{{Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Intermediate Spoiler}}
We see here what could be considered the formal beginning of the romantic relationship between Ron and Lavender. LavenderShe had quite clearly set her sights on Ron early in the year, but rather than making any overt move, had simply responded more strongly than necessary to any of his sallies, whether directed at her or not. Ron has been unaware, consciously,of thisunaware, but now, partlypartially fromelated the elation of winning a Quidditch matchvictory againstover Slytherin, and partly in response to Ginny's accusation ofthat he is romantic inexperienceinexperienced, he is drawn to Lavender as the quickest way to disprove Ginny's accusationclaims. This romance, if it can be called that, will put serious tension on the bond between Ron and Hermione, tension that will gradually ease in the Spring as Ron realizes that he and Lavender actually have very little in common, and starts looking to Hermione once more for friendship and advice.
Although she is passed by almost unnoticed, the small girl in the seventh-floor hallway who drops the jar of frog-spawn will turn out to be important. The alert reader will note that therea oftensmall seemsgirl tois beoften a small girlstanding in that hallway, and who will invariably dropdrops something noisy like a set of scales or a bottle of frog spawn as Harry goes bypasses. Readers may also note that this occurs in the environs ofnear the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Room of Requirement|Room of Requirement]]. This girl is actually either [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Vincent Crabbe|Crabbe]] or [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Gregory Goyle|Goyle]], disguised with [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Polyjuice Potion|Polyjuice Potion]] and standing guard outside the Room of Requirement while Malfoy works within on his secret task for [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Lord Voldemort|Voldemort]]. Harry will not realize this until he has [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Dobby|Dobby]] and [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Kreacher|Kreacher]] tail Malfoy later in the spring.
