Nessu Fanni

Chapter Three:

After a week, Ron felt at home with the Slytherins. They weren't that bad after all. He hadn't spoken to Harry in a week or two and didn't mind it anymore.

Potions was still with the Gryffindors. The Slytherins, like always, took their time to tease Harry and Hermione. Without Ron by their side, it felt worse than ever before. Just knowing that he was one of them hurt them the most.

Seamus didn't mind any of the taunts from the Slytherins, even if they were to him. He just sat in the back of the dungeon and had a satisfied smirk on his face which followed him wherever he went.

Snape made the students pair up with someone from the opposite house for the lesson. He forced Harry to be with Ron. Normally Harry would be happy to pair up with Ron for Potions. However, Harry, like most of the students, gave a groan of disgust.

Ron walked over to Harry's cauldron. "Hi Harry."

"Weasley!" Malfoy called from across the dungeon. He gave him a warning look. Ron merely nodded in agreement.

Suddenly it seemed that Ron's eyes turned colder. It must be the light. Harry paused before concluding, Or the lack of light in here.

Harry tried to be the friend that he always was. "Sorry about the circumstances," he said.

"Why? Did you have something to do with it?" Ron snapped at Harry.

"No!" Harry felt insulted to have Ron accuse him of that.

"Then don't act like you did."

Harry noticed that Ron had changed dramatically since he became a Slytherin only two weeks before. He knew that he needed to act quickly. How much longer before Ron wouldn't talk to him at all?

"Ron?" Harry asked, warily.

"What?" Ron snapped.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend to see Sirius? Hermione's kind of busy."

"Sure. I guess I could make it," Ron replied lazily.

"Good. Can you meet me in the Entrance Hall on Thursday at 3:00pm?"

"I'll be there."

"I'm glad we can still do this, Ron." Harry smiled.

"Yeah, me too." Ron didn't smile. "It would be a shame if Sirius was ever caught."

*** ***

It's very rare that a Gryffindor would enter the Slytherin Common Room so calmly. However, in certain circumstances, it seemed completely natural that Seamus Finnigan was sitting on a sofa in the Slytherin Common Room. When Ron left to meet Harry in the Entrance Hall, he walked by Seamus without even noticing him. Even though Seamus wasn't wearing his Gryffindor colours, Ron should have noticed him. However, he did not.

When Ron arrived at the Entrance Hall, he found Harry waiting for him. They silently got under the Invisibility Cloak. They didn't even comment on the fact that it was getting harder to fit under the cloak. They were both taller, and have been getting taller ever since they met in their first year.

Harry brought the Marauder's Map with him. They went through the secret passageway into Honeyduke's sweet shop. Honeyduke's wasn't as crowded as it was when most of Hogwarts visited together.

Harry and Ron carefully maneuvered themselves around the witches and wizards browsing for sweets. They walked down the road towards the Shrieking Shack, where Sirius was waiting for them.

They finally entered the Shrieking Shack and out of the three of them, Ron looked the worst. Even Sirius, who hadn't seen Ron for months, noticed Ron's change.

"What happened to you?" Sirius asked Ron the moment he saw them.

"Oh, unfortunately Ron was-" Harry began, but Ron cut him off.

"A wonderful thing! I feel like I finally belong somewhere where people know me for me. People don't say that I'm "Harry's friend" anymore," Ron excitedly explained to Sirius. It was the first time that Harry saw him smile in a long time.

Sirius looked very confused. Harry felt that he needed to explain in a way that Sirius would understand.

"For some crazy reason, Ron is in Slytherin now. Apparently there was some mistake."

Sirius nodded.

"I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with Seamus. I told you about Seamus before," said Harry.

"Yes, I remember. Well, Harry. How are you?"

Harry thought of all the things that were going wrong in his life. No more Hermione, No more Ron, Seamus causing trouble at every turn... "I guess it could be worse," he concluded.

Sirius could tell that there wasn't a good chance that it could be worse for Harry. "Well, I'm just glad to see you," said Sirius. "Both of you," he added.

Ron finally spoke again, "How long are you staying here, Sirius?"

"A week or two. I'll see."

After that, they chatted for a few minutes about their upcoming O.W.L.'s. Harry thought that Hermione should have been there. However, their meeting ended too quickly. Before Harry knew it, Ron and himself were making their way back to Hogwarts under the invisibility cloak again.

Harry and Ron parted ways. Ron descended into the Dungeons, while Harry went back up to Gryffindor Tower.

Ron went straight to Malfoy.

"Got anything useful, Weasley?" he asked Ron.

"Sirius Black is in the Shrieking Shack. He'll be there for about a week," Ron responded.

"Excellent work. Goodnight." Malfoy went up to his dormitory.

