Chapter 95 - 96

Evan pulled Hermione and hurried back into Gryffindor's Common room.

Although it was late, the Common room was very lively.

None of students went to sleep. They were all discussing the Dementors attack.

Gryffindor lost the game, which had really saddened them. But excluding the Quidditch players and some die-hard fans, most of them have put this matter behind already.

Anyway, as long as they didn't lose against Slytherin, losing against Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff was not particularly difficult to take.

Now, they are more interested in talking about the way to cast a Patronus Charm. Several students who were able cast a Corporeal Patronus got surrounded by their peers. Percy, for example, was proudly showing off his Patronus to more than a dozen junior students.

Evan and Hermione just entered, and they were warmly welcomed.

The atmosphere at the scene reached its peak. They were both in the centre surrounded by their friends. Everybody was asking for advice about the Patronus charm.

Many girls wanted specially to see Evan's Patronus again.

Everyone was excited, except for Ron.

He seemed to become even less happy when he saw Evan and Hermione being welcomed. He stared at them for a while before turning back to the dormitory with a sly face.

Just a moment later, everyone heard a muffled scream coming from the Boys' Dormitory.

The atmosphere became so heavy that no one spoke in the Common room. They all stared at the door with fear. The hurried footsteps rang louder and louder, and then Ron jumped out under everyone's eyes carrying a bed sheet with him.

"Look, look at this, look at it!" he growled, striding to Hermione and shaking the sheet in front of her.

"Ron, look at what?" Hermione said confusedly.

"It's Scabbers, look!" Ron rudely stretched out his sheet to Hermione's eyes.

Hermione avoided Ron's sheet and was completely at a loss.

Evan looked at the sheet that Ron was holding and there was something red on it. It looked terrible, like…

"Blood!" Ron shouted panicked under the silence of everyone. "It's dead! Do you know what else was on the floor?"

"No, I don't know." Hermione's voice was trembling.

Ron threw something at Hermione, and everyone leaned forward. They saw long ginger hair scattered on the floor.

"Ron, a few cat hairs don't mean anything. You should go to all the boys' beds and look for stains. It might be…" Hermione said palely.

"Enough!" Ron shouted, shocking everyone. "I've had enough of you, Hermione! You've always been like this and never took Crookshanks intentions to eat Scabbers seriously. You never bothered to carefully watch Crookshanks. Now Scabbers is dead, and you are still pretending that your cat is innocent!"

"This cat's hair may have been there since the beginning of the school term. You have been prejudiced against Crookshanks since he jumped on your head in that Magical Menagerie" Hermione said stubbornly.

"Prejudice?!" Ron waved his arm madly. "That monster, it jumped over my head. It ate Scabbers. Am I expected to praise it for doing it?!"

"You know I didn't mean that…" Hermione's voice dropped again, and tears fell from her eyes.

"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking!" Ron had no mercy at all for Hermione, he went shouting. "You've always treated me as a fool or an idiot who didn't understand anything. I protected you in front of Malfoy, I helped you with Snape in class, it was me…"

The more Ron talked, the more he saw Hermione's fear and sadness. He felt pain in his heart, but along with the pain, there was an unusual sense of happiness creeping into his heart.

Revenge does bring some pleasure.

Immediately afterwards, he remembered the dream he's been having recently, and Hermione, who had been in the dream all the time.

He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that his nose was sour and he had to force himself not to cry.

"All right, Ron!" Seeing that something was wrong, Fred hurried over and said in a hurry "weren't you always talking about how disgusting it was? Moreover, this was going to happen soon or later with the way it's been eating for a long time now. Dying fast is probably better for it. It probably didn't feel that…"

"Yeah, it's just sleeping all day long. This is what you said, Ron" said George.

"It had once bitten Goyle for us!" said Ron sadly.

"That was its most glorious moment." Fred couldn't help laughing. "It made a scar on Goyle's finger as a permanent reminder of it. Oh, OK, Ron! Reconcile with Hermione, and buy another rat, what's the use of lamenting?"

"But…" Ron lowered his head and wiped his tears with his sleeves.

"Actually, I think Hermione's right. Scabbers may not be dead. It's just hiding somewhere."

Peter Pettigrew could not have died like this, and it was even less likely that he would be killed by Crookshanks.

