Curfew was an irritant that arrived all too soon. Riddick's good night kiss in front of the Pink Lady was definitely not designed to help her sleep. "Sure I can't come in?" He teased, pulling her close and rubbing his body against hers.

"Soon as the Sorting Hat puts you in Gryffindor you can come in for as long as you like." Hermione retorted with a smirk. "We could hang out in the common room."

"Yeah...don't think I'd do too well as a first year," He grinned at her despite his reluctance to release her from his grasp. "You gonna be all right in there?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" The witch frowned, the reasons for his concern eluding her.

"That little red headed bitch shares a dorm with you?" Riddick tugged on a curl that had escaped her hasty braid. "Hate to get blood on your floors."

"I sleep with my bed warded," Hermione assured him. "And she can't match me for spellwork or experience."

"All it takes is one good day sweetness." He kissed her more gently this time. "Better go on before I drag you back to my lair. You'd be in all sorts of trouble then."

"I'm terrified of the possibilities." She laughed and kissed him quickly before giving the password and stepping into the Gryffindor common room.

Harry looked up from his work and smiled at her, waving her over to his table. "Good evening Hermione?"

The witch nodded, smiling happily, "Pretty good yeah." She nodded at his work. "Transfiguration essay?"

"Potions." Harry shrugged his unconcern. "I'm not too fussed about it. I'm a bit past wanting to be an Auror. Way too much fighting over stupid little things the way I hear it. Plus Andromeda..." He hesitated before lowering his voice. "She says she's getting up there. She's not old, as witches go, but losing her husband and daughter…she's tired. And Teddy's going to need a dad who's around. Not an Auror trainee who works constantly."

Hermione nodded, "Yeah. I can see why he'd be your top priority. What does Luna think? I've noticed you seem to value her opinion." She added with a grin.

Harry's face immediately lit up. "She loves Teddy. When Andy brought him to Hogsmeade Luna would have spent the entire day with him. I was talking to her about him and she agrees with me that since I'm not hurting for money, being home with him is something he and I both need." He looked over at Neville who was patiently tutoring a third year in Herbology. "Neville says all he really wants is to work in a greenhouse. He's tired of war and politics but neither one of us is ever really going to get away from them."

"Yeah," The witch looked around the common room. Most of the students who filled it were Halfbloods or Pureblood. There were only a couple of Muggleborn, herself included. The war had wiped out too many of the first generation Magicals. "Even here, there are so many of our classmates who just don't understand how dangerous Muggles can be. I mean, how do you explain the science of an atomic bomb to a wizard or witch? And did they even notice the Cold War? Or the Cuban Missile crisis?" She shook her head, "Magicals still think Obliviation will solve all their problems. They don't know anything about digital records, surveillance cameras or CCTV. In a couple of generations, they're going to have the same old problems and Muggles will be that much more advanced."

"While the Magicals keep stagnating despite our best efforts," Harry sighed. "I'm so tired of it all Mya."

"If I'm going to be constantly watching my back I'd rather not have people assuring me that there's no reason for my paranoia." Hermione agreed. She sat back and thought of Riddick in his cozy little lair down in the forest. She was his now, and he was hers, which would make him as much if not more of a target. To everyone at Hogwarts he was a strange breed of Muggle. For a witch of her power to choose a Muggle over a wizard would be seen as the highest form of insult by the Purebloods and a rejection of Magical society by everyone else. "Harry... what if we left?"

"Left what? Hogwarts?" Harry blinked but gave the idea some consideration. "We can't make a living in the Muggle world at the moment. Though we could use my money to live off of while we got a better education."

"No, I mean..." Hermione wasn't sure what she meant. "I mean leave England, leave Europe, go somewhere we'd have no chance of running into anyone we knew." She sighed, "Riddick...he and I..." She sighed, "No one here is going to take it well when they realize we're serious. I just want to go somewhere...without those problems. A clean slate."

"Well that'd be a great trick," Harry was thinking. "If we could do it. And that's a big if given how famous, or infamous, you and I are..." He thought some more. "We'd need a place no one could get to. Warded beyond a fare thee well. Supplies and a way to live without constantly leaving the safe haven for necessities."

"You'd need someone who knew how to grow crops." Neville remarked softly as he sat down at the table beside Hermione. "And a lot of practical knowledge because we wouldn't be able to rely on anyone else."

"We'd have to pack up everything, sell off whatever we can't take with us." Hermione was thinking. "We'd need resources. A way to learn things as we needed them. That means a library. And some way to make wands…or books on wandcraft."

