Now, even more than before, Voldemort's actions were heavily documented in the Prophet. The attack at Hogsmeade was covered for days, and new murders occurred weekly - every once in awhile leaving a student affected.

In the end of February, Hermione opened the Prophet to find a black-and-white photography of familiar faces twinkled up at her. The picture was taken at the funeral of Aurors and brothers Gideon and Fabian Prewett. Molly Weasley was sitting, nearly nine months pregnant by the look of it, next to Arthur and three children; Bill, who was seven, Charlie, at five and little Percy, only one and a half. Hermione angrily wiped the tears of her face. The two Prewett-brothers were only a small part of the losses of the war, but it gave Hermione faces to attach to the written numbers.

That evening she visited Dumbledore at his office.

"Do you know anything more?" she asked, "about when I might be able to return?"

"Unfortunately not, Miss Granger," the Headmaster said, "The most likely solution, unless you manage to recover your Time-Turner, is that you'll be pulled back into your own time by the magic that sent you back here."

"But I've been here for nearly six months!" Hermione said, "I'm already in the middle of a war, I don't need to be pulled into another!"

"There is only one war, Miss Granger, only one enemy. There is nothing I can do to send you back."

"I don't want to craft myself a life here as well, I don't need anything here that I have to leave behind."

"You create those bonds, Miss Granger."

"I know. But what will I do," she asked, "if I'm still here when school ends? I don't have a family, I don't have any money, I don't have anywhere to go!"

"We'll deal with that when July comes,"

"No! I need to know now," Hermione said.

"You'll stay at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, "as an assistant to our professors and as Poppy's trainee. I suspect it will come in handy to know some First Aid, when you return to your own time."

Hermione nodded. "Okay. I can do that."

*

Hermione was sitting in the Library, surrounded by books. She was cross-referencing between at least three heavy volumes as she wrote her Arithmancy paper. She was writing down every bit of information she knew and was able to find, about the numerological values of the day Wednesday, which was the day she was born and the number 1, which were the numerological value of her birth date, the 19th and birth month, October.

Halfway into a badly written section about the sun and its connections to the number one, a small voice harrumphed and Hermione jumped so badly that she scattered every book she had magically angled on the table, before tipping backwards and crashing to the ground.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to disturb you," a voice piped and a pair of hands grasped Hermione and helped her up. A girl, taller then Hermione, with coloured skin, straight dark brown hair and green eyes, was standing in the midst of Hermione's upturned books, looking embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," the girl said again and pulled out her wand to magic all the books and papers up to the table again.

"That's all right," Hermione said and straightened the chair with a flick of her wand, "You're in my Arithmancy class, right?"

"Yeah," the girl said.

"Well, take a seat."

"Thanks." They both sat down by the table.

"Did you want anything?" Hermione wondered.

"Oh," the girl said, "I was just wondering if you knew anything about Pyramid Numbers?"

"Sure," Hermione said and accio'd a sheet of blank parchment, "What's your first name?"

"Indira."

"I-N-D-I-R-A," Hermione said, as she wrote the name down at the top. "Well, do you know the equivalent numbers?"

"Yes," Indira said, "One for the I, five for the N, four for the D, One for I, two for the R and one for the A." Hermione wrote each number under its respective letter.

"Right. You begin at the left-hand side and multiply one with five," she said and wrote five under the two first numbers, "then you multiply five with four, which equals twenty and two plus zero equals two, four times one is four, one times two it two and two times one is two." Hermione looked up from the paper and Indira nodded.

"Okay."

"Then you do the same, until you've got one number left-" Hermione said and quickly summarized, "-and eight times five is forty and four plus zero is four, so your number is four." Hermione smiled and handed the sheet to the girl.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," Hermione said with a smile and turned back to her own books. Indira pulled out her own Arithmancy book and began on her own homework.

Some hours later, Hermione looked up and saw an emptied library. She checked her watch and groaned. Indira looked up from her textbook.

"What?"

