Hermione took one look at the clock, grumbled about over-inquisitive bats under her breath, and then immediately turned time back by ten hours. She was bloody tired, and this would give her enough sleep to last the next, presumably long and arduous, day. She slipped into the little bed in her repurposed classroom and took a well-deserved rest.
Hermione spent the next few days almost exclusively at Harry's side. As before, he said he didn't put his name in the Goblet. With Ron's exclamation in the great hall, everyone believed him. It seemed that the Weasley reputation of honesty was paying off in this case, and Hermione was pleased with the outcome.
The Gryffindors were split – half of them kept scheming different ways to get him out of it, and the other half was trying to convince him of the benefits. "So I told them I'd already gotten eternal glory, and didn't fancy it much." Harry explained at lunch. "I think they wanted to argue, but it's made them leave me alone a bit more."
"Do you think they would be willing to teach you a few spells, you know, the older students?" Hermione asked cautiously. "I mean, we have no idea what the tasks are. You might need to learn dueling, and we know the Dueling club was less than useless."
Harry looked up in alarm. "You think they'll make me duel seventh years?"
"Well, the fact is that you have to compete, right? You're a champion."
Harry snorted. "I wouldn't call myself a champion. Better to think of me as a participant, then no one will have any expectations for me to win."
Ron laughed at that, and the phrase quickly caught on (with a lot of help from Hermione, who shared the story with Pavarti and Lavender). She was sad, but not entirely surprised when Draco Malfoy cast Harry in a bad light.
"So, Potter, how do you like being the champion that no one wants?" He sneered in the hallway, after catching Harry's eye on their way from Defense.
Harry's eyes flashed in anger, and Hermione replied snarkily, "Not as bad as you must feel, being the arrogant prick that no one likes. I mean, at least my parents loved me, and I've got some real friends at Hogwarts."
"You take that back!" Malfoy yelled, brandishing his wand. "I am the heir to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy, and-"
"Oh stuff it, Malfoy." Harry said, "Let's go, Hermione. He's not worth our time." He turned his back to walk away.
At that moment, a familiar Death Eater-imposter turned the corner. "You stop right there, Malfoy!" Draco froze, and started to turn to Moody, wand still outstretched towards Harry, who had turned around by now. Hermione had no time to react before a loud crack! sounded over the clearing, and Draco was replaced with a small, white ferret.
"Professor!" Hermione exclaimed before she could help herself. "What have you done?"
"He was about to attack Potter with his back turned, if any of you had CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The students jumped, "you would've realized that. Clearly your Defense Against the Dark Arts training has been lacking in this."
He flew the Malfoy-Ferret around for a few more minutes, and Hermione bit her lip to keep from saying anything. The other students – they had attracted quite the spectacle – were holding in various amounts of laughter. Some, like Ron, Seamus, and Dean, weren't holding in anything, and were practically rolling on the floor. Harry looked torn between standing with Hermione and joining them. The longer the display went on, the more Harry frowned.
She was sure he was remembering what it was like to be bullied and reckoned that Crouch had lost some brownie points with this stunt (the opposite of his intentions). To her surprise, there seemed to be no end in sight, and she remembered that Professor McGonagall had intervened before.
Thankfully, another teacher crossed the hallway and intervened.
"What exactly is going on here, Alastor?" Said the silky voice of Severus Snape.
Crouch barely spared the man a glance. "Teaching." He grunted.
"I hardly think corporeal punishment fitting. Instead, let's find the source of all this commotion." He met Hermione's eyes briefly, and she sent him a tight grimace. With a wave of his wand, Draco returned to human form, looking quite red and disheveled.
"Mister Malfoy, what has happened here?"
"No-nothing, Professor Snape. We were having a little discussion, then Professor Moody turned me into a ferret."
Crouch grunted again. "A little discussion where this rodent turned his wand on Potter with his back turned!" He and Snape looked at one another fiercely. Hermione was grateful that Snape didn't yet know who Moody really was, or he may have reacted very differently.
"I imagine that Mister Potter should maintain vigilance. After all, he is now a champion of our school. Mister Malfoy must have been offering to assist Potter." Snape raised an eyebrow at the crowd that had formed, and no one was willing to speak out against him. "There seems to be no issue here, Alastor, besides your behavior. Attacking a student is quite unacceptable. We shall have to talk to the headmaster."
Wasting no time, Snape whisked a raging Crouch towards Dumbledore's office. The students were oddly silent, waiting for something else to happen. Hermione stepped forward, and suddenly all eyes were on her.
She walked over to Draco and held a hand out, half expecting to be rejected and called a Mudblood. He stared at her hand, unmoving, so Hermione explained, "That wasn't right of him to do, Malfoy."
To her surprise, Draco took the hand and allowed her to hoist him up. "Thanks, Granger."
This seemed to be the breaking point for all the students, who were suddenly falling over themselves to get a word in about Hogwart's latest gossip. Draco Malfoy taking the hand of the Gryffindor, muggleborn Hermione Granger? Had the Goblet of Fire turned the entire school mad?
Hermione gave Draco a small smile, turned on her heel, and walked back to Harry. She was certain he hadn't missed the trust that he wouldn't attack her when she turned her back, and wondered if she was doing the right thing.
When Harry didn't object to her actions, she thought it could've been worse. She was being honest, it wasn't right of Crouch to do the first time or in this timeline.
"Maybe I do need to start getting some pointers," Harry said, as if the whole altercation had never happened. The rest of the students were watching them very closely, and Hermione pulled Harry towards the Great Hall.
"Do you want me to see who'd be willing to help, Harry?" Hermione asked innocently.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I think that'd be good."
Hermione spent the next three days asking every Gryffindor she considered halfway decent to teach Harry something about duels, curses, or combative transfiguration. She had a big list of who could help him and when, but refrained from showing him the whole thing. He'd probably get too overwhelmed and back out.
"Harry, Katie Bell said she'd be willing to teach you some shield charms this evening," Hermione said during dinner. "I know we were planning to write our transfiguration essays tonight, but I think this is more important."
Ron gasped. "Did I mishear? Did Hermione Granger just say something was more important than homework?"
"Oh come off it Ron. I sorted out my priorities a long time ago." She rolled her eyes at him. "Plus, homework is still quite important. It affects your grades you know!"
Harry inched away slowly, sensing an argument coming on. "Erm, I'm gonna go meet up with Katie, guys." He said quickly, and made his escape.
Hermione was pleased with both Harry's willingness to learn from his classmates, and from their willingness to help him. It made them all a lot closer, she realized. Harry was a shy boy, even after all these years of being in the spotlight. He wasn't one to go looking for new friends or to start a conversation, but if one was started around him, he was pretty comfortable joining in.
Hermione was more than a bit of an introvert herself, but years of being forced to communicate with near strangers had toughened her. Harry had no such experience, at least not yet. If she had any luck, Harry would become more confident and more competent before the first task.
Harry wasn't the only person she was spending time with, these days. She found herself using her second go-rounds to speak more and more with Snape, who had an amazing mind for strategy.
"Miss Granger," he said the day after the Ferret incident. "You neglected to explain one important detail to me. If you did not put Mister Potter's name in the Goblet of Fire, who did?"
Hermione frowned over her tea, which had become something of a tradition between them: plan for the future and sip earl grey. Snape's lanky hair shrouded part of his face, but Hermione could see that he was concerned. "I must ask you first not to act. It's imperative that this individual be allowed to continue."
Snape's face turned stony. "If you can provide logical reasoning, then very well."
Hermione sighed and set her tea down. "The man you know as Alastor Moody isn't what he seems."