Marauders - Always - Part One

CXC: Ronald's Horrible Term

Ron Weasley was having a horrible term.

First his best friend had betrayed him by leaving him out of the scheming to get their names into the Goblet of Fire and then said best friend had gone and gotten himself picked - as if Harry needed more attention and glory brought to him, considering everything - and then Hermione had gone and taken Harry's side.

"I'm not choosing sides, Ronald," she had argued when Ron accused her of choosing Harry's side over his side. "Harry just really needs a friend right now, he's going through so much and, honestly, at least you have your brothers - Harry hasn't got anybody!"

"Hasn't got anybody!?" Ron scoffed, "Harry's got the whole bloody school! The entire wizarding world!"

The worst was when the article about Harry had come out in the Daily Prophet and Ron saw what a simpering act Harry had put on for the press - bringing up his dead mum and dad for sympathy and all! - and how even Rita Skeeter had seen that Hermione clearly had chosen Harry over Ron. It really irked Ron for some reason that Skeeter had written in the paper that Hermione was Harry's girlfriend and that the whole school now thought so, too. He hated it even more than he hated that Harry had neglected to let him in on the fun of getting his own name into the running in that Goblet.

If he'd only done, he, Ron, might've been chosen by the Goblet of Fire - who's to say he wouldn't of? And then everyone would be writing articles about him instead and it would be him who Fred and George were singing made-up songs about.

"Harry's the Champion we're  going on about, Harry our Champ indee-ee-eeed... Potter's the Champion to write home about, Potter's the only Champion that we nee-ee-ee-eeeed!" Fred and George bellowed loudly at a crowd of second year Slytherins wearing the Support Cedric Diggory badges as they threw about confetti shaped like Harry's head and danced merrily, arms hooked at the elbow and knees kicking high.

"C'mon guys, lay off it," Ron groaned, shoving Fred out of the way and messing up their little jig.

"Don't be sour Ronnie," George said, grinning and ruffling his little brother's hair.

"Yeah, don't be sour," Fred echoed and he threw a whole handful of Harry confetti right into Ron's face so that several pieces went up his nose and he had to blow them back out.

As the First Task drew ever nearer, too, it seemed it only got worse and worse, with people constantly talking about the event and asking what everyone else thought the task would be. "Something very tough, I reckon," said Seamus knowingly, leaning in so his voice wouldn't carry to the end of the table, where Harry and Hermione sat, bent over their meals and ignoring everyone else in the room, it seemed. "I read they always go for a big wow-factor for the first task."

"I read that, too," Neville said, looking up from a book he was reading that Mad-Eye Moody had given him about plants, of all things.

"Statistically the first task is always the hardest," Lee Jordan nodded. "There was one Tournament centuries ago where all three Champions died in the first task and they had to get three new Champions and start over."

"Madness," whispered Dean. "Why would anyone have a go again after that?" He glanced down the end of the table. "Harry's mental."

"You can say that again," Ron murmured darkly.

But there was a part of him that wondered at whether he ought to be more worried about Harry - they'd said this tournament wouldn't be as bad as the previous ones, but still. What if -- No, Dumbledore had things under control, Ron told himself, and honestly if something did happen, it would serve Harry right for breaking the rules. Still, Ron did wonder how he'd done it and why?