Disclaimer: Don't own. Jk rowling does, and assorted enterprises.

A/N: This is a bit of a lighter chapter because quite frankly I felt it was needed after Ron's death and such. I hope it turned out okay :) Btw: Thanks for the review again OMAGIC (go read his story Fire of Life people :prods:) and the rest of my reviewers :)

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Early the next morn found three people in Hogwarts up and about. Two were getting ready for the day and one was only up because he'd been up all night working. In his office, Dumbledore leaned forward from the cushy chair that was one of the few perks of being the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and with special care for a well-loved ritual, took out his tin of lemon drops, pried the lid off, set it aside, and selected the most bright and round one of the bunch. Indulging in a bit of selfish amusement, the Headmaster looked furtively around the room before quickly popping the selected lemon drop in his mouth.

As soon as the sweet lost its pucker power, he smiled delightedly, then sat back with a content sigh. Across the room, on his perch, Fawkes trilled a short burst of notes, and Dumbledore looked over at his pet Phoenix. "I know, Fawkes. I really should act more my age...but, dear friend- when you get as old as I am, you find there are very few things that you can take pleasure in."

Fawkes just gave him a look and a disgusted trill. At this the headmaster remembered that Fawkes was as old as he was, and his eyes sparkled as he got up from his chair and walked over to appease his feathered friend.

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Down in the dungeons, Severus stood beside a row of small metal trays, scratching out a few notes on a scroll of parchment he'd temporarily stuck to the lab table. On it was a list of all the ingredients he KNEW Potter had used, and right below that was a hastily scrawled list of what he'd narrowed down other than that.

So far some of the weirdest ingredients were coming to light. "Willow's bark?" He muttered even as he wrote it down. "Does Potter even have a clue what the properties of Willow bark are? Its a pain-reliever and he's got in a poison. Bloody idiot." That was about what he wrote on the paper too. Sighing, he turned back to the trays, and grabbed one he'd not yet tested anything on. Adding a bit of boomslang skin, he watched carefully for the potion to turn any number of colours that would indicate there was something in there that it reacted with. When the contents of the tray began to turn pitch black and smoke, he muttered a curse and Evanesco'd the contents, before breathing a sigh of relief. "well, at least the twit does know some of his ingredients.

Knowing what reacted so dangerously with the boomslang skin, Snape turned towards the parchment and jotted another note down before sighing. Already there were 15 ingredients, and Merlin only knew how many more. Deciding enough was enough for now, he unstuck his notes and headed out of his private lab and into his study. It was time to relax. Which, of course, for Severus meant reading over the notes that he'd taken and doing a bit of theorizing.

Plopping down on a thick black leather couch in front of the unlit fireplace, he gave a sigh of contentment, and stretched his feet out to rest upon the coffee table in front of him before turning his attention to his notes. "Now, Potter, lets see if I can get inside that Gryffindor brain of yours."

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Harry sneezed violently as hair tickled his nose. Groaning, he swatted at it, only to sneeze yet again when the tickling sensation almost instantly returned. "What the-?" He croaked, and ruthlessly pried his sleep-glued eyes open by sheer will until he could just see the room he was in. Which had turned brown? overnight apparently. Bringing a hand up, he started to rub his eyes, and felt an oddly familiar texture laying on his face. "Weird..." He muttered, and squeezed his eyes open wider, picking up some of the brown stuff and examining it groggily.

Just then there was a deep sigh from beside him, and all the sudden, an arm was flung over his chest. "Mmm."

He sat bolt upright in bed when realisation struck. "No..no no no no no no no no..." He repeated frantically, staring at the now awake Hermione with wide eyes. A now awake and very naked Hermione. Instantly his cheeks coloured bright red and he looked down at his hands.

"Harry, whats wrong?"

/Whats wrong? WHATS WRONG?! I buggered my sister, thats whats wrong!/

/She's not your sister. At least you didn't think so last night./ Spoke the taunting voice in the back of his head.

"I know she's not really my sister, but I mean, its Hermione! She's Rons. Not mine. I don't even think of her that way."

/You did last night./

"Would you stop bloody reminding me?!"

"Harry..." Came a wary voice tinged with hurt. "You're talking to yourself."

