Here we go, Chapter number five. And I'll have all of you know that this is a record for me. Normally I have five storied going at once, and I'm so busy that I'm lucky if I can update each once a month, but this is my fifth chapter in less than a week! I'm so proud of myself! With any luck, this story should be several more chapters and they should all be about the same length and style. Of course, so far I've been covering one day per chapter, and I know that it'll at least take two chapters for the battle and two chapters for the…well hold on a sec! I don't want to give that away just yet! Stay tuned! Oh yeah, and this chapter is a little less from Hermione's view and a little more from Harry's, kind of like the last part of the last chapter. And I think there might even be some fluff! Oh joy!
Harry woke up at six the next morning. He, Ron and Hermione had stayed up talking and eventually fell asleep on the bed in the Head Boy dormitory. Ron was sprawled across the bottom, and Hermione was lying on his chest. He looked down at Hermione and took the time he had to really study her facial features.
She had matured a lot from the bushy-haired, large toothed girl she had been in the first few years of school, and even from the young woman she had grown into in the last two years. She had had sleeker hair, and had gotten braces, so she was pretty. It had been then, when he saw what she could really be like, that he had started to fall in love with her. Seven years after that, however, she was gorgeous. Her hair was no longer anywhere near bushy, and it had darkened to the color of chocolate. She had matured physically, becoming leaner and more from motherhood. And even though she had been pregnant and had a child, no one would have been able to tell, as she was as slim as she'd been in school.
Silently, Harry slipped from the bed, dislodging Hermione as gently as he could so that he wouldn't wake her up. He got ready in silence, and only woke his friends right before he left the dormitory. He saw that Ginny was already up, as she was in the common room chasing Lily, who obviously was not wanting to get dressed. She caught the little girl quickly however, as she had had a lot of practice with her various nephews and niece.
"You got her?" Harry asked as Ginny grabbed Lily and swung her into her arms victoriously.
"Yup. No problem. One of the advantages of being an aunt." Ginny answered lightly, brushing her fiery red hair behind one ear. Ginny was another one who looked nothing like she had in school. She was much taller and had become very pretty.
"I'd say you've had a lot of practice." Harry agreed. "Well I'll leave you to it then. I'm heading down early to get some lesson plans ready for Ron. He's teaching while Hermione and I help with the securing of the castle.
"Good. I'll see you later." Ginny called, carrying Lily up the stairs. He heard Lily giggle and then Ginny say sternly, "Lily Potter, you get back here now."
Harry left the common room before he was tempted to go back and help when he didn't really have time. He went down to his classroom and prepared a list of spells and charms that Ron could teach, and then, seeing that it was time for breakfast, went to the Great Hall, where he sat with Hermione and Wood and his wife, who was looking extremely tired. Alex was off playing with a couple of the Weasley's and therefore staying out of her mother's hair.
"Morning." He greeted them all, leaning over to give Hermione a quick kiss. She smiled at him.
"Morning. Did Ginny have any problems with Lily this morning?"
"Tons, but she handled them all good."
Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at Marie. "Our daughter, Lily, can be a terror in the mornings. It's insane the things she thinks up to keep from doing what we tell her."
"I could tell you stories for hours about the things Alex does." Marie agreed sympathetically. "For such a little girl, she's extremely fast and unbelievably stubborn."
Wood rolled his eyes and looked at Harry. "They'll probably go on for hours." He teased.
"I wouldn't doubt it." Harry said, biting into a piece of toast. "The Gryffindors and Slytherins are playing for the Quidditch Cup tonight." He commented, watching as Wood immediately perked up.
"Great. I'll definitely have to go watch that. It's been forever since I've seen a Hogwarts game. You going Harry?"
"If I can. I'd like to take Lily. I don't think she's ever seen a Quidditch game."
"Alex has, but I'll take her too. Give those two a break from the endless joys of motherhood." he said sarcastically, watching with amusement as both women turned toward him.
"Next time," Marie said, "You can be the one who's pregnant. I know a very handy spell for that. And you can give birth and change diapers and give baths, and breast-feed. I know a spell for that one too."
Hermione looked at Harry. "You weren't there for diapers and bottle feedings and staying up all night, don't even go there. He," she gestured at Wood, "Has room to talk. You, however, do not."
After breakfast, Hermione and Marie went to work in one part of the castle, while Harry and Wood went to another. Wood and Harry were sealing unused classrooms on the third floor, while Hermione and Marie were working on the never-used library on the fifth.
"So, are you and Hermione together?" Wood asked as he sorted through the old textbooks and piled them in one corner of the window. Harry was busy moving the book shelves against walls. The idea was to make the rooms as conspicuous as possible and offer few, if any hiding places for possible threats.
"Kind of. We're trying things out, seeing if we still fit. The whole thing is very low profile, it isn't serious. We're just getting to know each other again."
"Well good luck. Is she still hard headed and stubborn as all get out?"
"You'd better believe it. And she is so much more grown up than when you were in school. It's unbelievable to think she was the bossy eleven year old who thought getting expelled was worse than getting killed."
"Yes, it is. I could tell even from watching her with Marie this morning. Those two seem to really be getting along."
"I noticed it too. I think they understand each other. Both being young mothers and all that."
"I think they're just compatible. Personality wise. They are both very smart girls, and I think that they both really missed having someone who liked to talk about books and history and stuff."
"Yeah. If I think about it, Hermione has to be completely bored with her life. She's got Lily, yeah, but she's living with Braden, who didn't give a hoot in school, and I don't think he does now, and assigning Aurors assignments isn't a very challenging job."
"I always thought that Hermione would end up teaching here at Hogwarts."
"Maybe she would've if she hadn't had Lily."
