As Ron walked down from the platform, a brief silence fell between Harry and Hermione.
They felt an inexplicable sense of shame. Ron, who had always seemed to them to lack ambition and simply coast through life, now seemed to shine with an unmistakable brilliance.
That brilliance seemed to make them look rather base by comparison. Harry even hesitated over whether he should follow Ron down from the platform. Maybe that would be a more fitting way to act in the face of a friendship he cared about just as much.
But in the end, he didn't go down.
You couldn't put people's hearts to the test. Besides friendship, there were other things he cared just as much about.
Things he couldn't give up.
So he could only make a choice.
Choose... the greater good.
Hermione, however, gazed at Ron's retreating back from afar and pursed her lips. She seemed to understand why, among so many people, Anton was especially kind to Ron and Goyle.
Ron seemed more like Anton in some ways. He didn't care much about a lot of things, but he cared deeply about his friendships.
Well, except that Ron was a little weaker.
But that was only in relative terms. Hermione was startled to realize that she had secretly let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't because she had to face a choice between friendship and the competition; she knew this was only a contest. And she had never been one to lose or forfeit.
She just...
She was actually worried that she couldn't beat Ron!
It was hard to imagine that she would ever have thought such a thing.
It made her feel a little as though she were in a dream.
Whatever the case, Harry and Hermione steadied themselves and began to face