Chapter Number: 27
Chapter Name: The Big Surprise
Hermione ran as fast as her feet would carry her. She was fit, so that was really fast compared to Ron, who had got very little exercise in the summer holidays and had trouble keeping up with Hermione. After two minutes of solid running she managed to loose Ron. Tears were streaming down her cheeks when she found herself in the library.
She was also furious with herself. ' Just like me.... any problems go to books...,' she thought to herself as she stood against the wall between two shelves of books.
Those two shelves of books had in them her favorite books and she liked nothing better than to read them for fun, but even the sight of them now was making her angrier than she had been before. She allowed herself to slide down the wall as she tried desperately to stop crying...
' Why did he have to get more than me? I'm the one who studies all the time... I'm the one who can do...,' she could not even finish the thought when she broke down crying again... ' Maybe I should have had studied harder...NO!,' Suddenly her personality changed.
She became convinced that since Harry had used his powers, it was all his fault. She did not consider thinking about the fact that if Harry had not told her about those powers she would still be in the dark about them. Nor that she herself now had the same ability... even if it'll take another five months for her to do it.
Even amidst a personal crisis like this, a book caught her attention. The small shimmering red book looked like a new edition to this section of the library. The two shelves actually covered famous witches and wizards. From Abu the Arrogant to Web the Wonderer, they were all present here. So either the book was a new edition to the library resources or it was a book on a new Wizard. She loved reading the achievements of those famous people and dream about the day they would write a book about her.
The title of the book was intricately written in golden ink. The contrast of the golden letters to the dark red cover was what got her attention in the first place. "... Tale of the Saviour..." Hermione whispered the title of the book for herself.
At first she thought the book was about Harry, because of the remarkable resemblance, but that was hardly the reason she thought the book was about Harry. The person on the cover was behaving exactly like all the pictures of Harry that Hermione had ever seen. He was desperately trying to escape the confines of the picture frame. Once that failed he tried to hide behind the things in the background.
She was so angry with Harry she actually contemplated getting her wand out and disfiguring the picture on the cover. Some key differences made Hermione reconsider disfiguring the book, but when she noticed the lack of a lightning shaped scar one the forehead she put her wand back inside the cloak. She went back to the title above the picture and read the small subtitle.
It read ' Harold Parker of Morocco'.
Hermione actually thought a few small scars in appropriate places might have made the man appear more than just a pretty face, like Gildroy Lockheart. Her entire body shuddered at the fact that she actually had a crush on that phony man, but she decided not to pass judgment on Harold... just yet. She decided to read the book before passing judgment.
' That's the person Professor Binns was asking me about... What did he ask?,' she thought for a second, before she went back to all the differences between Harold and Harry....
Since the age of the person on the photo looked remarkably like that of Harry now, she was surprised to see so many differences. The person was also missing scars to his belly and the left arm.
There was something odd on his chest that grabbed her attention. It looked like the tattoo... but the detail on the picture was not good enough for her to see the shape... for that matter she was not even sure if that was not just a part of a necklace of some sort.
Harold's hair though was very much like Harry's, they differed in the fact that Harry's was totally unruly while Harold's looked much more in control and half the length of what Harry has now. He also did not wear glasses, which actually made him appear less handsome in her opinion.
She could not really make out the color of his eyes because of the amount of light that had been focused on his face, but Hermione guessed they were vivid blue...
' Like Ron,' she thought dreamily.
' THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAROLD AND HARRY IS THAT HE WOULD NOT GET MORE THAN ME IN CHARMS....,' thought Hermione, as she bitterly walked to the issuing counter.
It was irrational for her to think this way but she could not help it. Madame Pince saw the puffy eyes that Hermione had, but said nothing when she handed Hermione back the issued book. Hermione did not know why, but just holding the book and looking at that person had ebbed away the anger she felt towards Harry.
By the time she left the library with the book safely in her book bag, she was ready to face people again. Hermione decided that Harry would receive silent treatment from her as a punishment for getting more than her until the next time they have an exam or something to that effect.
