The first task

You'd think that the first few times blasting fire at the diary, would tell Hermione, Daphne, Astoria, Millicent and Pansy, that they were fighting a losing battle with it.

But it hadn't. They each took turns blasting fire at the diary.

But nothing happened.

At last, Hermione lifted herself up off of the couch and moved slowly to the diary, kneeling down and reaching out with hesitant hands, she picked the diary up.

"Mione, no-" Pansy began, but Hermione grabbed the diary and gasped as she lifted it up.

It wasn't even warm!

Hermione felt coldness seep to the bottom of her stomach.

She turned to her friends as she said, looking down at the leatherbound book in her hands, "It's not warm. Not even a bit. How is this possible?"

Daphne stared at the diary, feeling cold. The diary, it was made by extremely dark magic. And she knew it. She didn't have to read up on it to know. Daphne was certain that the diary had dangerous, deadly magic. But what was it?!

"There…there have to be books about this, right?" Pansy asked, staring at the diary in Hermione's hands.

Hermione nodded, staring down at the diary as well. She knew that there had to be. And if anyone was bright enough to be able to track that magic down and make use of it, it would have been Tom Riddle.

But Hermione had never heard of this sort of thing.

An object that was so dark that it couldn't destroyed and literally carried a piece of someone's soul?

A thought entered Hermione's mind, but she wasn't sure she trusted the thought. (Dumbledore would know,) was the thought.

If Dumbledore had known so much about Tom Riddle? Then maybe he knew about this too.

And from what Hermione had seen? Dumbledore cared about one person only. Dumbledore. Probably only cared about how he would look in public, knowing what he knew about Tom.

If he didn't tell Hermione about what this diary was? Hermione could tell everyone that he had known about Voldemort being Tom Riddle all along. True, it was unlikely, deeply unlikely that anyone would believe her, a muggle-born Slytherin who had used the killing curse, and who people suspected of having put her name in the goblet, over Dumbledore, a famous headmaster at Hogwarts and a former Gryffindor.

Still, rumors spread fast, especially when they were negative rumors. What was more? Everyone loved a good conspiracy. The moment she so much as suggested that Tom Riddle was Voldemort and that Dumbledore knew? Reporters would be all over that.

And Dumbledore really wouldn't like that, even better.

It was something to consider. Hermione looked back at her friends as she said, "We should get ready to go back to the castle. And….I need to go back to stashing this away. I can't let anyone get their hands on this. Not ever."

Daphne, Pansy, Astoria and Millicent, all spooked, nodded and answered quietly.

Needless to say? All five of them were greatly disturbed by what they had just witnessed.

They couldn't go back to the castle yet. They did and they'd be seen, and it was too early for when their past selves had gone back in time.

They would have to wait several more hours.

And they did just that. They waited. They ate food and water and discussed what to do about the diary. And how Hermione and Harry could survive the upcoming trials.

It was beginning to turn dark, and they knew it would be time to head back soon.

On half hour before it was time for them to go back, Hermione wandered outside, sighing and sitting down on one of the wooden steps, staring out at Hogwarts.

She wondered, how was it that no one had known about Tom. Literally no one had known that Voldemort was Tom Riddle, save for fucking Dumbledore. Even if Dumbledore had kept it a secret? How had no one known?

It was just so strange.

When it was time at last for them to go to the castle, they moved carefully. They collected everything, Hermione grabbed her wand, the map, the invisibility cloak and of course, Tom Riddle's diary.

They snuck out of the Shrieking Shack. And kept moving.

When they reached the grounds of Hogwarts, they threw the invisibility cloak over themselves and began moving through the grounds, to the castle.

They entered through the doors carefully, slipping through the hall, the cloak allowing them to evade being seen by Filch and everyone else. They reached the Slytherin common room, and slipped inside, watching as their past selves got out of the common room and left, and they knew that their past selves were going to go to the Gryffindor common room, to get the invisibility cloak and map from Harry Potter.

As soon as all five past Hermione, past Daphne, past Millicent, past Astoria and past Pansy left the Slytherin common room and the doorway closed up, Hermione pulled the cloak off of herself and the other four.

They now stood in the Slytherin common room, almost caught up with the timeline.

"So, now what?" Pansy asked, looking at the doorway that had closed up where her past self and the others' past selves had disappeared through.

