The following days were awkward, to say the least. The morning after Marina and Ben had hung out together, the boy sat with her and her friend Delilah at the Hufflepuff table, since he didn't want to continue being ignored by Hermione. Besides, for some reason, there was a strange sensation regarding Harry on his chest. He was afraid of the moment where he'd have to see him again, after the drama he had caused the afternoon before. So, he was glad when he saw that both he and Ron had drawn the curtains on their beds when he arrived at their dormitory.

He ended up meeting them at class only some hours later, though, and they sat next to him, with Hermione not even looking at him. He was starting to get quite annoying at her childish behaviour. Therefore, he decided that, until she came into her senses and realised he had done nothing wrong, he wouldn't hang out with them.

Not as a kind of punishment, or anything of the sort, but simply because it made him uncomfortable, and the girl was starting to get heavily on his nerves.

So, Ben spent pretty much every single second of his free time with either Marina, Thomas and Leah, or Cedric. He had a lot of fun with them but, deep down, he couldn't help but miss his best friends.

One sunny afternoon, Ben was hanging out outside with Cedric, Mei-Xing, and Rolf Scamander, one of Cedric's best friends. At first, Ben had been hesitant about joining them, since he didn't want to bother them by intruding, but both Hufflepuff boys and the Ravenclaw girl had insisted, so he sat next to them on the soft, warm grass.

"Is it true you're going to put your name into the Goblet of Fire as soon as they allow participants to, Cedric?" he asked.

Cedric swallowed hard, and placed a small daisy he had just picked up between Mei-Xing's dark, shiny hair. She blushed, and rested her head on the boy's shoulder.

"Well, yes... I really want to try."

"Oh."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing... It's just that, well, the tournament is quite dangerous, isn't it?"

Rolf, who had been lying on the grass, sat up straight in an instant. "That's exactly what I told him! The tournament is incredibly dangerous. Why do you think they've been considering cancelling it permanently for years?"

"But, if they haven't, it's for a reason, Rolf," retorted Cedric, calmly. "They've probably improved the security of each task, and I'm sure it won't be that dangerous anymore."

"But what if you're wrong?" inquired Rolf, getting nervous. "What if something goes terribly wrong, and you get killed?"

Ben got the strongest chill he had ever gotten down his spine.

"He's not going to get killed," stated Mei-Xing, raising her head momentarily from Cedric's shoulder, in order to speak more clearly. "Dumbledore won't let any of his students die. I'm sure that, if anything goes wrong, he'll be the first one to step up and protect every champion."

"I guess that's true," admitted Rolf.

"And, apart from that, Cedric's absolutely capable of doing amazing in any task he might be given if he's selected as the Hogwarts champion. He's incredibly smart, and intelligent, so I doubt he'll have any trouble if it comes to having to solve a riddle, or something of the sort. And, as you know, he's an awesome Seeker. He has very quick reflexes, a perfect vision, and he's really strong, too. I know that he'd do such an awesome job, and he could even win."

Now, it was Cedric's turn to turn pink. He couldn't even contain his smile like a fool in love, and his eyes were literally sparkling at the sight of his girlfriend. The boy extended his hand to take Mei-Xing's carefully.

Footsteps were heard from behind, and Harry and Ron appeared. Ben stood as straight as a broomstick before anyone could even utter a single word. Ron smiled at Cedric, Mei-Xing and Rolf, as a kind of greeting, but Harry didn't even look at them.

Ben quickly glanced over at him, too afraid to do it for too long, and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed his friend's eyes meeting his own.

"Hello!" greeted Cedric, grinning.

"Hey! Um... Would you three mind it if we took Ben from you?" asked Ron. "We've got to talk to him about something important."

"Oh, no, that's okay," he answered. "I really ought to go to the library anyway. And so do you, Rolf, we've got to finish our Potions essay."

Ben waved goodbye at them, and walked after Ron and Harry, who were heading inside the castle. "What's going on?"

"We have to talk to you," responded Ron.

"About what?"

"About what's going on with you."

