Ha! I actually finished this chapter last weekend when I was up at my cottage but I left on tuesday for a 5-day long canoe trip up in Algonquin Park in Ontario. Really fun stuff! Anyway, I don't have the notebook that I originally wrote this chapter in here, so I'm going by memory and hopefully I can make it better than what I wrote (though I was quite proud of it!).

Thanks to:
Kortney - Yay! My favouritest reviewer so far! I loved the dream too... I was sitting in the hallway of school just thinking and being bored when I came up with it. I like warped things. They make me happy. There aren't many answers in this chapter, only more questions so you'll have to wait to find out about Hermione's pain! Mwahaha!
Flukey - Sporks are scary... especially purple ones looks scared. I'm glad that you like it enough to threaten me! Popcicles are good... mmmm popcicle.

Disclaimer: Don't own HP, yada yada yada


Chapter 3 - Part of Things at Any Cost

Hermione walked up Privet Drive looking at all of the houses. They were all relatively the same: same front lawns, same cars in the drive ways, and same brick exterior. She could imagine that they were the same in many other ways as well: same drab interior, same boring backyards, same "perfect" children, same hard working adults, everything seemed to be perfectly in sync on Privet Drive. Except for one thing. Behind the perfect exterior of house number four, there was an "imperfection". A boy with glasses and an odd shaped scar on his forehead with amazing abilities. Hermione's best friend, Harry Potter.

Yes, she had come to get Harry out of Privet Drive and away from the Dursleys' to somewhere safe, away from everything. With a clipboard in hand and a professional look on her face, Hermione walked up to the door of Number Four Privet Drive with her head held high and hopes that her plan would work floating around in her head.

Flashback:
"Mom, I need a ride to Surrey tomorrow. I'm going to pick up Harry and then we're going to go to Ron's. I'll be there for the rest of the summer." Hermione told her mother that morning.

Without looking up from her paperwork, Mrs. Granger let out a small sigh and said, "Your father will be leaving for work any minute now. If you're quick you'll catch him. Make sure to owl me to tell me your safe. Now if you don't mind, I need to get this paperwork done."

"Thanks mum" Hermione said as she walked over to her mother to give her a hug. She leaned over and hugged her but got nothing in return. Turning and shrugging, Hermione put her head down in sorrow as she left the room to pick up her bags of clothes and necessities and find her father.
End flashback

Before Hermione even got to the front step of the house, Vernon Dursley had opened the door and stuck his head out saying, "We don't want any! Get lost!".

Hermione gave a small smile at Vernon as he started closing the door and said sweetly, "Mr. Dursley, I presume? My name is Lisa Longbottom and I am from the board if Education. I see here," she looked down at her clipboard, "that you have two boys in your household and I would like to survey them both on the quality of their school. Would you mind if I stepped in?"

Vernon Dursley examined her, wondering if she was authentic or not as he let her walk through his door. "Lisa,"

"Miss Longbottom, if you will."

"Fine then Miss Longbottom," Vernon spit, "You don't look very old. Are you sure that you're qualified to do this survey?"

Hermione pulled her face into an expression of that of extreme offence. "How dare you question my integrity, Mr. Dursley! I'm just doing my job and you have no right to question that or my age. Now, I would like to speak to…" Hermione looked down at her clipboard again, "Dudley. I'm assuming that's your son then?"

"Yes, yes, that's him." replied Vernon, flustered. He turned towards a room to his left where the sound of a loud television show was heard, "DUDLEY! THERE'S SOMEONE HERE TO TALK TO YOU!" He then turned back to "Lisa", "You can sit down at the kitchen table, Miss Longbottom."

"Excuse me, sir. It is required that the subject and I are alone in a room as to get maximum results without outside influence. Is there anywhere else that Dudley and I could possibly go?"

It was then that Dudley dragged his weight into the room looking extremely irritated. "Why did you call me? I was in the middle of watching… hey!" He exclaimed, looking over at Hermione, "Who're you?"