"Seeds." Neville offered. "Seeds and fertilizer and tools. And herd animals if we could manage it. For a source of meat."

"A way to educate Teddy and any other kids." Harry was making notes now. "It's quite a list."

"But...if we found a place. We could do it?" Hermione was casting a cautious gaze around the common room. Thankfully she, Neville and Harry sitting together and studying were no longer an uncommon sight so no one was really taking notice of the trio.

"You'd need to learn as much as you could about Healing as fast as you can." Neville said quietly. "Muggle healing too. Not just magical. Because our potions resources would be finite until we got a greenhouse going. Assuming ingredients would grow properly wherever we end up."

The witch nodded thoughtfully and stiffened as she saw Ron coming towards them. "Incoming." She murmured and stood. "I'm for bed." She watched as Harry rolled up his notes, putting them safely away from Ron's gaze. She kissed Harry's cheek and smiled at Neville before heading up to her dorm.

The wards around her bed glowed each time a spell was cast against them, a sign of power being siphoned from the attacking spell. It was a very neat trick Bill Weasley had taught her over the summer. The only problem with that was Hermione felt each time the wards were hit. Being woken up out of a sound sleep to wards being slammed with spell after spell was not her idea of a good morning. Especially given that it was four thirty in said morning.

When the attempt on her wards stopped she heard the attacker huff and mutter in sadly familiar tones before another set of bed curtains rustled and presumably closed. Hermione rolled her eyes and waited until all was silent in the dorm again before she rose and summoned her beaded bag.

When she, and Harry had decided to return to Hogwarts for their NEWT studies, Harry had remarked that it would take more than stone walls to make him feel safe again. He'd looked at his trunk and asked her how hard it was to make a bag like hers. That little project had taken him a month and a half, but he'd managed it. Making the charms permanent had taken an additional two weeks but the work had been worthwhile. Hermione hadn't put anything she valued in her school truck when she returned to Hogwarts. Not after Ginny's meltdown over the summer and her inherited tendency to snoop into other people's things. More than once Hermione had found her truck in disorder and her telltales broken. A piece of clear tape over a latch was nothing to an Alohomora spell but it told her when her trunk had been unlocked.

The Muggleborn witch made her way to the girl's bath and began to get ready for her day as she recalled Ginny Weasley's fury over Harry's decision last summer. Telling Ginny that he wasn't ready for marriage had the little redhead throwing a screaming fit that rivaled her mother's Howlers in volume. Harry had tried to calm her down, pointing out that they were friends, their relationship would have a chance to grow. He'd reminded her that he was raised as a Muggle for most of his life and Muggles simply didn't marry right out of secondary school. They were more likely to marry out of university or afterwards.

That had simply infuriated Ginny even more. And what made it worse had been the way she twisted everything around so that Hermione was blamed. Molly had still been friendly right up until Hermione had confirmed what Harry had been saying. Explaining that her parents hadn't married until they were nearly to their thirties and that she saw no reason to rush into things had cooled Mrs. Weasley's attitude towards her considerably.

Since then, relations with the Weasley's were strained at best, not including George or Bill, Charlie still being in Romania. Percy was polite, but he was trying to mend fences, not create new problems and he'd remained courteously neutral. That had been more than she expected and she'd been grateful he was polite. It had been more than Ron could manage at the best of times. Harry had a quiet word with her out of Ron's hearing and after that she and Harry had retreated to Grimmauld Place. Kreacher had been overjoyed to see them. And there was no denying the fact that the library at Grimmauld was a great help in creating Harry's bottomless satchel.

It was also peaceful there. Unlike the hustle and bustle of The Burrow, where people were always talking or running around, Grimmauld was quiet and the shouting kept to a minimum. Kreacher took good care of them without smothering them to death and dinner conversation wasn't a mixture of Quidditch, chore allotment, whining about said chore allotment, and interrogation on Muggle ways and means. Arthur was still recovering from the curses he'd taken during the war but he was as enthused as ever about all things Muggle.

Ron hadn't been happy they'd left him at the Burrow but Harry had pointed out that taking him with would have infuriated Molly and made leaving pointless since half the Weasleys would have followed. Hermione had managed to avoid Ron for the rest of the summer, not enjoying the proprietary attitude he'd often displayed towards her at the Burrow. She hadn't liked Mrs. Weasley's heavy handed attempts to teach her housekeeping either. It wasn't as if she couldn't look up the proper spells, or just do it the Muggle way.

