Here be Dragons
Hello all! Sorry for the wait, but to make up for it this is a slightly longer chapter. As ever, reviews fuel the muse!
Hermione sat in the common room, pretending to read a book while excited chatter went on around her. She wasn't really reading the novel she held between her hands, but she had read it often enough that she didn't really need to. It's weight and familiarity was a comfort, something she could rely on. She hadn't seen Ron, which she didn't think was a good thing. Despite it being evident to everybody with eyes that Harry was the most shocked person in the room when his name came out of the Goblet, Ron had sat with a surly look on his face, not even dinner distracting him and then he left early to head back to the common room. Hermione had hurried after him, to see him disappearing up the stairs to the boys's dormitory when she climbed through the entrance into Gryffindor tower.
Neville was sat opposite her in a large chair, twisting his hands together and looking as worried as she felt. He was one of the only people in the room who wasn't in a celebratory mood following Harry's selection. Hermione had contemplated going to the library to research the rules regarding Triwizard participation but she had decided instead to be there for Harry when he got back.
She was glad she had waited, as the figure that came into the common room later that night looked worried and small. He was almost immediately mobbed by most of Gryffindor, clamouring for him to tell them how he did it and wanting to congratulate him. Hermione managed to snag his arm and gently propel him towards the stairs to the boys dormitories, Neville already waiting to escort him up. She squeezed his arm lightly, earning a tense smile before he disappeared up to his dorm. She slipped away to hers, charming her curtains closed before pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill to note down everything she needed to do now. At the top of the list – find Harry a way out of this accursed tournament.
The next morning Hermione was up first thing, visiting the library to collect books on magical contracts and the Triwizard tournament. She had just taken her haul down to breakfast when Ron turned up, without Harry in tow. Before she could question why not Ron began loudly commenting on Harry's duplicity to her, whilst simultaneously managing to insert scrambled eggs, instantly explaining why he had come down to breakfast alone. In a very short space of time – during which Hermione tried to ignore him by perusing one of the books she brought with her – she had had enough. Slamming the book shut she stood up and turned to the redhead.
"You should know better than anyone that if Harry said he didn't enter the tournament, then he didn't enter. It's bad enough that he now has to compete, when he could easily be maimed or die, without you and all the other people he considers friends giving him a hard time about it!"
Ron just gasped at her for a second, and she thought maybe she had managed to get through to him, but then:
"Well of course you'd side with the Boy-Who-Lived!"
Hermione didn't stick around to hear what other insights Ron had, she grabbed her bag, scooped up some toast on a napkin and stomped out of the Great Hall. She was busy muttering to herself in her head, aware that by leaving she had probably spared herself a character assassination by Ron who had turned a rather alarming puce colour.
She had just turned towards the main staircase when she heard her name called from below. She looked down to see Cedric Diggory hurrying towards her, his own half eaten slice of toast in one hand. It looked as though he had quickly followed her out of the Great Hall. She looked at him quizzically as he approached.
"I just wanted…do you mind telling Harry that I don't think he entered the tournament?"
"You don't?" Hermione's tone was sceptical, not expecting much after her encounter with Ron. Cedric seemed to realise this as he turned earnest eyes on her.
"No, not anymore." Cedric brushed the toast-free hand through his hair whilst grimacing slightly. "I did to begin with last night. But then, I started thinking about it after I went back to the dorms. There was also no sense for him to be a fourth champion, in all honesty if he'd managed to put his name in under Hogwarts he would probably have got it. I mean, he's Harry Potter. It's all a bit strange." Cedric shook his head and smiled again at Hermione, gesticulating the the food she carried in a napkin. "I know you don't want to listening to me waffle when you want to get back to Harry but I'm glad you are helping him. I just wanted to reassure him that last night I was being a prat, and I don't really think he did it at all."
"Well…thanks. I'll pass it on." The Hufflepuff left, leaving Hermione bemused and still holding cold toast. She mentally shook herself and trotted back to the Gryffindor common room, just in time to see Harry exiting the portrait hole. She immediately held up the toast, rewarded with a wan smile. "Come on, let's go for a walk."
