Hermione was watching the recaps of the reaping with Terry, Keidi, and Sandra. They were drinking tea in front of the television as they were nearing the capitol. She tried to memorize the competition and particularly remembered the girl from District 12 who volunteered for her sister; which she thought was kind of the same with what she did for Trix.

After she had her makeover, they dressed her in a shiny silver dress that appeared to be made of billions of tiny microchips. But it can't possibly be real microchips, Hermione thought. That would be dreadfully expensive. She was also made to wear silver stilettos that matched her dress and her bushy hair, which was made straight, was tied back in a ponytail. Then they led her down to the bottom level of the Remake Center where Terry was also standing with his microchip suit.

"How have you been?" Hermione asked Terry.

"Uncomfortable," Terry replied.

"Yeah, I know. I think it's the material of this dress that makes it kind of itchy…"

"I'm not talking about the clothes. They just gave us a makeover and then they will present us like pageant winners. Then after that they will have us killed."

Hermione thought about this for a while. She had completely forgotten what she was brought here for. What with the makeovers, makeup and the dress. Now that she thought about it, that man with the watch must've been out to kill her.

Hermione and Terry were brought to their chariots and the stylists did their finishing touches.

"Now remember, smile and be confident," Hermione's stylist said to her. "Don't think about training, the Games, and especially don't think about your possible death."

"Hey, don't scare her!" Terry's stylist said.

"What? It's true anyway." Hermione's stylist looked like he was going to say more but fell silent at the glare Terry's stylist was giving him.

The chariots brought Hermione and Terry out into the city. The crowd was cheering madly, but they were mostly cheering for District 2, who came before them. All the tributes looked amazing but District 12's tributes stood out the most. It was really enchanting—their clothes, which were lit with flames that did not burn them up, were bright and dazzling which made it hard to look away from them.

Hermione still brought her wand with her as she went to training. It provided her a sense of security and it reminded her of home. The first station she decided to join was the edible plants station since knowledge and intelligence were always her loyal companions. She walked over to the station and saw that Katniss, the District 12 girl, was already there.

Glimmer was sharpening her knife rather too hardly. That wasn't fair! she thought. It was because of that stylist. If there was anything Glimmer hated more than a mud stained diamond high heel, it was being outshined by anyone, especially by a disgusting District 12 girl. She scanned the training center and saw her there, by the plants station. Glimmer snorted. She went back to her knife sharpening. Those costumes were not that remarkable. They looked really awkward, burning up like that, Glimmer tried to reassure herself. That attention-seeking, trying-hard, lowly, out-of-style… She turned to the dart board and took aim. Perfect shot. She turned back to the plant station and found the District 12 girl talking to another girl from that district which Glimmer had forgotten. Whoops! Looks like little miss District 12 has found a friend. Better fix that before they become allies…

"Hello," Hermione said as Katniss was correctly classifying a plant. "Hey, you're really good at this."

Katniss gave her a puzzled look. "Thanks. I'm used to identifying different types of plants." Then her eyes widened. "I mean, my mother's an apothecary so I know these things." She looked away and classified another plant correctly.

"If I ever had to choose and ally, it would be you," Hermione said before she could stop herself.

"That's very… kind of you to say. But I think it's kind of weird to team up when we would have to kill each other in the end."

"True, but it would also be like choosing the person you would want to win if you died yourself; since you'd be helping each other out. Plus, you could get farther in the Games that way."

Katniss smiled and walked away to another station with Peeta, the boy from District 12. It wasn't really much of a friendly smile, more like a we'll-see-how-things-turn-out smirk.

After the edible plants station, Hermione tried her hand at knife throwing and archery so she could learn some defense. Of course she missed the target a few times and almost hit the instructor but she never really had a chance to practice these arts. She'd probably had a chance of winning if they allowed wands in the Games but of course that wasn't the case.

One time, at the knife-throwing station during training, Hermione released a knife at the dart board. The knife, unfortunately, lodged itself at the wall instead.

"Wow. Impressive. Try it again and maybe you'll be lucky enough to get within a foot's distance of the dartboard," a voice said behind Hermione.

"I'd like to see you try it yourself," Hermione said as she wheeled around and was surprised to find herself face to face with Glimmer, the girl from District 1.

"She was right. I didn't believe it at first but now that I've seen it myself, maybe you are as bad as she said you were," Glimmer said sweetly.

"What are you talking about Glimmer?" Hermione said gritting her teeth.

"Look over there." Glimmer twisted Hermione's head in Katniss' direction. Katniss was watching Peeta painting flowers all over her arm.

Hermione looked back at Glimmer. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm serious. As serious as I am when I say that this knife…" Glimmer took the knife from Hermione's hand. "… is going to hit that cardboard rabbit over there." She threw the knife and it landed right in the rabbit's eye.

Hermione spotted Katniss again at the edible plants station and walked towards it.

Katniss turned to see who the newcomer was. "Hermione, right?"

"Whatever you say Miss I'm-so-good-at-everything-and-you're-not."

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Well maybe not to me but to someone else. I believe it's called backstabbing."

"And I believe I have no idea what you're talking about." Katniss turned to the plants the station manager presented to her. "Edible. Edible. Not edible."

Hermione looked at some other plants that the station manager presented. "Birch, edible. Aconite, not edible. Black Lotus, not edible." She looked challengingly at Katniss.

"Baneberry, not edible. Dandelion, edible. Currant, edible," Katniss shot back.

It was clear that Hermione had earned herself an adversary, and how it turned out to be this way, Hermione didn't know. All she knew was she wasn't getting an ally for the Games and she was on her own.