Ron-Weasly book 1

"It's good that you were attentive in herbology class, Hermione." Harry said, wiping the sweat off his face.

"Yeah," I agreed. "And it's a good thing Harry didn't lose his head in a moment of danger. "But what should I set on fire? I don't see anything wooden..."" I mimicked Hermione. "The witch is called."

"Let's go." Harry waved his hand in the direction of the only stone passage that led from here.

All we could hear-except our footsteps, of course-were drops of water falling from the walls. The corridor went down sharply.

"Do you hear?" I whispered.

From somewhere above came a soft rustling and a soft ringing.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" Harry asked me.

"I don't know..." I shrugged my shoulders. "But it looks like wings in general."

Harry thought about it.

"There's a light ahead... And I see something moving there," Finally, he said. "And whatever it is, we have no other choice."

We reached the end of the corridor and found ourselves at the entrance to a brightly lit hall with a high arched ceiling. The hall was full of fluttering and circling birds, small and bright as precious stones. There was a heavy wooden door on the other side of the hall.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we try to cross the hall?" I asked.

"Maybe." Harry thought about it. "They don't look particularly dangerous, but if they attack all at once... Well, there's no other way... I'll try..."

Harry sucked in a deep breath, covered his head with his hands, and rushed to the door. He reached the door and grabbed the handle — the door was locked.

After making sure that the birds weren't dangerous, Harry turned to Hermione and me and waved at us.

We pulled the door towards us and pushed it with our shoulders, but even the three of us couldn't open it. Even the Alohomora spell, which Hermione had cast several times, didn't help.

"And what now?" I asked.

"These birds... They can't just be here for decoration." Hermione said wisely.

We raised our heads, looking at the bright, shiny birds fluttering over our heads...

"These are not birds!" Harry suddenly shouted. "These are the keys! The winged keys! Take a closer look and you'll see for yourself. These are the keys, which means..."

Harry looked around.

"Of course, look!" he exclaimed. "Brooms! We have to find the right key!"

"But there are hundreds of them here!" Hermione was horrified. I leaned over the door, examining the lock. I took a closer look at the lock in the door.

"We need a big antique key... It's probably silver, the same as the door handle."

We quickly straddled the brooms, rose into the air and found ourselves in a cloud of keys. At first, we tried to grab what we needed at random. But the enchanted keys dodged, diving sharply or gaining altitude, so it seemed that it was simply impossible to catch them.

However, Harry did not become the youngest hunter in the last hundred years for nothing. After circling for a few minutes in a whirlpool of colorful feathers, he noticed a huge silver key with a dented wing. It looked like he had been caught and forcibly forced into the castle quite recently.

"Here he is!" Harry shouted to us. "This big one, right here... no, over there... with bright blue wings... One wing is dented!"

I flew where Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and almost fell off the broom.

"We need to surround him!" Harry shouted, not letting the key out of his sight. "Ron, you go in from above, and you, Hermione, stay below and stop him from coming down. I'll try to grab him. Are you ready?"

"Yeah." We exhaled.

"HERE WE GO!"

I climbed up, Hermione rushed down, the key slipped away from both of us, darting to the side, and Harry rushed after him, pinning him against the wall with outstretched hand. There was an unpleasant crunch, which was drowned out by Hermione's and my enthusiastic cheers.

We landed hurriedly, and Harry darted to the door. He slammed the key into the lock, turned it, and there was a click. At that moment, the key burst out of the keyhole and flew up heavily. He looked very rumpled and battered.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked, holding on to the door handle. Hermione and I nodded, and he pulled the door open.

The next room was so dark that nothing could be seen at all. However, as soon as we took a few steps, the room was suddenly flooded with bright light.

We all stared in amazement. We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, right behind the black stone pieces that were taller than the three of us, even me. There were white pieces on the other side of the board. Harry, Hermione, and I shivered — the white figures, unlike the black ones, had no faces.

"So what do we do now?" Harry whispered.

"In my opinion, the answer is quite obvious," I said. "We have to win to be on the other side of the room."

There, behind the white figures, was another door.

"So how do we win?" Hermione asked nervously.

