Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - The video game.

Harry, Hermione and Ron, best friends who all attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, were trying to decide where to go for the Christmas holidays of their seventh year at the school. Voldemort had been defeated the previous summer, and now they had nothing to do.

Harry vaguely suggested they go to his place, then realized what he was saying and smacked himself in the head.

They didn't really feel like going to The Burrow, as they had been there so many times, and Grimmauld Place just had too many bad memories.

Then Hermione, ever the smart one, came up with an idea. "Hey," she said. "Why don't you both come stay at my house for the holidays? My mum just got this new Muggle device called a 'Playstation 2', and you know how Muggles make all that merchandise about us, Harry? Well, apparently there's this really good game called 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's based on that movie that Daniel, Emma and Rupert did about our fourth year, and it's supposed to be really fun and good to play with friends."

The others looked kind of dubious at the mention of the Muggle game, but, as they had no better ideas, agreed that going to Hermione's sounded pretty good.

And so it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Granger would pick all three of them up at King's Cross Station and take them to Hermione's nice little house in a nice little town with nice little parks and lakes. Of course, Harry and Ron didn't really see any of this because as soon as they arrived at the house, they jumped out of the car and rushed through the front door. Or at least, they tried to.

"It's locked, boys." Mrs. Granger's voice came from behind the car, where she was getting their trunks out of the boot. They waited till she had dragged the trunks to where they were standing, not thinking to help her at all. (They were so used to carrying things by magic they had forgotten she couldn't.)

They bounced up and down anxiously as she fumbled to get the key in the lock, both eager to see the inside of their friend's house.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally opened the door, and they rushed past her into what appeared to be the living room. They looked around for a bit, then decided it might be wise to calm down and wait for Hermione to show them around.

She came in levitating all three of their trunks - they were legally of age now, and therefore allowed to use magic outside of school - and glaring at them.

"Thanks for all your help, guys," she said as she sent the trunks up to the guest bedroom.

"You seemed to manage perfectly fine on your own," said Harry as he stood up from the couch he had found.

"You going to show us your bedroom or what? And where's the game thing you told us about?" Ron asked, also standing up.

"Yes, I will show you my bedroom, and the Playstation 2 is in there," Hermione said with a sigh. She led them up the stairs, first pointing out where the kitchen was. As they went along the hallway, Hermione pretended to be a tour guide.

"And here we have the master bedroom, where my parents sleep; to your right you will see a door leading to the bathroom...over here is where you two will be sleeping, and here is my bedroom," she finished. Ron walked in without invitation, but Harry was a bit more cautious, having never entered a girl's bedroom before. Hermione walked in after Ron; Harry hesitated, and then followed slowly.

What he saw made his eyes widen and his heart almost stop.

Ron had found Hermione's underwear drawer.

She was currently chasing him around the room attempting to get one of her bras back, while at the same time trying to pick up all the other undergarments Ron had scattered around her room. Harry decided to ignore them and instead checked out Hermione's room. It was pretty big, with a queen-sized bed, a walk-in closet and a TV. She also had a dressing table, from which Ron had stolen her bra.

"Hey, Harry!" he said loudly, jumping on and over the bed. "She's a 14C! That's pretty big, isn't it?" he asked, clueless as ever. Harry was startled by the news; he had always thought Hermione was rather small, but then, he had only really seen her in school uniform, and she was 18 now...

He was jarred out of his thoughts by the sound of Ron being hit over the head with an umbrella that Hermione had pulled out from under her bed.

It disorientated him for a few seconds, long enough for Hermione to grab her brassiere and stuff it back in with its companions, but Harry was sure he saw something red and lacy being shoved into Ron's pocket. He really didn't want to know.

"Look, do you want to play the game or not?" asked Hermione, her tone distinctly one of annoyance. Ron frowned. He didn't like it when he really annoyed her. He decided to make it all better. He walked up behind her as she was arranging the Playstation and game so they could all play, and wrapped his arms round her waist. "Hey," he said softly in her ear with his deep voice. He knew that drove her crazy. He supported her as he felt her knees weaken. "I'm sorry, forgive me?" He nuzzled her neck.

"Ronald..." she started. "Oh, you know I can never stay mad at you." She turned and smiled at him, then kissed him.

