Disclaimer: anything you recognise probably belongs to the lovely JK Rowling, who has been kind enough to let us play with her characters :)

Happy reading!

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Prelude

Love is the craziest thing ever. You fall in love when you least expect it, when you can't afford to, with someone you don't expect to. It has been described as a disease, something that infects every cell of your body, making you ache for the one you love like for water in a desert. Continuing with the desert analogy - with love you also find many mirages of cool lakes: people who deliberately set out to make you want them, use you, and then disappear as if it were a dream, leaving you with a broken heart and no water.

Love clouds judgement, makes even the cleverest person act stupidly. People justify so many things with the word 'love', even if it hurts the object of their affections.

'It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all'. So said a famous bard. Being one who has loved and lost, I can honestly say that it is, in fact, the other way round.

Virgil once said 'Love conquers all' - to my surprise, and extreme annoyance, Love even conquered me.

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Chapter 1

I banged on the door in annoyance.

"Hurry up Ron! There are other people in this house, most of whom want to use the bathroom sometime this century!"

The sound of the shower continued as I received no acknowledgement of my complaint. I groaned in frustration. Trust me to pick the very morning I needed to be up early to sleep through my alarm and miss first chance in the bathroom! And I really needed to wash my hair... Turning, I stomped back into the room I shared with Ginny and flopped irritably onto my bed. Ginny had obviously just been woken by my shout and my annoyance with Ron increased. Ginny was not a light sleeper - a banshee could scream in her ear and the most she would do is roll over – if Ginny heard me, Ron must have! And he had ignored me! No-one ignores Hermione Granger, and lives to tell the tale. (Well, I tend to jinx them, actually, but it's nice to imagine doing something different). My musings as to which way to kill Ron slowly and painfully - boil him in Moaning Myrtle's toilet or give him as a gift to the centaurs? - were interrupted as Ginny woke up enough to say something.

"Ron still in the shower?" She yawned, rubbing her face with a hand.

No shit, Sherlock, I thought acidly, but replied nicely. After all, it had been me who had woken her up, and she didn't seem to be too upset with me. She'd probably manage to go back to sleep in a few minutes.

"He's been in there for the better part of an hour, now. I don't think he appreciates that there are other people in this house - or that he uses enough water to provide for the whole population of Africa..." I trailed off as I noticed her eyes glaze over. People generally do that around me when I start telling them about something I find interesting but they don't. Oh well.

Note to self: when getting married, find someone who can conceal the 'glazed eyes' look.

I sighed and started searching for my wand. A quick cleaning charm would have to do, as the noise of the shower did not promise to stop any time soon.

Half an hour later I was putting the finishing touches to my makeup and Ginny was snoring peacefully once again. I sometimes wonder how I can manage to sleep with her rumbling away like an adolescent dragon next to me; then I remember the full-sized dragon snores of Lavender Brown and wonder no more.

2nd note to self - make sure he doesn't snore.

I should probably point out that I am, actually, quite into hair and makeup and clothes, but with both best friends being male, I have no chance to divulge this information. I like shopping as much as the next girl, however I hate 'girly nights' and tend to avoid the sixth year dormitory like the plague when the other sixth year girls schedule one. Not my idea of fun. A big fat Galaxy bar and a nice mushy book are my occasional girlish indulgences; along with a nice bubbly bath once a week. If you ever want me to be nice to you for a day, give me Galaxy. Seemples. squeak (I love that advert!)

Checking the time, I realised that I had spent a little longer primping than normal and so made my way downstairs - I had 20 minutes to have breakfast and get ready to meet Professor Dumbledore. I had no idea why he wanted to meet me, only that he did, at 9:30am, and that apparently he 'is extremely fond of Mars Bars'. Whatever that means.

Breakfast was pretty boring, actually. Toast and jam. Like I have had every morning since I arrived at the Burrow a week ago. At least at Hogwarts there is some variation, you know, like porridge, or fruit, or cereal... But no. Here, it was toast, toast, toast... And guess what? More toast! I sighed. It would be good to be back at school - I couldn't wait to get to the library.

Again a little break in the narrative (I hope I'm not boring you but I am trying to get rid of the train of the train of thought that I am in love with books and studying and school!).

I enjoy learning - I like the challenges of learning something new and, if in class we are covering something I know already, I will do extra research around the subject to make it more interesting. I do not enjoy spending my time doing homework, I simply am eager to get it out of the way as soon as possible so that I have time for other activities.

There.

Sorted.

Where was I? Toast. Of course.

I finished my toast, and ended up brushing my teeth in the kitchen sink as Ron still wasn't out of the shower (honestly, I know he's tall, but there's not that much of him to wash!). It was 25 minutes past nine exactly, and so I scooped up a handful of Floo powder, yelled 'BYE' to the house at large, then spoke to the fire.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

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A/N hi lovely readers! A review would be nice, just to let me know what you think – one-liners are fine

This is my first fic, so please try and be nice to me... I have lots of good things in store for you

Apologies about the meerkat phrase – those of you who have seen the advert will know what I'm talking about – I was dared to fit it in somewhere...

This is going to be a Hermione/Marauders/time travel fic, with possible pairings of RL/HG, SB/HG and possibly SS/HG... not sure about the last one, it all depends on what my characters decide to do...

xxx