*Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series. However this story is mine, except for the excerpt from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, because that is still very much so J.K. Rowling's.*
Hermione's name came out of the Goblet of Fire.
"Hermione Granger!" Dumbledore called out as he read the name off the forth paper to come out of the Goblet.
Hermione's eyes went wide. This couldn't be right. She didn't enter. She wasn't allowed because she is too young. Even if she had been old enough she wasn't interested in the "glory" that came from competing in menial stuff like the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Harry looked over at her, shocked. He had wide eyes and over the loud voices that had risen up in the hall so could have sworn he asked her "How?" but there really was no guarantee of that. He gave Hermione a semi-smile. Like he was confused, but willing to be supportive.
Ron on the other hand, was no where near supportive. He looked enraged by what had happened. After all, he was the one in their group who had been dreaming of being a champions; not Harry, and certainly not Hermione.
But Hermione had no answers for either of them. She clearly hadn't put her name in meaning not only had someone else done it, but it was someone powerful enough to get passed Dumbledore's charms. This cannot be good was all Hermione could think.
Hermione felt someone pulling her up and pushing her forward, but she really couldn't say who, there were so many people around her. She walked toward the door the other three champions had entered as dignified as possible. Her hands were shaking and she was internally freaking out, but to an outsider she stood tall and strong, appearing to confidently walk out of the room.
As the four champions stood in the small room off the side of the Great Hall an uneasy silence fell. Why was Hermione there they all wondered, Hermione included. Before they could ponder long, Dumbledore, and a number of other prominent teachers entered through the door.
"Ms. Granger, you have some serious explaining to do!" thundered Dumbledore. It was highly out of character for him, but Hermione understood that this must have been a very stressful situation for him.
"I swear Professor, I didn't do anything. I don't understand-"
The headmaster of Durmstrang school, Karkaroff, interrupted her, voicing his own concerns, "When the Daily Profit finds out an underage student is being put into situations this dangerous they will have a fit!"
There was a small gasp from over where the other champions stood, like they were just realizing how grave this competition truly was.
"Couldn't we just pull her out? Especially as an under-age witch. There must be some rule about people unfit to compete withdrawing, right?" Madame BLANK asked Dumbledore. This sounded like the most appealing choice to Hermione. She hadn't entered the bloody competition anyways, so why should she have to compete just because a stupid goblet said she was supposed to.
"I'm afraid not. Once a champion's name is pulled from the fire they must at least attempt all three tasks. It is up to them whether they choose to finish each one. This sort of thing has never happened before." Dumbledore sounded saddened, more like someone who was speaking at the funeral of a friend than someone explaining the rules of a competition. His tone of voice did nothing to make Hermione feel the least bit more okay with the dreadful situation she found herself stuck in.
What am I going to do?
It was only two days before the first task to the Tri-Wizard Tournament and Hermione still had no clue what the task was going to be. She had read every book and article about the Tri-Wizard Tournament that she could get her hands on, but it seemed that every time the tasks were completely different from each other. Hermione just wished someone could tip her off on what the task was so she could do a little research that was actually meaningful. With so much worrying about the first task, her grades were slipping a bit. She spent all her study time looking for what the task might be rather than completing her homework. She knew this was bad, but she still couldn't seem to stop herself.
"Hermione, come on," Harry approached the table she had been camped at for every moment she wasn't in class or sleeping for the last two weeks. "You need a break from the library. Come on a walk with me. I have something to show you."
Reluctantly, she stood and followed him outside. It was getting late and she wasn't sure where he was leading her as they approached Hagrid's Hut, but then kept on walking further away from the buildings of the school grounds.
"Where are we going Harry? What did you want to tell me? I have research I could be doing right now," she complained. As much as she loved her friends, it was all too much right now. Ron was still mad at her and wouldn't listen that she had done nothing wrong. Harry tried to be supportive, but he was also trying to be a good friend to Ron, leaving him in an awkward situation. The rest of the school for the most part was split between those who thought she was a genius that had successfully gotten past Dumbledore's spell and was super brave and all, and those that thought she was an idiot who managed to get someone to help her enter, but was now trapped in the dangerous consequences. Even her teachers seemed weary not to join the split as to what they thought of her supposed actions in enter her name. Some days Hermione just wanted to stand up at dinner in the Great Hall and scream, "I DIDN'T ENTER MY NAME! I DON'T KNOW WHY MY NAME CAME OUT! GET OFF MY BACK, ALL OF YOU!" But she knew that was not the appropriate response and then everyone would just find her both rude and suspicious.
"Just wait and see. I promise this is worth the walk," Harry assured her.
