Chapter Two

As Hermione walked into the Charms classroom, she could here the excited chatter. Spotting Harry and Ron with the other Gryffindors on the opposite side of the room, she waved at the and began to weave her way through the desks over to them. As she made her way towards them, something hit her arm, and she looked round to see Malfoy smirking at her, the Slytherin surrounding him laughing loudly. Glaring back, she sat down beside Lavender, who smiled sympathetically at her. "What a prat," she said. "Although his good looks do sort of make up for it," she giggled, and Parvati, who was sitting on her other side, agreed.

Turning to look back at Malfoy, Hermione frowned, as she realised they were sort of right. He had grown into his height, filling out into a tall, muscular young man. His eyes, which used to be sort of bulgy, had settled into his face, and the smouldering silver colour was rather enticing. His platinum blonde hair was ruffled into a sexy half-quiff.

Not sexy. Hermione shook herself. Malfoy would always be a ferret. And he was most certainly not sexy. Not even a little.

As she tried to convince her self of this, Dumbledore walked into the room, followed by some other professors, including McGonagall, and to Hermione's dismay, Snape. Clapping his hands, Professor Dumbledore, brought the students attention to himself.

"Students, students. Thank you for all joining me here, where I can begin to explain exactly what is going to commence in the next few weeks. You will be placed in teams of four, which Professor McGonagall will read out in a moment. These groups are non-negotiable, as they have been picked by myself, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape in order to really test your teamwork."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, stricken. There was no way they were going to be put together, being the famous golden trio. They would most likely be shoved with people they didn't even know very well, or liked. Hermione sighed. Perhaps this wasn't going to be as much fun after all.

Dumbledore continued his explanation. "Each team will compete against two other teams for the prize, which will be 500 galleons for each member and a week long holiday for the whole team in their chosen location. Each competition of three teams will be supervised by two members of staff/ other adult. Each competition will take place in a different place although all will be in the United Kingdom. I would now like to invite Professor McGonagall to read out the groups, their locations and their supervisors."

He smiled at Professor McGonagall, who stepped forward, producing a scroll from here pocket.

"Ahem. Listen up please.

Competition 1 Group A:

Neville Longbottom,

Hannah Abbott,

Michael Corner and

Tracey Davis.

Competition 1 Group B:

Mandy Brocklehurst

Lavender Brown

Wayne Hopkins and

Anthony Goldstein

Competition 1 Group C:

Padma Patil

Kevin Entwhistle

Susan Bones and

Dean Thomas

Competition 1 will be supervised by Professor Snape and Professor Sprout. You will be located in Edinburgh, staying at the Carlton Hotel. Please follow Professor Snape into the next classroom where you will be briefed further on what to pack and what to expect."

The students whose names had been called stood and followed Snape out of the room, chatting excitedly amongst each other. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she hadn't been separated from her friends just yet.

McGonagall continued to read out groups until most of the students had left the classroom.

"Now onto the last competition, Competition 4.

Competition 4 Group A:

Ron Weasley

Eloise Midgen

Luna Lovegood and

Terry Boot"

Hermione smiled encouragingly at Ron. It wasn't a bad group, in fact it was pretty good. Eloise was shy, but would be a great help if anything musical came up. Luna knew the bizarrest facts and she and Ron were friendly, and Terry was extremely clever, being a Ravenclaw.

"Competition 4 Group B:

Parvati Patil

Theodore Nott

Pansy Parkinson and

Harry Potter"

As the names were read out Hermione felt a feeling of dread creep into her stomach. Grimacing sympathetically at Harry for being stuck with Parkinson and Nott, she tried to work her way through who could be left.

The feeling of dread turned to full blown horror.

She couldn't. There was no way McGonagall would be that cruel. Would she?

"Competition 4 Group C:

Blaise Zabini

Daphne Greengrass

Draco Malfoy and

Hermione Granger"