Author's Note: Hi everyone! I'm so incredibly sorry about how long it's been! A couple of things happened that made me slow down a lot, and when I got the second half of this chapter my typing slowed down - it was hard to write correctly. Even now, I don't feel happy with it, but I'm posting it now so that I can hopefully move on to a more free-flowing section. As a pre-warning and reminder, Hermione has yet to truly accept that she almost died last year, which is why she's getting rather emotional. Near the end of this (painfully so) short chapter there is a bit of angst and fluff. Things will work, but next chapter is going to be more about that. So sit back, relax, and cross your fingers that my muse holds for the next chapter! ;) Doreedo

Previously:

Showing up right on there front porch he grinned at his placement and knocked on the door. Waiting a few seconds while quick footsteps could be heard in the house, the door opened and he saw two heads smiling at him from the living room before he was knocked slightly backwards by a large amount of beautiful brown hair.

He choked out a, "'lo Hermione," before wrapping one arm around his friend of nearly six years.

He grinned and said, "Would you like to come see my house?"

Chapter Three: Touring, and a Second Wet First

Hermione drew back from him and asked, "Your house? Aren't you staying with the Dursleys?"

Harry shook his head and said, "I'll tell you in a bit, but first let me go introduce myself to your parents. I imagine that we must look fairly odd like this." He gestured to the arm he had casually around her shoulder. It wasn't quite a hug, but her greeting to him could certainly lend to different appearances.

Blushing a bit she replied, "Of course, I should have thought about that. We wouldn't want my dad to skin you, now would we?"

Harry laughed and said, "No, I'd prefer not to be skinned today. Wait a minute; did you just make a joke about an adult? Who is this person before me? Certainly not Hermione Granger!"

Hermione gave a sniff and said, "Ha-ha. I think I'll have to get you for that later. Plus, they're my parents; I have certain liberties that I can take with them."

They walked over to Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Harry removed the slightly hug-smashed bouquet from its rest place on his arm.

"Here you go Mrs. Granger; I just picked them from my garden this morning. I wasn't quite sure what you'd like, but I know that Hermione was quite partial to these when she first saw the garden, so I thought that you might be too."

She looked at him with a warm smile and said, "Please, call me Jane. I don't like being called 'Misses'. Being called 'Doctor' at work is bad enough."

Harry smiled back at her, and then turned to Mr. Granger and held out his hand, "Nice to meet you, sir. I don't have any flowers for you, but perhaps a handshake will do?"

Mr. Granger laughed and said, "Just call me Sam. Jane's right – honorifics aren't even fun at work." As he said this, he grabbed Harry's extended hand and gave an even shake.

Harry returned the handshake and asked, "I know this is rather sudden, but I've been working fairly hard this past week and had nobody but the Headmaster to show it off to. If you two had some spare time, would you like to come take the grand tour of my home?"

Hermione frowned and said, "Harry, you aren't living with the Dursleys, and what do you mean the work you've done? Are you staying at Grimmauld Place now? Oh! Did you finally get that tapestry down? I bet that took the whole week!"

Harry smiled and said, "Well, I have moved into Grimmauld Place now, but I've done a bit more than take down the tapestry," then mumbled to himself, "Although that was a bit tricky."

Jane and Sam seemed surprised at his offer but Sam told him, "We'd love to, but we have to be at the office in three hours. The Headmaster told us that you'd be able to get Hermione to Grimmauld, but I doubt you're prepared to take three other people."

His smile growing wider, Harry faked an incredulous tone and asked Hermione, "Have you not told your parents about magical travel before? I'm ashamed of you, Hermione Granger, really. I'll have to say 'D' for Dreadful."

Shooting Harry a nasty look she retorted, in a slightly dangerous tone, "Of course I have, Harry. And do you honestly want to start with grade jokes right now? I mean, really, if you're not careful you'll be as thoroughly uncreative as Malfoy. Wait a minute – are we going by Portkey then?"

Wincing at the Malfoy remark he said, "Yes, we're going by Portkey, didn't Dumbledore give you one?"

Hermione's face fell and her shoulders slumped, "No, I had hoped he'd given it to you. I suppose I should go owl him so that we can get one shortly."

Her parents stood off to the side, watching their conversation in amusement. When they had seen the traded poking fun of each other Jane couldn't help but laugh. Her daughter certainly was easy to see through at times.

