He ducked--almost too late--as he heard the belch behind him and felt his hair move from the proximity of the fire as it passed him. Wearily but determined, he raised his wand to help the team move the Fireball back into place.
It had been a rough first week on the job as a keeper; his classroom trainings and drills had not fully prepared him for the unpredictability and sheer physicality of simply keeping dragons. After the Fireball had moved back into her cave and the entrance wards been reset, Ron trudged back down to the barracks with the rest of the team. The morning crew passed them on the way to the dining hall; Ron nodded silently to his brother who was leading the group.
As he ate breakfast quietly by himself, he let his thoughts drift towards her again. As he dropped his tray off in the bin, he eyes drifted upwards, as it had done for the past week, to the sign above the door exiting the dining hall. "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.*" Or even if you don't, Ron thought.
The dragon keeper's motto had been drilled into the new recruits during his eight-month training session in Hungary, and after the accident, it had been those words he'd wished he heard years before. He wasn't naïve enough to believe it would have made a difference, but he dedicated his life to following their wisdom now. Maybe someone else's life could be saved. Maybe someone else could be spared the heartache of hearing their first love die.
With those morose thoughts, he fell heavily into his bunk, shutting his eyes and hoping that today would bring no more dreams, although her image was the last thing he remembered seeing before sleep finally claimed him.
He was awoken roughly that evening by Charlie.
"Ron! You need to get up, now. We've got an emergency. You aren't supposed to be on the team, but I convinced them that he'd listen to you. Pack a bag quickly, enough for a few days, and meet me outside the entrance hall. Hurry up. We're leaving in ten minutes." Charlie stood up and left the room without looking back to see if Ron was getting up.
Ron blinked a few times before sitting up, trying to clear the images of Hermione lying next to him, smiling, as he had just seen moments before Charlie woke him. With a sigh, he started moving around the room, packing clothing and essentials, not bothering to try to puzzle what his brother had rushed in to tell him. He would find out soon enough.
Only one other person waited with Charlie outside the entrance hall - a seasoned keeper named Desmond. They were talking quietly as Ron approached.
"We'll explain after we get there. The Portkey leaves in two minutes," his brother said quietly. "Let's get out of sight."
The sun was setting as they walked up a slight hill behind the barracks. Ron watched his team walk without him up the side of the mountain towards the caves where the dragons rested in the evenings, and wondered why he was already chosen for a mission after only being at the reservation for a week. He didn't think it could be anything good, and he was nervous that someone he knew was in danger. He gave a slight start when Charlie touched his arm, but obediently set a finger on the watering can right before it turned blue and the familiar pull behind his stomach jerked him into nothingness.
His heart sang when he realized that they were in Hogsmeade--right outside The Hog's Head--and then dropped just as quickly. He turned to Charlie, who tilted his head towards Hogwarts and started forward.
"Let's go."
"Wait a minute!" Ron called, jogging to catch with him. "What's going on? Why am I here?"
"Do you remember Norbert?" Ron stumbled for a second as Charlie continued. "Well, apparently Hagrid doesn't. He has been raising a Common Welsh Green for almost a month now--no one knows where or how he got one. And as school starts in a week, the new Headmistress finally decided that it should go. Except for the small fact that Hagrid doesn't see why it should." Charlie glanced at Ron. "That's the main reason why you're here. To talk to Hagrid."
Ron stared at his brother. "Hagrid's been raising another dragon? After what happened to Hermione? And Sinistra knew about it the whole time and is just now calling us? Does she know how much harder it is to move a month old dragon compared to a newborn?" His voice rose with each question until he was shouting, and Charlie glared at him.
"You don't think I know that?" he snapped. "Not everyone in Hogsmeade needs to know it, though, so keep your voice down! We can try to keep this under wraps if we hurry up."
Ron gritted his teeth and followed his brother for several more minutes as they followed the path up to Hagrid's hut. The dragon was nowhere in sight. Neither was Hagrid.
Ron whispered, "Where is this dragon being kept? I don't see anyth-"
Fire swept past them and all three dove in a different direction. Ron ended up on one side of Hagrid's hut facing the castle, and the other two were out of his line of sight. "Where in Godric's name did that come from?" he yelled.
He heard his brother's voice from other side. "I saw it move into the forest--I don't think it's chained up."
