The next morning, Hermione and Pansy reported promptly to Snape.
"You don't want to stay in your dormitory anymore?" he repeated. His eyes narrowed, suspicious. "Why not?"
"It's become a hostile sleeping place," Hermione said, smiling placidly. "I no longer feel safe being unconscious there."
Snape raised an eyebrow, openly skeptical, and Pansy stepped in, quietly explaining what had happened the night before.
Snape's eyes darted to Hermione several times during Pansy's explanation, but Hermione didn't move, zoning out and staring vacantly at Snape's desk. She was busy mentally planning what all she wanted to do today – and none of it involved dignifying Tracey's gross overreaction with her energy any further.
When Pansy was done, Snape stood, drawing himself up.
"I will handle the matter," he said. His eyes were black. "Until it is sufficiently handled, you may sleep outside of your dormitory as you see fit."
"Thank you, professor," Pansy said. "We really appreciate it."
At breakfast, Tracey and Daphne looked terrible, like they'd both had a sleepless night. Good – Hermione hoped they'd been tormented ruthlessly by nightmares of how stupid and bigoted they were being.
Blaise looked well-rested and mildly curious as Hermione and Pansy entered together. He cocked an eye at Hermione, who shrugged and sat down next to him, leaving a large gap between her and Tracey. Tracey's eyes widened, alarmed, and Blaise looked quizzical too as Hermione took a deep breath and let it out, focusing on letting go of her anger and resentment, before refocusing on the fact that she was determined to have a good day. Blaise watched her mini meditation exercise patiently but curiously, waiting for her to finish before speaking up.
"What are you—"
"Hermione."
Hermione turned to see Viktor Krum, who was giving her a crooked smile. She returned it, smiling brilliantly back at him.
"You said it properly!" she said encouragingly, and Viktor laughed as he seated himself once more at her left, between her and Tracey.
"Was practicing last night," he told her very seriously. "Cannot look stupid too long, yes?"
"You never looked stupid," Hermione told him. Her lips quirked. "It was always sounding stupid."
Viktor cackled, laughing and grinning as he reached for the eggs, and Blaise let the matter drop, instead asking if they ate chicken eggs or duck eggs more commonly at Durmstrang.
After breakfast, Hermione and a group of others went out into the Entrance Hall where the Goblet of Fire sat on a stool, an Age Line drawn in a 10-foot circle around it. The Durmstrang students lined up to cross the Age Line one by one and put their name into the goblet. All lined up like that, Hermione could see that Karkaroff had been massively sexist with his chosen 24; of all the students he'd brought, only five were girls.
Some of the teachers drifted out of the Great Hall to watch as well, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch among them, who Hermione hadn't realized had stayed overnight. When Viktor dropped his name into the cup, Bagman cheered, and Viktor's face flushed a ruddy color. Crouch elbowed Bagman sharply, making him flinch.
"We are to be impartial judges," he hissed. "What part of impartial do you not understand?"
"I know, I know, I was just excited—"
Lurking in the Entrance Hall seemed to be the order of the day. Tiered seating had been scattered around the hall, and younger students stayed outside the Age Line clustered in groups, turning to watch every time an older student came to drop in their name. One group of first year students was attempting to levitate scraps of parchment over the Age Line to get them into the Goblet, only for them to stop and not seem to be able to get past an invisible wall. Hermione was content to sit between Blaise and Draco with a sheaf of parchment, scribbling her ideas onto it and ignoring anyone else as other students people-watched.
Hermione paused to watch when the students from Beauxbatons came to enter. They didn't line up so much as surround the Age Line, and then they took turns stepping forward one by one to drop their names in. Hermione watched as Fleur stepped forward, dropping in her slip of parchment.
"Booo!" Hermione called out. "Bad champion! Booo!"
People turned to look at her incredulously, but Fleur cackled with laughter, her delighted smile wicked as she met Hermione's eyes and grinned. She wore the osmium circlet woven into her hair, the purple jewels luminous, and Hermione smiled, pleased that it obviously helped.
After all of Beauxbatons had submitted their names, Hermione saw Fleur talk with her friends for a moment before they approached the small Slytherin group. Draco's jaw dropped as Fleur gave them all a dazzling smile.
"Hello," she said, offering a curtsy. "I am Fleur. This is Manon, and this is Léa."
"Enchantée," the two other girls said dutifully, and Fleur's eyes danced with mirth. She dropped herself onto the seat directly below Hermione, looking up at her and her friends on the bleachers.
"I have introduced us, yes?" Fleur said cheerfully. "Now I want to meet Hermione's friends."
