Again, two chapters in a row because I am absolutely AWFUL at updating regularly...
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own the rights to neither Harry Potter nor Fairy Tail •^_^•
"Welcome, one and all to the Second Task of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament!" Lugo Bagman announced, and the crowd began cheering wildly.
"Hey, Harry, have you seen Hermione? I asked Lucy, but Yukino's missing as well, and she can't find either of them," Rogue asked, worry clouding his voice.
Harry shook his head, and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Bagman.
"For this task, each team will have to retrieve that which they hold dear from the depths of the Black Lake. When the whistle sounds, the first champion from each team will have to dive in and locate their person, before bringing them back to the surface. Only when both their head and the head of their person breaks the surface can the other champion dive in and rescue their special someone!"
Erza rushed over to Rogue, whose expression was filled with horror. "They've taken Jellal and Hermione. I checked - no one's seen them since late last night. Rogue, you should go first, I think the whistle is going to go off soon."
The shadow dragon-slayer's face turned stony with anger and determination as he walked to the edge of the lake. Shadows were rippling off him as his anger activated dragon force, and Sting cheered from the stands.
"C'mon Rogue! You got this! Do it for Hermione!" The blonde slayer yelled, and the others joined in - even Draco, who was waving a Mahoutokoro flag with one hand and a Hogwarts one with the other.
"Get ready, champions! You have exactly one hour, starting from now!" Bagman blew the whistle, and they were off, Viktor morphing into a half-shark-half-man creature, Harry using the bubble-head charm Cedric had taught him, and Rogue just shooting into the water.
Scarcely five minutes later, Rogue jumped out of the lake with Hermione in his arms, and Erza dove in, requipping into her Neptune armour.
The shadow dragon-slayer wouldn't let anyone near his girlfriend, except for Wendy, and it was only when the little girl reported that she was fine that Rogue let the dragon force wear off. Even then, he growled when anyone got too close until Makarov told him to take Hermione back to the castle.
About halfway there, Hermione awoke to the sensation of being carried.
"Rogue..." She murmured, and he stopped and looked at her, searching her face for any hint of pain or discomfort.
"You're really okay!" He said, burying his face in her hair and inhaling the comfort scent of cinnamon.
"You can put me down now." He complied, and she turned to look at him. "Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" She asked, confused about how relieved he seemed.
Rogue looked at her quizzically. "Hermione...we just had the second task, and each champion had to rescue someone special to them from the lake. You were my hostage."
"God, I remember now! Dumbledore called me up to his office, and then he put all of us to sleep! Do you know if Jellal's okay? And Yukino and Cho? Oh god, and Alyksander and Mila - that's Viktor and Petya's younger brother and sister! They're only about five - it's disgusting that the organisers would use children that young in their ridiculous tasks!" Hermione was extremely angry - and for good reason!
Rogue agreed with her about the Durmstrang champion's younger siblings. What if they got hurt?
"Wait, why are we going into the castle, Rogue?" Hermione asked, and Rogue blushed.
"Well, um, when you came out of the lake, you were still unconscious, and I kind of overreacted a bit," he laughed nervously.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "When you say a bit...?"
"I was, ah, growling at anyone who got too close. Must have been my dragon instincts...acting...up..." His eyes suddenly went wide, as if he had realised something. "I need to go...do...something...I'll be back in a minute, 'Mione!" He ran off in the direction of the lake.
"Rogue, wait!" She yelled, but he kept running.
Hermione huffed and followed him, but at a slower pace. "Stupid lizard-slayers," she grumbled, using Draco's favourite insult.
On the way back, she ran into the twins, Alyksander and Mila. They were alone, and Alyksander was comforting his sister as she cried - they were both still damp, and shivering in the cold February air.
"Alyksander! Mila! What on earth are you two doing, you must be freezing!" Hermione took her cloak off and wrapped it around the twins, and Mila threw her arms around the older girl's neck.
"Hermyknee!" She sobbed, and Hermione gave her a hug, casting some warming charms over the girl and her brother. "Headmaster Karkaroff sent us back to castle, but I cold and Alyks cold too, and we still wet and don't know the way!" The young girl cried, stumbling slightly over the english.
Hermione was still impressed - according to Petya, their mother was from Britain, and the kids had grown up learning both english and bulgarian.
"Dont worry, Mila. Alyks, come here too, you must be freezing!" The brunette said, and the young boy stumbled forward.
Hermione dried both their clothes off, and transfigured her cloak into two smaller ones for them. Then she called Ally out, and sent the little elf to get some hot chocolate from the kitchens. When the kids were warm and dry, the sleeping potion Hermione had got the elf to slip in their drinks began to kick in, and the twins drifted off to sleep.
Hermione picked them both up, carrying the children back to the lake where she gave Karkaroff a death glare.
She walked over to the champions tent and lay the twins down on a couch she found in there, tucking a blanket over them. Only when they were comfortable did she go back outside to give the Durmstrang headmaster a piece of her mind.
"Igor Karkaroff!" She yelled, for once not caring that she was undermining a teacher. "How dare you send those poor children back up to the castle when they don't even know the way! You didn't even bother to dry them off properly - they were sat there in the cold, crying when I found them!" She whipped her wand out, and pointed it at the man, who was actually looking quite scared of her. "You foul, loathsome excuse for a human being! I bet you didn't even ask the permission of their parents for this, did you?! I assure you, they will be finding out from me, and I hope you are prepared to defend your actions, because if not you might be finding yourself out of a job!"
