Last time...

"Potter?" The older boy called her attention to him. "May I haff vord?"

"Krum?" Hera realized.

"Ah, good. Vas not sure you vould remember me." Krum insisted with relief. He also looked distinctly uncomfortable, which may have had something to do with Hogwarts and company staring at them. "Did not get time at Cup, but vanted to congratulate you on catch. Those children are vell because of you."

"Oh! Erm…" Hera struggled to come up with something to say. "Thanks? I'm sure anyone else would have done the same."

"Maybe anyone else vould have tried." Krum allowed, giving a small bow. "But not many could haff been able to make catch like you did. I do not think I could haff."

Chapter 19

"I don't believe it!"

"It's Krum! Victor Krum!"

"Oh, I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me –"

"D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?"

...

"Really." Hermione muttered scathingly, as they passed by the girls bickering about lipstick. "You would think we were raised by savages at this rate."

"It's no better than how they were reacting to that poor Veela girl." Hera groused, and then began mimicking Ron. "They don't make them like that at Hogwarts."

"Oi! I do not sound like that." Ron objected, blushing in embarrassment.

"You did." Hermione corrected.

"Yesterday, in fact," Hera added, for clarification. "and this morning. Not to mention this afternoon, or five minutes ago, when we passed her in the hall."

"I wonder what his mother would say if she knew." Hermione pretended to ponder, tapping her lower lip with a finger.

"Ah, come on, don't bring Mum into this." Ron whined.

"Then don't act like a heathen." Hera shrugged, before both girls smacked him up the back of the head.

"No mercy between the two of you." He harrumphed. "I swear."

"Someone's going to try to murder me with this thing, I just know it." Hera sighed, as they listened to the explanation of the TriWizard Tournament and the Goblet of Fire. "Bets?"

"Moody." Ron nodded. "It's always the DADA professor."

"Could be one of the visitors though." Hermione suggested, helpfully. "Plus, Professor Lupin was safe enough."

"Any chance of me having a nice quiet year?" Hera tried, hoping they would agree. Their faces didn't suggest as such, especially when Dumbledore mentioned 'ability to cope with danger', and her shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

"Potter watch?" Colin suggested from down the way.

"Potter watch? What even is that? Why would you-" Hera began, suddenly alarmed.

"Because if I wanted to kill you now, I'd just put your name down for the death tournament, and then rig it so it picks you. No muss, no fuss, minimal effort." Hermione interrupted her, already digging for her quill, ink pot, and roll of parchment. "You're going to need witnesses to prove you didn't have a chance of entering, or getting someone else to do it for you. It likely won't matter, but it will be important for evidence purposes."

"Fred and George are going to try to enter, if they can get past the age line." Ron chuckled.

"Dibs on taking them to Madam Pomfrey after?" Hera called out.

Lee shot it down though, with a shaking of his head. "I've already called it. What time are you putting me down for Potter watch, Hermione?"

"I haven't drawn a timetable yet, so I'm taking suggestions. Write what time you think you can help." Hermione replied. "I'm going to go around the room."

She did too.

"I don't believe it. She's actually…" Hera trailed off, seeing a good chunk of Gryffindor sign the thing.

"It's for your own good, Hera." Neville nodded sagely, as he patted her shoulder. The traitor.

...

"Of course, I'll sign, Hermione." Luna replied dreamily, when Hermione crossed over to Ravenclaw to ask. "It's for her own good, really."

"I do not understand." One of the girls from Beauxbatons commented. "Why does zis girl need watching?"

"Hera attracts trouble because of who she is." Luna admitted, as Hermione went around the table for more names. "All she's ever wanted is a nice quiet boring year at school where nothing bad happens and no one tries to kill her. I don't think she's managed it yet though."

"But why specifically does zis girl require watching now?"

"Oh, we're worried someone will try to enter her into the contest in an effort to kill her without actually doing anything, because of course they will." Hermione clarified. "This is for alibi purposes, so we can all vouch that she was with at least one of us, and didn't have a chance to put her name in or get someone else to do it. She's only fourteen."

"Oh dear…How many signatures do you need?"

...

"What are you doing over here, Granger?" Draco asked with a sneer. The girl looked completely nonplussed by his attitude, and it was infuriating.

