I think I missed posting on Sunday! My bad! Here's an extra chapter...

«Ooft!» Fleur groaned when a body landed on top of her. She was wrapped up in her blankets, refusing to get out of bed. «What are you doing, Evangeline? And how did you get past my blood wards?»

«Gabrielle let me in. I might have bribed her with cookies…»

«That little traitor. I'm going to have to rethink my protection spells.»

«So, how was it? I didn't see you or Mademoiselle Granger after that tomato with hair made a scene. Where did you sneak off to? Did you steal her first kiss? Hmmm? Come on, woman give me details!»

«No… we… broke up. Well, I can't really say broke up, we weren't dating or anything.» Fleur didn't care that she probably looked pathetic, wrapped up in her blanket like a mopey Veela burrito. Her heart was aching and her Veela was screaming at her for being an idiot and denying her mate. But she knew in her heart it was the right move. Right girl, wrong time.

She would wait however long it took for the right time. Now that she knew Hermione was her one, she would forsake all others. She didn't exactly have a choice now anyway. Her Veela wouldn't allow her to love anyone else now. But until then, she would continue to deny her instincts and let Hermione live her life and make her own choices. And if things were meant to be, they would find each other. Be that friends or lovers was yet to be seen.

She was determined to do whatever it took to ensure that she and her mate had a chance for some sort of future together. And hopefully saving the world in the process. But that was a problem for tomorrow. For now she was going to allow herself a day to wallow in self pity. Heartache hurt at any age.

«Excuse me… What?!»

«I came here to compete. I can't let myself get distracted.» Fleur offered lamely.

«Yeah, but I mean, that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun along the way, you know? You don't have to make yourself miserable.»

«Please, Eva… just don't. I can't handle this right now…»

Evangeline nodded and curled up on the bed next to her heartbroken alpha, taking her head and cradling it in her lap. She hummed a few traditional Veela lullabies quietly, rubbing her friend's back and trying to soothe her.

With the start of the new year, Hermione buckled down and started to try to formulate a plan to deal with Voldemort. She had allowed herself to get distracted by her unrequited crush on Fleur and her curiosity about the Time Turner, which in the grand scheme of things was of little consequence. But she refused to dwell or berate herself over it.

So she compartmentalized everything that didn't immediately affect her or was not related to her mission and tucked it away in the depths of her mind. Including Fleur. Mostly Fleur, honestly… She had put her quill and necklace in the mahogany quill box and tucked it under her bed, hidden behind stacks of old books. She did continue to carry the marble, quietly hoping that one day it might warm up. That Fleur was thinking about her. But it never did. It just sat silently in her pocket.

Being highly logical and pragmatic, Hermione made a list of everything that she could think of that would need to be addressed and in the relative order of immediate importance by time. Keeping Harry alive for the Second and Third Tasks. The events at the graveyard. The prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. The Horcruxes and the fact that she suspected Harry himself was a Horcrux. The Deathly Hallows, though this one was debatable. It was a children's tale after all. Despite Harry's firm belief that one could become the Master of Death, by owning the three magical objects, she was unconvinced. She sighed and scribbled down a few other things, like Sirius, Dumbledore, and the Order of the Phoenix. There were probably a number of other things that she wasn't considering at this time, but these seemed like the big ones. She wondered what ripple effect would be set into motion by messing with the various events in time. Best to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Okay, to the list, she thought and started scribbling out her plans, ink dripping down her fingers. She decided to tackle the first three items first, seeing as the Horcruxes, Hallows, and prophecy weren't as time sensitive and mostly hinged on the outcome of the other tasks. Especially since Voldemort wasn't back to alert his followers to the existence of the prophecy nor did he consider anyone smart enough to discover the Horcruxes. She knew they still had some time before Voldemort's return, based on updates she was getting from Harry's dream. Nothing had really changed from the visions of the Riddle House and Bellatrix's cruel laugh. It seemed that the Dark Lord was still laying low.

The Second Task was easy. She would just make some comment about recognizing the screeching as Mermish. One benefit of being seen with giant stacks of books on language and linguistics was that it gave her a perfect excuse to know something so random. She would help Harry with defensive spells and heating charms and acquiring gillyweed after that.

The Third Task was tricky but relatively straightforward. She needed to think of a way to somehow have Harry still compete in the Third Task while also keeping him out of the graveyard and not endangering the other Champions. She couldn't think about what had happened to Cedric last time and cringed to think of that fate befalling Viktor… or Fleur.

