A/N: Finally after a million years this is posted. I had a lot of fun writing this so hope you enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything that belongs to JK Rowling :)

Year Four

Her parents had said yes! She was going to the Quidditch World Cup! Not that she cared for quidditch, but she got to be with the entire Weasley family and Harry. That was worth it.

Bill was cool, Charlie was laid back. They were both very interesting. She was not surprised to see the two oldest Weasley men to be just as good looking as the ones she had been going to school with. Percy's potential was smothered by his obsession with work. Pity.

Hermione didn't understand why everyone always swooned over Cedric Diggory. Alright, that was a lie. He was very handsome, and Ginny very much agreed with her as they walked so early in the morning that it was still dark.

Travel by portkey was not highly preferred. It was almost a worse sensation than flying on a broomstick. However it was over quick and easy. The campsite was very mellow and highly amusing. She almost fell for it until they walked into the tent. Of course a wizard wouldn't settle for ordinary muggle contraptions, she knew that. Though the attempts some wizards went through were very funny. Hermione giggled like a little girl when that man had insisted on wearing a woman's nightgown even as his friend explained that they were meant for women.

She saw Draco there. Just a glimpse. He didn't have a 'tent', or at least she assumed as much. It would have been degrading for him.

The Quidditch World Cup was spectacular. It was interesting to see a wizard's interpretation of 'camping'.

The game itself was like something one could only see during a blue moon. Leprechauns, veelas, and the most amazing quidditch she had ever seen. Even a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin wasn't ever this intense.

Everyone was on a natural high, getting to sleep was impossible, and then waking up was worse, but everyone's happy atmosphere had faded and the voices were very serious whispers.

It was chaotic and claustrophobic outside of the tent. Witches and wizards running and screaming everywhere, all trying to get away from one thing: a mass of hooded figures a couple yards away. Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined the mob and headed towards the forest, loosing the twins and Ginny on the way.

The death eaters were torturing, harassing, and instilling fear. They had a family of muggles by the ankles, floating around as if they were mere toys. It was further confirmed when they came across a relaxed Draco, leaning against a tree, watching the scene as if it were a spectacle. "Wouldn't like her spotted, would you?" He had nodded towards Hermione.

He had no faith in her abilities? As if she could not hold up her own against anyone? It was fairly insulting, so her anger thereafter was quite reasonable, though the blonde maintained his light composure.

Everything and everyone after that was a jumbled blur: French students, Winky, bragging dishwashers… the only thing that stuck was the dark mark. The World Cup turned out to be scarier than Hermione ever thought it would.

People were all on tightropes, stepping carefully and staying alert. Hermione had never worried about being muggleborn before, she still wasn't, but she did fret for her parents, toothpaste after all was not much of a weapon. So Hermione had to go off to Hogwarts that year filled with trepidation over dark wizards and the rights of house elves.

On the train she was looking for the food trolley, hoping some chocolate could calm her nerves, that and she was hungry. Just as she found the kind looking woman and made a beeline towards her, a familiar blonde blocked her way. It seemed that he was on a similar mission. "What would you like dear?" asked the plump woman.

Draco leisurely examined the assortments of treats, his indecision fueling Hermione's impatience. "You think you could make a decision before we get to Hogwarts?"

"It would be more likely if I didn't have to listen to your incessant complaining," he retorted without turning around. Hermione scoffed and pushed him aside so she could make her purchase. "Manners Granger?" he said rolling his eyes. She simply ignored him and thanked the lady-vendor. "Oy, hold on!" Draco managed to grab onto a bit of her sleeve before she could walk away.

"Let me go Draco, I don't –"

"I'm sorry," he interjected quickly, knowing it was what she wanted to hear. "I was just thinking of something and forgot where I was." Funny, she never thought Draco Malfoy would ever be off his guard. She knew he was fishing for a converstation, it had been a long, letter-less summer after all, and so she took the bait.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked suppressing a sigh.

Draco's eyes were almost gleaming as he spoke, "Only the biggest thing happening next to the world cup!" Hermione's curiosity reeled her in. The confused look on her face let the blonde know how uninformed she was. He began to elaborate for her sake: "The triwizard tournament. It's being held at Hogwarts this year. How could you not know?"

Hermione had read about the infamous tournament, but she was not aware that it would be held at Hogwarts. And so Hermione became one of the few people who knew of the event before Dumbledore's official announcement.

This year there was a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, as was expected. Mad-eye Moody, he reminded her of an old, gnarled, tough tree. Ron claimed Moody was respectable, and so she took his word for it.

Everyone had the chance to see exactly how tough Moody was one day in the entrance hall. "You brought it upon yourself really," Hermione later stated to Draco. They were sitting in an empty classroom practicing the summoning charm.

