Ron Weasley

Listen. Thanks, Pans. For what you did. Writing in public about us.

That was-

yeah.

And I know I wasn't making sense earlier when we were talking about it. It's just-

I don't know what I think. I don't know-
 
 
 
See, the thing is, I don't understand this Dogstar lot.

Oh, I get that they didn't do all the bollocks the Prophet says they did or planned to do--I mean, starting another epidemic? or somehow making all the dragons break out and attack us? probably not--but they did some of it, for dead sure. And some of it looks like stuff they really might try to do. Like bomb the Third Task. Or put poison in pumpkin juice. I mean, how can you tell what they'd do or wouldn't.

Pansy's right. They bombed the World Cup. And they hurt loads and loads of people. And they've done other stuff, too, that hurt just as many regular people as camp enforcers or Ministry people or whoever they were meant to be targeting.

And I don't understand what they mean to do. Do they want to make things better for the Muggles? or for us? or just make things a mess so the Ministry look like fools?

Because, have they done any of that very well? I mean, MLE don't look very foolish today. And the Ministry can tell the Prophet to print whatever it wants, yeah? Like that rubbish about Neville's parents.

Or that business about Mrs Brownmiller at the Ministry. You know, I met her when I went to work with my dad that time. They're on committees together, I think, and he's a liaison to her department. And she was really nice. I know dad likes her. Only, see. What they said- what Mr Deverill said about always thinking she was a bloodtraitor and too soft on muggles and all. He could be saying the same about my dad.

I bet he has done. Told MLE, I mean, that my dad's soft on muggles and muggleborns. And what happened to her? Could happen to my dad. It really could, I think. I mean, I know he's careful. I know he is. But.

And I know he'd never be part of Dogstar, only what do the wand smugglers actually do? You know? I keep thinking-

What would they be willing to do? How different are they? And-

What if they actually are part of Dogstar, y'know? How do I really know they're not? I don't, do I?

Er.

They're out of the yellow fairy cakes. I'm bringing purple ones, but we can check later and see if they've brought out more of the yellow kind.

Only, I can't remember which punch you wanted. Um. And ask Bones and Nev if they want some. If they've come back from dancing, I mean.

Hermione?

We all want to know if you're all right. I mean, Pansy said last night that you didn't look well when you came back to their common room. Is there anything you need that we could get you?

What did they do to you?

What can we do?

We just

We've been talking about it, Nev and the twins and Lee, y'know, and we want to know how to help. Because it's not right. And it's not okay that this sort of thing happens. And it'll just keep happening, and probably get worse. And we can't just go on pretending we don't notice.

I mean, we couldn't help Terry before he left, but we're not just going to let awful things happen to you.
 
 
 
Have either of you others seen her today yet? Is she okay?

Nev,

Where are you, mate? They sent Towler off to look for you, but I think he was off to the Greenhouses, and maybe you aren't there?

Are you all right?

Okay, that's dumb. You're not all right. But come back, yeah? We're waiting here in the common room, and we won't make you talk or anything, but

we'd just feel better about it if you were here.

So we're meeting up tomorrow evening, right? I mean the best thing about this play being done is that we've got more time for working on defence stuff.

Nev. You'll bring the books, then? Or are you too worried about carrying them around the corridors? Can you remember that spell and then just teach it to us? The next one you said we should work on.

Oh, and Pans. You're not starting back up with History club, are you? I mean, that was Wednesdays, wasn't it? But. It's almost the end of the year and all. And we'd said tomorrow for this meeting, right? Since we've all got all that time before Astronomy to do homework or whatever, anyway.

Let us know, yeah?

Hey, Nev!

Yesterday was loads of fun. Thanks for inviting me. Tell your gran it was really nice of her to have me. Errol will make it there sooner or later with a proper thank you, but Mum said I'd better write you here just in case it takes him days.

And tell Evelyn I think she could really be great at that mud hex. It's a pretty good one to have ready if things ever get sticky, y'know?

