Not too soon after the Malfoy Incident, as it came to be known, Hermione got another surprise.
She was sitting in her apartment one night, watching the glow in the fireplace and thinking about the day's lessons. Her mind was, at the moment, content. She loved teaching.
A knock on the door brought her out of her reverie. She wrapped her fluffy crimson colored bathrobe around herself tighter and slowly walked over to her door. She opened it, expecting to see either Albus or Minerva on the other side.
Instead, however, bright green eyes stared at her intently. "'ello, Hermione," Harry said softly.
She gasped. "Harry?"
He smiled that wide smile that somehow made his whole face brighten. "Good to know you haven't forgotten me!"
Hermione laughed. "Oh, Harry! As if I could ever forget you. After all, you are on the cover of Witch Weekly, well, weekly."
"If you remember me so well, how come Ginny and I are still standing out in the hallway?" he teased.
Hermione's eyes widened as she now took in the shock of red hair behind Harry. "Oh, Ginny! I didn't even see you there."
The petite girl – no, now a lady – chuckled. "And you were always the most observant of us all, Hermione. I suppose Harry has gotten so big that you couldn't see me."
Hermione grinned back, then flushed as she remembered the state of her apartment. "Oh, dear," she muttered, half-turning. "Um. Hold on."
She hoped that they wouldn't be too offended as she pretty much shut the door in Harry's face. Grabbing her wand, she said a quick incantation that at least hid her panties and other lacy garments away before reopening the door. "Come in!" she said cheerfully.
"Well, Mione, I suppose that you've given up your anally clean ways," Harry said, noticing the paperwork scattered about.
"I took a few lessons from you," Hermione replied. She studied her two friends, ignoring Ginny's painful resemblance to Ron, and her brow furrowed. "What're you two doing here?"
Harry shifted, a small patch of red hightening on his cheek. "Uh, well," he started awkwardly.
Ginny rolled her eyes at her fiancee. "What he means to say, in his own eloquent way, is that Albus invited us here because he thought that Harry could spice up your classes a bit. After all, he is practically a study in himself in regards to defending one's self against the dark arts," she said, her voice mimicking the old wizard's.
"Oh?" Hermione inquired with a touch of a frown. He hadn't discussed it with her, and she'd already written up the lesson plans to last until the end of the school year!
Harry noticed Hermione's displeasure. "So you didn't know at all?"
"No," she replied shortly before taking a seat in her chair. She gestured for them to sit on the couch nearby. "Make yourself comfortable. Have you had anything to eat? Thirsty?" At their nod to the last one, she rang a bell for the kitchen, and presently a house elf appeared with a few glasses of pumpkin juice.
Harry took a drink appreciatively. "You still remember my favorite."
"How could I forget? I could've sworn that you were getting an orange tinge during our last year here."
There was another pause. Hermione took the opportunity to use a Muggle poker, stroking the fire delicately. A log popped loudly.
"Did you and Albus talk about anything else?" Hermione asked.
Harry's eyes shifted away from her. "Ah, no."
She sighed. "You always were terrible at lying, Harry Potter." Hermione turned her face towards the flame but she still heard a slight 'ooph' as Ginny's elbow was introduced to Harry's ribs. "What have your heard?"
"I should go check on our room and on Hedwig." Harry smiled at Ginny, nodded to Hermione, and fairly fled the room.
Hermione watched him go, a slightly amused look crossing her face. "That wasn't obvious at all."
Ginny sighed. "Hermione, I know that things haven't been easy for you. Ron's sorry, though."
"Hmm," Hermione said.
"And I just wish that you and I would be friends like we were." Ginny walked over and placed her hand on the arm of Hermione's chair. "We miss you."
"Oh?" Hermione was angry suddenly. Her brown eyes flashed. "You miss me? Ron's sorry? Am I supposed to sit here and cry on your shoulder and say 'oh, that's okay!' Am I supposed to act like I'm sorry for the way I behaved?"
Ginny fell back, stunned by the older woman's outburst.
"Furthermore, I don't need you or Harry to come here and hold my hand!" She jumped up from the chair, her hair flouncing. "You don't know what's best for me, Ginny! I can snog whoever I bloody well please, be it Ron or Draco! And it really pleased me to kiss Draco!"
Ginny, forgetting her prior fear, grabbed at Hermione's arm. "You kissed Draco? Draco Malfoy?"
Hermione shook Ginny's hand off, then groaned. "You mean he didn't tell you?"
The redhead's eyes widened further. "You kissed Draco Malfoy and Dumbledore knows about it?" she screeched.
"Ginny, shush!" Hermione said, clasping a hand over her friend's mouth. When she felt that Ginny had sufficiently calmed down she removed it. "I had assumed that Dumbledore had told you, which was the reason why you were here."
"No, Mione, honest! He said that you were feeling down and needed some friends here."
Hermione nodded, then frowned. "So why start in with the 'Ron is a saint' bit?" she inquired.
Ginny shifted, reminiscent of Harry. "Well, he is my brother."
"And he was my boyfriend," Hermione reminded her. "He was my best friend for several years, too. I know that he has his good points. Unfortunately, I also know that he has his bad ones. In some cases I might overlook these, but in others… I can't."
