Hermione Granger

A loud clap stirred the bushy haired Hermione to consciousness, groaning as she rolled over to get out of bed to start the day, like she had so many times before with her dorm mates since the beginning of term.

"I'll lead," Parvati said with a yawn as she took the central position as the rest of the girls formed a semi circle around the Indian girl, soft, tired smiles on most of their faces.

At first, the yoga was difficult for Hermione to do as she was not used to bending and contorting her body into the positions while still for what felt like hours, but, after months of doing it everyday, even Tanya's version was becoming easy to do.

None of that stopped Hermione from working up a bit of a sweat first thing in the morning despite how slow the motions were. Unfortunately, none of the books in the school library included anything about why standing in funny positions would be so strenuous.

Regardless, a sweaty and properly awake Hermione grabbed a clean uniform for the day, tossed her dirty nightwear aside, and joined the other girls in the shower.

"Ugh," Lavender groaned under the water stream.

"What's wrong?" Parvati asked, a sudsy lather in her hair.

"We got Defense and History today."

"Ugh, Binns is so boring and I can barely understand Quirrell."

"Must you complain every week?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yes!" Both Lavender and Parvati said.

"Let them complain," Tanya said as she scrubbed her hair. "Better to let it out than allow resentment to build. Oh, and Lavender, I do think that I do not like the haircut after all. Do you know of a way to fix it?"

"I think there is a hair growth potion, but I'll need to check."

"I think I saw it in one of the books in the library while-"

" 'Doing some light reading,' " Parvati quoted as Hermione finished her sentence, the bushy haired bookworm giving a small pout.

"If you could find that recipe, I would appreciate it."

"What kind of hairstyle would you like to try next?" Lavender asked, a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

"Don't know. Probably best to wait till after the potion has done its thing to decide."

Now clean, Hermione turned off her shower and grabbed a towel to dry off before putting on her uniform, packing her bag for the day, and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

The boys trickled down over the next hour, food and conversation being shared.

"Oh, I didn't ask," Hermione said, turning to Ron and Harry. "How was tea with Hagrid?"

"Good, but if you ever visit, don't eat the rock cakes," Ron said around a mouthful of crumpet. "I think he uses actual rocks."

"Ron, please swallow before talking," Hermione requested, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"Didn't you want to ask Hagrid something?" Lily asked Tanya.

"Hmm. I did, but I don't remember what about," Tanya said, her face tightening up in concentration as she tried to remember.

"I think it was something related to an animal."

"Hmm, maybe?" Tanya seemed unsure.

"Next time I go, why don't you come along?" Harry asked.

Tanya nodded agreement and the conversations moved onto other subjects until it was time to head to class where Professor Quirrell was standing at the front. Without prompting, Hermione and the other Gryffindors dug through their bags to pull out their essays and set them on his desk.

The professor had a nervous smile as he said, "Th-thank you cl-class. Today's l-lesson will be a-about b-beast classifications. H-how d-dangerous various beasts c-can be. T-turn to page one f-f-forty three please."

Hermione had to admit to herself that Quirrell was one of her least favorite professors due to his stutter making it harder to follow along with what he was saying, but he was open to answering questions asked in class and was knowledgeable. This lesson in particular had a lot of questions being asked, particularly surrounding trolls and what Tanya did several months ago.

Hermione was not one of the ones asking questions as she remembered the amount of blood flowing from the troll's wounds and the smell coming off it. How Tanya stood covered in the thick blood unbothered by the gruesome demise and was the only thing keeping her safe from causing death.

"Are you ok?" Tanya asked, breaking Hermione out of the memory, a hand on her arm. "You are trembling. Do you feel nauseous? Warm? Cold?"

Hermione gave Tanya a smile. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"You sure? We can go to Miss Pompfrey's office if you are feeling unwell."

Hermione shook her head.

"Is-is there someth-thing you would like to s-say?" Professor Quirrell asked, looking at the two of them.

Tanya smoothly released Hermione's arm and turned towards the professor. "No sir, I was just checking that my used copy had the same chart as Hermione's textbook."

