Unofficial Portkey Archive

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. And that's the truth. Pbbbbttttt.

A/N: Previously: "Maybe NEXT chapter will be a ten-pager in only one week!! Heh heh heh... we'll see!)..." NOPE!!! As Emma once said, "Damn it!"

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this out. This really is the ten pager (well, fourteen) in one week I'd promised you. At least, it only took a week to write. Unfortunately there were also about ten days in there where I didn't get any writing done. Easter, visiting family, a minor technical issue, and other RL issues all played a part. I think there were even some flying monkeys in there too! Sigh...

A couple notes: Yes, my cat does make another guest appearance here. Honestly, you can't make this stuff up! There is a truly hideous bit of grammar in this chapter. It's an intentional play on words based on something Harry has no doubt heard numerous times.

And finally... you may or may not have noticed, but I rarely use any heavy-duty swear words (based on what you can see in primetime US broadcast TV) in this story. For the most part, I find them over-used in everyday life. That said, there are times when a good $!#%& is just what is needed to fit the mood. There's one in here. ;-)

Thanks to my beta, MapleMountain, for everything you do!

Chapter 25. Dinner and a Movie.

Hermione quickly read through her special edition of The Daily Prophet after the departure of the Headmaster.

"There really isn't much of anything in here," she said as she set the paper in her lap. "It's all pretty much just what Kingsley told us when he first arrived. That and repeated reminders that no prisoners escaped and that Death Eaters were also killed. Nothing the Headmaster told us was in there."

"Even wizards have press deadlines," Dan observed.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Emma asked.

"For now, be patient," Hermione said, repeating the Headmaster's words.

"Exactly!" Emma exclaimed in triumph. "So, for now, let's put the paper away and enjoy the rest of the evening!"

No one could argue with that.

After Ginny asked Hermione to see her room, Ron and Harry tried to explain the rules of Quidditch to Dan. For the next several minutes, he nodded at all the appropriate times while trying to follow Ron's exuberant explanation of how the game was played. There certainly was more to Quidditch than just the Seeker catching the Snitch. In all honesty though, football still sounded more exciting to him. He supposed a person just had to see it for himself to get it.

Then again, Dan wasn't much of a footballer either. He never really was into sports. He could watch and enjoy a game just fine, but he never went out of his way to see one. No, he-like his wife and daughter-definitely tended to prefer a book to a ball, a lightsaber to a baseball bat.

Once the talk of Quidditch seemed to dry up, Ron, eager to have another go on Harry's new chess set, challenged him to a game. Harry, not eager to lose for a third time in two days, declined.

"I'll play," Dan volunteered.

"Perfect!" Ron exclaimed. "C'mon Harry, let's go get that set of yours and show him the proper way to play chess."

* * *

"I love your room," Ginny said to Hermione as she walked around, looking at everything. "That was one good thing about being the only girl in family of seven children: I never had to share a room with anyone."

"I don't know," Hermione said quietly, "I think it might've been nice having a brother or sister around sometimes. I can't imagine what it must've been like for Harry all those years with his relatives. You can hardly count his cousin as a sibling."

"Harry," Ginny said flatly upon hearing her best friend bring his name into the conversation.

Why am I getting so jealous all of the sudden whenever she says his name? Ginny asked herself. She'd been okay-not happy, but at least okay-with the idea of Harry living with Hermione, ever since she first read her letter. This was just temporary, and then they all go back to school. She and Harry could get together, and Ron and Hermione could get together (somehow, she hoped, if her brother didn't screw it up), and then the four of them could be one big happy family and live happily ever after.

But then her perfect plan started to fall apart. Not only did Hermione seem to miss every chance that popped up for her and Ron to spend some time together yesterday and today, but she also managed to somehow appear whenever she and Harry had a minute alone together. Now, of course it was all coincidental, but it was bloody annoying.

Then, as icing on the cake, Ron somehow managed to pick that day, of all days, to notice Luna Lovegood. It wasn't that she didn't like the quirky Ravenclaw; it was just that things were simpler (for her) if Ron and Hermione got together. But, in the end, none of it would matter.

In the end, she just decided to go for it. She'd always hoped he would ask her out, that he'd just fly in and sweep her off her feet. But now seeing signs that the second half of her perfect family scenario might not go according to plan, and sensing (at the time) something going on between Harry and Hermione (which thankfully today Hermione's mum explained away), she just decided she would ask him.

