Chapter 13: Harry's Revenge
The next day Harry made sure to keep an eye on Ron whenever he could. He didn't want to be seen doing this, as he was quite keen to make sure Ron didn't think he was fishing for an apology. Instead, he hung back out of his eye line and made sure he could see him, and be in a position to stop him if he should attack someone. Strangely, the stealth stalking put Harry on edge; the anticipation of Ron's impending assault had made him unusually anxious. He assumed this was, what Hermione termed, his 'saving-people-thing' kicking in.
His mood wasn't helped by the news article on the front page of the Daily Prophet that morning.
AZKABAN BREAKOUT SPECIAL
The headline read; it didn't improve from there on in.
Ministry of Magic officials confirmed this morning that the once impregnable fortress, Azkaban, has again allowed another high security prisoner to escape. The inmate, one Lucius Malfoy, is a know supporter of You-Know-Who and it is believed that he was behind the escape. 'We have reason to believe that Lord Vol-Thingy orchestrated this breakout personally,' reported Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, 'the Dementors, now widely believed to be under his control, carried out the freeing of said prisoner. Several other prisoners, we believe, were subjected to the Dementor's Kiss, and are now being evaluated for future treatment.'
Minister Fudge must now consider his position under substantial threat. Several prominent members of the Wizengamot have already voiced their desire for Fudge to be replaced, with Albus Dumbledore the popular choice as his successor. Dumbledore, however, is unlikely to accept the job while he is Headmaster of Hogwarts. The reason for this, it is rumoured, is the secret stash of sherbet lemons and red rope liquorice (popular Muggle sweets) that are kept at Hogwarts under the guard of dragons. These rumours remain unconfirmed.
MORE INFORMATION ON MALFOY AND HIS ESCAPE pages 2-6; POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS FOR CORNELIUS FUDGE page 10; LATEST ON ARCHIE PRITCHARD'S ATTEMPT TO SAIL AROUND THE WORLD ON AN INFLATABLE MERMAID page 29.
'So that's it then,' said Hermione mournfully, 'I told you this would happen!'
'And you were right,' Harry said, 'Well done, do you want a gold star? It doesn't make it any better does it?'
'It's just a matter of time before something bad happens,' Hermione said anxiously, looking towards the door of the Great Hall as if expecting Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy to burst in any second and curse them all to death.
'Well, if his plan does involve Malfoy then its certainly moving into place now, or at least the next phase. Still, at least Dumbledore's still here.'
Dumbledore's unworried look always seemed to have a calming effect on Harry. Dumbledore was smiling now, chatting animatedly with Professor Vector about some undoubtedly boring subject that Dumbledore was able to make exhilarating.
Harry was glad to have Ron under his nose for the first part of the day. It was Friday, so Harry was taking his practical Defence class. It was the perfect opportunity for Ron to attack someone, so Harry made sure Hermione, with whom he was demonstrating and practising the jinxes and hexes with, had her back to Ron, in case Harry needed to curse him over her shoulder.
Harry wasn't really practising as much as he should have been. Again, he found that he just couldn't bring himself to perform any of the jinxes on Hermione. Dean and Seamus were having great fun teasing him, suggesting loudly that he didn't want to have any of his fantasies with Hermione restricted if one of his spells damaged her.
Hermione was giggling non-stop and Harry was starting to wish she'd grow out of the giggling phase. Still, she kept making comments about how certain hexes could affect the fantasies, which she was making up on the spot. Harry was left wondering just how much time she had spent thinking about them and why she had so many examples to hand. On the other hand, the things she was saying seemed to be infuriating Ron, and Harry was only too happy to encourage this.
It was Transfiguration next lesson and again Harry was glad to have Ron under sight, not that he would dare try anything with McGonagall about. The lesson went quite well with Harry not having to worry about Ron, even if the dove he had transformed from a model aeroplane still had wheels and a propeller. Hermione, again, got top marks as her dove not only flew, if only in continuous circles around Harry, but it could also coo, which many of the girls found 'too cute for words'.
