A WELCOMING OF ALL. || SW thread

[PARVATI PATIL]

Parvati smiled when CJ complimented her dress. Sure, the guy was a bit obsessed with girls. He seemed like he would chase anything with a skirt, but overall, he seemed like a nice guy. He’s not Dean, Parvati thought depressingly. She wondered if this was how Ron felt last year. He obviously was in love with Hermione. As she spent song after song after song sitting because Harry would not dance with her, she had plenty of time observe Ron who did not notice, so busy was he staring at Hermione. However, she refused to be as rude as Ron was. She was here to enjoy herself, and enjoy herself she would. No more thoughts of Dean and that stupid girl he was dancing with would pass her head.

“Thanks, CJ,” Parvati said, realizing she still had not thanked him for his compliment. She really did look smashing, especially when considered how much time she had to get ready. “Lavender’s right. You look great,” She giggled, as she always did when she spoke with boys. According to Witch Weekly, boys loved when girls giggled because it showed they were interested. She wondered if she would have to compete with Lavender for CJ. She noticed that Lavender had finally seen Seamus and Dean, so now they needed a new plan. Obviously the girls would not fight over a guy, but they could not be dateless to the coolest school event all year. They would look ridiculous and lose so many popularity points. Parvati would let Lavender have CJ, since it was her idea to talk to him. What single people did that leave for Parvati? She looked around for ideas, but Lavender began speaking again and she focused back on the conversation.

Parvati nodded when Lavender asked her opinion, “Oh yeah, punch is great.” Incredibly witty. Maybe that was why Parvati was a Gryffindor and Padma was a Ravenclaw. Apparently Lavender was setting her up with CJ. She smiled widely at the generosity of her friend. Lavender was such an amazing person and so kind, “We love the Weird Sisters,” Parvati took over talking when Lavender finished, fluttering her eyelashes as she spoke, “Do you? I can really relate to the music, you know? Sometimes I feel like it was just written for me. ‘She wants to jump, jump, jump / Her heart goes thump, thump, thump / It goes like this, this, this / Wait for that kiss, kiss, kiss’ Those are just so inspiring lyrics, I think.” She stopped, giving CJ a moment to actually catch up on all his questions. Lavender and Parvati often asked way too many questions, even to each other. They never expected anyone to answer all of the questions. They just wanted someone to explain everything… until one got bored with the answer, at least.

((Writing that chorus was the most fun I had all night, I think. I have a tune for it and everything. ))

[GEORGE WEASLEY]

”Oh Tonks. You know we never plan interesting things.” George gave the crazy hair colored woman a wink as he said this. He knew she would know that they were up to no good. When were they not? ”Yes, they do both look dashing.” He gave a smile to his fellow Quidditch teammates from across the room. They definitely cleaned up rather nicely given the way they play. He would never try to cross their paths in the air. No way. He then saw Lavender and Parvati walk in and almost had to plug his ears. Those two were talker, no doubt. They talked about everything. He then saw Angelina and Alicia looking at him and Fred and smirked. They knew something was up. They knew them too well. Hearing an outburst that sounded like Ron, he looked in that direction. It seemed as though Harry had found himself a girl. Why was Ron so mad? Maybe the girl was a Slytherin. He shrugged. Harry was a big boy. He could choose his own girls. He was glad somebody was going for house unity. Sheesh.

”See mate? I told you it was worth the wait. And my ideas are never anything short of brilliance.” He was very excited to see how this prank would pan out. Hearing his twin’s next words, he followed to where Fred was looking and saw Ginny in a dress looking gorgeous. He knew Fred looked out for Ginny a little more than he should, so he just shrugged. ”I’m sure mum probably had it in a box somewhere. She has the most random assortment of things in random places. And Ginny won’t run off to snog Corner. We’d stop them before they even left the room.” He gave a little chuckle and wave to Tonks before she walked off. It was pretty great having an Order member at Hogwarts, and Tonks was the perfect one. Her fun attitude would go well with the students. Ginny then approached them. ”Gred over here things mum spend all her money on your dress and that you’re going to run off with Corner. I reassured him that mum probably found the dress somewhere we didn’t even know existed and that Corner knows better than to try to run off with you. You look lovely though.” He never complimented her much, so he thought he would now. She did look lovely.