"Ahem." Harry coughed uncomfortably in the background. They pulled apart at the reminder that he was in the room.

Hermione turned around and switched the game on while Ron smiled sheepishly at Harry, then jumped when the TV made a noise. "Oh, Ron, don't be silly, it's just the game, it makes lots of noises." Ron seemed to relax slightly, though he looked a bit wary when she handed him the extension controller. She handed Harry the player two controller and proceeded to explain which buttons did what. "Now, the game will have little boxes telling you what buttons to press for important spells; you just do as it says," she concluded.

"Why don't we just use our wands?" asked Ron dubiously.

"Because, Ron, that would most likely blow up the TV and then we would never finish the game." Hermione sighed. "Okay, so just, try and play the game the way you're supposed to." She had a bad feeling about this...

She set up a new game and chose the character she would play (herself); the others chose themselves as well.

An introduction to the game issued from the TV - they were apparently at the Quidditch World Cup. Ron was trying to control himself in the game, but found he couldn't; Hermione explained that he had to wait until the introduction was over.

All of a sudden, instructions appeared on the screen, telling them to find the Portkey.

Their characters appeared on screen. Ron fiddled around with his joystick a bit.

"Ron, stop! You keep walking into the fire! You're dying!" Hermione yelled at him, as she guided the game Hermione around the tent. Harry started to follow, then went back to try and show Ron the way. All three of them were shouting now; Ron was telling Hermione to come back and Hermione was telling him to follow her. Harry noted that they appeared to be stuck. None of them could move forward or back because of the tent in their way and the position of their characters.

"What are we going to do now? I can't blow up the tent and we can't go around it, so what can we do?" Harry asked.

Hermione sighed, and then pressed restart. "Let's try this again, except this time, don't walk into the fire constantly, Ron," she told him.

The second time round they managed to get into the foresty area. They were going all right until some kind of monster popped out of the ground. Ron yelled, and immediately started pushing random buttons. He eventually hit one that cast a blue light at the creature, causing it to explode.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked, while keeping his eyes fixed on the screen, battling another one of the monsters.

"You press the 'X' button," Ron explained, exploding another one. Soon all the creatures were gone, and they continued on through the forest.

"Hey, look, it's my dad!" Ron pointed out excitedly.

And, indeed, Ron's dad was standing on a rock. Another note appeared on the screen, telling them to press the square button to levitate objects. They continued through the game this way, learning new spells, until they eventually reached a level titled 'Hogwarts Exterior'.

By this time they had discovered that if you found beans, you could buy cards that increased your abilities. They had all gotten a card called a 'friendship card', which enabled them to regain health if they stood next to each other. They had also discovered that when you got hurt, you lost beans. Ron had lost the most.

They entered Hogwarts exterior, not knowing what to expect, but they just seemed to be on the roof of the castle. Moody's voice seemed to echo all around them, telling them to collect triwizard shields. As they had no idea what these were, they decided to wander around a bit. Ron groaned. "Since when did Hogwarts get this BIG?" he asked in annoyance. Harry had found some cauldrons that you could lift up and drop to explode things. He grinned evilly. He picked one up, and dropped it on Ron's character's head, making him drop beans. Ron's voice came from the TV - "Look! Beans!" - but the Ron in the bedroom was shooting him evil glances. Harry and Hermione teamed up against Ron.

"Look, I got him!"

"Get his beans!"

"Great game for friends, indeed," Ron muttered.

* * * * *

"Follow me, Hermione, I'm the leader!"

"Shut up, Harry, you don't know where you're going!"

"Look, more beans!"

"Ron, will you please make your character shut up about the stupid beans!"

"I don't know how!"

"Harry, help me out over here, this thing's killing me!"

"I'm trying to put out the fire!"

"Forget the fire; just use herbivicus to make a path for us!"

"Hermione, I'm dead, and we have no chocolate frogs left, we have to start the level all over again!"

Hermione put down her controller. They had just attempted a level called 'Herbology'. It was extremely hard.

"Do you want to try again?" Ron asked hopefully.

They eventually tired of the game, and, as it was about half eleven, went to bed, agreeing that they would finish it in the morning.