"Oh, come off it! The man is a lunatic!" the slytherin said as Hermione easily caught a book she had been practicing on. "I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking hiring that – " He was cut off as an ink pot came whizzing toward his head. He ducked at the last moment causing a clatter behind them. He turned and glared at the bushy haired girl.

"Sorry," she apologized with a small voice. Once Draco rolled his eyes, letting her know he did not care she continued. "To be fair, you are pretty biased. I mean he hasn't turned anyone else into an animal."

"You are such a comfort," he said dryly.

Once classes started, life went back to normal, well as normal as it can get at Hogwarts. Moody's class was very different from anything she'd sat through before, and quite frankly it was actually frightening. He demonstrated the three unforgivable curses and by the end of it, Neville seemed extremely upset.

"Who cares about Longbottom," Draco said lazily when Hermione relayed her first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson to him.

"I do!"

Draco scoffed, "He is a complete tube sock."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "And you're a complete git." The platinum blonde ignored her last comment and began to walk back towards the castle, leaving her sitting on the deserted bank of the Black Lake.

It had been announced that the two schools who would be Hogwart's rivals would arrive on October 30th.

"If I had had it my way, I would have gone to Durmstrang you know." Hermione and Draco were sitting at the back of their Ancient Runes class. The students were given a particularly difficult partner assignment that day, which explained all the extra time the Gryffindor and Slytherin had, they had found the assignment to be painfully easy.

"If you had, so many people's lives would be nicer here at Hogwarts." Draco rolled his eyes at her comment and resumed his turn in the doodling game. "I would never have met you though," she said in the same languid tone. Draco's quill slowed its progress over the parchment. He hadn't ever thought of that, and now he realized he didn't very much like it.

"My mother made a good point," he said aversely, "It is way too cold to go to school in Bulgaria."

It was Hermione's turn to draw something on the parchment. "I guess it was not so terrible that you came here then,"

The beauxbaton girls were snooty, or at least that was the general consensus among Hogwart's female population and likewise, they agreed that the Durmstrang boys were all very handsome and polite. Though no one could argue that both parties made a spectacular entrance. Hermione was more excited however, about the Goblet of Fire, she had read about it enough, but that merely left her even more curious.

And so the Twiwizard Tournament began with the three champions, plus Harry. The whole Great Hall was full of murmurs, some outraged while others flabbergasted. Hermione was just extremely worried.

"What is that?" said Draco with a cocked eyebrow looking at a box in Hermione's over laden arms. She had run into him (not literally this time) in an empty corridor late one evening. Her hair was frizzed and her face flushed and troubled.

"It's S.P.E.W. stuff," she said hurriedly.

"Excuse me?" he said confused, but she kept walking with quick steps. "Hey, slow down." He held out his arm to stop her, and she let him. She accepted when Draco offered her a seat on a window ledge. "So what's in the box?" he tried again.

"Nothing you would be interested in," she said exasperated. Now Draco knew something was wrong, Hermione would never give up an opportunity to elaborate on something, especially if she cared enough to carry it around with her.

"What's the matter Granger?" His tone made it clear that he was not going to let her skive out of this. She gave a small sigh and conceded, letting him in on the rift between her two best friends.

"It wouldn't be so bad except they have never fought like this before," she explained in a small voice. He tried really hard to look as if he cared.

On every occasion that they passed by each other in the halls Hermione would shoot a dirty look at a point just below his collarbone and Draco would know exactly why he deserved it. Just because they were on fair terms did not mean he had to go out of his way to make her happy. If conversing with her meant supporting Potter, he would have to put her straight, besides those badges had taken a good amount of effort to perfect.

As incredible as Dragons were Hermione would have been able to appreciate them a great deal more if Harry wasn't forced to face one. It was a relief that Harry had a plan in store and an even bigger relief when it had worked rather flawlessly. He now had the Golden Egg and Ron; things were starting to look up…as much as they could in such a state of affairs. The First Task was daunting enough, she didn't want to think what the other two may be.

Between Skrewts and S.P.E.W. Hermione was fairly occupied (not to mention all those other classes in between) so when she was reminded of the traditional Yule Ball at the end of a Transfiguration class her priorities remained standing as they have always been, and all thoughts of dancing were thrown to the very back of the line. This wasn't the case with the rest of the school and soon she was met with a very flattering offer. Who was she to refuse?

His eyebrow was cocked up as he looked at her. She just sat under his scrutinizing gaze and feinted innocence. She knew what he was referring to and it made her want to laugh. Who ever said that boys and girls are totally different was very much wrong. Apparently they cared about other people's business just as much as girls have been accused of. "Viktor Krum? How could you get so goody-goody with the competition?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on Draco, just because he's from the other school doesn't mean we can't be friends. He asked me, and since I didn't have anyone else in line, I said yes. And I happen to remember someone who was fine with being best friends with him when he first arrived. Why does it bother you so much anyway?"

