Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Sixty-Six

I'd gotten caught in the crossfire.

"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of its elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger. Behind her, I saw Harry come in, frowning thoughtfully before noticing the shouting match going on between our friends.

"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"

"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"

Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry.

"Well," he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well — that just proves — completely missed the point -"

"Actually," I snapped, "Hermione got the point much better than you have, Ron. You're giving her a hard time because she didn't go with you. There's nothing wrong with her, she has no reason to take the blame, so give her a break!"

"Oh, shut up and mind your own business," Ron sneered, storming up to the boys' dormitory.

Before I could go after him and deck him, Harry stopped me. "Hang on, don't kill him! Look, Ash, calm down. I know he's being a git, but going after him won't really help."

"Okay, fine!" I exclaimed, stomping over to an armchair and plopping down on it. "I'm calm. I'm very calm."

"Okay, good, because you'll never believe what I just saw," Harry said.

"What?"

"I saw Luke going into the Forbidden Forest with a sword."

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, no.

Luke.

You stupid idiot.

Just before I'd gone upstairs, Luke had told me he'd seen something in the woods while we were talking about the third task and wanted to go check it out. Why didn't he wait until he'd arrived in the woods before taking out his sword? If Harry hadn't seen him, somebody else might've.

We were going to have some words later.

I rearranged my face into a skeptical expression. "No way. You're pulling my leg."

"No, really, I saw him with a sword!"

"Why would he have a sword?" I asked. "Where would he even get one?"

"I dunno, one of the suits of armor, maybe?"

"The suits of armor? Really?"

"I said maybe."

"I don't think they would've let him take a sword from them." I took a deep breath. "Maybe it was something else."

"I'm telling you, it was a sword!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, Harry, it's kind of hard to believe!" I retorted.

"Why?"

"Because people around here don't go walking around carrying swords!"

"But Luke's not from around here, is he?" Harry asked.

"I think I would know if he had a sword, Harry."

"Well, maybe you don't know everything about him, Ash."

"Now you sound like Ron," I grumbled. "Luke is like family to me. There's not much I don't know about him."

"Then why would he be going into the Forbidden Forest?"

"Now that I don't know," I fibbed.

Harry frowned. "I know you know something, Ash. I heard you and Luke talking earlier about the third task, how they're going to bring in more people from that camp."