Hermione sighed as she closed her trunk and sat on the lid. She looked around the room she had shared with Ginny and Persephone for the past month. She couldn't help it, but she was feeling sentimental. She really didn't want to leave the Burrow. She loved being able to just roam around as she, Harry, and Ron pleased. Well, Harry came if Persephone wasn't around. He had promised her and Ron that he and Persephone hadn't actually gone swimming, and that nothing had happened between either of them, but Ron always abruptly changed the subject whenever she was brought up. Hermione just didn't even want to think about it.

Anyway, she was sitting there, when the topic of her thought process walked into the room. Harry and Persephone were laughing heartily.

"Hey…Hermione…" Harry said between breaths.

"What's so funny?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing," replied Persephone, as she stopped laughing abruptly. She nudged Harry in the ribs with her elbows, and he followed suit.

"You know," said Hermione, completely aggravated, "Mrs. Weasley wasn't happy when Harry was in here, maybe you two should go somewhere else." She stood up and left the room. Angrily, she stalked out into the hallway and rammed right into Ron.

"Whatcha up to? I was coming to find you."

"Let's just go outside," she dragged him away from her bedroom and pulled him into the backyard.

"It looks a little cloudy," he said, as he peered up into the dark sky.

"Who cares?" She twirled around with her arms spread until she got dizzy and had to sit. There was a long pause. "I love being here, Ron. I wouldn't mind being here forever."

"I think you'd get sick of it by then."

"No, I wouldn't. It's better than my house and Hogwarts even. No cares, no worries, everything's perfect." Hermione turned as she heard the door squeak open. "Where's your other hip? She seems to have come dislodged."

"Oh come on, Hermione. Let's not fight. We've been over this a million times. Let's just enjoy the su-." Harry sounded as if he was about to say sun, but as he looked at the black sky, a smile crept up on his lips. "And by that, I meant the clouds." As the words escaped his lips, a fat raindrop fell on the tip of his nose. And rapidly, these fat raindrops were everywhere.

"Guys, let's go inside!" yelled Ron, rushing to the door. But Hermione just stood there.

"I love the rain!" She peered up into the sky, her eyes unblinking, raindrops collecting on her face. She twirled around and around, like a small girl imitating a ballerina. "Come on guys!" she called to Harry and Ron, who were seeking shelter in the house. Reluctantly, they came outside and stood in the pouring rain. "You're not any fun! Mud fight!" She grabbed a fistful of muddy soil and threw it in Harry's general direction. His mouth was an 'o' as mud splattered across his robes and glasses.

"You'll pay for that!" He pulled up some of the mud, but instead of throwing it at Hermione, he dumped the handful and smooshed it into Ron's hair. "Ha!" The fight soon became an out and out brawl. Mud was flying everywhere. Half of Hermione's face was covered, and Ron's hair was a cross shade of brown and red. Harry had to keep wiping off his glasses so he could see. They were outside for twenty minutes, and when they finally came in, they were soaking wet and looked like a creature out of 'Swamp Thing'.

"I do hope you plan on cleaning up those muddy footprints!" Mrs. Weasley's voice called from the kitchen. They laughed at her 'all-knowing' and ran upstairs to Ron's room. Scattered around the room, the trio fell silent.

"Back to Hogwarts tomorrow," said Ron quietly, to no one in particular.

"Yeah, so what do you thinks gonna be the horrible problem this year?"

"Who knows? Let's not think about it." Harry was always reluctant to talk about any of the adventures the friends had gotten involved in.

"Wouldn't it be nice without any problems?" Hermione pondered.

"Of course it would, but how often does that happen?" Hermione looked over to Ron and laughed.

"I should've known, we are best friends with the Boy-Who-Lived. Nothing boring could ever happen to him…"

"Yeah, Ms. Know-It-All!"

"Shut up, Harry! Well, Ron really is kind of a know-it-all with his superb powers."

"Thank you, thank you," said Ron, holding up his hands in a mock acceptance. "I'd like to thank all the little people, and there were these two people I was friends with once, but, eh, never really liked them." Ron's acceptance speech was received by pillows thrown at his face. After a vicious pillow fight, the three laid back on to the bed, exhausted.

"I'm sleeping in here tonight," said Hermione, off hand, "I can't stand another night with Persephone."

"Oh man, can you imagine this time tomorrow we'll be stuck in a little compartment with her?" Hermione and Ron groaned together. Harry didn't say anything, he had given up trying to defend Persephone in Hermione and Ron's presence, and just did his best to ignore them.

"I'm trying not to think about it."

