Harry arrived back at Ela's house after Neville's party and he was just as happy as he had been the day before at his own party. As he packed up his trunk to go home the next day, he thought over the events at the party. There had only been a couple of their friends there; but, it also let them all compete against one another on a more even level, even Ginny and Luna. They had their own wands, too. Ron had gifted Ginny his old wand that used to be Charlie's and Luna had her mother's old wand.

When the games had become more like competition duels and Neville's family forewent staying separate to watch the spectacle, the fun factor went well above what anyone had expected. They all also saw Harry's expertise with Defense Against the Dark Arts. His personal training from Amelia for a year had him performing feats that most full grown wizards wouldn't even contemplate, let alone pull off.

“Are you sure he's only twelve?” Frank asked his wife in a whisper as Harry easily dodged Neville's much slower spell casting and counter-attacked. Neville's nose grew to three times it size and spewed out a deluge of fake snot, which made everyone laugh, even Neville.

“I'm sure, even though he seems more mature than the Weasley twins.” Alice whispered back with a smile as Harry cancelled the spell and vanished the mess.

“Everyone's more mature than the twins.” Arthur said from beside them.

“Eavesdropping on ex-Aurors is a crime, isn't it?” Frank joked and Arthur chuckled.

“I only heard you mention the twins and my ears picked that right up, automatically waiting to hear what they've done this time.” Arthur said and made the Longbottoms smile.

“Okay, that we understand.” Frank said and kept watching.

Neville pulled off a nice spell combo against Ron, who was unprepared for both the Tantallegra spell that made your feet dance uncontrollably and an ice sheet on the floor. It was pretty comical to see him do all these fancy dance moves while staying completely still, then the ice started to melt and the toe of his sneaker touched the floor and Ron let out a yell as he flipped end over end and landed face down.

“I give that a solid 8, just for the face plant at the end!” Fred said loudly and a flaming 8 appeared on the end of his wand as he held it up, like in a real competition.

“That was definite 9 for me. The yell was classic!” George added and his wand lit with a 9.

Of course, that made everyone in the room add their own scores and they all laughed as Ron got a decent average score of 7.8.

“In case you missed it, that was a resounding approval rating, Mr. Weasley.” Augusta said, her own wand lit with a 9.5, only because it had taken too long for her grandson's opponent to be put to the floor. She would have given a 10 otherwise.

That made everyone laugh, even Ron.

Harry had quickly coached Luna and Ginny in several quick and easily cast spells, so they would have a decent chance if matched against anyone but each other. Ginny's face was red the whole time and Luna's dreamy expression was entirely focused on Harry as he talked to her like she was a normal person.

They had just as much fun when they played, even when they knew some of the others let them win by intentionally missing them with their spells or letting them cast first. Harry was one them of course, since he knew he was much too experienced to do anything except win and handicapped himself by using his wand with his off-hand.

The party ended after a huge and lavish meal and then they had all left. They all thanked Neville for a great party, which he mostly believed when Harry and Hermione said it. They had never lied to him, so he had to reluctantly accept that they all had fun.

Harry chuckled as he ended his reminiscing and closed his trunk before he went to bed. He was going home tomorrow, because both Amelia and Bertha had emphasized that he needed to stay there in his room for at least a month each year for the protections to remain in place. He was very glad that Amelia had explained what the blood wards meant and their power in protecting him from being hunted down by evil wizards that could still be loyal to their vanquished dark lord.

He drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that he was being protected by powerful magic as long as he called the Dursley's place home for the next five years. It would work until he was seventeen and a legal adult in the wizarding world. He didn't mind it, because he now had a nice two bedroom apartment there and he wouldn't even have to leave it, since it had everything that he needed inside.

Harry woke up the next morning and washed and dressed in his normal clothes, then he carried his trunk downstairs to set it near the fireplace. “I'm all packed. Again.” He said and that made Sirius chuckle and walk over to him from the kitchen.

“You're not used to getting things from a party like your friends did yesterday and today.” Sirius said and gave him a quick hug. “It's just a family's way of thanking you for being friends with their children.”

“Thanks for letting me pitch in for all the gifts and things that you and Ela did up for my friends.” Harry said.