It was easily the most painful thing she'd ever experienced. That whole episode with You-Know-Who back in first year really wasn't painful, not like this was. She simply hadn't been aware of any of it at the time. It was one thing to wake up and wonder why you had feathers on your jumper. It was another entirely to have your hero, the boy you practically worshipped, tell you that he didn't fancy you.

And yet, and she would have never thought it possible, but after her heart had been ripped out (on its own... he didn't do it), he'd actually been able to make her feel better about it afterwards. Everything he said made it that much more bearable. Harry Potter said no, and she survived.

Besides, what's there to be jealous of? This is Hermione Granger of all people, after all. When she looks at him, she doesn't see THE Harry Potter. I see him, who he is: the Boy Who Lived... the savior of the wizarding world. All she sees is her best friend... "just Harry." Not that there's nothing wrong with that... that's just the difference between us. Besides, her mum said they didn't fancy each other. Maybe I... Ginny stopped herself, realizing that she wasn't paying attention to what Hermione was saying.

"... any friends either, but at least I had my parents here for me," Hermione explained solemnly. "That was one of the things Mum and I, and Dad, wanted to do for him while he was here: just be there for him, you know? Just provide support but not overwhelm him."

Why couldn't he have spent these last few weeks with us? Ginny half-wondered, half-complained. Oh yeah, that's why: Prat-Face Percy. Something Hermione said did stick out in her mind though. Mum WOULD probably have smothered him. If he was as bad as he was at the end of school, he probably would've never left his room, just like at Christmas, she conceded.

Ginny thought back to what she'd seen of Harry yesterday at his birthday party and today while they were shopping. He DOES look a lot happier than the last time I saw him in June. If being here did that, then who am I to take that away? I CAN be jealous of Hermione getting all that time with him, she thought to herself with a grin, but I could never take his happiness away from him.

Looking over, Ginny saw Hermione with her back to her, straightening her collection of stuffed animals on the bookshelf. I'm just annoyed that she's the one getting to spend all this time with him, rather than me, she admitted to herself as she sat down on Hermione's bed. Her smile broadened as she saw the stuffed animals at the head of the bed. She picked up the one that looked like a deer and started stroking it absently, the shape of it not consciously sinking in.

I mean, who WOULDN'T want to spend the summer with the Boy Who Lived?

Something she'd just thought suddenly registered with something she'd heard Hermione say yesterday. She'd meant to ask about it, but got distracted by the party.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Right before you gave Harry his snog, you mentioned a song, something about needing a hero. What was that?"

* * *

"Oh, that," Hermione said, not turning around. She didn't want Ginny to see her so embarrassed. That song was rather special to her; she knew she'd gotten a little carried by it when she started quoting the lines.

"It's a song I heard my mum playing one day a couple years ago," she explained selectively. "Everyone was talking about Harry being the hero, so that reminded me of parts of the song."

"Can I hear it?" Ginny asked.

Hermione turned around to face her best female friend and nearly panicked. She saw that Ginny was holding her stuffed animal... the one she'd searched high and low for... the one that was like Harry's Patronus.

She'd actually found her otter before Harry's stag. One wasn't likely to walk into a toy store and say, "Yes, I'd like a stag please." Stuffed animals like that weren't exactly commonplace. So she'd found this one instead. Sure it could do double duty as a deer or a reindeer, but that didn't matter; it was the thought that counted. It was something of Harry that she could hold onto when she needed to.

And now Ginny was holding it.

Damn it! Hermione cursed to herself as she smiled at Ginny. "Okay," she replied, eager to leave the room for a moment. She was mad at herself for forgetting about that. As soon as they'd gotten home, she ran upstairs to hide her two pictures of Harry... the framed issue of The Quibbler and Colin's picture of Harry from Quidditch practice.

She probably could have explained away the Quidditch picture as a picture of the team... even though in her mind it was clearly a picture of Harry. The Quibbler, however, was a lot harder, so she just hid both of them in her closet.

"I'll be back in a second," Hermione said as she walked out the door. "The CD's still in the stereo downstairs." Down in the living room, as she retrieved the CD, she heard her mum in the kitchen.

"Hermione, dear?" Emma called upon seeing her. "Any recommendations for dinner? I'd like to make something, or go somewhere, for something that Ron and Ginny haven't had before."

Hermione had to stop and think about it for a moment. "Well, if we hadn't had it the day before yesterday, I'd say Chinese again. I'm sure they'd like that. Hmm... How about pizza? I'm sure they'd love it. And they can take the leftovers home, since we had it last week."

Emma grinned. "Well, I'm not sure that your father would be too happy about giving away all the leftovers, but that sounds good. Eat out, or takeaway?"

