Chapter 13
For a while, Harry and Hermione's day seemed like it was going to go pleasantly enough after the initial irritation of Rita's article.
The Hufflepuffs in their Herbology class had finally stopped being so cold towards Harry after the first task, so that Herbology had once again become an enjoyable subject for Harry and Hermione. But as they trudged through the snow up to Hagrid's hut immediately afterwards, their day quickly turned south yet again.
For as soon as they arrived, struggling their way up, they were yelled at for being five minutes late by some old witch standing out in front of the door to Hagrid's hut, after having had to wade their way through waist-deep snow to get there from the greenhouses. And all this despite the fact there wasn't a Slytherin in sight yet, immediately making Hermione wonder if the witch was a Slytherin herself, or merely as cowardly as the rest of the teachers at the school when it came to doing anything that could be perceived as being negative towards the nest of snakes.
But Hermione's musings were cut short by Harry politely asking the witch, "Where is Hagrid?", to which the witch snapped back at him, "My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank. I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
Not liking the attitude of this 'professor' one bit, Hermione said slightly less politely and a lot more sassily, "That doesn't even come close to answering Harry's question — ma'am."
Apparently deciding it was easier to almost but not quite answer the pestering girl, Grubby replied shortly, "He is indisposed."
But before Hermione could point out that the woman had yet again failed to answer the question posed to her, there came sneering laughter from behind them that announced the presence of Slytherins. And once again, to her little surprise, Hermione noticed the clear favoritism towards the Slytherins from Grubby as the woman said nary a peep to any of them about being nearly ten minutes late by that point, and arriving after all of the Gryffindors had arrived.
Instead, she merely said, "This way, please," striding off around the paddock Hagrid was keeping the Beauxbatons horses in.
Harry and Hermione slowly followed the rest of the class to where Grubby led them, a tree at the edge of the Forbidden Forest that had a unicorn tethered to it. But just as Harry stepped forwards to get a better look at the majestic creature, Grubby slammed her arm hard into his chest, nearly clotheslining him, and potentially breaking his neck had her arm been just a few inches higher than it was.
"Boys keep back!" she barked. "They prefer our touch, unicorns. Girls, come on."
So all of the girls except Hermione moved forwards towards the unicorn, but Hermione stayed back in solidarity with Harry and the rest of the boys who were being excluded from the lesson. And to discuss Hagrid.
As soon as Grubby was out of earshot, Harry leaned over and asked her quietly, "You don't think Hagrid's missing because people found out he's half-giant, do you? You did say the entire wizarding world is bigoted against giants and anything connected to them. Is he afraid people will actually hate him because of his heritage as much as Rita says they should?"
"I don't know," replied Hermione, shaking her head. "He didcompletely lose his nerve after the Buckbeak incident last year, so it's not exactly like he has a track record of standing strong in the face of opposition, at least as a teacher, and against other wizards — intimidating your muggle relatives doesn't exactly count as sticking to his beliefs when he's a wizard and they're just muggles who can't do anything to stop him, magical or size-wise.
"Plus, it's unlikely he's just sick or injured, or surely she would have just said so — she can't hate Gryffindor that much to refuse to give a simple answer because we're Gryffindor. Even Snape was more than happy to tell everyone that Lupin was ill last year when he filled in during the full moon."
"But that would mean he had to quit this morning, the day the article came out. Because he couldn't have quit because of people finding out he's half-giant before today, as no one knew before that article was published. So he didn't even give it a couple days to see if anyone cared," countered Harry.
"Which I'll admit is odd, but remember — completely lost his confidence after Buckbeak. Maybe he just lost his confidence before anything actually happened this time," replied Hermione.
"Or maybe he was badly injured by a skrewt, and they really are illegal, so Hagrid couldn't tell anyone why he couldn't teach, just that he couldn't," proposed Harry thoughtfully. "He didn't want to get in trouble."
"It is possible…" said Hermione slowly, but she looked doubtful.
But before she could say anything else, or propose any other theories as to Hagrid's mysterious disappearance, there came a drawling voice from behind them. "Oh, he hasn't been attacked, Potter and mudblood girlfriend, if that's what you're thinking. No, he's just too ashamed to show his big, ugly face."
Harry turned and gave their favorite snake a raised eyebrow, silently telling him to get on with it already and tell them what he meant, or buck off. Malfoy complied, reaching into his robes and pulling out that morning's Daily Prophet.
"There you go. Hate to break it to you, Potter…" he sneered in a tone indicating the exact opposite. But Harry didn't even bother reaching out to take the newspaper from the Slytherin, able to see from where he was standing the image of Hagrid he'd already seen that morning.
"Yeah, he's half giant — so what?" he said instead. "That's not an answer to the question of why he's not here teaching."
"And before you say it, we're well aware of the bigotry of your kind against giants," added Hermione haughtily. "It's times like this I'm really proud of being a mudblood, and having a half-mudblood boyfriend — we aren't limited by your narrow-minded prejudice against giants, same as we aren't constrained by not being able to say the name Voldemort. All that nonsense really does is restrict you, and pull you down and hurt you more than any good things you could possibly get out of being so intolerant."
Malfoy stared at them for several long seconds, clearly not having expected that response. But he finally collected himself and sneered with much less enthusiasm than normal, "Well, I think this should put an end to the oaf's teaching career. Half-giant — and there was me thinking he'd just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young. None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all. They'll be worried he'll eat their kids."
"Skele-Gro? Seriously?" scoffed Hermione. "Then you're all even stupider than I thought. If you knew anything about Skele-Gro, or engorgement charms, or anything else that could potentially cause a human to become extremely large like Hagrid is, you'd know Hagrid isn't big because of any of those. Leaving the only remaining possibility that he is part-giant. I knew it instantly the first time I saw him first year."
Once again, this knocked the wind out of Draco's sails, same as their kiss in the Great Hall on Boxing Day morning had, and same as their already knowing that Hagrid was half-giant and their indifference to it.
But fortunately for him he was saved from having to scramble to come up with a suitable retort, as Grubby shouted over at them, "Are you paying attention over there?"
From over where the girls were all huddled around the unicorn, the witch had been enumerating in a loud voice about the unicorn, as if she were so delusional that she actually thought any of the boys (and Hermione) were actually listening to a word she was saying after being told to stay away. But Hermione was pretty sure she was the only one aware that the witch was even talking loudly enough for the boys to theoretically hear her, as Harry and Draco certainly didn't seem to be noticing it, and none of the rest of the boys seemed to notice either as most of them were chatting with each other, or otherwise doing their own thing that certainly didn't involve listening to Grubby.
So Hermione immediately shouted back to Grubby, "No! We're not!"
Which just as Hermione expected, was completely ignored to the point that it seemed like Grubby never even heard her.
So Hermione turned back to Draco and said, "You had some scathing reply you were going to retort to me after I called you a complete idiot, I think?"
But Draco still hadn't come up with an appropriate riposte, and so after a several second staredown between him and Hermione that Harry watched amusedly from the sideline with a smirk, knowing his girlfriend would win hands down, Draco finally broke and stalked back off to his cronies and hanger-ons, letting Harry and Hermione turn towards Grubby and listen to what she was saying about her precious unicorn she was still only letting females near.
When class eventually let out, and they were all walking back up to the Great Hall for lunch, Harry and Hermione overheard Parvati tell Lavender, "I hope she stays, that woman! That's more what I thought Care of Magical Creatures would be like...proper creatures like unicorns, not monsters…."
