A/N - I just wanted to clear up any confusion about this chapter. I did originally post it on Friday, but I took it back down again when the site was still not issuing notifications for story updates. Until I post this, I have no idea if they're working again, but this chapter will stay up even if they're not working again. However, until the issue is sorted, I might not be posting Power of Love and Goddess of Vengeance. Last week I posted both a chapter of Power of Love and The Reunion, and without the alerts going out it seemed as though most people missed the updates. I will be posting The Reunion as normal on Wednesday, and if the alerts are still not working, I will make a decision then as to whether to post Power of Love and Goddess of Vengeance as normal or wait until the issue is resolved. I can promise that when it is fixed, I'm planning on doing extra chapters of Power of Love and Goddess of Vengeance to make up for the delay in posting.

I also just wanted to address a couple of rude reviews I've had while this has been going on. I know people are used to my regular updates, and while I had a couple of really lovely messages checking that I was okay and that nothing bad had happened, I also received a couple of rude reviews demanding to know why I hadn't updated. One even wanted to know what I was doing updating an older story (this one), instead of my newer stories.

I post on a schedule, partly so I know what I'm doing, but mainly so that people know when my stories will be updated and don't have to worry about not receiving updates for months at a time. I don't have to post like this, I could just post when and if I feel like it, so I find it quite rude when people demand to know why I haven't updated. Unless there's an issue like this, I always update when I say I will, so I don't think there's any need for people to be rude when something gets my schedule off track.

I also just want to remind people that I can't personally respond to guest reviews. Some guest reviewers have been nicely wondering where the updates are, and because they're guests I can't reply to them. If someone reviews using an account, I can send them a message and reply to their questions, but I can't do that with guests. So I'm just wanting them to know I'm not ignoring them, I just have no way of contacting them.

Finally, I hope this issue is resolved soon, or this notification goes out to my followers, so I can get back to my normal publishing routine. As I said, bonus chapters will be coming up with Power of Love and Goddess of Vengeance, so let's hope things get back to normal soon.

Now onto this collection piece. This chapter goes back to before the trio started Hogwarts. Enjoy.

Glasses.

Normally Draco would have been unimpressed if his mother informed him she was going to visit her friend, and he had to tag along. However, since the friend she was visiting was Beth, Draco had no problem accompanying his mother. Going to Beth's house meant he would get to spend the afternoon with his best friends. The trio were due to start school in a couple of weeks, and Draco knew they wouldn't exactly get much time together at Hogwarts. Not when Hermione would be pretending to be a muggleborn, and she and Harry would both be sorted into Gryffindor. Still, the holidays weren't over just yet and Draco figured they could still have more fun before they had to start Hogwarts.

"Harry and Hermione are both upstairs," Beth informed Draco when he and Narcissa arrived at the large house she shared with her husband, daughter and grandson.

"Thanks Beth," Draco called as he headed towards the stairs.

As a regular visitor to the house, he knew just which bedrooms belonged to his best friends. Hermione's room was the one he reached first, so he knocked on the door and poked his head into the room to see if his friend was in residence. Hermione was in her room, lying on her bed, her nose in a book. In preparation of fooling people into thinking she was a muggle, Hermione spent most of the summer doing research, so Draco was guessing she was reading yet another muggle book.

"Reading again?" Draco laughed as he walked over to Hermione's bed.

"Draco." Hermione smiled widely at her best friend as she slammed shut the large book she was reading.

"Hogwarts: A History," Draco remarked, reading the cover of the book his friend had been pouring over. "What happened to your muggle books?"

"I know everything there is to know about muggles," Hermione replied with a smug smirk. "Test me."

"How?" Draco snorted. "I know nothing about muggles."

"You'll just have to take my word for it then," Hermione said with a shrug.

"Don't worry, I believe you," Draco said with a grin. If Hermione said she knew everything there was to know about muggles, then you could be certain that she did. "Where's Harry?"

"In his room," Hermione answered.

"Have you two had a falling out?" Draco asked. His two best friends rarely argued, but they were both pretty opinionated and stubborn, so when they did fight it was usually pretty epic.

"No," Hermione replied. "We don't spend every single minute of the day together you know."

"Shall we go and see him then?" Draco asked. "Maybe the three of us could do something this afternoon."

"As long as it's not flying, I'm in," Hermione said as she bounced up off the bed.

"Just what do you have against flying?" Draco whined. As much as he loved Hermione, it frustrated him that she had such a downer on his favourite pastime.

"Nothing, it just doesn't appeal to me," Hermione answered with a shrug. "Why would I want to float around in the air on some stick? It's boring and uncomfortable."

"Are you sure you're not just scared?" Draco teased, nudging his best friend in the side.

"I am not scared," Hermione replied haughtily. Giving Draco a glare, she flicked her long curly hair over her shoulder and stomped out of the room.

Rolling his eyes at her dramatics, he followed after her. "Sorry. I know you're not scared. You're not scared of anything."

"I am," Hermione confessed in a quiet whisper as she stopped outside of her nephew's bedroom.

"What are you scared of?" Draco asked, taking hold of Hermione's hand and giving it a squeeze.

