Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

An Uncertain Future

Hermione was vaguely aware that Ron had taken her hand and was leading her back to the Gryffindor Common room. She was grateful for it because she wasn't sure she would have managed that task on her own right now.

She was in a complete mental shutdown. She hated when she got like this. Her body freezes while her mind goes into maximum overdrive. The first time she experienced it was exactly three years ago, when she was alone in the bathroom with a troll. Logically what she should have done was to hide, run, take out her wand, DO SOMETHING! But she didn't. Instead, her mind decided to remember all the facts she had read about trolls from her books. She remembered every gruesome detail of how trolls had killed humans and wizards alike, to the low statistics of actually surviving an encounter with a troll. It was a non- stop barrage of information that she couldn't stop.

No matter how hard she tried she couldn't help but remember every single death and injury she had read about the Triwizard tournament. Felix Duchemin, sucked dry of blood from a swarm of kappa. Rosina Zakharovna, suffocated and eaten by a Lynde. Katla Marlonsdóttir,Aidan Fraser,Nicolai Beck,Zofia Pokrywka, and dozens more had perished in the name of this tournament. And now Harry was involved. He hasn't even completed his OWLs yet!

Suddenly Ron had dragged her into an abandoned classroom. Where he led her to one of the dusty benches to sit and compose herself. It took her several minutes to calm down enough to speak.

"Why are we in here?" Hermione said, knowing full well what the answer was.

"Because you've been in this trance-like state since leaving the Great Hall. And well… you starting crying by the stairs."

"What?" Hermione put her hand to her face to feel tear streaks going down her face. Hermione took another breath to try to calm down. She really hoped nobody else saw her cry in public. Merlin, Harry was entered in the tournament and she was the one crying. Damnit! This wasn't about her, she needed to be strong for Harry and Ron. They're going to have enough problems, they don't need to deal with her useless emotions-

"Hey," Ron said. "It's going to be okay. We're going to figure this out and get through this, yeah."

It's not the most reassuring thing she has ever heard, but at least she was able to think coherently now. Or at the very least, she was able to push aside any unwanted emotions now. She took a deep breath. " Thanks. I needed to hear that."

"No problem… I was also saying it for my own benefit." Hermione was sure that was true. He was just better than her at hiding his feelings this year.

The two of them sat in silence, trying to process the events of the night and their own emotions on it. After a few minutes, Hermione asked "What do we do now?"

"... First we don't get stressed." Ron said. " Second, we wait and see. Maybe… the Tournament officials will have found a way to get him out."

Hermione gave him a blank stare. " Tomorrow morning, we'll skip our workout and go to the library to look up the Tournament and it's rules. Hopefully there will be a loophole we can exploit."

"That can work too." Ron said, releasing her from his arms. "Pessimist." He said, trying to control a smile.

"I am not a pessimist! I am a realist."

"Sure you are."

"I am!"

"I would never try to fight you on this."

"You are fighting me on this right now!"

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"That's not how I see it."

"Then how do you see it?"

" I see that I was able to make you smile for the first time since dinner."

Before Hermione had the chance to respond, the door opened up to reveal Ginny standing there. "You two okay?"

"...Better than before." Ron said." How'd you know we were in here?"

"I saw you two come in here." Ginny said bluntly. "I wasn't that far away from you guys on the way up to the tower. Thankfully most of our housemates were either nice enough to let you go off alone or too oblivious to notice you leaving."

"Lucky us"

"Anyway, Lavender wants to talk to you."

"Why is she want to talk to us?" Hermione asked.

"She didn't say. Just asked that if I passed you guys to tell you that she's looking for you."

"Passed us?" Ron said. "Where are you going?"

"I want to send a letter to Mom and Dad. Figured they should know what's happening before reading the Prophet tomorrow." Ginny said. Although Hermione noticed that she was holding two letters in her hands. But decided not to comment on it. "Anyway, can I borrow Pigwidgeon to deliver my letter?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Cool, see you later." Ginny said as she left for the Owlery.

"...Guess we should head back to see what Lavender wants." Hermione said.

"Guess so." The two of them started heading back to Gryffendor tower and looked into their Common Room to see it empty except for Dean Thomas.

"Where is everybody?" Hermione asked

"Prefects told them to go to their rooms. Figured that you two and Harry didn't want to be bombarded with questions and accusations."

"...You're telling me our House actually listened to the prefects?" Ron asked.

Dean snorted. " Not all of them. But then Fred and George threatened to- uh "prank" whoever didn't go to their rooms."

"Did anybody-"

"Mclaggen was stupid enough to believe it was a bluff, a couple of his friends took him down to the hospital wing for losing all of his hair and growing multicolored elephant ears. Everyone else wisely went to their rooms after that."

