Unofficial Portkey Archive

Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand down the wide corridors of Hogwarts mind talking excitedly about the first Hogsmeade weekend. When Hermione had mastered the invisibility charm they discovered that she could see through invisibility too. Hermione believed that the ability to cast the charm probably gives an individual an innate understanding of the magic involved. Thus a caster can not actually see the person who is invisible, but instead they can see the magic that shrouds them. Regardless of why they could see through the charm the ability had quickly allowed them to spend a lot more time together without raising suspicions about their relationship.

"Maybe you should patrol invisibly too," Harry suggested, "The Slytherin are managing to evade all the prefects and the teachers somehow."

"This castle is just too big with too many people interacting all the time. Even the Marauder's map is useless. There's just no way to keep track of everyone." Hermione replied.

"Even so, they've been far too successful. Some of those hexes have been too strong for even the potion to counteract. Malfoy must be getting help from daddy's friends," Harry said, frustration edging into him.

"Yes, this has all been much more cleverly done than I'd have ever given Draco credit for," Hermione replied.

"Comon, I don't see anyone in the halls now," Harry informed her as he consulted the map.

"The Marauder's would be peeved if they knew you were using their map to help a prefect," Hermione said with a wink.

"Or they might think that I'm performing the ultimate mischief by using it for an unintended purpose," Harry said wirily.

"I hadn't thought of it that way," Hermione said as she stepped into the tower. Harry followed her quickly so as to not reveal that he had been with her the entire time. He was still invisible as he kissed her goodnight before they parted and walked up the stairs to their respective dorms.

Harry awoke to an enthusiastic Ron nudging him excitedly. Ron was already dressed and from the looks of things almost everyone else in the dorm was already gone. Harry glanced up at his calendar and noticed that there were just one empty space left before a big circle.

"Oi, what's the big idea, its Saturday," Harry muttered sleepily.

"It's already late Harry, time for breakfast and then on to Hogsmeade," Ron said.

"Alright, alright, are you ready for you know when?" Harry asked as he began pulling on clothes.

"Uh, well you see, the thing about that is, I planned on doing it today," Ron stammered.

"You're such a slacker," Harry said in a mock scolding voice.

"Hey, this is the first time we've done this. Its all your idea anyway, you just want to impress her," Ron said defensively.

Harry shot him a warning look. "Actually, I already got her a present and I didn't want it to look weird with me being the only one getting her anything."

"Whatever, same difference," Ron said with exasperation, "So can we go eat now?"

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Harry said as he threw his cloak over his robes. Ron shook his head at Harry wearing so much garb, even his wizard hat, on a day off, but Harry didn't want to be without the protection his outfit afforded him.

When they finally made it down to breakfast they joined Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna who had all congregated together at one section of the table. They seemed to already be finished eating so Harry didn't get much on his plate. He wanted to save plenty of room for candy when he made it to Honeydukes anyway.

"Good morning Ronald," Luna said in her usual dreamy voice.

"Hullo Luna," he replied brightly as he sat down between her and Hermione.

Harry had sat down next to Neville, across the table from Hermione and flashed her a quick smile. She too was wearing her complete wizard garb. They had agreed back when Harry got the dragon hide clothes that they would wear all the protective gear that they could for safety's sake. Everyone else, even Ron, was in more casual clothing, but no one seemed to take notice of either Harry or Hermione's more cumbersome wear.

The trip to Hogsmeade was uneventful and the little village itself was quiet, even if it was bustling with Hogwarts students. Most people, especially the younger students, all seemed to be crowding Zonko's or the Three Broomsticks. Harry and Hermione didn't have anything that they wanted to do specifically so they mainly followed the others around. Ron of course wanted to go to Zonko's and Honeydukes right away. Harry made sure to stock up on candies at Honeydukes and was immensely glad of the storage capacity of his wizard hat by the time they left. Ginny seemed to relish the time spent at Ron's favorite locations too.

Neville and Luna on the other hand insisted on going to Dervish and Banges to browse through their huge variety of objects that ranged from the eccentric to the useful to the downright strange. Hermione had a fun time telling Harry what she had read about all the various items that she recognized. Harry thought he vaguely remembered some of the small silver items from Dumbledore's office, but he didn't mention it.

"Why don't you take Hermione and get us some tables at the Three Broomsticks." Ron suggested to Harry after he managed to drag him away from Hermione.