The morning was crisp and clear, Hermione would have enjoyed the walk except for the situation. Harry was morose, he had realised the night before that Ron believed he put his own name into the Goblet. Hermione's insistence that she, Neville and Cedric thought he was being set up did raise his morale slightly, but not enough to counteract the desertion of his supposedly best friend. She explained to Harry that it was almost certainly due to jealousy that Ron was behaving the way he was, but although Harry accepted it she could tell that it didn't really raise his spirits. They stood and watched the Giant Squid lazily grab some of Harry's leftover toast together, both wondering about what was going to come now.
Over the next few days it was adamantly clear that three quarters of the school did not support Harry at all. Surprisingly, despite it being their Champion that was overshadowed by Harry's entry, the Hufflepuffs were the least openly antagonistic, particularly the older years. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion this was actually more to do with Cedric making a particular effort to be nice to Harry when they passed each other in the corridors than because thry actually weren't upset, but was grateful to it all the same. Ravenclaw just disapproved heartily of wrong-doing, and whilst they weren't openly aggressive they were extremely cold towards Harry and by extension herself. Slytherin were even more unpleasant than usual, using any excuse to taunt Harry.
This all came to a head in the corridor before double potions one Friday afternoon. Malfoy was flashing off some badges the Slytherin's had made, infantile creations that really weren't worth the materials they were made on, but Hermione could see that it was just the icing on the cake for Harry so she commented on the lack of intelligence that had gone into making them. Malfoy naturally retorted with racial slurs, so far so usual. The escalation then happened quickly, both Harry and Ron diving for their wands whilst Malfoy also rattled off a curse. She didn't see exactly what happened, but the spells must have ricocheted off each other, one came flying towards Hermione and hit her squarely in the face.
Her front teeth began to ache incredibly painfully and grew longer and longer, coming down below her mouth and growing past her chin. She tried in vain to cover them, but they were growing so long she wasn't able to.
Professor Snape had arrived and was sorting out the mess, meaning taking absurd levels of points from Gryffindors whilst ignoring the Slytherin perpetrators. Harry pulled Hermione forward to demonstrate the effect of the curse that she was hit with, claiming it had been fired by Malfoy. Professor Snape sneered in her direction "I see no difference."
Hermione was used to scorn from the Slytherins and Professor Snape, so this should not have affected her as much as it did. However, she had always been self conscious about her front teeth and to hear them mocked by a Professor in front of a corridor full of hostile students was more than she could bear. She choked back a sob and ran towards the hospital wing.
She wasn't too far away when she collided with a tall boy wearing Hufflepuff robes. Her excuse was that the tears blurring her eyes made it hard for her to see, but the impact jarred her ever growing teeth painfully and caused fresh tears to fall. Looking up she saw a boy she recognised but did not know. The boy took one look at her and waved his wand whilst muttering something Hermione didn't catch. Her teeth remained large but they stopped growing any more.
"I'm really sorry," the boy started. "I was late for my class and didn't see you. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital wing."
Hermione tried to tell him not to worry, that she would only make him later and that she could go by herself but the overly large teeth made talking very difficult. The boy seemed to guess what she was saying though, and shook his head at her. "I'm already late, and you obviously need help. Come on."
He took her gently by the shoulder and steered her along the corridor. "I would try to fix them myself," he continued, talking at her as they walked along, "but really Madam Pomfrey will do a much better job than me! I'm Jonathon Parker, by the way."
"Her-i-o-ee Gain-er" Hermione managed to splutter out, then wished she hadn't. The older Hufflepuff looked at her amused. "You can tell me later." He replied. "Besides, we're here now."
Sure enough, the door to the hospital wing was stood open in front of her. Stepping back and sweeping an elaborate bow to her, Jonathon let her go first. Just after she entered the hospital wing Goyle staggered out of it, pushing past her and Jonathon who was still just outside. The gorilla-like Slytherin ignored the other boy's exclamation as he was shoved into the door frame, lumbering off down the corridor although not, as Hermione noticed, back towards the potions classroom.
"Sometimes I wish I were a prefect," Jonathon muttered, "so I could take points for rudeness."
"Oo aren'?" Hermione queried.
