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The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn by babyhalo19
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The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn

babyhalo19

Hey guys! Second chapter! Thanks for all the encouraging reviews! Keep them coming!! Here is the second chapter! I hope you like it! There's a few more 'Harry/Hermione' moments ;p. Oh! I don't know how many of you have read my fic THE PATHS WE TAKE, but, as soon as this story is finished I'm revising it! (like this one) I loved it too much, and I'm kicking myself for stopping. But I will be reposting, because I think the year or so *sorry* that I haven't been writing it, my writing has matured, and I want it to take a slightly different direction. I think at about the 4th chapter, things went where I didn't want them to go. So I just wanted to let you know I'll be starting that AFTER I finish this story. Just in case you want to check it out ;p So for now, enjoy!

***

I remember how anxious I was to get back to school, but how I also didn't want to leave my protected burrow. I was being pulled between safety and danger, and knew which one I had to choose. Which one I was meant to choose. But that still didn't make it easy. As the last days of summer flew by, I had a feeling this was it. I had just entered the path of no return, that long waiting period where you know you can't go back, but yet everything's not ready for you to go forward. And you just wait, and wait, not wanting to wait anymore. The worry and tension become so overwhelming, that you'll do anything to escape it. I didn't want this to happen to me. I couldn't have this happen to me. Not if I was to succeed. If only I knew then how pointless it would be. How I should've just tried to have fun while I still could.

***

"Ronald Weasley! If you don't get down here this instant, we're leaving without you!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed, hands on her hips, her cheeks flushed.

"For the last time mum! I said we're coming." With this two trunks came flying over the banister and went smashing into the flower vase on the table. Mrs. Weasley's favorite flower vase. She flew to its side, and within seconds had it fixed and on its stand. There was a long silence before there was a mumble from the top of the stairs, "Harry did it."

Mrs. Weasley composed herself as they walked guiltily down the stairs. "I'm not even going to speak of it now. Although if you miss the train, you'll have a whole year we can discuss it."

At that, everyone seemed to jump into a frenzy. Trunks were whirled away, owls packed, and before you knew it, they were all there, getting everything loaded on to the train.

"Well if I knew it would work that well I'd have just threatened you with actually having to talk to your mother in the first place!" She stated a little huffily. With a quick goodbye kiss, and some last minute warnings, the four of them were stowed away on the train. Ginny turned to them and smiled, "If you don't mind, I think I'm gonna go and get a cart with my friends. There's so many to choose from! It seems that half the school is missing," with this she turned and walked out, and as soon as the door closed, Harry muttered quietly, "That's because they are."

"Missing? Harry, I'm sure they have reasons for not coming. But it doesn't mean they've all been kidnapped or something," Hermione corrected.

"Is that what you heard? Funny, I heard some of them weren't coming to school because they were morning the loss of their families. I guess you could think of it either way though."

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, "You know that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, I know Mione, it's just that the first day back in the real world, and you discover half of your schoolmates are either dead, scared, or dealing with deaths in the family. Why couldn't someone contact us and let us know? Maybe then we could help."

"Because Harry," Ron said, "They needed to make sure we got through the summer so we could help in the long run."

"Long run? What long run? People are dying! Finnighan and Cho are dead! Dead! They were our friends. And they died because of one person's longing to bring evil to the world. It's not right."

"Evil isn't right," Hermione said, absentmindedly touching his arm. Neither of them seemed to notice, until the sweet cart came, and they had to get up. Hermione got caught in Harry's robe when he went to stand up, and she toppled onto him, forcing Harry down pretty hard onto the seat. He let out an 'ouf' and Ron muttered, "Having a little too many sweets there Hermione?"

Hermione pulled herself up, and ignoring Ron, turned to Harry. "I'm sorry Harry. I hope I didn't hurt you."

Laughing, Harry muttered, "I'm fine. It's gonna take someone bigger than you to crush me."

Together the three walked out into the hallway to buy their assortment of treats. Harry noticed with a sigh that there was a collection tin for the Chang family. He dropped a few galleons in, and tried to get it off his mind.

The ride went by pretty quickly after that, as Harry and Hermione had to excuse themselves to get ready for their announcement as Head Boy and Girl. Once they got off the train and got all the first years set straight, they made their way to the head table where they would be sitting. After Dumbledore made all the required announcements, and all the proper condolence wishes to the unfortunate families so far, the sorting began. This was a record low for first years. Only thirty-five. This is compared to the seventy-two in Harry's class. After they were sorted, Harry noticed with a sickening pain that nineteen of the students were sorted into Slytherin. Definitely not a good sign. He looked over to Hermione, and saw the realization dawn on her. Her eyes swept around the hall as if to double check, and when she took a sharp intake of breath, he knew she had confirmed it.

Just as his stomach was starting to rumble, Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat.