"You mean so she won't notice you shopping for her gift?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Yes, yes, har, har, funny man, now shoo," Ron said with mock indignation.

"Aye, aye, captain," Harry replied.

Harry grabbed Hermione's elbow and began steering her toward the door. "The guys want us to go save a table while they're finishing up here."

"Alright, that's probably a good idea, the Three Broomsticks gets busy during this time of the day," Hermione responded.

The young couple made their way slowly down the crowded street that the Three Broomsticks was located on. The well kept building that housed the Three Broomsticks was predictably bustling as they walked inside. There were many Hogwarts students there, but also several adults. Harry noticed apprehensively that several of the older people there seemed to be eyeing him and Hermione even more than he was used to.

"I wonder what their problem is?" Hermione asked in a low voice as she apparently noticed the same thing that Harry had.

"I dunno," Harry muttered back.

"Look, at that table over there, that witch just pointed out something in her Daily Prophet to her friend there before they both started looking at us," Hermione said. Harry took a moment to admire her keen perception as they sat down at one of the few empty tables available.

Hermione fidgeted for a moment before jumping back up. "I'm going to go buy a copy of that bloody paper and see what the fuss is."

"I thought you already got the paper?" Harry asked.

"No, I stopped my subscription over the summer, I didn't want my parents seeing it, and plus, their coverage had gotten better hadn't it?" she said. Harry watched as Hermione marched up to the main counter and gestured toward the rack of papers. The waiter seemed to hesitate, but then when he saw Hermione's expression he grabbed a paper and handed it to her.

Harry scooted up close to Hermione as she spread the paper out on the table. There were all kinds of pronouncements from the ministry, the usual fluff, and buried in the middle of the paper was a Hogwarts column.

Parent's Concerned as Attacks Mount on Dumbledore's Watch

"I told you that you shouldn't have cursed them," Hermione whispered tersely.

Dumbledore refused to comment on allegations that Mr. Potter may be a danger to those around him or to elaborate on the behavior one of his prefects who apparently took part in Mr. Potter's alleged attack. (For details on Mr. Potter's extensive list of altercations with authority see page 19) One Hermione Granger, (for details on Miss Granger's activities at school see page 21), a long time friend of Mr. Potter, was alleged by aforementioned witnesses to have been complacent or possibly to have taken part in the assault. The Headmaster assured this reporter that an investigation would be launched and the proper punishments would be administered…

Harry looked over at Hermione as she emitted a half-strangled gasp before hissing, "What does Dumbledore think he's playing at?"

"I don't know, what was he supposed to say, he had to reassure the public," Harry replied reasonably.

"He made you look guilty is what he did. The public won't be reassured of anything except that you're nutters," Hermione seethed.

"There must be more to the story than we know," Harry said as he tried to placate her.

"Then we should be hearing it from him not reading it second hand in the bloody Daily Prophet! I can't believe you're still standing up for him, after what he did to you the last time he kept secrets pointlessly," Hermione said coldly. Harry could feel malice seeping in through their link and tried to pour some soothing emotions back to her.

"You shouldn't influence my emotions Harry," Hermione snapped at him, then softened, "but thanks, I feel better."

"Here, let me go get us some butter beers," Harry said.

Harry avoided the eyes of the waiter as he got their drinks and headed back to the table. They were sipping their drinks and reading the exaggerated details about their personal lives that the paper detailed when the others finally arrived.

"What's going on guys?" Ron asked when he saw them huddled over the paper.

"Oh, you know, I'm an insane monster and Hermione is a bad prefect, the usual," Harry replied casually.

"Its all in the sodding Daily Prophet, here, take a read," Hermione said as she pushed the paper at them with disgust.

Ron looked a little shocked at Hermione's language, but he was even more shocked as he started reading the articles.

"Daddy says the Prophet only cares about selling papers," Luna said distantly.

"Maybe you should give another interview to the Quibbler Harry," Hermione suggested suddenly.

"Oh yes, Daddy would love another interview after the first one. He's your biggest fan now Harry," Luna said softly.

"We should talk to Dumbledore first. This might be part of some plan and we wouldn't want to do anything counter productive," Harry said.

"Alright Harry, but I think you're being far too easy on Dumbledore. If he pulls another stunt like last time I won't forgive him," Hermione said, rage edging into her voice again. Luna didn't react, but Ginny and Neville looked fairly shocked at Hermione's tone towards Dumbledore of all people. Harry shot them a glance that said "don't ask" before returning his attention to Hermione.

