"... celebrate a boy who was, kind and honest and brave, true, right to the very end." Dumbledore's speech continued on. Hermione looked around at the somber faces in the Great Hall and caught sight of Harry, down the front. He was sitting there, looking at the headmaster with his usual blind awe it seemed, nodding occasionally as the old man went on about the boy Harry had sacrificed to save himself.

She wanted to stay, to honour the good, strong pure blood that had been lost to a half blood's cowardice. But she couldn't stand to sit there and watch the traitor take glory in his fight, while others mourned the loss. Why couldn't he just die like he was supposed to?! She stood up and rushed out of the hall; with her hands covering her seething expression she looked no different to the many others that had rushed out, overcome by grief.

Hermione felt an overwhelming urge to do something, anything, to teach her dirty former friend a lesson. But knew she couldn't; things still hadn't settled from when she'd helped Barty get away. The disappearance of the Durmstrang headmaster had given the Professors a suspect for the 'attack.' Her curse had missed apparently, but in her dive to get out of the way McGonagall hadn't noticed that her attacker was at least a head shorter than the man they blamed.

But knowing she couldn't afford to raise any suspicions by acting rashly, she instead worked on calming herself, again, and made her way to the library. Distracting herself for a few hours with a book of simple charms.

The visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang left later that day, and the whole school gathered to see them off. Tomorrow they'd all be heading home on the train, which cheered a few people up a bit; but the end of term feast was still much quieter than in previous years.

She ducked up to her tower after dinner, just to be sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Between her and Fipsy she didn't think there was much chance of it, but wouldn't feel comfortable till she'd checked. Finding nothing, Hermione was soon making her way back to Gryffindor Tower.

"What are you doing?!" She screamed as she walked into her dorm, to find Parvati casting various spells at her Dagworth grimoire.

The raven haired witch jumped back, but it was Lavender that answered. "I just tried to move it so I wouldn't grab it by mistake, but it shocked me," she explained. "Fay laughed like she does, so Parvati dared her to grab it, and then Fay bet Parvati she couldn't get it open."

Hermione ground her teeth at them, "That book is blood bound, no one but me can open or read it; unless I give them permission. And I didn't leave it out Lavender, you're lying."

"No!" She wailed as only Lavender could, "I swear it was..."

"One more spell Parvati, and I'll curse you so hard Padma will feel it." Hermione interrupted in a dangerously low voice, her wand appearing in the blink of an eye as Parvati's pointed at her book again.

"Oh come on Hermione, it was just a harmless bet!" Fay insisted as she stood up from her bed.

"A harmless bet?" Hermione asked as she turned to the brown-haired girl.

"Sure, she didn't mean anything by it, it's just..."

"Just a harmless bet." Hermione interrupted her, "It was an attack on my things Fay!" She paused for a moment, then continued in a calm-sounding tone, "But ok, just a harmless bet... So how about I make one of my own?" She asked, gradually stepping closer to Fay with a mad gleam growing in her eyes. "I bet I can burn your trunk faster than you can protect it." A sickeningly sweet smile cross her face, "What do you say Fay? Care to take the bet?"

"That's enough Granger." A voice called from the door before anything more could happen.

Hermione twitched, and turned to see the 7th year Prefect standing there, with her arms crossed. "Oh come on Melissa, it's just a harmless bet!" She locked eyes with her dorm-mate, "right Fay?"

The brown-haired girl nodded, "r-right."

Melissa gave them all a stern look, but quickly left them alone.

Hermione turned back to her bed, and locked her book in her trunk. "Leave my things alone," she told the room.

"She's mad." Fay whispered when Hermione turned her back.

"Watch your tongue half blood, or it might go missing," Hermione hissed without moving to face them. She then drew her curtains and, casting some quick 'charms', lay on her bed in hope of an early and restful night.


"Fipsy." Hermione called the next morning before heading down for breakfast. She was already packed, thanks in part to her elf, so this would be the last time she'd see her dorm till the next school year.

The little elf popped into the room a moment later, a smile matching her wide eyes, but keeping quiet as she'd been told to.

"There isn't much for you to do at my house," Hermione said, rubbing her elf's head affectionately. "So I want you to stay here and keep working at Hogwarts. That way you can stay busy, and just come when I call you." She paused a moment, then asked, "Does that still work if we're not both in the castle?"

The floppy eared nod brought a smile to Hermione's face, as her elf answered. "Fipsy can find Mistress wherever she's called from, because Fipsy is bonded with Mistress."

"Good." Hermione told her warmly, "You stay here and keep busy then, and I'll call if I need you."

Breakfast was the usual chaos expected for a bunch of children and teens preparing to go home. People were coming and going regularly, some not even sitting to eat; just grabbing a slice of toast then disappearing again. Hermione took a few minutes to eat a bowl of chopped fruit, before making her way up to her tower to do some last minute clearing up.

There wasn't a great deal to do, she just removed the alarm charms from the doorway at the bottom, and spread some dust about so it was less obvious someone had been up there. She considered putting a light locking charm on the door to 'her room', but decided that'd draw more attention to it than nothing at all. Hermione hoped she could make use of the room again the next year; she certainly wasn't looking forward to another year with the girls in her dorm.

As she was making her way out to the carriages, Hermione paused on the steps of the castle. She blinked a bit, looking at the skeletal reptilian horses with thick leathery wings: "Thestrals." She reminded herself, and continued on her way.


The train was already under way when Hermione found a quiet compartment to herself, and a quick call to Fipsy had her trunk and Crookshanks in with her. She closed the door, and let him out of his cage; after a quick glare at her, he jumped on her lap and promptly went to sleep. Pulling a book out, she made herself comfortable and settled in for a peaceful ride back to London.

The Trolley Lady was the first to interrupt, "Anything off the trolley dear?"