"What was it like?" Ginny asked abruptly.
"Huh?" Hermione was unprepared for this question.
"Kissing Draco! What was it like?" Ginny asked, grinning with girlish glee.
Hermione blushed. "It was, um," she stammered, then rallied. "It was like kissing fire."
Ginny looked confused.
"Gosh, how do I explain it," Hermione mused. "I felt like I was in a dream. I'm afraid that if I keep playing with the fire I'm going to get burned, as that saying goes."
"And if you learn to tame the fire?" Ginny inquired impishly.
"Then I think I'm going to have to start wearing oven mitts," Hermione replied, chuckling.
Harry wandered about the halls of Hogwarts, relieved for two reasons. The first was that he was glad it was rather late, as he was always conscious of the stares that he received. Yes, he thought bleakly, I have a lightning bolt-shaped scar on my forehead. Yes, I did have a showdown with Voldemort, aka the Big Ugly. But that doesn't mean that I want or need a fanbase. After all, what I did was out of necessity. You wouldn't like it if someone singled you out for destruction, simply because they didn't kill you the first time around.
He sighed, and diverted his mind over to other things. Why in the world had Hermione reacted that way? All Dumbledore had said was that Hermione had seemed lonely and that he thought she would like some company. And yet Hermione had reacted in a way that made Harry question just what she had been doing to pass the time.
He stopped, glancing up. The library didn't seem quite so foreboding as it once did. He almost expected to see a young Hermione sitting in there, pouring over ancient tomes. Instead, Madam Pince just gave him a sour look and continued restoring the books to their right places. He grinned ruefully; he was sure that she remembered all the times that they'd snuck into the forbidden part of the library.
Turning, he ran smack into the one person that he really didn't want to see on his trip, even if they had come to a tentative truce. "Ah, Potter, there you are. Dumbledore had said that some visitors were coming."
Harry gave him a sour look. "Can't anything I do be private?"
"Not when you are the Boy Who Lived, twice over." There was no bitterness in the older wizard's voice, just a touch of irony.
Harry chuckled. "There is that. How are you, old man?"
"Old man?" Snape visibly bristled. "Why, I'll have you know –"
"If you say that in my day you were a top wizard and you still are, you're just proving my statement."
Snape glared, but somehow that didn't give Harry the same fear that it once had. "Potter, you always were good at infuriating me."
The black-haired man looked at him innocently. "I have no idea what you mean, sir."
"I suppose you are here to see Hermione," said Severus, neatly changing the subject.
"Yeah. Dumbledore said she was having some problems." Harry leaned up against the familiar stone walls, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully as he gazed at the floor.
"Snogging in the middle of Hogsmeade isn't what I'd call some problems, Potter."
Harry's gaze jerked back up. "She was what?"
Snape, if possible, paled.
"Who was she snogging?" Harry's brow furrowed, and he looked up at his former Potions Master. "Not," he hesitated, "not you, sir?"
Snape actually laughed at this one. "No, Potter, and banish such thoughts from your head!" He looked pensive for a moment. "You didn't know?"
Harry made a face. "No."
"Well then, Potter. Maybe you should put those snooping skills of yours to use and find out more," said Snape coolly. He turned, his robes billowing out in their usual theatrical way, and stalked off.
Harry watched him for a moment, and then shook his head. Once a bat, always a bat.
When he got back to Hermione's rooms it wasn't any better. The two girls were giggling and whispering, making him wonder if somehow he'd gotten sent back in time and was in the Gryffindors girls' dorms. When they saw him, however, Ginny jumped up and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled down at her and then glanced at the not-so-reserved Hermione, who was still tittering.
"So, Mione, who's the lucky chap?"
Hermione clasped her hands over her mouth. "Who told you?" she demanded.
"Ol' Batty himself. So spill!"
Hermione's face darkened, and she jumped up from the couch. "Snape told you, eh? Well, I guess I didn't tell him enough before!" She stormed out of the room. She heard the other two follow, but she didn't care. She made her way to the dungeons, shivering slightly at the chill in the air.
"Snape! Open up!" she shouted, banging on the portrait. Leave it to that antisocial git to have a portrait covering his doorway, instead of just a regular door.
"Now, girl, don't go messing my threads up!" the portrait protested.
"Miss Granger, that really isn't necessary," Snape said, coming from the shadows behind her. She whirled, her brown eyes shooting daggers.
"You want to know what isn't necessary?" she inquired sweetly.
"I'm sure you are going to tell me, Granger," Snape replied.
"You overgrown bat! You have so much concern in my life, but what about your own? Eh? Why do you care about who I kiss? Why don't you find someone to snog!"
"Miss Granger, I merely was trying to—"
"To stick your overlarge nose in my business? Oh, god! How could I ever think that you were halfway decent!"
"Maybe I just don't want to see your talents wasted on a person like him," interjected Severus.
She paused, staring.
He muttered something under his breath that she didn't quite catch and the portrait sprung open. "By the way," he added as he stepped inside his room, "nice bathrobe."