"You do realize a unicorn could gore you and three people behind you straight through the heart before you even knew what happened, right?" retorted Hermione as she and Harry passed by. "Or did Grubby fail to mention that small fact? Or perhaps the fact that wizards used them for centuries as war-horses precisely because of how deadly they are with their combined hooves and horn, and intelligence to know how to use them most effectively? Or did she just mention things like they have really pretty coats that change colors as they age, something anyone who's ever opened a magizoology book would already know?"
Parvati stared at Hermione in shock, clearly taken aback by the normally teachers' pet's less than glowing comment about a teacher.
Once he and Hermione had made it out of earshot of their fellow fourth year Gryffindors, Harry leaned over and whispered into her ear, "But I thought you actually thought she was a pretty good teacher. You seemed to be listening pretty attentively to her, anyway."
"I do think she's a good teacher, but that's only because she actually knew how to teach, having a clear objective to pass on and a clear — as anyone here, at least — way of telling it to us," replied Hermione. "Like I said this morning, I do think Hagrid is honestly quite bad at teaching. But that doesn't mean I can't defend Hagrid where he deserves defending, and point out the blatant flaws in Grubby's lesson where they deserve to be pointed out. I don't dislike Hagrid as a person, in fact I think he's a great guy and an overall good influence on you when you've had so few positive adult role models. I just think he needs some actual training in teaching before he's given a teaching post, and a whole lot more self-confidence if all it takes is one article to send him running away."
"So do you want him to come back as teacher, or would you rather have Grubby continue teaching?" asked Harry curiously.
"Hagrid, actually," answered Hermione. "I certainly want him to stop hiding, and while I do think Grubby is a better teacher than Hagrid at this moment, I don't like her attitude, or kowtowing to the Slytherins. The last thing we need is another Snape at this school, and she has yet to prove to me that she won't be, at least in terms of clear favoritism — she doesn't strike me as abusive like Snape, though she caught you pretty hard in the chest. Wouldn't be surprised if you have a bruise there in the morning."
"Then think we should go down to his hut tonight and see if we can't talk some sense into our giant friend?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," replied Hermione with a smile.
~HP~
So that evening after supper, Harry and Hermione walked back down to Hagrid's hut to try to make their half-giant friend see reason and stop hiding.
When they arrived and knocked on the door, they immediately heard Fang's booming barks, but no heavy footsteps of Hagrid coming to the door to let them in ever came. So after several minutes, Hermione knocked again, even harder. When they still received no answer, she and Harry walked around the entire outside of Hagrid's hut, just to make sure he wasn't outside on the other side and somehow hadn't heard either them or Fang's deafening barks, and to try to look in the windows to see if they could see him, but all to no avail. Making it back around to the front door, Hermione knocked a third time.
"Hagrid, we read the article — we know you're half-giant!" she yelled as she knocked. "And we don't care! We've known you for three and half years now — do you really think finding something mildly unpleasant out about your relatives would make us think any different of you? And just so you know, I've known since first year that you had to be part giant!"
"Yeah!" shouted Harry after her. "We missed you teaching class today, and missed seeing you in the Great Hall!"
After still no reply, Harry tried yelling again, "Come on, Hagrid! It's us! You know we don't care about the fact your mother was giant!"
But Hagrid apparently did care, as despite their relative assurity that he was in fact in the hut and not off in the forest or something (as he always took Fang with him on those trips), the front door never opened to present them with their large friend. So eventually, growing cold and disheartened in the freezing temperatures, Harry and Hermione trudged back up to the castle, cursing the wizarding world for creating such an atmosphere of fear that no one was willing to say the nickname of a tyrant (having of course forgotten entirely his real name) and a clearly kind, peaceful half-giant felt the need to run away and hide.
As they sat down together on the couch in front of the fireplace once they'd made it back up to the Gryffindor common room, Harry asked, "So what do we do now? We can't just let him hide away in there like that. And also, is it just me or is it weird that he carried on like normal after Buckbeak scratched Draco — besides his teaching losing all confidence — but he's running away now? Seems to me like a kid in your class getting injured would be as much a reason to run away as this."
"I guess maybe he thought only students would hear about the Buckbeak incident, but this was in the Daily Prophet so the whole world knows?" guessed Hermione. "I don't know — who knows what he's thinking, especially ignoring us like that. But as for what we now do —"
Here she paused, clearly thinking, before finally saying, "Honestly, I'm not sure. If we see him again, we obviously go talk to him and try to convince him to come back like we were planning to tonight. But if tonight is any indication, I'm afraid we may not be seeing him anytime soon. In which case, I don't know how we proceed. We can try sending him a letter, not that he'd necessarily open it based on what we've seen so far, but I'd suggest waiting a few days and seeing if we can't talk to him in person before we try that. I'd much rather talk to him than try to convince him to come back by letter."
Unfortunately, as the week progressed, he never reappeared. Not that someone wasn't taking advantage of his absence, though.
As soon as he saw Harry Tuesday morning in the Great Hall, where Hagrid noticeably still wasn't at the staff table eating breakfast, Malfoy gloated to Harry, "Missing your half-breed pal? Missing the elephant-man?"
But when Harry simply replied calmly, "Yes, I am — I like Hagrid. He's a great friend, even if he does leave a lot to be desired as a teacher," Draco was left just kind of staring at Harry yet again, not knowing what to do when he didn't get the rise he expected from insulting Hagrid and gloating about his absence. But ever the optimist (or definition of insanity), he continued trying every time he saw Harry for the next two weeks, despite Harry simply ignoring him and walking on past without even acknowledging his presence every time after the first.
Chapter 14
A/N: Since there was some discussion about this in the comments after last chapter — Hermione calling Professor Grubbly-Plank just 'Grubby' was intentional. Same as Hermione (and Harry) only ever calling Severus Snape by 'Snape', and never 'Professor Snape', as she doesn't believe he deserves to be called 'professor' due to his abuse of at least Harry, Neville, and Gryffindor in general, but also presumably Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
In the middle of January, the first Hogsmeade weekend of the new year arrived.
"Our first real date!" Hermione squealed excitedly as she and Harry met up in the common room that morning.
"So what do you want to do?" asked Harry as they climbed through the portrait hole together to head down to the Great Hall for breakfast. "All we've ever done in the past is visit all the shops and get butterbeer and occasionally go by the Shrieking Shack. Not exactly normal 'date' stuff, at least from what I've heard about dates — the Dursleys never having actually told me anything about dating or dates, of course."
"That's all I want to do today, too," answered Hermione with smile. "You don't need to think you need to do anything special just because we're calling it a date. I just want to spend the day wandering around outside the castle with you, and maybe snogging when the opportunity arises — that's definitely something we've never done on a Hogsmeade visit before."
"That is very true," laughed Harry, before turning serious again. "But I just don't want you to be disappointed by our first date, that's all."
"I could never be disappointed spending the day with you," replied Hermione sincerely. "It's not what we do or where we visit that makes something a date — it's that we're spending it together, spending time specifically with each other.
"Anyway, the only 'date' place in Hogsmeade is Puddifoot's tea shop. Which while I like tea as much as any self-respecting British girl, from all the gossip I've ever heard about that place, it is themost girly place on the planet, which not only do I have my doubts you would enjoy, it's never sounded like a place I would want to go to, either. But you are more than welcome to buy me lunch at the Three Broomsticks if that would make you feel better, and make it feel more like a proper date to you."
"I'd be more than happy to buy you lunch, and anything else you want in Hogsmeade," replied Harry. "But it's not about that, it's just that I want to make sure you have a good date, as well as a good day in general, and even more so with it being our first date and not just spending time together in the library and sneaking in snogs throughout the castle when we have the chance."
"I'll have a plenty good date just because you're there, don't worry," smiled Hermione, bumping her shoulder against Harry's playfully.
