A Hogwarts Legend: Changing Paths [3]

Chapter Twenty

Unedited

Chapter Twenty - "Bang! And the dirt is gone!"

It looks like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each is as angry with the other that I can't see how they're ever going go make up.

Ron is enraged that Hermione has never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him and is still trying to pretend that Crookshanks is innocent by suggesting Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintains fiercely that Ron has no proof that Crookshanks has eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs may have been there since Christmas, and that Ron has been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagere.

Personally, I'm sure that Crookshanks has eaten Scabbers and Harry agrees, but when he tries to point out to Hermione that the evidence all point that way, she loses her temper with Harry, too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she says shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabberd, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

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

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," says Fred bracingly. "And he'd 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!" I hiss indignantly.

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

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

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

"His finest hour," says Fred, unable to keep a struggle face. "Let the scar on Goyle's ginger 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?"

In a last-ditch attempt to cheer Ron up, Harry and I persuade him to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practise before the Ravenclaw match, so that he can have a go on Harry's Firebolt after we've finished. That does seem to take Ron's mind off Scabbers for a moment ("Brilliant! Can I try and shoot a few goals on it?") so we set off for the Quidditch pitch together.

Madam Hooch, who is still overseeing Gryffindor practised to keep an eye on Harry and I, is just as impressed with the Firebolt as everyone else has been. She takes it from my hands before take-off and gives us the benefit of her professional opinion.

"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 learnt to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too ..."

She continued in this vein for some time, until Wood says, "Er - Madam Hooch? Is it OK if Emily has the Firebolt back? Only we need to practise ..."

"Oh - right - here you are, then, Swift," says Madam Hooch. "I'll sit I've here with Weasley ..."

She and Ron leave the pitch to sit in the stadium, and the Gryffindor team gather around Wood for his final instructions for tomorrow's match.