Chapter Two... 'The Assignment'

The corridors were brightly lit with large poster sized pictures of all of the Prophet's Best Cover issues. People were going in and out of the different rooms that all served different purposes. Ms Folding's office was a long way away and PW gave Hermione a bit of a guided tour as they passed different places.

"Over there is the culinary room... they prepare the staff meals in there.... to the left is the guilding machine which cuts up all of the parchment into readable sized pages... that's Mr Angelo's office, don't go in there I think he keeps a zoo in there... oh and you can't miss that room which is where all the hottest news automatically is delivered... see that machine there, well as soon as something important happens, a location and time is recorded and the reporters go there to see what's happening... and that small room there is MY office. You see, I'm head of the chaffeuring. I get my own office... with my OWN name plaque on the desk," PW added proudly, again puffing out his chest.

"That's excellent," remarked Hermione, meaning every single word she said. She'd never been in a real newspaper HQ before and it was awfully exciting. There was so much to see and so much to learn she had only been in there for five minutes!

"Ah here we are," PW knocked on a glass door. It appeared all of the doors were made out of glass, Hermione wondered if perhaps it was because they could do that 'glass apparation thing' from anywhere. As if reading her mind, PW explained.

"The glass is so we can Glapparate from anywhere yes," he said. "Glapparate is what we did to get here you see," Hermione nodded. "It's also because a couple of years ago, there were these two excellent reporters... Henry Boshwash and Marge Fodds. Anyway, they were caught well... snogging and uhh... doing you know what in their offices on numerous occasions. Turned out that Henry was having an affair and that's why Ms Folding got glass doors installed. That way we can see when someone is working or when they are... are... doing other things."

Hermione peered through the glass door of Ms Folding's office. She couldn't see anybody but then the door opened as if by magic and out of nowhere appeared Ms Folding.

"Ah, Hermione! Welcome!" Ms Folding said. "Please, do come in," she gestured for Hermione to enter. "Thank you PW, I trust the journey was safe and comfortable," she looked at Hermione.

"Yes, it was wonderful. Thanks PW," Hermione replied.

"Glad to be of service, Ms Folding... Ms Granger," PW bowed and left on his merry little way, obviously off to do more important chaffeuring jobs.

Hermione and Ms Folding sat down opposite each other at her desk. Hermione had never been more nervous... except maybe for the announcement.

"What do you think of the place so far?" Ms Folding said.

"Oh it's wonderful, I am so excited. I have never been in a newspaper headquarters before," Hermione replied.

"Ah, well fresh minds are always important here at the Prophet. So tell me Hermione, is it okay with you if you leave for the Quidditch Cup this time tomorrow?"

"Sure, Ms Folding," Hermione answered eagerly.

"Please call me Abby. That's excellent. You see that way, you can get some wonderful on the spot news of mad fans arriving and also get to talk to some of the players beforehand, you know to interview them about nerves and strategies!" Ms Folding, uhh Abby said.

Hermione nodded, mentally taking notes.

"Now, each day we want you to send us, by owl, a 600 word documentation of the day's procedings except for the actual day of the game. That's when we will be compiling a special four-page liftout where you will need to put together about five thousand words in various sections. You can decide that sections etc. Maybe, some profiles on key players, strategies, mad fans again, you get the point?"

Hermione continued to nod.

"Excellent, I can see you're going to be something special. Now, one player I want you to put a lot of focus on is Oliver Wood, the keeper for the Puddlemere United side. Have you heard of him?" Abby asked. Hermione had a feeling that Abby was requesting Oliver more for pleasure than business. It was a well known fact amongst the wizarding world that Wood was the most popular Quidditch player among the ladies. He had devilish good looks and was most of all... single. He charmed every female and made all the teenage girls melt.

"Oh ok, sure. I used to go to school with Oliver actually," Hermione thought outloud.

