Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does.
Chapter Two
"Back to Hogwarts"
Few days later, Harry called Hermione on the cellular phone he had sent her. It was charmed to work even in Hogwarts.
"Hey, love, how're you doing?" he asked her.
"Fairly well. School goes one as usual, and I'm still writing on the "Hogwarts Prophet", so you can say it is good. I miss you a lot, though"
"I miss you too. It's a shame we can't see each other, but if you think of it, it may be for the best. After all, this way we don't grow too clingy to each other and that's good, because after you finish school we'll be both busy with work…" he said.
"Yeah, I know. But it would be nice to see you now and then. It's been almost four months since you left..."
"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry…" he said.
"I know. After all, you're not a student anymore, and working so far away you can't easily come to see me. Well, it's been so good to talk with you, I wish I could stay more but I've got a test tomorrow and I need to study a bit"
"Yeah, ok. Remember I love you" he said, a smile on his lips.
"I love you too, Harry"
Then they closed the connection. Hermione was oblivious that he was preparing her a big surprise.
Two days later, she was walking in the grounds, books clutched to her chest, when someone called her.
"Would you like an help, milady?"
She turned and her eyes grew big.
"Harry! What are you doing here?" she said, running to hug him, leaving her books on the ground.
"I came to visit you. I couldn't stand it anymore without you being near me" he said, kissing her. "Merlin, how much I've missed this"
"So you just missed snogging someone?" she said, faking a pout.
"No. I missed snogging YOU" he said.
"That's better" she conceded, smiling. "Keep doing that and you may get yourself some more kisses"
"I very well hope so, Ms. Granger" he said, taking some of her books and carrying them for her. "I very well hope so. Although I was thinking about something more than kisses too…"
She swatted him lightly on the arm, giggling. "Well, we can arrange that too"
So they took a walk, chatting about how things had gone for them in the period they were apart.
"How long are you going to stay?" she asked
"Don't know. Days, months…"
"What does that mean?" she asked sternly.
"Mione, I tried. Believe me, I tried, but life out of here sucks. I mean really sucks"
"But Harry, you've the job you always dreamt of! I can't understand!"
"I had. I resigned. I don't know why, since I thought it would be the best job for me, but it got boring. I mean, I kept throwing those parties and entertaining things at the village, and people enjoyed them much, but…"
"But?" she inquired.
"But, I felt empty. I did the same things repeatedly, but without a real reason. In here, if I threw a party, was to make students, my friends, enjoy life, give them entertainment, help them with the clubs, I gave them counsels on dating girls, I cared for them and their interests even if I didn't like them myself. I felt alive. Out there, I feel dull. I do those things for people who I don't know, and that I don't care about" he said, passing his hand trough his hair. "And so I'm back here, hoping a great idea will come to me"
"What if it doesn't? You can't be here all life" she said softly. "I won't"
"I know. I don't plan to, either. But I at least need a break. Plus, I don't like being so far from my country. I would like a job where I can see my girlfriend and my buddies when I feel to, without need to Apparate across Europe."
"I can understand that" she said. "Well, where do you plan to stay?"
"I owled Ron, he said he always has a free spot for me in his room, that would be my ex own. I'll stay there for now. I'll go see him later. I would like to take you to lunch right now" he said wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"I gladly take up your offer, Mr. Potter" she said, moving closer. It felt so right to be with him again.
So they had lunch, then passed afternoon together. Harry wanted to check how the Divination club was doing that year, and found that they had had some benefits from the members submission party he did for them.
Finally he went to see his best friend.
"Ron, it's me. Harry" he said, knocking on the door.
It opened, but it wasn't Ron who was in there.
"Nev! What are you doing here?" Harry asked, grinning and hugging his other friend.
"Well, Hanna had still all her transfer year to pass here so I asked and obtained an extension of my transfer program" the boy said. "Feels good to see you again, Harry"
"I can say the same"
Soon Ron arrived too.
"Hey, Harry, old rascal, you look great!" he said, patting his friend on the shoulder.
"Yeah. Had a nice lunch and afternoon with a certain brown haired girl…" he said dreamily.
"God, mate, you really have got it bad for her. I mean, I knew that already, but it still amazes me…you have never been this love sick puppy in your life before she came into the picture…" Ron teased him.
