Hermione dropped her bags on the floor of the room she shared with her sister. It was, as always, a mess. The only things that weren't covered with her sister's books and clothes and papers were Hermione's bed, dresser, and desk.

She carefully picked her way over the clutter. Her parents had told her that Alice was visiting a friend and would be home after dinner. Hermione wanted to unpack before her sister arrived home.

She glanced at the computer on her sister's desk. It felt strange to see a computer after so long at Hogwarts. Computers seemed so bulky and primitive compared to the elegance of wands.

She had just finished unpacking her things when her mother called her down for dinner. She walked down the stairs. It felt strange, not to have them moving around. She took her place at the table and waited as her mother brought in the food. Pizza... it used to be her favorite food. And her mother was even letting her have orange soda with dinner. They said "grace" (literally... her family had never been that religious) and dug in. But the pizza tasted strange to Hermione, nothing at all like the food served at Hogwarts. And the soda was too sweet, nothing like the pumpkin juice she had grown to like at Hogwarts. Even the ice cream they had for dessert tasted weird.

As they ate, her parents asked her about school, curious about her friends and classes and teachers. But there seemed to be so much she couldn't tell them, so much they wouldn't understand. Like how worried they were because of Voldemort's silence this year. She hadn't even mentioned him to her parents, not wanting them to worry about her. But the more she kept from them, the more of her life she tried to just leave at school, the more distant she seemed to become from them and the more it hurt to come home and talk to them.




Hermione had been home for almost three days before receiving her first letter from Harry.

Dear Hermione,

Hey, love. How are you doing? I know it's only been a few days, but it feels like forever. The Dursleys are as terrible as ever, but that's not really surprising.

I really wish I could see you, but somehow I don't think the Dursleys would allow it. They've forbidden me from leaving the house alone. I think they're afraid I might do some magic or something in public if they're not around.

I miss you.

Love,
Harry

Hermione smiled, reading the letter over and over. It was short, but the sight of Harry's familiar handwriting was enough to brighten her day. Finally Hermione put down the letter, finding a piece of paper and a quill, and set about writing her reply. It took her hours before she was happy with it, though it wasn't much longer than Harry's letter. When she was finally satisfied, she tied it to Hedwig and sent the owl back to Harry.

Then she picked up his letter again and spent the next few hours rereading it and daydreaming about Harry.

It was the middle of August when the Weasleys finally got around to freeing Harry from the Dursleys. Hermione didn't hear about it until she got a letter from Harry saying it had been successful and he was now at the Weasleys' house and would she like to come and stay with them for the rest of the summer. Oh, and Bill was engaged to Fleur and the Delacours were visiting the Weasleys' too. Hermione immediately wrote back saying that yes, she'd love to come.

Two days later, she arrived at the Weasleys' house. Harry and Mr. Weasley had come to pick her up, but the rest of the Weasleys and the Delecours had gone out for lunch.

Hermione dropped her stuff as usual in Ginny's room, noticing as she did so that there was another mattress on the floor. Apparently one of the Delacours was sleeping in Ginny's room too.

Hermione went back downstairs to the kitchen. Harry was sitting at the table, glancing over the Daily Prophet.

"Anything interesting?"

Harry looked up at the question. "Not really."

Hermione sat down next to him. "Have you finished your summer homework yet?"

Harry shook his head, grinning at her. "Come on, I still have two weeks."

"You haven't even started yet, have you?"

Harry shook his head. "Are you gonna nag me?"

Hermione sighed. "No."

"So how've you been?"

Hermione giggled. She had written him about every single little detail of her vacation – from getting a hangnail to almost being hit by a car when she was going to the beach – and he had to ask her how she'd been. "Fine. I missed you, though."

Harry smiled, hesitantly taking her hand. "Me too."

Hermione leaned forwards and kissed him. Then she got up. "I'm going to go work on my extra credit project."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Will you give it a break, Hermione? It's summer. As in vacation. As in you don't have to do any work."

Hermione just shrugged. "You have a better suggestion?"

"How about this?" he asked and kissed her.

"I have homework to do," she protested. He just kissed her again.

"It's not homework, it's extra credit. And you'll have plenty of time to do it later." Another kiss. "Anyway, I haven't seen you all summer."

"Mmm…" Hermione kissed him again, the pulled away. "Have you heard anything about Voldemort or anything?"

Harry shook his head. "Just the usual acts of terror and destruction… nothing to give a clue as to what he's planning or where he is."

She nodded. "So… what's Fleur's family like?"

Harry gave her a quizzical look at the abrupt change in subject. "They're fine, I guess."

Just then, there came a noise from the fireplace. The two young wizards spun around to see a surge of green smoke erupting from it, and out stumbled Ron. Ron was soon followed by the rest of his family as well as the Delacours.

"Ah, Hermione. You're here!" Mrs. Weasley cried when she spotted the young witch. Hermione embraced the plump, redheaded witch. "How have you been? You look wonderful!"

Hermione smiled at Mrs. Weasley's enthusiastic greeting. "I've been wonderful."

"Hey Hermione," Ron greeted her, and she smiled at him. Then Fred, George, Charlie, and Bill all greeted her with smiles and hugs. Ginny stood back nervously, as if uncertain of how Herminoe would respond to her. But then Hermione was introduced to the Delacours and she forgot entirely about Ginny.

Fleur's family consisted of her mother Ms Delecour, her father Mr. Delecour, and her sister Gabrielle. Once she had been introduced to everyone, Mrs. Weasley set about preparing dinner and Hermione went off with Harry and Ron to catch up on what had happened over the summer.




When Hermione went up to bed, Ginny and Gabrielle were already in their nightgowns. They were sitting on Ginny's bed, talking and giggling about something. They looked up when Hermione entered the room.

"Hey," Ginny greeted her nervously.

Hermione smiled at her, wondering how the sweet, girlish redhead on the bed could possibly be lesbian. She was just so… normal, so feminine. The word 'lesbian' just didn't fit with the giggling teenager in front of her. Hermione could see her dating a girl, sort of, but lesbian just didn't seem to fit.

Sighing, Hermione got out her own nightgown. Ginny looked away, focusing her attention on Gabrielle as Hermione turned her back to get changed. For some reason the she suddenly felt shy of changing in front of Ginny – it wasn't like Ginny hadn't seen her naked before, or like she hadn't been lesbian before, but somehow knowing it made Hermoine uncomfortable. When she turned back, Ginny was still talking with Gabrielle.

Hermione lay down on her mattress, ignoring Ginny and Gabrielle's chattering with six years of practice from sharing her room with Lavender and Parvati, she quickly fell asleep.

A/N: Anasazi: One more chapter, I think... Silver-nex: Thanks for reading. I'll probably slow down eventually, tho... And when this fic finishes, you'll just have to read some of my other stuff. :D Crossgirl123: I'm glad you think I'm doing such a good job with the whole coming out thing... That's one of the things that usually seems to be missing from slash, and I wanted this fic to be different. And I don't really like Harry/Hermione either. Mostly that's just another reason that Ginny can't have Hermione. I'm glad you like this fic. Mizz-viefje, Kashiaga and Orange: Thanks. I'll try to keep updating at least every other day from now on, but I'm working on 4 stories right now, all of which I'm updating regularly, so I might slow down a bit...