Of course, it'll be a while before she could get any use out of the spells in those books you've got. There aren't many that a first year could do, but you're right, there are some wicked things in them that we could try to work out.

I wonder. Maybe this summer we could all get together sometimes and really work on our defence stuff. I mean, it would be good to really be ready next year for whatever Carrow does. And if the twins would help, we could all be really solid.

Uh.

Fred? or George?

Are you at Quidditch or the library or somewhere?

If you're coming back to the tower soon, I could use your help with something.

Look. I know that some of you lot are throwing in with Malfoy, and, all right, I see how it makes sense for people in the same House to work together since we have lessons alone more than not.

But.

I think we could work together, too. Especially if Fred and George and Lee would help, we could figure out some stuff that would get us out of tight spots that might not be so tight for Malfoy or Marvolo, if you see what I mean.

But you couldn't share stuff we figure out with them. All right?

What do you say?

There's lots of stuff to tell you about.

But first, I wanted to say thanks for pressies.

Nev, the chocs were great. We ate them up right away before Mum could tell us not to. Heh!
The Cannons mittens are nift, Perks. And Mum really liked the wrist warmers you knitted her, too. She spent a long time looking at how you'd done the design, so I guess you did pretty well! And I've got the picture from one of my Cannons posters on that picture thinger you gave me. Mum said I should have a picture of all the family, but, y'know. I'll maybe do that if we take a picture with Charlie while we're visiting, but right now it's really nift because the picture I've got is Wintringham making this amazing save with two bludgers coming at him from opposite directions!
Parks, you're the best, getting me that book on broom charms. It's the same one you checked out from the library in London over the summer, yeah? But it's got an extra chapter on modern innovations, which is aweome. I keep working on the Silver Arrow, and she's getting better all the time. The broom kit's got really great twig clips, too, and they're supposed to be charmed to always stay sharp, so that's nifter than wiznift!
Hey, Terry. That box you carved is really dead amazing. And the lion on top looks really good. I don't know how you do that.
I'm really sorry all I could do for you lot was crackers again. I'm dead hopeless at making stuff. I mean, really. Anywiz, I liked it all a lot. So, thanks!

There's other stuff I wanted to tell you, too. Like about some stuff I've talked about with Mum and Dad--well, mostly Dad, actually. Some of it was about that hex of Percy's. They were really cross about that. But it was interesting, too, because I got to ask Dad some questions I've been meaning to about Dark Magic. Well, because he was trying to say that I should think about the things I do to get back at people sometimes, because putting a mean hex on someone that embarrasses them or whatever is a bit like using a hex that makes them do stuff they don't want to, and he said it was all a matter of degrees.

Anywiz, he says Dark Arts are always about either hurting people or making stuff happen against someone's will. Like the Imperius curse or the hex Percy put on me are both bad because I didn't get to decide for myself what I'd say to people. I had to do just what Percy wanted. And it felt really, really wrong. But really Dark spells use stuff like blood in order to do really big stuff that no other magic can make happen. Like he said that Dark sorcerers sometimes do spells that start with killing someone in order to make the wizard's power greater or make him live longer or heal someone who's about to die. So it's not always something horrible that you want to do, but it takes doing something really awful like killing a person or a unicorn or something in order to do it. Like the Death Eaters. That's why they're called that, I think. Because they do Dark stuff that takes lifeblood for the spells or potions or whatever.

But I wanted to tell you, too, about something else interesting that's happened. On Wednesday we went off on our brooms, exploring. I mean, it was really getting dull being cooped up inside, and when Percy was around--did I tell you what we did to Percy?--it was terrible, so Mum said we could go off with Mr Diggory and Cedric to go scavenging a bit in some of the old muggle towns around here. There are loads of them, y'know. Little places tucked up in the woods and round the coastline and in the hills. Hamlets, Mr Diggory calls them. Not even proper villages, some of them. Like they'd have a pub but no owl post office, or a church but no grocery or pub. Anywiz, the big seaside towns have been pretty well picked over by teams from the Ministry, but some of the little places haven't been touched. Mr Diggory says that at first people were too sensitive to, y'know, take stuff that belonged to the people who used to live there, but now it's clear they're never coming back, and if it's stuff that could be useful, then it's better it's put to use than just left to the vines and rust and rats and all.

