Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Eighty-Three

Plan for the Tournament

"I can't believe you're really going to try to enter the Triwizard Tournament!" Hermione hissed the next morning as she, Harry and Ron walked toward the Great Hall. "I read about it last night … do you realize how many people have died!"

"Not the full count, but I assumed it had to be quite a few if the tournament had been canceled," Harry shrugged.

"Harry!" Hermione said alarmed. "How could you be so relax about this? Hasn't your life been in danger enough without you trying to risk it?!"

Harry chuckled and Hermione looked more worried than ever. "The truth is, I don't really want to be in the tournament, Hermione. I just want to know if I can get past Dumbledore's protections."

Hermione looked slightly mollified by that but still didn't seem happy, "but if you do get past the protection, and I'm not saying you would be able to, but if you do that would mean you had a chance of actually being part of the tournament."

"What do you mean you don't want to be in the tournament?" Ron asked this time, looking as alarmed as Hermione had been a second ago. "Think about how amazing it would be if you won."

"Yeah," Harry said with a dreamy expression that only lasted a few seconds before Hermione hit the back of his head. Judging by Ron's groan, she had hit him too.

"Will you two stop it?!" Hermione hissed. "We haven't learned enough to be able to compete in this tournament! There's no point in risking your life for a game."

"Ron, if you really want to join, you can use whatever plan that we come up with," Harry said, ignoring Hermione completely. "That would be a good way to see if it works and not have to try to put my name in there myself."

"You really don't want to try?" Ron said, still looking confused.

"I don't really need any more people looking at me all the time," Harry shrugged. "But if you don't want …"

"No, I do want to try at least," Ron said. "But what about Fred and George, couldn't you get them to try … whatever it is we're going to be doing?"

"Nah," Harry said. "I made a bet for three galleons that the person that is able to get past Dumbledore's protection would win."

"Cool," Ron smiled.

"COOL!" Hermione exploded. "This is not cool! This is the opposite …!"

"Relax Hermione," Ron said. "It's not like I'd get picked even if we did manage to get my name in there."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Hermione said, "it's just like I was saying to Harry. With everything that we've been through, that might actually be something the judge is looking for."

"You just said that we didn't know enough to compete," Ron said shaking his head at her contrary words. "Which way is it?"

"We don't know enough," Hermione said rolling her eyes and taking on the tone she used when explaining the obvious. "Not nearly enough. However, that doesn't negate the fact that you and Harry have the necessary quality that the judge would look for in a champion."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry beamed at her. "It's nice to know you have such a high opinion of us."

"Yeah, I would have thought you didn't think I could handle myself at all," Ron added, grinning too.

"You're not listening to me at all," Hermione sighed.

"No, you've got that wrong," Harry smirked. "We're only listening to the praises you're giving us."

"Whatever," Hermione huffed irritated again. "Just don't come to me when you find that you actually made it into the tournament and then don't know what to do about it."

"You know it's going to be fun trying to figure out how to get pass Dumbledore's protection," Ron said smirking as Hermione stalked off, obviously fed up with the both of them. "Hermione's reaction alone will be worth it."

"Is annoying her really that much fun?" Harry questioned his friend, well aware that he was amused by Hermione's reaction right now as well.

"Yeah, she's …" Ron started chuckling and then stopped himself before he could say more, his ears turning red. "It's good for her to have someone to yell at."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's you're reason," Harry sniggered, "come on, let's get to the Great Hall, I'm starving."

"You don't have to say that twice," Ron grinned and the boys quickened there pace.

It was after they ate, and having made some kind of peace with Hermione were she was at least speaking to them again, that they got their new class schedule.

"Harry, you're not taking Divination?" Ron asked looking shock. "How am I supposed to get through a class with Trelawney without you?"

"You'll just have to make do with Hermione," Harry chuckled and Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's question. "I really don't need a class were I'm constantly told I'm going to die and I actually like Ancient Ruins."

"I wish I took that class last year," Ron grumbled, he didn't want to take three classes like Harry had in their third year and he had decided to take Divination because he heard it was easy.

"Is it really so bad that you have to have a class with me?" Hermione asked him frowning.

"Er … no," Ron said rubbing the back of his neck and going on cautiously. "It's just that well … you don't like my comments as much as Harry … and you'll actually make me do the work for that class when we all know it's pointless."

Hermione shook her head at him before getting up and leaving the Great Hall.

"Great," Ron groaned looking miserably. "I'm in trouble now."

"Yeah, you are," Harry said, patting him on the back sympathetically.

"Thanks for your help mate," Ron groaned.

O

Ron sighed as he sat next to Hermione, the book he had gotten for Divination was open, and she was reading the chapter about how the planets' movements affected a person's life. It had been a long day, one in which Hermione had barely spoken to him just because he said he didn't want to take Divination without Harry. He wasn't really sure why she was so angry with him in the first place … it wasn't like he said anything bad about her, but here he was trying to make it up to her by agreeing to do their homework (a month worth of predictions that wasn't due for days! Why they had to do it this night he had no idea, but Hermione was adamant about it).

"Can't we just make it up, Hermione," Ron groaned after he read the same paragraph for the fourth time and still had no idea what it had said.

"I refuse to give up," Hermione said hotly as she glared at the book and Ron's lips twitched upwards. Okay, so maybe this wasn't so bad. Hermione struggling to figure out her assignment and how angry she got at the book was amusing. "Though how anyone could believe that the planets' movements can predict our day to day future is beyond me."

