Loved & Misunderstood (HP) {Book 1 of the Wild & Free Series}

12. Seeing Black

Note: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, only Liana, Lucy and Yara. The Harry Potter rights go to the amazing J.K. Rowling
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It looked like the end of our friendship. Hermione and I were so angry with Ron that I couldn't see how we'd ever make up.

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

Hermione and I, in the meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks or Nymeria had eaten Scabbers, that the hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against our cats ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

I knew Harry was sure that Crookshanks and Nymeria had eaten Scabbers, and when he tried to point out to Hermione and I that the evidence all pointed that way, we lost our temper with him too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" I told him.

"First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!" said Hermione shrilly.

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

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

"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.

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

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

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

Much to my dismay, Harry took Ron along to our final Quidditch practice before the match against Ravenclaw.

To be honest, I didn't doubt that Crookshanks or Nymeria or both had eaten Scabbers. My only problem was that Ron was being such an ass about it. As Fred and George had told him, he could just buy a new rat. It wasn't as if he and Scabbers had a special bond or something.

When everyone had arrived on the Quidditch field, Madam Hooch came towards us and asked Harry if she could see his Firebolt. He gave it to her and she looked at it in awe, carefully stroking, as if she was scared it might break.

"Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail end -- you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows -- a Pity they've stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too...."

She continued in this vein for some time, until Wood said,

"Er -- Madam Hooch? Is it okay if Harry has the Firebolt back? We need to practice...."

"Oh -- right -- here you are, then, Potter," said Madam Hooch. "I'll sit over here with Weasley...."

She and Ron left the field to sit in the stadium, and the Gryffindor team gathered around Wood for his final instructions for tomorrow's match.