[on hold] 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓&𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 → 𝑓. 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

xix . a dangerous invitation

chapter nineteen
A DANGEROUS INVITATION

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   "RONALD BILIUS Weasley!"

   In her way to the Great Hall, Ruby found the youngest Weasley boy with two of his Gryffindor friends hanging out in the courtyard — and none of those friends was Harry. By the sound of his full name, Ron flinched, but a smirk appeared on his lips, when he spotted Ruby making his way over to him.

   "For a second you sounded like Mum", he snorted.

   "Yeah, about that ...", Ruby scoffed, "I think we should have a word."

   With a shrug, Ron followed Ruby into the building. As they entered an empty classroom, Ron opened his mouth, but Ruby didn't let him make another cheeky comment.

   "What is this with you and Harry? Why in Merlin's name are you acting like a complete arse, Ronald Weasley?"

   "E-excuse me?", Ron stammered, flushing red from head to to.

   "You exactly know what I mean! He's your best friend, you should support him, not giving him more of a hell than that poor boy actually already got!"

   Ron seemed lost for words, his mouth opening and closing, looking like a fish struggling on dry ground, until he finally said, "Rubes, that's bloody creepy! You know you're sounding like Mum, do you? Maybe you shouldn't spend so much time with our family ..."

   "That's not funny, Ron", Ruby snapped. "Don't try to change the subject, you exactly know that you're acting like a jealous little bitch."

   She hadn't planned to go that harsh on him, but having also grown a liking in Ron's best friend, she had watched Harry struggling for a while now, and while she couldn't help him with his burden, she at least could try to talk some sense into Ron.

   "I'm not jealous", Ron muttered, and even though Ruby never had imagined this could be possible, he took an even deeper shade of red. "I'm just — I'm —"

   "What?", asked Ruby, struggling to keep her voice a sharp tone, as Ron seemed to grow more uncomfortable, digging her finger into his chest in a threatening manner. "You know he didn't put his name in, do you? You know he didn't want this!"

   "But he got it anyway."

   "And for sure he didn't got it, because of someone wants to do him a favour!"

   "I know, but — Ruby, thousand Galleons! Do you know what they would mean to my family?" He took a deep breath. "Of course you know what they would mean. I just — I wish —"

   "Ron", Ruby said, her voice softened, and so did her face. "Your family is fine. Money isn't that important. It for sure would be nice, but it's not important. You have a great, loving family. And if you think about it, that's a thing Harry would probably give even more than thousand Galleons for."

   Ron swollowed hard. "I know ..."

   "So grow some nuts and tell him you're sorry, he needs you. You see how this whole castle is acting around him like dimwit gits." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Don't be one of them."

   Sitting down in the Great Hall minutes later, Ruby found Cedric sitting lonely over his dinner. There was no trace of Leilani, and when Ruby let herself fall on an empty seat next to Cedric, she was surprised to see him look up and smirking.

   "She did it", he said, but Ruby had no idea who had done what exactly. It must have been written all over her face, because Cedric snorted a laughter, saying, "Have a look at the Ravenclaw table."

   Wondering if this was something about Cho, Ruby had to surpress a sigh as she looked up, but to her surprise she didn't find Cedric's crush sitting there, but an other beautiful black haired girl with a flirty smile on her lips and eyes locked with those of the handsome captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

   "They're back together?", Ruby asked, as she looked back at Cedric.

   "Leilani always gets what she wants", Cedric snorted a laughter. "Just hope Roger wouldn't mess up again, because Leilani won't let him get away alive a second time."

   When after dinner, Cho was coming over to the Hufflepuff table to fetch Cedric, Ruby felt a strange feeling in her guts, and her eyes automatically roamed the Great Hall, getting caught by the bunch of flaming red hair that seemed to burn a little brighter than his twin's to his left.

   Fred, though, didn't pay much attention to George and Lee, as he would usually do. Instead, his warm brown eyes were all on Angelina Johnson, giving her one of his brightest smiles, as he listened to every word the beautiful Gryffindor Chaser was saying.

   The feeling inside her grew more intense, almost physically hurting, and she placed her fork on her plate and abruptly jumped up —

   "Ouch!", she heard someone yelp, as she bumped into said person. Two strong hands were grabbing her shoulders, steadying her as she stumbled and almost fell back onto the bench. "Ruby! Trying to keel me over, huh?"

   "And yet here you are keeping me from falling", she chuckled. "Seems like my plan backfired."

   "Always to your service", Terrence Higgs replied, his handsome face brightened by a smile. "Where are Cedric and Leilani?", he then asked, cocking an eyebrow by noticing Ruby was all on her own, which in fact did never happen before.

   "Love is in the air", Ruby snorted, shrugging. "Leilani is back with Roger, and Cedric is all swooning over Cho. And I will have a date with the ridiculously long essay Snape wants us to write until Friday."

   Terrence body shook as he chugged. "Well, there's plenty of time left until Friday, you maybe want to postpone your date to tomorrow and spend the evening with me."

   Ruby blinked at him. Though they have been friends for years now, they hadn't spent time alone together ever since their hours of tutoring in the library. The reason was a dark haired vulture, who didn't need words to make it clear that she would murder everyone putting a finger on Terrence.

   But for the split of a second, Ruby's eyes flickered through the hall, landing of Fred Weasley — finding a pair of warm brown eyes watching her conversation with Terrence. She quickly focused back on the latter, smiling as she lazily shrugged and said, "Yeah, why not?"

   The split of a second, howbeit, wasn't enough to remain unnoticed by Jasmine Parkinson.