Hermione's
4th Year
Part
15: The Scarlet Woman
By
Elanor Gamgee
The
first thing Hermione felt was cold air on her face. She
gradually became aware of being immersed in freezing water. For
one wild moment, she wondered where she was and how she had gotten there. Then
she remembered--the second task! She
was in the lake...Dumbledore had put her into an enchanted sleep...
Hermione's
eyes snapped open. In front of her
stood rows of stands packed with students. The
noise was overwhelming. She suddenly
became aware that someone was next to her. Turning
her head, she found herself eye level with a row of razor-sharp teeth.
Hermione
screamed in surprise and tried to push away, but something was holding
her tightly around the waist. She
struggled for a moment, staring in shock at the shark's head in front of
her. Then the pressure around her
waist ceased, and she was able to pull herself away.
Arms
were pulling her out of the water now. "Are
you alright, Miss Granger?" Hermione
heard Professor McGonagall's voice, and looked up to see her teacher watching
her with an anxious expression.
Hermione's
attention was drawn back to the shark's head, which was now rising out
of the lake with Viktor's body attached to it. Hermione
felt a wave of mingled relief and embarrassment as she realized that Viktor
must have transfigured himself somehow. It
looked like he had only changed his head, however.
"Come,
dear, you need a blanket," said Madame Pomfrey's voice in her ear. The
nurse dragged Hermione over to a bench, where Cho and Cedric were already
sitting, and wrapped her tightly in a thick blue blanket. Hermione
took a few deep breaths, trying to get her heart rate back to normal.
When
she looked up again, Madame Pomfrey was leading Viktor over to the bench. Viktor
had gotten rid of the shark's head and looked perfectly normal once again. Once
Madame Pomfrey had draped a blanket around him, she pushed steaming mugs
of potion into both of their hands.
"Drink
it!" she ordered. "It will warm you
up."
Hermione
obediently took a sip of the hot liquid, which she immediately realized
must be Pepper-Up Potion. She felt
the steam begin to pour from her ears as she finished it.
Madame
Pomfrey took her empty mug approvingly and went to check on Cedric and
Cho. Viktor watched her move away.
Hermione,
meanwhile, was staring at the lake, searching for Ron and Harry. "Where
are they?" she said out loud, the first thing she had said since emerging
from the lake. "What's talking them
so long? Do you think they've been
attacked?"
Viktor
looked out over the lake moodily. "They
vere coming right behind us," he said. He
glanced down at the nearby judge's stand, then took Hermione's hand and
pulled her to the end of the bench, as far away from the others as possible. Hermione
looked at him questioningly, but Viktor seemed to be preparing himself
for something.
He
took a deep breath. "Herm-own-ninny,"
he said softly, still grasping her hand, "I vas vondering...if you are
not doing anything this summer...if you might like to come visit me in
Bulgaria."
Hermione
was completely taken aback by this, and stared at him, not knowing what
to say.
Viktor
continued, now looking down at their joined hands. "I
vant you to know that I haff never felt this vay about any other girl..." He
looked up at her again. "Herm-own-ninny,
I..."
But
his next words were drowned out by a roar from the crowd. Hermione
whipped around, pulling her hand from Viktor's grasp, and saw that Fleur
Delacour was being pulled from the lake. Madame
Maxime rushed forward and carried Fleur, who was crying and screaming hysterically,
over to Madame Pomfrey. As they got
closer, Hermione could make out what Fleur was saying.
"Gabrielle!"
she was crying out. "She is still down there! I
was attacked by ze Grindylows! Let
me go!" She was kicking and struggling
against Madame Maxime, and, as soon as the large woman deposited her on
the bench, Fleur leapt up and tried to get back to the water. Madame
Maxime held her back. Hermione could
see that Fleur's robes were torn and she was bleeding from several cuts
on her arms and face.
Hermione
was starting to get really worried now. Somehow,
seeing the haughty Fleur Delacour come unhinged made this whole task seem
more dangerous, more real.
"Where's
Harry?" she said out loud, watching the lake anxiously. And
where's Ron? she thought to herself. What
if Harry didn't figure out how to do the Task? What
if he doesn't get him out in time? What
if the Grindylows got them too?