He was just scared of Sirius Black and wanted to escape by faking his death again.

With the help of the tracing potion, Evan could feel that the Rat was hiding in the right corner of the common room and following the scene with his eyes.

He was going to pull him out. He just took two steps and Ron stopped him. What he just said seemed to have angered Ron again.

"Do you think Scabbers is not dead?!" Ron looked angry at Evan, gasping, as if ready to rush over. "I knew you would stand on the Hermione's side. It's your fault. If you didn't suggest that Hermione should buy Crookshanks, Scabbers wouldn't have died!"

"What?!" Evan was surprised. All day long, he felt that Ron had something wrong with him.

"Yeah, it was all your fault. It was you who killed it!" Ron clenched his fists and his tearful eyes were red. "It was just the same at the Quidditch pitch, if it wasn't for your ridiculous Patronus, Gryffindor wouldn't have lost."

Evan was frozen in his place. He did not know how Ron came to that conclusion.

Ron must've gone mad. This is so ridiculous that Gryffindor lost the game because of his Patronus!

"Ron, it was Evan's Patronus who saved everyone!" Colin, who had been standing aside, whispered.

"Of course, you think so. You're just a ridiculous commuter for this guy." Ron shouted to Colin and quickly turned to look at Evan, as if he was hypnotized, his mouth was murmuring. "Tom Riddle said so, you killed Scabbers. Gryffindor lost the game because of you. You took Hermione. She should've been mine…."

There was nothing but silence in the Common room, and the young students were afraid and shrank back. Everyone looked at Ron silently. No one could accept what he was saying.

Evan took another step forward. He wanted to bring out the Rat. Maybe seeing it would calm Ron down.

As soon as he moved, he saw Ron rush towards him!

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The scene was confusing and nobody knew what was going on.

They saw Ron scurry onto Evan's body with his eyes all red. Both of them fell to the ground beating each other.

"Stop it, stop it, Ron!" Hermione shrieked loudly, trying to separate them.

Evan hadn't reacted yet, and he took a bad punch to the stomach. He used his knees to hold Ron back, while his right hand subconsciously reached for his wand.

A bright red light flashed and Ron flew away.

His body smashed the table and he fell to the ground, struggling twice to stand up and continue to rush toward Evan. Fred and George pulled him quickly.

"Ron, what do you have against Evan?!" Fred said with surprise.

"Yes, do you really realize what you were doing?!" George said.

Ron gasped and looked at Evan with his eyes all red.

Everyone held their breaths and stared at Ron. The whole Common room was stunned by what happened.

Evan's clothes got all messed up. His right hand was holding his wand tight, pointing against Ron. His left hand was gently patting Hermione's shoulder. She was standing by his side sobbing uncontrollably.

"What the hell are you doing guys?!" Percy walked through the crowd and stared at Ron, he looked like Mrs. Weasley. "Ron, I know you're sad to lose the rat, but it's not Evan who killed it."

"It's him, it's him!" Ron shouted. "It was him who asked Hermione to buy the cat. If it wasn't for that damn cat, Scabbers wouldn't have died."

"It was not Crookshanks who killed Scabbers…" Hermione argued weakly, and her eyes were full of tears.

"Ron, you're crazy! For a rat, you…" Ginny, who came over to comfort Hermione, whispered. She turned to Ron and stared at him angrily.

"Rat? Scabbers is my friend!" Ron interrupted Ginny, and he roared angrily. "My best friend is dead. Both of them and that damn cat killed him. You've been supporting them all the time. Has anyone ever thought about my feelings?!"

Aside from Ron's roars, there was no sound, only dead silence in the Common room.

"In fact, your rat is not dead at all, and nobody touched it!"

Evan let Ginny take care of Hermione and rushed to the corner of the lounge to pull a struggling rat out of the gap, and then he threw it to Ron.

Watching the trembling Scabbers in his hands, Ron suddenly quieted down.

He looked stunned. He wanted to say something, but he could not find anything to say. He could not explain it to others. The rat was just a fuse. When he exploded out of anger and rushed at Evan, the only thing he had on his mind was Evan image as he had Hermione's arm in his hand when entering the common room.

"Well, Ron, things have been cleared up, and your rat is actually not dead." Percy said with a tight voice "Apologize to Evan and Hermione at once."