As they approached a wooden area, not quite part of the Forbidden Forest, but yet not not part of it, Hermione her was sounded like a scorching sound. It sounded much like a large fire torch being lit. She looked over to Harry questioningly.
"It's the first task."
"What?" Hermione began, still walking toward the fiery sounds she was hearing, "Oh my God. Harry! How did you find this out?" It was dragons she was hearing. If dragons were a part of the first task, she knew exactly what to research!
"Well, actually it was Ron who told me…see Charlie, his brother, is one of the tamers, and well you know how you two aren't talking right now, but he wanted you to have this information because he, I mean both of us really, want you to be safe and prepared and such," Harry rambled. He felt awkward bringing up Ron around Harry. He was very much stuck in the middle of their silent feud and it left he in an unpleasant situation.
Hermione hugged Harry. "Thank you so much! I really would love to stay and hang out with you but-"
"Of course," Harry stopped her. "I understand. Get back to the library and read everything you can on dragons. You've got two days. I'll see if some of us can't bring you some food in the mean time."
"Thank you! You are great!" Hermione was so glad to have supportive friends.
The day of the first task arrived and Hermione was growing nervous. She had spent the last two days reading every book available to her on dragons until last night, when she gave up to get a good nights sleep. Still, she felt no more prepared than she had three days before when she had no clue what the task would be. Standing in the tent with the other champions, she could see she wasn't alone in nerves. They were pacing, and wringing their hands and sitting and standing. None of the four could seem to stand still for more than a moment.
Just when the suspense seemed unbearable, Dumbledore and the other school officials entered, quickly explaining the task ahead. While Hermione already knew the task, it seemed the other three also knew about the dragons, as none of them looked too surprised.
"Now just reach into the bag and select a dragon. Ladies first," Barty Crouch, the official from the Ministry offered the bag to Fleur first. "Ahh the Common Welsh Green. Now you Ms. Granger," he commented passing the bag along to her. "Oh the Swedish Short-Snout. Now Viktor." He pulled the Chinese Fireball, leaving Cedric with the Hungarian Horntail.
Poor Cedric Hermione found herself thinking. However she had to quickly move along to her own dragon. She knew it produced exceptionally hot fire and that it was extraordinarily agile. She would need to inhibit its movement somehow…
She still wasn't sure how to keep the dragon from moving too much and attacking as she entered the field. She found herself hiding behind a boulder to dodge his flames, but she could still feel the heat of it. Suddenly overcome with an idea she prayed with work, Hermione stood up from behind the rock. "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Hermione cast onto the dragon. It worked! She was able to quickly run up to the nest and collect the egg, ending her task, fortunately unharmed.
Once she was far enough away from the dragon that it wouldn't harm her, she couldn't help but sigh in relief. All of a sudden she found herself engulfed in a hug. It was she could just see the brilliant red hair out of the corner of her eye.
"I'm sorry that I thought you would have entered yourself. It wasn't fair of me. No sane person would ever put themselves through that willingly," Ron sighed, like a weight was being lifted off his chest.
Hermione hugged him back now, "I'm glad you're finally back. It's about time you come to your senses."
"Yeah…" The two walked over the Harry, before the three walked back to the castle together, Hermione carrying the egg, Harry talking about Quidditch, and Ron watching Hermione; safe for the time being.
Christmas was fast approaching and the student of both Hogwarts and the two visiting schools were all abuzz about the Yule Ball. People were constantly asking others to be their dates and girls were frequently discussing what they were wearing. Hermione, needing to ask someone herself, as she needed a date to do the first dance with at the Ball, turned to the first person she could think of: Ron. He was weary of the whole dancing thing, but he was excited for an evening with her.
When the night came, he couldn't help but smile as he and Harry watched her descend the stairs and join them before entering the Great Hall. She wore a beautiful blue dress and Ron, quite frankly, could not picture anyone looking better.
The night was eventful with Ron falling during the first dance, the trio taking a break from the noise by going outside and discovering the first snowfall had started, and finally Hermione kissing Ron's cheek as she went up to her room. Reflecting before bed that night, both Ron and Hermione could not wipe the smiles off their faces, knowing that despite all the odd flaws of the evening, it could not have been more perfect.
Now only two weeks from the second task, Hermione found that her Golden Egg, claiming to be a hint at the upcoming task, was still unless to her. The screams that came from it when she opened it were unbearable to listen to, and she couldn't bare listening for more than a few seconds. Nearly ready to throw it out the window and say, "Screw it. I don't need a hint," Hermione wound up wandering the halls one afternoon.
"Hey-uh Hermy-own-ninny, right?" Viktor Krum asked her as he approached her in the hall.