“I wasn't going to accept the money if you hadn't pointed out the potential of all the Weasleys showing up.” Sirius joked and Harry grinned.

“Not to mention the Patils.” Ela said as she came over and hugged Harry tightly. “Their father wasn't supposed to show up, so that was a surprise.”

“Not as much as seeing both Greengrass girls.” Sirius said with a shake of his head. “Who would have thought the little scamps would sneak out on their parents?”

Ela laughed softly and let Harry go. “She was invited, dear.”

“She also gave me dragon paw slippers!” Harry said. “They're so cool!”

“Don't you dare add a fire breathing spell to them or you'll lose your toes.” Sirius warned him and Harry opened his mouth to say he wouldn't do that, then he looked thoughtful. “I said don't, dammit!”

Harry grinned and earned a vigorous head rubbing because of it.

They went into the kitchen to have breakfast and shared a quick conversation over what he was going to do for the month he was stuck at home.

“I'll come back over as soon as I get my letter from the school and find out what I need to buy for this year.” Harry said, which was perfect timing, because Hedwig tapped her beak on the kitchen window.

“I've got it.” Sirius said and went to the window to open it. “Hey, girl.”

“Hoot.” Hedwig hopped inside and glided over to Harry.

“Thanks, Hedwig.” Harry said and gave her some of his bacon and a drink of juice. “Yep, it's my Hogwarts...” He stopped talking as his eyes saw the middle sheet and he read it over.

“What is it?” Ela asked and barely stopped herself from leaning over to look.

“My... report card.” Harry said and handed it to her.

“Oh... oh, my.” Ela whispered and Sirius wasn't as restrained as her as he darted around her to look over her shoulder.

“By Merlin's scraggly beard!” Sirius said as he saw the word 'Outstanding' for all of the marks, except for Potions, which was 'Exceeds Expectations'. “Harry, this is amazing! Even Remus didn't do this well his first year and he's the biggest bookworm I know!”

Ela handed Sirius the report card and leaned over to Harry to give him a gentle hug. “Well done, Harry. Well done. We're very proud of you.”

Harry's face and ears turned red at her praise and he wasn't sure why his heart was all fluttery and beat like crazy.

“Try not to give the boy a heart attack.” Sirius said with a chuckle and Ela glared at him. “I didn't say stop, just be careful. He's not as used to having a beautiful woman paw at him as I am.”

Ela laughed softly with a shake of her head. Harry didn't feel as embarrassed now and he saw Sirius wink at him.

“Well, it looks like your plan to go home this morning has to be postponed.” Sirius said. “Ela and I will dress appropriately to go with you and pick up your school things.”

“We need to finish eating first.” Ela reminded him.

“Oh, right.” Sirius said and sat down again as he handed Harry the report card. “I'll expect a copy of that to hang up.”

Harry nodded and performed the Geminio spell right there and handed Sirius an exact copy two minutes later. Both Sirius and Ela stared at him as he started eating again, exchanged surprised looks, then resumed eating.

After a quick change, Ela wore a nice flowing white sun dress with a few flowers around the hem at her knees and Sirius wore a traditional suit with Black Family robes. Harry hadn't seen anything like it before and asked about them.

“Most prominent families have family crests, colors, and robe designs.” Sirius explained. “I was informed by the goblins at the bank that as the last male Black in the family, I needed to assume the mantle of the head of the family.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Needed to?”

“Their accounts are a mess.” Sirius said. “The goblins weren't allowed to interfere with them upon the orders of my crazy mother. Since she died and disowned me, the goblins have been pulling their hair out as everything they helped build up over the decades for the Blacks went to pot.”

Ela chuckled. “I just imagined that the goblin handling the account must be nearly bald by now.”

“He's completely bald.” Sirius said with a grin. “He even pulled out his ear hair from stress.”

Ela barked a laugh and covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing more. “The... poor... thing.” She managed to say through her struggle.

“We'll stop in the bank if you want and you can get a good look at him.” Sirius teased and she almost cried as she fought to not laugh.

Harry stood there beside the fireplace and watched their interaction. He somehow felt admiration for his godfather for how easily he interacted with Ela. He also liked that she had helped his godfather get most of his life back in order after being in prison for so long.