Hermione frowned as she recalled that Mrs. Weasley hadn't approved of cooking the Muggle way either. They were both quite good cooks, Harry out of necessity from a very young age and Hermione since cooking was the only way she could practice potions during the summers. But if it couldn't be done magically Mrs. Weasley didn't approve of it. Kreacher at least didn't mind if Harry or Hermione wanted to prepare a meal, though he insisted on cleaning up after them.

It had been a good way to spend the second half of the summer. They'd studied and got back in the habit of eating regular meals. Though neither of them could break the habit of keeping some form of nourishment on their persons. Muggle protein bars had a permanent place in both their bags. A year of near starvation would take more than a summer to get over. She and Harry had often gone to Hogwarts to help with the repairs and confirmed their arrangements with McGonagall to resume their classes. When Mrs. Weasley heard that of course she had insisted Ron do the same.

Ginny's attitude hadn't changed when school had started, and had only grown worse since then. Hermione had endured one night of hexes and jinxes before she'd warded her bed against anything even remotely disturbing. And now that she'd flat out told Ron that she wasn't interested in dating him he'd thrown away seven years of friendship and shared experience to deride her to anyone who'd listen.

It was no wonder she spent as little time in Gryffindor tower as she could. The witch got dressed and headed for the Room of Requirement, asking for the Room of Hidden things and calling for Kreacher once she was there. She couldn't help but be somewhat amazed at the still towering levels of junk. The last she'd seen of it this room had been an inferno.

"Missy Granger was calling Kreacher?" The old house elf bowed politely. "Missy has many elfs willing to serve in Hogwarts but still asks for Kreacher?"

"Because you can be trusted to help Harry, Kreacher," Hermione smiled. "Though maybe we could ask Winky if she'd like to bond to me or Harry, and she could help too."

"Missy Bad Hats called Winky?" The slightly tipsy and discombobulated elf appeared. "Winky is a good elf, Winky stays away from the hats."

Hermione watched as the older elf calmed the younger one and in a rapid-fire exchange explained that Hermione was looking for a house elf. When Kreacher was done Winky looked overjoyed if somewhat cautious. "Missy Granger wants an elf. Winky is good, she is not wanting wages. Winky is wanting work."

The witch sighed. It had taken her a long time to understand house elves and their nature. It wouldn't be changed in one generation. But having them grow accustomed to receiving respect was something she thought could be achieved. "I promise Winky. I won't give you wages or clothes. I just want you to be my elf, my family elf." She wasn't prepared for Winky to take her hand or the glow that would surround both of them. But when Winky was done she looked much healthier.

Winky smiled up at her happily. "What is it that Winky can be doing for Missy Granger?"

Hermione took a deep breath and looked around, "This is the Room of Requirement. I think the Elves call it the Come and Go Room? This version is called the Room of Hidden Things."

Winky looked around and exchanged a glance with Kreacher, "Winky thinks this is a very large room Missy Granger."

"You're right about that." Hermione sighed. "What I need is for the two of you to go through the room and catalog it. Throw away the trash, things that you cannot repair or launder. Cursed items should be taken to the Goblins at Gringotts."

"Why is Missy doing this?" Kreacher asked looking around the room and following his instincts to banish the dust and grime along with a pile of soiled handkerchiefs.

"Master Harry and I, and some close friends, are going to hide. We're leaving the Wizarding world. We're going to find a place where we can take you and our loved ones and live. If we stay here, sooner or later, something else bad is going to happen to us." Hermione sat on a broken ottoman and looked the elves in the eyes. "It won't be easy, but the things in this room can help us. We'll need money and jewels and books. Things that will last until we learn to make our own."

"Missy and Master Harry will need our help." Kreacher nodded and looked at Winky who disappeared. "Winky and Kreacher will go through the room and find things to help Missy and Master. Many lost things here. We will make Missy and Master a list. Hogwarts will help us."

Hermione smiled in relief. "Thank you both. I'll come and help you as much as I can. Maybe you could do a section at a time and make separate areas for the different things you find. Money and jewels in one trunk, books in another, magical tools or items elsewhere?"

Kreacher rolled his eyes, "Missy will not try to teach house elves to clean. Elfs are doing this long before Missy was born."

"Yes Kreacher," She nodded. "My apologies."

Winky popped back in, several trunks following her, and put her little hands on her hips, "Missy Granger must eat breakfast and sleep. Winky is making Missy a bed here and she will bring breakfast after Missy has rested." The little elf frowned. "And Winky will make sure nasty redheads do not wake Missy too early anymore."