"You know he meant well, it'll be ok Hermione, we'll make sure we know everything we need to," Harry reassured her.

Hermione nodded slowly and took a deep breath. "Alright guys, lets forget about this and just have fun till we have to go back."

"Ah, that's the spirit, Hogsmeade only comes once a month," Ron said delightedly.

Harry groaned with fatigue as they climbed the stairs to the main entrance at Hogwarts. The teens had laughed, talked, and drunk far too much butter beer after they shook off the bad experience of the news article. Luna had been by far the most entertaining with her long winding story of Snorkack hunting with all the camping and hiking that went along with it. Neville had just blushed furiously and insisted that he didn't do anything interesting, but Ginny got him to tell about the vacation to the Amazon that he took with his gran. He had seen all kinds of rare magical plants, which Harry decided was more interesting to hear about than he would have guessed. Ron was still going on about the Chudley Cannons as they began winding down a less used hallway that led to Gryffindor tower.

As they rounded a corner they caught sight of a group of third years up ahead. As soon as they caught sight of them they began moving on down the hall. The blonde girl leading the pack hadn't taken more than a half dozen steps when the floor erupted in a bright flash. The force of the explosion hurled her into the hallway wall with a dull thud. The others whirled around panic stricken as they looked for the source of the attack. Realization dawned on Harry suddenly as he looked at the floor. It was covered in thin strips of paper.

"No one move, the floor is jinxed," Harry yelled.

Harry and Hermione whipped out their wands as they sprinted down the hall. Harry's wand blossomed in pink light as he panned it back and forth over the hallway. He saw several blue patches scattered around and knew that the hall had been turned into a virtual minefield of explosive jinxes.

"How is she?" Harry asked as Hermione levitated the girl onto a stretcher she had conjured.

"Not good, I'm taking her to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said. Ron and the others walked up cautiously as Hermione grabbed the stretcher. She pointed her wand at herself and suddenly accelerated out of sight.

"What was that?" Ron asked bewildered at Hermione's disappearance. Harry was dimly aware that they hadn't tried to teach him that one yet.

"Later, go get a professor and have them join me here, I'm going to start sweeping these jinxes before someone gets killed," Harry said. Ron didn't fool around, he quickly set off in the opposite direction using well traveled halls that should be safe. Harry set to breaking the jinxes, most of which were as simple as they were dangerous.

He hadn't been at it for very long when Ron came rushing up followed closely by Professor McGonagall. McGonagall's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the pink light coming form Harry's wand as he was unraveling a jinx.

"I see you already know what you're doing Mr. Potter. That's NEWT level you know," she said as she muttered an incantation that brought a similar pink light from the tip of her wand.

"Er, yeah, came across this spell when I was reading for something," Harry said vaguely as he returned his attention to his work. Between the two of them the hall was swept for jinxes in short order. A small silver bird flew around the corner just as they finished and settled in Professor McGonagall's hand.

"It seems that Headmaster Dumbledore has had the rest of the castle inspected already. That was good work Mr. Potter, I believe fifty points to Gryffindor are in order," Professor McGonagall said with a rare smile.

"Thank you Professor. I should be going now to see how the injured student is doing," Harry said, mentally adding that he needed to talk to Hermione.

"I'm sure Madam Promfrey can sort her out," McGonagall said as she left in the opposite direction.

Ginny, Neville, and Luna had already left to escort the other uninjured third years so Harry went alone with Ron to the hospital wing in search of Hermione. They found her standing over the little girl looking a little pale. The girl was sleeping, her foot wrapped up, but otherwise she looked good.

"Madam Pomfrey says she'll be fine after she gets a night's sleep," Hermione said when she saw them come in.

"We'd best not stay then or she'll be chucking us out," Ron said. He wasn't eager to get on Madam Pomfrey's bad side.

"Comon guys, its library time," Harry said determinedly as they walked out of the infirmary.

"What for?" Ron asked. Hermione looked puzzled too.

"Harry we've got homework that we really shouldn't put off any longer," she said.

"We've got to find something to counteract these jinxes. You know Malfoy and his toadies will be jinxing everything in sight now that they've had a success," Harry said.

"Why can't everyone just use that spell you were using earlier?" Ron asked.

"Because I doubt many of the seventh years can do it, let alone the first years. We can't be everywhere all the time Ron so we need something like the anti-hex potion, but for jinxes," Harry concluded.