By this point they'd reached the Great Hall, and found a spot to sit down to eat, so they'd be ready to leave for Hogsmeade when the front doors opened at ten.
At ten o'clock precisely, Harry and Hermione found themselves near the front of the crowd gathered in the entrance hall when Professor McGonagall opened the front doors. With a scowl, Filch checked their names off the list, and let them exit into the cold, wet grounds of Hogwarts. Following the road out through the Hogwarts gates and towards Hogsmeade, they discussed where they wanted to go first.
"All the shops will immediately be crowded with everyone, especially as cold and wet as it is," said Hermione. "So we should probably go visit Lupin's old haunt first, and let the crowds all settle down so everything isn't so crowded."
So when they got to the high street, they continued straight on through, past all the shops and the Three Broomsticks, and out the road to the hill that led up towards the Shrieking Shack. Once at the top of the hill, they climbed over the fence and walked the remaining distance to the building itself, knowing there was nothing actually scary about the most haunted dwelling in all of Britain. But after trying all the doors and windows with every spell they could think of short of blasting them down with the blasting charm Confringo, they finally gave up and admitted defeat, acknowledging that Dumbledore had made the house completely impenetrable from the outside.
But as they were walking around the back of the house again, Hermione backed Harry towards the wall with a predatory smirk. "There is one good thing about coming all the way out here, though…."
"Which is…?" asked Harry, slightly wary of the glint in her eyes.
"No prying eyes to watch us snog."
Harry needed told no more. He crashed his lips down on hers and pulled her flush against him, as she pushed him up against the rough wooden siding of the house.
They snogged for a long time, but eventually even the heat from kissing and each other couldn't keep them warm from the cold any longer, and they headed back into town. Seeing that the Three Broomsticks was crammed full with everyone there for lunchtime, the two of them decided to visit all the shops first, before going there for their own late lunch afterwards. They went though Zonko's Joke Shop, Dervish and Banges, and finally into Honeydukes sweetshop, their favorite shop in the quaint little town.
"Maybe we should open up a sweetshop when we get out of Hogwarts," commented Harry as they perused the aisles of sugar. "Though, your parents might not be too thrilled about that."
"Probably not," laughed Hermione. "They already don't like how much of a sweet tooth I do have, and it's still significantly less than yours or the Redhead-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's."
"Doesn't it have to be a little annoying having dentists as parents?" asked Harry with a chuckle as he picked out an extra-large box of chocolate frogs so he'd have plenty to share with her.
"Oh, it definitely was as a kid," answered Hermione with another laugh as she looked over the selection of sugar quills. "Still can be over the summers, but they've generally acknowledged that I like sugar more than I should, so as long as I brush my teeth plenty properly, they don't say anything. Plus, I don't have access to the Great Hall or Hogsmeade there, so I don't eat as many sweets over the summer as I do here."
Finding everything they could carry in Honeydukes, Harry and Hermione paid for their purchases and headed back out onto the main street. Looking over at Hermione, Harry asked, "Think the Three Broomsticks has quieted down enough for us to eat? Because if not, I'm going to have to break out some of these sweets I bought — I'm starving."
"Me too," answered Hermione. "And it should be, or at least enough that we can get a booth."
So they walked down the street to the Three Broomsticks, which they pleasantly found only about half full, the crowds finally having dissipated as everyone had drunk their fill of butterbeer and headed back out for more shopping or back to Hogwarts. Harry and Hermione quickly found a table, and sat down. Once Madam Rosmerta had come over and took their order, they started looking around to see who else was in the tavern with them to pass the time. To their surprise, they saw Ludo Bagman off in a corner talking with a multitude of goblins.
"Odd he's here," commented Harry quietly. "It not being a TriWizard weekend."
"I'm more interested in why he's talking with a bunch of goblins who seem rather angry with him," replied Hermione. "It's completely reasonable, if maybe slightly unusual, for him to be visiting the only entirely magical town in all of Britain on the weekend, but there issomething off about that scene over there."
They continued to watch surreptitiously for quite a while, beginning to eat as well when Madam Rosmerta brought them their lunch, until Bagman looked up himself and spotted Harry. Quickly excusing himself from the goblins, he hurried over to where Harry and Hermione were eating.
"Harry! How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?" he said with his boyish grin as soon as he walked up.
"I'm doing fine, thank you," replied Harry, wondering why the tournament judge had been hoping to run into him. Everything he'd needed to be told about the tournament so far had either been told to everyone together, or else it had been his Head of House, Professor McGonagall to tell him about the Yule Ball, not one of the judges.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" replied Bagman a little too cheerfully and eagerly. "I was wondering if I could have a quick, private word with you, Harry?" Turning to Hermione, he added, "You couldn't give us a moment, could you?"
"My girlfriend can hear anything you have to say to me — I'll just tell her as soon as you leave, anyway," said Harry firmly before Hermione had a chance to say anything, as he reached across the table and took her hand in his.
Hermione just looked up at Bagman and shrugged. "Looks like Harry wants me to stay."
Bagman seemed to hesitate for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that he wasn't about to get rid of the girl, and that it wasn't really that important anyway to only tell Harry. So he turned and grabbed an empty seat from the nearest table, and sat down at the end of their booth.
"Well, I just thought I'd congratulate you again on your splendid performance against that Horntail, Harry. Really superb."
"Thanks..." said Harry slowly, knowing that couldn't be the real reason Bagman wanted to talk to him, or he wouldn't have tried to do it alone.
But Bagman seemed to have no interest in actually getting to the point of his visit, instead glancing back over at the goblins he'd been talking with before spotting Harry, who were still watching him intensely with dark, slanted eyes.
"Absolute nightmare," grumbled Bagman in an undertone when he saw Harry and Hermione glance over at the goblins as well. "Their English is terrible — almost like being back with all the Bulgarians at the Quidditch World Cup, except they at least used sign language a human could recognize. This lot keep gabbling in Gobbledegook, and I only know one word of Gobbledegook — bladvak. It means 'pickax', so I don't like to use it in case they think I'm threatening them."
He gave a short, booming laugh that didn't match up with anything he had just said, making Hermione think he was much more nervous about his meeting with the goblins than he was trying to let on.
So already thinking that his meeting with the goblins was odd, Hermione pressed, asking conversationally, "What is it they want?"
"Er...well…they…er...they're looking for Barty Crouch," mumbled Bagman shiftily, making Hermione question how much that was really the truth.
But before she could press any further, Harry said, "Why are they looking for him here? He's at the Ministry in London, isn't he? At least during the week — maybe not on the weekend."
"Also, wouldn't they normally be dealing with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, instead of Mr Crouch?" added Hermione.
"Er...as a matter of fact, I've no idea where he is," replied Bagman, completely ignoring Hermione's question. "He's sort of...stopped coming to work. Been absent for a couple of weeks now. Young Percy, his assistant, says he's ill. Apparently he's just been sending instructions in by owl. But would you mind not mentioning that to anyone? Because Rita Skeeter's still poking around everywhere she can, and I'm willing to bet she'd work up Barty's illness into something sinister. Probably say he's gone missing like Bertha Jorkins."
"Speaking of Ms Jorkins — have you found her yet?" asked Hermione directly, refusing to be ignored on this question — after all, a woman's life was potentially at stake.
Once again, Bagman looked highly strained. "Well…no, not yet. I've got people looking, of course, but really it's all very strange. She definitely arrived in Albania, because she met her second cousin there. And then she left the cousin's house to go south and see an aunt...and she seems to have vanished without trace en route. Blowed if I can see where she's got to...she doesn't seem the type to elope, for instance...but still…."
