Fox Tales: Year 4

“I wish he would just tell me how he did it,” Ron huffed the next morning at breakfast.

Courtney, who was the only one sitting with him at that moment, just blinked at him as he pouted and played with his food. She really didn’t know how to talk to him about this because she knew that Harry didn’t put his name in the Goblet. She already heard his side of the story the night before when she waited for him to be done with the meeting of the champions.

“I didn’t put my name in that cup. I don’t know who did either,” was his exact words.

Ron slammed his fork down as he looked up at the entrance, “he comes in here looking all high and mighty about it too.”

Courtney looked over at the door for herself and found Harry walking over to the table like he usually did. He was not walking or looking like he thought that he was better than anybody else because he was the youngest champion in the history of the tournament. Harry faintly smiled at Courtney as he passed by her and sat down the table a little ways with Kamrynn and Kelly joining him a few moments later. They eyed Courtney and Ron oddly before they minded their own business.

“Now look at that!” Ron practically yelled, “He’s got everyone on his side, even Kamrynn,” he said in almost a whisper.

Courtney looked over at him. He was looking sadly down at his plate. She felt sorry for him so she patted his hand that was lying on the table and then took it away.

“Ron,” she said as he looked up at her, “Look, how could Harry manipulate a Goblet at the age of fourteen or get another student to do that kind of advanced magic? Someone would’ve had to have made it believe that there were four schools and not three. Only a wizard with advanced magical talent could pull that off.”

He looked at her in shock, “I bet Hermione could figure it out,” he mumbled.

“I bet so, but do you really think that she would’ve done it for him based on how she reacted to the way Fred and George tried to trick it?” she raised an eyebrow up at him.

He sighed, “I guess you’re right,” and with that he picked up his fork and started eating.

After a long silence, the owl mail was arriving. A rather large, black owl landed in front of Ron, who smiled. Courtney was confused because she didn’t recognize the bird at all.

“It’s from my brother, Charlie!” Ron explained as he opened the letter and read, “he’s coming to Hogwarts very soon! He said he’ll write me before he arrives.”

“That’s awesome, Ron! But why is he coming?”

“He didn’t say,” he says as he looked over the note again, “I bet he’ll say in his next letter.”

“I bet,” Courtney then grabbed her bag, “We’re going to be late for class if you don’t hurry, Ronald.”

After the day passed by, Courtney realized that she was the only one speaking to Ron out of their whole group, not even Hermione was speaking to him. She turned her nose up at him when he passed by her. Courtney was not liking what she was seeing. So, before dinner, she caught up with Hermione to see exactly what was going on.

“Hermione!” she called.

Hermione turned around to see who was calling her, “What do you want, Flint?” she sneered.

“I want to know why you are ignoring Ron. He seems really upset about it.”

“Well, it must be obvious.”

Courtney sighed, “It is obvious, but why do it? Isn’t he you’re friend?”

“He’s being rather childish.”

“I know, but he’s just jealous. He’ll cool off in a few days, just give him time, okay?”

Hermione’s face softened a bit, “You know I’m usually the one who sounds so smart,” she smirked.

Courtney smirked back at her, “You can’t be the only one, Herms. Now, let’s go eat with a certain stubborn, red-head we all love.”

The rest of the week passed by in a flash. Courtney and Hermione were the only ones hanging out with Ron, whom seemed to be calming down a bit about the whole thing. Courtney also started dodging Fred, and Ron seemed to be a great help at that.

“You know you’ve got to break it off with him one day, and one day soon I advise,” Ron told her when he pulled her into an empty classroom to avoid Fred.

Courtney leaned against a desk, “I know, Ron. I’m just trying to think of the best way possible,” she bit her lip as Ron put a comforting arm around her.

They were then started by a slam that came from over by the door. Courtney and Ron crouched on the ground and crawled behind the teacher’s desk just when the door flew open.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” came girl’s voice that sound very familiar that was followed by a couple of giggles.

“It’ll be just fine, Alicia. No one will ever find out,” came Fred’s voice.

Ron looked over at Courtney, who stood up and ran out of the room with tears streaking her face. She stopped outside the room and leaned against the wall, trying to compose herself. She knew that she was going to break up with him sooner or later, but it still hurt to know that he was fooling around behind your back with another girl.

“She trusted you, Fred!” Courtney heard Ron scream inside the room, “Now, you’ve gone and screwed everything up! You had an amazing girl, you know that. People would kill to have a girl like Courtney. I know that I would’ve at this point in time last year. You know what? You’ve lost your brother’s trust as well.”

Before she knew it, there were arms pulling her in for a hug. She breathed in Ron’s smell as her crying slowly faded. When she finally pulled away from him, she looked over at the classroom. She could hear the giggling Alicia in the room with the guy she thought she could trust, a guy who didn’t even run out after her when he was caught.

“Let’s go, Ron,” she said weakly as she lead the way down the hall to meet Hermione in the library.