Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
"That was a lie Harry," Hermione said sharply as she walked with Harry and Ron to breakfast the next morning. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting, and you know it."
Harry had told Hermione and Ron about the letter he had penned to Sirius that morning, telling him that he was fine, his scar probably hadn't really hurt, and that Sirius should stay abroad.
"So what? He is not going back to Azkaban because of me."
Hermione opened her mouth to argue some more; didn't Harry realize that Sirius just wanted to help him out? He didn't get much time with Harry, and she knew that bothered the older man.
"Drop it," Ron snapped at her when she made to speak again. She stopped walking, hurt trickling through her veins, and didn't bother to say good-bye when she walked over to sit next to Katie.
She was glad it was her morning to sit with the twins. She knew the boys wouldn't mind her joining them 'unscheduled' but she didn't want to bother their friends.
Although, sometimes she felt like they might be becoming her friends as well. She found out that Katie was a Half-Blood; her mother was a Muggle, and the girls had bonded a little over that.
That morning, they talked about Muggle books they were both rather fond of.
Fred was particularly happy to see them getting along. He didn't like how lonely she looked in the mornings with them.
When it was time to go to class, Hermione got up to follow Harry and Ron. George elbowed Fred roughly in the ribs, who nearly leaped out of his seat and over to Hermione.
"Can I walk you to class?" he asked, offering his arms to the brunette. She laughed but took his arm, and he told lame jokes the entire walk to Moody's classroom.
"Good luck 'Mi," the redhead said ambiguously with a wink. Hermione wanted to question what he meant, but he was already halfway down the hall.
xXxXxXxXx
"You're hopelessly pathetic, you know that mate?" George plopped down into the seat beside the daydreaming Fred at Charms; just moments after Fred had left Hermione at Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Hmm?" Fred mumbled, not really having heard what George said.
"Just tell her you fancy the pants off of her already will ya?"
Fred gave his head a shake and turned to stare at his twin. "What are you on about Gred?"
"Hermione, you dimwit!"
Half of the people sitting in the classroom turned to look at the twins, curious expressions on their faces.
Fred and George smiled together, and eventually everyone turned away. Once they did, Fred picked up his Charms books and whacked George on the head with it.
"Say it a little louder; I don't think everyone in Wales heard you!" Fred hissed.
George chuckled. "Sorry mate, but you gotta admit you're mad about her."
Stubbornly, Fred turned away from his twin and picked up his wand, staring at Flitwick while he waited for the lesson to start. Still chuckling, George followed Fred's lead.
xXxXxXxXx
Hermione, Ron, and Harry were walking back inside the school after Care of Magical Creatures, still laughing at Hagrid's threat at Malfoy, when they noticed the mass of students grouped together around a sign in the entrance hall.
Ron, being the tallest of the bunch, pushed through the crowd as best he could and read the sign to the others.
Triwizard Tournament
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half and hour early –
"Brilliant!" said Harry. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.
Over the next week, the Triwizard Tournament was all anyone could talk about. Hermione was tired of hearing about it by the time the 30th of October finally rolled around. She sighed as they went down to breakfast the morning the other schools would be arriving.
It was her morning to sit with Ron and Harry, though the moment she sat down at the table the twins were sitting one on each side of her
"McGonagall is being tight-lipped as ever about who the Tournament judges are," George complained, reaching for the sausage.
"You boys still aren't thinking of entering, are you?" Hermione asked, exasperated. She couldn't even begin to remember the number of times she had warned them against it.
"Course we are Mi," said Fred like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's completely –"
"Oh let it go Hermione," Ron said around a mouthful of eggs.
Hermione gave a short huff, but dropped the subject.
"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" said Ron thoughtfully, picking back up on the subject a few quiet moments later. "I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done loads of dangerous stuff before…"
"Not in front of a panel of judges," Fred pointed out sullenly. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."
"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.
"The heads of the other schools, plus ours," said Hermione.
"How do ya' know that?" George asked, looking as surprised as the others.
"Because all three of them were injured during the 1792 Tournament, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on a rampage."
She sighed impatiently when she saw them all looking at her. "It's all in Hogwarts, A History. Though, that book isn't always reliable. A revised History of Hogwarts would be more accurate. Or A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School."
"What are you on about?" asked Ron, though both twins were shaking their heads furiously, already knowing what she was talking about.
"House elves!" said Hermione, her eyes flashing. "Not once, in over a thousand pages does that book mention we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"
Ron rolled his eyes towards the autumn sky ceiling, while Harry busied himself with his eggs. Both boys have paid the two Sickles for a badge, but they had only done it to keep her quiet.