Suddenly he seemed to remember that he had a reason he had come over to speak with Harry besides avoiding the goblins, and quickly said, "What are we doing, talking about goblins and Bertha Jorkins? I really wanted to ask you" — here he lowered his voice, not that they'd been talking particularly loudly before, or that anyone was paying them any attention, and they had just been talking about a missing Ministry worker that he hadn't wanted them to say anything about to anyone, but he lowered his voice even more anyway — "How are you getting on with your golden egg?"
"Figured out the clue just fine," answered Harry honestly. "Mostly due to Hermione here's genius, but still — we have it all figured out."
"Oh. Uh, well, that's good," stuttered Bagman, clearly taken aback that Harry had already figured it all out all on his own. After a long pause in which he didn't seem to know what to say, having obviously expected Harry not to have a clue about his egg, he finally said still very quietly, "Listen, Harry — I feel very bad about all this...you were thrown into this tournament, you didn't volunteer for it...and if…." Here his voice dropped so quiet that Harry and Hermione had to lean closer to hear him, "If there's any help at all I can give you...a prod in the right direction on actually completing the task now that you've figured out what it is…. It's just that I've really taken a liking to you — the way you got past that dragon! Well, just say the word and I'll give you a hint."
Harry's eyebrows rose slightly as he listened to Bagman's offer to cheat. Carefully wording his reply so as not to stir up any trouble in case he was misunderstanding Bagman's offer, and because he knew he was already violating the rule with all of Hermione's help in both tasks, he said as casually as he could, "Aren't we supposed to work out how to complete the tasks by ourselves?"
"Well...well, yes," answered Bagman in an impatient tone, like Harry wasn't seeing the gift he was trying to hand him. "But come on, Harry — we all want a Hogwarts victory, don't we?"
"So have you offered Cedric the same help you're offering me?" countered Harry, wondering for a brief second if he actually had and that's how Cedric had known to open it underwater in order to then tell Harry. "He is after all the real Hogwarts champion, not me."
A tiny frown briefly flickered across Bagman's face, before he smoothed it out and said, "Well, no, I haven't. But — well, like I say, I've taken a liking to you. Just thought I'd offer…."
"Well, like I said, Hermione and I have already figured out what the clue is," said Harry firmly, all hope that Bagman wasn't actively trying to cheat, or that he'd been the one to tell Cedric in the first place, gone.
Bagman looked almost affronted at Harry's blunt refusal to accept a leg up in trying to win the tournament, but fortunately Fred and George turned up at that point to save Harry and Hermione's date.
"Hello, Mr. Bagman," Fred said brightly as he lay a friendly hand on the judge's shoulder. "Can we buy you a drink?"
"Er…no, no thank you, boys…" avoided Bagman as he quickly stood up, for some reason giving Harry a disappointed look for refusing to accept his help as he did so, as if Harry had let him down badly. Then he hurriedly said, "Well, I must dash. Nice seeing you all. Good luck, Harry," before scampering out of the pub, the goblins he'd been talking to when they'd first entered quickly following after him, obviously not so done with their conversation as Bagman had been.
Fred and George watched Bagman leave looking as disappointed as the judge himself at being so quickly brushed off, before turning back to Harry and Hermione and saying cheerfully, "Well, we won't bother you, but have a good date."
Once they were alone again, Harry asked, "Why do you think Bagman's trying to persuade me to cheat?"
"Well...technically he's actually not, right?" answered Hermione. "From what you told me the day after your name came out, the only rule they told you guys was that you couldn't ask for or accept help of any kind from your teachers — not other students or judges. But I get what you mean, I really do — it's definitely weird. And probably not what any of the headmasters or Mr Crouch wanted, they just like normal never thought to actually say you can't accept help from judges who oddly offer you help. And obviously students will always go to each other since there's no way of getting caught as long as you're even halfway smart about it, so it's stupid to even bother trying to make that a rule. So I guess really, accepting Bagman's help would just not as blatantly be against the intended, unwritten rules as Mad-Eye doing everything he could besides coming right out and telling you how to get past the dragon was, given that Mad-Eye actually is one of your teachers, and is expressly forbidden from helping you — not that any of it actually matters, as everyone who knows anything about this tournament knows cheating is more common than actually successfully completing all the tasks is, even with all the cheating help that goes on."
"Oh. Never thought of it like that," replied Harry thoughtfully. "They didn't actually tell us we couldn't accept judges' or other students' help. I guess I just assumed that, because it made sense."
"You assumed that because you're a muggleborn — you actually have common sense, unlike most wizards," said Hermione. "Remember, they flinch at a nickname because they completely forgot the dude's real name — though they'd probably flinch at that, too, if they could only remember it. And then of course fearing all werewolves and giant descendants despite having known or gone to school with ones they'd call friends, all while fearing and discriminating against their kind behind their backs."
"Then I guess being a mudblood, or half a mudblood in my case, really is a good thing," smiled Harry.
But his smile faded the next moment, as he saw Rita entering the pub with her fat, sycophantic photographer at her heels.
Chapter 15
As Rita walked towards one of the tables near where Harry and Hermione were sitting, they overheard her saying to her photographer, "...didn't seem very keen to talk to us, did he, Bozo? Now, why would that be, do you think? And what's he doing with a pack of goblins in tow anyway? Showing them the sights...what nonsense...he was always a bad liar. Reckon something's up? Think we should do a bit of digging? 'Disgraced Ex-Head of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman...' Snappy start to a sentence, Bozo — we just need to find a story to fit it."
But just as Harry and Hermione looked at each other in surprise at hearing that Bagman had said he was showing the goblins the sights, when he'd so clearly not been, Rita spotted Harry.
"Harry!" she said, beaming, causing several nearby people to look around at them. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join us?"
"After blatantly turning the gullible, sheeple public against Hagrid? I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick," retorted Harry with a sneer.
"Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my job —"
Rita tried to excuse her blatant attacks on Hagrid's character as she raised her perfectly manicured, heavily penciled eyebrows at being challenged by one of the sheep, but Harry and Hermione weren't having any of it.
"No, you're intentionally turning the public against him, and at the very least coming close to libel if not fully crossing the line for saying he's a blood-thirsty monster with a brutal nature when he has nothing but fifty years of peaceful interactions with people," interrupted Harry.
"Not to mention your blatant lie about him maiming several pupils in class. Hagrid hasn't touched a hair on a single student's head — the incident in question was the hippogriff he brought to class, and that only occurred because the student flagrantly disobeyed Hagrid's direct instructions. Then of course there's your blatant lies about said incident that came from that student which you clearly didn't check to see if were actually true, and the blatant lie from his friend about being bitten by a flobberworm, which anyone who's ever opened a magizoology book or taken even a year of Care class knows flobberworms have no teeth, and therefore physically cannot bite anything, let alone give a 'bad bite' as you published in your pure propaganda piece," added Hermione.
"But at least 'We all hate Hagrid' could have been true if you hadn't failed to specify that it's only Slytherins who hold that opinion," picked up Harry in a sarcastic tone. "Though you kind of lose any credibility you might have gained by immediately after that publishing in the most widely read publication in the country the full name of a student claiming to be 'too scared to say anything'. If he was actually too scared to say anything, and was actually in fear of retribution from Hagrid or anyone else on the Hogwarts staff, wouldn't he have requested anonymity before he told you everything he did? I mean, that was literally the textbook opposite of 'too scared to say anything'. Oh, but wait, he's lying hypocrite who actually fears nothing except being outperformed in absolutely everything magical by my genius girlfriend — you know, the girl you spread lies about the two of us being together back right after the wand weighing thing?"
