Discovery

83.

Things sure got more exciting at Hogwarts, but not in the ways I had hoped. Lavender kept cornering me to ask about Ron, as if we were now the best of friends.

"I mean, I am his girlfriend!" she whined one night as I brushed my purple hair. "Someone should have told me that my Won-Won was in Hospital!"

Even though I tried to ignore her, she didn't get the hint. Eventually, the conversations shifted to the state of their relationship.

"I mean, it's getting pretty serious, right? Do you think it's getting serious?" she asked me as I brushed my teeth one morning.

"Maybe you should be talking to your boyfriend about these things," I said, spitting the toothpaste out into the sink.

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

I found this hard to believe, as Ron was always wide awake and eager to chat when Harry, Hermione, and I visited.

"I don't know, then." I shrugged, fixing the collar of my shirt.

"Is Hermione Granger still visiting him?" she demanded.

"Yeah, they're friends." I said hesitantly. "Of course she would visit him."

"Friends? Don't make me laugh," said Lavender scornfully. "She didn't talk to him for weeks after he started going out with me! But I suppose she wants to make up with him now he's all interesting. . . ."

"Interesting?" I repeated. "He's been poisoned, not made Captain of the Quidditch team, you insensitive idiot!"

"I didn't mean interesting..." she stuttered. "I just—"

"I've got to get going," I muttered as I stormed out of the room.

***

The Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff Quidditch match arrived in no time. I wasn't really in the mood for Quidditch, but I still went to support Harry.

"And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," said a dreamy voice, echoing over the grounds. "He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them — oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle, Ginny took it from him, I do like her, she's very nice. . . ."

"Who's commentating?" I asked Hermione. "Is that Luna Lovegood?"

Hermione nodded, stifling her laughs. I shrugged. It couldn't be worse than Lee Jordan's commentary...

". . . but now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from her, I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble — no,
Buggins —"

"It's Cadwallader!" said Professor McGonagall loudly from beside Luna.

The crowd laughed.

Moments later, Cadwallader scored. I watched as McLaggen (who had subbed in for Ron as Keeper) had been shouting criticism at Ginny for allowing the Quaffle out of her possession.

"He's quite the character," I frowned, watching McLaggen and Harry shout at each other from the clouds. "What exactly did you see in him, Hermione?"