Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 37 ⚡️

The news that Ron had been poisoned spread quickly the following day just as Vega had expected, but it did not cause the sensation that Katie's attack had done. People seemed to think that it might have been an accident, given that he had been in the Potions master's room at the time, and that as he had been given an antidote immediately there was no real harm done.

In fact, the Gryffindors were generally much more interested in the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, for many of them wanted to see Zacharias Smith, who played Chaser on the Hufflepuff team, punished soundly for his commentary during the opening match against Slytherin, and Vega was – frankly – ready for it.

But her biggest trouble came from none other than her own Captain – for Harry had never been less interested in Quidditch; he was rapidly becoming obsessed with Draco Malfoy. And there was nothing that Vega could do to pull him away from it.

Still checking the Marauder's Map whenever he got a chance, Harry sometimes made detours to wherever Malfoy happened to be, but had not yet detected him doing anything out of the ordinary. And still there were those inexplicable times when Malfoy simply vanished from the map.

"Listen, let's get this match over and then deal with Malfoy," Vega warned him. "We don't even have time to breathe these days so don't make me lose breath by yelling at you, Harry,"

It was true that they didn't have much free time, especially since that with Quidditch practice, homework, the pair of them were being dogged wherever he went by Cormac McLaggen and Lavender Brown – it was hard to say who was more annoying.

McLaggen kept up a constant stream of hints that he would make a better permanent Keeper for the team than Ron, and that now that Vega and Harry were seeing him play regularly, they would surely come around to this way of thinking too.

On the other hand, McLaggen was also keen to criticise the other players and provide Harry with detailed training schemes, so that more than once Harry was forced to remind him who was Captain, along with trying to make him stick to the hoops.

"Tell him to stop following any of the girls, especially me," Vega said crossly to Harry one evening. "We're the Chasers – not him! I've had enough with him!"

Meanwhile, Lavender kept sidling up to Vega and Harry – as they were always together – to discuss Ron, which the pair of them found almost more wearing than McLaggen's Quidditch lectures.

At first, Lavender had been very annoyed that nobody had thought to tell her that Ron was in the hospital wing – "I mean, I am his girlfriend!" – but unfortunately, she had now decided to forgive Vega and Harry this lapse of memory and was keen to have lots of in-depth chats with them about Ron's feelings, a most uncomfortable experience that they would have happily forgone.

"Look, why don't you talk to Ron about all this?" Harry asked, after a particularly long interrogation from Lavender that took in everything from precisely what Ron had said about her new drew robes to whether or not Harry thought that Ron considered his relationship with Lavender to be 'serious'.

"Well, I would, but he's always asleep when I go and see him!" Lavender responded fretfully.

"Hm?" Vega asked, sharing a surprised look with Harry. "Is he?"

For Vega and Harry had found Ron perfectly alert every time they had been up to the Hospital Wing, both highly interested in the news of Dumbledore and Snape's row and keen abuse McLaggen as much as possible. But reality was dawning upon Vega.

"Is Hermione Granger still visiting him?" Lavender demanded suddenly.

"Yeah, I think so," Harry said uncomfortably. "Well, they're friends, aren't they?"