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| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
| "Krum!" said Ron. "Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!" "He looks really grumpy," said Hermione, looking around at the many Krums blinking and scowling at them. "'Really grumpy'?" Ron raised his eyes to the heavens. "Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable . . . He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see." "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are." "You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron . . . "Never mind, Ron," said Hermione quickly, seizing Ron's arm to restrain him. "Dad could've got a promotion any time . . . he just likes it where he is . . ." "Of course he does," said Hermione quietly. "Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron --" "Him! Get to me!? As if!" "Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap. "Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Ron yawned. "You seem to be drowning twice," said Hermione. "Oh am I?" said Ron, peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff." "Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione. "How dare you!" said Ron, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!" Hermione raised her eyebrows. "It's just an expression," said Ron hastily. "And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" "Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" said Hermione indignantly. Ron gave a loud false cough, which sounded oddly like "Lockhart!" "Krum, Harry! Viktor Krum!" "For heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player," said Hermione. "Only a Quidditch player?" Ron said. "Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione said despairingly. "He's jealous!" "Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?" "Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it . . . but -- well -- you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous -- he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many . . ." Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth. "Hermione!" Ron had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her. "You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground . . . "Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head. "Evil, he is . . . ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying." "Mmmm . . . you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle. "We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls." Hermione let out a sputter of indignation. "A pair of . . . what, excuse me? . . . So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?" "Er -- yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron. "I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped. "All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you." But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light. "Hermione, Neville's right -- you are a girl . . ." "Oh well spotted," she said acidly. Well -- you can come with one of us!" "No, I can't," snapped Hermione. "Oh come on," he said impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has . . ." "I can't come with you," said Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone." "No, you're not!" said Ron. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!" "Oh did I?" said Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!" Ron stared at her. Then he grinned again. "Hermione -- who are you going to the ball with?" said Ron. He kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it. "Hermione," said Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth . . ." "What about them?" she said. "Well, they're different . . . I've just noticed . . . They're all . . . straight and -- and normal-sized." At five o'clock [she] said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball. "What, you need three hours?" said Ron, looking at her incredulously and paying for his lapse of concentration when a large snowball, thrown by George, hit him hard on the side of the head. "Who're you going with?" he yelled after Hermione, but she just waved and disappeared. Ron didn't answer. He was glaring at Hermione and Krum, who were dancing nearby. Hermione came over and sat down in Parvati's empty chair. She was a bit pink in the face from dancing. "Hi," said Harry. Ron didn't say anything. "It's hot, isn't it?" said Hermione, fanning herself with her hand. "Viktor's just gone to get some drinks." Ron gave her a withering look. "Viktor?" he said. "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky yet?" Hermione looked at him in surprise. "What's up with you?" she said. "If you don't know," said Ron scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you." Hermione stared at him, then at Harry, who shrugged. "Ron, what --?" "He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron. "He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! You -- you're --" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!" Hermione's mouth fell open. "Don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly -- who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?" Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?" "Yes, he did," said Hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "So what?" "What happened -- trying to get him to join spew, were you?" "No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he -- he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!" Hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same color as Parvati's robes. "Yeah, well -- that's his story," said Ron nastily. "And what's that supposed to mean?" "Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with . . . He's just trying to get closer to Harry -- get inside information on him -- or get near enough to jinx him --" Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke, her voice quivered. "For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one --" ". . .Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," said Ron. "Don't call him Vicky!" Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face. "Are you going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma asked him. "No," said Ron, still glaring after Hermione. Standing ten feet apart, they were bellowing at each other, each scarlet in the face. "Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of its elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger. "Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?" "Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!" Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry. "Well," he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well -- that just proves -- completely missed the point --" Harry . . . somehow thought that Hermione had gotten the point much better than Ron had. Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss your argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. "She'll be after you next, Hermione," said Ron in a low and worried voice as they walked quickly back up the street. "Let her try!" said Hermione defiantly; she was shaking with rage. "I'll show her! Silly little girl, am I? Oh, I'll get her back for this. First Harry, then Hagrid . . ." "You don't want to go upsetting Rita Skeeter," said Ron nervously. "I'm serious, Hermione, she'll dig up something on you." "I could've taken those mer-idiots any time I wanted." "What were you going to do, snore at them?" said Hermione waspishly. "She's made you out to be some sort of -- of scarlet woman!" Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. "Scarlet woman?" she repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked around at Ron. "It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red. "How did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?" Hermione blushed scarlet as she said this and determinedly avoided Ron's eyes. "What?" said Ron, dropping his pestle with a loud clunk. "He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake . . . he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to --" "And what did you say?" said Ron, who had picked up his pestle and was grinding it on the desk, a good six inches from his bowl, because he was looking at Hermione. "And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, going so red now that Harry could almost feel the heat coming from her . . . "And what did you say?" Ron repeated, pounding his pestle down so hard that it dented the desk. "Well, I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were okay." Krum had come to say good-bye to Hermione . . . "You'd better hurry up!" Ron called loudly after her. "The carriages'll be here in a minute!" He let Harry keep a watch for the carriages, however, and spent the next few minutes craning his neck over the crowd to try and see what Krum and Hermione might be up to. They returned quite soon. Ron stared at Hermione, but her face was quite impassive . . . Ron looked as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal struggle. Krum had already started walking away when Ron burst out, "Can I have your autograph?" Hermione turned away, smiling. |