SOMEONE NEEDS TO RUN INTO HIM

[/justify][/blockquote]

[HERMIONE GRANGER]

All Hermione could do was watch the scene unfolding. Things were escalating into a very bad and ugly situation very quickly. Even though Hermione had made an attempt to soothe Ron's anger, she wasn't able to. She looked at Ron, red with fury toward Harry, then to Astoria, hoping the poor girl was not about to be scared off. She was a Third Year, and probably not used to people trying to tear her head off when meeting her. Ron made sense when he made a comment about what Astoria had said. Slytherins all joined in on the Potter Stinks button fad, and all had made insults in Harry's direction. Hermione had also received some of that backlash because she was directly associated with Harry Potter, being his best friend. Hermione was insulted during her Fourth Year, even by some Gryffindors, when they found out that she was standing up for Harry and helping him with preparing for the tasks. It had hurt her, but she did not relent on helping Harry out when he had a task coming. She was his best friend, and no words from jealous, unfair prats would change her mind.

Ron kept talking and talking, or rather, almost yelling. It was turning heads. She saw lavender looking over, and narrowed her eyes slightly. Parvati also made a glance. She saw other people looking their way, and Hermione felt awkward. This was turning out to not be such a good dance after all. Hermione had not planned for the drama that was beginning to ensue from the meeting of three best friends and a newcomer. She was frightened of trying to lure Ron away from yelling, because he could turn on her and begin yelling at her for being a traitor to him and taking Harry's side on things. That had happened before and the consequences had been awful. Hermione did not know how to take Ron's rage and possibly turn it into a good situation - for once, even she was speechless. Ron's fists were clenching and Hermione looked back at Harry, hoping the yelling from Ron would not cause Harry to retaliate. The fights between Harry and Ron were not the kind that Hermione liked to watch. Ron began to walk away suddenly. She turned her head to watch him walk away, and as he did, he mentioned Hermione joining him away from Harry and Astoria.Hermione winced at the sound of him beckoning her, sighing. "We'll talk later." Hermione whispered to Harry from where she was, and then nodded politely to Astoria. Ron mentioned her name again, more of a questioning tone than a demanding one, and Hermione began to back away from Harry.

Hermione turned around and followed Ron, going up to him. She looked worried, not at all the look she desired at a dance. Everything got so tense so fast, and she sent a look back to Harry in apology, a brief one that she was positive nobody noticed. "Everything got unexpectedly heated for a dance. Are you alright, Ron?" Hermione asked, putting a hand on Ron's shoulder, her chocolate brown eyes looking to his ocean blue ones, trying to find an answer.

[CJ KENNEDY]

CJ was muggleborn so when he thought of music, it was thoughts of anything from Johnny Cash to Jay-Z. He didn't even know what a Weird Sister was. However when they asked him he replied,"Yeah, um they're great."

When Parvati song the lyrics, CJ smiled and nodded his head as if it was his favorite song. He tried to remember where else he's heard of them before, he knew they sounded familiar. He gazed around the room for answers and then it him. The Yull Ball last year. He laughed at his ignorance and followed Lavender to the punch table.

As expected, there were always a few guys hovering around the punch table either too cool to dance, or didn't have anyone to dance with. He slowly approached the table and muttered,"Fellas," to noone in particular. He quickly grabbed three cups and poured some for the girls and handed them their cups. He poured his on and said,"Cheers to..," he trailed off as he couldn't thinking anything to toast to. "The Weird Sisters," he finished as it was the only thing that came to his mind. The music was so loud in fact, it was the only thing he could think.

Looking past the two girls, it seemed now that place was packed. Everyone had finally made their way into the hall and was now conversing or dancing about. He sipped on his drink for a minute, but eventually gave into the music."So, let 's dance then?" he asked the girls.

[AERIS DAGMAR]

Aeris listened to Dumbledore's speech intently, finding the general message unsavory. She was caught between two mindsets. Should she be angry? Angry that on the first day returning to a place where she actually felt safe she was struck with such overwhelming information? Angry that she was but one person who surely couldn't make such a large difference about it? Angry that she was close to losing Hogwarts, or had a possibility of losing it? But, as much of a hit she took from this breaking news headline, she started to ponder if she was just in denial. She started to question if she was a coward, running from her fears just like a thieving rat would run from a dull cat. She began pondering if she was any better from those who were desperately shooting down ideas of Tom Riddle coming back, marauding around by the alias of Voldemort and potentially wreaking havoc.

