They were sitting in the Great Hall, and the feast was about to begin. but first Dumbledore had some announcements
"This year, Hogwarts will be hosting 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 Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard tournament" said Dumbledore, the whole hall broke in whispers
Jack was eying the professors table, he was going through each professor and checking him carefully, trying to detect any weird behavior
"and this castle will be the home of two other schools which will compete in the tournament" and the whispers increased "each student who would like to compete should be older than seventeen years old" said Dumbledore, there was a disappointments groans, and the twins started to plan how they're going to sneak themselves to the tournament.
"I also would like to introduce a new staff member" said Dumbledore "Remus Lupin, will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor" said Dumbledore and some of the students including Harry, Ron, Jack and Hermione, stood up clapping.
"and now, let the feast begin" said Dumbledore, and the food started to appear on the empty plates
"what is the Triwizard tournament?" asked Harry
"It's a competition between three schools, each school has its champion, and the three champions should pass three missions, and the winner will get fame, honor, eternal glory, and thousand galleons" Jack answered, normally, not even excited
"Fame, Honor, Eternal glory, and thousand Galleons?" asked Ron "I have to enter the tournament" said Ron
"You can't do that Ron, you're still under the legal age" said Hermione
"I'll find a way to put my name anyway" said Ron
"Dumbledore won't let that happen" said Jack
"and besides, it's too dangerous, they used to run the tournament long ago, but stopped because of the increasing rate of deaths" said Hermion
Ron and Harry looked horrified, although Ron kept speaking about how much he would like to enter the tournament, while Harry just said he doesn't need fame, honor, or eternal glory
Jack was still searching for any weird behavior from his professors, and especially Remus, since he's the defense teacher, but still couldn't find anything, he's going to watch.
The feast was over and they went up to their dorms, Hermione gave Jack a goodnight hug, Harry wrote to Amelie about his first day at his school, without mentioning magic, and then everybody went to sleep.
-21-21-21-
On nineteenth September, Harry, Ron and Jack woke up, wore their robes, and went down to the common room to find an excited Hermione waiting for them
"Good Morning" she said excitedly
"Good Morning" replied the three of them, she looked a little bit disappointed
"Isn't today a beautiful day?" she asked
"yes, it is" said Jack
"let's get down to breakfast" said Harry
"I'm starving" said Ron
They all went down to the Great Hall, Hermione still look disappointed and frustrated
"Oh, what is the date today?" she asked, pretending she doesn't know
"it's eighteen maybe?" asked Harry
"No, nineteen" Jack corrected him and continued eating
Hermione looked as she was going to broke in tears, but turned to her plate instead and started to eat her breakfast why putting all of her anger in the omelet in front of her
The rest of the day, Hermione spent it talking about how the day was beautiful and special, but Jack, Harry, and Ron weren't too cooperative
At the end of the day, before dinner, she was on the verge of tears, when Jack approached her, she looked up hopefully
"Hermione, I wish to talk to you about something" he said
"What is it?" she asked, trying not to look disappointed
"Not here" he said "follow me"
She followed him silently, until they arrived to the portrait of a wizard teaching trolls how to dance, she then broke in tears, she couldn't handle them anymore
"What's wrong, Hermione?" he asked her silently, as he turned to face her and got closer
"What's wrong?! WHAT'S WRONG?!" she shouted "today is my birthday and you didn't tell me 'Happy Birthday' even, what kind of a boyfriend are you?"
Jack didn't say anything, he turned his face away paced the corridor two times or three, and then a door appeared from nowhere in the wall, he opened the door
"After you," he said and bowed slightly as he offered his hand, she froze in her place, what's going on? When she didn't respond, he looked up at her "Would you?" he asked
She took his hand, and he lead her to an empty room except from two chairs, a table with candle on it, and the dinner which Jack had managed to bring earlier from the kitchens, she was a little bit shocked, and a little bit embarrassed after all the shouting outside
"I'm the kind of boyfriends who like to get their girls mad for nothing" he smirked at her "Happy Birthday, Hermione"
She froze in her place not knowing what to do or to say, Jack pulled a chair and offered it to her, she walked slowly not sure, and sat down, then he sat facing her
"Did you do that?" she asked
"Yes" he said, as he filled her plate first
"Why?" she asked
"didn't you like it?" he said, looking at her still smirking
"Of course, but…" she was starting
"I wanted to surprise you!" he said "Harry and Ron presents will be waiting for you when you get back to the dorm, while mine…" he stopped
"What?" she asked
"I'll give it to you myself" he said, as he pulled the present from underneath the table, it was a ginger cat
"Thank you, you didn't have to" she said, still embarrassed of her burst out a minutes ago
"Of course I didn't have to" he looked at her smirking "his name is Crookshanks" he told her
"He's lovely, thank you"
"You're not eating"
"So, Ron and Harry as well pretended to forget my birthday?"
"Yes, I wouldn't like to be the only one pretending"
"You're still not eating"
She started to eat, while having a conversation with Jack, when suddenly, a music started to play, both of them searched for the source, it was some instrumentals, that weren't there a minute ago
"From where did those come from?" asked Hermione
"I don't know, but it seems like the room wants us to dance" he stood up and offered his hand "would you honor me with a dance?" he asked
"But I don't know how to dance" she said
"I'll teach you" he said and smiled with reassuring
She took his hand as she blushed a little, they started to dance, he showed her how to do it, and she really enjoyed it, they were dancing and talking in the same time
"So, what kind of room is this" she asked
"It's the room of the requirements, or the come and go room" said Harry "it forms its shape according to the user needs"
"So it changes from the inside according to the user? It's not mentioned in Hogwarts : A History" she asked
"Yes, I already used it once before" he said "I wanted to hide something, and it suddenly appeared, but as a room with a lot of hidden stuff that generations of Hogwarts students hid in it" he answered "and there's a lot of books in it, and it's not mentioned in the book because it's one of the castle secrets" he added
"I would like to see it, in the form of the hidden things room" she said
"Now?" he asked
"No, another time" she said, as she looked into his eyes that were green at the moment
"I like your eyes better when they are dark blue" she said and smiled, he as well smiled, blushed and turned his eyes to dark blue, their original color
"Better?" he asked smiling at her
"A lot" she said, and they looked in each other eyes for a while
"I love you, Hermione" said Jack, his bright smile shining
"I love you too, Jack" she replied, and blushed slightly
They kept looking in each other eyes, she wished it could last forever, and then they started to get closer, feeling their breathes on each other faces, and their lips met.