Crossing of Fates

Chapter 2-- A new friend and a common enemy

It was after dinner, and Hermione sat by the lake alone; she admired the moon's reflection, flickering lightly on the lake. That was when she felt that she was being watched. She took out her wand and got up silently. She whipped around only to hear a muffled "Ouch!"

She saw Harry Potter appear and it suddenly struck her that he must have an invisibility cloak. "Oh, I'm so sorry," stammered Hermione, "I had no idea you were there. I'm Hermione Granger. You're Harry Potter, I saw you during dinner. Is that an invisibility cloak? I've heard that they're really valuable. In fact, from the book called The Making of an Invisibility Cloak they say that these things are extremely rare. Oh, sorry, I'm speaking much too fast."

Harry stared for a moment. " You're right, pleased to meet you. I also saw you during dinner. Yes, this is an invisibility cloak, and they are extremely rare. It was my father's," he concluded with a grin.

Hermione laughed, "Why are you here? Are you spying on me?" she asked, with a suspicious look.

He shook his head. "I am here because I'm sure I must have seen you before. You look very familiar. Do I know you?"

"That's impossible. I've never seen you before, and I never forget a face, especially a famous one. Besides, I go to school in France, how could you possibly have met me?"

"I don't know, I just have this strange feeling. I'm sure we must have met."

"Are you going to try and enter the competition?"

"Goodness, no. I'm enough of a celebrity."

They sat and chatted for a long time. Hermione revealed a great deal about herself like she had never before with anyone else.

" Oh, no, it's eleven thirty! I've got to go, Harry; curfew's at midnight for me, so I need to get going or else Professor Maxine will be angry. Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Hermione."

He walked her to the carriage, before leaving for the castle. Hermione watched him through the window until he disappeared from view.

**********

The next morning, Hermione went for a run and discovered that none of the Hogwarts students were up yet, though most of the Beauxbatons were already up and waiting to go to class. They had gone to the Great Hall at six-thirty to put their names in the goblet, and have an early breakfast.

They saw the Durmstrang delegation was already there. A tall and grumpy looking boy, which some of Hermione's friends recognized as Viktor Krum, was putting his name into the Goblet.

Krum walked out of the castle and towards the ship. Hermione patiently waited for her turn while her schoolmates put in their names. When it was her turn, she put it in carefully and watched as it disappeared into the goblet, without being burned.

She sat at a corner of the table, to get some peace and quiet, and started reading a Herbology book.

Fleur came to sit next to her after some time. "Bonjour, Hermione, comment ça va?."

"Morning, Fleur. Why are you so late?"

"I was being crowded by a group of ogling Hogwarts boys just now. They're so annoying. What are you reading?"

Hermione lifted her book for Fleur to see. " Oh, that's interesting," Fleur said. "Do you need any help? That is one of the hardest lessons of Herbology I've ever had before."

At that moment they were interrupted by a loud noise. Hermione and Fleur looked up and were greeted with the impressive sight of owls sweeping in and dropping mails in front of their owners.

"It's lovely, isn't it? I hadn't read about it," Hermione said as she stood up. "I've got to go for my lesson, Fleur. A tout á l' heure."

Fleur smiled at her before continuing with her breakfast.

Hermione slowly walked out of the Great Hall and to the front entrance. Just then, she saw Harry and his friend. She was going to call out to Harry, when he and his friend suddenly stiffened. Coming down from the stairs was a boy with silvery blonde hair.

"Potty and Weasel! Brooding over Weasel's break-up?" The boy said, with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

The redhead was furious it seemed, for he turned shades of red and attempted lunging at the blonde boy. Harry grabbed the back of his robes, and the blonde boy smirked again.

"What - too cowardly to fight? Muggle-loving fools."

Hermione felt rage surging through her. It also seemed to strike a nerve for Harry, who let go of Ronald. When both reached for their wands, Hermione decided to interrupt.

"Salut, Harry! And you must be Ronald," she said, in her best French accent. "Who is he?" she asked, looking at the blonde boy.

Harry gaped for a moment, "That's Malfoy, a Slytherin git,"Â he spat.

Malfoy scrutinized her for a moment. "Draco Malfoy at your service," he said to Hermione. "You wouldn't want to be friends with trash like this. Potty and Weasel, both Muggle-loving fools."

Hermione 's eyes emanated fury to all directions, and she glared angrily at him. Harry saw that Hermione, though angry at that moment, still looked very pretty. Malfoy shot her a look of utter shock.

"How dare you insult my friend! You'd better get along now, or you'll wish you've never been born. I learned martial arts since I was a child. Besides, I've won twice in a hexing competition last year."

Malfoy hurriedly disappeared from sight after glaring at her spitefully.

Harry gazed gratefully at her. "Thanks, Hermione. Where are you going?"

"Oh, I forgot. I was going to my lessons. I'll be late! I'll talk to you later, then. Good-bye, Harry. Bye, Ronald, it was nice meeting you," she said, and flew down the flight of stairs and into the carriage. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that her friends were still outside.

