Chapter 10
That evening Slughorn held another one of his "parties", and by the time Allegra, Hermione and Ginny got back to the common room everyone had gone to bed so Allegra didn't have a chance to talk to Harry until lunch the next day. Harry had talked to Hermione and Ron about his lesson with Dumbledore in their Herbology lesson, but they updated Allegra with it as they sat down for lunch.
"Harry watched Dumbledore talk to You-Know-Who when he was just a boy."
"Wow, bet that was weird. Was he as fucked up back then?"
"Not quite, no. A little, but not like he is now. I think Hogwarts did that to him." Harry said.
"I know it's interesting and all that, but why are you watching it all?" Allegra asked.
"I'm not sure, but he says it's important and will help me survive."
"I guess if you get to know a person better you know their weaknesses, but it seems like a bit of a long way to do it."
"Yeah, but I guess we'll see. How was Slughorn's party, anyway?"
"Good! You really should have come this time, Harry," Allegra said, sounding more excited than she should have. "He does drone on a little about famous ex-pupils, and he absolutely fawns over McLaggen because he's so well connected, but he gave us some really good food and introduced us to Gwenog Jones."
"Gwenog Jones?" Ron repeated, eyes widening. "The Gwenog Jones? Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?"
"Uhuh," Allegra nodded at him. "Hermione thought she was a little stuck up, but I think she has a right to be."
"Of course her and Allegra hit it off right away, what with Gwenog wanting to get on the England team." Hermione told them, both boys had expressions that said they were a bit pissed off about missing out on this one.
"And he's going to have a big Christmas party, Harry," Allegra said as she finished a sandwich, "and we're allowed to invite other people, so one of us can take Ron, so we can all go."
"Yeah, and he's asked me to check for all your free evenings, so there's no way you'll be able to get out of this one, Harry." Hermione said.
That evening they had an unscheduled quidditch practice, as it was the first time the pitch hadn't been booked on the days when the weather wasn't awful. The team worked well together as usual, however Ron's keeping was a little worse than usual, Allegra guessed it was probably because of the long break since their last practice. Allegra had known that Ron was inconsistent when she put him back on the team, but today he started off badly, lost some confidence and just got worse and worse. He let in most shots, so much so that Allegra actually stopped shooting so that the only real threat was Ginny. His technique got wilder and wilder until he actually punched an oncoming Demelza Robins in the mouth.
"It was an accident, I'm sorry, Demelza, really sorry!" He shouted as she zigzagged towards the ground, dripping blood everywhere. "I just -"
"Panicked." Ginny said angrily.
"Hermione!" Allegra shouted to the one lone audience member, who hadn't seen what had happened. Allegra flew quickly towards her and hovered near by. "Ron just punched Demelza, can you help get her to the hospital wing? There's a lot of blood." Hermione leapt up and ran down to the field. Overall, it wasn't the best practice they'd ever had.
"Good work today. We'll do just fine against Slytherin. Especially as I know their captain hasn't been putting in any work." The Slytherin captain was of course, Draco, and Allegra knew damn well he hadn't been putting any effort in. Allegra flew to the ground and ran to catch up with Hermione and Demelza.
Over the next few days, Ron's mood turned into an angry seething mess. He snapped at everyone and anyone, and he was giving Hermione a very icy shoulder.
"What's so wrong with Ron?" Allegra asked Harry when the two of them were alone in the common room.
"He and Ginny had a huge fight," he told her. "And now he hates everyone."
"Why Hermione though? They were just starting to get along."
"I think he feels left behind."
"By what?"
"Well, we walked in on her and Dean having a steamy kissing session, and obviously he didn't like that."
"Obviously."
"Well, she got seriously pissed off."
"Ah," Allegra knew Ginny could be a real bitch when she wanted to, and she was never one to hold back when shouting at her brothers.
"She basically told him that he was jealous and went on to explain that all his friends have had girlfriends and boyfriends, and that even Hermione had had a thing with Krum, but he has no one."
"That's nonsense though, he's pulled an adequate amount of people at parties, he's kissed me, for goodness sake, playing spin-the-bottle."
"I don't think that counts, Allegra, to be honest."
"I'd count it." Allegra said, ignoring Luke who was winking at her across the room.
"I think it's the Hermione thing that really got to him."
