631 I Wish You Were Less Impressive

Harry glanced hesitantly at Ron, who had buried himself under the blanket like a corpse, and knew that he could not be persuaded, so he ignored him.

Due to the cold war between the three of them, the dormitory was no longer as cheerful as it used to be at night, so much so that Neville almost thought he had entered the wrong dormitory when he returned.

Ivan had been busy all day. After washing up, he went to bed early, but could not sleep.

Harry's emergence as a champion is proof that Lord Voldemort is still secretly working on his resurrection, and he has no idea who might be responsible.

This passive feeling made Ivan uncomfortable. He tilted his head and looked at the cage on the table. Several mice were lying in it.

Ivan believes that this knot can only be undone by mastering Legilimency as quickly as possible!

Unfortunately, the rat's mind was too simple. Ever since his Dementor's Telekinesis had been upgraded to Level 3, his experience had stagnated.

He needs a new subject…

Yvonne turned to look at Harry's bed, but quickly dismissed the idea.

The target was too large, after all, and Dumbledore, Moody, and Voldemort's would-be henchmen were all keeping an eye on Harry, in case he was tricked into revealing his Legilimency.

The worst thing about this kind of memory-reading magic was to be deliberately guarded against, especially when one's level of spell-casting was not high. If the other party had learnt Occlumency, then one might receive completely the wrong information.

Hermione would have been a better choice than Harry.

The little witch was clever enough to keep a secret, but he wondered if she would…

Ivan couldn't stop thinking about it, and it seemed forever before he fell asleep.

…

On Sunday morning, Ivan woke up with a yawn and fed one of the rats in the cage that had lost its usefulness to Marka for breakfast.

Harry woke up a while later, and the first thing he did when he got out of bed was look at Ron's bed. When he saw that it was empty, he looked curiously at Ivan.

"Where's Ron?"

"I don't know. He probably went out to avoid us. Why? Are you going to explain it to him?" Ivan replied casually as he put the empty cage away.

Harry nodded hesitantly. He had been thinking about it for a long time last night, and now he had a good reason to go back to Ron.

"If you want to go, go ahead! But don't get your hopes up!" Ivan said with a shrug, not believing that Ron would listen to any of Harry's explanations.

It would only make sense once the Triwizard Tournament began and Ron realised how dangerous it was.

In the original timeline, Harry had to cheat to get to the championship, and Ron might not even have been able to get past the dragon.

The two of them chatted as they walked towards the Great Hall.

Along the way, they were greeted frequently, especially by the young Gryffindor wizards, who regarded them as heroes.

"Come on, Hars, Potter! Let's show Beauxbatons and Durmstrang that Hogwarts is the best!" a senior Gryffindor member shouted at them.

"Of course, don't worry! You'll see me win!" Yvonne laughed.

Harry, on the other hand, was very subdued. Whenever someone cheered for him, he seemed flustered and unsure of how to respond.

He was worried that he was not good enough to live up to their expectations.

It was only when they arrived at the Great Hall that Harry realised that the situation was worse than he had imagined, with the junior wizards of the other three houses giving them a mixed reception compared to the Gryffindor students who had welcomed them with open arms.

Ivan was fine. Although the registration method was suspected of being a cheap trick, he still managed to crack the age line with his wisdom and generously explained the exact method. Even if someone was dissatisfied, they would not say anything.

Harry, on the other hand, heard people talking about him as soon as he crossed the threshold.

As he passed by the Slytherin table, he overheard one of the students speculating that he had forced Ivan to cheat for him.

All of these sounds made Harry feel terrible.

"Have some confidence, Harry! Since you've been chosen by the Goblet of Fire, you're a champion of Hogwarts! Ignore the voices of dissent, they'll approve of you as long as you perform well during the match!" Ivan said reassuringly.

"I hope so…" Harry said dully.

Hermione, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table, saw the couple coming through the door and waved them over, leaving the table empty.

"Ivan, Harry, how was your night? Did you sleep well?" Hermione asked tactfully, as she had seen Ron this morning and he was obviously upset.

"This is terrible, Ron's got a screw loose in his head, trying to get me to sign up without telling him!" Harry was furious at the memory, and looked around, unable to locate Ron.

"He's just gone out the side door, probably trying to avoid you…" Hermione said, knowing what Harry was going to ask.

Harry was confused. Why did Ron hide wherever he went?

"Don't you see, Harry? Ron doesn't want to hear it from you. He's just jealous… and he doesn't want to see us," Ivan said vaguely as he slowly stuffed a cream pie into his mouth.

"Jealousy? Why? Because we became champions?" Harry was still confused.

"It's more than that, Harry! Ron's always been jealous of you, and not just because of that!" Hermione explained, sighing.

"Think about it. How would you feel in the long run if you had two famous friends whom everyone liked so much that you were left out of the loop every time, including your parents?"

"I'd be so happy, so happy! Then I wouldn't have to go around with people gawking at my forehead!" Harry exclaimed. "I'd be so happy if I'd spent my childhood at the Burrow with my parents!"

"And you, Hermione, don't you have two famous friends? You're not like Ron!" Harry added, turning back to Hermione.

"No, you're wrong, I envy you sometimes… I wish you weren't so good…" Hermione said, glancing discreetly at Ivan.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, and even Ivan looked incredulous.

"But usually just a little bit jealous! It's gone in a minute!" Hermione winked and laughed.