"Let's go out," Hermione suggested. "We had takeaway last time. And besides, I haven't gone out for pizza in years. HEY! Is that place we used to go to still open?" Emma nodded, smiling. "Let's go there!"

"Okay, half an hour?" Emma asked.

"Yeah," Hermione replied, barely hearing her as she quickly returned to her room with the CD. She was so excited to be going to the pizza parlor they hadn't gone to since she started going to Hogwarts that she forgot all about worrying about her stuffed animals.

Back in her room, she put the CD in her player, forwarded to the appropriate song, then hit play.

* * *

Ron took a quick look around as the two of them walked into Harry's room. "Loads better than your old room at the Dursleys', huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," Harry readily agreed. "At least here, the only lock on my door is on the inside of the room." Ron nodded quietly but would not meet Harry's eyes.

"What's this?" he asked, seeing Neville's present on the windowsill.

"It's called a Venus Fly Trap. It's a Muggle plant that actually catches and eats bugs," Harry explained.

"Really? How does it do that?" Ron asked disbelievingly as he was about to poke one of the open traps with his finger.

"Do that, and find out," Harry said to Ron with a grin as he nodded towards the outstretched finger. Ron looked closer at the plant. Upon seeing that the traps actually looked a little like open jaws, and also that two of them were closed with something trapped inside, he quickly withdrew his finger. He started rubbing it protectively as if it had been bitten.

"Um... that's okay, I'll take your word for it."

"Hello, girl," Harry greeted Hedwig, noticing that she was now awake. He fed her a few owl treats, then reached into her cage, patting her head. "Oh, and by the way, Metis made a delivery for me while you were sleeping, so I wouldn't have to wake you up. So you had better be nice to each other, okay?" Hedwig pushed her head into Harry's patting, then reached up and nipped at his fingers affectionately.

Ron chuckled. Harry turned around to find him looking at the empty box next to him... the box his boxers came in.

"You have to admit, that was pretty funny," Ron said.

"Yeah, well, you're lucky your birthday is like eight months from now. I'll buy a pair of boxers and give them to you in front of Luna."

The smile immediately faded from Ron's face. "You wouldn't, would you?" Harry just gave him the same innocent smile he gave Fred and George at his birthday party. "And also, why do you keep teasing me about Luna?"

Harry just smiled at Ron as he remembered everything that had happened in the last two days: from Ron's "She is kinda cute" and "I'll give it a shot" at the birthday party, to his sudden disappearance after Harry thought he saw a blonde walk by Madam Malkin's. Sure, it could have been his imagination, and it all could have been a bunch of coincidences, but he wasn't going to let Ron get away with it that easily. After all, what were best mates for if not to tease each other about girls?

"I don't know," Harry said suggestively. "Is there a reason I should be teasing you about her?"

"Of course not," Ron answered a little too quickly, then turned back to the desk where the chess set was sitting. Even from the back, Harry could see his ears turning red. He decided to let it go however, since it was too easy for Ron to turn it around and say something about him and Hermione, even just as a joke. Though as far as he knew, his ears did not turn red, he suspected his reaction would be just as readable as Ron's.

"Oh, that reminds me," Ron started (Harry gulped). "At your party, Hermione said something about a song. She sounded like she was quoting lines from it. What was that all about?"

Almost as if on cue, they heard Hermione's CD player begin to play.

"Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods?"

"Speak of the devil," Harry said, grinning, as he held his hand out towards the wall, indicating the direction of Hermione's room. The two of them walked into her room to be better able to hear the song, Ron carrying the chess set. They watched as Ginny flittered around the room, looking around, her hand or head occasionally moving to the rhythm of the song.

Harry noticed Hermione taking her last two stuffed animals that were once on her bed, and putting them in her bookcase that held all the others. In the process, she accidentally knocked one over. Righting it, it now partially hid the reindeer.

"Where'd you get this?" Ginny asked, picking up the photograph of Ron, Harry, and Hermione from first year.

"From Hagrid," Hermione answered.

"How come Ron didn't get one?"

"Get one what?" Ron asked, hearing his name and walking over to his sister.

"Well, maybe he didn't ask for one," Hermione replied.

"Ehh," Ron dismissed. "I'm not a pictures sort of bloke anyway. I have to see his sorry face enough as it is," he teased.

"I'm honored," Harry said dramatically. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I'll cross you out of mine, and it'll just be me and Hermione," he teased back to Ron. Ginny looked at him curiously for a moment, then shook her head and looked at Hermione.