"Harry's right, we'll just have to let our homework slide a little longer," Hermione said.

The trio worked non-stop through the night and the following day. Ron kept falling asleep since he wasn't as used to long nights as Harry and Hermione were becoming. By the time they finally found a suitable potion to help ward younger students against the jinxes it was morning again and nearly time for classes. Ron kept grumbling about why the professors weren't doing this sort of thing, but curiously they appeared to be making no effort beyond patrolling the halls more. While that helped it still didn't stop the random jinx landing other people, usually students under third year, in the hospital wing. The jinxes affected all the students too, not just mudbloods, which once again proved that Malfoy and his ilk cared about power not purity of blood.

"There's no way we can get some of these ingredients," Ron insisted as they drug themselves back towards the common room.

"I'll have Fred and George get them for us," Harry said.

"We need that stuff as soon as possible Harry," Hermione reminded him.

"Right, see you guys later, I'll go get Hedwig," Harry said.

Harry hurried up to the tower that housed the owls and scribbled out a hasty note to the Weasley twins detailing the specific ingredient amounts he needed along with a note to authorize a withdrawal from his Gringott's account to cover the expense. As Harry rushed back to the tower he kept running into other students, some of which called out sickeningly cheery morning greetings. After what seemed like forever Harry finally stood in front of the Fat Lady's painting. He just opened his mouth to give her the password when the portrait swung open and Harry found himself face to face with Hermione.

"Comon Harry, we've already missed breakfast already but unless you can conjure something we'll just have to live with it," Hermione said briskly as she tugged him back in the opposite direction.

"Wait, I need my stuff," Harry began.

"I've got it," Ron replied as he emerged behind Hermione, then added hopefully. "So can you conjure food?"

"That's difficult magic," Harry said with annoyance, "if Hermione can't do it then I've got little hope of pulling it off."

"If won't hurt you two to miss a meal, especially you Ron," Hermione said pointedly.

"I've missed a lot of meals in my time," Harry sighed, thinking about the Dursley's.

"We'll eat good tonight," Ron said with a little too much enthusiasm.

Harry ribbed him hard and quickly added, "I'm sure dinner will be great."

Ron scowled at Harry but didn't say anything as they made their way down to the ground floor classroom that housed Tonks' defense class. The room had been rearranged and the floor war marked off for dueling.

"I don't like the looks of this," Harry said.

"It appears we're going to have to duel somebody," Hermione replied.

"Alright class, as I'm sure you've all guessed we're going to pair off into teams and get in some dueling practice. Now I want all the people not dueling to line up around the wall so we don't have any accidents." Tonks instructed.

Most of the class looked eager to do something more engaging than simply taking notes. Harry groaned inwardly as he tried to figure out how he was going to duel someone without revealing any of his unauthorized training. Hermione apparently was having the same thoughts.

"We'll just use shields and stunners Harry. Ron is better than anyone else here, but he isn't good enough to raise suspicions," Hermione said from across the room.

"Alright, Lisa and Neville you two are up," Tonks said, "I've tried to pair the lot of you based on your aptitude in this class so hopefully no one will find themselves facing an unfair battle."

"I'm sure that Death Eaters will pair off based on the "aptitude" of their opponent," Harry bristled at Tonks.

"Don't be such a prat Harry, you know that Tonks just wants to make sure each student can last long enough to learn something," Hermione said crossly.

"I suppose so, I wasn't thinking. I plead fatigue." Harry replied apologetically. Hermione gave him the mental equivalent of a grin and a shrug before returning her full attention to the duel.

The two combatants were starting to really lash out at each other with a variety of spells. Both had summoned hazy looking silver shields to reflect spells, but neither of them looked too solid. The battle ended when Neville fell over trying to avoid a spell after his shield broke and was then unable to avoid a final stunner. Neville had done much better than before though and Harry liked to think that his time spent in DA was at least partly responsible.

Two by two the rest of the students went up to the circle. Most of the duels were repetitive and Harry found his attention wandering to his many other plans. He glanced over at Hermione and saw her head was nodding. She needed sleep even more than he did he supposed. Ron had won his duel and was looking pretty pleased with himself. Everyone had been amazed at his skill on the field since he had never been considered a particularly talented wizard. Harry liked Ron's new self-confidence and after all Ron deserved to feel good about himself.

"Potter, Granger, you're up," Tonks instructed.

"Arg, this is just effing great, now what do we do?" Hermione asked.

