"We should get a اقدام on, آپ know...ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."
Hermione let out a sputter of indignation.
"A pair of...what, excuse me?"
"Well -- آپ know," کہا Ron, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with -- with Eloise Midgen, say."
"Her acne's loads better lately -- and she's really nice!"
"Her nose is off-center," کہا Ron.
"Oh I see," Hermione said, bristling. "So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"
"Er -- yeah, that sounds about right," کہا Ron.
"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off towards the girls' staircase without another word.
"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" کہا Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you."
But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light.
"Hermione, Neville's right -- آپ are a girl...."
"Oh well spotted," she کہا acidly.
"Well -- آپ can come with one of us!"
"No, I can't," snapped Hermione.
"Oh come on," he کہا impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has..."
"I can't come with you," کہا Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone."
"No, you're not!" کہا Ron. "You just کہا that to get rid of Neville!"
"Oh did I?" کہا Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken آپ three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"
"Hermione," کہا Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth..."
"What about them?" she said.
"Well, they're different...I've just noticed...."
"Of course they are -- did آپ expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?"
"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you....They're all...straight and -- and normal sized."
Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously, and Harry noticed it too; It was a very different smile from the one he remembered.
"It is all to 'eavy, this 'Ogwarts food," they heard her saying grumpily as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening (Ron skulking behind Harry, keen not to be spotted سے طرف کی Fleur). "I will not fit into my dress robes!"
"Oooh there's a tragedy," Hermione snapped as Fleur went out into the entrance hall. "She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"
"Hermione -- who are آپ going to the ball with?" کہا Ron.
He kept springing this سوال on her, hoping to startle her into a response سے طرف کی asking it when she least expected it.
"Padma's going to meet آپ in the entrance hall," she added to Ron.
"Right," کہا Ron, looking around. "Where's Hermione?"
"Where is Hermione?" he کہا again.
Parvati seemed to be enjoying herself; she was beaming around at everybody, steering Harry so forcefully that he felt as though he were a دکھائیں dog she was putting through its paces. He caught sight of Ron and Padma as he neared the سب, سب سے اوپر table. Ron was watching Hermione pass with narrowed eyes.
"How's it going?" Harry asked Ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of butterbeer.
Ron didn't answer. He was glaring at Hermione and Krum, who were dancing nearby.
Hermione came over and sat down in Parvati's empty chair. She was a bit گلابی in the face from dancing.
"Hi," کہا Harry. Ron didn't say anything.
"It's hot, isn't it?" کہا Hermione, fanning herself with her hand.
"Viktor's just gone to get some drinks."
Ron gave her a withering look. "Viktor?" he said. "Hasn't he asked آپ to call him Vicky yet?"
"If آپ don't know," کہا Hermione scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you."
Hermione stared at him, then at Harry, who shrugged.
"Ron, what --?"
"He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron. "He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! آپ -- you're --" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"
Hermione's mouth fell open.
"Don't be so stupid!" she کہا after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly -- who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"
Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked آپ to come with him while آپ were both in the library?"
"Yes, he did," کہا Hermione, the گلابی patches on her cheeks glowing مزید brightly. "So what?"
"What happened -- trying to get him to شامل میں SPEW were you?"
"No, I wasn't! If آپ really want to know, he -- he کہا he'd been coming up to the لائبریری every دن to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!"
"Yeah, well -- that's his story," کہا Ron nastily.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who آپ hang around with....He's just trying to get closer to Harry -- get inside information on him -- یا get near enough to jinx him --"
Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke, her voice quivered.
"For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one -"
Ron changed tack at the speed of light.
"Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I suppose you've been been putting your heads together during those cozy little لائبریری sessions --"
"I'd never help him work out that egg!" کہا Hermione, looking outraged. "Never. How could آپ say something like that -- I want Harry to win the tournament, Harry knows that, don't you, Harry?"
"You've got a funny way of دکھانا it," sneered Ron.
"This whole tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making دوستوں with them!" کہا Hermione hotly.
"No it isn't," shouted Ron. "It's about winning!"
People were starting to stare at them.
"Ron," کہا Harry quietly, "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum --"
But Ron ignored Harry too.
"Why don't آپ go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where آپ are," کہا Ron.
"Don't call him Vicky!"
Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face.
He climed into the common room and found Ron and Hermione having a blazing row. Standing ten feet apart, they were bellowing at each other, each scarlet in the face.
"Well, if آپ don't like it, آپ know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of it's elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger.
"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"
"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"
Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry.
"Well," he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well -- that just proves -- completely missed the point --"
"He's really nice, آپ know," she said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."