"Great," Ron muttered, gripping his wand tighter. Whether Hagrid didn't chain it up or it had broken free was of little consequence now, but for his friend's sake, he would assume the latter. Louder, he called, "Where's Desmond?"
"I'm over here," Desmond answered for himself, off to Ron's left. He must have been behind one of the pumpkins in the patch.
"Come over here, and we'll meet with Charlie around the front."
As Desmond made his way over, Ron ran through a rough plan in his head. This side of the forest was not quite as dense, so if they tried now, maybe they wouldn't set so much of it on fire. The dragon would have more room to maneuver, though.
They made their way around the front of the house to find Charlie already there. "What do you think?" Ron asked. "Attack now or chase it deeper into the forest?"
"It's a runt, or else Sinistra was mistaken about it being as old as it is. We should be able to subdue it pretty quickly. Let's go get this over with."
Charlie, Ron, and Desmond quickly formed a line and, at the spot Charlie thought he saw it disappear into the woods, they moved in.
After a quick but grueling ten minutes of dodging the narrow and increasingly less accurate flames, the Welsh was chained up behind Hagrid's hut with an iron collar Charlie had conjured.
"Now we just have to find Hagrid," Ron said grimly.
"That's not too difficult," Charlie said, pointing. Hagrid was coming down the path from the castle. He had not yet spotted the trio of keepers and appeared to be whistling to himself and carrying a large sack slung over his back.
"Hurry, let's hide behind the back until he gets here. He probably won't be too happy to see us," Ron said quickly.
They knocked on the front door a few moments after hearing Hagrid shut it. "Who is it?" Hagrid called.
"It's Charlie Weasley, Hagrid. Please let us in."
There was a moment of silence, then a large sigh, and the door opened. Hagrid did not look pleased, but let them in anyways. "Go on, sit down. Say whatever it is yeh have ter say, then go abou' yer business. I don't suppose nothin' I say can change yer mind," he said gruffly.
Ron said softly, "Hagrid, how could you? After what happened?" To his horror, he felt his eyes grow moist and resolutely blinked quickly a few times.
Hagrid's shoulders stiffened, but he didn't turn around or say anything.
Charlie sighed. "We've got it chained up out back. We're going to transport it, but no charges are going to be leveled because it stayed on Hogwart's property and Sinistra doesn't want us to. Why she waited so long to say anything is beyond me, but I'm glad she called us when she did. If that dragon were here when school was in session, it would have been dangerous. You know that, Hagrid! What were you thinking?"
Hagrid continued to keep his back to them.
Ron frowned now, as it was unlike Hagrid to continue to keep silent about his fondness for animals that only he didn't consider highly dangerous. "Hagrid, are you all right? You're acting very strange…"
He almost didn't make it out of the way as a green light filled his vision and Desmond slumped to the ground. Ron's heart almost stopped in his chest as he comprehended what Hagrid had just done. He ended up ducking behind a chair, and once again Charlie was out of his field of vision.
"Hagrid!" he yelled. "What are you doing?" He wracked his brain to remember if Polyjuice Potion would work on half-giants, for he refused to believe that his friend was the one in front of him now who had so casually murdered his co-worker…
"I'm trying to live my life, sonny boy!" a much different accent yelled back at him, "and you hooligans are ruining it!"
So, Polyjuice Potion does work on half-giants.
"I think you ruined that yourself when you tried to raise a dragon," Charlie called out from somewhere on the other side of the room, unhelpfully in Ron's opinion.
Charlie cried out and wood splinted as the imposter yelled out, "Reducto!" Ron used this moment to glance out and fire off a spell of his own. The Polyjuice Potion seemed to be wearing off as his leg-locker curse froze the man in place, but only for a few seconds. It allowed Charlie to move to another hiding spot, this time crouched at the foot of the bed behind a trunk. He was only several feet to Ron's right now, and within eyesight.
Charlie held up three fingers, and Ron nodded. As Charlie put the third finger down, both brothers stood up as one and yelled, "Impedimenta!" It was enough to bring him down.
As Ron and Charlie moved closer, wands raised, they could see the giant slowly shrinking in size and hair receding into the body. As Charlie moved to tie him up, Ron glanced out the window towards the castle. Who was this man, and where was the real Hagrid?
Within a few minutes the Auror Department had been contacted and the man taken into their custody. Ron greeted Harry warmly in the hallway outside the Auror Department; it had been almost a full year since they had seen each other.
