Collecting Jewel Shards - chapter 2

Hey Everyone! The chapters should be getting longer now for the rest of the story. So there won't be anymore the size of the prequel and first chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, faves, and follows! Makes me so happy that you're enjoying this!

Also, fourth year will be relatively the same in the books in the main plot point with Harry going though the trials and such. I'm still going to change things of course, but it won't screw up that timeline, much. The dialouge will all be differrent (i can't write straight cannon, as you can probably tell from the first paragraph). It being in Hermione's view will make huge changes as well. And there will be an implied Hermione Fred as well. Just wanted to give you all a fair warning.

"Wake up!" She shouted for the first time since speaking in a normal tone wasn't working with the two teenage boys. The two finally jolted up, eyes wide looking bugged out and staring at her. Well Harry looked at her for a second before reaching for his glasses so that he wouldn't see just a blur of colors. Ron on the other hand started gaping like a fish and grabbing onto his blankets to tug them up around his chest. Not that it was an issue, there was nothing paticularily stunning for Hermione to gawk at.

"What the bloody hell Hermione? Do you know how early it is? Ron said after getting over the inital shock of seeing her standing there in his room.

"It's only early to couch potatoes Ronald." She quipped causing Harry to laugh-though it sounded tired-and Ron to look confused at the muggle refrence.

He shook his head. "When did you get here anyways?"

"Last night. It was midnight. Come on, you two get up. Your father said we're leaving in twenty minutes so be fast about it." She clapped her hands for emphasis, okay it was to scare him back to the waking world cause Ron looked ready to pass out again. He gave her a grumpy look as she spun on her heel and walked from the room closing the door shut behind her.

"You heard her Ron, out of bed." She heard Harry say before it closed sompletely to block off whatever the Weasely's response was. Probably something else on the grumpy side. Ron definetly wasn't a morning person.

Hermione hurried down the steps who's edges sometimes seemed to twist at an angle to not only attach to the wall but practically melt into it. The odd angles and cranies of this house were simply fascinating to look at at times. She didn't take the time today though with only nineteen minutes on the clock. Her feet hit the bottom rung before she entered the kitchen.

"You get them up?" Mr. Weasely asked glancing up from the packed bag he was checking through.

"Yeah, though Ron was a bit reluctant." Hermione replied walking over towards the table wondering where Ginny had gone. She had been here before she left to get the boys.

"As long as they get down here in time." Ron's father said turning back to the pack and going back to the task at hand.

"Hey Hermione," a voice said from behind her and she glanced up to see one of the twins. "you ready for today? It's going to be bloody fantastic!" He grinned like a bloody maniac.

She smiled with a laugh. "Hey, Fred. I keep hearing that but no one is telling me what's going on." Hermione said adding on a little pout and gave a kicked-kitten look for added effect. Fred looked shocked that she didn't know what was going on and slightly torn inside at her expression but his twin beat him to the punch-line.

"Well then we'll have to fill you in!" George said coming through the front door having heard her comment.

"World Wizard's Quiditch Cup!" They announced together in that weird way only twins could match eachother syllable for syllable. Sometimes it was creepy how in synch they were.

Her face brightened immedietly at the uncovered secret. "That sounds great!"

"Not just great-" "Exciting!" "Thrilling!" "Amazing!" The twins continued to play off each other trying to best the other with an more impressive word. Hermione was holding onto her stomach soon laughing trying to supress the urge to fall to the floor and roll around when Harry and Ron got down the stairs to hear the latest 'impressive like word'. "Gasm-Attack!" She burst into another round of laughter and Fred smiled triumphantly at his choice.

Ron stared at his brother from the stairs. "That's just-wrong!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. This just made Hermione laugh harder though.

"Fred!" So named boy got hit in the back of the head. "Don't use that kind of language in my house!" Mrs. Weasely said pulling her hand holding a roll of newspaper down to put on the kitchen table.

Fred frowned rubbing the back of his head. "I feel like an abused dog."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic Fred." Ginny said having come back into the room with her pack and a changed shirt. Their sister giggled anyways though turning to her parents.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Mr. Weasely asked looking around, Hermione dully noted that he hadn't said a thing about Fred's outburst and giggled softly before grabbing onto the pack she brought with her last night.

