The aftermath of the riot, though smaller than the last time, still left many tents burned beyond repair, and quite a few witches and wizards injured. With any hope, it wouldn't make the front page, but she knew the event would leave a mark. She cursed herself. It wasn't supposed to happen at all.
Hermione trekked through the ruined campgrounds slowly, fixing small things as much as she could. Thankfully, she had never been to the Ministry, so they didn't have her magical signature on file. If they were able to distinguish her casting at all, the aurors would probably chalk her actions up to a foreigner. She maintained her disguise just long enough to reach the tent, and quickly cast a finite. With any luck, they would have all gone to sleep by now, and her absence wouldn't be missed.
It didn't look bad enough outside for them to decide to flee, but who knew what rumors had flown? She peered into the girl's tent. "Ginny?" She said softly.
The tent was quiet, and she peered at Ginny's bed. Sighing, she saw it empty, and took out her time turner. She paused, holding the little necklace out for a moment, before shaking her head. She was completely magically depleted, and wouldn't last a second if she had to protect the Weasleys from anyone.
Instead, Hermione turned to her book bag, reaching into the illegally-expanded pocket and pulling out a little bottle. Thanalos Serum, she knew it would come in handy. She took a small sip, letting the taste melt over her tongue. It tasted like a harsh whiskey – a sure sign that she had made it right. And sure enough, she felt her energy return, her magic coursing through her like a drug, then turned the time turner twice.
The world whizzed around her, and Hermione saw a wicked fast blur of red run into the room, then rest for a moment on the bed, and just as quickly exit. Keeping a hand on the time turner, she concentrated on re-entering the time stream. Seamlessly, the world slowed to a crawl and finally a stop, and Hermione knew her past self had just run past the tent, ready to kick some death eater ass.
She sat on the bed, not quite ready to sleep after the energy boost from the Thanalos, but pulled the curtains around her four-poster anyway. If she was lucky, there would be enough time to meditate and practice her occlumency.
It seemed like it was only a few moments, however, before Ginny settled into the room to sleep. Fewer, still, that Mr Weasley yelled frantically into their tent.
"Girls, someone's started a riot!"
Hermione groaned. So news of a riot had spread this far, after all. Briefly, she wondered if anything would change at all, or if she was really just stuck in some sort of sick loop, reliving the timeline and unable to change anything. Then again, she thought to herself, Sirius and Harry already had very different summers.
"Girls, are you awake? We need to move!"
Then was a flurry of action, as they were herded out of the tent, met up with the other rushed into the woods past the pitch. There were loads of people running to and fro – no one seemed to know where to run, but plumes of smoke and screams were rampant. Hermione wondered if there were more Death Eaters in another section, and this had been more of a premeditated attack than she believed. It would make sense, she thought, running closely behind Ginny, that more than fourteen Death Eaters had wreaked havoc on the camp. But perhaps angry Bulgarians had joined in, and it wasn't premeditated at all.
Soon enough, they found themselves hunched in a small clearing. Harry, Ginny, and Ron were throwing theories around, but Hermione stayed quiet. Perhaps if she listened, she could hear another group of rioters. That's when she realized they weren't alone.
To Hermione's careful ears, the crinkle of shoes on leaves was like shouting your presence, and that was all she needed to whirl around, wand at the ready. "Someone's here!" She whispered harshly, and the others slowly reached for their wands.
"I've lost my wand!" Ron wailed loudly, making Hermione cringe. Whoever was around would have easily heard that.
She heard a snort of laughter and quickly cast a lumos in the direction of the potential assailant. To her surprise, the familiar face of Draco Malfoy stepped into the small clearing, protecting his eyes from the bright light. "Leave it to the Weasel to misplace his wand in a time like this. Don't you know there's dark wizards about?" Draco mocked. "Not much use in a crisis, are you Weasley?"
Ron angrily reached for his wand, hoping to curse Draco, but remembered it was missing. In true Ron style, he continued to insult the wand-bearing wizard anyway. "I bet your mummy made you stay in the woods instead of joining your daddy out there, Malfoy. Not much use to anyone, are you?"
Hermione rolled her eyes angrily at their quibbling. "This isn't the time for your stupid fights, guys. We need to find Ron's wand."
Everyone present looked at her in surprise – Harry, Ron, and Ginny, because she hadn't taken their side, and Draco, because she hadn't not taken his side – and she huffed indignantly. "We can be rivals later. If that riot gets over here, do you really want to be sitting here arguing instead of running for our lives?"
Harry recovered from this unexpected bout of logic first, taking charge of the situation. "Right. What's the best way to find a wand?"