"Use low powered shields so we can just bash our way through them with stunners," Harry suggested.

"Alright, but that won't look too convincing," Hermione said.

"Make it look like the magical equivalent of a brawl, no finesse, just brute force," Harry replied.

Hermione nodded as she reached the starting point and raised her wand into the air. Harry similarly raised his wand and as Tonks shouted for them to begin they both slashed the air.

"Protego"

Harry and Hermione's shields took form, but even though they uttered the words unnecessarily out loud their shields still bore their patronus icons.

"Stupefy"

Tonks felt her skin crawl as two very powerful stunners crossed each other before slamming into their opponent's shields. A long hollow gong sounded but was quickly silenced as more shouts of "stupefy" sent a rapid fire of spells zinging back and forth across the open field.

"My shield is about gone, crank one up to full power and you can win," Hermione said.

"Mine's about gone too, we'll both use full power and tie," Harry replied.

As if doing a choreographed dance Harry and Hermione twirled their wands as they shouted, "stupefy." Tonks' eyes widened as she looked at the two of them, magical energy long buried was now twinkling slightly in their eyes as they cast their spells. The two stunners leapt across the room and shattered their shields at the same instant to send both of them spinning limply to the floor.

Tonks was undecided for a moment which to go to first, but she was saved the decision as they both groggily got to their feet.

"That was an excellent duel class, now someone tell me what they did that was different than everyone else," Tonks said after making sure they were ok.

"They didn't do anything except blast away at each other with as much power as possible," a Ravenclaw named Anthony replied.

"Right, but why would they do that, they know like everyone else that power isn't everything," Tonks said. Everyone looked around at each other unsure of what to say.

"The reason that they didn't use many spells is because of the strength of their shields. You all may have noticed the animals on them. Those are called iconic shield charms. Using tactics in duels is only wise if your tactics actually have a chance of overcoming the defenses of your opponents. In this case there was little point in doing anything except trying to break down each other's shields. Of course there are spells more suited to that task than stunners." Tonks explained.

Many people still seemed confused so after the last couple of duels Tonks assigned a lengthy research assignment to everyone except Harry and Hermione.

"Are you alright love?" Hermione asked when she saw him shaking his head slightly.

"Yeah, but its not a good idea to combine lack of sleep with a knock out spell," Harry replied with a slight grin.

"I got just as much sleep as you," Hermione reminded him.

Harry didn't need any reminding. All through Hagrid's class Hermione and Harry kept nudging each other awake in turn, except when Ron had to if they both fell asleep. After what seemed an eternity to Harry the class was finally over.

"I'm gonna follow you to class Hermione and sleep out in the hall. I just can't bring myself to do anything else and that way we won't have to try to find each other after you're finished," Harry said with a yawn.

"I see how it is," Ron teased, "you don't want to sleep outside my class."

"You've got a double class. Besides, who wants to sleep outside the greenhouse anyway?" Harry replied.

Hermione settled into her usual spot in arithmancy as an invisible Harry conjured an invisible chair to sit in. She had convinced him to come inside and sleep in a corner so no one would trip over him or try to hex him out in the hall. He had cast silencing charms all around too in case he snored or thrashed around. Even with the invisibility charm making him appear a little washed out Hermione was having a hard time concentrating on Professor Vector's lesson. It was much more gratifying to watch Harry's peaceful features as he sat there sleeping.

"You're never sitting in another class like that," Hermione groused as they marched down the halls towards the greenhouses.

"Hey, I didn't do anything," Harry protested.

"You distracted me the whole time, I could barely concentrate," Hermione said roughly, but she was smiling.

"It was your idea," Harry pouted.

"Only because you wouldn't go back to the tower like a sane man. Honestly, who sleeps in the floor?" Hermione said.

"So what do you want to study? We've got one final book on jinxes and that conjuring book you wanted," Harry said to change the subject.

"Let's do jinxes, I want to figure out how to break into the restricted section too. It has a huge collection of advanced and rare books. I read all about it in Hogwarts: A History," Hermione said.

Hermione eagerly rambled about jinxes and how to break them for the next hour while they waited for Ron. Harry had a difficult time following her and found himself wishing that he had taken arithmancy back when he had the chance instead of that useless divination class.

"Don't worry about it Harry. I can still teach you how to do it, it'll just make it more difficult to figure out on your own," Hermione had said when he voiced his regret.

At last the doors to the greenhouse opened and students began streaming out. Harry and Hermione got up to join Ron as soon as he appeared through the door.