"Well I don't think he needs to worry about that, she wants him, there's no doubt about that." Harry looked at her and raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, but are you going to be the one to tell him that and then face Hermione? What about if they get together and it goes tits-up? What will we do then?"
"I hadn't thought of that ..." Allegra said, but now she was going to.
Ron's mood had not improved any by the last quidditch practice before the Slytherin match. So not only was he bellowing at everyone, but he didn't save one shot that Ginny or Demelza had taken at him. Allegra had hardly played at all; she just watched and told him to shut the hell up or McLaggen would be taking his place. When he reduced Demelza to tears the only reason Allegra didn't send him off was that Harry was there to calm her down.
"You shut up and leave her alone!" Peakes had shouted at him, despite being half the size of Ron, although admittedly holding a large bat.
"RONALD!" Allegra screamed shortly after. "I swear to god I am going to -"
"Allegra, breathe," Harry put his hand on her arm as well as he could from his broom and made a breathing action with his other. "You're going bright red."
Allegra took a moment to gather herself and then looked around the field.
"Peakes, can you pack up the Bludgers? Ginny, help Demelza calm down while I decide what to do with your twat of a brother," Ginny grinned knowing that Ron was going to get it, and lead Demelza off the pitch. "Ron ..." Allegra flew towards him. He was sitting bolt upright on his broom with his arms crossed. Harry followed closely. "I swear to god, if you can't work nicely with everyone else, I'm going to put McLaggen on instead. Because we really need to work as a team."
Ron looked livid for a moment before sagging on his broom and giving up.
"I resign," he sighed. "I'm pathetic."
"You're not pathetic and you're not resigning!" Harry told him. "You can save anything when you're feeling confident; it's just this mental problem you've got!"
"You calling me mental?"
"Yeah! Something's going wrong in there!" Allegra tapped him on the head.
"I'll play tomorrow if you let me, Ali, but when we lose I'm taking myself off the team."
"Ron, if we lose tomorrow and you do that, I'll make sure you wake up without any balls, so you better bloody try and win this game!"
Harry and Ron stared at Allegra.
"That's a pretty heavy threat," Ron said.
"You're really getting this whole 'captain' thing, aren't you?" Harry grinned briefly.
"Yes. And while I'm captain, I'm not going to be your best friend, because I have to win tomorrow."
For the rest of the evening Harry tried to boost Ron's confidence, but nothing he did or said would help. Allegra tried to give him a pep talk during dinner, but he was too busy being moody with Hermione to listen. By the end of the night, the only reason Allegra didn't ask Cormac to play was because Harry said he'd had an idea.
Which was lucky for Ron, because she had to beat Draco the next day. She knew Draco hadn't been paying much attention to quidditch and with the amount of time she had been putting in ... well, she wouldn't have much soul left if Slytherin won.
The next morning breakfast was its usual theatrical affair as any pre-match meal. Slytherin booed whenever a Gryffindor quidditch team member walked in, and Gryffindor did the same for the Slytherin team. The Great Hall predicted blue skies, so they were in for good flying weather. Everyone was in their house colours, a sea of gold and red for Gryffindor and green and silver for Slytherin. The Gryffindors cheered as Allegra, Hermione, Harry and Ron entered, not quite drowned out by the Slytherin's booing.
"Cheer up, Ron!" Lavender called as they passed. "I know you'll be brilliant!" Ron just ignored her, although this didn't seem to comfort Hermione any. They sat down and Allegra started to choose what she would nibble on for breakfast. She wasn't good at eating before a match - afterwards, yes - but before it would just make her sick.
"Tea?" Harry asked Ron. "Coffee? Pumpkin Juice?"
"Anything," Ron said glumly, taking a moody bite of toast.
"How are you all feeling?" Hermione asked.
"Fine," Harry answered absently, he was passing Ron a glass of pumpkin juice. "There you go, Ron, drink up." Ron raised the glass to his lips when Hermione spoke sharply.
"Don't drink that, Ron!" They looked at her.
"Why not?" Ron asked. Hermione was staring at Harry as though she could not believe her eyes.
"You just put something in that drink."
"Excuse me?" Harry said.
"You heard me, I saw you. You just tipped something into Ron's drink. You've got a bottle in your hand right now!"
Allegra looked down quickly and Harry was stowing away something inside his pockets.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ron, I warn you, don't drink it!" Hermione said again alarmed, but Ron just downed the drink and said: "Stop bossing me around, Hermione."