"Now," Hermione said, "We try to get to sleep and figure out what to do tomorrow. About everything."

Because there was a lot they'd need to deal with. Tom Riddle's diary. The trials. And what they were to do if Mad Eye Moody and Barty Crouch Jr. were indeed working together.

They had a lot that they were going to be dealing with tomorrow.

So, with a lot on their minds and a great deal of unsettling knowledge in their possession, they went to bed. Hermione placed the diary under her mattress and she and her friends got to sleep. Or got to sleep as well as they could with the knowledge they had.

That night, Hermione saw her other soulmate again.

Hermione felt the pain in her heart expand, tearing her. She knew how brutal the Triwizard tournament tasks were. If she died, who would rescue this woman?

Hermione softly sang to the woman, still wondering why this woman was not showing her face, wondering if someone had hurt the woman and the woman was fearful of Hermione's rejection.

"I'll get you out," Hermione whispered to the woman whose face she hadn't yet seen, "I swear, I'll get you out. If not me, someone else will."

Morning came. And Hermione and her friends got up, ready for the day.

Hermione was never going to let the diary out of her sight again, she could easily tell you that.

The five of them walked out, following the flow of the rest of the Slytherin students and mingled in with the rest. They had caught up with the timeline.

No one knew that they had been gone-or that they time traveled.

The next few hours, Hermione ignored all the stares and glares she received from the students in the other houses.

She had enough to worry about already, without being concerned about what other students thought of her.

She and the others kept their eye on the diary and on Dumbledore, but could do nothing else besides that.

It was not beneath Hermione's notice, that Fleur stayed close by, whenever she caught sight of Hermione. And Hermione tried to ignore how her chest pulled with a longing ache whenever she was near Fleur.

Unfortunately, there was a journalist who was brought in, to interview all five champions.

A woman that Hermione took an immediate dislike to, named Rita Skeeter.

Hermione vaguely recalled a few of the woman's articles.

Always embellished and overly poetic and emotional. Something never felt right about the woman's articles.

Hermione ignored Rita's attention to her and put a reassuring hand on Fleur's arm gently, when she heard her soulmate growl at Rita, when the journalist got too close to Hermione. Hermione knew that Skeeter likely noticed those reactions; Fleur's protectiveness and Hermione gently touching Fleur's arm both, but she knew that she had needed to get Fleur under control, unless she wanted Fleur to kill Skeeter.

The next morning, Hermione was met with an unpleasant surprise. Multiple people had badges on their jackets that showed Harry Potter's face twisting and becoming green, with the words, "Potter Stinks."

She saw many of the other kids leering at her, but didn't say a word against her. She had an idea as to why.

You didn't want to piss off someone who you knew for a fact, had used the killing curse when she was only eleven years old.

Besides, if she was right about who had invented those badges? Then the person who had done it, didn't want to bring any bad attention to his house, only to the Gryffindor house.

And Hermione suspected that she was right about her assumption, when she went past Malfoy and his thugs, Malfoy's buddies standing around a tree and Malfoy perched in that very tree, Malfoy grinning victoriously at her as she went by him.

Her jaw clenched.

She had thanked Harry last night, when she had brought the invisibility cloak back to him.

He was a good guy and deserved way better.

What also hadn't gone beneath her notice? Was that Harry's supposed "friend," Ron Weasley, had been avoiding him, since Harry's name had been pulled from the goblet of fire.

Harry deserved a better friend.

And Hermione was proven correct about this, when she ran into Harry, and Harry asked her to come aside for a moment for him to speak to her. She nodded and followed him off to the side, in the courtyard.

Cedric and his friends were there, as well.

Cedric's friends were hooting and laughing at Harry, but Harry got Cedric to get to the side, next to him and Hermione, and he told Hermione and Cedric both that he knew what the first task was.

And Hermione's jaw almost dropped then.

Dragons.

The first task was dragons.

Hermione almost uttered the word, "Barbaric," but didn't.

But the truth was? It was, indeed, barbaric.

It was barbaric to hold creatures like dragons caged and throw them into a pit against human beings for no reason but entertainment.

And it was barbaric to expect literal students to face off against a literal fire-breathing dragon.

Not for the first time, Hermione had to wonder at how dated the laws were of the witch and wizarding world.

