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20

𝙳𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚏𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚖 𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜, 𝙸 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 <𝟹

 It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. They were both so angry with the other that it was difficult to imagine them making up. 

Ron was livid that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, that she hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him, and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. 

Hermione continued to say that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

Harry was sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and when he tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, she lost her temper with Harry too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it!" She turned to walk back to her table. "Y/N are you coming?!" 

"Er-" 

Hermione glared at her and walked off.

Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred. "And he's been off-color for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly — one swallow — he probably didn't feel a thing."

Y/N had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from laughing.

"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.

"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"

"Yeah, that's true," said Harry.

"His finest hour," said Fred, unable to keep a straight face as he grinned at George and Y/N "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat, what's the point of moaning?"

In an attempt to cheer Ron up, Harry and Y/N persuaded Ron to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practice before the Ravenclaw match, so that he could have a ride on the Firebolt after they'd finished. 

This did seem to take Ron's mind off Scabbers for a moment 

"Great! Can I try and shoot a few goals on it?"

Madam Hooch, who was overseeing Gryffindor practices to keep an eye on Harry, was just as impressed with the Firebolt as everyone else had been. She took it in her hands before takeoff and gave them her professional opinion.

"Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail end — you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows — a pity they've stopped making them. I learned to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too..."

She continued for some time, until Oliver stepped up and said

"Er — Madam Hooch? Is it okay if Harry has the Firebolt back? We need to practice..."

"Oh — right — here you are, then, Potter," said Madam Hooch. "I'll sit over here..."

She, Y/N and Ron left the field to sit in the stadium, and the Gryffindor team gathered around Oliver for his final instructions for tomorrow's match.