I suppose..." grunted Ron. Then Ron heaved a big sigh, "No... I'm not okay. My girlfriend shagged my best friend behind my back and hooked up with him. Mum and Dad forced me to come back to Hogwarts to do my 7th year and now I'll have to see them prancing around together every bloody day."

"Ouch! That's really messed up. Something like that happened to me once." Derek said sympathetically. "By the way I'm Derek Ainswothy. Nice to meet you."

And Derek held out his hand. Ron hesitated, but then he gladly shook Derek's hand. Ron needed some new friends, and Derek seemed alright. Ron wasn't sure why he had just blurted out his pain and dumped it on Derek. Ron hadn't talked to anybody about it all summer. Derek just seemed so... agreeable.

"I haven't seen you before," said Ron, "Are you new to Hogwarts?"

Derek's ears turned pink.

"My... my parents home-schooled me." Derek squirmed with embarrassment, "They... they didn't want me mixing with any half-bloods or muggle-borns. But since Voldemort was killed, they've thought better of it and sent me to Hogwarts to finish my schooling. I'm 15 now, so I'll be in 5th year I guess."

Derek didn't strike Ron as being evil, but Ron had to ask.

"Were your parents Death Eaters then?"

"Thank goodness, no," Derek replied. "They just shared a lot of their views."

"What about you? Do you share their views?" Ron asked with narrowed eyes.

"Erm... Not really. I've never known any half-bloods or muggle borns, so I can't really know... can I?" Derek answered.

"They're over-rated..." Ron snapped back. Ron had shocked himself with what he'd just said to Derek. He didn't know where that had come from; it had just burst out. He'd always stuck up for muggle-borns; for Hermione. He glowered inwardly, remembering how he'd stuck up for her against Malfoy. Yeah, muggle-borns were overrated-and so were half-bloods come to think about it. Ron had always thought his father was as barmy as Dumbledore, and they were both muggle champions.

Derek seemed a little taken aback. Ron softened his tone, not wanting to alarm his new friend.

"Well, I suppose they're not all bad, but the ones I thought had my back, turned out to be back-stabbers."

"Understandable then. I'm sure if I'd had your experiences I'd feel the same way." Said Derek agreeably. Ron seemed a bit morose to Derek, but he could understand that; Ron was hurting. Derek was often moody himself, sometimes feeling depressed for months on end. He was glad to have met Ron. Derek knew it was hard to live with the pain without someone to commiserate with.

Ron began laying it on thick with Derek, who seemed to hang on Ron's every word. Ron started to feel a little better. It felt good to just tell someone, especially to somebody who appeared to be doting on Ron.