Hermione nodded and moved obediently to the conjured bed, lying down and closing her eyes. "Hmm...Winky, my...boyfriend, Riddick, do you know him?"

Winky's voice was soft as she tucked a coverlet around the witch. "Winky knows the wild magic man in the Forest. The man who sees through illusions. Sees all us house elves."

"When you find some quilts in here, will you clean them and add warming charms? And bring them to him?" Hermione requested drowsily. "It's so cold outside. I worry about him."

"Winky will see to it. Missy must rest now." The elf patted Hermione's hand gently.

"Sorceress." That eerie voice greeted her even as Hermione looked around at the lush valley. "You return to your new world." The blonde woman strode towards her, the valley turning to ash in her wake. "You are privileged to see it as it was and could be again. Even now, it struggles for renewal."

Hermione shook her head, "I still don't know where I am. How are we supposed to get here if we don't know where it is? And who are all the people you named?"

"You ask questions for which your answers are found within yourself. You are Bound to Him now. You bear His mark even as you will one day bear his children." Fey eyes stared down at the witch. "We have no knowledge of the names you seek. They are written across the cosmos, prophesied to renew our race. Do you not prepare? Even now, while you rest, the servants you will need work to make all of this possible."

The witch frowned, "The house elves? They'll be able to help? Leaving their homes won't hurt them?"

The ghostly laugh that floated over the air was mocking. "Did you not just bond to your elf and promise she would not be left behind? Did she bond to bricks and stone and dirt? Or did she bond to you and your bloodline? And His, now that you are bound to Him."

Hermione frowned at the barren valley, "What did this? What caused this destruction?"

"The destruction of an entire race. The arrogance of one who thought he could circumvent prophecy and in so doing, brought it about." Dark eyes stared into Hermione's. "You know about that too well Sorceress. The damage a prophecy can do."

"All this, because of one man," Hermione found herself staring out over the sea of mass graves. "Yes, I know about prophecies. The destruction they can bring about."

"Only a few of our race survived. Scattered to the winds, chained or imprisoned. Or thrown into the past." Blonde braids drifted over one shoulder as the apparition turned to look at the valley of dead. "They will all come home eventually. We are all drawn home."

"Where is home?" She knew she wouldn't get a real answer but she couldn't stop the question.

"Far and away in time not yet come."

Hermione woke with a start as Winky arrived with tea and toast. "Missy must go to the Hall for breakfast, but Winky sees she has not been eating well."

The witch took the tea gratefully, her mind half on her dream, and looked around the room. It already looked cleaner and more organized in places, especially around her. "Thank you Winky." She sipped at the hot sweet beverage and thought. "Winky, do you know any elves who are good at farming and agriculture?"

Winky looked at her with her big brown eyes, "Missy wishes to start a farm?"

Hermione shook her head, still half dreaming, seeing that ravaged land as she spoke, "I saw a place, where the ground had been scorched, as if there was a terrible fire. And thousands upon thousands had died. It had volcanos, mountains that threw fire and smoke into the air, and two moons. I need elves who would come to help heal that place. Elves who are not afraid of a strange place. It would be hard work."

"Winky is asking Kreacher and the Hogwarts elves," The little elf decided with a nod. "Missy must go to breakfast now. Winky has brought Missy's husband his quilts with warming charms. Master Riddick was pleased his woman thought of him. Gave us a message for Missy Granger that he will see her at breakfast."

"All right Winky, I can take a hint." Hermione drank the last of her tea and ate her toast, pushing herself out of bed and grabbing her satchel of books and homework.

"Missy cannot take much of one since she is still here talking," Winky chivied her out of the room and Hermione hurried down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Riddick, Harry and Neville were waiting for her when she arrived in the Great Hall. Apparently Harry and Neville's concern had infected Riddick somewhat since the moment she was within arms reach he was giving her a once over. "Figured I'd see you here first thing sweetness, and then these two came in, said you weren't in the dorms."

"Mya where've you been," Harry waited until she was seated before asking, though it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he had wanted to bombard her with questions the moment he saw her. Neville was quieter, but he was clearly also waiting for an answer.

"You know what we talked about last night?" Hermione surreptitiously cast a privacy charm.

"Leaving? Finding a place to just live?" Neville murmured as he began to fill his plate.

"Hmm…" Hermione looked up at Riddick. "Once people figure out I've accepted your suit, that I'm choosing someone they consider a Muggle over a wizard… well…those politics we mentioned? They're going to get worse."

"Got the impression you were sick of dealing with all of it anyway." Riddick nodded his understanding. His silver gaze fell on Harry, "Tired of solving their problems for them?"