Hermione looked scandalised. She leaned across towards Harry and hissed, "You should be expelled for that. I'd never have believed it of you, Harry!"
"Look who's talking," he replied. "Confunded anyone lately?"
"Are you not going to do anything," Hermione said, flushing and turning to Allegra. "You're their captain!"
"There's nothing I can do, Hermione," Harry grinned at Allegra. "I can't suck the drink back out of him, and I'm not going to say they can't play."
Hermione stormed off up the table without looking back.
She had never quite grasped the importance of quidditch.
"Conditions look ideal," Ginny said as Allegra entered the changing room. "And guess what? That Slytherin Chaser Vaisey - he took a bludger to the head yesterday during their practice, and he's too sore to play! And even better than that - Malfoy's gone off sick too!"
"What?" Allegra said, wheeling around to look at her. "He's ill? He looked fine yesterday!"
"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked. Harry had been looking forward to playing Draco more than Allegra had.
"No idea, but it's great for us," Ginny said brightly. "They're playing Harper instead. He's in my year and has about three brain cells."
"Doesn't make it very challenging anymore though, does it?" Allegra sighed, sitting down next to Ginny to pull on her shoes.
"I don't know, with Ron around ..." Ginny mumbled and glared off across the changing room at Ron's back.
Allegra made a mental note to tackle Blaise at the end of the match and find out what was going on.
"Come on guys, we've got about five minutes, get yourselves ready!" Allegra called across the changing room.
They were called out to the pitch to the usual accompanying cheers and boos. One side of the stadium was solid red and gold and the other was silver and green. Most Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had chosen sides, too. Blaise had stepped in as captain instead of Draco, so he winked at Allegra as they shook hands.
Madame Hooch hovered near by on her broom with a quaffle in her hands for the toss up.
"Ready, on the whistle ... three ... two ... one ..." The whistle blew and they all leapt forward to start the match. Allegra soared forwards with Ginny and Demelza jumping around, and the Slytherin players did their best to get in the way.
Half an hour in and Gryffindor were leading 100-30, Allegra having scored five goals, Ginny three and Demelza two. Ron had been making some amazing saves, and Allegra didn't understand how Ron could go from how badly he had been playing yesterday to how well he was playing today.
Not that she had time to think about anything other than what was going on for more than five minutes so far. Zacharias Smith had taken Lee's place as commentator, much to her despair. It wasn't that she had a problem with him; he just was pulling apart her team as best as he could.
"Of course, Coote isn't really the usual build for a beater," he said loftily, "they've usually got a bit more muscle -"
"Hit a bludger at him!" Harry called to Coote, who grinned back at Harry but chose to hit an oncoming bludger at Harper instead, and it hit its target with a satisfying thud.
The match got better and better, Allegra's team was working together better than she ever could have expected.
Allegra scored repeatedly, along with Ginny and Demelza, who usually just liked to set her up (and she was very good at it, too).
"And I think Harper of Slytherin's seen the snitch!" Smith said through the megaphone.
"Yes, he's certainly seen something Potter hasn't!"
Allegra looked up to see Harper fumble and Harry rocket into the space and then - Harry pulled up triumphant! The roar of cheers was so loud Allegra thought she could hear her ear drums vibrating. The whole team flew to the middle to meet, and were hugging and congratulating each other mid-air.
"Ginny, where are you going?" Harry asked, as Ginny flew past and crashed into the commentators stand. The crowd shrieked and laughed as everyone could hear Smith groan and Ginny say, "forgot to break, Professor, sorry," through the megaphone.
"Seamus said we're going to have a party up in the common room as usual!" Coote told everyone excitedly, it would be his first party on the team. "Come on, Peakeyyyy! Demelza!"
Allegra, Harry and Ron were the last to leave the changing rooms, and were just about to leave when Hermione came in.
"I want a word with you, Harry." She took a deep breath and Allegra raised an eyebrow as she threw her bag onto her shoulder to watch. "You shouldn't have done it. You heard Slughorn, it's illegal."
"What are you talking about?" Allegra asked, stepping towards them.
"What are you going to do? Turn us in?" Ron demanded at the same time.
"What are you all talking about?" Harry asked, turning away to stuff his robes into his bag.
"You know perfectly well what we're talking about!" Hermione said shrilly. "You spiked Ron's juice with lucky potion at breakfast! Felix Felicis!"