"I'm thinking," I said after a moment's thought. "We have to become figures."

I boldly stepped forward and, approaching the black horseman, who was playing the role of a chess knight, touched his horse. In an instant, the stone figure came to life. The horse began to dig the ground with its hooves, and the rider turned his helmeted head and looked down at me.

"Do we... er... do we need to join you to get to the other side?" I stammered.

The knight nodded. I turned to Harry and Hermione.

"I'll have to think about it," I whispered. "I think we should take the places of the three black figures..."

Harry and Hermione waited in silence for me to finish my thoughts.

"Anyway," I finally raised my head. "No offense, but I'm a much better chess player than you are..."

"And we're not offended," Harry quickly interjected. "Just tell us what to do."

"You, Harry, take the place of that elephant. And you, Hermione, take the place of this rook."

"And you?" they asked in unison.

"I'll be a horse," I said confidently. It looks like the pieces were listening to our conversation, because in the next instant, the knight, bishop, and rook turned and left the board, freeing up three squares. And Harry, Hermione, and I took them without hesitation.

"The whites always start" I said, looking at the other side of the board. "Yeah... That's it..."

The white pawn moved two squares ahead. I began to guide the black figures, who obediently stood where I pointed them. I tried to calculate all my moves and the opponent's and tried not to think about what would happen if we lost.

"Harry, move four squares forward!" I commanded.

The first time I felt uneasy was when the enemy attacked our second rider. The white queen knocked him to the floor and pulled him off the board — the knight, who was lying face down, did not move.

"I had to sacrifice him." I whispered, although I was also shocked— not by the surprise of what had happened, but by the brutality of the massacre. Hermione, you can take this elephant now.

The white figures were ruthless. Soon there was a whole mountain of motionless black bodies lying by the board, which meant that our turn could come soon. Twice now, I've only noticed at the very last moment that Harry and Hermione are in danger. I myself was constantly rushing around the board, and I had to admit that, despite the brutality of the opponent, there were not many more white pieces left on it than black ones.

"We're almost there," I whispered feverishly. "Let me think about it... Let me think about it..."

The White Queen turned her absent face to me. After calculating the remaining options, I realized that I had only one way out.

"Yes..." I said softly. "It's the only way... I'll have to sacrifice myself. I hope she doesn't break my skull."

"No!" Harry and Hermione protested together.

"But this is chess!" I shouted back. "You have to make sacrifices here! I'll take one step forward and she'll pick me up, and then you, Harry, can checkmate the king!"

"But..." Harry began.

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?" My voice was firm and confident. Even though I didn't have much confidence in the correctness of my actions.

"But, Ron..." Hermione interjected.

"Listen, if you don't hurry up, Snape will have the stone!" I was right, and Harry and Hermione couldn't help but admit it. "Are you ready? — I asked. "I'm off, and when you checkmate them, don't waste any time."

I stepped forward, and the white queen darted towards me. Swinging her arm, she brought her nominal hand down hard on my head, and I fell heavily to the floor. Blood trickled down the top of my head, and I passed out as Hermione screamed.

CHAPTER 16 The farewell feast.

"Ron, Harry's awake." Hermione jumped up to me. I wonder how she found out.

"Let's go visit him soon."

I put down the chess set and rubbed my aching head. Damn, she cracked my skull, you bastard. We put on our robes and went to Harry's infirmary.

But Madam Pomfrey balked and wouldn't let us in. While she was talking to Harry, we waited outside the door to the medical wing. Finally, she opened the door, letting Hermione and me into the room.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed, rushing towards Potter.

"Oh, Harry, we were sure you were..." Hermione stopped herself from saying the word "die." "Dumbledore was so worried..."

"The whole school is talking about what happened," I said. "And what really happened

there?"

It was one of those rare occasions when the truth turns out to be much stranger and more exciting than the most ridiculous rumors. Harry told us everything — about Quirrell and the mirror, about Voldemort and the stone. Hermione and I were very good listeners. We gaped at the right places. And when he told us about what was hidden under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed loudly.

"So the stone is gone?" I asked when Harry stopped talking. "So Flamel is going to die?"