"My whole life has changed since she has come into the picture, Ron" Harry replied. "The main reason I left the job is that I wasn't able to see her, and it was driving me mad. Don't tell her, tough. She would feel guilty for that, when she has no fault in it. So, how are things going here?" he ended then to change the subject.
"More or less as always. Fewer students, though" Nev said.
"I see. Well, guys, I'm a bit knackered. I think I'm going to call it a night"
"Very well. Your bed is still there where it used to be" Ron said.
"Hey, this is your room now. It's not fair you've one of the side bedrooms"
"I couldn't bring myself to change it. We've lived through so much together here, that it felt right to leave everything where it was"
"If you say so…goodnight then, guys" Harry said, yawning and reaching his old bed.
Meantime, in the Delta Iota Kappa building, Goyle was talking with Draco.
"So I saw them walking together hand in hand today, and then they went to have lunch together" he said.
"The bloody cancer is back at full force then. We may need to do something about that"
"Draco, I think you should just give up. You saw how all your previous attempt ended"
"Goyle, she can't be serious about him. It's just a fling. It has to be!" Draco said in frustration.
"Well, to me seemed she clearly was…"
"You don't understand a thing!" Draco shouted. "Just hope he leaves soon…"
For days Harry and Hermione continued seeing each other in every moment she had free from her lessons and her articles for the paper.
Harry, instead, when she was busy, simply enjoyed being back there again, and since the new that he was back had spread, he resumed his previous activity of counselling students. He went to see the Sick Guy with Nev ( "I can't believe he's still here. I think he got all the illnesses of the world by now" he said when they left), then went to the Quidditch team matches. Simply knowing he was there looking them playing made them give their best, so while he was there they always won.
One day, while he, Hermione, Nev, Hanna and Ron were in "his" dorm, someone knocked on the door.
Nev went getting that, and Snape was there.
"Hey, Snape. How's life going?" Harry asked, brightly.
"My own very well, Potter. The college's one, it's going bad"
"Yeah, I've heard there are less students than in the past" Harry said.
"If you call "less students" a 40 percent loss, then, yes, there are less students. And that's the reason I'm here"
"Hem…sorry, Severus, but I don't see where you are heading" Harry said.
"Potter, I'm here on behalf of the school board. You know I'm not one to go around things. There's extreme crisis. You already know we have few students, but what's worse is that those who are here are kind of depressed. They don't give as much as they used to do, so the level of the school is decaying"
"And what do I have to do with all this?" Harry asked, troubled for "his" school's fate.
"We admit that the student population was more, how to say, "alive" when you were here, Potter. So I'm here to offer you a position in the school. You would be the official entertainer of the school. Of course there will be boundaries you've to remain into, but you'll be able to do all what you did when you were student here"
Harry remained silent for some time.
"Let me just think about it, ok?" he said then.
"Fair enough, Potter. Fair enough. I'll be waiting your decision in one week time" the professor said, then walked away.
As soon as the door was closed, his friends started talking with him.
"Harry, this is the chance you were waiting for!" Ron said.
"Yeah, and we will help you. Just like in the past" Nev added.
"Guys, I appreciate your concern and enthusiasm. I just need some time to think about it. I think I'm gonna take a walk. Mione, care to accompany me?"
"Of course" she said, then they exited the room.
"That's it. When one guy asks his girlfriend for advice over his best mates, it means he's gonna marry her soon" Ron said, filling his mouth with candies once more.
Nev nodded, cuddling on the couch with Hanna.
"Well, Ron, you may want to find yourself a girlfriend instead of giving him hell because he ahs one and he loves her" she said.
"No way! I'm so free being a single, why would I want to have a steady girlfriend? It's way much better go and pick up some random girl for a night long affair!"
Nev shook his head. "You're never going to change, Ron. But as Harry said to me, "when the time comes, it will happen. You'll find the girl of your dreams""
Ron just shrugged, unconvinced.
Out there, Harry and Hermione walked in silence some time, till he brought her to a clearing in the Forbidden Forest.
Then they sat on the grass.
"I don't really know what to do, Mione. If you asked me yesterday if I wanted to have this job, not telling me the situation of the school, I would have accepted immediately. But this is big. He didn't say it, but I understood. Practically, the whole survival of the school rests over my shoulders if I accept"
"Well, I think you're exaggerating a bit. However, yes, this is a much more important role that it would seem. If you can do it well, the school will attract students again, and the ones here will exit that kind of depression they are in and give their best. It would bring Hogwarts back to shine. If you fail, soon or later the school may have to close" she said, sadly.
