Where I Found You

"...and then, in front of everyone, Moody turned him into a ferret! I damn near died laughing, probably would've if McGonagall hadn't shown up a few minutes later!" Seamus was telling Ron about the amazing bouncing ferret, that's what they were calling him now. Hermione laughed as she remembered the event, her eyes falling on the Slytherin table. Malfoy gave their table a death stare, his hand balled into a fist, it seemed that he had noticed they were talking about him.

Remembering the last time they interacted, the corner of her mouth quirked up as she winked at him the same way he did before. She appeared to have succeeded in getting under his skin, as he tensed his jaw and broke eye contact. She was aware that he was still looking at their table from time to time, but she had the upper hand this time and had no intention of ruining it.

She grabbed a parchment from her bag and before she could begin her homework, an owl landed in front of her: The Daily Prophet. She gave the bird a piece of bread and unfolded the newspaper. The front page was unsurprisingly all about the Triwizard Tournament. She didn't have to read through all of the champion's sections to see the terrible journalism. If she hadn't known Harry, she would have assumed Harry Potter was a depressed teen who always puts himself in danger in order to gain fame and attention. Thus, they would say he managed to enter the tournament to gain more fame. She folded the paper and focused back on her homework. After writing a 15inch long parchment about Jupiter's moons for the Astronomy class, she put down her quill. She looked at it with content, but her friend was not feeling the same.

"I can't understand how you manage to write such long papers,"

Hermione closed the lid of her ink. "Well, compared to you, I actually like this class."

Ron rubbed his temples. "Yeah, I know that by now."

She smiled at his not-so-shocked tune. When it came to her classes, her abilities were not shocking to her friends anymore but they still couldn't comprehend how she would enjoy listening to almost all the classes. She stood up and turned to Ron. "I'll go to the Commons to check on Harry-"

"You go ahead, I'll play chess with Seamus-"

"Oi, I didn't say anything about-" Seamus started, but shut his mouth after seeing the look Ron was giving. "Oh, right. I must've forgotten, we'll play chess."

Hermione knew Seamus well enough that he didn't play chess, but she didn't force the matter. "Good luck then," 

Ron nodded and Hermione left the hall to find Harry. She presumed he already knew about the dragons by now, he must've visited Hagrid. The first task was tomorrow and she was deeply worried about her best friend. He was capable of succeeding, of course, he was a decent wizard with great practical skills, but it didn't stop her from worrying.

She saw him turning the corner and she ran a bit to catch up to him. "Harry!"

He turned to her. "Hermione? Did something happen?"

She waved her hand. "I was just looking for you... to check if you're okay."

He sighed. "Well, I have to face a dragon tomorrow, if I can't, the whole school will make fun of me. Also, the Malfoys have betted on me," he gave a half-smile. "I've definitely been better."

She bumped her shoulder to his. "Can't be worse than a basilisk if you ask me,"

He chuckled. "Let's hope not,"

She put her arm around his shoulder walking him to the common room. "Go rest for the day now, you'll have enough on your plate tomorrow," she let go of his shoulder, "speaking of plates, don't eat anything heavy."

Harry put his thumbs up. "No meat, just pie." She smiled at him and went to her bed to practice a transfiguration spell.

• - •

"Come on Ron, we're going to be late!" Hermione was pacing around the common room while waiting for Ron to put on his clothes. She heard his footsteps.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Hermione tapped her foot as she glared at him. 

"What?" He frowned.

"I know why you were so late, " she breathed in deeply, "anyway, let's go before we miss the tournament and find ourselves a spot," 

"I've told Seamus, he'll save us a couple of seats," he smirked with pride.

"Oh," she relaxed a bit, "okay, then. But that doesn't excuse your behaviour, just so you know," Ron shook his head knowingly and they both left the castle. As they approached the stadium Hermione pulled his arm. He turned to see what was going on. "I need to see Harry,"

Ron arched his eyebrows. "Why is that?"

"To see if he's okay, to support him. I'll be there in five minutes." 

Ron shrugged. Hermione smiled at him and ran towards the Champion's Tent. She couldn't just walk in there; she wasn't even sure if she was allowed to. Instead, she leaned closer to the tent to listen but the cheerings from the stadium were too loud. She heard someone pacing next to her and she decided to just whisper.

"Harry? Is that you?" There was no sound. Maybe it was Fleur or Viktor, she could nicely ask them to get Harry, right?

"Hermione?" It was Harry! "What are you doing here?"

"How are you feeling Harry, you okay?" When he didn't answer, Hermione knew she had to give him tips and comfort him in any way. "The key is to concentrate. After that you just need to-"

"Battle a dragon," Harry completed. She could hear the anxiousness in his voice. "Harry.." she didn't know how to comfort him with her words anymore. But she didn't need to, she barged into the tent and hugged him.

A bright light flashed and there she was, the infamous Rita Skeeter. Hermione let go of Harry. 

"Young love, how..." she put her thumb under her chin and thought for a second. "stirring. Yes! How unfortunate it would be if things went sideways today, you two could make the front page though, huh?" She winked at them.

