Chapter Four

Ron's Bind


Ron had felt uneasy about working with Colin Creevy. With Colin being the huge fan of Harry for the past seven years, he was sure that Harry would be the only subject he would want to talk about.
He had been pleasantly surprised however. Colin had not even made mention of Harry all week. But Colin was still as inquisitive as he ever was. The natural journalist. He was often hounding Ron about information on the smallest of things, from players to copy. It seemed a little over the top sometimes, as though he did it just to talk to him. Ron just figured he was eager to please and dealt with the constant questioning.
"Are you ready to go Ron?" Colin said poking his head through the door into Ron's office.
Ron looked at the watch Hermione gave to him as an anniversary present last year. "Bloody Hell! It's 8:45 already! We have to get going before we miss all the good seats in the press box."
Colin opened the door to his office and walked inside.
Ron's office looked very much like his bedroom back at the Burrow he still kept. It was a shambles. The room was small, with team stats and pictures pinned up all over the walls. There was barely enough room for the small desk and chairs he had as well. He kept his most prized possession, an autographed photo of his favorite team, the Chudley Cannons, framed up on the wall behind his desk.
His desk itself was cluttered with parchment and quills, nearly covering the small perch he kept for his owl, Pig, and the various pictures he had of his family, Harry and Hermione.
Ron looked around. "Wait a minute. Let me make sure that I haven't forgotten anything."

"Do you think that the game will be that long?" Colin asked.
"Probably not. England has an amazing team this year, especially now with their new chaser, Roland. They have more than a fighting chance against Ireland now." Ron said, grabbing his omninoculars from his desk drawer. He had ignored the fact that Pig was hopping around excitedly about his desk, trying to attract his attention.
Colin tilted his head in confusion as he walked over and sat on the edge of the desk, watching Ron scramble around the small room, grabbing his hat and scarf.
"Why are you taking your hat and scarf? Don't you intend to come back tonight after the game?"
"Not tonight." Ron said with a broad grin. "I'm having dinner with Hermione. We've been planning it for weeks. I'm heading to her place after the game."
For an instant, Colin looked slightly disappointed, but quickly smiled again, picking up a photo of Hermione, in Hogwarts robes, showing off her Head Girl badge.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that you two are still dating."
Ron gave him a sideways look at the strange comment, but Colin didn't notice.
"We're engaged."
"Really?"
"Yeah, hopefully this summer."
Ron turned around and closed his eyes in a cringe, realizing what he had let slip out.

"Your'e not sure?" Colin asked looked at him again, puzzled.
"Er, we have a few family issues to deal with. Can't really talk about it if you don't mind." Ron said, continuing to search his desk aimlessly.
"Oh." Colin sensed his uneasiness and tried to change the subject.
"Hey, your owl seems to be quite excited about something or other."
By now, Pig was hopping about like mad on his desk. Ron was so used to ignoring is hyperactive owl, that he never noticed her half the time anyway.
"Oh yeah, I'd hate to leave her behind." Ron said, remembering. He scooped Pig up in his hand and shoved her into the pocket of his robe.
"Well, that must be it." Ron said sighing, pulling out a pouch of flew powder. "Let's get going to the fireplaces."
Colin looked at his pouch and said in a rather impressive tone. "There's no need for that, I just passed my apparating test recently!"
Ron gave him a disheartened look, no doubt one that he had picked up from his fiancé. "But didn't you just get out of school?"
Colin, as if on cue, quickly justified himself. "I just passed it this week. Professor Lupin has been allowing me to practice at Hogwarts. Rough test too, I must say. I really had to practice quite a bit, before I got it right."
"I see." Ron said, not entirely sure of Colin's confidence in his skills. He simply nodded to the almost empty corner of his tiny office. "Well Creevey, be my guest."
Ron watched closely as Colin smiled weakly at him and walked to the corner of his office. Colin closed his eyes tightly and raised his wand.
"APPARATE CLOVER STADIUM!"
 And with a flick of his wand, Colin slowly vanished.
Ron sighed with relief that he had seemingly completed his apparation successfully.
He looked at his watch again and walked himself to the same corner.
Ron felt Pig jumping around in his robe and he spoke to her, as he always did, in a soft voice.
"I hope this really is a short game Pig. I would hate to face Herm if I ended up missing supper."