Hermione thanked Harry for this information, absolutely meaning it, as did Cedric.

When Harry walked away, Hermione saw Ron and Seamus approaching from one of the halls.

Harry went up to Ron and snapped, "You're a foul git, you know that?"

"I think so," Ron said, not appearing angry or off-putting to Harry, "Anything else?"

"Yeah," Harry snapped, "Stay away from me."

Ron grumbled, "Fine," and he and Seamus walked away.

Hermione sighed, as Harry walked off and from where Draco was seated, that was when he made his presence known to Harry.

Draco mouthed off, "My father and I have a bet! I don't think you'll last even ten minutes!"

He then jumped down from the tree as he said, grinning, "My father thinks differently. He doesn't think you'll even last five minutes."

Hermione was ready to say something, when Harry acted. He walked forward and snapped, "I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy!"

Hermione's eyes widened, not expecting such a reaction.

Harry then added, "He's vile and cruel. And you're pathetic."

Harry then made the mistake of showing Malfoy his back and walking away, and Hermione pulled her wand out, already suspecting what was about to happen.

She again saw that she was correct, when Malfoy pulled his wand out and aimed it at Harry's back, his face screaming of the type of entitlement that a spoiled brat would have, as he tried to hex Harry.

But it wasn't Hermione that came to Harry's rescue.

It was Mad Eye.

He hit Malfoy with a spell and Malfoy suddenly shifted and shrunk down, his flesh becoming white fur, and he became very small.

Hermione's eyes widened again.

It was a ferret!

A very cute ferret. But a ferret, nonetheless.

Mad Eye came over, spitting out, "I'll teach you to curse someone while their back is turned!"

Hermione stepped back and smirked at the sight of Malfoy being turned into a ferret. She couldn't laugh as hard as everyone else, because she was almost positive that Mad Eye was working with Barty Crouch Jr., but it was still satisfying to see Malfoy like this.

Mad Eye began using his wand to lift Malfoy up off the ground and almost bounce him up and down in the air.

Professor McGonagall obviously had heard the commotion and came running.

She demanded to know what Mad Eye was doing, and Mad Eye responded, "Teaching."

McGonagall took a moment to realize what was going on as she stammered, "Is that a-is that a student?!"

"Technically," Mad Eye said, "It's a ferret."

And then Mad Eye stuffed the ferret down the front of Crabbe's pants.

Okay, now Hermione was laughing.

She knew she shouldn't be so amused by a potential Death Eater's actions, but she couldn't help it.

When Malfoy crawled out of Crabbe's left pant leg, McGonagall aimed her wand at him and changed him back into his human form.

Malfoy, as soon as he saw Mad Eye, naturally, threatened him. He yelled, "My father will hear about this!"

Mad Eye lunged and snapped at Malfoy, scaring the boy and his friends away.

When McGonagall admonished Mad Eye, then strode away, Mad Eye did something odd and almost stuck his tongue out at her, then strode away, grumbling to Hermione and Harry as he did, "You two, follow me."

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, startled, but followed, as was instructed.

They reached the man's office, and Hermione checked around the room glancing at every corner, to see if another man was here somewhere.

She almost laughed at herself.

Just because she and her friends had seen Barty Crouch Jr.'s presence in this office, when they had looked at the map? Didn't mean that he was still here. Barty Crouch Jr. could have left since last night. In fact, he probably did.

Speaking of the map? She had asked Harry last night if she could hold onto it, and he said that yes, she could.

Which caused her to almost reach for it, to check this room on the map, but didn't.

Harry and Mad Eye both would wonder why. And while Hermione was close to trusting Harry, at least, somewhat, she most definitely didn't trust Mad Eye.

Mad Eye sat down and removed his metal prosthetic leg. He explained that the glass he was in front of, was designed for him to see if anyone was sneaking up behind him.

That was when something in the room moved.

It was the large trunk in the room. It started jumping around and muffled screams of what Hermione suspected was a man, came from that trunk.

Hermione stared at the trunk, cautious, feeling her heart jump.

She felt Harry gasp and tense next to her.

"Oh, don't ask what's in that," Mad Eye grunted, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Hermione turned back to the man, confused. Maybe Barty Crouch Jr. hadn't left the room last night, at all.

