Chapter 30 - Before the Match
"Hello in there…are you awake?"
Hermione rolled over, stretched, and looked at her glow-in-the dark watch dial grumpily. Someone had woken her up from her nap after only a few hours. After her rendezvous with Harry the previous evening, followed by a very exhausting climb to the top of Stoatshead Hill so early that morning, she had been hoping to get a few hours rest before the beginning of the Quidditch match. After Harry and she had figured out how to set up the two borrowed tents, they had both begged off when Mr. Weasley asked them to go with Ron to get some water. Fortunately, they had a ready-made excuse, explaining that neither one of them had been able to sleep the night before because of their snoring roommates.
Arthur, who had, of course, been exposed to the "Weasley chainsaw chorus" for many years, understood immediately and made them both go to their respective tents. "It wouldn't be good for you to fall asleep during the match, you know!" he said with a grin. Ron and Ginny were assigned to get the water and the twins and Arthur took care of gathering wood for the fire.
Hermione had been sleeping quite soundly when she heard a familiar voice waking her up. "Harmony…is that you?" She blinked rapidly at the afternoon sun coming in the tent flap, trying to recognize just who was ducking into her tent.
"Good morning, Hermione…or should I say, good afternoon! I know it's not like you to sleep in the middle of the day! Are you not feeling well? I needed to talk to you about something that's rather important." Miss Puckle said as she stood up in the magically-enlarged interior.
"No…I'm fine…" Hermione said, yawning widely, "just a bit knackered, that's all…I was up late last night …" and a silly grin crossed her face for a second, which did not go unnoticed by Harmony.
"Oh…that would explain the identity of the occupant of the other tent, I take it?" Miss Puckle winked at her younger self, who nodded happily in return. "I asked Arthur where both of you were just now, and he just pointed at the two tents. Hmmm…well, I take it your reunion was everything you hoped it would be? Based on those letters you wrote me this summer, you had very high hopes for that meeting!"
"Oh, Harmony, it was even better than I expected…we had a wonderful time getting re-acquainted, out under the stars, just the two of us…Oh, that's right, I forgot…something happened when we were together last night. Harry and I have something we need to tell you… together."
At Harmony's immediately concerned look, Hermione blushed quite deeply. "Harmony! Surely you're not thinking that we…NO! It's nothing to do with…well, THAT! But, I promised Harry we'd talk to you about it together, so we'll have to wait until he gets up."
"Until who gets up?" Harry's still-sleepy voice came through the tent flap. "Mr. Weasley just woke me up and said I had a visitor over in your tent…Oh, hello, Miss Puckle! It's good to see you! Did Hermione already tell you we had something we needed to talk to you about?"
"Yes, she was just doing so when you came in. So, what's the big secret? Let me guess, you two are officially a couple…" Harmony said with a smirk.
Hermione put her finger to her lips in an attempt to quiet her friend. "Harmony, please! Keep your voice down! Harry and I aren't ready to make a public announcement just yet! Besides, you already knew that one didn't you? No, we just wanted to tell you the strange things that have happened the last two times we've been alone together. Harry, why don't you tell her about our picnic, and I'll tell her about last night?"
Harmony held up her hand quickly. "First, why don't I just take care of any inadvertent eavesdropping that may occur? These ARE tents, you know…" and she quickly drew her wand in the semi-darkness and cast a silencing charm around the outside of the tent and a sealing charm on the tent flap, then with another flick of her wand she lit the lamps so they could see each other better. "There, that should do it. Now, Harry, you first."
Harry and Hermione sat down on the bed next to each other, while Harmony conjured up a comfortable chair for herself. As Harry related the events of his first date with Hermione at Hogwarts (leaving out some of the more personal details, of course…) Harmony's eyes widened in interest as he described their experiment with the Patronus charm, especially when it came to the "full-power" attempt. "Did you just say that you were able to RIDE the Patronus…together, for ten minutes…? Well…without Professor Vector here to consult with, I'm not sure, but that may be one of the more powerful Patronus charms ever cast!", and she began muttering spell formulas and Arithmancy calculations under her breath. After a while, she said. "Let me put it this way, Harry. I wouldn't be surprised if the Dementors guarding Azkaban felt the effects. If any Dementors were still at Hogwarts that day, they would have probably left immediately for Azkaban as fast as they could fly…this is amazing…"
As Hermione heard this, she positively glowed. "See, Harry, I told you it would be good to talk to Harmony about this. After I saw your Patronus, I knew from my Arithmancy studies last year that it was pretty impressive, but Harmony has a lot more experience in that area, obviously." She turned to her friend and teacher, once again slipping in to student mode. "So, what values did you initially include in your power calculations? When I tried to figure it out, the resultant outputs seemed to be ridiculously large, so I thought I must be doing something wrong. But, from what you just said, maybe I was doing it right! Wait, here's some parchment…could you show me…"
"Hermione, just a minute." Miss Puckle interrupted. "While I would love to sit down with you some time and go over the calculations, I'm sure Harry would be bored silly, and besides, you haven't told me about what happened last night." She began talking, mostly to herself, in a distracted manner. "Besides, I'd rather have Professor Vector there with us to make sure I'm doing the calculations right…whenever I had a problem with setting up a problem of this nature, I found that she had a knack when it came to explaining it to me…"
"Miss Puckle, what are you talking about?" Harry interrupted her reverie, puzzled. "When did you have Professor Vector as a teacher? She's been at Hogwarts for many years, and you went to school in Canada, right?"
