Several weeks later, after much groveling on the parts of Harry and Ron and after many, many sleepless nights of wondering when Hermione would exact her revenge upon them for their little stunt, Harry Potter was sitting with his best friend, Ron Weasley, while they waited patiently for Hermione to get away from her fireplace chat with her soon-to-be-ex boyfriend, Viktor Krum. Harry and Ron were a bit mystified as to why Hermione was ending the relationship, and it would seem they would continue to be so as Hermione would only tell them it was a difference of opinion and then give them the "Hermione Death Glare" and they decided not to speak of it further.
Ron turned to Harry and voiced the thought that had been running through both their minds.
"Hey Harry, you suppose Krum's gonna take this breakup all right?"
"Well, there's not a whole lot he can do about it now is there? I mean when was the last time you saw Hermione change her mind when she thought she was right?"
Ron snorted and remarked sarcastically
"Around the last time I saw Snape in a tutu."
Too bad for Harry that he had such a vivid imagination and could actually picture his Potions Professor in a tutu. He shuddered violently at the image of the tall, dark and scary man twirling about in a pink sparkly outfit to the tune of The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.
Harry elbowed Ron in the side.
"Thanks a lot Ron. I needed a subject, other than Voldemort, to have nightmares about."
At that moment Hermione approached the table with a look of death and doom marring her normally serious, though pretty, features. She flopped down in the seat next to Harry and leaned forward quickly, banging her head against the table. Harry reached out a hand and caught her head as it plunged once more to continue the brain damage in progress.
"What's wrong 'Mione?"
Ron looked over at her.
"Yeah, I've never seen you have quite that large a lovefest with a table before."
Harry winced at the resounding smack Ron received for that comment and then purposefully steered Hermione back to the topic at hand.
"So really, what's the matter? Did Viktor not take the breakup so well?"
"No, actually he took that quite well. It's what he told me after that has me so upset. He told me that the schools are going to have a competition to see who can keep me away from a plate of chocolate the longest. Not only is that humiliating, but it's totally insulting to imply that I have so little self-control they have to make a contest of it."
Ron snorted and dodged another smack sent his way.
"Well that's easy enough to picture. I mean you do love your chocolate 'Mione."
Hermione glowered at him dangerously.
"This coming from the boy who was once in such a hurry to down his chocolate frogs, he practically snorted one up his nose."
"I only snorted it from laughing so hard at you walking around with your robes tucked in the waistband of your skirt."
Hermione lunged at him but quickly had her attention diverted as Harry, in an attempt to hold her down, accidentally found his hand resting against her breast. Harry pulled it away quickly and began stammering an apology, desperately hoping for something to either distract Hermione or end his life immediately. That something came in the form of Ron's next comment that almost served to do both.
"Anyway 'Mione, back to the contest, Harry and I have known about it for weeks. In fact I have to be honest and tell you we've been up discussing strategies at night for some time now."
It was time once again for the "Hermione Death Glare" which surprisingly was leveled at Harry and not at Ron.
Harry was thoroughly confused as to what he had done to warrant such a look.
"What's that look for 'Mione? What did I do?"
Hermione still glared at him as she answered.
"You knew about this and didn't tell me? I mean Ron I'd expect that from, but you? Never."
She turned her back on the two boys refusing to look at either of them. Harry tried to apologize.
"Come on 'Mione, Dumbledore didn't tell us that long ago and besides he asked us not to tell anyone. You know under normal circumstances I would have, I'm sorry."
Hermione turned back to him slightly mollified.
"All right Harry, I believe you. So did Dumbledore explain to you why exactly, they picked me for this particular mortification?"
Harry began to recount the details of the contest.
Flashback
Dumbledore had just called Harry and Ron into his office and sat them down.
"I suppose you're wondering why I called you in here."
At their nods he continued.
"Hogwarts and Durmstrang are going to have a competition. It will basically involve the competing wizards to keep someone away from a plate of chocolate."
Harry was baffled to say the least.
"Chocolate?! That's the competition? No disrespect sir, but it doesn't seem like such a hard task."
Dumbledore's eyes sparkled in that familiar yet maddening way.
"It is enchanted chocolate. It is ten times more tempting than any other in existence. And the one whom you and Viktor Krum will be keeping from the chocolate is Ms. Granger. The reason we picked her is because she is an extremely powerful witch and we wish to see how you can hold up against her."
Ron looked distinctly nervous as he spoke up
"Umm…Professor, I can understand why you picked Harry for this…seeing as how he's faced You-Know-Who so often, but why me? I can barely face a troll, let alone Hermione on the warpath."
Harry chortled.
"That's odd seeing as how you like to keep her there as much as possible."
Ron: "Shut up Harry."
End Flashback
"So that's why they picked you."
Hermione moaned piteously.
"If I have to go through this kind of thing just because I'm intelligent, I really wish I was more like Neville."
Harry and Ron cracked up over that one. The idea of a potion bubbling up and spilling over the edge of her cauldron and onto her shoes, and that's if it was a good day, was just too funny to imagine.
Harry sobered a few minutes later and rose from his seat.
"Well come on you two, it's time to go back. The weekend's just about over and if we don't leave now, we'll be late."
The threesome got up from their table and walked out of the Three Broomsticks and down to where the carriages would
soon be arriving. Before long, the others had joined them. And unfortunately Draco Malfoy just happened to be among
them.
"Hey Mudblood, I hear that wide load you're sporting is about to get larger, what with the whole chocolate competition coming up. And Potter, you'd better watch out for those fangs of hers, they may be smaller than before but they still look dangerous to me."
Ron sneered back.
"So tell us Malfoy, why aren't you in the competition? Daddy afraid you can't stand up against
Hermione?"
"He knows I would have no problem, he just doesn't want me to have to touch a Mudblood."
Hermione stood for a moment, quivering with rage even though she knew he didn't mean a word of it. They had to go
through this to keep up appearances. She drew herself up regally and turned pointedly away, but not before giving
Malfoy a withering scowl.
"Of course Lucius doesn't want us touching, if we did, Malfoy might turn into a decent human being and of course we couldn't have that now could we?"
For the second time in mere minutes Hermione reduced Ron and Harry to a mad fit of laughter. Draco just sneered at them and shoved his way into the carriage that had just arrived. The trio mounted the step into their own carriage and they were off before they knew it.
Setting: Hogwarts Library
Hermione sat at her regular table poring over Hogwarts: A History, yet again, trying desperately to distract herself from the fact that in a matter of hours she was to face her two best friends and her ex-boyfriend in a competition that no matter how it went, was sure to embarrass her to no end.
"How could Dumbledore do this to me?"
She shook her head in disbelief and tried very hard to see this as an honor. As Dumbledore's way of saying he
believed in her strength, but all she could see was the fact that tomorrow she would be fighting to get her hands on
something as completely unimportant as chocolate. She laid her head down on the table wishing more than anything that
she had someone to talk to about this. She couldn't talk to Harry because he would more than likely point out that
it was an honor and she should feel pleased, not humiliated…blah, blah, blah. And Ron would treat her; as though she
had blasphemed by saying that chocolate was unimportant. So here she was, waiting until the sun rose so that it could
later set upon her tragic experience. She decided to go to bed, seeing if she was going to be utterly mortified, she
might as well be well rested.