WHAT IF
Chapter 11 - Dragons And Jam Tarts
Hermione used her first day of school as effective as possible. In between the lessons and after the meals she ran off to the library to research how she could help the house elves best. Hermione had decided that the best way was to try and change something at the ministry directly. She wanted to found a group which would campaign for house-elf-rights. And the more people she had in this group the better.
Hermione remembered the stories her parents had told her about their time at university. During that time her parents had joined many groups, went to demonstrations and tried to make a political impact. This stories now inspired Hermione. Her group needed a name and a manifesto, of course.
Hermione was absolutely excited while she planned and she hoped that she could sway as many students as possible for her cause. She was sure that people would see the matter her way as soon as there was a group which gave them the opportunity to be active and political.
The rest of the day went by pretty normally for Hermione. Well, apart from the little scene with Malfoy when he taunted Harry and Ron and ended up as a ferret. Hermione really tried not to laugh when Professor Moody transfigured the blond git into a silver ferret and let him bounce.
Ron was on cloud nine after this and in an excellent mood when Hermione left them to rush back to the library. On her way out she almost crashed into Fred, who was on his way into the Great Hall with George, both whispering about something.
"Woah, where's the fire, Granger?" George joked while Hermione tried to steady herself.
"There's something I need to research," she explained breathlessly and hurried off. Behind her she could hear how Fred yelled something like it's only the first day but she didn't turn around. Her heart raced from the unexpected situation. Merlin, she needed to get her mind back as soon as possible. With renewed fever, Hermione worked on her house elf project.
In the evening she was finally finished and hurried to the common room.
"It's S.P.E.W., not spew." With gleaming eyes, Hermione showed Harry and Ron the badges she made during the day. She had worked really hard to get everything ready within one day and had expected her friends to be a little more… enthusiastic about it. But the two just stared at her like she had grown a second head.
And before Hermione had the chance to further explain her ideas and goals Hedwig arrived with a letter from Sirius, which was of course more interesting and important than house elves to Harry and Ron.
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The first two weeks of the term went by as fast as ever. Hermione was trying hard to get people to join S.P.E.W. but sadly most of her classmates seemed to think that she was either joking or crazy. No one was interested in house-elves and how they were treated.
Instead, her classmates started to complain about the workload in the classes more and more. Since they would have their O.W.L.s in the next year the teachers were quick to give them more homework and more difficult tasks in order to prepare them. Hermione was one of the only ones who were still able to keep up with her workload, but she was immensely glad that she wasn't using the Time-Turner anymore.
But the most exciting thing was, of course, the Tournament and so everyone was talking about nothing else. In all classes, people tried to pry information from the Professors and during meals, breaks and in the common room, there was no other topic.
In between all the homework, the Tournament talk and her efforts to gain members for S.P.E.W. Hermione turned fifteen on a sunny September Monday. Mondays were Hermione's favourite day this school year. In the morning they had Herbology and Care for Magical Creatures, which provided them with a nice morning outside. After lunch, Hermione had a double lesson in Arithmancy, always something to look forward to.
Hermione had to admit that this year it felt a bit different to get older. Till now she hadn't felt different just because she had become older, but this year she felt an odd feeling of excitement in her chest. Fifteen felt like an age that changed things. She felt older and… more female?
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At the beginning of October, there was finally the announcement that the other schools would arrive for the Triwizard Tournament on the day before Halloween. Hermione was standing with Ron and Harry in front of the sign when Ron started to complain about Cedric Diggory as a possible champion for Hogwarts.
"Not the pretty boy, he's an idiot." Ron huffed.
"He's not an idiot, you just don't like him because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch," said Hermione. "I've heard he's a really good student - and he's a Prefect."
Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones had told Hermione - or more tried to convince her - that Cedric was the perfect candidate. Hermione still wasn't so sure about that but she understood why the Hufflepuffs were all supporting him.
"You only like him because he's handsome," said Ron scathingly.
"Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" Hermione blushed furiously when she heard how Ron coughed something that sounded like Lockhart.
She wasn't so superficial!
A fleeting thought that maybe she liked Fred just because he was handsome swirled through Hermione's mind. A part of her wished it would be that way because then it would be so much easier to just forget about him. Till now Hermione hadn't found a way to deal with Fred beside pretending that nothing was going on.
Should she act on her feelings? Or should she ignore them in the hope they would vanish quickly? And if she told Fred, was there even a slight chance that he would take her seriously?
Falling in love with your best friend's older brother was the worst cliché Hermione could think about and she still couldn't believe that it had actually happened to her.
The only thing equally worse was falling in love with your older brother's best friend, like Ginny. But Hermione was still reluctant to tell Ginny about her new emotional status. Somehow Hermione was afraid of admitting it out loud.
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On the day the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students were scheduled to arrive, Hermione, Harry and Ron were going down to breakfast just to find Fred and George sit by themselves again. This had happened quite often since the start of the school year and was highly unusual.
Ron suspected that the twins were planning something for their joke shop and didn't want anyone to know. But Hermione found that they looked rather unhappy and angry during those little secret meetings. Not like they were planning something like their life dream.
"That's a bummer. He will avoid us otherwise," George muttered.
"Who's avoiding you," Ron asked as he sat down beside his brothers. Both didn't look like they were happy to see them.
"I wish you would," Fred shoot back, obviously in a bad mood.
"What's a bummer?" Ron asked again, this time George. Hermione had to admit that it wasn't easy to discourage Ron when he wanted to know something.
"Having you for a brother," George mumbled and thankfully Harry took over the conversation by asking about the Tournament. That cheered up the twins who still had big plans. Hermione listened silently as she prepared her porridge.
"You know, I bet we could do them, Harry, we've done dangerous stuff before…" Ron mused.
"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," said Fred. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."
"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.
"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," said Hermione and everyone looked around at her, rather surprised. Apparently, they had forgotten she was still there and suddenly she felt a bit awkward.
Suppressing this feeling she started to explain how she had read it in Hogwarts: A History and then switched the topic to elf rights, when she remembered her rage from the other day.
Hermione felt rather… cheated that the most wonderful book - the first magical book she had read - said nothing about house elves at all. There wasn't even onr word about them working in the kitchens.
While she spoke Hermione saw how the others fell silent and started to eat their breakfast, probably in hope that she would stop when they didn't talk back. Hermione felt more and more disappointed by this lack of social conscience.
The only one who engaged Hermione in a discussion was George, but only to tell how her happy the house elves were. Hermione had half a mind to yell at him when Hedwig once again arrived with a letter from Sirius. Huffing she accepted that she was interrupted - again - and finished her breakfast.
After the lessons that day all the Hogwarts students were waiting outside for the arrival of their guests. An excited whisper was running through the crowd when the giant carriage of Beauxbaton arrived. The horses alone were quite the sight but when the Headmistress stepped out of the carriage everyone was holding their breath. She was an elegant and beautiful woman but so, so large.
But the storm of excitement truly came when Durmstrang arrived and no other than Victor Krum, Quidditch star and Ron's personal hero, stepped out of the large ship. Ron couldn't stop himself from talking about Krum and looking out for him at the Great Hall. His disappointment about Krum sitting at the Slytherin table was almost hilarious.
Personally, Hermione found it ridiculous to make such a scene just because of some Quidditch player. She had learned her lesson after Lockhart and vowed to never let herself be blinded by someone just because of fame and good looks. Not that Krum was good-looking, quite the opposite was the case. What made it even more ridiculous that all the girls were whispering about Krum during the feast.
The feast itself was absolutely stunning. Hermione didn't know any of the house-elves at the Hogwarts kitchen herself but they had certainly outdone themselves.