The next day, Hermione was starting to get worried. Not even Harry could get through to Ron. She decided that it was her turn to try. She decided to talk to Ron after lunch on Friday. However, something prevented her from doing this. When Hermione received the Daily Prophet at breakfast, she started reading it aloud to Harry, not waiting to see if he was listening to her or not. "After two years of chasing the mass murderer, Sirius Black, the Ministry of Magic has finally caught him. He was sent to Azkaban late last night. Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, gives full credit of the capture to the two young Hogwarts students who gave him the whereabouts of Black. Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley, both sons of Ministry of Magic employees, provided the essential information leading up to the capture of Sirius Black. The rest's all the same, Harry." Again, Hermione didn't wait for Harry to respond. She stood up and walked over to the Slytherin table.

"Ron!" she yelled from behind him so that he spilled his juice all over his chin.

"Yeah?" he casually responded.

"How could you turn in Sirius?" she demanded.

"Easily. He's an unregistered Animagus, he broke my leg, he killed all those people..." Ron responded with ease. He didn't seem himself, or his old self, at all.

"You know those are all lies! And the leg, that was an accident."

"That's what he told us, Hermione. Why should we listen to a criminal?"

"Ron, you are the stupidest - the thickest - the-" Whether it was because of the amount of Slytherins staring at her or because Hermione couldn't think of what else Ron was, she couldn't finish.

"Well thanks for the compliment, Hermione."

"What do you mean?" Hermione had no idea why Ron was acting this way.

"We're not friends, Hermione. We haven't been for a long time." For a moment, it sounded like Ron actually cared about their friendship.

"Well since you changed-" started Hermione.

"No. You changed. Ever since you got together with Seamus. Things just aren't the same." Now Ron seemed a little sad.

"You're just jealous!"

"Of who? Seamus?"

"Yes!"

"Well not now, Hermione. I gave up on you a long time ago. Go be with Seamus, that little devil. Why don't you go ask me why I'm in Slytherin?"

Hermione was speechless and decided to leave. She went straight to Gryffindor Tower without even finishing her breakfast. Harry decided not to follow her. He only read and re-read the article about his godfather, Sirius Black.

Later that evening, most of Gryffindor was in the common room. Even Crabbe was there. Crabbe was sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room. Even though Ron adjusted easily to his new House, Crabbe had not.

Seamus seemed quite content that he still had Hermione. Harry began to wonder how long it would last.

Seamus suddenly stood up. "Well, I'm off!"

"Ok, honey. I'll see you tomorrow. I don't think I'll be here still when you get back," said Hermione.

Harry still didn't trust Seamus' smallest moves. "So where are you going again?" he questioned.

"To that study group in the library. I'll never pass Transfiguration if you ask me." Seamus chuckled quite unlike himself.

"Oh, yeah. I must have forgotten," lied Harry. "Bye, Seamus."

"Bye Potter." Seamus gave Harry another deadly glare when Hermione turned to mention something to Parvati Patil about their Charm's homework.

Seamus mouthed some words to Harry that looked to Harry like 'I'm watching you.'

As Seamus was going through the Portrait Hole, Harry began to look through his bag very quickly.

"Did you lose something, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, no. I just realized I forgot to return a book. I'll be back in a bit," lied Harry.

However, Harry did not have to return a book. He had his invisibility cloak still in his bag from his meeting with Sirius and Ron the Traitor. As Neville was entering the Portrait Hole, Harry slipped past him. Neville tripped over Harry's foot, but luckily Neville is always clumsy. Not even Neville took notice of it.

Harry ran down the corridor as quickly and quietly as he could. Luckily no one was in the way of Harry catching up with Seamus. Harry knew that Seamus didn't go to the Library, so he decided to take out the Marauder's Map from his bag. He slipped into an empty classroom. When he took out the Marauder's map, he saw that Filch was 3 floors down and Mrs. Norris was in the dungeons. He was safe. However, Seamus was also in the dungeons. How did he get there already?

Harry put his bag over his shoulder and his invisibility cloak over himself and exited the classroom. He remembered one of the secret passageways he discovered when he was trying to avoid coming in contact with Lockhart's singing telegrams in his second year. May be Seamus knows this secret too? Then Harry realized that it mustn't be a big secret and carried on.

Back in Gryffindor Tower, Hermione trying to think of what Snape said in their lesson two day ago. She wished that she hadn't left the essay for so long. With all the preparatory homework for their O.W.L.'s, Hermione hardly had time to eat.

Suddenly, someone approached her.

"Hermione?" he asked her timidly.

"Yes, Crabbe?"

"Do you think that you could help me with my Charms paper? I'm having trouble and if you had time..." Crabbe trailed off.

"I'm sorry Crabbe, but this is a bad time. How about tomorrow?" Hermione replied with a smile.

"OK. Thanks."

Harry finally caught up with Seamus, when he was about to enter the Slytherin common room.

If he's studying the Dark Arts, I wouldn't be surprised.

Seamus walked up to the wall and muttered the password. Harry couldn't catch was he said. It seemed to Harry that Seamus had been there many times before. Harry entered the common room before the opportunity was gone.