Disclaimer: Alright all the Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowlings, except for the plot, Zara, Jewel, Enrique, Jasmine, Ulrich, Torrin, Alina,, Leelee, Kai, Finley and Orvin. Those are mine. So please don't sue me because I don't have anything
Chapter 27-Homeward Bound
The end of the year feast was exceptional; all kinds of foods and drinks were situated beautifully on the table as the students dug into the grand meal. Both Hermione and Harry were glancing about the Great Hall. Hermione saw Cho raise her glass to her in a silent salute, and she smiled back at her. She saw Cho hold up her scroll with a red satin ribbon around it, she was a graduated of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and not to mention full-fledged legal witch now. Cho sat her cup down and resumed her conversation with her friends at the Ravenclaw table.
Harry nudged her gently in the side; "Well you two seem to have gotten chummy over the past few months." Harry said with a smile, and then added "Why the change?" He tilted his head regarding her.
Hermione turned and looked at Harry with a smile, "Well, let's just say some people aren't as bad as they seem."
"What about Malfoy?" Harry said while helping himself to some roast beef from the center of the table.
Hermione looked over at the Slytherin table, at Draco Malfoy. He was enjoying the feast at his table as well. She sighed, "I don't know about him. He is very confusing. After all he did help us with Salazar and Rowena." Her voice dropped lower for only Harry, Ron and Zara, who were also sitting across the table from them, to hear. "But when I was being handled by Him, I could have sworn he smirked. I have this feeling he wanted to stand there and watch me suffer. He seemed to get off on the pain inflicted upon others, much like his father. But I was too distraught to really know what I was seeing, perhaps it was just my imagination."
She lifted her eyes watching Ginny walk over to him; she leaned over throwing her arms around his neck. She rested her chin on his shoulder. Draco lifted his hands and rubbed her arms gently as she embraced him. He was talking to Blaise across the table from him. Blaise had accepted Ginny so the rest of the Slytherins followed her example. If Blaise accepted someone then they all must as well. Ginny let go of Draco's neck and sat down next to him.
Hermione shook her head, "I still don't trust him, and I never will." Her friends all nodded agreeing with her.
"We should constantly watch out for him." Harry said as he too looked over at the Slytherin table.
Ron knew his sister was over there; he didn't have to turn around to see them. He just hoped that his sister knew what she was doing and what she was getting herself into. Ron learned this year that you can't always tell people what to do, that they will have to find their own way in life and you can only steer them and hope they head in the right direction. Ron then glanced about the Gryffindor table looking at all the sixth year students, all the Gryffindor friends and mere acquaintances.
He turned his gaze to the Ravenclaw table catching all the sixth years also enjoying the feast. Ron didn't want to see the Slytherins so he avoided that table. The last table was the Hufflepuff table, where he glanced upon the sixth years there. He saw one certain sixth year glaring in the direction of Gryffindor table, but not at him. Ron followed the angry student's gaze. The angry glared was directed at Harry and Hermione who were at this moment in each other's arms, holding each other close. Ron shook his head thinking about the angry student, 'That boy needs to get over it; he lost a long time ago.'
"Do you realize that next year is our last year here at school?" Lavender's voice was heard next to Ron, breaking his thoughts and pulling Harry and Hermione from each other's embrace. "Most importantly we will have to face the world, on our own. No one will be there to fix our mistakes, if we ever make any." Lavender glanced down at her plate of half eaten food.
"Yes Lavender we realize that, but we have a while to decide. We do have a whole year." Seamus said.
"That's not long Seamus, it's only a year. That's twelve months. It's not long at all." Lavender said as she shook her head back and forth.
Hermione silently agreed and she picked up a roll and split it down the side, she buttered it lightly. She lifted it to her mouth and was going to take a bite but Harry reached over and snatched it from her hand. She turned to him, "Hey give that back."
"Why? There's more bread on the table just get another one." He said grinning at her.
"That's not the point, I already took the time to butter it and everything." She held her hand out for the bread.
"I know, and you did such a good job." Harry smiled.
"Harry, give it back." Her voice was firm.
"Do you really want it?" Harry sighed.
Hermione nodded, he was up to something. She just knew it. "Yes, give it back."
"All right." Instead of putting the bread in her hand, he quickly lifted it in his palm and rubbed it all over Hermione's shocked face.
Dean tapped Harry on the shoulder getting his attention; he turned to him. Hermione sucked in a long breath; she wasn't going to yell. She wasn't going to scold him about being childish. Instead, she calmly lifted the napkin and wiped the bread and butter from her face. Hermione scanned the table; she reached for a bowl of Cherry Cobbler and dumped the entire bowl of it on his head.
