Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
— (chapter nine.) —
It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that Harry couldn't see how they'd ever make up.
Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, 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, meanwhile, maintained fiercely 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.
Personally, 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.
Although, Aurora noticed more so now than ever that she sought the company of the Golden Trio when she was in the common room or at the dinner table. The Golden Trio enjoyed her presence, she had a brutally honest sense of humour that for all of them rolling in fits of laughter. Her laugh... Harry loved her laugh, he thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. Hermione enjoyed having another girl around that she could talk to, and who would understand her better than her boys could. Ron liked having someone to banter with, he knew from Fred that Aurora liked to argue, and he enjoyed that greatly.
"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"
"I'm not siding with Ron!" said Harry exasperatedly.
"He definitely isn't, 'Mione." said Aurora, lying across the length of the chair in the common room, head propped on Harry's lap. "As much as his existence grates on me, he's refusing to pick sides... it's oddly heroic."
It had taken Harry just shy of an hour to convince Aurora to lie down on the couch, she looked tired and he wouldn't mind her resting her feet on him. What he didn't expect, however, was for her to plop her head on his lap with a grin.
Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.
"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred bracingly. "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."
