Last Time


Nodding to himself, he reclined in his seat. "Yes, I think I'll let it play out." Fawkes trilled another note, and it gave the impression of laughter. "Yes, the fact that Refero could, and most likely would, tear me apart for interfering did have some impact on my decision to, as you put it, 'not put my nose in another matter un-related to me'."

Now


The next while passed unremarkably, the only thing that should be marked was the sudden absence of Ron from Harry's day to day life. The memory change Dumbledore had caused had let the attack remain, only as the old man believed it would have played out had Refero had not stepped in; they had gotten into a light scuffle quickly broken up by the teachers.

Ron had not spoken to either Harry or Hermione, to apologize or other wise. He had taken to hanging out with Dean and Thomas, and simply ignored his two ex-best friends.

Harry himself was surprised at how easily Ron slipped out of his life; his place quickly filled with Ginny. He had always imagined, in times he had been feeling doubtful of his friends, that it would much more theatrical when Ron parted paths. But it hadn't been like that, they had quietly parted into separate lives, as some people do.

The raven haired boy had no time to truly notice the lack of his first friend his age. He was happy, he had finally moved on his feelings and had been rewarded with Hermione returning them, Refero had doubled Harry's training level and the nameless zanpakutō spirit trained him separately from the Hollow's own methods, and quidditch practice had kicked in with Wood being all the more fierce in his determination to finally win the cup in his last year at Hogwarts.

All in all, Harry felt very deserving of his tired huff as he collapsed in a large plush chair beside the fire place and work table in the Gryffindor common.

"Tired?" Hermione asked teasingly, looking at her boyfriend over her shoulder from her spot on the work bench going over her copious amounts of homework. She had her DADA book open to were-wolfs, apparently doing Snape's assignment from when he had filled in for Lupin.

"Meh." Harry grunted as he cracked an eye open to look at his girlfriend. "Refero and my zanpakutō are giving me bitch lessons, Wood's making practice a third hell; 'course I'm tired..." He was grateful Hermione knew about his tenants; having an helping voice other then the three in his head was nice.

He waved tiredly at his clothes. "I never even bothered to change out of my quidditch robes."

Hermione, brushing of the language; she had gotten used to it, as it seemed Harry was starting to pick up Refero's language, giggled and stood from her work. "To tired for a little snuggling?"

Harry grinned. "Now, that I'll never be too tired for."

The brunette laughed, settling herself in her raven haired boyfriend's lap. "Is that so?"

"But of course, I am, after all, male." He replied, giving her a kiss.

That was how the two spent the next while, ignoring the strong winds that signaled a hard quidditch match tomorrow.

Having rushed through dressing in his spare quidditch robes, Harry waved off Wood's prep talk and hurried on to the field, immediately getting drenched as what Alicia had early called a 'little' rain during breakfast, he hurried to where Hermione stood waiting.

"Good luck." Hermione wished, giving him a quick kiss after he had used his Nimbus to float up to her.

"Like I need it, but thanks any way." He replied, with a very Refero smirk, diving back to the ground with a sharp dive and roll, causing cheers from the Gryffindor side of the field.

After Wood, who had arrived with the rest of the team, gave Harry a quick but stern reprimand, he headed off to the center of the field to shake hands with Cedric.

"Congrats, Harry-""-it takes some serious guts to blow-""-over Wood's-""-prep talks like that." The Twins laughed, both clapping the younger boy on the back.

Grinning wryly, Harry moved to take position with the rest of the team.

Within ten minutes of Hooch's sheer whistle; Harry was wetter then any other time in his life, couldn't see through his water covered goggles, had ran into two players, and was twice almost de-broomed by a Bludger; so he had felt justified to sigh in relief that, after the first flash of lightning, Hooch blew her whistle an hour into it.

"I called for a time out." Wood explained when Harry landed under the cover.

"What's the score?"

"We're fifty points up, but we'll be playing into the night at this rate."

"Harry!"

The aforementioned boy blinked, turning to see Hermione running up to them under an umbrella. "Hey, 'Mione."

"I've had an idea, everyone, hand me your goggles." She commanded, pulling out her wand.

Looking at each other with a shrug, they did as told. "Impervius." She said, pointing her wand at each set and saying the spell each time. "There, they'll repel water now."