She was broken out of her thoughts, however, when a loud shout of, "What do you mean that I needn't bother?" was heard from her daughter.

"Well, I suppose if you don't really want to go soon we could wait for Dumbledore," was the response from a slyly grinning Harry, "But really, I think I have a better solution."

"Harry Potter, if your idea so much as involves a broom, I will hex you where you stand, whether it's illegal or not."

Harry's grin got a million times wider as he pulled out his wand and shot back quickly, "It's a funny thing you should mention that particular restriction on underage magic use. You see…I am now," he paused, swished his wand in the air, "quite," again he swished his wand, "exempt." After a final swish of the wand, a short flick, and a mumbled word, her packed baggage was dragged down the stairs and right next to him.

Jane and Sam stared blankly for a moment – they had seen magic before, yes, but they had thought that there was something keeping anybody under seventeen from using magic. Of course, Harry had mentioned being 'exempt' but…

"Ohhh! You should see the look on your face Hermione! It's brilliant!"

Harry's laughter brought them out of their reverie, and Jane finally asked, "Harry, are you going to be the one taking us to your home then?"

"Mom, don't be silly. Harry can't make a Portkey, you need to be licensed to…" Hermione started off and then faded away as Harry pulled out piece of wood, tapped it, and said, "Portus."

"As she was saying, Mrs. – er, Jane, without a permit, it is very much illegal to create a Portkey. So, shall we be going everyone? I can make one for you to come back to your home in a couple hours for work if you'd like."

While Hermione was opening her mouth to speak Harry quickly said, "Hermione, can I give you the explanations later? I know you'd like to get all of the details, but if we start now I'll never get to show off my house."

Hermione choked slightly and asked, "You really want to show off Grimmauld Place? I mean, Harry…it's great to have your own house, but…it isn't exactly nice looking."

Harry didn't pay any attention to her as he picked up the luggage by his feet, held out the Portkey, and said, "Everyone ready?"

A few seconds later, and one 'humph' from Hermione, they arrived.

"I still can't believe that he sent me on this mission with you," Remus snarled, "I mean, honestly. Could he have possibly picked a worse combination than us?"

Severus Snape sat on a tree stump, staring at the overcast sky. If it would start to rain now, he'd be extremely pissed off. Not because of the rain itself – no – but because that would give his companion one more thing to complain about.

Looking at the situation though, he wanted to complain loudly himself. They had never exactly been close, Remus and he, but at least it wasn't Black standing there complaining.

No, I can't think like that of those dead.

"Argh!" he yelled, "can you cease in that behavior before I have to kill you?"

Dieing took all of the fun out of yelling at Black, really. He'd seen enough death not to mock those since passed, but it was…difficult…when the matter came up with one of your childhood tormentors.

He looked over to the werewolf sitting similarly as he, to find him smiling.

"You can't kill me right now Severus. What ever would Dumbledore think? Plus, I obviously don't want to be here either, so let's just leave it. We're about three days away from the pack I believe. I'd like to get back for Harry's birthday, so I'd appreciate if we could move quickly."

Ah, yes. Potter. Severus turned his thoughts to the boy. It was evident that something had been flipped inside of him after the fourth year, perhaps something that should have been left un-flipped. Dumbledore had filled him in a bit on the exorcising of V-The Dark Lord from Harry's mind, but only enough so that he could report to Vo-The Dark Lord.

Blast. Being around Potter is affecting me too much. I shouldn't even get close to saying his name.

A drop of water from above snuffed his thoughts. Bringing his pale hand to a similarly pale forehead, he looked in annoyance at the ground.

Of course, it had to come.

Oh Merlin, not the rain.

Standing up he said, "Let's get going, if we're going to get wet we might as well walk at the same time."

The group of three Grangers and one Potter landed with a silent swish in front of a vacant space between two homes.

Noticing the confused looks that he was receiving from Jane and Sam, Harry fetched a piece of paper from his pants pocket while saying, "Professor Dumbledore has the house under the Fidelius Charm – it renders the house non-existent to those whom don't know of it's…well, existence. If you just think about what's written on the paper really hard, you'll be able to see the house."

Hearing a gasp from them and, surprisingly, from Hermione too, he grinned. The two adults were silent from awe of what had just happened, and from what had just appeared. The large house stood straight and was completely stripped of pain. All that currently showed for color was natural wood.

