Thank you all for following/favouriting! •^_^•
Disclaimer: I still own neither Fairy Tail nor Harry Potter *sigh* I can only hope that dreams do come true...
"Well hello," a new voice said from the doorway of the library. "Sting Weisslogia Eucliffe, I don't believe we were introduced properly yesterday," he said, looking at Hermione, who smiled in return. "And I've only just managed to actually find you all, after Rogue abandoned me!"
Rogue rolled his eyes at his brother. "Don't blame me - you had a meeting with the other guildmasters, you had to go there not with us."
"Yeah but it's not like we ever do anything important. Anyway, what are you guys doing in here?" He asked.
"I was just talking to Levy about the origins of Hogwarts, and the four founders," Hermione said.
"And we were listening to their conversation," Rogue added with a grin, shifting over so his brother could sit down.
"Cool, don't let me interrupt," Sting said, and Hermione turned back to Levy.
After a while, Hermione finished explaining the founders and houses, and everyone started up their own conversations, and Sting turned to Hermione. "So, my little brother tells me you want to become a member of Sabertooth, is that right?"
Hermione nodded. "If you'll have me."
Sting grinned. "Of course, you're obviously to cool for any of the other guilds - especially Fairy Tail!" He said with a smirk, making Lucy and Natsu roll their eyes, the latter sticking out his tongue. "Now, where do you want your guild mark, and what colour?" He asked, pulling a stamp out of thin air.
"Left shoulder, please, and let the stamp choose the colour. I've always wondered what colour my personality was!" She said dryly, and Sting grinned.
"Alright, let's do this!" Hermione shrugged her shirt off of her shoulder, and Sting stamped it.
When the initial flash of light had faded, Hermione looked at the colour and gasped, it was so pretty! Most of the mark was a navy blue so dark it almost seemed black, but there was a rim of gold just around the edge.
"I love it!" She said enthusiastically, making the brothers grin.
"I'm glad." Rogue said softly, and Sting smirked. Noticing his brother's expression, Rogue rolled his eyes at the white dragon-slayer, and turned back to Hermione. "You good, 'Mione? Can you stand? Do you feel dizzy? Nauseous? The stamp affects people sometimes, for some weird reason," he said, and Hermione laughed.
"I'm fine, Rogue. Don't worry." She stood up and grabbed her books as the others prepared to leave. "See? Fine." The two walked out of the library, followed by the others, and Hermione didn't notice Rogue's blush, but Sting did, and smirked even wider than before.
"Well, this could get interesting," he said to himself.
A few days later, in the Great Hall, the champions were announced.
"...Viktor Krum!" People applauded, and Durmstrang cheered
"...Erza Scarlet!" Mahoutokoro were deafening, and Hermione flashed a thumbs up at the red-head who smiled in return.
"...Cedric Diggory!" Hogwarts cheered now, Hufflepuff the loudest. Everyone thought the cup had stopped, but no, it kept going.
"...Harry Potter." Dumbledore announced, the hall was quiet.
"...Petya Krum."
"...Rogue Cheney." Hermione gasped, hands flying to her mouth.
To most, Rogue looked calm and collected, but Hermione could see the slight widening of his eyes.
He was scared.
Rogue looked at Hermione and mouthed 'I'm okay. I'll be okay.'
She didn't believe him.
Noticing that her friend was still glued to his seat, Hermione nudged Harry. "Get up there! It'll be fine, don't you worry." Harry started walking towards the podium. 'Take care of him, please,' she mouthed, and Rogue nodded, before heading over to the podium too.
Later that evening, the school was still in shock. It turned out that someone had tried to manipulate the cup, entering an underage student - Harry - under a false school to ensure he would be picked, but thanks to the new enchantments placed on the cup to recognise whether an individual belonged to the school they wrote on their paper - a precaution put in place to stop underage Hogwarts and Durmstrang students entering, the cup had realised. Unfortunately, the Confundus charms used by whoever was trying to trick the cup stopped it from rejecting Harry's name, and to rectify this, the cup had chosen two more students from the other schools to ensure there were fair numbers.
Students from Durmstrang and Mahoutokoro were unsure who the 'false' and 'real' champions were, but they didn't really care. I mean, two students meant twice the chance of winning, right? In Hogwarts, however...well, Harry wasn't having such an easy time.
"Are you really that pathetically desperate for attention that you'd purposely screw up the tournament, Potter? Is it not enough that you're famous, that you get special treatment from Dumbledore?" Draco Malfoy sneered.
"Just ignore him, Harry. He isn't worth it." Hermione said, and tried to lead the boy away. Draco had other ideas. He whipped out his wand and prepared to fire a nasty hex at Harry's retreating back, but fortunately for the Boy Who Lived, Professor Moody, the new DADA teacher chose that moment to walk down the corridor. "Expelliarmus!" He yelled, before transfiguring Draco into a ferret and bouncing him up and down!
Harry, Hermione and practically everyone else in the hallway watched with wide eyes until Professor McGonagall came down the corridor. "Alastor! Please tell me that isn't a student!" She cried.
"Maybe. He was about to fire a hex at this lad's back, like a coward. You know I hate cowards," he replied, refusing to meet the transfiguration professor's eyes.