Abby sat forward in her seat, jerking her attention to Hermione. Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Really? Amazing! Truly amazing! Maybe you can get more inside gossip!"

"Perhaps..." Hermione's voice trailed off and she tried looking anywhere but at Abby.

Switching back into business gear after getting over her little 'obsessed-fan' thing, Abby regained her business look posture and returned to normal.

Clearing her throat, she tried not to feel so foolish. "Anyway, as I was saying about the assignment. There is a woman I'd like you to meet. Her name is Sarah Pumpkin, I mentioned her in the owl letter didn't I?"

Hermione nodded. Sarah Pumpkin was going to be her supervisor or something wasn't she?

"Well, I'd like to introduce her to you." Abby pulled her wand out of a drawer in the big desk and pointed it at a strange orange object. Hermione craned her neck around to see if she could get a better look at it and Abby turned it to face her.

"It's a spekabox," explained Abby as Hermione examined the strange shiny orange screen on the front of the rectangular object in front of her. "It is used to communicate around the building. See, watch."

Abby pointed the wand right in the centre of the orange screen before saying, "Spekatome Appensidex!" The Spekabox started glowing, dimly at first but then much stronger, once the glow had turned red, Abby, still holding her wand, said 'Pumpkin, Sarah' and a woman with red hair's face appeared on the screen.

Much simpler than a telephone, thought Hermione, being a muggle born.

The woman who's hair reminded Hermione of Ron's had a roundish, friendly looking face and very noticable dimples. A few light freckles were on her nose and her glasses framed her face nicely. Hermione could tell right away that she liked her. Come to think of it, 'Sarah Pumpkin' seemed a bit like a cross between Harry and Ron!

"Hello," said the woman a big smile on her dial.

"Hello Sarah," replied Abby. "Would you please be able to come to my office? Hermione Granger has arrived," she added with a wink in Hermione's direction. Hermione couldn't help but feel very important.

A moment later Sarah, who was probably about twenty-years-old, arrived with a thud, just in front of the glass door. Hermione assumed she had Glapparated.

"Ah Sarah, this is Hermione Granger, the winner of our competition," introduced Abby as Sarah made her way over to the desk.

"Hullo Hermione" said Sarah, shaking Hermione's hand in a friendly way.

"Hullo," replied Hermione, happily. So far every single person she had met at the Daily Prophet had been very nice and easy to get along with. She only hoped her luck would last.

* * * * *

The meeting went very quickly and before Hermione knew it she was at the Leaky Cauldron, waiting patiently for Harry and Ron who were naturally, fashionably late.

Sarah had been as nice as Hermione had originally imagined and they had planned their itenirary with very little argument. They'd be leaving tomorrow at 9am and arriving at the Quidditch Stadium soon after. They'd unpack at the Daily Prophet tent which was already organised and apparently quite like a 5 star hotel, according to Abby. Hermione, Harry and Ron would have the afternoon off to just have a look at the place, check out anything they wanted to, have a sneak backstage and possibly get to talk to the players as friends before interviewing them later in the week. Hermione, who had never been a big Quidditch fan, couldn't help but feel extremely excited at the possibility of meeting some of the rather handsome players and getting their autographs although she wondered whether that would look unprofessional. Never the less, the more she thought about it the more exciting their adventure was looking!

Harry and Ron stumbled into the Cauldron a few minutes past two, both wearing big grins.

"Hermione!" they greeted, giving her a friendly hug before sitting down at a table in the corner, where they had more privacy to organise their trip.

"Oh, it was so exciting!" gushed Hermione as they waited for the waitress to bring them some butterbeers.

"Well," asked Harry. "Go on, tell us what happened!"