He didn't let his mind wander to the couple of times that he had seen Sirius as his mood went dark and he grew both irritable and snapped at her and him. Ela had warned him a long time ago that Sirius would need a lot of time to deal with the emotional toil he had suffered in prison. Just because his body was healed, that didn't mean he could ignore his mental state.

Harry wasn't sure why he was asked to participate in the mental health sessions that Sirius went through at her behest, though. It wasn't like he hadn't known his godfather was troubled. He had to assume that him being there was helping Sirius deal with his problems in a more reasonable manner.

What Harry didn't know was that both Ela and Sirius wanted him there to go through the sessions for his own mental health. It was one thing to get someone to do it, it was another to have them accept the help on their own and try to help themselves.

They knew Harry had trauma to deal with as well, so they made sure he learned just as many techniques as Sirius did to help deal with his emotions and potential outbursts. The therapy worked wonderfully for all three of them and their emotional moods had a significant upturn in happiness that they easily maintained while around one another.

“We should go.” Sirius said after Ela calmed down and the three of them left the house and went to the alley beside it. They hugged together with Harry's trunk in the middle and then shared their magic. Ela was the primary apparator this time and Harry and Sirius went side-along with her as they apparated from there to appear in the designated area in Diagon Alley.

A lot of other people were there as well getting their children their school things, so a few of the places were crowded. Madam Malkin's was the worst, because just like every year, both the students and the parents wanted to get the longer and most tedious event out of the way first.

“Flourish and Blotts?” Harry suggested.

Ela and Sirius nodded and they went there first. The second year textbooks were already bundled up and Harry asked for one, minus the second year charms spell book, because he already had it. The woman gave him a questioning look and he smiled.

“There's no rules against buying the more advanced spell books.” Harry said.

“You bought them all, didn't you?” The woman asked.

“All 7 years, as well as...” Harry recited the books he had bought and her eyes widened.

“You've read them all, too?” She asked, clearly surprised.

“I did.” Harry said, a bit proud of that fact, then decided to prove it. “The bubble-head charm.” He said and cast it perfectly on himself to form a bubble of fresh air around his head.

“Well, I'll be snookered.” The woman said with a laugh. “I'm glad to have such a prolific book buyer as a client.”

“I've definitely bought a lot of books from here and I even rented two of the really expensive ones.”

The woman gasped. “You're Hedwig's owner?” She asked and Harry nodded. “Thank you for casting the extra spells on those two books. Not having to worry about dust and dirt on them is such a relief.”

“It was only fair, since you were nice enough to not charge me the full and completely outrageous price for those two books. I almost threw up when I saw the bill!” Harry said and she chuckled.

Sirius and Ela stood there and watched Harry talk to the clerk like they had known each other for a long time and hadn't just met for the first time a few minutes ago.

“Well, we've got a few interesting things in this year if you want to take a look.” She said with a knowing smile.

“I'm not that rich!” Harry said and she laughed.

“I'll be gentle, I promise.” The clerk said and came around the counter. A man came out of the back to replace her and Harry saw it was the man that served him the year before. The woman lead him over to a bookcase, then she started describing the book and its contents. She must have had some kind of book sense, because Harry actually wanted to buy the book. His opinion of her rose as she took him to another bookcase and showed him yet another book that he wanted.

This went on for twenty minutes and Sirius and Ela followed them around the store until Harry had twice as many books than he came in for. The clerk rang it in for him and he paid, quite happily, then he had an idea.

“I know you'll see a lot of people coming through here today.” Harry said and then smiled. “You're going to meet a pretty bushy haired girl about this big.” He held his hand just below his height. “She's going to ask you for most of these same books.”

“Let me guess, you're best friends and you don't want me to double sell to her.” She said with a smirk.

Harry nodded. “She likes different things than me, so she's still going to buy a lot of books anyway.”

The woman chuckled. “I'll let her know you have them and she can borrow them from you.”

“My name's Harry.” Harry said.

“I know. I've been to Madam Malkin's shop.” The woman said and barely managed to not give him the same looks that she gave his portrait. In her opinion, getting to tease the young man in the portrait to make him blush was the highlight of her day when she visited Madam Malkin. She knew she was one of several women that did so; but, it was just too tempting to resist the bashful reaction when she complimented him.