It was when one of the Beauxbatons girls approached their table that Hermione's mood suddenly dropped. From one moment to the other she felt like an ugly duckling. The girl, which came to their table, had the longest silver blonde hair Hermione had ever seen and big, deep blue eyes. Everything about her screamed beauty and elegance and suddenly Hermione felt rather plump in her simple school uniform. It was a feeling similar to how Hermione had experienced the Veela. Just that this girl was very human and only looked like a Veela.
Snorting Hermione watched how Ron ogled at the girl while Harry was so obviously staring at Cho Chang that it almost hurt. She was just glad that Ginny was sitting somewhere else and couldn't witness this scene.
Thankfully Dumbledore chose this moment to start with his explanation of how the champions would be chosen for the Tournament.
"An age line, excellent," Fred and George grinned like nutters when everyone left the Hall later. They were absolutely convinced that they could trick the age line with a simple potion.
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The next morning the twins proofed how convinced they were when they entered the room with a ruckus. Hermione, Ron and Harry had stood up sooner than usual to see who would enter his name into the goblet.
"We just took it," Fred smirked.
"It's not going to work." Hermione couldn't keep silent.
"Oh yeah, and why is that, Granger?" Fred grinned down at her.
"Dumbledore drew the age line himself. A genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by something as pathetically dim-witted as an ageing potion." She rolled her eyes. Everyone could easily see that an age potion was the most obvious solution and therefore would never work.
"But that's why it is so brilliant!" George exclaimed.
"Because it is so pathetically dim-witted." And with that Fred jumped over the age line first, followed by George a second later. For a few seconds, it seemed like they had succeeded. The crowd cheered for them but as soon as the twins tried to throw their names into the goblet a golden light appeared and threw them out of the circle.
With a loud thump, Fred and George landed a few feet away. But now they sported long, white beards which were growing more and more. Lee Jordan was almost crying from laughter while he escorted the twins to the infirmary.
Hermione tried not to laugh too loud and refrained to throw a I-told-you-so at the twins. Somehow she found even this stupidity endearing.
Harry, Ron and Hermione had just sat down for breakfast when a loud cheering was heard from the room with the goblet. A second later a blushing Angelina, who grinned in an embarrassed way, entered the Hall and sat down beside them.
"I just threw my name in," she announced sheepishly.
"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor is entering. I really hope you get it, Angelina!" Hermione smiled at the older girl. The longer she knew Angelina Johnson the more she liked the girl. And now Angelina was even entering the Tournament, maybe she would become Champion. Hermione was thrilled with the idea of not only having a Gryffindor as Champion but also a woman. And Angelina surely was someone who was tough and intelligent enough to win the Tournament.
"Thanks, Hermione," said Angeline, smiling at her.
The rest of the day Hermione, Harry and Ron spent with Hagrid, who was behaving quite curiously. He wore his good clothes, had tried to tame his hair and was even wearing some kind of perfume or cologne. This puzzle was however solved pretty quickly when the three of them witnessed how Hagrid looked at Madame Maxime.
As superb the Halloween Feast was this year, Hermione was sure that most of the students couldn't appreciate the food completely. Everyone was too excited to see who the Champions would be and waited for the feast to finally end.
And when the goblet started to make his decision it was like the whole hall was holding its breath at the same time. No sound was heard till the flames turned red and Dumbledore announced Victor Krum as the first Champion. A sudden wave of cheers and applause broke out and Hermione grinned when she saw how happy Ron was.
The next Champion was Fleur Delacour, the girl which Ron still insisted was a Veela. Again a slight tingle of jealousy awoke in Hermione's chest as she watched the girl walk forward. But she also realised that she wasn't the only one. While quite a few boys were staring at Fleur star struck, most of the girls seemed rather jealous. Hermione assumed that this was normal for a girl as beautiful as Fleur Delacour.
The biggest applause, of course, broke out when Cedric Diggory was declared Hogwarts Champion. Hufflepuff House was in a rage of laughter and cheers when Cedric's name was announced and the tumult took so long that Dumbledore had to calm down the Hall before he could talk again.
