Author's Note: None
of this belongs to me. This story is
based on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling and will
feature "offstage scenes" as well as scenes from the book reinterpreted from
Hermione's point of view.
Hermione Granger's 4th Year
Part 8: The First Task
By Elanor Gamgee
It was the
morning of the First Task. Hermione had
butterflies in her stomach, so she could only imagine how Harry must feel. He seemed to be in something of a daze as
they went to their morning lessons. Hermione had tried to talk to him about inconsequential things at
breakfast, in an effort to get his mind off the upcoming task. He had only answered her with distant nods and
incomprehensible muttering, so she had finally given up.
Despite the
atmosphere of excited tension in the school, Hermione felt her own nerves
mounting steadily throughout the morning. At lunch she tried to appear calm, but this was difficult as she could
practically feel the panic coming off of Harry in waves.
"Eat something!"
she told him. "You need your strength."
Harry just
looked at her blankly and went back to picking at his potatoes. Hermione saw the people around her turning
to look at something, and raised her head to see Professor McGonagall hurrying
over to the Gryffindor table.
"Potter, the
champions have to come down into the grounds now…you have to get ready for your
first task." Professor McGonagall's
voice was stern, but Hermione could have sworn she had heard a slight waver in
it.
Harry stood
up quickly and dropped his fork, looking almost relieved. "OK," he said rather loudly.
Hermione
tried to give him a reassuring smile. "Good luck, Harry. You'll be
fine!" she whispered.
"Yeah," he
replied in an odd voice.
Hermione
watched Harry leave the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall, and suddenly
began to feel like the butterflies in her stomach were doing the cha cha. She found herself picking at her food the
way Harry had been. "He'll be fine,"
she told herself. "He just needs to
concentrate."
It wasn't
long before Professor Dumbledore was calling for everyone's attention and
asking them to follow the teachers out to the grounds for the First Task. Hermione didn't see Ron and the twins
anywhere, so she joined Ginny and some of her third-year friends. Ginny was looking slightly pale and jumpy,
but her friends chattered on incessently.
"He'll be
alright, Ginny," Hermione said kindly, as the girls found seats halfway up the
stands.
Ginny smiled
weakly at her. "I know," she said in a small
voice.
One of
Ginny's friends leaned across to ask Hermione something just then, but she
wasn't listening. She had just caught
sight of the four enormous dragons in an enclosure to the left of the stands. She had known what the task would be, of course,
but somehow the enormity and the reality of it hadn't hit her until
now. "He'll be fine," she intoned to
herself. "He's a really good flier,
he'll be fine."
"Can I sit
here?" said a low voice behind her. Hermione turned to see Ron standing there.
"Of course,"
she said distractedly.
Ron sat down
next to her, his eyes wide. "Dragons?"
he said in an unusually high voice. "What are they on about? They
can't fight dragons!"
Ron's voice
had caught Ginny's attention. She
looked over at the two of them, eyebrows raised, but said nothing.
Hermione's
nerves were nearly stretched to the breaking point. "Well they are!" she snapped. "Unless you'd like to go and tell the judges to change the rules?"
Ron looked
taken aback. "No," he said quietly, and
lapsed into silence.
They sat
there without saying anything for a few moments, as the chattering crowd buzzed
all around them.
"You know,"
said Ron suddenly, "Charlie told me this story once about a dragon in Romania
that—"
"Please not
now Ron!" said Hermione tensely, gripping her hands in her lap.
Ron looked at
her and nodded shakily. "Right."
Ludo Bagman's
voice rang out over the noise of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the First Task of the Triwizard
Tournament!"
Hermione felt
herself tense even more, if that was possible. "This is it," she muttered.
She barely
heard as Ludo Bagman explained that the champions would each have to get past a
dragon and retrieve the golden egg in its nest. She became aware that the people in the crowd were standing and
cheering madly, and stood up on her seat to see that Cedric Diggory had entered
the main enclosure.
Cedric set to
work right away transfiguring a rock into a dog. At first, it seemed like it would work, but then the Swedish
Short-Snout he was facing decided to go after Cedric instead of the dog. Hermione covered her eyes as she saw a jet
of flame heading straight toward Cedric. The crowd moaned around her, then suddenly burst into cheers.
"He's got it,
Hermione! You can look now!" said
Ginny, tugging on her arm.
Sure enough,
Cedric was running out of the enclosure with the golden egg in one hand,
clutching his face with the other, as the dragon handlers put stunning spells
on the dragon behind him.
Hermione sat
down weakly as the judges held up cards showing Cedric's marks. She didn't see what they were, and she
didn't care. She just wanted this to be
over as soon as possible. She wasn't
even sure she could stomach watching the other Champions.
