There Is
Chapter Three: Arrival
In the days leading up to the arrival of the foreign students, the whole castle seemed to go insane. The girls seemed to be paying more and more attention to their appearance, and the boys were practising various hexes and charms that they probably hoped would impress the new arrivals. Hermione found this new found insanity strange and almost stupid. The other schools most likely already had lots of preconceived ideas about Hogwarts that wouldn't be changed just because the girls looked pretty or the boys could curse them into oblivion.
To Hermione's astonishment, Lavender and Parvarti seemed to be even more looks obsessed, with both spending their evenings trying different hairstyles and changing their make up. Hermione thought they looked ridiculous, but she was secretly amused watching them make themselves look even more silly then they already were.
"What do you think of my hair, Lav?" Parvarti asked while modelling a hairstyle that made her look like some sort of pheasant.
"What about this lipgloss?" Lavender asked, ignoring Parvarti's need for reassurance about her hair, "or do you think I should go darker"
Hermione thought that no, she shouldn't go darker. She was already wearing the most hideous colour imaginable, why do girls like to torture themselves?
Hermione just glared at them,
"What do you think Hermione?" Parvarti asked. Hermione just rolled her eyes and made an exasperated noise,
"I'm going for breakfast" and she left, not commenting on either one's new look. No matter how much they may annoy her, she didn't want to hurt their feelings.
She really didn't see what all the fuss was about. Sure, she was looking forward to the Triwizard tournament but she didn't agree with the fact that the whole of Hogwarts was trying to change so the visitors would feel more comfortable. Surely Hogwarts was fine the way it was? Did they really require all this drama?
"Honestly!" She complained to Harry and Ron while they were queuing outside for their final lesson of the day on the thirtieth of October: the day of the arrivals. "Do a few visitors really require all this fuss?" She probably wouldn't have been that annoyed but Lavender had been trying to put hair potion on her all day ("it'll make your hair less… Bushy" she insisted, Hermione had responded to this by telling her to "go away" but using language that Ron would have been proud of)
"Who cares?" Ron smirked, "we miss half of potions" Hermione sighed, Ron loved any opportunity to slack off.
"Yeah…" Harry agreed, "Snape won't have time to poison us!"
Hermione could understand Harry's reasoning behind being pleased at the shortened potions lesson, Snape had threatened to poison Harry to test whether or not his antidote worked - and Snape sure was vindictive enough to go through with it.
The lesson went by without anything newsworthy happening. Snape seemed annoyed at the fact he wouldn't have time to poison anybody, and the fact that he had less time to torment the Gryffindor's in general. But thankfully nobody was poisoned or traumatised or anything similar. When everyone was excused they pretty much ran to their dormitories, and when Hermione arrived in hers she noticed Lavender and Parvarti putting ornaments of some kind in their hair. Suppressing a giggle Hermione dumped her bag and went down to meet Ron and Harry.
"Have you done something with your hair?" Ron asked curiously,
"No" Hermione said, surprised,
"Oh… It looks nice" he said absent mindedly, Hermione smiled inwardly at the compliment.
When they reached the Great Hall, all the students were taken outside and lined up to welcome to guests. It was quite chilly but not to cold thankfully.
"How do you suppose they'll get here?" Harry asked,
"Probably apparate" Ron said, "if there coming from far away" Hermione gritted her teeth,
"How many times! You can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts! Will you ever read Hogwarts: A History?" She asked, annoyed,
"I don't suppose we will, actually 'Mione" Ron responded, "and we know how much you love to enlighten us…" Someone bumped into her shoulder, distracting her from Ron. She turned round to try and catch the culprit. To her surprise it was Cedric Diggory,
"Didn't realise it was you Hermione, forgive me?" And he left to find his place in the line. She noticed an incomprehensible look on Ron's face,
"Since when are you two on first name terms?" He asked accusingly,
"I don't know!" She said, defensively. Ron gave her a suspicious look but didn't push it, there was a shuffle in the crowd which Hermione took to mean that something was happening.
Out of the sky came a luxurious carriage which had what looked like horses with wings pulling it. It came to a rocky halt out the front of the castle and the door opened. Out of it came a large women who was tall enough to rival Hagrid, followed by about a dozen students in uniforms.
"Madam Maxime" she heard Dumbledore greet who she assumed to be the large woman,
"Dumblydoor!" She replied in a strong French accent, but was interrupted by another arrival, and everyone turned to face the lake.
A huge, skeletal like ship reached out of the lake and came to a halt as another dozen or so students wearing furs made their way straight to the Great Hall while their headmaster had a conversation with Dumbledore.
Hermione heard Ron on her left whisper something in Harry's ear,
"Harry! Look, its Viktor Krum!"
Hermione looked directly ahead of her, and there he was: international Quidditch star Viktor Krum looking in her direction.
"What do you suppose he's looking at?" Ron asked her,
"I don't know" she answered truthfully. The crowd started moving and they were making their way to the Great Hall for the feast. When they were seated Ron was looking to see where Viktor Krum was sitting.
"Damn Slytherin's!" He cursed, as Viktor and the others took a seat on the Slytherin table. "Look at Malfoy sucking up to him…"
Hermione thought that was a bit rich of Ron, but she didn't say that at risk of annoying him.
The feast started and Hermione found herself enjoying the food. There were lots of foreign options and halfway through a pretty French girl came to the table next to Ron, asking for a dish. Hermione felt slightly jealous of Ron's obvious attraction to the girl, and found herself wishing this feast would end.
Sure enough Dumbledore began his speech about ten minutes later, and explained the selection process for the Triwizard tournament, revealing a beautiful goblet,
"the goblet of fire will be the impartial judge. It will select one champion for Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. But be warned, the goblet can not be tricked, so only enter you name if you are over seventeen and willing to see it through until the end. Being selected constitutes a binding magical contract"
On the way back to the common room after the festivities were over, Hermione listened to Harry and Ron eagerly plot ways to enter the tournament. After about half an hour of having listened to these Hermione decided that it would be best for her to go to bed.
"What do you reckon, Hermione?" Ron asked, happily, "reckon there's a way to trick the goblet?"
"No" she said simply, yawning, "Goodnight"
Hermione found herself feeling rather hurt as she heard Ron accusing her of being a "spoilsport" and "no fun".