Disclaimer: Missis DarkEternal09 and Yukari Kanzaki would like to make it known that DUDE! IF WE OWNED THE HARRY POTTER FRANCHIZE WE'D BE SO FREAKING RICH! AND WE WOULDN'T BE WRITTING FANFICTION, BECAUSE IT WOULD BE THE AUCTUAL HARRY POTTER STORY. We don't own so don't sue. serously, don't. If you think that after rent, car maitenence, food, clothing, bills, and school expences, we'd have the money for a court case, then you'd be as smart as Abe Lincolin when he said, "You know dear, I don't feel like staying in tonight, LET'S GO TO THE THEATRE!" (Start sad violin music) Honestly do you know how cold it gets in our one room, bare floor hovel of an apartment (In southern California) where the wind howls through the crack in the wall by the one window? And all you have is one tiny, tattered, thin blanket to keep you both warm? Dark's voice: "Wait a minute... if we have a car, and clothes, and food, and go to school, why the bloody hell are we living in this crap apartment?" (Violin stops, Yukari glares at Dark, and hits Dark with her notebook) Yukari's voice: "DON'T ASK STUPID QUESTIONS! Or I shall smack you again." Dark's voice: "We don't live in southern California, hell we don't even live on the west coast." (Yukari smacks Dark again) Yukari's voice: "I SAID SHUT UP!" (Yukari gags Dark and stuffs her in a closet) Yukari's voice: "Like I was saying before, (Mouths) Sympathy." Dark's voice coming from closet: " We have a closet? When did we get a clost in our one room apartment?" Dark's muffled voice coming from closet: " Ambd mow, oom wifff la torie."

Chapter 1

Hermione sighed with a mixture of anticipation, and fear. She was going back… to Hogwarts… to Him. He who had filled her University life with a dark, although perverted desire. She chuckled to herself; he made our lives a living hell… But it's him… not Dumbledore's letter that's making me go back. She thought, amused at the fact that He'd made her life miserable, yet she desired him with her whole being. But first, she had to floo to Mrs. Malfoy's, Mrs. Ginny Weasley Malfoy's house.

Hermione opened the jar that held the light green powder, and threw a pinch on to her crackling fire. "Ginny and Draco Malfoy's residence!" She called into the green flame. "Ginny! You there? I need to talk to you!"

"Oh my God! Hermione!" Ginny scrambled to get untangled from the sofa cover, and from Draco. "Uh… hold on Hermione!" Ginny called, trying to pull on her shirt, get into her underwear, and get off the couch as well. She was struggling into her muggle jeans as Draco pushed himself up on one arm. He pulled on his own johns and muggle jeans. Then sat next to Ginny, stroking her sweat-matted flame-red hair. Ginny Malfoy starting to slow down her breathing as Draco tucked some of her hair behind her ear, and off her neck. He gently kissed her neck, causing Ginny's chest to rise and fall more rapidly. Ginny's eyes closed as Draco's mouth and tongue caressed her flesh.

"Wait… Draco… come on… get off." Ginny pushed him back, but Draco pushed her bum out from underneath her, pushing her shoulder back so she was supported by the couch back.

"No." he said slyly, kissing her neck again. Ginny's hands were on his bare chest, presumably to push him back, but they weren't doing a good job. Draco gently began nibbling at Ginny's porcelain-like skin when she spoke again.

"I'm serious Draco… Hermione's here." Draco immediately stopped nuzzling his wife. Both sat up, clearing their throats.

"I'm gonna…go…get a shirt." Draco said embarrassed.

"Probably a good plan." Hermione told him, speaking as if she saw him semi-nude everyday. After Draco's retreating back had vanished, Hermione turned to Ginny, trying not to laugh.

"So… how…is…he?" she asked, tilting her head to indicate Draco.

Ginny laughed glancing at the hallway her lover, and life-partner had disappeared into. "Let me put it this way Hermione, there's good, better, best, the greatest in the history of all mankind, and then there's him.

"That good huh?" Ginny nodded.