And
then she saw several green-haired heads emerge from the lake, and at their
center, a black-haired one. Hermione
held her breath for a moment, then saw a familiar red head break the surface
of the water, with a smaller blonde one right next to it. She
breathed an enormous sign of relief and unclasped her hands, which she
hadn't even realized had been twisted tightly in her lap. She
saw Ron spitting out a large spout of water, like a fountain, and laughed
out loud.
The
screechy songs of the merpeople filled the air as the three figures in
the water moved to the bank. Hermione
saw Percy race over to the edge of the water and pull Ron out of the water. See,
Ron, she thought with satisfaction, he does care about his family!
Fleur
broke free of Madame Maxime's grip and flung her arms around her sister,
still sobbing hysterically. Madame
Pomfrey, meanwhile, grabbed Harry and forced him over to the bench. She
wrapped him in a blanket and gave him some Pepper-Up Potion.
"Harry,
well done!" Hermione said happily, watching the steam gush out of his ears. "You
did it, you found out how, all by yourself!" Maybe
I underestimated him, she thought.
Harry
looked uneasy for a moment, then, looking over at Professor Karkaroff,
the sole judge remaining at the judge's table, he raised his voice and
said, "Yeah, that's right."
Hermione
smiled proudly at him. Viktor, who
was still sitting next to her, put his hand on her back to get her attention. "You
haff a water-beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," he said.
Hermione
brushed the bug away, feeling a bit impatient with him for interrupting
her, and continued, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry...Did
it take you ages to find us?"
Harry
had an odd look on his face. "No..."
he replied, "I found you OK..."
Madame
Pomfrey led Ron over to the bench and gave him a blanket and some potion. Hermione
watched as he drank it; she was always amused to see the Weasleys drinking
Pepper-Up Potion, as their red hair combined with the steam made it look
like their heads were on fire. Ron
shook his head to clear the last bits of steam away as Fleur Delacour and
her sister were led over to the bench.
"Look
after Gabrielle," Fleur was saying to Madame Pomfrey. Then
she turned to Harry. "You saved
'er. Even though she was not your
'ostage."
"Yeah,"
said Harry, sounding dejected. Ron
rolled his eyes slightly and shook his head. Hermione
looked from one to the other, wondering exactly what had happened at the
bottom of the lake.
But
then Fleur bent down and kissed Harry twice on each cheek. Hermione
stifled a giggle as she saw Harry's face go bright red. Then
she saw Ron watching Fleur, open-mouthed, and all desire to laugh left
her.
Fleur
turned to Ron next. "And you, too--you
'elped--"
"Yeah,
yeah, a bit--" said Ron, and Hermione felt her stomach turn at the hopeful
look on his face. Fleur descended
on Ron and kissed him too, and Hermione felt a strong urge to throw both
of them back into the lake.
However,
at that moment, Ludo Bagman's voice rang out to give the scores, so they
were safe from drowning for the moment.
Once
the scores had been given out, Madame Pomfrey insisted that the champions
and hostages return to the Hospital Wing for dry clothes and one last checkup. She
allowed them each to change into dry robes and made them lie down until
she had checked them over.
She
finished with Harry and Ron first, and they stood by the door, waiting
for Hermione.
"Come
on," said Ron, when Madame Pomfrey had declared Hermione fit to leave,
"Lunch has already started. I'm starving!"
"You
make it sound like you were the one doing all the work, instead of sleeping,"
she said with a smile. As she swung
her legs off the bed, Hermione caught sight of Viktor in the bed next to
her, giving her an unmistakably reproachful look over Madame Pomfrey's
shoulder.
Hermione
felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn't
answered Viktor's question, and she had avoided talking to him by the lake. He
had tried to engage her in conversation again after the scores had been
given out, but she had been too busy cheering for Harry. She
knew she wasn't being fair to him. She
knew she should tell him the truth--that she didn't feel the way about
him that he felt about her. But how
was she going to do that?
Hermione
turned to Ron and Harry. "You two
go on," she said, as casually as she could. "I'll
meet you down there."
"Alright,"
said Harry with a shrug. Ron didn't
say anything as he followed Harry through the door, but his mouth was set
in a firm line as he tossed a suspicious glance at her.
Hermione
waited for Viktor, and then the two of them walked down toward the Great
Hall together. An uncomfortable silence
hung between them.
Halfway
along the first floor corridor, Viktor stopped and turned to face Hermione. "I
meant what I said earlier," he said in a low voice.
