Harry heard Seamus grumbling sleepily, "For heaven's sake, Ron, what time is it? Can't you keep it down?"
"Seamus, is Scabbers over by you?"
"Why would he be over here? You know I hate rats. Don't you usually keep him in his cage?"
"The cage is still here, but Scabbers is gone-I was worried he'd get cold last night, so I even brought him into bed with me, cage and all-"
Harry could hear that Ron was on the verge of tears.
He couldn't really understand it.
What was so special about a fat, balding rat with a missing toe?
Still, Harry knew that Ron was always being bullied by his older brothers and had grown up with almost nothing that truly belonged to him, so his affection for Scabbers and his possessiveness were a little excessive.
Whenever Scabbers was involved, he always became flustered, jumpy, and prone to wild speculation.
Just like now.
"It must have been those foreigners!" Ron suddenly shouted.
"What?"
Everyone in the dormitory was a little bewildered.
"Those people who came for the Potions event! They arrived yesterday, and today Scabbers is missing. There has to be a connection-this is revenge!"
"R-revenge?" Neville asked timidly.
"Yes! Didn't you notice yesterday? Those foreigners came over to provoke Harry, and Harry ignored them, so they-
"They must have noticed how close Harry and I are, so they took it out on Scabbers. Oh, my Scabbers!"
Sometimes, Harry really had to admire Ron's imagination.
He sighed and reluctantly left his warm bed, fumbled for his glasses, and helped Ron look for Scabbers.
Surprisingly, however, even after they searched the entire dormitory, and Seamus, Neville, and Dean joined in and asked everyone along the corridor, they found no trace of the rat.
He really seemed to have disappeared. Ron