Of course, this was assuming the Third Task would be the same as last time, ending in a portkey trip to Little Haggleton. But she knew she couldn't assume anything. So much about this timeline was already different from the first time that there was a good chance things might not play out the way she imagined them to. She was at a crossroads. One one hand she didn't want to use her precious time making plans when the actual events about to unfold were completely different, thereby rendering her careful planning useless. On the other hand, she had no real leads other than theories and she didn't want to waste time not planning. She came to a compromise... try to plan for anything and everything.

Regardless of what the future had in store for this timeline, there were things she could do to prepare in advance. There were some potions she wanted to make and have on hand, just in case. TIme to start pilfering from the Potions supply closet. Without Snape noticing. This would be fun.

She also knew that she needed to start working on Harry's dueling skills. Even if he didn't go to the graveyard on June 24, these were skills that would be helpful to him in any version of the future. She wasn't naive enough to think that changing the outcome of the Triwizard Tournament and preventing Voldemort's return in the graveyard would somehow fix everything. No, it was just the beginning.

Even if she figured out how to stop him that night, Voldemort would still be out there, thanks to the Horcruxes. It would only be a matter of time before he surfaced again. She knew that the Death Eaters were mobilizing anyway, so something was going to happen. She just didn't know what that might be and they needed to be ready for anything. So she adopted the mindset that some sort of War was inevitable. Hopefully the skills and planning would be for naught and the War would be avoided somehow… but everything was so uncertain. She wasn't willing to risk anything by being complacent or not taking a possible threat seriously.

She looked at her list and frowned. Everything seemed good in theory, but she knew success or failure would come down to the little details and there were so many unknowns. What she really needed was information. The obvious source of which was the man impersonating Moody himself. She knew that she had to be strategic. She couldn't tackle him head on without spooking him or ending up on the wrong end of the Killing Curse. Nor could she approach anyone for help without revealing her plans or herself. Ugh, being 15 again really limited her options.

She spent her nights watching the Marauder's Map, keeping an eye on the Death Eater within their walls. She needed to find a way to infiltrate. Until then, she was at a standstill as far as specific plans went. She started hypothesizing various scenarios and planning for those, but she needed to know details before she could come up with anything solid.

In the meantime, she set up a makeshift potions lab inside the Room of Requirement. God, how did she function before knowing about this room? She had thought about trying to find Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. It would be one less thing to worry about. She also remembered that Harry had said that Voldemort felt a connection to the Horcruxes and each time one was destroyed he felt it. So she couldn't destroy it, not yet.

Nor could she take it with her. She remembered the influence of that damned locket and she knew that she couldn't conceal such a dangerous Dark object. So letting the Diadem hide in plain sight was unfortunately the only real option at this time. She knew that the Horcrux was safe for the time being, no one in this timeline had any knowledge of the Horcruxes anyway. Well, maybe Dumbledore, but seeing as the Headmaster hadn't destroyed it yet, she figured he was unaware of its existence.

When she wasn't sneaking extra portions of powdered root of asphodel, lacewing flies and other ingredients from her Potions class or developing various plans and contingency plans, she spent her time with Harry. Ron seemed to be stubborning himself to death and was giving them both the cold shoulder. She didn't mind. It was one less thing to worry about. And she really wasn't ready to forgive him yet. It did hurt her to see Harry so torn, stuck between his two friends. But she was grateful that Harry wasn't subscribing to Ron's hateful and small-minded views and seemed to fully accept her.

Being around Harry also kept her mind off of a certain French witch that kept creeping into the back of her mind. Try as she might, she couldn't get away from Fleur. They had the exact same schedule, after all. The blonde was respecting her request for space. While she did not try to approach her or talk to her, she was still polite and cordial if their paths crossed. But it seemed that they were both determined to give each other a healthy distance.

She started off by easing Harry into dueling lessons in the Room, which had magically equipped itself with a dueling stage for them to use, along with sparring dummies. It reminded her of the set up for Dumbledore's Army practice in their fifth year.

He had been impressed by the Room and her lab set up. When he asked her about the rows of bubbling cauldrons, she told him that it was to help her get ahead in Potions class. He knew that she struggled with this subject more than others and didn't question it further. She still did well in the class in her earlier years, it just didn't come naturally to her like charms or transfiguration.

She, on the other hand, was rather impressed by his dueling skill. He seemed more advanced than she remembered him being in their fourth year. He was working on at least fifth year level, maybe slightly higher. Had he been studying ahead? She doubted it. Aside from reading about Quidditch strategies, Harry had always been content doing the bare minimum to scoot by. Then again, he had Ron hanging off him, convincing him to ditch his studies and go fly or goof around with wizard's chess.

"Protego!" Hermione cast her shield charm to deflect Harry's incoming body bind curse. "Nice job. You're doing really well, Harry!"

