After the event ended, on the way back from the Umbrella Room to Gryffindor Tower, Harry was practically bouncing with excitement.
He clenched his fist and turned to the person beside him. "That's great! It passed unanimously!"
Harry grinned broadly. "Ron will be over the moon when he finds out! I knew he could do it!"
Neville's face was also lit with a sincere smile. He nodded vigorously. "Yeah, nobody objected. That's wonderful!"
"Joining the SSC is only the beginning. If he really wants to become dependable, there's still plenty he needs to do! First, he needs to stop half-assing his homework!"
Hermione was happy too, but faced with this outcome, she could not help worrying again. "Can Ron stick with it? Sigh, when he writes essays, he can't even be bothered to add extra punctuation."
"Don't worry." Harry was somewhat concerned too, but he tried to stay optimistic. "You know Ron. Once he makes up his mind, he's more stubborn than anyone!"
"I hope so."
Hermione checked the time, then waved to the two of them at the fork in the corridor. "I still need to patrol a few corridors and make sure no students are wandering around after curfew—Filch is worried there'll be more students fighting and dating during this period!"
Harry and Neville stood side by side, waving as they watched Hermione hurry away. Her heavy outer robe billowed in the wind, almost like Professor Snape's.
"Merlin, Prefects!" Neville could not help exclaiming. "I used to think it was a great job!"
"So did I... Percy was always so proud of it!" Harry muttered.
He could not imagine how busy he would be if, on top of classes, homework, SSC events, Quidditch practice, and learning Spells from Sirius on weekends, he also had to handle a Prefect's