Wood looked like he could've kissed her, Harry actually did. "You're a genius, 'Mione." He said as he pulled away.

The whole team yelled the same as she scurried off the field. "All right, team!" Wood said. "Let's go."

Ten minutes later, Harry found himself neck in neck with Cedric as they raced for the Snitch, a sudden chill began to spread, and it was as if he had gone deaf.

'Don't look down, Harry.' Refero's voice broke through the forced silence. 'You know what's down there already, so why look?' The tone was as mocking as ever as he asked the question. 'Be single minded, obsess over the victory; catch the Snitch, anything else is second priority at the moment.'

Harry could almost see his mentors face, eyes lighting with a fanatically insane light and grin splitting his face as they always did when he taught Harry something about fighting. Fighting was the only thing the spirit had always had, Refero's first and last instinct; and apparently the need to never lose a fight had rubbed off on Harry.

'And this is a fight, not with swords or magic, but broom skills; and I will win!'

With this thought Harry did as his teacher said, and kept his emerald eyes locked ahead on the small ball of winged gold, ignoring the movement down on the field. Reaching his arm forward, his finger tips scrapped against the Snitch.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, silly girl... stand aside, now..."

"Not Harry, please no, take me instead--"

'It's a memory, Harry, ignore it.' Refero commanded.

'But she needs help...'

'The woman you are hearing is already dead, Harry, ignore it.'

Forcing himself to do as Refero said, Harry wrapped his fingers around the Snitch even as a white fog encompassed his consciousness.


Harry groaned as he opened his eyes, hearing voices around him.

"Lucky the ground was so soft..."

"I'd like to argue that one..." Harry stated wryly, sitting up in bed. 'The Hospital Wing, again?'

"I'm sure you would." Fred (or was it George?) said, grinning.

"Harry, you're awake!" The rest of the team cried, noticing the exchange.

"Yeah," He agreed, in a tone saying he would most likely rather still be asleep. "Ain't it great?"

"Oh, just let me in, please?"

Harry's attention snapped to the door, where Hermione could be heard arguing with Pomfrey to let her in.

George (or was it Fred?) laughed. "Nobody but the team is allowed in without Mr. Potter's permission." He said, imitating the nurse's voice.

Chuckling, Harry spoke. "You can let 'Mione in, Madame Pomfrey!"

Harry could have sworn she had some how learned Shunpo by how fast Hermione flew in to his arms.

"Oh, Harry, I was so worried..." She sobbed into his chest, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

Harry laughed, patting the girl comfortingly. "It'll take more then a simply 100 foot drop to kill me."

Hermione giggled into her boyfriend's damp shirt. "You're just lucky Dumbledore was there."

Grinning, Harry pointedly ignored that part. "How'd the game go?" He asked the room in general.

"We won," Oliver said, grinning broadly.

Satisfied that he had managed to catch the snitch before he had fainted Harry relaxed in his girlfriends arms.

Recognizing the private moment, the team started to file out of the hospital wing but froze at Harry's next question.

"Who's got my broom?"

Hermione nodded sadly to the team, who nodded sadly back and left. "Well, um..." She began nervously, reaching Harry's bed. "It got blown away by the wind..." Pulling a bag out from under the bed, she reached into it with her free hand, pulling out a piece of wood Harry instantly recognized. "It got blown into the Whomping Willow..." She trailed off, knowing she needn't say more since Harry knew first hand what happened if you hit the Whomping willow... it hit back, and it hit hard.

Refero had sat Harry down in the boy's mindscape the night after he had gone to sleep; the Hollow taking his normal place in the vice-Headmaster's seat, Harry in the Headmaster's seat, and the two swords avatar's sat two of the house tables; Zangetsu at the head of the Slytherin while the still unnamed spirit lounged at Gryffindor table's own head.

"Harry," Refero spoke. "Have you figured it out yet?"

The young boy had no problem figuring out what his teacher was talking about; the Dementors. "I..."

He took a nervous breath. "They... make me relive my mother's murder."

Refero nodded. "That's right. I had thought, after that first time on the train, that that scream sounded familiar; I heard and watched the whole thing take place while I was shifting through your memories." If Dumbledore had been here, he would have scolded the Hollow for being so calloused. "Like I told you already, Harry, she's dead and there's no bringing her back." His tone spoke from experience.