Harry's head whipped around, looking just as shocked as she had when he smoothed the bread in her face, he couldn't believe it she retaliated without a lecture. He was stunned. Cherries, juice and crust dribbled down his hair and face.
Hermione sighed, "It's a beautiful hat Harry, I think it suits you. Very lovely, you should wear it more often." She smiled brightly.
"I can't believe you just did that!" He was still shocked, but not shocked enough not to get her back. While he was distracting her with his right hand by taking the bowl off of his head, he was busy grabbing for something, anything off the table with his left hand, which was slightly behind him so Hermione wouldn't see.
'Ha-ha,' Hermione thought to herself. She could see him reaching for something.
Harry grabbed a handful of mashed potatoes and threw it at her; he didn't count on her ducking so that the potatoes sailed over her head, hitting Jocko who was sitting next to her in the side of the face.
Jocko wiped his face with his hand and turned glaring in the direction the potatoes came from. He stood in rage "Who threw that?!" He shouted, his cold eyes glaring at each person, no one answered. It didn't matter; he too grabbed a handful of potatoes and threw it in the direction of the guilty parties, whoever they were. Both Harry and Hermione ducked and the potatoes hit Dean in the side of the head.
"HEY!!" Dean stood, he was going to retaliate; he reached for something. Soon after he threw a handful of spaghetti with marinara sauce the whole Gryffindor table broke out into a huge food fight, which eventually spread past their table and all around the room.
It was an uncontrollable chaos as the whole student body broke out into a food fight. Dumbledore at the high table was laughing. Snape stood and tried to put order into this mess.
"All of you stop that, Stop that immediately!" Snape shouted but the battle continued turned to Dumbledore. "Headmaster do something, this is unacceptable." He glared. It appeared as though Dumbledore hadn't heard a word he said. He grunted loudly and turned back towards the war students. "I said st-" He was cut off as a whole chocolate cream pie had imbedded itself right into his face.
Laughter and cheers were floating wildly about the room as each student was already covered in a pound of food at least.
Hermione's hair was slicked down, covered with spaghetti noodles, marinara sauce, pudding, and wiped cream. Her face was smeared with; well you couldn't tell what it was anymore.
Harry dug out a glob of applesauce and threw it at someone; he almost couldn't tell who was who anymore everyone was so thickly covered in food. He saw Hermione who was laughing duck out of the way of flying cranberry sauce. Harry smiled, it had been a long time since he seen her having so much fun, he then realized that it was a good idea that he started this, he gave her something to have fun with. He stepped nearer to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to him with a smile, and question in her eyes.
He didn't say a word; he reached for her and pulled her into his embrace and covering her mouth with his. Her lips tasted of chocolate and plum sauce. She instantly responded, her lips parting allowing him entrance. Hermione felt his tongue press against hers, tangling sweetly together. Something cold and wet splashed from up above them, drenching them in some sticky liquid. They immediately turned to see what had happened. They both saw Ron standing on the table with a pitcher of lemonade in his hand, grinning down at them. This caused both Harry and Hermione to start laughing
Dumbledore finally quieted down the Great Hall, and everyone trailed off to bed for the night.
After showers and everyone got cleaned up, the students packed up their stuff. They were ready to leave tomorrow.
All fresh and clean, Hermione headed down into the common room to relax a bit before heading off to bed, she had been having better nights, it seemed the nightmares only paid a visit three times during the week. Hopefully they wouldn't bother her tonight. She sat down in a chair next to the chessboard where Ron and Harry were playing chess.
She noticed Harry looked so engrossed in the game that he didn't notice she was there. But that wasn't true at all; he always knew she was there. Hermione leaned back in the chair watching the game.
"Hey Hermione." Harry said quietly as he still held his concentration on the game.
"So whose move is it?" Hermione asked quietly, she yawned getting more comfortable in the chair.
"Mine," Harry said. His eyes squinted in concentration. His piece moved. There was a pause and Harry looked up at Ron. "Check mate." He said.
Ron's jaw dropped as he stared at the board, "but that's impossible. I never lose." He scanned the board looking at his shattered king, it was true he lost. He looked up and saw Harry doing some kind of funky dance chanting I won, I won.
"You're a horrible winner Harry." Ron said crossing his arms in annoyance.
