Ron spent most of his time alone ever since Harry and he had gotten into their fight. He hated not being near his best friend, but knew his inner self wouldn't give him any kind of peace. He started hanging out with the last person his inner self wanted to talk to, but only tolerated him because Neville had almost nothing to be jealous of…well except for a few things like being an only child. Both didn't have much in common, but they could talk about a few things. The brunette was surprisingly good at wizard chest, so the two would play for a few hours while talking.

"Can I ask you a question, Ron?"

"Hmm…huh? Oh yeah…sure." said Ron as he looked for where to move his piece. 'Maybe I could move it there and…'

"Why aren't you helping out Harry?"

"Oh he's fine." said Ron. "Herminone's helping him. If she's so smart, she should be able to help."

"Oh yeah…" Neville thought for a moment. "…but you two haven't been hanging out together for some time now. Did you guys get into a fight?"

"You could say that…any who, it's all in the past now." Ron explained. "We're not friends anymore."

Neville couldn't believe it. Ron and Harry had been friends since year 1 and were always together. Whatever had happened between them had to be pretty bad for them to not be friends anymore. "What was the fight about…if you don't mind telling me…"

"He's a bloody attention whore, that's what he is!" Ron bluntly said. "He's obviously enjoying all this bloody attention. I wouldn't doubt it if he actually got someone to put his name in the goblet of fire."

"Are you sure? He didn't seem like he likes the attention."

"That's what he wants everyone to think." the ginger said rolling his eyes. "You don't know him like I do."

'What are you saying?!' piped up his conscience. 'Harry doesn't enjoy that! He hates it!'

'Says you!' roared the angry voice.

"Well I guess you do." said Neville. "Are you going to watch him in the competition?"

"Doubt it." said Ron. "He has Herminone and all his fans there."

"I don't know about that. I think a lot of people want Cedric Diggory to win. I haven't seen many people support Harry that aren't in our house and even some of them are supporting Cedric." informed Neville moving his piece.

"Good. Cedric deserves it. He's a nice guy." said Ron.

"Well Harry's…" a glare from Ron made him shut up fast. "Um…n-never mind."

The two played again in silence until it was time for bed. Ron went hesitantly to the bedroom, but laid down avoiding Harry's eyes. The next morning brought nothing but anger at the newspaper article printed about Harry and Herminone. Apparently Harry cried about his parents a lot (Ron doubted that was true) and Herminone was Harry's girlfriend. As usual, the angry voice spoke up about that part when news of this reached his ears.

'His girlfriend?!' spat the voice. 'Since when?!'

'Since never! Herminone and Harry can't be dating…can they?' the smaller voice said.

'No…of course not. Look at her! Who would think that looks good?' snapped the angry voice. "Even if they are dating, why? She's boring as hell and nags too damn much! She's not even pretty!'

"M-maybe the woman's lying? After all, she did lie about Harry crying at night about his parents.' said the smaller voice. 'Well we've got detention from Snape tonight. Maybe we could…'

'NO! I would rather have sex with Percy and Snape while giving Malfoy a blowjob than talk to him right now!'

'You don't have to be so crude!' Ron thought as the same time as the tiny voice said.

While serving detention, Ron did indeed not speak to Harry at all, despite wanting to very badly. The two worked for hours until they were done and left without a word or glance towards each other. Ron went straight up to his room, thinking about the Triwizard Tournament competition. Harry was expected to compete next week and it scared him. People died during those things and what if Harry…Ron shivered at the thought and felt sick in the stomach. That's it! He had to tell Harry was sorry and confess.

'I just have to tell him how I feel. I have to.' he thought to himself as he lay awake in bed. 'I have to before Tuesday because…I might not ever see him again.'

'Good riddance if he does die if he rejects us!' said the angry voice.

'You don't mean that!' said the smaller voice.

'We'll see after we tell him.' the voice said stubbornly. 'If he really is dating that ugly bitch…'

Ron ignored whatever else the voice said and jumped up out of bed and made his way to Harry's bed. "Harry?"

