McGonagall took a seat and glared at us for a good five minutes. During this time, I thought about how we were missing dinner, and about how beautiful Hermione looked today.
“I am extremely ashamed of all of you. I have never seen my House displayed in such a despicable and disappointing way,” she started, her hard expression unchanging.
“Erm, Professor? Could I just say that”” I interjected.
“No, Mr. Weasley! The only thing you need to say is how you are a bad role model and a disgraceful Prefect. Now, you four, I want to know why you all couldn’t work out your problems calmly, instead of resorting to violence.”
“Well, you see, Professor, I tried pleading with Potter,” Seamus said, innocently, “but he just resorted to fighting straight away.”
“Professor! You can’t listen to that! He’s... He’s...” stuttered Harry.
“Lucky for everyone, I know how to deal with this kind of situation. We are all going to tell each of our sides to this story. Mr. Finnigan, you may start,” McGonagall said, peering over her spectacles.
“It all started when I was strolling down from the dormitories. There I was, all smiles and whistles, and out of the blue, Potter’s on the floor; Ginny basically in his lap, asking her to Hogsmeade. She was already going with me, so when I heard, I was pretty furious. I shouted at Potter to get away from my date, and he came at me””
Harry turned an angry red color and opened his mouth to interrupt. McGonagall looked skeptically toward Seamus.
“Mr. Finnigan, I do not believe that Mr. Potter would be so violent. Even so, he was still involved. Let’s hear his side of the story.” McGonagall turned to Harry, and Seamus looked outraged.
“Alright, well let me see…” he pretended, “Oh, yeah. I’ve only fancied Ginny for about the whole year””
Ginny positively beamed and gave Harry a sloppy, lovesick look that I hoped I would never see on her face again.
“Continue!” commanded McGonagall.
“Right. Err, well, I wanted to go with Ginny and I was angry that Seamus was going with her, all because of some dare Ron made and I just… I just asked her… Then Seamus came down, and you could just about feel the rage coming off his face, and he had a go at me. Ginny tried breaking it up, but we got out of hand,” he finished lamely. He shot a death glare towards Seamus.
“This still seems exaggerated. Miss Weasley, how did you see the situation?” McGonagall looked at Ginny expectantly.
“Well, I had met Harry after Care of Magical Creatures when he came out of Herbology, and we started talking. When we got into the Common Room, he asked me to the village, and I” Well I’ve liked him for… Anyway, I only agreed to Seamus because I wanted to make Harry jealous,” she admitted sheepishly. “But then Seamus got mad when he heard, and I was going to tell him what was going on, when Harry had to get a big head,” she laughed a little, “and bragged to Seamus. Seamus took a go at Harry and they started shouting. Everyone wanted a fight, and Ron sort of roused up the other students. Then you got everything under control, and here we are,” she finished, drawing breath.
“That seems reasonable. Mr. Weasley, you will receive a detention for “rousing up the other students”, and will have ten points taken away from Gryffindor.” It seemed to pain her to say this, but she continued. “Miss Weasley, you will be getting off with a strict warning because you were not directly involved in the situation. Potter and Finnigan, you will have twenty points taken from Gryffindor. Each. You have also lost your privileges to visit the village this coming Saturday, seeing as you do not seem to have the ability to work out your problems on your own. You four are dismissed.”
“Professor!” gasped Harry. “Fifty points?”
“I don’t want this anymore than you do, Potter. Maybe now you’ll learn to control your thoughts and actions.” Her lips became a tight line and she exited the room.
Harry and Seamus looked crestfallen, and Ginny looked outraged. This can’t be good.
*
I paced around the deserted Common Room for what seemed like hours. I tried to concentrate on my Runes essay, but I reread it and realized that it didn’t even make sense. Plus, I doodled all over the paper.
After about thirty prolonged minutes, Harry and Seamus entered and trudged upstairs to the dorms, keeping eye contact minimum, while Ginny huffed and stomped up to the girls’ dormitory. Ron took a seat on the couch next to me. I quickly crumpled my essay and stuffed it behind a pillow.
“You don’t happen to have any food, do you? I’m starving.”
“Never mind that! What happened? Are you in trouble? Did McGonagall””
“Slow down, Hermione,” he smiled. He averted his eyes from mine and said, “You… You look kind of pretty when you’re anxious.”
I wasn’t prepared for this one. I recoiled in surprise. “Thank you, Ron!” I grinned. I could feel my face begin to redden.
“Yeah… Well we lost about fifty points and Harry and Seamus are both banned from the Hogsmeade trip, which kind of screws things up for Ginny. She got off with a warning, and I've got another detention. We still have Snape’s detentions till next week!” he groaned, as his stomach rumbled..
“Oh my” Ron, you’re right! What time is it?”
He glanced at his watch. “Err. Seven-thirty?”
“Ron! We have to go!” Trying to get to detention on time, and not give Snape another reason to dock more points from Gryffindor, I pulled Ron all the way down to the dungeons, by the wrist, not even bothering to be embarrassed by this contact.
*
Snape glared at us when we rushed into his office, red-faced and out of breath. Hermione realized she was still holding my wrist and dropped it, blushing.
“Seeing as you two can’t seem to control your emotions,” he glanced at our wrists, now at our sides, “You will be placed in separate detentions tonight. Weasley, you will be in the library, helping Madam Pince sort books. Granger, you will be helping Mr. Filch in his office. Go.” He pointed towards the door.
Snape’s got to have a list of goals. Ahem. I am Snape, the Potions master. My life’s ambition is to make sure Ron Weasley has the worst life possible. He should never get his happy ending with Hermione Granger. I’m going to give him detention until he’s ninety.
Nice impression, hmm?
“Great. Different detentions.”
I cursed, before guiltily glancing at Hermione’s disapproving look.
“I know. I mean, you in a library?” she giggled at the thought.
“Ha ha,” I laughed sarcastically, “Will you meet me after your detention? I don’t know if I can stand Madam Pince and all those books for that long…”
“Sure, Ron.”
I waved, and then headed to meet my doom.
***
My detention wasn’t so bad… But I’m not sure how Ron’s doing. I need to go track him down, anyways.
I took the few flights of stairs from Filch’s office on the way to my daily route towards the library. I stepped lightly through the doorway looking for a glimpse of Ron, or maybe Madam Pince. They were nowhere in sight.
I sauntered toward the back of the library and through a few isles. What I saw made me drop my bag. I forgot why I was there, and what I was doing. I almost forgot my own name.
Ron was pushed up against the wall. Snogging Avril.
I ran out of the library as fast as possible, but I could still hear shouts of “Hermione! Wait! Hermione!” coming from a voice that sounded exactly like Ron’s. My heart was pounding, and I couldn't even look back at Ron. All I wanted to do was get as far away from him as I could.
I Think This Love is Altering my Brain by MadEyeMaddy
Chapter Notes: Eeeeeep. Sorry. I'm WAY too slow on the updates. Life is super crazy which makes me uber busy. Well that's 'nuff 'bout 'lil ol' me. Thanks goes to ginnygirl16, the crazylicious beta who adds amazing and proper punctuation, and to Nicole/NikkiSue because all mods deserve love and credit. Hahaa(:. And of course to all you fans and reveiwers. Ready... Set... READ!
Chapter Endnotes: Bwahaaaaaha. Another bigggg cliffie. I'm really gonna try to update faster. By the way. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I've written the whole story. Only a few chapters left, kids. That's where you come in. Honestly, the more reviews I get, the move motivated I get. No kidding. (: