Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Fifty-Five

"Well, of course we knew you hadn't entered yourself," Hermione said when he'd finished telling us about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. "The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name!"

"But the question is, who did put it in?" I wondered. "Moody's right, Harry... I seriously doubt any student could have done it. They wouldn't have been able to fool the Goblet, much less get over Dumbledore's —"

"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.

Hermione and I shared a look.

"We saw him at breakfast," I said.

"Does he still think I entered myself?"

"Well... no, I don't think so... not really," said Hermione awkwardly.

"What's that supposed to mean, 'not really'?"

I sighed. "Isn't it obvious? He's jealous."

"Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"

"Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is."

"We know it's not your fault," I added, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously.

"Right," Hermione agreed. "Yes, we know you don't ask for it... but — well — you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous — he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many..."

"Great," said Harry bitterly. "Really great." He threw his hands up.

"Good Witch Morrigan," I muttered. "Don't get yourself worked up." I'd forgotten about Harry's simultaneously amusing and aggravating Dramatic Idiot Mode. "It's okay for Ron to be —"

"Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it... People gawping at my forehead everywhere I go..."

"Tell him yourself," Hermione and I said at the same time.

"That's the only way to make amends," Hermione added.

"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!" Harry said, so loudly that several owls in a nearby tree took flight in alarm. "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or — "

"That's not funny," I snapped. "That's not funny at all."

"Harry, I've been thinking," Hermione said. "You know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"

"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the —"

"Write to Sirius. You've got to tell him what's happened."

"Hermione's right," I said. "Remember, in his last letter? He asked you to keep him posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. It's almost as if he expected something like this to happen."

"I brought some parchment and a quill out with me — " Hermione began.

"Come off it," said Harry, looking around to check that we couldn't be overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted. "He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell him someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament —"

"He'd want you to tell him," I said. "He's going to find out anyway."

"How?"

"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet," said Hermione, very seriously. "This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the Daily Prophet about you competing... You're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, you know... and Sirius would rather hear it from you, I know he would."