"Harry…It wasn't like this when we were last here. You couldn't have possibly done this though; I mean…this is really powerful and time-consuming. The charms necessary, along with the transfigurations take weeks to learn for most specialists, and even then they can't cast them on this scale by themselves. Did you get some Order members to help you?" Hermione's jaw stayed open after her question, while her eyes gazed at the house.

Harry shuffled his feet a bit and sheepishly looked at Hermione.

"Well, Hermione, that's part of the story for later…but I can safely say that this was just me."

Hermione finally turned her eyes onto him and asked incredulously, "Just you? You can't be serious! I, well, it'd take…it's just not possible!"

"Honey, I think we should just look around the house and take Harry's word for everything right now. After all, you didn't think he could do the Portkey thing earlier either," was the interruption made by Jane, whom had just broken from her awed stupor.

Hearing this, Harry smiled and replied, "Well, I don't know if you should take my word on everything right now, but it's safe to do so when it comes to this house. Shall we start with the inside tour now?"

Without waiting for an answer, he charmed Hermione's baggage to follow him and walked off toward his house. Seeing little point in not following him, the Grangers acquiesced. Upon reaching the door, Harry reached for the handle and warned, "I haven't been able to get all of the furniture changed for each room's style yet, but I figure I'll have plenty of time to do that. The most time consuming parts were repairs and coloring."

He got a skeptical glance from Hermione, but nothing else, and so opened the door to reveal the new interior of Grimmauld Place.

Sam and Jane, whom had no previous experience with the house, were still shocked at the interior's beauty. Hermione was too stunned to speak when she saw the changes. The floor was polished and stained oak, throughout the entire first level. Dark navy walls with similarly dark silver moldings were visible for quite some time. A gradient led from the navy to a lighter version of itself where the kitchen doorway was, opening up the smaller space a bit. The stairway slowly transitioned to a forest green, with a sea-color at the middle step.

Without a word, Harry showed them the lower level. His 'tour' didn't need to be spoken – every room just felt like what it was meant to be. There was one door, though, that stood out from the rest. The door itself was almost completely opposite the colors of the rest of the level. The oranges and reds that were colored on it appeared to be flames themselves, and lead the eye to the main feature on the door. Burned into the wood was the moving image of a phoenix, charmed to preen and combust just as a 'normal' phoenix would.

Inside the door was a room with three subtle grey walls, and one wall that had smaller maps covering a map of Europe. The map was charmed to zoom on command – the particular item was bought by Harry, mainly because he'd been unable to find the necessary charms before he wanted the house done. A large black table with chairs in every possible space was in the middle of the room and an enlarged trapdoor in the corner of the room lead to a separate part of the dungeon specifically for the Order. While he didn't give them a tour of those facilities, he did explain that the only way to open the door was to be in the Order of the Phoenix, as any highly delicate 'projects' that would take place down there couldn't be used by anybody else.

They left the room and went upstairs. As they entered the second level and the forest green hallways appeared, the flooring shifted. Instead of the oak, they were walking on fluffy slate-colored carpeting. Each door had a name on it, written in metals that changed for each door. Harry had decided that this floor would hold the Weasleys in one wing of it, and the more commonly present Order members in the other wing. Each wing had a total of ten doors, two of which were bathrooms. Blank spaces were on the walls with boxes sketched on them, so that Harry would remember where he wanted to hang portraits.

Continuing upstairs, Harry began to get a little nervous. They were only a floor away from Hermione's room, and the library. The walls were currently white and bare, as Harry had yet to learn how to do the charm he wanted to here. This floor contained only eight doors, a large difference from the twenty or so downstairs. Four of the doors Harry mentioned were part of the 'Trapdoor' network that the Order room had, and would soon only be walls once he could get around to it. There were still twenty rooms on this floor, but sixteen of them were only accessible to him and the Order.

They climbed the last set of stairs in the main hall to the fourth floor. To the right were large, heavy double-doors that lead to the Library, and proclaimed so in pewter letters. There were only five other doors in the hallway, even though the space for the house was the same on this floor. The walls in the hallway were currently a sea blue color, but seemed to change every now and then. When Jane mentioned this Harry told them that he was in the middle of charming moving pictures onto the wall, and so the spots that changed color were where something was partially charmed.

Hermione walked to a door that had her name in a solid mist-like substance and put her hand on the doorknob. Harry immediately spoke up, "Ah, um…I tried to decorate the room how you'd like it Hermione. I can change all of it no problem if you don't like it. You have to set a password on the door right now or else you won't be able to enter. Just go ahead and think about the password really hard."