Harry just continued doing his happy dance and chanting "I won" He looked over at Hermione wondering if she would be impressed that he finally beat Ron at Chess. She was asleep. He stopped his happy dance and looked over at Ron, "Well I'm gonna take her up to the girl's dorm." He saw Ron, who was cleaning up the Chess pieces and putting them away, nod. And Harry started carrying her up the stairs to the girl's dorm.
He lightly kicked the door; since his hands were full he couldn't knock. The door opened and Lavender came into view.
"Hello Harry." She smiled at the site of Harry holding a sleeping Hermione. Lavender opened the door wide and moved out of the way and Harry carried her inside.
Harry carried Hermione over to her bed and set her down. He looked over at Lavender. He noticed Zara was sitting on her bed with Parvati playing with tarot cards. Zara who was trying not to laugh seemed to be predicting the girl's future. Harry shook his head with amusement; he then looked over at Lavender. "Do you think you could get her ready for bed?"
Lavender smirked. "Are you sure you don't want to?" she winked.
Harry laughed a bit "No, it wouldn't be right." He said with a smile even though he'd already seen her without her clothing, it would still make him feel guilty if he didn't get her permission.
"All right Harry, I'll take care of it." Lavender said and she watched as Harry left quietly from the room.
Yawning, Harry retired to his room. Ron was already settling down to sleep. Harry changed into a plain blue shirt and cotton shorts and slipped into his bed. He pulled his glasses off and set it on the desk next to the bed and laid his head back on his pillow. He stared up at the dark ceiling. Well tomorrow he would be going home, at least he wasn't staying with the Dursleys right off. After a few minutes his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.
The train whistle blew as students were loading the trunks onto the train. Harry, Hermione and Ron found their usual compartment. Zara wanted to spend half of the journey home with her other friends, and then she would come and fin Ron later. Lavender and Seamus decided to join the trio in the compartment.
Lavender and Hermione spent some time chatting while Harry and Seamus played Muggle checkers. Ron watched.
After Seamus totally kicked Harry's butt at checkers, Harry moved over and sat next to Hermione.
"Well, we're almost back; can you believe that so much has happened in a just one year?" He shook his head remembering all the bad stuff that happened to them, but then he paused in his thoughts looking at Hermione; at least one thing went right this year. And that was he and Hermione. That was right, sure it wasn't perfect but it was right.
Hermione too was thinking about the past year, her problems with Draco and the orb, and not to mention Rowena and Salazar. She looked about Harry's face; she never would have been able to get through any of it without him. Hermione was thankful that he was in her life; she wouldn't change a single thing. She tried to blink back the happy tears that were swelling in her eyes.
Harry saw a few tears glide down her cheek. "Hey, hey what's the matter?" He was concerned and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.
She rested her cheek on his shoulder "Nothing, except I love you." Hermione spoke quietly.
He pulled her back, and a smile graced his face. He cupped her face within his hands gazing deeply into her eyes; he wiped her tears away with his thumbs. He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her softly. Hermione's arms tightened around him and both their mouths opened to receive each other.
Ron coughed breaking Harry and Hermione's moment. "Sorry to interrupt, but we're back." Ron actually looked a little sad.
Harry and Hermione both sighed with regret; they would be apart all summer. How could they bear that? They both stood and carried their trunks from the compartment; they stepped off the train and onto the platform nine and three quarters.
They each went through the barrier. Hermione spotted her parents and Harry spotted Sirius. Harry and Hermione looked at each other one last time. And Hermione ran towards her parents as they both embraced their daughter so tightly. Harry smiled at the scene. He felt someone pat him on the back, he turned and found Ron. "Bye Harry, see you next year, maybe I can get you and Hermione back over to my house during the summer, we shall see huh?" He smiled and went off with his family.
Harry nodded and then turned to find Sirius coming towards him, as soon as his Godfather reached him, his arms opened wide and Harry was developed in a bone crushing hug. "Sirius, I can't breathe." He gasped.
Sirius chuckled and let go, "Sorry. I'm just glad you are all right."
"You and me both." Harry said with a smile and the started towards the Muggle parking lot.
"So tell me about all the good things that happened during the year." Sirius asked with a smile.
"Only one real good thing happened this year, and that good thing is Hermione." Harry said with a wide grin.
Sirius's eyebrows perked, he was ready to listen as Harry continued to share his year with Sirius with leaving little personal matters out of the conversation.
Harry felt it was going to be a good summer.
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*sniff, sniff* well that's it for Soul Scepter, did you ever think we would get to the end. I will miss writing it, I know. But the sequel is really exciting. And I hope you stay tuned for the sequel Amulet of Torna. It will be a blast. Read and Review, thanks Ryoko.