"What do you think I should do?"
"I think you should accept it. And I'm not saying it just because this way I get to have you here all the time"
"Yeah, I think I'll take up the job too" he said pulling her close and kissing the top of her head.
They stayed there for some time enjoying the quite breeze that passed between the trees.
Soon Hermione fell asleep. Harry smiled down at her angelic face, and kept caressing her hair with his hand.
He then sighed. A task even harder than the one he had taken the previous school year, when he had to raise the money for his debt, was about to start for him.
"I'm lucky I've her on my side. She's going to be my rock" he said, placing a light kiss on her forehead.
Soon later, he thought it was time to wake her up.
"Mione, love…" he said, shaking her lightly.
"What …" she said, opening her eyes.
"Sorry to wake you" he said sheepishly. "But we really need to go back"
"Oh, right" she said, standing up. "Sorry. It is just that I was having a so pleasant dream…"
"Were you?" he said, taking her hand. "And what were you dreaming about?"
She blushed deeply. "I'm not telling you!"
"Well, I can guess it from your cheeks. They couldn't be redder" he teased her.
But he was wrong. Knowing that she was blushing, thus giving away the nature of her dream, made her blush even more.
Harry widened his eyes and whistled, then laughed.
"Blimey, was I wrong. They COULD after all be redder"
That earned him a playful swat on the arm.
"Git" she said
"But you love me for that"
"That's for sure" she said, leaning into his embrace.
He accompanied her to her dorm, and out of there he kissed her goodnight.
"See you tomorrow, beautiful" he said, winking at her.
"You can count on that" she said, winking back and blowing one last kiss at him. He chuckled and walked to his room.
"So, have you taken a decision?" Ron asked him when he entered.
"Sort of. I think I'm going to accept it, but it will be an hard task"
"Hey, you've never cowered in front of troubles. Besides, weren't you the one who said: "Worrying is like a rocking chair: gives you something to do but doesn't bring you anywhere"?" Nev said.
Harry smiled.
"Yeah, Nev. You're right. I kind of forgot that"
"See, Nev? What did I tell you? Having a steady girlfriend is not healthy. Burns your brain cells even more than Muggle tevelision" Ron said, after biting his sandwich.
Harry rolled his eyes at him.
"Very funny, Ron. You should find one yourself, and see what wonderful sensations it can give. By the way, it's television, not tevelision, how many times do I have to tell you?"
"Ok, who are you and what have you done with my friend?" Ron said. "You are a different person, Harry"
"I very well know that. She has made me different"
"Exactly what I wanted to prove"
"Ron, I'm better now!" Harry said, frustrated with his friend and his stubbornness.
"If you say so…"
"Well, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I need to go and see Snape"
"Goodnight, then. And good luck for tomorrow" Nev said. "I think I'm gonna walk Hanna back to her dorm"
"The two of you seem quite serious, don't you, Nev?" Harry inquired, while changing to his pyjamas.
"Well, not as much as you and Hermione…" the boy teased him.
"Blimey, guys. Can't you stop teasing me?" he said in mock frustration, theatrically rolling his eyes.
They all laughed.
That night, Harry didn't sleep well. For the first time since he killed Voldemort, he was really worried. The school was his home, if it was to close, it would be like his home had been destroyed.
Finally he went for a walk to try and calm himself. He sat on the edge of the pool, kicking his feet back and forth into the water, sighing.
"Nice to see you again" he heard a voice behind him.
"Hullo, Lavender" he said sourly.
"What has happened? Has that Hermione girl broken your heart again?" she said sitting near him.
"No. I've simply a lot on my mind lately" he said, standing up and walking back to his room, upset by her attempt at flirting with him.
Next day, Harry walked to Snape's office.
"Potter" the teacher acknowledged him.
"Snape"
"Please, take a seat"
"Thanks. I've thought about your offer, and I've come to one decision. I accept it"
The professor smiled. "I knew you would"
So Harry signed the contract, and later that day he Apparated to Diagon Alley, walking to the Leaky Cauldron, where he had left his luggage. Then came back and transferred once again in his "kingdom".
Harry Potter was back at Hogwarts.
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