With the World Cup fast approaching, Hermione gave herself the day off from worrying on Friday, mentally deciding to pick the matter back up later. Instead, she opted to go to the World Cup grounds herself, curious to see what Ministry Security had managed to get into place before the full moon in two days' time.
Hopping ley lines was so nice as a method of travel, now that she could consistently not vomit from riding them. There wasn't one that went directly to the stadium, but one took her not too far from it, and Hermione enjoyed a half hour walk through the morning countryside, her mind taking the opportunity to just marvel at the scenery and relax. The deserted moor with the sky stretching out over it had a way of making Hermione feel centered in herself, even without touching her magic at all.
Once she got closer to the stadium, she began seeing evidence of wizards – a lot of them, by the looks of it.
A veritable city of tents had sprung up in what was clearly normally a muggle camping site. Many of them appeared normal from the outside (though Hermione held no doubts they didn't look normal on the inside), whereas some had gone just a bit too far – color-changing canvas for the tent walls, a two-storied tent, a weathervane…
Hermione was smiling to herself as she walked around. She passed through what was clearly a group of Ireland fans, who had grown shamrocks all over their tents and were flying Ireland's flag high from a pole erected in the middle of their campsites. She waved cheerily to Seamus Finnegan, who she could see a few rows over, and he waved back, and Hermione found herself keeping watch for anything else fun while she made her way to the woods.
From what she had been made to understand, the stadium itself was on the other side of the woods, and spectators weren't allowed to go to the stadium until it was time for the match. That was fine by Hermione – she had no need to go to the stadium itself. But these woods…
If Fenrir was going to attack, it would be from the shelter of darkened trees, where wolves held the natural advantage.
Hermione made her way into the woods, walking around for a while, not entirely sure what she was looking for. There was a path that looked like it would illuminate at dusk, but other than that, there wasn't much. It seemed, for the world, to be an utterly normal forest, save a bit sparse in places.
She continued to wander, looking for any signs of magic, when she abruptly tripped over a giant tree root. Confused, she heaved herself back up, looking at her path.
"I wasn't going to cross over here," she murmured to herself, staring at the root. "I was going to cross up there…"
Puzzled, Hermione clambered back over the giant tree root to the path she'd been taking through the trees, and she continued moving on her way.
This time, she was ready for it – there was a gentle nudging feeling, encouraging her to cut through the trees here. One that she'd missed the first time, she'd been so distracted and unaware. As she determinedly continued on her path, the feeling became stronger, before it felt like she was fighting a full-fledged Keep-Away Charm, her certainty and strength of conscious mind the only thing helping her persevere in moving forward.
Abruptly, the feeling snapped, and Hermione stumbled forward slightly, gasping. Once she collected herself, she looked around, not quite sure what she was looking for but certain that there had to be something here.
She found it on a tree – a large asp tree. A giant sigil had been carved into it, a large circle with circles and lines and smaller circles on it, crossing over and interspersed with dots. It looked more like some sort of jumbled-up clock schematic than anything magical. When she ran her fingers over it, it still felt of magic, even though Hermione had never seen a warding circle or sigil that looked anything like this before.
"There's no runes here," Hermione said to herself, puzzled. "How's this do anything without runes?"
There was no indication where there might be another sigil to study as comparison, so Hermione guessed, trying to follow a path that she would have taken if placing wards around a large forest.
A while later, she caught herself about to head for a different direction than what she'd been maintaining, and stubbornness and certainty kept her going until she found another large circle carved into a tree, this one even more complicated than the last.
"What on earth…?" she wondered aloud.
"Wuht are you doing?"
Hermione whirled around, wand out, before stopping short.
"Viktor?" she said, before smiling, pleased. "Fancy seeing you here! How are you?"
"…Hærmionae?" Viktor said slowly. His eyes were suspicious. "From the photo shoot?"
"Hermione," she corrected absently. "And yes! Good to see you again. I imagine you're here for the Cup too?"
She gave him a grin, which Viktor returned with a slow nod.
"What are you doing?" Viktor asked her, Hermione doing her best to hear through his heavy accent. "People are forbidden from—"
"Oh, I know," Hermione waved him off. "I'm not going to the stadium. I just wanted to see how they were warding the forest to see how they were keeping danger out." She gave him a sheepish smile. "I'm just curious, really."
Viktor regarded her for a long minute before he trudged over to join her, curiosity winning out.
"This in the wood, you think is a ward?" he asked.
"I can't imagine what else it might be," Hermione said. "I found another one that way a bit, on another tree."
She pointed, and Viktor peered into the woods.
"Show me," he said.
Hermione obligingly turned to return to the first tree, before she paused.
"There are strong Keep-Away charms on them, from what I can tell," she said. She wordlessly offered her hand. Viktor blinked at it for a long moment before taking it, and Hermione led him through the woods to the first tree she'd found marked.
"See?" she said. "It's the same type of thing, but it's all circles, lines, and dots. There's no runes anywhere."
Viktor leaned closer as well, his hawkish face looking puzzled.
"Odd," Viktor said. He hesitated. "This does not look like ritual magic either."
"It doesn't," Hermione agreed immediately. She peered at the carving closer. "The only time I've ever seen a ward done with one symbol was…"
She paused, trailing off, her eyes wide.
"With the werewolves!" she exclaimed.
Viktor looked at her sharply. "Werewuhlf?"
"Werewolves," she repeated absently. "When I helped ward the villages. Their old wards were singular Celtic symbols. They looked like this."