"A summoning charm," Draco drawled. When Harry looked at him in surprise, Draco raised a single eyebrow. "What? I'm a Slytherin. Knowledge is power."
"You're right, Malfoy." Hermione said. "Accio, Ron's wand!" She hoped Ron had lost it while running, or it caught on a bramble or something. A wand could only be summoned when it wasn't being held by a witch or wizard (unless the person in question was particularly weak-willed, unconscious, or dead). To her disappointment, a long moment passed and the wand didn't appear. "Damn!" Hermione cursed.
This, naturally, elicited more incredulous stares. "What?" She challenged, and moved on before someone could voice a question. "Someone else's probably got it, then. What do you do when your wand is stolen?"
No one seemed to know the answer. Ron sat down on a fallen log, head in his hands. "My parents'll go mental. Blimey, that's two wands in three years."
Draco, who was reluctantly standing with them with his arms crossed, spit out another insult: "The wand probably ran away on its own. It decided you were too stupid to wield it."
"Oh shut it, Malfoy." Harry gave Draco a glare. "Listen, mate, we'll find it. It's gotta be somewhere around here. Lumos!" He lit his wand and lowered it to the forest floor, trying to search. "Come on, fan out and help me look!"
Obediently, they lit their wands and started searching. Unbeknownst to the rest of them, however, Hermione was searching for more than just the stolen wand. She wanted to find the man who held it, too, and she had a sinking suspicion of who it could be.
"Homonium revelio! Lumos!" she whispered, waving a hand to cast the two spells simultaneously. A faint red glow emanated to her left. Someone was there, and not too far away either. She followed the spell, stepping carefully over the dry leaves. "Nox." She said under her breath. It wouldn't do to let Crouch know where she was.
Once the light got so bright that she was sure he was mere paces from her, she whipped her wand in a, "stupefy!"
She was rewarded by a loud thump as a body fell to the ground. She lit her wand again, examining the forest floor. If it really was Barty Crouch Jr, he would be under an invisibility cloak. What she wasn't expecting was Winky's voice shouting for her master. "Master Barty, you bad boy! Where has you gone?"
Hermione disillusioned herself quickly. She had to leave Barty alive, unfortunately, or she wouldn't have access to the graveyard at the end of the year. That didn't mean she had to like it, though.
"Accio Ron's wand" she whispered again, but this time it came soaring towards her. She plucked it from the air, and then immediately doubled back, hoping Winky didn't notice her.
"Guys!" She yelled excitedly, "I found it!"
Their odd group came rushing back to the clearing. "Blimey 'Mione, that's brilliant!" Ron exclaimed. He was still sitting on the stump, looking forlorn, but jumped up when she returned.
"I'm ever so glad we found it – that could've been a disaster!" said Hermione. It was almost a disaster, more than the rest of the students realized.
Draco was still lingering near their group, and she saw him look at her appraisingly. She sneered and turned away. It still hurt to look at the familiar face, even though she knew how very different he was from his future self.
They stood silently for a moment, not sure how to proceed. Thankfully, the awkward situation was stopped by a familiar voice. "Weasleys! Hey Weasleys and company, this way! Can you hear us?"
Charlie Weasley was standing at the edge of the woods a few yards away, and seemed to have been calling them for a while. "Hello! Ron? Fred? Ginny?"
"We're over here!" Ginny yelled quickly. "We're coming, Charlie!"
They set out towards him, and he looked over in relief. "I'm glad you're all safe! It's fine to go back to the tents, now. Just a bit of a ruckus in the north section, but it's all over."
While Charlie was hugging his siblings and Harry asking about the riot, Hermione glanced behind her. Draco was cloaked in the shadow of the trees, and seemed ready to disappear. She gave him a small nod in thanks. Draco nodded in return, and then set off further into the woods. She would have to keep an eye on him.
Hermione's potion was wearing off by the time they reached the tents again, and everyone seemed more than happy to collapse into bed and forget the whole night. Mr Weasley gathered them all around the coals of their fire, making sure he had everyone together. "Alright, looks like we're all here. Thanks for handling that situation so well, kids. The ministry is going to have a field day with this, but that's a problem for another day. Get to sleep – oh, and Bill, Charlie, would you mind setting a few wards around the tents, just in case?"
They jumped up to help, and Hermione trudged into the girl's tent for some much-deserved sleep. It had been a long, long day.
AN: Finally, they survived the Quidditch World Cup! A lot of you guessed that Hermione would be able to change a good deal about the Cup, and I think it was Red Phoenix Dragon who guessed Ron's wand would get stolen. Thanks for being so engaged with my story, and thanks again for reading!