Second Task / Ron-Hermione

Then he spotted Fleur's sister. 'What did you bring her for?'
'Fleur didn't turn up. I couldn't leave her,' Harry panted.
'Harry, you prat,' said Ron, 'you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown!'
'But the song said -'
'Only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!' said Ron. 'I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!'
Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron, he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder.
.
'You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry... Did it take you ages to find us?'
'No... I found you OK...'
Harry
s feeling of stupidity was growing. Now he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that Dumbledore's safety precautions wouldn't have permitted the death of a hostage  just because their champion hadn't turned up. Why hadn't he just grabbed Ron and gone? He would have been first back...
.
'Look after Gabrielle,' Fleur told Madam Pomfrey, and then she truned to Harry.
'You saved 'er,' she said breathlessly. 'Even though she was not your 'ostage.'
'Yeah,' said Harry, who was now heartily wishing he'd left all three girls tied to the statue.
Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (he felt his face burn and wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again), then said to Ron, 'And you, too - you 'elped -'
'Yeah,' said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, 'yeah, a bit -'
Fleur swooped down on him, too, and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious.
.
.
.
'
'No, it's just... how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?'
Hermione blushed scarlet as she said this, and determinedly avoided Ron's eyes.
'What?' said 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.'
'And what did you say?' said 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.
'And what did you say?' Ron repeated, pounding his pestle down so hard that it dented the desk.


THE SECOND TASK and PADFOOT RETURNS