I think I'm (finally) starting to get the hang of this 'regular updates' thing now!
Disclaimer: I'm starting to give up hope that it'll ever happen, because (as always) I still don't own Harry Potter or Fairy Tail.
"Hey, Erza?" Hermione said, catching the redhead's attention. "Who actually won the second task?"
Erza paused, a forkful of cake halfway to her mouth. "Oh yeah, you wouldn't know. We did, of course! After Rogue brought you up, it only took about thirty minutes for me to find Jellal and rescue him. The Hogwarts team took a bit longer, and they finished outside the time limit, but still rescued both their champions, so they came second. And Durmstrang came last - they only rescued one of their champions, and Petya returned outside the time limit."
Hermione grinned. "Hell yeah!" She said, and Lucy laughed.
"Are you forgetting that you're a Hogwarts student, 'Mione?" She said, and the brunette froze.
"I am, aren't I...damnit! Ah, but I have a guild mark as well, remember? Tigers for the win!" She pointed at her mark, and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Obviously Erza's going to win in the individual category! She's the most powerful girl in all of Mahoutokoro!" The blonde said, grinning.
Hermione smirked. "Weeeeell, if the goblet chose Erza because she's the strongest female wizard, wouldn't that make Rogue the strongest male? And anyway, the individual winner isn't decided by strength! I do hope Rogue wins, though."
Harry walked over, catching the last comment. "You wound me - truly!" He said dramatically, holding a hand over his heart.
"Ah, don't worry, Harry! I still want you and Cedric to win as a team, after all, I may be a Sabertooth member, but I'm also a proud Hogwarts student!" She pointed to the crest on her robes and grinned at her friend.
The group was distracted from their conversation when they heard a loud thud, followed by a strangled cry, and turned to see Enyo sat on top of Draco's friend, Blaise.
The tiger couldn't really be called a cub anymore - she'd grown so much that her head now reached halfway up Lisanna's arm, and when she stood on her hind kegs, she was the same height as Hagrid.
"Enyo! Bad girl!" Lisanna shouted, pulling her tiger off of Blaise. "Sorry about that!" She said sheepishly, helping him up. "I don't think we've met yet - my name's Lisanna."
Blaise kissed her hand, making her blush. "I am Blaise Zabini, a friend of Draco's."
Draco rolled his eyes at his friend's flirty nature. "Yeah, this is Blaise. Thought I might as well introduce him to you, seeing as I hadn't already." The blonde Slytherin suddenly tensed. "She's here..." He whispered, looking around nervously.
Suddenly, Shrimp flew out from under the table, tackling him. Draco rolled as he hit the floor, pinning the squirming youngling to the floor. "Aha, I've got you now!" He yelled triumphantly.
Shrimp just looked him in the eyes, and Draco would later swear she was smirking at him, as she breathed a small whirlwind of metal shards directly into his face.
"Ahhhhhh!" He screamed, jumping backwards to get away from it, and the dragon took the opportunity to jump on top of him, chirping her victory.
"Gihihi!" They heard a distinctive laugh and turned to see Gajeel and Levy walking towards them. "Shrimp still beating yah, Ferret?" He asked, smirking at the fallen Slytherin.
Levy rolled her eyes and picked the dragon up. "You really shouldn't encourage her, Gajeel!" She scolded him, though she was smiling widely.
"I swear you've bloody trained her to attack me!" Draco grumbled, brushing small pieces of iron off his robes as he stood up. He glared at the iron dragon-slayer, and his adoptive offspring before spying Meredy and walking off to join her.
"Jeez, he's such a drama queen sometimes!" Hermione sighed.
Lucy laughed. "Wouldn't you be if you were constantly being tackled by a dragon?" She asked, and Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"I am constantly being tackled by a dragon!" She replied, and as if this summoned her, Skiadrum flew out of the nearest shadow and curled her body around Hermione's shoulders like a scaly scarf.
"Point taken!" Lucy said, giggling. "Don't we need to be in potions soon?" The Gryffindors and Slytherins present stared at each other for a moment before grabbing their bags and running to the dungeons.
"Hey Levy! Tell Rogue Skiadrum's with me!" Hermione yelled as they left the hall.
"I think we're going to make it! We're going to make it!" Harry yelled.
"Mr Potter..." A voice drawled from the shadows, and Harry stopped, his shoulders slumping.
"Or not," he muttered.
"Go to your dormitories, now! All of you!" The potions professor said sharply. "Classes have been cancelled."
Draco made his way to the front of the group. "What's going on, Professor?" He demanded loudly.
Snape looked at him as though considering whether to tell them or not. "While on patrol earlier, Alastor Moody found the body of Mr Bartemius Crouch."
"When you say body..." Lucy trailed off, looking rather pale.
"Yes, Miss Heartfilia, he was dead. Now go, all of you!" He said, catching Hermione's eye and nodding almost imperceptibly.