The door clicked open and Harry continued on, "As master of the house I technically have access to any room here, but the password system allows you to decide when you want visitors, and it's separate from the house itself."

Harry kept rambling about aspects of the lock while Hermione went inside. The first thing she noticed was the size. Her room was almost as large as three of the other rooms. The walls were lined in book shelves – some had books, others did not. Every shelf had a plate on it that could be charmed to display what was on it, and next to her bed was an inventory sheet that would automatically update when books were placed on the shelves. There was a window that had been charmed to display a forest while closed, instead of the houses outside, and her walls reminded her of growing vines, twisting around trees and their branches.

There were two doors in the room, one labeled 'Library, back', and the other labeled 'Bathroom'. She hadn't seen the remodeled Library yet, but wisely didn't enter it. If she had, the inviting chairs and desks sitting next to the shelves would have kept her there for the rest of the day. Opening the door to the bathroom she again became speechless. The bath was a fantastic marble Jacuzzi, and her sink had gleaming silver fonts and handles. There was a Muggle mirror up instead of a Wizarding one, and a column of fluffy towels lined the cupboards that were off to one side.

Sam was perhaps the one who summed up what she was thinking in one word, "Wow."

Hermione's face turned hard and she glared at Harry, who gulped and immediately took the glare for a different meaning than she meant.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. I thought you might like it. I'll change it…what color should the room be? Do you want more shelves – I can look up a space expanding charm. Does the bath need to be bigger? I wasn't sure when I transfigured it…" He trailed off as her glare melted away and she barreled into him with a hug.

At this, Sam arched his eyebrow, and Jane laughed silently to herself. The look on Harry's face was priceless as he tried to appease her 'anger', and instead got a hug. Her daughter, of course, just had to seek the answer to why he had done this…as if it weren't obvious to anyone pulled away from the situation.

"It's just well…you deserve it Hermione. You're my best friend – yes, you. You're the only one who has always been there, without prejudice to me. I know it may not be Ron's fault he was raised with me being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' but it's still true that sometimes that's who I am to him. And well…you're you. You will yell at me, make me do my homework, and make me feel." Nervously he added, "Er, feel normal that is. I don't know any other way to put it than that."

He didn't realize that this was exactly the wrong thing to say if he wanted her to let go of him, even though he wasn't quite sure he really felt like letting her go. She just held onto him tighter, and he soon felt wetness coming from where her head was. Looking helplessly at Sam and Jane, he just hugged her while rubbing her shoulders. He'd never been the best at calming down crying women.

Jane saw the lost look in his eyes when Hermione started crying, and waited a bit before walking over to help. Patting Hermione's back she said, "Why don't we all go look at Harry's room now? I'm sure he's got it all dressed up even more than this!"

Hermione nodded while pulling away from Harry. She looked at the wetness on his shirt and gave him an embarrassed look and mumbling a, "Sorry."

He just pulled out his wand and said, "It's all right, I can just use a drying charm."

They moved on down the hall.

Albus Dumbledore hummed a merry tune as he stopped by his favorite Muggle candy shop in London proper. Picking up a scoop and cleaning out their supply of lemon drops as he did every visit, he thought of the rate Harry had been learning this last week. It had been astounding.

Even though his magic had yet to fully recover, Harry could learn new material in what seemed like minutes. The only hang-ups he had when decorating the house came from inexperience in what matched, not from ability. Teaching Harry Apparition didn't take near as long as any other student he'd taught, and was more enjoyable than his own. Instead of merely disappearing when he Apparated, the magic around him felt almost like he was drifting through the wind and away. The slight rustle of wind when he left also accentuated this perception.

After finishing up at the candy shop, Albus made his way back to Diagon Alley, and then to Flourish and Blotts. Picking up the order he had made a few days prior for Harry's studies, he Apparated to Hogsmeade, and then walked to his office. He would give them to Harry at the meeting they were having later on, and they should last the couple days he'd leave him be to get Ms. Granger settled in.

They moved to the side of the building opposite the library, to where another pair of double-doors stood. Labeled in jade was the name Harry Potter. Opening the door, they stepped into an extremely large room. Two doors lead off from the main room, one labeled 'Bathroom', the other labeled 'Master's Sanctuary'. Other than that though, the room was quite plain. Everything was white, and the bed and desk were quite simple looking. Other than the fact that it was so large, you couldn't tell that this was the Master's suite.