"Oh — and let's not forget it takes a truly stupid witch or wizard to have met Hagrid and not know from one look that he's half-giant," finished Hermione with a truly magnificent contemptuous sneer that could have made her an honorary Slytherin. "Even I, a nothing mudblood, knew from one look at him when I was still only eleven years old that he obviously had to be at least partially descended from a giant — whether half, or quarter, or some other percentage."
Rita stared at Hermione in shock for several seconds, at both her use of the forbidden word 'mudblood' on herself, and the fact the mudblood clearly didn't know her place and was calling all the real witches and wizards of the world stupid morons. In fact, the entire pub had gone deathly silent at the battle of wits occurring in front of them between a school-aged, self-confessed mudblood and one of the most famous, if not always perhaps most liked, reporters in the Daily Prophet's arsenal.
But ever one for scavenging a less than ideal situation, the 'journalist' quickly snatched her Quick-Quotes Quill out of her dragon-skin handbag and said, "Then how about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know, Harry and — you, girl? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"
"You're a horrible woman, you know that?" retorted Hermione, her lip curled up scornfully. "You don't care who's life you ruin, so long as you have a story to sell. It's not about the truth — it's all about money with you. Sensational lies sell to the gullible, sheeple public, and you never see any repercussions from destroying their lives with your slander. You have no accountability, since the Prophet's your partner in crime, and you keep things just true and opinion-based enough that even if the Ministry had a court to sue you for libel in, you could get away scotch-free or with just a minor slap on the wrist. You're a disgrace to the name reporter. So good day, and hope to never see you again as long as I live, though unfortunately I know I won't be so lucky — stick that in your stupid articles!"
And with that she leapt up and grabbed Harry's hand, and drug him out of the pub with her.
Everyone stared at them as they swept out with their heads held high, while behind them Rita's Quick-Quotes Quill was flying a mile a minute over a piece of parchment splayed out on the table Rita and her photographer were sitting at.
~HP~
But as Harry and Hermione swept through the door and back out onto the high street, Ron, who'd happened to come into the pub with Dean and Seamus for another butterbeer soon after Rita had entered, and therefore had heard the entire exchange, joined them uninvited.
"She'll be after you next, Hermione," he growled as he followed them down the street.
"Let her," sneered Hermione as she picked up the pace in an attempt to try to silently get it through his thick skull that he was about as welcome in their company as Rita herself was.
"You don't want to go upsetting Rita Skeeter," growled Ron right back. "I'm serious, Hermione. She'll dig up something on you —"
"And what do you care?" retorted Hermione, cutting him off. "You've made it abundantly clear that you have no interest in being friends with Harry and I, so what difference does it make to you what she says about me or drags up about me?"
This she was actually curious about, as Ron seemed far too invested in this for some reason, than just being interested in protecting her feelings from another scathing article she herself couldn't care less about.
"People still associate me with you!" the redhead snarled back at her. "You'll go messing up my good reputation by dragging yourname though the mud! Don't you ever think of anyone besides yourself?!"
So that would be why, Hermione thought to herself, as Harry stared openmouthed at the redhead in utter disbelief for accusing Hermione of not thinking of others by not caring what lies Rita spread about her, when the redhead never thought of anyone buthimself, most specifically at that very moment as he was only concerned with protecting his own imaginary reputation.
But Hermione, who was far too used to Ron's hypocrisy to think much of it anymore, merely snarled, "I can damm well drag my name through any mud I like, thank you very much! I am a mud-blood, after all, remember? The mud's where I apparently belong according to your people. And it isn't just the likes of the Malfoys who are that way, either — you and your family may not be prejudiced against mudbloods, but I'll bet you didn't go 'So what?' when you heard Hagrid is half-giant, did you?"
Now it was Ron's turn to stare gape-mouthed.
"Go 'So what?'?!" he exclaimed after several seconds. "He's half giant, Hermione! They're just vicious, giants. It's in their natures, they're like trolls...they just like killing, everyone knows that!"
"And just like I told you he'd react," muttered Hermione under her breath to Harry, before turning back to Ron and saying, "Buck off. Go back to your giant-fearing friends, leave Harry and I alone unless you're coming to apologize for how absolutely horrible you've treated both of us over the years since you first walked into Harry's compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and for God's sake, grow a spine and stop caring about your bloody 'reputation' and social standing so much!"
And with that she turned abruptly away from him and picked up her pace yet again with a determined and unyielding look on her face, causing Harry to practically have to run after her to keep up, and leaving Ron standing in the middle of the street staring at her disappearing back in disbelief.
"Where are we going, anyway?" asked Harry a few minutes later once he was sure they were alone for good again.
For Hermione clearly had a destination in mind, one back towards the castle. But he didn't know what it could be, as there seemed to him no reason to actually go back to the castle yet, when they could easily stay in Hogsmeade for the rest of the afternoon successfully avoiding both Rita and Ron if she wanted to.
"Hagrid isn't hiding anymore!" she growled angrily, but not at him. "He should never have let that sorry excuse for a human being upset him! Come on — we're going to drag him back out into the world by force if necessary!"
Striding up to the door of Hagrid's cabin several minutes later, Hermione pounded on it as hard as she could, shouting, "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you, Harry and I won't let you! So get over here and open this door this very minute, Hagrid, or I'll blast it down and we'll come in there ourselves! I know plenty of spells!"
The door abruptly flew open, and Hermione huffed, "About damn ti—!" until she noticed it wasn't Hagrid standing there, and stopped short.
"Good afternoon," said the visitor pleasantly as he smiled down at the two of them.
"Afternoon, Professor Dumbledore. We came to make Hagrid stop hiding," replied Hermione resolutely.
"Yes, I surmised as much," answered Dumbledore with a chuckle and a twinkle in his eyes. "Why don't you come in?"
So Hermione and Harry followed him in, where they found Hagrid sitting at his table, looking like a complete mess.
"Hi, Hagrid," said Harry and Hermione together.
"E'Lo," Hagrid answered hoarsely, looking up at them gloomily.
As Harry, Hermione, and Dumbledore all sat down across from Hagrid, Dumbledore said to the half-giant, "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid? Hermione and Harry certainly still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down your door and threatening to blast it off its hinges."
"Of course we still want to know you, Hagrid," replied Harry earnestly. "You didn't really think anything that Skeeter cow said could change how we see you, do you? Hagrid, how could you possibly think that we'd care what that despicable excuse for a human being wrote after her article about me and Hermione back when my name came out of the goblet? You aren't the only person she's attacked and spread lies about this year, even if she might have been a little more blunt in her attack on you than us."
"See? Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," said Dumbledore as a couple of tears leaked out of the corners of Hagrid's eyes. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it —"
"Not all of 'em," interrupted Hagrid hoarsely. "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."
"Really, Hagrid —" admonished Dumbledore. "If you are holding out for universal popularity, you will never do anything — no one ever would. Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school that I haven't had at least a dozen owls complaining about the way I run it. But what do I do? Hand over the position to someone else and barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"
"Yeh — yeh're not half-giant!" croaked Hagrid in what Hermione assumed was supposed to be a defensive tone, but more just came across as petulant.
"Hagrid — look at my relatives! Look at the Dursleys, and tell me who or what you're descended from completely determines who you are!" exclaimed Harry emphatically. "You aren't who you're descended from, you're who you make yourself to be!"
"And if you want to talk about hated and feared descendants, I'm a mudblood — born of muggle parents, the worst possible kind of parentage according to half the wizarding world!" added Hermione.
"Excellent points," said Professor Dumbledore, smiling down at Harry and Hermione. "And take my own brother, Aberforth, for example. He was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Then again, I don't think he ever read the paper at that time, so he probably didn't know what anyone was saying about him, but still…."
