Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

sorry.’
    Laughing, Harry broke free of the rest of the team and hugged Ginny, but let go very quickly. Avoiding her gaze, he clapped a cheering Ron on the back instead as, all enmity forgotten, the Gryffindor team left the pitch arm in arm, punching the air and waving to their supporters.
    The atmosphere in the changing room was jubilant.
    ‘Party up in the common room, Seamus said!’ yelled Dean exuberantly. ‘C’mon, Ginny, Demelza!’
    Ron and Harry were the last two in the changing room. They were just about to leave when Hermione entered. She was twisting her Gryffindor scarf in her hands and looked upset but determined.
    ‘I want a word with you, Harry.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You shouldn’t have done it. You heard Slughorn, it’s illegal.’
    ‘What are you going to do, turn us in?’ demanded Ron.
    ‘What are you two talking about?’ asked Harry, turning away to hang up his robes so that neither of them would see him grinning.
    ‘You know perfectly well what we’re talking about!’ said Hermione shrilly. ‘You spiked Ron’s juice with lucky potion at breakfast! Felix Felicis!’
    ‘No I didn’t,’ said Harry, turning back to face them both.
    ‘Yes you did, Harry, and that’s why everything went right, there were Slytherin players missing and Ron saved everything!’
    ‘I didn’t put it in!’ said Harry, now grinning broadly. He slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket and drew out the tiny bottle that Hermione had seen in his hand that morning. It was full of golden potion and the cork was still tightly sealed with wax. ‘I wanted Ron to think I’d done it, so I faked it when I knew you were looking.’ He looked at Ron. ‘You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself.’
    He pocketed the potion again.
    ‘There really wasn’t anything in my pumpkin juice?’ Ron said, astounded. ‘But the weather’s good … and Vaisey couldn’t play … I honestly haven’t been given lucky potion?’
    Harry shook his head. Ron gaped at him for a moment, then rounded on Hermione, imitating her voice.
    ‘ You added Felix Felicis to Ron’s juice this morning, that’s why he saved everything! See! I can save goals without help, Hermione!’
    ‘I never said you couldn’t – Ron, you thought you’d been given it, too!’
    But Ron had already strode past her out of the door with his broomstick over his shoulder.
    ‘Er,’ said Harry into the sudden silence; he had not expected his plan to backfire like this, ‘shall … shall we go up to the party, then?’
    ‘You go!’ said Hermione, blinking back tears. ‘I’m sick of Ron at the moment, I don’t know what I’m supposed to have done …’
    And she stormed out of the changing room, too.
    Harry walked slowly back up the grounds towards the castle through the crowd, many of whom shouted congratulations at him, but he felt a great sense of let-down; he had been sure that if Ron won the match, he and Hermione would be friends again immediately. He did not see how he could possibly explain to Hermione that what she had done to offend Ron was kiss Viktor Krum, not when the offence had occurred so long ago.
    Harry could not see Hermione at the Gryffindor celebration party, which was in full swing when he arrived. Renewed cheers and clapping greeted his appearance and he was soon surrounded by a mob of people congratulating him. What with trying to shake off the Creevey brothers, who wanted a blow-by-blow match analysis, and the large group of girls that encircled him, laughing at his least amusing comments and batting their eyelids, it was some time before he could try and find Ron. At last, he extricated himself from Romilda Vane, who was hinting heavily that she would like to go to Slughorn’s Christmas party with him. As he was ducking towards the drinks table he walked straight into Ginny, Arnold the Pygmy Puff riding on her shoulder and Crookshanks mewing hopefully at her heels.
    ‘Looking for Ron?’ she asked, smirking. ‘He’s over there, the filthy hypocrite.’
    Harry looked into the corner she was indicating. There, in full view of the whole room, stood Ron wrapped so closely around Lavender Brown it was hard to tell whose hands were whose.
    ‘It looks like he’s eating her face, doesn’t it?’ said Ginny dispassionately. ‘But I suppose he’s got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry.’
    She patted him on the arm; Harry felt a swooping sensation in his stomach, but then she