OVER THE NEXT couple of days, the group was tense. harry was trying to figure out what the first task would be and stressing about the entire tournament itself. plus, ron being angry with him didnt help. he tried to explain to him several times how he didn't put his name in, but ron wouldn't listen.
the rest of the group also had a tough task. they were trying not to pick sides, but it almost seemed as if they had to. delilah was probably placed with the most difficult decision; harry or ron? harry was her best friend, but ron was her boyfriend. she tried to stay neutral, but it proved to be tough. especially with ron by her side everyday.
everyone else just seemed to be in the middle. hermione and josephine talked to both of them on a regular basis, but tended to avoid them all together when they were in the same room.
the only person who had picked a side was willow. of course she didn't want to be mad at ron, they were friends after all, but she couldn't help but be angry with him. everyone else knew that harry didn't put his own name in, why couldn't he accept it as well?
one afternoon, harry and willow sat by the lake watching neville look at the plants that were in the water. harry had taken to hanging out with neville, which truthfully he wasn't too upset about.
"amazing," neville said looking at the plant he had picked up seconds before. "amazing!"
"neville, you're doing it again." normally, harry wouldn't have been so bothered by this, but the recent events had just gotten him very irritable. he was flipping through a book that neville had in his bag. "magical water plants of the highland lochs?"
"moody gave it to me," neville said, still playing with the plant in his hand. "that day we had tea."
harry noticed that he started waving at someone behind them. he turned around and saw ron, hermione, delilah, and ginny walking towards him. hermione seemed to whispering very angrily at ron. harry looked over at willow, who just gave him a shrug.
hermione walked up to harry as she started to talk. "ronald would like me to tell you that seamus told him... that dean was told by parvati that hagrid is looking for you."
"is that right?" harry said clearly annoyed. he stood next to willow, who stood a little behind him, not really wanting to be a part of whatever this was. "well-- what?" he was very confused on what had just been said.
"uh," hermione said as she turned to walk back to ron. they whispered a few sentences to each other before she turned back around and walked back to harry. "dean was told by parvati that- please don't ask me to say it again. hagrid's looking for you."
