Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

A Little of Everything

"She's disappeared again," Ron said as they sat down at the Gryffindor table during lunch.

"What?" Harry said too busy paying attention to the food in front of him to know immediately what Ron was talking about.

"Hermione!" Ron said impatiently. "I swear she was right behind us when we were about to come in here … where did she disappear to?"

"I don't know," Harry shrugged, unperturbed. "Look, there she is now."

"Where've you been?" Ron asked as soon as Hermione was in earshot.

"What … oh, um, I just had to go to the bathroom," Hermione said in a voice that made Harry looked at her with narrowed eyes. It was true that he didn't worry about Hermione's disappearing act like Ron seemed to, but he could tell whenever she was lying or not being completely honest. She was hiding something from them, that was for sure.

"You seemed to be doing that a lot lately … a lot more than before," Ron said with narrowed eyes.

"I didn't know that you mapped out my bathroom schedule," Hermione said raising her eyebrows.

"What … no that's not …." Ron said, his ears starting to turn red. "You've been disappearing without explanation! Then you give us flimsy excuses …"

"Hm … these potatoes look really good," Hermione said, obviously trying to avoid Ron's questioning.

"They are," Harry agreed before Ron could say anything. He shook his head at his red haired friend and Ron crossed his arms moodily. They ate lunch quietly after that and then Hermione left to go to her Arithmancy class and Ron and Harry decided that they would go outside.

"Harry … why did you stop me, don't you want to know what Hermione's doing?" Ron asked as soon as she was gone.

"Sort of," Harry shrugged. "But I know that asking her isn't the way that you're going to find out. Well not in this case."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked.

"If she was going to tell us what she's doing, then she would have told us by now," Harry said.

"So then how are we going to find out what she's doing?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged, looking at his friend closely. "I'm not sure that it's any of our business …"

"I just want to know why she thinks she can't tell us," Ron mumbled. "Besides, you must think it's odd that she's always disappearing at odd times. Not to mention she's taking all of those classes. How is she making it to all of her classes when half of them are at the same time?"

"I don't know," Harry said starting to find this conversation amusing. "Maybe you should try a different way to find out what she's doing."

"Don't you mean, we?" Ron asked.

"Nah, I don't have time to deal with that along with everything else."

"But …"

"Besides, I don't really need to know what she's doing," Harry went on. "If it was something bad or something like that I'm sure she would come to us."

"I just want to know why she feels that she has to keep something from us," Ron mumbled.

"Okay," Harry said, "then you should try to figure out what she's doing without her knowing what you're up to."

Ron didn't say anything more about that, he just nodded his head and then started talking about what it was going to be like getting back to the Quidditch pitch later that night for their first practice.

O

Wood was looking doubtful. Fred and George had told him just the other day that they thought their little sister was a good player and that she might make a good reserve Chaser. He had been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because … well because she was a Weasley and so far every one of them that had tried out was good. However, Ginny … he believed that was what her name was … was small. He wouldn't have been surprised if she was the smallest second year in the entire school. He looked at the three other Chasers that were on his team and he was sure that they would crush her in a matter of seconds.

"Okay guys, time to warm up," Wood commanded everyone, keeping his eye on the littlest Weasley. As soon as she mounted her broom he could see why her brothers had told him about her … she definitely inherited the Weasley ability to fly, she looked like a natural. That, however, didn't negate the fact that she was still small. Still, Fred and George had a point; it wouldn't hurt having the extra Chaser on the team to make the practices more competitive.

After the warm ups were over and they had a small break Wood decide he would run drills to see where everyone's abilities were. He was pleased to see that no one had gotten rusty during the summer. The twins where still human Bludgers. Harry still was unfathomable with the way that he flew. He caught the practice Snitch twice in a matter of five minutes (without Bludgers being used, but it was still impressive). The Chasers and Ron all showed that they hadn't lost a step either.

He had been surprised by how well little Ginny had done. She was really good at getting open for passes, and her shot … Merlin! She just might have the most natural shot he had ever seen. He could see that with a few years of training she would be a killer player; however, right now she still had a lot to learn about how the game was played in a real situation. She had taken too much time to take her shots, which would never do in a game, and her passes needed work. Still, he could see how her presence in practice would only make their team stronger. The other Chasers could no longer take their position for granted.

"Excellent practice everyone!" Wood said beaming, already planning out the different drills he'd be able come up with now.

O

"– and the look on Wood's face after you made your first shot," Fred laughed, "that was priceless."

"I still think the incredulous look that he gave us when we first showed up was the best part," George laughed. "It was like he was asking us what the hell were we thinking bring a little twerp with us."

"Hey!" Ginny protested, but she was looking pleased with herself all the same. They were all in the Room of Requirement getting ready for the fourth practices in their Animagus training. No one had made that much progress yet, in fact only the twins and Hermione have succeeded in transforming their toes and had moved on to their feet.

"I really think we should start practicing," Hermione informed them, her eyes shot to Ron and he was sure that she knew what he was thinking. Either way he was grateful for the interruption. It wasn't like he wasn't happy for Ginny doing well at the practice. He knew that she deserved to be there, she really was good. It was just that he felt like he was finally doing something to step out of the shadows of his brothers. Fred and George had complimented him so much in his first two years at Hogwarts … maybe not directly, but he could tell that they had looked at him differently now than they did before. Now however, with Ginny doing all these things too, he just felt like what he had done before didn't mean as much. She was now a reserve player on the Quidditch team too and everyone was talking about how good she had been. She would have an easier time to actually play in a game too, if one of the Chasers were hurt. He doubted that Wood would ever not play. He knew that Ginny's success had nothing to do with his own, but he couldn't help be insecure about his own ability.

