Chapter 9 – New Visitors & the Judges' Panel
"All right you lot," Moody growled as he came clunking into the classroom behind everyone as the bell rang. "Put those books away and stand up."
"What are we learning today?" Hermione was just as eager as Seamus to know this.
"I'm going to be teaching you how to resist the Imperius Curse," Moody replied, there was an excited murmur rushing around the room as everyone recalled the spider that had performed acrobats across his desk while under the curse. "By putting the curse on you," he added, causing instant silence until Hermione spoke up.
"But – but you said it's illegal, Professor. You said – to use it against another human was-," she stuttered as Moody shooed them to the sides of the classroom and vanished the desks with a swish of his wand.
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," Moody growled as he turned on her. 'Yikes!' Her eyes grew wide as his magical eye stared at her in an unblinking way while she shivered and panicked. "If you'd rather learn the hard way – when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely – fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
"I'd rather not leave – I want to learn," Hermione muttered while blushing as Moody pointed at the door leading out of the classroom. 'I'd rather fall into the lake and get hypothermia than miss a lesson like this.' Hermione watched one after the other as her friends went up as Moody called them.
"Thomas," Moody growled causing Dean to step forward, his Gryffindor courage showing through greatly. "Imperio!" Dean began hoping around the room while singing the national anthem. Some students were stifling laughter, but Hermione didn't find this funny because this wasn't a spider, this was one of her house mates.
"Blimey," Dean mumbled as he walked back to the group of Gryffindors while rubbing his thighs which were cramping from hopping around the room three times.
"Brown!" Lavender squealed with fright as his growling call made her jump forward with a start. 'Poor Lavender' Hermione thought as she watched Moody put the curse on her.
"Imperio!" Lavender squeaked and began twitching her nose as she acted like a squirrel, cleaning her imaginary bushy tail. 'Even as a squirrel, she's more worried about looking good then anything else' Hermione thought with mild amusement, but then she remembered that what Moody was showing them was punishable by law and not to be laughed at.
"Longbottom!" Neville went horribly pale as he realized that Moody was calling him forward while Lavender walked back to th group with pink cheeks as everyone whispered and looked at her. It had to be one of her more embarrassing moments Hermione thought as she watched Neville step forward awkwardly.
"Oh, dear," Hermione muttered as she watched Neville tense up and close his eyes tight, ready to receive the curse.
"Imperio!" In an instant, Neville began doing back flips and somersaults that he wouldn't even dream of doing had he not been under the curse. This is when Hermione realized just how powerful this curse was. Moody lifted the curse and Neville stumbled back to the group as Moody called upon his next unsuspecting student. "Potter, you next."
"Good luck, Harry," Ron whispered as Harry moved forward to stand before Moody.
"Imperio!" Hermione watched as Harry bent into a half crouched position. 'What's he doing?' The next second, Hermione gasped in fright as Harry acted like he was going to jump, but stopped mid leap and crashed to the floor, landing with a hard thud on his knees. Hermione wanted to rush forward as Harry grimaced, but Moody began to speak. "Now, that's more like it! Look at that you lot... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention – watch his eyes, that's where you see it – very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"
"Oh, goodness," Hermione muttered under her hands which were clasped over her mouth as Harry was put under the curse again, this time Moody tried to make him act like a monkey. You could see the look in his emerald eyes, the look of defying doubt and strength. Hermione admired him greatly for his bravery and fight, she was more than proud to be one of his best friends.
Later on that week, the students of both fourth and fifth year were stock piled with homework, but this didn't stop Hermione from working on S.P.E.W. She still managed to find time to recruit people, but Neville was the only one that she got to join because she had bargained with him, if he joined, she would help with his Transfigurations.
"What's all this about?" Hermione, Harry, and Ron were leaving Hagrid's class to go to lunch when they were stopped from entering the Great Hall by a large group of students who were gathered around a sign at the bottom of the marble stairs.
"Wait, I'll see," Ron told her as he stretched up on tip-toe to see over the crowd and read the sign. "Triwizard Tournament. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be-" Ron stopped as he maneuvered to be able to see the sign better.
"Will be what?"