"Come back and teach, Hagrid, please," implored Hermione quietly, completely changing tones from the demanding one she'd been using when threatening to destroy his door, to the perfect little bookworm, teachers' pet, innocent girl she'd perfected over the years, in hopes of appealing to his caring nature — and maybe in the process making him realize that was his nature, not the often vicious nature of giants that he may have been partially descended from. "Please come back, we really miss you. And that Grubby woman is insufferable as a person."
Hermione very briefly wondered if Dumbledore would reprimand her for saying that, as he doubtlessly was the one who'd appointed her in Hagrid's temporary stead, but he didn't — though whether because he thought what she said would help get Hagrid to return to his job or because he didn't disagree with her, she didn't know.
It was apparently Hermione's soft tone that finally won Hagrid over, as he almost imperceptibly nodded his head as more tears left his beetle-black eyes to track their way down his face to his mane of a beard.
His job done for him, Dumbledore stood up, saying firmly, "I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday. You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall, no excuses. Good afternoon to you all."
Once he'd left, Hagrid finally said, "Great man, Dumbledore...great man…"
Harry and Hermione spent a while longer at Hagrid's, as the half-giant and their friend told them about his father, growing up, and Dumbledore always believing in him and helping him out. And when Hagrid had asked Harry how he was doing with his egg, upon seeing the wide, watery smile the half-giant gave him when Harry told him that they'd figured out the clue inside the the egg, he couldn't bring himself to burst the half-giant's finally happy bubble by telling him that even though they'd solved the clue, they still had no idea how to actually complete the task that they now knew what was going to be. But eventually they bid Hagrid goodbye, and walked back up to the castle hand in hand for supper.
As they walked across the slushy grounds, Harry squeezed Hermione's hand and said apologetically, "I'm sorry you never got the date you dreamed of."
"Nonsense. I protected Hagrid's reputation from Rita and saved him from himself with the man I love."
Chapter 16
Starting the very morning after they'd taken their egg to the prefects bathroom for a swim, Harry and Hermione had spent the two months leading up to the second task trying to find some way for Harry to survive underwater for an hour.
But it had all been to no avail. By the time the fourth week of February rolled around, Harry was pretty sure they'd searched through every book in the Hogwarts library, as well as all of Hermione's own personal collection that she'd bought over the years from Flourish and Blotts that weren't in the library. But even their old faithful that'd never let them down before, Hogwarts: A History, couldn't provide them with an answer this time. And the second task was on Wednesday of that week — things were looking grim for Harry's chances of being able to recover whatever the mermaids were going to steal from him.
But never two to give up, Sunday evening found them sitting once again in the library, desperately searching for anything useful.
"Oh, this is no use!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and banging her head against the table. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets? That's just stupid. Magic could solve so many problems in this world, both magical and muggle, and that's what witches and wizards waste their time inventing spells for?" she complained to Harry in disbelief at the absurdity of the world she now belonged to — though she wasn't always sure she really wanted to admit that to people (Statute of Secrecy aside).
"Does it work on hair hair, too? You know, hair on your head?" asked Harry as he closed his own book that was providing no answers. "Because that at least could have its uses, maybe. Still sounds kind of stupid, though, but maybe not completely purposeless."
"Considering the fact is specifically says nose hairs, I'm guessing somehow not," answered Hermione, before letting out a long sigh. "This is hopeless. How has no witch or wizard ever invented a spell for breathing underwater? Other than the fact they're wasting all their time inventing nose hair ringlet spells."
But before Harry could reply, Neville walked up to where they were sitting and tossed an open book down on the table in front of them.
"I overheard you saying you were looking for a way to breathe underwater," he said. "Its called gillyweed.
"You have to eat that," pointing at the picture in question, "right before you go into the lake. It'll let you be able to breathe underwater like you need. And as long as you eat the proper amount, it will last you the hour you said you need to be underwater."
"How did you—?" began Harry.
"I was working on our Herbology homework, and flipping through this Herbology book Professor Moody gave me at the beginning of the semester, and I saw it. I'd heard you two talking in the common room about what Harry has to do in the second task, so I came over to see if you'd found anything yet, and show you this if you hadn't."
"Wow, thanks Neville!" said Harry. "We were completely stumped."
"You don't happen to know where we can get any of this gillyweed, do you…?" asked Hermione hesitantly.
"Sorry," replied Neville with a shake of his head, "I don't. Never seen or heard of it before this book, which is a little odd considering how many Herbology books I've read through over the years. But it is what it is. And I know it's not much help, but I figured I'd tell you anyway."
"No — thank you!" exclaimed Harry. "Now at least we have a possibility, which is a lot more than we had before."
"Just sorry I couldn't help you more — and best of luck finding some, or something else that will work. We're all cheering for you in the second task, Harry," replied Neville sincerely.
As Neville returned to where he'd been working on his homework before coming over, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Well, we at least know what we're looking for now. Maybe the library can finally come through for us."
"Hopefully — but there's only one way to find out," replied Hermione with a smirk.
So Harry and Hermione spent the rest of that evening, and the entire next day (when they weren't eating or in class), searching high and low for any sign of gillyweed. Together Hermione and Harry scoured the library for any books that might suggest where the water-plant could be found, and Monday night Harry used his invisibility cloak to search the greenhouses. But the elusive plant persisted in its absence.
They had also continued searching for any other magic that could help Harry breathe underwater, but they were no more successful at that than they were at finding the mysterious gillyweed, and were beginning to seriously lose hope of finding any way for Harry to complete the task.
~HP~
But Tuesday morning, Harry was startled awake by someone poking him.
"Ouch — stop that!" he exclaimed, reaching blindly for his glasses.
"Harry Potter must wake up, sir!"
"Stop poking me —"
"Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up!"
Harry finally found his glasses, and put them on.
"Dobby has come to give Harry Potter what he needs for the second task!" squeaked the elf.
"What?" said Harry. "But you don't know what I need for the second task—"
"Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter needs gillyweed to go into the lake!"
"How did you—?"
"Dobby heard the Neville boy saying Harry Potter needed gillyweed for the second task. So Dobby has been watching Harry Potter, and he has seen he hasn't been able to get any gillyweed, so Dobby got gillyweed for him, sir!"
He put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of slimy, grayish-green rat tails.
"And you're positive this really is gillyweed?" asked Harry warily, looking distrustfully at the blob that really did look like the picture in the book.
"Of course, sir, Dobby is one hundred percent positive."
After another moment's hesitation, Harry finally accepted that Dobby really knew what he was talking about, and gingerly took the gillyweed from the house-elf. "Thanks, Dobby. You're a life saver," he said sincerely.
"Anything for Harry Potter, sir. Anything! But Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir. Dobby will be missed if he doesn't return immediately — good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!"
Harry just got out "See you later, Dobby!" before the house-elf disappeared with a crack.
As it was too late to go back to sleep, Harry stuffed the gillyweed in his trunk and headed down to the common room to wait for Hermione to wake up. But when he got down there, he found Hermione already awake, going through three spellbooks at once.
"If that's for the second task, you can quit."
Hermione looked up quickly, startled by the unexpected break in the early morning silence of the common room. "What do you—?"
"Dobby just woke me up and gave me some gillyweed. I don't know where he got it from, but it looks exactly like the book, and he said he's a hundred percent positive it really is gillyweed."
"Not to question your house elf, but he doesn't exactly have the best track record helping you — any chance I could see it to check for myself, and see if it looks like the correct amount?" said Hermione. "I'd feel a lot better about it."