"Hey Ginny," Hermione said suddenly serious, "did Dubledore send you a letter too?"

Ginny nodded, sombrely, adding "I'm supposed to take over for Madam Pomfrey as school healer."

Hermione nodded, her eyes already starting to sting at the thoughts of all the professors that she and Ginny had known who were dead or gone now.

"Have you talked to Harry, and Ron, then?"

"Yeah… they've all gotten letters too… Harry's doing DATDA, um… Luna Potter's continuing with her journalism, Ron's got COMC, since Hagrid's retiring from teaching to just being the game keeper again, Neville has Herbology, Harry's cousin Crystal… remember her?"

Ginny nodded. "we still keep in touch… sort of. I can't believe she married Neville!"

"I know! But anyway, she's going to be the new fling instructor, since Madam Hooch retired at the end of last term. And Lavender Brown is teaching Divination, because… well you heard about Professor Trelaney." Hermione finished quietly as Draco returned. He sat down next to Ginny, intertwining their fingers.

"But that leaves you teaching transfig-" Ginny suddenly realized what she was saying. 'Oh Hermione… I'm so sorry… Professor MaGonagall was like a mum to all the Gryffindors."

"Snape was like that too… for the Slyitherins." Draco added. Ginny and Hermione exchanged a glance, then began shaking with silent laughter. Draco looked between them to see if either would divulge what he had said to cause the silent giggle-fest.

"Oh Draco." Ginny sighed, tucking a stray strand of his silvery blonde hair behind his ear (He wore his hair long, and not slicked back but parted down the centre). "You just told us that Snape was like a mum to the Slytherins." Draco thought about what he had said and quickly responded.

"I meant to say father." Ginny and Hermione smiled knowingly. "Anyway… I'm going to be the Potions Assistant." Draco added matter-of-factly. Hermione looked at her watch and leapt to her feet. "I have to go! We're all supposed to be there soon!" They exchanged temporary fare wells as Hermione stepped back into the green fire. Behind her, Hermione heard Ginny ask Draco where she and he had been. A last brief glance as the horrible spinning began, told Hermione that Ginny and Draco were picking right up where they'd left off. My God! Do they have sex every single hour they're awake! Hermione stepped out of her fireplace and noticed that the magical snow globe on her coffee table was glowing crimson. Must be a Gryffindor calling… the snow globes had been invented by Luna as a communication device that also glowed the color of the house of the caller. The globe itself was about nine inches in diameter, the base was adorned with the four Hogwarts house animals, the very top of the globe had the four house animals as well, with the largest pertaining to the owners house, and relationship status. Hers showed a lion, larger than the others, standing alone. Gryffindor and single. Crystal's face appeared in the orb.

"Hey 'Mione!" Hermione sighed. Still the all-American girl…I'm surprised Neville's grandmother actually consented and blessed their marriage… then again… Neville's just so much…happier with her around… She thought as she hefted the snow globe into her lap, so that she could speak to Crystal better. "Hello Crystal."

"Hi! Listen, 'Mione,"

"Don't call me 'Mione."

"Anyway," Crystal continued as if Hermione had said nothing, "would it be okay if Nev and I pop in for a quickie visit?"

"Yeah, it'd be great! Are you going to floo in?"

"Nayhh… fly."

"But Crystal," Hermione interjected in a chastising manner, "Neville Longbottem can not fly on a broom if his life depended on it!"

"Well," the American replied nonchalantly, "Not just his life does depend on it. Mine does too."

"I don't really think that will make a difference. Who's broom?"

"Mine." Crystal answered easily.

"Then I'll have to tell Dumbledore that he needs to get two new professors. Neville Longbottem can't fly"

"Ah yes 'Mione, but I can, besides We're almost there, see you in a few minutes!" Crystal said smiling. The globe went blank. Hermione sighed again and placed the snow globe back on her coffee table and awaited Crystal and Neville Longbottem's arrival. They came and Hermione gasped when she saw them pull off an invisibility cloak… in broad daylight! In her backyard!