Ben stopped walking at once. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let's keep going, we'll explain it as we walk," Ron told him, and grabbed his arm to make him continue the march. Grumbling under his breath, he did as he was told. "Why are you avoiding us now?"

"I'm not avoiding you."

"You haven't hung out with us in around a week," noted Ron.

"I- We get that you have a girlfriend now," added Harry, finally speaking. As odd as it might sound, it was the first time he had spoken directly to him in a couple of days, and it brought him some sort of longing sensation. "But-"

"I don't have a girlfriend, Harry," he interrupted him, sounding slightly desperate. "I don't know who you're referring to, but I can assure you I don't. Merlin, I don't even want to have a girlfriend!"

Ron and Harry exchanged a swift glance, and the redhead began smirling devilishly, as the black-haired boy suddenly started coughing.

Since neither of them were replying, Ben continued explaining, staring at him. "Look, I wanted to be with you. I promise. I like being with Cedric, and Marina, and Thomas, and all of them... But they aren't you- you three. You are my best friends, and we've been through so much together, and I don't want to lose you. You have no idea of how much I've missed being around all of you."

"Trust me, we do," said Harry, in a husky voice, probably from coughing. Ben's heart fluttered. "But, why didn't you come with us, then?"

"Because Hermione's mad at me," he replied. "You know I tried to fix it, but she just won't listen, and I don't even know what to do. She won't let me explain to her I can't do anything about the elves we have at home. I can't simply free them, my parents would h... It won't end well."

"We know, that's one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you," he said. "We want to solve this."

"What are you going to do, then?"

"Well, Hermione's in our dorm right now. We told her we wanted to show her something, and to wait for us there. We talked to Dean and Seamus, and they'll be out for the whole afternoon. Neville suggested staying with her and chatting, to make sure she wouldn't leave if it took us longer than expected to find you," explained Ron as they approached the Fat Lady's portrait.

"What if she leaves when I get there?"

"I don't think she will," commented Harry. "And, if she tries to, we can stop her and convince her to let you speak."

"Alright."

Ron and Harry entered the dorm some seconds before Ben, and he stayed behind the door, silently.

"Where's Neville?" he heard Harry ask.

"He said he had to go to the toilet," she answered. "Well, what is this all about?"

"Come in," he heard Ron instruct, so he did so.

He opened the door and walked in, and remained very still. Hermione's eyes widened, and then narrowed. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Huh?"

Hermione, who had been sitting on Ron's bed, stood up. "How many times do I have to tell you two that I don't want to talk to him?"

"Why not?" asked Ben, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. "What did I do to you?"

"Because you have slaves at home, Benjamin Walker!" she shouted hotly, scaring Boots, who had been silently walking around.

"Don't call me that!" he shouted even more loudly.

"Why not?" she yelled furiously, taking a step closer to the boy. "It's who you are!"

"Hermione, for Godric's sake!" yelled Harry angrily. "Stop being like this to him! Have you gone crazy? He's your friend. He's our friend!"

"I refuse to be friends with someone who supports slave work."

"He doesn't support slave work," Ron defended him. "Where are you even getting that from?"

"I've already told you! He has house elves at home-"

"That doesn't mean I support slave work, Hermione!" he interrupted her, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I'm not the one who brought them to the Walker Manor. They've been there since before I was even born!"

"The fact that you don't act on it means you support it!"

"How?" he roared, completely losing his cool. "Do you want me to free them? To give them every single one of my clothes and set them free? Or to force my parents to do it themselves? You think you know everything, Hermione, but I assure you have no fucking clue of how life is back there. And, trust me, you should be grateful you don't, so stop assuming everyone's lives at home are as easy as yours might be."

"Well, if I don't know how it is, then tell me!" she exclaimed. "You can't expect us to understand how your life is if you're too much of a coward to even speak about your family! What are you so afraid of, Benjamin? Of them taking you away from their will?"