Harmony immediately realized her mistake, but recovered quickly. "No, Harry, Professor Vector and I have had many discussions in the faculty lounge, doing research in this fascinating area. Arithmancy, along with Ancient Runes, has always been one of my most favorite subjects, and naturally I have continued my studies. You honestly don't think that you're done studying after you leave Hogwarts, do you Harry? I enjoy studying so much I doubt I'll ever stop."
"Hey, Hermione, for a second there, Miss Puckle sounded just like you…" Harry said jokingly. "…I mean, you both love studying Arithmancy…and Ancient Runes, too! Are you sure you're not her long-lost older sister or something?" As he said this, he thought he saw a fleeting look of panic cross Harmony's face, but she quickly laughed it off.
"No, Harry, I can assure you I'm not her older sister, long-lost or otherwise. But you are right, Hermione and I have found over the years that we do share a lot of interests, so if I had a sister, I'd be honored to have one like her! Speaking of which, Hermione, you still haven't told me your story of last night," she said, quickly trying to divert the conversation on to less incriminating paths.
Hermione, who had been listening to the conversation very intently, seemed to be lost in thought for a second, but then she spoke up. "Hmmm…Oh…yes, well, last night, Harry and I were in the yard outside the Burrow, and a strange thing happened. First, since it was dark outside, Harry said we needed some light. As he reached for his wand, I did a "lumos" on my wand, and his wand lit up too, without me touching it. We soon found that Harry could control my wand on simple spells like that without touching it, too. I have read and heard people talking about that kind of thing happening with very close couples, usually married ones."
Harmony interrupted, chuckling knowingly. "So, Hermione, what are you asking me about it for? Looks like you figured it out for yourself, eh?" and she winked at both of her students, causing them both to redden a little. Harry immediately reached for Hermione's hand next to his and interlocked their fingers. They both relaxed immediately as they turned and sought each others eyes for a moment. Finally, Harry said, sounding more mature than an average 14 year old, "Yes, that's right, Miss Puckle. As you already know, we are a couple - and we had already come to that conclusion last night when we discovered the wand connection. But, that's not what we wanted to tell you about. Go on, Hermione."
Hermione continued, "Well, when we were talking about what had just happened with our wands, I had mentioned to Harry that this connection was usually experienced by older couples, I heard a very strong voice in my head, that sounded just like I'd imagine Harry will sound like in a few years, saying 'But I am older!'. Harry told me that he heard the same thing. That's what we were curious about…why did I hear what was going on in his mind?"
Harry spoke up at this. "The funny thing is, Miss Puckle, I don't think it was my voice I was hearing! Like Hermione said, it sounded like maybe my older brother or something. I'm only 14, you know, and my voice hasn't finished changing yet…" he said as his voice broke in the middle of his sentence. He cleared his throat and continued. "See what I mean? The voice I heard was definitely older, much more…confident sounding, I guess."
It was Harmony's turn once again to appear lost in thought. "That is very interesting, you two." she said thoughtfully, "Let me ask - has anything like this happened before?"
Hermione shook her head, but Harry paused before he answered. "Well, actually…" he started, and Hermione looked quickly at him. "What, Harry? You didn't tell me about anything else! Have you been hearing voices before last night? Who was it?" Her voice was very intense by the time she was done.
"Steady on, Hermione!" he said, "It wasn't anything to worry about…and I did mention it to you, sort of. Let me finish, please…" and he looked at her firmly while still holding her hand. She looked back sheepishly, and let him continue. "Well, all day yesterday, after I showed up at the Burrow and saw you there, I so wanted to…well, say hello to you privately. But, with all the goings and comings during the day, we didn't have any time alone all afternoon. Each time I would look over at you, I thought I heard your voice in my head telling me to be patient." Hermione immediately looked as if she were going to burst at this, but she held her tongue. "And then, after everyone went to bed last night, I was laying there trying to sleep with Ron's snoring making it rather pointless, when I just KNEW that you were waiting for me downstairs. In fact, I could almost see you in my mind. So, I wasn't surprised at all to see you sitting there in the kitchen."