"Maybe."
Hermione and Marie quickly organized the library, arranging in alphabetical order by a silent consensus, and the moved on to sealing the room and moving the bookcases. Marie worked on the sealing spells while Hermione used Wingardium Leviosa on all of the shelves so that they were moved against the walls so that there were few places for anyone to hide in the room. After Marie finished the sealing of the room, they moved into the old Potions lab that hadn't been used since Snape had begun teaching.
"Wow, I would've loved to have had Potions up here instead of down in that dungeon." Hermione commented, looking through vials of different ingredients that were stored in two large cabinets. Extra cauldrons were stacked against the back wall and the board up front still had directions written on it from years ago.
"You had potions in the dungeon?"
"Yeah. Professor Snape liked it down there."
"Yuck. In Africa we had our Potions class on the top floor in a tower. The dungeon was never used there. I don't think I ever went down there."
"There are places here that I've never been to. I wish I'd had time while I was here to explore more, but I was always so busy getting in trouble, I never got to explore."
"Oliver has told me about the escapades of you and Harry and Ron. Some of them are quite entertaining. Did you really turn into a cat in your second year?"
"Unfortunately. It was a mistake I made with the hair I added to a batch of Polyjuice Potion. It was cat hair instead of human hair."
"Did you know that if you add a bit of Wolfsbane to Polyjuice Potion that it can be used to elongate the time you have as who you are turning into, or can be used for animal transformation?"
"No, I had no idea. How much do you have to add?"
"Just enough to make the potion turn yellow in the cauldron. A very bright yellow, like daisies or something."
"That is really neat. When did you learn that?"
"A while ago. During my last year at school. Of course, it's a minor miracle that I managed to learn anything that year."
"What do you mean?"
"I suppose Harry told you about my getting accepted to the Auror program, so I won't start there. But around Christmas, I was playing in a Quidditch game, I'm a Chaser, and there were some recruiters there from Puddlemere United. They asked me to try out after I graduated, and the coach told me he could basically guarantee me the spot. I refused and told them about the Auror position. Two weeks later, Oliver came back to my school during a break he had from Quidditch. Instead of spending Christmas and New Years with his family, he spent it on a couch in the main room of my dormitory. Trying very hard to get me not only to reconsider, but also to go out with him. I still refused to try out, but we did begin dating. We dated the rest of my year, and the boy had me so distracted I couldn't think straight until after graduation. When I realized that I was in love with him, I quit my job as an Auror and showed up for tryouts. I'm still amazed I kept my marks high enough to graduate."
"Love can do that to you. It did it to me too."
"So what's your story?"
"In my sixth year, I fell in love with Harry, but started dating Ron because I thought that Harry only looked at me as a friend. Ron and I dated for two years, but we both knew that after graduation we'd be going our separate ways. We talked one night and decided to break up after graduation. We loved each other, but we weren't in love. On graduation night, the three of us went out and got drunk. They still call it celebrating, I call it stupidity. Anyway, Harry and I weren't in the regular dorms, as we were Head Boy and Head Girl, and had our own rooms. We ended up spending the night together. Ron found us the next morning, we fought about it all, I left, found out I was pregnant two months later, had Lily, and seven years later, here I am, with a six year old daughter, an ex-boyfriend who is now one of my best friends and a very unstable relationship with the father of my child."
"Wow. That is a whole hell of a lot more complicated than my life ever was. Well, I wish you all the best in stabilizing the relationship that you have with Harry. If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
"Thanks." Hermione said sincerely, offering the other woman a smile.
"Hey, no problem. I think we're about done here. Where are we supposed to go next?"
Hermione consulted her list. "The rest of the rooms of this floor, and the paintings in those rooms need to be sealed."
"All right then, let's get busy."
Harry and Wood finished the rooms they were assigned to in record time, and decided to go watch a Quidditch practice. They made their way up into the bleachers and chose seats about halfway up so that they could have a good view of both the school and the practice. To their astonishment, halfway through the practice the skies began darkening, a brisk wind started and the Dark Mark appeared directly over the school. Both men grabbed their wands and headed for the castle while the players rocketed toward the locker room to get out of the way under the orders of Madam Hooch.
Hermione and Marie had just finished their last classroom when they both felt a harsh wind pass through the castle. Then, out of nowhere, Death Eaters began Apparating within the castle walls, Lucius Malfoy and Lord Voldemort leading the way. The two women exchanged looks, then ran for the rooms that their children were in. At every corner they yelled for students to report back to their Common Rooms. Finally they arrived, at the women ushered the children into the Room of Requirement, which had been set aside for the children in case of the attack. After magically sealing that room, Hermione and Marie headed into the Great Hall where the battle was undoubtedly the worst.
Lord Voldemort walked through the halls of his old school, black robes gliding behind him, his wand held lightly in one hand. The Malfoys flanked him, Lucius on his right and Draco on his left. Lucius had a rather evil smile on his face, Draco a rather sickly one. Every time that Voldemort saw a student, he muttered either the Cruciatus Curse of the Killing Curse, depending on how old the student was. Ones wearing the green and silver colors of the Slytherins were spared. Other Death Eaters, over three hundred of them, had entered the castle from different directions, Apparating in after he had destroyed the barriers that made Apparating onto school grounds impossible. Finally, with a trail of dead or unconscious bodies behind him, Voldemort and the Malfoys arrived in the Great Hall. He looked around at the many people Dumbledore had brought in, and at the Ministry officials arriving and spoke.
"Let the Battle begin!"
Sorry this chapter is shorter than the others, but I'm kinda sick right now and can't find the energy to type much. Read and Review PLEASE! Next chapter will be out soon.