Harry winched, he had barely even conjured the feeling, but he had already begun subconsciously feeling grateful to the Dementor's for bringing up the memory; as sad as it was this was the first time he had a memory of his mother's voice. Refero had already figured him out.

The swordsman sighed, looking forward and prompting his head up on one hand. "Look, Harry, I understand that you want you're parents back; but the dead will stay dead." His tone broke no room for any of Harry's half assed arguments. "Think of the woman you have, of the friends you have; the present and future you have." With that final order, Refero released the boy from his power which had kept him from true sleep and Harry feel asleep where he sat.


"Wait a moment, Harry," Lupin called after the bell had rung and everyone was leaving the classroom. "I'd like a word."

Smiling apologetically to Hermione, who just mouthed see you at lunch gave him a quick peck on the cheek and milled out with the rest of the class. "Yes, professor? " He asked, turning around and walking to stand in front of Lupin's desk.

"I heard about the match," Lupin said, covering the Hinkypunk's cage. "Is there any way of repairing your broom?"

Harry sighed. "None, the tree smashed to pieces."

Lupin sighed, and spoke in an almost apologetic tone. "They planted that tree the same year i came to the school. The boy's would always play a game, seeing who could get closest to the trunk; until one almost lost last an eye and it we were panned from going near it. A broomstick wouldn't have stood a chance."

"I suppose you heard about the Dementor's too?" Harry asked with a bit of spite in his voice. "I know their nature, 'Mione and I researched them after I got out of the hospital." He added, seeing Lupin about to speak. "They mentioned a way to repel them, but they didn't name it or say where to find the spell; you repelled the Dementor on the train, maybe you know?"

Lupin sighed. "I am no expert on fighting Dementors."

"I asked if you knew how, not if you were a master at it."

Lupin locked eyes with the boy, and the beast inside him whimpered. The wolf couldn't speak any language that Lupin understood, nor did he the wolf; but they understood each other just fine when need be.

The wolf was more a mass of instinct then it was a sentient existence, and it conveyed it's thought's through emotions. The emotions that the wolf felt whenever the Potter boy was in the room was unease, and now that he was locking eyes with the boy he could've sworn the mass of violent instinct was whimpering; which immediately put him on guard, there was little that could make a werewolf's inner wolf whimper.

"Well... alright," The man agreed with a sigh. "Just give me a while to get it all together


"Hmm..." Harry sounded, pocketing the miraculous map the Twins had gifted to him. 'I can do as they suggest and head for Hogsmeade, and get scolded by 'Mione, or explore the castle... Let's go get scolded.' He thought with a mischievous smile.

After he had snuck into the passage behind the witch statue, Harry grimaced as he looked ahead at the long tunnel.

'Heh, now seems like a good time to see how good you are at real world Shunpo.' Refero spoke in the boy's mind.

Harry nodded, closing his eyes and focusing on his reiatsu; his emerald colored variet of the energy starting to make a small aura around him. With a deep breath, he faded away in a blur of speed.

'Very good,' Refero said as Harry fell out of his eighth step at the end of the tunnel, breathing heavy from the excursion. 'You're no prodigy at it, but your better then average. Soon you'll be able to go this far with a only two or three steps.'

Smiling at the praise, Harry pulled his green aura back into himself and took a minute before using his metamorphagus powers he changed his appearance a bit; he looked like his zanpakutō avatar, moved his scar to under his muggle shirt he'd been wearing. 'Odd, that I can't make it disappear, but I can move it to hide it...'

Thinking of the oddities surrounding his curse scar, Harry headed up the ladder.

After dodging the employees and sneaking out of Honeyduke's basement, Harry started looking around for Hermione.

'Hm, they've only been here for about ten minutes... where would 'Mione go first...?' He chuckled after the answer came to him. 'Stupid question...' Grinning, he headed for the bookstore.

He found her in the back of the store, pouring over a rather heavy looking tome. Looking over her shoulder, he chuckled at the contents. "Reading about sex, 'Mione? A bit young, aren't you?" He whispered in her ear, his surprise easily out weighed by his amusement. "I had no plans to push for that for quiet some time."

Refero was laughing his ass off, even the two avatar's who a the more reserved ones in the boy's mind chuckled.

