He appeared out of nowhere

Chapter 20: Ron's Worries

* Harry POV

By the third night of detention, Harry was considering murdering Umbridge himself. Tom couldn't get out of his dorm unnoticed that night so he had to walk back by himself, and then he encountered Ron in the common room.

"Hi mate, she kept you late again then?"

"Yeah…" Harry noticed a book in Ron's hands, it was a book of suggestions for people who want to become a quidditch keeper, "What're you reading?"

"Just something about keeping, I'm considering trying out this year,"

Harry sat down next to Ron, the page he was on had a series of diagrams.

"Nice,"

"Woah, mate, what happened to your hand?"

"It's nothing,"

"You're bleeding! Has Umbridge been doing this?! We need to tell Dumbledore!"

"We can't do anything at the moment, don't worry, I and Tom have a plan,"

"You've been spending a lot of time with Tom, I don't get it, it's like we're not friends anymore!"

"Of course, we're friends Ron, you're my best mate!"

"Yeah well, you'd rather hang around with slimy Slytherin than people who actually care about you!"

"HOW DARE YOU! Tom does care about me!!!"

"I doubt it, he probably works for Voldemort,"

Harry had his wand against Ron's nose,

"Take. That. Back."

"See! You're even acting like a Slytherin!!"

"TAKE IT BACK!"

"No."

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" They turned their heads to the stairs where Hermione was standing angrily in her pyjamas. "What in merlins name is going on???"

"He was calling Tom a slimy Slytherin and said he was working for Voldemort,"

"Ron?" Hermione had her 'I'm not going to put up with this shit' face on, and all wands were safely pointed away from anything living.

"...I just don't get why you're such good friends…"

"Shared orphan despair bonding?" They all burst out laughing and eventually made their way back to bed. At least Ron was a bit happier now. After all those months away from him, Harry had started to really value Ron's friendship, even if Harry was different from before.