chapter five
Hermione was out of danger since Ron had never insulted her and therefore she never ran into the bathroom crying, which meant that he could enjoy the feast in the common room without any worry about his study partner. The feast -which continued in the common rooms, thanks to the house elves teleporting all the food up- was great and just an hour after they’d been sent up there, the news reached them that the troll had been dealt with and it was safe to go out again. Ron spent his time playing wizarding chess against Anthony, after eating his fair share of food. Anthony was laughably bad at chess, which meant that Ron won easily. It was after their nineteenth match that Ron decided he had enough and went to bed, content with his life.
The next day Professor Flitwick handed him back a rat. Yes A rat. It wasn’t Pettigrew. This rat also had a toe missing but it was the wrong toe, which made it very easy to guess what had happened. Dumbledore had captured Pettigrew and given Ron a normal look-alike rat as a replacement. He was sure that soon enough, the news would reach him that Black had been released. It would probably take another month or so till then though. The legal system was -in every conceivable reality- slow and dry.
Thankfully, the day’s lessons were canceled because of the troll attack. The teachers were looking into how a Troll could’ve wandered into the castle. Of course, Ron knew how, or rather who let it in but he decided against telling anyone. He was sure that Dumbledore had already figured it out and was just playing dumb as to lure Quirrel into the chamber with the mirror. One could lose themself within it’s empty promises and be ensnared within its poisonous allure.
After breakfast was over, Ron excused himself from his friends(Anthony and the other ravenclaw first years) and went up the stairs, to the 1st floor, then to the 2nd and so on and so forth until, finally, he stood on the seventh floor, before a painting of a wizard trying to teach ballet to a group of trolls. He walked up and down three times, thinking about how he needed a room for hiding something. After he was done, a big door revealed itself to him. He pushed open the door, to be met by mountains of lost and forgotten stuff.
It took him two hours -and many distractions- to find what he was looking for, the diadem. Quickly, he put it into his inventory, together with the things that had distracted him. Before he found the diadem, he found many other forgotten things. A relatively new looking invisibility cloak made of demiguise hair, a book on rituals(a subject which was only accessible in the forbidden section of the library normally) and many, many purses. All counted up, he had 231 galleons, 73 sickles and 21 knuts in his inventory. Satisfied with his loot, Ron exited the room and watched the door disappear.
He walked in front of it again, three times, this time thinking ‘I need something to destroy a horcrux’.
A new door shimmered into existence and he went inside. Inside there was a single table with a silver knife on it, drenched in a sickly green liquid. Basilisk venom, if he was correct.
Very carefully, he took the knife, pulled the diadem out of his inventory and slashed at it with the dagger. Black smoke shot out of the diadem, erupting like a geyser of evil and corruption. After a few seconds, the smoke dispersed and left only the diadem behind, one of the gems it had on it shattered from the impact but otherwise, it was perfectly fine. Satisfied with his work, he put the diadem back into his inventory and walked out of the room of requirement, a shit eating grin on his face.
Ron walked back to the great hall, where now, it was almost time for lunch. There were a few others already there, such as Anthony and Harry.
“Where were you?” Anthony asked, “you just up and disappeared, I still want a rematch”
“Some other day perhaps, I was reading and studying”
“Of course you were, that is all you ever do”
Ron chuckled and walked up to Harry, “Hey mate, how is it going for our youngest seeker in a hundred years?”
“I’m fine”, Harry nodded, “I was really scared back then when the troll was let in. Do you think peeves did it? That is what your brothers think happened by the way. Anyways, I’m so excited for my first match tomorrow against the Slytherins”
“Well, good luck with that… I’ll be studying when the match happens but again good luck”
“What, why won’t you come?”
“Well, I used to be a really big Quidditch fan but studying is so much more fun”
“What do we here”, Fred said out of nowhere.
“Our ickle little brother not liking quidditch”, George continued.
“What happened, did you drink some of Percy’s boring juice?”
“We have lost him to the books, quick someone Accio him back”, George made a dramatic gesture, before falling back.
“Don’t listen to them”, Percy said from a few seats away, “Studying is very important, don’t let those two suck the fun out of it. I find it great that you choose to focus more on your grades than on something as silly as the Quidditch cup”
Wow, it felt very wrong to be on percy’s side but the true reason he wasn’t attending wasn’t because he wanted to study -though that is an advantage- but because he was terribly afraid of heights. One of the few fears that carried over to his new body. Probably in exchange for loosing original Ron’s terrible fear of spiders. He wondered what his boggart would be? Something to find out in a few years he guessed.
Ron walked over to his own table again, just in time for the Lunch feast to begin.