"You haven't talked to Hagrid lately, have you?" Ron asked quietly as they stood off to the side of the door. The department was mostly deserted except for some office staff as it was midday, and the hallway was quiet.
"Not since after the funeral," Harry replied in hushed tones. "Ginny was already seven months along, and after that the twins came…I just never took the time to go over for a visit. I wish I would have now."
"Don't start thinking that way," Ron said fiercely, and then he shuffled his feet. "I haven't seen him since the funeral, either."
An awkward silence fell between them. Harry broke it by asking after Charlie.
"He's doing well…I haven't seen him that much; we've got opposite shifts, and I've only been at the reservation for a week now."
"Oh, right."
Before Ron could say anything else, a silvery lynx came to a stop in front of Harry, and Kingsley's deep voice rang out in the hallway.
"Harry, I need you and Ron and anyone still left in the department to come to Hogwarts, now. The man you apprehended was not alone."
As the Patronus dissipated, Ron and Harry turned, mouths gaping, and then Apparated without hesitating to Hogsmeade.
They saw no one as they spun into existence in front of the Hog's Head, and took off running for Hagrid's hut.
A scene of utter chaos greeted them. Two adolescent dragons--both Common Welsh Greens--and a very large, very angry, Chinese Fireball dragon were fanned out in the open space in front of the lake. Charlie was attempting to lead a team of Aurors to attempt to subdue the two smaller dragons while simultaneously protecting everyone from flares that erupted if anyone got too close.
Ron and Harry looked at each other in shock. "What in Godric's name…? None of this was here fifteen minutes ago! Where did all of this come from?" Ron exclaimed.
Harry shook his head as he brought his wand up. "I have no idea, this is insane. I just…I don't know. Didn't Kingsley say that man wasn't alone?" He flourished his wand and yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"
Ron scanned the crowd of Aurors fighting off the dragons. "I don't even see Kingsley out there."
Before Harry could respond, a voice behind them interrupted. "Glad you boys could make it. We need more men to fight off those dragons down there. You two are coming with me."
Kingsley turned and headed into the forest. Ron turned to look at Harry, but the Auror had not hesitated and followed his boss into the forest at a jog. Ron sighed and ran after them.
Harry was talking. "I sent a Patronus to the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; hopefully they'll send some personnel, or know where to find a team. Maybe they can get more people from the reservations, though it'll take a little while as all of them are too far to Apparate and we'll have to rely on a series of Floos or Portkeys."
Kingsley nodded. "Good work. We don't have much time, so I'll be brief. The man you apprehended was part of a team of men--we're not quite sure how many, but the estimate is six in total--who smuggle dragons from Europe and Asia to America. For reasons unknown, the man in custody decided he wanted to retire. The route for smuggling the dragons passes close by Hogwarts, and he therefore to assume Hagrid's life."
He ducked under a low branch as he continued. "Hagrid was a simple man who dealt with all sorts of magical creatures on a daily basis, so we're assuming those were his main reasons for choosing him. However, it was still close enough to the smuggling routes that when the rest of his team came through, he would be able to visit. When they did a few weeks ago, the man not only dropped by for a visit, he stole a baby dragon and brought it back to the forest surrounding Hogwarts and continued to impersonate Hagrid."
Harry whistled. "And the rest of his team didn't figure out the dragon went missing? Didn't they realize if it were found it would jeopardize what they've been doing all these years?"
"Yes, they did, but as he's been using Polyjuice Potion to live here at Hogwarts, they were not able to find him; he visited them as himself. We presume there are five men left in the smuggling team. They finished the run to America from which the dragon was stolen several weeks ago, and have come back to find their rogue team member. When you apprehended the dragon, it alerted them to his presence, and they moved in."
"With three dragons," Ron stated flatly. "How is that possible? How do they even transport the dragons so far?"
"We aren't sure yet. We assume that most of their smuggling business takes place with the eggs rather than the full-grown dragons. However, the presence of the Fireball seems to illustrate that they have some means we have not yet discovered of subduing and transporting the larger dragons as well. That is why you two are here. We are going to find the smugglers, both to end their operations and, in the more immediate future, get them to subdue her for us."
"Okay," Harry said, nodding. "Where was this team last seen?"