Despite the storm of anger raging in his insides, he refused to let it out on Hermione. Although she no longer considered him her friend, he wouldn't let his rage ruin his chances of fixing the situation. He clenched his jaw, and his teeth gritted. He breathed in deeply, and cleared his throat before speaking, carefully picking his words, and doing his best for his voice to sound calm, clear, and serene.

"Alright. If you don't want to talk to me ever again, I will not interfere. However, I think you owe me an explanation of whatever you said you wanted to talk to me about back on the train."

"What?" she asked, her voice trembling for a split second.

"You told me you wanted to talk to me about Audrey," he reminded her grimly. "Have you forgotten?"

"No, I haven't."

"Awesome," he said. "Then go ahead and tell me."

Hermione sat back down, and shifted awkwardly. "Okay, well... Do you remember that night? The night of the World Cup. When we found out she- She's one of... them."

"How could I not?"

She took a deep, slow breath. "I think you ought to tell someone."

"Someone?" he repeated, and she nodded. "Who? And, why?"

"Maybe Dumbledore, or someone from the Ministry," she explained. "And I think you should because, if she's one of them, it means she's dangerous. It's important to tell everything we know about the attack."

"You want me to tell on my sister?" he frowned, feeling anger rising again. "Do you realise what would happen to her? She would be sent to Azkaban."

"I know, but she's a... Death eater, after all. If there has been an attack, it means something bad might be going to happen soon. And any information can be useful for the Ministry to be able to stop whatever is happening. And we know something that might be helpful; the name of a Death Eater. Or... maybe you know more of them?"

"What are you trying to imply?"

Hermione exchanged looks with Harry before continuing. "That, maybe your parents..."

"You have no proof of that being true," he said through gritted teeth, now feeling his heartbeat inside his head. "You really don't."

"You're right, I don't have proof of it regarding your parents, but you've seen yourself that your sister is one of them. And I don't think keeping it a secret is going to end up well."

"Well, to be completely honest, I couldn't care less about what you think about my family," he snapped. "As you just said, I'm no longer your friend. Therefore, there is nothing tying you to me, or the Walker family."

"This is not about you or your family, it's about protecting the entire Wizarding World."

"Making my sister go to Azkaban won't make that much of a difference, Hermione," he said. "I will not betray Audrey."

"She betrayed you by joining them!"

"I don't care! I'm not like her, I'm not like any of them! I don't betray the people I'm supposed to love."

There was silence right after that.

"Look, Hermione. I don't care how hard you, or anyone, tries to convince me to tell Dumbledore what she's become. She might be one of them but, after all, she's still my sister, no matter how hard both of us wish we weren't. You can't convince me into changing my mind, but I know I can't do the same thing to you, either, so I won't stop you. Do whatever you think feels right, but be careful."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No, I'm only warning you. Because I, unlike you, know what my family is capable of doing."

———————————————

There wasn't any news of Audrey Walker being imprisoned for the past weeks, so Ben assumed Hermione had listened to his warning, and he was glad about it. Although they hadn't spoken to each other in over a month, and he was honestly quite mad at her, he couldn't help but care and worry about her. And he didn't want his family to be after her.

Especially not now that there had been a Death Eater attack. Hermione was right about it being a sign that something terrible could be about to happen, and he didn't like the idea of having her as an 'enemy' if it came to another war, knowing she was muggleborn, and he was part of a family full of Death Eaters.

Unlike the first time he and Hermione weren't talking to each other, he was now still hanging out with Harry and Ron. Since the girl preferred doing homework, studying, reading, and working on her plans to free house elves, he could spend a lot of time with them.

But, after all, he missed Hermione a lot. At first, it wasn't that bad, it was manageable, and his anger was stronger than any other emotion directed to her. But it was starting to get more painful each passing day, and he began considering apologising.

Until, in the last week of October, he woke up with a folded piece of parchment and a small box, carefully placed on his bedside table.

Since he conserved his habit of waking up earlier than the rest of his dorm mates, he had some free time before having to start getting ready for the classes, so he sat up and took both objects. Snowflake jumped up his bed, and sat beside him, observing.