Hermione
looked at him reluctantly, unwilling to face that earnest gaze again. She
still didn't quite know how to respond to him. Viktor
grasped her hand and pulled her into an empty classroom. Hermione
knew that she should tell him how she felt, that she should have told him
long before. She was beginning to
think that maybe there was something wrong with her. After
all, here was a nice, smart boy who clearly cared about her and all she
could do was feel uncomfortable when he gave her those meaningful looks.
Viktor
turned to face her again. "Ve vere
interrupted earlier. I vanted to
know if you vould like to come to Bulgaria this summer?"
Hermione
looked away, unable to meet his eyes. "I
don't know," she said. "I don't know
if my parents would let me."
Viktor
nodded. "But if they agree, vould
you vant to come?" He was
giving her that searching look again.
"Well,"
said Hermione in what she knew was an unusually high voice, "I'm sure it
would be a fascinating place to visit, and learn about the history..."
Viktor
frowned slightly. "I vould like to
show my country to you," he said. "I
vould like my family to meet you."
Hermione,
despite her nervousness, felt her heart flutter sharply. Viktor
really was serious about her. For
a moment, she forgot her misgivings as she looked up at him. He
was giving her that intense look of his, but this time there was softness
in his eyes she had never seen before. It
made her catch her breath.
Viktor
reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You
are very special, Herm-own-ninny," he said softly. "Ven
I saw you at the bottom of the lake, unconscious, I vas frightened. I
vould never let anything happen to you."
Viktor
was moving closer to her now, and his hands were on her shoulders. Hermione
felt unable to move, her heart beating faster as he leaned towards her
and she knew he was going to kiss her.
Suddenly
she could hear Ron's voice in her head: "You're going to let him kiss
you?" As quickly as her misgivings had fled, they returned, and she knew
that this did not feel right. She
had never really thought about how she wanted her first kiss to be, but
she somehow instinctively knew that this was not it.
Hermione
turned her head and took a step backwards, breaking Viktor's hold on her
shoulders. "I'm sorry," she said. "I...I
can't..."
She
looked up to see Viktor staring at her, a hurt expression on his face. He
put his hands down at his sides.
"Viktor,"
she said, her voice a bit breathless, "I'm sorry...I didn't mean..." She
took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Look,
I really like spending time with you, but...this is too much for me. You're
so much older than I am...I'm not ready for this."
Viktor
looked down at her, his mouth open slightly in surprise. "I'm
sorry," he said. "I did not mean
to make you uncomfortable, Herm-own-ninny."
Hermione
gave him a nervous smile. "It's alright,"
she said. They stared at each other
for a moment, and then the sound of a group of people in the corridor outside
seemed to break the tension somewhat. Hermione
could hear Cho talking to Fleur's little sister, of whom she had apparently
grown quite fond, and assumed that Cedric and Fleur were with them.
"Come
on, we're missing lunch," said Hermione quickly.
Viktor
looked like he wasn't quite ready to leave, but he followed her from the
classroom nonetheless. They made
their way down to the Great Hall in silence. At
the door, Hermione paused for a moment, unsure of what to say to Viktor. He
looked down at her with the same uncertain expression on his face.
"See
you later," she said with forced cheerfulness. Viktor
nodded and turned toward the Slytherin table. Hermione
headed toward the Gryffindor table, feeling relieved.
She
dropped into a seat next to Harry. Ron
was
staring at her with his eyes narrowed, which she supposed meant that he
had seen her enter the Great Hall with Viktor. But
she just didn't have the energy to argue with him right now. She
thought about Viktor trying to kiss her and wondered briefly how Ron would
react if he knew. She felt her face
reddening at the thought.
"Hermione,"
said a teasing voice beside her. "Hadn't
you better go find Viktor Krum? I'm
sure he misses you..." Hermione shot
a withering glare at Lavender, who was giggling madly along with Parvati.
If
Hermione thought that Lavender would be the only one to tease her, she
was wrong. It seemed that everywhere
she went over the next few days, people were giggling and making snide
comments about her being the thing Viktor would miss the most. Pansy
Parkinson was having a field day: "How
could anyone miss her? Better
watch out, Granger, or your boyfriend's fans will come after you!"
Hermione
tried to ignore the comments, but she was made doubly uncomfortable by
the fact that each one reminded her of what had happened with Viktor, a
moment she was trying to forget.