"Oh my God! Are you insane! What about the Statute of Secrecy? What if the neighbours saw you!" Hermione yelled out of the door she was holding open for them. Neville and his wife ran towards the back door, holding hands, and giggling like loonies. Hermione shook her head, tutting. "Honestly."

"Aww… don't wigg 'Mione, you know how good my memory charms are." Crystal said breathing heavily. "As I'm told almost as good as Lockhart's!"

"Crystal, I have asked you several times over, so now I must say that if you call me 'Mione again I shall hex you so badly that even the American customs wizards will reject and deport you, because there's no way in hell that they'll believe you are who your passport and picture ID's say you are because your face will be so badly disfigured." Hermione threatened the witch with her wand, aimed squarely between he eye's. Crystal went cross-eyed when she looked at the tip of Hermione's wand. She put her hands up defensively.

"Whoa Granger. Let's not do something to anger the Department of International Magical Relations by hexing a foreign visiting witch, okay?" Hermione slowly lowered her wand. Neville and Crystal sighed in relief, simultaneously.

"I hope you at least had the sense to fly above the clouds." Crystal and Neville glanced at each other guiltily. Hermione's eye's widened. "You did fly above the clouds, right!" When neither Crystal or Neville answered, Hermione gasped, clasping her hand to her chest, as she stumbled backwards a few steps. Neville and Crystal burst out laughing.. Hermione, outraged, silenced them. "Silencio!" Crystal and Neville continued shaking with silent laughter for a while before they both calmed down.

Even though they were no longer laughing at her, Hermione refused to give them back their voices. Crystal whipped out her own wand. For a minute, Hermione thought she was going to hex her, but Crystal's wand only spouted a red ribbon, that she used to write in the air with. 'Okay Hermione. We've stopped laughing; you can give us our voices back now.' Hermione did so, and the Longbottem's sighed relieved.

"Don't do that again Hermione, please." Neville pleaded.

"Don't worry Neville, I won't."

Neville looked relieved, not wanting his wife, and one of his best friends to fight. It had happened before Hermione suddenly remembered, in their seventh year, not strictly between herself and Crystal, but between Crystal, Harry, Ron, and Draco.

-Flashback- Yukari:"Ah…the first of many." Dark:"Oh dear god… here we go."

The Room of Requirement had, once again, outfitted itself perfectly for it's users needs. The interior was a deep, blood red, with an extremely comfortable, wide sofa, of a matching colour, a roaring fire, and low lights. It was at least midnight, but all Crystal and Neville had done was kiss. She was sitting on his lap, with her legs on either side of his own. They carried on like that for a while, until they suddenly found themselves laying down, one on top of the other. Neville's fingers began fumbling with the buttons of Crystal's shirt, while Crystal began lifting his cardigan. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, Draco, and Hermione were looking over the Mauraders Map, searching franticly for the ink dots that portrayed Crystal's location. Harry was worried about his adopted cousin. He knew he had good reason to be worried. Even though most of the death eaters were in Azkaban or dead, some of their children were still in Hogwarts, and not very happy with their parents current positions. As Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco scoured the map, and the school, they saw that the ink dots labelled Crystal Abbc and Neville Longbottem were in the Room of Requirement, by themselves. As the foursome got closer to the room, the Mauraders Map wiped itself blank, replacing the map of Hogwarts with a warning written in fancy cursive.

Messer's Moony, Wormtail

Padfoot, and Prongs

Offer you this warning:

Do not disturb these lovers two

Beyond this door you've brought before you.

Actions that best stay hid,

A young man, and young woman

Share a love that is forbid.

Open this door and you will find

A hatred of you that will consume your mind.

The map wiped itself blank once more, before more black spindly writing appeared again.

And now a word from Messer's Moony, Wormtail,Padfoot, and Prongs:

Mister Moony suggests you turn around and not bother the couple.

Mister Wormtail wishes to tell you that it isImmoral to disturb a pair of snogging lovers.

