Hermione swore in frustration, and cast a curse at the wall that would have left anyone it hit wishing they were dead. A dark scorch appeared on the wall, with thick black oily muck running down from it.
Three weeks she'd been working on and practicing this, but was still no closer to seeing anything happen. She could pick up most spells in just a few tries, and had won countless house points for just that, as she was regularly the first to successfully cast a new spell in classes. But this magic she'd found in her Dagworth grimoire was frustrating her to no end.
Closing her eyes, she focused on pulling herself back under control, her shoulders relaxing as the hours of occlumency practice helped her ease her mind. A few minutes later, she packed her book and parchment away then left her quiet tower room. Heading to the library, she spent the rest of the morning in the comforting presence of the thousands of books.
At Lunch, the people sitting at the staff table held a wide range of emotions; the Minister looked stern, eating in silence. Next to him, Madame Maxime looked about ready to cry, while Bagman was sporting a cheerful smile as he chatted to anyone who'd listen. Hagrid, meanwhile kept glancing at the large French witch in concern. While the other Professors were their usual quiet but friendly selves, except Snape who wore his customary sneer.
Hermione sat at the far end of the Gryffindor table where she was mostly ignored. She kept half an eye on the staff table, watching Barty in his Professor disguise as she picked at her food.
When the meal was finished, the Hall grew quiet as Dumbledore stood and announced that the third task would be starting champions were escorted to the quidditch field as he finished speaking, and she watched as they were applauded out of the Great Hall, but didn't join in the celebrations. A few minutes later, everyone in the school followed them; a flurry of whispered conversations ranging from guesses on what the task would be, to bets on the outcome spread throughout the masses.
Hermione followed quietly, keeping to herself as she half-listened to the chattering. Having missed watching the first and second tasks for one reason or another, she wondered if the crowds were always this excitable. But they all settled down some as they found seats in the stands. Hermione kept to herself the best way she could; surrounded mostly by younger students that didn't know her too well.
A knot formed in her stomach as the four champions were lead out on to the field to the entrance of the maze. It twisted a little tighter when Professor Moody stepped out of the entrance and shook hands with each of them.
As Mr. Bagman started the introductions and current place holdings, Hermione watched the boy that had been her friend for several years. She saw Hagrid whisper something in his ear, before walking off to guard the sides of the maze, leaving Harry alone looking around the stands. He waved to someone off to her right; the Weasleys she guessed, having seen them in the castle earlier that day.
Before long a whistle was blown, and a shiver ran up Hermione's back as she watched Harry step into the maze and wondered if that would be the last time she saw him. Her mood cleared a little a few minutes later, as she cheered when Viktor entered the maze. She clapped politely for Fleur, as she too disappeared not long after that.
Once the champions were all in the maze the crowd settled down to watch the task unfold. It was quite boring actually, and she felt her tension ease a little as nothing happened. Occasionally a cheer would erupt from somewhere in the stands, as someone claimed to have seen something. But mostly they all just sat around, watching the dark hedge shrouded in mist; apparently no one had thought of the spectators when deciding on the tasks.
There was a scream an hour or so after the champions had entered the maze, and several Professors rushed toward a section of the maze when sparks shot up in the air. The crowd was on its feet, watching as nothing continued to happen. Then a few noises broke out, and a murmur went through the stands as Fleur was brought out on a stretcher. Hermione thought the blonde was still alive, but couldn't tell for sure.
The knot of nervousness twisted inside her again as she turned to watch the dark quiet maze. After a while the crowd settled down again, as the task went back to it's invisible state. The murmurs never completely settled though, as whispered discussions of Fleur's fate continued.
Another lot of red sparks shot into the air just as the sun was setting, and again the Professors rushed in to find the stricken champion. Before long they came out with another stretcher, this time with Viktor laying on it, unmoving, eyes glazed over. The stands once more burst into a cacophony of noise, as everyone speculated on what had happened: "Is he dead?" "He wasn't moving." "Did you see his eyes?"
An announcement was made before too long to quell the wild rumours starting to circle the stands; he was only stunned, he'd be alright. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, and continued to watch as the darkness grew. Torches were lit before the black of night could completely cover the spectators, and the maze.