What
she found even more annoying was that Ron was inventing wild stories about
what had happened at the bottom of the lake. Every
time he told the story, it changed. Harry
seemed to find the whole thing amusing, and was more than happy to let
Ron share the limelight for once. Hermione
found it irritating, however, that she was getting teased while Ron was
being looked upon as a hero.
Her
annoyance came to a head one week after the second task, when she overheard
Ron telling Padma Patil (who, Hermione had noticed with annoyance, had
been awfully attentive toward Ron lately) how he had struggled against
fifty merpeople, with his wand cleverly hidden up his sleeve.
"What
were you going to do, snore at them?" said
Hermione sarcastically, coming up behind them. She
noted with satisfaction that Ron's ears went red.
Padma
gave Hermione a haughty look as she moved away down the corridor. "Bye,
Ron!" she called with a smile.
Ron
didn't look at Hermione as they headed down the corridor to their next
class. However, after that,
if he told the same wild stories, Hermione didn't hear him.
The
teasing about Viktor slacked off as well, for which Hermione was grateful. She
hadn't really talked to him since the day of the second task, and she wasn't
sure what she would say to him if she saw him.
Then
one Friday in March, Hermione, Ron, and Harry headed to their last lesson
of the day: Potions. The Slytherins
were huddled outside the classroom door, giggling madly at something.
Pansy
Parkinson was the first to spy them. "There
they are, there they are!" The group
broke apart, and Pansy tossed something at Hermione. "You
might find something to interest you in there, Granger!
Hermione,
startled, caught the object Pansy had thrown, and looked down to find that
it was a magazine: Witch Weekly. Hermione
felt a sense of foreboding, but before she had time to find out why the
Slytherins were so delighted, Snape had opened the door of the classroom. Hermione
hastily slid the magazine into a pile of books and followed Ron and Harry
to their table in the back of the room.
Hermione
hid the magazine under the table and flipped through the pages. In
the center, she caught sight of an article entitled HARRY POTTER'S SECRET
HEARTACHE, and stopped. Harry
and Ron leaned in closer to read the page, glancing up occasionally to
make sure that Snape's back was still turned as he wrote Potion ingredients
on the blackboard.
A
boy like no other, perhaps--yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of
adolescence, writes
Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love
since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter
thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born
Hermione Granger. Little did he know
that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life
already littered with personal loss.
Miss
Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards
that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since
the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgaria Seeker and hero of the
last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys'
affections. Krum, who is openly smitten
with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in
Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has 'never felt
this way about any other girl'.
However,
it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms which have captured
these unfortunate boys' interest.
'She's
really ugly,' says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year
student, 'but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I
think that's how she's doing it.'
Love
Potions are of course banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore
will want to investigate these claims. In
the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he
bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.
Hermione
stared at the page in disbelief. How
could Rita Skeeter have possibly known that Viktor had said those things
to her?
"I
told you!" Ron whispered vehemently. "I
told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's
made you out to be some sort of--of scarlet woman!"
At
this,
Hermione snapped out of her disbelief and found herself laughing. "Scarlet
woman?" she said, staring at Ron. For
some reason, she found this phrase, coming from him, to be very funny and
almost adorable.
Ron
looked embarrassed. "It's what my
mum calls them," he muttered, looking away from her.
Hermione
couldn't stop laughing at his remark. Seeing
his ears redden just made her giggle harder. "If
that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch. What
a pile of old rubbish," she said through her laughter, as she tossed the
magazine on an empty chair.
Glancing
up, she saw the Slytherins watching her and Harry closely. She
gave them a dazzling smile and waved merrily before beginning to unpack
her potion ingredients.
As
Hermione began preparing her scarab beetles, however, her initial question
came back to her. How had
Rita known what Viktor had said to her by the lake? She
glanced up at Harry and Ron, wondering if she should tell them that part
was true. She would rather have danced
with a Blast-Ended Skrewt than tell them about what had happened with Viktor...but
if Rita was getting information illegally, she might need their help to
find out how. She made up her mind
to tell them...but only about what was in the article.
"There's
something funny, though," she said out loud, continued the conversation from
ten minutes before. She hesitated,
then said, "How could Rita Skeeter have known...?"
"Known
what?" said Ron immediately, looking up at her. "You
haven't been mixing up Love Potions, have you?"
