Chapter 3 Return To Hogwarts

Hermione slept soundly the night of the task. After she had returned to the clearing with Barty, a vast majority of the death eaters congregated before apparating to Malfoy manor in order to celebrate their small victory. Draco and Hermione had taken part in the drinking, the feast and the conversations and partying that followed.

It wasn't until the next morning that, after being awake for a while, Hermione found herself subject to questioning by the Malfoy's.

Hermione had been sitting in the larger lounge with Draco reading the books they acquired a Diagon alley when Narcissa and Lucius burst in, a sullen looking Barty trailing behind.

"What on earth happened last night? Why did we not find out until just now of your endeavours with Potter?" Narcissa stared directly at Hermione as she spoke, concern evident in her crinkled features.

Lucius, who had previously been lurking behind Narcissa, stepped forward.

"Tell us what happened."

He spoke rather sternly, as he paced about in front of the burning fireplace that warmed the semi-circle of chairs surrounding it.

"Well Barty had said there was something he needed to do, he disappeared off after conjuring the dark mark and I hadn't noticed. It wasn't until I realized he was gone that Potter approached me, he must have misplaced his bravery again, and I held him back until his friends showed up then ran after Barty."

Lucius nodded in response to her quick retelling, seating himself in one of the large armchairs and beckoning Barty and Narcissa over.

"You aren't hurt or anything then, Hermione?" Narcissa asked, sitting next to the puzzled looking brunette.

"Nope, it's not like he could land a good spell in my direction anyway."

With the Malfoy patron and matriarch satisfied that she hadn't given any indication as to who she was and that she wasn't hurt, Hermione was left to a wide-eyed, open mouthed Draco and several demands for a retelling of her escapades with the golden boy.

The rest of the summer passed peacefully for Hermione. Together with Draco she learned many new offensive and defensive skills in order to make their task for the year as easy as possible.

The peace of the last few days of their summer, however, was broken into tiny pieces as the day they were set to leave for Hogwarts finally once again arrived.

With all of their belongings, new and old, collected and packed into their trunks Hermione and Draco sat one more time with Lucius and Narcissa in the privacy of Malfoy manor. The sat in a room Hermione had never been in before. The room was overly large and elegantly decorated, with marble floors, giant bookcases stretching all the way up one wall and covering every inch that wasn't a door way. A large table took up approximately one half of the room, while three large couches surrounded a low wooden coffee table, where the four sat.

"There isn't much we really need you to think about doing at the moment..." Lucius began, briefly sliding his wand from the can grasped firmly in his hand to light the fire before them. "Right now we just need you to keep an eye on Kakaroff. As soon as Harry is entered into the tournament, we need you to contact us."

"Yes, father. How will we be contacting you?" Draco asked, sitting up a little bit straighter than before.

"I've taken the liberty of having some floo powder packed in each of your trunks, you won't be able to transport yourself via the floo network undetected but you will however be able to talk to us through it. We'll have someone standing by at all times in the main library."

With nothing left to discuss and the Hogwarts express waiting for them, Draco and Hermione grasped hold of the wrists of the elder Malfoy's, apparating straight onto the platform, with the luggage dropped off moments later by one of the house elves.

"I'll go find a compartment" Hermione said, excusing herself after bidding farewell to Lucius and Narcissa. She wanted Draco to have a few moments with his family alone before having to leave. Not five minutes later, however, Draco marched into the compartment and slide the door closed before pulling the small blind over the window.

With their compartment closed off to everyone else Draco sat opposite Hermione, he then drew a small moving figure from his bag before enlarging it and casting a levitating charm on it.

"I brought this for practice" he stated offhandedly, pulling a book from his bag and opening it to a marked page. "I've been trying this new spell, all it says in the book is 'Expulso' it doesn't list wand movements or anything."

Hermione cast a silencing spell on their compartment, then pulled the book she had asked Draco to buy her from her bag and opened it to the contents page; looking up at the small human shaped object after she had done so.

