Rita Skeeter's article about the Wand-Weighing ceremony appeared in the next edition of the Evening Prophet. As was her usual style, the article was light on facts and heavy on innuendo. Hermione was not at all impressed, and made her feelings known as she read through it.
The piece mentioned Ollivander discussing each wand with its owner as he examined it, but failed to relate any details, with one exception–the revelation that Fleur Delacour's wand core was made of hair from her Veela grandmother. Even this served as merely a transition into an account of how much attention Delacour had received from the males attending the ceremony.
Skeeter accused Delacour of spending the entire ceremony shamelessly seeking attention from them all, but paying particular attention to Cedric Diggory. (Cedric was the one champion Skeeter portrayed in a positive light, as she praised him for "not allowing the flirtatious foreign girl to turn his head.")
Skeeter described Crouch as appearing dazed, and suggested this was an embarrassing reaction to the much younger Delacour. Here, the reporter presented the French witch as naive and innocent for the space of a single paragraph, while painting her as a scheming seductress throughout the rest of the piece, seemingly with no recognition of the inconsistency.
Hermione paused in her reading to wonder aloud if she should ask the French witch to speak to her Magical Beings Club about her Veela heritage, but her friends convinced her now was not the best time to ask.
Viktor Krum had apparently paid little attention to the French champion, though Skeeter found a way to cast even this in a negative light. She suggested that Krum already had his hands full, with the large number of groupies who were always in his company. Hermione noted they were less "in his company", and more relentlessly following him around the castle. Yet Skeeter portrayed him as a male counterpart to Delacour, both desperate for attention from the opposite sex.
After listening to Hermione read one of the more egregious passages, Harry remarked that maybe Ginny should have told Skeeter to stay away from Hogwarts altogether.
Hermione looked up from the paper. "When did you talk to Rita Skeeter? Why would she do what you say?"
Ginny smirked. "She tried to interview Harry yesterday, but I persuaded her not to. I can be quite persuasive."
Hermione frowned, but returned her attention to the article. She was still dissecting its unsupported assertions when Cedric Diggory, Cho Chang, and Roger Davies approached the Gryffindor table. They paused to talk to Angelina Johnson, who joined the other three Quidditch players as they made their way to Harry.
"Hey, Harry," Cedric greeted him.
"Oh hey, Cedric."
"Feel like Quidditch tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"Great. I was thinking we could invite Krum to play again."
"I wish he would, but it didn't turn out so well last time. That whole crowd that showed up to gawk was getting out of control."
"Yeah, it's too bad. I don't think he's been back to play since."
"That one time was amazing though," Ron put in, as he'd been fortunate enough to be part of the impromptu match the day Krum had joined them.
"Sure was," Cedric agreed. He gestured at the paper Hermione held. "I take it you've all seen the article on the wands ceremony."
"Hermione read us some choice passages," Harry confirmed.
"It wasn't anything like that."
"We figured. We're familiar with Skeeter's work."
Cedric nodded. "That's actually why I came to talk to you. Dumbledore said this Tournament is about forming friendships between the schools. It's hard to see that happening with this kind of nonsense going around. I figure if a bunch of us go over and invite Krum to come hang out with us again, it'll send the message that Skeeter doesn't speak for Britain. We were hoping you'd join us."
"Sounds good, but what do you need me for? You already have the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw captains."
"I'm not captain yet," Angelina objected.
"Oh, please. You're the obvious choice for next year."
"Maybe," she said with a shrug, but looked pleased by Harry's vote of confidence in her.
Harry glanced at Cho. "Oh, you want the Seekers too, because Krum's a Seeker?"
Cedric said, "Yeah, plus you and the Weasleys were the ones to get the whole pickup Quidditch thing going. And, well, if anyone can appreciate what it's like to be Krum…"
"It's the famous and universally beloved Harry Potter," Angelina finished with a wink at Harry.
Cedric looked embarrassed, but Angelina said, "Someone had to say it. You were taking forever. Those of us who know him have gotten over the hype, but there are plenty who haven't."