There was a chorus of, "Yes!"'s. Followed by Mrs. Weasely telling them all to be careful and safe; don't talk to strangers, stick with your father, all the things you expected to hear from a motherly woman who deeply loved her children and their friends as if they were her own.

"Okay then! Off we go!" Mr. Weasely announced with a smile, giving his wife a quick kiss on the cheek before leading the children outside.

They walked through the forest filling it with laughter and random topics of conversation. On the way they came across Mr. Diggory and his son, Cedric Diggory, who joined their party on the way to... Well, Hermione didn't know, she figured some location. They came to a small hill and hiked up it to where a boot lay on the ground.

She got excited. "We're using a port key to get there?" she asked glancing toward Mr. Weasely who nodded in the affirmative.

"What's a port key?" Harry asked but wasn't give time for an answer when Mr. Weasely told him to come over quickly and grab onto the shoe. Hermione already had her hand on it and when Harry set his hand on last the world seemed to disapear and spin around them in crazy shades of grey she didn't now were possible to make.

They had been barely spinning for five seconds around-and-around when Mr. Weasely shouted, "Let go!"

Hermione pulled her hand back to her body and away from the old boot yelling as she felt gravity take ahold of her. She could hear Harry, Ron, and Ginny's surprised screams and shouts as well around her. For a moment she thought she would be stuck in that world of spinning gray but everything came back together in a single moment like a snap of fingers and she yelled once more before she hit the grass below her. She groaned at the impact.

"Need help up?" Fred's voice came from above her and she glanced up, nodding she took his outstretched hand and he pulled her up to her feet keeping his arm slung around her waist for an extended second before letting go when she said a thank you and walked beside her.

The field in front of her was filled with wizards, witches, and their tents. Hermione gasped at the amount of people that had gathered for the event. She had realized there would be a lot but she had never seen this many wizarding folk gathered at once. It was an impressive sight to say the least. As they passed through the crowds on the paths between tents she spotted a wizard wearing a muggle nightgown of all things and giggled at the sight. That would have been a weird site for a muggle to see if he was trying to blend in he was doing the opposite considering it wasn't a male clothing.

Her focus came back to where they were as Mr. Weasely ducked down into an open tent after announcing they were here. She glanced at the small tent then to Fred who smiled at her before disapearing behind the flap. Hermione followed him inside eyes going wide at the size of the tent inside. It was like a small house! Bigger than those vacation cabins in the woods that her parents used when camping. "This is amazing!" she said running after Ginny towards a pair of beds to dump her bag on the one next to her friend before throwing herself onto it. She sighed at the immediate relief she felt for her muscles after having to walk, then hit hard surfaces and more walking.

Ginny laughed at her reaction even though she had collapsed on the bed she had claimed as well.

She flipped onto her back. "I feel rejuvenated!" Hermione announced popping right back up from the bed, feet hitting the floor with an extra bounce. To her right Ginny burst into laughter and she smiled over at her friend, hearing comments across the room and other laughter from the boys about whatever those four were talking about. Mr. Weasely on the other hand was being quite for now putting stuff away.

The noise drifted to the back of her head like static and she considered telling her friends of what her parents had told her the other day. But, considering part of it was that both her real parents were dead she pushed the thought down. She didn't want to put a sour mood to this air.

She spun to face Ginny to see she was still smirking at her. "What's so funny?" Hermione asked causing the girl to laugh again for some reason. She frowned wondering how that question was funny. Tilting her head back she felt something brush against her hair and blinked. She craned her neck back to look up at a grinning Fred. "What are you doing?" she asked before catching sight of his fingers and the figure they made. Bunny ears. She huffed trying to look irritated but it was hard with that smiling face looking down at her while making the ears hop along her head. A small laugh split past her lips before she just let it go.

Most of the rest of the day went by with similar events. George and Fred doing tricks making everybody laugh. Hermione talked with Ginny with wild vigor to catch up on her friend's summer. She even taught her the hot-patty-cake muggle game. The boys laughed at their antics and Harry stated that he could never figure out why girls played such games that basically had to do with clapping and singing funny phrases. Ginny had stuck her tongue out at him when he said that.