Hermione huddled into her cloak, casting a quick warming charm on it as the night grew colder. Nothing happened for a while, a cheer went up when someone thought they'd seen the flashes of spell fire. And then there was only quiet, no sounds came from the maze, nor from the waiting crowd as the task continued on.
Then - Hermione guessed it was more than an hour since Viktor had been pulled out - Mr. Bagman was blowing his whistle again, and everyone was on their feet cheering louder than they had in hours. But seconds later a scream broke out from somewhere, and Hermione took in a deep breath knowing what it likely meant.
Already standing, like those around her, Hermione began to make her way forward; she just had to know. It was slow going, as it seemed that everyone wanted to take a look. She was getting close when she heard the murmured conversations picking up into distinct cries and shouts.
"He's dead!" "He's dead!" "Cedric Diggory! Dead!"
Hermione's scream of "What?!" was barely heard by all but a few who were closest to her. She redoubled her efforts to push forward, battling against the jostling crowd, until she finally got close enough to see over someone's shoulder.
"What's happened?" She asked no one in particular, but no answer was necessary: Laying on the grass, eyes gazing into nothingness, was Cedric Diggory; his father clinging to him, wracked with distraught shudders.
Harry was nowhere in sight, though Dumbledore and the Minister were apparently arguing over something, and she heard them mention his name a couple of times. Hermione looked back to the boy on the ground, and felt a swell of emotions at the sight. There was sadness, of course, at the tragic loss, but for a fleeting moment she felt pleased. She wasn't sure if it was because her never-spoken warning would not have done any good anyway, or something else that she couldn't quite work out. But it passed in a moment as anger well up inside her, as thoughts of the dirty half-blood having got yet another decent pure blood killed in one of his quests. It was unfair, a part of her knew that, but she couldn't help wondering who Harry'd get killed next. A friend? Her?
She took a moment to focus on her occlumency, clear her mind, and calm down; it didn't really work though, as she continued to be shoved about by the thickening crowd. With a huff that verged on a growl, she turned and forced her way back through the crowd, and away from the quidditch pitch.
After making her way to a quiet spot overlooking the lake, Hermione sat on the cool ground, pulled her cloak around her, and settled down to calm the thoughts and feelings running rampant within. It worked a bit, not much, but enough that she looked calm had anyone seen her. Inside though was a simmering rage that she could not pinpoint the origin of, she was just angry, but with no real idea why. Eventually she put aside the questions, and just focused on control; at least that was something she knew how to do, to some extent. Control her mind, control her emotions, she tried to ease her mind with the now familiar imagining of the Forbidden Forest. It was dark and quiet, but with danger just on the edges, where she imagined her emotions were; ready to jump out at a moments notice, but not breaking the peaceful calm of her forest while she kept them back.
She wasn't sure how long it had been when she felt ready to head back to the castle. The lights were still shining brightly at the quidditch pitch, so she guess it wasn't too long; though the lights flickering in the castle suggested that some had made their way back to the house common rooms, and dorms.
As Hermione entered the castle and made her way to the Grand Staircase, she felt an unnatural chill run through her, right to her bones. She paused for a moment, then her stomach dropped; she knew that feel, she'd felt it before. "Dementors." She whispered to herself. There was only one reason that she could think of for a dementor to be in the castle; they'd caught Barty.
She begun running up the stairs, not entirely sure where she was heading to, just following the growing chill. Many of the portraits were missing from their paintings, she noticed, and so slowed her pace and stepped carefully into the third floor corridor. A mist was filling the corridor indicating the closeness of the dementor, around the corner she heard slow footsteps.
Creeping along, she peered around the corner to see the dark-robed dementor following behind a portly little man in a bowler hat; the Minister for Magic, she remembered. Stepping back out of sight, she pressed back against the wall and tried to think. A patronus would help with the dementor, but not the Minister. But if she got rid of the Minister - which was probably a bad idea in any case - the dementor would likely come after her.