"Harry, why is your room…er, well, not done?" Hermione stumbled a bit, thinking that perhaps it was done, and that she had just insulted his work.

Harry blushed and averted his eyes and she started to feel horrible. He started to speak though, and explained the real reason behind the room's state. "Well, I wanted to make sure that the rest of the house and your room was done first so that you'd have a nice place to stay. I wasn't able to finish the rest of the house unfortunately, because I haven't been able to get all of the portraits I wanted for the hallways, and some of the charms I need I don't know."

Sam and Jane shared a look. Sam spoke up, "Well, Harry, we have a bit of time…could you show us how you decorate the house?"

"Umm…I don't know exactly what I want it to look like right now, but I was planning on putting some wards up today, so I could show you that."

Oh crap. I'll prolly need my staff for that. I shouldn't have spoken too soon.

Hermione yelled, "Wards? You're going to cast wards like they're nothing? You have lots to explain, Potter."

Harry glanced at her parents, but they seemed excited to see him do magic, so he had no out. Sighing, he summoned the warding book he had bought previously, and thumbed through it for the ward he wanted. Finding the page, he skimmed quickly through the spell and pulled out his wand.

"Hermione, I need you to promise me not to ask any question after you see this. Please? I'll explain it to you later, but right now I need to concentrate on the spell."

Huffing at the thought of yet another thing she couldn't ask yet, she just nodded.

Concentrating a bit, Harry's wand expanded into its staff form. Ignoring the gasp from Hermione, he spoke a few words and a perfect circle surrounded him. It was done in white, and had a small rune sitting at the center. Nobody but he could see it at this point, because of the fact that the floor was also white. Tapping his hand against the staff he made a small cut appear on his finger. Pressing the wound to the center rune and saying a couple other words, the circle expanded and became a rust color. Pulling his staff high into the air, he gathered magic around it and thrust forcefully into the center rune. Absolutely nothing in the room moved for a few moments, and then from the circle burst a transparent white liquid.

Everybody braced themselves for impact from the liquid, but it just flowed right through them. It then shot outside the house and wrapped around it, like a blanket around a small child. Harry's staff orb glowed brightly for a couple seconds as the ward solidified. He had a small drop of sweat on his forehead from the spell, but that was all.

It was three minutes that felt like seconds before anybody spoke. Even Sam and Jane, who had no magical knowledge or aptitude, could feel the power that had been around them. Finally the silence was broken by Hermione asking Harry why he needed to ward against Dementors.

"Er, practice? That was the first ward I've actually cast, and I figured that I might as well keep something out that I don't like while I was at it. The blood bit was for…"

Hermione sniffed, "I know very well what the blood was for. I hardly think you need to worry about having it passed onto your next of blood currently though – it takes so much more power to do when you put that bit in too. You need to rest now. And don't give me that look!"

Harry was exasperatedly glaring at her. He turned to Sam and Jane and asked, "Would you like to head home now? Hermione and I need to discuss what's happened in the last week."

At their nods, he pulled out a sealed envelope and handed it to them. It was addressed to the two of them, and had Dumbledore's scrawl as a tell-tale of whom it was from. Waving goodbye, he asked just before they were wrenched away, "If you'd like to hear the story later on, we can have dinner over here tonight. Would you like to?"

Sam nodded, and then he and his wife were gone.

Harry winced as he heard Hermione's foot tapping behind him. Turning around with a pleading look on his face, he asked, "Before you interrogate me, can you let me explain first?"

They spent quite some time discussing what he'd done, or rather, had gotten done. Lunch had come and gone without them realizing it, and still Harry's story wasn't done. Hermione insisted on having him describe all of the magical effects going on, not just tell her 'that Bludrok performed a blood ritual'. She also went off on a tangent after hearing that he was going to retake his OWLs.

All in all, it was about three in the afternoon before the tale was over. Harry had thought that Hermione would be at least a bit unhappy when he told her about how quickly he could learn, but instead found himself on the receiving end of a scheduling nightmare. She pulled out a planner from her bags and started writing down revision and study times for the entire month. He noticed while getting up that she seemed to want him to catch up to the amount of books she'd read by the end of the month. Internally moaning, he got up.

"Hermione, I've got to go to Hogwarts for a bit to meet with Dumbledore. Do you want to come?"