Draco, Theo, and even Crabbe and Goyle nearby seemed somewhat dumbfounded, and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"This is Draco, Theo, Vince, and Greg," she said, gesturing, "and this is Blaise."
"Enchanté," Blaise said, taking Fleur's hand and dropping a kiss to the back of it. Fleur looked at him curiously.
"Blaise," she said. "Blaise Zabini, yes?"
Blaise put a hand to his chest and mock-gasped in shocked flattery.
"You've heard of me?" he said, fluttering his eyelids, and Hermione snickered.
Fleur looked amused too, but she seemed distracted. She examined Blaise closely, scrutinizing him. A thick silence grew between them, Blaise's eyes becoming flinty, defensive, and the tension grew.
"L'allure ne fonctionne pas?" Hermione could hear Léa whisper to Manon. "Est-il comme Jules?"
"Elle pourrait savoir si c'était le cas," Manon murmured back. "C'est autre chose."
Hermione watched on, growing anxious as Fleur examined Blaise closely, Blaise meeting her gaze defiantly. Abruptly, she relaxed, giving him a beaming smile, and Blaise looked caught off-guard.
"Hermione writes of you," Fleur said cheerfully. "You are the one who keeps her out of danger, no?"
"Fleur!" Hermione protested.
"It is true, yes?" Fleur said, unashamed. She grinned wickedly. "It is necessary with you, Hermione. You would get into mischief every moment if not."
Hermione's face turned red, and Blaise started laughing.
"I do my best," he said finally, relaxing. He grinned at Fleur. "It's a very difficult task, I'll have you know."
"I know," Fleur sighed dramatically. "The summer before last, I had to keep her from sending Chocolate Frogs through the Floo to people—"
"That is not what happened!"
Fleur laughed, and people relaxed as conversation resumed.
Gradually, Draco and Theo seemed to come to enough to participate in and carry on a somewhat stilted conversation. Their eyes were still fixed to Fleur, but they were able to ask questions and draw in the others.
"So you've known Hermione?" Theo asked. His voice cracked a bit, but he did well enough to keep it even and neutral.
"We met the summer before last," Fleur said, smiling. "At Versailles. We have kept in touch."
"Manon and I only met Hermione this past spring," Léa said. "When she came for her field trip with Fleur."
That made Draco and Theo turn to look at her incredulously.
"Your field trip?" Draco repeated.
"What field trip?" Theo wanted to know.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "None of your business."
"Last Beltane, right?" Blaise asked Léa. "Did you go along?"
Fleur laughed in delight as Léa responded, but when Hermione turned to Fleur quizzically, she shook her head and didn't respond, her eyes dancing.
The conversation about the French students' tournament training class came to a halt as a group of Gryffindors came into the Entrance Hall. Most of them seemed to be hanging back, while two identical grinning gingers were in the front.
"The Weasley Twins," Hermione groaned. "Oh, no."
"Five galleons says their plot fails miserably," Blaise said, grinning.
"Oh hell no," Draco said immediately. "Dumbledore drew that Age Line himself – there's no way they'll manage to get past it."
Everyone watched with bated breath as Fred and George stepped up to the line. They stood there for a tense moment before simultaneously stepping over the line, and for a wild moment, Hermione thought it had worked – but the next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully on the cold stone floor, and with a loud popping noise, both of them sprouted identical long white beards.
"That answers that," Hermione said, with some satisfaction.
"Leave it to the Gryffindors," Theo said, dark amusement in his tone. "You can always count on them to be fools."
Fleur and her friends parted ways with them, citing the need to go practice for the tournament with their rest of their class, and Hermione waved as they left. Draco and Theo seemed to come out of a sort of trance as Fleur turned the corner, and a minute later, they turned accusingly to Blaise.
"How come you weren't affected by her?" Draco demanded.
"What are you talking about?" Blaise said blandly.
"Fleur. The veela," Theo emphasized. "You were able to carry on a conversation normally."
Blaise snorted. "Not my fault your minds aren't disciplined enough to resist."
They started bickering, but Hermione ignored them, standing up instead. She had no intentions of witnessing or mediating this pointless fight.
"I'm going to the library," she announced. "See you later."
She left the boys arguing in the hallway behind her, barely aware she was leaving.
There was next to no one in the library, to Hermione's satisfaction. She wandered the stacks, gathering a few books while her mind drifted, back on Fleur and Blaise's semi-flirting in the Entrance Hall. Fleur was friendly with anyone who didn't judge her for her allure, but for Blaise to not even be affected…
"Hermione."
