Chapter 646: Friendship Crisis
“It’s definitely a cat, your Patronus is a cat.”
Harry said to Neville with certainty as the students returned to the castle that was cloaked in the darkness, Hermione had a different opinion.
“There isn’t enough data available to suggest that-”
“Come on, Hermione, it’s telling enough already in our practice, those of us who have mastered Patronus magic always have a better feel for their Patronus form creatures, and we have stayed sane longer than the others. You can’t deny that.”
Harry looked exuberant, he felt closer to Sirius and his own dad emotionally.
He counted on his fingers, “Think about Sirius, Professor McGonagall, and my father – that’s three examples, and we can check this with Professor Hap, can’t we, Ron?” He looked excitedly at Ron for support.
Ron returned a squirmy, reluctant smile. Harry immediately calmed down, suddenly realizing that of the four of them, Ron was the only one who hadn’t made it and that he had been one to blabber on most about Animagus with Hermione and Neville. Talking about it now is incredibly improper.
“Are you okay, Ron?” Hermione asked as she noticed Ron’s abnormality as well, and she said casually, “I’ve heard that everyone gets two chances, so even if this time doesn’t work-”
“I’m fine.” Ron said immediately, there was an implication in his tone that he would like to stop talking about this.
Everyone was silent for the rest of the journey.
They parted in the common room, Dean and Seamus already asleep, and Harry changed into his pyjamas before adjusting his alarm clock for tomorrow morning and looked over at Ron’s bed, the crimson curtain lowered on a rare occasion so that he could only see a blurred silhouette. Harry hesitated for a moment, but he refrained himself from speaking.
He thought optimistically as he lay in bed: Ron had every reason to be upset, and anyone who persevered for a month and then was told they had failed would have a hard time accepting it for a while.
The next morning Harry was woken by his alarm clock, it was still early in the morning, he got up with a yawn and moved over to Neville’s bed, “Wake up, Neville, wake up!” Neville opened his eyes in a daze and fumbled with his eyes closed to get dressed.
As he emerged from the dormitory, Harry felt short of something until he saw Neville, who was following behind him, his footsteps weak, and then he remembered that he hadn’t heard Ron snoring today.
“Come on.” Hermione, who was waiting in the common room, said briskly, “I was going to call you guys in another five minutes.” She pointed her finger in a direction where Crookshanks was curled up in an empty sofa chair and snoozing.
They walked down the grand staircase, passed through the entrance hall, and stood on the white stone steps outside the castle. The air was cool at dawn, the morning light glowing faintly, the thin winter mist slithering through the forbidding forest.
“Good morning.”
A chipper voice said. The three of them were startled, and on closer inspection, they found it was Hannah Abbott.
“You’re up so early?” Neville asked calmly, fully awake.
“I’ve been up all night – ha – without a wink of sleep.” She said with a huff and struggled to keep her eyes open, her expression somewhat resembling Luna’s. “It felt like it was about time to head out, but it was all dark … No, I need to finish the spell quickly, so I can get back to catch up on sleep. I have classes during the day.”
She tossed her braids, bathed in the pale golden daylight, and shouted out the incantation.
“Amato Animo Animato Animagus – Amato Animo Animato Animagus – Amato Animo Animato Animagus. ”
She repeated it three times in a row.
Although Professor McGonagall had only told them to recite the incantation once in the morning and once in the evening, no one raised an objection, as if Hannah could not have been more correct. Harry also raised his wand and pointed it at his heart, reciting the incantation aloud. He had never found it so pleasant to speak aloud, his voice carried far out like an undulating wave, as if it blended in with the haze in the sky, though he had been unable to appreciate it yesterday because it was too late.
He paused after reading it three times (Hermione read it five times, and Neville, who was always worried about making a mistake, repeated it a dozen times), and as they walked back, they bumped into Draco Malfoy as he walked out of the entrance hall, Harry gazing at his back and mouthing irrelevant words.
“You guys, Ron he-”
Wasn’t his attitude a bit odd? Harry swallowed the words as soon as they were about to be spoken. However, he proved to be quite right; Ron was stern-faced throughout the class on Friday and didn’t say a word after class.
By the end of the week he had become even more offensive, making snide remarks about Ginny, who was doing her homework with them, ranging from picking on her clothes to cornering her by saying that Ginny had been thinking about falling in love with Harry since she was ten years old – a comment that, in a way, Harry was pleased with.
“-to the point where you are now kissing in public and have no sense of shame -”
“You say that again.” Ginny screamed, drawing her wand and seemingly ready to cast her favourite Bat-Bogey Hex. “Take it easy, Ginny, and you – you calm down, Ron!” Harry said stiffly, pulling Ginny away before things got completely out of hand and pushing the portrait of the fat lady away as soon as he could.
“Let’s go outside and get some air.” He said to Ginny.
“If you keep being so violent I won’t ever open the door for you!” The Fat Lady yelled at their backs.
Harry and Ginny walked around the castle, and they returned to the yard. Ginny still had some lingering anger.
“He’s just a child who hasn’t grown up,” Ginny said, “Inferiority complex mixed with arrogance, it’s a wonder how he manages to live like this.”
“Don’t talk about him like that Ginny, he’s your brother.” Harry said.
