Chapter 12 – Paper Articles and the First Task
Hermione had been on her way to the Hospital wing, blinded by tears, when she ran into someone. She looked up to see Viktor Krum staring down at her in a transfixed way. She felt panicked and embarrassed all at once as she scrambled to get up, Krum reaching out and helping her.
"Es'cus me," Hermione mumbled quickly and best as she could with her large teeth as she continued to run off, leaving Krum looking dumbfounded. She made it to the hospital where Madam Pomfrey was bustling about grouching to herself.
"Dueling! In school! What next? Muggle Fire-sticks?" Hermione could only guess that she was talking about firecrackers or guns, whichever, Hermione didn't really care at the moment because Madam Pomfrey had halted in front of her with a large gasp and a half-fainting gesture. "My gracious, Miss Granger! What happened?"
"Mal-fa-"
"Mr. Malfoy? For the love of Mandrakes... when will the insanity end?" Hermione didn't know what to say, even if she could say anything at that moment. "Very well, then. Go take a seat on that bed down there. I'll be with you right after I clear up Mr. Goyle's boil problem."
"O- oka." Hermione walked down to the bed and sat down, her teeth were still growing, but not as rapidly as before. They were now down to her waist and she hoped that Madam Pomfrey would hurry because she didn't want to miss too many classes after this, or more importantly, have her teeth get any longer. About two hours later, Goyle's head was wrapped in bandages, and Hermione would have laughed, but her teeth, which were now down to her hips, made it impossible.
"All right, Miss Granger, just lie back on the bed." Hermione did as she was told and Madam Pomfrey got out her wand while handing Hermione a little hand-held mirror. "Just let me know when they are back to being the right size." Hermione nodded and watched a white light stream from the nurse's wand and hit her teeth with a feeling like biting into cold ice cream. Her teeth were shrinking and then something hit her. 'I could tell her that it was right, or I could let her go until they were perfect." Hermione finally came to a conclusion as her teeth passed by what they normally looked like and went to a smaller size.
"Okay!"
"Let's see, now," Madam Pomfrey directed as Hermione sat up and admired her newly sized teeth in the mirror. "You're sure that's right?"
"Absolutely," Hermione replied happily.
"Well, I'll just as you to stay here for a while... maybe even the night so that I can see if the spell has any kind of lasting effect or if we have to work on it some more."
Hermione had stayed the night, and the next day, just when she thought things would be better, she picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet. In there, was an article about Harry. Hermione had been unpleased about it because it was not only untrue, but written by the same woman, Rita Skeeter, in which Mr. Weasley had said was a horrible person and reporter. What angered Hermione more was that she was mentioned.
Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.
Hermione stopped reading after this, she was angered at Colin at first and was making mental notes to slap him when she remembered how Rita would twist words, like Mr. Weasley had said. She also remembered how she had been called 'stunningly pretty'. Was she really pretty? She had been immersed in pondering this, when she saw Harry getting ready to go to class and decided to join him. He had been talking to Cho Chang, but now he seemed to be debating another battle against the Slytherins. When Hermione walked up, Pansy began her mocking and jeering, though Hermione handled things quite well.
"Stunningly pretty? Her? What was she judging against – a chipmunk?" Hermione wanted to curse Pansy, but she simply took a deep breath, put her head high in the air and began to speak to an angered Harry.
"Ignore it. Just ignore it, Harry." They entered the class and soon found themselves talking about Ron. Hermione was trying unsuccessfully to get Harry to talk to him, but Harry remained stubborn.
"I didn't start this. It's his problem."
"You miss him! And I know he misses you-"
"Miss him? I don't miss him..." Hermione rolled her eyes and went about her work as McGonagall began walking around to see their transfigurations.
Days progressed and the first task was upon them. It was a little less than a couple of days away and Hermione felt that if she didn't get Harry and Ron talking soon, the stress of it all would get Harry killed in the first task.
"C'mon, Harry, we'll go to Hogsmeade. It'll do you good to get out of the castle and away from things for a while."
"What about Ron, though? Don't you want to go with him?"
"Oh... well...," Hermione had been caught as she blushed. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks..."
"No."
"Oh, Harry, this is so stupid-"
"I'll come, but I'm not meeting Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak."
"Oh, all right then...," Hermione relented. She would never understand how men could be so pig-headedly stubborn. "But I hate talking to you in that cloak, I never know if I'm looking at you or not." There wasn't much more argument to this though as Harry went and put on his cloak and they headed to Hogsmeade. Hermione was talking to him, pointing out new things or interesting things in the shop windows as people looked at her like she was crazy for seemingly talking to herself. "People keep looking at me now," she complained. "They think I'm talking to myself."
"Don't move your lips so much then."
