golden quartet | ron weasley

year 5 | chapter 3

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to face him.

"I missed you this summer," he said with a smile.

"I missed you," I laughed.

"So I had an idea," Ron continued, clearly nervous.

"What's that?" I encouraged.

"Maybe you and I could...go on a real date?" Ron stuttered out with a nervous smile.

"You're cute," I told him, smiling widely. He scrunched his nose up.

"Cute?" he repeated in offense.

"Yeah," I nodded, taking another bite. "So when's this first date of ours?" I asked with a mischievous smirk.

"Next weekend," Ron said confidently. "I'll meet you in the entrance hall at 7 pm on Friday."

"Okay," I smiled, biting my lip. "What should I wear?"

"Whatever you want," Ron shrugged. I glared at him. "What?" he asked.

"That's not helpful," I told him.

"I don't know, just wear whatever you like. You always look good anyways," Ron shrugged. I couldn't be mad at that. Once it got late, we went back to Gryffindor tower for the night.

At breakfast the next morning, Ron sat beside me with Harry and Hermione across from us. We chatted like normal, and Ron and I tried not to be super affectionate in front of Harry. Everything was going well. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.

As we walked to our first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ron told me, "Harry had another nightmare last night."

"Yeah, they've been getting more and more frequent," I sighed as we entered. I sat beside Hermione and Ron by Harry. Everyone was talking and chattering as we waited for class to start, and a paper bird flew around the room. People swatted at it and played with it, until it was suddenly burnt to a crisp in the air, fluttering down onto a desk. We all turned around to see Umbridge entering the room, her wand pointed where it previously was. She was wearing another hideously all-pink outfit.

I take it back. This year was going to suck.

"Good morning, children," Umbridge said, pacing to the front of the room. "Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations," she read as she magically drew the words on the chalkboard as she walked to the front of the room. "O-W-L's. More commonly known as OWLs." She stopped in front of the room placing her hands folded in front of her. "Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe." She flicked her wand, passing out the textbooks to each student.

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know from now on, you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic." I look at the textbook in front of me titled Defense Against the Dark Arts for Beginners and notice how childish the cover looked. "Yes?"

"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells," Hermione said as she flipped through it.

"Using spells?" Umbridge repeated and then did another infamous chuckle. "Well, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."

"Maybe to learn how to defend ourselves?" I muttered.

"What was that?" she turned to me.

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron questioned.

"You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way," Umbridge answered.

"Well, what use is that?" Harry asked in disbelief. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk-free."