Author's Note: I think I've just realized that this will never actually be a chapter story (sorry!) but I'll be adding little short stories when inspiration hits. This was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Thank you to all reviewers for making my day! This was a reaction piece to "I Hate Hogwarts" by the mixer. You can read it here:

mixerhttp: one accepts them. They are ostracized, rejected. Hermione wishes that people could understand. Harry is used to this already. He knows how easily people can turn against you. People are fickle. Ron hates the way they are being treated. He has always been the Sidekick, poor, and afterthought. He has never known what it is like to be hated so intensely. Hated because you love someone, two someone's, in fact. Hermione just wishes people would understand.

They haven't been to the Great Hall for five days. Dobby, ever loyal to Harry Potter and now his "Wheezy" and "Hermy," sends trays of food up to them. The Golden trio spend their time in Hermione's Head Girl room. They've widened the bed, and the boys have transferred all of their belongings to Hermione's closet.

In their classes, when asked to form pairs, the Golden Trio form their own group. The teachers don't argue, not even Snape, which just goes to show how disgraced and appalled the Hogwarts community is. In the common room, they turn their backs to everyone else, and somehow manage to get their home work done.

Hermione still gets a subscription from the Daily Prophet. Whenever anything suspicious happens, they go up to their bedroom and discuss it in-depth—Hermione at their desk taking notes, Harry and Ron peering over her shoulder—not because they feel the urge to save the world, "Hell no," Ron says, but because they'd like to grow up and have children in a Voldemort free world.

There's a huge bookcase spanning the entire length of one of their walls, on which they have tons of restricted books that they use for research. Harry reckons that they probably know more spells and charms than anyone else in the school—with the possible exception of Dumbledore—Ron thinks they should pull a Fred and George, get the hell out of the school, and go study with an Unspeakable or someone in France or someplace, and Hermione says that "You shouldn't be so arrogant, Harry" and "No one studies with Unspeakables, Ron. That's why they're called Unspeakables." They kiss her in response.

It was Draco Malfoy of course, who found them snogging in the quidditch locker room, it was he who spread the news to the entire school, and it's he whom they, especially Harry and Ron, want to kill.

One night, Harry, Ron, and Hermione lie in bed. Hermione says that a few Slytherin boys tried to touch her after Arithmancy—the only class the trio don't have together—and Harry and Ron vow to "talk strenuously" with them tomorrow. Harry is softly stroking his girlfriend's breast and Ron is pressing little kisses all over her when they hear a knock on the door.

They freeze. Hermione runs to put on a robe to cover her nakedness and tries to pull shirts over Ron and Harry's heads, "Boxers are not enough! What if it's Professor Dumbledore?" but they fight her off and Harry opens the door. Professor McGonagall's figure is illuminated in the doorway from the light coming from the corridor. A voice behind her asks, "May we come inside?" Hermione quickly says yeas and shoots her boys and I-told-you-so look. They shrug, characteristically.

Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore sit on available chairs and the Golden Trio sit Indian-style on their bed. Professor Dumbledore starts the conversation by asking, "Why don't you three start by telling us what prompted this relationship and why you decided to be together? Just tell us everything."

And they talk. They talk about the Sorcerer's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets and Tom Riddle and Azkaban and Remus Lupin and Sirius Black and the Triwizard Tournament and Cedric Diggory and the Quidditch World Cup. They talk about the D.A and The Department of Mysteries and Bellatrix Lestrange and The Veil and Sirius's death and number 4 Privet Drive and the Yule Ball and the Burrow and Cornelius Fudge.

They don't stop there. They talk about their early childhoods, Hermione about not fitting in, Ron about being overshadowed by his other siblings, and Harry about years of emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. They talk about finally realizing their feelings for one another, about Draco Malfoy finding them in the Quidditch locker room, about being called faggots and queers and whore, about studying ridiculously hard for tests—for lack of anything better to do—and being the only students to pass with flying colors. And when they are done, Hermione is uncharacteristically crying and Ron and Harry have their arms around her, kissing away her tears and whispering comforting words in her ears.