"Come on, please just take off your cloak for a bit, no one's going to bother you here."
"Oh, yeah? Look behind you." Hermione couldn't figure out what he was talking about. It was a town full of people, who would bother him there she wondered as she did what he said and looked back over her shoulder. Rita Skeeter were now leaving the Three Broomsticks.
"She's staying in the village. I bet she's coming to watch the first task." They watched her walk away down the street, her bag swinging dangerous at her side, threatening to knock passer-byes over.
"She's gone." Hermione paused as she looked toward Harry's direction. She felt weird talking to him because she had this feeling that she was always looking too far to the left or right. "Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it?" There was a silence still and she felt annoyed with it as she added something hastily. "You don't have to talk to Ron!" She felt his hand push on her shoulder in a gesture to say yes as he steered her toward the Three Broomsticks. "I look like such an idiot, sitting here on my own," Hermione complained after she had bought some drinks and joined Harry at the table he had chosen. Hermione relented on this complaining though as he kept silent and she pulled out her S.P.E.W. record notebook. "You know, maybe I should try and get some of the villagers involved in S.P.E.W."
"Yeah, right," Harry said somewhat amusedly. "Hermione, when are you going to give up on that spew stuff?"
"When house-elves have decent wages and working conditions! You know, I'm starting to think it's time for more direct action. I wonder how you get into the school kitchens?"
"No idea, ask Fred and George." This was the end of the conversation for a while as Hermione stared around the pub, looking for unsuspecting new members, and Harry, she could only guess, sat there staring around in silence as well. Hermione was watching around still when she noticed Hagrid sitting on the other side of the little, packed pub. "Look, it's Hagrid!" Hagrid was sitting with Moody and they were about to leave when Moody stopped him. They whispered something and then came over to Hermione's table, Hagrid being the first to greet her as Moody bent down to examine her notebook.
"All right, Hermione?"
"Hello," she greeted back. Hermione felt excited about Moody's examining of her book, but then she realized, he was whispering to Harry, though she couldn't hear what he was saying. It wasn't long before Hagrid, too, was whispering to Harry while pretending to look at the notebook. Finally, they finished and Hagrid stood up straight while bidding Hermione good-bye.
"Nice ter see yeh, Hermione."
"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Hermione couldn't answer this, she seemed to be perplexed and startled about it all at once.
"Does he? I wonder what he's up to? I don't know whether you should go, Harry... It might make you late for Sirius." Harry had told Hermione that he had received a reply from Sirius that said he would meet him in the Gryffindor common room. "Why don't you send Hedwig down to Hagrid's and tell him you can't come?"
"No, I'll go, but I've got to be quick," Harry sighed. Later that night, Hermione helped Harry slip out of the common room and she waited in there patiently as he went to visit Hagrid. It seemed like forever that she had been waiting, and still no Harry so she decided that she would hear about it in the morning and turned in for the night.
The next morning, Hermione awoke and dressed, heading down to the common room to await Harry. She had been there for about an hour when Ginny came down the stairs looking a bit groggy as she joined Hermione on the couch. They sat in silence for about another hour when Ginny's stomach rumbled and brought them back to reality.
"A bit hungry, are you?" Both girls giggled as Ginny nodded and they got up from the couch.
"Going to breakfast?"
"If they're still serving it," Hermione laughed. "I suppose Harry will find us later."
"You aren't really dating him, are you?"
"Oh, Ginny, don't be silly," Hermione scolded as they exited the portrait hole. "Harry and I are simply friends... I've just been around him a little more than usual lately because he needs the support. You should help me."
"Oh, I couldn't do that!" Ginny blushed at the mere thought of being around Harry and shook her head, her fiery red hair flinging about her face as she did.
"Of course you could," Hermione coaxed. "Harry needs all the support and friends he can get right now, especially with your brother being mad at him."
"Ron's stupid," Ginny added suddenly. "He's so stubborn and temperamental."
"You don't have to tell me," Hermione laughed with a slight sigh of exhaustion as she remembered how pig-headed Ron could be. They entered the Great Hall and ate breakfast with a bit of chit-chat about some of the newest fashions that Ginny was dying to try, when Harry finally joined them. He sat silently listening, not eating and seemingly waiting. He made his point though, when he grabbed Hermione's wrist when she had finished eating and drug her out on the grounds, Ginny looked a bit down-hearted when he did so. He began to fill her with information about what Hagrid had showed him, the dragons, and how Sirius had warned him against Karkaroff. Hermione hardly knew what to say when he finished, but she spoke, though slowly.
"Let's just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening, and then we can worry about Karkaroff." Hermione and Harry began to walk around the enormous lake as they discussed the dragons.
"Do you know of any way to get past a dragon?"
