"Thank you for your restraint, Draco, and I was aware of the latest news to hit the Hogwarts gossip network but thank you for making sure I was fully informed." Harry said dryly.
"No problem." Draco smiled sunnily and moved off.
Harry adjusted his glasses and continued onto the Quidditch pitch. Ron sat in the Gryffindor stand. His demeanour wasn't inviting; he was hunched over, folded arms, and his lips were set in a thin unhappy line.
Harry sat down beside him and put a privacy bubble.
"I'm not talking to you!" Ron said loudly.
"You just did," Harry pointed out tersely, "and if anybody should be not talking to somebody, it should be me! You managed to tell the whole world that I'm seeing a mind healer!"
"Well, maybe if you'd told me rather than everyone else…" Ron started back heatedly.
"I didn't tell anyone!" Harry yelled.
"You told Neville! And Hermione!" Ron waved a hand back towards the school. "They both knew!"
"I didn't tell them!" Harry insisted, anger stirring at Ron's dismissal of his words; did he really think Harry was a liar?
"So they just miraculously guessed?" Ron sneered angrily.
Harry was tempted to get up and walk away. If Ron really thought he was lying about it… "Neville said he recognised the healer's name, and Hermione…" he gestured vaguely, "well, she's Hermione." And maybe in hindsight he'd given her enough to work it out when he'd talked to her about his time in the States.
"As if that's…" Ron broke off suddenly and grimaced, swiping a hand over his face and leaving a streak of dirt on his forehead, "well, that probably does explain Hermione." He glanced at Harry quickly before looking away shamefacedly. "You really didn't tell them?"
"I'm not in the habit of lying, Ron." Harry snapped.
Ron flinched but nodded. "I know. I'm sorry, mate." He stared down at his trainers. "And really sorry about the whole…you know."
"Telling the world?" sniped Harry because he was a little irked. More than a little, maybe.
Ron flushed and nodded. "I was just…you didn't come back! And you know Moody said to watch for strange behaviour and Sirius is the closest person to you so if you were going to be kidnapped by anyone…"
"I get it, Ron." Harry sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose. "I thought about telling you last week about, uh, Healer Allen, because I knew I was going to need cover eventually but I hadn't gotten round to deciding about it, because, you know, I didn't really want to have to tell anyone, and then Sirius changed my appointment time today because he thought I would need to speak to Healer Allen afterwards and…" he shrugged.
"Did…why did you need to…uh…" Ron trailed off at Harry's raised eyebrows and he flushed brightly as he registered just how personal his question was.
"Sorry." He muttered.
Harry relented with a sigh. "They've got some credible information which they think means Voldemort is going to get me into the Tri-Wizard Tournament as part of some ritual to give him a body."
Ron grimaced and pulled at his laces. "That's…pretty crappy. Sorry, mate." He paused again. "So, that's the reason then?"
It was hard to keep hold of his want to keep it all secret when he heard the concern in Ron's voice. His best friend wasn't asking to satisfy his curiosity but because he was worried about Harry. And thinking about it, Hermione had probably asked for the same reason.
Harry kept his eyes on the opposite stand as he lifted one shoulder in a gesture meant to convey it didn't matter. "I guess now, yeah. I mean, at the start it was, uh, the Dursleys mostly."
"Oh."
"And, you know, what happened with Quirrell and the basilisk." Harry continued. He made a weak hand gesture. "Then…this Summer…just other stuff and now this."
"Ginny refused to see the mind healer." Ron replied.
Harry knew it wasn't as much of a non-sequitur as others might think; Ron usually had a point to his tangents.
"Mum and Dad dragged her to one but…she didn't want to go." Ron sighed. "I offered, you know, to go with her? I mean, sometimes…sometimes I dream the prat actually obliviated us and Ginny died so you know I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt for me to go too."
Harry nudged his shoulder, unable to talk because that right there was why Ron was his best mate. Because Ron was the type of friend who would confide his own deeply hidden secret thought about needing a mind healer just to make Harry feel better about seeing one.
"She told me no." Ron shrugged as though it didn't matter but Harry knew better. "I was going to ask you to talk to her about it, see if you could change her mind about going but then…well, she turned all stalkerish and," he blew out an exasperated breath, "I don't know what's with her but it wouldn't be fair to you to ask so…"
"I can still try," offered Harry, although the idea of talking with Ginny was excruciatingly painful, "or maybe the fact that she knows I'm seeing one will get her to go to one too."
Ron winced again. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that."
Harry sighed. "It probably would have gotten out anyway. It's not like people don't follow me around constantly." He shivered as a harsh gust of wind slapped over the stands. "Come on. Let's go inside and see if we can get lunch from the kitchen."
"Yeah." Ron stood up eagerly. "We can get Hermione to come along too."
"You're just hoping it'll get you out of her 'I told you so' lecture which it won't!" Harry got to his feet and poked Ron as he laughed in agreement. "You owe Neville an apology too."
The look was fleeting – just a twist of lips and a glower that shimmied through Ron's expressive eyes for a moment – but Harry caught it. He grabbed hold of Ron and pulled him to a stop as he made to leave.
"OK, what was that?" demanded Harry.
Ron shuffled his feet and avoided Harry's gaze. "It's…nothing."
Harry rolled his eyes, pulled Ron back down so they were sitting again and glared at him.
Ron huffed out a breath and folded his arms across his chest. "Why is Neville always hanging around with us now?"
It wasn't as though he hadn't known the discussion was going to happen at some point, Harry told himself as he wrestled with his irritation at Ron's jealousy.
"Why is it a problem?" Harry asked bluntly. "Neville's a good guy and he's a good friend."
"I know but…" Ron frowned heavily and averted his gaze from Harry's hard glare. "Look, I know it's stupid but I liked it when it was just you, me and Hermione. Now there's all these other people, including Neville and…" he shrugged again.
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