“Oh, you sound like my mother, but it won’t solve the problem.” Ginny immediately turned her aim to his head, “You shouldn’t accommodate him, he is somewhat famous but it must be admitted that everything he has achieved so far has something to do with you, if you hadn’t met our family that day but Neville and his grandmother, with his virtues-”
She suddenly froze and Harry felt a chill run down the back of his spine as he slowly turned around.
It is Ron.
The flush on his face slowly spread to his neck, then the colour had a tendency to turn saucy.
“She was just casually saying that Ron -” Harry said in a hurry, as he stepped forward and tried to stop Ron, because Ron seemed to have the urge to rush up and give Ginny a solid smack in her face, or maybe Ron just wanted to rush over and have a face-to-face argument and spit in his own sister’s face, Harry didn’t want to bet on either of those outcomes.
He found himself effortlessly holding Ron in place.
“Is that how you also feel?” Ron asked, backing away continuously, mumbling, puffing, and gasping, his face so terribly menacing that Harry could even see the mandrake leaf twitching violently in Ron’s mouth.
“What? Oh, of course not-” Harry said.
But even he could sense the perfunctory tone in his words, let alone Ron, so Ron gave him his odd, stiff smile and said, “Hey mate, there’s no need to look out for my emotions, I want to hear the truth.”
“I’m telling the truth.” Harry unconsciously raised his voice, he felt a little irritated.
“Is that so?” Ron looked at him and then at Ginny, “I’ll tell you what the truth is, the truth is my sister and my best friend are talking about me behind my back, happily exchanging thoughts on how they despise me -”
“I haven’t! I’ve been speaking for you!” Harry couldn’t help but yell at him, “If that’s considered looking down, yeah, you’re right, I do look down on you.”
Ron’s eyes went red and the muscles in his face twitched unnaturally.
“Ron, why are you acting all crazy all of a sudden?” Ginny called out.
“You shut up, I haven’t even talked to you yet!” Ron yelled, glaring at her eyes with irritation, “I kind of know – I’m a weasel, a follower and a liability in your eyes, a dispensable character!” He cursed with a rude expression.
“Volamucus!” Ginny raised her wand, her eyes brimming with tears.
Ron’s face was immediately covered by a swarm of black, writhing creatures, he screamed in pain and waved his hands away, by the time the small swarm of bats had dispersed, Ron’s nose was swollen to twice its size and his nostrils seemed to be able to fit a golden snitch in each.
Ron covered his nose and spat hard on the ground, spitting mandrake leaf on the snow, “Are you satisfied now? I’ve failed once again, and you have new evidence to speak of.” Ginny looked shocked as Ron pushed Harry away and stormed off towards the hospital wing.
Harry stared at the bloodied leaf on the ground, bright red and dark green intertwined in a jarring fashion in the white snow. “Ginny, how could you use the Bat-Bogey Hex on-” he said angrily.
“He asked for it, you didn’t hear how he trolled me this morning.” Ginny said irritably, “I’m fed up with him taking the piss out of me, so don’t lecture me.”
“He also has his good points, he still cares about you.” Harry argued patiently.
“That’s if he’s in his right mind.”
Seeing that it was about to turn into another argument, Hermione appeared just in time with obvious confusion and displeasure, and seeing Harry and Ginny, she took three steps over to them and asked in an exasperated voice, “What’s going on? I saw Ron holding his nose, and I was just about to ask a question, and he looked like he had taken a shot – oh my god, whose blood is this, this?”
“It’s his, he’s sick.” Ginny said without a smile.
“You don’t make a scene.” Harry said sullenly and Ginny grunted, tossing her hair behind her and turning to leave in a condescending manner.
“What a lovely girl,” Hermione said, “so what’s going on?”
“He’s sick.” Harry said, opening his mouth and finally speaking a little angrily. Hermione raised an eyebrow, “I just got back from the library, and you expect me to deduce what happened from those few words?” “Well, it’s because …” Harry said dryly, recounting what had just happened.
“I never thought he was a liability or a follower or a weasel or anything like that.” Harry said in his own defense.
Hermione sighed with understanding.
“Ugh, I’ve been worried about that.”
“Worried about – what?”
“Sensitivity, vulnerability, paranoia … I don’t know, Harry. But I’ve been worried that it would just explode out of nowhere and just -” she shook her head, sadly, “we’ve even coped with Voldemort.”
Things didn’t get any better over the next week.
Ron spent most of the time treating Harry and Ginny like they were air, ignoring the two or going completely the other way, every time they appeared he said something coldly to them. Even Hermione, who tried to intervene, suffered. By the end of the week, it was often difficult to find him in person, which resulted in him abandoning most of his daily social circle, but fortunately, they were able to see Ron on one occasion – on the Quidditch training field.
But the conversation ended unhappily, and Ron armed himself like a hedgehog, thrusting sharp thorns at any hand that reached out to him. Harry pessimistically predicted that perhaps, as Hermione had said, Ron would only return to normal after he managed to accomplish a thing without relying on them.
“Or perhaps if Voldemort runs out of classroom seven.” Harry said spookily.
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[Author:]
One of the storylines in the sixth-year plot of the book is the coming of age of the trio, and the author has devised a short plot point to cover it separately.
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