A waving hand was the response he got, so he walked downstairs and out the door before Apparating away.

Hermione got her first view of the library about thirty minutes after Harry had left. She had decided that planning out Harry's studying would actually have to wait until she saw how quickly he learned the more advanced branches of magic – construction charms were difficult…but they weren't anything special. Re-studying five years of Hogwarts classes in one month was a little more than special. It was extraordinary.

Sighing, she thought of how that summed up just about everything that was Harry: extraordinary. His generosity in giving her such a magnificent room, his explanation on why he gave it to her…the way she felt when he hugged her back.

If only I could be the kind of beautiful person he deserves. Then I could feel that every day…

Snapping out of a slight daze, she grabbed a random book from the shelf labeled 'Books on Transfiguration'. Attempting to get absorbed into the book, leaving her painful thoughts behind, she read furiously. Her reprieve didn't last very long, and after an hour should put the book down and stared at the wall.

She'd be spending a lot of time alone with Harry now. He was the only person besides Dumbledore that would probably even be in the house. The thought was both exhilarating and unbearable. Not knowing what else to do, she just stayed in her comfortable chair…thinking of how extraordinary she'd like to be.

Harry appeared just outside Hogwarts' wards, near the town of Hogsmeade. After a short walk to the castle proper he went directly to the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's entryway. Harry had to think a bit before remembering the password which he had told him, 'Pixie Stick'. The gargoyle moved away from the opening as soon as the password was spoken, and Harry immediately went through and up to Dumbledore's office.

The firm voice of Albus Dumbledore greeted him, "Ah, Harry, there you are. Is Ms. Granger still settling in at Grimmauld then?"

Harry shot a look that spoke 'please save me' and said, "No, she's actually writing up my study schedule now. As soon as she heard I was retaking the OWLs she decided to do it."

Chuckling, Dumbledore moved on to what they had planned for their meeting.

"Well, since you've mastered your training this week, I think I'll allow you a bit of a break. I do have some books that you may enjoy over the next few days, although you'll need to read up a bit more on warding before trying to tackle these. Also, I've arranged for Dobby and Winky to move in and help out with things in a few days. Your house is rather large, and I'm sure you don't want to spend all of your time cleaning."

Harry nodded and asked, "Headmaster, when will the next Order meeting be? And will I be allowed to join now?"

"I was hoping that you'd allow us to meet at your home next week. It's the next most convenient time for all of our members. As for your second question…" At the shake of his head, Harry began to speak, but Dumbledore held an open hand up.

"I need to present your situation to the Order at this meeting. Since you need to train a bit more in your defensive magic anyway, one more meeting shouldn't make too much of a difference."

Harry hung his head a bit in acceptance, "I should probably be focusing on what I can do with my power-level now anyway. I can be more of a use to the Order when I know what I can and can't do. If you could excuse me, Headmaster, I need to get back home. Hermione's parents are coming over tonight, and I need to start making dinner."

When Harry got home he went up to Hermione's room, expecting to see her where they had been talking earlier. He was puzzled for a moment when he found she had moved before mentally kicking himself when he thought of who she was.

He walked over to the double-doors of the library and entered quietly. Over in the transfiguration section he saw a mass of brown hair, and crept up to it. Getting his arms in position to tickle her, he waited for the perfect time to strike. Just before Harry grabbed her, he heard a small sob. Startled, he took a step back, and tripped over his foot in the process.

A thump echoed in the room and Hermione jumped up while asking, "Harry?"

Rubbing his aching hip, Harry stood up and saw Hermione's tear-stained face. Forgetting his own injury he rushed over with worry on his face.

"Hermione, what happened? Why are you crying?"

Shifting a bit on one foot she replied, "Oh…it-it's nothing. You know just…just…House Elves! Yes, I was re-reading a rather painful part of House Elf history."

He just looked at her skeptically and said, "Hermione…one, I know you're lying. Two, I've never seen you cry over the House Elves no matter how horrid the book you read on them was, and three…"

He walked over to the table by her chair.

"…you had a book on transfiguration out. So what's the matter?"

A sad smile appeared on her face, "Are you sure that you're Harry? I don't recall him being so able to use logic. Even with the recent developments…well, I doubt that particular attribute received any boost."

He walked over to her and guided her back into the chair, "Don't try and change the subject. Plus, just because I don't say things doesn't mean I don't notice them. Now, what made you cry?"

