Hermione Granger and the Goblet Of Fire (Completed)

Chapter 25 - Beating the Beetle

This is becoming a bit repetitive, thought Hermione to herself, as she sat with Ron and Harry, while Harry told them about yet another strange thing that had happened to him. When he had collapsed, he had had some kind of dream, where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had received news which pleased him. Apparently Wormtail, who had been there, had made some kind of "blunder" which had been solved by someone dying

But that hadn't been what Harry was focusing on. He had headed to Dumbledore's office, which Hermione had been pleased with. Just before he had been let in, he had overheard a argument between Crouch, Moody and Dumbledore about the disappearances of Crouch and Bertha Jorkins. While they went to the place where Crouch had disappeared, Harry had been left alone in the office and found a pensieve, a kind of basin where you could store and rewatch memories. He, being Harry Potter, decided to investigate what it was and ended up watching two memories of different trials on different days. The first was Karkaroff's trial where he had given names to the Ministry in exchange for his release. The second was the trail of Ludo Bagman, of all people, who had been convicted of leaking Ministry secrets to the Death Eaters, not knowing that the person he was talking to was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's spy. What was most extraordinary was one of the people Karkaroff named as a Death Eater: Snape

Hermione was sitting with her head in her hands, thinking over everything they knew and trying to make sence of all of it. She was barely paying attention to Ron and Harry's conversation
"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?" said Ron
Hermione assumed that Harry nodded
"And he trusts Snape?" Ron said. "He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"
"Yes" said Harry

"Rita Skeeter" she said to herself
"How can you be worrying about her now?" said Ron incredulously
"I'm not worrying about her" said Hermione, speaking for the first time in at least ten minutes "I'm just thinking... remember what she said to me in the Three Broomsticks? 'I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl.' This is what she meant, isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember... 'Ludo Bagman's a bad wizard.' Mr. Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home"
"Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?" said Ron
Hermione shrugged

"And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?" said Ron
"Yeah" said Harry "but he's only saying that because Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage"
"We never thought of her, did we?" said Ron "Mind you, she's definitely got giant blood, and she doesn't want to admit it-"
"Of course she doesn't" Hermione snapped "Look what happened to Hagrid when Rita found out about his mother. Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth"
She glanced at her watch and started
"We haven't done any practicing!" she said "We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on, Harry, you need to get some sleep"

The days went on, and nothing particularly unusual happened in the castle. Harry practiced defensive spells in the unused classroom Professor McGonagall had let them use, tired of walking in on them all over the school. Harry seemed bothered that she and Ron didn't have time to revise for the end of year examinations, and brought it up just as he was perfecting the Impediment Curse
"Don't worry about it" Hermione had replied "at least we'll get top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts. We'd never have found out about all these hexes in class"
"Good training for when we're all Aurors" said Ron brightly, using the Impediment Curse to stop a wasp mid-air

As they entered June, the atmosphere in the school became electric and excited. Harry had mastered a lot of useful curses and jinxes. He had also learnt the four-point spell, which worked similarly to a compass. They had started on the shield charm, but Hermione was still able to break it down relatively easily
"You're still doing really well, though" she said "Some of these are bound to come in handy"