Ron was annoyed by Percy's words.

He gasped and stared coldly at Evan and Hermione.

Reason told him that he should apologize, but there was a voice in his heart that kept whispering that if someone needed to apologize, it would be them. It was clearly their fault.

He suddenly remembered what Tom Riddle had told him last year. His fists got tighter and all his body shivered.

If he could choose, he would rather rush over and fight Evan again.

"Say sorry, Ron!" Ginny whispered anxiously to remind him.

Ron woke up suddenly and he saw everyone looking at him. He took a deep breath and vaguely said: "Yes, I'm sorry!"

After that, he turned and ran back to his Dormitory.

In the dark bedroom, Ron was alone.

He laid on his four-poster bed and pressed his head against the pillow. Tears flowed out uncontrollably.

He must have lost his mind a moment ago. He unexpectedly yelled at Hermione and fought Evan…

Ron couldn't tell why he wanted to do that; maybe it was too hard to suddenly lose Scabbers. Perhaps Tom Riddle's words from last year played a role, or maybe it was the feeling he had during the day that was a mix of envy, jealousy, and unsavoury hatred.

In a word, the more he looked at Evan, the worse he felt.

Thinking of what everyone had just done to support Evan, Ron felt really lonely.

If it was just everybody else, he could've let it go easily; but with them were Percy, Fred, George, and Ginny. These are all his family. None of them stood on his side.

And Hermione… Ron became more distressed just by thinking about her.

Ron tried not to think about her. He thought of Harry, his best friend. If Harry was here this evening, would he support him?!

Ron hesitated. At first, he believed that Harry would support him. He did against Malfoy, but this was different. Harry and Evan's relationship was also very good. He might also be like the others and support Evan.

He had already lost Hermione, and when he thought he could lose Harry, Ron was indescribably upset.

He always treated Harry as his best friend, but does harry think the same way of him?!

Harry is not only a famous saviour, but also the Seeker for the Quidditch team. Harry has always been surrounded by the elite. Ron was on the other hand just a normal guy. What would make Harry pick him as his best friend?!

Perhaps, in Harry's eyes, he's just a follower.

"I'm all alone!" Ron murmured. "No one will support me. I'm a downright loser. Everyone looks down upon me."

His body curled up in pain, and a moment later, he felt something shivering in his coat's pocket. It was Scabbers!

Ron wiped his tears and got up to take the rat out.

It looked terrified, its body kept shivering and its small eyes were filled with fear.

In fact, Peter Pettigrew was really frightened. He hid according to his plan. This certainly would not fool Sirius, but it could buy him some time.

However, the plan did not go smoothly. He benefited of the opportunity of the Quidditch match when all the students were out and searched Filch's office but found nothing. The Marauder's Map was not there.

When he graduated, the map was certainly confiscated by Filch, and the latter would have certainly kept it. It shouldn't be lost. But, after all, that was twenty years ago. That's a long time in which anything could happen.

Pettigrew returned to the Gryffindor Common room. He wanted to redress a plan to lure Sirius out and let the people inside the castle find him.

Since Sirius thought he was close to Ron, he'd better stay around and wait for the opportunity.

However, Peter Pettigrew did not expect that he would be found by Evan.

That was impossible. How did he find him?!

When he hid in that gap, there was obviously no one in the Common room.

It stands to reason that the boy should not be able to find him.

Peter Pettigrew was scared, and Evan surely had some way he didn't know. If Sirius Black knew the same method, Peter's life would certainly come to…

"Scabbers, you're the only one left for me. You are definitely supporting me, aren't you?" Ron put the rat on the pillow.

When he heard Ron, Peter Pettigrew woke up of his daze. He felt that there were too many variables in the plan he had thought of before. He couldn't fight against Sirius Black and Evan alone. He needed a helper, one hidden in the dark.

"Those people think of me as a footman, as a joke!" Ron said bitterly. His expression was slightly grim. "Those who despise me, I will make them regret it. I want to make them pay the price."

"Yes, I will help you!" A sharp man's voice suddenly could be heard in the room. "I will make those who look down upon us pay the price."

"Imperio!"

A strange light flashed across the bedroom which was quickly restored to peace. Only Ron was alone in the bed with tears. His eyes were full of confusion and emptiness.