Draco flicked his eyes back and forth from the dirty blonde girl next to him and the boy across from him. The girl was demure and a slight blush to her cheeks as she stared down at the floor of the compartment. He seemed to have forgotten there was anyone else in the compartment as he only had eyes for the two of them. He flailed his arms for a moment in dull comprehension as to who the pretty girl sitting next to him really was.

"I…you…she….mum?" He stuttered for a moment as he tried to find the right words to describe just the way he was feeling at the moment. Harry, for his part, wasn't going to help the blonde out, but decided that maybe he could lead him in the right direction.

"I suppose genetically she's still your mother, but right now you two look more like siblings." At this both of the people in question gave him identical death glares. "You even glare the same." This of course dissolved both him and Rachel into laughter as the other two blushed horribly.

"Ok, Potter, explain to me what happened here and use small words, I think my brain just overloaded." Draco waved a hand in the air, closing his eyes tightly as if he could will everything to just be gone and for the world to go back to normal.

"I guess the simplest explanation is that she owes me her life and I decided to use an obscure ritual to return her to her teenage body so that she could live her life for real this time." Harry smiled as he tried to follow his own explanation and realized that it was a little convoluted even for him. "What it boils down to is magic."

"You know, Potter, with that kind of power, you could live forever. And if anyone else got a hold of that ritual.." Draco seemed to have recovered from most of the shock, but he was still refusing to look at the girl next to him. Harry shook his head to help out the other boy.

"No, it's a one time deal. It can only be performed under certain conditions and by the head of the house of Black, which I currently am. Not to mention the power requirements." Harry smiled inwardly as he heard the laughter of female voices in his head, but ignored it so that he didn't look insane.

"You mean to tell me that I'm going to be going to school with my own mother now?" Draco looked thunderstruck as he sunk back into the bench and then groaned. "You were in Slytherin before to, oh this is going to be bad."

"Don't forget about the fact that she's a teenage girl now. I think that would mean a little dating." Harry smiled as Claire turned her face away to try and hide the serious blush that spread over her whole face at the mention of dating. Her sister had seen it and snickered a little at the thought of her sister trying to get back into the dating scene again.

"Oh, god! I had completely forgotten about that. Between my own mother being at Hogwarts and that cow Parkinson, I'm never going to get another date ever." Draco had picked up on a part that Harry hadn't considered; and completely left out, or did not realize that his mother would also be dating.

"I hadn't thought of that." Claire tapped a delicate finger to her lips and a small teasing smile came to her lips that Harry and the other girls knew all too well. "Oh, Drakie, it'll be great, we can all go out on double dates together." She squealed and clapped her hands together bouncing in her seat.

Draco seemed to pale even further at the prospect of not only his mother dating, but having to see it first hand. "Merlin, I think I need a drink." He put a hand to his forehead and Rachel felt sorry for her nephew. She conjured up a glass and a bottle of amber colored liquid; after pouring three fingers worth of the liquid into the glass she shoved it into his hand.

Draco took the drink without thinking and downed it quickly, already forgetting that his mother was in the compartment with him. He didn't seem to notice anything by the glazed look in his eyes after taking the sip, but he seemed to refocus on the cute girl next to him that had handed him the drink. He gave her a soft smile and then checked her out quickly, downing the rest of the drink quickly.

"Hello, I don't think I've had the pleasure. Name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Malfoy was as smooth as he could be as he took the hand of Rachel and kissed the back of it, not hearing the snickers coming from the other occupants of the compartment.

"Such a charmer, don't you think." Claire smiled from behind her son's back, giving thumbs up to her sister.

"I don't remember Lucius being this good when we first met him." Rachel pulled her hand out of Draco's grasp and stared at him in the eyes, waiting for the sign of recognition; although it still didn't come he seemed to be rather enamored with the new girl.

"I had to train him, the sneaky bastard, after we got married. He passed on some of the charm to our son here." Draco blanched at the reminder that his mother was sitting next to him so he downed the rest of the drink in his hand.

"Yes, I do seem to remember long nights attempting to make him talk correctly. He was good when we were at Hogwarts, but not that good." Rachel smiled and patted Draco on the back. "You got the best from both parents, if you can believe that."

"You knew father in school, and mum…soo….oh Merlin. Whom did I just flirt with?" Draco put his head in his hands as some sign of recognition came to his eyes. He looked between Rachel and Claire and moaned in pain. "Aunt Bellatrix?"

"Oh, he is good, now do me!" Cassie bounced from her seat on the floor and raised her hand high in the air. Draco stared at all three girls and groaned even more now.

"I hit on my own aunt. And I guess you would be Aunt Andy as well, just to round out this miserable experience." Cassie shook her head and caused her spiky black hair to flash green and then back. "That's worse, cousin."

"How's that?" Harry still was trying to hold in the majority of his laughter, but it was getting harder by the second.