She wanted to believe that she was above that level, because she believed that Dumbledore would not deny them the truth. And that just wedged her back into contradictions. Because, after the vivid aggression and mental interrogations took their course on her, she started to feel another emotion. And this one was more of admiration, respect that their headmaster had the decency to put it to them straight with them. Sugar-coating was never the answer. It provided temporary relief, but long-run grief. And he even ordered a dance, which made her even happier than a third year in Hogsmeade for the first time. She liked fashion and getting dolled up, but despised the constant battle of comfortable versus eye-appealing. Anything that made her itch or hugged her in the wrong way, similar to those waist-constricting corsets, or really that wouldn't be fit to wearing more than one hour was immediately tossed into the rejected pile.

She decided that she was going to just wear something simple. Aeris being herself, she didn’t own a single pair of heels. She just never found a pair that felt nice on her toes. She had to treat her ten friends with the utmost care, didn’t she? She dared not to put them through the agonizing pair of uncomfortable footwear, just as she refused to wear large, chunky jewelry that weight down on her neck and bent vertebrae. She didn’t want to turn out like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. She was too young to be weighed down to that. So, with barely any accessories except a leather bracelet, she shimmied into a sleek metallic dress. It was a nice shade of steely blue, metallic that coincided with her wholly comfy silver flats. She did her make-up a bit on the darker side, thinking that it looked nice with the shiny colors of her outfit, and did her hair quite nicely the old-fashioned muggle way. She scrubbed her old polish off with acetone and slapped on a new coat. Only, she had placed it on a bit too late. She ended up walking into the hall with semi-dried paint.

But even with that meager setback, Aeris waddled through the crowds of dancing teens. She kept staring at her nails though, praying that she didn’t go smashing them around on somebody’s dress robes. That would just about banish that getup to the hopeless pile. She wasn’t all too sure how easy or difficult getting that substance out of cloth was, nor did she want some poor house elf figuring it out. Yes, that was her motivation. For the house elves.

Aeris scanned the horizon for anybody that she really knew. She found a pretty head of hair in a breath-taking turquoise gown named Hannah Abbott instead. She always had taken a liking to that girl, for one reason or another one of the numerous. "Hannah! Hannah Banana!" Aeris exclaimed with a grin, approaching her swiftly. "How are you liking the dance? Isn't it splendid? I think it is. I can't believe that some people found dates in less than an hour though, bloody insane if you ask me."

{OUTFIT}
MENTIONED: Hannah Abbott. (: And yes, I am lame for not
getting this out sooner.

[harryjamespotter]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 500px; height: 400px; background-image: url(http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u62/King_Giana/Harry%20Potter/harry_potter_bgbw.jpg); -moz-border-radius: 250px; border-radius: 30px 30px 30px 30px; border: 0px solid #414141] A Welcoming of All To say Harry had expected this response from Ron was perhaps not too far from the truth. Harry knew his friend to be as hot tempered as the stereotypical redhead when it came to certain things, and more often than not Harry and Slytherin were some of those certain things. So, Harry had known Ron would fall off the deep end and had wanted to just get it out of the way so it could blow over. He hadn't expected Ron to be quite this great of a git, however. As Ron steamrolled his way past any objections or statements Harry may have chosen to make in Astoria's defense, Harry sighed and let go of Astoria's arm in favor of sliding an arm around her waist and drawing her into his side, silently offering her support and reassurance in the face of Weasley Wrath. Knowing Ron would not listen to anything he had to say until he'd had a good deal of time to cool off, Harry stayed silent throughout the entire tirade. Looking at Hermione, he saw her discomfort and gave her a reassuring smile as Ron snapped at her to join him. He wanted Hermione to know she didn't have to choose a side this time - Harry wasn't going to fight Ron, he was just going to give him time to get used to the change. If he chose not to do so...well, Harry would cross that bridge when it came. For now though, he didn't want Hermione feeling like she was being torn at by her two friends, so he tried to show that he was alright with a few looks. When she made to head out after Ron, whispering as she left, Harry touched her arm briefly and said simply, "It's going to be alright, Hermione." Hoping that she would understand all he had been trying to tell her silently as Ron bellowed his face off and made a scene. Once they were gone, Harry sighed and gave Astoria a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry about that, Astoria," He said genuinely. "You have to understand, Ron's a bit...stubborn, really. Slytherin has always been a sore spot with us and well, if things hadn't gotten so wonky this year I can't tell for sure if I'd have given you a chance myself, so I do see where he's coming from. That said, he was a prat. He'll come around eventually, but I won't blame you if you feel a bit put off by him." Feeling bad that Astoria had been attacked by his friend, Harry decided to try making it up to her. Smiling, he motioned to the dance floor. "Shall we - blood hell," He stated, interrupting himself for two reasons. One, he had just noticed the girl who was approaching him and Astoria. He knew Daphne Greengrass from class, and also that she was Astoria's sister. It seemed as though tonight's escapades might not yet be over. Reason two was that he had also just taken notice of the lime green vision that was Neville Longbottom. Somewhat stunned, Harry was having a hard time deciding if the other boy looked horrendous or fancy. The cut of the robes was definitely fashionable, and they could have been dapper if they were any color more subdued. A deep green, or navy, or even burgundy would have worked. Lime green was just...well...bad. Tag: Astoria//Hermione/Neville/Daphne Outfit

