Through A Looking Glass

Chapter 3 - Hubbub in the Hogwarts Express

To Harry's relief, Ron and Hermione were able to board the Hogwarts Express without doing much damage to each other. Except if you'd count shoving each other harder than necessary in the barrier that separated Muggle London and the magical Platform Nine and Three Quarters. They were able to settle themselves inside a large cabin instead of their usual place at the train's tail--due to Ron's request.

"Y'know, this is what really suits us, Harry. Not that smelly rat hole at the train's end," he said in a highly satisfied tone.

Harry, grinned at Ron. He thought he heard Hermione snort at his side but he said nothing. Just when Harry was starting to take the silence as a definite sign of maturity, the door of their cabin slid open. Not to his surprise, Draco Malfoy stood there with his equally sour looking cronies, Crabbe and yes, Goyle. Harry's hands were ready to shut the door at their faces when Ron began to speak.

"Oh, if it isn't Malfoy and Grabbe and Coyle...umm, did I get that right? Sorry, but I don't see your names in my Priority List of Friends here..." he said after unrolling a piece of parchment from his pocket.

Draco's face darkened but to their surprise, he did nothing. He settled on giving Ron a murderous stare and hissed in a very low tone, "You seem to have finally gotten your hands on a few coins Weasley...but I bet you won't feel any richer than a rat after I'm done with you, muck."

"Oh yeah?" snapped Ron pulling out his new 13 inch birch wood wand. There was sudden movement in the cabin as everyone scrambled to get away from the two. Before Ron could do as much as raise his wand, Hermione quickly tugged him away with her right arm with her other hand placed on the tip of his wand.

"No magic in the train, Ron," she said, her voice shaking a bit.

Harry could see the reason for Hermione's panic-stricken expression. After observing Ron more closely, he noticed that his face was not only burning red but also seething with finality. He was wearing an expression of absolute defiance and looked ready to blow Malfoy to smithereens.

For an instant, Harry thought he saw Draco's eyes flick to Hermione. Then after a very tense second, he finally stepped back and bid them goodbye by saying, "We'll meet again Weasley and next time you won't have Granger to save your neck".

With that, he slid out of the cabin, not bothering to close the door. Silence ensued in the cabin as everyone waited until Draco's footsteps could no longer be heard.

"What did you do that for, Hermione?" Ron barked, breaking the silence. He was looking at her with scathing.

"I...thought you were really going to curse Malfoy," she stammered, shifting uncomfortably at the look Ron was giving her.

"And I was! Had you left me to my own business! God, I don't know why you always need to be in the spotlight," Ron snapped, storming out of the cabin by himself.

"I can't believe this," Hermione muttered incoherently. Harry moved closer to pat her at the back but she stopped his hand in mid-air.

"Don't touch me, Harry. I don't need your help. The first person who needs it just walked out this door," Hermione spat. "Unbelievable," she said again.

Harry couldn't help but agree with her. It really was unbelievable--Malfoy not fighting back and Ron bursting out like that.

"Expect Malfoy to thrash things up..." he said to himself, trying to shove away the nagging feeling that this had something to do more with Ron's attitude a while ago than anything.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express continued on its slow pace until Hogwarts was finally in view. Ron was careful to keep out of Harry and Hermione's company the whole ride and contented himself in watching Neville scramble after his very old-looking Trevor. Now that he had thought about it, he started feeling that what he had just did was not worth it. The problem was, he didn't feel like apologizing or anything either. He was moments away from finally cursing that git Malfoy, but thanks to Hermione, he wasn't even able to touch the ends of his filthy hair.

"Why can't she just leave me alone?" Ron muttered to himself as Trevor almost dove out of the train's window in desperation to get out of Neville's grasp.

"Hey Ron, are you coming or what?" shouted Harry squeezing himself through the crowd that was rushing to get out of the train.

Ron smiled. "Well, at least Harry is still talking to me," he thought, feeling a bit better. He scrambled to get his trunk and left the still distraught-looking Neville behind to go to Harry. They walked towards the massive horse-less carriage for the short trip to Hogwarts and for a fleeting moment, Harry thought Ron and Hermione were on speaking terms again as they both stared at each other for a while. But Ron just shrugged and stepped in the carriage leaving him and Hermione on the pedestal.

Hermione sighed. "Great. So he's still being stubborn. I don't know why I even bothered waiting for him here," Hermione spat, scrambling up into the carriage.

This concluded Harry's thoughts of a dreaded term. With Ron and Hermione not speaking again and with him caught in the middle of their war, things probably wouldn't be better for a while.