He pulled back he curtains and frowned when he saw Harry's empty bed. Where was he? He was right behind him when he had come from Potions. He couldn't be roaming around the school still could he? He doubted it though, although the angry voice in the back of his head was shouting about him visiting his "fangirls".

'Harry's probably too nervous to worry about some dumb girl anyway.' Ron spoke up for him.

'Yeah, keep believing telling yourself that.'

'Maybe he's in the common room talking with Herminone.'

'I hope not…'

He went downstairs only to hear voices and one that sounded like Harry's. He took a deep breath and went down stairs. Once he was downstairs, he saw Harry sitting close to the fire (it wasn't cold so why was he so close to it) and was looking at him. Ron was confused. "Were you talking to someone?"

"What's that got to do with you?" He asked bitterly. "What are you doing down here at this time of night?"

"I was just wondering where you were." Even though Ron felt like kicking Harry's ass, he was persistent to doing what he had planned when he had headed downstairs.

"Just thought you'd come nosing around, did you?" Harry snapped.

'Cheeky stuck up asshole! How dare you talk that way to me after I show just a bit of concern and was even going to show you some affection!? You know what? FUCK HIM! Let him get ready for his interview in the morning, the piece of shit…' His inner voice shouted and Ron completely with it.

"Well I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have realized you didn't want to be disturbed. I'll leave you to be practicing for your next interview."

Harry grabbed one of the badges on the table that read POTTER REALLY STINKS off of a table and hit Ron on the forehead. "There you go. Something for you to wear tomorrow. You might even have a scar now if you're lucky…that's what you want isn't it?"

Ron merely clenched his fists as Harry walked right past him. A small voice told him to speak up, stop him, or do anything but let Harry walk away from him mad. 'Do something! Please, don't let him get away! You have to stop him and tell him! What's the matter with you?!'

'Let him go!' his inner self shouted. 'The fucking asshole really is a stuck up piece of shit!'

Ron sat down in one of the big arm chairs in the room in front of the fire, thinking. 'That could have gone way better…'

'…if he wasn't such a dick!'

'Oh shut up, you! He obviously only snapped because he's already got so much on his plate and…'

'He didn't have to act like a jerk.' Ron thought sighing. Now Harry was even madder at him before. 'I don't blame him though. I was a bit of a dick to him. I should have really tried to tell him anyway. Now he'll never know.'

All too quickly, the day of the Tournament came making Ron more nervous than ever. He wished he was by Harry's side, reassuring him, and making jokes…doing anything to make his crush feel better about what was coming before him, but obviously Harry didn't want him around. Ron decided that he didn't want to be there to see Harry get hurt or maimed or anything but being okay!

"Hey Ron, aren't you coming?" Dean asked Ron as he and Seamus were heading towards the door.

"No…I'm not feeling too good." Ron said from underneath the covers as he clutched his stomach. It was the truth. He was feeling a little sick.

"That's too bad mate." Seamus shrugged. "We'll be sure to give you a play-by-play when we come back."

Once they had left, Ron lay back in his bed with his eyes closing trying to get back to sleep. The previous night, he had nightmares about Harry getting killed in various situations, all of which caused him to wake up sweating and breathing really hard. It was only when Neville (who had only gotten up to go use the bathroom and heard him) had asked what was wrong was when Ron decided that staying up was the best choice instead of sleeping. However, he couldn't sleep and ended up staring out the window, thinking about Harry.

"Oh you're still here." It was Neville.

"Aren't you going to go watch the tournament?"

"Yeah, but I was wondering if you wanted to come too."

"Not really."

"Are you sure? I heard they've got dragons down there." said Neville.

"Dragons?" Ron frowned. That probably meant Charlie was there and would inform his mother of what Harry had to face. He could imagine what she was saying now. 'Oh why on earth would they let him face something like that? Oh poor Harry! Why doesn't she just make us take some polyjuice and live out each other's lives? She obviously loves him more than me!'

"Yeah. Doesn't your brother work with dragons? Maybe he's here too."

"Probably…but I'm still not going!" Ron said rather stubbornly. "I'm already not feeling too good. Just tell me about it when you come back, eh?"

