Harry sighed explosively. "I'm not planning anything, Ron," he said slowly. Except having Tonks go to the Yule Ball as me. But frankly, he didn't think Ron had earned the sharing of that secret. "I didn't react as badly as I could have in public on Halloween because I knew my parents were going to come to the school and do everything they could to make sure I didn't have to participate in the Tournament. And no matter how loud I was, other people wouldn't have believed me anyway."
"And what you did in the First Task?"
"I had to show up and do something. No rules said it had to be good."
"And the Yule Ball?"
Harry shrugged. "It's not like it's as life-threatening as the First Task. And it's also something they only added recently." If it hadn't been, he knew, Hermione would have found it during the research she did on the Triwizard Tournament in the weeks leading up to the First Task. "I don't have to make a good impression there, either."
Ron shut his eyes. "I just think—you're going to move on and leave me behind," he whispered.
"We're in the same year, Ron! How could I do that?"
"Not that way. I just mean that I think—I keep thinking that you're going to start being a Malfoy, and you'll start laughing at me the way Draco does and despising me for being a Weasley. And then when you acted so calm about the Tournament and your family showed up right away, I was sure that you had planned something with them and just didn't want to tell me."
Well, another reason I could be sort of calm about the Tournament was that it just doesn't matter much next to knowing I have a Horcrux in my head.
But if Ron hadn't earned being told about Tonks and the Yule Ball, he definitely hadn't earned being told about that. Harry shook his head. "It's nothing like that. I just was more confident because I know I have a family at my back."
"Even if they're that family?"
Harry firmed his jaw. "Yes. I know they're not the nicest people, Ron. Do I ever know that," he added, thinking about Father's Death Eater days. "And I wouldn't support them if Draco tried to tease you or hex you, or if Father got in a fight with your father again. But I know I can count on them to support me, and that's really nice, especially when I knew so many people in school would turn against me." He stared at Ron again. "I didn't think you would."
Ron's neck and face and ears turned into one huge, hot blush again. "'M sorry," he mumbled. "I just, I'm jealous of the way you are with Draco, you know?"
"Why, though? You've got plenty of brothers."
"But none of them support me like that." Ron shook his head. "Maybe it would be different if I had a twin like Fred and George, but I don't. And then I thought my best friend was giving up on me, too, and…"
Harry sighed. "Look, Ron, I could have talked to you if I'd known you felt like that. As it was, I thought you were jealous of me for getting the glory of the Goblet of Fire and I was angry because you should know I wouldn't want that."
"Yeah. Yeah, I did know, I reckon. But when I thought it was some kind of Malfoy thing…"
"No." Harry studied him for a second. "And I'm glad that you said sorry. But I don't feel like spending much time around you right at the moment, okay? We'll try sitting together in class again and seeing how it goes."
Ron gave him a huge, relieved smile, which Harry supposed meant Ron hadn't expected even that much of a chance. "Right. Oh! I wanted to ask you something. Are you going to take Hermione to the Yule Ball?"
"Why would I?"
Harry must have said that blankly enough for Ron to see how far it was from his thoughts. He turned red again, just when he was starting to look normal, and coughed. "Um, no reason," he said, and sped away towards Gryffindor Tower.
Harry rolled his eyes and followed. He actually didn't know if Hermione was planning to go at all, or who she was going to take if she did. He didn't see how it was any of his business.
He didn't want to date her, and that was that.
....
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