A thousand different lies flickered across her mind. Millions of different ways of changing the conversation to something less painful and invasive followed. For some reason though, Hermione Granger for once did something she wasn't used to: she spoke without actually thinking.

"You."

Harry immediately sat down. The chair was large enough for two people, although now he doubted Hermione would even want to be sitting with him. He had made her cry? What did he do? Was there something he could do to fix it?

"I, er, is there anything…that is. This is going to sound stupid and inconsiderate…but what did I do? Is it about leaving you alone while I went to Hogwarts? I mean, I did ask you…but you seemed to be absorbed by your schedule making…"

Hermione was silent for a short time. Looking back, saying 'you' wasn't the best way of doing things. Right now though, her mouth wasn't listening to her thoughts, and was doing the thinking by itself.

"No! It's not your fault. It's just that…well. I don't know what it is. Actually I do but, I…"

Throwing her hand up into the air, she yelled, "Bloody Hell!"

Harry was shocked when he went to the bank and had his blood cleansed. He was shocked when his wand blew up. Heck, he was even shocked when he first started Apparition. Now though, he was astounded. Hermione rarely said anything at all near Ron's normal language. He almost missed the start of her next sentence while he was in a stupor from her previous one.

"Do you know Harry? That it's almost been six years since we met? Six bloody years! I can't figure out when it happened. I CAN'T! It's not something I can think of, because whenever I do I get like this."

Harry started to worry. He'd been doing something she didn't like for that long? Why hadn't she told him earlier? She knew he'd work on it for her – he'd asked her multiple times to begin with if he really wasn't doing something wrong. It's not like he had had friends before.

"Sometimes…I just want to stop. Stop going to school, stop seeing you, because I can't take it! You're a star Quidditch player, you get good grades!"

At this point Harry mumbled, "Not as good as you…"

"Girls and women fall all over you! Really beautiful women! How in the world can I be good enough? What makes me somebody that you'd like to know? There's nothing about me that is good enough to be your friend…don't you hear people say it? It doesn't matter that I work so hard to get good grades. It doesn't matter that I help them with homework whenever they ask. My hair is too bushy, my body isn't shapely, my voice is bossy, I complain when people break rules…"

She started crying heavily now.

"I have been told it over and over! And I agree with them. I'll never be somebody good enough for you! I should just stop trying…that way I won't have to think about how much more you deserve in a gir-I mean, a friend!"

She leaned onto his arm and continued to mumble incoherently through her sobs. Harry felt at a loss again. Last time she had been crying on him, her mother had bailed him out. This time though, it seemed much more serious and nobody else was around to help him.

Figuring that last time, it at least helped…not to mention felt good…he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry more. Almost by instinct, he whispered in her ear, "Shh. Don't cry, everything is all right. You're more than good enough to be my friend. I'm the one that's unworthy of you. Don't listen to those other people. I like your hair, and…"

He cut off here, blushing a bit. It wasn't exactly the thing you said to your best friend, but it seemed that Hermione needed to hear it.

"…and your body is beautiful. Your voice isn't bossy, at least not when I'm not doing something annoying. I need you to tell me when I'm breaking a rule – I usually don't know when I am. I won't say that sometimes you do things that bug me, but you have to admit that I do a lot that bother you too. You are an extraordinary person, Hermione. Don't listen to those other people."

He kept repeating these over and over in her ear as she calmed down.

Just as she seemed to have stopped crying she pulled away and looked him in the eyes. Tears came back into her own as she said, "But it doesn't matter how good I am. You'll never…"

Harry stared back at her with blatant confusion on his face, "Never what?"

Hermione just shook her head, "No, no! It's just not…it's ok Harry. I'll live without it. It'll be better like this…"

Shaking her, he practically shouted, "Hermione, I don't know what you're talking about! Like you said, my logic didn't get any boost from the ritual. I don't understand!"

Again her mouth took over without thinking, and this time most of her body went along for the ride. Leaning in towards him she said, "It's not logical Harry. That's why…" At this she leaned closer and Harry started to realize what she was doing. "I'm having such a hard time."

As she finished the sentence she closed the rest of the distance between her lips and his, and Harry Potter received his second very wet first kiss. After the shock wore off, he decided that this one was much better than the last.

Ending Note: As I said up top, Hermione has yet to accept completely what happened at the end of fifth year. She almost died. That affects you emotionally. The next chapter will be out much quicker, so don't worry! Doreedo