But why would Mad Eye have placed Barty Crouch Jr. into this trunk and not tell anyone? Why hadn't Barty Crouch Jr. been carted off back to Azkaban by now?

Mad Eye pulled out that flask she had seen him drink from before, uncork it, and tilt his head back, drinking again.

She suddenly felt her skin crawl with comprehension.

That was, of course, assuming that that was, in fact, Barty Crouch Jr. in the trunk.

She would have to look at the map again, as soon as this man left this office, to be absolutely sure of what she was thinking.

The thing was?

Hermione knew of a potion that could change someone's shape, if only temporarily.

Polyjuice potion.

She had heard of it. It was a complicated brew to make. But not impossible.

What if it wasn't Barty Crouch Jr. that was locked up in that trunk…but Mad Eye Moody, himself?

Hermione shivered at the thought.

It couldn't be, could it?

If that was the case, how had Barty Crouch Jr. done it?

The man that looked like Mad Eye Moody, pulled the flask from his lips, capped it and gestured for Hermione and Harry to come sit down in front of him.

They did. Hermione cautiously did a few moments after Harry did.

The man that Hermione was beginning to doubt the identity of, went on about how talented Cedric was, about how dangerous Fleur was-Hermione couldn't help but feel that Fleur would find that to be a compliment, and about how smart Viktor's instructor, Karkaroff, was, so, Hermione and Harry had to look to their strengths, as well.

Which led him to demand of the two students, what their strengths were.

Hermione actually found herself stumped. Well, she knew she was intelligent. And that she had a lot of power.

But raw power and smarts, wouldn't do much when facing off against a dragon.

Hermione said this exact thing to him, and the man who looked like Mad Eye Moody said, "It's still a mite better than nothin'. And it's the right step." He looked then at Harry.

Harry shrugged as he said that he was a good flier, but pointed out that the contestants weren't allowed a broom.

"No," the man that might not have been Mad Eye said, "But you're allowed a wand."

After a plan more or less had been created between the three of them, they all left the office, and only after she was out and Harry had walked away, did Hermione get behind a pillar, reach into her pocket and pull out the map, and open it up, as the man that looked like Mad Eye, left the office.

As soon as he did, Hermione looked at the map, looking right at the office she had just exited.

When she did, she felt her blood turn cold.

The footsteps she saw on the map, leaving the office, didn't belong to a name that was "Mad Eye Moody."

It belonged to a name that was "Barty Crouch Jr."

Which meant that the man in the trunk, was in fact, Mad Eye Moody, and Barty Crouch Jr. was walking around Hogwarts's halls, drinking Polyjuice potion that contained hair from Mad Eye Moody.

Hermione tore her eyes from the map and looked down the hall, seeing the broad-shouldered figure that Barty Crouch Jr. had made himself into.

Her heart hammered. A Death Eater was here.

Not one, not two, but three Death Eaters were in this castle.

Barty Crouch Jr., Igor Karkaroff and Severus Snape.

She knew that Dumbledore might try to swear in favor of. those other two, but Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

Once a Death Eater, always a Death Eater.

She had to get Mad Eye out of that trunk.

But how?

When Hermione was sure that Barty Crouch Jr. was out of sight, she ran back into the office and pulled out her wand.

She said multiple spells, seeing them hit the lock of the trunk.

But nothing happened.

Clearly, whatever spell Barty Crouch Jr. had used on the trunk, designed the trunk to be sealed shut, no questions.

Hermione cursed quietly.

Dammit.

She needed to go tell her friends.

She rolled up the map and stuffed it and the wand into her pockets and ran from the room, seeking out the others.

When she met with Daphne, Astoria, Millicent and Pansy, she quickly got them aside, as crowds began to flock towards the arena where the quidditch matches were usually held, she told them everything she had learned.

She watched as the horror touched her friends' faces.

"Oh, shit," Millicent whispered.

"Yeah," Hermione mumbled, "Shit is right."

"What now?" Astoria asked, glancing at where Barty Crouch Jr. was standing, still appearing every bit as Mad Eye Moody.

"We can't come up with a plan right now," Hermione whispered, "Everyone is expecting the first task to take place. So, I need all of you to hold these things for me."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the diary and the map, handing them to Daphne and Pansy.

