Hermione looked up from her book when she heard someone knock at her front door. She was about to answer it when she heard it open, shrugging she looked back down at her book, Emily must have gotten it. "Hermione it's your friends" shouted a girl's voice followed by chatter.
"Thanks Em" she called back as she stood up and put her book down. She walked down the stairs of her family home and smiled when she saw her eight year old sister. She was talking to Harry, Ginny, Dean and Seamus about something that was apparently funny.
"Hey" she said, wondering what was so funny as they all tried to hold in their laughter.
Seamus grinned and kissed her "an elephant teddy huh?" he asked gesturing to Emily who was giggling madly before everyone bust out laughing.
Hermione went bright red "Emily you are so dead when I catch you!" she shouted as her sister ran to her bedroom. She sighed as she turned back to her friends "what are you guys doing here anyway, I thought I said I was busy today?" she asked. She knew she told them that she was moving today.
"Right, so here we are Miss Granger, your own personal movers" Dean said jokingly, she smiled and was about to say thanks but Seamus put an arm around her waist and walked up to her room with them.
"Man it's creepy how organised you are" Harry said as he looked around the room that looked like it belonged to an old woman not a 23 year old. They began putting everything in the labelled boxes as they talked about what the new flat was like.
"Just think of all the fun of it Hermione" Seamus said wiggling his eyebrows, Hermione laughed as she threw a her baby blue pillow at him.
"Keep it clean Finnegan" she mock scolded, shaking her head at his pretend hurt and outraged expression.
"Why Miss Granger I never meant it like that, I would never" he said pouting as everyone snorted with laughter and continued packing.
They all looked up when Harry started laughing "Emily was telling the truth" he said holding up a pink elephant teddy.
Hermione narrowed her eyes "give that back Potter!" she ordered as she snatched it from him, ignoring his laughter as she held the teddy to her and put it in one of the boxes carefully.
"Don't worry Hermione, it is cute and he is one to laugh, he still keeps a rainbow blankie in his draws, Remus and Sirius showed it to me and Dean" Seamus said grinning when he heard Harry whine.
Ginny's head popped up from behind one of the boxes with an evil smile on her face "really, oh Harry you have to show me it" she said excited.
"Just ask Sirius about it and he will gladly show you" Dean said ignoring Harry's protests as Hermione and Ginny laughed.
"Ok people we need to get back on track" Harry said indignantly as he began to put the books in the boxes again. Everyone went back to work, he turned red every time he heard a stray snicker from someone that would start everyone off.
After half an hour, they all took a break, Ginny and Hermione went down to the kitchen to get something to drink. Emily was sitting at the table with some ice cold lemonade and all the windows open on the hot summer day. Hermione smiled as she cast a quick cooling charm on the room for her.
"Thanks Hermione" Emily said as she drank her lemonade, Hermione nodded before she grabbed some cans of cold pop from the fridge and passed half to Ginny.
Back up in the bedroom, Seamus, Dean and Harry were bickering about Dean having a girl. "Oh that's rich coming from the shameless bachelor and, well, Harry" Hermione said as she and Ginny laughed at them and walked into the room.
"Oi, we were never that bad" Seamus said but both girls just laughed more.
"Yea keep that in mind when you look at your old 'little black book' and Harry's old chocolate stained shirt" Ginny said between her laughter. Harry and Seamus pretended to huff as they opened their cans.
"Fine, we are better now right?" Harry asked as he put his arm around Ginny's waist, both girls looked at each other but refused to answer. Taking that as an answer, Seamus and Harry turned away from them.
Hermione smiled as she put a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder "but who said that was a bad thing?" she asked loving the grin that was now on his face.
"Ok your forgiven but we need to get back to work" he said as he picked up more books, Harry kissed the end of Ginny's nose before he put pictures into one of the boxes.
Dean smiled, it wasn't like he didn't want what his friends had, it was that he couldn't find anyone, maybe one day, he thought longingly as he closed and taped up the box he had filled.
"Hermione you have way too many books" Ginny said as she looked over all the boxes that were labelled 'books'.
Hermione shrugged as she grinned "I like to read" she said ignoring the look Seamus was giving her. They continued to pack until finally, the room was empty, Hermione looked around and sighed as she saw how empty it was, so many memories.