"...That was nice of them. I should probably thank them for that." Ron said.

"Thank them later." Dean said, walking towards the stairs to the boys dorms. " The rest of us want to talk to you two."

The three of them walked up the stairs until they reached the door for the fourth year boys' dorm. Dean had opened the door to reveal Lavender, Partavti, Seamus, and Neville were all waiting for them.

"What's going on? Why do you want to talk with us?" Hermione asked curiously.

There was a moment of their year-mates glancing around at each other, trying to figure out who should be the one to take the lead.

"We want to help." Neville blurted out. When Hermione and Ron shared a confused glance, Parvati took the lead. " Look, over the years both of you and Harry have saved the school several times and have been put in serious danger because of it."

"And it made us wonder, where were we? Why couldn't we have helped." Dean said.

"We avoided you guys when you lost 150 points back in first year and when Harry was considered the heir of Slytherin." Seamus admitted.

" It stops now. We want to be there to help you guys." Lavender said. "With the tournament. With whatever."

Ron and Hermione sat there both stunned and overwhelmed at the declaration of their yearmates.

"You don't have to decide now." Neville said.

"But we meant what we said. We really do want to help you and be there for you three." Parvati said.

"I-uh, Thank you." Ron said, trying to say something.

"We appreciate it." Hermione added.

"We'll let you think it over with each other and Harry."

Ron and Hermione gave them thanks and left to go to the currently empty common room.

"Well shit," Ron said.

"Language." Hermione said. " And was that weird? That felt weird. I'm average when it comes to picking up on social cues, but that felt oddly... I don't even know how to describe it."

Ron pinched the tip of his nose " I think- I think that was their way of forming a court. It's why they're letting us go talk to Harry before we agree to their help. If they just wanted to help they wouldn't have asked us to talk to Harry first. They want to form a court with us."

"Why didn't they just ask that then?"

"No idea. Bill and Charlie would always complain about how Pureblood etiquette was subtle and shit. That you're never told any information directly."

"Well… okay we can figure if we want to form a court with them later. I think the real question is whether or not we actually want their help."

"I mean, they admitted it themselves, they haven't really stood by us before. Can- Should we even trust them?"

Hermione thought this over." Maybe not with everything. We shouldn't tell them about our research and training. But we could use their help with the tournament. And besides, Lavender, Parvati and I have gotten along so much better this year. I think they at least deserve a chance. What about you?"

"Well, let's at least ask Harry before we officially decide anything." Hermione thought it was strange that he was deflecting, but before she could even comment she noticed the common room door opening and Harry walking in.

Harry took one look at the two of them and asked "What did I miss?"

1:14 A.M France

Bill was used to traveling for his job. While he was primarily employed in Egypt. He, and a few other of his colleagues, would be sent to places in desperate need of a curse breaker.

Recently, the French Ministry of Magic had found several hidden passages in the Catacombs of Paris. And had sought out the world's experts to go through them for the next few weeks. With the hope that they would safely retrieve forgotten treasures and lost histories during the time.

Currently, Bill was in his hotel bed reading "The History of Goblin Wars in England. By Cuthbert Binns. It was the most boring book that had ever been written.

And Bill always made sure to bring it with him to read whenever he needed to fall asleep quickly in a new time zone. However, halfway through the third page he heard a scattered tapping at the hotel window.

He glanced over to see his little brother's new owl excitedly trying to get his attention. Bill walked over and opened the window. The owl happily flew into his room and landed on his shoulder waiting for him to take the letter from his leg.

Bill took the letter from the owl and started reading.

Bill,

Harry was entered into the Twi-wizard tournament. He swore on his magic that he didn't do it. (He still has his magic) Most people believe that a Death Eater of some sort forcibly entered his name into the Goblet.

Hopefully Dumbledore or someone will be able to get him out of it. But I don't know if that is possible.

I'll keep you updated as things progress.

-Ginny

P.S. I also wrote to Mom and Dad. Figured they should know what's going on before the newspapers tell them.

Bill leaned back against the wall,trying to process what he just read. He didn't know a lot about the Tournament, but he did know it was exceptionally dangerous.

He had to agree with his sister's letter. This was definitely an attack on Harry. It didn't matter if it was a death eater who entered him or not. What mattered was getting him out of the competition. And if that didn't work, getting him out of the tournament alive.

Bill looked to the clock, he didn't have the time to meet up with Charlie. And Percy was probably already swamped with work at the Ministry.

Doing what he could, he got out ink, a quill, and several pieces of parchment. He had a lot of letters to write tonight.

First I want to thank all of you from leaving really nice comments and being patient. This chapter would not come out to the standard I try to have in my writing. Hopefully I won't struggle writing the next few chapters.

Hope all of you have a good holiday season and that we can end this shitty year on a positive note!

Until next time