"No I didn't," Harry said calmly, turning back to face the three of them.
"Yes you did, Harry, that's why everything went right, there were Slytherin players missing and Ron saved everything!"
"I didn't put it in!" Harry said grinning broadly. He slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket and drew out a tiny bottle. It was still full of golden liquid and the cork was still sealed with wax. "I wanted Ron to think I'd done it, so I faked it when I knew you were looking." He looked at Ron. "You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself." He pocketed the potion again.
"There really wasn't anything in my juice?" Ron said, astounded. "But the weather's good ... and Vaisey and Malfoy didn't play ... I honestly didn't have it?" Harry just shook his head, Ron gaped at him for a moment and then rounded on Hermione, imitating her voice. "You added Felix Felicis to Ron's juice this morning, that's why everything's gone right, that's why he saved everything! See! I can save goals without help, Hermione!"
"I never said you couldn't - Ron, you thought you'd been given it, too!" But Ron had stormed past her with his broom over his shoulder and was already out the door before she had finished.
"Er," Harry said into the sudden silence; his expression showing he had not expected the plan to backfire quite like that. "Shall ... shall we go up to the party, then?"
"You go!" Hermione said, blinking back tears. "I'm so sick of Ron at the moment; I don't know what I'm supposed to have done wrong to make him hate me quite so much!"
Hermione leaned on Allegra's shoulder and sucked in a large shuddering breath.
"You go ahead, Harry, we'll catch up with you." Harry nodded, glade to leave, and gave a sympathetic and thankful smile before he left.
"Come here, 'Mione." Allegra hugged her and guided her over to one of the benches to sit down. It wasn't an ideal place to sit and wait for someone to calm down, as the whole place stunk of sweat and because of the showers, was surprisingly hot and stuffy too.
"I - I just don't understand why he's being such a dick to me," she cried, letting it out properly now that Harry had gone.
"Because he's an angry, jealous person."
"What's he got to be angry and jealous of though, Ali? That's what I don't get, how did he suddenly get so venomous?!"
Allegra sighed, "he and Ginny had a huge fight." Hermione looked at Allegra through wet lashes, her mascara leaving little wet black lash lines under her eyes.
"What's that got to do with -"
"It was when he and Harry walked in on her and Dean having a steamy session in one of the halls. She went mental at him when he said he didn't want her doing that in public; she told him how Harry had kissed Cho, me and numerous boys, and you had done things with Krum." Hermione frowned, and wiped her eyes, only to smudge the mascara rather than getting rid of it. "He didn't know that you were so close with Krum, and that's why he's being stupid. Basically, he feels like he's the only one who hasn't had a relationship with anyone."
"What? But that's ridiculous! How could he not know - for a start - and why is he so upset about something that happened almost two years ago?"
"Because he likes you, and he's just found out that someone else had you, when he wants you to himself."
"He does! That was two years ago and I barely talk to Viktor anymore, and we're certainly only friends."
"Yeah well, a lot of things haunt us from fourth year, Hermione." Allegra looked at her with a pained expression. "Ron feels like no one bothered to tell him at the time."
"Well what can I do now?" Hermione asked, and Allegra shrugged helplessly, she honestly didn't have an answer for her.
"I don't know yet, Hermione, but I'll let you know when I do. Now, do you want to go to this party?" Allegra swallowed, stood up and smiled down at Hermione. The air had gotten far too heavy in the room, and Allegra really wanted to go outside.
"Not really," she shook her head, but stood up anyway.
"Well," Allegra used a spell to clean Hermione's face up, "let's go and get changed and then you can help me find Blaise or Draco, if you want. I just need to talk to one of them briefly."
"Okay," she nodded. "But I'd rather it were Blaise."
"That's funny, as I think I'd rather it were Draco." She looked at Allegra a moment and then shook her head.
"I'm not sure you do."
"Harry, Harry, come on, tell me what you thought was really good, who did you think played well?" Colin Creevy and his brother had latched themselves onto Harry as soon as he had got to the party, wanting a full blown analysis of what had happened out on the pitch.
"Where's the Captain?" someone else asked as another shook his hand. It was some time before Harry managed to shake himself from the group, the last being Romilda Vane who couldn't have been much more blatant about what she wanted without asking 'Will you ask me to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with you?'