"Expulso" she said, forcefully flicking her wand at the object as she did so, watching as the spell hit the object. For a second it seemed as if the spell had just been absorbed, but mere milliseconds later the object exploded into a million tiny pieces before re-assembling itself and taking the form of what Hermione could only assume was a dummy once more.

"It's just a little flick of the wrist." She smirked, turning to the first page of the book, satisfied with Draco's dumbfounded confusion.

Paying no more attention to Draco, Hermione began reading the first few interesting looking paragraphs in the book.

The Rise of the Dark Lord

Lord Voldemort spent fourteen years before the War gathering followers in witches and wizards who called themselves, collectively Death Eaters. Some were supportive of his cause to dominate Muggles and muggle-borns; while others were greedy for domination, wealth and fame; and yet others joined the Dark Lord out of fear. Voldemort considered them more like servants than friends or family. They freely used the unforgivable curses and killed mercilessly and indiscriminately.

At some point around this time, Voldemort greatly enhanced his skills in Legilimency to the point that he became known as the greatest Legilimens in the world. Hence, Voldemort could read, control and unhinge the minds of others, and could almost always tell when he was being lied to.

First Wizarding War

The Dark Mark, Voldemort's symbol that first appeared during the First Wizarding War.

In 1970, Voldemort started the first wizarding war by taking advantage of the wizarding world's greatest weakness: the beings and creatures that they had outcast. The Dark Lord recruited the giants who had long ago been driven by wizards into the mountains, and werewolves, who were persecuted by most witches and wizards. Many feared the goblins would also join him, as they were restricted from wand use, but it never happened. In fact, Voldemort would murder a family of goblins near Nottingham at some point during the War, for an unknown reason.

Aurors were authorised to use unforgivable curses on Death Eaters without warning and suspects were sometimes handed over to the Dementors without a Wizengamot trial. Many innocent people were locked away. For many years after, people were even afraid to speak his name, and he was referred to as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

Hermione read over these paragraphs quickly, she had prior knowledge of most of what the text could tell her so far, though she felt the description of the Death Eaters to be rather unfair considering how friendly they were to one another and herself, a muggle-born.

Captured, Killed in Battle, Murdered? Voldemort's closes recorded followers.

Bellatrix Black – Seepages 42-68 – Pleaded guilty in court of being Lord Voldemort's closest sergeant. Currently held in Azkaban.

Rodulphus and Rabastan Lestrange – See pages 69-86 - Found guilty of murder, and torture on behalf of Lord Voldemort; currently held in Azkaban.

Aileana and Kai Lutrinae – See pages 87-101 – Found guilty of following Lord Voldemort; killed during Auror raid on their property.

Alecto and Amycus Carrow – See pages 102-122 – Found guilty of murder and torture on behalf of Lord Voldemort; currently held in Azkaban.

The short description following the names of the Lutrinae's left Hermione feeling mildly distressed for reasons she couldn't quite hold down long enough to decipher. Something about "killed during Auror raid" didn't sit right with Hermione. She hadn't heard of any specific raids on houses during the war, certainly not with recorded deaths anyway.

She glanced up at Draco, who still held his wand firmly in hand trying to perfect the spell that Hermione had previously performed with ease. She watched him struggle for a moment, contemplating whether or not it would be wise to question Draco about the so called "Auror raid"; when he had been so concerned with his father knowing about the book in the first place. Taking that fact into account, Hermione decided it would be best to leave it and work her way through the book. Surely it wouldn't be listed without some kind of explanation later on.

Diving head first into reading the book, Hermione managed to read a good 40 pages before eventually Draco bothered her into helping him with the spell, which he still had not mastered by the end of the journey to Hogwarts even with the help of the young witch.

After the train had grinded to a halt and everyone had proceeded to shuffle their way onto the platform, Hermione grabbed Draco's wrist and dragged him through the crowd. The climbed into one of the waiting carriages, shortly followed by Crabbe and Goyle who seemed more interested in the stacks of cakes in their arms than Hermione and Draco.

After a slow trip to the castle, complete with horrifying mouth vacuuming skills and a large amount of cakes they were finally able to leave the carriage

The scene that followed proved all to amusing for Draco.