"It's up in my room, and I'd rather not risk waking anyone up going back in there right now," answered Harry. "But we can go look at it at lunch — I'd be more than happy for you to double check Dobby's claims. I know he means well, but he's caused a lot more trouble than he's solved."
So as soon as the bell rang for lunch that day, Harry and Hermione headed the opposite direction of everyone else, and headed up to Harry's dorm instead of the Great Hall. Pulling the ball of rat tails out of his trunk, he plopped it down in Hermione's hand.
After a careful look-over, Hermione finally said, "Looks legit to me, and exactly the right amount. I think for once Dobby got it right."
Chapter 17
That evening, Harry and Hermione were sitting together on the couch in the common room, discussing what might be stolen from Harry for the next day's task, when the twins walked up.
"McGonagall wants to see you, Hermione," said Fred, plopping down on the armrest next to the genius brunette.
"Why?" asked Hermione in confusion, looking up at him. She couldn't ever remember a teacher wanting to see her for anything when she wasn't in trouble with Harry, and they certainly hadn't done anything wrong recently.
"Dunno…She didn't look too happy, though," answered George, who'd taken the armchair next to Harry.
Looking over apologetically at Harry, Hermione said, "Looks like I've been called away," before leaning over for a long kiss. Breaking apart, she added as she stood up, "I'll hurry back as quickly as I can, but don't stay up too late if I'm still gone — you have the second task in the morning."
After watching Hermione disappear out the portrait hole to go find Professor McGonagall, Harry turned to the twins and asked them how their joke shop plans and inventions were going. So for the next several hours, Harry and the twins talked and played with Crookshanks, enchanting random objects they found scattered about the common room to fly or roll around for the kneazle to chase. But by eleven o'clock, Crookshanks was curled up on the rug in front of the fire, and Harry, remembering his girlfriend's admonishment to get a proper night's sleep before the second task the following morning, bid the twins goodbye and headed to bed himself — for Hermione still hadn't returned. But Harry wasn't particularly worried, as he knew he'd see her in the morning before the task.
But when Harry entered the common room to meet up with her before walking down to breakfast together the following morning, Hermione wasn't there like normal. After waiting ten minutes to see if she was just very late from having had to stay up so late the night before, he finally gave up and walked down to the Great Hall alone, beginning to become worried. When he walked into the Great Hall several minutes later, he didn't see her anywhere in there, either, and panic began building inside him — she had never just disappeared off the face of Hogwarts like this before, and especially not without writing him a note to let him know she was safe and what she was doing.
Harry milled about in the Great Hall for as long as he reasonably could after he'd finished eating, waiting for her to appear out of nowhere and tell him everything was alright. While waiting, he mulled over in his mind what it could possibly be that the merfolk had stolen from him, as he hadn't noticed anything missing that morning or any time recently. Meanwhile, people began making their way outside towards the lake, having apparently been told at some point that that's where the second task was going to be. Though when or how they had been told, he had no clue, as he certainly had never been told, and if Hermione hadn't helped him figure out the clue, he would have had no idea where to go that morning. And Hermione had never mentioned to him having been told where to go, either, despite the fact that as a non-competitor, she should have been told with everyone else.
But as long as Harry waited, Hermione never showed up.
So thirty minutes before the task was to start, when he could wait for her no longer, he finally departed the Great Hall in a minor state of worry bordering on sheer panic, and slowly walked down to the lake, wondering where she could possibly be, and what could have possibly happened that she wouldn't be there to wish him good luck — it was completely un-Hermione-like in every possible way.
Arriving at the Champions Tent on the edge of the lake, Harry saw that Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were already there and waiting. As soon as Harry stepped into the tent, he was accosted by the bossy voice of none other than Percy Weasley, demanding, "Where have you been? You were supposed to be here an hour before the task starts!"
"Now, now, Percy," interrupted Ludo Bagman, "He's arrived no more than five minutes after Cedric, and there's still ten minutes before the task starts," before adding irritably under his breath, "And the only person here more than thirty minutes before the task was you."
Harry meanwhile said nothing, simply directing his attention to Bagman for any last minute instructions before he went searching for whatever it was they'd stolen from him.
In the back of his mind he did idly wonder why Percy was there again instead of Mr Crouch, same as at the Yule Ball, and wondered if Mr Crouch was still ill and if it was from the same apparent sickness that Bagman had mentioned the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation had been out with for a couple weeks before he and Hermione had ran across Bagman in the Three Broomsticks, nearly a month and a half earlier. Mr Crouch's absence was definitely something he'd have to pass on to Hermione when he finally saw her again after the task, but at the moment, just like at the Yule Ball, Harry was suffering from an acute attack of no curiosity.
They all just stood and sat there twiddling their thumbs for another five minutes, until at 9:25 Bagman finally stood up and instructed them to spread out along the edge of the lake. As the four of them got ready to find their stolen objects, Bagman briefly addressed the crowds on the other side of the lake to let them know the task was about to start.
At the sound of the shrill whistle signifying the start of the task, Harry waded into the icy cold lake, eating the ball of gillyweed Dobby had given him the morning before, trying not to hack back up the slimy, rubbery glob. As soon as its effects were complete, he dove into the water, off to find whatever had been stolen from him.
Forty minutes later, past the grindylows and with a bit of help from Moaning Myrtle, he'd finally found the mercity. As he swam through the outskirts of town, he could hear the merpeople singing, "An hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took...your time's half gone so tarry not, lest what you seek stays here to rot…."
Another warning that the object he had to take back would be lost forever if he couldn't get it back up to the surface in under an hour.
He was becoming very irritated by this point with the merefolk, and the tournament judges and organizers, assuming they knew all about this theft and permanent loss. The tournament was supposed to be a challenge of their magical ability and a risk to their personal safety, not straight up theft of their rightfully owned possessions — whatever possession that might be, as he still didn't have any idea what they could have taken from him.
But as he approached the statue in the center of town, he saw thorough the murky water something that was resolutely inconceivable —
For tied with seaweed to the tail of the merman statue seemed not to be four possessions, one stolen from each of the four contestants, but rather four actual, human beings.
A look of utter shock and horror crossed his face.
"Humans!? But that's kidnapping! Not taking something we'll 'sorely miss'! And straight up murder if even just one of us fails to rescue our kidnap victim — 'they won't come back', 'what you seek stays here to rot' — What the bloody hell?! Do the judges know what the hell is happening down here?!"
He swam as fast as he could through the water to find out who these poor, innocent victims of this cruel game was, just to discover that he recognized all four victims with ease.
"Hermione! Ravenclaw Seeker! Krum's Yule Ball date, and what has to be Fleur's little sister! This is straight up kidnap and murder!"
For tied to the merman statue were in fact Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Quidditch seeker Cedric had gone to the Yule Ball with; the Durmstrang girl Krum had gone to the Yule Ball with; a young girl with silvery-hair that could only be Fleur's sister; and finally Hermione Granger, brightest witch of the era and his girlfriend.
Only the fine streams of bubbles that kept issuing from their mouths kept Harry from completely panicking that they were already dead, and enabled him to keep an almost level head. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, knowing he still had over fifteen minutes to get Hermione back up to the surface, and his fellow hostage rescuers would have the same if they got there soon, before pulling out his wand.
He first tried casting "Relashio", the revulsion jinx at the seaweed, but it apparently didn't work quite the same underwater as it did above. It had still made the grindylows release their grip on his legs when he'd been swimming there, but that had apparently been the jet of boiling hot water the spell created underwater, and not the normal magic that forced the target, living or inanimate, to release its grip on whatever it was holding, in this case the seaweed holding onto the statue's tail and the kidnap victims. So then he tried casting the severing charm at the seaweed, shouting through the water, "Diffindo!"