When she beats Harry in Charms next she'll start talking to him again. On her way there, she found many ways to get even with Harry but she need not have bothered. All her plans involved beating Harry at the mid year exams, but her chance was going to come faster than she had anticipated.
After Charms class had finished, Harry had searched the entire castle, but he could not find her. The only place he had forgotten to look was the most likely place where Hermione was most likely to be.
The Library.
This simple fact did not register with him until much later - when he saw Ron accompany Hermione - out of the library.
' You stupid git!,' Harry scolded himself for not thinking about it. ' You looked all over the castle - except in the most likely place!... Ugh... How could you miss it? Why the hell didn't you just use the Marauder's Map! You have it with you!"
He ran towards their direction, coming to a full stop next to Hermione. " Hey there, Hermione. Why did you run out of the Charms cl…"
Not only did Hermione not let him finish the sentence, quite unlike her, she actually pushed him to the ground. Harry was not on his guard and this came as a total surprise. Harry fell backwards on to the courtyard between the library and the main castle entrance. He scraped his hand in two places and it stung as the hard rock cut against his skin.
" Hey! Why'd you do that for?" said Harry.
" Don't come near me... you… you…" she didn't know how to finish the sentence so she just started to walk towards the castle.
Ron stopped just long enough to help Harry up off the ground and tell him the reason why Hermione was so mad with him. " She's upset that someone got more than her in an assignment and on top of that…" he paused to actually make an effort to find a way to say it without making Harry feel like a total loser. " -it was you."
Harry had to admit that he had improved a lot since the ending of his fourth year, but he did not think that he was in anyway close to Hermione's level in terms of academic studies. He guessed that Hermione must have had taken it hard that the first time she was beaten in a subject it was by Harry, the person she helped over the holidays to become stronger.
At this point Ron noticed that Hermione was glaring at the two of them, " err... I have to go with her… you know…"
From Ron's voice Harry could tell that he really wanted to stay a bit longer and help him. This was the first time Ron had acted sincerely with Harry. He suspected that it had to do with the fact that Hermione was paying attention to him rather than spreading it between her two best friends.
He was happy that Ron was finally getting closer to Hermione, even though it was coming at the cost of his and Hermione's friendship.
It was Harry, who had told Ron to stop acting like a brat and show his feelings for Hermione. " Ya, I know." Replied Harry as he started to dust off his cloak. It surprised Harry a great deal that he was not as angry with Hermione as he was with Ron when he became jealous of Harry getting all the attention in his fourth year. When he finally beat the last bit of dust out of his cloak he had a theory that was very sound. He assumed it was because this was the first time she had acted this way towards him. While with Ron it had almost been from day one. He sighed to himself and then headed in the same direction as where Ron and Hermione had gone.
The class seemed to drag on forever and Harry had only one thing to look forward to before Saturday when the Quidditch trials were on. About five minute before the end of the class, Ali Pasha gathered the students into one place and made an announcement.
" The headmaster has approved the organization of a Dueling tournament. It will be held in honor of all the fallen victims of the Shozar Wars.... You'll learn more about that in your History classes over the year so don't worry if you do not know what the war was about." He paused and looked at the expectant face of the students.
" There will be prizes for the victors... " There was a small round of applause from the students so Professor Pasha had to stop. Once the noise level went down he continued, " The prize is a One hundred point increase for the house and- " He paused this time to build some tension in the crowd, " One double pass to the Quidditch World Cup this upcoming summer"
The classroom exploded with applause from both the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws present. Professor Pasha put his hand up in an attempt to stop them from making too much noise. " ... There's more. The winner gets to meet and have dinner with their favorite team after the finals are over" This time the clapping and catcalls did not stop for anything. Professor Pasha tried a few times to calm the class before deciding to put up the signing sheet for tournament, while they celebrated.
Ron and several other students wanted to take part in it the tournament. Though a lot of people were interested, only few thought they had a chance realistically. Harry noticed some of his friends were among the people whose face lit up at the prospect. Three of them had the last name of Weasley.