But right before he could finish his announcement the goblet turned red again and a new name was flying out. With horror, Hermione listened when the headmaster announced Harry's name in front of everyone.
With wide eyes, she watched how her best friend stood up - a fearful and shooked expression on his face- and walked away like a lamb walking for its slaughter.
"I just don't get how he managed to do it and why he didn't tell us," Ron's face was an angry grimace and Hermione could see that he was struggling with some not so positive feelings. They were walking together to the common room and Ron had been raging since the moment Harry had left the Great Hall.
"Merlin, Ron, did you see his face? He was as surprised by the news as the rest of us. I don't think that Harry entered his name himself. Besides, we don't even know if they will let him participate. It's highly irregular to have four Champions, plus two of them from the same school." Hermione reasoned.
When they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady there were several people standing in front of the portrait, listening to a witch from another portrait.
"…and the headmaster said he can participate. He's even allowed to skip end-terms." This seemed to settle it for Ron who stormed off, his face an ugly red.
Hermione tried to wait for Harry but ultimately she found it was too loud in the common room. The whole house was set on celebrating their unexpected Champion. She went up to bed with the hope that Ron would calm down after a good talk with Harry.
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Hermione's hope was crushed when she went down for breakfast the next morning and saw that Ron was already there - without Harry. Ron was so obviously sulking that Hermione ignored him, just grabbed a stack of toast and went back to the common room. Luckily she already met Harry on her way and together they took a walk around the lake, talking about what had happened.
Harry was now also angry at Ron for not believing him and Hermione wanted to shake some sense into those two idiots. Ron was stupid for being jealous and Harry was stupid for being so stubborn. And Hermione was in the middle of it, trying to convince each of them to finally speak with the other.
The following weeks were therefore spent with a lot of awkward silence and small talk whenever Ron and Harry had to work together in classes. But like it wasn't worse enough to have the two of them fighting, the rest of the school was also doing its best to make the situation as terrible as possible for Harry.
The Hufflepuffs, of course, had the opinion that Cedric was the only true Hogwarts Champion and therefore treated Harry really poorly. The Ravenclaws weren't much better. Apparently, they also thought that Harry had entered the Tournament willingly and just wanted more attention.
But the Slytherins were, of course, the worst. They taunted Harry every minute of the day and there was no escaping them. Hermione almost suspected that Malfoy had started a campaign on how to torture Harry the best. But that was a ridiculous thought. Surely Malfoy would never invest so much time and work.
Well, at least that was what Hermione thought till Draco Malfoy showed everyone before potions class the POTTER-STINKS-Badges he had made. Hermione was just about to ask why Malfoy was investing so much time and money just to annoy Harry when the situation escalated.
Harry and Malfoy started to cast at the same time, spells were flying and suddenly Hermione was hit.
An hour later Hermione was still sitting in the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey had managed to stop the growth of her teeth but they still needed to shrink them back to their original size. With horror Hermione looked into the mirror Madame Pomfrey handed her and a fresh sob broke out of her.
"Now, no crying. We will have this fixed in a minute," the nurse scolded in a motherly way and grabbed her wand. "Just tell me when to stop."
Fascinated Hermione watched how her teeth became smaller with every second and suddenly she realised the wonderful opportunity that presented itself to her right at this moment. With a thumping heart, Hermione watched the teeth shrink back to their original size and then she waited for just another three or four seconds and then…
"That's enough, thank you." She stopped Madame Pomfrey with a happy smile and admired her new sized teeth. It was unbelievable how much of a difference it made. Hermione found that now she wanted to smile the whole day just so that she could show it off.
When Hermione came down to dinner that evening Harry wasn't there, but Ron was sitting with Fred and George. With a nervous feeling in her gut, Hermione sat down beside Ron, right opposite of Fred. He smiled at her when she sat down and Hermione's heart made a nervous backflip.