"Just a minute, Hermione," Ron hissed impatiently as he moved forward a bit and went back to standing on tip-toe. "Will be arriving at six o'clock on Friday the thirtieth of October."
"Is that all?" Hermione saw the smiling expression on his face as he shook his head and stretched to read the rest while Hermione herself tried to see what he was smiling about.
"Lessons will end half an hour early-"
"Brilliant! It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all," Harry exclaimed excitedly as he smiled broadly.
"Wait, there's more," Ron quieted as he continued to read. "Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast."
"This is exciting," Hermione breathed as Ernie Macmillan walked toward them.
"Only a week away," he exclaimed. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..."
"Cedric?" Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's obvious expression and she was about to tell him who Cedric was, but Harry beat her to it.
"Diggory. He must be entering the tournament." What Ron said next, didn't please Hermione all that much, but she kept her emotion hid quite well.
"That idiot, Hogwarts champion?"
"He's not an idiot. You just don't like him because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch," Hermione snipped. "I've heard he's a really good student – and he's a prefect," she added as he looked at her with angered suspicion.
"You only like him because he's handsome," Ron barked.
"Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" Hermione glared at Ron as he began coughing and said 'Lockhart' as he did. Hermione huffed crossly and stalked off through the crowd toward the Great Hall, Ron and Harry following at a safe distance as Ron grumbled about her temper. 'So what if he's handsome, he's sweet and kind, that's why I like him!' Then Hermione stopped suddenly as she prepared to sit down at Gryffindor table. 'I like him?'
The end of October came all too quickly, but this prospect excited Hermione because she wondered if she might get some new recruits for S.P.E.W. coming in from the new schools. On the morning of the thirtieth, Hermione sat at breakfast with Ron, Harry, Fred, and George, listening to them talk about how you entered the tournament and who the judges would be.
"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet? Thought anymore about entering?"
"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen," George answered Harry, "but she wasn't telling."
"Wonder why," Hermione murmured only loud enough for herself to hear as Ron began speaking.
"Wonder what the tasks are going to be? You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done dangerous stuff before..." Hermione was about to say something when Fred interrupted.
"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't. McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."
"Who are the judges?"
"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," Hermione answered Harry, speaking up in the conversation for the first time. She continued to state what she knew as though reading from a book, "Because all three of them were injured during the Tournament in 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage." She noticed their confusion on how she knew this and rolled her eyes as she went on. "It's all in Hogwarts, A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. A Revised History of Hogwarts would be more accurate title. Or A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School." The twins, Harry, and Ron became slightly frightened by her outburst.
"What are you on about?" Hermione wasn't entirely sure why she had raged like that at that moment in time, but she knew the answer to Ron's question why she had said it.
"House-elves! Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts, A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!" She paused for a moment and looked around at the four boys who were seemingly shocked and a bit detached from what she was telling, but she was going to get through to them. "You do realize that your sheets are changed, your fires lit, your classrooms cleaned, and your food cooked by a group of magical creatures who are unpaid and enslaved?"
"Listen, have you ever been down to the kitchens, Hermione?" George was the one to break the silence of the four boys to Hermione's furious preaching, but it wasn't going to be easy to prove his point, Hermione made this clear as she replied.
"No, of course not. I hardly think students are supposed to-"
"Well, we have," George interrupted. By this, Hermione knew that he could only mean his brother and himself. "Loads of times, to nick food. And we've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world-"
"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione stopped after this though as the morning post came in and she became interested in the fact that Hedwig had just delivered a letter to Harry. "What's it say?"
"Nice try, Harry. I'm back in the country and well hidden, I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts," Harry read quietly from the letter. "Don't use Hedwig, keep changing owls, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself. Don't forget what I said about your scar. Sirius." Harry looked up at them and Hermione tried to hide the fact that she was happy that Sirius saw through Harry's lie.
"Why d'you have to keep changing owls?" Sometimes, Ron could be so dumb and it annoyed Hermione because he didn't bother to think before he opened his mouth, but she answered nonetheless.
"Hedwig'll attract too much attention. She stands out. A snowy owl that keeps returning to wherever he's hiding... I mean, they're not native birds, are they?" Harry or Ron didn't answer her really, just shrugged their shoulders or nodded as they continued to eat their breakfast, tension mounting around them for later that night.