This fortunately worked, cutting right through the thick, slimy seaweed.
Once free, Hermione continued to just float where she was, drifting slightly from the ebb of the lake. Harry peered through the murky water around him, looking for the other champions. Time was getting short, and he couldn't leave the three other innocent victims there to die.
Fortunately, a few minutes later, Cedric finally appeared, quickly followed by Krum. But there was still no sign of Fleur.
So with just minutes before the hour was set to expire, Harry pointed his wand at the seaweed holding the youngest victim in place, and cut Fleur's sister free before the mermen could even try to stop him. Storing his wand away again, he struggled to swim them both up to the surface. He could feel the effects of the gillyweed growing weaker with every passing kick of his legs, but just before it gave out completely, he broke through the barrier between water and air, and could breath again.
Immediately upon breaking the surface of the lake, both girls woke up from the curse they'd been under, causing Harry to breathe a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a short bout of sputtering as he swallowed water — but at least the victims were still alive, and not dead like they would have been if he hadn't been able to find them or had left Fleur's sister behind.
Once Hermione had woken up and collected her bearings — and helped Harry not to choke to death when he'd just rescued them from their own deaths — she helped Harry pull the younger girl towards the bank, where Fleur stood looking quite hysterical, restrained by Madam Maxime from dashing into the water to help them. But as soon as the three in the water had gotten close enough that they could stand up, Fleur did break free and rush into the shallows, throwing her arms around her sister as soon as she reached her.
Only when the four of them had reached the bank and climbed out onto dry land, did Fleur finally let go of her sister for Madam Pomfrey to take care of. Then she turned to where Harry stood, with his arms wrapped around Hermione in a noble, if slightly useless gesture of trying to warm her up from the cold water.
" 'Ou saved 'er, even though she was not your 'ostage!" she said breathlessly, bending down to kiss Harry twice on each cheek, and then once on each of Hermione's cheeks just for good measure.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore had gone over to the water's edge to talk to the merchieftainess who'd surfaced, before huddling back with the other four judges. But Harry only just had time to notice this before Madam Pomfrey rounded him and Hermione up to force blankets around them and Pepperup Potion down their throats. Hermione found it odd that Madam Pomfrey gave them blankets instead of casting the spell over them that would make them and their clothes as warm and dry as if they had been hanging in front of a blazing fire, instead leaving them standing there still soaking wet, just under blankets now, but she didn't say anything about it.
Soon, Ludo Bagman announced to the crowd that he and the other four judges had made their decision on the points. After going over the three champions, he finally came to Harry.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect, but he returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mister Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Even though the hostages were never in any real danger, and Fleur's hostage would have been safely returned to the surface at the end of the task had Harry not brought her up with his own hostage, most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However...not all agree, so Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
From the glare Bagman had shot in Karkaroff's direction near the end, Harry guessed that it was the Durmstrang headmaster who had been the one not to agree with the others, but he really couldn't have cared less. All four victims were alive and safe, and he'd survived another task.
"Finally, the third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June. The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions," finished Bagman, dismissing them all to return to the castle to celebrate their respective champions or get started on an early lunch.
But as Harry and Hermione remained standing where they were to let most of the crowds clear out before they headed back up to the castle themselves, Ron stormed over the where Harry stood with his arms still wrapped around Hermione, and shouted, "What'd you bring Fleur's hostage for, you prat?! Didn't you hear Bagman? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of them drown! How could you waste time down there acting the hero!? You could have easily won this task!"
Harry looked up at his former friend in surprise at being yelled at so vehemently, and wondering since when the redhead took such great interest in how he did in the tasks. So he asked as much —
"What does it matter to you whether I got fifty points, or forty-five points, or zero points? You're not the one competing. What does my number of points matter to you?"
"How do you expect to win if you don't get the most points?!" shouted Ron back at him. "This is a competition! How can you be the champion and win all the gold and eternal fame if you do stupid things like saving that bitch's sister!?"
At hearing Ron call Fleur a bitch, Hermione spun around to give him a slap that would have made the slap she gave Draco the year before look like a loving pat on the cheek, but before she actually could, Ron was suddenly blasted backwards fifty feet, landing in the shallows of the freezing cold lake. Harry and Hermione turned together to see who cast the charm, to find Fleur subtly slipping her wand back into her pocket. When she saw them looking at her, she gave them a wink, before turning back to her sister and the conversation she was having with several of her schoolmates, like nothing had happened.
But now that Ron was no longer bothering them, Harry turned to Hermione and asked, "What Bagman and Ron said about you guys not being in any danger…?"
Hermione sighed.
"We weren't, Harry," she said, before adding urgently, "But don't think badly of yourself because you didn't know, and don't think better of Dumbledore and McGonagall because we weren't actually in any danger!
"Everything you and I knew about the task beforehand made it seem like whatever they stole — or kidnapped to be more precise, from your perspective at least — was going to be gone forever. So before you start questioning your decision to wait on the champions and then save Gabrielle as well as me, and whether you should have known that they wouldn't actually murder anyone, I'm proud of you, Harry. You did the right thing, the only competitor to out of the three of you who actually made it that far to do so. The judges and tournament organizers or whoever made the egg clue are the ones who did wrong. This was their fault, not yours — thinking they needed to make you believe they would kidnap and then murder up to four students, just to make you complete the task in under an hour. Truly despicable and evil, honestly."
To say that Harry's heart felt a thousand times lighter at hearing her say this would have been the understatement of the century, even more so than saying several people were slightly surprised when Harry's name came out of the goblet.
"Thank you," he whispered to her, tears pricking the corners of his eyes, as he gave her the tightest hug he could.
Hermione hugged him back tightly, until he finally let go of her. But as he stepped back she took his hands in hers and said, "Also, just so you know, I was very strongly against all of this when McGonagall told me what they were doing last night — I nearly walked right out of her office, even knowing that no harm would come to me. It was just such a terrible thing to do to you guys, not knowing that we were completely safe regardless of whether you succeeded or not.
"But as I turned to walk out on them, wanting nothing to do with their cruel games, Dumbledore said that if I didn't agree to do it, then you wouldn't have a victim to rescue, and would therefore receive zero points for the task, since you wouldn't be able to successfully return with a kidnap victim you didn't have. And I knew, had you been there, that you would most likely say that you'd rather get zero points and know I was safe, but I also knew that you were tied for first place, and having the gillyweed to be able to complete the task with, it shouldn't be too hard or dangerous for you and you would most likely do very well in this task, so I made the choice to stay. And I'm really sorry for how much worry I had to have caused you, both last night and this morning, and then when you got down to the mercity and saw us, so if you hate me for what I did I won't blame you in the least."
By the time she finished, her voice was cracking and Harry could see tears forming in her eyes, so he quickly hugged her to him again, not wanting her to feel guilty about the choice she made. Sure, had he been the one offered the choice, he would have had her safely by his side and taken the zero points for the task, but he completely understood the decision she made, and he was still tied for the lead in the tournament because of it.
After holding her for a while, her face buried in his chest, Harry finally said softly into her bushy hair, "I'm not in the least bit upset with you, and I certainly don't hate you. I'll admit I would have gladly taken the zero points in exchange for knowing you were safe, but other than some minor panicking when I first saw the four of you, the task wasn't that hard or dangerous, and I ammiraculously tied for first place against three actual champions three years older than me. Which is, of course, entirely thanks to you, on both tasks. So please don't feel guilty or upset with yourself, because I'm certainly not upset with you."
Hermione pulled back slightly so she could give him a watery smile.
"Thank you," she whispered softly as she leaned up to kiss him.