"Dudley," Vernon introduced, "This is Miss Longbottom. You are going to show her up to your room and she's going to ask you some questions about your school." When neither Dudley nor Hermione moved, he added, "Go on!"

Dudley gave Hermione a look that said that he liked what he saw as he turned and led her down the hall and up the stairs. Hermione shifted uncomfortably with the look and followed him professionally.

When Dudley opened the door to his room, Hermione tried not to let disgust cross her face. There was not one inch of floor showing as there were clothes thrown in every direction, draped over chairs, partly folded on the floor, and even a pair of pants stuck on Dudley's lamp. There was an empty bag of chips sitting beside Dudley's bed and something rotting in the corner beside his window. The television was on with static crossing the screen, all of his movies were piled in front of the television. The room smelled like a mixture of body odor and some sort of rotting food. Hermione had to force herself to not gag in revulsion.

Hermione closed the door behind her and brushed some clothes away from the floor with her foot so she would have enough room to at least stand.

As soon as the door was closed, Hermione "tut tut"ed almost reminiscent of Umbridge and started her first question: "So Dudley, where do you go to school?"

Dudley sat on his bed and beckoned Hermione closer to him. Not knowing what to do, Hermione just looked around the room uncomfortably and repeated, "What school do you go to?"

"What does it matter? School is complete shit. Waste of my time." Was Dudley's answer.

"Errrr well, I still need to do this questionnaire. It's my job. Now where do you go to school?"

A flash of anger crossed Dudley's pudgy face and got up from the bed. He crossed the room and pinned Hermione against the wall.

"Never ever tell me what to do." He said menacingly.

"Don't talk to me like that. You have no right to talk to me like that." Hermione said with fear in her voice. Though mildly scared, Hermione knew that her plan was going the way she wanted. She just had to…

Dudley pushed Hermione hard against the wall and put his face up to hers, so close that she could feel his breath as he said "This is my room. You follow my rules." He then proceeded to lean in even closer and kiss Hermione roughly on the lips.

This was what Hermione had wanted (well not wanted but needed for her plan to work properly) and she pushed him away with all her might. He was much to heavy for her to push, Dudley had to outweigh her by at least 200 pounds so Hermione bit his lip. Hard.

Dudley let out a loud yelp as he stumbled back and fell onto his bed holding his sore lip,

There were loud poundings on the stairs as Vernon Dursley ran up the stairs to see if his son was hurt. He opened the door to see "Lisa" with her arms wrapped around herself standing in her little open spot on the floor and his precious son wailing in pain on his bed.

"WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SON?" was the first thing he yelled.

Dudley's fat finger pointed accusingly at Hermione "She bit me!"

Before Vernon could say anything, Hermione added in "Only because the bloody idiot tried to molest me!"

"You little tramp! Did you even get any of your survey, if there even was one, done?" Vernon said menacingly.

"How dare you continue to undermine me! I find that incredibly insulting! Of course I am attempting to do a survey but you two seem to be completely daft and don't care what happens to the education system! Maybe the other boy in this house, Harry Potter – not your son I assume – will be more willing to cooperate with me for such a cause."

Hermione turned on her heels, not caring whether or not Vernon and Dudley approved of her little speech, and walked down the hall to the only room with the door closed. She knocked and waited for Harry to answer. When there was no answer, Hermione knocked again a bit harder. Again, there was no answer. Not bothering to knock again because Vernon was standing in the doorway of Dudley's room glaring at her, she just opened the door and let herself in.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Harry's room. It was relatively tidy, but not too tidy. There were clothes strewn in a pile on the floor but not all over the place like those of Dudley's. There was no rotting food, no half finished food, and the room in entirety smelled normal. The bed was unmade, but that was because there was a sleeping Harry lying on it wearing his clothes.

The door closed itself softly as Hermione walked into the room and sat down on the edge of Harry's bed to attempt to wake him. She first shook his leg and spoke his name lightly with no response. She tried again, shaking him harder and calling his name louder.