"Let's go then" Seamus said as everyone shrunk some of the boxes each and put them in their pockets, they apparated outside Hermione's new apartment in muggle london and waited for her to unlock the door.
Inside, the boxes were put in the spare room while they relaxed, Hermione smiled as she looked around, she finally had a place of her own. She looked up when she saw Seamus sit next to her "I still would have prefered it if you moved in with me" he said thinking of all the space he had at his apartment.
"You know why I cant Seamus, my parents would go mental, I shouldn't be with a guy until after marriage" she said laughing slightly as he nuzzled against her neck.
"Oi none of that, we are here remember" said Harry pretending to gag as he almost chocked on his butterbeer.
"You are free to leave at anytime mate" Seamus said almost annoyed that his moment with Hermione was gone.
"I would but I know how bored you would be without me" Harry said grinning toothily as he heard Seamus mumble 'not bloody likely'.
"Harry you drank the last of the butterbeers" Dean complained as he glared at him, he tried to look innocent as he hid the butterbeer but no one was fooled.
"Come on Harry, I will come with you" Ginny said winking at him as she grabbed his hand, he grinned as he followed her.
"Not so fast, Dean can go with you" Seamus said as kissed Hermione who was trying to stand up.
"Thanks Seamus, it is great to know how much I am liked" Dean joked, he quickly ducked the couch pillow that was thrown at him before they left.
"How are we even going to get butterbeer this far into muggle london?" Dean asked as he looked around.
"We might as well take a few more minutes to apparate to the leaky cauldron or something, I don't think we would be missed that much" Harry said before they walked into one of the alleys and apparated.
After about ten minutes, they apparated back to the alley with a few bags of butterbeers, they were walking back to Hermione's apartment when Dean knocked into a woman and nearly dropped the bag of butterbeers he was holding. He apologised as he put the bag down and helped the muggle up, she smiled but raised an eyebrow when she saw what was in the bag.
"Butterbeer?" she asked confused, Dean tensed, he couldn't have another incident on his record.
"Oh yea it's just a new beer" he said weakly as he shrugged and quickly picked the bag up, confused when she laughed.
"Oh honestly, a new type of beer, what type of muggle would believe that, you need to be more careful" she said.
He sighed in relief, she was a Witch "sorry I thought you were a muggle, you would think that I would have better lies" he said shrugging.
"You look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" she asked as she looked at him carefully.
"Not sure, I work in the department of 'misuse of magic' if that's it" he said, she smiled, she must have remembered.
"That's right, you helped my cousin with those enchanted dustbins last year, I don't believe you were thanked for that, want to come up for a drink or have you got an evening planned with your friends?" she asked gesturing to her house which was a few doors down from Hermione's.
"Of course he would love to have a drink, bye Dean" Ginny said quickly as she took the bag from him and smiled when he nodded and followed the woman.
Harry and Ginny ran into the apartment grinning "you guys will not believe what just happened" Harry said as he put the bags down in the kitchen.
"What?" Hermione asked as she walked in and grabbed one of the bottles with Seamus.
"Dean is having a drink with a woman, an actual woman" Ginny said squealing, Hermione grinned while Harry and Seamus looked proud.
"Aren't you having one Gin?" Harry asked as he noticed that Ginny just got a glass of water.
"no, I have been feeling kind of sick" she said waving it off as Harry looked at her concerned, she had been sick for a few weeks and a few mornings she would run to the bathroom and be sick, she said it was just a bug but he was still worried. They walked into the living room and wondered how Dean was doing.
"Here is to no more Auror work for the next month mate" Seamus said as he and Harry laughed and clinked their bottles together.
Hermione rolled her eyes "I am going to miss you two at the Ministry, how will I get the top reports for the Daily Prophet when my spies are gone?" she asked.
Harry laughed "don't worry, Ginny will still be able to leak you information from the Quidditch teams, the best chaser" he said kissing Ginny playfully.
She sighed as she leaned against him and felt his warmth, she was so happy as she heard laughter from her friends.
She looked up into the eyes of Harry as he held her close to him. Everyone knew him as the-boy-who-lived but she will forever know him as the-boy-she-loved.
