New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|51| Chapter Fifty-One

F I F T Y  O N E 

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"Are you feeling okay?"

Hermione left Saffron alone with her thoughts during the evening and night after Maya and Harry's names were spat out of the Goblet of Fire. She had enough awareness to see that Saffron needed time to decompress without stressing out about what was to come for her sister and one of her best friends over the coming year. It was a lot for her to digest, so she could only imagine how awful Saffron must have been feeling. 

The one thing that Saffron felt better about in the morning compared to the night before was that she was refreshed and had taken the insanity in. She didn't feel stiff or discombobulated and was ready to figure out how Maya and Harry ended up as Triwizard Champions.

In the case of Maya, it was a lot simpler than it was with Harry. As Maya either lied or was so messed up as to say she wasn't entering only to have a change of heart last minute. Saffron wasn't sure which it was but at this stage in their relationship, she wouldn't have put either past Maya. The only consistency with her was that she was inconsistent and Saffron had learned this long ago, so when she thought about it, she should have probably of seen this coming. But how do you anticipate such a drastic change? She didn't know and was going to approach Maya about it as soon as she saw her the next day.

With Harry, it was all a lot more complicated and she wasn't sure that many people existed that knew about why and how his name came out of the Goblet of Fire. She doubted any of those were people she knew but she wanted to hear from everyone she could to find out what they thought about it. 

By the time Hermione asked her how she was in the morning, she had letters wrote to Sirius and Sage, and to Remus, to see if they knew anything that could help them work out why this happened. The thoughts of the part of their story they had left out had slipped out of her mind as she could only allow herself to worry about Harry, not the past. 

"I'll be okay," Saffron smiled at Hermione, feeling certain that she would indeed be okay soon enough. She had gotten through a lot of awful situations before and knew she would be able to do so again. She held the letters up to Hermione to explain what she was doing. "I'm sending these to Sirius, Sage and Remus, to see what they think, but I left some space to add stuff when Maya and Harry have their say,"

"So you really didn't know she was entering?" Hermione asked Saffron, amazed that Maya had kept her decision to private.

Saffron nodded glumly. "None, she told us she wasn't entering,"

"I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the same person who entered Harry put her name in," said Hermione fairly.

"I would," responded Saffron in a firm, certain voice. "This is Maya we're talking about, it's a predictable thing for her to do looking back at it,"

"Are you upset about it?" Hermione asked carefully, feeling as though she knew the answer.

"Yes," admitted Saffron getting up from her bed and started to undress to get ready for the day ahead of her. "But at this point, I don't even care about how well me and Maya get on. I care more about the twins, I don't want them to see us fighting, so I'm just going to pretend to be okay with it,"

"That really is big of you," Hermione said to Saffron, impressed. "If only the same could be said about Ron... I'm sorry I didn't back you up last night, by the way, I was still so shocked and honestly didn't know what to say. Everything went so wrong much quicker than I expected,"

"Don't even get me started on him," sighed Saffron changing into a pair of jeans. She paused for a few seconds to get dressed properly and resumed speaking when she sat on her bed to tie her shoelaces. "That whole speel about Harry entering the tournament was ridiculous and Ron knows it, even if he doesn't want to admit it, I know he knows it,"

"Jealousy is a disease and it's infected," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. "He's clouded by his jealousy at all the attention Harry's been getting and is going to get thanks to this. Most people see him as Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived who protected the Philosopher's Stone, closed the Chamber of Secrets, and who freed the wrongly accused Sirius Black, now you can add the fact that he tricked Dumbledore's Age Line onto that list,"

"Exactly," Saffron said in agreement offering the very excited Dennis Creevey, who was likely waiting in the common room for Harry, a smile as she and Hermione left the common room. "And where does Ron fall in all of that? Right in the background, but so do we and we don't make a big deal about it. I don't know, maybe it's a boy thing..."

"I think it's a Ron thing more than anything," replied Hermione. "It's different for you, I'm guessing because you've always had bigger things to worry about than Ron and its's different for me because I don't have any siblings. But for Ron, he's had five older brothers. Bill, Charlie and Percy were all Prefects, did well academically, Charlie was great at Quidditch and so are Fred and George, who are ridiculously popular. Ron probably sees himself as Harry Potter's best friend, not Ron who's good at x, y and z,"

Saffron agreed with that wholeheartedly. She remembered as far back in first-year when she first met Olly and he referred to Ron as Harry's ginger friend. That perception evidently hadn't blurred in Ron's mind over the years.

"But you would think Ron might think about what someone like Neville feels like," said Saffron, intent not to make excuses for Ron. "And think about how Ron helped saved the stone, helped save me from the Chamber and even though he didn't know Scabbers was Peter, he did run after him and stop him, if he didn't do that we might never have captured him and freed Sirius,"

"I get that completely, but Ron doesn't," Hermione said as they walked down a flight of stairs leading to the entrance hall. Seeing it just down from them, it was crazy for Saffron to think about how just twenty-four hours ago they were there discussing who was going to be in the tournament and now things had escalated in the way that they did. "Because Harry was there through all of it. Most of the time, Harry did the majority of the work while we did those things and was credited for it by everyone else,"

"Well, you don't really help him," chuckled Saffron, trying to make some light of the situation. "What was that Lupin called you last year? Brightest witch of your age, or something like that,"

"You don't exactly help him either if you're going to play that game," countered Hermione, trying to debunk Saffron's point though Saffron could see the faint smile on her face. "I'm pretty sure you could get any boy in our year to go out with you, people never stop going on about how stunning you are,"

"Very untrue," Saffron rolled her eyes, knowing that Hermione was fabricating this to make her feel better about being similar to Ron in that respect. 

"Very true," insisted Hermione.

"Then how come I never hear anyone saying this?" Saffron arched an eyebrow at her in disbelief.

"Because they don't say it in front of you, obviously," said Hermione with honesty and just like Hermione a few seconds ago, Saffron couldn't help letting her lips curl into a small smile. "But anyway, all of us, or Harry and you, or Harry and me, or just Harry, have pushed him to this and clearly it's his last straw, or he wants us to think that's the case. That's not a worthy explanation on his behalf, but I think it's his truth,"

"Hopefully he'll come around sooner rather than later," said Saffron as they entered the Great Hall. 

Her eyes scanned it immediately and it didn't take her very long to spot out the person that she needed to talk to. With the two people that mattered to the most to Saffron. Exchanging a knowing look with Hermione, Saffron made her way over to the conversation that was already underway at the Ravenclaw table, not having the faintest idea as to how on earth Maya was going to justify her selection.