"You talk too much," he stated, "and it's not bothering me." Draco was rolling his eyes. They had been playing wizard's chess when the Ball had been brought up.

"Well, go on then, who is your partner?" Hermione didn't think it was fair that he was the only one with the chance to criticize here.

Now the blonde's confidence was back to its full potential as he responded, "I haven't asked any one yet. But who ever it is will definitely be amazing; hair, eyes, dress, body, everything." She just scoffed and took his last bishop.

When she came down those stairs leading to the Entrance Hall it was the most nerve wracking thing she had felt since last year, saving Sirius. There weren't many people down there, but as soon as she came into view, all heads had turned to see her ascend. Harry was smiling which helped her ease up a bit, others were gaping. Draco, he was just looking at her like he was in a trance. Krum looked at her like any date would, like he was the luckiest guy in the world.

The Ball was wonderful, very liberating, until Ron had to go and be a boy and ruin her mood for the duration of the night, no matter how happy she could look for Krum's sake. She wished she could have had a dance with Draco; he looked like a good dancer.

"Remember when I said my partner was going to be everything?" He started sheepishly. She nodded, uncertain where this was going. "Well, she was of course, but when I saw you walk in, I knew you were more." His blush was nothing compared to the ever growing tint creeping up her face.

"Thank you," was all she said.

Rita Skeeter was foul, but just how foul she could be was not discovered until her big expose on Hagrid. No one was angrier than Hermione, though it was obvious to say Ron and Harry were both close seconds. She would make that Skeeter woman pay for this if it was the last thing she did.

"You look frustrated," Draco remarked smirking. He couldn't help it sometimes.

Noting the amusement in his voice Hermione just glared at him before getting back to her work. They were in the very back corner of the library finishing up homework early on a grey Saturday morning. "It was bound to be discovered sooner or later," he muttered knowingly as he flipped through a rather large volume for primary accounts to the Goblin Rebellions.
"That's not the point," she snapped. After writing a few more words to finish her sentence she brought her gaze back up to Draco who had been waiting for her to elaborate, knowing she would. "It is the way that Skeeter woman thinks it is ok for her to print the personal business of others as if she had the right. I just want to chuck something heavy her way every time I even think about that stupid abnormally ridged hair of hers." Oh how he wished that could be arranged, she wasn't the most likable person even for his standards.

Harry finally figured out the Egg for the second task (and had apparently been lying to her about it up till then). Unfortunately even with the riddle in their hands, there was no solution for surviving under the Black Lake for an hour. She just prayed that he'd find something useful as her and Ron made their way to McGonagall's office. It came as quite a surprise and to Ron's great displeasure that she was Krum's item to be "sorely missed". She didn't feel the need to tell her disgruntled friend that her loyalty did not sway, and that despite her friendship with the famous Quidditch player she undoubtedly supported a Hogwarts victory whether Harry or Cedric came out on top. (Honestly she just hoped for Harry to come out alive).

"What was it like?" he asked, eyes closed, arms folded behind his head.

"Very similar to a dreamless sleep," she answered, sitting crossed legged next to him, staring placidly across the Black Lake. Her hands had been twiddling through his hair absentmindedly.
"So, in other words completely uneventful," he concluded for her, listening to the leaves rustle among the thicket of trees surrounding them.

"I suppose, until I came to, sopping wet, next to half a shark…" she seemed to be reliving it as her eyes became unfocused. Draco gave a soft snort, amused at such a thought.

The article in Witch Weekly hadn't bothered her, she was above such things. That's what she had kept telling herself at least. Any girl would be enraged at such accusations. Hermione later found out that many of Harry's supporters felt the same way.

"It's not true is it?" The glare that she shot his way was answer enough. "Alright, just getting the facts straight," he whispered.

"If only Rita Skeeter had the decency to do the same," she hissed. They were in the deserted hospital wing, long past visiting hours. "Oooh, I am going to get that dreadful witch—"

"If it's the last thing you do," Draco finished for her. "Yes I've heard, now will you please calm down. This is difficult enough without you waving your hands all around." He had just finished rewrapping one of her swollen hands. "Here give me the other one," he said and started to take off the old bandages. Hermione smiled at him, his blonde head bowed over her hand as he gingerly peeled away strips of white.

As the Third Task as well as end of the year exams approached Hermione along with Ron did their very best to prepare Harry for the maze.

The end of this year was just as eventful as the previous three. A portkey, dead Cedric, and everyone's worst fear: Voldemort back to power. The world just got a lot scarier, although there would be one less obnoxious journalist in it to worry about.

Promise to write. She wasn't sure if he meant for her to or else that he would do so. Either way, it had come as somewhat of a comfort when she read the note he had meticulously tucked into Crookshank's collar.

Hope that was enjoyable :)
Let me know what you thought about it.
Thanks for reading!