As it turned out, Hermione couldn't get to sleep until early morning, and thus was in no shape to wake as early as she thought she would. She was woken by a gentle push on her shoulder, and her bleary eyes saw a familiar face, causing her to shrink back a little. But this face had a much gentler expression, with no trace of mania. Her anxiety started to ease, and excitement started welling up, but she made no outward movements.

"Sorry. Sorry about ... well, everything, really. But waking you up and scaring you. Anyway, the older you in the painting and the Lovegoods all said I should be the first person to talk to you today. Umm, can you sit up? Are you decent?"

Hermione pulled her robe together over her pyjamas and sat up, cautiously.

"Okay, this has to be said formally. The Potter family — of which there is only one of us left, or two, maybe — anyway, I owe you a favour for saving me from being imprisoned in my body or whatever was going on, and I'm sorry the mean other me tried to kill you because he didn't think either of us were real, and I owe you for that, too, and if I can't make it up to you then if I live to have a family they'll owe you a favour or two." He took a deep breath and sighed.

Hermione smiled. "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger," she offered, holding out her hand.

"Oh great," he surprisingly answered. "Okay, this is another thing they all agreed on, even other you, okay?"

Hermione was confused so didn't respond to that, when, shockingly, Harry Potter held her hand and kissed the top of it.

"Umm, I am not going to do things the way I would have done them, and not how older Harry wanted me to do them, either, so they suggested I learn ... manners. Older you says it will make you happy deep down but you won't admit it, and the Lovegoods say you have to know this stuff, and I mean you, too. Because the wizarding world is a snake-pit and we don't want to be like Ron or ... well, I don't think the girls have a Ron. But whoever they have that's closest to that you don't want to be like them. And we have to learn things like dancing and stuff. And older me wants us to become boyfriend and girlfriend and older you says that's unfair but we all have to be friends or we're all in trouble because only us two and the Lovegoods know about all the time stuff and that's illegal and the Un..."

"Breathe, Harry," Hermione said, giggling. "Are you like this because it's the first day in a week you could talk for yourself, or something?"

Harry blushed and nodded.

"They're called Unspeakables, and yes, they'd be trouble. Just a sec." She sat up straighter. "I, Hermione Granger, acknowledge the debt of the Potter family to me and my family, and I appreciate your courtesy, Harry."

Still blushing, and still nodding, Harry said nothing.

"And the reason we shouldn't listen to older Harry - and he answers to you, you don't answer to him - is that right now we don't know each other at all. So if we keep ourselves at a certain distance, then in a year or two when I found a boyfriend, and a year or so later if you found a girlfriend, we'd just be friends and one of us wouldn't be crying over it. That doesn't mean we won't be close friends, because we'll have to share a lot of secrets, and I think we'll have the same goals. And it's a little ... intimidating if you understand what that means, that both of our older selves think we're the best we can do for partners but unlike them, we're eleven. We might change completely now we have access to their memories of what went right and wrong."

She took his hand, ignoring his look of surprise. "Harry, you were starved of love, and that's as bad as being starved of food. My parents were very busy, I had no friends, and other kids called me ugly. Both of us are very lonely. That's really all I wanted to say. How is it, being in control again?"

"Don't get mad, but it wasn't all bad being a portrait in older Harry's mind. You know my life is a shambles, right? I mean when the usual awful things happened, I didn't have to deal with them, and he's way, way harder than I am. I didn't understand the ritual, I kind of guessed from what he asked me about he was trying to make you like I was, and that didn't seem right. But, ummm ..." Harry suddenly blushed wildly.

"Umm?"

"Nothing." Harry wouldn't meet her eyes. The light dawned.

"Honestly, Harry, however curious you were about what he was doing, you didn't miss anything. The first time you get a chance to see a naked girl, it should not be one as young as me, lying unconscious or frightened on a floor covered with blood. That would make you grow up to be abnormal. And I would be furious with you. Plus, I saw you that way and honestly, we were preoccupied with the ritual, and so was older Harry, with me. It wasn't an adult thing."

"He says older Hermione could read his mind."

"Boy's minds are really easy to read."

"I guess that's what she always said, too. It must be true."

"Embarrassing as it is, it leads to something we all have to discuss, keeping other people from reading your mind. The Lovegoods are going to lend you an amulet against that, but we have to find something from the Potters to replace it eventually. Dumbledore ..."

"Him!" Harry said, vehemently.

"Yes, him. He's quite a danger to all of us, and he reads students' minds, and he's not easy to hold to account. I would say never take the amulet off. And don't lose it, it belonged to Mrs Lovegood."

Harry nodded. Then he asked, "Do you think we'll all get along?"