"With her here, I'll never know what girl I'm really flirting with. I could be flirting with a cute blonde from Hufflepuff and find out that it's really my cousin in disguise." At this of course caused the entire compartment to fall over laughing hysterically. "It's not funny, you four, all of this combined is going to kill my romantic life."

"Draco…" Claire regained her composure slightly and sat down next to her son, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry, son, we'll help you find a good witch, won't we?" Her eyes pleaded with the rest of her weird family and they nodded, even Harry.

"Although, what Draco said does give me an interesting idea…" Harry smiled wickedly as he leaned forward to outline a small plan that he had been cooking up while on the train.

XoXo

Some time later, during the middle of the journey, a somewhat more put together Draco left the train compartment and made his way up the aisles towards the prefects carriage. The main meeting had already taken place, but he knew that he would be needed before too long. As he neared the end of the aisle he noticed a bushy haired girl waiting outside the girl's toilet closest to an empty compartment. He moved closer and saw the blonde Ravenclaw come out of the toilet, smile to the other girl and the two came towards him.

"Granger, Lovegood, I need to talk to both of you." Draco said in a soft and almost submissive voice.

"Why should we-" Hermione started only to stop by a hand on her arm from Luna next to her whom moved to stand between the two.

"Draco, you've hurt all of us in the past. Apologize and we'll talk." Luna kept her somewhat dreamy nature, but it was a little softer and more serious than the blonde had ever heard come from her.

"I'm sorry. I came down here to talk to you two about this upcoming year. I've already met your….friends." He groaned at the word and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other before pulling the door to a nearby empty compartment open and held it open for them.

"All right, we'll give you a few minutes, but don't try anything." Hermione nearly growled as she and Luna swept into the compartment to be followed by Draco himself.

This small interaction, small on the scale of the rest of the train, did not go unnoticed by Head Girl Cho Chang. She had been following Luna and Hermione to find out where Harry's compartment might have been, but so far they had simply been wandering the aisles. Now she groaned and cursed herself as she walked swiftly past the compartment with the strange trio and heading up the train to find the boy of her dreams the old fashioned way. Peeking into each of the compartments window she used her status as Head Girl to wave off any complaints.

As she made it up the train she saw a few things that revolted her and a few that confused her. Sitting in one compartment were the Patils with Brown, as usual, but there were two boys with them as well holding hands. That is to say the boys were holding hands, together, not with any of the girls. She passed this compartment quickly and moved on to the next.

It took her nearly twenty minutes, but finally she saw the object of her affections reflected in one of the windows. The teenage wizard seemed to be slumped against something asleep, his glasses pushed away from his face slightly and his hair as messy as ever. She came closer to inspect what he was leaning on and stifled down a gasp as she looked into the window of the compartment. Seated there in the middle of the bench was indeed Harry Potter, the problem were the two things on either side of him.

After Draco had left the compartment, Harry got sleepy and told the girls that he was going to take a nap. Seated as he was on the bench Claire moved to sit next to him and he rested his head on her shoulder. Before Cho showed up for her inspect, Rachel had moved to the other side of Harry and leaned her head on his, soon dozing; her sister had long since fallen asleep as well with her arms around the teenage wizard between them.

It was this scene, two witches on either side of Harry that Cho witnessed and seemed enraged by it. Technically there were no rules as to what was going on, indeed she had seem a few naked butts as she patrolled the train opening doors and having to profusely apologize to their inhabitants, but this was her Harry sandwiched between two witches. She stared at the scene for a moment, huffed and then stormed back up the train towards her own compartment, never seeing the black haired girl on the other bench snickering as she went past.

The dark haired girl buried her laughter behind a book as she sat across from the three people in question and watched the Head Girl disappear back down the train. She wondered if there would be more visitors like that and figured she might want to sell tickets to the event. She gave a small giggle as she tried to keep her mind off of the fact that both her aunts were now trying to snuggle up to the cute wizard between them. Giving up on trying reading she moved and pulled the curtains on the window of the door and lay down on the bench herself to get some rest. There was no point in staying awake if everyone else got a little rest themselves.

XoXo

The rest of the journey to Hogwarts passed in relative calmness for the friends. They were forced to expand their compartment several times when everyone decided to drop by at the same time; even bringing a few friends along with them to meet Harry and the three new Black girls that were going to be starting the year with them. No one said anything about the girl's heritage or resemblance to their distant cousins that were now classified as missing, but the girls kept the conversations away from those facts and light enough that everyone had a good time.

Being the other sixth year prefect for Gryffindor, it was inevitable that Hermione would have to interact with Ron. He made a complete fool out of himself by presuming that she was still not talking to Harry with him and seemed to ignore everyone else on the train. His smooth moves, usually involving him tripping or otherwise falling into Hermione, left her bored and a little upset with him by the end of their patrol. He had tried to feel her up and kiss her, making it seem like they were an item, but a good foot into his stopped that as she slipped into the compartment to complain with her real friends.

