The following morning—or more precisely later that morning—Hermione awoke with a hungover feeling, that she could only recognise from the time she had mistakenly drunken her mother's vodka instead of the lemonade she thought it was. Rolling from bed later than she usually would, but still earlier than Lavender and Parvati, she headed to the bathroom, intent on soaking the shower for as long as possible.

It was only once the her fingers had turned to wrinkly prunes did Hermione reluctantly pull herself from the rhythmic beads of water beating down upon her pounding head. In a fit of laziness, she exchanged her nightgown for a slightly rumpled loud floral blouse (taken from her mother's wardrobe) that she tucked into the waistband of her school skirt.

No sooner had sheet foot in the common room, did Victoria pounce on her looking far more alert than she ought to be. "Here, drink this" A goblet of bubbling potion was shoved into Hermione's hands and the familiar scent of a Hungover potion met her nostrils (it was like a cross between the Wiggenweld potion and a Pepper-up potion). Without a second thought, Hermione knocked back the viscous concoction, pulling a face as it went down her throat.

"Thanks" Hermione winced, handing the empty goblet back to Victoria as the two headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"No problem" Victoria grinned, "I remember my first Samhain, couldn't sleep for a week afterwards! It was great!"

"Something to look forward to, then?" The two witches shared a grin as they passed by a rather disgruntled Ron on the love seat; who made it his mission to ignore them (and Harry, if the hour he'd awoken was anything to go by) on their way out of the portrait hole.

"Oh! Speaking of looking forward! How's your Animagi training going?"

"Well the mandrake bit's over so that's great—" Hermione smiled, scrunching up her face in disgust at the memory of the curs'd leaf.

"Yeah, I hated that bit too!" Victoria laughed.

"—But, uh, I've been craving seafood a lot more than usual, lately. So I'm thinking some kind of piscivore?"

"Oh really? That's new" Victoria murmured, "The closest we already have to that, might be Ches or 'Medes…"

"What about Luna?"

"Uh, Luna's already a bit…"

"Odd?"

"I was gonna say free-spirited—! So it's a little harder for her, but she says she's taken quite a likening to carrots and lettuce lately, so maybe…?"

"What, are you thinking like a bunny or something?"

"Maybe, like I said, we still don't know"

"Oh well, at least she has some idea"

"Yeah, at least there's that"


Following a hearty breakfast of any and all hangover foods that Hermione could stomach, she wandered back up to the common room with several slices of toast in hand. Having seen Ron alone at breakfast was odd, usually he and Harry were joined at the hip—not that she was jealous of them or anything! And so she had resolutely ignored the morning's conversations which all revolved around one thing—Harry's entrance into the tournament—and the darkening of Ron's sour face as he glowered at his eggs and bacon; she had an idea of where Harry was.

Padding up the moving staircases, Hermione opened her mouth to give the password when she had to jump out of the way as the portrait door swung open to reveal a bleary-eyed Harry. "Hello" Hermione greeted holding up the stack of toast in her hands, "I brought you some toast…wanna go for a walk?"

"Good idea" Harry gratefully agreed.

They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall and quickly strode down across the lawn towards the Great Lake where the Durmstrang ship was moored, without sparing a glance towards the Great Hall. Hermione cursed herself for not wearing tights on this chilly morning as the two munched on their toast and Harry told her what was on his mind.

"…Well of course I knew you hadn't entered yourself" Said Hermione when he had finished his story about the chamber off of the Hall, "I mean you've got a massive hero complex—don't deny it—" Hermione snarked at Harry's look of offence, "—But the look on you face when Dumbledore read out your name! Anyway the real question is, who did put it in? Because Moody's right, y'know…I don't think any student could've done it…they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's—"

"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted. Hermione hesitated, a little annoyed at the interruption, but unsure of how to answer.

"Erm…yes…he was at breakfast" She said.

"Does he still think I entered myself?" Harry persisted.

"Well…no, I don't think so…not really"

"What's that s'posed to mean, 'not really'?"

"Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione despaired, "He's jealous!"

"Jealous?!" Harry repeated incredulously, "Jealous of what? He wants to make a complete prat of himself in front fo the whole school, does he?"

"Look" Hermione stopped in front of Harry, cutting him off from going any further, "It's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. And I know it's not your fault—" She added quickly seeing Harry furiously open his mouth to snap a retort, "—I know you don't ask for it…but—well—y'know, Ron's got all those siblings to compete with at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous—he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I s'pose this was just one too many…" She rambled.

"Great" Said Harry bitterly, "Really great. Tell 'im from me, I'll swap any time he wants. Tell 'im he's welcome to it…People gawping everywhere I go…"

"I'm not telling him anything" Hermione replied shortly, crossing her arms, "Tell him yourself; it's the only way to sort this all out"

"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!" Harry retorted loudly, scaring off several owls from a nearby tree, "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or—"

"That's not funny" Hermione interjected disapprovingly, "That's not funny at all. Harry, I've been thinking—you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"

"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the—"

"Write to Sirius. You've gotta tell him what's happened—he asked you to keep him updated…It's almost like he expected this was going to happen…"

"Come off it" Harry glanced around to check that they weren't being overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted, "He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell 'im someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament—"

"Either you tell him or I will" Hermione replied sternly, "He's gonna find out anyway—"

"How?"