One of them was George. George Weasley was the beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and as such had a lot of upper body strength. He was very health conscious so his body had very little fat, the six years... to that point... of Quidditch had given him excellent reflexes, but above all he had the motivation to win the tournament. He wanted to impress Alicia Spinnet.
One of the other two from the Weasley family was Ron. Ron, though not that fit, was very quick on his feat in terms of strategy. Last summer his father had been unable to get the tickets to the world cup and England this year had a real chance since they had taken Oliver Wood as the captain of the team. He knew his chances of winning the tournament were very slim but he wanted the Quidditch World cup tickets more than anything else.
' Even if I don't, I might be able to get Hermione's attention,' thought Ron.
The last of the three was most definitely the Weasley with the most to offer to the tournament, this was Ginny Weasley.
Harry knew for a fact that she was at the top of her grade in most subjects and there were only two differences between Hermione and her. First one was that Hermione studied all the time (though Harry and Ron had managed to corrupt her, the incident in the Charms class only proved that they had a long way to go) while Ginny found the subjects easy. The second was the most obvious one. Hermione did not have a crush on Harry like Ginny did. Harry could tell by the way Ginny's cheeks became pink every time he looked at her. Even after she and Collin Creevy became more than friends, or so Harry thought.
Unknown to Harry the reason for her entering the tournament was the same as her two brothers... well mostly, like George... She wanted to impress Harry with all she knew.
Harry scanned the face of his friends and saw that Cho Chang the sixth year Ravenclaw prefect... not to mention the Quidditch seeker and the long-time crush of Harry's... was interested too. She had a real grudge against Voldemort after killing her boyfriend and this was her opportunity to see how she measured up. She knew that if she could not win the tournament then she had no chance of beating Lord Voldemort.
The look of pain suddenly flashed through her face and Harry was forced to remove his gaze. Though the talk with Cho had done a lot of good, that sudden pain was something that Harry would never get used to.
His gaze then fell upon Alicia, who was talking very animatedly to her friend Katie Bell. Harry knew that Alicia would sign up even before he saw her face. The reason being she thought it was her job to win points for the house more than anyone else, since she was the head girl. She was the chaser in the Quidditch team so she had a quick eye and it was her ability to see through most strategies which made the team think that she was going to be a great captain.
She was very fit, which Harry knew from the two times that he had run along side her in the morning. ' Very fit...' thought Harry as suddenly his face flushed a little. He shook his head to get rid of the image of her in the tight running clothes, that she was wearing a few days ago. It was this that had made him flush all of a sudden.
The last person that Harry recognized from the people who looked interested was Hermione. She actually caught Harry looking at her. She glared at him in a venomous way, which made Harry's heart sink. What Harry did not know was that Hermione wanted to enter the competition to beat him. She wanted to beat Harry so badly that she decided from that point on she would spend most of her time in the library reading up on spells and practicing them.
When Professor Pasha put up the signup sheet Hermione was the first one to signup, automatically assuming that Harry would definitely be participating in the tournament. She assumed that since it involved the Quidditch World cup he would enter.
She was wrong, and she would not find out until it was too late for her to pull out of the competition. Hermione quickly dragged Ron to the library after class to do research to find great spells to use in the tournament.
While they were signing up, Harry headed for the Quidditch pitch to get ready for his rematch with Alicia. He still remembered what had happened the last time he was in a tournament. One person died. That death would not have happened if he did not offer to share the prize with Cedric.
Alicia was held back after class for an extra five minutes by Professor Pasha to go over the details of the upcoming tournament. Professor Pasha sensed that she wanted to finish it quickly so he let her go early while he talked to the Head Boy. Alicia raced through the corridors of the castle to get to the common room.
Her mind was racing through all the things that she had to do once she got there. She was convinced that if she knew exactly what she had to do then she could be on the field faster. She came to a full stop at the portrait.
" In a big hurry are we, dearie..." the fat lady did not get to finish her sentence when Alicia said the password.
" Sugar Quill"
The fat lady was upset that she got no greeting, but she swung open the door nonetheless. In her hurry Alicia tripped on one of the loose floor tiles (everyone knew to avoid it) and landed right on top of...
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END OF CHAPTER
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