Losing her train of thought, Hermione looked up in surprise to see Viktor, who grinned at her.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked. "I'd have thought you'd be out on the ship with the others."
"Hiding," Viktor told her solemnly. "I avoid the Quidditch fans this way."
Hermione laughed.
"You can come sit with me," she told him, smiling. "I'll help keep them away."
"You will protect me?" Viktor grinned. "I am honored, Hermione."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you are."
Once they settled down, Viktor helped spread her books out over the table, looking them over with a critical eye.
"What you study?" he asked, his tone puzzled through his accented English. "This, this is healing, but this is mind-magic. And this book is folklore."
"Ah, my mind's going in a bunch of different directions," Hermione admitted. "I wanted to look up some anatomical things, but I also really need to look up some traditions of Samhain. It's just… really hard to find accurate information on that here, really."
"On Samhain? Is tomorrow," Viktor said, puzzled. "What you need know?"
"It's not celebrated here," Hermione told Viktor. "I know that Durmstrang celebrates the old high holidays, though, so I wanted to come and celebrate with your school. To see."
Viktor looked shocked at first, then nodding firmly.
"You must come," he told her. "I invite you. To Samhain."
"What's it like?" Hermione asked, curious. "How do I participate?"
"Not hard," Viktor assured her. "We offer food and drink. To our dead, and to Others. We wear cloaks and iron to disguise us."
As Hermione asked clarification questions, it became apparent that the Durmstrang traditions of Samhain were rather reserved. There were no blood offerings, no live sacrifices. There was a bonfire, solemn words, and food offered, but not much more. Hermione hesitated before asking her next question.
"Do… do you believe that the spirits can come back on Samhain?" she asked. "That it's possible?"
Viktor took his time thinking over his answer, weighing it.
"I think is nice thought to have," he said finally. "But if I was spirit, I not want to return here, I think."
"Do your classmates?" Hermione asked, and Viktor sighed.
"Many," he admitted, slouching back in his chair. "Many… have dead family they want to see. They hope to see them in the fire. Does not happen – but many still hope."
Viktor seemed interested in her research of anatomy, and once he deciphered her scribbles on her parchment, he grew even more excited.
"We not learn Killing Curse," he told her, regretfully. "Even at Durmstrang, some magic is too Dark. But to counter-curse it – I not think it possible."
"Right now, it's not," Hermione warned him. "And I don't have the slightest idea of how to construct counter-curses. I'm just trying to understand what it does to a person, so I can figure out if there's even a chance of it being possible."
"Worth the try," Viktor agreed.
With Viktor's help, together they managed to sketch out the outline of a person's head and torso. Cross-referencing her books, Hermione carefully drew in the Circle of Willis and the heart in red ink.
"This is what the Killing Curse affects," Hermione told Viktor. "The Dark Magic blocks all these arteries at the same time while it makes the heart stop, causing a fatal arrythmia."
Viktor frowned down at the drawings.
"Can block some Dark magic," he said. "I think cannot block this."
"Could it be countered, though?" Hermione wanted to know. "If I got to someone immediately, could I unblock their arteries and restart their heart to save their life?"
Viktor looked thoughtful. "Maybe. If the curse leaves once done and Dark magic is not left."
Hours later, they had managed to find a spell for restarting a stopped heart or correcting an arrythmia in an extremely dense Healing reference book, but they'd found nothing to fix the brain's arteries, or any indication that healing magic really knew much about the brain's circulatory system at all.
"Well, this is something," Hermione said at last. She sighed. "If nothing else, maybe I can use this to save someone from a heart attack someday."
"I hope you never need this spell," Viktor told her seriously. He looked troubled. "Have you saw people die before?"
"No," Hermione said. "No, I haven't. I just… I worry a lot. And I don't like it when I can't do anything to help."
"Nobody expects you save them from Killing Curse," Viktor told her. "No one survives Killing Curse."
"Except one person," Hermione said wryly. "Harry Potter did."
Viktor snorted.
"Is legend," he dismissed. "Dark Lord cast curse, yes, but if curse reached baby? Baby would die. Some other thing happened there. Something else happened to make curse hit Dark Lord instead."
Hermione blinked.
"You think?" she asked, frowning. "I mean, it's definitely possible – nobody alive knows what happened there that night. All Harry ended up with was a scar, but that could have come from broken glass, for all we know. It's not like the Killing Curse normally leaves a scar."
"I know," Viktor said firmly. "Baby was lucky, but nothing about baby was special."
What, then? Hermione wondered. What had caused Voldemort to fall?
If it hadn't been Harry… if it had been something else…
If it had been some other thing, some other circumstance…
Maybe the end result could be repeated.