He first unfolded the piece of parchment, and instantly recognised Hermione's handwriting.

'Good morning Ben,

I know you might be confused as to why I'm writing to you after everything that has happened between us, but I simply couldn't do it any more. You know I don't usually admit it when I'm wrong, and I'm aware that it's something I need to improve, but I think that, this time, my pride has made me cross a line that I have never crossed before.

So I'm writing this to apologise. Maybe I'm being a coward by doing it in writing, instead of approaching you and talking about it in person, but I'm afraid that you'll ignore me and refuse to answer me, like I did at the beginning.

I'm extremely sorry for that. I made assumptions about you way too drastically, and way too quickly. I didn't even give you a chance to explain yourself, although you tried quite a lot of times, and that was something I never should have done. Especially because, as you said, I don't know how your life is back at home. I have no idea what your family is like, and I don't know how difficult it would have been for you to try to free those elves. So, I'm sorry for getting mad at you for not doing it.

I now know that not talking to people whose parents have house elves, or doing hunger strikes, are not ways of achieving anything to protect them. I have been working a lot on investigating and reading all the information about house elves offered in the library, and I have recently created a society called S. P. E. W. Perhaps Ron and Harry have told you about it, but it stands for "Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare". Ron and Harry call it spew, but please don't listen to them.

Anyways, I really hope you can forgive me for the way I have been acting towards you lately.

Lots of love,

Hermione Granger.'

A smile had crept onto his face as he read the letter, and he folded it back before taking the small box. Inside, there was a blue metallic badge with the letters: S. P. E. W.

He quickly changed into his uniform, and didn't hesitate before hooking the badge on his robes. Harry was the first to notice the badge's presence as they waited for Ron to finish getting ready.

"I see you've joined Spew."

"It's actually the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," he said, matter-of-factly, before letting out a chuckle.

"When did you two make up?" wondered Harry, smiling.

"Just some minutes ago," he replied, walking over to his bed, followed by the boy. "She wrote me a letter apologising, and gave me a badge."

"Merlin, I'm so happy she finally did it," he commented, running a hand through his beautiful hair.

"Finally?" repeated Ben.

"Yeah, she's been telling us she'd do it since last week," explained Harry. "Ron and I were beginning to think she wasn't actually going to do it."

"What are you two saying about me?" asked Ron, jumping on one leg while putting on a shoe.

"Hermione finally did it, Ron."

"Did she?" he exclaimed happily, and jumped over to them. Harry pointed to the badge on Ben's robes, as he unfolded the letter and showed it to him. "That's great!"

"Took her long enough, though," commented Harry.

"Let's not talk about taking long to do something, Harry," smirked Ron.

Harry blushed furiously out of nowhere. Ben frowned, confused. "What?"

"N-Nothing. We should go have Hermione, Breakfast's probably waiting for us... Wait, what?"

"Ah, yes, Breakfast is really going to leave without us if we make her wait much longer," teased Ben. Harry rolled his eyes, and nudged him, making him laugh.

When they walked downstairs, they were met by Hermione. There was a both expectant and scared look on her eyes as she glanced at him. Instantly, he gave her the sweetest smile he could, and he pointed with his head towards the badge.

Her whole face illuminated at the sight of it, and her lips parted, to mouth a soft "Thank you."

———————————————

Now that he and Hermione were back on good terms, he could barely hold back his joy. During Muggle Studies, he told Marina what had happened, and explained to her what his badge meant. She told him she would've loved to join Hermione's society, and the girl couldn't be happier to find out about that.

During the rest of the week, the ambience was full of anticipation and excitement. The reason for that was a large sign that had appeared at the foot of the marble staircase that Tuesday. There was a big crowd around it, which didn't allow Hermione, Harry or Ben to read the sign, not even if they stood on tiptoes. Ron, however, was much taller than them, so he read it out loud:

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early-

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Harry. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"

Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

"Only a week away!" said Ernie Macmillan, from Hufflepuff, emerging from the crowd, his eyes gleaming. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..."