Hermione mentally rolled her eyes - he had to leave it up to her to get away, didn't he? He couldn't just...give her detention or something?!
She walked quickly to catch up with Harry. "Hey, Harry, do you still have that map?" She asked, thinking quickly. She could borrow it and tell the others she was looking for a teacher, one that wasn't going to cross paths with them.
"Yeah, why 'Mione?" He asked, pulling the seemingly blank piece of parchment out. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said, and the others gasped, having not seen it before.
Hermione saw that McGonagall was outside, and snatched the map off of her friend. "Thanks, Harry, I just need to check with McGonagall about something really quickly - you lot go on without me, I'll be back soon!"
Harry nodded, and led the group away. When they were gone, Hermione glanced back at the map to make sure that Severus was still in the dungeons. When she saw that he was, she almost put the map away - but a certain name caught her eye. What was Barty Crouch, the man whose supposed dead body had been found earlier that day doing in Snape's office?
Hermione crept along the corridor and peeked through the door that was slightly open, seeing...Alastor Moody?! She checked the map again - it was still saying Barty Crouch. Something wasn't right...
As stealthily as she could, Hermione aimed her wand at the man. "Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Petrificus totalus! Incarcerous!" She yelled, using one of the spell-chains she had read about. The man's wand clattered onto the floor, and he fell forward.
Checking the map once again, just to be sure her eyes hadn't been playing tricks on her, Hermione saw that the man was still supposedly Bartemius Crouch. It also appeared that Severus had heard her, as he was quickly making his way down the corridor.
"Hermione! What's going on?" He said as he saw the other man on the floor.
Hermione turned to her professor. "Harry has a map that shows where people are in the castle, and when I took it as part of my excuse to come find you, I saw that someone was in your office - Barty Crouch!" She held out the map for him to see, and he frowned.
"Homonus revelio!" He said, pointing his wand at the frozen man, his eyebrows shooting up as 'Alastor Moody' began to change. Within a minute, the true identity of the man that lay before them was revealed, when Severus flipped him over and saw that face - one that he remembered from his days as a Death Eater.
"Well, Hermione. The map wasn't wrong after all. This man is Bartemius Crouch - Bartemius Crouch Junior, son of the now deceased elder Barty Crouch." He frowned. "I'm guessing that he was the one who killed the poor man, and then pretended that he had found his body. How the hell did he get out of Azkaban?!"
Hermione rolled her eyes as the man started to ramble. "You'd be better off asking these questions to the man himself - preferably under the influence of Veritaserum. You also might want to get a hold of Madame Bones, or at least a couple of aurors, so they can lock him up for now. I don't think Hogwarts is the safest place to hold an escaped criminal - and I doubt this one's innocent like Sirius!"
It was pure, dumb luck that Amelia Bones had been asked to come and investigate Barty Crouch Senior's death. Pure, dumb luck that she was the one who came down to the dungeons to find Professor Snape, the only teacher missing. And it was pure, dumb luck that she heard Hermione's last statement.
"Sirius?! As in Sirius Black?! He's innocent?!" She shrieked from the doorway.
Hermione and Severus spun round at the sound of her voice, and the professor rolled his eyes. "Of course he is! Didn't you ever notice that Black was never given a trial? That he was just thrown straight into Azkaban?" If anyone had told him just a year ago that he would be defending his childhood enemy, Severus Snape would have had them sent straight to St Mungos.
Hermione snorted, thinking the same as the potions master. "I think I'm going to sit this one out, if you don't mind - I've decided to make it a rule to only rescue one member of the Black family per week." She summoned a vial, and placed her memory of the night they found out the truth about Sirius in it. "Here you go, more lovely evidence for your department to pardon another wrongly accused Azkaban convict!"
She skipped, skipped, out of the door, leaving behind a shocked Madam Bones and amused Severus. "Damn Gryffindors," he muttered fondly. "Wonderful to see you as always, Madam Bones, and perfect timing. There's another criminal for you to take care of before Sirius Black - and this one actually did commit the crimes he's been accused of." He gestured towards Barty Crouch Jr's still body, patting the head of the DMLE on the back as he went to go find Albus and give the old coot a piece of his mind - yet another incompetent DADA teacher, and this one was a god damned murderer as well.
"I think I must be dreaming...yes, that's it, maybe I'll wake up and this'll all have been a bad dream..." Madame Bones mumbled to herself, levitating the younger Crouch's body behind her as she left the dungeons.
A/N - Hermione Granger; brightest witch of her age, and constant headache for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement... Poor Madame Bones, having to constantly clean up the Ministry's mess - but yay, Sirius' name will finally be cleared! Is that it? I think everyone who needs saving has been saved already (except for Moody but I'm sure Dumbledore will find him at some point).
Anyway, we're getting close to the end now, so review before it's too late •^_^•