"We missed dinner," Hermione said and her stomach gave a rumble. "Do you want to come down to the kitchens with me?"

"You know where they are?"

"Sure."

"Okay," she said with a shrug and they collected their belongings and headed out of the library.

"You're dating that Slytherin, right?" Indira asked after a couple of minutes.

"Yeah," Hermione said, "Severus."

"I don't understand how you can," Indira said. Hermione stopped.

"What?"

"Oh!" Indira said and her eyes widened, "I didn't mean it like that! It's just - you're friends with Sirius and James and it's no secret how they feel about him. It's just strange how you can keep a relationship with all of them, that's all."

"Oh," Hermione said and began walking again. "I've got to admit it's been a little difficult. We kept it a secret for over a month. Everyone was too sure I'd end up with Remus to really pay any attention. And then there was all the fuss with Lily and James."

"Yeah, I know!" Indira said with a laugh, "It was all the school could talk about for that week! I mean, he's been after her for at least two years. She's been going out with several boys, but it doesn't seem to affect him. She dated Frank Longbottom for nearly a year when she was in her fifth and he in his seventh!" Indira must have believed Hermione's surprised look to be a look of confusion. "I don't suppose you know who he is," she said, "But he's training to be an Auror now and found a girl there too, I hear, Alice something."

"How about you?" Hermione asked, as they reached the still life that covered the entrance to the kitchens. Indira watched as Hermione reached out and tickled the pear. With a giggle, it sprung into a handle and the two of them entered.

"What about me?" Indira asked shyly as the House Elves ushered them over to a table.

"Have you got a special someone?"

"Well," she said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Oh, do tell!" Hermione said and relieved an elf of its platter of sandwiches.

"Well, to begin with, I ought to tell you that I've spent three semesters at a school in India, close to where my parents grew up and where my mother went to school. The first semesters of my third, fourth and fifth years. My parents insisted and Dumbledore agreed. But," Indira said, "I favour Hogwarts."

"How come?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I think it might be the united magical society. I know it sounds weird, with the war and all, but it's truly different from India. The school I went to is located in Chandigarh, in the North of India, and house around a thousand students. So it's about the same size as Hogwarts. But my Indian school is one of the smallest of many large-scale schools all across the country."

"Really?" Hermione asked, feeling interested.

"Yeah. It does make sense though," she said. "Hogwarts is the only magical school in England of this scale. There's bound to be a couple of home schooled children, some who are sent abroad, perhaps back to their parents country or to relatives and a handful of small private schools. And in addition there'll always be the odd muggle parents who won't let their child attend Hogwarts. But even so, there are only around a thousand magical children in Britain, out of maybe 7 million who are Hogwarts-aged. If you apply that ratio to the 200 million in India between the ages ten to twenty, you're bound to end up with, oh let's see, some 20 thousand who need schooling at any given time."

"That actually does make sense," Hermione said, "I've just never thought of it before."

"Few people do," Indira said. "But the largest school in India has a total of eight thousand pupils. It's branched into seven smaller schools, one for each year, and those seven are scattered over five of the states in India."

"Wow! Eight thousand students!"

"Yeah. My father is from one of those states," Indira said, "but he's a muggle, so I was sent to my mother's school. At just one thousand," and here Indira gave a small giggle, "it's smaller than one seventh of the largest school. But I spent three semesters there and I met a boy."

"Oh! A boy!"

"Yes. He's four years older than me," she said. "His name is Pallav Patil and he'll be moving to England this summer and we'll get married."

Patil? Hermione thought. "How sweet," she said out loud.

"And let me tell you," Indira said with a laugh, "our children will most definitively be sent to Hogwarts!"

*

Easter really surprised Hermione. She had gotten out of bed one day and found the Common Room almost stripped of younger students. The fifth and seventh years remained, as they prepared for their O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s, but most of the younger years and some of the sixth years, had left. Hermione tried not to appear confused as she joined the others, but Remus still sent her an amused glance.