"See … you think this is rubbish just like me," Ron said proudly, "making it up …"

"We are not faking our homework, Ronald!" Hermione growled. "And I'm trying to be more open minded …"

"It doesn't seem to be working for you every well," Ron pointed out and she turned to glare at him, causing him to smile. "I mean be honest; you still think this is a bunch of rubbish."

"It's not all rubbish," Hermione hedged. "I mean, there has been evidence in the past that predictions have been made. There have even been a few cases where a person could learn to read the signs so well that they could have an insight into the future."

Ron looked at her with a gaping mouth.

"What …?" Hermione questioned, feeling uncomfortable by his stare. "It's true … I've read about it …"

"Oh, I believe it's true … I just can't believe that you, of all people, are defending Divination," Ron explained. "I guess it's true what they said that anything possible."

"Shut up," Hermione grumbled, though she had to admit he had a point. It was hard to believe that she was defending this stupid subject. "And give me another twenty minutes to figure this out and then I might be able to help you understand it too."

"Well if anyone could, it would be you," Ron chuckled and then opened his book in the pretenses that he was reading as well, but really he was watching Hermione. She had pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and gnawed on it as she concentrated on her reading. At one point, some of her hair fell into her eyes and she hastily brushed it away only for it to fell again a minute later. She huffed in annoyance as she pulled her hair back into a messy bun and then continued reading.

Ron just had time to muse that having a class with only Hermione in it wouldn't be so bad, when she smiled triumphantly; clearly she understood the material enough now. However, an hour and a half later, after more work than he had ever put into any Divination assignment, he doubted her earlier thought. She had made him write every single detail for his work while telling him that he couldn't possible copy from her because everyone's chart has to be calculated differently. As if he cared about doing it right. She also made him redo his last five dates because he had tried to make up what was going to happen to him.

"I don't know why you care if I do this the right way or not?" Ron hissed at her when she had caught him. "You know Trelawney isn't going to know the difference … she'd probably think my made up prediction are more accurate …"

"And that makes it right," Hermione rolled her eyes. "You can do things the right way Ron. I know it takes more effort, but don't you feel better knowing that you really did your work."

"No," Ron grumbled, but he couldn't help but feel happy that she believed that he could do it. It didn't make the work any better and he still didn't like that it took so long, but at least she was happy.

"So, how's the working going?" Harry asked as he took a seat near Ron on the couch.

"Oh excellent … thanks so much for asking!" Ron grumbled. "Don't you have any work to do?"

"I finished," Harry said. "Here Hermione, this is the assignment we got for Ancient Ruins."

"Why are you giving her that … she's not even taking Ruins anymore?" Ron asked incredulously and watched Hermione as she started to blush.

"I wanted to see if I could still do the assignments even though I'm not talking the class," Hermione admitted, her attention was fixed on the parchment that Harry had given her.

"If I live to be a thousand, I'll never understand you, Hermione," Ron said shaking his head. He couldn't stand the work that he did for his real classes, he could never imagine doing extra work … especially when he wouldn't even get any credit for it.

"I can say the same about you," Hermione muttered as she made a face at him.

"Well, with that happy note …" Harry said chuckling. "You are done with your work, right Ron?"

"Yeah?" Ron questioned as Harry nodded his head toward the exit of the common room.

"Hmph," Hermione huffed, she could tell easily what the boys were thinking as they left the room but didn't say anything. It was their business if they wanted to waste time trying to figure out how to get past Dumbledore's protection.

"So, are we going to go to the library to look up spells?" Ron asked as they left Gryffindor Tower.

"Nah, it would take forever to find something like that," Harry said, "I was thinking about going to the Room of Requirement."

"Of course," Ron nodded his head. "Do you think there will be something to help us?"

"Probably," Harry shrugged. The boys talked about what they thought the first task of the tournament was going to be as they headed for the room and were excited to get started working on getting past Dumbledore's protection. Though Ron had to admit, the tasked that he remembered hearing about sounded pretty gruesome and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to succeed, he wasn't going to back down now.

Once they got to the Room of Requirement it was transformed into the meeting room for their group, Infinite Light. They walked over to the bookcase that Hermione usually used and tried to find a book that would help them appear older than they were.

"Look, this book seems like it might help," Ron said, "One Hundred ways to Fool a Bartender."

"Something tells me that's not going to work on Dumbledore," Harry chuckled. "Besides, is there anything in there that would actually make you older, or is it just for making you seem older?"

Ron chose not to answer that as he put the book back on the shelf and watched as it dissolved into the other book. Ron grimaced at this and noticed that the books on either side of the one that had just disappeared and seemed to both be about faking your age. Ron then looked at the shelf below the one he was focusing on, and his grimace deepened. This book too seemed to be on that subject.

"This book might be good," Harry said, pulling out a book and adding it to the other two he already pulled out.

"Harry," Ron said, "Have you noticed that all these books are aging yourself … or making yourself look older. Or getting past protections …"

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked at the book shelf. There were hundreds of books on it, and if Ron was to be believed, and he was sure his friend was right, they were all on the subject he wanted to read about.

"Look, I'm all for getting past Dumbledore's protection … and beating the twins while we do it would be bloody brilliant," Ron said. "But there's no way I'm reading all these books."

"We're just going to have to figure out how to get the right book," Harry said looking overwhelmed at this development as well.

"You know, at this point in time, having Hermione here would help us a lot," Ron said. "She would know exactly what to ask this stupid shelf so we could get the book we need."

"That's definitely true," Harry agreed, and then took a breath before heading to a chair with the books that he had already picked to see if they might be useful or not. Ron sighed, but followed his friend's lead.

A/N: I'm sorry to say that I might not be able to post a chapter for this story for a few weeks because I'm helping my brother with something and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write anything.