"Mister Weasley!"
Ronald Weasley's eyes widened and he turned around, only to come face to face with Madam Pince. Why would she be looking for him? She couldn't know about that book, could she? He'd even managed to find a spell that got all the pumpkin juice out of it! She couldn't know! "Y – yes, Madam Pince?"
"A few days ago, you checked out a copy of The Beginner's Guide to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Where is it?"
"Er – in – in my – my pack, Madam-"
"Show it to me, Mr. Weasley." She hissed his name out suspiciously.
Shakily, he fiddled through his pack until he came upon the book the librarian was demanding to see. He gingerly held it out in front of him as if it were a piece of fragile glass. Pince snatched it from his hands and began to carefully scrutinize every inch of it. Her eyes narrowed. She gazed up at him. "Mr. Weasley – would you care to tell me if anything . . . destructive happened to this book whilst it was in your possession?"
Ron swallowed hard. "N- nothing happened to it, Madam Pince. It's exactly like it was when I checked it out."
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor for lying to your teacher!" Pince snapped. "Now tell the truth! Whatever happened to Gryffindor honesty?!"
"Well – well – Scabbers – my pet rat – he knocked over some pumpkin juice on it," Ron managed to stutter out.
"And why were you drinking pumpkin juice while a book was out?!"
Ron tried to make himself seem as small as possible. "I – I was thirsty-"
"Thirsty?! Thirsty!? Mr. Weasley! If you were thirsty, you should have put the book away! Every year, every single year, I tell the students the proper protocol for handling books! But do they listen? No! Ripped pages, dog ears, stains, tears, scribblings – my books are practically ruined by the end of each year! And all because ignorant students like yourself – and boys -it's almost always the boys – don't listen to a word I say! I'm lucky someone was thoughtful enough to even report this little – little incident to me!"
"Who?" Ron demanded.
"His name is none of your concern! But," she chortled slightly, "Let's just say he is a much better student than you! He actually has some respect for books! Now, twenty five points from Gryffindor!"
"But Madam-"
"And four detentions with Professor Snape!"
Ron's eyes widened. "Four detentions? With Professor Snape?! But – but-"
"Since you seem so proficient in the art of carelessly creating messes, we'll see how you do cleaning up other people's spilt potions ingredients!"
She exhaled sharply and spun around to make her exit.
"But – but Madam Pince! I – I still need that book . . ."
"You should have thought of that before you went spilling pumpkin juice on it!" The librarian stomped off around the corner.
Ron stared after her for a few seconds, finally growling out, "Riddle . . ."