"Well, Harry, I'm not entirely sure. Pretty much every fight that I've heard of involving a dragon and a wizard ends badly for the wizard...," Hermione said as she observed his reaction, the look on his face seemed to beg for mercy as he went a bit pale. "But let's not give up hope yet, there could be something. Why don't we try the library?" Harry didn't answer her as they ended their third lap around the lake and headed up to the library in silence. They entered the library and began their search for anything on how to subdue dragons.
"'Talon-clipping by charms... treating scale-rot...' This is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy..."
"'Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate...' But Sirius said a simple one would do it..."
"Let's try some simply spellbooks, then," Harry suggested. They went and grabbed mounds of books to pile on the already covered table, both of them burying their faces in the books and looking for a spell to help. She could only imagine what people would say if they saw them like this. Malfoy's voice ran through her head in a teasingly jeering sort of tone. 'Look, the two Gryffin-dorks are having a romantic study session in the Mudblood's favor place, the back of the library!' Hermione shook off this thought and went back to looking.
"Well, there are Switching Spells... but what's the point of Switching it? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine-gums or something that would make it less dangerous... The trouble is, like that book said, not much is going to get through a dragon's hide... I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, you really haven't got a hope, I doubt even Professor McGonagall... unless you're supposed to put the spell on yourself? Maybe to give yourself extra powers? But they're not simple spells, I mean, we haven't done any of those in class, I only know about them because I've been doing O.W.L. practice papers..."
"Hermione," Harry said in slow frustration, "will you shut up for a bit, please? I'm trying to concentrate." Hermione fell silent quickly, she figured that angering Harry wouldn't help his stress any as she continued to look for him. She was immersed in a book of simple spells when she felt someone's eyes upon her. She looked up and saw none other than Viktor Krum.
"Oh, no, he's back again, why can't he read on his stupid ship? Come on, Harry, we'll go back to the common room... his fan club'll be here in a moment, twittering away..." Hermione had no sooner said this and gathered their books to leave when the 'fan club' sneaked into the library.
They had been up all night searching in the books and nothing seemed to help. The next morning at breakfast, Hermione knew that something was the matter with him because he wasn't really eating and he kept staring around the Great Hall. When they got up to leave the table, she noticed that Harry was watching Cedric Diggory leaving the hall. She hoped that Harry wouldn't want to talk to him because she didn't know if she could bare facing him.
"Hermione," he said, breaking her from her worried thoughts, "I'll see you in the greenhouses. Go on, I'll catch you up." Hermione tried to protest, but it seemed to be no use.
"Harry, you'll be late, the bell's about to ring-"
"I'll catch you up, okay?" Hermione shrugged her shoulders and shook her head as she continued off out across the lawn. She was halfway to the greenhouses when someone unexpected come up to her.
"Hello," said a strange voice from off to her right. She turned and saw Viktor Krum, and she couldn't figure out just what he was doing talking to her off all people.
"Hello," Hermione greeted back with puzzlement.
"Are you all right?"
"Huh?"
"You ran into me yesterday," he said with his deep Bulgarian accent. "I vas going to help you, but you ran off before I could. Vere you all right?"
"Um- I'm fine, I assure you, I'm just fine," Hermione said with even more uncertainty. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to be getting to class before I'm late." Hermione nodded and passed him by to rush off for the greenhouses. She was nearly there when she looked back over her shoulder and saw him watching her with a sort of crest fallen face. Hermione shook Krum from her mind, though as she went into the greenhouse and Professor Sprout began her lesson. It wasn't long before Harry joined them and began telling her about why he had been so late.
"Hermione," Harry whispered, "Hermione – I need you to help me."
"What d'you think I've been trying to do, Harry?" Hermione was growing past exhaustion with Harry, but right now, she had no time to argue with him because she was trying to perfectly prune her Flutterby Bush.
"Hermione, I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon." Hermione had thought that he had meant more studying or looking for a charm, had he forgotten all about the first task? Was he really going to try and throw himself into his homework the day before the task? She didn't ask about it, though, she figured she would leave it go until later.
Later came sooner than Hermione would have liked. They skipped lunch and went to an empty classroom where Harry could practice the Summoning Charm. He was starting to do better than he had in class, because at least the things were coming toward him and getting halfway there at that.
"Concentrate, Harry, concentrate..."
"What do you think I'm trying to do? A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason... Okay, try again..." Hermione nodded and walked as he summoned a book a little bit further than he had summoned the waste paper basket. He tried again and again, until the bell for the end of lunch rang. "Just one more try."
"No, Harry, I've got to get to Arithmancy, and you've got to go to Divinations. I refuse to skive off one of my class, especially one as important as Arithmancy," Hermione said in a point blank manner.