Next to her,
Ron was growing paler and paler, each freckle standing out on his face. "Does Harry know…I mean, how is he going to
get past a dragon?" he asked Hermione in a low, urgent voice. Ludo Bagman was announcing Fleur Delacour's
entrance to the crowd.
Nice of him
to worry now, thought Hermione irritably. "He's…as prepared as he can be, I think," she replied nervously,
twisting her hands.
The two of
them watched in silence as Fleur put the Welsh Green in some sort of enchanted
sleep, then had her robes catch on fire when the dragon snored. The people around them leapt to their feet
again as Fleur got the egg.
Hermione
tried taking deep, steadying breaths. She was feeling almost dizzy with nervousness now, and by the looks of
him, Ron was too.
"So is Harry
next?" Ron asked.
"I don't know,
Ron," Hermione snapped.
The answer to
that question came as Ludo Bagman's voice rang out: "And here comes Mr. Krum!"
Viktor Krum
ambled out of the Champions' tent and entered the enclosure. Hermione found herself watching carefully as
Krum confidently took out his wand and shot a spell at the Chinese
Fireball. The spell hit the dragon in
the eye and it roared in pain.
"He's using
the Conjunctivitus Curse!" she said excitedly, momentarily forgetting her
panic. "I've read about that. What a clever idea!"
Ron looked at
her incredulously.
"Well, it
is!" said Hermione defensively. Her panic
returned as she wondered if maybe Harry should have been working on that spell
instead.
As if in
answer to her thought, the dragon started trampling around in pain, clearly
unable to see where it was going. Krum
darted forward and snatched the golden egg just as the dragon stumbled across
the nest, trampling several of the real eggs. The crowd roared again.
"They'll take
points off for that," said a boy behind Hermione.
As the judges
showed Krum's score, Hermione realized that Harry must be next. She felt Ron tense beside her.
"And last but
certainly not least," boomed Ludo Bagman's voice, "Mr. Harry Potter!"
The crowd
cheered wildly, but Hermione barely heard it. She focused her attention on Harry as he emerged from the tent and
entered the main enclosure. He looked
very small next to the enormous black Hungarian Horntail.
"Concentrate, concentrate," she
muttered under her breath, as though she could send her thoughts to him.
Out of the
corner of her eye, she saw Ron look at her briefly, the turn back to stare at
Harry. He looked quite terrified.
The crowd
quietened as Harry stood there. For a
moment Hermione thought he had frozen in panic, but then—
"Accio
Firebolt!" came his distant shout.
The crowd
seemed confused, and people looked around, trying to figure out what Harry was
doing. But Hermione kept her eyes
riveted in the direction of the school.
"Come
on….come on…," she said softly.
And then it
came. She saw the broom racing through
the air in the direction of the enclosure, and then it stopped right next to
Harry, as if awaiting instructions.
The crowd
went berserk, now that they knew what Harry was doing. Hermione jumped to her feet without meaning
to. "He did it!" she said with
satisfaction, though she knew the hardest part was yet to come. She sat back down.
Harry had
mounted his broomstick and was now diving toward the dragon.
"Great Scott,
he can fly!" called Ludo Bagman. "Are
you watching this, Mr. Krum?"
Hermione smiled
briefly at this, then covered her eyes as Harry dived toward the dragon
again. She heard heavy groans and
screams from the crowd, which made her peek through her fingers. "Is he alright?"
Ron was
leaning forward in his seat now, eyes trained on Harry. "Yeah, I think so…he got hit with the tail,
but he's still flying."
Hermione was
now watching Harry again, her fingernails digging into her face as she saw him
weave back and forth in front of the dragon, rising higher and higher. The dragon suddenly let out a fierce roar,
causing Hermione to jump in her seat.
Ron gave a
low whistle next to her. "Yeah, Harry!"
he said quietly. "He's trying to
distract it, get it to move away from the eggs. Come on, Harry…come on…" Hermione saw that Ron's hands were now clenched into fists in his lap.
Down in the
enclosure, the dragon reared. Hermione
just saw Harry start to dive sharply before she covered her eyes again. In another moment, the crowd was roaring and
cheering. Hermione looked up and saw Harry
soaring over the stands with the egg in his arms.
Ron looked
thunderstruck. "He did it," he said in
an awed voice. His face was practically
white.
"He did it!"
shreiked Hermione. "Ron, he did
it!" She clutched Ron's arm briefly and
jumped to her feet. "Come on!"
Hermione
started making her way down the stands, Ron following without question. When they got to the bottom, Hermione looked
around and saw Hagrid towering over the crowd.
"Hagrid!" she
called. "Where's Harry?"
