Summary: After the final battle Harry thought things would finally be good for him... he was, however, mistaken. For after he won the war under Dumbledore's banner, the muggleborns decided to take this chance and change the world to their liking. At first it was all small changes that made people complacent... but then things change. Literally overnight some of the darker pureblood families were destroyed - parents given the Dementor's kiss, babies sent to muggle orphanages and teens thrown to prison. This was not something Harry ever imagined happening. And it was certainly not why he saved these people from Voldemort.

Warning: Will contain same sex male / male pairings. Independent, smart Harry (creature mate maybe); most likely Dumbles and some Weasley bashing.

Pairings: RL / SB; HP / ? (definitely male, older and dark) ; FW / BZ / GW; DM / TN;

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF ITS' CHARACTERS, i'm just playing around for our entertainment lol :P

Chapter Six.

~Pillow Talks of Different Kinds.~

/dream sequence

His footsteps sounded overly loud on the stone floor, tredispiration filling his entire being as he walked down the corridor, between the cells. Screams echoed around him from time to me, other times soft whimpers could be heard. He hated this place. Suddenly he felt hands on his back and with a yelp he was sent into an open cell nearby...

/end of dream

Harry blinked sleep out of his eyes and looked up at his professor, in the barely lit room the figure of Severus Snape with his dark glittering eyes and shoulder length hair that fell in soft waves around his face managed to look intimidating even in nightclothes... which by the way, who knew the man only slept in sleeping pants... the boy fought very hard not to blush, the mild darkness around him sure helped.

"Emmmm..." - oh very intelligent, Potter, get a grip, he berated himself - "I'm sorry I woke you up professor."

"I wasn't asleep yet, mister Potter" - the reply was rather mild to Harry's relief - "... so no harm done. Are you sure you are quite alright?"

Harry was sure that telling the man that he had dreams of Azkaban was not a good idea, so he decided to improvise.

In a soft voice, a bit raspy from sleep, he replied: "I'm … not quite sure, sir. The dream itself... is not a new one. But..." - he paused and cleared his throat - "... there is always this rat man chasing me... and the black dog always saves me... but … but ... this time the rat man made the dog be taken away … and I was so scared ..."

Severus stared at the child. What on earth was he babbling about? Rat chasing a dog? Now what kind of nonesense was that? And why would it scare Harry this much? Or maybe … of course! It was a nightmare, so of course it couldn't really be taken at face value, there was sense to it, but alas, dream-reading has never been an interest of his. Did he mention he wasn't all that great at the touchy-feely stuff that was generally required for comforting children... well no. It was one thing when it was something to do with one his slytherins, that came natural to him. But this child... this child deserved to have the comfort of being comforted after a bad dream, something his muggles definitely never bothered doing. And so the man awkwardly sank down to sit beside the raven-haired boy and awkwardly put a hand around him, muttering random things that he hoped sounded soothing.

/in a different part of England, the Granger residence.

Doctor Emma Granger was on her way to get a late night snack, when she noticed her daughter was still up. Sighing exasperatedly, the woman softly opened the bedroom door and peered inside. And just as she thought – Hermione was curled up on the window seat with a huge book perched on her lap.

"Hermione, what did I tell you about staying up so late?" - she asked sternly.

"But muuuuum..." - the busy haired girl all but whined - "School starts in less than a month, there is so much I need to learn!"

"The book will still be here in the morning, missie." - Emma wouldn't be swayed, even in the face of the most fearsome weapon ever, the ultimate puppy eyes - "Go to bed Hermione."

"Fiiine." - grumbled the girl as she slid off of her perch and stomped to the bed.

As she lay there under covers, young miss Hermione Granger wondered about this new world discovered. She wanted to know everything there was to know. She was of course a little apprehensive about going to Hogwarts. She recalled that day, almost a year ago, the day she got her letter with a small smile.

||flashback||

It was the first of September and Hermione Jean Granger was walking home from school. She had hoped that this year would be better then before, it was a new school after all. At first she thought her dream came true, but soon after the lunch break it became glaringly obvious that yet again she wouldn't be able to fit in. All the other girls wanted to discuss movies, or boys, or shopping. No one was interested in books, other then comics and magazines of course, but Hermione didn't really recognize those as books. She wasn't okay with just casual banter with no purpose. And so, once again, others thought her to be a teacher's pet and just plain weird, while she regarded others as too stupid to be worthy of much notice. One could say it was a weird disposition for a child, but well... never having any friends outside of family was rather taxing. Add to that her unusual maturity and the little odd things that seemed to constantly happen around the girl and no one really wanted to spend much time with her.

