Dear Padfoot,

Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favourite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course, James thought it was funny, says he's going to be a great Quidditch player, but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.

We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda, who has always been sweet to us, and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell - also, Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend, I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the news about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard.

Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore, I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually, because it seems incredible that Dumbledore could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally!

Lots of love,

Lily

Hermione Granger was bent over her large suitcase folding her robes till they were a perfect rectangle. She always packed them last as they were the first thing she would need when she arrived. She stroked them lightly and sighed. She couldn't believe she was going back to Hogwarts.

It took nearly 2 years for the school to be rebuilt after The Second Wizarding War. The war itself lasted 2 years from 1996 to 1998. Hermione fought alongside her friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley as they tried to permanently get rid of the cause of the war, Voldermort. She was relieved for a normal year of school with no dark lords, no hocruxes, and no death eaters. The Ministry of Magic made sure that all death eaters were caught and sent to Azkaban for life before allowing students to return back to school.

Hermione had only her last year to complete and this year all she had to worry about was her N.E. -Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test. She was extremely excited to start studying again. She loved studying magic and never understood why her friends complained it was too much work. She found it remarkable and stimulating. She is muggle-born, meaning as a child she never thought that such things could exist. In the past two years; as she couldn't return to Hogwarts, she had decided to start muggle home schooling to pass her time. It just made her appreciate Hogwarts all the more. She would gladly take a six hour long Transfiguration's class than a 40 minute math class any day.

That reminded her, she forgot to pack the most important thing. Her wand. She hid it in an old shoe box under her bed. She would never be able to explain it to her friends or family. It wasn't the real reason she kept it locked away though. She felt obliged to hold on to her muggle heritage and so during her time in the muggle world she locks up all her wizarding things and tried to do things as a muggle. It was frustrating at the start when she couldn't so much as fix a broken glass but she got used to it, only ever seeing her wand when she was making sure it was still where she left it.

Hermione got down on her knees and lifted the bed cover over her head and reached for the little box.

At that very moment Mrs. Granger entered the room to find her daughter shaking about her arse. She giggled causing Hermione to jump in surprise and bump her head underneath her bed. She fell flat on the ground. Her mother screamed and ran to her. She placed hermione's head on her lap. She began worriedly shaking Hermione screaming for her to wake up. Hermione pushed her mum down and trapped her with all the weight of her body and started to laugh.

"Really mum, I helped defeat the dark lord. Bumping my head isn't going to kill me," she said jokingly.

She heard someone scoff at the door and turned to find her father. "Don't kid yourself 'Mione, it's your huge hair that saved you nothing else. You head could survive anything with that thing on your head,"

She growled and playfully said "I should have left you obliviated and found myself a new father!"

"Aw, but then who would you have to carry your heavy luggage to car. Lord knows how many brushes you keep in here." He winked at her and grabbed the suitcase taking it to the car.

"Thanks dad!" she screamed after him.

She turned around and helped her mother up, telling her she wanted to have a moment to herself to see if she had forgotten anything. He mum nodded and went to help Mr. Granger with the bags. Hermione went to the other side of her four-poster bed, looked under and finally found what she was looking for. She took out the old yellow shoe box and placed it on her bed. She took off the cover and dug through the paper in the box. She picked out her wand and put in on her bed then closed the box and putting it back under her bed. She wrapped her small hand around her 10¾ vine wood wand. She felt a rush of energy run from her finger tips to her toes. She was so thankful to the Minestry for getting it back to her after those stupid snatchers took it away. She put it in her boundless beaded bag and rushed down stairs.

Hermione passed by the kitchen and grabbed a piece of buttered toast and an apple from the fridge and made her way to the car. She almost tripped finding crookshanks asleep next to her feet. She almost forgot him she grabbed him and went to join her parents.

Mrs. Granger turned around petting Crookshanks in the back seat next to Hermione. "Do you remember when you first got him?"

"Yeah, when I was 11 at Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. He seemed to really like me"

"I remember the owner saying no one wanted him and he didn't really like anyone either" her mother replied.

"Well I remember him saying he wanted an owner compatible with how smart he was" she said with a boastful smile.

"'Mione, no need to make your head even bigger, I can barely see the road behind me."

"Haha! That's enough hair jokes dad!"

"Harry!" Hermione yelled and hugged her best friend. "I missed you."

She found him standing infront of platform 9¾ looking around aimlessly.

He laughed and said "I missed you too, 'Mione."

"Where's Ron?"

"I think he's on the other side, I can't seem to find his red head anywhere."

Without another word the grabbed their trollies and ran through on at a time. They didn't have many thing this year as the seventh years use the same things they had in the sixth years. Due to the war it seemed best for everyone to repeat a year. Seventh grades are 2 years older now making Hermione 20. She felt bad about not getting to work till she was 21 maybe even 22 but atleast she was older and might find her N.E. easy.

Harry and Hermione found Ron with his little sister Ginny and went up to them. Ginny had let her Red hair grow and it was not reaching her waist she had grown in all the right places and had turned into an extremely gorgeous lady. Harry held his girlfriend of 3 years with pride giving a quick peck and whispering to her that she looks great. He carried her things to the train leaving Hermione and Ron alone and so very awkward.

During the war Hermione and Ron shared an extremely passionate kiss completely changing their relationship. Hermione was in love with Ron but wasn't sure how he felt. After the death of his brother Fred, he had changed. He wasn't the happy, friendly Ron she knew. He became more reserved and quiet and made it obvious that he wasn't ready for a relationship. It took more than a year, but Hermione got over him. They are still good friends but things will never be the same.

"I see you brought your cat with you," he said breaking the silence.

"Oh, Ron you really have to get over your hatred"

"I can't 'mione, there's something creepy about him."

"I agree," Harry said making his way back to them "I don't mean sound nasty, but he was 10 when you first got him. It's kinda weird that he didn't pass don't you think?"

"Well, when I first got him the owner said he found him on the street and had no idea who he belonged to. Maybe the previous owner put a spell on him or something to look older than he actually is."

"Yeah, maybe."