"Boys!" Ginny jokingly complained. Once the song finished, Hermione switched off her CD player, then the four of them headed downstairs in anticipation for going out to dinner. There was still enough time for one game of chess.

Looking back, Ron would learn a valuable lesson from this particular game of chess game. It started out perfectly normal until one of Ron's pawns took one of Dan's. The adult Grangers were caught completely by surprise that this set was now a wizarding set. They gasped in shock at seeing the pieces come alive.

Harry knew that Dan was at least aware of Wizard's Chess; he himself had mentioned it to him during their first shopping trip. It seemed obvious however that they didn't know this set had been enchanted. Both of them looked over at Hermione questioningly. Harry followed their gaze to see her shake her head slightly. Maybe she didn't want Ron and Ginny to know about it either.

After that, the game continued normally for three more moves, until Dan started to ask Ron all about Quidditch. He seemed to want to know everything there was to know about it: the history of the game, the most important tactics, even Ron's favorite team, stories from his own time playing... anything. Once Ron mentioned his favorite team, Dan asked him to tell him all about them.

As this continued for the next fifteen minutes, Harry began to notice something. Dan wasn't really paying attention to what Ron was saying... not much at least. Just enough to nod appropriately. He was however paying great attention to the chess board.

At the same time, Harry noticed that the more Ron talked, the faster his moves were. Whereas before, he'd been known to take as long as a minute or two to make a move, now that he was telling Dan the history of the Chudley Cannons, he made his moves within five to ten seconds. The longer Dan took to make his move, the more Ron talked, paying little attention to the game. The faster Ron made his own move, the sooner he could go on about the Cannons.

Dan, it seemed, had found Ron's secret weakness: get him to talk about Quidditch or himself.

Finally, with only fifteen pieces left on the board and Dan thirty seconds into considering his own move, Ron seemed to run out of interesting facts about the Cannons. Either that or he was just tired of talking. He then looked down at the board and began to stare at it. Up to this point in the game, there hadn't been a single check yet.

"Check," Dan said finally, after moving his rook. Ron continued to stare at the board. Harry could see him looking over the entire board, twice checking out his own lost pieces, which had dutifully marched back into their case after being shattered by Dan's. After nearly an entire minute, Ron looked up at Dan with an obvious appearance of awe on his face.

"I'm going to lose, aren't I?" he asked. There was the slightest hint of irritation buried in there. Harry could tell though that Ron directed it at himself, not his opponent.

"Yes," Dan said simply with a smile. "I'm actually fairly decent at chess... I had a good teacher," he admitted with a smile. "But from what I'd heard about you, I didn't really expect to beat you. But when I realized you were paying more attention to your story than to your game, I decided to take advantage of that.

"There's a saying that you may or may not have heard before. I'll modify it to make my point: Flattery will get you everywhere. Don't let your opponent distract you... with yourself."

Ron nodded then looked back down at the board one more time. When he surrendered his king at that first check, the rest of his own pieces turned to him and started making rude gestures.

"It's a tactical surrender," Ron explained to them. "If you know you're going to lose, there are times when you fight to the death, and times that you don't. Besides, there's always next game," he promised them. They stopped objecting, and Ron and Dan put the board away.

"Which, if you're up for it, we can play tomorrow," Dan offered. Ron readily agreed. "No Quidditch talk next time... or dentistry either," Dan added.

"Who's ready for dinner?" Emma asked enthusiastically.

"ME!" Ron replied before anyone else could.

Half an hour later, the six of them found themselves sitting in a pizza parlor in downtown Wandsworth. The Grangers hadn't been there in over six years. Aside from some minor redecorating, they were pleased that it was exactly the way they remembered it. Hermione especially.

Hermione had always loved coming to this particular restaurant, more than any other. The kitchen where the pizzas were made was separated from the dining area by a series of large side-by-side windows. In front of the windows was a small ledge where small children could stand and watch their pizzas being made, only a foot in front of them.

Immediately after their order was placed, four teenagers-one raven-haired, one brunette, and two ginger-could be seen kneeling on that same ledge, watching their pizzas being made. Dan and Emma had to keep themselves from laughing seeing them next to several smaller children who were standing next to them.

Hermione's and Emma's earlier concerns about what to do with the leftovers were to end up being for nothing; with Ron present, there were no leftovers.

After dinner, Ron was curious to see what Muggles found so interesting about tee-vee-vision. It was quickly decided to finish the evening with a movie or two. When informed of the wide range of movies genres, Ginny quickly spoke up.

"Let's see something scary... but not too scary," she clarified, and then glanced at her brother. "Something with spiders in it!"