"All your classes are important to you," Harry grumbled as she gathered her books and left. Hermione's class went well, but all the while, she had been wondering how she could help Harry. It became apparent at dinner after that lesson, though, that he was just wanting to practice. She had barely finished even half of her dinner when he finished gulping down his and drug her off to an empty classroom to continue practicing.
"Harry, it's past midnight. We had better be getting back to the common room at least before someone catches us in here," Hermione said before giving a great yawn. Harry agreed and they put on the Invisibility Cloak so that they could make it back to the common room unnoticed. It took them another hour before Harry really learned how to do the charm right. In the next hour, he had perfected it.
"That's better, Harry, that's loads better," Hermione congratulated. She could feel her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier with each passing second, and she felt her eyes burning to be shut.
"Well, now we know what to do next time I can't manage a spell." Hermione was nodding in agreement when he threw an overly large dictionary at her. She almost toppled out of the chair she was in as she caught it, but she had managed to all the same. "Threaten me with a dragon. Right... Accio Dictionary!" Hermione was really thrown off when the book went soaring out of her hands. She was definitely too tired for this sort of thing.
"Harry, I really think you've got it!"
"Just as long as it works tomorrow. The Firebolt's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out there on the grounds..."
"That doesn't matter," Hermione assured him. "Just as long as you're concentrating really, really hard on it, it'll come. Harry, we'd better get some sleep... you're going to need it." Harry seemed to agree and after they had put everything back, they retired to bed. Hermione was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, she hadn't even bothered to change into her pajamas. Her only problem was that she was rising for the next morning before she was really ready. She felt that she hadn't even been asleep for more than a couple of minutes, but Harry needed her support so she dragged herself out of bed all the same. Their first lesson went strangely slow to her, but she had been dazed throughout the whole thing. She had made a mental note to tell Dumbledore and McGonagall to never give her History of Magic first thing in the morning ever again. Things went all right after that, clear up until lunch when McGonagall came after Harry.
"Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now... You have to get ready for your first task."
"Okay," Harry replied as he stood up from the table and followed McGonagall out of the hall.
"Good luck, Harry. You'll do fine," Hermione whispered to him.
"Yeah." Hermione smiled as she watched him leave, she definitely had a great deal of respect for him because he was such a strong person. Hermione felt her stomach begin to tie itself in knots, though. What if Harry didn't do as good as he had the night before? She shook her head.
"You shouldn't think like that," she scolded herself as she finished her lunch. In no time, Dumbledore was announcing that the students need to go down to the set up for the first task. Hermione quickly found Ginny and the two of them followed the other students out in silence. Hermione and Ginny finally found themselves in seat and couldn't help but feel nervous as Bagman came out and announced that the first task was beginning.
"I wonder when it will be Harry's turn?"
"I'm not sure," Hermione said as she craned her neck to see who was out first. It was Cedric. She felt her stomach drop, she was rooting for Harry, but she did hope that Cedric did all right. She watched on pins and needles as Cedric picked up a rather large rock off the ground and ran back away from the dragon while he transfigured it into a dog.
"What good will that do?"
"The dragon seems distracted by it," Hermione said as she watched the dragon go from the dog to Cedric, apparently unsure of which was a bigger threat, the crazy barking dog, or jittery Cedric. It seemed to be working though because Cedric was slowly slipping back to the eggs, he had just reached them when the dragon changed its mind and went for Cedric. Hermione gasped as he took off running, the dragon shooting fire at him and burning him.
"I hope those burns aren't too serious," Ginny said as she watched Cedric go back into the medical tent. "I mean Charlie comes home with them all the time, but he's used to them and knows how to treat them."
"He will be all right though... right?"
"I guess so. Madam Pomfrey is really good with healing," Ginny sighed as they began to watch Fleur. She too was slightly unsuccessful as she put the dragon to sleep, yet caught her skirt on fire. Krum was next and he managed to get his egg, but unfortunately, he got the dragon so riled, that it trampled some of its own eggs. Last was Harry, and Hermione couldn't have been more nervous.
"Please, Merlin, let him make it," Hermione kept praying. Things seemed to be going all right at first, he had cast his spell and it took a few seconds, but the Firebolt appeared. He mounted it and began to fly, which only made Hermione more nervous. She watched with anxiety like never before as Harry began to fly around. At one point, the dragon scratched him and Hermione felt as though she would faint, but she managed to continue watching as she pressed her nails into her cheeks out of fear. Things were getting more and more ghastly as Harry got closer and closer. He finally got the dragon to rear back and Hermione gasped along with Ginny as he dove down to the eggs.
"Oh, Harry! Please make it, please make it," Ginny screamed. Hermione closed her eyes for a second, but then she heard cheers from the Gryffindors and Ginny. She opened her eyes, and saw Harry flying over the stands, safe and sound.