Unfortunately, Hermione was never able to finish her conversation with Harry and Ron. The next morning, Hermione woke up at her regular time and forgot, for just one second, that she was a Triwizard Champion. When it dawned on her, Hermione groaned and was tempted to stay in bed.

"No," she thought, "I will go to my classes and get through the day. The first task is in four weeks and until then I will continue to follow my routine as if nothing had changed."

Every day for the next week, Hermione wished she had stayed in bed. No one spoke to her; no one even looked at her. Most teachers did not even call on her in class anymore. Hermione hated this; she was the center of attention all the while being completely ignored. She could not understand how anyone could believe she had put her name in the Goblet of Fire.

When she entered the Great Hall for dinner, all the students became silent and all eyes turned her way. Hermione blushed and looked down at her shoes; she tried to rush to her seat while avoiding everyone's judging gaze. When she sat down across from Harry, he offered her a weak smile and slowly everyone started talking again, but still kept looking over at her. If Hermione listened, she could hear that many people were talking about her; she overheard words such as "she looks smug" and "I bet she hired the Wesley brothers to put her name in the cup". Hermione tried to tune the chatter out, she was getting a headache and could not let the gossip get to her. Her mind seemed to have slowed down since being picked as champion and she knew she could not afford to get overwhelmed. The constant whisper that followed her footsteps was getting to her; it was invading her mind and enforcing doubts she already had about herself.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Asked Ron.

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah, no I'm fine," she replied.

"Hermione, you need to eat something," said Harry, "you have barely touched your food all week. I know when you are stressed you don't like to eat, but please you have to try."

Harry was concerned; he knew that Hermione would slowly shut down due to being under a constant spotlight and tried to help her out in any way he could, but she was stubborn and kept refusing his help.

"I forgot to mention, Hagrid wants us to meet him in the woods tonight. He told me to bring my invisibility cloak so this must be serious."

"I am going to go to the library for a bit," said Hermione, "but we can meet in the common room later and go there together."

"You sure you don't want stay here and eat? There is pumpkin pie tonight," said Ron in an enticing voice.

"I just have a bit of studying that I want to do before the day ends, no worries, I will see you later," replied Hermione.

As she walked away, the buzzing of chatter followed her. Hermione shook her head, hoping to disperse the noise.

Hermione was so deep into her thoughts that she didn't notice Malfoy until it was too late. He was walking toward her, his eyes gleaming with anger and Hermione wished she could turn around and go a different way.

"Well well well, if it isn't the fourth champion," spat Malfoy, "skipping dinner? You really think that's a good idea when your chances of surviving the first task are minimal?"

"Get out of my way, Malfoy."

"My father and I have a bet," continued Malfoy as if he hadn't heard her, "He thinks you won't last ten minutes. I disagreed; I believe you won't last five. A mudblood like you won't be any match for someone like Krum."

"I don't really care what you or your father thinks, Malfoy," replied Hermione coldly.

"Well you should, many people, my father included, will not tolerate a mudblood winning and will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening."

Hermione did not know how to respond to this. Malfoy, feeling like he had made his point, walked away. As he passed by Hermione, he managed to elbow her, forcing Hermione to drop the textbook she was holding. Hermione picked up her book and walked as fast as she could to the library.

She tried to study Defense Against the Dark Arts, but couldn't stop thinking about what Malfoy had said. She had not even thought of that, but he had a point, the pureblood community would be outraged if an underage mudblood won the Tournament. Hermione would have dived into this topic until she remembered she had to meet the boys to go see Hagrid.

As she walked toward the common room, Hermione wondered what could be so serious or urgent. She was hoping maybe he would be giving them good news, but deep down inside she knew that was not the case.

"Hermione! Over here!" Yelled Ron from the staircase, "we were just about to go find you in the library. Are you okay? You seem…troubled."

"Yes, I'm fine, I just had a run-in with Malfoy earlier and he put me in a foul mood."

"Of course he did," said Ron, "I am going to punch that guy so hard he…"

"Ron," interrupted Hermione, "there is no need for that, and he was just trying to cause trouble. Shall we go? I am exhausted and want nothing more than for this night to be over."

"Yeah, sure, no problem, let's go," replied Harry.

The trio walked in silence to the entrance of the forest where Hagrid was waiting for them.

"Hagrid," yelled Harry, "it's good to see you."

"It's good to see you three as well, especially you Hermione. I heard about what happened which is why I asked you to meet me here. I have something to show you that may have something to do with the first task."

"What? Hagrid, are you sure? This could be considered cheating on my part," said Hermione.

"Which is why I told Harry to bring his invisibility cloak; Put it over the three of ya' and follow me."

Hermione and Ron huddled toward Harry who threw the cloak over them. They followed Hagrid through the forest, Hagrid would make comments and point things out, but the trio did not answer for fear of being spotted.

"Here we are at last," said Hagrid.

Hermione looked into the clearing in front of her. Many people were running around and moving four huge crates. The crates shook, as if something alive were in them.

"Hagrid," said Hermione hesitantly, "what is in those crates?"

"Keep watching, you should find out soon."

Sure enough, one of the crates fell open and revealed a large cage with a dragon inside. Hermione gasped. The dragon was spitting fire at the workers who came to close to him.

"This is barbaric," said Hermione, "they are bringing dragons to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament? Is this my first task? I am going to have to face a dragon?!"

"I can't be sure," replied Hagrid, "but there is no other reason for these dragons to be here so I would assume that yes, this will be your first task. Hermione, you will need to fight a dragon in order to move on to the second task."