Author's note: Hey everyone! Here it is Chapter 10! …Wow, ok that's all I have to say this time…Please review!!!! I would also like to thank the makers of The Harry Potter Lexicon; ( ) for the help that site has given me with names of places and spells. On to Chapter 10!!

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Chapter 10 : The Time It Takes to Heal.

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Dumbledore rose to signify the end of the meal. The room grew quiet and everyone looked up at him waiting. Dumbledore stood smiling at them all, and then he began to speak.

"Ah, the time has finally come for speeches." He began, an amused tone in his voice. "I want to welcome back all our returning students, along with welcoming all of you who are only now joining us." He paused here and looked around at the room full of students. "This year," He began again. "will be different than all the years before." Celia glanced at Harry, who was watching Dumbledore with great interest. Harry, Ron, and Hermione glanced at each other; they were all wondering the same thing. 'Was Dumbledore going to announce the return of Voldemort?'

Celia saw Harry and Ron, glance at Hermione and each other. She could only see Ron's face, it looked serious. She could only imagine that the same look was on the faces of Harry and Hermione as well.

"Of course," Dumbledore was now saying, "Think of how monotonous life would be, if nothing ever changed."

Celia knew that there was more on her uncle's mind, but for one reason or another, he chose not to share it with the students.

"Now, the start of term notices. All students, please note, that the Forbidden Forest is, as one would think; forbidden. Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, would like me to remind you, that all testing of any magical creations is not to be done on school property. That being said, the use of his cat, Mrs. Norris, for the previously mentioned testing, is also not allowed." Celia was sure she saw her uncle glance in the direction of Fred and George who smiled guiltily, causing Lee to start to laugh.

"And now, it is time for bed. It will be a long day tomorrow." Dumbledore sat down and the hall began to empty.

"First years! This way!" Hermione was yelling. Harry and Ron were staring at her in surprise.

"Hermione? You're a prefect?"

"Don't act so surprised Harry; it's not as big a shock as the other prefect." She said smiling. Harry and Ron looked ahead of the group of first years to see who she meant.

"Gryffindors! This way! Follow me!" Ron and Harry stared at the speaker in utter disbelief.

"Neville?!" They gaped at her. Hermione smiled.

"Seems all his good Herbology and his knack for listening to the rules counted for something." She explained, sounding out 'listening' slowly for added emphasis. "His Gran's real proud. She gave him loads of spending money for Hogsmeade." Hermione waved at Neville who was waiting at the hall entrance collecting Gryffindors who were waiting to get out. "I think it will be good for him." She said. "I've got to go, see you both up there." She finished, running off to help Neville. Harry and Ron watched almost in shock as the pair of them led the first years up to Gryffindor tower.

The Great Hall was all but empty now. The only people left were Fred, George and Celia, along with Harry and Ron. The three of them were talking to Dumbledore when Harry and Ron went to join them.

"Ah yes! I remember very well the ride you are talking about." Dumbledore was saying. "In my opinion, one of the most enjoyable ways to cool off on a hot day. Better even, than some magical methods I'd say." He had the same playful twinkle in his eyes that Harry had seen in his first year.

"Well, we had better get going." Celia said. "Goodnight, Uncle Albus." She said giving him a hug.

"Goodnight Celia," He returned. "Goodnight boys." He bid the twins. As the three of them left, Harry and Ron lingered a bit.

"Yes Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was just wondering sir, I mean, it's just that, I thought you were going to announce that Voldemort had returned." Harry asked, apparently no longer fearing the use of the name.

"Ah," Dumbledore answered. "You see Harry, all things must be done in their own time, this particular event, is no different." Seeing that Harry still had some disputes Dumbledore continued. "Relax Harry, the truth will never be denied for those who ask for it at Hogwarts, but I must ask you to trust my judgment on this matter, as I am in fact, the wiser wizard at this time." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Harry who nodded and agreed.

"Alright." He said.

"Good. Now, I believe it is time that the two of you should be getting to bed." He told them smiling. Harry nodded and he and Ron went off towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Goodnight!" Ron yelled from the door. Dumbledore responded with a wave, and the boys left the Great Hall.

"You didn't tell him about the dream." Ron stated in a way that Harry knew was really a question.

"When have I ever told Dumbledore about my dreams?" Harry answered. "Don't worry Ron, you read Sirius's letter, he said to watch them closely -"

"And tell Dumbledore if you keep having the same one!" Ron finished.

"Yeah, and I'm not!"

"You stopped having them?"

"No, but they've changed. Ever since Hermione got to your house she's not even in them."

"She's not? Why didn't you tell me?" Ron had a point.

"I don't know, Celia had arrived, and we got busy, and nothing earth shattering had happened and Hermione was fine, I guess I just never got around to. Sorry, I know you would have wanted to know." Harry explained, hoping Ron wouldn't get mad.

"S'ok, I'm just glad she's safe." Ron said.

"You're glad who's safe?" A voice in front of them said. Looking ahead they saw that it was Celia, standing by the portrait of the Fat Lady which guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron flushed.

