They sat in the car quietly, Hermione's mother was driving. Harry kept looking at Hermione out of the corners of his eyes she looked different, beautiful...she looked so happy, he couldn't see why. Her hair wasn't just as wild and thick but it was definetly as curly it was still brown and her eyes just seemed to pop out somehow...she looked the same and different at the same time, he decided she just looked different because he hadn' seen her in a few weeks too many. They drove up to a beautiful gray bricked house with dark green trimming, and Harry even noticed they had a white picketed fence and was truly jealous of Hermione's "perfect" life. She pulled him out of his daydream and pulled at his arm, he turned and tried to smile at her,he only managed a small crooked half-smile. He wasn't surprised to see understanding in her eyes but he was amazed to see slight unshed tears there as well. He pulled his best-friend closer, thinking he had done something wrong..."whats wrong?" he asked her "oh..Harry, it's just I know you haven't been able to smile lately and you trying for me is just so...wow!" she answered quickly and threw her arms around his neck. he was slightly stunned but hugged back glad for her to not see the complete pain and anger his eyes still held from the year before. They entered the house and harry looked around with interested, but shy eyes, unlike the weasley's house it was built with straight lines it wasn't like a museum though, it had a lot of books and a ton of pictures of Hermione all over the walls. Plants were everywhere and cozy colors.... Harry thought this was what a house should look like.
He frowned, he knew he'd never live in a hgouse like this or like Ron's with his parents and to be honest, he didn't know if he'd live to get a family of his own. He hadn't told anyone about the prophecy and he knew that he wouldn't this summer,
'if only i could see Sirius' he though 'he'd be able to help me through this'
Hermione brought Harry up to the guest room, a lovely greeen room with a few paintings on the walls. Harry liked it a lot, but he was really tired, he wanted to be alone yet he wanted to be surrounded by his friends he was reminded of his fifth year. when he felt the same way afterhe had...well he didn't want to think about it. he unpacked his things something he hadn't done at the dursley's all summer. He figured he would be saying here...at least he wanted to. He put up the few pictures of his parents he had on the desks and walls, he did the same with his picture of his friends. Hermione helped him the best she could but was aware of his silence and she noticed his eyes were no longer alive...or atleast they didn't want to be she decided it was her mission from now till he got better to help him out of this rut he had gotten himself into.
She always kept him busy and they had a lot of fun. One day while at the public swimming pool ( she had tought him how to swim well) he dunked her under water and she managed to swim out from under him, yelling "HARRY JAMES POTTER!!!!" he swam as fast as he could because he knew she rememered his weakness, she had managed to find it during his second week there, he remembered it like it was yesterday......
FLASHBACK
Harry sat reading on his bed, his back to the door. Hewrmione walked in to tell him they were going to the park, she walked up slowly and quietly just intending to scare him...... She touched his sides and felt him jump up, chuckling slightly and turn around to face her " Jumpy, are we?" she asked with a mischevious grim on her face ' no" he answered "you just scared me" he lied, he knew very well that if word got out he was ticklish he would never hear the end of it. "yeah right" she said her grin getting wider "i know your secret now!" she said with an evil sounding laugh, ruined by a giggle. She pounced on him like a cat pounces on a mouse and tickled him until he couldn't breath anymore. Since then she always got a kick out of poking him in the ribs and seeing him jump to the ceiling....alomost.
END OF FLASHBACK
.......he snaped out of his reverie ans noticed Hermione was almost right behind him, he sped up wishing swimming was as easy to him as flying was.
She caught him, but didn't tickle him to suffocation as she had last time, she simply looked at the shy and gasped. he turned around, knowing what was going to meet his gaze, he saw a big green skull with a snake coming out of its mouth, it was a smokey light in the sky, Harry found himself starring up at the Dark Mark.
It happened very fast out of nowhere, Tonks, Remus and Mundungus came out and pulled both Harry and Hermione from the pool with determination and anxiety on their faces. They were pushed into a car and driven to Hermione's house pushed inside and told to not go outside until they heard any different.
So there they were in a cage, a prison cell and they didn't even know what was going on, they slowly and quietly went upstairs to change out of their bathing suits.
Harry chose a white muscle shirt that showed off his brand new muscles, he had gotten them because he and Hermione had enrolled in a gym program, he wroked out three days a week for three hours. And he wore surf shortd that he gotten as a present from Mrs. Granger when she saw the awfull clothes he got from the Durleys.
