An Unexpected Ally

A Stack of Toast

"Er, sorry, what?" He leaned closer so that he could hear properly. Draco was in complete disbelief. Not only had he not heard what he had said, he hadn't even noticed that he was speaking to him at all. He quickly cut his losses and began searching for another, easier target.

"Never you mind, Potter." Draco ignored him and surveyed the class, finding himself a new student to torment who was right in front of him. "Psst. Hey, Weasley!" He whispered. Immediately, Draco earned a more fruitful response as the ginger boy whirled around to glare menacingly at Draco.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron growled.

"Nothing, nothing." Draco put his hands up in defence. "Just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm... fine?" Ron was clearly confused.

"I mean, you must be lonely now that Potter and that mudblood have abandoned you." Draco continued with a shit-eating grin, the drone of mindless chatter around them allowing his words to blend into many different conversations as Draco watched the expression of Ron's face quickly give way to anger and possibly jealousy.

"What's it to you, Malfoy? And Hermione still talks to me, idiot." He chuckled to himself as he nudged Seamus, who also laughed, though appearing confused as to why he was doing so.

"We'll see how long that lasts." Draco finished ominously, leaving Ron to his own thoughts.

Harry and Hermione were completely oblivious to this, having chosen to focus on the spell that they were learning instead.

"What was Malfoy saying to you?" Hermione asked Harry worriedly.

"I haven't the foggiest idea." He said honestly. "He tends to mumble."

"I hope he doesn't antagonise Ron too much." Hermione said, only to tilt her head and correct herself. "Then again a little antagonising isn't entirely undeserved."

"That reminds me, why is he angry at me again?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, Harry, isn't it obvious? He's jealous." Hermione said despairingly.

"Well, maybe you can be his partner next time if it doesn't bother you." Harry said reasonably.

"I meant concerning the tournament, silly." Hermione smiled. "I want to be your partner for class." She added the last two words hastily to the end of her sentence. "Besides, you're considerably less annoying."

"Wow, thanks Hermione." He responded sarcastically.

"You're welcome, Harry." She said with an overly-sweet smile. Unknown to them, Ron was watching the two interact with a scowl, having assumed Hermione would take his side. If he was honest with himself, it annoyed him that she was no longer working with him as she was wasn't helping him with the spellwork. Instead, her and Harry were having a blast together in charms while he was on edge every single moment in case his partner Seamus fell into his explosive tendencies. He watched Hermione perform the banishing charm perfectly with a slight envy- okay, a lot of envy. Between her, Ginny and Colin Creevey, they could start a Harry Potter Fan Club. In fact, Ron wouldn't be surprised if there already was one. He would be angry, though.

'Whatever, I don't care anyway.' He thought irritably, feeling jealousy surge up inside him.

Unfortunately, his distraction was poorly timed as Seamus, having grown irritated with his pillow's lack of movement, had flicked his wand angrily towards it, only causing the pillow to burst into flame and simultaneously be launched towards Ron's unlucky backside, which consequently erupted with fire as he shrieked, quickly removing the problem from his body.

The problem turned out to be his flaming pants as they lay ablaze in the centre of the Charms classroom. As Ron yelped, Professor Flitwick calmly doused the pants in water, putting out the fire. The damage was already done, however, as almost the entire Slytherin side of the class were laughing the hardest they had so far this year at Ron's unfortunate fate. Most of the Gryffindors contained themselves out of house unity, but some chuckles escaped at the boy's pants catching fire. Normally his robes would have taken the impact, but he had removed them for improved mobility.