flip the pages through
Ron looked down at the novel that had been unceremoniously shoved into her hands by her sister. The cover involved a beautiful black-haired woman and a heroic-looking man with a sword and improbable jawline staring off moodily into the Scottish highlands. The man’s robe was artfully disarrayed to show off some chest. She made a face.
“Why do you want me to read these all of a sudden?”
“Because it’ll be good for you to read anything,” Ginny snipped.
Ron hefted the book up in one hand, cocking an eyebrow and angling her arm with clear intent to throw. Ideally straight at her sister’s head.
“I don’t survive as I have being Hermes bloody Granger’s friend without reading some. Try again.”
Ginny rolled her eyes, reaching over to yank Ron’s arm down. Ron allowed it mostly due to the fact that if she harmed the book Ginny would either hex her or outright murder her. It depended on the extent of the damage.
“Fine. I need more people to talk about these characters with. This school is a desert, Ron, no one cares about this series but me. And Mum. I’m not talking about romances with my mother, that’s pathetic.”
“Doesn’t Lavender read these too?” Ron said.
Tactfully, she refrained from pointing out that discussing romances with your sister was also probably on the side of pathetic. Not to the level of a romance book club with your own mother, but somewhere on the scale.
“Lavender is wrong about everything to do with the plot,” Ginny grit out. “She doesn’t even care about Uric—”
“Who?”
“He’s the love interest,” Ginny said impatiently. “Lavender thinks he’s boring, and indecisive, and whiny despite all of his anger clearly coming from all the terrible—arghh!”
She kneaded her temples with her fingers, obviously restraining herself from continuing on a well-rehearsed rant. With a deep breath, she lowered her hands to clasp them below her chin and hit Ron with an imploring look that their mother would’ve cooed over.
“Just. Please read it and let me talk about how good it is. Pleeeease.”
“What if I think the same things as Lavender?”
Ginny’s expression dropped. “Then you’re dead to me.”
Ron leaned away, somehow genuinely intimidated. That was unfair; as the older and taller and broader-shouldered sibling, she should be the intimidating one.
“...I’ll give it a try, I s’ppose. Hermes can’t get on my arse if I’m reading in the library.”
“Whatever convinces you to read it, sure,” Ginny said. She paused. “I do have to warn you, though, the main character is named Rhododendron.”
Ron couldn’t help the horrified noise she made. “Merlin, never mind!”
“They just call her Ro after the first few pages! No take-backs! I need someone to talk about chapter twelve with or so help me—”