"Cedric?" said Ron blankly as Ernie hurried off.

"Yes, he's joining the Tournament," explained Ben.

"That idiot, Hogwarts champion?" asked Ron as they pushed their way through the chattering crowd toward the staircase.

"He's not an idiot," Ben defended his friend. "Let me remind you that, thanks to his help, we avoided being late quite a lot of times back in our first year, Ronniekins."

"You just don't like him because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch," added Hermione. "I've heard he's a really good student... And he's a prefect!"

"You only like him because he's handsome."

"Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" exclaimed Hermione, indignated.

Ron gave a loud false cough, which sounded oddly like "Lockhart!"

The appearance of the sign in the entrance hall had a marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation, no matter where they went: the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang differed from themselves.

When they went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated during the night. Huge silk banners were hanging from the walls, each of them representing a different Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.

"This gave me flashbacks from when Hermione's husband- I mean, Lockhart," mentioned Ben, correcting himself after receiving a dirty look from both Hermione and Ron, "decorated the Great Hall for Valentine's Day."

"Oh, Harry, do you remember the poem my sister wrote for you?" laughed Ron as he guided them over to Fred and George.

"Can you not?" he groaned.

"It's a bummer, all right," George was telling gloomily to Fred. "But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever."

"Who's avoiding you?" wondered Ron, sitting down next to them.

"Wish you would," answered Fred, looking irritated at the interruption.

"What's a bummer?" Ron asked George.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," was his response.

Ben couldn't help but laugh.

"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" asked Harry. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," said George bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" commented Ron thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them. We've done dangerous stuff before..."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," retorted Fred. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."

"Who are the judges?"

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," spoke Hermione, and everyone looked around at her, rather surprised, "because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage."

"Woah, how do you know that?" asked Ben.

"It's all in Hogwarts, A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. A Revised History of Hogwarts would be a more accurate title. Or A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School."

"What are you on about?"

Ben knew perfectly well what she was on about.

"House-elves!" shouted Hermione, her eyes flashing. "Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts, A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"

George leaned in toward her. "Listen, have you ever been down in the kitchens, Hermione?"

"No, of course not," said Hermione curtly, "I don't think students are supposed to..."

"Well, we have," said George, indicating Fred, "loads of times, to nick food. And we've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world..."

That comment led to a quite long and difficult to follow conversation. Ben wondered how many times she had probably argued with random people about the subject while they weren't speaking.

He agreed with her on the fact that house elves deserved to be treated with far more respect, but he didn't think she realised how difficult it would be for her to convince not only wizards and witches, but also the elves themselves. As George had said, house elves didn't complain about their jobs or situations in general. They weren't taught they even had the right to complain, or to want to change their situation. And that was something that, no matter how good Hermione's intentions were, wasn't going to change by attempting to force her views into other people.

So he tried to interrupt her speech as kindly as he could. "Hermione, listen. I know your intentions and actions are good-hearted, but I think there's more that you need to know than what you've read in those books."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not implying that what's in those books you've read in the library is not true," he explained. "But books of that sort only include facts. They explain things objectively, without any kind of opinions. I know you like objective things, but there's times when that is just not enough. And this is one of those times. If you want to help house elves, you need to understand their way of thinking and seeing the world. You need to understand that they probably don't want to be... saved, or freed, or however you want to call it, because they don't see themselves as captured or simply not free."

"But that doesn't mean I cannot help them."

"No, of course it doesn't," he agreed. "But it means you might have to investigate more, to go deeper."

"He's right, Hermione," added Ron. "We can help you with that. After all, we grew up surrounded by magic and everything, we have a better understanding of this kind of thing."

Hermione was hesitant for some seconds, until she gave in. "Alright. That's a good idea. Thank you."

A/N: GUYS LAST SATURDAY I WENT TO THE CINEMA TO SEE TBOSAS AND ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT LUCY GRAY IS WAY STRONGER THAN ME...  If you know what i mean...

ANYWAYS I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!! ANY THOUGHS? <3