Hermione bought some pumpkin juice and a couple of cauldron cakes, before returning to her book.

She got another hour or so of quiet before she was interrupted again, this time by a tapping sound. Looking at the door, she couldn't see anyone, so she opened it and stuck her head out into the corridor: Still no one. Growing suspicious, she pulled out her wand and cast a revealing charm: Nothing. With a huff, she sat back down and closed the door.

Tap tap.

Crookshanks, who'd curled up on a seat at the interruption to his sleep, lifted an ear.

Jumping up, Hermione quickly slid the door open and recast the revealing charm: Nothing. With a bit of a growl, she slammed the door shut, locked it and added a silencing spell for good measure, then took her seat again. She sat watching the door for a the next few minutes, daring whoever it was to interrupt her now.

Hermione shot to her feet when the tapping came again, but paused as she reached for the door. Looking behind her she saw an owl outside her window, flying alongside the train with a letter tied to its leg. She sighed and shook her head at her overreaction, and turned to open the toplight windows after slipping her wand away. The owl flew in without fanfare, and she quickly untied the letter from its leg.

The owl didn't stick around as she looked over the envelope, the outside of which had just three letters written on it in a neat hand: HDG. Curious, she pulled the single sheet of parchment from inside. The message was a little odd, but it slowly started to make sense as she read it.

You should be more careful reaching into something without knowing
what's inside.

Sorry if things are a bit backward in the end, but I just wanted to send
you a quick note. Firstly, I'm back with my friends, so thanks again for
helping me get back in touch with them. Don't mention it though, that's
the second thing, as far as the world is concerned, nothing much has
changed. Lastly, keep an eye out at the end of your trip, some of the
borders are best avoided if you want a summer to yourself. But I'm sure
with your talents you won't go running through anything that would get
in the way of that.

JCB

She read through it a few times as the pieces slowly started to come together. 'A little backwards in the end', the end backwards: JCB, BCJ. Barty Crouch Junior. So he was back with the Dark Lord that meant. Don't mention it? Nothing much has changed? She had to think on that a bit, but eventually guessed he meant not to mention anything about the Dark Lord being back.

That seemed kind of pointless though, surely it would be in the Prophet any day now? Maybe it was just a warning, not to let any know that she knew, that sounded reasonable.

She figured the last bit was something about getting off the train, but couldn't think what the rest of it was about. She slipped the note into her book and pondered it for a while.

Sometime later, she woke up with her book on her lap, still open with the letter laying on top of the pages. Looking out the window into the twilight, she saw a few lights in the distance and decided she'd better change out of her school robes.

The muggle clothes brought back her bad mood, as she remembered what she was going back to. Muggles, how... she couldn't think of the right word to describe them. But it was another summer without magic; one wave of her wand and she'd at least be warned by the Ministry. Her parents would probably try to take her wand off her too.

Tugging at her uncomfortable jumper she already missed the easy fit of her robes. She tried a couple of different places for her wand, eventually settling on just putting up with the lump in her sleeve so it stay where she was used to keeping it.

More lights started showing out of the window, and before long the train was making its final approach for the station. Packing her book away, she locked her trunk and took one last read through of Barty's note. He was obviously telling her something about the platform, but she had no idea what he was on about with the last bit.

She took her time getting off the train and finding a cart for her trunk. An older wizard helped her by levitating it out of the carriage for her, so she thanked him, placed Crookshanks' cage on top, and looked around Platform Nine and Three Quarters. There was no sign of her parents; they were probably waiting for her in the muggle Kings Cross, she guessed.

Not seeing anything else to take note of, she pushed her cart and trunk along toward the exit. There was the usual line at the arch to the muggle station, so Hermione waited patiently for her turn, all the while looking around. It was only when she watched a first year running though the barrier with his parents that the pieces started to come together.

Taking out the note, she read through it again. The first sentence was a clue too, 'reaching into something without knowing what's inside.' 'Backward in the end,' so the start was the end too, and 'with your talents you won't go running through anything that would get in the way of...' '...a summer to yourself.'

"Miss, you're holding up the line." The grumpy looking guard interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, can you let some other people through? I just need to check on something." She said distractedly as she stepped off to the side.

He shrugged, and waved a group of people through.

Hermione read through the note several times, wondering what he was trying to tell - or warn? - her. Then in a flash of her usual brilliance, she remembered what she was thinking when she woke on the train: If she used her wand she'd get a warning from the Ministry... a summer to herself, a summer without the Ministry?

The wards on the platform couldn't be putting the trace on students as they leave could it?

She watched another group of people run through the barrier, but didn't see anything happening. Not that that meant anything, she looked at the note again, that first sentence: 'knowing what's inside.' So maybe the wards were inside the bricks, which meant she wouldn't see anything. But people apparated in and out of the platform too, so maybe... regular apparition had to go through wards, you didn't just appear in the new location. So it'd still work if that's what it was. She looked at the note yet again, 'keep an eye out at the end of your trip' it said, not 'keep an eye on the barrier' or borders. Maybe that's what he meant.

She looked around the platform again, but it appeared that anyone that was going to apparate already had. No more help then, she would just have to try it. The only question was how to apparate without anyone seeing? She'd be in trouble for sure if anyone saw her disappear.

"Miss, are you going through or not?" The guard asked her. "You can't stay here all night."

She looked up again at the nearly empty platform, "Oh, sorry. Yeah I'll, uh, I'm going now."

The guard shook his head, and muttered something to himself as she slowly pushed her cart forward. She was just picking up to a jog when she realised how to do it.

She quickly went through the now familiar process of clearing her mind, then pushed all her concentration on being on the other side of the wall.

And with a soft pop she was there. Of course, she couldn't check if it worked without risking a letter from the Ministry anyway.