Harry frowned. "I'm not famous the way Krum is. It's not like I have girls following me around."
"Don't you?" Cho asked with a pointed look at Ginny, who responded by flipping her a two-fingered salute.
"Watch it, Cho," Angelina warned.
Cho glanced at Angelina, then looked away.
Cedric, oblivious to this or choosing to ignore it, told Harry, "I still think having you would send a good message. You're in, right?"
Harry scanned the Great Hall until he spotted the other two champions. Krum's face held its usual brusque impassivity, while Delacour looked like she was miserable, but trying to be brave and not show it.
"Yeah, alright," Harry said, standing. "Are you going to invite Delacour, too?"
Cho looked less pleased at this suggestion, but Cedric said, "I guess, though I've been trying to think of something else to invite her to which she might actually care about. I don't think she even plays Quidditch."
"I haven't seen her out at the pitch, but it might look bad if we talk to Krum now and don't get to her until later. Besides, if we're doing this as a show of support, it doesn't matter so much if they take us up on the offer or not."
"Shrewd," Cedric said with a grin. "You're pretty Slytherin for a Gryffindor."
"Witty," Harry shot back. "You're pretty Ravenclaw for a Hufflepuff."
Cedric laughed, and the group made their way to the Ravenclaw table, where most of the Beauxbatons students still chose to take their meals.
"Good for them," Hermione said with an approving nod as she, Ginny, and Ron watched.
They weren't the only ones watching. The group of Quidditch players drew curious looks from the other students, and even some of the staff. When the Beauxbatons champion realized they were approaching her, she regarded them warily, but when Cedric spoke briefly to her and began carrying out introductions, she visibly relaxed.
Delacour introduced some of her friends, and the two groups chatted for several minutes, during which time Cedric managed to put Delacour at ease enough to get her laughing at some of his remarks.
"Ugh," said Katie Bell, seated next to Ginny. "Even her laugh is gorgeous."
"Yeah," said Ron, dreamily.
"Now might be a good time to practice clearing your mind," Ginny told him in a sharp whisper.
He blinked in confusion, but then seemed to come out of his daze, forcing himself to look away from Delacour.
Meanwhile, Roger Davies was doing less well than Cedric at holding up his part in the conversation, and could to do little more than stare at the part-Veela champion.
Ginny was pleased to note Delacour didn't have nearly as much effect on Harry. He'd learned better control since the Quidditch World Cup. She also felt a certain satisfaction in watching Cho grow steadily more annoyed at the attention the Beauxbatons champion was receiving, even though they'd all gone over for precisely that purpose.
Eventually, Cho got Cedric's attention and gestured towards Krum. Cedric nodded and said something to Fleur, who rose to join the group as they went over to Krum.
Their reception at the Slytherin table was frosty, particularly towards Harry, but Cedric had enough popularity as the Hogwarts champion to keep the Slytherins from offering any overt hostility.
When greeting Krum, Cedric again took on the role of spokesman for the group, making introductions and getting the conversation started. From there, it played out similarly to their visit to Delacour, with Krum's demeanor mellowing as he realized their intentions.
By that point, everyone in the Great Hall was openly watching the interaction between the three champions. Dumbledore was beaming with delight at the show of unity. Madame Maxime smiled as well, though Karkaroff wore his usual scowl.
When Roger Davies' befuddled state became too awkward to ignore, Angelina and Cho led him docilely back to the Ravenclaw table, leaving Harry with the three champions.
Ginny could see the moment when Harry noticed how much attention they were getting, as his face went carefully blank. Even from across the room, she could almost feel him drawing into himself. He spoke briefly to the three champions to excuse himself, and started back towards the Gryffindor table. He kept his focus locked on his friends, ignoring the rest of the room.
Ginny wondered if a curse existed which could burn people's eyes out if they stared too long at someone.
Harry sat next to Ginny and looked down at the table.
"Hey," she said, nudging him with her arm. "You did a good thing."
