"Because I-I..."
"Dragon Pox," came the whisper of an almost inaudible voice breaking the tense atmosphere.
"What?!" asked the Shopkeeper in an incredulous tone.
"I-I have Dragon Pox," Ron said hurriedly, repeating the excuse that Sirius had supplied him with, hoping with all his might that it would work.
"Oh..." Almost immediately the Shopkeeper froze as the hostility in his eyes slowly went away, and he began looking at Ron with something akin to pity, "I... I am sorry. I guess I was too high-strung... What's with all the news about you-know-who coming back and... Anyway, I am sorry."
"It's alright," Ron replied in an even tone trying to keep the relief out of his tone. He was still tense but had somewhat calmed down from his panicked state.
"Here is your order," the shopkeeper said quickly wrapping the bottles and the vial in a paper bag and sliding it across the counter. "Hope you have a good day."
"Thank you," Ron said with a small tremor of excitement in his voice. He hurriedly placed the galleons on the table before immediately going for the bottles.
Finally, he was going to get his hands on the magical alcohol... 'the stuff of legends' that he had only ever read about...
"Wait! This...You—" The Shopkeeper abruptly cried in an astonished voice as his eyes gaped at the hands grabbing the bottles... hands that looked hairless and young, just like that of a... "You're a student!!" he let out in a horrified gasp.
Ron didn't blink, he didn't think, he didn't speak... he just grabbed the bottles and bolted for the door, "Thank you for the drinks," he shouted as he ran out of the shop.
"No wait! Come back!! You can't—Ugh! Where's my wand?" he groaned in a frustrated voice as he rummaged through the drawers from his wand.
But he knew that it was too late as the boy was already long gone...
Besides it wasn't like he could do anything even if he had his wand with him as he couldn't actually hurt him could he? He didn't want to lose his right to live in Hogmeade, after all.
"Ah! Found it, now then..." he murmured as he came up to the empty store and then looked at the door with an indecisive look in his eyes. He was hesitant about whether he should run after the boy or if he should just alert the school... but then there would be all that commotion and then he would have to answer all the questions of those smug bastards at school and then he may even be forced to close the shop for a while...
"Ugh! Fuck it!" he cursed while falling back into the chair and giving it up as a bad job, "He'll probably just get caught at the gate anyway..." he murmured before shaking his head and decided to just forget about it.
But Ron didn't get caught at the school gate since he didn't go through the gate instead he went through one of the seven secret entrances into the school...
And just like that... for the first time in a century, a student has successfully managed to sneak alcohol into Hogwarts...
It was almost legendary...
...
"Ron!! You never told me that you have lady hands." Sirius abruptly exclaimed in a bewildered voice as Ron ran away from the shop with all his might.
"I do not have lady hands!" Ron retorted indignantly as they passed through the empty streets towards the entrance to the secret path that would take him straight into Hogwarts, "I just have no hair on my hands..." his face became a little flushed as he admitted something that Ron had always been a little insecure about.
"I can't believe it," Sirius murmured in a shocked tone, "You almost got caught because of your lady hands, this is just..." Ron became redder as he heard the speechlessness in Sirius's voice, "Maybe you should sneak in as a girl next..." he supplied helpfully after a while.
"Oh! Shut Up!!" Ron hissed before immediately taking out the mirror, and switching it off with his wand.
He had no need for the old dog now that his objective had been achieved, "Ugh! He's never going to let me live this down now, is he..." Ron mumbled in a depressed tone, "I just hope that he doesn't tell anyone else..." But even as he said it he knew that it was vain hope.
...
Meanwhile, back in the Boy's dorm, all four teenagers were sitting in a circle on the floor, their eyes frequently darting towards the door, anxiously waiting for their fourth member.
All kinds of snacks such as crisp french fries, crunchy potato chips and a few others were placed on plates in their middle.
But the weird thing was that some of the plates were already almost half empty...
"Will you just stop, Neville?" Seamus asked in an exasperated tone, "If you go on like this, you'll finish it all before Ron even gets here..."
It had taken them a lot of hard work and almost two careful trips from the kitchen to the Gryffindor tower before they managed to sneak all this food into their dorms and now Neville was destroying all of that before their party even started.
"But I am hungry..." the boy moaned pitifully but still reluctantly put the crispy pakora back on the plate.
"Didn't you just eat at the feast?" Dean asked amusedly, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, "How could you be hungry already?"
"I-I was just too nervous at the dinner trying to avoid Hermione's eyes to keep the secret... so I couldn't eat my fill..." the chubby boy said morosely.
"You didn't even know the secret!" Seamus said speechlessly, "So how could you be nervous trying to keep it?"
"My mind knew that... but my stomach wouldn't understand it..." Neville replied with a sigh before he looked towards the door. "But shouldn't Ron be here already... Do you think he got lost on the way?"
"He didn't get lost, Neville. He's not you..." Seamus said while rolling his eyes.
"But he is quite late though..." Dean said worriedly.
"He's not that late..." Seamus countered nonchalantly, "He must have gone all the way to Hogsmeade so obviously it would take him time..." he said that but his eyes were still darting towards the door nervously, after all the chances of Ron getting caught by a teacher were quite high...
"What?! He went to Hogsmeade?" Harry, who had been silent so far, abruptly jumped and asked in an alarmed tone, "Why would he do that? Doesn't he know how dangerous it is now? Especially at night!" he said hurriedly getting his wand from the ground, "Tell me, where he went in Hogsmeade? And why did he go there at night?"
"Um..." Seamus backed away a little after seeing the seriousness in Harry's eyes and hesitated on whether he should tell him about it or not.
"You need to tell me immediately, Seamus. This is serious. He could be in danger at this very moment." Harry said in an urgent no-nonsense tone, "Don't you know that Voldemort's back now and how dangerous it is for him to—"
"I am back, boys!!" came an ecstatic voice as the door to their dorm was slammed open and in came Ron, swaggering in as if he had just vanquished Voldemort on his own. "And look what I got," he said waving a bag in his hands smugly.
"Ron! You're back!"
"We were so worried mate!"
"You really got it! You actually managed to get it!" Seamus asked in an awestruck tone, unable to stop himself from shaking in excitement.
"Of course, I did. Who did— Eh! Harry? Why are you intimidating Seamus, like that? Did something happen?" Ron asked in a confused manner as he saw Harry towering over Seamus as if trying to interrogate him.
"Uh..."
"You went to Hogsmeade at night, all alone." Harry asked with a frown on his face while standing up, "Are you out of your mind?"
"Ah! So that's what it was about..." Ron said with an enlightened expression on his face before he waved his hands casually, "But don't worry, I wasn't in any danger..."
"How could you have known that? Anything—"
"Because I had help with me all the way!" Ron interrupted with a meaningful look on his face, "Help that you gave me..." he said while taking out a paper bag from Harry's leather bag before handing it back to him.
"Oh..." It took a few seconds before Harry realised that Ron was talking about the mirror, "Oh, then alright I guess..." he said as he sat back down sheepishly while placing the bag back on his bed.
The others were confused for a moment but Seamus didn't care about it as much and was only worried about one thing and one thing only, "Is that it? Is it in the bag..."
"Oh, Yes. It is." Ron smirked while taking the two pristine glass bottles out of his bag and shaking them in the air, "Now who wants to drink some booze!!" he hollered in an excited voice.
///