"They vanished into the forest at the same point we came through," Kingsley replied. "We know they can't Apparate for quite some distance here in the forest, not until they leave the grounds, so you must find them before that. Good luck, gentlemen. I'm going back to do what I can with the Fireball. Send another message if you need help."
"Wait," Ron said quickly. "What about Hagrid?"
Kingsley smiled grimly. "If this man's been using Polyjuice for almost a month, we can assume that he's alive, especially considering he planned on having this existence indefinitely. From what we've found out, he seems willing to cooperate now that he's been taken into custody. Right now we have to deal with these dragons before someone gets hurt."
Kingsley nodded to both men and vanished back into the forest the way they had come at a brisk trot. Ron gripped his wand and turned to Harry.
"Right. So, let's get started, shall we?"
"Kingsley doesn't realize it, but we don't have to do this alone," Harry said as he began marching not forward, but slightly off to their right.
Ron followed, but didn't say anything. After a few moments, a smile began to form on his face.
"Duck!" Charlie yelled just as another jet of flames mushroomed around them. The Fireball was close to becoming subdued, and it knew it was. Its attacks were becoming increasingly more erratic and unpredictable.
"One more time, on three!" he hollered. "One, two, three!" As the last number was yelled, the team consisting of six Aurors and himself--two of the Aurors originally starting the fight had crawled away with numerous burn injuries - simultaneously shouted a stunning spell, Charlie heard shouts behind them and nearly fainted with relief. He knew they would never be able to subdue the dragon with the number of people they had, as at least a dozen would be needed to properly stun it. Hopefully there were at least four people in the group he heard behind him…
"Need some help there?" a familiar voice called jovially. Charlie turned to see George and five other store owners from Hogsmeade making their way down the hillside.
Charlie grinned despite himself. Before he could open his mouth to reply, he saw six more people making their way down the path - the team from the Wales reservation, who had been able to Apparate into Hogsmeade. With nineteen people, they might take down these beasts, after all. And hopefully more coming from the other reservations, which he fiercely hoped would arrive soon…
"All right everyone, listen up! The Fireball is the priority! She's almost down, let's take her out first--everyone form a half-circle on the side of the lake facing Hagrid's cabin to trap her up against the side of the lake. She's had spells fired at her for nearly a half-quarter now, she's quite angry--so watch out! For those of you not familiar with the Fireball, her flames are mushroom-shaped, so everyone in the formation needs to be prepared to duck upon my command. When I yell 'three', everyone stun her. Quite simple. Let's get moving!"
He pointed to two of the Hosgmeade shopkeepers. "Will you please take the two Aurors over there to St. Mungo's? They've got burn injuries. Come back as soon as you can."
As he jogged back over to the semi-circle where everyone was forming up and warily keeping an eye on the Fireball, he noticed George grinning at him. "What?" he asked irritably.
"Nothing, Mr. Weasley!" he said, saluting.
Charlie rolled his eyes. "Everyone ready? One, two, three!" And as seventeen wizards and witches pointed their wands at the Fireball, she instead turned to the Common Welsh Greens and blew fire at them. As she fell over, stunned, the Greens bellowed angrily and rose into the air over the lake.
After ten minutes of running briskly through the forest, Ron was getting frustrated. He hoped Harry knew where he was going; after all, they had not been in the forest since what would have been their seventh year, and they hadn't been looking for them since fifth year, and that had been with Hermione…
All of a sudden he had to swerve sharply to avoid running into Harry. He turned ask what his bloody problem was when he saw the arrow pointed at Harry's chest, and the words died on his lips. Harry was smiling.
"Human! You've wandered into our territory without invitation."
"Good, I've been trying to for a while now. You're Magorian, right? We met my fifth year--I'm Harry Potter."
Ron thought that was a mistake--Magorian's face twisted in dislike and he tightened the bow. "I remember--you brought that foul woman into the forest. You shall not--"
Harry interrupted. "I need to see Firenze. It's very important and we don't have much time. Please."
Magorian's expression didn't change, but he released the tension on the bow somewhat. After a few moments of silence, he spoke quietly. "Firenze no longer resides in this world. He passed onto the next several months ago."
Harry's face registered this news with shock, and Ron tried not to groan out loud. Firenze was the only centaur that had treated them with kindness, especially if they weren't with Hagrid. A wave of anger and pain washed over him with this thought; he pushed it aside. Harry was trying again.