"I hope it helps. It might have been too much. Having people see we're all cool with Krum and Delacour was part of the plan, but I wasn't prepared for every single person in the room suddenly becoming unable to tear their eyes away."
"Yeah, but at least people aren't just staring at the Boy Who Lived this time. They're looking at Harry Potter, a decent bloke who went out of his way to make some people who must have been feeling like they didn't belong feel a little more welcome."
"Guess so."
Ginny thought of a comparison he might appreciate. She murmured in his ear, "It's like everything you told me Hagrid did when he first brought you back to us, to help you realize you belong here."
Harry blinked at this, then smiled. "That would be great if it did that, even a little. Thanks, Gin. You always know what to say."
~*~The four friends were spending their second Saturday of the week in the set of rooms Hogwarts had conjured for them based on Hermione's mental image. They'd decided to refer to them by the innocuous phrase 'practice rooms', in case anyone not in on the secret ever overheard them. The rooms had expanded in size since their first visit, in response to Hermione's revised plans. The original layout had felt too confining for four people to spend a full day in.
Although they were using the Time-Turner to loop over the same few hours, making each set of loops add up to a twenty-four day helped reduce the disorientation. Doing it on weekends seemed best for avoiding confusion with their class schedules, so they had settled on spending Saturdays passing through time in the normal way, coming to the practice rooms in the evening to spend twenty-four hours looping through time, then returning to Gryffindor Tower before Saturday night curfew. They repeated the process on Sundays, thus fitting two extra days of subjective time into each weekend.
Despite trying to keep things as simple as possible, feeling out-of-sync with the rest of the world still took some getting used to. This off-kilter feeling contributed to the friction which developed when it became clear Hermione had a rather different idea from the others about how much of the extra time in their four-day extended weekends they should spend working, versus relaxing. But in the end, they managed a compromise everyone could accept.
They spent this time practicing various forms of magic, Occlumency being just one. Ginny focused on her fire. She and Harry practiced the dueling techniques Moody was teaching them, while also passing those lessons along to Ron and Hermione. Harry had a natural aptitude for teaching, and Hermione told him he should consider a career as a teacher.
Hermione tried her own hand at tutoring Ginny, but her methodical approach clashed with Ginny's more intuitive grasp of magic. It worked better when Ginny went to Hermione only when she had specific theoretical questions.
Hermione spent time exploring ways her mechanical calculator could help solve otherwise intractable problems in Arithmancy, though she longed for even more computing power.
Besides these extracurricular studies, they all had ordinary homework and studying for exams to keep them busy.
On this particular Saturday, when they entered the hidden space, Hermione held up a letter. "I received this from Mr Ollivander this morning, and thought we should discuss it in private. He was reluctant to discuss the secrets of his craft when I first wrote to him, but when I told him I was asking for Harry, he opened up. I hope it's okay that I used your name."
When Harry nodded, Hermione went on, "It turns out two wands having cores from the same magical creature is significant. Wands like that are called 'brothers'."
"Great," Harry said, though his tone suggested otherwise.
"No, listen. This could be important, and in a good way. It turns out you can't force brother wands to duel. They lock up with each other."
"I'm not planning on dueling Riddle if I can help it."
"Good. You shouldn't. But if he comes after you, and doesn't know about this, the surprise could distract him at a key moment. If nothing else, it would stop him from attacking you for as long as you can hold the connection."
"But I won't be able to cast anything either, which means the Death Eaters get to take free shots at me."
"No," Ginny said. "We arrange it so we get to take free shots at him."
Hermione said, "I was thinking Dumbledore or Moody would, but yes, that's the general idea."
Ron added, "Either way, you've got to stop thinking like you're in this alone, mate."
Harry said, "I know you'll all help in any way you can. I just can't shake the feeling that in the end, somehow Riddle will force me to face him alone."
"Nonsense," Hermione declared. "We're not leaving it up to him. But there's more. According to Ollivander, beads of light will appear along the connection between the wands, which you can push at each other using willpower. That's something you can beat him at! It's not about who knows more spells, but about character. You have a strong enough will to shake off Moody's Imperius Curse, and you're strong enough for this, I just know it."