“She still has that up?” Ela asked.

“It's still the most popular attraction she has.” The clerk said. “She just brought in some new Acromantula silk dress slips and undergarments, too.”

Ela caught her breath and couldn't stop her glance at Sirius.

“We can go there next if the crowd's thinned a little.” Sirius said and Ela leaned close as she took his hand. He would pay any price if it would make her happy. Plus, he got to see her wearing them, so he was essentially buying them for himself, too.

Harry put his purchases into his trunk and they bid the clerk goodbye as they left the store. Harry, Sirius, and Ela walked down the street to see that the crowd had diminished a little at the clothing shop and went inside. No sooner had the door closed behind them that one of the workers noticed Harry. She excused herself from the customers she was helping and darted away to tell her patron.

“Harry's here?!?” Madam Malkin's voice carried through the shop.

Everyone stopped what they were doing as they watched the older woman appear from a back room and she strode across the room towards him.

“Harry, it's so nice to see you.” Madam Malkin said and quickly took him into a hug. She held on a bit longer than she normally would have, then she let him go and put her hands on his shoulders as she looked at his outfit. “Yes, I see you've been keeping up with your maintenance spells. Good, good.” She said and then smiled at him. “You're a bit taller than the last time I saw you. Do you need your robes adjusted?”

“They're a little tight on the shoulders, too. I tried extending them and all it did was add extra fabric.” Harry said. “I even tried transfiguring them and it just made them bigger all over.”

Madam Malkin laughed and gave his shoulders a squeeze. “Unless you want to take up tailoring as a profession, you should leave the clothing alterations to the professionals.”

“That's why we're here.” Sirius said. “We'll wait over there for someone to finish with...”

“Nonsense. I'll deal with Harry's alterations myself.” Madam Malkin said and put her arm over Harry's shoulder. “Come with me into the back and we'll get you sorted out right away.”

“What about your other clients?” Ela asked as they moved towards the back.

“I've already given them an excuse and this won't take long. Harry's always a delight to help!” Madam Malkin said. “He's also the mascot of my store and everyone understands that I'll look after him first.”

Sirius and Ela didn't object further and followed her and Harry into the back. It was just his school robes that needed alteration, as well as his expensive dress robes. All of his normal muggle clothes had been bought a size bigger to allow growth, so she was finished fairly quickly.

“You see? That wasn't painful at all.” Madam Malkin said and handed Harry the last set of robes for him to hang up in his trunk. “I've allowed a bit more room for movement, too.”

“Thank you.” Harry said and took out some money to pay her.

Madam Malkin told him the price and accepted the money he gave her. “Thank you, Harry.” She said and pocketed it. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Ela wants a few of those Acromantula silk underthings.” Harry said and Ela caught her breath.

“We have lots in stock, so I only need to know your style.” Madam Malkin said and she and Ela stepped off to the side to talk in whispers.

“We'll wait out front.” Sirius said and both women waved to him in dismissal. “Come on, Harry.”

Harry went with his godfather out of the back room and they went to the small waiting area that had several other men and younger boys waiting there.

“It's always like this the first day.” They heard one of the men said. “You'd swear they thought the clothing wasn't here yesterday with the way some of them act.”

“My Maisie is the same way.” The man next to him said with a sigh. “If I didn't have such a good paying job, she would have bankrupted me years ago.”

Several of the men laughed and agreed.

Ela and Madam Malkin came out of the back ten minutes later. Ela had a one foot wide box in her hands and she blushed a little as Madam Malkin discreetly handed Sirius the bill. He didn't even look at it before he went to the counter to take care of it.

“I'm so glad I could help my favorite customer today.” Madam Malkin said and smiled at Harry. “If you need anything else, you just let me know in one of your letters, all right?”

Harry nodded and Sirius came back over to them. They said their goodbyes and left the shop to keep buying the things Harry needed for the next school year. It took a while, because of the extra people. The man at the apothecary sold this years potions kit to Harry and he still refused to sell any additional years of kits to him.

“I told you last year that you need more experience before I'll sell you ingredients that you're not ready for.” The man said. “I won't endanger a student like that.”