Seeing her friends' shocked looks, Hermione said, smiling wryly, "If I don't survive? Please try to find a way of destroying that diary. And find a way of freeing Mad Eye. And tell Barty Crouch Sr. that Mad Eye Moody has been locked away. And if anything happens to me? Please get my other mate out of wherever she's been locked up. Find her and save her, please."

Hermione didn't trust Dumbledore, but it was very likely that a man ruthless enough to lock away his own son, would act swiftly, if he knew that very son was back and was pretending to be a teacher at Hogwarts.

And she knew that her friends would try to find her other mate. She had told her friends about her other mate recently, and trusted that they would find the woman and free her, should Hermione die today.

She added, looking to Daphne, then to Astoria, "And find your soulmates, Chloe and Noah. They're good people."

Hermione tried not to fall apart at the pained expressions on her friends' faces, as they knew what she was going to be facing soon.

She had told them, on top of everything else, that there were dragons that were the first task.

They knew that she was going to be facing a dragon.

Astoria whimpered, lunging forward and hugged Hermione. Hermione sighed, sinking into her friend's embrace.

She let out a startled gasp, when she felt her other friends close in on her and hug her tightly too.

Her eyes closed, trying to keep her emotions at bay. She needed to focus.

Barty Crouch Jr., when he had put her and Harry's names into the goblet, he had done it to get them killed.

Although, she had to wonder that if that was indeed the case, why he was helping them now?

She didn't know, but for whatever reason it was, it couldn't be good.

Either way? She and Harry would be in serious danger, even after surviving the tasks.

They would have to be cautious the whole way.

Hermione unwound her arms around Astoria and Pansy as she felt her friends step back, all of them with tearful expressions on their faces.

Hermione tried not to feel her pain rising up.

This wasn't the first time her friends had hugged her, as if afraid of never seeing her again.

When she had gone through the fire to get to the sorcerer's stone, in her first year, and her friends had hugged her tightly, after she had drunk the potion designed to let her through the fire, hugging her, as if they had been afraid that it would be the last time they'd ever see her.

It would be a dragon that would make all five of them certain that one of them was going to die.

"Please don't die," Daphne said quietly.

Hermione though of chuckling, "I'll do my best," but didn't. Right now, joking around probably wasn't the right thing.

"We'll be okay," Hermione said to them, "We'll be okay."

Hermione was trying to tell herself that, too. But she wasn't sure she could believe it. And she could tell from the expressions on her friends' faces, that they weren't sure they believed it, either.

Hermione moved towards where the champions were expected to be, joining Viktor, Fleur, Cedric and Harry in their tent.

She was escorted to an alcove of the tent, where she could change into the outfit made for one of the Triwizard champions. An outfit not dissimilar from a quidditch outfit, minus the cape, only in her Slytherin colors, silver and green.

She was given a black and yellow jacket, similar to the ones given to Cedric and Harry, but not given to Fleur or Viktor.

Hermione sat down by the table where Harry was seated, able to tell he was nervous.

"Ready?" She asked.

Harry snorted, "Are you?"

"No," Hermione confessed, chuckling sadly. She watched Fleur, noting that the older girl was pacing, and occasionally glancing at the brunette, keeping Hermione in her sight while she could.

Hermione had told Fleur about the dragons. So, hopefully, Fleur had a plan for her respective dragon.

Hermione knew it was risky parting with the diary that held a piece of Tom Riddle's soul in it.

But if she trusted anyone with that diary? It was Daphne and the others.

Barty Crouch Sr. came in and pulled out a small sack, having each champion reach inside and withdraw a miniature of the dragon they were to be fighting.

Viktor pulled out a Chinese fireball dragon.

Cedric pulled out a Swedish short-snout.

Fleur pulled out a common Welsh green dragon.

And Harry pulled out a Hungarian horntail.

When it was Hermione's turn, she reached in, figuring that the horntail and the fireball were far more fierce than whatever she would be pulling out, so she felt less fear than before, and pulled the miniature out.

What lay in her right palm, made her heart still.

Because again, here was another impossibility.

She thought they were almost extinct.

She didn't even need to hear Barty Crouch Sr. say it. She knew what she was holding in her hand.

A heartstring from a dragon like this, lay within the confines of her wand.

Originating in Mexico, this was the Obsidian's Flame Dragon.

And it was the dragon that Hermione was to fight in the first task of the Triwizard tournament.