"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall scolded as she and the other professors began directing the students into nice, neat lines that evening so that they could greet their coming guests. Hermione was breathless as she thought about all the things she wanted to ask the new students. 'I wonder if their schools are just like they describe in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe?'
"Nearly six," Ron informed, snapping Hermione from her thoughts. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"
"I doubt it," Hermione replied. 'I wonder how they are getting here though?'
"How then? Broomsticks?" Hermione and Harry looked up to the night sky, but then Hermione realized how unlikely Harry's idea was.
"I don't think so... not from that far away..."
"A Portkey? Or they could Apparate – maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen where they come from?"
"You can't Apparate inside Hogwarts grounds," Hermione hissed at Ron. "How often do I have to tell you?" Hermione and the boys fell silent as they waited, Hermione was beginning to feel very cold. 'I've heard of being fashionably late, but this is ridiculous. I'm freezing here!' Then Dumbledore's voice called out over the crowd of students and broke into her mental complaining as he pointed out the Beauxbatons carriage coming over the forest. Students began yelling out guesses of what the carriage was, but it wasn't clear until it had landed. Even then, mass confusion still reigned as its occupants began climbing out. Dumbledore began a round of clapping as they did before stepping forward to speak to the oddly large woman that had stepped out.
"My dear Madame Maxime. Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Dumbly-dorr," Madame Maxime boomed in a voice that put Hermione in mind of the slightly feminine form of Hagrid's voice. "I 'ope I fine you well?"
"Goodness," Hermione grumbled. She hated that accent for some reason or other, it just annoyed her really because she felt it fake when they spoke English. Hermione pushed this annoying fact aside though as Madame Maxime's huge form moved out of the way and her students began filing out. Hermione was inspecting the handsome boys that were standing in the shadow of their Headmistress.
"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" There was that accent again, but Hermione simply rolled her eyes and sighed, she would just have to get used to it and tough it out.
"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore replied. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"
"Warm up, I think. But ze 'orses-"
"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," Dumbledore assured her.
"More than delighted," Hermione said to herself in barely more than a whisper as she looked at the magnificently large palomino horses that shook their golden heads and blinked their red eyes impatiently. Hermione turned her attention back to Dumbledore and Maxime as they continued to speak, Hermione finding it hard to think with Maxime's booming voice.
"My steeds require – er – forceful 'andling. Zey are very strong..."
"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," Dumbledore beamed. 'Let's hope so' Hermione thought. 'If Hagrid can't handle those things, no one can.'
"Very well. Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"
"Oh, you've got to be kidding," Hermione scoffed to herself as Dumbledore answered her and nodded as she directed her students to follow her into the school. Hermione had been patiently looking about the skies for sign of the Durmstrang arrival when she heard Harry, Seamus, and Ron talking.
"How big d'you you reckon Durmstrang's horses will be?" Seamus inched closer, squeezing behind Lavender and Parvati so that he could hear what Harry had to say.
"Well, if they're any bigger than this lot, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them. That's if he hasn't been attacked by his skrewts. Wonder what's up with them?"
"Maybe they've escaped," Ron suggested excitedly, all the fourth years were hating taking care of the rapid growing beasts. Hermione shivered as she thought about skrewts blasting themselves across the Hogwarts lawns, the forest going up in flames as terrified students ran for shelter. She shivered and tried to forget when she had just thought of.
"Oh don't say that. Imagine that lot loose on the grounds...," Hermione said fearfully. The four of them fell silent and began searching the skies like many of the other students, but then Ron spoke up.
"Can you hear something?" Lee Jordan confirmed Ron's suspicious hearings as he pointed and exclaimed.
"The lake! Look at the lake!"
"It's a mast," Harry said as a tall, black-looking pole rose from the center of the lake, followed by the rest of the boat. Hermione watched the Head, Karkaroff she remembered Madame Maxime calling him, and his students get off the boat at the edge of the lake and walk toward the Hogwarts students. She tilted her head and stared in wonder at their uniforms which were thick, heavy fur cloaks.
"Dumbledore," called the Head of Durmstrang as he and his students approached. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff."
