She allowed them to sleep until breakfast started, but couldn't let it go on any longer than that. Their dorm mates were already gone, so Hermione took the liberty of going up to wake them. It proved to be a more difficult task than imagined. After yelling and shaking them, she tore the covers off of each and was surprised to find Harry in still his clothes and Ron in his dressing gown. What could have tired them out like this? She hoped that nothing bad had happened.

Using tactics that Ron had deemed unfair in order to get her way, she leaned over his bed and kissed him hard. Not over a second later Ron was glaring at her. "Mean," he yawned.

"But effective," Hermione countered. "You two are going to end up being late. Now get him out of bed before I am forced to wake him the exact same way."

She got a reply of a sleepy, "Mean," once again, but he got out of bed anyway. He stumbled over to his blissfully unconscious friend and shoved him to the floor.

A startled and semiconscious Harry sat up immediately upon contact with the ground. "Where'd it go?" he asked frantically.

"She's mean," Ron slurred curling up in Harry's bed, as it was closer.

"You two are going to be very late, you do know that, right?" Hermione asked as she tried her hardest not to laugh at he friends.

"Oh okay. Thanks, Hermione," Harry said. He crawled back into his bed, laying on the opposite edge as Ron. Hermione sighed, and climbed on the bed to lay in the middle.

"Why are you two this exhausted? Why were you up when I got up this morning?" she asked. Ron draped his arm around her middle, but Harry stayed on the edge of the bed with one arm dangling to the floor.

"It's all Harry's fault," Ron half mumbled.

"My fault?" Harry returned, not bothering to lift his head to respond. "It's not like I asked them to come."

"True," Ron replied, actually spending the energy to move his face away from the pillow so that he could be heard. "They are your parents though. You should be responsible for them." Harry didn't take offense, but did grab the pillow from beneath his own head to reach across Hermione and hit Ron.

Neville chose this exact moment to come back to the dorm for his charms essay. He stared wide-eyed at the frozen, and rather snugly looking, trio for a moment before walking to his trunk, grabbing the parchment, and walking back out of the room without saying a word.

Ron buried his head in Hermione's frizzy mane as he began to snicker. Harry shared a look with Hermione before they both joined in. They calmed down slightly, and Hermione sat up. She looked back at Harry over her shoulder and asked, "Parents?" with a furrowed brow.

Harry sat up cross-legged. "You hungry, mate?" he asked the still horizontal Ron.

"I'll live. Explain away," Ron reluctantly replied as he also joined the vertical world once again.

Harry gave a long-suffering sigh and began the tale of last night's adventures.

"That's terrible," Hermione said when he had finished the parts that he knew. "Something could have gone terribly wrong in trying that. Time turners aren't meant to be used to travel such long periods of time," she rambled, going into her know-it-all personality before softening and giving Harry a questioning look. "Are you alright about all of this?"

He gave her a small smile. He really did have good friends. "I'll be fine."

After a short knock at the door, a small redheaded girl poked her head in the room. "Anybody naked?" Ginny asked.

"Sadly no," replied Ron, earning him strange looks from the others on the bed. He shrugged in response.

"You can come in, Gin," Harry said, holding his open hand toward the door.

Ginny walked over to them, grabbing Harry's hand as she leaned against the bedpost. Ron made it a point to look anywhere but at there laced fingers.

Ginny and Harry had started seeing each other around the middle of summer. Their relationship could really be blamed on Ron and Hermione's. They had been left to entertain themselves quite frequently while the other two had sought a little privacy.

While Ron tried his best not to make a big deal out of it, he wasn't entirely comfortable about his little sister dating at all. Let alone dating his best friend.

"Can I talk to you alone for a second?" she asked, glancing at her brother and Hermione out of the corner of her eye.

"Sure," he said looking at his friends.

"Let's go get some breakfast," Ron offered.

"We'll grab a piece of toast for you, Harry," Hermione said as they left. "Poor Harry," she said as she walked down the stairs in front of Ron.

"I know," he replied. "And you don't know the half of it."

"I don't?"

"Nope," he said through clenched teeth. She gave him an imploring look, and he continued. "I had to walk the four of them to their room. It seems that Harry may get his looks from his dad, but his personality is entirely his mom."

"Meaning?" Hermione asked.

"We like Harry's personality. James Potter's is the exact opposite. Meaning..."

"We don't like James Potter?" she guessed. She was starting to get a little confused. "Why not?"

"He's a jerk Hermione. I wouldn't say it if it weren't true. You know how much I hate to agree with Snape on anything, but the guy accused me of hitting on his girlfriend. He told off Harry and Dumbledore both. Then when he found out that Dumbledore was just going to send him home, not punish him even though he broke the law, just not let him have his way gallivanting about in time, he broke the time turner and caused a lot of people a lot of problems."

"Did you just say gallivanting?" she laughed.

"Is that what you got out of that? I'm telling you that I hate our best friend's father, and you make fun of me for my word choice," he laughed back.

"Don't worry about it," she put her arm around his waste and her head on his shoulder. "It will all work out fine."

"Aren't you the little optimist this morning?" he asked.

"Too tired to worry," she replied. "My dreams weren't very restful."

"Was I there?" he smirked.

"Maybe..." she giggled.

"I dreamt about you too," he said.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup. Well, it was either you or the Cannons. All I remember is it was a really good dream." She shoved him lightly through the door to the great hall, and continued in herself.

Meanwhile, upstairs in Gryffindor tower.

"We need to talk," Ginny started with a sad smile once Ron had shut the door behind him.

"Ah... The dreaded phrase," he smirked. She gave him a serious look, and he frowned. "I'm all ears."

She took a slow deep breath and plunged in. "I think that we should break up," she said. Tears welled up in her eyes and began to run down her cheeks.

"Hey," Harry said in a soft voice as he gently brushed the tears from her face with the pad of his thumb, "you're breaking up with me. Shouldn't I be the one crying?"

"I like you, Harry! I really do! But..." she trailed off.

"Michael wants you back?" he picked up where she had left off. She nodded slightly before a fresh wave of sobs broke through. Michael Corner was a Ravenclaw boy in his sixth year at Hogwarts. He and Ginny had dated, but she ended it last year. Over the summer, before they had started dating, Ginny had told Harry that she thought that she had been in love with him, but that it was too late now. Harry had sagely told her that it is never too late.

"This is so stupid! I'm being such a girl! I'm not this fickle!" she shouted.

He pulled her to him, hugging her and rubbing her back soothingly. "You're not being fickle. You know what you want. You just had to wait on him to figure out what he wanted."

"But what about you?" she sniffed.

"What about me?" he asked. He pulled back from their hug, smiling at her concern.

"What about us?" she whispered.

"I'm not sure, but I think you just broke up with me, Gin."

She laughed a little at his sympathetic tone. "Are you still my friend?" she asked as though her entire world hinged upon his answer.

"Wild rampaging hippogriffs couldn't keep us apart." She still looked unsure after his confession. "Always, Ginny. I'm always your friend."

She gave him a watery smile. "We're going to be late, and I have potions," she said as she gave him one last long hug.

"Come on. We'd better hurry then," he replied, leading her off of the bed by the hand. He reached the door before looking down at their intertwined fingers. He looked her in the eyes and purposefully unlaced their hands. He held open the door for her, and they walked to their classes in silence.