Eventually they had slightly resembled the phrase, 'settled down'. One side of the tent did anyways. Fred was laying on his back on one of the beds. Hermione looked up spotting him from within the kitchen, getting up she walked over and hopped ontop of her bed-the one he resided on. "You realise who's bed you're on?" she asked.

"Sharing is caring." Fred stated very seriously. Hermione laughed and reached out a hand to start rubbing the back of his head. "What are you doing? Not making bunny ears or aligator teeth in revenge I hope."

"Nope. I'm just petting the abused puppy on his abused wittle head." Hermione replied sneaking in a baby voice at the end.

"Alert the sarcastic aurors! Miss Granger here has a sense of humor!" Fred shouted bringing attention to the two. Hermione withdrew her hand quickly and the others began laughing as she beat at him with her fists.

That had ended soon enough when it got dark and Mr. Weasely had them all get out and followed them around to various stands with the Irish's team gear. Hermione ended up getting a hat while Ron went looking for the opponents stuff decking himself up in red.

The group got up to the stands once everyone got something. She watched the games from the top stand with the others surrounding her. Fred leaning over occasionaly to tell her the name of a player that scored and whatnot. She listened enthusiastically, eyes glued to the game that played out infront of her.

It took some hours but the Irish team won and they walked down the stands and back to the tent laughing in glee. Inside the tent they held a grand celebration going back to joke-making. Ginny took the cake when she said Ron was in love with Victor Krum, the opposing team's seeker. Mr. Weasely disapeared outside afterwards.

"That was a great game." Hermione said with a grin taking a sip from a fruit shake she had made in the kitchen ten minutes ago. Fred had done the honors of adding in kiwi to alter her main color of orange giving it a sunburst look. The drink had been dubbed, Humor Galore Sunrise. Hermione punched him in the shoulder after realising that he was still joking about earlier events.

Fred was feigning injury when his father came in with a serious face. "All of you, get out now. We need to evacuate."

"What's going on?" Ginny asked as a scream split throught the air entering the tent easier now that they weren't making as much noise. Her face paled and George grabbed onto his sister's arm to steady her.

"Death Eaters, we need to move. Quickly! I want you all to get back to the port key!" He urged before disapearing back out the tent.

They sprung into action. George and Fred took off with Ginny at their father's request. Harry glanced at her and she grabbed his arm before diving out into the mess outside the tent. Even at a glance she could tell it was in absolute chaos. Tents were on fire, balls of flame arced through the air from wands pointed at the sky to light up new ones. Even worse was the fact that above the group lighting everything ablaze with masks covering their faces was a family of muggles. A woman, man, and two children.

She gasped and looked to Harry who was looking in the direction as well his jaw set in anger. Their eyes met and an unspoke battle went on inside their heads as the wizarding community around them ran around screaming and fleeing. The argument was over when a witch jostled into them. Hermione tightened her grip on Harry's arm and he grasped for her wrist. With a death grip on each other they ran throught the crowd.

A tent to to their left exploded when a ball of fire hit it sending debris everywhere. Hermione yelped as some of the wood needles poked in her arms and stuck there. She shielded her face with an open palm, splinters skimming over the finger tips to get lost in her hair. They continued running after recovering. She didn't even spare Harry a glance just kept tugging him along.

Her balance was thrown off when her arm was tugged back painfully. Gasping she fell backwards seeing Harry already lying on the ground, his grip on her had gone slack and he looked out of it. In the next second she hit the ground, head impacting on a thin metal rod that usually kept the tents up. At least, that's how muggles did it.

Her thoughts dissapeared on the matter when her mind went blank.

She opened her eyes and might as well have coughed up a lung to the sound of her name being repeated over and over frantically. Harry sat next to her looking down at her. She could smell the smoke in the air and saw distant fires they hadn't gone out by themselves yet. Good thing there wasn't any wind tonight to carry the flames into the surrounding forest.

"Harry?" she said groggily making it come out as a question as she glanced around. "The Death Eaters left." she observed.

"Yeah." Harry said glancing nervously over his shoulder. Hermione raised her head to see him looking at a man standing amid the rubble who looked to the sky above. Her eyes went up to the gray clouds and her heart jumped into her throat at the sight of the skull with a snake slithering out from it's mouth. When she looked back to the destroyed tents the man was gone. Harry was staring at the space as well.