**********

The four students sat down at the desks, and the Headmistress began talking to them about Divination. It was a compulsory subject in Beauxbatons, and their usual Divination teacher was a strong and well-known seer.

The Headmistress was giving them an introduction on seers. "Seers are extraordinarily powerful people. They can see into the past and the future. Most of the seers are Muggle-borns and they will discover their talent when the time comes. Seers can pass their powers to people. They can give other people the power to look into the future unknowingly sometimes. However, the person must be of great importance to the seer." The Headmistress paused while the students digested this piece of information. "Now, I'd like all of you to go back, and research on Seers. Hand in an essay to me on Monday. That's all for this week; please hand in the last week's essay on the Unforgivable Curses."

Hermione handed in her work and walked out of the classroom with Lavon and Renay, looking for the Hogwarts Library. As they walked along the corridors, trying to find the library, Hermione saw Harry walking towards them.

"Hello, Harry. I was wondering if you could take us to the library. We seem to be lost."

"Sure, I'm in no hurry anyway. I still have half an hour before the next lesson."

"Oh," Hermione exclaimed, "Where are my manners? Let me introduce to you my friends. This is Renay; she's a Chaser in my school's Quidditch team. You see, we have five houses, unlike your school, and each house has a Quidditch team. Renay's the Chaser in my house, the house of courage and bravery. And this is Lavon, who is English like me."

"Hello, Renay, Lavon. Nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter."

Both stared at him and turned their concentration on his forehead, shook his hand and stared at Hermione, who shrugged slightly.

"Where's the library, Harry?" Hermione asked

He led them up the staircases and down corridors, until they arrived. He pushed open the doors and they entered. Hermione looked like she could have kissed Harry on the spot at the sight of so many books.

"Oh, thank you, Harry. This library is huge!"

"No problem. Well, I've got to get going for class. Same place, same time later this evening?"

"Okay. See you later, Harry," she said as he left. When she turned around, her friends were staring at her.

"What?"

"He's so absolutely gorgeous. How did you get him?"

"I didn't do anything. He's just a friend."

Her friends nodded, rolling their eyes and followed her to a desk. Hermione got a thick book from the shelf about seers. It was dusty and she carefully blew away the dust. It seemed as if no one had read it before at all. Hermione opened the book, and entertained herself with the history and an introduction on Seers.

Usually, in one generation, there is only one Seer, who is always a female.

They are usually identified by their trances when receiving a vision and ability

to read other people's minds. However, most people don't know that Seers can

usually pass their powers to someone whom is important to them, or someone who

will be important to them, through dreams. This is a talent that will first begin

to develop and allow the Seer to identify her gift.

Seers can also be telepathic with their significant other. They can communicate

in their minds no matter how far the distance. This is unable to be detected by

anyone through any form of magic.

The first Seer of all time was Rowena Ravenclaw herself. She was able to look

years into the future and predicted the downfall of a dark wizard many years into the future, who is know to us as Grindelwald. She was also the

most powerful Seer in history. She also made a strange prediction that no one

has figured out yet; it was made just before her death.

United with love, shall the light prevail?

It is rumoured that the Seers have a special book of their own in which all the

powerful ways of wielding magic by Seers, and Seers only, are recorded. Only Seers

can lay their hands on it. It is currently in procession by the current Seer,

Tanesha Matye.

For every generation, there are usually many possible candidates to be trained

to be Seers. However, only one will truly become a Seer, as she is the most

powerful in the group of students trained.

Seers will usually develop their talents by the age of fifteen. Most Seers usually

show their powers by a sudden burst of energy that can occur when provoked or

when saddened. It is said that Seers can live longer than usual witches and they

don't need wands to perform magic. Also, they can transfer energy into whom they

want to help, though only a single person in their entire lifetime.

It was rumoured that You-Know-Who had gotten some power from his lover, Tanesha's mentor, Sharice, who is currently dead. Sharice and You-Know-Who had fallen in

love and had a baby, before he became a dark wizard. The child is also dead,

killed by its own father.

As most Seers are heirs of Ravenclaw, Tanesha is trying to find the true heir of

Ravenclaw before it is too late.

Hermione stopped reading, and did her assignment, writing on what she had read, and her thoughts on it. She wondered who the Seer would be, and hoped that whoever she was, she would be found soon.

**********

At noon, Hermione left her friends, and went down to explore the castle a little. She went up and down the stairs that kept moving around. She was suddenly brought to an empty corridor that looked positively mysterious. Unwilling to be involved in any adventures at the moment, she went back down, and bumped into Malfoy, whom she had met earlier in the morning.

He was with two of his friends. They seemed to be large and clumsy people. Pretending to ignore him, she continued down the corridor, but he caught her by her shoulders.

"So, Miss Granger, fancy a little bit of fun?" he said as he pulled her a little closer.

His goons were sniggering, and they pinned her to the wall, while Draco's face came nearer to hers. Hermione struggled, but was pinned back by the two strong boys. She tried kicking Malfoy, but was unable to.

