Harry Potter & The Fiver From A Filth Fan

I was late to the Harry Potter "phenomenon" and started reading them around the beginning of 2002. At the time I had a colleague who was a Ch*ls** supporter. I say supporter, but of course it goes without saying that he never actually went to the games. Anyway, he was reading the Potter books as well, in fact he was at least one book ahead of me at the time. Despite his poor choice in football team we actually got on pretty well. He was a keen betting man and because of this would often give me excellent terms for taking him on. We embarked on a number of wagers, but as the Blue Filth gained in standing I needed to have stupendous terms before agreeing to a bet. I'd be getting a three goal head start and the draw counting in my favour before agreeing to a £5 bet on a Fulham win. Eventually my terms were too much and we stopped betting at all.

The thrill of a gamble, however, was too much for him to resist. We briefly chatted about the Harry Potter books and what we thought of them and then out of nowhere he suggested the most outlandish bet I've ever been offered. A fiver that Harry would "get it on" with Hermione before the end of the series. I was reading the third book at the time, but felt fairly confident that, however you defined "getting it on", it was unlikely to happen as a) there were already suggestions that Hermione was keen on Ron and b) the books were primarily aimed at children. I decided that I'd be fairly lenient and accept a loose definition of "getting it on" but took the bet extremely confident it was £5 in the bag. It's taken over five years but finally the concluding book is in general circulation. I've not read it yet and neither has he, however, based on the lack of sensationalist news stories (and latterly confirmed by a third party) we have agreed that I have won and he will pay up.

I'm going to wait until Monday before I collect so I can gloat about our amazing 5-0 win over them this weekend ...