"Dear old Hogwarts," Karkaroff sighed as he looked up at the castle and shook Dumbledore's hand. Hermione saw immediately that Karkaroff was a fake, there was something in his eyes that made her not trust him, something in his voice and expression, the way he looked. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth-" Hermione let Karkaroff's voice trail away from her here though as she repeated the name to herself.
"Viktor? Why is that familiar?" She looked up and scanned the group of students, but it wasn't until Ron pointed it out, that she realized why she remembered the name.
"Harry – it's Krum! I don't believe it! Krum, Harry! Viktor Krum!"
"For heaven's sakes, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player," Hermione hissed. She had to admit that she herself was excited because she remembered the stony faced boy with his rather busy black eyebrows smiling at her in the Top Box of the World Cup, but Ron was acting like a five year old.
"Only a Quidditch player? Hermione – he's one of the best Seekers in the world! I had no idea he was still at school!" Hermione soon found that Ron wasn't that bad though as they passed a group of squealing and shrieking sixth year girls who were frantically searching for something to give Krum so he could sign such things as their hats, scarves, and even arms.
"Really!" Hermione rolled her eyes and then shook her head as she watched them make fools of themselves while fighting for a tube of lipstick to give Krum to sign things with. Hermione went into the Great Hall and took her seat at Gryffindor table with Ron still babbling about getting Krum's autograph while she looked around to see where their guests were sitting. "It's not that cold," Hermione hissed as she saw the Beauxbatons students at the Ravenclaw table with their scarves. "Why didn't they bring cloaks?" No one seemed to want to answer her though as they watched to see where the Durmstrang students sat, Ron still chattering madly about Krum and now Malfoy as Krum and his fellow students sat at Slytherin table.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests," Dumbledore began as he stood up at the staff table where two chairs had been add to either side of him. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable." At this a girl from Beauxbatons laughed and Hermione glared at her.
"No one's making you stay!" Hermione would have liked very much to get up and throw a cup of pumpkin juice on the girl and her scarf, but Dumbledore began speaking again.
"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast. I now invite you to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" The dishes and goblets filled with delectable foods, some native and some from the guests' home lands.
"What's that?" Ron pointed to a rather large bowl of some sort of seafood stew.
"Bouillabaisse," Hermione replied as she helped herself to some of the stuff Ron had pointed at.
"Bless you," Ron said as he thought she sneezed.
"It's French. I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice," Hermione informed.
"I'll take your word for it," Ron said as he went to the steak-and-kidney pudding beside the dish of shellfish stew. Hermione shook her head and went about eating until she saw Hagrid enter and listen to Harry and him talk until someone spoke from behind her and Ron.
"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?"
"Yeah, have it," Harry replied as he got the dish for the girl while Ron gaped and tried to talk, but only ended up looking like a fish out of water as he mouthed wordlessly.
"Honestly," Hermione seethed to herself as she looked in the opposite direction. Hermione only turned back to them once she was gone and Ron began talking again.
"She's a veela!"
"Of course she isn't! I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot," Hermione snapped.
"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl! They don't make them like that at Hogwarts," Ron rambled to Harry as he wiggled in his seat to see the girl that had returned to her seat at the Ravenclaw table.
"Pig," Hermione grumbled as she turned away from Ron and Harry who were still staring at the Ravenclaw table. This is when Hermione noticed that Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch had just entered the Hall and were now taking their seats at the staff table in the extra chairs that had been placed by Dumbledore's. "When you've both put your eyes back in your head, you'll be able to see who's just arrived," Hermione said bitterly as she turned back to Harry and Ron who reluctantly turned their attention to her.
"What are they doing here?"
They organized the Triwizard Tournament, didn't they? I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start," Hermione answered Harry. The rest of dinner went quite smoothly as everyone chit-chatted about the new foods and students until Dumbledore stood up and began to speak after clearing the dishes.
"The moment has come. The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation-"
"Mr.-I-Make-My-Elves-Do-Horrid-Things-So-They-Get-Scared-And-Do-What-Comes-Natural-And-Then-Fire-Them," Hermione grouched as she refused to applaud the man like the rest of the students politely did.
"And Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports," Dumbledore continued. "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."