Hermione blushed, hurriedly slamming the book close and dumping some of the other books on the table over the cover. "Harry-" she was cut off after she turned around to look at him. "Who are you?" She was suddenly much more nervous at the idea of not only getting caught, but getting caught by a complete stranger who was entirelyto close for comfort.

Harry chuckled. "You were right the first time, 'Mione." He had forgotten that he couldn't change his voice. "It's me." Backing up, he changed back to normal and slid his scar into place.

"Harry!" Hermione squealed, jumping out of her chair and wrapping him in a strong hug.

The boy chuckled, wrapping his arms around her in return. "What, no reprisal about sneaking into Hogsmeade?"

"How about this?" Hermione asked with a hint of her rare mischief in her voice. "I won't pester you about sneaking in, and you forget about what I was reading?"

Harry pouted. "Some how I think I'm the one being jibbed here..."

Grinning slyly, Hermione traced a finger along Harry's jaw line. "Give it a few years, and maybe."

"I'll hold you to that."

"I'm sure you will."

"How did you get that anyway, I'm sure the clerk didn't help you?"

Hermione grinned, pointing at a silvery cloth stuffed into her bag that Harry recognized as his invisibility cloak, causing him to laugh


They stood alone in the common room, having returned early; Harry standing stock still with head bowed, giving off a heavy spirit pressure that would have crushed most people if they hazarded into the room, with Hermione holding him in a tight embrace from behind, somehow untouched by the invisible weight.

Harry looked behind him, at the girl tightly holding onto him, and the black in his yokes receded. "Thanks for calming me down, 'Mione." He said, though his voice shook slightly.

Hermione smiled up at the slightly taller wizard. "I'm here for you, Harry James Potter, and don't you dare forget it." Her smile vanished, replaced by a stern glare. "You won't chase after him, will you?"

Harry shook his head, taking a calming breath and releasing the pressure. "It just doesn't add up, now that I've calmed down."

"What doesn't add up?"

He blinked. "Oh, I haven't told you?" Sitting down on a love seat, Harry explained about his run in with Black.

"You're right," Hermione said after he had finished, biting her lip. "Normally I'd say he's just insane after Azkaban, but Fudge said he was the most sane person he'd ever met in Azkaban."

Harry sighed, "Like I said, it all just doesn't add up; at all. But this shit about Pettigrew isn't the weirdest part of it; he had some inkling of what a Hollow is."

Hermione's chocolate brown eyes widened. "Refero's race?"

Harry nodded. "He knew what I meant, and mentioned dimensions, something odd is going on there."

They sat in silence for a while, Harry pondering over everything he had overheard in the Three Broomsticks, and Hermione pondered that as well one other thing. "Harry?"

"Yeah?" He asked, looking at his girlfriend curiously and momentarily pushing the weirdness to the back of his mind.

"Well, um..." She blushed under his attentive gaze. "MyparentsinvitedyouoverforChristmasbreak."

Harry raised an amused eyebrow at her. "What was that?"

Blushing a little deeper, she took a breath and repeated herself, this time slowly enough to be understood. "My parents invited you over for Christmas break, and the train leaves early tomorrow."

Now it was Harry's turn to blush. "Um," he was, understandably, nervous; that was almost two weeks with just Hermione and her family, which he didn't know very well.

'Just pray to god that her old man isn't as overprotective as Ishin was, or at least as as bad as Toshiro told me he had been; but hey, you aren't telling the man that his daughter is joining a harem of two other girls.' Refero laughed, remembering when the, not so much any more, miniature white haired captain had, after several bottles of sake had been consumed, about the Kurosaki Patriarch's reaction to his askance for Karin's hand in marriage. 'Hell, you're not even marrying her, just courting her at the moment.'

Harry, though Refero's comment's didn't really help his nerves, nodded as he stood up. "Well, I gotta go back, now don't I?"

Hermione blinked, squealing as she jumped into his arms and gave him another hug when his words sunk in.


(A/N)Yo! well, next parts going to be the xmas-y chapter, so yeah it's going to be late; oh well, i was busy as Hell the last month.

there's another poll open; should i give 'Mione any siblings? and I've already decided on her parent's personalities, so if you vote yes for siblings, please give a gender age and some kind of personality.

and yes, i gave Hermione a slight inner perv, but i feel justified in it since i myself know some girls that, when they got their bf at that age, actually researched sex out of nervousness.

Laters