chapter six
As the others were watching the first Quidditch match of the year, Ron was sitting in the library, studying, as Madam Pince was glaring at him. He was currently reading up on second year charms, specifically on the fire making charm Incendio. Now, he wasn’t practicing the charm -obviously- since the library was very flammable but he read up on the theory, the correct wand motions etc.
As he was reading, he was walking about the library. Eventually, in his distracted state, he bumped into the chain in front of the restricted section.
Immediately, ms. Pince was right there, sneering at him, “And where, pray tell do you think you are going”
“Sorry ms. Pince, I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going”, he tried to defend himself but Ms Pince didn’t believe him.
“That will be a weeks worth of detention with Professor Flitwick, now get away from here or else I’ll make it two weeks”
“Yes Madam Pince”, Ron gritted his teeth. He hadn’t done anything wrong but he knew that arguing would just make it worse, so he decided to instead of walking around, just sit at one of the many tables in the empty library and continue reading about various charms.
A few hours later, after the match had ended, came running into the library, looking for him, “Ron! Ron! Harry fell off his broom, he’s in the hospital wing”
Instantly worry seeped into Ron’s body. The changes he’d made had altered the course of history already, without Harry’s friendship with Hermione, she didn’t set Snape’s robes on fire and therefore didn’t distract Quirrel, meaning that Harry was flung off of his broom and now may even die. What if he died? Would Voldemort win if Harry wasn’t around any more?
“Shit”, he mumbled under his breath and took on running to the hospital wing.
On his way there, he fell into one of the trick steps of the staircase and it took him a good three minutes to get out of the sudden hole. Finally, he reached the hospital wing and saw the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team standing around a bed, which held poor, young Harry. Ron ran up to his twin brothers and looked at Harry, he was bruised and battered, magic was already in place to heal the broken bones but there was a nasty soon-to-be scar on his arm that looked like cobwebs stretching from his palm to his shoulder.
“What happened mate?”, Ron asked worriedly
“Don’t know”, Harry replied in a weak voice, “My broom just started acting up and before I knew it, it threw me off of it. I don’t think I want to play quidditch again”
“Not play quidditch?”, Oliver Wood asked shocked, “But you are so good at it, don’t let something like this discourage you, this almost never happens, you just had bad luck. If I find the person who hexed your broom, I swear I’ll-”
“Calm down Wood”, Fred -or was it George?- said, pullin the Quidditch team captain to himself, “I’m sure Harry will play again after his injuries have healed and the guy who did that to him is caught. I’m sure that within a week, they’ll find the sneaky snake that put that curse on him and expel him”
“Yes- yes I’m sure justice will be served”, Wood said, in a much calmer voice, “Think about it Harry, you have your whole career in front of you, no need to stop playing just because of something like this”
The very next day was his first detention with Professor Flitwick.
He was going very easy on him because he was such a good student and he believed him when he said that it wasn’t on purpose that he stumbled into the restricted section. So, he only had to write lines, nothing more and nothing less, just simple, dull work.
This continued on for the next week, Ron doing menial chores and being let go to his common room soon after. It honestly wasn’t all too bad. If he imagined what Snape would have had him do… the thought alone made him shiver.
Snape was a sadistic bastard after all, nowhere near as nice and understanding as Flitwick.
After his punishment had been served, Ron took out the invisibility cloak he’d found in the room of hidden things and snuck out of the common room at night.
It took him a good few minutes and some near encounters with patrolling staff members but eventually, he found his way to the library. He already served the sentence, so why not do the crime after all. The library was empty, not even the vulture like Ms Pince was there, so he snuck through the long rows of bookshelves, before coming to the restricted section, where he moved under the chain, which split the restricted and normal sections. It was done easily enough and no kind of spell was triggered, at least none that he could see. So, Ron snuck further into the restricted section and looked for some interesting books. He found success quickly, finding a book called ‘Of wandlore in its most basic form’.
A quick ‘Finite Incantatem’ stopped whatever enchantment had been placed on the book and he put it in his inventory for later studying. Satisfied with his venture, Ron snuck back out of the restricted section and back up to the Ravenclaw tower. The Riddle wasn’t all too difficult and he managed to sneak back into his room without waking anyone up.
Seeing as the night was still young, Ron decided to read his new book under the light of a quick lumos.
The first chapter -which was all he read until he put the book into his inventory again and went to sleep- talked about wand woods.
For example, Ash wands are very heavily bonded to their first user and shouldn’t be passed down, as their magic by the hand of anyone but their true master would be lackluster.
Cherry Wands were in general very powerful and when paired with dragon heartstring, choose strong willed and confident wizards or witches.
Yew on the other hand are said to give power ‘over life and death’, making for powerful healers or masterful combatants. Ron’s own wand was made of this wood, which made him think that maybe he should look into learning some healing spells, one could never be too prepared after all.