Mister Padfoot would like to tell you to SOD OFF, Because he and a girl are busy doing the same thing

That those two in the room are doing.

Mister Prongs would like to tell Mister PadfootThat if he and his girlfriend are going to shag so fervently,

They should GET A ROOM! Which is exactly what these young people have done so that you don't have to watch them shagging. So leave these polite couple to their shag-fest.

It took a while for the Messer's words to come to their meaning for Harry, Ron, and Draco. Hermione, however, realized why the map was telling them to stay away. Her wide eyes told the boys all they needed to know. The door slammed open as they charged into the Room of Requirement. Both Neville and Crystal leapt off the couch. Ron aimed his wand at Neville shouting "Patrificus Totalis!" Neville's body went ridged as a floorboard, his eyes betraying his confusion. Crystal had already gotten out her own wand and was pointing it menacingly.

"What the bloody hell were you doing in here with him!" Harry rounded on Crystal.

"I don't see how it's any of your business what I was doing, Harry." Crystal replied in a cool, calm, dangerous manner, stashing her wand in her pocket.

"Of course it's our business! You're Harry cousin! You're from America for Merlin's sake! It's our job to look out for you and protect you! Ron yelled exasperated.

Crystal'd heard enough. She balled her fist and punched Ron's face, hard. Draco pulled his wand on crystal as Ron sprawled on the floor. She pointed a shaking finger at the stunned redhead.

"You are not my father Ronald Weasley! I do not need you to protect me! Do you think he could have gotten that far if I didn't want him to?"

This caught all four of them off guard. Harry gaped at her.

"Why do you think we came her! Because I wanted to! That's the hell why! You hear me! I wanted to! You wanna know why I wanted to? Because I love him! And if any of you have a problem with that, then lets deck it out! Right here, right now, no wands!" Crystal raised hr fists, daring any of them to take a swing at her. When no one did, Crystal turned to Neville's stiff form and cast the counter-jinx. Neville took the hand Crystal offered, as Ron also stood up. Crystal ( having worked out her anger) apologized to Ron. All six exited the room joking about what had just happened. Harry and Draco taunting Ron.

"Who ever said a girl can't punch is madder then Moaning Myrtle." Harry said shaking his head at Ron. Crystal lightly punched his arm, playfully. Everyone laughed, including Harry, whose grinning face quickly turned to one of pain. He rubbed the spot on his arm where he'd been punched.

-End flashback-

"But Crystal, Hogwarts is so far! How will you get there on a broom in time?" Hermione inquired, glancing at Crystal's Silverstreak. A/n: Silverstreak is an American made broom, about twice as fast as a firebolt, steady even in the worst conditions. Despite it's speed and stability, the Silverstreak is not used in Quiddich leagues because of it's American make, and high maintenance needs. Crystal's broom was specially made for her because of her unique fling style (she rides her broom as if it were a snowboard). She can, however, with the push of a button, change the broom's structure to be more comfortable in a sitting position.

"Don't worry Hermione, I can go from zero to 360 in less than a minute. Plus, with an anti-slip up charm, a disillusionment charm, and an invisibility cloak, any muggle that sees us deserves to know about the wizarding community."

"Crystal! You can't mean that!"

"Don't worry so damn much Hermione!"

"Fine! Fly or whatever! Get caught I don't care!" Hermione said heatedly, then turned to Neville. "Neville, I hope you realized what you got yourself into by marrying this girl… why your grandmother ever let you do it I'll never know!"

"She almost didn't."

-Flashback-

"Gran, I'd like to introduce you to someone I've invited to spend the holiday with us." Neville told his grandmother when they met her on the platform. Mrs. Longbottem raised a suspicious eyebrow, but nodded. Neville grinned and tugged on Crystal's hand.

"Gran, this is Crystal." Mrs. Longbottem shook Crystal's hand, and asked her a few questions.