"Forgot Easter, didn't you Leandra?" Hermione felt herself blush and snatched a book from the loaded table in order to efficiently hide it.

"Have you done all the Arithmancy, Lea?" Lily asked and indicated the book.

"Some of it, how?" Hermione replied, lowering the volume somewhat.

"I wondered if you'd want to check my Heart Number?"

"Sure." Hermione scooted further to the side of the couch she was sitting in, allowing Lily to move from James' side to hers. She unceremoniously took a sheet of parchment from Remus and accepted Lily's spare quill. She wrote 'Lily', before pausing. "What's your full name?"

"Lily Evans!" Lily said with a laugh.

"No middle name?" Lily shook her head and Hermione turned back to her task and completed the name. She quickly wrote out the corresponding numbers under each letter, resulting in a string of nine numbers: 3-9-3-7-5-4-1-5-1.

Ignoring the consonant, Hermione added the numbers correspondent to the I, E and A in Lily's name and drew the number six next to Lily's name. She quickly picked up the book again and leafed her way to the proper section.

"The number six," she murmured as she read. After having scanned it, she handed it to Lily.

"'You would like to be appreciated for your ability to handle responsibility'," Lily read, "' You have a lot of diplomatic tendencies' - 'You have natural abilities to help people' - 'You are likely to have artistic and creative leanings' - Are you listening to this James?" James nodded half-heartedly and sent a sheet of parchment, ink still glistening freshly, in Sirius direction. Hermione eyed the pair suspiciously.

Soon, she collected her own books from the dormitory and began revising History of Magic with Remus.

And although Hermione had failed to see Easter coming, she was well aware of the fact that it was speeding along fast. They'd spend time revising and doing homework, before dropping them and rushing through the ancient halls and out to the grounds to spend some of the energy particularly Sirius managed to gather during the hours in the common room.

One memorable day Laurel had engaged the four boys, Lily, Hermione, Ayla and Elana in a series of games devoted to try, among other things, their concentration and trust.

"In a circle," Laurel said and pulled Sirius and Ayla beside her, "This is a concentration-game-" (Sirius groaned) "-called Moose," (He peaked somewhat at this) "-and it goes like this." She lifted a hand to each side of her head and spread her fingers, creating moose-like antlers and explained that the person who was 'the moose' did that, while the ones on each side lifted only one hand, the one closest, while all three of them chanted moose-moose-moose. 'The moose' would then be send between various people in the circle and whenever someone failed to raise their hands or chant, they dropped out of the game. They tested the concept once, before trying for real.

Laurel lifted both hands and began chanting. Sirius right hand and Ayla's right flew up and they joined her. With a smirk and wiggle of eyebrows, Laurel sent 'the moose' to Lily, who quickly broke into a chant with raised hands, with Peter and Hermione on the sides. The first to fall out of the game was Sirius, which, to tell the truth, didn't surprise anyone. After Laurel and Remus won, Sirius demanded a re-match - claiming he'd make it this time - but fell out second to Elana.

When Laurel changed to a similar game, however, Sirius surprisingly did rather good. Although Hermione suspected that it had its origins in muggle weaponry, Laurel explained that there was a leader in the middle who pointed out different people. The one indicated would drop to the ground, while the two next to him or her would engage in a 'duel' - the winner of said duel would be the one who could bellow out Expelliarmus fastest. Peter fell pray to this game the fastest, while Lily - who had a fierce winner's instinct even on the worst of days - and Sirius ended up being the remaining two and had to walk five steps in opposite directions, before turning. Lily ended up victorious and was chased across the grounds by Sirius, who - once he caught her - slung her over one shoulder and threatened to throw her into the lake.

During a game of 'Prewie' - where every participant walked around blindly, trying to find Prewie, who was blind, deaf and mute, by whisperingly asking Prewie? to everyone they met, reasoning that the only one who didn't answer would be the person in questing and then latching themselves on to him or her - Ayla earned herself a good twenty minutes of chasing and tickling by removing herself from the game after being chosen as Prewie and watching the others walking blindly around for a quarter of an hour trying to find her.