She crouched on the ground, getting a stick to draw in the dirt. After an aggravating experience with brittle sticks and dry dirt that refused to move, Viktor trying not to chuckle, Hermione threw the stick away and pressed her hand to the ground instead.
Obliging, her earth elemental shifted the earth for her, reproducing the two silver runes Blackbeard had made for the hedgewitches out of dirt, and Viktor let out something like a squawk.
"What magic—?"
"I'm special," Hermione said, flashing him a quick grin. "But look – this is what we used before."
Viktor looked down at the two symbols, frowning.
"Even these make sense," he said. "Each is one symbol. One purpose. The tree—"
They both stood, looking at the carving again.
"—this is not to be one thing," he said, pointing to different parts of the symbol. "Look. This circle, this circle is also on the other tree, but this circle is not."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"I think you're right," she said, astonished. "I didn't even realize – I didn't remember what all the patterns inside were." She grinned up at him, co-conspiratorially. "Good memory!"
"Is nothing," Viktor muttered. To Hermione's surprise, his face turned a dull red. "Have you finded another? Three, we can make pattern."
Together, they wandered in the opposite direction, feeling carefully for Keep-Away charms. As they walked, Hermione chatted with him cheerfully.
"I keep forgetting that this is a big international event," she said ruefully. "I've just been hearing the logistical planning part of it. I've entirely forgotten that there are people from across the globe attending." She shot him a grin. "With everybody here, it's lucky we ran into each other again."
Viktor smiled slightly at her. "Lucky," he said.
"Have you seen any of your classmates?" Hermione asked. "I saw a couple of mine, but most of my classmates aren't coming until the day of, I think."
"Makes sense. They live close," Viktor said, shrugging.
"Have you seen any of your friends?" she pressed.
Viktor hesitated.
"I haff seen a few," he said finally. "From school."
Hermione gave him a commiserating smile, given his hesitation.
"Not your favorite people?" she guessed. "You go to… what, Durmstrang, you said?"
"They are not bad people," Viktor protested. "They…" he trailed off, making a face. "They think I am bad student. They treat me different."
The way he said 'different' made it clear it wasn't a good thing. Hermione immediately felt enraged on his behalf.
"For what?" she demanded to know.
"Quidditch," Viktor said shortly. "I am known for playing Quidditch… and not much else."
"Well, that's nonsense," Hermione said, glowering at the trees now as she went. "You're a person just like anyone else, Quidditch or not. And you're clearly very sharp – you caught the pattern in a strange warding scheme in moments – so I can't imagine you'd be bad at your schoolwork."
Viktor gave her a strange look.
"No," he said. "I am good at studies."
"See?" Hermione said, nodding. "The stereotype of a dumb jock is cruel, anyway, and often inaccurate with Quidditch, I think. I've heard Durmstrang is—well, let's avoid the particulars—but do you think you can you get away with hexing them?"
Viktor looked like he was trying not to laugh. "No. I wish."
Hermione sighed dramatically.
"Well," she said optimistically. "Hopefully they'll be too busy watching the game to give you any grief." She paused. "Though, there's hardly any teacher oversight here, if you did want to hex them…"
Viktor was shaking his head, incredulous.
"You know nothing about Quidditch," he pronounced, and Hermione colored.
"I do too!" she said. "I've watched – okay, not every school game, but a lot of them, and I know the basic premise and balls and positions—"
Viktor was laughing at her now, Hermione's face turning redder and redder.
"What?" she demanded. "Are there prohibitions against hexing in the stands? Because that's very much not a thing at Hogwarts, so there's no way I would know—"
"Does not matter," Viktor said decisively, grinning down at her. He looked up. "I see a tree. Just here."
This time, he led her by the hand over a row or so (if random trees in the woods could be said to have rows), and there was another odd circle carved onto it.
"Another one!" Hermione exclaimed. She scanned it, trying to take in all the detail. "This one seems less complex—"
"Same circle is here," Viktor said, pointing to part of the sigil. "Even when simple."
Hermione groaned, rubbing her temples. This wasn't making any intuitive sense. Viktor gave her a pitying look, which she ignored.
"Let's review what we know," she said. "First, these circles feel like magic, so they are likely some sort of warding."
"Yes," Viktor agreed. "Two, they all haff this circle inside big circle."
He pointed to the circle he had noticed on all three, before pausing.
"Wait," he said. "First tree had this also, but not in this spot."
"Not in the same spot?" Hermione said, not understanding.
"First tree, this little circle was here," Viktor said, pointing to a different part of the larger circle. "Faced differently, with lines connecting differently. But is same circle."
Hermione peered at it, fascinated.
"Do you think?" she asked. "These can't be actual symbols, right? There's too many parts."
Viktor shrugged.
"Maybe not," he agreed. "Too many parts repeat. If not symbols, though…" He trailed off, looking into the trees. "…then, letters?"
Hermione's eyes widened. "You think these are letters?"
"I do not know," Viktor said. "But… this circle is on all three trees. If is a letter…"
"Do you think each one of these spells out a word?" Hermione asked, eyes wide. She looked closer at the simpler carving. "This one has… four inner circles? Four. The others—"
"Five and seven," Viktor filled in. Hermione blinked at him with wide eyes, which seemed to make Viktor self-conscious again. She grinned at him.
"Five and seven, then," she said. "So… do we think each circle spells a different word? Like maybe the seven-letter one was 'protect'."
"Circles did not repeat," Viktor pointed out. "We would need more for examples to decode."
Hermione gave him a sly sideways smile. "…are you busy today?"