After Hermione's crying lessens to soft whimpering, Professor McGonagall says, "I think that your relationship is entirely genuine and acceptable. I think that it was bound to happen. You three have gone through so much together, its only natural for you to become lovers as well. I must say, I've never had students as, well, amazing as you. I'm proud of you, and Professor Dumbledore and I have only one favor to ask of you. I want you to come down to the Great Hall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from now on." Hermione opens her mouth to protest, but Dumbledore holds up his hand to silence her.

"My dear students, you cannot hide away forever. You cannot always run when you face opposition, or you'll be running forever. By going down to the Great Hall tomorrow, you are saying that you will not let others opinions of you control what you eat, what you wear, how you sleep, where you go, whom you love." As if on cue, McGonagall and Dumbledore stand up, and each of them place kisses on the foreheads of each member of the Golden Trio.

To use a cliché term, the next morning dawns bright and early. Hermione wakes up first and shakes her boys awake. Ron mutters sleepily, "I dreamed the Chudley Cannons were winning." Harry rolls out of bed and makes his way to the attached bathroom, courtesy of whoever had designed the building. While stripping to take a bath, he comments, "Well, that's the only place the Chudley Cannons will ever win—in your dreams."

"I'm bathing with you, remember? Besides, I thought you supported them, too!"

"I only support them because you do, love. And also because I'm all for the underdog. Unfortunately, they'll probably be underdogs for life."

"I disagree! Sure, they haven't won a championship for over 200 years now, but they're bound to!"

"Really? I don't thi—" Hermione cuts Harry off by pushing her way between her boys and turning on the shower. "There's no time to argue about quidditch. I want to get to the Great Hall before anyone else does. I don't have the guts for a grand entrance.

The Golden Trio sit in their usual spots at the Gryffindor table watching everyone come in. Several people give them dirty looks and sitting between Harry and Ron—who are giving those same people hard, cold, calculating looks—Hermione squeezes their hands hard and wish the floor would open up and swallow her.

While everyone is eating, the Golden Trio doing so rather tentatively, Dumbledore stands up and says a few words.

"As you can see, Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger are back here with us. As you most likely know already, they—the three of them—are a couple. Why they are together is not any of your business, and I trust you will not make it any of your business to interrogate them as you so cruelly have for the past five days."

With a hint of disappointment and anger in her voice, Professor McGonagall stands up and adds, "I would like to quote a wise friend of mine who once said, 'With friends like these, who needs enemies?' I suggest that you think about those words for awhile.

Sweeping his no longer twinkling eye over the student and faculty body of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dumbledore adds affirmatively, "all of you."

Hermione tries to keep from smiling, but she's so happy and so proud of Dumbledore and McGonagall that she wants to laugh, cry, scream, jump up and down, anything. She settles for kissing Harry and Ron, and then Harry and Ron kiss each other. No one makes a sound.

Professors Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore smile.

THE END

Reviewer's Thanks:

pacockgal17- Thank you, thank you, thank you for being my first reviewer. I must say, I was really angry at this website and wondering if my story really did suck, but you reviewed and yay! Thank you.

Love it!- Yes, there are too few Harry/Hermione/Ron stories out there. We who have seen the light must stick together…

mizukimarr910- I know I emailed you individually about the link thing, but thanks for your review anyway.

shedoc- Thanks for informing me as to what AU means. (Alternate Universe i.e. Hermione as a dunce, or Dumbledore as a muggle; usually unbelievable, uncanon things for those of you who are wondering).

Rachel Anna- I was an extreme Ron/Hermione fan, but then I discovered simons flower (an author on this website) and her stories got me hooked to the trio. Now, I can't read a R/Hr story without feeling sorry for poor, poor Harry.