The week before the Quiddich World Cup was one of Hermione's more bizzare. For once, nothing went particularly wrong, and she was able to relax. It was, by far, the most well-rested week of her life, as Dobby consistently made sure she slept eight hours for every go-round. She loved the house elf, she really did, and his actions were honestly quite good for the future of house elf rights – but she had to get work done.

The search for the horcruxes, coordinating Harry and Sirius, and working for Dobby took up the majority of her second go-rounds. The rest of her free time was spent in research, keeping up a steady correspondence with schoolmates, and brewing quite a few potions. One of these was a Level Five Ministry Restricted Substance, the Thanalos potion, which was a high-performance potion she wouldn't be surprised if she had to use in the upcoming months. Despite the extreme number of morally gray, uncharacteristic, or flat out illegal items in her trusty book bag, she was quite unconcerned about detection.

Her general reputation as an overachiever would forgive her for many of the changes to her bag – like the expanded pocket – and she had a few surprises for anyone who managed to find that pocket itself.

She was shocked when she came to the realization that she hadn't yet finished her summer work – hadn't even looked at it, really. Hermione shook her head in amazement. Her fourteen-year-old self would feel betrayed by her actions, but she had different priorities, and the months had flown by. And now, she had to trudge off to the Quiddich World Cup.

She said goodbye to her parents at the end of July, then summoned the Knight Bus. It would probably cost her the rest of her Galleons, but her parents had thoughtfully given her some pounds to convert. "See you later!" She yelled on the steps of the bus, and they waved back lovingly.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wiz-"

"Hi Stan," Hermione said, cutting him off sharply. "I need to go to Ottery St. Catchpole, but first I need to stop in Little Whinging, Surry. Can I do that with six sickles?"

"We 'ent no bloody taxi service," Stan Shunpike grumbled. As far as Hermione knew, there was no magical taxi service.

"Oh come on, I'm paying you extra," Hermione said primly. She had to time this correctly. Sirius had gotten Kreacher to drop Harry off at exactly 8 PM, and she wanted to be able to meet him before he'd have to go inside to his horrible relatives. "An extra sickle, as a tip?"

Shunpike shifted, looked up at Ernie, the driver, and muttered out, "Make it two and you got yourself a deal."

"Brilliant." Hermione slipped the coins into his hand. She supposed she was lucky to hold onto her two Galleons, and stepped into the bus proper, bringing Crookshanks and her trunk behind her.

She barely had a chance to sit down before they zipped off, and Hermione had to force herself into a seat – once buckled in, fortunately, the spells on the bus stretched to include the occupant, and Hermione was able to sit and read an abandoned newspaper quite happily as the bus made it's next three stops.

"'S'your turn, Missy," Shunpike grumbled, "We 'ent waiting for more'n a minute, and I'm countin you on that."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stepped out. Lo and behold, Harry was waiting on the curb, Hedwig's empty cage atop his trunk. "Hermione!" He exclaimed happily, running up to greet her. "Thanks for coming, I was a bit surprised when, erm, Padfoot said you'd pick me up."

"Of course, Harry. It's ever so good to see you! I hope you had fun this summer."

Harry's unusually tanned face crinkled into a smile. "Loads. I can't believe how cool Berlin is! And Sir- Padfoot taught me tons of spells, and I learned some German."

"That sounds wonderful, Harry," Hermione said. "We'd better get going."

"Oi, Neville!" Shunpike said in surprise as Harry turned toward the bus. "Nice t'see you again!"

Harry turned to her and reddened, but she let it slide. "Nice to see you too, Stan. How much is the ride?"

"Four sickles, mate," he held out a hand with a side-smirk at Hermione. She huffed.

"Blimey, there are seatbelts!" Harry said wondrously. She sat down and buckled herself in as well, thinking idly that she'd catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Not that she cared too much about Shunpike, but it was the principle of the thing.

When they got to the Burrow, Shunpike gave another jaunty wave to Harry and sent them on their way. "Bye, Neville! Come back soon!"

Hermione gave it about twelve seconds before Molly bustled over to help them get inside. "Oh, it's so good to see you, dears. Ron's been waiting for you two all summer, and look at you, Harry! You must've grown four inches! Seems like you've been eating well. And Hermione, you're looking lovely. Your hair is simply beautiful." Hermione smiled shyly. She had cast the hair-taming spell she learned from Lavender – a great way to catch flies as well, it seemed.

"Thanks for having us over, Mrs Weasley," Harry said. "It's good to be back."

And it was. Hermione hadn't been to the Burrow since the Massacre at the Ministry. Molly, Bill and Charlie had been the only survivors, and Molly had been inconsolable with the loss of her children. She refused to step back into the Burrow, citing too many memories.

Hermione could see what she meant. The house was imbued with hominess, which seemed to wrap itself around her like a blanket. She heard the faint sound of elephants coming down the stairs, and sure enough, Ron emerged.

"You're here!" He exclaimed, rushing forward to give Harry a manly hug. "Blimey, mate, you've gotten taller."

"So I've been told," Harry said with amusement. "It's good to see you, Ron."

Molly's voice cut through their reunion. "Now I know you'll all want to catch up, but it's time for bed. Hermione, you're in Ginny's room, there's a dear, and Harry'll be bunking with Ron. Remember, you have to be up at four tomorrow to get to the campground!"

Harry and Ron looked at each other, and Hermione was certain they would be getting very little sleep. She, on the other hand, was only too happy to get to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a very, very long day.

It was a terrible thing to ask five teenagers to wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. It was even worse when Hermione remembered she'd be taking a portkey. She hated them, both for the way they affected her and the misuses of them in the past. The theory was interesting, and it was this theory that kept her occupied on the long march to the hill. Ginny made the mistake of asking Hermione what she was thinking about, and was given quite a long explanation.

"You see, there are three types of portkeys. There's the type we'll be taking, a one-direction timed portkey, then there's a round trip portkey, which is activated on contact – or time, it can be set either way – and then there's a voiced portkey, which will only work if you say the right phrase. It reminds me a bit of some of the hallways at Hogwarts, when they'll only open if you ask a certain way, or shortcuts that only open at certain times." Hermione paused for a moment, taking a breath.

Ginny looked quite taken aback at the breadth of response. Hermione realized briefly that most people don't think about charms theory this early in the morning – even the Weasley twins were more sedated than normal. She let the conversation fall off for a while, choosing to enjoy the surrounding scenery.

The portkey, as she expected, was terrible. But it had the happy effect of waking everyone up a bit, and soon enough everyone was happily and sloppily putting tents together. It was finally time for Hermione to act.

AN: The Thanalos potion is used in an excellent fanfiction called When a Lioness Fights, and is a potion that allows the user to perform at an accelerated rate for an extended period of time, but it's both addicting and psychologically damaging with repeated use. This Hermione won't have the same challenges with it that WALF's did, but I thought it was more fun to drop that easter egg instead of creating my own potion.

thanks for reading! I intended to have this chapter cover the Cup, but it kept getting away from me. I didn't want the chapter to be too terribly long, so the rest of the Cup will be next chapter. I've gotten a lot of really great feedback that's helped me stay motivated on this fic, so if you like the story, please let me know! What do you guys think Hermione will do at the Quiddich World Cup?