Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

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The next few days, she was more upset than the usual. Rita had published the article, but it was horrible. It was sadly mostly about Hermione and Harry, which weren't anything they had even said. Because of the article, Hermione spent more of her time hiding in the library trying to work on S. P. E. W. or homework with Winky reading books to herself or taking a small nap or helping clean the library with Hermione. She was trying to forget what Rita had wrote, but her brain kept replaying the article like a broken record. 

The stunningly beautiful Hermione Granger, age 15, one of the first Muggle-borns to enter... 

Could secretly be in a love with the notorious Barty Crouch Jr., the son of...

Rumors turn true about her being the descendant of both Betty White and the infamous Iracebeth... 

Hermione was being shunned away by people when they learned she was the Heir of White and Iracebeth and rumors started to spread about her and Barty Crouch Jr. secretly being in love together. There were also a few that talked about how Rita had been blind to think Hermione was stunningly beautiful. 

She did noticed Viktor Krum spent a lot of time in the library as well, which did bring a lot of annoying girls to be hiding amongst the bookshelves, giggling foolishly. 

Before their first task, they stopped at Hogsmeade. Hermione insisted in hiding underneath Harry's cloak. She was tried of everyone looking at her or mumbling behind her back. After going to Honeydukes Sweetshop, they paused at the Three Broomsticks where they sat away from Ron, who was with Fred, George and Lee. Of course, Hermione had to slip from underneath the cloak to get their drinks then came back and slipped underneath the cloak. They slowly drank their drinks as Hermione was pulling out stuff from S.P.E.W. 

"When are you going to give that up?" Harry asked her. 

"When House-elves have decent life," Hermione told him, "Winky and I talked about it and we both agree that maybe the best thing is actually to have contracts between house-elf/elves and owner/s. That way everyone can have the best of both deals. Like Dobby, where he wants a decent wage. Of course, I also have been working on a ban on the abuse of house-elves like with Malfoy's family and Mr. Crouch. The ban is simple, no mistreating or abusing their house-elves such as verbal/emotional, mental, or physical abuse and if one was to fire a house-elf, they must have reasonable cause... not that damn excuse Mr. Crouch used to fire Winky." 

"Nice cloak, Granger and Potter!" Hermione's and Harry's heads shot up to find Moody leaning over them as Hagrid was staring at him like he was mad. 

"You can-- can you--" Harry started when Moody cut in. 

"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks... and it come in useful at times, I can tell you." Moody said quietly to them. Hagrid lean in as close as he could

"Hermione, Harry meet me tonight at midnight at my cabin. Wear the cloak." Hagrid ordered before he departed with Moody. Harry and Hermione looked at each other then shrugged their shoulders. 

They soon made it across the field where they met up with Hagrid at the cabin and began walking down through the forest underneath the cloak. 

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as they gotten deep into the forest. 

"You'll see soon enough... Pay attention, this is important." Hagrid advised them. 

"Hagrid-- what's with the flower?" Hermione asked, noticing the large flower in Hagrid's hand. Before Hagrid could answer, a voice came calling onto Hagrid. 

"Hello, Madame Maxime," Hagrid called out just as Madame Maxime came around a bunch of trees. 

"Where is it you are taking me, Hagrid?" she asked, curious. 

"You'll enjoy this... worth seeing, trust me. Only-- don't go telling anyone I showed you, right? You're not supposed to know." Hagrid advised her. 

"Of course not," she said as they scurried down the trial with Harry and Hermione behind them. They finally reached a clearing where Hermione thought she was looking at people darting around a bunch of bonfires until her mouth dropped... 

"Dragons," Hermione mumbled. 

"Fire-breathers?" Harry shot out, sound more frightened than she did. She didn't know why he called the dragons that, but she didn't have time to ask. She was mostly focusing on the dragons in front of her. 

Five fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons, which were shooting fire all over. There was a silver-blue one with pointed horns, a smooth-scaled Green one, a red one with gold spies around its face, a gigantic black one that looked almost like a bearded dragon, and a golden-brown dragon with bright shimmering purple eyes. 

The dragon keepers were trying to keep them stunned but it seemed like no use. Among them, there was Charlie Weasley, who was the head of the line. 

"Do you want to get a closer look?" Hagrid asked Madame Maxime, who nodded her head. They moved as close to them as they could get. 

"Hello, Hagrid, we're just trying to get the sleep." Charlie told Hagrid. 

"What breeds do you have?" Hagrid asked. 

"This is a Hungarian Horntail," Charlie said, pointing at the bearded dragon-looking one, "then there's the Common Welsh Green over there, a Swedish Short-Snort, that blue-gray one, a Chinese Fireball is the red one, and lastly the Hebridean Black." 

While everyone was busy, Hermione and Harry rushed out of there and towards the castle and towards the Gryffindor common room, dreading tomorrow. 

Hermione couldn't eat that morning. She was still dreading about the dragons. Not for herself, but for Harry. Hermione spent most of her time trying to find ways to help Harry with the first task. They spilt up for a moment before Harry came running towards her and was telling her that he needed her to teach him the Summoning Charm. So for the next couple of hours, Hermione helped Harry do the best she could with the Summoning Charm. 

Soon they were summoned down towards where they were going to learn what their task was. Fleur was sitting in the corner, looking pale and clammy. Krum looked even more grumpy than ever. Cedric was pacing up and down. 

"Good everyone here?" Bagman asked, happily, "Time to fill you in! When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag, from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! Your task is to collect the golden egg!" 

They waited tell they heard footsteps stomping overhead when Bagman began. 

"Ladies first," he said as he came to Fleur, holding the bag out to her. Fleur reached in as she pulled out the Welsh Green dragon with the number two around its neck. Bagman moved over to Hermione. She reached in and felt all the little dragons trying to climb her hand. She struggled hard till she was able to pull out only one dragon. She opened her hand to find the Hebridean Black sitting in her palm with the number four around its next. Krum was next as he pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball with the number three. Cedric got the Swedish Short-Snort with the number one around its neck. Then Harry had the Hungarian Horntail and the number five. 

"Okay, you all see the dragons you will face and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons. I will be leaving to commentating the event, so Mr. Diggory you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear the whistle." Bagman informed them before making his way outside. After a couple of minutes, a whistle blew and Cedric was heading outside. It felt like hours, sitting there, listening to Bagman's commentating with his part descriptions that they could barely hear. Next was Fleur, then it was Krum's turn... and then...

"Miss Granger, if you could enter the enclosure." Bagman spoke. Hermione felt her heart stop as she stood up from her seat then slowly entered the ring.