Ron followed Harry and Neville sulkily to the Great Hall to have lunch, but a pointy-faced boy with startling blonde hair disrupted their path. Two gorilla-sized boys followed him.
“So,” Draco Malfoy drawled, “the weasel has finally come out of his cage.”
The two gorillas, Crabbe and Goyle, seemed even more threatening as their shoulders shook violently with laughter.
“Shove off, Malfoy,” Harry spat. Harry had no fear for his archenemy; just hate.
“Ooh…” the Slytherin cooed. “Potty sticking up for his friend. It’s no surprise that Weasley can’t fight his own battles-”
“SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, MALFOY, OR I’LL TAKE IT OFF MYSELF!” Ron bellowed, while his wand pointed directly at Malfoy’s mouth. His fist was shaking madly while his face was as red as his hair.
Malfoy looked at Ron’s trembling wand and smirked maliciously. “You don’t have the guts, brains, or muscle to curse me. The worse you could do is make me eat slugs, but that’ll probably backfire on you, considering your wand is as poor as your whole family.”
Harry tried his best to restrain Ron from strangling Draco, who was laughing hysterically with his cronies.
“Help!” Harry yelled over to Neville, who scurried hastily to Ron. They dragged him down the steps leading to the Great Hall, Ron struggling to break free from their grip.
“Just let me give him a punch or two!” Ron exclaimed while throwing fists at an invisible person.
“Calm down, Ron!” Harry yelled between breaths. Dragging Ron down the Great Hall took much more strength than Harry expected.
They took a seat near the end of the table, making sure to put Ron as far away from Malfoy as possible; Malfoy was sitting near the entrance, surrounded by other Slytherins. While Ron huffed and puffed, Malfoy was animatedly telling his friends a hysterical story. It didn’t take long to figure out what he was talking about; the usually pale-faced boy made his face go extremely red and contorted it into an ugly, grouched face.
“Shut your damn mouth, Malfoy, or I’ll take it off myself!” he mocked while the other Slytherins howled with laughter.
“Damn Malfoy and his stupid mouth. As if I wasn’t having a bad enough day already. He just had to make it worse,” Ron groaned. He hid his face in his hands and shook his head shamefully. “ I could have cursed him then and there. But he’s right; I didn’t have the guts to.”
“Don’t bring yourself down, mate,” his best friend said in a comforting tone.
“But it’s true! I didn’t have the guts to curse him, and I didn’t even have the guts to tell her how I feel. And because of that, she’s gallivanting around with that McGregory git.” Ron let out another groan.
“If you hadn’t insulted her-”
“Harry! I’m in a state of misery right now! It would be best if you didn’t make it worse!”
Just then, two twins with the familiar fire hair surrounded Ron and said, “There, there, little brother.”
“Hey, Fred. Hi, George,” Ron muffled.
“He’s in a state of misery. It would be best if you didn’t make it worse,” Harry informed, echoing Ron’s earlier words.
“Ah…” George said. “We’re not here to make fun of him.”
“We’re here to help him,” rang Fred.
“Yes, we have come to the rescue, little brother.”
“A gift we give to you and no other.”
“A little token to show we care-”
“-about our brother with awfully long hair.”
“So see us in the common room.”
“And don’t forget to bring a broom!”
“Because for this gift, you must pay-”
“-by cleaning our room for the next billion days!”
Fred and George took a graceful bow; many Gryffindors were giving them standing ovations. But Ron seemed to be unimpressed by his brothers’ act.
“Did you spend your whole lunch just coming up with that silly poem?”
“Yes,” Fred answered, “but that’s beside the point.”
“We heard from several passing sixth years that you lost it in Herbology.”
“Evil Hufflepuffs…” Ron muttered.
Fred continued. “But what intrigued us more is that you lost it with a girl by the name of-”
“Hermione Granger!” they said simultaneously.
