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There was a note of badly suppressed glee in Rons voice; Harry could tell he was nothing short of thrilled that McLaggen had messed up so badly. Harry lay there, staring up at the patch of light on the ceiling, his recently mended skull not hurting, precisely, but feeling slightly tender underneath all the bandaging.
"I could hear the match commentary from here," said Ron, his voice now shaking with laughter. "I hope Luna always commentates from now on. . . . Loser's Lurgy ..." But Harry was still too angry to see much humor in the situation, and after a while Ron's snorts subsided.
"Ginny came in to visit while you were unconscious," he said, after a long pause, and Harry's imagination zoomed into overdrive, rapidly constructing a scene in which Ginny, weeping over his lifeless form, confessed her feelings of deep attraction to him while Ron gave them his blessing. . . ."She reckons you only just arrived on time for the match. How come. You left here early enough." "Oh . . ." said Harry, as the scene in his mind's eye imploded. "Yeah . . . well, I saw Malfoy sneaking off with a couple of girls who didn't look like they wanted to be with him, and that's the second time he's made sure he isn't down on the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the school; he skipped the last match too, remember." Harry sighed. "Wish I'd followed him now, the match was such a fiasco. . . ." "Don't be stupid," said Ron sharply. "You couldn't have missed a Quidditch match just to follow Malfoy, you're the Captain!" "I want to know what he's up to," said Harry. "And don't tell nn its all in my head, not after what I overheard between him and Snape —" "I never said it was all in your head," said Ron, hoisting himself up on an elbow in turn and frowning at Harry, "but there's no rule saying only one person at a time can be plotting anything in this place! You're getting a bit obsessed with Malfoy, Harry. I mean, thinking about missing a match just to follow him ..." "I want to catch him at it!" said Harry in frustration. "I mean, where's he going when he disappears off the map." "I dunno . . . Hogsmeade." suggested Ron, yawning.
"I've never seen him going along any of the secret passageway on the map. I thought they were being watched now anyway." "Well then, I dunno," said Ron.
Silence fell between them. Harry stared up at the circle of lamp light above him, thinking. . . .
If only he had Rufus Scrimgeour's power, he would have been able to set a tail upon Malfoy, but unfortunately Harry did not have an office full of Aurors at his command. .
. . He thought fleetingly of trying to set something up with the D.A., but there again was
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