And So it Goes

And So It Goes

Feels Like Home

Summary: This chapter is actually two chapters put into one. The first portion was inspired by Chantal Kreviazuk's Feels Like Home, the second, by Linkin Park's Somewhere I Belong. In route to Hogwarts, Hermione gives Ginny, Harry, and Ron the gifts she picked up for them in New York - but Harry gets a secret second gift. He chooses to open it in a late night rendezvous with Hermione (forthcoming in chapter 3). Sugar- coated squee moments to follow.

Feels Like Home - Chantal Kreviazuk

Somethin' in your eyes, makes me wanna lose myself

Makes me wanna lose myself, in your arms

There's somethin' in your voice, makes my heart beat fast

Hope this feeling lasts, the rest of my life

If you knew how lonely my life has been

And how long I've been so alone

And if you knew how I wanted someone to come along

And change my life the way you've done

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me

It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me

It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong

Dumbledore had sent the Dursley's a letter earlier that week explaining that they were to get Harry to the train station that Saturday, by 10:30 AM, without delay. From the way in which Uncle Vernon's face had squashed up while he was reading, as if he was sucking on a lemon, Harry was pretty sure that there had been some polite threats included in that letter. He watched Vernon pull away from the drop off zone without so much as a good riddance.

Harry grabbed his belongings and headed to the platform. As soon as he burst through, he saw that the Weasleys were eagerly standing there, waiting for him. Mrs. Weasley nearly knocked him over with her embrace. Ron promptly stepped in and detached Mrs. Wesley from her death grip on Harry and shook his hand, "Man, it's good to see you," and just then, the hand shake became a hug. Yeah, he had missed Ron that much too.

Ginny then wiggled her way between them, hugging Harry, "My turn!" Harry couldn't believe he had forgotten how good, no, how great it was to feel like he was part of this family.

Just as Ginny was letting go, someone had snuck up from behind him and lightly said, "Hello." Harry turned around, picked Hermione up in his hug and spun around before he even realized what he was doing. Immediately he knew he had an audience and let go, taking two steps back as well. He had been waiting, anxious to see her, and now that she was in front of him, he thought he would burst into a million different directions.

"Well, I'll take that as a hello!" she said, with a huge smile on her face.

'My god,' Harry thought, 'she is so beautiful, how I didn't see it before.'

"Look at the time!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Off you go!"

With that, they all boarded and went in search of a compartment.

"Oh my gosh," Hermione said, almost under her breath, as she stood in front

of an empty compartment.

"What?" asked Ron, staring into it with her.

She gave him her usual 'You are such a git' look right when Harry spoke up.

"This was the car you and I first traveled to Hogwarts in...and the one she came barging into looking for Neville's toad." He glanced from the car to her and he could swear she was holding back tears, not really sure why she was so emotional.

Ginny broke the moment, "Sorry to spoil the mood, but do you think we could get in it instead of just looking at it?" They all gave a little laugh and headed in to have a seat.

"OK, gift time!" said Hermione, as she opened the large bag that she had set on the seat. "Prior to going to New York, I researched where the wizarding shops were and how to get into them. I decided that since New York is the fashion capital of the US, and pretty much the world, Ginny, that I would get you something to reflect that. I got you this mock turtle neck, since it is going to be winter soon."

At this, Ginny looked rather deflated, but then Hermione went on.

"It is charmed to change color to compliment any sweater or jacket that you put with it!" Ginny's expression now changed to that of in awe. She took the turtleneck, which at first was red, and held it up against her brown corduroy jacket, and it immediately turned a deep forest green. Wide eyed, Ginny proceeded to get down her trunk, open it, and play mix and match with the turtleneck and her clothes.

"Ron and Harry," at this the boys exchanged glances, smiles on their faces, curious what Hermione had gotten for them. "I got you both books!" She said it almost bursting over with excitement, and definitely with a hint of over-exuberance since she knew that they would be less than thrilled with prospect of books as gifts. She gave them each the same book and proceeded to sit back and wait for their reactions.

"A Quiddich Fanatics Guide to Everything Quiddich!" Ron said, the shock obvious in his voice.

Harry opened the book to the first chapter and read on, "Chapter One: Top Quiddich Teams around the Globe. America, Ireland, England, Australia, South America, China - wow Hermione...," but then he paused as he turned the page.

"Hang on...why is there nothing on page 2?"

Hermione smiled and simply said, "You have to touch the country's name that you want to read about with your wand, and then the information will appear. The whole book works like that. If it didn't, well, you don't even want to know how big the book would be." Hermione stood up and switched places with Harry who had been sitting with Ginny, so that he and Ron could happily examine their new books together.