He looked toward her reflexively, got an eyeful of her not inconsiderable charms, and realised what she said at the same time."Gyaaaargh!" He yelped, and jumped, looking away. This was enough to send him off the side of the bed, and his bare butt met the floor with a Smack! Harry sat there for a moment, disconcerted, and then when he took in exactly what had happened, muttered a low but fervent "Ouch."

Against her will, Hermione giggled, and after pulling the sheet up around her to spare his apparently virgin eyes, leaned over the side of the bed to peer at him. "Good morning, Harry."

Snapping his head around to look at her, Harry's hands flew down to cover his private areas, and he blushed beet red again. "'Mione!" He hissed. "I'm naked!"

"Really, Harry, one would think you'd have realised that by now. You know, you do generally need to be stripped of clothing before you can properly copulate."

The boy-who-got-buggered groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. "I meant look away till i get dressed."

"Why?" She asked coquettishly. Partly embarrassing him for good fun, and partly because he'd hurt her even if he hadn't meant to say any of it outloud. "I'm enjoying the view."

"HERMIONE!"

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"Timmme go-oes byyy and I'm so happy I could cryyy..." The haunting lyrics echoed throughout the house as one object after another seemed to lift itself into the air only to be transported somewhere else. Drawers opened and closed, items being put back in order within them.

Really, Harry never had been particularly neat so it was no surprise that in the time she'd been gone that the house would fall into disrepair. Well, technically she'd never been completely gone. The whole unfinished business yet. At least she knew she would eventually go on because she KNEW what her unfinished business was. It was Harry. She had to mend him. Thankfully she knew just how to do it. In the meantime though, she'd continue to look after him and...Suddenly the memory of when Snape had visited flashed in her mind and she giggled. He would be fun to mess with. Too bad she couldn't leave the house. At least not yet. The first time she'd moved books it had taken her three days before she'd managed to get up the strength to do much else. She was only just now being able to take on a bit of substance so that she could appear, and only for brief moments.

Which was good. The whole disembodied voice thing would probably make her poor husband think he was going crazy. Soon, she hoped, she'd gather enough energy from the magic that permeated the air around her until she was able to go along with Harry. To spy on him. Yes, spy. She had no compunctions about doing so. She wanted her husband to be happy and was going to utilize every bit of her power to make sure it happened that way.

Being a ghost really wasn't such a bad thing, expecially when one knew they weren't going to be one forever, Ginny reflected as she folded clothes and put them in the proper drawers. For example, she'd been able to watch Harry sleep every night, storing up memories. She'd stroked his hair back, kissed his scar, whispered she loved him, exactly as she had when she was alive, but now all her attention could center soley on him for quite a bit longer, until she had to retreat into near nothingness to store up energy again. Like she'd have to do after she got done cleaning house. "Really, he's going to freak." She said to herself and then grinned. "I know very few people can actually come in here, and we long since stopped mum from coming in to clean...maybe he'll think he's being haunted." Her brows rose as she considered this, and then her laughter filled the air. "and he'd be right."

She just hoped she was making the right decision in "coming out" to Harry so that he knew she was there. Somehow though, she got the feeling things were going to get a lot more complicated.

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"I've got to get home, "Mione." Harry said from the doorway of the kitchen as he finished toweling his unruly black hair.

Hermione looked up with a puzzled expression, one eyebrow faintly arched. She said nothing though, merely continued to do her work around the house, which was cleaning up any of Ron's possessions that were laying around and carefully packing them away. Now that she was...free...she didn't want any reminders of her ex-husband laying around. She had enough guilt as it was.

"I've got that potion to work on, and well, you know Snape. He has a habit of bursting in at any time. I'll teach him eventually." A slight smile tugged at Harry's lips as he remembered when he'd slugged Snape that first day at his house. It had been /so/ worth it, even if he had probably earned the man's undying hatred. That caused him to stop, a frown creasing his brow. /Wait a second,/ he thought. /this is SNAPE we're t...I'm talking about. I already have the greasy gits undying hatred./

" es...and its probably a bit awkward for you here right now. I understand." She smiled at him, pushing back a lock of almost frizzed brown hair behind one delicately curved ear. Her words caused Harry to squirm uncomfortably. It was more than a little awkward. Even at the thought of what they'd done, Harry could feel shame filling him. At the same time though, it sent a peculiar warmth through him. It was different from anything he'd experienced with Ginny. With her it had been deep love, the forever kind, that kept things gentle and considerate- (well, most of the time at least- the time that Ginny had surprised him by tying him to the bed..that DEFINITELY wasn't gentle.) With Hermione though, it had been desperate, fired-up. Comforting, yet it left him wanting more.