"Shall we head on up to the Room of Requirement then?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm done for the day," Ron replied cheerfully.

"We need to plan for the next DA and get in some practice," Hermione said, ever planning things out.

The trio made their way up to the Room of Requirement. Hermione was lost in her thoughts scheduling out everything they needed to do and Harry didn't bother to distract her. He and Ron fell back about a step as they approached the door. Hermione opened it and stepped into the unusually dark room. Suddenly the lights came on brightly.

"SURPRISE"

Hermione appeared to freeze in shock but Harry saw her hand quiver and knew that she had been a split second away from flash drawing her wand.

"Happy birthday Hermione," Harry and Ron said at the same time as they each grabbed an elbow to escort her the rest of the way into the room.

"Oh you guys, I can't believe you did this," Hermione said mistily.

"Its not every day a girl comes of age," Ron said merrily.

"It's not much, we just thought you'd like to take a break from work with your friends," Harry said. Neville, Luna, and Ginny crowded around her wishing her well and pushing food at her. They were the only ones Harry had thought they should invite.

"We were going to do this in the common room where everyone could join in, but Harry insisted on this," Ron said hastily.

"We can have a party in the common room later if Hermione wants to," Harry said defensively.

"That's all right, this is perfect," Hermione said happily.

Hermione seemed more carefree than Harry had seen her in quite a while. They played games like exploding snap, wizard's chess, and impromptu games like trying to banish little balls into targets. They tried to play a transfiguration game where each person would transfigure a little granite block into one magical creature and then they would do battle to see which was stronger. Everyone soon tired of this since Harry was the only one who could manage to keep up with Hermione.

"Alright, I give, this is impossible," Ron joked as Hermione's tiger pounced on his badger.

"Present time!" Ginny said excitedly as she passed a tall thin box to Hermione, "I know it isn't much."

"Oh, you guys didn't need to get me anything," Hermione said as she unwrapped a bottle of polish enchanted to keep one's fingernails from growing.

"That's great cause I don't think Luna or Neville got you anything," Ron laughed as he presented Hermione with a hairpiece with an enchanted lock to keep her hair up more reliably.

"We didn't know about this until yesterday," Neville sputtered defensively.

"Ronald and Ginny got our presents for us remember Neville?" Luna said. Ron blushed and stammered an affirmation.

"Nice save guys, but its really ok," Hermione said.

Harry took off his hat and drew a box out from it. It was still wrapped in plain brown paper with a hasty scribble along the side that said "Hermione." She carefully unwrapped the box before opening it.

"Ooooh Harry! Is this what I think it is?" Hermione gasped excitedly.

"If you think it's a pensieve then yes," Harry smiled.

"Wow, a pensieve, I've always wanted on of those," Neville muttered.

"Pensieves are very useful. You can spot shades with them," Luna said seriously.

"Its marvelous Harry, thank you," Hermione said, refraining from rolling her eyes at Luna. "Thank you all, this has been a great birthday."

The six teens stayed in the Room of Requirement for a while longer. Hermione tried out each of her gifts and everyone tried out the pensieve. It was immensely entertaining to watch their memories from an outside point of view. As curfew approached they began to disperse. First they walked Luna back to the Ravenclaw tower before going back to their own dorm.

"I'm beat fellas and we've got quiddich practice tomorrow Ginny," Ron said once they made it back. After Ron and Ginny had headed off to their rooms the rest of the commons started to thin out. It was well past curfew when Hermione suddenly pulled out of her pensieve and groped around in her robes.

"It's my parents," she said as she finally drew the mirror out. "Hi Mum, hi Dad. It's so good to see you."

Harry got up and made to leave, but Hermione called him back. "Stay and say hello Harry."

Harry sat down next to Hermione and she scooted closer to him so he could see the mirror too.

"Hello Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger," he said politely.

"We just wanted to wish our little girl a happy birthday," Mrs. Granger said.

"I just got back from a surprise party," Hermione said excitedly, "and look what Harry got for me. It's called a pensieve, it lets you store memories and review them from an outside point of view."

"That sounds very interesting darling," Mr. Granger said.

"Well, I'd best be going," Harry said uncomfortably. He felt like he was intruding on Hermione's family time. "It was nice to see you both again."

After Mr. and Mrs. Granger finished saying their good byes Harry went on up and got ready for bed. The last thing he thought about was how nice it was to see Hermione so carefree.