"What happens if I win? What do the beads do?"
"The losing wand starts showing the spells cast with it, like when they checked our wands at the World Cup riot."
"That's it? I can't say I'm keen on seeing the sort of spells Riddle uses. That's the wand he killed my parents with, and lots of other people too. Besides, are we even sure he still has it? It's not like he can carry it around as a spirit."
"Oh. We'll have to find out what happened to it after… that night. I'm sorry, I didn't think about the ugly details. I was too excited about using this against him."
"It's okay. I know you're trying to help. I'd rather have a spell to attack him with, but you're right that a distraction could be useful."
"Mr Ollivander said the battle of wills takes a lot of effort, so maybe if you can keep it up long enough you can wear him down?"
"Which is only an advantage if my will really is stronger than his. Otherwise, it'll wear me down even more than him."
"Well… yes. But that's not what would happen. You wouldn't let it."
Harry sighed. "It doesn't sound like nearly enough, but it's my best chance of getting one up on Riddle anyone has found so far. Thanks for sticking with this, even when I wanted to forget it. And for believing in me."
"Of course, Harry."
"Did Ollivander say anything else?"
"Not about you or Riddle, though I had other questions for him. Did you know Neville is using an inherited wand? Ollivander wants him to come to his shop to try to find a better match."
Ron said, "When I got my new wand, I could feel a big difference from the old one I got from Charlie."
"You never told me that."
"You knew my old one got broken. And then blown up."
"Yes, but not that the new one worked so much better. And I don't think you ever told me you got the old one from your brother rather than from Ollivander."
Ron shrugged.
"Will you tell Neville?" she asked. "I've been trying to convince him he needs a wand that's suited to him, but it would help if he heard it from someone who has experienced the improvement firsthand."
"Yeah, alright. I'll tell him once, but I'm not going to keep bringing it up."
Hermione nodded in satisfaction. "That's fine. Thank you. See how much useful information you can learn when you're not afraid to ask questions?" she asked, waving the letter for emphasis.
~*~A few hours later, the time allotted for the first room came to an end, the doorknob appeared, and they moved into the small 'airlock' leading to the next room in the sequence. Hermione turned them five hours back in time.
Ron looked back at the door to the room they'd just come from.
"I told you, don't think too much about what's on the other side," Hermione advised.
"It's hard not to."
"Time travel takes a while to get used to, but at least there are rules you can learn. There are plenty of things about the wizarding world that make less sense, but everybody who grew up here just accepts them as normal."
"Like what?" asked Harry.
"Like how common coincidences seem to be. The brother wands thing, for example. Though I suppose if Dumbledore was right about Riddle transferring some of his powers to you, that might influence the wand selection process. Maybe a better example is the fact that Pettigrew just happened to be hiding out with the second-best friend you met during your first trip on the Hogwarts Express."
After a moment, Ron objected, "Hey! What do you mean 'second-best'?"
Hermione gave a brief smirk before continuing. "Then there's this room. How is it that we happened to learn about it from Luna right when we needed it?"
Ginny said, "That's just how magic works sometimes."
"It doesn't strike you as rather unlikely?"
Ron said, "Well, yeah, it would be if it weren't for magic."
Harry said, "Dumbledore told me one time that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. Then right when I most needed help in the Chamber, Fawkes arrived with the sword. And his talons."
"And his tears," added Ginny.
"Yeah. Those too."
Hermione said, "But Dumbledore also said later that Fawkes sensed your loyalty to him. He could have sensed you needed help in the same way, since we know magic actually makes telepathy possible. Luna appearing right when she did is harder to explain, unless she knows Legilimency, and used it to spy on us sometime before that."
"That doesn't sound like Luna," Ginny said. "She's much more… direct. It could be something related to the room itself. Before it can give you whatever you wish for–"
"It doesn't give you whatever you wish for," Hermione interrupted. "As far as I can tell, it only gives you what you actually need. I ran some tests."
