DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.

CHAPTER 62

After having made his grand entrance with Ginny to the ball, who had looked angelic in floaty, light blue robes with thin gold jewelry, he'd thankfully sat down making sure everyone got a glimpse of his crutch so that they wouldn't bother trying to force him to dance especially since he was in a terrible mood after hearing about Ron only minutes ago.

Ginny had stayed with him till the first dance had ended and then wandered off to the dance floor where she was immediately swept off her feet by a tall fifth year wizard.

"Ditched by our little sister Harry? Want some company?" The Weasley twins asked, and without waiting for his reply they sat down on either side of him holding on to plates loaded with food, "They're starting off the show with all the slow dance numbers, so we thought that we'd have a bite to eat before the real party started" they said winking at him evilly.

Harry happily stole food off of their plates which they didn't seem to mind in the least, and were instead watching the others on the dance floor with their dates, Alicia and Angelina who had just joined them. They made fun of everyone, sparing no one from their commentary and were being particularly cruel about Ron who was doing his crazy dance with Parvati Patil. Harry encouraged them, feeling a terrible anger rise within him every time Ron so much as smiled at the girl in front of him, or looked happy.

Soon the fast numbers started and Harry's table companions left him with Luna for company instead, and went to join the writhing mass on the Dance floor.

"Where's your date Luna?" Harry asked, shouting over the noise, "It's Neville" she said smiling "And he's dancing with Ginny right now" she pointed them out in the crowd, tapping her foot in rhythm with the music, "Thought I'd take a break, Neville is not a very good dancer."

"Right" Harry said choking on his drink, 'Thank god she didn't get to dance with me' he thought, horrified at her blunt appraisal of poor Neville's dancing skills.

"Your bother and Cho had a huge fight in our House's corridor before coming to the dance" she said conversationally, "I think they just broke up before coming to the ball."

"What?"

"Yeah, they're together at the ball for keeping up appearances, but Cho's secretly in love with Cedric and I think Darren fancies Ginny!"

Harry gaped at her open mouthed and turned to watch them on the dance floor. Sure as hell, Darren and Cho were looking extremely uncomfortable standing next to each and were talking in what appeared to be hushed voices not joining in the dancing at all, while Cedric kept shooting looks over Hermione's shoulder at Cho.

'Yikes! Poor Hermione' he thought, sure she and Cedric had come together to the ball based on a similar arrangement as him and Ginny, but while he and Ginny had had no expectations from each other, he knew that Hermione had a crush on Cedric something that Ginny had told him about some time ago. It was a pretty messed up situation overall and Harry hoped that some of it got cleared up tonight, for all their sakes.

He spotted Draco dancing with Pansy, who was wearing pale yellow dress robes and looking quite pretty, matching perfectly with her date's rather strict black velvet ones, but he could make out the look of pure disdain on Draco's face watching from afar, which seemed to become more prominent every time she tried to kiss him, and for some reason Harry found it extremely hilarious.

Suddenly he saw Ron detangle himself from Parvati and walk outside towards the rose gardens, probably for a breather since they had been dancing non-stop from the beginning, getting up himself he called Neville out from the crowd on the dance floor and told him that he needed to go out and to keep Luna company at the table.

He walked out as fast as his crutch would allow him ignoring the appraising looks many girls were giving him, keeping his eyes focused on the doors that were leading out to where Ron was instead.

Coming out he was hit by the strong scent of roses and cringed, it was definitely not his favorite smell. He spotted the top of Ron's red hair from above a bush in full bloom and walked around it to get to him, when he saw that Ron was busily engaged in kissing Lavender Brown!

'Real classy Ron! Real classy!' Harry thought and cleared his throat loudly.

Breaking apart from each other as if burned, they turned to face him looking terribly guilty, but Harry just continued looking at them impassively, as if he didn't care. Straightening up, Ron took on a defensive attitude and said "So what?"

"I don't care whom you kiss Weasley" Harry said, his irritation evident and his anger spiking up a notch or two at the grating tone in his voice "I just wanted to talk to you, in private" he said purposefully ignoring Lavender.

"I don't do boys Potter" Ron said sniggering at his own stupidity and Harry wanted to throttle him with the rose stem above his head.

"Enough Ron! If you don't stuff a cork in it right now I will bring Parvati in here. I hear that girl has a mean right hook, reserved specifically for cheating boyfriends" he said bluffing through his teeth and enjoying the look of horror come over both their faces.

Lavender picked up her heels that she had taken off and said "Later" to Ron, hurriedly walking away from the two of them.

"What do you want Harry?" Ron asked him churlishly.

