The next morning came quickly and dreamlessly. Harry opened his eyes to the sun shining on his face and greeted it warmly. His great mood took a very quick turn when he heard snoring at the foot of his bed. Alarmed, he quickly put on his glasses and looked at the end of his bed. He gasped in horror. He saw a heap of blankets with a tuft of flaming red hair poking out at the end. Then he noticed Ron's face and how delicate it looked, how flawless his skin was and how his red hair looked good even with in disarray. It then kicked in that he had crawled into his bed while sleeping. This immediately angered him.

"RON! YOU BASTARD, GET OUT OF MY BED!" Harry bellowed. He saw the heap, that was Ron, jump ten feet in the air. Ron stared at Harry, Mortified. He didn't even remember going over there.

"NOW!" Harry screeched. With that, Ron got off the bed as fast as humanly possible and scrambled into his own bed. Harry could hear immediate sobs. He growled and climbed out of bed and dressed himself in his uniform and stormed out of the dorm. He walked right past Hermione and to the Grand Hall.

He sat down in his usual seat and shoved a piece of toast into his mouth. He didn't notice Hermione sit next to him until he saw Ron cautiously take a seat on the opposite side of the rather large table. He noticed that Ron's eyes were red and puffy. He knew he had been crying. But what he hadn't noticed were the angry, bleeding marks Ron had drawn on his upper arms. Not that he could see the blood stains on the black silk cloth. Nor did he notice that Ron was using his arms as little as he could. What he did notice was that Ron was not looking at him.

Ron was trying to butter his own toast, holding in winces of pain. He focused on his plate and ate. He had a hard time believing what he had done. He had no recollection of it whatsoever. The more he thought about it, the closer it brought him to tears again. He knew he was driving Harry away and he felt absolutely horrible about it. Thank god today was a Hogsmeade day. Ron took a deep breath and let it out very sharply. So much so that Harry and Hermione looked at him. He apologized and put his head back down.

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione were talking about the golden egg. Harry had decided not to tell Hermione about Cedric's advice. He actually didn't accept it himself quite yet. The bathtub? That sounded like that last place he would "look".

"So, you've got it almost figured out?" Hermione nagged.

"Err…Yeah." He lied quickly. Hermione grinned and shook her head. "Great! Ron, did you hear that? He's almost got it cracked!" Ron looked miserably up at Hermione. Hermione was taken aback.

"Ron, what's wrong?" she asked, very concerned. Ron looked even worse than before.

"Ask H-Harry…" He mumbled, his voice cracking. Hermione turn her head to look angrily at Harry.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow. Harry sighed. He put his toast down and glared at Ron.

"Found him at the foot of my bed this morning." He muttered and picked up his fork and shoveled eggs into his mouth. Hermione found herself glancing at Harry then Ron than Harry then back at Ron. She didn't know whether to speak or not.

After breakfast ended, the students were allowed to make their way to Hogsmeade. Harry, Hermione and Ron walked past Krum Jumping into the freezing cold lake.

"Gosh….I really don't know how he can do that…" Ron mumbled into his scarf.

"Well, chances are that it's much warmer here than what he's used to." Hermione chimed in. Ron nodded in acceptance. The three of them entered Hogsmeade. The kept their eyes peeled for Hagrid. When they didn't find him in any of the shops, the Harry suggested to take a visit to the Three Broomsticks. They agreed and took a seat inside the heated building. Harry, Ron and Hermione ordered three butterbeers and sat back down. After a short conversation with Mr. Bagman, Rita Skeeter walked in. The three groaned as she approached them. By the end of the conversation Hermione had gotten herself on Rita's bad side.

"Let's go…" Hermione pulled Harry and Ron away and back onto Hogwarts ground, She marched right up to Hagrid's door and started pounding on it.

"Hagrid! We know you're in there!!" She pounded harder when the door opened. Dumbledore had opened the door, not Hagrid. By the end of the visit, they had convinced Hagrid to continue teaching. Also, Harry was feeling increasingly guilty about the egg. He finally decided to follow Cedric's advice.

He slipped into the Prefect's bathroom and turned on the water. He watched the Olympic sized swimming pool fill with hot water. He wasn't exactly sure what to do, but he undressed and got in. After a creepy visit from Moaning Myrtle, Harry had almost complete knowledge of the second task. He snuck out of the bathroom, managed to get by Filch, but not without some ruckus. He snuck back into his bed and fell asleep.

To Harry's great dismay. He found himself having a dream in which Ron committed suicide over the fact that Harry did not want to be with him. He awoke from the dream in a cold sweat. He got out of bed and peeked through Ron's curtains. Harry looked around, horrified. Ron was nowhere to be found. Unable to control himself, he went into a mad search for Ron. He searched everywhere Ron would be. The last place he looked was where he found him. In the abandoned girl's bathroom. Harry almost choked when he saw Ron laying on the floor.

He could see empty broken bottles of unknown substances laying about the floor. He saw Ron's old beaten up cauldron sitting on the floor with a pink fluid bubbling in it. It didn't click what the liquid was. He dropped to his knees at Ron's side. He picked him up and carried him back to the dorm. He set him down on his bed. He figured Ron had passed out from working too hard on whatever he was working on, or from exhaustion from that day.

Harry then noticed how pale Ron was. He looked very sick. He placed a hand on Ron's forehead and felt his temperature. He felt very warm. He searched around for a cloth to wet. He found a facecloth and wet it in the bathroom. He brought it back to Ron and laid it on his forehead. He then let him sleep. He closed his curtains and retreated back to his own bed, closed his own curtains and fell back asleep.