[/div][/td][/tr][/td][/tr][/table]

[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria had no idea what to say or do at that moment. She couldn’t even talk. Ron was yelling and she did not like getting yelled at like that. Normally, she would hit the person yelling at her. That would not help the situation at all. When he started his rant though, her mood changed. It was one of her flaws. She would get so worked up when she was yelled at. She never cried in fights or anything, but getting yelled at was different. She hated being weak. She hated this flaw. If her housemates ever knew about this, she would never hear the end of it. She started to back away just in case she needed to run. She then felt Harry’s arm slip from hers and she almost ran. Was he just going to let her deal with it on her own? His arm then went around her waist and she felt butterflies.

WHAT!? Why was she feeling butterflies? This could NOT be happening. No. She was just. Hungry. That’s what it was. Hungry. ’Oh stop fooling yourself. You like him.’ She mentally kicked her brain for that one. She did have to admit. He was cute, and a lot of fun to hang around with, but she couldn’t actually fall for him. That wasn’t supposed to happen. It couldn’t happen. Could it? You can’t help who you like, right? Oh if anyone knew was she was thinking right now, she would NEVER hear the end of it. She barely heard Ron ask Hermione to leave and Harry tell her it was okay because her thoughts were going crazy. By the time she came back to reality, Hermione and Ron had left. She gave Hermione a small smile. At least she was giving her a chance and not jumping to conclusions.

When Harry explained everything to her, she nodded. ”It’s fine. Really. My housemates and friends are going to react way worse than that.” She gave him a small smile and looked down at her shoes. She was glad he was here for all this. He could of made her go out and tell everyone herself. She was in the middle of nodding when he stopped mid sentence and cursed. She gave him a funny look and looked over to where he was looking. ”Bloody hell.” She didn’t mean to repeat him, but it was necessary. She gave a sigh and smiled up at her sister. ”Hey Daph.” This night was not going to end well at all.

[/justify][/blockquote]

[ericavery]

[atrb=border, 0, true][atrb=style, border-left: #405142 4px solid; border-right: #405142 2px dashed; background: #161616; padding-top: 16px; padding-right: 16px; padding-left: 16px; padding-bottom: 12px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; width: 368px;] ----- WELCOMING OF ALL ----- ----- Dancing is the worlds favourite metaphor ----- Wandering the empty corridors of the Hogwarts dungeons, Eric turned to remember precisely where Severus' quarters were now located. He had waken up, isolated in a room he didn't recognize. It had taken a good deal of thinking, as it had for the past two weeks, to realize he had been in his new shared living space with Severus. Music echoed down the hallways, demanding Eric's attention, almost to an alluring state. Eric had always loved music, socializing, and dancing, however he was ill prepared for this dance. Climbing the stairs from the dungeons, Eric turned immediately in the direction of the Great Hall. Stopping outside of the double doors, Eric glanced inside to get a view of the numerous students collected inside. Taking a deep breath, Eric sauntered into the hall. He had been dressed in his usual attire, and weaved his way through the strangers. The night brought back memories, too many to be sure. Spotting Severus, his eyes became fixated, as he quietly made the attempt to sneak up on the other professor. His pace quickened, as he unknowingly grabbed Potter's shoulder, slipping past the yelling red headed banshee. Some things never changed. The tempers of students among them. Target in mind, he reminded himself it wasn't the students he was interested in. They were old enough to solve their differences themselves. Bumping into another couple, he apologized, as he continued forth. Despite his clumsiness, he was pleased to realize he had still gone seemingly unnoticed by Severus. That added to his desire of inflicting the element of surprise. Clasping a hand on his shoulder, he allowed the playful smirk to dance across his features. “Might I have this dance?” He asked, already anticipating being swatted at, or a simple 'no'. tag: Sev/Open (obviously);; Notes: Yes I know Im a terrible manipulator. Get over it! ;D template by eliza @ shadowplay