The only other thing of note to happen was the reappearance of Draco Malfoy. He stuck his head in the compartment to meet a sea of wands coming up to greet him. At a word from Harry and a few of the other girls they were dropped, but he didn't seem to want to stay. He gave a short whispered conversation with Harry, smiled and disappeared back up the train. When asked what that was about, Harry wouldn't elaborate and simply waved it off as he went back to talking to Claire about the upcoming school year, specifically if she was already thinking about dating.

XoXo

The train pulled into Hogsmeade station just as the sun was dipping over the mountains behind the castle. The last fading sunlight cast an eerie and yet welcoming glow across the parapets and battlements of the old castle and then down to the shimmering lake. Students moved here and there gathering up their various trunks and luggage as familiars hooted, hissed and squeaked at one another; in this instance it almost seemed like the children themselves greeting friends they hadn't seen in the intervening months.

As Hermione was fixing the prefect badge to the front of her robes and making sure it was nice and shiny, she gathered up her belongings and headed for the exit of the train. Her friends had gone on ahead for a bit, with Harry, Rachel, Claire, and Cassie in one carriage and the others in another carriage. She was looking forward to sitting with Luna once more and her mind started to drift over thoughts of the strange blonde girl. She didn't see the body in front of her until she had nearly collided with it.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, please excuse me." Hermione apologized profusely as she tried to hush Crookshanks up who was hissing slightly in his carrier.

"Mione!" Hermione froze involuntarily and shivered a little. She knew that voice and it didn't bode well for either of them. "Listen, I was hoping to talk to you…"

"Ron, look, you made it quite clear before that you didn't like Harry and I….I guess I can respect that, but I do like being around Harry and I've made my decision." Hermione was trying to be friendly to the git, but it was becoming harder and harder.

"Oh, of course, Hermione, I totally understand. We should just put this whole thing behind us and head on up to the castle." Ron seemed to almost be getting it until he moved to put his arm around her back with his hand coming very close to her butt.

"Ron.." Hermione backed away slightly, sliding away from the hand. "I don't think that you understand me, I want to be friends with Harry and if you're going to keep trying to stay away from him and say that he's dark….then I'm going to have to cut my friendship with you as well."

Ron's face clouded over slightly and he scowled. "What did he do to you? He must have stolen you away, the no good bastard. I bet you've been snogging all summer, haven't you?"

"We haven't been snogging, actually…" Hermione broke off as she saw Luna coming towards them from over Ron's shoulder.

"Hermione, we're waiting with the carriage, are you coming?" Luna asked in her usual dreamy tone, keeping up appearances as to the crowd of people still pushing past them to get up the path to the school.

"Of course, Luna." Hermione moved to grab her trunk and Crookshank's carrier, but a hand on the handle stopped her.

"We're not through talking here." Ron looked up menacingly at Luna. "Go away, Looney, Mione and me need to talk." He turned back to her expectantly and then nearly growled. "You will be staying away from Potter this year and you're going to be my girlfriend."

Hermione had barely any time to react as she stared into the eyes of the man before her. She had never seen the jealousy of Ron first hand, sure she had been there when Ron had gotten angry at Harry over the Triwizard Tournament, and of course with the charms in their first year, but this was new. As she stared into the eyes of the man in front of her, she got the distinct impression that he was going to hurt her. That was of course until there was a sharp thud and the eyes closed with tears leaking out of the corners.

Luna stood behind Ron with her hands on her hips as she watched him double over clutching his crotch in mild pain. His grip on Hermione loosened as he fell to the ground moaning and groaning in pain.

"I think she made it perfectly clear, Ronald." Luna moved to help Hermione with her luggage, pulling it towards the waiting carriage with the rest of their friends in it.

Leaving behind the cowering redhead and his sister, whom had just showed up to help her brother off the platform, the two girls started heading towards the path that lead down to the carriages. Hermione looked up to Luna and smiled gently. "Thanks."

"It was nothing, Hermione. You do things for people you like that are sometimes unpleasant. I can only hope that my foot forgives me for where I had to put it; it might need to be sanitized later on." Luna looked imploringly at her left foot like it was going to be lost forever. Hermione giggled slightly and took the girl's hand as they moved to sit in the carriage.

"I'll help with the washing if you need it." She blushed a little at the implication and the two girls giggled slightly.

"What kept you two? We've been waiting here for several minutes." Lavender pouted slightly.

"Just taking care of some old business, nothing to worry about." Hermione smiled and leaned back in the carriage as it started to roll up towards the castle. This is going to be one interesting year. Hermione thought to herself. She felt Luna's hand in her own and smiled as she looked down at their joined hands. Yes, a very interesting year indeed.