Anywiz, we went first to a little tiny hamlet called Hand and Pen where Mr Diggory had seen a bunch of yarn in a house one time, and he said Mrs Diggory'd been after him for yonks to go back and collect it for her. So we did that and found some jars and stuff in an old canning cellar, so we packed that up, too. And we had a big sort of sling, like a hammock, that the twins strung up between their brooms, and they went and took that stuff back to the Diggories' while the rest of us went on to a place called Slewton Combe that's not much bigger than a knut and wasn't worth that much. So we didn't stay long. Just kind of looked in windows and poked about in a couple of sheds. And then we got to a place called Whimple that's quite a bit bigger than the others--I mean, it has a square and there's a church and a school building and there used to be two pubs and a big place called Whiteways that made cider and stuff out of apples and pears. Mr Diggory thought there might be some things there that people on the barter network could use, and he found loads of stuff that he got us to shift out of the barns and buildings. And then Mr Woodhayes turned up and said a couple of the other men from the network were on their way, too. And about then the twins came back, so Mr Diggory said we could go off on our own if we wanted and do some proper exploring.

So we flew off, the three of us plus Cedric, and we went poking about the countryside and ended up in a place called Newton Poppleford, and it was full of mad muggle stuff. Like when we flew into town, and just as we crossed the river at the bridge where the main muggle road goes into town, there was this house that had sort of statues in the front that were of bears wearing clothes and posed like they're waving at you. Totally mad. There must've been a dozen of them, those bears! We decided we should go in one of the pubs because its sign says it has a skittles alley, but when we went in, it smelt as if something'd died in there, so we left right quick. Phoah! Cedric said it smelt the way you'd think that Mr Black's corpse probably smells if it weren't sealed up in that box. He's been to see it, and he said it was really decayed. Said it was pretty interesting to see what happens to a body. He was telling us that one of the cheeks had sort of caved into the mouth and the lip on the other side looked like it had sort of slid down his chin or summat. Anywiz, I don't know if we'll get to go now that we're going to Stornoway. Which is, y'know, probably good, 'cause if it's as awful as Cedric said, I can't imagine Mum letting us look at it. She'd have kittens about Ginny seeing it, for sure.

Anywiz, Newton Poppleford was pretty interesting. We went in some houses and they were pretty much just like the Muggles had left them. Only one of them'd had a leak in the thatch and stuff that'd got ruined inside.

Oh, and we went in the village hall and there was this picture display up.--Did you know Muggle pictures don't move? That was queer.--Anywiz, it showed pictures of people sledging in the winter, and there were some of people in fancy dress for some carnival they had there, and some were of kids running about in the schoolyard, and some were ladies in hats and odd-looking clothes standing about by the church. And then there were a whole load of pictures that showed blokes playing something that uses bludger bats but on the ground and has funny-looking masks and big padded kit.

And then there was this one picture of a lady who looked a bit like Mum, and she was holding a big bunch of flowers and smiling like she was really happy. And, I dunno. It made me wonder if we'd been into her house at all, and y'know, where she is now. It was odd.

But we found some nift stuff. Cedric found one of those bludger bats, and the twins found some tools and a really enormous cauldron in the school kitchen that they figured was for making soup, but they've got other ideas for it, and I just picked up some little stuff--a ball that bounces all ways you wouldn't expect, and a pipe that's carved with a bloke's head, and some sweets called sherbet lemons that fizz in your mouth, and I was going to bring a load of muggle blowing gum from the shop there, but we tried it and it'd gone off. It was just all hard and nasty. Oh, and I got a pocket watch that you have to wind up, but it keeps good time. I gave it to Dad because I knew he'd think it was really nift, and he really does.

For Christmas!

