“But she's ditched Dean!”

“A fierce battle was raging inside Harry's brain:She's Ron's sister.But she's ditched Dean!She's still Ron's sister.I'm his best mate!That'll make it worse.If I talked to him first-He'd hit you.What if I don't care?He's your best mate!”

“I love you, Hermione,” said Ron, sinking back, rubbing his eyes wearily.Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, “Don’t let Lavender hear you saying that.”“I won’t,” said Ron into his hands. “Or maybe I will . . . then she’ll ditch me . . .”

“I’d take that gum out of the keyhole if I were you, Peeves,” he said pleasantly. Peeves paid no attention to Professor Lupin’s words, except to blow a loud wet raspberry.Professor Lupin gave a small sigh and took out his wand.“This is a useful little spell,” he told the class over his shoulder. “Please watch closely.”He raised the wand to shoulder height, said, “Waddiwasi!” and pointed it at Peeves.With the force of a bullet, the wad of chewing gum shot out of the keyhole and straight down Peeves’s left nostril; he whirled upright and zoomed away, cursing.“Cool, sir!” said Dean Thomas in amazement.“Thank you, Dean,” said Professor Lupin, putting his wand away again. “Shall we proceed?”

“Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Harry noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighboring table through very red eyes, and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm."Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise." Sorry...looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now...."He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder. Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her."We split up," he told Harry out of the corner of his mouth. "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, so she thought it had just been the two of us.""ah," said Harry. "Well - you don't mind it's over, do you?" "No," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it.""Coward," said Hermione, though she looked amused. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry."Harry thought there was a rather knowing look in her eye as she told him that, but she could no possibly know that his insides were suddenly dancing the conga.”

“When she tallied kindness she subtracted abandonment.”

“She was on edge, feeling that she might snap or cry at the smallest provocation.”