Harry spotted the drinks table, which was pretty much demolished already. Harry had almost gotten there when he almost walked into Ginny, Arnold the Pygmy Puff was riding on her shoulder, and Crookshanks was at her heels hoping for an easy meal.
"Looking for Ron?" She asked, smirking. "He's over there, the filthy hypocrite."
Harry looked over to the corner where she was pointing, and there in full view of the whole room stood Ron, wrapped so closely around Lavender Brown they'd be lucky to ever be separate people again.
"It looks like he's eating her face, doesn't it?" Ginny said dispassionately. "But I suppose he's got to learn his technique somehow. Have you seen Allegra? I thought she'd be here already but I can't find her."
"No, er, sorry Ginny, I haven't."
"Oh well, good game, Harry." She smiled and patted him on the arm. Harry felt a strange swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach and a burst of adrenaline. Ginny walked off to get some more Butterbeer from Dean, while Harry looked around as though someone would have been able to feel or see what Harry had just felt.
He looked at Ron for a moment, before feeling slightly sick and turning to see that Allegra's quidditch bag had appeared by the portrait door, and the swooping feeling was replaced with a sinking feeling as he saw the portrait door swinging closed.
Harry ran to the door, sidestepping Romilda who once again stepped into his path, and pushed the portrait open. The corridor outside was already deserted.
"Hermione? Allegra?" He got no reply.
He found them in the first empty classroom he looked in, Hermione was perched on a desk with her head in her hands, Allegra standing in front of her.
"I know how you feel, Hermione, you just have to breathe for now, we'll deal with the rest in a minute." Allegra patted Hermione's knees helplessly, clearly at loss of whether to hug Hermione or leave her alone.
"Oh, hello Harry," Hermione said, sounding fragile, spotting Harry over Allegra's shoulder. Allegra turned to look at Harry, but barely smiled. It was a look that could have made anyone think it was her who was in pain, not Hermione.
Hermione conjured a small group of yellow canaries that started flying around her head.
"Ron seems to be enjoying the celebrations."
"Er ... does he?" Harry said awkwardly, shuffling his weight from one foot to the other. He had no idea what to say to her.
"Don't pretend you didn't see him, he wasn't exactly hiding it, was -"
The door burst open and Harry spun around. To his horror, Ron came in, laughing and pulling Lavender by the hand.
"Oh," he said, drawing up short at the sight of them.
"Oops!" Lavender said, backing up towards the door and giggling. As her giggles turned into silent shoulder shrugs, there was a horrible pregnant silence. Hermione stared at Ron, who refused to look at her.
"Hi Harry! Wondered where you'd got to!"
Hermione slid off the desk; the little flock of yellow birds followed her movement, but continued to fly like a feathery golden halo above her head.
"Ron, I think you should go." Allegra said darkly. Hermione was walking towards them.
"Why?" He looked at Allegra with an almost genuine look of confusion, until he glanced at Hermione and it turned into a fake expression.
"Because I don't have the patience for you right now, and if you don't go -"
"Oppugno!" Hermione pointed her wand at Ron, and the flock of birds sped towards him like yellow feathery bullets. Ron yelped and scuttled out the door after Lavender, the birds following, clawing and pecking at him wherever they could. Hermione turned back towards Allegra; they stared at each other for a moment before Allegra flew forwards and hugged Hermione as hard as she could.
Harry stood and shuffled around awkwardly for ten minutes while he and Allegra tried to comfort Hermione.
"I'm sorry," Hermione sobbed one last time. "You should both be off celebrating."
"Bullshit," Allegra said, the word sounding harsh after Hermione's whispers. "I don't want to go to that anyway."
"I'm just going to go to bed, I think. Allegra, you can go and look for Blaise or Draco."
"Are you sure? I only want to talk to them for five minutes; I shouldn't be very long at all."
Hermione nodded. "You can just come and meet me in our room when you're done, if you want."
Allegra nodded and put a hand on Hermione's back to guide her towards Harry.
"Are you going to ask them where Draco was today?" Harry asked bluntly. For a moment he worried that he was going to get her anger for Ron, but she just nodded.
"Yeah. I want to know where he was." Harry didn't ask any more than that. It was the straightest answer he'd had out of her about the Slytherins in a long time, and her tone said that they were in trouble, too.
"I'll take Hermione back," he told her, and she nodded thankfully.
"I won't be long. If I can't find them in ten minutes I'll give up."
They left in separate directions.