And Mum's cooking. I mean, here at school you don't ever wake up because you're smelling breakfast cooking, do you? Or know it's time to come in for lunch because you can hear Mum banging pots about in the kitchen. And you don't start thinking about supper at half-four because you can already smell the roast cooking.

And none of it will be transfigured!

It's been a while since I've been home for Christmas, too. So I can't wait to see all the decorations: the garland and the candles, and Mum sticks cloves into apples--and oranges, too, if she can get any--and that makes everything smell great!

I hope they haven't brought in the pine boughs yet for over the doors. I remember going with Bill and Charlie when I was still pretty small and helping them pull the branches back home.

And Mum'll be humming carols all the time. And there'll be sweets for tea time.

I don't know how much snow there's been at home, but one year we got great gobs of it over the hols, and when Charlie came home from school, we made a giant snow fortress, and the twins made a cannon and shot snow balls at Percy and Ginny when they came out to see what we were up to!!!

And there'll be pie. And Mum's jam. And toast soldiers with our eggs.

So, yeah. I can't even wait!

Hey, Perks. What are you writing Mrs Malfoy about? Are you having another meeting of that club thinger she started?

Or

You're not in some kind of trouble are you? I mean, everything's all right, isn't it?

So, honestly? I don't know what we should do.

We've got Potions this afternoon. With Ravenclaw. And I haven't heard if Professor Slughorn is going to make us move tables or not. Or change partners, or whatever. I sort of don't think he will, but I dunno.

But this morning in Transfiguration, I thought Carrow was going to hex us for sitting where we usually sit well, where I usually sit in the back. He said we knew before we came in where we were supposed to sit, and we got another detention for not wanting to just let them tell half our class they aren't good enough to sit with the rest of us.

I mean, I'm trying to let Seamus think it's more about me not liking to sit up front like a girl, 'cause he's really

he agrees with

that some people are better

only, of course, he thinks he's in the better group, but even with the Carrows, who're making him sit in the back, he doesn't want us--Nev and me--standing up for him. He's really

I dunno

And Dean just shrugs and won't talk about it, but he's really hacked off, you can tell. And also scared expecting, I dunno, but he knows it's not going to stop with making him sit away from the rest of us. He's seen what happens, and I think he's getting ready for that. But he won't say anything to us, and I don't know if he thinks we're making it worse for him by showing we don't think this stuff is right. And Bundy. She never says anything to anyone, anyway. She just kind of flinches if you even look at her.

So I don't know what we should do, y'know? And we've got both Charms and Transfiguration again tomorrow.

Well, tea with Professor Brutka was interesting. And his office is totally wizard!


But, yeah. Malfoy. You'd better keep totally out of my road tomorrow. You and your lousy gob. Dean Thomas is loads better than you can ever hope to be.

Blackpool was sorcerous, mate! Thank your gran for letting you invite us!

I really liked the diving with dolphins pool--it was amazing when they cast the Bubblehead charm on everybody! I've never seen Fred and George look so funny! (Too bad Percy was off with his girlfriend--his head's big like that all the time, so he'd have been a natural.)

Anyway, I liked the games and the promenade, too, and all the buskers. I mean, some of the stuff was too wizard for Weymouth.

Too bad about Evelyn's friend and that fortune-telling stall, though. She looked white as a sheet after that! Almost as pale as Perks after that last rollercoaster ride, except hers was a kind of green-colour, wasn't it?

The twins said they're going to try making some enchanted hats like those jester ones we saw--and I bet they totally do it. And those single-seater flying carpets? They could probably make some of those, too. I bet they could move to Blackpool and make a million galleons!

Anyway, the games were wicked, too. I thought Wood was for sure going to win that ginormous stuffed dragon in the Catch the Quaffle stall. If he'd just had a bit more time, he'd have done it, too. Of course, the erumpent he did win was big enough. I thought Ginny's eyes would pop out of her head when she saw it! I wonder if they got that back through the Floo with them!!

So, yeah, it was an awesome day. My Mum says I should save something to say in my thank you note to your gran, but tell her thanks now, too, yeah? A dead wicked day!!