What occurred next happened so fast that she could not remember exactly what had ensued. She pushed aside the two boys and landed a kick on Malfoy. She cast the full body-bind on them all just in case they got up again.

"You'll regret it. I told you before: I've been learning fencing and karate since I was five years old and I'm good at hexes too," Hermione said angrily.

At that moment, she heard approaching footsteps. A strict-looking professor came along.

"What happened?"

Hermione explained what had happened to the professor who sympathetically listened to her plight.

"Very well, they shall be given a month's detention and fifty points from Slytherin. I'd say you did pretty well with your body Bind."

Hermione blushed prettily and thanked the professor before going her way.

**********

Hermione felt numb, she couldn't concentrate on anything and felt nauseous. Just then, Harry appeared.

"Harry?'

"Hermione, what happened?" he asked, looking at her disheveled state.

She told him everything while he put an arm around her comfortingly. Thinking about the consequences of what might have happened, she started sobbing. Harry enveloped her in his hug, while she clung to him, crying.

It attracted a lot of attention from many students, but Hermione didn't care. She cried her heart out, while Harry consoled her. After a while, she stopped crying and she realized she had drenched his robe.

"Oh, Harry! I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that I had drenched your robe. I'm so very sorry," she said, while she was doing a drying spell on him. "Were you in a hurry to go anywhere?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I was just going to go to the library for something."

Hermione nodded, and followed him to the library, while he helped to carry her books. In the library, he took her to a desk that was more isolated.

"I usually come here to study, because no one else comes here. This is the Divination part of the library. Our Divination Professor is always predicting my death. That's why I love divination," he said sarcastically.

Hermione gave a tiny giggle. " Well, Divination in Beauxbatons isn't too bad. Our professor is quite good at it. She is one of the best seers in the world for her generation."

They chatted for a while before leaving for lunch together.

Hermione sat at the Ravenclaw table reading, while Harry sat at the Gryffindor table, stirring his food around. Noticing Hermione had finished, Harry got up, and followed her out of the Great Hall, leaving the Gryffindors bewildered. Harry had not spoken to a single person during lunch, and only stared at Hermione.

As Harry and Hermione made their way along the corridors, they came across Ron.

" Hello Ron," Harry said, while Hermione muttered, "Hello, Ronald."

Ron shot Hermione a cold look, smiled at Harry and left. Hermione felt an uneasy silence settle upon them. They knew that Ron was unhappy because Harry was spending time with Hermione.

"Hermione, he's just jealous. He'll be alright with it after a while." Hermione nodded and the two of them spent the rest of the afternoon studying with Lavon and Renay.

**********

At dinner, everyone was waiting impatiently for the three champions three to be named. At last, Professor Dumbledore stood up and smiled benignly. "I hope you have enjoy your meal. We will now announce the champions of the three schools."

The Goblet of Fire was glowing; a piece of paper came out from it.

"From Durmstrang, we have Viktor Krum."

"From Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour."

Hermione clapped for her, despite her disappointment, and gave her a hug.

"And from Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory."

Everyone clapped loudly for the champions, when, suddenly, another piece of paper appeared.

"Harry Potter, please come to the front," said Dumbledore solemnly.

Every eye was on Harry. He had a look of utter shock on his face. Hermione shot him an encouraging look. Then, slowly, he opened the golden door leading to a chamber, and entered. The door closed lightly behind him.

The whole hall began talking in hushed whispers. Hermione had a feeling that this came as unexpectedly to Harry as it did to her. When dinner ended, the students were told to return to their dorms.

Hermione waited by the lake for Harry. She knew he would still come and waited patiently. The Giant Squid was nowhere to be seen, and the lake was peaceful. Hermione lightly treaded the water as she sat on a rock. Eventually, she heard him running towards her.

"Hello, Harry."

"Hi, Hermione."

There was an awkward silence while Harry looked at his feet, which had suddenly become a source of interesting. Hermione looked at him, concern in her eyes. Before he said anything, however, she spoke first.

"I believe you, Harry. I know you didn't put your name in. I saw it was as much a shock to you as to me. The look on your face shows pretty much everything, but how could there have been four champions?"

Harry looked up, his eyes lighting up. "Thank you, for believing me Hermione. No one knows how there are four champions. Professor Moody came up with a strange theory. He's our Defence against the Dark Arts professor."

Hermione listened to Harry while he say what had happened.

"Why me, Hermione, why me?" he asked, in an almost childish innocence. Hermione stared up at the stars.

"Harry, some things are destined to be. They have to happen, or they will disrupt the life on earth, and the normal working of every day life. This is fate, and we can't possibly change it," she said, surprising both herself and Harry.

He nodded, "I've got to go, Hermione. I'll come again tomorrow. Ron will be expecting me. Good night."

She leaned forward and hugged him.

At once, Harry felt comfort and warmth. He felt so much better, and realized that Hermione was his friend. She would go through thick and thin with him, and their friendship was firmly built. No one and nothing could ever disrupt it.