The Bet

"The Bet--Part Fourteen--A Plot Discovered"

Late that night, five Gryffindor boys sat discussing the recent rash of embarrassments that had some how managed to destroy the reputations of four of them.

"I don't get it! Why is bad stuff happening to us all of the sudden?" Harry asked angrily.

Earlier that day, Harry had tried to apologize to Cho, insisting that he had nothing to do with the story, but she wouldn't listen. The entire Ravenclaw house wasn't speaking to him.

Ron cast a glance at Neville. "Uh, nothing has happened to Seamus," he pointed out.

"Okay, let's think about this," Dean insisted.

"Yeah, look at the facts," Seamus chirped in.

"Okay, first we make a bet. Then for a long time, Seamus was winning."

"Right," Seamus nodded.

"But then all of the sudden, just when I got involved, none of the girls would sleep with any us, except Neville. Even Seamus had trouble keeping his numbers up," Harry continued.

"Yeah."

"And some how, Neville miraculously pulled into a 22 girl lead."

Neville looked away to hide the expression on his face.

"So the problem has something to do with Neville."

"Yeah. What are you hiding from us?" Dean asked pointedly.

"Nothing."

Harry rolled his eyes. "So then, all of the sudden, bad things start happening to us."

"Nothing bad has happened to me," Seamus pointed out.

"I think that's important, too," Dean added.

"Okay," Harry said. "So bad things happened to those of us who slept with girls. But Seamus, who was sleeping with guys...nothing."

"That's not entirely true, I mean, suddenly they stopped," Seamus said.

"Okay, but still, nothing bad has happened to you. So...it sounds to me like the girls are trying to get back at us for sleeping with them and then not talking to them. Do you think they know about the bet?"

"NO!" Ron exclaimed, a little bit too quickly.

"Ron, do you know something you're not telling us?"

Ron suddenly became very interested in a spot on the floor and Neville buried his face in his pillow.

"They know something!"

Dean and Seamus jumped on Ron and dragged him to the floor. Dean sat on his chest to keep him from moving and Seamus threatened to cast a tickling charm on him. Harry pulled Neville to the ground, and pointed his wand at Neville's neck.

"Spill it," Harry ordered.

Under these threats, Neville and Ron told all they knew about the girls' plot. Harry, Dean, and Seamus looked agape, totally in shock.

"That's...they...so..." Harry stammered, then looked down.

"So they plotted all these revenges against us?"

"Yeah, they picked out the most embarrassing thing for each of us, and used it against us. That's why they tied up Neville in Snape's room," Ron sighed.

"So that's how the article ended up in the Daily Prophet?" Harry shouted.

"Yeah."

"So, 'the source' was Hermione?"

"Yes."

Harry started to run for the door.

"Stop," Seamus said grabbing him.

"Don't stop me, I'm gonna go Avada Kedavra her."

"Do you really wanna end up in Azkaban?"

"No."

"Then calm down. You can't kill her."

"Fine, we should get revenge on them."

"ENOUGH WITH THE STUPID REVENGE PLOTS!!!!" Ron screamed.

"What?" Harry turned to him blankly.

"Enough already! I'm tired of all this plotting and betting, and secret alliances, and all this shit."

"So you just want to let Lavender and Hermione get away with throwing you out naked in front of Hagrid and his class?" Harry asked.

"No, but...we kinda deserved it, guys. I mean, we did sleep with them and never talk to them again. It had to hurt their feelings," Ron whispered.

"Since when do you care about their feelings?" Harry scoffed.

Ron mumbled something under his breath.

"What?"

"I--I still love Hermione. Okay? I know it's crazy after what she did to me, but...damn it, I still love her."

"So you're gonna sacrifice your dignity just because you love her?"

Ron laughed. "I'm not sacrificing anything. It's not like she'll forgive me for what I did anyway. I just don't want to do anything else to hurt her. Finding out she was all just a part of a bet really hurt her, I bet."

"I want REVENGE," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Please, Harry, don't."

"Uh, guys," Dean jumped in, trying to change the subject. "What are we gonna do about the bet?"

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked.

"Well, Neville was cheating. His numbers can't count."

Neville started to protest but realized they were right.

"Fine, so Neville's out. Seamus is winning," Harry said hastily. He wasn't going to be distracted so easily.

"But none of the girls will sleep with us now, and hardly any of the guys will," Dean pointed out.

"So what do you want to do? Call it off?"

"No," Dean said. "I was just wondering what we could do."

"Keep trying, and if no one gets anymore, Seamus wins."

"Okay, fine, whatever."

"Good, now are we done here? I've got an ex-best friend to go kill."

They let Harry go, but Ron followed him all the way to the girls' dorm room. They knocked and were told to come in. They opened the door to find Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati sitting on their beds giggling.

"Oh, it's you," Hermione said.

"Yeah, it's me," Harry growled.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked.

Harry slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. As he raised it, Hermione's eyes grew wide with fright.