It hadn't quite worked that way.
Fred and George (or Fred, at least, dragging George behind him) had tried to help out, at first, wearing their badges every so often and handing out leaflets when Hermione turned her big, brown eyes on them, but after the first hundred people laughed in their face, it quickly got old.
They just didn't have the heart to tell her.
"Listen Hermione," George said, slinging his arm around her shoulders and leaning in as though he was about to tell her a secret. "Have you ever been down to the kitchens?"
"Of course not," Hermione said curtly.
"Well we have," said George, referring to him and Fred. "We've been loads of times, to nick food. We've met the elves Hermione, and they're happy. They think they're got the best job in the world."
"That's because they've been brainwashed!"
"Mi…" Fred shot Hermione a warning look, and she sighed.
"Fine, I'll stop. But this conversation is not over…"
"Eat your toast," Fred said, shoving a piece into her mouth. She glared at him, and he shrugged, grinning impishly.
The moment was broken when a sudden whooshing sound alerted everyone in the Hall of the arrival of the post owls.
Hermione watched Harry scrambled for the letter tied to Hedwig's leg the moment the snowy owl landed on the table. She waited impatiently for Harry and Ron to finish it, before they passed it over for her to read.
Nice try, Harry.
I'm back in the country and well hidden. I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. Don't use Hedwig, keep changing owls, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself. Don't forget what I said about your scar.
Sirius
"Why would he have to keep changing owls?" Ron asked Hermione in a low voice once she put the letter down.
"Hedwig'll attract too much attention," she answered at once. "She's not exactly a native bird, is she?"
Harry and Ron both seemed to accept that answer. Harry was quiet, thoughtful, through the rest of breakfast.
xXxXxXxXx
There was a pleasant buzz of anticipation and excitement in the air for the rest of the day as the students of Hogwarts waited for the arrival of the other schools. When the bell rang early, cutting Potions short, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all went up to Gryffindor Tower to deposit their things and get their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs to the entrance hall, where the Heads of Houses were trying to get their students to line up.
McGonagall ordered people to fix various things about their appearances as she moved up and down the line, obviously tense. Finally, they were ready to go outside to wait in front of the castle.
"Hello, doll."
Hermione turned around to see Fred and George approaching her. She paused in her steps to wait for them, putting some distance between her and Harry and Ron.
"You know George, some girls find the term 'doll' offensive. How on earth will you get Angelina fall for you like that?"
Angelina Johnson, who was standing only a few paces away from them, spun around when she heard her name, but turned back to her conversation with Alicia when she couldn't spot who said it.
Fred immediately burst into rambunctious laughter, and Hermione quickly followed, with George pouting sullenly.
"Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, quiet!" McGonagall snapped at them. Hermione quieted immediately, not used to being scolded by a teacher (other than Snape) and glared at Fred. He shrugged and winked at her. It took all of Hermione's self-control to not burst into another fit of giggles.
Suddenly, Dumbledore's voice near the back of the crowd set everyone into a frenzy when he announced that Beauxbatons was approaching.
Hermione looked around a bit, not seeing the large, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriages until they were nearly landed. The golden horses, with hooves the size of dinner plates, landed with an almighty crash, the large carriage following a second later.
Then, the door was opened to reveal the largest woman any of them had ever seen.
Dumbledore greeted her as Madame Maxine, and with a heavy French accent she excused herself and her students into the castle to warm up.
"Someone should set her up with Hagrid," Fred whispered to Hermione once the Beauxbatons lot was inside, and Hermione stifled a giggle in her scarf.
Durmstrang's entrance was just as exciting, as a giant ship emerged from the Black Lake. The students filed off with their Headmaster, Karkaroff. He said his hellos to Dumbledore, before herding one of his students inside.
"You don't mind, Dumbledore? Victor has a slight head cold…"
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students.
Everyone, even Hermione, who didn't follow professional Quidditch in the slightest, recognized him.
From her spot a few feet away, she heard Ron hiss something at Harry.
"Harry – it's Krum!"
Bring on the torches and pitchforks, I deserve them! Over a week without a new chapter is awful of me, I know, but I was horribly busy with homework, and then my job, and this got placed on the back burner. But it's here, and since I'm posting it in the last few minutes of Christmas, consider it a present, from me to all of you lovely readers. I am on Christmas vaca, so you should be getting at least one chapter every two days.
Don't forget to cast your vote guys; is Fred taking Hermione to the Yule Ball, or is he sweeping her off her feet and away from Victor that night?
Merry Christmas!