"I thought it would be a gag to come over here, and see who would volunteer for Potter Watch." Hermione retorted, completely deadpan. It took him a moment to process that.

"You think someone will use this as a way to try and have her killed." He realized. "…because of course they would. Fuck it. Yeah, put me on there. Blaise and Theo too. I want to see if we can give our Head of House a heart attack when he sees her in the Common Room."

"You want to…" Hermione starts, before thrusting the quill and ink pot at him, and then bursts out laughing. "Oh, it's worth it, just for that! Any other suggestions?"

"You won't believe me." Draco warned, but she waited. "Pansy."

"Parkinson?" Hermione wondered, in fascinated disbelief. "Really?"

"Ever since she noticed Potter's been putting little embellishments on her school robes, Pansy's been scheming for them to have a project together or something." Draco shrugged. "Honestly, she starts talking fashion, and I just sort of tune it out after a while."

"Right." Hermione nodded. "This'll be good. Hey, Parkinson! You up for Potter watch?"

"FINALLY!"

"I think that's a yes, Granger." Draco chortles, completely unable to help himself.

...

"Vill they say no to volunteers from Durmstrang?" Krum asks when Granger is gone.

"I suppose not, as long as there are people from Hogwarts with her to verify." Draco replied after a moment of thought.

"Perhaps I should help as vell." Krum suggested, before looking to some of the others listening in. "You did not see catch she made, and before that she flew her broom straight into crowd of Death Eaters."

"It's Potter." Draco waved off lightly. "I'll believe anything you tell me. I once watched her catch our flying instructor and another student in the air, after pulling a high dive maneuver, all while laying flat on the school broom, inadvertently dislocating both her shoulders in the process. We all found out later that that was the first time she'd ever flown on a broom."

"Vould be nice to know when she picked up Bulgarian as vell." Krum comments as he made to head for Granger.

"Wait…" Draco mutters, before looking to the others. "Potter can speak Bulgarian? Since when?"

...

"What are they doing?" Cedric wondered as they watched Hermione run around the room with parchment and quill.

"Potter Watch." Terry replied without missing a beat. "You know what her luck is like. Someone might actually manage to kill her if they can get her name in. At the rate Granger is going, she'll have the whole 24 hours filled up before she even comes back this way."

"Hannah's in her year, isn't she?" Cedric asked, as he's getting up out of his seat to catch Granger. "Perhaps we should offer our assistance. Hera's nice."

"This is insanity." Hera blurts out, seeing practically all of Gryffindor in the Common Room that night.

Nearly every one in her year, with a few above and below, had volunteered to stay up to watch her. Her declaration sends them all tittering into laughing fits. They looked like they were prepared too. There were games, blankets all over the place, and pillows of every fluffiness. She really appreciated those.

"Alright, so we have the Hufflepuffs scheduled for breakfast, and maybe some downtime, however long that turns out to be. Ravenclaw has you down for some time in the library after that. Beauxbatons asked for time in the afternoon, so we'll be taking lunch with them. Not really sure what they want to do after that, if anything. Then Durmstrang suggested a tour of the ship, and something of a surprise, they said. We'll probably be eating dinner with them." Hermione read off from her finalized scroll. "After that, Slytherin wants second night watch. I think they want to see if they can give Professor Snape a heart attack, and Pansy has fashion ideas she wants to dig into your brain for. Malfoy put in the suggestion of a Poker night. Then we'll just sit with Gryffindor again at breakfast before the choosing of the champions. Also, there are a lot of people who want to know how you know Bulgarian and French."

"And Gaelic." Seamus piped up. "Sometimes, when I'm missing home, I'll hear you whispering to yourself in Gaelic."

"Seamus…I don't know a lick of Gaelic…or Bulgarian and French, for that matter." Hera denied, dumbfounded by this new information.

"Zabini swears up and down he's heard you cursing in Italian in the library." Hermione shrugged.

It was Ron's suggestion though that surprised them.

"Maybe it's like the parseltongue thing, something you can do without knowing that you can." He remarked, thoughtfully. "No one would think to even suggest it, because how rare the ability is, and would just assume you knew a lot of languages. You read almost as much as 'Mione does, so it would be a safe bet."