"M-most of the cl-classification h-haven't changed in d-decades. You sh-should be f-fine."

Hermione returned her focus to the lesson, putting the troll out of mind as getting a bad grade would be so much worse than what almost occurred with the troll.

—-

Draco Malfoy

Tanya seeming to suddenly appear around a corner to ask Draco a question was rather startling, particularly with her hard gaze.

"Ah, Draco, would you be interested in joining me for tea Sunday?" Tanya asked.

"Yes?" Draco was a little uncertain how to handle the request, but his father's desire for him to get close to her made him agree quickly.

She nodded after the answer. "I will meet you next to the gargoyle to the Headmaster's Office for afternoon tea," she said before leaving him behind.

"The Headmaster's..?" Draco didn't know where the Headmaster's office was. He hadn't needed to go there and it seemed like it was an odd place to meetup considering he could just meet her at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Regardless of the meeting place, he would do his duty to his family and arrive at the meeting place to spend time with Tanya and get closer to her. While his father's thoughts about Potter seemed wrong as Potter seemed to be little more than a wet paper bag that is ok at flying Draco supposed, Tanya had something unnerving about her. Something that both were off-putting and attractive. If this is what You-Know-Who had about him, then Tanya being the next Dark Lady seemed likely and following from the start when she begins her reign would be a highly valuable position to be in.

With a shake of his head, Draco continued on his way to pick up Vincent and Gregory from where he left them in the library with a couple of books while he grabbed a volume for himself to focus on. That both of them could read was a relief to find after seeing how poorly they did on the midterm tests. He was concerned about how much effort it could take to help them pass the year, but Tanya had taken up the effort of helping them and that idiot Gryffindor girl pass. Whatever she was doing seemed to be working as both of the large boys had their heads in the books.

Dropping into a seat next to them, he opened up the book he had grabbed to see if it had any interesting spells he could bring to the dueling club. Potter may have gotten lucky, but Draco had the power and skill to beat him.

—

Potions class was one of Draco's favorites. Professor Snape was a great teacher who gave the Slytherins all the assistance they needed and making potions was something that was enjoyable to the scion of the Malfoy family. There was something satisfying about chopping up ingredients and mixing them into the cauldron and getting a magical result in a liquid form.

"We will be learning to bottle strength for when magic is not enough. So most of you fools should pay close attention," Snape began as he waltzed into the classroom, his robes billowing out behind him as he snapped his wand at the chalkboard where instructions and diagrams began appearing. His eyes passed over the class, stopping on Tanya. "Though I suppose at least one of you does not need the help."

With a flick of his wand, Snape sent one of the main ingredients for the potion from a cabinet to each workbench, a mostly red flower with blue spots and fangs on the edges of the petals, especially around the opening. "First we will be going over how to properly collect the fangs from the Fanged Geranium. You want to collect just the fangs with as little of the petal as possible. First cut the petal off the stem…"

Draco paid attention and carefully followed the instructions, getting his fangs cleanly separated from the rest of the flower whole and clean. Vincent managed to get his cleanly separated, but they were in broken pieces while Greggory's fangs had red sap covering the still whole fangs.

After the flower fangs were harvested, they began to grind snake fangs in their mortar into a fine powder. The class was mostly quiet with only the sound of stone on stoneware and slowly crushing teeth. As they transitioned to actually brewing the potion, Draco had a brief moment where he was tempted to toss some of Greggory's fangs into Longbottom's cauldron. He stopped himself as he remembered Tanya talking about how important it was to know where boundaries for his friends were and that it was always better to err on the side of caution. Longbottom was one of Tanya's friends and Draco needed to be on the good side of Tanya and her friends if he was going to follow his father's wishes.

Draco put the fangs into a hidden position and slid some of his properly harvested fangs in front of Greggory before continuing onto the next step of the brewing process.

—

Albus Dumbledore

Peering out of his office window, Dumbledore watched as the students were having a fun Sunday off from classes. Staring out to the lightly snow dusted grounds, a soft smile came to the old man's face. It was moments like this that everything was right in the world. Children being children. The future having fun and shining brightly, even if just for a brief moment.