Which was something he definitely wasn't comfortable with. Ginny hadn't been gone all that long and he was already looking at someone else? Self-disgust filled him and it was all he could do to give Hermione a weak smile before he turned and went to locate his robes.

Moments later, he emerged fully dressed from her bedroom to find her standing in front of the fireplace, looking at a picture of the four of them on the mantle. Stepping up quietly as he heard her sobs, Harry wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. Immediately she buried her face in his robes, and wrapped her arms around his waist, crying fiercely. It caused him to be more than a little disconcerted, and not really clear on why she was crying, for this didn't seem to be just normal grief, he murmured nonsensical words and rocked from side to side with her in an effort to calm her down.

It seemed an hour had passed before her sobs began to decrease, and soon were nothing more than just sniffles. Still she didn't raise her head. Concerned, he lowered his head and whispered near her ear, "Hermione? It'll be okay."

"NO HARRY!" Came the fierce reply as the brown haired know-it-all stepped away from her best friend. "It won't be okay! It'll never be okay. You do- ARGH!" Pain shot through her forearm and she dropped to her knees reflexively, cuddling the limb to her body.

Not two seconds later, Harry's scar seared with pain, and he let out a cry before swiftly stiffling it. /You called?/

/Mm, indeed. I am calling a meeting. You are not required to come, but you will have detailed notes on your potion ready for me soon. I have no other job for you just yet./ Harry rolled his eyes, one hand still pressed to his scar.

/Alright./ There was silence on the link for a moment, and then suddenly pain flooded him worse than before.

Blood began to drip from Harry's scar as he stumbled blindly backwards until his legs came in contact with the sofa and he sat down hard. /What the he-/

/Insolent Brat!/ Came Voldemorts voice as the pain lifted a bit. /You shall treat me with respect or else!/ Harry gritted his teeth and shook his head at the arrogance of the...man? he was now supposed to call master.

/Sorry...sir./ He pushed out along the mental length, and then braced himself for pain that never came. Instead came the chilling laughter that Voldemort let out when he was most pleased.

/Good, Potter. I think I'll have you trained like a faithful lap dog one of these days./

/Bite Me./ "ARRGH!" He cried out in anguish as pain surged anew.

From her position on the floor, still cradling her arm even though the pain had passed, Hermione watched Harry suffer under whatever curse Voldemort was inflicting on him through the link and rage filled her. No one hurt him! Not even that....BASTARD that ruled over her. Getting to her feet, she swiftly crossed to his side, and pulled her against him.

Her hand found its way to his that was pressed over his scar, while the other arm pressed his head to her shoulder.

His pain intensified.

He screamed out suddenly, then fell limp against her.

Her mark burned again and she cursed, before gently laying him out on the sofa and summoning a quill and parchment.

Harry,

I had to go. He called.

Love,

Hermione

P.S.- Thank you for last night.

With that she grabbed her mask, robes, slipped them on, and apparated away.

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Four Hours Later

Snape burst through the door of Harry's home yet again, and Harry, who'd been resting on the couch from the effects of whatever it was Voldemort had done to him, could only look up tiredly. He'd not been home from Hermione's house for an hour, and had been looking forward to a night of peace and quiet. Sneering, Snape looked down his nose at the boy-who-lived. "You absolutely foolish, thick skulled, arrogant, little.......Slytherin."

Harry blinked at Snape disbelievingly and raised an eyebrow. "Was that a...compliment?"

The Potions Master narrowed his eyes at him, he should have known better than to even indirectly compliment the stupid child. "Don't let it go to your head, Potter. Your potions not THAT bloody good." The words came out scathingly, some of the best he'd ever spat, and he knew it.

The messy haired young man, however, just grinned and slapped a hand to his heart. "Aww, Sevvie loves me!"

Severus fell silent for a moment in shock at the rudeness, and then snarled, "Potter!"

Harry did what any sensible man would do when he'd just commited a particularly stupid act and was facing a painful death. He ran for the safest location he could think of, and locked himself in.

"Potter, get. out. of. the. bathroom."

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Hope you liked :)

Questions: Should Remus make another appearance? and do you think hermione should be discovered or let it be known to dumbledore on her own that she's a DE?