Hermione sighed loudly as she ran to meet up with Ginny Weasley. She had just left a particularly annoying interview with who she assumed to be the new Rita Skeeter. She and Ginny were meeting up to go back to Hogwarts. They planned on meeting Ron, Harry, Neville, ad Luna on the train.

Hermione would be lying if she said she wasn't excited. She had missed out on her last year at Hogwarts, and had thought that any potential future she would have had would be ruined, but Harry had managed to work something out with McGonagall for Hermione. Just her luck that McGonagall had been thinking along the same lines and sent out those letters. She could barely contain her excitement, they would finally be left alone, just her and her friends, just like it used to be.

"Hey Hermione!" a cheery voice dragged Hermione out of her thoughts.

"Ginny!" the two witches ran into a tight hug. The last few months had been insanely busy for both of them.

"So how is Harry doing?" asked Hermione, after the war the two had gotten back together, she hadn't seen either of them in days, yet another reason she was excited to go back.

Their hug had pushed up Hermione's long sweater sleeves, revealing something she had been trying to forget. Ginny's eyes widened, she looked around fearfully then pulled the sleeve back down.

"What are you doing? Showing that off like that? We need to leave," and with that mysterious sentence, Ginny apparated the both of them away. They appeared at King's Cross Station, Hermione still confused, and Ginny already pulling Hermione towards the Hogwarts Express. Once on the train, any thoughts of Ginny's odd behaviour vanished because she was here, and she was finally going home. Hermione beamed, and let herself be ushered down the train by Ginny. Before she realized it, she was in a compartment with Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Luna.

She laughed happily before pulling each one of them into a hug. Ron was very awkward about it, keeping his arms crossed over his chest while she hugged him, their break-up had been surprising for him. He hadn't expected it, he had already picked out baby names and everything! But Hermione had bigger dreams, she didn't want to be tied down with responsibilities like family.

"So how are you doing Hermione?" asked Luna, with an airy voice.

"It's been busy, but I cannot wait to get back to Hogwarts and start studying!"

There was collective laughing from around the compartment. Of course the first thing Hermione would want to do is study, things were already looking normal again.

"Trevor! Wait up!" Before they knew it, a toad had hopped onto Ron's lap, and a very red Neville followed him there.

"Got him!" He grinned, but Ron just rolled his eyes in amusement and shoved Neville off his lap. Neville went sprawling on the floor, but couldn't even feel it because him, and everyone else, were laughing too hard to care.

Small talk ensued, it was so easy to just let everything fall back into place. But was it really that easy? As Hermione's smile faded, she looked around the small room.

Harry had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was messier than normal, and his eyes weren't as bright as they used to be. Ron looked much thinner, she remembers when Ron used to eat as much as he could, but now she was pretty sure he was the skinniest one in the compartment. Neville still had two of the scars from his time at Hogwarts last year, his smile seemed dimmer, but still genuine. Ginny once bright red hair was now more of a dull, muted rust colour.

The only one who looked just as they used to was Luna, and Hermione knew that she had had one of the roughest years last year. She was one of the only ones who knew exactly what happened in the Malfoy dungeon before they had showed up. Her pathetic little scar was nothing compared to the scars Luna had. Yet she was still smiling, laughing, her eyes seemed even brighter than normal. She brought normalcy back to their group

"Hermione? You still in there?"

Hermione jumped in surprise, she saw everyone looking at her. Harry and Ron looked concerned, but Ginny looked suspicious. Hermione immediately zeroed in on her face, why would Ginny look suspicious?

"Ginny, is there something you want to tell me?" asked Hermione. Ginny turned stark white, she quickly shook her head. A jumbled mess of words fell from her mouth, excuses and apologises, but by this time, everyone else was curious as well.

"Ginny, what's wrong?" asked Harry, looking confused as to what his girlfriend was keeping secret.

Ginny sighed. "It's just, I can't…. It's hard to explain," when no one said anything she continued, "Over the summer, I had an appointment with some interviewer, you know the usual, but when I got there all there was, was a note that told me to go to the department of mysteries."

"But why would you go…" interrupted Neville. "Because they said they were keeping my family captive, that's why." Snapped Ginny angrily, "So I went, and it was just as creepy as it was in my fourth year, and they were there. They were dressed in all black, I couldn't see their face, and they gave me this."

At these words, Ginny pulled a glass orb out of her bag. It was a beautiful object, swirling red, blue, green, white, gold, and millions of unnamed colours. Hermione could hardly take her eyes off of it.

"They said it was for you, Hermione, they said that you could unlock it." Ginny finished shakily.

But Hermione wasn't paying attention, her hand had slowly extended towards the orb, eyes transfixed on it. Before anyone could stop her, she snatched it out of Ginny's hand. A loud voice reverberated around the compartment.

"Four born with the power of Hogwarts founders, one born from snow… one from sun… one from wind… and one from rain. They shall inherit the power of the founders, and defeat the darkness within the school. Beware of the darkness, for once it has met its fate, it will possess those who oppose it."