Jigsaw Puzzle

"I like your drawing, Ron," said a girl who sat next to him in art class, whose name was Elise Bridge. She smiled at him revealing teeth that could rival Gilderoy Lockhart's and, with a flip of her short, fluffy blonde hair, returned to her own drawing.

"Thanks," Ron replied. "Er...Yours is good too," he added, though his face as he looked at Elise's self-portrait suggested otherwise.

Elise giggled. "I know. It's horrible. I'm not talented like you."

"Yours is better than Harry's..."

"Very funny, Ron." said Harry sarcastically, attacking his paper with an eraser.

"Easy, Harry! It's just practice..." said Ron, ducking flying eraser bits. Elise giggled again.

At the end of class, Ron was about to throw out his practice drawing when Elise stopped him and asked if she could have it. He shrugged and handed it over.

"Could you sign it for me?" Elise asked.

"What?"

"Real artists always sign their pictures. Please?"

Ron shrugged again and scribbled his name in the lower right-hand corner.

"Giving out signed self-portraits now, Ron?" teased Harry as they walked into the hallway.

"Shut up," said Ron, but he smiled. For once, he was better than Harry at something.

It had entered Ron's mind lately that he was completely average. Harry was the hero and Hermione the brains, but what was he? Fred and George were the funny ones, Percy was the smart one; Charlie was good with animals...but what was he? Who was he? Who was Ronald Weasley?

"I am an artist..." he thought slowly. "I, Ronald Weasley, am an artist...a talented one..." Just a month ago he would have never even imagined it; would have laughed at the notion, but there he was. It had happened so quickly...He had gone into that class not expecting much, and was told that he was a natural artist...He had thought that the professor was over-reacting, that the picture wasn't that good; that if it was that good, it was just a fluke, something that couldn't be repeated. He had gone up to his dormitory early, got out some paper, and drew some sketches, prepared to laugh at how horrible they were, and had been greatly surprised, for they weren't horrible at all. He had stared in disbelief, drawn another one, and stared in disbelief again. For a while afterwards his mind was numb with the disbelief...He hadn't thought about it that much, hadn't quite accepted this strange new talent as part of himself...but now he thought; now he accepted, and he suddenly felt like screaming in triumph; like yelling for the entire school to hear that Ron Weasley had something to be proud of...He didn't, though, for he didn't want the entire school to think that he was insane. He just smiled.

"Er...Ron?" said Harry. "Is something funny?"

"Well, er..." Ron racked his brains for an amusing thought. "It's how I get through Potions sometimes...remembering that boggart Snape that looked like Neville's gran..."

"Oh." Harry laughed.

Ron was in a pretty good mood until Fred and George approached him that evening.

"What do you want?" Ron asked wearily. He had grown used to the occasional "errands" Fred and George had him do...like stealing food from the kitchens, which was the first thing they told him to do, and helping with their various practical jokes and such...like keeping a lookout for Filch and his mangy cat.

"We have a great idea-" began George.

"To enchant a-" continued Fred.

"Enchant a what?" came a sharp female voice. "Whatever you're planning, it's probably trouble."

"What makes you think that, Hermione?" said Fred sweetly.

Hermione just sighed. She seemed busy working on something, probably already studying for exams, but she kept looking back at Fred and George suspiciously. "We'll continue this later," George muttered.

"Away from prying eyes," Fred added. "Always meddling in our schemes, that Hermione." He grinned. "What exactly is it that you see in her, Ronniekins...?"

Ron glared at the twins, his ears reddening. They just snickered and walked away before he could think of a retort of any kind.

Ron sighed and moved a little closer to the common room's fire. He was tired of Fred and George telling him to do things, but they wouldn't let up. Every time he protested, they threatened to "talk to" Hermione...

"What's wrong?" said a girl's voice sweetly.

Ron jumped and turned to find the girl from art class sitting next to him. "Oh, Hi, Er...Lisa."

"Elise."

"Right. Sorry. I didn't know you were in Gryffindor. I never saw you around before."

Elise giggled. "You must not have paid much attention to the Sorting, then! I'm a First Year."

"Oh. That explains it. I never pay attention to the Sorting. I'm too busy staring at the table waiting for the food to appear!"

Elise giggled again. "You're funny." She smiled her Lockhart-ish smile.

"Thanks," said Ron awkwardly.

"You never said what's wrong."

"What? Oh. Nothing. I just..." Ron cast around for something plausible-sounding. "I'm just worried about the OWLs coming up. All of the teachers talking on and on about them made me nervous."

"Oh. You're a Fifth Year?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah. Well, I'm getting tired. I guess I'll see you in art tomorrow."

Elise smiled again. "I think I'll head up to bed, too. Good night. Thank you so much for the picture! I think I'll hang it up in my dormitory. Bit of decoration, you know?"

"You're welcome..." Ron didn't comment on how weird it would feel knowing that a picture he drew was up in a girls' dormitory.

"Found a girlfriend, Ron?" Harry teased, as he also started to head for the stairs.

"Shut up, Harry," Ron replied. She was a First Year, after all. Pretty, though...For a little while, his thoughts went away from Hermione.