Poking her head back around the corner she saw the Minister approaching the door, and knew that she had to act now, if she was going to do something to help the Professor that she had come to call a friend - an ally? Shaking her head to clear the distractions away, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the Minister just as he was turning for the door.
"Confundo."
She watched as the charm hit, and the Minister shuddered before looking around in confusion. After a moment he turned and walked further down the hall.
Hermione took her chance while she had it; casting a quick silencing charm on her feet, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, added a shadow charm to hide her face, and ran for Barty's office door. Bursting into the room, she saw someone standing over him, wand drawn and pointed straight at him. His guard spun around at the sound of the door flying open, and Hermione saw Professor McGonagall turn her wand on her.
Knowing she didn't have much time, and not wanting to risk a duel with her Head of House, Hermione felt the last of her hard fought calm snap. Letting everything out, she cursed fast and hard needing to get Barty out before the dementor came for both of them.
"Avada Kedavra!" She roared, not watching the sickly green light of the curse as she dived for Barty. Clamping a hand firmly around a bound arm, she pushed all her concentration into the magic she'd been practicing. Forgetting the failed tries, and the frustration that followed them, she focused everything she had on getting them both out of there.
And with a soft 'pop' they were in the Shrieking Shack, where they promptly fell onto the dusty floor.
Hermione looked around for a few seconds, partly confused at the sudden change in location, but also overjoyed that it had finally worked. Picking herself up, she turned to the tightly bound form of Barty beside her.
"Are you ok?" She asked, and used a quick cutting charm on the ropes.
He sat up and started pulling the ropes off himself, all the while looking at her in awe. "How did you..." He frowned in confusion, "No one can apparate inside Hogwarts, or through the wards." He said with certainty.
"Dagworth magic," Hermione answered him, somewhat mysteriously. "It's blood bound though," she added a few seconds later in hope that he wouldn't want her to teach him. "Can only be used by someone of my blood." It might have been a lie, she only knew the book couldn't be read by anyone outside her bloodline. "Besides it doesn't seem to work all the time anyway." Shaking her head a bit at the past few weeks frustrations, she took off her cloak and through it in the fireplace.
"What..."
"Incendio." The cloak burst into flames. "Don't know if I hit McGonagall or not, but I don't want anyone recognising that when I go back." She looked up to find him staring at her. "What?"
"Doesn't work all the time?" He asked.
"I've been practicing for weeks, that's the first time it's worked."
"What?!"
"Shhh, someone might be out looking for you."
"You side along apparated for your first time!" He didn't quite yell at her. "You could have splinched us..."
"It doesn't splinch!" Hermione interrupted with an almost shout of her own. "It either works or it doesn't, nothing like the apparition the Ministry teaches."
"How do you know that? It's still apparition!"
"Because my family invented it!" She yelled at him properly, then quickly hushed and continued. "I've got the original notes from when it was sold to the ministry. The license fee was originally for the patent license, but we never gave away all our secrets. And now everything in the book is blood bound anyway."
When neither of them spoke for a few moments, she asked him, "Can you get away from here? Do you know where to go?"
He nodded, "Yeah, I know where to find The Dark Lord. First I need to steal a wand from the village..." He trailed off as she pulled a wand from her sleeve and offered it to him. "You'll need that," he reminded her.
"No I won't, it's... uh, a spare."
They shared a grin as he worked out where it had come from.
"Not like she'll be using it anymore." Hermione told him, and he took the wand.
"Thanks," he told her.
"You're welcome, now go!"
"Really," he said in a sincere tone, "thanks."
She didn't get time to answer him this time though, as a moment later he spun on the spot, and with a load crack he was gone.
Soon after, Hermione was making her way down from the Astronomy tower, and heading back to the Gryffindor common room. Fortunately, her slightly rumpled look from the night's adventures matched everyone else. So she was able to make her way to her bed without comment from anyone.
A/N: something tells me that someone will complain if I don't say this, so: Hermione is not going to be all super with a heap of extra powers, I just wanted to give her something to level the playing field a bit. Harry and Voldemort both have parseltongue, Harry also has his whole blood-protection/immunity-from-the-killing-curse thing as well. So they have a little something extra, and now Hermione does too.