Harry turned over and huddled himself into a ball muttering about something or other as Hermione heard Vernon walk down the hall towards the room. He stopped at the door and after listening for a moment or two, he said loudly, "I don't hear any surveying sounds, missy!"

At this, Harry groggily opened his emerald blue eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a moment before realizing he wasn't alone. It took him a minute or two before he grabbed his glasses off his bedside table (Harry obviously didn't care that anyone was in his room at that particular moment) and set them on his face. He saw Hermione and his face lit up with surprise as Vernon yelled from outside the door.

"Miss Longbottom! What are you doing in there? I don't hear you asking questions!"

Hermione yelled back "Sorry Mr Dursley, Harry was just thinking of an answer to one of my questions."

Realizing that Hermione was here to get him out of Number 4 Privet Drive, Harry knew that he had to be quiet and go along with whatever his friend had planned. He asked in a whisper, "What are you doing here?"

"So Mr. Potter," Hermione said loudly enough for Vernon to hear, "what school do you attend?" Then whispering to Harry she said "I'm getting you out of here. Just follow along and act like you're being surveyed."

Outside of the room, floorboards squeaked as Vernon shuffled to hear better.

"I go to St. Brutus's. Good school it is." Harry answered the survey question. He then added quietly, "So how do we get out?"

Still standing outside of the door, Vernon Dursley gave a grunt of approval at Harry's answer and Hermione gave him a rude look through the door.

"What forms of punishment do they use there?" Was then next question and then "Err well, I've figured out a way that Dursley will kick us both out of the house which is what we want, right?" Hermione whispered and continued before Harry could agree: "well, simply putting it, you'll have to, umm, kiss me."

"WHAT!"

"Shhh Harry!" Hermione said looking at the door as to make sure that an angry Vernon Dursley didn't open it. "Answer the question!"

In a normal but shaky voice, Harry then said "Err whips, chains, beatings, you know. The usual." Then he asked in a low voice with a disgusted look on his face, "Why do I have to do that?"

"Oh now that's some good punishment. How does it effect you?" then "I already told you Harry, we need to get kicked out."

"Oh. Yeah. Right."

"Harry shush! You're being loud. Start throwing stuff in your trunk as we talk but be as quiet as possible. Vernon's still right outside and we cannot be caught until the opportune moment reveals itself."

Harry nodded as he bent down to pick up some of the clothes off of his floor and threw them into his open trunk on top of his Hogwarts books. "The punishment doesn't really affect me. I get beatings so often that I don't even realize it anymore."

Again, Vernon sounded pleased.

As clothes, books, and small possessions filled up the trunk, Hermione continued asking Harry questions until the room became almost spotless and the trunk was completely filled to the brim. "How do you find the learning environment?" was the last intellectual question that was asked and from then on the questions ranged from "How thick is the average textbook?" to "Is the toilet paper single or double quilted?"

Harry gave answers such as "The average textbook is totally mutilated. You can't tell how big they are because they look like they've been eaten by a giant elephant" and "The toilet paper seems to be half quilted. No comfort whatsoever."

When Hermione realized that nothing else could be thrown into the trunk and that it was time to do what must be done, she went quiet and looked around Harry's room awkwardly. Hermione decided to get a hold of herself as she walked closer to Harry who was standing motionless in the middle of his room. As she stood in front of him, she realized her height, or lack thereof, since she was at least a head shorter than he. Harry gulped as he leaned his head downwards and Hermione leaned hers upwards. As their lips met, Vernon Dursley snorted at the lack of sound coming from the room and pushed open the door. What he saw he wasn't to pleased with…

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! THOSE WEREN'T SURVEYING SOUNDS! BOTH OF YOU, GET OUT NOW. OUT OF MY HOUSE! POTTER, YOUR AUNT AND I TOOK YOU IN AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY US? AND LISA HOW DARE YOU NOT KISS MY DUDYKINS BUT KISS THIS… THIS… BOY. YOU BOTH DISGUST ME, NOW GET OUT! YOU'RE NOT MOVING!"