Hermione nodded in turn. "Well, we're doing fine, you and I. You're quite a relief after the other Harry. You seem to get along well with older Hermione and the Lovegoods, and older Harry ... well, he has no choice. He needs to be taught a lesson, but so do you. You can teach him what you learned — humility — because he's forgotten that lesson. He can teach you what you need to know to survive. My Hermione and I are way ahead of you and sorry to say, that means you need to work really hard with older Harry. But what she told me about you and school no longer applies. You aren't going back to the Dursleys even to visit, so no one will punish you for liking school any more. You won't be hanging out with Ron or anyone similar, because it could be your life if you do. It's like us being naked during rituals — we are all going to be far too busy to worry about nonsense."

"Ah, by the way, when I was asking him about things just now, older Harry asked me to say 'Hi.' And something about 'How about those Cannons?'"

"Cannons?"

"Oh, it's a Quidditch team. Ron likes them, Hermione goes spare if she has to hear about them. He thought she'd have filled you in on them by now. They literally never win anything but are beloved. They're the Eddie the Eagle of Quidditch. So I guess his joke fell flat." Harry grinned at that. "Oh! I asked him if he wanted to try again and he got all serious. Just now he thought about his godfather, something very serious must have happened with him. Anyway, what he said was that you need to learn things too."

Hermione tried not to look annoyed but probably failed miserably. "Specifically?"

"Umm, it's a list ..." Harry began.

"Hit me with it, Harry, I'll keep my composure. Older Harry did do great things, after all. Some were terrible, but great things, any way you look at it."

"Ahem ... 1. A classroom is not a quiz show. Answering all the questions first does no one any good. It just isolates Hermione more, feeds her ego, prevents other students from learning or trying, irritates them and the teacher, prevents feedback the teacher needs to change how they're teaching, and will give her a reputation as a nightmare."

Hermione had literally been called that in primary school once, and it still smarted.

"Hermione is likely to be near the top of the class all the time. She should therefore wait ten to fifteen seconds, depending on how the class tends to go, to see if anyone else will answer. Only when she's sure of that, and also sure that it's not a routine topic, but one where she can contribute something genuinely educational, should she answer. This will improve her rate of learning and everyone else's, and improve her reputation. On the other hand, if she's unsure of an answer, she should sometimes try it and get it wrong, since that's also part of learning, and sets another kind of good example."

She couldn't escape the feeling that she and older Harry were locked into a cycle of paying each other back, which was one of the things older Hermione had warned her about several times, with quite a few examples, many involving the Potions teacher. But if she wanted to be, and look, more gracious, perhaps she could ignore that intuition and focus on the fact that Potter's advice wasn't terrible, even if it was emotionally wounding.

Harry looked at her sheepishly. She pressed her lips together, and probably looked like she had a headache, but nodded, stiffly.

"2. Since Hermione is emotionally wounded" Ouch. Maybe girls minds could be read sometimes, too. "by the hateful attitude of the wizarding community to anything and everything Muggle and Muggle-born, she should set an example by not being endlessly dismissive of anything in the wizarding world, especially things enjoyed mostly by boys, that she is not interested in. Since she wants others to pay attention to her boring topics, she needs to reciprocate. Being a swot is no better basis for a superiority complex than being a pureblood. We all have different ways to make it through the world, and if we can't find mutual respect, we may find mutual ruin."

Before she could respond to that, Harry hurriedly added, "He says there are some, like him and Neville and the girls in your study group, who do admire you for your hard work and intelligence, but a lot more made you cry a lot. He also said it's brilliant you're becoming friends with Luna, because she's wonderful, and you were really rude and dismissive of her, almost as bad as her bullies, the last time around. Oh, he says that's Number Three."

Harry cleared his throat again. "3. There are other ways of thinking, not just living. Harry often acts on what seems like dumb impulse but is actually the result of a lot of conscious and unconscious thought, just not verbalised. His track record for making the right choices, quickly, is better than Hermione's. Similarly, Luna doesn't follow Hermione's logic or methods but often sees things she can't."

Food for thought, certainly. She was hoping there wasn't much more of this, however.

"4. Thanks to the time travel, Hogwarts really is the new start Hermione wanted. She's not going to be lonely and spat upon, and she doesn't have to accept substandard friendships or take any rubbish off anyone. She can be gracious because she is confident, not grudgingly out of fear of being alone. Little Harry has the same issues and they can help each other. Since there won't be a Ron around, they can both be as Slytherin as they need to be to come out on top and make their lives better, since the wizarding world really is a big snake pit. She's going to be surrounded by people who believe in her, she needs to do the same."

She could see concern in Harry's face. "That made you cry? Oh ... he says never mind, you'll be fine."

"He's right," said Hermione, smiling despite a tear that had somehow escaped her. On an impulse, she leaned forward and hugged Harry. She knew his history from older Hermione, so she didn't take offence when he stiffened up. She held him for a while, then said, "Breakfast?"