Neville seemed rather disappointed with not having anyone to go with, but went on his way. He'd just sit with Herminone. As he looked back at Ron, he felt a little bad for him. His best friend (well former best friend) had all the attention while he was in the background now. It had to be rough on the ginger and he knew all too well how that felt. His grandmother constantly praised his mother and father and questioned Neville of his abilities as their son. Ron's life had to like that. From what Ron had told him, all his brothers had done something great and his sister was the daughter his mother always wanted. Ron was good at telling jokes, being funny, was great at wizard chest, and being a good friend, but it was ignored by others as long as Harry was around like Neville's talent with plants was overshadowed by all the great things Neville's parents had done.

"Neville…"

Neville blinked, having been caught off guard. He had not realized that Ron was now looking at him. "Y-yeah?"

"Go on. I'll be fine." Ron smiled a little.

"Are you sure? Dean and Seamus could…"

"No, go on Neville. Don't let me spoil your fun. Just go before it starts." Neville nodded and took off.

After about an hour, Ron was pacing across the room rubbing his hands. Why was this thing taking so long!? Was Harry okay? What type of dragon did he have? Did he hurt himself? After another hour, he was looking out the window once more until he heard the door open. It was his roommates.

"Ron, come on downstairs! They're throwing a party for Harry!" said Dean.

"He made it out?" Ron said shocked although he knew he shouldn't be.

"Yeah! We'll tell you more about it downstairs." Seamus said before he and Dean left.

'He made it…he actually did it!' He breathed in relief.

Once downstairs, Dean, Seamus, and Neville all told him about what Harry had done as well as the other competitors. Ron was impressed and thankful that Harry had thought of using a summoning curse to get his broom so he could pass his dragon. He managed to enjoy himself at the party while talking to Neville while the others went off elsewhere.

"It was really scary." confessed Neville. "I thought the dragons would attack us."

"I wish I could have been there." said Ron sighing. "I'm most definitely not going to miss the next part."

After the party was over, Ron went straight up to bed, glad that Harry was safe and sound. He had thought of apologizing during the party, but every time he looked at Harry, he was surrounded by girls asking if he had hurt himself, how he felt during the whole thing, and other things too. If only he was a girl. If he was, he'd run right on up to him and plant a kiss on his lips and fret over him like he had seen so many other couples do, but he couldn't. He wasn't that type of person nor was he a girl.

The next day, Ron was still trying to decide over whether or not he wanted to speak to Harry and if he was, what was he going to say, when suddenly Herminone walked into the common room. "Ron!"

"Oh hey, Herminone." Ron said closing a book he was pretending to read.

"Don't hey me. Why aren't you speaking to Harry?"

"Are you still on about that?"

"Yes! What is it going to take for us to make you believe him?"

"I don't believe he did it, Herminone!"

"Then why are you…"

"I don't have to explain myself to you!" Ron snapped at her.

"You're being ridiculous right now, Ron!" Herminone sighed shaking her head. "Come on. He really misses you and I miss us hanging out together. Why can't you just admit your jealous?"

"Jealous? You think I'm jealous of him? Why would I be?"

"I know it's hard having a friend who gets a lot of attention, is a great Qudditch player, defeated…"

"Shut up, Herminone!" The ginger stood up, looking angry. "I know, Harry's so damn great. You don't think I ever get tired of hearing that from his fucking fans and my damn mother every damn day!? I have enough to deal with at home with my own fucking family!"

"I know, Ron, but Harry can't help that he…"

"He enjoys the damn attention. I just know he does, especially from people like mom. She always goes on and on about stupid Harry. How is Harry, Ron? Is he eating good? Poor thing. I'd take him in if I could. Tell him if he needs anything, to just write. She may as well come out and fucking say that she doesn't want me as her damn son anymore and take in that bastard instead. I've never done anything useful or great anyhow…especially to him..."

Herminone opened her mouth something, but stopped. She had reached out to touch Ron, but he walked off, angry. She had been telling Harry for the past few weeks Ron had been feeling this way, but that was only a guess. He really did feel upset about Harry being one more piece of competition that Ron had to deal with in his life. She thought about going after him, but stopped herself. Harry was the one who needed to talk to him and not her.