Loser

Envy

IV

Quite a few quidditch games and many hours later, Ginny was at the table munching on some biscuits and sipping tea.

“They broke up,” Ginny said, toying with a biscuit on her plate, “that’s why I got hacked off at you. Sorry.”

“Who?” Ron said, mucking with a cupboard door.

He had been delegated to fixing the hinge, as everyone else was off doing things that were more useful or just of greater importance. After wrestling with the thing for the better part of the afternoon by manual and magical means, Ron miserably conceded it had to have been hexed by the twins at some point.

“Malfoy and Harry, stupid,” she huffed, “Malfoy’s team was the Bats. Harlan’s not cheering for them because he was a prat.”

“Harlan was dating Malfoy?” Ron said, wrinkling up his nose, “that’s mad! Every other word out of his mouth in third year was ‘mudblood scum’!”

Ron bristled remembering Harlan glancing over at Malfoy and wincing. She never said anything, even when Malfoy’s stupid friend Pansy had made Hermione cry.

“Not everything Malfoy does is prattish,” Ginny sighed, “It would be a lot easier for Harry that way. They were really in love. Malfoy even gave her a ring.”

“I suppose that was right before they went…you know,” Ron shrugged, giving the cupboard one last defining kick before moving to the sink to wash up, “Went off to fight You Know Who.”

“S’right,” Ginny said, stuffing the last biscuit into her mouth and washing it down with some tea.

“I’ve got to get my room ready. She’s spending the night tomorrow,” Ginny grinned, “finally!”

“Why not tonight?” Ron said tetchily, “She was just here. I’ll have to go get her tomorrow again!”

“Oh stop it, Ron!” Ginny huffed, “It’s the first time in ages Snape’s let her out for the night.”

“Why?” Ron asked, “It’s not like anything’s going to happen to her in a day. It would’ve happened all the other million sodding times she was out.”

“Because Snape’s a paranoid old codger,” Ginny said, thinning her lips, “I can’t stand the way he lords over her. It’s criminal. She has no life at all!”

“You’d best be glad I don’t lord over you, dear,” Molly said, brushing some dirt off of her jumper as she walked into the house.

“Oops.” Ginny winced, “Sorry Mum.”

Ron snickered but quickly ceased, when his mother turned her irritated gaze on him.

“Ronald! All day and you didn’t fix the hinge!” Molly said, annoyed, “What were you doing? Not out playing quidditch with your sister, I hope!”

“Ah, no Mum,” Ron sheepishly supplied, “I couldn’t fix it. It’s straight messed.”

“Codswallop,” Molly said, moving the cupboard door, “Hmm, I’ll have to get Charlie to come round and look at this when he can.”

He turned red then and looked away. Ron vaguely hoped that Charlie the dragon tamer was occupied well into the school year, with things more important then a sodding hinge.

Later that night when Ron was laying in his bed that was slightly too short for his long legs, he thought about Harlan and Malfoy, who managed to save the Wizarding World.

The Girl Who Lived and the dramatic story about the Death Eater’s child who became a turn coat was splashed all over the front page of the Prophet at the beginning of fifth year. It was hard to look at someone so normal and reconcile it with the notion that she had saved everyone from some mad Dark Lord. He had been so far removed from it all, that he hardly remembered that year in any great detail. He and Hermione had had their first big row and that had seemed more important then moldy dark wizards and girls fighting them.

Ron preferred seeing Harlan as just some bint his sister hung around with, anyway. That way, there was less chance that he’d wank over her shapely arse when he got up in the morning. Girl’s Who Lived and great adventures were for Malfoys, not errant Weasleys and he might as well reconcile himself to that fact before getting any wild ideas.