* * *

Ron arrived at the east gate nearest to the press box. He looked around for Colin, who was nowhere in sight.
"Oh great," he mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes. "probably splinched himself, the silly git."
Ron began looking around for Colin, asking other wizards that were making their way into the stands or to the snack bar for refreshments. He was about to ask a rather sullen looking witch when he finally saw Colin, red-faced and running down the hallway towards him.
"Oy! Ron!"
Ron sighed with relief. " What happened to you? Where were you?"
Colin tried not to look him in the eye as he was adjusting his camera. "Er, I landed on the other side of the pitch." he said embarrassedly. "Ran into this nice bloke who seemed rather late himself, but he was kind enough to give me directions to the press box."
Ron gave him a hard look. "Well at least your'e here in one piece. Now come on, the game is about to start."
They reached the press box with just enough time to still get some fairly good seats. There were several other journalists there as well, mostly from Ireland, but Ron recognized a few from France and Austrailia as well, who's teams were also in the playoffs.
They had just taken their seats when the comentator began his introductions of the players. "And now here comes Ireland! O'Grady, Lynch, Moran, Quigley, Shaunnesey, Mullet and Ryan!"
The crowd cheered as wisps of green and gold flew about the stadium. Ron pulled out his omninoculars to watch.
"...and now England takes the pitch! Finch, Stephenson, Roland, Smith-Westerling, Parish, Henley and Sorbel!"
"Look! There's Sorbel!" Ron yelled over the noise of the crowd to Colin, pointing to the young man in red and blue, striding onto the pitch with the rest of England's National team.
"Sorbel is England's new chaser. He's the reason that they are even in the playoffs this year. Unfortunately, he almost never gives interviews. I'd spew slugs again for the chance at an interview with him!"
Colin put his camera down and snatched the omninoculars from Ron's hands. "Hey, that's the bloke I ran into when I apparated here!"

"Bloody hell, you're kidding!"

"Really, I talked with him for sometime. He seemed real nice. I had no idea it was him."

"Well, what did he say to you?" Ron said excitedly, suddenly losing interest in the team as the referee released the quaffle in the air to start the game.

"Well, I excused myself and told him I was fairly new at apparating. He told me about when he got his apparating licence, that he still needed some practice himself, but it worked out and all."

"That's it?"

"Well, yes."

Ron just sat back into his seat, a grim look on his face. He knew it wasn't Colin's fault, but he would have never let an interview like that slip through his fingers so easily.

The game continued on for hours, and by late afternoon, the scoreboard read England 460, Ireland 430. Ron watched the time slowly ticking closer and closer to supper time. The players had been wearing down for some time, and with no sign of the snitch in sight, it didn't look as though the game was about to end anytime soon.

"I guess you can say now that I was wrong about the game being short." Ron said with a heavy sigh.

Colin sounded sympathetic. "It will be getting dark soon, won't you miss your dinner with Hermione?"

"It certainly seems that way." he answered miserably.

"Can't you send her your owl to let her know you'll be late."

"You don't know Hermione very well do you?" Ron said sarcastically. "Besides, it's already too late, she would never reach her in time."

"I'm sorry Ron. I don't know what to say." Colin looked genuinely concerned for him.

"I do. She's gonna kill me." Ron mumbled.

After a few minutes, Colin popped up in his seat, as though he were struck with an idea.

"Ron, I have an idea. Why don't you let me take notes for the rest of the game. I already have more than enough pictures. It wouldn't be any trouble at all really, and if you go now, you can make it just in time for dinner with your fiancé."

Ron gave Colin a sideways glance, wondering what he was playing at. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, yeah. I've always been good at taking notes. I'll just send them back to you by owl when the games over."

Not giving much thought to the idea, Ron nodded in agreement. The only thought that had in fact entered his mind was the disappointed face Hermione would give him when he didn't arrive in time.

Ron reached into his robes and pulled out Pig. "Here, you can use my owl, Pig. She's a lot quicker than most of them at the Prophet anyway."

Colin looked delighted. "Thanks Ron. I won't let you down."

Ron put a hand on his shoulder. "No, thank you. You have no idea how much you are about to save my bum."

Ron gave him a big grin, and raced out of the press box.