Harry had expected it and didn't complain that he had done really well in Potions class last year, despite the very poor start. They left there and went to several other shops, including the owl emporium. Harry bought two dozen bags of the premium owl treats, to the surprise of the clerk. He also bought a few toys for Hedwig to try, even though he was sure that she wasn't really interested in things like that.

He also bought a bunch of the small cat treat bags for Missus Norris, for when he received detention again. He knew it was going to happen, mainly because he couldn't help himself when casting magic against other students when they spoke ill of Hermione and his friends where he could hear. He still hated bullies and he dealt with them when he could.

Harry glanced at his trunk where the new books were and smiled wickedly. Madam Pomfrey is going to be very busy this year, too.

“One more stop.” Sirius said as they walked down the street to leave.

“Ice cream?” Harry asked and Sirius smiled.

“Okay, two more stops.” Sirius said and they went to Fortesque's Ice Cream shop to get some. Harry had Dirigible Plum, because Madam Malkin had that when she had taken him there last year. After staying there for ten minutes to eat their chosen ice cream, they left to go to the last shop.

Harry's eyes widened as they entered Quality Quiddich Supplies and the crowd seemed to part for them as they went to the counter. Sirius didn't say a word as he pointed over to the window display at the new broom there, the Nimbus 2001.

“Good choice, sir. Very good choice!” The clerk said and ducked into the back and came out with an identical broom. “It has the best flying charms that exist and the latest safety features that they are using on all official competition brooms.”

“It's an official Quiddich League broom?” Someone asked from nearby.

“It was approved just last week!” The clerk said to the man. “I couldn't have been happier at the announcement!”

Harry's eyes widened as the broom was carefully wrapped and then handed to Sirius, who paid for it and handed it right to Harry, which made Harry catch his breath.

“Congratulations on passing the year, Harry.” Sirius said, his voice a bit deeper than normal.

“S-Sirius.” Harry said and hugged the wrapped package. He wasn't sure what to say.

“I know how much you love to fly, and you're starting your second year. You're allowed to bring your own broom and won't have to use the school brooms anymore.” Sirius said and then chuckled. “Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just thought you might give Hedwig some good sport if you had a proper broom to race her with.”

Harry stared up at his godfather with adoration. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Sirius looked a bit uncomfortable, so Ela gave him a hug and whispered something to him. She let him go after a quick kiss and then helped Harry put the broom into his trunk and gave him a hug, too.

“I told you that we were proud of you.” Ela whispered to him and kissed his forehead.

“Th-thank you.” Harry said as he hugged her back and they stood there for nearly a full minute.

“I think you need a broomstick maintenance kit and possibly a pair of flight gloves, too.” Sirius said.

“I'll get them.” Harry said as Ela let him go and the clerk recommended the most expensive kit with the most options in it, so Harry bought that one. The gloves had detachable fingertips for use in cold weather and warm weather, so Harry bought the dragon hide versions that were adjustable. He would be able to use them for years before needing to buy new ones.

Harry, Sirius, and Ela left the shop with happy expressions that matched the clerk's, who just had a great sales day because of them. Despite all of the people browsing, most were only looking and didn't really buy a lot.

The three of them went to the apparating area and hugged once more to apparate back to Ela's home. They went inside and to the fireplace to send Harry home, then suddenly Ela took Harry into a tight hug and held on.

“Thank you for staying over this long.” Ela said as she looked down at the growing young man in her arms and her heart fluttered at the bright green eyes and the happy face she saw, because she knew what kind of environment he had grown up in. She was constantly amazed that he wasn't an unholy terror and almost laughed at the thought of Harry being like that.

“We both enjoyed having you here.” Ela leaned down to place a two second long kiss on his forehead.

Harry's face flushed red and he ducked his head a little. “Th-thanks for inviting me over. I had a great time staying here.”

“You're welcome to come over whenever you want.” Ela offered as she let him go. “We're just a floo connection away.”

Harry nodded and Sirius gave him a brief hug, too. “Bye.” He said and picked up his trunk, hugged it to his chest as he stepped into the fireplace and dropped some powder. “Privet Drive!”

Harry disappeared in a gout of green flames and reappeared in his two bedroom apartment. The place was a little dark with only one window, so he kicked off his sneakers beside the fireplace and turned on the lights. He went to the window to open it, because he was sure that Hedwig would be there soon. He took his trunk into his bedroom. He opened it and looked at the well organized room inside, then looked at the empty room around him.