"Seriously?" Hera objected. "How do we even test something like that?"

"It's not like Seamus hears you talking in Gaelic all the time, just when he's thinking about it." He explained. "So all he has to do is think of it, and then you say stuff."

"Has anyone else heard me speak different languages?" Hera demanded, a little hysterical, her eyes widening as at least seven people hesitantly raise their hands. "Bloody hell."

"Imagine it though, that'd be dead useful to have. You could travel anywhere." Angelina marveled. "I'd kill for something like that for homework."

"I don't think it would work on books though…" Hermione pondered, but saw Hera grimacing in realization "…would it?"

"There isn't a book in that library I haven't been able to read." Hera admitted, fidgeting now. "…even the copied ones. I just assumed they were all in English, that they'd been translated already. What kind of ability is that?"

"I have an idea, but I'll need to do some research." Hermione replied, already itching to get started on said research. "Let's test out the talking part first though. Seamus, start thinking Gaelic."

Thus began her night. She would wait for them to be of the frame of mind a person needed to be in, and then she'd say something. They would swear to Merlin it sounded like whatever language they had been in the frame of mind to hear. For Seamus, and surprisingly enough Lavender, it was Gaelic. Parvati could hear her speaking in Tamil. A smattering of others heard Welsh, Finnish, and Vlax Romani. She's still not sure how it's possible, because all she hears is English. If she tries to hear or see something in another language, like latin, it stays the language it's in, but if she's not paying attention, it looks and sounds like English to her. Hermione is already in research heaven because of this. She can only imagine the possibilities.

The next morning finds them all shambling down to breakfast, where Hufflepuff has arrived in mass to escort Hera, and Hermione to their Common Room. Ron would have followed with, as it was rumoured that the Hufflepuff Common Room was near the kitchens, but Fred and George were going to make their attempt. There was no way he was going to miss that blowing up in their faces, and as their little brother, it was his duty to make sure he made fun of them accordingly. Colin also promised to take pictures of the attempt 'for posterity'. Professor Sprout only stopped by once to make sure that Hera and Hermione were comfortable, and left the kids to it.

Hufflepuff's Common Room was exactly what Hera had hoped it would be. It was warm and comforting, filled with soft light from the windows, and the smell of clay and cinnamon. Hera had always found that to be a comforting smell, and so approved. According to Hogwarts: A History, via Hermione, it was intended to smell unique to each person, in what ever way made them feel the most at home. Cedric goes out of his way to make them both feel welcome, and Hannah is kind down to her bones. It was nice to see just how inventive the lot of them were, and more than a few were sporting what they affectionately called Hermione's 'beaded bags'.

...

Ron finds them in the library with the Ravenclaws. Hera is literally drawing diagrams in the air like it's parchment, occasionally talking and looking back distractedly as she does so. Several of the 'Claws are furiously taking notes, while others are asking questions. It's a good thing there's a sound dampening field around them, or else Madam Pince would have been over there. Ravenclaws could get pretty loud when they were talking theory, and this lot looked like they were in full swing.

Luna is off to the side, but Hera doesn't let her stay there. Instead, the girl proudly displays the moon frog earrings she'd been working on. In retrospect, they were a brilliant bit of magic; little crystalline sparkly frogs that would occasionally make little ribbit sounds. In response, Luna brought out this hulking monstrosity of a lion's head as a hat from a beaded bag that looked like Hermione's. It roared, which was just bloody cool. He may have also noticed that when Luna talked about the Nargles stealing things, a few of the other Claws would look away guiltily; which Hera took advantage of by discretely hexing them with something karmic, he was sure. He was more surprised when Hermione added her own measures as well.

"Hey, you two ready to head over to the Beauxbatons carriages?" Ron asked, when it looked like the diagrams where fading.

"I think I'd like to come along too, if that would be alright." Luna mused.

"You want to come with us to the Durmstrang ship too? I'm fairly certain they'll love your lion hat." Hera nodded, before thanking the Ravenclaws for hanging out with them. "So, how bad was it?"