They had tumbled into the kitchen later that day, a couple of hours after dinner was over and devoured all the food the house elf had brought them, before engaging in a game of tag on their way up to the tower, where they collapsed in a heap on the floor of the Common Room.

*

After Easter, the seventh years found they had little time to engage in games. During all of April and May the teachers revived every subject they had had since first and third year and set foot-long essays on the theories in each subject. Hermione split her studying between everyone - studying Charms, Transfiguration, Runes, Astrology and Herbology with the girls, Defence and Potions with Severus, History of Magic with Remus and Arithmancy with Laurel, Elana, James and Remus.

They would sit engaged in discussions for hours, arguing back and forth about different magical qualities or theories. Enchanted quill recorded it and they put the material to good use in the numerous essays they handed it. It earned them very good grades and Hermione filed the use of self-writing quills in her mind.

Soon June was upon them and the Exams begun. The nine Gryffindor seventh years stood together, watching the other seventh years and the fifth years, as the nervously paced around in the hall. A creak sounded and the door to the Great Hall swung open. Hermione breathed deeply, before following the others. The fifth years were led to one side of the hall and the seventh years to the other and a magical barrier was put up between them. Everyone scrambled to his or her seat and, once settled, a stiffening silence followed. McGonagall quickly administered rolls of parchment and anti-cheating quills. Breathing deep, Hermione unrolled the first parchment and begun writing her History exam.

She was unsure of how much time had passed, when she looked up and saw that the fifth years had been released. She had finished every question and relaxed in a seat for a second. She allowed her gaze to wander among those next to her, before leafing through her heap of parchment in search of the first one. She wasn't finished quite yet - she still had to double-check everything.

When McGonagall rang the bell, Hermione was glad the see the parchment soar away. The students half-heartedly gathered at one side of the room as the Professors spelled it back into its original form. Hermione seated herself at the Gryffindor table with a heavy sigh.

This was promising to be a tough couple of weeks.

Hermione finished History the first day, even choosing to take the optional oral test after she had finished the written exam. She finished the written and practical exams in Charms, Transfigurations, Ancient Runes and Herbology during the following four days of the week. On the Monday that followed she took Arithmancy and Astrology (Arithmancy only having a written exam and the Astrology practical taking place during the night), on the Tuesday she did the written exam and the obligatory oral test in Muggle Studies, before doing Potions on the Wednesday and Defence on the Thursday. Thursday night she took the liberty of expressing her great pleasure in not having to get up early for the exam in Care of Magical Creatures and sprinted giggling up the stairs to the girl's dormitories before Sirius strangled her. She did not anticipate, however, the fact that Sirius turning the stairs into a slide sent her hurtling straight into his arms and was tickled mercilessly by the boys.

She was deeply relieved to see the end of the exams, though, and slept late the following day before trooping up in the Hospital Wing.

"Miss Tawnee," the nurse acknowledged upon seeing Hermione, "the Headmaster told me to be expecting you some time before the end of the school year, but I didn't think I'd be seeing you here in the middle of your exams."

"I finished yesterday, Madam," Hermione said with a smile.

"Very well," the nurse said and directed Hermione to the potions cabinet. "I want you to make yourself acquainted with these. I expect that you know most of them and we'll go through those you're unfamiliar with once you've finished." Hermione nodded and turned to the cabinet. The nurse continued her round as Hermione learned the system and went through the entire stock of potions, ointments and drugs. The nurse returned as she went through the last few and remained silent as she watched Hermione work. Once she replaced the last bottle, she turned to the nurse. Madam Pomfrey stepped closer and asked which of the objects in the cabinet Hermione was unfamiliar with. Hermione pulled out several of the corked vials and bottles and the nurse explained the general ingredients and to which cases it was best applied.

She proceeded to point out those most frequently used in the Hospital Wing - like the Dreamless Sleep and the Pepper-Up Potions. Hermione watched her with rapt attention, memorizing what the nurse recited.