Ron started to say something, but was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley calling them for dinner. They got up, as one, and headed downstairs. The rooms were incredibly stuffed. With the rain outside, they were forced to have dinner inside. And it was crowded.

But other than that, not much occurred. They ate through the meal, Hermione and Ron trying to ignore the very obvious goggle-eyed expression Persephone was sending to Harry. They sat around in the living room for some time after dinner, listening to the WWN and watching the spectacular lightening show off in the distance. Yawning, Hermione looked at her watch and realized that it was far past midnight. Immediately, she got all excited and worked everyone else into a frenzy and sent them to bed. She began to head towards Ginny's room, but then remembered her promise to her best friends and quietly snuck into their bedroom and crawled into Ron's bed.

"Goodnight," she whispered to him, but peering at her face realized he was already fast asleep. She smiled seeing his innocent looking face, then rolled over and fell asleep as well.

*

The next morning was crazy. Mrs. Weasley had everyone up at the crack of dawn to be ready for eleven. You would assume that this would be PLENTY of time, but come on, it's the Weasley's and it wasn't. So reaching King's Cross just as the minute hand hit 10:54, they ran through the station drawing quite a few looks from the Muggles. They dashed to Platform 9 ¾ and as unobvious as possible, slid through the wall onto the barrier. Panic ensued as they heard the Hogwarts Express blow its whistle.

"Goodbye! Have a good year!" Mrs. Weasley was trying to kiss anyone she could get her hands on.

"Honey!" Mr. Weasley yelled as he was kissed firmly on the cheek, "I'm staying with you!" But Mrs. Weasley barely noticed her mistake. When she had finally wished everyone a good year, she let them loose for the train. The entire group managed to get on just as they felt the engine of the train rev. Within fifteen minutes, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were able to find an empty compartment and relax.

"You know," said Ron suddenly, "Next year we'll be having another Triwizard Tournament." At this, Hermione shot Ron a deadly look. "Oh yeah, sorry Harry."

"Don't worry about it, that was two years ago. But do you think they'd have one after what happened last…" Harry was unable to finish his sentence as Persephone burst into the compartment.

"What happened?" she asked, unaware that Hermione and Ron didn't seem to happy to see her.

"Oh," began Harry awkwardly, and he proceeded to tell her what had happened at the end of his fourth year.

"That sounds horrible," Persephone said, with a huge smile on her face.

"Then why are you smiling?" Hermione retorted.

"Oh, was I?" Persephone's smile was quickly wiped from her face. "I didn't mean too. Anyway, Harry, why don't we find a compartment so we can be alone together?"

"Ugh, no thanks Persephone. Maybe later." Ron saw Persephone's eyes flash for just a second, but then her smile magically reappeared.

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, I'm going to try and make some new friends. See you later," Hermione and Ron noticed that her gaze was restricted to Harry, whose cheeks seemed to be darkening.

"Yeah, later," said Ron, unpleasantly. As Persephone closed the door, the compartment was quiet. But soon normal chatter subsided all the way to Hogwarts.

Once they reached the castle, it was as if all unpleasant thoughts were sifted from their minds. They enjoyed the feast in complete happiness, totally unaware that they hadn't seen Persephone since the Hogwarts Express. But as soon as they had eaten their fills at the feast, their eyes began to droop sleepily. Ron continued to complain that he hadn't had a good night's sleep because Hermione had kept kicking him. This complaining drew many wary looks from the other students around them. But the three ignored the looks as they clumsily made there way up the marble staircase. At the top, Ron's eyes suddenly grew very wide and his face became so pale that his freckles were livid on his cheeks.

"WHAT IS SHE DOING?!?!" Harry and Hermione peered down to the spectacle that was causing Ron's reaction. They found a couple completely absorbed in each other.

"Oh, they're cute…" But Hermione didn't finish because as the couple whirled and the boy dipped his girlfriend she saw who this adorable couple was. "Goyle and Persephone!" she gasped. Goyle pulled Persephone up, smooched her one last time, and let her loose to run up the stairs. She seemed to be expecting what was waiting for her at the top.

"Well Harry," she said, lacing her fingers through his hair, "I was getting any action from you, and I was bored." She sauntered away, swinging her hips, towards the common room.

"She makes it sound as if I did something horrible," Harry muttered as they headed towards Gryffindor tower themselves.

"Don't worry about it Harry, she's a jerk." Ron was shooting daggers with his eyes.

"I don't worry about it, it's just her and Goyle, ew."

"I know what you mean, I know what you mean." The three entered through the portrait hole into the quiet common room.

A/N: What was the big update you're all wondering? Let's see if any of you catch my mistake. I'll let you know in part 5, which is almost finished!