A Halliwell at Hogwarts: The Prisoner of Azkaban

I'm A Black

It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship, both angry with the other.

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 looked 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, Persephone couldn't care less about who was right; she didn't even feel sorry for Scabbers and Ron's attitude was seriously starting to get on her nerves. He was always complaining about his old rat, so she didn't really understand the reason why he was so upset with Hermione. Technically, it wasn't even her fault. Ron was blaming Hermione for a thing that all cats did — well, all cats except Sirius; but that was only because he was extremely lazy, just like his master.

Harry agreed with Ron and was sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers. 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! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

Then, she sent an exasperated look at Persephone, but she ignored her and kept braiding Ginny's hair.

Was Persephone being childish? Yes, and she knew it. Still, Persephone didn't want to pretend nothing had happened just because Hermione, Ron and Harry had had a fight. Persephone was sorry about that, but the only thing she could think was 'Welcome to the club.'

Apparently, Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard, so in a last-ditch attempt to cheer him up, Harry persuaded him to come along to the Gryffindor team's final practice before the Ravenclaw match, so that he could have a ride on his Firebolt after they'd finished — Professor McGonagall had given it back after Persephone's outburst.

"Ok... thanks, mate. That's what real friends do when they receive an amazing broom like the Firebolt" Ron said, slightly raising his voice so that Persephone could hear him.

Persephone felt her eye twitch in irritation. She was tired of being the mature one in this story; every time they glared or said something to her she tried to ignore them, but it wasn't fair. Why didn't they simply leave her alone?

Persephone turned around and banged her hands on the wall trapping the red-head between her arms. She would've appeared more intimidating if she wasn't so short compared to Ron, but she didn't need height to scare people, did she?

She smiled at him, but it wasn't one of her kind and warm smiles; it was one of those fake and cold smiles that made people shiver in terror. "Yes, Weasley?"

Ron gaped at her, "Nothing..." he squeaked.

"That's what I thought" she said. She turned her face towards Harry, "Anything to add?"

He shook his head frantically. Persephone nodded and set off for the Quidditch field.

Madam Hooch, who was still overseeing Gryffindor practices to keep an eye on Harry, was just as impressed with the Firebolts as everyone else had been. She took Harry's in her hands before takeoff and gave them the benefit of 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..."