Pina Colada
"Um?"
he asked again.
"Which of your eyes saw me dancing happily……"
Fred didn't speak, his lips pursed, and the strength in his hands became gentler.
Hermione could feel the hem of her silk-thin evening dress clinging to his long trousers, and her back suddenly stiffened with nervousness.
The organ played its last trembling note.
The Weird Sisters stopped playing and the auditorium burst into warm applause again. Harry in the center of the crowd immediately let go of Parvati.
"Let's sit down, okay?"
"Oh - but - this song is very nice!" Parvati said, at this time the weird sisters started to play a new song, the rhythm was very cheerful.
"No, I don't like it." Harry led Parvati out of the dance floor and walked towards the table where Ron and Padma were sitting. Passing by George and Olivia on the road, they danced so wildly that people around them stepped back to avoid getting hurt.
"How was it?" Harry asked Ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of Butterbeer.
Ron didn't answer. He glared angrily at Fred who was bending over to kiss Hermione's right hand gently. Hermione blushed.
Padma crossed her arms and sat with her legs crossed, one foot shaking to the beat of the music. Every now and then she would roll her eyes disapprovingly at Ron, who was completely ignoring her. Parvati sat down on the other side of Harry, crossed her arms and crossed her legs. A few minutes later, a boy from Durmstrang came over and asked her to dance.
"You don't mind, do you Harry?" Parvati said.
"What?" said Harry, who was looking at Cho Chang and Cedric.
"Oh, it's nothing." Parvati said simply, and left with the boy. After the song ended, she didn't come back.
Hermione came over and sat in Parvati's vacated chair. There was a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Hello," Harry said. Ron said nothing.
"It's hot, isn't it?" said Hermione, fanning herself with her palms. "Fred went to get the Pina Colada."
Ron gave her a sour look. "Fred didn't ask you to go with him?"
Hermione looked at him in surprise. "What happened to you?"
"If you don't know," Ron said harshly, "I don't want to tell you."
Hermione looked at him in surprise and then at Harry, who shrugged.
"Ron, what did you-"
"He's my brother!" Ron said sharply, "You didn't know you should let me know in advance？I was the only one who was kept in the dark, you - you are -" He was obviously searching for words that could describe Hermione. Powerful words for a heinous crime, but obviously failed to say, "Anyway, what you did was wrong, totally wrong!"
Hermione's mouth fell open in surprise.
"Stop talking nonsense!" she said after a moment, "let you know in advance? Why would I do that? To be honest - who do you think you are? It doesn't seem like it's any of your business who I go to the dance with. And for your information, Fred’s personal life doesn't need to be reported to you!”
Ron decided to ignore these words: "He probably felt sorry for you because no one invited you. Let me guess - you mobilized him to participate in 'vomiting'?"
"No! If you really want to know, I'll tell you, Fred - he invited me when we were hanging out together in the swimming pool!"
Hermione spoke quickly, blushing even harder, almost the same color as Parvati's robes.
"Really, huh - I guess he asked you to help him with homework again?" Ron said bitterly.
Hermione was furious, her voice trembling slightly.
"Let me tell you something, Fred never needs me to do any of his homework——"
Ron changed tactics at the speed of light.
"Then, he just wants you to help him and George tinker with those things in the trick shop! Don't think I don't know, their products have been selling like hotcakes recently, and the quality is better than before! I guess, you guys often spend time in the warm and comfortable library Meeting, two heads close together——"
"That's right! I went to help them research those products! And let me tell you, I helped completely voluntarily, because unlike you, your brothers at least know how to respect a girl!" Hermione was furious.
"You understand respect, so after dancing with Fred tonight, you rush to dance with Klum?" Ron said sarcastically.
"The round dance is originally a group dance! The entire competition is for everyone to make friends with foreign wizards and establish friendship with them!"
"No, no!" Ron yelled, "It's to win the game!"
People nearby turned to stare at them.
"Ron," whispered Harry, who was trying his best to shrink, "I think it's not a big deal that Hermione danced with Fred -"
But Ron ignored Harry's words.
"Maybe you don't even know who you danced with tonight. Are you sure it was Fred and not George? Maybe the whole thing is just another prank the two of them pulled together -"
"Of course I can tell the difference! Only someone as dishonest as you would think this way!"
Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron looked at her back with a mixture of anger and hatred on his face.
"Are you still going to ask me to dance?" Padma asked him.
"No," said Ron, still glaring at Hermione's back.
"Very good." Padma said angrily, and then stood up to find Parvati and the Beauxbatons boy. The boy immediately recruited one of his friends to join them. The movement was so fast that Harry could almost say that he had cast a summoning spell to make the person fly over.
"Where is Hermione?" asked a voice.
Krum came to their table, clutching two glasses of iced cherry whiskey.
"I don't know." Ron said stubbornly.
Krum's face darkened again.
"Well, if you see her, tell her that I want to speak with her."he walked away listlessly.
For the rest of the ball, Harry and Ron sat in the corner talking, neither of them in the mood to dance. Harry restrained himself from looking at Cho Chang and Cedric, which would give him a strong urge to kick things.
At twelve o'clock at midnight, the Weird Sisters finally stopped playing. Everyone gave them a last round of applause and started walking towards the foyer. Many people are hoping that the dance will be extended a little longer.
After going out and entering the hall, Harry and Ron saw Hermione and Ginny coming from the stairs. Hermione glanced at Ron coldly, and without saying a word, she passed them and went up the marble steps.
Harry and Ron followed her, but just halfway up the stairs, Harry was called by Cedric.
By the time he returned to the tower, the Fat Lady and her friend Violet were already fast asleep in the frame at the entrance to the portrait hole. Harry had to shout "Faery Light!" to wake them up. They were very annoyed when they were woken up. He entered the common room and saw Ron and Hermione arguing. They stood facing each other, about ten paces apart.
"Ron Weasley, not even mentioning I'm not interested at all, but even if I were, you know how to solve this problem, don't you?" Hermione shouted, crossing her arms.
"Not interested?" Ron shouted at her, "How to solve it?"
"Next time there's a dance, invite me before others do. Don't wait until you have no choice then use me as the last solution!"
Ron's mouth moved, but no sound came out, like a goldfish emerging from the water. At this moment, Hermione turned around abruptly, angrily walked up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, and went back to sleep.
Ron turned to look at Harry.
"Look," he stammered, looking completely stunned, "look - what the bloody hell is this - it completely misses the point -"
Harry said nothing.
He cherished the fact that he and Ron were talking again, so he carefully kept silent and did not express his own point of view - in fact, he thought that Hermione grasped the essence of the issue more accurately than Ron.