“I might as well get to unpacking.” Harry said and did just that.

The first thing he did was transfer out the old bookshelf and all of the original books he had to stack on the shelves because they were all odd sizes. He had made copies of them a long time ago and shrunk them for easy access, so he always had them available and within reach from the top of the trunk.

He took out some of his muggle clothing that he would be wearing and hung them up in the closet and put some in the dresser. He would have to pack them again in a month when he went back to school, and he was fine with that. At least the room didn't look so empty now.

Harry took out his new school things and put them on the table to look through them later and then he left the bedroom and went to the kitchen. He dug out several piles of food and put them into the refrigerator, even though they didn't really need to be refrigerated. The preservation spells kept them fresh and at the same temperature when it was cast on them.

For the hot dishes, he put several of them in the large oven. For the room temperature things, like fruit baskets and things, he left on the counter for easy access. Since he only had a month to stay here by himself, he had about three times the amount of food that he had planned on needing for the whole summer.

He wasn't going to complain about it, mainly because it was better to have more than you needed than it was to not have enough. Also, his tuition for Hogwarts paid for the food, since he took it from mealtimes when he should have eaten it when it appeared. Not only that, he had finally gotten back the same number of dishes that had been stolen that first day. He would never get back the feelings those gifts of food had given him, though.

Harry took his trunk back to the living room and left it next to the fireplace, then he took a deep breath and let it out. He looked around his home that looked much nicer than the house it was inside, and he smiled. If he was careful, they wouldn't even know he was home. He cast the silence spell on the door, so that no sound would pass through it, and he went into his bedroom.

He had a pile of new books and things to read over and opened the bundle of school books to see the potions book on top. He didn't even bother opening it and put it aside, wrote out a quick note to send to Professor Snape about it, and picked up the next edition of the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. He sat down at his desk and dove right into reading it.

*

Hermione was ecstatic as they left the bookstore and her parents had been quite happy that she had bought some of them for herself. They didn't ask where she had gotten the money last year, so when she had gone home for the summer, she told them it had been a gift from Harry. She had saved as much of it as she could, too.

“I'm glad we didn't have to go into that madhouse today.” Mrs. Granger commented as they passed by Madam Malkin's clothing shop.

“Me, too.” Hermione said. After her long talks with Harry and him relaying how much things cost in the wizarding world, she knew that even simple things could cost a lot of muggle money, because the conversion to galleons was horrendous. She knew she would have to earn money in the wizarding world after she graduated and pay her parents back for all that they do for her.

She looked up at their caring faces and knew that they would refuse at first. They were just those kind of people. She would pay them back anyway, because if it wasn't for them making so many sacrifices for her, she would never have had the chance to go to a school that taught real magic. Real, practical magic.

The first thing Hermione did was refuse her allowance, once she learned the real conversion for money. Her parents couldn't afford to give her free money each week for just being their daughter. It sparked an argument, because Hermione still did her chores while at home. Hermione politely stated that she could do magic and the chores weren't really chores. She couldn't take money for something like that.

Her parents, exasperated with her unflappable mind, decided that if she wouldn't take the money, they would put it aside for her as she did chores. When it reached a certain amount, they would use it to by her a book she wanted or something she needed for school. Hermione couldn't find fault with that, so she accepted it and the compromise was set.

The Grangers walked on and stopped at the owlery for Hermione to send off a quick letter to Harry, with a copy of her report card and how excited she was over the books he had bought and would share with her. She included the list of the ones she bought, two of which were bought with her chores money.

Hermione promised to do extra work at home to make up the difference, too. Her repairing spell was almost as powerful as Harry's was and her parents couldn't have been happier. She had saved them so much money already that they didn't feel guilty over how expensive things were in the wizarding world.

“Let's go home.” Hermione said and they left to go out the normal way. They had parked the car down the street from The Leaky Cauldron and drove home. Hermione was filled with excitement as she thought about all the books Harry had bought her for her birthday and the new ones she now had. Her parents were happy that she was happy, since it had been so rare to see her like that while she was growing up.