"Students. Again, welcome back. As you may know, every year we have a Head Boy and Girl. They make sure the school is running properly, talk to you about any problems you may have, and are generally just an example you should follow. They have the right to use punishment, so I suggest you heed their words. They are not picked for no reason, and they report directly to me. They have courage, smarts, and above all else, friendliness. So if you need anything, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help. Now, let me introduce them to you, Miss Hermione Granger, and Mr. Harry Potter."

They both stood up, and Dumbledore quietly took his seat. A round of applause followed, which was set off by a jeer from the far right. Harry turned to smile at Dumbledore before sitting down, and flipped a finger behind his back, hoping Draco would see. As he sat down., he wasn't disappointed. "That wasn't very friendly Potter!" "Neither would me giving you a weeks detention, Draco." With this and a smug smile he turned back to Dumbledore.

"As I was going to say, you don't have to worry about those powers being mistreated. They will be closely monitored," he stated, his eyes twinkling mischievously before he turned to his plate and summoned the food. There was an instant chatter and Hermione poked Harry hard in the ribs.

"Great way to make a good first impression."

"What?" Harry asked innocently, "He started it."

As the students slowly trickled out of the dinning hall, Harry and Hermione were having a contest to see who could get to their new dorms first. Racing up and down the corridors screaming at each other they were gonna win, they must have looked the image of role models. Harry had just turned the corner, and was sprinting for the door when a foot was suddenly in front of him, sending him sprawling face first into a pile of pink pillows. Hermione ran to the door, turned to Harry, stuck out her tongue, and then turned back, when she got a very sour expression on her face.

"NO," She muttured. "No, no, no."

Harry was up in an instant to see what was wrong, and felt his heart sink too.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that? I challenge you to a duel, both of you, with my eyes closed! There's never been a better knight to walk the earth, no sir-ee."

"Hello Sir Codgen. We'd almost forgotten about you. But now we'll have the whole year to spend with you. Great fun, eh?" With this Hermione said the password, climbed in the entrance, and as soon as Harry was in slammed the door.

"Of all the people! It had to be him. He drives me mad! When I see Dumbledo-" She stopped mid-sentence as she turned around to see the room for the first time. The common room was stunning. It was decorated in their house colors with rich golds and reds everywhere. There were two big bookshelves on the side of the room, filled with books on every subject ones ever wanted to read about. There were also all the latest of the Quidditch magazines and newspapers. Apparently Dumbledore has done some studying on what his Head Boy and Girl liked. There were a half dozen squishy chairs and couches, complete with throw blankets and pillows. The hearth was huge with a big stone fireplace. Frames of past head boys and girls linned the walls, leading out of the room. There was a long corridor which spit into two wings. Harry followed the left and Hermione took the right.

It turned out they had found their rooms, and Harry slowly circled around his, not sure this was real. In the middle was a deep green overstuffed bed, with tons of pillows and blankets. Quidditch posters lined the walls that really set off the gold painting. All of his stuff had already been unpacked, and Hedwig had her own perch to land on by the window. He had his own desk and furniture, with a new set of quills and personalized stationary. He went to go and check on Hermione, and found she too loved her room. Everything was the same, except poetry lined her walls, and her bed was a deep blue. She saw him enter and squealed, "Harry! Isn't this wonderful!?"

"It's amazing," he whispered breathlessly.

They both headed out to the common room to take everything in. Hermione immediately pounced on the books, and over her shoulder muttered, "It's going to be different though, without Ron here and all."

"Yeah, it'll definitely be quieter. I'm sure he'll be here all the time anyway. But maybe this year I'll get some undisturbed sleep. He snores like the fat lady's singing," he laughed and turned to look at the portraits.

He noticed some familiar faces from his years at Hogwarts. Some of the poses funny, some of them serious. It really showed the personalities through it. Apparently you could take whatever kind of picture you wanted, although it wasn't magical. He kept on looking at them, getting further and further back, laughing at all the funny pictures, when he saw something that made his heart stop. It was a brown eyed boy, tall and gangly like himself and a pretty little red head, with wisdom beyond her age showing through her face. They had probably the most simplistic picture, just two people sitting smiling at the camera, lounging on one of the overstuffed couches. But if you looked closer you noticed things. How the girl had her head on his shoulder, and their arms were wrapped tight around each other. How he had his hand in her hair, as if he'd been playing with it, and her arm was pinching his side, as if telling him to stop moving for the camera. They looked so happy and young, and in love. He couldn't believe it. Those were his parents.

"Hermione!"

"Huh?" She muttered, obviously engrossed in the book.

"Come here! Look what I found!"

Take her time she closed the book and walked over, looking at him quizzically. He pointed to the picture and she looked up, shock registering on her face. She looked at the picture a while longer, and then turned to face him smiling, "I guess I'm gonna have to watch out for that Potter charm."

He smiled, and slid his arms around her shoulders. "Yeah I guess you are," he laughed, still continuing to look up at his parents and wonder if he'd ever be like that one day.