"Er- No one, nothing, never mind." Ron stuttered. Celia smiled and let it go.

"Hermione and Neville had to go to a prefect meeting and Fred and George are working on some new idea." Harry and Ron exchanged glances.

"Okay." Ron said, obviously missing the point. Celia smiled knowingly.

"So I was elected to wait for you guys so I could give you the password." She said turning to face the portrait. Comprehension dawned on the two boys.

"Oh!" Ron said now, "Thanks,"

"No problem. Hey did you know that the lady in the portrait is the great granddaughter of Godric Gryffindor? That's why she's guarding the Gryffindor common room. Brandy Bubbles." She said to the portrait, who nodded and swung open to reveal the hole that led to the common room.

"That is so much fun!" Celia said going through the hole. "I love having a password." She said, yawning. "Well, I think I am going to go to sleep. See you in the morning!" she called from the stairs.

"'Night!" Harry called, he and Ron settling in the chairs by the fire.

"I don't know why," Ron said, "But I want to make sure she gets back." He finished watching the portrait hole. Harry smiled at him, but kept his thoughts to himself.

"Ron, I told you, she's not in the dreams anymore, she'll be fine."

"But that's just it Harry, you stopped having the dreams when she got to my house. Maybe the only reason she's safe is because we knew where she was. Because she wasn't alone. I mean, maybe if we're around her we can make sure she's safe." Harry just watched him and shook his head.

A short while later Hermione and Neville returned from the prefect meeting. Neville, looking a bit shocked, bid them goodnight, and headed up to the dorm.

"What are you two doing up?" Hermione questioned when he was gone, walking over to where they were sitting.

"We were just…Harry was, er, see what it is."

"We were talking about what might happen this year." Harry told her, which wasn't a complete lie.

"Yes, I suppose that's a popular topic this year isn't it?" Hermione told them. "They were talking all about it during the meeting; they told us all to be on guard this year. Extra precautions and the like." She explained sitting in one of the chairs across from them. "The teachers reckon there is a good reason why Dumbledore's not telling everyone. They say it would cause a huge panic. But they had to tell the prefects because we need something to drive our precautions."

"Yeah, Dumbledore told us something along the lines of 'it's not time' when we asked him about it." Ron added.

"I imagine the prefects were awfully surprised when they heard, it's a wonder they didn't panic."

"Oh they did at first, that's what took so long, the teachers wanted to make sure that everyone was calm before they let us go. Malfoy definitely stayed calm enough." She told them.

"Malfoy has been made a school prefect?" Ron asked in obvious distaste.

"Him and Pansy Parkinson." Hermione confirmed, Ron's distaste mirrored in her expression. "She on the other hand, was not so calm about it. In fact she was one of the most concerned about the whole thing. Looked more skittish than Malfoy last year when he got turned into a ferret." she finished, bringing back fond memories to both Harry and Ron.

The three of them stayed up a bit longer talking about everything that could happen in the year ahead before they finally headed off to bed. When Hermione came up to the room Celia was still awake. She looked up when Hermione came in.

"Did you just get back now?" Celia asked her.

"No, Ron and Harry were still in the common room when I got in, we stayed up talking for a bit. Celia threw her a knowing look and smiled.

"What was that?" Hermione asked mocking defensiveness,

"Nothing," Celia said, still grinning. "You just, I don't know, I felt a need to smile." The girls shared a glance and smiled at each other for no particular reason. Now, Hermione was moving around the room getting ready.

"So, what's you're excuse? Why are you up so late?" Hermione asked her. Celia shrugged.

"New…everything." She answered. Hermione nodded and considered her for a moment before speaking up again.

"I had wanted to ask this at first, but I thought it might have been too forward." She hesitated here considering Celia's body movement and continued.

"Of course, if it is still too forward you don't have to answer-"

"What is it?" Celia asked, feeling a bit unsure of the situation.

"Well, it's just, when I first met you, you mentioned that you hoped it was different here than in the states, and, well there are times when you just seem so sad, and I saw you crying in the carriage, but got the impression you didn't want anyone to see you so I kept quiet. But, I was just wondering what it was that happened to you?"

For a while, Celia just looked at the floor, not saying anything. Finally, she looked up.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone about this. I mean really, it stays between us ok?" Hermione nodded in understanding and came over to sit at the end of Celia's four-poster bed. They closed the curtains around them, and Hermione cast an Imperturbable charm on them so that no one would hear what they were saying inside. Celia gathered her thoughts and began to tell her story.

"Well, I guess I should start with my first year of high school. That year I met this guy. One of my girlfriends had a crush on him at the time, I didn't really like him that much, but after a while of hanging out with him, since he and my friend were pretty close, I kind of got used to him and the two of us became closer friends. Somewhere in there, my friend changed and stopped hanging out with us. We were still friends, but she didn't hang out with us as much as she had used to, and it seemed that she no longer had a crush on him either. At this point we had become pretty close and I guess we had this sort of mutual liking of each other.