Ron disappeared at lunch, which Harry found slightly disturbing, but after Harry had completed a sweep of Gryffindor tower and the boys toilets and not found any bodies he was satisfied that Ron was probably moping somewhere. Harry had spent the lunch hour making elf hats with Hermione. Harry was about as bad at this as he was at golf and Divination combined. His hat didn't have any form or shape but Hermione said it wasn't a total loss and used it as a lining for the common room bin.
After Charms in the afternoon Harry tried to keep an eye on Ron for as long as possible but there was Quidditch practice, which Harry was glad would be in the rain, so he had to let him go. Ginny had sidled up to again say how much she wanted him back on the team but didn't say she'd try to convince Ron of the same thing. Harry noted that her eyes had looked very dark, almost black in fact, very unlike Ginny's normal colour. He assumed the workload of lessons and Ron's manic Quidditch schedule was taking it out of them.
As September ended and October began to fly by, Harry was unnerved by the lack of anything unusual with Ron. He had become more distant than ever but he wasn't being unfriendly anymore; in fact, they'd both stopped glowering at each other whenever their gazes met and Harry thought it wouldn't be long before they were talking again. He had actually forgotten what they were arguing about in the first place.
Hermione had taken to showing her Sapphire ring wherever she went, as well as her otter necklace. Harry kept getting comments in the hallways such as, 'can I buy the toaster, Harry?' or, 'has Hermione got her bridesmaids yet?' and, Harry's personal favourite from the Slytherins, 'you'll make the ugliest children ever.' Harry liked to respond to this by saying that they were just jealous to be losing the title of World's Ugliest Child, for Slytherin house must contain the least attractive children this side of the yeti.
Ron's lack of violent activity made Harry considered that his dream might have been nothing more than that, just a dream. The only thing that Harry was bothered by was that there were striking similarities between Ron's lack of action and the silence of another villain with known murderous intent. It was unsettling.
As the week before the first Quidditch match approached, Harry redeveloped the feeling of anger for Ron. The excitement of the first match, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, was building intensely and Harry was annoyed that he wouldn't get the chance to put one over on the old enemy. For that's how they seemed; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students had decided to side with Gryffindor and the atmosphere had become tangibly violent and dangerous. There were numerous incident of violence in the school from scuffles outside classroom to ambushes on team members in the toilets.
Harry was more angry and Ron for being selfish rather than for him kicking him off the team. He felt Ron was cutting off his nose to spite his face. He even thought that Ron was starting to regret kicking him off in the first place.
'Hey Weasley,' Harry heard a Slytherin call to Ron one afternoon, 'looking forward to getting slaughtered on Saturday? And you haven't even got Potter to save you. Handed us the game by picking Longbottom!'
'Yeah, well,' Ron had replied, 'even if we do lose, even you know that with Harry we'd whip you. So your victory will be nothing.'
However, Ron's seemingly reconciliatory mood didn't last and Harry feeling sorry for Ron died at the same moment.
'Gonna lose, Weasley. No Potter, no team. I wonder if he'll be cheering us?'
'Probably, he is a backstabbing traitor,' Ron bellowed, the pressure finally taking its toll on him, 'we don't need him and I DON'T NEED HIM! GEDDIT?'
Ron gaped as Harry and Hermione stepped out from behind Crabbe and Goyle, who'd been blocking the corridor.
'That was harsh, Ron,' Hermione said angrily, 'Its time you grew up.'
Ron looked ashamed and Harry was glad of this and, for a tiny moment, he hoped the Slytherin team would smash that dumb look off his stupid face on Saturday.
Harry, though, was given the perfect opportunity for revenge on Friday night. Professor McGonagall approached Harry after dinner with a most unusual request.
'Well, Potter,' she said, 'I have tried to persuade Mr Weasley to reinstate you but he's insisting…captain's prerogative to pick his own players. Still, I can't pretend that…never mind. I was wondering, Potter, if you'd be interested in commentating, considering you will be available.'
'Yeah, ok, why not?' Harry shrugged. His thought was that Ron was bound to make many errors in the game and he would have a great chance to heap more misery on him.
The time of the game arrived and as the Gryffindor team, looking pale and peaky, trudged through the icy drizzle and into the changing room the rest of the school trooped into the stands. Harry and Hermione made their way into the teachers' box, from where Harry would be commentating. The teams flew out to a great roar and Harry read blindly from the team sheets in front of him, his voice echoing as it was magically magnified around the stadium.
