Point of View

This chapter is for Ron. I love him dearly and he deserves some more attention.

* disclaimers refer to earlier chapters *

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Chapter four: Ron

"Tough luck, Ronniekins."

That was Fred, getting up and yawning. Ron stared at the cards in disbelief. He had just lost Exploding Snap. Again! For the what-? Thirteenth time that day?

"No, Fred, don't go yet, one more game, just one more."

Fred squinted at his youngest brother. "Ron, you said that last game. And the game before, and before that? Face it, you're not going to win."

Just then George came in through the portrait hole to Gryffindor Common Room, grinning broadly. "Hey, Fred, guess what -"

"George! Play Exploding Snap! Now!" Ron commanded.

George looked once at him and said immediately, "Alright, off to bed with you, Ron, one more game and then you'll have to be sent off to St Mungo's."

"But - it's only seven o'clock!" Ron protested "How am I supposed to sleep?"

"Well, go talk to Hermione or Harry or something. Exploding Snap is destroying you, little brother." And, right on cue, the cards on the table exploded and turned into a pile of smouldering ashes."

Poor Ron was left with nothing to do. His hands itched to get his wand and restore the deck of Exploding Snap Cards but George gathered up the ashes and took them away. He looked around the Common Room everyone seemed to be busy with something. Neville was rushing his late Potions homework, Seamus was flirting with Lavender and Hermione and Ginny were sitting there, talking with very serious expressions on their face. The only person who seemed sort of idle was... Harry.

Harry was sitting by himself in a corner looking dreamy (the girls disappeared because he wouldn't talk to them). That's sort of strange, thought Ron. Why would Harry be looking dreamy? That was when Ron realised how much he had been neglecting his best friend these past days. Feeling a little guilty, he went over to sit with Harry.

"Hey, Harry."

Harry didn't reply. Ron flapped a hand in his face. Still no response.

"Harry, HARRY!!! Hello?" then Ron pinched him.

"OUCH! What'd you do that for?" Harry, annoyed.

"Well, I was trying to get your attention, what else? Trying to get out of your daydream. I case you haven't realised, there ARE other people around!"

Harry stood up, hands on hips. "If you can't get someone's attention, then maybe it's because they DON'T WANT TO TALK!!!" and with that, he stalked out of the portrait hole.

Ron watched him go, mouth open in surprise. Was this Harry, his best friend? Why had he changed? Ron regretted even more that he had been so obsessed with beating his brothers, and being 'away'.

"Ron!" it was Hermione, calling him from the table she and Ginny sat at. He walked over to them, puzzled about Harry.

"Hey, what's up with Harry?" he asked. "Why's he so hostile?"

Hermione and Ginny exchanged looks. "It's because of that Cho Chang girl," Ginny said finally.

"Cho Chang? Wasn't she Pretty Boy Cedric Diggory's girlfriend?" Ron wanted to know, "the one Harry had a crush on?"

"Has," Hermione corrected him. "Harry's totally infatuated with her. If he knew..."

"Knew what?" Ron felt so ignorant.

Ginny sighed. "She's really evil, Ron. She looks so sweet, but in reality, she's with Malfoy and she plans to hurt Harry."

Ron was totally shocked. It was all too much for one day. "Now, hang on there, how do you know that she's planning to hurt Harry? Or that she's with Malfoy?"

"Lavender Brown told me that she saw her with Malfoy. Lavender Brown, Ron."

"Well, yes, I suppose she can be with Malfoy, though I think it's absolutely foul, but what about Harry? How do either of you know that she even thinks about Harry?"

Ginny relayed the day's events to him. Bumping into Cho, the Periodic Table challenge, the announcement of the ball -

("There's going to be a ball? How come I didn't know about it?" "That's because you were too busy with your precious card game.")

After hearing all the details, half an idea started forming in his head. (A/N: he is NOT an idiot.) "I agree with Hermione, Gin. We should tell Harry."

"But why?" Ginny asked. "What good will it do him. He wouldn't believe us."

"True," said Ron, "But we'd have planted the seed of doubt in his head. He'll probably hate us, though, and the worst way he can show that is by ignoring us - which is what he's doing now."

They argued some more, but finally Ginny gave in. "Alright, we'll tell him. But not today. Tomorrow. Or the day after. We'll do it then.