Her intelligence was just too intimidating for most people to take, even adults. However, she was still just a young girl. It would take her years to understand that people in general didn't like it when you showed how much smarter than them that you were. Little did they know that she was already learning.

Hermione was actually well aware of the situation, having had to deal with it in every school she had attended. It wasn't until meeting Harry Potter that she started to see how much her own personality was off-putting to others. Harry was suffering nearly the same thing, because of how he had acted those first few days at the beginning of the year last year.

Harry's vocal support of her, especially her habit of trying to correct people's mistakes, finally made her see that people didn't necessarily want to be corrected. He did, though. He even said that he appreciated that she cared so much about him to help him like that.

Hermione's face flushed a little red as she remembered that scene at the Griffindor table during breakfast. It had made her so happy that he had defended her behavior and it still made her react the same way, even nearly a year later. She looked out the car window and did her best to not let her mind go to something that kept popping up in her mind at random times.

The New Year's kiss she had given him after the Christmas holidays.

They hadn't done it since and she was in no rush to repeat it. It had been a magical moment when he had declared that she was the reason his Occlumency lessons had been perfected and that neither Professor Snape nor Headmaster Dumbledore could penetrate his mind. Because of his feelings for her.

It had sent Hermione's heart over the moon and ever since then, if she was anywhere near her wand when she thought of that kiss, it would send out a little spark.

That made her smile and she rode the rest of the way home in a great mood. She only had a month left before she would be meeting Harry to ride on the Hogwarts Express to head back to school. It was their second year and they were both going to read up as much as they could before going. They both really enjoyed that part and they both knew they would be able to do more, now that they lived in magically protected houses.

It wasn't that they wanted to be ahead of everyone else, it was because they wanted to learn as much as possible from the books, so they could understand the things the teachers taught that weren't in those books. Several of the things they did in classes last year weren't even mentioned in the school books, especially in Transfiguration and Potions.

Both teachers knew a lot more than they let on, especially Professor Snape.

Hermione stopped her train of thought when they pulled into their driveway. She took some of her things and her father carried in the rest for her. They dropped them off in her room and went back downstairs to have lunch where she and her parents shared a short conversation about pretty much nothing.

When Hermione was done eating, she went back upstairs and pulled out the sheets and sheets of parchment that she and Harry had covered in writing. It all concerned the prophecy and it had all of their musings and research over the words themselves, the context of those words, and what they could possibly mean. She pulled out the sheet on the bottom and on it were all the insights of Professor Snape that Harry had gotten, at the cost of a detention for every one.

She almost hugged the thing, since Harry had paid a high price for it, and it meant a lot to her because of that. She didn't mean the detentions themselves. Harry didn't mind them at all. No, it was everyone's reaction to him being in detention so much. The whispers of troublemaker, being a bad influence, and a nuisance, almost made her curse people whenever they said such things.

Hermione took a deep breath and let a sigh out as she sat down at her desk. She was sure that they had almost cracked the real meaning behind the key phrases. The wording itself was odd, considering the content, and she pondered over it to get her mind in the mood to read.

“This... this is the key to Harry's life.” Hermione whispered and lightly pet the parchment. “All of his troubles, all of his anger, all of his emotions... it was all caused by this.”

Her thoughts went to Amelia's take on it, that she didn't believe in prophecies at all and that no one should. It was a good outlook, except that would only have worked if they had all been normal people and not witches and wizards. That was the problem with the whole thing. It was a magical prophecy. It was going to happen, especially because there were people who believed in them and ensured they came true.

Hermione sat back and closed her eyes. Headmaster Dumbledore is trying to make this prophecy come true. He's succeeded in making half of it be valid, and now he's trying to fulfill the second half.

She sat there for nearly twenty minutes and mulled it all over, then she took in a sharp breath as her body jerked. She opened her eyes very wide, because she had figured part of the riddle out.

“Oh, my god.” Hermione whispered and stared at the papers on her desk. “He's not dead. Voldemort's not dead.” She said and wrote out a note to Harry, then realized that she didn't have a quick way to get it to him. “Damn, what do I...” She stopped talking and decided to ignore magic and do it the normal way.

A letter was sent out an hour later in the muggle mail.