"In the beginning of the next year he had asked me out, and I said yes, but then I got scared. He was only my first boyfriend and from what I knew of his previous relationship from things he would tell me, he was a lot more experienced than I was. I got nervous and didn't know what he would expect from the relationship so I told him that I was too afraid that we would lose our friendship and we went back to being friends.

"By the end of that year, we had become really close; half the school thought that we were dating. I still had some feelings for him, but we weren't going out. That was really the best time I ever had in high school. It was the next year when things started going haywire.

"I heard a rumor from my best friend that he had done some really scummy things to one of her other friends. If it had been anyone else telling me, I wouldn't have believed it. I began to think that he had been lying to me the whole time to try to take advantage of me. I was so hurt and upset I couldn't take it. I started to give him the cold shoulder all the time. During this time, I had gone to my other friend's house and met one of her boyfriend's friends. That's really the turning point of the whole year. I was hurt, and he was nice to me, it was the idea of him that I started to like, and I suppose I related that to him, so the two of us began dating…kind of. At some point while I was dating him I found out that the rumor had been a lie. I felt so bad about what happened, but I was also so relieved that it wasn't true. I had to grovel for a bit for believing those things about him, but the two of us were friends again. I was really happy then." At this point in the story, Celia began to tear. Hermione handed her a tissue from the bedside table and grabbed the box. Then she shut the curtains and made sure the spell was still working. Wiping her nose, Celia continued her story.

"Anyway, after I had broken up with the other guy, the one I met through my other friend, actually almost directly after, my best friend called me to tell me that she liked my friend, this is the one with the rumor now, the one I met in my first year of high school. Now, every time anyone mentioned that they liked him and I thought they had a chance of getting him, I would feel this nervousness, inside me and I would have a renewed interest in him. It wasn't until it was my best friend said it that I really felt the pain in my heart. I hadn't realized until then how I felt about him. How I had always felt about him. I loved him. I told her how I felt about him, and she told me that she wouldn't go out with him. I remember being so happy to have a friend like her. But then I started to notice things. They would do things together…usually in groups, but together, and things that I usually would be included in, but I was never asked to go. Apparently, while I was mad at him over the false rumor that she told me, she was being very nice to him, and that's when he started to like her. I started to hear things from my friends, from her sister, I saw them walking down the hall. I knew something was up. I was right. They had been going out behind my back for a month. All the while telling me that they weren't. I felt so angry, and embarrassed, and worst of all betrayed. I had lost my best friend and my first love…to each other. "Once they found out that I knew, they didn't even bother to pretend anymore. I noticed that he had changed. She had changed him. She took the one I loved and destroyed him. Even now, I can't hate him for what happened. Part of me still loves who he used to be. But I don't think he will ever come back. It's as though he died. And it hurts so much to think about him." Celia paused here to breathe a bit. Her chest had begun to hurt and she had tears in her eyes.

"I suppose my parents and uncle sensed that something was wrong. I'm glad they did, I wouldn't be able to stand another year around him. It just hurts so much. So, that's why I am here now. Now you know the whole story." Celia finished, breathing deeply to keep from breaking down. Celia considered Hermione. She had been listening intently and now had tears in her eyes. Seeing this Celia too began to tear. She had gotten it out, the whole story. She hadn't been able to tell anyone the story from beginning to end like that before. And now that it was out in the open she felt a surge of relief.

"I had no idea you had gone through anything like that." Hermione told her, her eyes getting wetter every second. There was a brief silence before the girls both burst forward hugging each other. In the comforting motions of her friend, Celia broke down and really cried for the first time. She cried all the tears that she had held back, all the pain and relief and pent up emotion rushing from her body. She could feel it eating up her energy but she didn't want to hold it in anymore, she needed this. For a while, the girls just held each other, crying. When they finally broke apart, Celia felt tired, but the best she had felt in a long time.

"If you ever need to talk, at all, about anything-" Hermione began, blowing her nose.

"Same here," Celia answered, understanding her meaning. "Anytime." She finished, taking another tissue. Hermione sniffed.

"It's a promise," Hermione offered, holding out her hand. Celia took it, and the two shook.

"A promise." Celia repeated.

It was 12:00, and the girls settled in for some much-needed sleep. Celia knew that she would not simply forget the past. But at least now she was allowing herself the time she needed to heal.

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Author's note: Well look at that! Chapter 10 has come and gone. More is on the way but my updating is going to have to slow down a bit because 10 was the last chapter that I had completed. I will work as fast as I can to get the next chapters up quickly but I don't want to injure the quality of the story. Let me know what you think of the story so far everyone!!! Please review!!!!

A glimpse of what's to come: Chapter 11: Classes Begin. Her first day of classes and she's already she's broken out in boils, learned some fun facts about her new pet and gotten some answers about that pesky legend. Not to mention her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Is this new professor for real? All this and much more coming soon in Chapter 11: Classes Begin.

"Five points…are awarded to…Gryffindor house…for a well made potion."