"Uh yeah, Hermione. How are you Viktor?" she replied, wondering why he would be talking to her.
"I'm good. Listen put the egg underwater. Trust me," he cautioned her.
"Um alright thanks," Hermione replied. She was skeptical of his advice, but with no other ideas, she saw no reason why not listen to him.
She quickly found herself with the Golden Egg in the bathroom, ready to submerge it. She hesitated just a moment, before sinking into the tub, the egg clutched tightly in her hands.
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
The egg's screams came out as a beautiful song underwater. It was times like this Hermione was glad to be a good student. Unlike Harry and Ron, she paid attention in Care of Magically Creatures class. She just so happened to remember a class a few months again about merpeople and she knew that underwater their songs were mesmerizing, but above and it was a horrendous scream.
Hermione took her time in the bath, knowing that once she was out she would spend these two weeks stressing over the merpeople's song and researching them in books, much like she had with the dragons. At least point, she could at least deduce that she was going to need a way to breathe underwater.
Hermione was thankful for Harry and Ron as she swam back up with to the surface with Ron. They had snuck into Snape's potions cupboard with her for some gillyweed. Without the use of Harry's invisibility cloak, she wasn't sure what she would have done out breathing underwater.
The two reached the surface as her Gillyweed wore off and Ron was awoken from the unconscious state he was in. The bobbed on the surface, enjoying the luxury of breathing air.
"Hey," Ron acknowledged her as they swam to the ladder to climb out and dry off. "It looks like you've come in second!" The only other one back was Victor with some Hufflepuff girl whom he had taken to the Yule Ball and whom he appeared to be dating, though no one knew for sure.
"Yeah," Hermione smiled. She felt a bit awkward by everyone looking at them, especially since it meant that he was something so dear to her that she would "sorely miss" him if he were gone. Not that it wasn't necessarily true, just she wasn't ready to address something like that while she still had the rest of the tournament to deal with.
BANG! The gun sounded to start off the third and final task. "The Maze of Death" was what Ron had been referring to it as in the days leading up to the event. While Hermione knew his nickname for it was meant to be a joke, it did nothing to reassure her of her ability to complete the task. Entering, her confidence wasn't at its highest, but she still believed she could outwit some of the others if she wanted. Then again, did she really want to? What would she get out of winning the Tri-Wizard Tournament? Nothing. These thoughts gave her the confidence to shoot her bolt of red into the sky, signaling that she gave up. She knew she was the first one to give up, but that didn't matter. Something just felt off about the maze. It wasn't simply that she didn't feel a need to be the winner, there was just a bad feeling in her gut that came from the prospect of completing the task.
Professor McGonagall was the teacher that came for her and brought her away from the maze. When the crowd saw that it was Hermione Granger that had quit they were confused. How could a smart and brave girl, currently tied for first in the tournament, be the first to give up on the last task.
"Are you hurt?" Harry asked as he and Ron rushed forward to her.
"No, no. I'm fine. Something just felt off…Besides who cares about if I win, I never entered in the first place!" She hugged her friends, glad this crazy year was nearly over and that she wouldn't have to complete anymore life threatening tasks for sport anytime too soon.
She sat among her friends in the stands, waiting for someone to win. Only hours later did the world discover that while Cedric Diggory had "won," the trophy had led him to the arms of death eaters, looking to revive He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and that in the end Cedric had been killed. The students were stunned. How could something like this happen? To a boy as kind and true as Cedric?
In the following weeks, a funeral was held for Cedric at Hogwarts so that all the students could be in attendance. Dumbledore held a private meeting with Hermione, Harry and Ron about You-Know-Who's involvement in Cedric's death. He explained that they had since discovered Professor Moody had been a fraud and was truly Bart Crouch Jr. working as a death eater. It had been planned that Hermione would win in the maze and, being led to the same place Cedric was, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would have taken some of her hair, as he needed "the hair of a true friend to his enemy" for the potion he intended to use. Thankfully, he had not been able to get to her and had therefore not return. However it was a true sadness that Cedric had been killed instead.
"The three of you must be extra careful, especially this summer when you are away from Hogwarts. While Hermione was fortunate enough to recognize danger before it happened this time, Voldemort will try again. He may opt to go for Ron this time. But regardless of how he gets back, he will return. He will go after Harry, that much is a given. Unfortunately, we can't prevent him, only postpone, and defeat after he does come back. Stay safe," Dumbledore finished with a soft smile and a wink.
The three left with fear on their minds, but hope in their hearts. The future would have to be a cautious one, but that didn't mean they couldn't have some fun in the progress. And that was exactly what they intended.