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I let my thoughts drift towards the surreality of the situation, wondering how I got here, what my parents were doing, what was going to happen with me here.
I think of the impostor Moody and the best way to thwart him. I wonder if I'll be able to convince Harry not to let Cedric take the Cup.
Cedric was, sadly, merely a nuisance to Voldemort, so it won't change anything on that front.
It'll be a damn sight better for Cedric himself, of course, not to mention eliminating Amos Diggory's sorrow, and maybe Cho Chang's.
What, if anything, should I do about Harry's thing for Cho, anyway? JK Rowling went to pretty silly lengths to show that Ginny is supposedly better for him than Cho, but that doesn't really matter here.
I think about Hermione, and I wonder how she would take it if she found out about me. How would she react?
She would probably think I'm insane, though I might convince her to let me take Veritaserum.
But she would probably still disbelieve me, especially if I tell her she ended up with Ron. Who in their right mind would see that coming?
A light touch on my shoulder jolts me from my ruminations, and I realize the common room is nearly empty.
"You coming up to bed, mate?" Harry asks. "Thought you were asleep there for a moment."
"Yeah, just thinking," I say.
"Yeah, fire's good for that," he says, turning his own gaze to it for a few moments. Then he shakes his head as if to clear it. "Anyway, just letting you know that we're getting ready to turn in."
"Thanks, be there in a minute."
~~~~~~
In the morning I'm pleasantly surprised to find the clothes in my backpack are freshly laundered, so I can take a shower and put on clean boxers.
I'm surprised at how much brighter the day seems after I find out I don't have to wear dirty underwear.
I pull Ron aside on the way to breakfast. "Hey, do you know how much a new set of robes are?"
He looks surprised at first, then frowns. "I wouldn't know," he says a bit testily, then turns glum.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Usually when somebody asks me about clothes...well, you know. Mine are all hand-me-downs." Then his eyes light up.
"Hey, I could owl Mum and get the next size up from Bill's closet! I probably won't get those until next year. Well, that is, if you wouldn't mind."
I look away, touched by the gesture. Maybe I was unfair to Ron before, even though he just blasted through several emotions in the matter of five seconds.
"That'd be great, but couldn't you use them? I mean, you said to yourself, your other two sets are smaller than the ones you've got now."
He shrugs. "I don't mind. You can just borrow them until you get your own, if you want. Any idea how you're going to pull that off?"
"I asked Dumbledore and McGonagall, and they said sometimes teachers take on assistants. I figure that wouldn't be so bad until the Tournament starts. They said the Ministry might take on student helpers for that."
"That'd be wicked! We should try to do that together!" There he goes again, forgetting the internal volume button.
"Making plans without us already?" Hermione stops and turns with Harry towards us, eyebrow raised.
"Nah, not really," Ron says, in a complete failure of an attempt to be nonchalant.
"Come on, let's hear it then," Hermione says, a bit of her bossiness coming out.
"It's nothing, really," Ron answers, fairly embarrassed.
"We were just talking about getting a part-time job," I say in an attempt to save Ron, but instead he looks at me with a startled, betrayed look.
"What about classes?"
Ron gives me a pleading look, so I shrug. "We'll keep up."
Hermione puts on a look I would later identify as her expression of insatiable curiosity. "And what would this job be?"
"Well..." Ron must have recognized that look, because he sighs and lets his shoulders droop in defeat. "He said that Dumbledore said that the Ministry might hire some student helpers for the Tournament..."
"That'd be brilliant!" Harry exclaims.
"Yeah, we should all do it, I'd love to—what?" Hermione says, stopping at Ron's scowl which turns in my direction. He continues to scowl, obviously waiting for me to explain.
I sigh. "Look, don't take this the wrong way, it might be fun to do it together, but I'm not even sure there will be any jobs like that, anyway. So if there aren't that many jobs, I...well, Ron and I...we could really use the money..."
The other two flush in embarrassment. "Oh...sorry..." Hermione says.
I shrug. "It's no big deal. Maybe Dumbledore will convince the Ministry to find enough for all of us."
"Look, I can ask Dumbledore if I can get into Gring—"
"No, Harry...you know I won't let you do that," Ron says sternly.
"But you know I don't care about—"
"Harry," I say. "I appreciate the offer, but it wouldn't feel right. Money gets between friends all the time. I'd feel like I'd have to pay you back..."
"But you wouldn't need to."
"Exactly!" I say. "Even without loans and such, money drives people apart, Ron knows that, and I won't have it." I give a tug at Neville's robes.
"Borrowing something is different, and I'm grateful you guys are hooking me up with books and robes and such. I already feel like I owe you big time for that. But money is a different thing altogether."
The four of us walk to the Great Hall in an uncomfortable silence after that and begin eating.
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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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