And so it was on a day like this, when a slightly disappointed Hermione Granger was going home from school, a barn own swooped in, causing the girl to squeek rather loudly, and dropped a letter in front of her. At first the bushy haired girl just stood there, staring at the letter. Then she looked around. Only after making sure there was no one around she darted forward and picked up the letter quickly. She paused, not knowing what to expect. Slowly she she turned the letter over and was quite surprised to see that it was actually addressed to her. Shrugging slightly, Hermione put the letter into her book bag and hurried home.

It wasn't until that evening that she remembered the weird owl letter. She fished it out of her bag, broke the weird wax seal and quickly read it... and then read it again … and then one more time for good measure.

'what on earth...' - thought the girl, frowning at the letter that was written in green ink … on actual parchment - 'I should probably ask mom... this seems much like a bad joke...'

||flashback end||

It was indeed a rather fond memory of hers, one of the not so many. After having to wait almost a full school year, Hermione was finally about to go to Hogwarts in just one short month. She was very excited. Of course, the closer it came to the September 1st, the more worried she got. She wanted to fit in. But many of the history books she convinced her mother to buy said that wizards put a lot of value on the purity of one's blood. Hermione, who was brought up in the muggle world, couldn't understand the reasoning behind it and thought it was just baseless prejudice, after all none of her precious books ever gave any reasoning for this preference. So little Hermione Granger wanted to change things. She promised herself she would do her best at this magical school, she would all she could and then she would become a champion for the muggleborn's rights.

/and in yet another home about same time. Longbottom Manor.

One 11 year old Neville Longbottom counted his pocked money he saved up over the last couple of years. He had overall about 20 galleons. You are probably wondering, what would a pureblood heir need extra money for, right? Well... see, Neville was in a bit of trouble. These past 10 years he's been living with his grandmother, Augusta Longbottom. And the old woman was practically obsessed with trying to make young Neville into a copy of his father, Frank Longbottom. She went as far as insisting that Neville should use his father's old wand. At first Neville had no problem with it, not that he'd ever tell the woman he had a problem with anything she decided... the old lady was absolutely SCARY when angered. But the other day he got a rather peculiar letter.

It arrived a few hours after his Hogwarts letter. It was written in pencil, on what Neville assumed to be muggle paper. In fact it looked like it was a ripped out of a notebook. Little Neville of course knew no one who would write on paper like this, or would even have access to it. Still, he was curious. Plus his grandmother was not around. So he opened the letter and read through it. It turned out to be rather informative. Whoever sent it to him, Neville was very grateful. After all, he didn't need his classmates thinking he was a squib. It was enough that his own family were of the same opinion for as long as he could remember.

So now, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, little Neville was counting his savings and hoping it would be enough to afford a proper wand. He knew his grandmother would go to visit his parents tomorrow. She only ever took him with her on Halloween, so the boy knew he'd have at least 5-6 hours of alone time. Getting to Diagon Alley wouldn't be a problem, since they've been there not too long ago, so Neville remembered how to get to the Leaky Cauldron pub by Floo. The boy was very excited and also very very scared. After all, there would be hell to pay if his Gran ever found out about this trip of his. But it was in his opinion very much worth the potential danger, after all if he wanted to be a good wizard and a good lord of his House, he needed a wand that would actually work for him. His mind made up, Neville settled down on his bed and quickly fell asleep.

Author's Note: Yeah, not much really happening in this one. But a little more Harry / Sev fluff and some bits about Mione and Neville =) Mystery letter he got? you know who it was from, right? :P

Thank you very much for your lovely reviews. Love them all, though will answer some of them hehe. Special thank you to helga1967 & risi.

for Aries Christensen: well, i can't talk for other people, but I just wanted it to be this way. I fully believe that a long line of magic may very well produce a strong wizard, so long as they don't all marry their first cousins, so being a pureblood doesn't necessarily mean you are inbred lol. James and Regulus weren't that closely related for it to be considered any kind of incest.

P.S.: i'm not sure if i'm gonna bash Hermione... Dumbles is 100% going down though lol. And yes from the way it is currently developing HP / SS is probably unlikely, more of a mentor relationship i guess. Lucius is also probably not gonna be the it lol, though i will certainly play with little Lucy a little lol.