janus ~ hermione granger

xxxi

you really thought hermione would forget what maddy's type is?

"hi," the studying girl looked up from her book.

"shouldn't you be preparing for the second task?" hermione's eyes widened as she shushed madison.

"how do you know that?"

"i have my ways," maddy shrugged, grinning due to hermione playfully rolling her eyes. "be careful, please," maddy changed the mood.

"i'll try."

"hermione jean granger."

"madison iris taylor."

"i'm being serious. i-i can't lose you, too," she quivered, referring to her dead parents.

"and you won't. i trust viktor," hermione placed her hand on top of maddy's. "you just have to believe in him."

"fine, but if he gets you killed, i will not be afraid to murder him," she sighed, noticing a first-year just staring at them. "you better keep-"

"she didn't mean it seriously, but just forget you heard this, yeah?" hermione softly told the younger wizard who scurried off. as soon as he turned a corner, she glared at the girl she had feelings for.

"what?"

whack.

𓆉

the second task had started and maddy was standing next to neville, praying every two seconds that hermione, and well, harry and ron, of course, would make it out safe.

she didn't need to pray for cedric though, seeing as he was already out.

thankfully, her prayers were fulfilled. viktor came up with hermione and helped her up.

as soon as the girl was out of the water, maddy grabbed some dry towels and rushed over to hermione's side, wrapping her in the fabric.

"t-thank y-you," hermione spoke, shaking from how cold she was.

"uh huh," maddy muttered out, hugging the younger girl to keep her warm.

they were soon pulled apart when ron and gabrielle popped out.

maddy smiled at hermione and headed over to help gabrielle, still feeling bad for the whole fleur situation.

once gabrielle started warming up, the taylor girl headed over to phoebe and ginny, where hermione now was.

the darker girl zoned out as she realized there had been no sign of her friend. she would be freaking out if it weren't for hermione, who had intertwined their hands.

moments later, harry shot up from out of the water and dumbledore began to speak after the boy was taken care of.

"attention! attention! the winner is-cedric diggory!"

the hufflepuffs cheered for the boy.

"for showing unique command of the bobblehead shark and for retrieving miss chang. the way i see it, mister potter would have finished first had it not been for his determination to rescue not only mister weasley but the others as well. we've agreed to award him second place for outstanding moral fibre."

"are you okay?" maddy whispered as dumbledore announced third and last place.

"seeing as im not dead, yes," harry joked.

everyone was then dismissed, so the gryffindors walked away from the great lake.

"all the moral fibre, eh?" fred spoke up.

"blimey, even when you go wrong you turn out right," ron chuckled.

"well done, moral fibre."

"congratulations, potter," crouch stopped the young wizards and witches. "fine achievement. well done, boy. i'm sorry we haven't spoken. after all, your story is one i've heard many times. quite remarkable. tragic of course, to lose one's family. never whole again, are we? still, life goes on, and here we stand. i'm sure your parents would be very proud today, potter," he continued, ignoring the fact that the taylor twins were right next to him.

moody suddenly appeared, causing maddy to jump into hermione.

"sorry," she quickly mumbled to the giggling girl.

"bartimus! not trying to lure potter into one of those ministry's summer internships, are we? last boy who went into the department of ministries never came out!"

"so he was gay?"

whack.

crouch looked at moody for a couple of seconds before walking away.

"and they say im mad!"

the professor hobbled away as hagrid walked up to the group of teenagers.

"i remember when i first met you all. biggest bunch of misfits i've ever set my eyes on. always reminded me of myself a little, and here we all are, four years later."

"we're still misfits," ron mentioned, causing the others to chuckle.

"maybe, but we've all got each other, and harry of course. soon to be the youngest tri-wizard champion there's ever been! hooray!"

everyone enjoyed the happy moment, but like all good things, it came to an end.

harry hissed, touching his scar and falling to his knees.

the taylor twins' hands went to their shoulders at the same time, although they didn't feel similar pain to harry.

"mister crouch."

the man was dead.

gasps erupted from the group and hagrid went to go find dumbledore. once he did, the headmaster sent the students to their dormitories while the adults took care of the situation.

word count- 1175
date written- october 9, 2020