"How are you?" Ron asked genuinely worried.
"Fine, thank you. Madame Pomfrey managed to shrink them back quite nicely." Hermione pulled a tray with bread towards her.
"Ron told us what happened. Want us to turn Malfoy into a ferret again?" George asked with a twinkle and Hermione suspected they just needed a reason to prank Malfoy again.
"Thanks, but it's not necessary." Hermione grinned. "Where is Harry?"
"Who knows? Probably still at his photo shooting." Ron grumbled beside her and explained in short sentences why Harry had been pulled out from class.
"Honestly, Ron, how long do you want to put up with this ridiculous behaviour?"
"Harry is the one cheating his way into the Tournament and I'm the one being ridiculous?" Angrily Ron put his cutlery down and stomped off from the hall.
"What was that about?" Fred asked with raised eyebrows.
"Oh, you didn't know? Your brother is convinced that Harry entered his name himself because he desperately wants more fame and attention." Hermione answered casually while she put food on her plate.
"Yeah, sure, because the one thing Harry lacks is attention." George snorted into his goblet. That made Hermione also laugh.
"They're both being stupid and stubborn." She explained but Fred stared at her curiously.
"What's wrong? Is there something in my face?" Hermione blushed under Fred's intense gaze.
"There's nothing wrong, just… did you change something, Granger? You look different." Fred asked curiously and obviously confused. Now George also eyed her carefully.
"Fred's right, you do look different."
"Oh, maybe it's my teeth?" Hermione smiled embarrassedly so that Fred and George could see her teeth. A sudden realisation was visible in the twins' expressions.
"My, my, Granger, did you shrink your teeth a bit too much?" Fred shook his head in mock-incredulity.
"Sized the day, didn't you?" George smirked. "Looks good."
"Yeah, it does. Your smile looks really nice, not that it hadn't been nice before." Fred nodded and a warm feeling spread through Hermione's chest. She would replay this moment in her head more often that she would ever admit.
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Hermione would have been on cloud nine, but unfortunately a few days later an article in the Daily Prophet from Rita Skeeter appeared, declaring Harry a tragic hero. The article was everywhere and Hermione tried her best to keep Harry from breaking down and yelling at people.
Wherever they were, students would read aloud from the article and by now Hermione had the suspicion that Draco Malfoy knew the damn thing by heart. He could probably quote it in his sleep. Hermione constantly told Harry to let himself get provoked by them. She herself took it with a stoic ignorance that Rita Skeeter had deemed her a possible love interest for Harry.
But Harry wasn't as good in ignoring everyone and Hermione knew it was because of Ron. If Ron would finally get his act together and talk with Harry again, then the situation would be so much better.
"I don't understand how you can be like that! Don't you see how Harry's suffering because of this dumb fight? And he's certainly not enjoying the attention and the fame and the bloody article from Rita Skeeter!" Hermione yelled one evening at Ron in the common room. Harry had already gone to bed, exhausted from the day.
"You don't get it," grumbled Ron. "But of course you're on his site since you two are apparently an item now, aren't you?"
"Are you actually believing this shit from Skeeter?" Now Hermione was tempted to curse Ron. Instead, she stormed off to her dorm room.
Ginny entered the room a minute after Hermione had thrown herself on her bed. To Hermione's immense relief Ginny didn't believe a word from Skeeter's terrible article.
"Are you alright? I think I never heard you curse so much."
"Your brother is an idiot." She stated simply. "Harry is miserable because of this fight and how the whole school treats him. And Ron is miserable too! But he is so fixated on feeling treated unfairly, that he would never admit it. They're both getting on my nerves!" Ginny just nodded and then settled down next to Hermione.
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Harry's and Ron's fight wasn't the only thing that was constantly annoying Hermione. The second was Victor Krum, who had become a common face at the library and an ongoing source of anger. Not that he himself was so terrible. Krum was a model library user. He was silent, always put his books away neatly and seemed to study in honest.
