Chapter 91
"May I have your attention," Professor Dumbledore said the morning of September 11th. Hermione looked up at the head table and saw a blonde witch sitting and smiling indulgently, wondering who she was. She reminded Hermione of a glittering insect with her sparkling glasses and fitted green suit.
"Today, is the weighing of the wands," Professor Dumbledore continued.
"What's the weighing of the wands?" Hermione heard many students around the tables whispering.
"The weighing of the wands will be done by Mr. Olivander who has kindly taken time off away from his shop in Diagon Alley to come preform the needed tests to see that our champions' wands are in working order for the upcoming tournament, as they are the only item our champions are allowed to use during the tasks. Also joining us for the weighing of the wands, and throughout the tournament, from the Daily Prophet, Ms. Rita Skeeter."
At her introduction, Hermione saw the witch in green stand and wave as though she were a contestant on one of the beauty contests on Muggle TV, and she wanted to vomit. The witch wasn't as attractive as she pretended to be.
"Hello," the witch said with a sickly smile. "I'm Rita Skeeter, I write for the Daily Prophet. I'm am so happy to be here. I'll be spending my time here with all of you interviewing the champions of the TriWizard Tournament, which as you know is the juicy news considering that this is the very first time the tournament's been held since it was banned in 1792. So I'm here to bring all of this excitement to the Wizarding World."
Herimone rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Great," Harry muttered next to her - she'd chosen to sit with him today because she couldn't take Ron's grousing, and figured Harry neededsomeoneon his side, considering she had seen the pins that had been appearing over the weekend, making a jab at him. The pins she noticed changed from one slogan to another. One saidSupport Cedric Diggory - the REAL Hogwarts champion, the other said Potter Stinks. Many of the pins flashed around the great Hall surrounding them. "Exactly what I need... More publicity."
Hermione gave him a sympathetic smile, putting a comforting hand hand on his arm. He met her gaze and gave her a grim smiled.
Hermione awoke the next morning feeling bittersweet. It was her birthday but with Harry and Ron still fighting she doubted that she could get either to come together peacefully to join her. She fed Crookshanks and then headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. She looked around upon entering, and sighed as she saw Ron sitting with Dean and Seamus and found that Harry was no where to be found, and figured that he was down in the kitchens once more.
She made her way past Ron and sat down with Fred, George and Lee.
"Happy birthday, Hermione," they greeted her.
"Thanks," Hermione replied with a smile before she sighed and it dropped.
"What's wrong?" Lee asked.
"Nothing," Hermione said. "Well," she said after a moment. "That's not true... I just wish Harry and Ron would stop fighting. I hate seeing them fight."
"Yeah," Fred said.
"We know," George added.
"Its weird seeing him hanging out with Dean and Seamus when he never really did before."
Three owls arrive then, coming in with the rest of the owls delivering mail to the students, one that she recognized as belonging to the Wood family, the other two she didn't. The owls circled before each dropping small parcels.
"Oh, um," Fred said.
"Sorry," George added sadly.
"We didn't get you anything," Lee finished.
"It's okay," Hermione said with a genuine smile. "All my parents send me is money anymore so I can send away for what I want. They just don't know what else to send me." Turning to the parcels that were dropped, she found the one that was addressed from her parents and opened it. "See?" she said with a laugh and emptied the money out of the package along with a rather general note of birthday wishes from her parents. She tucked the money away in her bag before turning to one that she found Oliver had sent separate from his parents.
She opened the parcel and found a note and another wrapped package. Opening the note she read:
12 September 1994
Hey there, Kittycat,
How are you doing? I hope that you're well. I know you're worried about Harry and Ron; Harry in particular. I hope that this helps, at least you can return the one from the library. I don't know if you remember, but as of September 10th, I'm no longer with mum and dad, but moved to join the Puddlemere United Reserves. Mum still wants to hear from you as often as you can and both she and dad want you to know you're welcome to visit them whenever you like. You can write me whenever you can, and I will write as often as I can also. Keep me informed of what is going on in the tournament please.
Oliver
Hermione wrinkled her brow. Something she could return to the library? She opened the package next and saw a shrunken book. Drawing her wand, she touched it to the book and it returned to its proper size and she laughed to see her very own copy of TriWizard Tragedies.
Turning to the next package that had been brought by Red, who was the only owl to wait and was munching on some of her bacon and toast, she opened it to find another letter.