The two were walking in close proximity to Potter and his friends, keeping an eye on them and trying to eavesdrop, when a flying water bomb whizzed through the air, exploding on Ron's head, drenching a good amount of his upper body. The boy's face turned as red as his hair, but before Hermione could start laughing another water bomb burst near her feet sending a considerable tidal wave over Potter's feet and hers. She turned to glare at Peeves; the troublemaking ghost bowed at her and cackled. A few seconds later McGonagall came dashing into the hall; she skidded on the slippery surface near Harry and grabbed hold of Hermione to steady herself.

Hermione tensed at the old woman's clumsy grip and glared pulling away from her in order to brush herself off and dry her clothing. McGonagall seemingly ignored Hermione's glare, choosing instead to tell off Peeves and usher the students into the great hall.

"I can't believe she touched you" Draco said, after making silly retching noises while they walked.

"I just want to get this over with, I need to take a bath" Hermione pouted, a bout of tiredness coming over her.

Hermione tried her best to fend off the tiredness attempting to consume her during the short welcome from Dumbledore and the feast that appeared shortly after. She found the she couldn't eat much, as the feeling of fatigue that had lingered around the edges of her being had began creeping towards her core, hoping to take hold of her and not let go until she slept a thousand years.

The thought of sleeping for so long pleased her hazy brain.

Once the final crumbs of food had been demolished by hungry mouths, and the plates disappeared leaving behind only drinks on the long tables, Dumbledore rose to speak to them again. The dull buzz of chatter between house members died down, leaving the Slytherin's staring up at Dumbledore with barely hidden boredom.

"So!" said Dumbledore, his eyes sweeping back and forth across the room as he smiled down at all the students seated there." Now that you all should have satisfied thirst and hunger, I'd like to ask for your undivided attention, only for a short while now.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Hermione smiled faintly, not really enjoying quidditch herself this fact didn't bother her, unlike most other people in the room, who wouldn't know why the cup had been cancelled. Hermione glanced over at Draco, watching as he straightened his posture. This would bother him, she knew, but he took his job seriously and didn't let his disappointment show to anyone.

Dumbledore continued, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

But at that moment the doors to the Great Hall burst open, revealing a man leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak. Everyone in the great hall turn to stare at the stranger, eyes following him as he walked up to the teachers table.

The man's face was covered in all kinds of marks, and he had one eye replaced by what Hermione could only guess was a magical replacement.

As the man walked up to Dumbledore he extended his hand, which Dumbledore met half way between them. The muttered to each other inaudibly for a few minutes before the man left to sit at the large table.

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

Hermione fought off the blurriness creeping into her vision. She wondered to herself when they would be allowed to leave, and hoped it would be soon; though she knew it would not be.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore said, smiling at the sea of students before him "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

A moment of excited whispering followed the announcement, which quickly quietened in order for Dumbledore to continue speaking.

"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago, as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the Tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the Tournament was discontinued.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to re-instate the Tournament none of which have been very successful. However, our own Department of International Magical Co-operation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that, this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

A few of the Slytherin's, including Draco and Hermione sniggered at this, knowing all too well what kinds of tasks could possibly take place.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard cup, if they are 17 or older, the prize being a thousand galleons as well as the glory of their school."

The rest of Dumbledore's words fell on closed ears, as Hermione had slipped into her own little world thinking about what she had heard.

She finally understood how it would be difficult to enter Potter's name, and why the death eaters needed Kakaroff to do it.

Hermione exchanged quiet words with Draco on the subject while Dumbledore finished his speech, and raced from the great hall as soon as they were dismissed.

They had spells to learn, potions to brew, and classes to prepare for.

Authors Note:

Some of the story line may seem a little confusing at the moment but rest assured it will become crystal clear in future chapters.

I will refrain from explaining anything at the moment as it would lead to massive spoilers, but what is in store should be a nice surprise.

I will be moving shortly, I know not many people follow this story but for those of you that do I'd just like to apologize in advanced for slow updates, I have no idea when I will be moving, or when I will have internet in my new apartment, so again sorry in advanced.

BellamioneLove