"Please, we need your help. Hagrid's been kidnapped, and there are men in the forest who have brought dragons in, which you've surely noticed. We just wanted to stop them, if you would just help us…tell us anything you know…" Harry's voice trailed off at Magorian's expression, which was becoming more disgusted with everyone word Harry spoke.
"You humans. Always expecting our help and never giving anything in return." He spat on the ground before continuing. "However, we have noticed an increased presence of different humans moving through the Forest recently. I will take you to Bane. He can decide if we will help you get rid of them or not."
Ron resisted the temptation to roll his eyes; they had more of a chance getting Bane to help them than they did of the giant squid growing wings and flying out of the lake. But Harry just said, "Thank you," and motioned for Ron to follow them through the Forest towards the rest of the centaurs, and their best hope of catching the men who had caused one of their oldest friends to end up kidnapped and alone.
Charlie could do nothing but stand and watch in amazement as the Common Welsh Greens completely ignored the large team of humans standing at the edge of the lake and fought viciously with each other. Greens were normally one of the more docile species of dragons, but as the Fireball had shot one last burst of flame, they had suddenly erupted into roars and flames of their own and launched themselves at each other. Teeth were gnashing and tails were whipping as they somehow stayed in flight several hundred yards above the lake.
He started as George nudged him in the ribs. "What are we going to do about her?" He pointed at the Fireball. "How long will she stayed stunned? And how the heck do you transport her?"
"She won't stay stunned for that long; I'd better start chaining her up," Charlie said, moving towards her even as he spoke. George came with him.
"As for your second question," Charlie continued, "with a full-grown dragon, we usually chain her up, like I'm about to do, but to a portable structure, usually a big steel board. I'll need to conjure one under her. Then we'll use a Portkey to send her to a remote point. That's what we did for the Tri-wizard Tournament during your sixth year."
Charlie was conjuring steel collars around the dragon's neck and limbs, chains, and stakes to the ground while he continued. "If she's attached to the chains and the chains are attached to the board, everything will move with the Portkey. But it takes its toll on the dragons; that's why I'm not sure how these got here. Otherwise, they would have been much easier to subdue. And I know it's not common knowledge about the use of Portkeys, so these guys were probably former dragon keepers."
George seemed to absorb everything he said just fine, but said, "What guys? I don't know what's going on here; we were just called to help subdue dragons."
So Charlie and George sat down with the rest of the team, who were still watching the Greens face off high above the lake, and filled him in on what happened to Hagrid.
"…so that's why we need your help, please. Hagrid needs your help," Harry finished.
Ron was trying very hard at this point to stay silent. This was taking too long; they would have had more success searching themselves than pleading their case to the centaurs, who did not look any more inclined to help them than they did twenty minutes ago when they had found Magorian in the forest.
Bane stayed silent for several more moments; he finally spoke.
"Harry Potter. There was a time many years ago when I did not like you at all. I still do not like you, but for a human you have done many things that have helped us. You are friends with Hagrid, and even though you brought that woman here, you stopped the Dark Lord once and for all. For that…we are grateful. And we will help you."
Ron audibly breathed a sign of relief and visibly relaxed, which the four centaurs guarding him noticed. He could not have cared less, though Harry shot him a dirty look.
"Thank you so much for your generosity. Please, tell us where these men have been hiding. Kingsley said there should be five of them."
Bane gave a sharp laugh. "We will tell you where they have been hiding, and will go to help you. But there are not five of them. There are twenty-three."
Bloody hell, thought Ron.
After several more minutes, George turned to Charlie. "How long are they going to go at it?"
Charlie squinted up at the pair. "I am honestly not sure. They're just over a year, so this would be considered playing, but they have been drawing blood. I'm surprised they are still in the air, actually."
"Shouldn't we take them down while they're fighting? Wouldn't it make it easier?"
Charlie sighed. "If you can hit them with a Stunning spell from here, be my guest."
George stared at him. "Have you been hit with one? We're not far from the Quidditch pitch--there are at least a dozen broomsticks in the shed there! Let's go up to them!"
Charlie stared back. Then he got up and took off for the shed. "Hey!" George yelled, running behind him.