Ron simply let out a grunt, hoping his brothers would just stop. But he was so used to disappointment, he wasn’t surprised when he felt their arms around his shoulders, comforting him in a patronizing way.
“We have a solution, dear brother.”
“What is it?” Ron asked, finally playing along.
“Like we said: So see us in the common room.”
“And don’t forget to bring a broom!”
“Because for this gift you must pay-”
“-by cleaning our room for the-”
“Alright! I get it!” The youngest male Weasley left the table, unable to handle anymore of his brothers’ rubbish.
The sound of footsteps quickly followed Ron and almost instantly, Harry was walking side-by-side with him.
They made their way up to the common room again, but Ron’s feet stopped, as well as his heart.
Hermione was sauntering towards them, carrying a tower of books but still keeping perfect balance.
“Hello, Harry. Can you lend me a hand? Scott had to go to the Hufflepuff common room and couldn’t help me.”
“Uh…” Harry’s eye shifted from Ron to Hermione, then grabbed half of the tower of books. Ron nervously stared at the stone floor.
“So, Hermione…You’ve been hanging around Scott McGregory?” Harry hoped Hermione would say no, just for the sake of Ron.
“Yeah. He’s really nice. You would expect someone like him to be horrible, but he’s just the opposite. He reminds me of Viktor, actually.” Ron made a noise that sounded as if he was disgusted, but Hermione ignored that. “I thought Viktor would have fame and glory stuck in his head, but he turned out to be wonderful, just like Scott.”
“Yeah…I bet Scotty is just so wonderful,” Ron said, sarcasm eating away at his tone.
“Scott thinks I’m pretty, too!” Hermione said in a louder tone to compete with Ron’s remarks.
“Oh, sure,” Ron countered, “Pretty smart. I bet he only wants you to do his homework.”
Hermione was now yelling. “And he’s always so nice to me! He’s the nicest boy I know! Besides Harry, he’s probably one of the boys I like best at Hogwarts!”
“Oh, please. He’s only nice to you because he feels sorry for you.”
“Well, Ron, at least he’s not a complete jerk like you! Flitterbloom!” she barked at the Fat Lady.
“Thanks, Harry.” She took back her books from Harry’s arms and then jogged up to the girls’ dormitory without another word.
“She’s making stuff up,” Ron muttered to Harry. “I bet McGregory is as much a jerk as I am. And that’s saying something. Oh, look, here come Fred and George.”
The twin brothers came through the entrance carrying a thick, but pocket-sized book.
“It might be small-” started Fred.
“-but it’s been loads of help, especially during the Yule Ball,” finished George.
“Here.”
Ron took the tiny book nervously and looked skeptically at the cover. “A Thousand Ways to Win A Witch’s Heart, by a Couple of Smooth Wizards,” he read aloud. “A Couple of Smooth Wizards?”
“Yup,” George answered. “Wizard-kind owes the CSW big-time.”
“What am I supposed to do with this rubbish? It’s a book.”
“A magical book. This book has the secrets that can win you any witch you want, in your case, Hermione.”
“Are you serious? A book can’t help me win any hearts. I probably couldn’t even win the heart of a goat with this rubbish book.”
“Tsk, tsk. George, looks like our little brother wants to grow up to be a lonely, old man who will live with Mum at the Burrow for the rest of his life. What a shame.”
Fred and George swiped the book out of Ron’s hands and started to walk away.
It didn’t take long for Ron to call his brothers back and skim through the pages of the book.
A Thousand Ways to Win a Witch's Heart by poisonapple
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling, who is amazing, owns the setting, the characters (except one), and everything else that is familiar in the Harry Potter series. Thanks, Jo!
Thanks for the reviews so far. Everyone is amazing! And I hope everyone had Happy Holidays. :D Fred & George make an appearance in the story, even though they escaped on broomsticks in the trio's fifth year. HOWEVER, in this story, Fred & George have come back (yay!) to take their N.E.W.T.s and finish their last year correctly. Sorry for the misunderstandings. :)