Ron کہا nothing. He hadn't mentioned Viktor Krum since the ball, but Harry had found a miniature arm under his بستر on Boxing Day, which looked very much as though it had been snapped off a small model figure wearing Bulgaria Quidditch robes.
Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek, then کہا to Ron, "And you, too -- آپ 'elped --"
"Yeah," کہا Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "Yeah, a bit --" Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious.
Ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to jog Ron back to his senses.
"She's a Veela!" he کہا hoarsely to Harry.
"Of course she isn't!" کہا Hermione tartly. "I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!"
"No, it's just...how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?"
Hermione blushed scarlet as she کہا this, and determinedly avoided Ron's eyes.
"What?" کہا Ron, dropping his pestle with a loud clunk.
"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake," Hermione muttered. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to --"
"And what did آپ say?" کہا Ron, who had picked up his pestle and was grinding it on the desk, a good six inches from his bowl, because he was looking at Hermione.
"And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, going so red now that Harry could almost feel the heat coming from her, "but how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there...or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak; maybe she sneaked into the grounds to watch the سیکنڈ task...."
"And what did آپ say?" Ron repeated, pounding his pestle down so hard that it dented the desk.
"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope" کہا Fleur, as she reached him, holding our her hand. "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere , to improve my Eenglish."
"It's very good already," کہا Ron in a strangled sort of voice.
Fleur smiled at him; Hermione scowled.
Order of the Phoenix Excerpts
"...And it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly آپ think I am too," Hermione added as an afterthought.
"But I don't think you're ugly," کہا Harry, bemused.
Hermione laughed.
"Harry, you're worse than Ron.... Well, no, you're not," she sighed, as Ron himself came stumping into the Hall splattered with mud and looking grumpy.
"You should write a book," Ron told Hermione as he cut up his potatoes, "translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them."
"Oh," کہا Ron, his smile fading slightly. "Are آپ that bad at kissing?"
"Dunno," کہا Harry, who hadn't considered this, and immediately felt rather worried. "Maybe I am."
"Of course you're not," کہا Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.
"How do آپ know?" کہا Ron in a sharp voice.
On their way downstairs they met Hermione. "Thanks for the book, Harry!" she کہا happily. "I've been wanting that New Theory of Numerology for ages! And that perfume is really unusual, Ron." [Perfume? Isn't that the kind of thing a boyfriend would give to his girlfriend?]
"Who're آپ writing the novel to anyway?" Ron asked Hermione, trying to read the bit of parchment now trailing on the floor. Hermione hitched it up out of sight.
"Viktor."
"Krum?"
"How many other Viktors do we know?"
Ron کہا nothing, but looked disgruntled. They sat in silence for another twenty minutes, Ron finishing his Transfiguration essay with many snorts of impatience, rolling in up carefully and sealing it, and Harry staring into the fire, wishing مزید than anything that Sirius's head would appear there and give him some advice about girls. But the آگ کے, آگ merely crackled lower and lower, until the red-hot embers crumbled into ash and, looking around, Harry saw that they were, yet again, the last in the common room.
"Well, 'night," کہا Hermione, yawning widely, and she set off up the girls' staircase.
"What does she see in Krum?" Ron demanded as he and Harry climbed the boys' stairs.
"Well," کہا Harry, considering the matter, "I s'pose he's older, isn't he...and he's an international Quidditch player...."
"Yeah, but apart from that," کہا Ron, sounding aggravated. "I mean he's a grouchy git, isn't he?"
"Ooooh, Dijon?" کہا Hermione excitedly. "I've been there on holiday, did آپ see --?"
She fell silent at the look on Ron's face.
"Don't let Ron see what's on those Slytherin's badges," she whispered urgently.
Harry looked questioningly at her, but she shook her head warningly; Ron had just ambled over to them, looking lost and desparate.
"Good luck, Ron," کہا Hermione, standing on tiptoe and kissing him on the cheek. "And you, Harry --"
Ron seemed to come to himself slightly as they walked back across the Great Hall. He touched the spot on his face where Hermione had kissed him, looking puzzled, as though he was not quite sure what had just happened.
"...you can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always کہا --"
Ron looked around at her so fast he appeared to crick his neck; rubbing it, he said, "Yeah? What did Vicky say?"
"Ho ho," کہا Hermione in a bored voice. "He کہا Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final سال at Durmstrang."
Ron was looking at Hermione suspiciously.
"You're not still in contact with him are you?"
"So what if I am?" کہا Hermione coolly, though her face was a little pink. "I can have a pen pal if I --"
"He didn't only want to be your pen pal," کہا Ron accusingly.
Hermione shook her head exasperatedly and ignored Ron, who was continuing to watch her.
