“Harry, what is it?” Hermione looked in alarm as he stopped chewing his sandwich and stared at the wall with eyes open in shock.

“Pig”, he managed to say after swallowing. “I remembered.”

“Oh”, it was now her turn. “You mean, how he treated him?” Her eyes started filling with tears, remembering how Ron abused his tiny, friendly, gentle owl. He would yell at him, handle him roughly, insult him and lock him up and leave him like that.

“That would have been you and your children if you were stubborn enough to marry him”, Harry stared, still in shock.

“Wait, what?”, Lyra looked at both of them.

“Sirius gave Ron a pet owl. He was a beautiful, playful, happy little thing. It was supposedly to compensate for the loss of his pet rat, who turned out to be Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form”, Harry explained. “Ginny called the owl Pigwidgeon, and Ron shortened it to Pig out of sheer malice and contempt, and kept treating him as if he were a nuisance. Everybody loved the little fellow, except Ron, who always treated him like a burden and tried to get rid of him. He eventually left him in the Burrow when we went undercover, because we couldn’t take care of him while fighting our guerilla war”. He stopped and his lips trembled, then took a breath to calm himself. “Arthur and Molly later told me in private that Ron locked Pig up in a cupboard in his room, and put spells on it so he couldn’t break out, and nothing could be heard on the outside. He died of hunger and thirst by the time they went there to check”.

Hermione put a hand over her mouth and burst into silent tears.

“It’s a shame Lyra killed him quickly, because I’d like half an hour of private time with the bastard”, Viktor looked positively murderous as Lyra came to hug Hermione. “Чёрт его возьми, хуй”.

“Cornix cornicii oculos non effodiet”, Lyra smiled at him. “He and the Devil would get along too well for that to be a punishment”.

“People have pets because it’s a way for those of us who are socially awkward with humans to have a release for the feelings of love, care and gentleness with another being”, Harry mused. “To mistreat a vulnerable, gentle animal who loves you is really telling. I’m now thinking: if someone from Slytherin had a pet, and they treated him like Ron treated his pets, I would take it as evidence of their vile, corrupted and horrible nature, but with Ron, the bar was somehow so low, that even with that he didn’t manage trip the alarm. I don’t think the Horcrux medallion put evil thoughts in his head. It just used what was already there. After all, I not only had the medallion and other Horcruxes with me, I actually was one. I had a piece of Voldemort’s soul in my head, placed there by accident when he tried to kill me and a fragment of his soul attached itself to the only living person in the room, when I was a baby. I could speak Parseltongue because of it, I could see through his eyes occasionally, I felt his thoughts and his evil; he even deliberately placed illusions in my mind through it. I never used it as an excuse, because I saw it as my duty to control myself, to restrict that evil once I felt it. I don’t know why I thought Ron should be excused. He was always one of the worst people we knew”, Harry looked positively disgusted.