"No! No spiders!" Ron warned.

After shooting Harry a quick grin, Hermione said she knew the perfect movie. Even better, they already had it in their home collection.

"Like a puppy," she whispered to Harry as she joined him on the loveseat again. Dan and Emma had been sitting there when Ron and Ginny took the sofa; they volunteered to use chairs from the kitchen again when Harry came back from the bathroom.

Ron and Ginny both seemed quite mesmerized by the talking-picture box in the entertainment center, though it was hard to tell if it was from the television set itself or the ominous beginning of the movie.

"What's in the crate?" Ron asked anxiously as the workers in the movie began the unloading process.

"You'll see," Hermione said knowingly.

Ron and Ginny figured out pretty quick what the movie was about, but they had absolutely no expectation as to what they'd actually be seeing. Right as Dr. Hammond welcomed his visitors to Jurassic Park, Ron's exact words at seeing the dinosaurs on screen were, "NO! BLOODY! WAY!" Harry was no less impressed, though he at least was able to not shout out since he was expecting it after her "puppy" hint.

Movie night would not be complete without popcorn. Once the pizza had settled sufficiently, Dan and Emma got up to make some. Ron kept shooting annoyed glances towards the kitchen. The noise from the hot air popper (and microwave melting the butter) was rather distracting. They returned with three bowls for the six of them to share just as Dr. Hammond shouted to "Check the vending machines!" in their search for Dennis Nedry.

As the smell of freshly popped, hot buttered popcorn permeated the house, the movie goers were quickly joined by one more.

Ginny started looking around curiously as she heard Crookshanks claw his way up the back of the sofa behind her.

"Crookshanks," Harry answered her unasked question as the orange animal reached the top and began mewing softly, walking back and forth between Ron and Ginny.

"Wha's'e wan'?" Ron asked through a mouthful of popcorn.

"Popcorn," Hermione replied; Ron and Ginny both turned to stare at her.

"The buttered pieces," Harry clarified.

Meow, Crookshanks asked, slightly more insistently.

Ginny grabbed a piece out of the bowl and held it out towards the cat; Crookshanks ran over to her and ate it greedily.

"That's the funniest thing I've ever seen!" she exclaimed. Crookshanks then turned around and returned back to Ron. He turned his purring up to full intensity. Ron, not eager to give away any popcorn, did his best to ignore him. This of course only encouraged the half-Kneazle even more.

As he did with Harry, Crookshanks came up directly beside Ron. He leaned forward on top of the sofa as much as he could, practically purring in Ron's ear. Still getting no results, he then partially climbed down, putting his front legs onto Ron's shoulder, letting out the softest, most "I'm so helpless, please feed me" mew.

Ron, not finding this as amusing as everyone else, grabbed a piece of popcorn out of the bowl. He then reached over as far as he could and pretended to set it down on top of the sofa; Crookshanks ran over to eat it. Upon finding none, he then returned to right above Ron's shoulder and began to clean his face, appearing as though he'd given up on the popcorn.

Ron grinned then held up the piece he'd hidden in his hand.

"See? You just have to be smarter than them, that's all," he said confidently. Looking up and seeing Crookshanks was no longer interested, he showed him the piece of popcorn.

"Sorry boy, but this is for me. Popcorn isn't for YEOWWW!" Ron screeched as the cat suddenly swiped out with his paw, claws out. Ron's "detained" hand was close enough that Crookshanks was able to grab the piece with his mouth. He then jumped down off the backside of the sofa and raced over to his favorite one, where he knew he could enjoy his prize under her protection.

"You were saying?" Harry asked. Once the pain wore off, even Ron found it amusing. But he did decide not to tease animals with food anymore.

Ron and Ginny loved the movie. They loved it, that is, until the dinosaurs began escaping their paddocks. When the "blood-sucking lawyer" was eaten by the T-Rex, Ron actually lost his appetite. Temporarily. Ten minutes later, he was bugging his sister for the popcorn bowl again. Hermione had cut Crookshanks off after Harry had given him two more pieces; he quickly settled into her lap for a nap, purring contentedly as she stroked his back while she watched the movie.

After the movie, Ron began to stretch out slightly. "Brilliant movie, Harry! Though we should have watched it tomorrow. I'm going to have nightmares for sure now," he complained. "Hmm... spiders or dinosaurs? Tough call. I think I'll stick with spiders, since they're still alive."

Hermione looked at the clock: it was just nearly ten o'clock. "Well, if you're up for it, we could watch another movie," she suggested. "Something funny, maybe."

