golden quartet | ron weasley

year 2 | chapter 3

We arrived at the Great Hall for lunch and sat down together. "Hey, Harper," Malfoy sneered, "Have a nice nap?"

I turned around and glared at him, and so did the other three. Hermione turned me around before I could say anything back.

Ron began haphazardly taping his wand back together. "Say it, I'm doomed," he muttered.

"You're doomed," Harry answered.

"Hi, Harry!" a young boy said, coming up and taking a picture of Harry. "I'm Colin Creevey. I'm in Gryffindor too."

"Hi, Colin, nice to meet you," Harry said, blinking after the bright light flashed in his eyes.

"Hi, Harper!" the boy turned to me, flashing another light as he took a picture.

"Hi, there," I said, trying to regain my vision as bright spots covered it.

"You're really pretty, you know?" Colin said, snapping another photo.

"Uh, thank you," I replied slowly, struggling to see.

"Ron, is that your owl?" Dean asked as Errol came flying into the room, easily recognizable. I was thankful it distracted Colin enough to stop taking pictures of me. The owl came in, crashing down into the bowl of crisps in front of us, earning quite a few laughs.

"Bloody bird's a menace!" Ron grimaced, taking the envelope out of his beak. He glanced at it for a few seconds before his face went pale and fear contorted his face. "Oh, no," he muttered.

"Look everyone," Seamus joked, "Weasley's got himself a howler." Almost the entire Great Hall turned to look a Ron, laughing.

"What's a howler?" I whispered to Hermione, and she just shook her head.

"Go on, Ron," Neville encouraged. "I ignored one from my gran once. It was horrible."

Ron shakily opened the envelope, and his mother's voice yelled out, "Ronald Weasley!" He dropped the envelope quickly as sheer panic adorned his face and his eyes widened. The envelope jumped up and contorted into a mouth-like shape and continued yelling. The entire Great Hall was silent as they watched Ron get scolded by his mother.

"How dare you steal that car! I am absolutely disgusted! Your father's now facing an inquiry at work, and it's entirely your fault!" My mouth dropped open as the envelope flew up closer to Ron's face. "If you put another toe out of line, we'll bring you straight home!"

"Oh, and Ginny, dear," the howler said, turning towards Ginny with a much calmer tone, "congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud." With that, the envelope blew a raspberry in Ron's face before ripping itself up into shreds.

A few moments of dead silence followed before Ron practically ran out of the Great Hall. I quickly jumped up and followed after him. He stopped outside the doors and slid down the wall, sitting on the floor. He threw his head back and closed his eyes.

"Ron," I said quietly, sitting down criss-cross next to him.

"That's the worst thing that's ever happened to me," Ron said shakily, looking over at me. "I'd rather be attacked by that tree than go through that again."

"I'm sure people will forget about it soon," I comforted, placing my hand on top of his in his lap. He looked down at my hand on top of his before looking back at me.

"I hope you're right," he squeaked out, wrapping his hand around mine back. I lightly stroked my thumb across his knuckles, and we sat there for a while, silently enjoying each other's company.

Soon, people began exiting the Great Hall to go to their next class. They looked over at Ron on the floor and tried not to laugh.

"Come on, Ron," I said sweetly. "We've got Defense Against the Dark Arts." I slowly got up before reaching my hand out. He grabbed it and stood up begrudgingly.