A brief moment interrupted by his fireplace igniting in green flames and Bagman's face appearing. Dumbledore sighed before putting on a polite smile and turning around.

"Ah, Ludovic, what can I do for you?" Dumbledore asked as he crouched down in front of the fireplace.

"Dumbledore, old bean, I just happened to be looking through some old documents and had a smashing idea. There is this old tournament between Hogwarts, Durmstrong, and Beauxbatons that hasn't been run in years."

Dumbledore frowned at the mention of that tournament. "Yes, the Triwizard tournament. I am familiar with it. It was ended because the casualty rate grew to be too excessive, even getting spectators killed in the last one."

Bagman laughed jovially. "Don't you worry about that. We will make sure the tasks won't be getting out of hand."

Dumbledore stroked his beard, frown firmly on his face. "I don't know about this. It is a rather large request. And even if you can ensure the tasks are safe, how would you convince the other schools to get involved? Which school would even be hosting it after so long?"

"Oh don't you worry about the other schools. I was talking to my counterparts in the other ministries and they are just as excited to bring this tournament back. As for which school would be hosting, that was the reason I was calling, to let you know that Hogwarts is the next school in the cycle to play host!"

Dumbledore sighed, eyes closing as he realized he wasn't being asked for his opinion, but simply to be be told as headmaster of the hosting school.

"I suppose my hands are tied if you are already this far along. However," Dumbledore stared at the green flaming head in his fireplace with resolve, "I will be kept in the loop every step of the way to make sure everything is as safe as you claim it to be."

"Of course, old bean. I will personally call you every step of the way. There is a lot to prepare, so we won't be ready for at least a year to kick it off. Tah tah for now."

With the flames dying down, Dumbledore took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Bagman was right that there was a lot to prepare. Dumbledore could feel in his bones that the tournament was going to be a disaster, but despite all his titles, despite his position as headmaster of the school to be hosting the tournament, there was only so much he could really do to stop it. Especially without making compromises on other issues far more important than a mere tournament.

Creaking his way back into a standing position, Dumbledore relocated himself to his desk to draft some notes while his mind was busy firing in every cylinder on what he would most likely need to look out for and the various things he would need to put in place to ensure any collateral is mitigated.

It was with several pages of notes scattered on his desk and a migraine forming that he was alerted to a visitor at his office, looking to the clock, Dumbledore was mildly surprised to see he had worked through lunch and it was tea time. Which meant young Ms. Degurechaff and Mr. Malfoy must be waiting. Granting permission for them to enter and giving a sweep of his wand, the notes were all gathered up and neatly stacked to one side of his desk.

The pair of first years arrived to Dumbledore having just finished putting a kettle over his fire to heat up. Typically, he would just have his tea pot arrive already filled with freshly boiled water, but today he was going to be doing something a bit different with a little tea sampler.

Turning to the pair, Dumbledore could see the differences in their body language clear as day. Ms. Degurechaff was confident as she went to take her seat as she bowed her head and greeted him.

"Hello Headmaster."

Mr. Malfoy, in contrast, was a bundle of nerves. No doubt a combination of the boy's father's influence and this being the first time he was in the headmaster's office. Oh, he did an admirable job attempting to hide it behind a mask of arrogance, but Dumbledore had been in politics for decades and a teacher of students even longer. There are always tells, and Mr. Malfoy's were practically screaming at Dumbledore.

"Good Afternoon Professor," Mr. Malfoy said a touch stiffly as he took his seat, sitting far too upright while Tanya was the picture of calm,

"Ms. Degurechaff, always a delight to have you. And it is a pleasure you could join us Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said, giving the pair an honest smile and shaking their hands before taking his wand and tapping his desk. Five small tea pots appeared along with six tea cups, five small carefully arranged bowls filled with tea leaves, some milk and a sugar bowl, and a small tower of finger sandwiches. A small tower that Dumbledore noticed had a few more sandwiches than normal for three people. Dumbledore chuckled quietly to himself at the care the elves had for him.