[severus]

MOVED

[ericavery]

[atrb=border, 0, true][atrb=style, border-left: #405142 4px solid; border-right: #405142 2px dashed; background: #161616; padding-top: 16px; padding-right: 16px; padding-left: 16px; padding-bottom: 12px; -moz-border-radius: 10px; width: 368px;] ----- WELCOMING OF ALL ----- ----- Dancing is the worlds favourite metaphor ----- ”I can only imagine what the students would think... And less desirable parties... Maybe another time.” Raising a brow, Eric smirked even wider. "Oh, come now, Sevvy... Another time will be less amusing." Gripping Severus' hand, Eric led him into the dance floor, as the Weird Sisters began to sing “It's the way you make me feel”. Gripping Severus by the waist, he was a bad leader, but traumatizing both Snape and the students seemed far too amusing to pass up. He could feel Severus tense up beneath his commanding hand, and knew that leading a willing Snape would be out of the question. Eyes softening, Eric pulled Severus closer, not paying the rest of the room any heed, as he stepped forward beginning a clumsy waltz. He was more of a tango dancer, but he knew Severus' preference. When Snape seemed to be overly unwilling, Eric decided it in his favor to twirl Severus for even more giggles. Severus knew that his playful behavior was very different to the Marauders, that even though he was likely embarrassed, Eric would never do anything to inflict harm upon him. Emotionally or not. Deja vu was certainly not out of the question, as Eric had forced the very same dance upon Severus in their first year. Granted, it had been in the common room, but this time his footing was considerably better... Which was evident when they didn't nearly topple into other students as they had before. As the music began to close, he felt Severus resisting rather insistently. Leaning in, Eric couldn't help but whisper into his friends ear “Much obliged, my liege.” Pecking Severus on the cheek, his soft sepia eyes met the seriously mortified black pools of his partner. “It's okay to smile, Sevvy.” Gracing Severus with a traditional, full size bow, Eric met the eyes of the other again. Batting his lashes at Severus came all too easily as he was, for once, much closer to his old self than he had been. He wondered, as he always did when Severus was stunned stupid, what was going through that brilliant mind. Allowing one of his rare full smiles, Eric couldn't suppress the laugh that was brewing within himself. “Oh , Sev... Nobody is going to blame you for the new professor harassing you, darling..” tag: Sev/Open (obviously);; Notes: Its a good thing Eric is legitly crazy.. template by eliza @ shadowplay

[severus]

MOVED

[HANNAH ABBOTT]

Looking around at the other students filling into the Great Hall, Hannah was genuinely surprised to notice that there were some students with dates and others that dressed so elegantly for the dance. They only had a short amount of time to actually prepare and get back to the Great Hall. Apparently some of the students at the castle seemed to be able to quickly pull things together. While she believed that she was dressed nicely herself for the dance, she routinely wore outfits like what she was currently wearing. So, it was rather an expected appearance for her to be dressed as such.

Walking slowly around, Hannah had to weave through the growing crowd of teenagers attending the dance. She rightfully believed that Headmaster Dumbledore had to be mad to think that this dance was really of any sort to make the students be less tense of the current situation. Without a doubt, the dance would probably create more tension than what it was worth. Nonetheless, the dance was clearly still going on despite that fact. At the very least, the dance allowed nearly the whole population of Hogwarts to see each other relatively clearly all in one spot.

With a light sigh, Hannah stopped next to one of the walls of the Great Hall as she passed by another couple. She had never been the type of person to be able to ask one of the boys in her year to the dance. It wasn't that she was old-fashioned. Rather, she was too embarrassed to even say that she liked someone. She had been crushing on one of her friends, Neville Longbottom. But, she was too embarrassed to tell him that she liked him. Instead, she tried to keep it a secret, and decided not to tell him. Looking back around the hall, she tried to find one of her friends.

Her search didn't last too long, since Hannah was soon approached by her friend Aeris who decided to wear an elegant metallic dress. "Aeris!" she greeted the girl with a smile. "It's good so far. Oh, I know. it appears as if they moved fast to plan their night positively for themselves."