It seemed ridiculous to some of the other Durmstrang student that their headmaster was scared of a fourteen year old girl, but they didn't know what Igor Karkaroff knew about Hermione Granger - the girl who mastered every single jinx and hex they had been taught in class, the girl whose ability in potions was improving by the day, the girl who was quickly gaining the entire wizarding world's attention as the brightest witch of her age. Watching her now, Karkaroff couldn't help but fear Hermione Granger, especially with her wand aimed at his throat and the threat of ruining his reputation out in the open. He doubted the girl even knew just how much the public respected her, and how much political power she could wield. She truly could get him fired.
Then she sneered at him, and lowered her wand. "But you're not worth the effort." She began to walk away. "Although, Mila and Alyksander's parents will be hearing about it from me."
At the mention of their siblings names, Viktor and Petya jumped.
"You were talking about our brother and sister?" Viktor said, looking rather worried.
Hermione nodded, and waved for the two to follow her into the tent.
"See? They're okay now, I got Ally to slip a bit of sleeping potion into the hot chocolate she brought them, and they're warm and dry, don't worry," she said, smiling as she absentmindedly touched Mila lightly on the forehead.
"Thank you, Hermyninny!" Petya exclaimed as quietly as he could, wrapping her in a hug. He jumped back when he heard a growl from the entrance, laughing as he saw the source.
"Stand down, Dragon. We aren't trying to steal her from you!" He said, smiling.
Rogue grinned sheepishly, moving to stand beside Hermione who subconsciously leaned into his touch.
Viktor, as stoic as his brother was exuberant, pressed a light kiss to each of the twins heads, smiling as he looked down on them.
"As my brother has already said, thank you, Hermy-knee. The twins are precious to us - especially since last year, when Alyksander had an encounter with a dragon and Mila tried to save him." He pulled his sister's sleeve up, and Hermione gasped as she saw the scar. "It ripped her arm right off, but luckily the healers were able to reattach it."
"Oh god..." She whispered, and Viktor nodded. "So, I'm guessing your parents probably didn't give their permission for the headmaster to use the twins as hostages then?"
Viktor scowled. "No. I wondered why the bastard was so insistent on Mila and Alyks coming to watch us. When our mother and father said that they wouldn't arrive until later, he was so anxious until they told him they would be here in time for the second task. I guess now we know why."
Hermione frowned. "Men like him shouldn't be in charge of schools." Petya nodded his agreement. "Are the twins staying here for the rest of the tournament?"
"I think so. Even with Karkaroff being an asshole, I don't think our parents will make them return home - they've been looking forward to the trip for months now. Besides, I think they've grown rather fond of you already!" Petya grinned, and Hermione looked down, seeing that Alyks had attached himself to her sleeve.
"My-nee," he whispered, and Hermione's heart melted - really, the twins were even cuter than Enyo, and that was saying something.
Rogue smiled at her. She's good with the Younglings. She will make a wonderful mate for us, a voice hissed inside Rogue's head, and he blushed. Younglings? He thought. Where did that come from?
He was shaken out of his thoughts by Hermione grabbing his hand.
"C'mon," she said. "We should probably go and see the others. Besides, I wanna talk to Yukino."
She led him out of the tent, and they walked over to where a small crowd of colourfully dressed students had formed.
"Yuki!" Hermione yelled, spotting her friend. As Yukino turned and waved, the brunette spotted a familiar girl sat alone in the stands. As she squinted, Hermione realised it was Solano. "Hey, Yukino, your sister's sat over there." She pointed to the lonely girl, and Yukino sprinted over to her, throwing her arms around the unsuspecting girl.
"They really are adorable," Hermione sighed, smiling at the sisters. "Ack!" She was tackled by Enyo, who had crept up behind her and pounced. "Jesus, cat, what is Lisanna feeding you?!" She was already about four times her original size, and it had only been two months.
"Enyooooo! Don't sit on Hermione like that! Off, now, you bad girl!" Lisanna yelled, running towards them.
Enyo perked up at the sound of her mother's voice, and decided this would be the perfect moment to play. She sprinted off into the crowd, leaving Lisanna to chase after her, huffing at her cub's antics.
Hermione giggled as Rogue pulled her to her feet.
"Hermione!" They heard another voice yell, and Narcissa Malfoy ran towards them, clutching a bunch of papers in her hand. "The divorce is over - as of today, I'm officially Narcissa Black once again!"
Hermione embraced the older woman, who had become almost like an aunt to her in the last month and a half. "I'm so happy for you, Cissy!"
At the sound of her nickname, Narcissa's expression grew sad. "There's something else, though...something Lucius confessed to me after the final verdict. In the trial, they used Veritaserum, so that they can ensure you aren't being Imperiused or something like that, but the questions asked only have to be answered if they relate to the case - an invention of Sev's I think. They forgot to give him the antidote, and afterwards, I asked him how he got my father to agree to let him marry me in the first place - originally he was so against it, but I always figured that Lucius managed to win him round or the temptation of the Malfoy fortune swayed him. It actually turns out that the absolute bastard used the Insanity curse on my sister, Bella, and convinced my father to arrange a marriage between us because it would save the family's reputation." A single tear slipped down the woman's cheek. "So Bella's in Azkaban for something that wasn't her fault, trapped inside her own mind, while the man who caused it all walks free."
Hermione's expression was suddenly filled with a fierce determination, and Rogue groaned. "Be careful with your insane schemes, okay love? I have to go talk to Sting a sec." He kissed her on the cheek and ran over to his brother.
A/N - Bwahaha, cliffhanger! Don't worry, Hermione's insane scheme is perfectly safe. Ish. Anywayyyy - what do think of the twins? They are the most adorable characters in the whole fic, except maybe Enyo, but even then...gah! I don't know!
Mila would really love it if you reviewed this fic, so she can make another appearance later on...•^_^•