'And we're off, it's Spinnet to Weasley G, she drops it to Katie Bell…ow! Bad bludger, from Goyle-surprised he can even stay on his broom…oh sorry, Professor, can't I insult the Slytherins? Lee Jordan always did. Anyway, Slytherin in attack…Zabini speeds past Bell, dodges a bludger from Dean Thomas, c'mon Neville! Go for him! Zabini advances on the goal. What a shocker! Ten-nil Slytherin.'
Ten minutes later and the score was eighty-nil and the score greatly flattered Gryffindor. Harry had rattled off several subtle insults at Ron but as he was playing so poorly nobody complained. Nobody except Hermione.
'You aren't helping,' she said as she kicked him for an insult aimed at Ron's freckles obscuring his co-ordination.
'Well, he shouldn't have kicked me off the team!' Harry stormed, 'They're getting buggered without me!'
'Ron told me he dropped you for your own good,' Hermione said, 'he said you'd thank him for it one day. Harry, I don't think he's himself. Just don't make things worse for him. Be nice, do it for me. You will if you lo-'
'C'MON RON! Harry yelled suddenly, 'C'mon Gryffindor! Everybody chant, even you Professor. C'mon team, you can do it! I'm going to get sacked after such appalling commentary anyway so come on. Weasley is our King! He does not leave a single ring! He never lets the Quaffle in! Weasley is our King!'
The chorus rang out around the stadium but had little effect. It was true that Ron made two saves and Ginny scored Gryffindor's only points but the Slytherin Seeker caught the Snitch as Neville finally gave in and fell off his broom. The final score was 230-10. Ron's reaction to Harry, though, was highly unexpected.
'Why d'you do that for?' he ranted as he met Harry in the Gryffindor common room.
'I was trying to help, trying to gee people up,' Harry yelled back.
'Yeah? Well we don't need your help, don't want your help and you can take geeing up and stick it where the sun don't shine. And, despite what you may think, the sun does not shine out of yours.'
'Ron, it was me,' Hermione said nervously, 'I tried to get Harry to help you. He didn't want to.'
'Yeah, and you cant keep your Mudblood nose out of this,' Ron snapped, but looked like he deeply regretted it immediately.
'Don't you ever call her that!' Harry sniped coldly, fury tickling through his veins. He had stepped up to Ron and was eyeballing him intently, their faces inches apart.
'Or-or what?' Ron stuttered.
'Say it and see,' Harry replied dangerously, 'I wont need a wand by the way. I ever hear you calling her that foul name again and I will make you regret it. Now apologise.'
'Sorry, Hermione,' said Ron, his voice had changed back to its normal low octave from the shrill, icy one it had been. Harry barely noticed the change.
'This is our problem, Ron,' Harry spat, 'do not bring Hermione into this. If you have a problem, take it up with me. Wanna throw names and insults? Here I am. You leave her alone, you clear about that?'
Ron may have been taller than Harry but he was clearly wary of him. He mumbled something about understanding then span around and scurried off to the dormitory. Harry was left with a crowd staring at him.
'Ok, Ok,' he said nastily, 'shows over. Go back to your business.'
Several cast him malicious looks but most turned away silently. Harry was fuming.
'Don't defend him!' Harry said as Hermione tried to do just that, 'He isn't worth it!'
'Don't say that!' Hermione begged, 'He's your best friend. I told you he isn't right, and its up to us to find out what has made him like this. Remember, "his gift for spreading enmity and discord-'
'Don't try and tell me Voldemort's behind this!' Harry cried, several eavesdroppers flinched, 'Ron's just become a grouchy git. He doesn't need help there from anyone. He's just a jealous little child.'
'What's that supposes to mean?' Hermione asked.
'Oh work it out already,' Harry snapped, 'I'm going to bed.'
And he did, feeling gut-wrenchingly guilty at the hurt look he'd left on Hermione's face, but annoyed that she knew what was going on but just pretending not too. He wasn't going to give in, its just what 'Ron-demort' would want.
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