"Ron?" Hermione said softly.

"Yeah?" Ron responded.

"I was just wondering … er …" she shook her head and then smile at him, "I was wondering if you wanted any help. I think I might have figured out a trick that helps with the first form of the transformation and I would like to see if I was right."

"Sure," Ron said, but he could tell that's not why she had come to him. He was sure that she knew that he was feeling down, but she didn't bother him about it, which he was grateful about. He watched as she explained the trick she had thought of, performing the spell on herself. He nodded his head and actually let her help him with his own spell. He wasn't sure why he was taking her help right now, when he usually would have yelled at her for even offering.

"Wow, look, you did it!" Hermione said happily when Ron's toes had transformed.

"Wasn't that the point of you helping," Ron said moodily.

"Yes … I just wasn't sure if it really would work," Hermione said still smiling.

"Hm," Ron said, unable to stay surly when she was smiling like that. "I wonder if it will work with the next step too."

"No … I've already tried," Hermione sighed. "Oh well, I supposed I should start practicing now."

"Yeah," Ron agreed, wondering why she wasn't going to tell the others about her trick. He noticed that both Harry and Neville were still struggling on their first transformation. Why had she decided on helping him? Was it because she didn't think he could do it on his own? Ron grimaced, trying not to think about it. He looked over at the twins, who were now trying to transform their feet. He then looked over to Ginny who was reading one of the transfiguration books and working on catching up to everyone else along with Luna. He didn't really care why Hermione had decided to help him at that moment. He was determined that he would learn how to do this transformation as quickly as possible even if he did have to get help to do so. He was going to try and beat the twins in the transformation. He was going to make sure that Ginny didn't surpass him in this. He was going to make sure that he wasn't walking in anyone's shadow anymore.

O

"Thanks R … er … Professor Lupin," Hermione said as she took the book he had told her about at the end of the last class.

"Hermione, there's no one else here, you're allowed to call me Remus," Remus smiled at her.

"No I can't," Hermione shook her head. "It really wouldn't be good if I called you Remus during class."

"At least it would be better for you to make that mistake than, Harry," Remus chuckled.

"You sound like Ron," Hermione made a face. "He said that everyone would understand if I said that because I'm a suck up."

"My friends teased me about that all the time, too," Remus chuckled. "I still don't think there's anything wrong with working hard in class."

Hermione smiled at him.

"So how are you handling all of your classes this year?" Remus asked, he was starting to see that she was looking stressed after a few months of having an impossible schedule.

"It's a little more challenging than I thought it would be, you know, taking all of the classes," Hermione said, knowing that she would only admit this to him. He was, after all, the one that she had talked to when she found out about being able to take all the classes in the first place and he had advised her as best he could. He had warned her that it was probably going to be difficult to manage all this, though he had confidence that she could handle it if she had a mind too.

"Hm …" Remus said, looking at her closely. "Do you like all of the classes?"

"Yes! They're all very interesting!" Hermione said immediately, and all tiredness that she had before seemed to vanish.

Remus started chuckled at her expression, reminded of his own reaction to his third year classes.

"The only class that I have some issues with is Divination," Hermione admitted later after she had explained all of her favorite classes to Remus. "I hate to say this, but it seems like it's a lot of guess work … and Professor Trelawney only likes prediction about horrible things."

"I never thought Divination was a class for me either." Remus said. "It's a lot more about reading signs than it is about actual knowledge. It's definitely not a class for everyone. You have to have an open mind to really get the class and I never had it."

"An open mind," Hermione frowned.

"Er … I was talking about myself," Remus said, hoping that she didn't get dishearten by what he had said.

"I know," she smiled at him reassuringly. "But you're probably right. I have to think about this class differently if I want to get better at it. I'm just not sure how I'm going to do that."

"I'm not really sure, but if you're serious about doing well in this subject you might want to talk to Luna," Remus suggested. "From what I have seen, she definitely has a different way of looking at things that might be useful in that subject."

Hermione made a face; she wasn't use to having to have help in anything. Remus was right though, she didn't really have the right mindset with this subject.

"Hermione, I just want you to know that you can come to me if you have any questions or concerns," Remus said. "It's still the beginning of the year … if you start feeling overwhelmed …"

"Don't worry Remus, I'll come to you if I need help," Hermione assured him. "As of right now, my biggest concern about the time turner is that Ron keeps asking me how I'm getting to all of my classes. I hate lying to h … to them."

"I'm sure they will understand … at least I know cub will," Remus said.

Hermione started laughing.

"What?" Remus questioned.

"Sorry … I was just imagining Harry's face if you accidentally called him cub in front of everyone," Hermione said laughing harder as Remus looked sheepish.

"I didn't even realize I called him that," he sighed.

"Just don't do that in class and it will be all right," Hermione laughed. "And thanks … for helping me. I'm really glad that you're here."

"Thanks," Remus smiled.

"Everyone thinks you're the best Defense Professor we've had," Hermione added and Remus smiled.

"Thanks," he repeated. "And Harry's okay with me being here?"

"He hasn't said anything to me, but I think he's actually happy that your here," Hermione said. Remus smiled at that, obviously pleased as Hermione left the room.