"I want to know why you pushed me down the stairs two weeks ago." Harry said not bothering to mince his words.

"What the hell are you accusing me of Potter, why would I do that to you? We're friends!" Ron said looking mystified.

"Wow, a liar and a cheat, nice going Weasley!" Harry said and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Don't bullshit me Potter, sure, I agree that I don't like you right now because I don't think you deserve to be in the tournament, but I don't want you injured or dead either" Ron said, starting to look angry.

"I know that you can't handle the fact that I'm in the competition Ron and honestly just between you and me, I hate being in it myself! But that is not even the point here, I have evidence that you pushed me, I have a photograph with you in it to prove that I'm right Ron!"

Ron looked frightened and became incoherent; he lunged out at Harry and struck him hard on his face causing him to fall over on his injured leg. Gasping from pain Harry reflexively swung out at him from the ground with his crutch knocking him off his feet as well.

Ron started to pummel him with his fists not caring for his injuries, blind with rage and some unnamed emotion.

Harry felt magic pulse in his hand and he swung his fist with all his might, his single blow causing Ron to roll off of him yowling with pain and clutching his face in agony.

"Shit! Harry what on earth are you doing?" Draco shouted, coming running towards him.

"The bastard was the one who pushed me off the staircase Dray" Harry said, now looking contrite "Colin showed me the picture this evening."

Draco turned white with anger and stepped towards Ron who was cowering piteously, "You could have killed him" he said in a soft deadly voice advancing towards him slowly, "Madame Pomphrey said his injuries were so serious he could have died!"

About to hit him himself, he stopped when Ron started whimpering and blubbering before him, disgusted Draco held out his wand before him and said 'Legilimens' and entered his mind to see for himself why the coward had almost attempted murder, knowing fully well that the boy would never reveal the truth to them on his own.

He came across a solid barrier that was impenetrable and felt completely foreign to Ron's mind, like it had been planted there by someone else to prevent any intruder from gaining access to his thoughts, gasping Draco quickly pulled out of that corrupted space and turned to Harry with shock written all over his face.

"He's under the bloody 'Imperius' curse Harry!" He whispered, watching his shocked look mirror on Harry's face.

"What? Oh my God!" Harry said looking dumbfoundedly at Ron and immediately started to search his mind for evidence, thinking about all that had happened since school had begun.

He knew that the jealousy and hurt stemmed from Ron himself, it was a tendency that he'd had since he was little, but the incidence of him informing the champions of the first task in the tournament, his expert advice to Darren on how to deal with dragons, even though he was angry with him at that time, something the real Ron would never have done, at least not directly, since he had a long pouting phase, him pushing Harry off the staircase, which had made Harry want to attack him due to the hurt of being betrayed by a friend, none of it added up!

Sure Ron was a cocky bastard, but he was also loyal and true to his word, "I'm so sorry Ron" Harry whispered, and crawled over to him, his leg hurting him like crazy, "Shit Dray! The 'Imperius' curse can be removed only by the caster him-self or if he died or lost his wand in a duel, we can't break him out of it now since we don't know who it is in the first place."

"Let's take him up to school for now Harry and get him to the Hospital, I think your punch really knocked the sense out of him" he said smiling faintly.

"Ugh! I'm such moron Dray! I should have known he was not acting like himself, crap he must have been completely out of it."

"Harry don't beat yourself up too much over it, it seemed like he was acting like his normal, annoying self to all of us, none of us suspected a thing, not even Darren!" Draco said trying to mollify him while dragging him off the ground.

"Your wound has opened up again I think, Pomphrey is going to throw you out for sure this time" Draco said, watching blood ooze out and stain the cotton that was jutting out of the cast.

Harry grabbed his crutch and straightened himself up; ignoring the pain, he caught Ron under his arm helping Draco to carry him to the hospital.

They were walking out of the garden and Harry was telling Draco to get back to his date, when suddenly they heard a group of people coming towards them, without thinking Harry shoved Draco into some nearby bushes and said "If your dad finds out that you were involved in fights, he'll remove you from school faster that you can say 'Please', stay hidden" he warned him and conjured up a stretcher and rolled Ron on to it, levitating it with his wand he walked towards the school without a backward glance.

He had not walked a few paces when the group of people emerged in front of him, they stopped talking when they spotted him all bruised and standing beside a stretcher bearing his injured companion.

He knew that it would be easy to put two and two together, that they would figure out that the two of them had been fighting and knowing that he was screwed anyway, Harry continued to walking slowly towards the hospital ward carrying his burden along with him and ignored the babble of voices that got louder and louder behind him sounding horribly accusatory.