He met up with Hermione who was downstairs for a few minutes looking for something to eat, she was wearing a pair of jean shorts and an light blue baby tee shirt she had her wet but still bushy hair pulled back into a ponytail. he looked at her and couldn't even find the energy to smile when she looked up "whats wrong Harry"
she asked "it's just that with the pro-"he stopped, mentaly kicking himself for almost telling Hermione about the prophecy that held his faith "the what, Harry??" she asked "the Dark Mark"he quickly made up an excuse "why would it show up around here??" he finished. hermione still not convinced about if that was really what he was going to say let it slide said " Harry , he's back you've got to understand that he's going to try some business, he'll try to kill again, but dont worry Ron's safe and so am I and so are you and quite obviously so is Remus" she said with a slight smile at the memory of being pushed around without saying anything. he didn't smile and he didn't laugh as the memory of various daily Prophet headlines came to mind, all saying how the Dark Mark was everywhere and all of the muggle-borns and half-bloods that had died, that had been murdered.
He spent more and more time locked up in his room reading (or so he told Hermione) everytime she knocked on the door he simply told her he was doing homwork which she knew wasn't true They hadn't had much homework during the summer because they had taken a long time to do their O.W.Ls. The results of which were going to arrive very soon. Actually as Hermione sat there reading, they were just about to....."AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.........."she yelled surprised and before she knew it, Harry was at her side looking around for a Death Eater or some such thing " What is it? What happened?" he said quickly rambling on. " Harry?" Hermione asked "what are you going on about??" "You screamed, why did you scream"
"because an owl came flying through and dropped these on my head while I was about to fall asleep" she laughed gesturing to the two enveloppes on the table nest to her "you mean you screamed because we got mail??" he asked, relief and anger sweeping over him "DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!" he yelled at her. She looked taken aback but quickly recovered as furry went throught her "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT?' WHAT I CAN'T BE SCARED? OR SURPRISED? Why don't you just get out of your damn room and honestly, you already know that mark was a scare trick, why do you even bother doing the whole ' I make everything wrong happen to everyone' act, because you already know it's not true, what happened to the Harry I knew???" with that she stormed out of the room, throwing Harry's letter at him. He looked down at it and saw it was his O.W.L results he ran up to Hermione's room only to find her letter in on her desk and her face in her pillow muffled sobs coming from it. " 'Mione??" he asked " Can I come in?" he had stayed just outside the door. "why?"came her muffled voice "so you can yell at me again?" " No Hermione, I want to apologize " he began "I shouldn't have locked myself in my room like I did" "No you shouldn't have" she agreed and they shared a small laugh. Together they openned their letters hermione had done better than Harry but Harry had done very well, he found himself wondering if he could have done it without Hermione's help but stopped asking himself, he knew he'd always need her help with things like that.
The summer went by pretty quickly and before they knew it they were in the car, waiting to turn into king cross station with both of Hermione's parents this time. Hermione was quietly hoping and praying that Harry wouldn't sink back into that depression she had helped him fight during the summer. They would be taking a lot of classes together they would both be taking; transfiguration,
DADA, Charms, care of magical creatures, and surprisingly for Harry, Potions. They hadn't seen Ron or heard from him yet and couldn't wait to hear about his summer working at fortescue's ice cream shop and not to mention his schedule, they were dying to see which classes they had together! They found him and surprisingly he was with Luna Lovegood. When he saw them he quickly excused himself and went with them to find a compartment they were a little bit early, so they had a variety of them to choose from. Ron it seemed hadn't made Potions noe transfiguration but he was in all there other classes plus the two he didn't have with them, he took herbologie and he took history of magic again he had told them that he didn't think he'd pass that without Hermione to give him her notes. Of course she had scolled and scolded him about needing to do his own work from now on. The biggest surprise for Harry was when Ron pulled him out of the compartment to talk to him..... he said to him " Harry, I know that many years before I was jealous of you because you had so much more than I did but there is one thing I want you to have that I have right now" he hasd managed to get Hary's curiosity "what would that be Ron"
for an swer Ron held out his hand and dropped something into Harry's, hid prefect badge. "But- What ...wait you can't do this ..only Dumbledore or McGonnagal can do this" he said "and that, is why I wrote to them both and they both said I could give it to you, if you accept it you're the new prefect, if you don't then Hermione has to patrol the halls all be herself". Harry thought about it a long time before saying " Thanks Ron " and going in to tell Hermione he was the new prefect. Their friend looked upon them knowingly.