"Tired of running in place," Harry corrected him. "We destroyed a Dark Lord. The second in two generations. I don't think any of us should be required to deal with a third. Hell there shouldn't even be a third."

"But that's what will happen," Neville concurred. "If the conditions don't change, and attitudes the shape those conditions certainly haven't, then the next Dark Lord will rise during our children's lifetimes if not ours. I lost my parents, my grandmother, I'm the last Longbottom. Harry's the last Potter. If the Purebloods have their way Hermione will die before she can even begin a House."

"We've paid enough." Hermione said firmly. "We're going to leave before we're forced to pay anymore."

"Won't see me arguing," Riddick wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her waist. "What's that got to do with where you've been this morning?"

Hermione took a deep breath and began to explain her morning, beginning with her rude awakening at an ungodly hour and ending with Winky chivying her out of the bed. "So they're going to find free elves who'll want to bond to us. All of us, because the more of us there are the better off the elves are. And they're going through the Room for anything we could use either at our new place or to fund us getting there."

"Hermione, that's brilliant." Neville grinned, "All that stuff… I'll bet a lot of it is dead useful. Not to mention most of the owners are probably long gone."

The witch smiled slightly, "I did tell Kreacher that if they found anything with someone's family crest on it that they should go through Gringotts and offer it back, for a finder's fee. Perfectly reasonable."

"I remember a lot of stuff in that room," Harry was looking around the hall thoughtfully. "The place was easily as big as the Great Hall. But it got burnt up when the diadem was destroyed."

"Well we have time. We've only finished our first term." Hermione shrugged. "Plus, we can go and help them. And maybe Winky and Kreacher will find some more elves. As for it being burnt up, it was still a huge room of junk when I asked the Room for it."

"I'll check with the elves at Longbottom Hall," Neville offered quietly. "They could help. They might even have some ideas on how to bring what we need with us."

"Neville, you're sure about this?" Harry asked their quiet friend. "You're more entrenched in this world than Mya or I. This is where you grew up. Won't you miss your home?"

Neville chuckled, "That's why I want to talk to the elves at the Hall. Elven magic is different than ours. Home means everything to them."

Hermione stared at him as the implications of what he'd said hit her. "You're talking about actually moving Longbottom Hall."

The Pureblood scion of House Longbottom shrugged. "The Hall is tied to the Land. But the Land where the Hall sits, it's more of a doorway. That's its nature."

"How far?" Harry swallowed some eggs and toast before he asked his question. "Across the world? Farther?"

"Our family legend says that Longbottom Hall started as a Faery mound. And that it's tied to the Fey Realm. That's the Land the Hall is bound to." Neville told him with a slight smirk. It was clear the quiet boy was enjoying his friends' shock. "The Fey go everywhere, to worlds we've never even seen. It's a matter of choosing a place to bind the Hall to, and that's where Longbottom Hall will be."

Riddick was tilting his head, his expression thoughtful, "Know how to get to those other worlds? A guide? If you had a name?"

It was Neville's turn to think and his expression tilted in concentration. "I'd have to ask the elves." He said finally. "I only know most of this because of my nanny's bedtime stories. But we could meet in the Room tonight and I'll call her to me and ask."

Riddick nodded and Hermione looked at him curiously. "What are you thinking?"

He looked down at her, silver eyes dark, and pulled her close. "Something that seemed impossible, but might not be." He said after a while. "Wondered if there was any way to get to Furya."

"Your world." The witch breathed and looked at Neville. "Could we?" Something was tickling in her brain. Something she should remember. But it was just out of reach and what Neville had to say was fascinating in its possibilities.

"Another world?" Harry kept his voice low, "Could we even survive there? It's one thing to find an island and hide it. But Muggles have only been to the moon. How would we get there?"

"My people lived there," Riddick told him in his low firm voice. "If Mya's right about me, you'd be fine there too. Place needs Furyans to live there. People with magic, if I'm any kind of indicator."

Hermione forced herself to finish her breakfast and looked at the other three. "If I don't drop this privacy spell soon people will know something's up. So tonight? After dinner?"

"Tonight." Harry agreed and Neville nodded. Riddick looked down at her and smiled, nodding.

"All right then." Dispelling the Muffliato was easier than bringing it up and Hermione deliberately turned the conversation to homework.

Author's Note: So I always figured Hermione was so practical that the idea of a dream journal was way too reminiscent of Divination and she doesn't pay much attention to her dreams. Don't worry. I am going somewhere with this.