12 September 1994
Hello Hermione, Dear,
We hope you are well and have a happy birthday, Oliver let us know when it was when we received your last letter. We've enclosed a present for you. We have discussed it and decided that it was no use to us just now and would only be collecting dust here. We hope you'll find it useful.
Juniper and Hickory Wood
Smiling, she turned to the package and opened it to gasp. Inside she found the eight tomes of House-Elves and Self-Hatred she'd looked over many times since working on her project to help the house elves. These, she thought. Might come in handy in deed.
"Wow," Lee said, taking note of the books she had received.
"Indeed," George added.
"That's quite the haul," Fred agreed.
"See?" Hermione said. "There's no reason to feel bad about not getting me anything. I will be quite busy with these for some time."
Hermione, while she told Lee and the twins it wasn't important, was disappointed that she didn't even get so much as a 'happy birthday' from Harry or Ron. Harry, she couldkindof understand, he was wrapped up in the TriWizard tournament and was apparently being hassled by Rita Skeeter and the students who thought he had cheated some how, putting his name in the goblet, but Ron had no such excuse as he was hanging around with Dean and Seamus.
"Like them, Potter?" Malfoy asked in the afternoon eight weeks later as Harry and Hermione made their way to Potions class after lunch, trailing behind Dean, Seamus and Ron since Harry and Ron werestillbickering over Harry's name being entered in the TriWizard Tournament. Hermione and Harry blinked at him showing no reaction to his question, which made him scowl, it was obvious that he was looking for a reaction, and held out his pin. Hermione rolled her eyes. Did this fool not think they'd seen the pins since they began appearing over the weekend.
As they looked at Malfoy's pin that he held up for them, the first message they had seen flashing on pins over the weekend, Support Cedric Diggory - The REAL Hogwarts Champion was displayed.
"That's not all they do," Malfoy said and they saw him push the edge of his button, the the message changed to Potter Stinks.
Hermione could feel Harry's anger rising, and reached out, putting a hand on his arm and felt him relax.
"Oh,veryfunny," Hermione sneered at the Slytherins who were howling with laughter. "Reallywitty."
Hermione glanced over to Ron who stood nearby with Dean and Seamus, not laughing, but not sticking up for Harry either and shifted her gaze to glare at the blond.
"You want one, Granger?" Malfoy asked with a smirk. "You can have one if you want. I have plenty." He dug in his pocket and held one out. "Just don't touch me though, I just don't want to dirty my hands by touching a Mudblood, I just washed them."
"Harry," Hermione said warningly when she felt the boy tense again.
"Go on Potter," Malfoy said, he said drawing his wand lazily from up his sleeve. "No one's hear to see us, not even Moody... do it - if you've got the guts."
Hermione swallowed as they looked at each other for a split second, testing each other's resolve. In that time she noticed Harry's wand drop into his hand from his sleeve though his eye contact wasn't broken. There was a beat of tension as they stared at each other then they acted at once.
"Furnunculus!" Harry yelled.
"Densaugeo!" Malfoy shrieked.
Jets of light shot from both their wands, hitting each other in midair before ricocheting off in different directions to bounce off the walls at angles. Goyle bellowed and raised his hands to his face concealing his nose as ugly boils sprang up, and Hermione cried out and covered her mouth as her teeth began to grow.
"Hermione!" Ron shouted, after ducking out of the way as the spells had bounced off the walls near where he was standing and hurried over to her to see what had happened.
Hermione fought him halfheartedly as he pulled her hand away from her mouth, though it was of little use as her teeth had already grown beyond the width of her hand.
"Andwhatis all this noise about?" a soft, deadly voice whispered, and they froze, turning to see that Profesor Snape had arrived. "Silence," he demanded when the students in the hallway all started talking at once. He pointed to Malfoy. "Explain," he demanded.
"Potter attacked me, sir -"
"We attacked each otherat the same time," Harry argued.
"- and he hit Goyle," Malfoy continued. "Look!"
"Hospital wing, Goyle," Professor Snape said waving him off after examining him.
"Malfoy got Hermione," Ron said. "Look!"
By now, Hermione's teeth had grown to her collar and she was having a hard time hiding them with her hands. She exhaled in defeat as Ron urged her to show Professor Snape what happened.
Hermione fidgeted when she saw Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls standing behind Professor Snape pointing and laughing.
"I see no difference," Professor Snape said and turned to open the classroom door. Hermione hiccuped, holding back tears seeing Ron and Harry glaring at the Professor before she turned and ran, heading for the hospital wing.