The annoying thing about Krum was the dozens of girls that followed him everywhere. And they were in no case silent or neat. They constantly giggled in a corner and tried to talk with Krum till Madame Pince would lose her patience and throw them out.
Hermione wished Madame Pince wouldn't even let them in, but that was of course not possible. And it was also not possible to forbid Viktor Krum entrance to the library as Madame Pince had patiently explained to Hermione when she suggested it.
Grumbling Hermione accepted that she had to live with this for the school year and always searched for a table in a secluded corner. But unfortunately Krum seemed to like quiet places as much as Hermione and so they almost always ended up in the same part of the library. And it always ended with Hermione leaving soon after the fans arrived.
Hermione pitied Victor Krum. He was obviously not keen to get this kind of attention and did nothing to provoke it. Hermione suspected that the girls didn't even like Krum that much, he wasn't even good-looking. It was just because of his fame that they were following him everywhere. And Krum seemed to know this himself well enough.
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Hermione was eating breakfast with Ginny at Sunday morning when Harry came to them, a pale face and no appetite. And as soon as Hermione had finished her porridge Harry dragged her outside.
Breathlessly and with an ashen face he told her about his conversation with Sirius over the Floo network and about his meeting with Hagrid in the middle of the night. With a racing heart, Hermione listened.
Dragons… Her first instinct was to demand that Harry would not take part. That he would just not show up. But of course it was not possible and so the two of them spent the day in the library, furiously searching for a spell - a simple spell according to Sirius - which would help Harry to get past his dragon.
But they found nothing and slowly Hermione was getting more and more anxious. The salvation came when Harry arrived at Herbology late the next day.
"Hermione, I need you to help me." He whispered, an anxious excitement in his voice.
"What do you think I've been trying to do, Harry?"
"I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm, properly by tomorrow afternoon." Hermione almost dropped her notes. Of all things, Harry wanted to use that? The one charm he had trouble with since the beginning of the term.
And so they practised. They skipped lunch and used every second between classes. They hasty ate dinner and used the invisibility cloak to stay in an unused classroom till late into the night. And when it became too late, they went to the common room and practised there. Finally, after hours and hours, Harry had gotten it perfect and with a slightly better feeling, they both went to bed that night.
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Hermione refused to sit with Ron during the first task. Instead, she went with Ginny who was as anxious as Hermione was. And their emotional state went even more downhill when Ludo Bagman officially announced what the task was.
"Dragons! Oh, Hermione." Ginny muttered in a low voice. Her face was stricken with horror. Hermione's stomach was constantly hurting and it felt like it was cramping, probably because of all the stress.
And then the task started.
Cedric Diggory was first. Hermione watched how the transfigured a stone into a dog in order to side-track the dragon. And he was almost successful, but then the dragon remembered Cedric a second too soon and the Hufflepuff made it out alive with a only nasty wound. But he managed to get his egg.
"Hermione! Dragons! Harry has to fight a dragon!" Ron ran towards her as soon as Cedric was brought off the pitch.
"Brilliant deduction, Ron. How did you find out?" Hermione spat it. Her worry about Harry was at a new high after seeing what nasty wounds a dragon could do. But for a change, Ron didn't start to fight with her. He simply seemed too worried himself. And so they just stood side by side, watching the Champions.
Fleur and Krum both had good strategies. While Fleur managed to put her dragon to sleep, Krum attacked the eyes of his.
And then came Harry. And he was brilliant. Hermione almost drew blood from herself because she anxiously clawed her fingernails into her own skin. It took both Ron and Ginny to keep her from hurting herself.
And when it was finally over Hermione felt like a thousand pounds were lifted off her chest. She would need send a whole box of chocolate or whiskey to Hagrid for showing Harry the dragons. Because honestly, without the information he would have never managed to do it.