As they were starting to head off of the train, Ginny was in the lead, followed by Ron, Harry, and then Hermione. The isle was cramped and the students were moving rather slowly, having to heave around all of their luggage. Hermione tugged lightly on Harry's sleeve as they were paused in the isle and said, almost in a whisper, "Harry, I have one more gift for you that I picked in New York, but since I got everyone else only one gift, I felt it would be unkind to give it to you in the car. Just face forward and open your left hand."

Harry smiled, and turned forward as Hermione asked, and then he felt her hand in his. There was this rush of heat that traveled up his arm and surged through him from the contact. Then he felt her close his fingers around a small disc and then let go. She then leaned up to his left ear and whispered, "Hide it for now, and when you are alone, place it in your palm, hold the tip of your wand to it and just say 'Accio Family.'

'Did she have to be that close when she said that?!' Harry thought. Her breath on his ear, whispering, making the hair on his neck stand on end, 'I'm sweating... and I'm probably....,'he thought, but was cut off by Ron.

"You aright' mate, you're all red?"

Harry could swear he heard Hermione giggle behind him, but he didn't have the courage to look.

Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong

*When this began I had nothing to say

And I'd get lost in the nothingness inside of me

I was confused, and I let it all out to find that I'm

Not the only person with these things in mind

Inside of me

*But all the vacancy the words revealed

Is the only real thing that I've got left to feel

Nothing to lose

Just stuck, hollow and alone

And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

*I want to heal, I want to feel

What I thought was never real

I want to let go of the pain I've held so long

*Erase all the pain til it's gone, I want to heal, I want to feel

Like I'm close to something real

I want to find something I've wanted all along

Somewhere I belong

It was now dusk, and Harry's mood shifted considerably as he saw the stagecoaches, more so, because of the thestrals. The beasts were a constant reminder of the memories he continued to try and suppress. As Ginny, Hermione, Harry, and Ron moved into one of the coaches, none of them said a word.

They were all able to see the thestrals now, linking the four with another unspoken bond. A surprise attack by a hand full of Death Eaters over the summer in Diagon Alley had left many students with the ability, or rather the curse, to be able to see the leathery winged beasts. They had bared witness to Oliver Wood's murder. He had been in training to become an Auror, and Aurors were the targets...for now.

Finally, they found themselves heading into the Great Hall. The sorting hat ceremony came and went, but they barely acknowledged it. The light and jovial mood from the train had now dissolved entirely. They ate, making small conversations with each other, and as a whole, becoming rather annoyed with the overzealous first years. "Was I ever like that?" asked Harry, throwing a head nod in the direction of a young boy talking to everyone and anyone at the table who would answer questions about the school.

Once the four had finished their meals they headed to the common room. As they were traveling up the stairs to the portrait, Seamus came whizzing by, showing everyone his Prefect badge. Hermione just smiled politely when he went to show it to her. Harry still felt that their choice to go to Dumbledore at the end of the prior school year and request that they not be considered for the responsibility of Prefect was the right decision. While there was honor in it, any time that they were not in class this year, they would be in DA meetings, studying, and preparing spells above and beyond those of their peers, per the recommendation of the OotP. This was determined at a meeting of the members in early July. They acknowledged that those that were close to Harry were in danger. Instead of trying to hide them away and falsely assure them that they would be constantly protected, in the end, they agreed that it was better if the students could protect themselves. As Harry sat through the meeting, he was overwhelmed with guilt, avoiding eye contact with his friends. He had put them in danger just by existing.

"Harry...Harry," Hermione said, as she tugged on his sleeve. "You O.K?"

Harry realized he must have been just staring off, "eh, yeah, fine....what's wrong?"

"Do you know the password?" Hermione asked.

Just then, Neville came in front of the two, reading the password from a small piece of parchment. "Dueling Doxies," he said, smiling at them, clearly proud that he knew it and they didn't.

Once the portrait had swung open and they entered, they split up to unpack and just crash for the night.

'Why am I so tired already?' Harry thought.

He and Ron were in their dormitory when he found it, the round disc that Hermione had given him. When they had finally gotten off of the train, he had safely tucked it into his trunk between two shirts. He now held it in is hand and decided that he wanted to, for lack of a better word, open it with Hermione. He laid in bed for about an hour reading the Quiddich book Hermione had gotten him, and when he was sure the other guys were asleep (Lord knows Ron was from the snoring) he headed to the girls dormitory.