"Failing," Hermione replied quietly. "I don't want to let Daddy down, but what if I can't do it? What if I can't convince everyone I'm a muggleborn?"

"You will," Draco reassured her. "You're Hermione Granger, the brightest witch I know. You can achieve anything you want. After a few weeks at Hogwarts you'll have everyone eating out of the palm of your hand. I predict that within the year you'll be the perfect little Gryffindor Princess."

"Do you really think so?" Hermione asked with a small smile.

"I do," Draco replied, nodding his head.

"Thank you, Draco, you're the best friend a girl could have," Hermione said, throwing her arms around her friend's neck and pressing a light kiss to his cheek, causing the pale boy to blush slightly.

"Let's go and see what Harry's up to," Draco said, trying to ignore the heat he felt in his cheeks.

Whirling around, Hermione knocked on her nephew's door, before ploughing into the room without waiting for an answer. Draco was right behind Hermione, and the pair skidded to a stop when they found Harry standing in front of the mirror, wearing a pair of round black rimmed glasses. Since Harry's eyesight was perfect, neither of them were quite sure what the glasses were for.

"Hey guys, what do you think?" Harry asked as he turned to face his best friend and his aunt.

"I think you look like a dork," Draco sniggered. "Why are you wearing such geeky glasses?"

"Why are you wearing glasses at all?" Hermione asked with a frown. "They don't suit you."

"I know that, they're horrible," Harry replied, pulling them off and throwing them onto his desk.

"So why are you wearing them?" Draco asked.

"Dad and Grandad came up with the idea," Harry explained. "They think I look too much like Dad, so they were trying to find a way to keep people from spotting the similarities."

"So what? They thought they would turn you into Clark Kent?" Hermione sniggered.

"Clark who?" Draco frowned.

"A muggle thing," Harry explained to a bemused Draco. Like Hermione he'd been researching muggles since he'd been supposedly raised by them. "There's this muggle comic about a superhero called Superman."

"Now that's an original name," Draco snorted.

"Anyway, this superhero has an ordinary life and to stop people from realising he's Superman, he wears glasses."

"What are they, some sort of magic glasses that change his appearance?" Draco asked with a confused frown.

"No, they're normal glasses," Hermione answered. "I know, it makes no sense and it's very obvious that's he Superman, but in the comics it works."

"So that's what Severus and your grandfather think you should do?" Draco questioned, the bemusement still evident in his voice. "Wear glasses so people don't think you look like Severus."

"Actually, they thought the glasses would help convince people I look like James Potter," Harry said with a grimace. "He wore glasses, and Dad found me some that look like the type he used to wear. He's hoping between the glasses, and the fact my hair is black, I'll pass as Potter's son."

"That could actually make sense," Hermione conceded. "People are going to assume Harry is Potter's son anyway, and the glasses will just reinforce that. More than likely they won't make the connection to Severus because they're not looking for it."

"Put them on again so we can have another look," Draco urged his friend.

Picking the glasses up from where he'd thrown them, Harry put them back on and faced his friends. Hermione and Draco both scrutinised him for several seconds before they nodded their heads.

"It does minimise the resemblance to Severus," Hermione said. "It won't fool anyone who truly looks at you and Severus together, but I doubt people are going to do that. Why look for a connection that as far as they know doesn't exist."

"Let's hope you're right," Harry said as he removed the glasses once more.

"I agree that the glasses will probably work," Draco said. "But I do stand by what I said earlier. They are not a good look for you, Harry."

"You've got room to talk, gel-boy," Harry retorted. "Seriously, your hair looks like a helmet you've got so much gel in it."

"It does not," Draco muttered with a pout as his hand automatically reached up to check his hair was still perfect. For the last couple of weeks, he'd been experimenting with changing his style, and he'd started gelling his blond hair back.

"It kind of does," Hermione snickered.

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Draco protested, giving Hermione a mock glare.

"The side of decent hair," Hermione shot back.

"I don't think decent hair is how I would describe your bushy mop," Draco said with a smirk.

"Bushy mop?" Hermione squealed in outrage, smoothing down her curly hair which sometimes had a mind of its own and could get out of control.

"Looks like I'm the only one with decent hair," Harry said smugly.

"That is not decent hair, it won't even lie down flat," Hermione snorted.

"Yeah, your hair is always sticking up at odd angles," Draco added, sharing a grin with Hermione as they ganged up on Harry.

"At least my hair can stick up, yours is stuck to your scalp," Harry retorted.

Draco opened his mouth to protest, but as he did so, he caught Harry's smirk and the pair burst into laughter. Hermione soon joined in the laughter as they continued to bicker with each other about their hair.

Once the laughter had died down, the trio headed outside to enjoy the summer sun. After all, they'd soon be off to Hogwarts, so they had to enjoy the time they had left together. Very soon they'd be at school, and even if they could sneak around, they wouldn't be able to be friends in public. Maybe one day it would happen, but it certainly wouldn't be any time in the next few years, and all three of them knew that. In a few weeks they would start a charade that would potentially last for years, so they had to make the most of the time they had when they could just be themselves and didn't have to worry about keeping up some sort of pretence.