"Oh, Draco, Professor Dumbledore offered to teach magical languages if we could get enough interest to form a club. Would you be interested in joining?"

Dumbledore was highly amused at the panic expression on Mr. Malfoy's face. If Dumbledore didn't know Ms. Degurechaff was twelve, no matter how unusual she may be, he would think that she was a practiced politician for putting Mr. Malfoy into a position where it was nearly impossible for him to decline. In high society it was considered a faux pas to decline an invite being a guest to an event by a fellow guest in front of the event host. Of course, if the host has allowed the guest doing the inviting to invite others, it would be impolite for the host to turn down a guest that was invited by the guest they allowed to give invites, not that Dumbledore would hold such against Ms. Degurechaff nor deny Mr. Malfoy the ability freely accept or decline as he chose.

"What kind of languages?" Mr. Malfoy asked, looking at Dumbledore.

"Mermish and Gobbledegook are the two I would be capable of teaching, though I would also be open to discussions on the other languages. A club would enable us a more open structure in the matter of magical languages than a class would require," Dumbledore said, leaning back in his seat and stroking his beard as he thought about such a club, his eyes unfocused on an empty section of wall above the door to his office.

The kettle over the fire began whistling causing Mr. Malfoy to startle. Slowly, Dumbledore got to his feet and grabbed the kettle.

"I'll join," Mr. Malfoy said a bit reluctantly.

Ms. Degurechaff smiled. "How many students do we need for the club?"

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he thought through the current school rules. "I believe six is the minimum for an official school club to be formed."

"Good. With Draco, we have six."

Dumbledore looked at Ms. Degurechaff with a smile. "Really now? Who have you gotten to agree to join the club?"

"Myself, Harry, Hermione, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin, and now Draco."

"I see. How about we gather together for tea time for the club meetings on Sundays to start?" Dumbledore suggested with a smile. "We can adjust the club meetings later if needed."

"I will inform the others," Tanya said as she looked closer at the bowls of tea leaves.

"I suppose we should be getting to the tea tasting, shouldn't we?" Dumbledore asked. "I have five teas for us to try today and even did a little research into the ones I am not familiar with." Dumbledore picked up a bowl full of strands of dark tea leaves. "First, we have what should be one of the more familiar teas, a good, standard, black tea. Add a bit of bergamot and you would have an Earl Grey. Process it further and you get a nice breakfast tea. Today we will be sampling the loose, whole leaf version, though when I stopped by the shop and mentioned I was doing a tea sampling, the friendly young lad that was helping me suggested this should be the second to last of these we sample today as it has a much stronger flavor compared to some of the more delicate offerings."

Dumbledore picked up another bowl with tea leaves that seemed to have been clumped together. "Poo wear tea," Dumbledore said carefully. "I have not tried it as it is apparently rather rare and expensive, but from what I have gathered, puer tea takes the longest to produce because it goes through some sort of aging process that results in a very intense experience. This will be the last one we will be trying today."

Mr. Malfoy looked rather curious about the puer tea while Ms. Degurechaff seemed to simply be attentive as she sat there listening.

Setting the bowl down, Dumbledore grabbed the next bowl, filled little brown balls of tea leaves. "Oolong tea I have had plenty of times, including during a few of our previous meetings Ms. Degurechaff. In many ways, it is similar to black teas and I thought we would actually be best served by tasting it at the same time as the black tea, to really compare the two."

With that, Dumbledore grabbed the last two bowls. One had strands of vibrantly green leaves and the other looked like a bowl full of dry leaves one might find in the yard, being shades of green to light brown. "First though, we will be trying green and white tea at the same time as these are the most delicately, and lightest flavored teas. When I asked the young lad about these, he told me that they are both the least processed teas on the market. White tea is taken from the plant and dried immediately and green tea is cooked quickly then dried. The other teas go through other processes before being dried."

Having said his little introduction, Dumbledore dumped the two bowls into the tea pots before following them up with steaming water from the kettle. As he waited for the tea to steep, Dumbledore set a pair of tea cups in front of both Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Degurechaff.