Ron approached us from behind as we were walking down the stairs.
"Hey guys, wait up!" he called
"What do you want?" I said coldly as I turned to face him.
"I... I want to come and see Harry with you" he said uncomfortably "if that's where you're going, that is"
"Yes, but what do you want with him? Going to sprout more bitterness and jealousy in his direction?"
"No, I was actually coming to apologise!" he said, now red in the face, "but if you don't want me to..."
He started moving past us
"No, wait, Ron!" Hermione called "you can come with us!"
"I don't trust him-" I began, but Demelza cut me off
"Give him a chance, mate, come on" she said
Hermione was also looking at me desperately
"Oh, alright" I said reluctantly, "but I can't say I'm confident this will go well"
We headed to the medical tent, and immediately walked into Harry. We embraced.
"You never cease to amaze me" I told him
"Harry, you were brilliant!" Hermione said squeakily, as Harry and I broke apart. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!"
But Harry was looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.
"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet — I — I reckon they're trying to do you in!" It was as though the last few weeks had never happened — as though Harry were meeting Ron for the first time, right after he'd been made champion.
"Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly. "Took you long enough."
"Wow, fair play Ron" I said "Well done for finally seeing the light"
Hermione stood nervously between them, looking from one to the other. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly.
"It's okay," Harry said, before Ron could get the words out.
"Forget it."
"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've —"
"Forget it," Harry said. Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.
Hermione burst into tears.
"There's nothing to cry about!" Harry told her, bewildered.
"You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before either of them could stop her, she had given both of them a hug and dashed away, now positively howling.
"What the hell was that?" said Demelza
"Making Up Malarkey!" said Luna "It often happens when friendships are re-kindled. She'll be ok in a little bit, don't worry"
"Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head. "Harry, c'mon, they'll be putting up your scores. . . ."
We left the tent, and Ron started talking to Harry fast.
"You were the best, you know, no competition. Cedric did this weird thing where he Transfigured a rock on the ground . . . turned it into a dog . . . he was trying to make the dragon go for the dog instead of him. Well, it was a pretty cool bit of Transfiguration, and it sort of worked, because he did get the egg, but he got burned as well — the dragon changed its mind halfway through and decided it would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away. And that Fleur girl tried this sort of charm, I think she was trying to put it into a trance — well, that kind of worked too, it went all sleepy, but then it snored, and this great jet of flame shot out, and her skirt caught fire — she put it out with a bit of water out of her wand. And Krum — you won't believe this, but he didn't even think of flying! He was probably the best after you, though. Hit it with some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs — they took marks off for that, he wasn't supposed to do any damage to them."
Ron drew breath as we reached the edge of the enclosure.
"Ladies and Gentleman, we aren't finished quite yet! We still need to show Mr. Potter's scores!" said Ludo
Most of the people who had been going back to the castle turned around.
"It's marks out of ten from each one," Ron said, and Maxime put up the first of his scores. 8.
"Not bad!" said Ron as the crowd applauded. "I suppose she took marks off for your shoulder. . . ." Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air. "Looking good!" Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back. Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever. Ludo Bagman — ten.
"Ten?" said Harry in disbelief. "But . . . I got hurt. . . . What's he playing at?"
Even I thought that was wrong. Harry certainly wasn't deserving of a 10, I would say 8 or 9.
"Harry, don't complain!" Ron yelled excitedly. And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too — four.
"What?" Ron bellowed furiously. "Four? You lousy, biased scumbag, you gave Krum ten!"
"Yeah, get out of here, you cheating fucker!" I called, and all of a sudden, I was reminded that Ron truly was my brother, and how valuable he was to Harry. In that moment, I had forgiven him for his abandonment.
"You're in first place, Harry! said Charlie Weasley, hurrying to meet them as they set off back toward the school. "Ten points ahead of Krum! Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened — but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah — and they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes. . . . Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
I looked back over at the tent, and could see that in the trees off to the side, Amy, Fred and George were waiting. I pointed this out to Demelza.
"You see Amy, Fred and George there? Clearly they want to confront Ludo about the money. You want to stick around and see what happens?"
"Umm, no I don't think so Ginny. Think it could be rather awkward if I was caught. Clearly you're going to do so no matter what I say, so just tell me what happened later yeah?"
"Sure"
I skirted off into the trees, further behind Amy, Fred and George. Once Harry and everyone else had left, they charged forward and surrounded Ludo as he was leaving the tent. I moved forwards and stood behind one of the trees closest to them, with my back pressed against the trunk. This way, I could hear their conversation as well as avoiding being seen. It ought to be very interesting...