When Vernon started yelling, both Hermione and Harry turned to face him and looked upon him with faces of amused bewilderment. When Dursley got to the "HOW DARE YOU NOT KISS MY DUDYKINS" part of his little speech, Harry's legs started functioning again so he grabbed his trunk and motioned to Hermione to follow him. The two friend were yelled at all the way out the door and when they finally exited Number Four Privet Drive, the door was slammed but the sound of Vernon Dursley's voice could still be heard; "AND NEVER COME BACK!" was heard prominently.

Side by side Harry and Hermione walked down Privet Drive to the nearest park. Hermione sat down on a swing and Harry put down his trunk before he sat beside her on another.

"Seeing his face Hermione, that was bloody brilliant!" Harry laughed as he swung back and forth.

"Thank you Harry. I'm glad the plan worked. I would have just died if it hadn't." Hermione laughed with him.

After laughing for a bit at Vernon's obvious rage, the laughed suddenly ceased and Hermione looked down as Harry looked up at the sky at the passing clouds.

"So how did you come up with a plan like that?" Harry asked, breaking the silence. "It wasn't probably the best plan, but it worked well I think."

"Last night I got your letter and was a bit worried. It sounded too happy and very unlike you, considering what you must be going through emotionally, so I decided to come for a visit."

"And while you were at it you though that you would piss Uncle Vernon and Dudley off? Aunt Petunia's not going to be very happy either."

"Where is she, by the way?" asked Hermione.

"Some lawn care thing. Continue with your story though."

"Well, the dream just worried me. That's all."

"It was nothing, I shouldn't have owled you." Harry said sadly.

"Oh shut it Harry. Of course you should have. Anyway, I thought of all the possible ways that Mr. Dursley would throw us out and I figured the best way would be for you to get something that Dudley wanted – don't look at me like that – I posed as a member of some board of education taking a survey. To get me alone with Dudley so he would try something, I said that the survey needed to be done in private as to not have any outside influences. As I had thought, as soon as we got to his room, Dudley tried something." Hermione finished.

Harry made an odd sort of sound as his face contorted into a look of either pity or disgust but Hermione ignored it.

"Anyway, I pushed him, Vernon got mad and sent me to survey you. Needless to say, he was insulted that I refused Dudley so when he saw us…"

"He got pissed." Harry concluded.

"Don't swear Harry," said Hermione out of habit.

"Whatever. Good plan, though I didn't need you to come and 'save' me Hermione. Dumbledore would have come to get me eventually," Harry glared at his friend.

"Don't get mad at me for something you don't understand, Harry. I was trying to help and maybe one day you'll understand" Hermione said.

"I don't understand? DON'T UNDERSTAND! I can understand it better than you think Hermione. I don't need help with dealing with Sirius or anything like that! You should have just left me alone," Harry began to yell as he got off the swing and started to walk away.

"Don't you walk away from me! You think this is about Sirius? This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Sirius, the order or that stupid prophecy!" Hermione yelled back.

Harry turned back towards Hermione as he heard the word 'prophecy', "The prophecy? Who told you about that?" Harry asked menacingly.

"I just know; it doesn't matter how I know. That's not important right now!"

"Then what IS important, Hermione? Of course it's bloody well important!"

Hermione hung her head down in defeat as she slowly said, "Don't swear, Harry."

"Wait, don't you dare clam up. Why? How? If this isn't about the prophecy or Voldemort or anything like that, why did you mention it?" Harry asked.

A leaf fell from a tree near Hermione and she bent over to pick it up, "I never said it wasn't about Voldemort. I'll tell you one day when the answers come more easily. I know you have problems Harry. I know you have a lot on your mind but don't you even think for a second that you're the only one." Hermione waved a finger in Harry's face as to make herself clear, "Never forget that." She then turned her back and started walking towards the train station with Harry walking and muttering behind her.

"Like hell I don't understand."

"Just shut up Harry."


A/N: 8 pages… I'm so proud of myself! I hope you guys liked this chapter; sorry I couldn't get it up sooner! Please review!

Dani