Evan pulled Hermione and hurried back into Gryffindor's Common room.
Although it was late, the Common room was very lively.
None of students went to sleep. They were all discussing the Dementors attack.
Gryffindor lost the game, which had really saddened them. But excluding the Quidditch players and some die-hard fans, most of them have put this matter behind already.
Anyway, as long as they didn't lose against Slytherin, losing against Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff was not particularly difficult to take.
Now, they are more interested in talking about the way to cast a Patronus Charm. Several students who were able cast a Corporeal Patronus got surrounded by their peers. Percy, for example, was proudly showing off his Patronus to more than a dozen junior students.
Evan and Hermione just entered, and they were warmly welcomed.
The atmosphere at the scene reached its peak. They were both in the centre surrounded by their friends. Everybody was asking for advice about the Patronus charm.
Many girls wanted specially to see Evan's Patronus again.
Everyone was excited, except for Ron.
He seemed to become even less happy when he saw Evan and Hermione being welcomed. He stared at them for a while before turning back to the dormitory with a sly face.
Just a moment later, everyone heard a muffled scream coming from the Boys' Dormitory.
The atmosphere became so heavy that no one spoke in the Common room. They all stared at the door with fear. The hurried footsteps rang louder and louder, and then Ron jumped out under everyone's eyes carrying a bed sheet with him.
"Look, look at this, look at it!" he growled, striding to Hermione and shaking the sheet in front of her.
"Ron, look at what?" Hermione said confusedly.
"It's Scabbers, look!" Ron rudely stretched out his sheet to Hermione's eyes.
Hermione avoided Ron's sheet and was completely at a loss.
Evan looked at the sheet that Ron was holding and there was something red on it. It looked terrible, like…
"Blood!" Ron shouted panicked under the silence of everyone. "It's dead! Do you know what else was on the floor?"
"No, I don't know." Hermione's voice was trembling.
Ron threw something at Hermione, and everyone leaned forward. They saw long ginger hair scattered on the floor.
"Ron, a few cat hairs don't mean anything. You should go to all the boys' beds and look for stains. It might be…" Hermione said palely.
"Enough!" Ron shouted, shocking everyone. "I've had enough of you, Hermione! You've always been like this and never took Crookshanks intentions to eat Scabbers seriously. You never bothered to carefully watch Crookshanks. Now Scabbers is dead, and you are still pretending that your cat is innocent!"
"This cat's hair may have been there since the beginning of the school term. You have been prejudiced against Crookshanks since he jumped on your head in that Magical Menagerie" Hermione said stubbornly.
"Prejudice?!" Ron waved his arm madly. "That monster, it jumped over my head. It ate Scabbers. Am I expected to praise it for doing it?!"
"You know I didn't mean that…" Hermione's voice dropped again, and tears fell from her eyes.
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking!" Ron had no mercy at all for Hermione, he went shouting. "You've always treated me as a fool or an idiot who didn't understand anything. I protected you in front of Malfoy, I helped you with Snape in class, it was me…"
The more Ron talked, the more he saw Hermione's fear and sadness. He felt pain in his heart, but along with the pain, there was an unusual sense of happiness creeping into his heart.
Revenge does bring some pleasure.
Immediately afterwards, he remembered the dream he's been having recently, and Hermione, who had been in the dream all the time.
He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that his nose was sour and he had to force himself not to cry.
"All right, Ron!" Seeing that something was wrong, Fred hurried over and said in a hurry "weren't you always talking about how disgusting it was? Moreover, this was going to happen soon or later with the way it's been eating for a long time now. Dying fast is probably better for it. It probably didn't feel that…"
"Yeah, it's just sleeping all day long. This is what you said, Ron" said George.
"It had once bitten Goyle for us!" said Ron sadly.
"That was its most glorious moment." Fred couldn't help laughing. "It made a scar on Goyle's finger as a permanent reminder of it. Oh, OK, Ron! Reconcile with Hermione, and buy another rat, what's the use of lamenting?"
"But…" Ron lowered his head and wiped his tears with his sleeves.
"Actually, I think Hermione's right. Scabbers may not be dead. It's just hiding somewhere."
Peter Pettigrew could not have died like this, and it was even less likely that he would be killed by Crookshanks.
He was just scared of Sirius Black and wanted to escape by faking his death again.
With the help of the tracing potion, Evan could feel that the Rat was hiding in the right corner of the common room and following the scene with his eyes.
He was going to pull him out. He just took two steps and Ron stopped him. What he just said seemed to have angered Ron again.
"Do you think Scabbers is not dead?!" Ron looked angry at Evan, gasping, as if ready to rush over. "I knew you would stand on the Hermione's side. It's your fault. If you didn't suggest that Hermione should buy Crookshanks, Scabbers wouldn't have died!"
"What?!" Evan was surprised. All day long, he felt that Ron had something wrong with him.
"Yeah, it was all your fault. It was you who killed it!" Ron clenched his fists and his tearful eyes were red. "It was just the same at the Quidditch pitch, if it wasn't for your ridiculous Patronus, Gryffindor wouldn't have lost."
Evan was frozen in his place. He did not know how Ron came to that conclusion.
Ron must've gone mad. This is so ridiculous that Gryffindor lost the game because of his Patronus!
"Ron, it was Evan's Patronus who saved everyone!" Colin, who had been standing aside, whispered.
"Of course, you think so. You're just a ridiculous commuter for this guy." Ron shouted to Colin and quickly turned to look at Evan, as if he was hypnotized, his mouth was murmuring. "Tom Riddle said so, you killed Scabbers. Gryffindor lost the game because of you. You took Hermione. She should've been mine…."
There was nothing but silence in the Common room, and the young students were afraid and shrank back. Everyone looked at Ron silently. No one could accept what he was saying.
Evan took another step forward. He wanted to bring out the Rat. Maybe seeing it would calm Ron down.
As soon as he moved, he saw Ron rush towards him!