With exasperation, Hermione watched how Ron and Harry later forgave each other without even saying much about it. Hermione didn't know why but this made her cry. After all the emotional turmoil of the day, something as simple as a reunion between friends made her cry like a little child.
Still shaken Hermione hurried off to the toilets as soon as possible to wash her face with cold water. She didn't want to look like a mess during the inevitable victory celebration at the common room. Quickly she washed her face and then decided that she could go to the toilet as well. But just as she wanted to throw away the used toilet paper Hermione looked down and saw blood. Not much, just a bit. But she knew exactly what it meant.
Shit… Hermione did her best to act normal as she hurried back to the castle and Gryffindor Tower. She was sure that Harry and Ron would manage to get back by themselves. She had more necessary things to take care of.
"Hermione?" Lavender and Parvati came back to their shared dorm room a bit later. Both looked at her curiously as Hermione blushed. She still held the little bag with the pads in her hands. With a raised eyebrow Lavender spotted it and smiled.
"Well then, welcome to the club." The blonde winked.
"Membership includes cramps, emotional instability and a ravenous appetite for sweets once a month for the next forty or so years. Enjoy it." Parvati added. Since their last school year, the three girls had grown apart even more. While Parvati and Lavender weren't hostile towards Hermione anymore, there also had nothing to say to each other.
"And if you need something, pads or... you know," Lavender said.
"Thank you," Hermione tentatively smiled at them and then went down to the common room for the party.
The party was marvellous. Gryffindor house had outdone himself with preparing everything. There were pictures and posters in red and gold everywhere showing Harry on his broom. Cheers erupted when Harry and Ron entered the room.
"We just sent off a letter to Sirius quickly," Harry whispered as Hermione approached them.
For a change, Harry was enjoying the attention he was getting fully. Partly because it was well earned and party because Ron was not cross with him about it. Hermione watched with a grin how the two of them almost floated through the room, engaged in chats with numerous people.
"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" Fred asked while Harry, Ron, George and Neville discussed what the terrible noise from the Golden Egg meant. But Hermione was so shocked from being addressed suddenly that she just stared at Fred.
"It's all right. I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch." Behind them, Neville choked. "Just a little joke, Neville…" Fred laughed.
Hermione took a jam tart and decided that maybe she should try to get to know Fred better. Maybe, maybe... if there was a slight chance...
"Did you get all this from the kitchens, Fred?" She asked but inside she cursed herself. Her house-elf-project was surely not the best way to engage Fred in a conversation but it was too late now. And to her amazement, Fred actually answered her honestly.
"Yep," Fred grinned at her. With a high-pitched voice, he imitated a house-elf. "Anything we can get you, sir, anything at all! They're dead helpful… get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish."
"And how do you get there?" Hermione asked innocently. She really wanted to know how to get inside the kitchens but she also wanted to keep up talking with Fred. This was maybe the first time she talked to him this long without being interrupted by someone.
"Easy, concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just pickle the pear, and it giggles and-" Suddenly Fred stopped and looked suspiciously at her. "Why?"
"Nothing," Hermione said quickly.
"Going to try and lead the house-elves out on strike now, are you?" George stepped into the conversation. "Going to give up all the leaflet stuff and try and stir them up in rebellion?" Several people around them laughed and Hermione glared at George.
Not only did he - again - made fun of her efforts, he also effectively ended her talk with Fred. But the tension was lifted when Neville suddenly turned into a canary, making the whole room laugh. From one second to the other Fred and George were in full selling mood and started to advertise their products. And Hermione accepted that tonight she probably wouldn't get another chance to speak with Fred.
Okay, this was a long one. I really wanted to end this chapter with the first task, no matter how long. So, I hope you enjoyed it.
For everyone who wants to see more FredxHermione: It will come. I promise. I mean, there is a ball coming ;) But I warn you. It will take a long, long while before they get together. Hermione has just realised that she's in love, now she has to find her soulmate… And then the trouble will start.