The air erupted around them a moment later and Hermione practically screamed in terror that it could be the Death Eaters again, coming back for Harry after realising he hadn't made it out. The two stayed where they were, on the ground, low enough for the stupefy's to miss.

"Harry! Hermione!" She looked up having ducked her head down trying to hide her face but raising it back when she heard Mr. Weasely's voice. It wasn't the Death Eaters but Ministry members.

"Who summoned it?" Barty Crouch ran up to them, standing next to Mr. Weasely who looked baffled at the question.

"They are children!" Mr. Weasely said sounding exasperated.

"Then who?" Crouch demanded, his eyes wide with a sort of crazy fear that sent the hairs on Hermione's arm on end.

"A man." Hermione said quickly and Harry nodded continuing for her,

"He was over there." he pointed to where said man had stood not long ago.

The minister looked shaken then shouting for the others to follow him hurried over to the place and the general area to begin a search.

"Who did you two see?" Mr. Weasely asked looking back at them now that the others had left.

Hermione tried to recall his face while Harry said a, "I don't know." She came back up with the man but she didn't recognize him and echoed her friends answer. She added on though, "He had about shoulder length blonde hair that was messy, looked unkept. Kinda like a homeless person."

Mr. Weasely nodded. "I'll see what I can do with that. You two hurry home I brought the port key back with me so use it to get there quickly and safely." With that he was off going after the other Ministry members.

The two did as they were told and went back to the Burrow using the port key. It was silent there even up to the next day, when they would be going back to Hogwarts. Mr. Weasely hadn't come back home so it was just Mrs. Weasely getting them all to the train station and seeing them off. Hermione waved absently from within the train. Harry and Ron as usual sat in the same compartment as her.

The ride was quiet back to school. Of course, at school-per usual-things got interesting right away. The whole school watched from the bridge and courtyard as a ship rose from the lake making water rain back down from it's hull. Carriages in the sky were manuevered by huge horses with wings, pegasi. Hagrid attempted to direct the beasts down to a landing and had to jump out of the way so he didn't get hit by a teetering carriage. Laughter filled school at the sight.

It was in the Great Hall later that they found out what that had been all about. Dumbledore announced from the podium-more or less of sorts-that there was a tournament being held at the school called the Tri-Wizard Tournament and that two schools were joining them this year too compete in this tournament between schools. Beauxbatons entered in a florish with spinning and flipping. Durmstrang was more aggressive and drew a pheonix into the air with fire.

After the grand entrances Dumbledore preceaded to reveal the Goblet of Fire. It was to be used for choosing a Champion from each school. You would throw a piece of paper inside with your name on it. Of course you had to be seventeen and this fact made the school erupt in words against this rule. They were silenced quickly and told to put names in-those that could anyay-before this time tomorrow night. With that they were dismissed.

Hermione practically flew up the stairs excited to be back at Hogwarts but also excited about the plans she had come up with. She spent no time in the common room, going straight to her dorm, she could hear Ginny's footsteps following her. "What are you rushing here for?" The younger Gryfindor asked.

Glancing at a roll of parchment she had retrieved she looked up at Ginny. "I'm adopted," she turned back to the parchment after seeing Ginny's shocked face and started writing the letter. "my.. adoptive parents told me just before I arrived at the burrow. Mom thinks they're both from wizarding community." She smiled as the thought of never being called a mudblood again surfaced and she broke out in a grin. "So, I'm going to contact the Department of Marriages, Deaths, and Births."

"You're looking for your real parents then?" Ginny asked coming out of the shock to smile.

"Actually, I was put up for adoption because they're dead. Well, my mom was at the time not sure about my dad. I'm going to get answers about that too. I'll be able to see my orginal birth certificate and everything." Hermione dipped her quil back into the ink bottle before continuing to write. "Can I borrow your owl to deliver it?" She asked glancing back up over at Ginny while her hand continued to move along it's course.

"Yeah." Ginny replied dropping down into her bed next to Hermione's watching as she wrote the letter then helped her have the owl take it to go deliver the message.