"Not me," he replied, "I don't have the school record for it, I'm just not that smart. Besides, Cedric makes a better prefect than me anyway, he really cares about the younger kids. Not that I don't!" He hastened to add. "Just that if I want to pass my exams I have to work that much harder and I simply don't have time to do prefect duties on top."
Hermione nodded her understanding and then turned to see Madame Pomfrey bustling over to them.
"Oh dear, what happened here?" She muttered, reaching the pair.
"I found her in the corridor, Madame Pomfrey. Her teeth were still growing so I stopped them with a finite incantatum, but I didn't want to even attempt to fix them."
"Quite right too," the matron approved. "All sorts of things could go wrong. Now dear, if you just sit on that bed over there. And…Mr Parker, isn't it?" At the confirmatory nod, she continued. "Well done for escorting Miss Granger here, I'll write you a note so you don't get in trouble for missing class."
"Thanks Madame Pomfrey. See you around, Granger!" With a cheery wave the Hufflepuff was gone, leaving Hermione sat by herself in the hospital wing.
Madame Pomfrey bustled over, drawing her wand out whilst muttering "What this school is coming to, I don't know. Fighting in the corridors, hexing each other blatantly. Now dear," her tone was much softer as she addressed Hermione directly, "can you let me know when your front teeth get back to the length they were originally?"
Hermione's teeth started to shrink slowly under the matron's spell. Hermione watched the mirror closely as her teeth passed their normal buck tooth position, telling Madame Pomfrey to stop as they reached a length she was happy with. Yes, her dentist parents wouldn't approve of using magical means to fix her teeth, but they never needed to know as she would just tell them that she had finally grown into them.
By the time Madame Pomfrey had finished with Hermione – which including fussing around her, making sure she was ok and giving her chocolate to help her feel better – the potions class was over and she had missed most of dinner too. On realising this, the matron also insisted that she eat in the hospital wing "to make sure your teeth are working fine", and it was some considerable time later that Hermione was finally released. On returning to the common room a still sulking Ron told her that Harry was busy answering his fan mail, which didn't actually make any sense, so she gave up on both of them and went to bed early.
The next morning Harry was relieved to see her, and also slightly cheered by the fact that he had heard from his Godfather Sirius – even though this also led to him blaming himself for Sirius being in danger by being too close to him in Britain, as Sirius was a wanted fugitive for a crime he didn't commit. This was one silver lining of what became a very trying fortnight as the first task approached. Harry was being shunned by basically the whole school, which meant that Hermione was being shunned too by default. It didn't help that both Harry and Ron were trying to use her as a go between. Both boys were being too stubborn to admit that they missed each other or to try to talk with each other. This meant that Harry was in the library a lot more when Hermione was trying to study, which was incredibly distracting and not helped by the fact that Victor Krum was also unsuccessfully using it as a hideaway. Between the dark stares and whispers directed towards her and Harry and the fan club that surrounded Krum, Hermione was finding it tricky to get much work done.
The 'Potter Stinks' badges were everywhere, despite Hermione witnessing several senior Hufflepuffs trying to suppress them where possible. She suspected Cedric and maybe even Jonathon had a hand in this, for which she was grateful. The Hufflepuffs in their year had thawed a bit towards Harry as well, still not completely happy about the glory being stolen from their house (as they saw it) but that wasn't too unreasonable given that Hufflepuffs weren't often given a chance to shine.
The first Triwizard tournament task was scheduled for a Tuesday, and the weekend before was the first Hogwarts weekend. Hermione persuaded Harry to come along, although he stuck to wearing his invisibility cloak for the entire duration. It made her feel ridiculous, walking along talking to herself and she knew she would get some grief for it later from some of the gangs of giggling girls who watched her passing and whispered excitedly amongst themselves. She wished they would go find Diggory or Krum and leave her alone. It was worth it though to have Harry finally relax, even if only for a day.
It was only for a day however, as the next morning while Hermione was eating breakfast and chatting to Ginny, a flustered Harry charged in and barely let her grab her porridge before pulling her out the Great Hall and into the grounds. Her heart sank as her turned to her with panicked eyes and said "Hermione, the first task is dragons!"