"They grew beards longer than Dumbledore's. You'd think that would be the end of it, but then they immediately started French braiding them while waxing poetic about the 'good ole' days, complaining about their aches and pains, and pointing at all the rest while demanding the 'whippersnappers' need to learn to respect their elders." Ron replied with a grin. "Dumbledore showed up, and you would have thought Christmas had come early when he complimented how fine a beard they each had."

Hera snorts. "Figures." and heads to hand in the books she'd checked out before.

He gave Hermione a questioning look, to which she just patted her bag. Good.

...

The Beauxbatons carriages were much larger on the inside, which explained a lot considering that they'd carried more people than should have fit in them. Madam Maxime is delighted when she discovers the speaking ability Hera seems to possess, because it allows her to relax into her native language and not have to worry that she won't be understood; Hera will understand. Hermione knows enough French to add to the conversation nicely, and Ron doesn't speak much as he is busy sampling the snacks on offer. The students hear that Hera likes to cook and is interested in the magical culinary arts, and suddenly she's getting a practical hands on education on how to craft French dishes with magic. It's a learning experience, so Hermione jumps in like a champ, and soon there's a group of them crafting quite the lunch.

They learn to ride Abraxans. Hera's never ridden a horse before, winged or otherwise, but she knows enough about animals not to disrespect them. They aren't quite as picky as hippogriffs, but they are proud creatures nonetheless. Hermione even chances it, though she makes sure one of the older students is with her. Ron is a lot more confident here, flying being something he's comfortable with. By the time they're supposed to be heading off to the Black Lake to meet with the Durmstrang students, Hera's still writing down book suggestions for learning the magical culinary arts as she goes, and some of the students come with her just so they can keep talking.

...

Hera is vibrating, she's so happy. Hermione had secretly brought the Firebolt, which makes sense when Victor Krum offers to go over several Seeker moves with her. Madam Hooch is nearby for safety reasons, but otherwise lets them carry on as they like. Krum spends time explaining and demonstrating each move before backing off for her to try them. It was the kind of training she hadn't been able to get from Wood because he wasn't a Seeker, and Charlie hadn't been able to take the time during his visit.

They do take dinner in the ship, which Hera is quick to ask about their culinary arts course and sea shanties. The Durmstrang students had traveled here by ship, after all. If they didn't use at least some of the travel time to sing sea shanties, they'd wasted an opportunity there. Hera notices that there is always one of the older students nearby, or several, who's sole job seemed to be distracting their Headmaster from getting too close to her. It seemed a particularly difficult task, as Karkaroff was frequently trying to butter up to Krum as some form of favoritism, no matter how uncomfortable it seemed to make him.

Victor was surprised to learn that Hera did not know Bulgarian, especially considering he heard her speak it whenever he thought of it. To have an ability like that without even knowing it was…a rare thing indeed. He understood a bit better when she explained that she was raised by a pair of muggles that didn't like magic, and so pretended it didn't exist all of her life in the hopes that she would not end up here. Hera discovered that he secretly hated that all anyone wanted to talk about with him was Quidditch, which she really should have expected; the fact that she had not did not offend him though, considering she also did not treat him with the star struck level of hero worship that everyone who met him did. It was something he was glad for when he spoke to her, Luna, and Hermione; Ron had tried to hide his hero worship of the older boy, but he wasn't all that successful at it, though he got better as the evening wore on.

...

When it was finally time to be passed off to the Slytherins, Victor came too, along with an assortment of Beauxbatons students, Luna, Hermione, Hanna, Colin, Fred, George, and Ron. She was actually really proud of Ron for working to put away his dislike of Slytherin for this. He must be taking this Potter-watch thing pretty seriously. It had been a wild day so far, and it looked ready to continue when Draco stood waiting at the entrance for them. She couldn't wait to see if Ron's newfound patience could handle the arrogance of a Malfoy.

"It's about time, Potter. Everything's set up in the Common Room for poker night, and sometime tonight Pansy will kidnap you for fashion things." Draco sniffed by way of greeting. "I will not be rescuing you from that."

"Wait. He's really going to let me in there?" Hera asked, puzzled.
"I believe the phrase 'Better to ask forgiveness than permission' applies." He replied, with a mischievous grin. "Don't you?"

"Words to live by, really." She agreed, with a wicked grin to match.