Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

The next morning, however, news of Ron spread fast. It didn’t seem to cause as much of a stir as Katie’s attack did, I guess because he’d been in Slughorn’s office at the time and had been given an antidote right away. People seemed more interested in the next Quidditch match, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.

Since Ron was still in the hospital wing, Harry had given McLaggen the chance to play Keeper in the next game, but now McLame always wanted to talk strategy with him. Plus, Lavender Brown kept wanting to discuss Ron with Harry. Unfortunately for Harry, Hermione and I tended to avoid him since he attracted the two of them.

The morning of the game, Hermione and I went down to the pitch with Ginny. After she went into the changing rooms, we went to find seats.

Once the game started, we heard a dreamy voice talking into the microphone, “And that’s Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle. He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he’s playing them – oh, look, he’s lost the Quaffle, Ginny took it from him. I do like her, she’s very nice…”

I started laughing, “That’s Luna! They let Luna do commentary, oh this will be an entertaining game”

Hermione didn’t respond, she was too busy scowling in the direction of McLaggen who was shouting criticism at the other players rather than defending the goals.

A little ways into the game, McLaggen had actually taken one of the beaters’ bats and seemed to be demonstrating how he should use it. Harry noticed and went flying towards him, shouting. McLaggen went to hit a bludger, and accidentally knocked towards Harry.

We gasped as it collided with his head and he went spinning off his broom towards the ground. Coote and Peakes, the two beaters caught Harry before he hit the ground and they rushed him off to the hospital wing straight after.

After that, the game was terrible, Gryffindor lost horribly, although Luna’s comments were still amusing. I blamed McLaggen completely for everything. I liked being able to blame him for something, never liked him.

Luckily, Harry wasn’t in the hospital wing for long, Madam Pomfrey fixed him up pretty quickly. He got out the same time as Ron.

When Harry and Ron got out, we went down to breakfast with them. One good thing that came out of this was that Ron and Hermione were friends again. On our way down, Hermione mentioned what we’d heard about Ginny and Dean’s fight.

“What did they row about?” asked Harry.

“Oh, Dean was laughing about McLaggen hitting that bludger at you”

“It must’ve looked funny” said Ron, reasonably.

I smacked his arm as Hermione said, “It did not look funny! It looked terrible and if Coote and Peakes hadn’t caught Harry he could have been very badly hurt!”

“Yeah, well, there was no need for Ginny and Dean to split up over it. Or are they still together?” asked Harry, trying to sound casual.

I smirked.

“Yes, they are – but why are you so interested?” asked Hermione suspiciously.

“I just don’t want my Quidditch team messed up again!”

“Oh right, of course” I said.

As we were walking down the stairs, we suddenly stopped short, seeing Lavender Brown standing at the foot looking angry.

“Hi” said Ron nervously.

The rest of us quickly walked on towards the Great Hall, and Ron looked annoyed when he came in later. He sat with Lavender, but we didn’t see them talk at all, and Hermione seemed to be in a good mood for the rest of the day, oddly enough.

Later that week, a bulletin was posted about the date for our Apparition tests. Those of us who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, could sign up for additional practices in Hogsmeade. Well, mine was the eighteenth of April, so I signed up with Ron and Hermione.

Ron was panicking a bit because he had not been able to Apparate yet. Hermione had, twice, so she seemed alright. I had once…and a half. I’d splinched my hand off on the first try.

Now we were sitting in the common room, three of us reading while Ron attempted to finish his essay for Snape that he had, as always, procrastinated on.

“How d’you spell ‘belligerent’?” asked Ron, shaking his quill. “It can’t be B – U – M – “

“No, it isn’t” said Hermione, pulling his paper towards her. “And ‘augury’ doesn’t begin O – R – G either. What kind of quill are you using?”

“It’s one of Fred and George’s Spell-Check ones…but I think the charm must be wearing off…”

I snorted.

“Yes, it must,” said Hermione, pointing to his title, “because we were asked how we’d deal with dementors, not ‘Dugbogs,’ and I don’t remember you changing your name to ‘Roonil Wazlib’ either.”

“Ah no!” cried Ron. “Don’t say I’ll have to write the whole thing out again!”

“Poor Roonil” I sighed.

“It’s okay, I can fix it” Hermione said, pulling out her wand.

“I love you, Hermione” Ron said, sinking back in his chair and rubbing a hand across his face.

“Don’t let Lavender hear you saying that” she said, blushing, and I had to hide my smile.

“I won’t, or maybe I will…then she’ll ditch me…”

“Why don’t you ditch her if you want to finish it?” asked Harry.

“You haven’t ever chucked anyone have you?” said Ron. “You and Cho just – “

“Sort of fell apart, yeah” said Harry.

“Wish that would happen with me and Lavender. But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It’s like going out with the giant squid.”

“Actually I’ve heard she’s quite lovely, a little slimy, but…”

They looked at me.

“The giant squid, you know,” I said, “Sorry, joke”