Within moments, Charlie was sliding to a stop and had wrenched open the door. "Grab as many as you can and head back." Charlie swept eight broomsticks into his hands and accidently knocked several over in the process. He winced at the noise, but grabbed one as it was falling and swung his leg over. He bent his head and flew out the door, slowly, as he attempted to balance the broomsticks in both hands. He was riding a Cleansweep Five, and it trembled as he tried to pick up speed as he exited the shed.
His brother flew past him, carrying no broomsticks. "What are you doi-" Charlie was whacked in the shoulder as all the remaining broomsticks in the shed flew past him; it was then he noticed his brother was lazily holding his wand aloft. George smirked at him and continued flying back towards the rest of the team.
He had dropped three brooms since he had to grab the broomstick with one hand to keep from falling. He whipped out his wand and muttered an incantation, and watched with satisfaction as the broomsticks floated obediently behind him. Then he soared for the lake.
The Greens were still fighting, although it seemed that one of them was close to winning. The team of six from the reservation had already mounted the brooms George had brought and were circling the pair in the air; they were smart enough to keep themselves at bay until at least a dozen wizards had joined them in the sky.
Charlie quickly came to a stop and dropped his collection of broomsticks; the remaining members that could were circling now, too. But no one had fired a spell yet; they were waiting for him. He turned to the three people still left on the ground.
"Pay attention. We're going to try to move them over the ground, because the fall won't kill them and you can slow them down if all three of you cast the spell at the same time. We'll have a harder time stopping them drowning. But that makes it more dangerous for us if we fall over solid ground."
They were shopkeepers at Hogsmeade; he knew the owner of Gladrag's by sight only, but Rosmerta and Aberforth were good friends. All three were nodding.
"We ain't imbeciles, lad. Get moving!" Aberforth said gruffly, gesturing towards the sky. Charlie nodded curtly, and then launched himself upwards.
"All right, everyone! We'll focus our attentions on the one less injured, while he's distracted. Same idea as the Fireball! Let's move!"
As if they had been moving as a team for years, the dragon keepers, Aurors, and George moved into a tight formation as close as they could around the fighting dragons and Charlie immediately began counting off. "One, two--"
A narrow jet of fire shot right through the center of the group, and everyone flew in a different direction. It was much more obvious now that they were not a team that worked frequently together, and one woman that Charlie was fairly certain was an Auror was now missing the left sleeve on her robes.
George had ended up on Charlie's right; he looked much grimmer than a few minutes ago. "You do this everyday?"
"Not on broomstick."
"Oh, it looks much safer on foot," George said. "How the heck are we supposed to get back over the land?"
"If we just start shooting spells, they might notice us and not each other; it's too soon for that. Much too dangerous for two of them against so few of us on broomstick, we'll be scattered too easily. We need at least a dozen per dragon, we've only got fifteen." He swore. "We need the keepers from the rest of the reservations to switch places with the Aurors! They are good at what they do, but this is not it!"
He sighed, and then shouted out again for everyone to move into place. Until everyone else showed up, they had to keep trying. For Hagrid's sake.
"We are way too tall for this bloody thing,” Ron muttered as he and Harry hunched under the Invisibility Cloak.
Harry glanced down at their feet, which were still visible by about three inches. "Brings back memories though, doesn't it?"
Ron stayed silent. It definitely did. Memories he tried desperately not to think about every day. But generally failed, for as he successfully made it everyday without thinking about her, his dreams happily reminded him, as they had done again last night. A groan escaped him as they continued their run through the forest behind Bane and his fellow centaurs.
It didn't escape Harry. "You've got to talk to someone, Ron. You can't hide from it forever. And I can't believe you chose to be a dragon keeper, after a dragon was what ki-"
"Now's not the time, Harry," Ron growled. Bane turned around angrily, and Ron fell silent. Harry sighed.
Thankful for the excuse not to talk about it, they continued forward. Although a team of half a dozen men really didn't make sense to smuggle dragons, Ron hadn't thought about it at the time. But two dozen? How were two men supposed to take down two dozen?
Simple, according to Harry. By the help of a team of centaurs and by being invisible.
So they were trooping through the Forest to find the cave where twenty-three men were hiding out with six centaurs who each were carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. And who didn't particularly like the people they were helping, either. Ron was not much comforted by the whole situation.
Suddenly Bane held up one fist and everyone came to a silent halt. Harry and Ron found themselves alone without warning. Harry turned to grin at Ron. "Good, aren't they?" he whispered.
Ron shook his head. "Being an Auror has addled your brains."