*

Harry was a bit lonely. He was in his huge two bedroom apartment by himself and it was quiet all the time. He had tried to watch the television and nothing interested him on it. He had also tried to read all of his school things and seemed to lose interest partway through and his motivation wasn't as strong as he thought it should be. It wasn't until he sat down to eat at the large kitchen table by himself that understanding finally hit him.

It was the first time that he had been left alone in his whole life. Each an every day was busy and he had at least one or two people around him at all times, ever since he was a baby. They were verbally abusive and Dudley beat him up as soon as he was old enough to get away with it; but, they were still company. He hated them and the neighbourhood kids. Even most of the adults wouldn't give him the time of day if he asked.

It wasn't until going to Hogwarts that his opinion of other people had started to change slightly. Most of the students at the new school still treated him the same as the ones in his old school did, except for a select few. If he hadn't met Hermione on the train, he wasn't sure what his school life would have been like. She had grown on him so quickly and he liked having her around, even though she was a girl.

Hermione was smart, too. She knew more things than him and knew how to find things that he didn't, so they really got along well. She had helped him so much those first few weeks and then she had become a good friend. It had made him relax while around her and that allowed others to also appear. Neville seemed to slot right into their dynamic as if he was supposed to be there and he was benefiting even more from their friendship than even Harry could suspect.

Ron was getting there, too. It had been a really rocky start after they first met and Harry wasn't sure if he was going to pay attention to him at all, then Ron brought up his older brothers that were so different from the twins that he couldn't help but reevaluate Ron's relationship with his brothers.

Harry had mistaken Ron's interactions with his twin brothers as the way they all were and it had soured Harry on getting to know Ron at all. He was glad to find out that he was wrong and that Percy's words on the train had been right. They were just brothers and that was that.

Of course, these thoughts on larger families and friends brought Harry's current problem to the forefront. He was completely by himself right now. Luckily, it never once crossed his mind to open the cupboard door and greet the other people living in the house. He had cut them off and ignored them as if they didn't exist, the same as they had done to him for years. The less interactions he had with them, the better.

Harry heard a swooshing sound and turned around on the couch to look at the owl perch and watched as Hedwig swooped in and landed expertly. “Hi, Hedwig!” He said and then smiled at her as he came up with an idea. He just hoped that Hermione would agree and would be able to come. It all depended on one mitigating factor and his eyes went to the large fireplace.

He quickly wrote out a note and went over to Hedwig with it and several owl treats. “Don't make Hermione rush with her reply, okay? You can just hang out there until she's done.” He said and gave her the envelope. “I wrote that in the note, so she won't feel rushed if you stay.”

“Hoot!” I go! Hedwig said and took off again.

*

Hermione sat on her bed with one of her new books and she just couldn't get her mind off of Harry. Her little breakthrough about the prophecy had wormed its way into her mind and dominated it to the point that she couldn't concentrate on anything else properly. It was frustrating, because she wanted to hear back from him quickly, even knowing it would take days for a letter to reach him by muggle mail.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Hermione hopped up and stared out the window of the bedroom at the snowy white owl standing there on the sill with an envelope in its beak. “Hedwig!” She exclaimed as she put the book down and quickly walked over to the window to open it and take the envelope. “I was just thinking of Harry.”

“Hoot hoot.” Hedwig responded and looked a bit smug.

Hermione chuckled and opened the letter. She caught her breath as she read it, then she read it again. She looked at Hedwig and her heart went out to her, because she was going to have to deliver bad news to her friend.

Hedwig didn't have to wait long at all. A piece of parchment later with a sad note written on it, with another bit of important information at the bottom, was given to the owl and it took off to return to her owner. Hermione watched the bird as it flew away and she let out a sad sigh as it disappeared from sight. She went back to her bed and looked at the book she had been trying to read.

She sighed again as she put the book back with her school things and changed for bed. It was still really early in the day, barely past 6 o'clock in the evening, and she climbed into bed and laid down anyway.

Hermione felt like crying, because for the very first time since they had become friends, she would have to tell the handsome Harry Potter something that she had promised herself that she would never say to him if she could help it.

Unfortunately, this time she couldn't help it. She had to respond to the only boy she had ever liked and she hoped he wouldn't be upset by her answer. Despite the other words she had written as an explanation around it, her answer was a simple one.

That answer was 'no'.