"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet. This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'd be really surprised if there isn't already anything in the Daily Prophet about it…" She sighed, running a hand through her loose curls, "…You're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, y'know…and Sirius would rather hear it from you, I know he would"

"Okay, okay! I'll write to him!" Harry conceded throwing this last piece of toast into the lake. Both friends stood their for a moment as they watched the blackened piece of bread bob and float on the surface of the lake, before a large tentacle rose from the depths and snatched it from the surface.

"Whose owl am I going to use, anyway?" Harry questioned as they climbed the stairs to the Owlery, "He told me not to use Hedwig again"

"Ask Ron if you can borrow—" Hermione half-heartedly suggested.

"I'm not asking Ron for anything" Harry interrupted flatly.

"Well, borrow one the school owls then, anyone can use them" She replied handing Harry a piece of parchment and a Quill that she pulled from the little drawstring pouch that she always seemed to carry with her nowadays.

It only took a moment or two for Harry to scribble down what he wanted to say."Finished" Harry announced, looking around for a school owl to use. At this, Hedwig swooped down and landed on his shoulder, sticking out a leg for him to tie the letter to.

"I can't use you" Harry told her, "I've got to use one of the school owls…" Hedwig gave a very loud and snooty hoot before taking off so suddenly that her talons pierced his shoulder. Hermione had to hide her laugh as a couch as she watched Hedwig give Harry the cold shoulder the entire time he was tying his letter to a large barn owl—especially when she clicked her beak furiously at him and made for the rafters. "First Ron, then you" Harry bit out angrily, "This isn't my fault!"


The days following the choosing ceremony, were probably the most hellish that Hermione had to injure—not because she was the subject of all the tormenting, but because she was always moving back and forth between Harry and Ron like two siblings fighting over their favourite toy. In the end, it all accumulated one afternoon when they were due to have double Potions with the Slytherins.

Following lunch, the snakes in question were waiting outside the classroom with each of them sporting bright red badges on their robes; their luminous catchphrase glowing brightly in the dimly-lit underground passageway:

SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY—THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!

"Like them, Potter?" Malfoy crowed loudly as Harry approached "And this isn't all they do—look!" He pressed the badge into his chest and the message was wiped clean, replaced with another that glowed green:

POTTER STINKS!

"Oh very funny" Hermione sassed Pansy Parkinson and her gaggles of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone else, "Really witty" Off to the side, Ron stood against the wall with Seamus and Dean. He wasn't laughing but he wasn't standing up against the snakes either.

"Want one, Granger?" Malfoy held out a badge to her, "I've got loads. But don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see; don't want a Mudblood sliming it up"

"Mudblood? Really? Is that the best you can do? What happened to Schlammhure or Fotze, hm?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at the blonde, fearlessly stepping in front of Harry when he reached for his wand.

All around them, people scrambled out of the way and backed down the corridor as Harry skirted Hermione with his wand in a vice-like grip and murder on his face. "Go on then, Potter" Malfoy almost seemed to falter at the foreign words thrown back in his face, though he quickly took the olive branch that Harry had unknowingly handed to him. "Moody's not here to look after you now—do it, if you've got the guts—"

"Harry!" Hermione warned as the two boys met each other's gaze, almost daring the other to break first. And then, at the exact same time, they acted in unison. "Furnunculus!" Harry yelled.

"Densaugeo!" Screamed Malfoy.

Two jets of light shot out from both wands, connecting in mid-air and riccoheting off at different angles—Harry's hit Goyle in the face who bellowed and clutched his nose where great, big ugly boils were starting to spring up. Malfoy's hit Hermione in turn, and she clasped onto her mouth with a whimper.

Blinking rapidly against the bright flash of the spell that had hit her square in the face, Hermione barely registered the pain of her ever-growing buck teeth as she turned on Malfoy once more. This time she held no qualms about giving him his just-desserts when she fired back a wandless "Migalifors!" in retaliation.

Just as Hermione and Goyle had done, Malfoy clutched onto his face which had begun to elongate and transform, taking on several ferret-like features. Serves you right, you bastard! Hermione glared over Ron's shoulder (who had hurried over to see what had happened to her after the spell had connected).

"And what is all this noise about?" Said the soft and deadly voice of Severus Snape as he arrived. Several Slytherins clamoured to give their explanations, though Snape pointed a long and yellow finger at Malfoy. "Explain"

"Potter attacked me sir—" Malfoy lied meekly.

"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry interjected.

"—and he hit Goyle—look—" Snape inspected Goyle's boil-covered face before sending him and Malfoy off to the hospital wing.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron added, "Look!"

Ron forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth—she had been doing her best to hide them behind her hands, though it had become difficult as they had grown down past her collar and had induced the Slytherins in silent fits of giggles. "I see no difference" Snape remarked coldly. Hermione glared her murderous intent at the potions master, trying her best to ignore the tears of frustration that had bloomed in the corner of her eyes, before she spun on her heel and raced off towards the Hospital wing, forever thankful of Harry and Ron's immediate defence.