---------------------------------------------------------------------
[ tag ]: Open
[ words ]: 364
[ outfit ]: outfit
[ notes ]: Sorry for being late!
[ lyrics ]: I'm With You, by Avril Lavigne
[ credit ]: me

[DAPHNE GREENGRASS]

The Weasley boy was raving. Daphne was sure it was about her sister being with his friend and had more than anything to do with the house she belonged too. When she finally neared them both Weasley and Granger had taken their leave. She was perfectly fine with that. She hardly knew what to say as it was let alone if they had been there. She was thrown off a bit by Potter’s arm around Tori’s waist. Too many questions were forming far too quickly. ‘Bloody hell’ was all she needed to hear to know she had been spotted or heard. She took a deep breath and let her Ice Queen persona take over.
“We need to talk.” She said, grabbing her sister’s arm firmly, trying not to be too rough. Daphne didn’t want to hurt Tori but she was not in the mood for games. She looked back at Potter, but unsure what to say, looked away quickly. It was then that she noticed the ‘out of it’ look Tori was wearing. She let her hand fall back to her side and concern crossed over her face.
“Tori, what’s wrong.” She demanded an answer. She knew something wasn’t right and she was going to get answers, one-way or another.

[ASTORIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria knew this would happen. The reactions she was getting were far worse than her realization of her liking for Harry. There she went again. Mentally shaking her head from that thought, she took a gaze around the room and saw the Avery professor guy kiss Snape’s cheek. And she thought being escorted by Harry Potter was weird. That was just. Odd. And just a little bit scary. Or a lot scary. She couldn’t really decided. She also couldn’t decided whether she should ask her Head of House about that, or just pretend like she never saw it. First choice might get a nervous or angry answer, so she was just going to go with the second option, but not before seeing if maybe Harry had seen it too. ”Did you just see that? That new professor just kissed Snape on the cheek.” She really hoped he didn’t think she was mental. That would be different than the opinion of the rivalry households.

Before she could get an answer though, she saw her sister getting closer to her and felt her grab her arm and try to pull her away. She got her about a foot away before Astoria took her arm back and looked at her sister, who was asking what was going on. She was taking it a lot better than Astoria expected. Of course, Astoria wasn’t a random person that Daphne could just yell at. She was her sister. She was calm with her. ”I know you’re wondering why I’m here with Harry. You know that I’m not the one to judge Daph. I had a chat with Harry a while back, and we hit it off. I don’t really see why you guys don’t like him.” She looked at her sister before walking back over to Harry and sliding her own arm around his waist. She faced her sister, waiting for a response. Not telling Daphne the plan was killing her, but she didn’t know how she would react.

[/blockquote]

[ron]

Ron was acting like a right prat. He knew that. He had promised himself last year after the fight with Harry that he would never be so idiotic ever again, and here he was, standing in a lonely corner, with Hermione who probably wanted to be anywhere but here. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him. He knew they were all wondering what that red-headed kid was yelling about. He unfortunately inherited his mother’s lungs, which meant the bats in the Forbidden Forest probably were shrieking with indignation at the loud screams. Ron knew he had overreacted. It was why he decided just to walk away. He had at least grown up a little bit. He was grateful Hermione had followed him, but felt bad knowing it was his fault that she was having such a miserable time.

With a sigh, Ron ran his fingers through his red hair, ruining the combed down effect he had, for once, managed. He was still boiling with anger, so he could not go over and talk to Harry --- especially not with that Slytherin still snaked around him. He would do it tomorrow when they were in the dormitory. Ron would do whatever it took to make him see that Slytherins didn’t shed their skins. There were evil people in the world and the Slytherin house was there so they could continue to scheme with like-minded people. You-Know-Who was a Slytherin. Snape was a Slytherin. Malfoy was a Slytherin. They were all evil. Ron didn’t know who Harry was trying to kid by saying one wasn’t.

Ron breathed in and out, trying to calm down. He looked at Hermione and said, “I’m never coming to one of these ruddy dances ever again. More trouble than they’re worth.” He knew the right thing would be to sulk alone and to let Hermione have fun, but he did not want to. He needed someone to vent to if he ever wanted to calm down. Usually Harry played this role, but since he was unavailable, he would just use Hermione. “He’ll thank me one day. He’ll be saying ‘Ron, you were right and I was wrong. How didn’t I see it?’ She’s going to use him. Either she’s going to try to get information out of him or she just wants to use him because he’s rich and famous,” Ron scowled, knowing no woman would ever want to be with him because he was rich and famous for the very good reason that he would never be rich and famous. “I’m just being a good mate by warning him.”