"Dis tent is for champions, and their friends only. You are not velcomed here," Hermione turned to the voice. Viktor Krum was looking at Rita with a straight face, but she just rolled her eyes. 

"Anyway, I've got what I wanted. Let's go," she spoke to the man holding the camera and her green quick-quote quill flew right into her hand. Hermione looked at Viktor with gratitude and he tilted his head down a little. That was actually very sweet of him, he didn't seem arrogant at all. 

"Champions gather around," That was Dumbledore and she was there for too long. Dumbledore looked at the champions and noticed Hermione. "Ms. Granger, what are you doing here?" 

Hermione didn't want to look at him. "I was just- just leaving actually." She squeezed Harry's arm and gave him a reassuring smile before sneaking out. She had at least five minutes to get there, or maybe three. As she walked hurriedly towards the stadium, she saw Malfoy holding up something from the ground and talking to it? Yes, she was certain of what she saw, he was even laughing! As she had no time to watch him closely, she took a mental note and ran to her friends. 

"Is he okay then?" Ron asked.

"What? Oh, yes he's good, " she muttered.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit, distracted?" He wasn't sure of using this word because Hermione was never distracted, but apparently, he couldn't think of anything else.

"No, I just saw something weird, we'll talk about it later," Everyone started screaming when Cedric Diggory appeared. She hoped for her friend to do good at this task and focused back on the field as Cedric tried to seize a golden egg.

•

After Harry got his golden egg, everyone was cheering in the common room. Ron heard the voices and came down to see what was going on, but Hermione knew he was just looking for an excuse to talk to Harry. She left the boys, so they could 'catch up', and went upstairs to her room to practice wandless magic. Within a few minutes, she knew there was no way she could concentrate with all the noise and made her way to the library. She didn't need a desk to practice, just a quiet place with preferably no one around was enough. Since everyone was celebrating, it wasn't difficult to find the perfect spot, she sat in a comfy armchair with her book open on her lap. She focused on a lamp above her and whispered 'nox'. When the light went out, she smiled, proud of herself. "That wasn't so hard," she thought.

"Can you turn that on?" A girl warned her.

"Sorry," she said and focused on it again."Lumos."

With that new coming pride, she decided she could move on to harder spells now, she put the quill she brought with herself on her lap and whispered, "Wingardium leviosa,“

Surprisingly, it didn't float. She frowned thoughtfully looking at it. She was the first student in her class that could perform this spell, not to mention on her first try. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly; she would concentrate more.

"Wingardium leviosa," she whispered again. Nothing happened. She was getting frustrated and as she did so, she raised her voice higher on each try. "Wingardium leviosa...wingardium leviosa...wingardium-"

"Maybe you're saying it vrong?" This reminded her a memory from the first year. She instantly turned to the voice.

"Excuse me? You- oh, sorry," she averted her eyes, "I thought you were someone else." Viktor Krum didn't sound anything like Ron, but she immediately thought it was him.

"I thought everyone was celebrating," she glanced away touching her hair, no, smoothing her hair. When she realized what she was doing she instantly stopped and crossed her arms, not knowing what to do with her hands. 

"Yes, ve already did that...I thought you vere Potter's girlfriend, why aren't you celebrating vith him?" 

He thought they were a couple? That didn't make sense, why would he- the tent! Hermione's eyes enlarged. "No, no, we're just really good friends, no girlfriend or potential boyfriend. It was enough celebrating for me, so I came here to practice," she smiled a little. She didn't know why she was explaining herself.

"Oh, it's good then. About the spell, you can try to imagine it. Vatch this," he moved his finger up and the quill floated with his movement.

"H-how did you do that?"

Krum didn't even try to hide his proud smile knowing he impressed her. "Vell, I naturally have more experience, and a champion needs to knov these things, they can be important."

She was genuinely impressed with his non-verbal and wandless magic performance, but his words also reminded her how far behind Harry was compared to his ambitious rivals. When the quill landed back on her lap, she imagined it floating in the air as she muttered the spell, "Wingardium leviosa," it slowly rose in the air.

"I did it!" she cheered and losing her focus made the quill fall back on her lap.

"That vas very gud," Krum joined her. 

"Sshhh," the same girl warned them sternly. He looked at her direction for a moment and turned back to Hermione.

"I should probably go, it was very nice to meet you Hermy-own," he stretched his hand out. She noticed the odd way he pronounced her name but decided not to say anything for now. She lifted her hand to shake his, he looked at her for a second and leaned forward as he gently kissed her hand.

Her heart fluttered. "It was nice meeting you, too." She smiled at him. 

He stepped back slowly, leaving her standing, her cheeks flushed. She cautiously looked around to see if anyone was looking; she had the impression that someone was hiding behind a shelf, perhaps one of Viktor's admirers. She sat down again after making sure no one was watching her and mentally replayed their conversation. She had no clue he was such a well-educated, kind gentleman. She placed her newly kissed hand on her chest and noticed that her heart was beating a little quicker than usual. She couldn't have been charmed by the Bulgarian seeker, could she?