She cleared her throat. "Okay," she began, butterflies in her stomach all over again. "We'll be leaving tomorrow at nine and we get the day to ourselves. I have right here," she pulled three cards out of her jacket pocket, "our backstage passes and Sarah, my supervisor, said we could have a look behind the stadium too! Anyway, we're allowed to talk to players and meet them more like friends before I have to interview them. So really, tomorrow the day is ours to explore! Then after that, the real work starts. As you know, the actual Cup is not until Thursday which gives me a couple of days, including tomorrow, to organise what I'm going to write. Anyway, on Wednesday you guys can do whatever you want but I'll be planning and doing a bit of journalism covering the introduction stuff. Sarah and I have already basically worked out everything but I'll be finalising anyway. On thursday we'll get top-notch seats and be able to watch the game from the best viewing point. After it, we'll go backstage again and interview the players, from both the winning and losing sides and then head on to the after party celebrations!" Hermione took a breath.

Ron was so excited he looked like he might wet his pants. Harry's eyes were bugging out so huge that he looked a bit like a goldfish with black hair. They were both thanking the Great Wizards above that Hermione was such a brain and that she had been such a clever girl at school and won them this great competition.

The butterbeers arrived at Ron lifted up his mug, ready to make a speech.

"To Hermione for being such a wicked friend!" he exclaimed.

"To Hermione!" chorused Harry, raising his glass.

"To me!" Hermione added, toasting hers and feeling rather embarrassed for toasting to herself.

The rest of the afternoon proceeded with happy chatter amongst the trio who still got along as well as they had since their first year at Hogwarts over seven years ago.

* * * * *

Morning quickly came and before Hermione knew it, she had overslept. Having tossed and turned all night long and not falling asleep until five o'clock that morning, she had finally closed her eyes for what seemed like ten minutes before what felt like a bucket of water came flying on to her, drenching her pillow and pyjamas.

Cursing at the water alarm clock and at herself for sleeping in, Hermione sat up and shook her wet hair like a dog as droplets went everywhere. She looked over her dressing room table to see the time was exactly '8:23' which meant that Harry and Ron would be there any minute.

Having packed at one o' clock that morning hoping that the packing would make her sleepy, all Hermione had to do was get ready. She shoved on the clothes she'd laid out on the end of her bed at 3 o' clock (again hoping it would make he sleepy) she quickly brushed her hair, wished she hadn't used all of her Silver Moon's Famous Hair Straightening Cream the day before and munched down the remains of her Bertle and Gertle's cereal. She brushed her teeth in five seconds flat, just in time to hear a knock at the door.

She had been so rushed that morning that she had forgotten where she was actually going today she greeted Harry and Ron who were both standing on the doorstep, Ron dressed head-to-toe in orange, obviously ready to support his beloved Cannons and both of them carrying large suitcases (Ron's appropriately orange)

Sarah, who was going to accompany them on their journey, arrived a few minutes later, arrived looking rather smashing in a purple dress. Ron was immediately smitten by her and straight away offered to carry her luggage for her, even though he already had his to manage. Sarah politely declined however thought he was very sweet and the two were quickly lost in conversation about the Cannons however Sarah believed Puddlemere to be a better team. Ron said she only liked them because Wood played for them but Sarah protested saying she thought the team better. This quickly turned into a hot debate so Harry and Hermione shuffled them out of the house locking the door behind them.

All four of them made their way down the street, struggling with their large cases and looking a little suspicious to any muggles who may have been around.

They were taking the 'old fashioned' transport of portkeys and luckily for them, they only had to walk a couple of streets before arriving in a big park, with lot's of big trees and bushes around.

The search was on to find what they were looking for, an emptg, squashed soft drink can and soon enough after about five minutes of pottering, Ron held it up triumphant.

They gathered around nervously, each holding their suitcase in one hand and putting a finger on the can with the other. They looked a bit strange all gathered around in a circle but nobody saw them. Finally, as the hand on Hermione's wrist watch turned onto 9 o' clock, they all felt that unforgettable hand sort of reach inside their stomach and jerk them into the portkey.

A few moments later. They arrived at the Quidditch World Cup Stadium.