Catching Her Heart Pt. 2

Chapter 58

*Hermione, Harry and Ron walked through the campgrounds, heading for the water tap that was marked on the map that the Muggle man gave Mr. Weasley. They passed many wizards and witches who were just starting their day, getting out of their tents and starting to cook breakfast. The tents were of various sizes and colors, some solid, others striped. One even had peacocks tethered outside. Ron and Harry got distracted as they neared several tents that looked like they had wares to sell. Some of the wizards and witches, noticing their interest, kept trying to keep them to look at their items, but Hermione smiled and pulled them away, with promises that they'd try and come back later.

"We really should get the water and get back to camp first," she insisted.

Harry had to agree that she had a point, and was easier to pull away than Ron.

Keeping the boys under tight rein, they soon had the water and were headed back to the camp to drop it off. Only then did Hermione relent to let them go explore. They found Seamus Finnigan and his family first, heading into a sea of green. His mum badgered them on whether or not they were going to be cheering for the Irish team, it wasn't like they could say anything else and walk away unscathed, finding so many Irish supporters in one area.

It was bad enough that when comments were made about the amount of their decorations to show their support, Seamus' mother told them they should see what the Bulgarians had hanging from their tents. Curiosity piqued, they headed toward the Bulgarian camp.

"Krum," Ron whispered in a voice trembling with a mixture of fear and awe when he saw the posters that hung from the Bulgarian tents.

"What?" Hermione asked in confusion

"Krum!" Ron said. "That's Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!"

Hermione squinted, studying the poster. "He looks really grumpy."

"'Really grumpy'?" Ron asked. "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."*

Hermione rolled her eyes and they continued on.

Here and there they saw other familiar faces, those of other Hogwarts students, and Hermione became more hopeful. Then suddenly, she heard a familiar shout further up ahead and raised her line of sight to see Oliver grinning and waving at her.

"Oh, look," Harry said as Hermione returned Oliver's smile. "There's Wood. And there she goes..."

Hermione had broken away from them, running up the hill toward Oliver who hurried to meet her in return.

Oliver, a smile on his face as he saw Hermione running toward him from down the hill trotted down to meet her. He swept her up in his arms, spinning her around in a hug before setting her back on her feet. "Hi," he said with an embarrassed smile.

"Hi," she said flushing with equal embarrassment. "Oh, its good to see you!"

"It's good to see you, too," Oliver returned.

"Oh, brother," Ron grumbled as they approached. "Really? It hasn't even been that long!"

Hearing this, Oliver sobered quickly, and cleared his throat. "Harry, Ron," he said and inclined his head toward the tent on the hill under the tree from where he'd come. "Come on, there're some people I'd like you to meet."

"Sure," Harry answered with a friendly smile, ignoring Ron's heavy sigh.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Hermione saw a tall, burly man ask as he stood from his chair outside the tent Oliver had led her, Harry and Ron to.