Jigsaw Puzzle

Tap, tap, tap, came a noise at the window in a small room with walls covered in posters of seven people in bright orange robes; a groan came from the other side of the room. Ron sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "An owl at this hour of the night?" he said groggily. He looked to the window and saw Pigwidgeon bobbing up and down outside of it, holding a letter. "I should have known," Ron sighed, going over and opening the window.

Pigwidgeon flew in, dropping the letter on Ron's head and zooming around and around excitedly, getting feathers everywhere. "Calm down, Pig!" Ron hissed at him, taking the letter off of his head and laying it on the bed. "You'll wake everyone else up!" He caught him and forced him into his cage, muttering "Stupid little feathery git."

Ron walked back over to his bed and picked up the letter; his heart skipped a beat when he recognized the near handwriting. He shook himself mentally. "It's just a letter from Hermione," he told himself. "It's no big deal. She writes me every summer." He tore it open and read it:

Dear Ron,

I hope you're having a nice summer. I am. I just try not to think about...the incidents of the end of this past school year. I'm very worried about Harry, though, and it's horrible thinking that he's already so troubled and now he's with his horrible aunt and uncle. You're his best friend. Maybe he'd feel a bit better if he talked to you about it. You should ask him when he visits you, which I'm sure he will.

"Sure he might feel better if he talked to someone, but I don't enjoy prying into other people's business, Hermione," Ron thought aloud. He then read on:

I visited Viktor in Bulgaria for a week...

Viktor. The name seemed to glare up at him from the parchment; to smirk at him. He glared back at it, a surge of anger coursing through him. The letter consisted of quite a bit more of Hermione's neat handwriting, but he crumpled up the parchment without reading any more and threw it in the trash. He then went over to the pile of his schoolbooks in the corner and rummaged through them until he had found a small fragment of parchment. It was the piece that Viktor Krum had signed for him. He crumpled it up and threw it into the trash along with Hermione's letter, wondering why he had wanted it. He then flopped on his bed, fuming; unable to go back to sleep.

"I hate Viktor Krum," Ron thought, glaring up at the ceiling.

"Really? You were a huge fan of him when he first arrived at Hogwarts, weren't you?" said a voice in his mind.

"Yes, but...well...It was different when I actually met him."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..."

"You don't know, do you?"

"I just know I hate him!"

"You didn't hat him until you saw him with Hermione at the ball."

"Well...It was just sort of strange, I guess, since he's really famous, and Hermione's my friend..."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure of what?"

"That Hermione's just a friend."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You've never thought that she might be more; might mean more to you than that?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why have you been thinking about her so much lately?"

"...I don't know."

It was true. He had been thinking about her often-almost every day, but she was just a friend...or was she...? Ron sighed. "I must be going insane," He said aloud to the ceiling. Pigwidgeon hooted sleepily from his cage.