New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|50| Chapter Fifty

F I F T Y 

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A/N: For Maya's perspective on this, add 'Diametric Opposition' to your library and you'll see it soon :p. It will clear A LOT up that Saffron isn't aware about, similar to the 'Alliance' book w/. Olly's story. Check it out if you want :)

As Professor Dumbledore dismissed the students and swiftly set off down the chamber after Harry, with Professor McGonagall, Snape, Moody, Karkaroff, Maxime and both Mr. Bagman and Crouch, hot on his heels, Saffron felt herself wanting to follow them. To go down to the chamber and take Harry out of there because he had no place whatsoever down there. He was fourteen and completely unprepared to take on whatever those tasks were for the champions.

One could argue that Harry was more ready than anyone given his experience in life-threatening situations but Saffron would have no problem in rejecting that argument. Just because he had succeeded those three times didn't mean there weren't any close shaves. It didn't mean he handled any of them the right away. It didn't mean he was prepared to go through such ordeals. All Harry had wanted was what Saffron wanted, a quiet year at Hogwarts but someone had taken that away from him and it made Saffron want to cry.

She turned to Hermione with a look of desperation etched upon her face. She needed to Hermione to rid her own face of the blank expression on it and to be the Hermione that she always was at that moment. As Saffron needed her words of wisdom and advice, luckily, Hermione seemed to sense this and regained her composure.

"He can't get out of it," Hermione answered the question that Saffron had on her mind but hadn't put into words yet. The confirmation that Harry was going to have to participate made her stomach churn and she wanted the weight of the early dinner they had had an hour ago to go as she was worried she would throw up all the way back to the Gryffindor common room. "It's a magically binding contract if he tries to get out of it... well, bad things will start to happen to him to put it lightly,"

"Why would he want to get out of it?" 

Saffron had forgotten that Ron was in their presence as the rest of the Gryffindors were already making their way out of the hall and Saffron only had eyes for Hermione given the circumstances. She almost wished Ron had left as right away Saffron could tell he was not on the same page as she and Hermione were. Ron had a very weird look on his face as if everything that had happened was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Excuse me," said Saffron tensely, turning around to look at Ron who's lips had contorted into either a smile or a grimace. She couldn't tell which it was.

Ron shrugged his shoulder with a glazed look over his eyes. Saffron tried to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was still processing what had just gone down but she realised that wasn't the case when he spoke. 

"I just think it's funny that he didn't tell us," said Ron, his lips then parted when he looked from Saffron to Hermione, who had just exchanged a glance between the two of them. "Or was it just me who he didn't tell,"

"What on earth are you going on about?" Saffron narrowed her eyes at Ron in disbelief.

"I'm going on about how it's obvious that the three of you have been keeping something from me," Ron retorted hotly with such venom that Hermione let out a small gasp. "I'm not stupid, something is up with you Saffron and they both know about it, and any time I ask either of them they say it's nothing. Well, it's not nothing and what Harry's just did proved that,"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Saffron scoffed. Perhaps she would have felt bad about keeping her Clairvoyance a secret from Ron but she only did it because the fewer people who knew the better. She was arguably closer with Lavender and Parvati than she was with Ron yet they didn't know. Hermione knew because they had been friends since their very first day and Harry knew because Saffron needed to tell him in order to convince him and Hermione to let her go after Pettigrew at the end of last year. It wasn't anything personal. "I get bad headaches, so do my siblings, that's all there is to it. And how does Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire have anything to do with that?"