Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 64 - Weasley and McLaggen

As the week went on, Hermione became increasingly bad tempered as Harry continued to perform better than us in Potions due to the excessive note taking of the Half-Blood Prince in his textbook.

"Look," Harry said as we sat in the common room doing homework during a free period, "there are instructions for spells here. Looks like he made them up himself."

"Or herself," Hermione said irritably. "It might have been a girl."

"The Half-Blood Prince," Harry said. "How many girls have been princes."

"It's five to eight, I'd better go, I'll be late for Dumbledore," Harry said.

"Ooooh!" Hermione gasped. "Good luck!"

Harry stood to leave but gave me a small smile before walking out of the common room.

"What was that?" Hermione asked after he had gone.

"What was what?"

"He smiled at you," she said.

"Oh, right," I shrugged, acting as though it made no difference to me whether or not he smiled at me when in fact, my heart was beating rapidly in my chest. I'm furious at him, why am I reacting like this? I scolded myself.

She gave me a look before turning to Ron. "We've got to go see Hagrid and explain."

"We've got Quidditch tryouts tomorrow morning!" Ron said. "And we're supposed to be practicing that Aguamenti charm for Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject."

"We didn't hate it!" I said as Hermione shook her head frantically beside me.

"Speak for yourselves, then," Ron said.

"I hate not talking to Hagrid," Hermione said, looking upset.

"We'll go down after Quidditch," I said.

"You're coming too?" Ron said, surprised.

"Yeah, why?"

"I dunno," he shrugged, "I thought since you and Harry, er—"

"You're my friend too, Ron," I said, "I'm coming to support you. I couldn't care less what Harry's up to."

"Right," he said gloomily and I caught Hermione giving him a look.

***

"I dunno why the team's so popular all of a sudden," Harry said as we ate breakfast the following morning.

"Oh, come on, Harry," Hermione said. "It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting and, frankly, you've never been more fanciable."

I frowned slightly at this, suddenly remembering all the girls I had noticed in the corridors making eyes at him. I wondered how it would feel to see him with someone else and felt my heart sink down to the bottom of my chest once more. Hermione gave me a sympathetic look, just now realizing the insensibility of her words.

"I mean, they're even calling you the "Chosen one"—well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?" She said. "And you can still see the marks where that evil woman made you write with your own blood..."

"You can still see my scars from back at the Ministry, look," Ron said as he rolled back his sleeves and showed them to Hermione.

"And it doesn't help that you've grown about a foot over the summer," Hermione added, ignoring Ron.

"I'm tall," Ron said and I raised my eyebrows at him.

He looked to me questioningly but I shrugged him off, not wanting to embarrass him. We left the Gryffindor table a few minutes later and headed down to the Quidditch pitch. We passed Lavender Brown on our way outside and she gave Ron a wide smile. I wished Ron good luck before leaving to find a place in the stands, but Hermione remained cold and distant.

"You alright?" I asked as we sat down.

"Fine," she said, "why d'you ask?"

"No reason," I said and turned my attention to the pitch, a small smirk on my lips.

There were so many people on the pitch. It looked as though half of Gryffindor house had shown up, including a bunch of very nervous first-years. After a good hour, Harry seemed to have chosen his three Chasers: Katie Bell, Demelza Robins, and Ginny. I gave her a thumbs up as she looked in our direction, beaming.

As the next round of players was trying out, I found myself distracted by looking at Harry. He looked so handsome in his captain jersey, his black hair ruffling in the fall breeze. Perhaps he had felt someone staring at him because he turned toward the stands at that moment. His eyes caught mine, and he gave me a small smile, which I returned shyly. I did not fail to notice Hermione shaking her head beside me, a small smile on her lips.

Cormac was the first Keeper to try out. Unfortunately, he was very good, which made me nervous for Ron. However, something happened on his last penalty.

"Confundus," I heard Hermione whisper beside me and Cormac suddenly shot off completely in the wrong direction.

I turned to her, my eyebrows raised, but said nothing so that we wouldn't be overheard. She saw me looking at her and gave me a weak, guilty smile.

"Good luck, Ron!" Lavender shouted, making Hermione roll her eyes. This reminded me of something.

"So, er— I've been meaning to ask you something..." I said.

"Yes?"

"Remember, first Potions class— with the amortentia?" I said and she nodded. "Right, you were saying what you smelled in it, but then you stopped abruptly. How come?"

She suddenly turned a bright red. "Oh, er, it was just, er— spearmint toothpaste."

"Spearmint toothpaste?" I said and she nodded.

I stayed silent for a moment, watching Ron make a few good saves before turning back to her.

"I'm no detective," I said, "but I have noticed that you seem annoyed every time Lavender even looks at Ron and that you felt the same way when he wouldn't stop staring at Fleur."

She said nothing as she avoided my gaze by pretending to be interested in what was happening on the pitch.

"All right, fine!" She said after a moment, making me smirk. "I, er— I didn't actually smell spearmint toothpaste... it was Ron's hair."

I gasped. "Shut up."

"No, I'm serious," she said in a low voice.

"Godric, Mione!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's no big deal!" She said irritably.

"He likes you too," I said.

"What?"

"Oh, please," I said.

"Did he tell you that?" She asked nervously, making me raise my eyebrows.

"No," I told her, "but it's so obvious."

Loud cheering made us turn toward the pitch again and we saw Ron get off his broom looking quite pleased with himself.

"Ron's Keeper!" I said excitedly. "He saved one more penalty than Cormac!"

We quickly ran down to meet Ron and Harry on the pitch.

"You did brilliantly, Ron!" Hermione said.

We said goodbye to the rest of the team and headed toward Hagrid's.

"I thought I was going to miss that fourth penalty," Ron said.

"Yes, yes, you were magnificent!" Hermione said.

"I was better than that McLaggen anyway," he said. "Did you see him lumbering off in the wrong direction on his fifth? Looked like he'd been Confunded..."

Hermione turned a deep red at his words, making me smile in amusement, but Ron did not notice a thing.