Harmony spoke to Hermione directly. "From your reaction to Harry's revelation just now, I think you may have something to add?"
"Well, not that it should be much of a surprise, but each time Harry looked at me, I so wanted to 'say hello' to him privately, so I kept on telling myself to be patient. It got to be almost a mantra…I was saying in my mind 'Be patient…be patient…' over and over again. And I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep last night without seeing you, so I had slipped out from Ginny's room as soon as she was snoring and sat at the table. I kept on picturing you while I was sitting there in the dark, and I was really hoping you'd think about me and come downstairs. I was just about ready to go back upstairs to knock on Ron's door, when I…well, felt you coming downstairs. Remember what I said, Harry?"
"As I recall, you said something like 'took you long enough, Potter…" but after that, neither one of us was saying much, now were we?", and they shared a private smile at the memories of the night before.
"Oh, stop it, you two lovebirds…" Harmony faked being sick to her stomach. "At least wait until I get out of here! With me being a single witch and all, it's sometimes hard to be reminded of certain…well, things like that," but her eyes were twinkling with joy as she said it.
"Sorry, Harmony, we're still getting used to this couple idea and we didn't want to upset you that way!" Hermione apologized quickly. "That reminds me, Harry. We need to watch our behavior for another reason. We're going to have to be very careful in public, especially tonight at the Quidditch match, or else people are going to notice something. Any ideas?"
"Well, as long as we get to snog each other senseless every now and then in private, I'll live with it, I suppose," he said with a sly grin. "But, at the Quidditch World Cup tonight, why don't we just keep Ron and Ginny around all the time? That should put a damper on things, and keep us distracted a little, besides. But, after it gets dark, I'm sure we can arrange another late night meeting, right?" Harry said expectantly.
"Yes, Harry, in fact I was planning on it already…"she smiled lovingly at her boyfriend. "But, back to the subject. Harmony, is this 'voices in our heads' thing something we should be concerned about?"
After a moment's pause, Harmony answered. "Well, I doubt it very much, but I would like to discuss your experiences with the Headmaster before I say anything else…with your permission, of course." They immediately nodded their assent. "He has already owled me to meet with him in London next week before the start of term this year. And, by the way, you really don't have to worry about being affectionate around me. I was just teasing you a little. As long as you behave yourself, you have my permission to 'greet' each other appropriately, and hold hands like you are doing now. If you get too carried away though, I'll be sure and let you know! But, look at the time - I'm sure the Weasley's are wondering what is keeping us so long in here. I only told Arthur I needed to talk to the two of you for a moment. Better remove the privacy charms! Hermione, could you take care of the lights?"
Both females took out their wands and performed the necessary charms, and Harry's eyes were drawn to how similar the two wands looked. "Just a minute, you two! Remember, Miss Puckle, at the beginning of the year last year I asked you about your wand matching Hermione's? I've never seen them this close to each other. They're both…vine wood, right? That's pretty rare!"
"Yes, and both of them have a dragon heartstring core, Harry", Harmony said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "And lots of wizards and witches from around the world have that kind of a core. Yes, our wands are similar, that's true, but Hermione and I did compare them last year soon after you mentioned it to me, because I hadn't really thought about it until then. Now look, here…and here…the pattern of the vines on the shaft is quite different, and her wand is much lighter in color, too."
Harry's observant seeker eyes weren't completely convinced. "But, they are exactly the same length, aren't they? And, the pattern isn't all that different, it's almost as if the vines and leaves there were…well, shifted a little…and…"
Before he could examine them any closer, Harmony was quite relieved to hear Arthur yell from outside the tent. "You lot about done with your talk? We need to start for the stadium in a little while, you know. It's quite a walk and we don't want to miss anything. Besides, you probably need to buy a few things before we go!"
"You heard him, Harry, Hermione…go, find Ron and buy some souvenirs. I'll see you later - I'm sitting in the general admission seats, you know. I surely can't afford a Top Box seat like you have on an Assistant Professor's pay!" Harmony said quickly, herding them outside in an attempt to get their minds off of the wands. Before they left, she touched Hermione on the shoulder for a minute and whispered in her ear. "Since we didn't have a chance just now, I still need to talk to you alone, and then Harry. Trust me, it's very important. See me after the match before you and Harry go off together."
*****
"Been saving my pocket money all summer for this, "Ron told Harry as they and Hermione strolled through the salesmen, buying souvenirs. Though Ron purchased a dancing shamrock hat and a large green rosette in support of the Irish team, he also bought a small figure of Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker. The miniature Krum walked backward and forward over Ron's hand, scowling up at the green rosette above him.