"I asked that question too," Harry nodded. "But Dumbledore did... I'll remember now... He said that for a highly organized mind, death is just another adventure."

"I always said he was crazy." I responded with adoration in my voice. Dumbledore was my idol.

"And what happened to you after we broke up?" Harry asked in turn.

"Well, I went back and fixed Ron up, and it wasn't easy. The blood didn't want to stop, and a concussion was such a thing." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"And then we hurried to the owlery. But on the way out of school, they ran into Dumbledore. He already knew everything, can you imagine? He just asked: "Harry went after him, didn't he?" and he ran to the third floor, to the hatch.

"Do you think he set it up like this on purpose? Maybe he wanted you to do it." I asked thoughtfully. Since he's the one who sent you the invisibility cloak and all..."

"Well, you know!" Hermione exploded. "If it's him... I mean, it's terrible, because you could have been killed..."

"No, it was all right." Harry answered after a pause. "He's a strange man, Dumbledore. I think he just wanted to give me a chance. And that he, in general, knows about everything that happens here. So Dumbledore was aware of what we were up to. However, instead of stopping us, he taught me something, prepared me for what was about to happen. I don't think I found the Erised mirror by accident-he was the one who pushed me to find it, and he explained to me how it works. I even think he was the one who decided if I had the right to face Voldemort one-on-one. And I proved that I am ready for it..."

"No, Dumbledore is really crazy!" I exclaimed proudly. "Listen, Harry, you shouldn't stay here too long — tomorrow there will be a festive feast on the occasion of the end of the school year. Of course, we don't have much to celebrate-of course, Slytherin won the inter-house competition, and we didn't do well in Quidditch either. The last game you missed, the Ravenclaw boys blew us apart like a steamroller. But the food at the feast will be delicious," Ron promised his friend.

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey burst into the room.

"You've been sitting here for fifteen minutes now" She said sternly. "Now get out of here!"

Then she kicked us out the door. I hope she lets Harry out to the feast tomorrow.

* * *

Harry arrived at the banquet when the hall was already full. When he entered the Great Hall, all the faculties were already there.

Since the competition between the houses was won by Slytherin for the seventh time in a row, the hall was decorated in green and silver colors. There was a huge Slytherin banner with a snake on it on the wall behind the teacher's desk.

As soon as Harry entered the door, there was complete silence in the hall, and the next second everyone was talking at the same time. Harry, without raising his head, quickly came to our table and sat down between me and Hermione. He tried to pretend that he did not notice the stares of all those gathered at him. Many even got up from their seats to get a better look at him.

Fortunately, Dumbledore appeared in the hall just a few seconds later. Everyone took their seats, and the conversations died down.

"So, another year is over!" Dumbledore exclaimed happily. "But before we begin our fantastic feast, I'll bother you a bit with senile grumbling and empty chatter. So, a great school year is behind us! I hope your heads are a little heavier than they were at the beginning of the year. However, you have the whole summer ahead of you in order to get your heads in order and completely empty them before the start of the next semester."

Dumbledore looked around at everyone present with his radiant eyes.

"And now, as I understand it, we have to determine who won the competition between the faculties. Let's start from the end. The fourth place was taken by the Gryffindor faculty — three hundred and twelve points. The third is Halfpuff, they have three hundred and fifty-two points. Ravenclaw is in second place, with four hundred and twenty-six points. And on the first Slytherin — four hundred and seventy-two points."

The table where the Slytherins were sitting exploded with loud cheers and applause. I saw Malfoy triumphantly banging a golden goblet on the table.

"Yes, yes, you did a great job," Dumbledore said, addressing the Slytherin table. "However, we did not take into account the latest events" the hall fell silent, and the smiles at Malfoy's table were no longer so joyful.

Dumbledore chuckled loudly.

"So," he continued. "Due to the fact that in the light of recent events, some students have earned some points... Wait, wait... yeah..."

Dumbledore thought about it, or pretended to think about it.

"Let's start with Mr. Ronald Weasley..."

I turned purple.

"...For the best chess game in the history of Hogwarts, I award the Gryffindor house fifty points."