"We do not transfigure students as punishment! Detentions! Or the deduction of house points. That's punishment." She picked the ferret up and left, presumably to go to her office and return him his original state.
"Well," Hermione said. "That was interesting." She and Harry left to return to the common room. On the way there, Hermione saw the little blue-haired dragon slayer, Wendy.
The younger girl smiled widely, ran over to Hermione and gave her a hug. "Hermione!" She cried happily. "I'm so glad I found you! Rogue told me all about what you did with troia and everything, and wanted to do something in return. I made this," Wendy said, handing Hermione a hand-bound leather journal. "It's a compilation of all the spells Grandeena ever gave me - she was my adoptive mother. I don't know if you can use them, but I thought you might find them interesting at least!"
"Watch out for Gajeel and Laxus, I'm sure they'll be by soon to thank you as well... In their own ways."
With that, the little girl ran off. Harry was slightly confused, but shrugged his shoulders and didn't say anything as they continued to the common room.
They made it all the way there without any incidents, but once they stepped through the portrait hole they found everyone glaring at them. Ron sauntered over with a nasty look on his face.
"Well look! The fabled Harry Potter finally decided to grace us with his presence!" Ron bowed exaggeratedly low. "How may we assist you m'lord." Harry turned red, partly put of anger but mostly out of embarrassment; most of the Gryffindors present were sniggering at them.
"Don't bother, Harry. Remember what I said? It's not worth it." Hermione said, trying to tug her friend back out of the doorway.
"Shut up, you filthy little mudblood!" Ron snarled.
Harry clenched his hands and turned back to the red-head. "What did you just call her, asshole?" He hissed.
Ron smirked. "Mudblood. That is what she is. A filthy little mudblood." Harry smashed his fist into Ron's face, and pulled it back for another blow, but at that moment a tall blonde walked in.
"What's going on here?" Laxus growled
"Harry punched be, sir!" Ron said, through his broken nose. Harry scowled.
"It was hardly unprovoked." He turned to Laxus. "Ronald here called Hermione a mudblood!" Laxus' expression darkened.
"Is this true?" He asked the red-head, who looked away.
"Maybe," he muttered. Laxus frowned.
"Take yourself to Madam Pomfrey. I will discuss your punishment with your head of house later." He said, and practically shoved Ron out of the portrait. He turned back to Hermione and Harry.
"Now, if you two could join me in my office for a second." Laxus said, and led the two into a small room just off of the common room. "As I understand, Ron began insulting you two, and Harry punched him in the face. Whilst I should not condone this behaviour, this is a special case." Here he turned to Hermione, who had realised what he was talking about.
"Let me guess," she said. "Because of the Troia Stone, you owe me?" She asked, and Laxus nodded his head. "I thought so." She said.
"In return for that, I will let this incident, and I would like to take this chance to formally thank you. Ronald will be dealt with accordingly - I can assure you of that." Laxus sai. "But don't think this will become a regular thing - I am still head of Fairy Tail, and as such must remain impartial."
"Thank you," she said, "I don't suppose you could keep an eye on Harry for me? The others are being right gits at the minute - especially Ron." Laxus nodded.
"Okay, I think we're done here. Harry, I shall escort you to Professor McGonagall so you can give your turn of events, and Hermione, Gajeel wants to see you in the library." He said, and they all left the room.
When Hermione reached the library, she found the black haired male sitting at one of the tables, reading a book on dragons.
"Laxus said you wanted to see me?" She said as she walked over. At the sound of her voice, Gajeel, who had been completely engrossed in his book, actually jumped out of his seat.
"Damnit, witch! Don't do that! Almost gave me a damn heart attack." He grumbled. "I ain't any good with this 'indebted' crap, but I talked to the others, and read some books Levy found, so here." He cleared his throat and grabbed her wrist and snapped a decorated cuff around it. "This is charmed, I got your little Professor to do it, it'll tell us if you're really hurt or something. Now, I don't mean to be rude, but scram." He said, and returned to his book.
Hermione smiled and left the dragon slayer to go and wonder through the shelves. She found an empty window seat and sat down, examining her bracelet in the sun. Thinking about the slayers that owed her a debt led her to think of why they owed her those debts, and that led her to think about the fact that the only one still suffering from the motion sickness was Natsu!
Hermione rushed over to the potions section, and grabbed several books. She spent hours poring over the information, and found out a bit about balance and stabilising potions. After much research, she realised she only had one option - to ask Snape. The idea made her stomach churn with apprehension - but it really was unfair on Natsu to let him suffer when she could easily fix it.
Whilst Snape was a greasy git who hated all non-Slytherin students, he was also a potions master - the youngest, in fact, to ever receive that title. Hermione couldn't argue with the facts - he was good, possibly even the best!
A/N - Yesss, champion time and Snapey is getting involved in the story now. Ron's showing his true colours - sorry to all you Ron lovers, he just gets worse from here on out. I was debating whether to put Hermione in Lamia Scale - but then I remembered that she's a Gryffindor, not a Ravenclaw. Besides, now she's in the same guild as Roooogue! Reviews are always welcome, and I hope you're all enjoying the fic so far •^_^•