"Now, who did you say that was, Ron? From that scarlet uniform he's wearing, I'd say he's on the Bulgarian team, and I thought we were all supposed to be supporting Ireland!"
"Krum!" said Ron, "Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!"
"He looks really grumpy," said Hermione to the two boys, looking closely at the magic figure.
"'Really grumpy'?" Ron raised his eyes to the heavens. "Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable. He's really young, too. Only just eighteen or something. He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see. You've heard of him, haven't you, Harry? Harry?…Oi! Earth to Harry!"
Harry, however, was quite preoccupied. As soon as he saw Krum's figure in Ron's hand, he had another memory flash. He thought he saw Viktor Krum, dressed in formal robes…at what looked like some kind of a party…with…
Hermione's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Something wrong, Harry? For a second there, you looked like you had seen a ghost or something. And, Nearly-Headless Nick isn't anywhere around!" she said, trying to ease the tension that was evident in Harry's face.
Harry shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs out of his mind, and smiled weakly as he looked at Hermione, as if he hadn't seen her before. "Oh…sorry, were you saying something, Ron?"
"Yeah, mate, I was just trying to explain to Hermione about Viktor Krum, and I asked if you've heard of him before. Surely even the Slytherins talked about the World Cup standings last season! He almost single-handedly got the Bulgarians to the Cup this year, you know. It was in all the wizarding newspapers."
"Now that you mention it, Ron, his name does sound familiar, and…weird, now that I look at him, it's almost like I've met him before." In his mind, he could almost hear Viktor's heavily accented voice, congratulating him for flying so well…but that was…
"… mental, Harry!" Ron interrupted him again. "He's never been off the continent until this match. Didn't you read his interview in the Daily Prophet last week?"
"Well, no, actually. Whenever he could this summer, Uncle Vernon destroyed it when the owl would deliver my copy. I stopped subscribing because he threatened to kill the next owl that showed up with a paper on his leg…besides Hedwig, you know. If he ever so much as touches her, I'm sure I'll be in Azkaban myself for violation of a number of Wizarding laws," he said with a grim determination.
"Honestly, Harry! Promise me you're not serious…" Hermione sounded quite scared as she looked into his eyes and saw that he was. "Please, Harry, don't even joke about that…"
Harry's green eyes seemed to flash for a second, and then he relaxed. "Sorry, Hermione. I'll be fine." He looked around as if to get his bearings, and noticed a cart next to them. "Wow, look at these!" said Harry, picking up what looked like a pair of brass binoculars, except that they were covered with all sorts of weird knobs and dials.
*******
"Everyone ready?" Ludo Bagman said as he charged into the Top Box, his round face gleaming like a great, excited Edam. "Minister, ready to go?"
"Ready when you are, Ludo" said Fudge comfortably.
Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and said "Sonorus!" and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.
"Ladies and gentlemen…welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"
The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - A Risk With Every Mouthful!) and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.
"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce….the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"
The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.
"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"
"What are veel - ?"
But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Harry's question was answered for him. Veela were women. <Not bad looking, I suppose> Harry thought to himself, but then he looked at Hermione who was staring intently at the field while seated next to him. <But not as pretty as her…they don't even look human, now that I look closer.> As the music started, he looked back at the veela who were now dancing on the field, moving faster and faster with the music. Both he and Arthur continued to sit there, watching the show and enjoying it, while slightly amused at the antics of a lot of the males (single and otherwise) in the stadium. Neither one of them was at all interested in joining the others in making a fool out of themselves.
Finally, the music stopped. Harry looked up in amazement at Ron, who was standing on the wall of the box, frozen in an attitude that looked as though he were about to dive from a springboard. "Ron, what are you doing?" he said to his red-headed friend, pulling him back into his seat. "Honestly!" he said, catching Hermione's eye and winking at her. She smiled back at him, and surreptitiously squeezed his hand discreetly while the crowd roared its anger at the veelas having stopped their dancing.
Ron, meanwhile, was absent-mindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat. Mr. Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.
"You'll be wanting that," he said, "once Ireland have had their say."
"Huh?" said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.
"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air…for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium…
***
(A/N - Well, the rest of the chapter is pretty well the same as canon. Obviously, there is a long section from GOF that I didn't bother to include, from when Harry bought the Omnioculars until when Bagman came into the box. All of that, including the Winky scene and the Malfoy scene in the Top Box, happened the same way. By the way, I don't know if my idea of what is taught in Arithmancy is quite canonical. HP-Lexicon.org indicates Arithmancy has more to do with numerology and predictions, but I prefer the concept of it being more the "math behind the spells…" as I have indicated here. Who knows, maybe it's both - or neither, for that matter.)