One Lucky Winner

Chapter 10 ~ Ron

"I'll stand in the middle," Harry grumbles, getting in the carriage after me. Hermione gets in after him.

"Alright, now the crowds like friendly tributes!" pipes up Stacy, our stylist. She's ridiculous looking. She has a long silver, scaly, dress on and a dark afro. How does she think that's attractive? Does anyone on this planet think that's attractive?

"Just smile and wave. Everyone will love you," she purrs. We all nod in sync. I exchange a smirk with Harry after she leaves; we think she's easy to make fun of.

The sound of music playing startles me. It's the music of the Tribute Parade. I don't like this at all.

"We look hideous," Hermione grumbles over the music. I agree with her. We're wearing our robes, which makes us look like the biggest, lamest nerds ever. We don't look cool at all, unlike the men behind us. They must be superheroes or something, because they're wearing armor and carrying weapons.

I'm just glad we're not first. We're second, which is probably the best spot to be, because we won't be going first but we'll getting it over with pretty quickly. Three boys are first. I can only see the backs of them, but they just look natural. Regular teenage boys.

Harry takes a deep breath. "It's okay, we can do this. People will like us," he says.

"Yeah, they'll love us," Hermione says, trying to be enthusiastic.

Big doors in front of the carriage in front of us open, sending blinding lights in. The carriage in front of us rolls out to the crowds, causing all the sponsors and people to erupt with screams. The boys all immediately start waving wildly. The crowds love them already.

I lean over to Harry. "What are their names?" I point to the three teen boys in front of us.

"I dunno," he replies bitterly.

"What about the guys behind us," I say.

"One of them was...something like...Captain Iron...or something like that," Harry says, sneaking a look at the men behind us.

I'm about to reply, but suddenly I feel a big jolt. I grip the side of the carriage and I feel Harry hold onto me. I realize that we've started moving.

"Get up," Hermione snaps at us. "Stand up straight. Both of you." I can tell she's trying to sound bossy, but her voice quivers. She's just as nervous as we are.

Harry lets go of me and stands up straight and I let go of the carriage, which is frightening. I feel like there should be a bar right in front of us to hold on to, but there's nothing. We just have to balance and try not to fall down. If the carriage goes over a rock or something...

With this thought, I grip the side of the carriage again. My heart beats rapidly; we're almost at the doors. What if I fall over? That would be horrible. We would be making our big entrance into the parade and I would just tumble over the edge and face plant. It would be so embarrassing, and it would ruin any chances of getting sponsors. I shove the thought out of my head. Just act natural, I tell myself. Smile and wave and pretend you actually want to be here.

The lights are blinding as we roll out on to the pathway. I wish I had sunglasses suddenly; I squint my eyes. The crowd erupts, just as it did for the three boys in front of us. My ear drums are ringing.

I realize that probably look like the biggest idiot ever, holding on to the side of the carriage and squinting. I need to shape up. I look over at Harry and Hermione. Harry is standing still as a statute, blank expression on his face, and Hermione looks like she's going to faint, but is somehow managing to wave. If she can do it, I can.

I let go of the carriage and stop squinting, which hurts my eyes but I try to ignore it. Awkwardly, I raise my hand and start waving. People scream even louder than they were before, which I thought was impossible, but they do it. My ear drums thump with pain and I resist the urge to cover my ears.

Then, after a few seconds of waving in pain, my fear comes to life.

The carriage runs over something; a flower or something. The carriage jolts, and my heart stops for a moment. I gasp and grip the side of the carriage.

I'm expecting everyone to hush down and 'boo' us, but they don't. Everyone claps and stands up for us, the opposite of what I expected.

Confused, I look over at Harry and Hermione. Hermione, like me, is very scared and afraid she'll go over the edge, so she is grabbing on to Harry. Not just an arm or a hand; she's acting like its some kind of dangerous earthquake. She has one arm around his middle, and the other on his chest, as if they're posing for some movie poster. Harry is grabbing onto her, too. I must look stupid, holding onto the edge. I look like the idiotic third wheel.

Capitol citizens scream loud and clap as hard as they can. They think Harry and Hermione are together. A couple. In love.

Hermione looks at Harry and releases her grip quickly, reddening. She lingers in the gaze for a moment, then turns and starts waving again, like nothing ever happened.

Anger bubbles up inside of me for some reason. It wasn't Hermione's fault, nor Harry's fault. Then why I am so mad? I'm also dating Lavender. Why do I care who Hermione likes? It's weird with her. I'm not dating her, but I get fiery jealous whenever I see her with someone else, which is bad because I know that's what she wants.

Soon, the third carriage enters, and all attention is on them, so we are immediately ignored. Our waves cause no more screams. Everyone's hooked on the 'superheroes' behind us. It's like us and the boys in front of us are invisible now. The boys in front of us have started to get bored and goof off, by blowing kisses and tipping imaginary hats to the crowds that aren't paying attention to them.

"Sorry I grabbed on to you," Hermione says to Harry quickly. "It's just...Wow, did that startle me..."

"It's okay," Harry says stiffly.

"At least the crowd liked it," Hermione says quietly. I'm surprised I can actually hear her over all the screams and music.

"Yeah," Harry says, smiling for some reason. Hermione looks at him and smiles, and then turns back to the crowd.

Suddenly, it feels like I need to kill someone. I hate when she does this. I know, 100% sure, that all of this was just for me to see. I know she hates Lavender and I, so now she's getting me back with doing all this lovey stuff with Harry.

I immediately calm myself down. This is the exact response she wants. She wants me to get all jealous and angry. I calm down and just watch the three boys goofing off in front of us, trying to think of Lavender instead of Hermione.

It doesn't work.