Hermione
gave him a look. "Don't be stupid,"
she said sharply. She went back to
pounding her beetles, mostly so that she wouldn't have to look at Ron while
she said this. "No, it's just..." She
took a deep breath, then plunged ahead. "How
did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?" She
knew she was turning red, but she kept looking down at her beetles.
A
loud clunk made her glance up; Ron had dropped his pestle. "What?"
he said, rather loudly.
Hermione
wished she hadn't brought it up. "He
asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake. After
he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madame
Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the
judges so they wouldn't hear..." Hermione
was saying all of this very quickly, trying to get it over with as soon
as possible. "...and he said, if
I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to--"
"And
what did you say?" Ron interrupted in an odd tone. She
could feel him staring at her, but she continued to avoid his eyes.
"And
he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," she
continued, ignoring Ron's question. She
felt her face growing even warmer as she remembered Viktor trying to kiss
her. She pushed the thought away. "But
how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She
wasn't there...or was she? Maybe
she has got an Invisibility Cloak, maybe she sneaked into the grounds
to watch the second task.."
Hermione
jumped slightly as Ron pounded his pestle onto the desk, missing his bowl
completely. "And what did you say?"
he asked again, more emphatically.
Hermione
looked up at him at last. He was
staring at her determinedly, and his ears had gone red again. There
was no way she could tell him what had really happened. "Well,
I was too busy seeing whether you
and Harry were OK to--"
"Fascinating
though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger, I must ask you not
to discuss it in my class," said a cold voice behind her, making her jump
again and spill several beetles from her bowl. "Ten
points from Gryffindor." Hermione
turned around, a feeling of dread in her stomach, and saw Professor Snape
standing right behind her.
It
got worse; Professor Snape spotted the magazine and decided to read the
article out loud, allowing plenty of time for the Slytherins to laugh heartily
between sentences. Hermione felt
her face growing red again, and stared down at her beetles, trying to block
out the sound of Snape's sneering voice.
When
he had finished reading the article, Snape rolled up the magazine and said,
"Well, I think I had better separate the three of you, so you can keep
your minds on your potions rather than your tangled love lives. Weasley,
you stay here. Miss Granger, over
there, beside Miss Parkinson. Potter--that
table in front of my desk. Move. Now."
Harry
furiously chucked all of his ingredients into his cauldron and hauled it
to the front of the class. Hermione silently placed her things in her cauldron,
not looking up. Ron reached across
and helped her pick up the beetles that had fallen from her bowl. She
looked up at him in surprise, but he was looking at Snape with an expression
more furious than she had ever seen on his face.
Hermione
gathered up the rest of her things and moved to the place next to Pansy
Parkinson. Pansy was grinning at
her evilly.
"So,
Granger," she said softly, "quite the love life you've got, isn't it? Taking
advantage of poor Harry Potter. I
thought you were supposed to be his friend."
Hermione
ignored her, trying to focus on cutting up her ginger roots.
"You
should sell your Love Potions, you know," Pansy went on, obviously enjoying
herself, "They must be quite powerful. I
mean, how else would a famous Quidditch player want someone like you? So,
has it been fun, playing kissy-kissy with the Bulgarian?" Pansy
made a sloppy kissing noise for emphasis.
Hermione
hand slipped, causing her ginger roots to scatter, but she quickly recovered
and gathered them up again. She continued
to ignore Pansy as she dumped the roots into her cauldron and started mashing
her scarab beetles again. She tried
to focus her mind on something else, like how Rita Skeeter was getting
all that private information. She
stared down at the beetles she was grinding into a powder, trying to block
out Pansy's voice.
"But
I suppose that's better than the strange little threesome you've got with
Potter and Weasley. Potter I can
understand, he's famous at least, but why you'd hang around with that red-haired
idiot--"
Hermione
head snapped up. "At least I don't throw
myself at obnoxious gits like Malfoy," she hissed. "Tell
me, do you have fun following him around like a puppy?"
Pansy
looked taken aback, as if she hadn't expected Hermione to respond to her
taunting. She narrowed her eyes at
Hermione, who stared back defiantly. Pansy
turned and began measuring out her armadillo bile. She
didn't look at Hermione, or say a word for the rest of the class.
Hermione
glanced back at the table where Ron was working, all alone. He
looked away quickly when he saw her glance over; he had been watching her,
she realized. Hermione tipped her
beetles into her cauldron, smiling slightly in spite of everything.