Hagrid waved,
his eyes traveling over the two of them. He smiled strangely, then said, "Hospital Tent!" and pointed to a large
red and white tent at the other end of the enclosure. Hermione waved in thanks and then started pushing her way through
the crowd, Ron right beside her.
Hermione
opened the flap of the tent and entered to find herself face to face with
Harry.
"Harry, you
were brilliant! You were amazing! You
really were!" she squeaked.
But Harry
wasn't paying attention; he was looking at Ron, who was standing next to her,
still looking pale and shocked.
"Harry,
whoever put your name in that Goblet—I—I reckon they're trying to do you in!"
said Ron seriously.
Hermione
looked quickly over at Harry. His face
was impassive.
"Caught on,
have you? Took you long enough," said
Harry icily.
Hermione's
heart sank. She stood looking from one
to the other, wondering what she should say, or if she should say anything at
all.
Ron opened
his mouth. Good, thought
Hermione, he's finally apologising. But
before Ron could say a word, Harry cut him off.
"It's OK,"
Harry said unexpectedly.
Ron looked
taken aback. "No, I shouldn't've—"
"Forget it,"
said Harry emphatically. He and Ron
smiled at each other for the first time in weeks.
Hermione
looked from one to the other and felt as if her heart had burst inside of
her. She couldn't help it—she started
crying. Not just crying, but sobbing
great, heaving sobs. All of the tension
of the past month came out all at once: the misery of being in the middle of
their fight, the lack of sleep, and the terror of watching Harry face the
dragon. She couldn't believe after all
of that, that was it. The overwhelming
relief flooded over her and came pouring out as tears.
Harry and Ron
were staring at her in alarm.
"There's
nothing to cry about!" said Harry, looking confused.
Hermione knew
that they would never understand. They
stood there, looking at her cluelessly, as she stamped her foot and shouted,
"You two are so stupid!" She
pulled the two of them into a hug and then ran out of the tent, still sobbing.
She was aware
of people staring at her as she ran through the crowd. She kept running until she reached Hagrid's
hut, where she slumped down against the wall. She stayed on the far side of the hut, where people walking back to the
castle wouldn't see her, and sobbed and sobbed until she had no tears left.
As Hermione
was beginning to recover herself, taking huge, heaving breaths, she heard
cheery whistling coming from the front of the hut. She peeked around the corner to see Hagrid approaching.
"Hagrid?"
"Hermione! What're yer doin', sittin' round here? Yer should be off celebratin'!" said Hagrid.
Hermione
smiled at him weakly. She was feeling extremely
exhausted after all that crying, and was aware that her eyes were probably
still red and puffy. "Oh, I just needed
to get away for a bit…"
Hagrid looked
down at her kindly. "Come on in," he
said. "I'll make yer some tea."
Hermione
nodded gratefully and followed him into the hut.
"Now, why yer
been cryin'?" Hagrid asked as he set
the kettle on the fire. "Yer should be
happy! The way Har—"
"I know,
Hagrid, I am happy," said Hermione, playing with her empty teacup. "I just needed to get it out…"
Over tea, she
told Hagrid all about how Harry and Ron had finally made up. She wasn't sure exactly how much he knew
about the fight, but anyone with eyes could see that the two of them hadn't
been speaking, and Hagrid did have them in his class three times a week.
"I don't
understand boys, Hagrid," Hermione finished in frustration. "After all that, they didn't even apologize
to one another!"
Hagrid smiled
wisely. "Sometimes yer don't need ter
say anythin', Hermione. Actions say all
yer need."
"I suppose,"
said Hermione, unconvinced. She found
this explanation unsatisfying, somehow. "Anyway, I guess I should just be glad it's over."
Hagrid smiled
down at her again, his black eyes twinkling. "Now, you get back up ter the castle and join the celebratin'. I reckon Fred and George Weasley are puttin'
somethin' big together!"
Hermione
smiled back. "Thanks, Hagrid." She stood up, kissed his whiskery cheek, gave Fang an affectionate pat, and
headed up to the castle.
She felt
lighter than she had in weeks, as if a burden had been lifted from her
shoulders. But she still felt a sense
of foreboding which kept her from feeling too relieved. She knew that the next few months would not
be easy.
*****************************************************************************
To the wonderful people who have reviewed the earlier parts
of this story: Thank you thank you
thank you! And I especially want to
thank the ardent H/H people (especially Penny, Ebony, and Cassie) who
are reading this story even though it goes against their personal belief
systems! And Julie, don't worry,
there's plenty more to come, as I am planning on following this through to the
end of GoF. (I wouldn't dare miss out
on the chance to write the Yule Ball scene!) Oh, and Arod, I think your HP/LOTR fic idea is great (I think Hermione
would be a Tolkien fan, don't you?) Go
for it!
Thanks again, everybody!