Wow, I never thought I'd get the Spanish inquisition from Nev's Gran…then again… no one expects the Spanishinquisition. Crystal thought to herself after telling Mrs. Longbottem her age, her height, her whole story about how she came to be Harry's cousin, and her relationship status with Neville. Everything except her sign. "Gemini, in case you were wondering." Crystal said as they entered a small car.

-End flashback-

Hermione returned to her room after the Longbottem's had left. She had to finish packing. The last items to go into the trunk were three photographs, and a photo album. One of the photograph was of Harry, Luna, Ron, Draco, Ginny, Neville, Crystal, and herself. The other two photographs were of Severus Snape. One she had clipped from the Daily Prophet. It was of the ceremony, when they all received an Order of Merlin, First Class. Severus's hand was on her shoulder, steadying her. Hermione couldn't remember it very well, public ceremonies were never her forte.

-Flashback-

She would have preferred a private ceremony, but, of course, Fudge had to be boisterous and public. Looking out at the crowed made her dizzy. She must have been swaying worse then she thought, because Hermione suddenly felt a strong, gentle hand on her shoulder, keeping her up. Keeping her from passing out. "It's almost over." A familiar, but strange voice whispered in her ear. It was Snape. Severus.

-End flashback-

The last photograph was of only Severus. Hermione smiled, beside herself, remembering how she'd begged Colin Creevy to take the picture of the all feared potions master and send it to her. She'd paid good money for it, nearly twenty galleons.

-Flashback-

"Come on Colin, you said 19 galleons, seven sickles!"

"No way Hermione! After what I had to go through… I'm sorry, but I can't settle for anything less then 30 galleons." Colin stood firm in defence of his request for a hirher price.

"What do you mean, 'what you had to go through'?"

"He caught me, twice." Colin said reluctantly.

"Twice?"

"Twice. The first time he took my camera, the second time, I was going to make a photo spread, but he found out and nearly gave me Veritiserum to make me tell him who I was taking the pictures for. I told him they were for myself, but I don't think he believed me."

Hermione raised her eyebrow.

"There are some things you can do to photo's after they've been taken, but before they're developed."

"Like…"

"Like removing… stuff…"

"Such as?"

"Shirts, pants, boxers…"

"Merlin's beard! You mean you were doing like porn!"

"What! No! there were only a few that were topless!"

-End flashback-

He had, in fact, given her the photo album for Christmas, filling it with pictures of Severus Snape. Hermione gently caressed the leather bound book. This is as close as I've been able to get to him for years… maybe now I'll be able to get closer. She thought to herself, holding the album close to her chest. Hermione glanced at her watch and gasped, she was already 15 minutes late! God…what will Severus think if I turn up late! She quickly charmed her trunks to a miniscule size and prepared to apperate to Hogwarts.

A word from the author(s): Yukari: "Some readers may be asking… 'Who is this strange American character?' Now, before I get myself, and my beta axe-murdered, I shall explain, Crystal Abbc Longbottem is my character…" (Both Yukari, and Darketernal are pinned up against the wall of their little dwelling by murderous readers.) Dark: "I don't think that that's making it any better…choke or them any less upset!" Yukari: "LET US DOWN OR I WON'T WRITE ANY MORE!" (the angry readers drop both Yukari and Dark.) Yukari: "Now my character is there because there will be a very traumatic event…soon, that I can't write for any of the main characters, because I know how I'd respond to it best… that, and if I get stuck I can use her to move the plot along." Dark: "that's not the whole story, you owe them the whole truth, so finish." Yukari: "Uhh… it'll help Ron look like a prick. Aplogies to any Ron lovers reading the fic. Dark: "The whole truth Yukari." Yukari: (grumbles) " fine… and Neville Longbottem is hott."

A second note from the authors: please leave comments as it will encourage Yukari to write and type, and it will spare Dark from Yukari's rants about how she lives in a cruel, uncaring world. There will be tears if that is the case, so comment, correct spelling if necessary, and flaming is tolerable, as long as appropriate language is used, and you flame the fic, not the author(s). quick notice, this is our first joint fic, and Yukari's first circulating fic ever, so try to be nice.