Ron let out a great yawn. Since they were contagious, Ginny, Emma, and Harry followed right behind him within a few seconds.

"Yeah, sure," Ron said enthusiastically, contradicting his oscitancy. Everyone else seemed to share his desire for another movie, even though they all also were starting to feel the pull of a very long day.

Spaceballs was suggested again (since the first part of it was clouded by Harry's slip of the tongue last night), however the idea was nixed considering there were too many Muggle-jokes that would have to be explained. Try explaining Pizza the Hutt to someone who didn't know anything about Pizza Hut or Jabba the Hutt...

So, in the end, Emma couldn't resist, and suggested The Princess Bride again. Since Harry was the last one standing after generously volunteering to put the empty bowls in the kitchen, he, by rule, was forced to go start the movie. At least he didn't make any declarations this time... at least none heart-felt...

"Be kind. Rewind," Harry said aloud absently as his attention was drawn to the fluorescent sticker on the rented video cassette sitting on the shelf. He could hear Dan and Emma snicker quietly behind him.

Harry too glanced at the clock as he sat down. He certainly didn't mind watching the movie again, but it had been a long day. Busy days like that took their toll on a person. He really wanted to see it again, but he knew it was entirely possible he'd fall asleep during it. As the movie began, Harry did his best to stay awake.

SNORE!!!

Harry jolted forward in his seat as Ron's loud snore woke him up. He had absolutely no idea when he'd fallen asleep. He was pretty sure he'd at least made it to the Fire Swamp, but he couldn't be sure.

Quickly looking around, he noticed Hermione also was asleep in the loveseat next to him. She was sitting back against the cushion, though her head had rolled over to one side. If she hadn't been asleep, she'd be looking right at him.

Another loud snore drew Harry's attention to Ron. He too was sitting upright, though he was leaning slightly. He looked as though if he wasn't careful, he'd fall over onto Ginny... who also was asleep. She however had her head drooping forward. Harry's brain wasn't working too well, but he was pretty sure she was snoring also, though no where as loudly as Ron.

Harry finally turned to see Dan and Emma snuggled against each other (as much as they could in chairs from the kitchen), silently watching the movie. Noticing him stirring, Dan looked over at Harry and shot him a big grin, then glancing over at the sleeping siblings. Harry just smiled and shook his head in amusement.

"We're going to go to bed," Dan whispered to Harry. "Are you going to stay up and watch the rest of this?"

Harry looked at the television and remembered that they were near the end of the movie, maybe only about half an hour left. He nodded. As Dan and Emma retired upstairs for the evening, Harry turned and lightly shook Hermione's arm, whispering her name softly to wake her.

As her eyes fluttered open, a large, happy smile appeared on her face once she could properly see Harry.

"Hi," she said softly, still slightly foggy as she looked at him. "Now I know what Mum was talking about. I could wake up..." she trailed off once her eyes were fully open.

"I could wake up with a real crick in my neck if I fell asleep on the couch like this again," she finished, massaging her neck. Another loud snore from Ron drew her attention to the other side of the room as she leaned forward to stretch. Even Harry could hear the small POP! in her neck as she turned her head.

"The movie's almost over. Do you want to finish it or just stop for the night?" he asked her.

"Let's just finish it."

"Should we wake them?" he asked, nodding towards Ron and Ginny.

"Only if you're going to get up. I'm too comfortable right now," she said with a grin as she settled back into her seat. Since they'd been sitting there for so long, the cushions of the loveseat had settled slightly in the middle. As a result, she was now leaning towards him ever so slightly. With her that much closer, that decided it for him: Ron and Ginny would not be woken up until they had to get up.

One minute, Harry was watching Westley challenge Prince Humperdinck "to the pain," and then next, he was on his Firebolt, soaring just above the lake at Hogwarts. And of course, since he was dreaming, the sudden change seemed perfectly natural.

Flying on his broom, the wind blowing through his hair, he felt completely at ease. He was safe. The world made sense; he felt secure, protected. A familiar sound on his left drew his attention; it was his familiar, making a sound. Hedwig was flying along side of him.

"Hello, girl," he said fondly to her as she flew.

"Careful, Harry. I can get very jealous, you know," came another familiar voice on his right. He looked over to find Hermione on a broom, flying with him also. Over her shoulder, he could see Metis flying along with her. He looked down and noticed the handle of her broom. He recognized it immediately.

"A Broomhill 8, the beautifulest broom in the world!" he could remember excited voices saying when they saw one in the window of Quality Quidditch Supply back in third year.