"Of course you did. Anyway, before it can do anything, first it has to get your attention. Otherwise, how often would people discover it by chance? Maybe in our case, it reached out to us through Luna."
"Like it was controlling her?" Hermione asked, lowering her voice as she looked uneasily around the room.
"Not like you mean. If you asked her why she happened to be in the corridor the day we ran into her, she'd probably have her own reasons that made sense to her." She shrugged. "Things worked out the way they needed to."
"That's not an explanation."
"Of course it is. It needed to happen, so it did."
"This is starting to sound like the hazy nonsense I escaped from when I dropped Divination."
"I guess a little, but I don't think anyone claims to be able to predict such things. They only appear meaningful when you look back on them."
Hermione furrowed her brow. "Oh! You mean like synchronicity?"
"I don't know what that is."
"No reason you should. A Muggle psychologist came up with the idea. I only know because I saw the word on a record my parents have, and looked up what it meant. It's the idea that certain events seem to happen because they appear meaningful, even if the actual cause is unknown."
"In that case, the cause isn't unknown," argued Ginny. "The cause is that it's meaningful. Things which fit together, happen together. Why wouldn't they? Though now that I think about it, in this case it might not have been because of the room. Luna may have a bit of an aptness. It wouldn't surprise me."
"An aptness?"
"Yeah, you know, a tendency for… What was the Muggle word for it?"
"Synchronicity?"
"Yeah, that. Maybe she just happens to show up at random times and say things which turn out to be useful or insightful."
"But why?"
"Magic?" Ron suggested.
Hermione frowned at him.
"He's not wrong," Ginny said. "Magic is about more than waving your wand to make something happen right at that moment. It's also about larger patterns and meaningful connections."
"Why haven't we studied this in class?" Hermione demanded.
"It's not something you can learn to do, so there's not much to teach. Some people just do things like that naturally–like your thing with books."
"What thing with books?"
"You know. Whenever you have free time, there just happens to be a book nearby."
Hermione shook her head dismissively. "I often carry books with me. And of course a school will have lots of books lying around."
"Not really. A book generally belongs to somebody who's going to want to keep track of it, so they don't lose it. Or if it's a library book, someone is responsible for returning it. Besides, are you saying the same thing doesn't happen outside of school?"
"Most places have interesting books sitting out somewhere handy, like on a coffee table for guests to flip through or whatever. I only used school as an example." She looked around at her friends. "That's not your experience?"
Ginny said, "Not like for you, where I can expect to reliably find one that will interest me, no matter where I am."
The others agreed, and Hermione said, "That's so sad."
"It would be for you," Ginny told her. "And because it's so important to you, your magic sorts it out. If you tried, you could probably figure out who each book belonged to, and maybe even what distracted them to make them leave it there for you to find. But that wouldn't be the reason the book wound up there."
Hermione looked stricken. "I don't mean to make anyone lose their books! I would never take a book that's not mine. I always put it down where I found it when I leave the room."
"And sooner or later its owner will remember and come back for it, if it's at all important to them. So what's the harm?"
"I guess none," Hermione said, sounding relieved. "Are you sure no one has studied how to master this? It could be so useful."
Ron said, "Maybe someone in the Department of Mysteries. They research things like that which are bigger or harder to pin down than ordinary spells."
"You don't find any part of this strange either?"
"Yeah, the part where Muggles know about that sort of magic, and even have a name for it."
"I should clarify that the idea of synchronicity isn't widely accepted. The more common explanation is that people only think they experience it, not that it actually happens."
"I don't see the difference. If someone experiences something, it does actually happen to them."
Hermione turned to appeal to her Muggle-raised friend. "Harry? You see what I mean, don't you?"
He considered the question. "I guess it does seem weird, even compared to the type of magic we learn in class, but it's also sort of comforting. If strange coincidences happen to other people too, maybe all the crazy stuff that happens to me isn't just the universe singling me out for some reason."
Hermione shook her head. "Either way, I think that's enough speculation, since there's so way for us to deliberately make use of such effects. Now, what is everyone going to be working on this session?"