"Thanks, Hermione. You too! You're really strong. I can't get past your defensive enchantments!" Harry huffed. "Can we take a quick break? We've been going at it for a couple hours…"

"Yeah, sure." Hermione walked to the center of the stage and sat down, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "How did you learn that leg locker curse you threw at me? That's an advanced charm."

Harry sat down and twiddled his fingers together nervously… "I… errr… I've been getting a little help. It seems like you aren't the only one interested in teaching me to duel."

Hermione sat up "You've been getting private lessons? From a professor?"

"Uh, no, not exactly… It's… It's Fleur. She's been helping me all year." Harry looked at her sheepishly "I'm sorry, I know you guys had a bit of a falling out and I didn't want to bring it up. She told me not to talk about it, didn't want others to think we were cheating or anything."

"It's fine. She is free to do what she wants. And I'm glad she's been helping you. It's obvious that you've learned a lot from her." Hermione felt a strange pang of guilt, jealousy, and relief. She had always taken it upon herself to keep Harry out of trouble, it made her feel like he didn't need her. Which was an absolutely ridiculous way of thinking. She was glad that Harry was getting extra help, in fact it made her job of trying to keep him alive easier. She knew that Fleur was skilled and he could learn a lot from her.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" His bright green eyes swimming with concern at how she would react.

"Not at all! Honestly." Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed it to reassure him. "I mean, It's a bit of a surprise to be sure… I didn't realize you were very close." Fleur had never mentioned spending time with Harry before.

Harry sighed, visibly relieved. "Yeah… she said she didn't think it was fair they were making me do this Tournament… And for the record, we don't talk about the tournament at all. She just shows me random special spells and stuff…"

Hermione nodded slowly, that explained his confidence the night of the Champion Selection Ceremony. "Good. Never hurts to be extra prepared, right?"

"Yeah… I'm glad I have both of you guys helping me…" He looked like he wanted to elaborate but decided against it, for which Hermione was glad. She didn't want to think about Fleur. And she hated that she felt her feelings flaring up a little. It reminded her how amazing and kind Fleur was, that she would go out of her way to help Harry, who was her competitor, like this. She quickly pushed her feelings back down "Hey, let's go get dinner. I think a hot meal will do us both a lot of good."

Harry nodded eagerly and hopped down.

Near the end of January, Hermione decided that it was time to put the 'Second Task plan' in action. She hadn't given him the shove toward figuring out his egg, yet, not wanting to raise suspicions by having him solve it too soon. Besides, she wanted him to try on his own. She had noticed that the other Champions seemed to have figured out their egg and had started training in the Lake. It was go time.

She and Harry were sitting in the Common Room one afternoon. The place was empty, most of the students were down in Hogsmeade but neither of them had felt like going. Everything was in place, even the props that she had 'staged' in advance to make the scene look as innocent and inconspicuous as possible.

"Harry… can I hear the sound again?" Hermione looked up from a giant tome she had checked out from the library that happened to include mermaid language. "I just came across something that might be promising."

Harry raised his eyebrow "Sure… Let me go get it."

A few minutes later the room was filled with the horrible screeching sounds of mermish above water.

Hermione clamped her hands over her ears. At least that reaction was authentic… "That's enough! Close it!" She screamed, trying to be heard over the assault on her ear drums.

Harry gladly obliged and twisted the cap back on "Merlin, I hate this thing. What kind of clue is this rubbish?"

Hermione pointed at the page she had conveniently flipped to. "I came across some information and it made me wonder if maybe we're just listening to it wrong. Like this says that some languages can only be heard in different mediums. Sound travels through it differently than air..."

Harry wandered over and read over her shoulder "You think… mermish? So what, listen to it in water?"

"Maybe?" Hermione coaxed without seeming too knowledgeable.

"I guess it's worth a try. I'm kind of out of options."

Hermione shrugged "What could it hurt?"

Harry went to retrieve the egg from under the pillow he had shoved on it "Guess it's time for a bath then." He turned to walk away.

"Hey Harry, before you go… Do you think you could teach me parseltongue? I'm just so fascinated by languages and there's almost nothing written about it. Believe me, I've read every book in the library."

"Sure, Hermione." Harry chuckled "Always trying to learn something new. There's a reason they call you the Brightest Witch of Your Age."

"Oh shut up you… but if I'm right, you can call me that. I think I earned it." Hermione laughed and threw a pillow at him as he darted up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

Once he was out of sight, she sighed and flopped down. Okay, one step down… a million to go.

"Is everything prepared for the next task?"

"Of course, Master… Crouch is playing his part well and they suspect nothing. Very soon, the time will come for you to rise again."

"Good… and what of the girl?"

"He'll make sure she is there when the time comes."

"Time and again, you have proven that you are my most loyal servant… and you will be rewarded in kind."

"Thank you, Master."