Hermione then flew up beside him so that the two of them were flying shoulder to shoulder, exactly like they had been walking in the mall. A moment later, she was sitting directly in front of him, facing him with her arms wrapped tight around him, her face resting on his chest.

Simply enjoying the moment, Harry looked out ahead of him. He saw the exact same sunset he'd seen the night before he left Privet Drive. He remembered thinking to himself at the time that he couldn't imagine ever seeing anything that beautiful again. Looking down and seeing a head of bushy brown hair, he realized exactly how wrong he'd been.

Now he knew he would never see anything more beautiful in his life. And he was just fine with that. Even the bed of lilies he (suddenly now at this very moment) decided to plant on the site where Voldemort finally died would never look so pretty.

"So beautiful," Hermione said in a whisper about the sunset, even though she still had her head against his chest. Her voice, muffled by his jumper and the wind, sounded almost like Emma's. "Where's my camera?"

"You don't have a camera, remember?" Harry reminded her; she replied by snuggling even closer to him. He certainly wasn't going to complain.

A flash lit up the sky. It was another one of those summer storms that had so wonderfully scoured out the miserable heat for a short while. Another flash signaled it was time to return to the castle. A refreshing summer storm did no good to a person struck by the lightning.

"Time to go," Harry called to the owls on either side of him. Hedwig and Metis both turned toward each other, flying in a graceful arc of a U-turn, crisscrossing each other's paths directing in front of Harry. He then turned his broom around and followed the two owls back to the castle. As they turned to head for the Owlery, Harry separated from them and flew back to the Gryffindor common room.

When the exterior stone wall of the castle simply vanished, revealing the common room behind it, Harry finally realized he was dreaming. Touching down, he walked over to his favorite couch and sat down, Hermione still holding onto him the whole while. Hey, it was a dream; it made sense at the time. Details like how exactly he was carrying her and what happened to her broom were unimportant.

Staring at the crackling fire, Harry realized he'd never felt so safe, so complete in his entire life, in Hermione's arms. He'd been so terrified, so lost this afternoon the moment he realized he couldn't find her for those few seconds after the attack began.

Finding her again, he held onto her like a lifeline. He knew he might get swept out to sea if he let go. Back on Privet Drive, he'd been at the mercy of the angry, roiling ocean that was his grief over the loss of Sirius. When he finally surrendered to it, it had actually ended up being for the better; it overpowered his anger that had been preventing any chance for him to heal.

He knew though that this time, dropping his defenses and getting swept away would not have a happy ending. This time, it would not be a sea of grief that cleansed him of his anger. This time it was the tempest of the impending war that would surely overwhelm him. And anyone with him.

The only way for that to not happen was to not let go of his lifeline. He could weather the storm if he had his anchor. As the knowledge that he was dreaming again returned to the forefront of his mind, one of those annoying things that tended to happen during such moments, happened.

The more he became aware of the fact that he was dreaming, the harder it became to hold onto the dream. He was waking up. Just as the easiest way to fall asleep was to try to stay awake, the easiest way to wake up was try to stay asleep during a pleasant dream.

As Harry regained consciousness, the wonderful feeling of sitting on the Gryffindor common room couch in Hermione's arms was replaced by a decidedly pleasant sensation of sitting on the Grangers' living room loveseat... in Hermione's arms.

BLOODY HELL! Harry's mind screamed out, borrowing from Ron's lexicon. Hermione was in fact snuggled against him with her arms around him, just like in his dream. He turned his head as slowly as possible, trying not to wake her. The way her body was positioned, it looked as though she'd simply fallen over in her sleep and onto him. She'd then, evidently, grabbed hold of him as if he were a pillow.

He braved a glance over to Ron and Ginny; if anyone saw him like this, he was sure he'd die of embarrassment. What Harry saw, it took everything he had to not start laughing. Ron, it seemed, had also fallen over in his sleep. He was lying on his side on the sofa, curled in a ball, with his head resting on his sister's lap. Ginny, whose body had shifted due to Ron's extra weight, was now leaning towards and slumped over him.

It was just too funny. He began to shake slightly in silent laughter. As he did, he felt Hermione's arms wrap tighter around him. He forced himself to stop laughing. The last thing he wanted to do was wake her up.

How mortifying would it be for her to wake up and find herself like that? If he woke her up, they'd both be embarrassed; it would just be a nightmare. Harry thought about it for a minute. About the only thing he could think of was to act as if he was still asleep until she woke up. That way, she could let go of him and then she could pretend like it never happened, and there would be no awkward moments.

Yeah, that should work, he decided.

Harry glanced over at the clock; it was early morning, about ten minutes before seven o'clock. He knew Dan and Emma would be up soon. He didn't know exactly when they woke up, but they were always early risers, even on the weekends. If Hermione wasn't awake by 6:57, he'd try to jostle her slightly as encouragement.

Harry simply sat there silently for several minutes, listening to the world around him. It was a fresh new day; the world, for a few moments, was in complete peace. The television off, he could hear everything: birds chirping out in the back yard, the occasional car driving by on the nearby Buckhold Road, Ron and Ginny's snoring, and most of all, Hermione's breathing. It was all beautiful.

At 6:55, Harry heard something else: muffled voices from upstairs.

Oh, SHIT! They're awake! Harry panicked. The only thing worse than getting caught like this by Hermione would be getting caught like this by her parents. He'd have to wake her up; they could deal with embarrassment later. He looked down, only to find her looking back up at him, fully awake. The same exact terror he felt was clearly mirrored on her face.

"They're awake!" they both whispered to each other anxiously. The two of them jumped up out of the loveseat and raced into the kitchen.

"Quick! Get some stuff out so it looks like we got up early to make breakfast!" Hermione whispered behind him in a rush. "I can't believe we fell asleep again."

After grabbing a box of cereal (it was the first thing he thought of), Harry turned around to look at her and apologize. Instead however...

"Hermione!" Harry warned. "You've... erm... you... while you were asleep..." he floundered, pointing at her mouth. She'd fallen asleep with her mouth open, and as such had minor containment problems (she'd been drooling). There were obvious signs. It certainly wasn't a sight he'd ever expected to see, but that wasn't important at the moment.

She reached up and touched her face. Finding the offending leakage, she quickly wiped it away. As she did, her eyes widened in fear.

"Oh no! Harry!" she whispered, pointing back at him. Harry looked down to find a large wet spot on his shirt. She'd drooled in her sleep all right, on him!

"Here, put this on quick!" Hermione said. She grabbed Emma's apron off the hook and threw it at him; he quickly put it on. Much to their relief, the wet spot was completely covered. "All we can do is hide it for now. If we try to Scourgify it, it'll leave an even bigger wet spot. Oh, I'm so sorry, Harry!"

Before Harry had a chance to tell her not to worry, they heard the bedroom door open upstairs. Harry and Hermione both looked at each other. She held a finger to her lips; her meaning was clear: Not a word to Mum and Dad!

As Emma walked into the kitchen in her dressing robe, both Harry and Hermione turned to look at her. Both felt they still looked extremely guilty, but as long as neither of them slipped up, it would all be okay.

"Good morning, Mum," Hermione said cheerfully. "We just got up early to start breakfast for you."

"How nice of you, dear," Emma said sweetly with a large smile.

"Well, I'm going to go get the newspaper," Hermione replied, clearly wanting to get out of there; Harry could hear the nervousness in her voice. "Why don't you sit down and have some orange juice, Mum?" she suggested then practically ran out of the room.

"Good morning, Harry. Sleep well?" Emma asked as she went over to the refrigerator to get the orange juice (since it was still in there, and not on the table where Hermione had pointed).

"Erm, yeah," Harry said anxiously as Emma filled a glass then set the juice carton down on the table, smiling all the while. Why was it when you did something, it always felt like everyone already knew? Hermione returned a few moments later slightly confused.

"Did we not get a paper this morning?" she asked.

"We did," Emma answered with a mysterious smile. "I came down and got it about twenty minutes ago." Harry could feel his stomach sink. He looked at Hermione. The look on her face confirmed what he suspected. "I think I'd like waffles this morning," Emma said as she headed back towards the staircase with her orange juice.

"Oh, and Harry," she added, not looking at him as she started to climb the stairs, "don't forget to change your shirt. You don't want to walk around all day with slobber all over it, now do you?"

Yay! We're now finally on August 2, which means we can now start to fly over the month so we can get them back to school so they can FINALLY get together. But, just because we're flying through the month, it doesn't mean nothing will happen. There's still that trip to the cinema that Dan and Emma are planning... among other things...

And finally, last but certainly not least, here is another wonderful manip done by Evernight, from this chapter. I was truly caught off guard when I first saw this. It really is a touching picture. As of the instant I posted this, the Portkey Gallery was being flaky, so if when you click this link you can't see the picture, just try back again later. Please leave him a review if you like it. Thanks!

http://gallery.portkey.org/galleryView.php?viewDetails=943