A/N: Hello again!! Don't you just love me because I updated SO SOON?!?!?!?! lol YAY! :D hehe 'kay ...

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And btw, /this/ is in italics, since it doesn't show up, 'kay? And ::this:: is thoughts. Byebyesz now, read and review!!!!

Inward and upward!!!!!!!!!

Harry yawned and stretched, not opening his eyes. He didn't want to get up. His bed was so warm and comfortable ... he yawned again. He'd had a bit of a restless night.

He reluctantly swung his legs off the bed and put on his glasses, rubbing his eyes. The dream that had haunted him all summer long had visited him again last night.

Dream

"Harry!"

He was all alone in a world of inky blackness. Unable to move, he strained to hear the voice calling him.

"Harry!"

Pictures slowly faded into Harry's view.

He looked around and saw Sirius battling with Bellatrix Lestrange on a raised platform. Cedric Diggory was lying dead at Wormtail's feet, just meters away from them. Cho Chang lay on the ground beside him, also dead. Six Death Eaters, who were advancing on his friends with their wands raised, cornered Ron and Hermione. Harry still couldn't move, only watch as the scene in front of him unfolded.

"HARRY!"

He saw Sirius fall backwards and through the fluttering gray veil. Bellatrix laughed. Voldemort appeared out of nowhere, and leveled his wand at Harry.

There was a blinding flash of green light, and everything turned instantly back to the inky blackness that had surrounded him before ...

Dream

Harry shook his head to clear it, and pulled on his clothes, going down to the common room.

Hermione was sitting at a table in front of the fire, reading a book. Harry checked his watch groggily, and saw that it was only half past six in the morning. He groaned, mentally kicking himself for getting up so early for nothing.

Hermione's head jerked up at the sudden noise. "Who's there?" she said sharply. "Oh – good morning, Harry," she said. "You're up early."

"Believe me, I didn't plan to be," he said, coming over and plunking himself down onto the couch by the fire. "What are you reading, Hogwarts, A History again?"

"No, I'm reading a very interesting book on house elves, actually."

"Not starting up with spew again, are you, Hermione?"

"I never stopped, Harry, you know that. Now, if you're going to make fun of it again, I don't want to hear it. You can go sit over there if you want to."

"No, I wasn't going to make fun of it, just –"

"Laugh at it."

"No! I was just asking, jeez ..."

"Well, good." With that, Hermione turned back to her book. Harry shrugged and stared into the fire, feeling bored and tired. He heard a slight sniff from beside him, and glanced sideways at her. He noticed for the first time that morning that her eyes were slightly red, as though she had been crying.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She lowered her face a little, so that it was half-hidden behind her book. She didn't meet his gaze.

"Fine," he said, and turned back to the fire, though he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She sniffed quietly again, and casually rubbed her eyes as though they itched, although Harry thought he saw a tear glisten behind her hand.

"Come on, what's the matter?" he asked.

"I said nothing," she said from behind her book. She seemed determined not to let on what was wrong. Harry gently put the book down onto the table. She looked away, letting her hair cover her face so that he couldn't see her. He rolled his eyes and leaned forward, trying to get into her field of vision.

"Helloooo ... is anyone home?" he asked, grinning. She didn't answer nor smile. He sighed. "Come on, Hermione, what's wrong? You can tell me."

"Ron and I had a fight last night after you went to bed," she said in a would-be steady and careless voice.

"So? You two fight all the time."

"It was awful, Harry. You should have heard us going at it."

"What were you on about this time?"

"Our Prefect duties."

"Sounds stupid enough to me."

"It was, but that's not the point. He was in such a bad mood, I don't know why. He didn't help me take all the first years up here, and afterwards I told him he was shirking off on his duties, and he just said that they could find their way up on their own, and I told him off, and he yelled at me, and we had a row."

Harry looked at her. "Sounds to me like a lot of your other fights."

"He – he called me a bushy-haired bookworm-ish know-it-all teacher's pet."

"Ron?"

"Yes, Ron! And right in front of all the first years and everyone else in the common room! I was so mad at him ... I still AM mad at him!"

"Ron wouldn't say that ... it's more like something Malfoy would say."

"That's why it upset me."

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a while, and Hermione picked up her book again, sniffing slightly. After a few minutes, she said, "You're going to take his side, aren't you?"

"No, of course not, he shouldn't have called you that."

"You always take his side when we fight. Well, the both of you can go jump in the lake with the giant squid, for all I care!"

"What did I do now? It's not my fault Ron –"

"And now you're getting all defensive, and I didn't even do anything but tell Ron to do his work as a school Prefect!"

"I'm not getting defensive!"

"There you go again! Why do I even bother telling you my problems?! It's no use!"

"Hermione, stop being such a –"

"A what?! A bushy-haired –"

"No –"

"– bookworm-ish know-it-all –"

"Hermione –"

"– teacher's pet?!"

"HERMIONE! Stop it, you know I wasn't going to –"

Hermione was on her feet, fists clenched and eyes red. "You can both go and drown yourselves!" With that, she threw down her book and stormed back up to the girls' dormitories, leaving Harry on the couch staring after her. He shook his head and sighed, flopping back onto the couch cushions and closing his eyes.

An hour and a half later, Gryffindors coming down to the common room awakened Harry form his short sleep. He sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes, yawning. Ron, Dean and Seamus came down the stairs, talking to each other animatedly about the three new professors. Listening to other conversations around the room, Harry realized that it was what was on most of the boys' minds, as well as the girls.

"... I like that Fiora one, the one in the red," Ron was saying. Dean shook his head.

"Darkira's for me."

"Astaria was the prettiest, though," said Seamus, and got a faraway look in his eyes. "Those eyes of hers ..."

"Yeah, well, Darkira is still better-looking," Dean argued. "With her black hair and the big cat, she's –"

"Fiora's better then either of them!" Ron said. The other two rolled their eyes.

"No, she's not!" they both said in unison, and all three laughed. Ron spotted Harry on the couch then.

"Oi, Harry! Which one d' you like best?" he called, coming over. Harry shrugged.

"Well, Fiora looked kind of crazy; Astaria was chirpy; and Darkira was just scary," he said honestly. Ron, Dean and Seamus all began praising their different idols and telling Harry that the one they liked was the prettiest. Harry rolled his eyes and got up off the couch.

"What were you doing down there, anyways?" Ron asked.

"Huh?"

"The couch."

"Oh – I got up early and fell asleep down here," he replied, stretching.

"Oh. Well, which one d' you fancy?"

"I don't really fancy any of them ..."

Ron, Dean and Seamus all snorted. "Yeah, right. Come on, mate, which one is it?"

"I told you, none of them. I mean, they're all pretty –"

"Beautiful."

"Gorgeous."

"More like stunning."

"Yeah. Anyways, I can't pick one favourite. Which one d' you reckon will be teaching us, mainly?"

"Darkira."

"Astaria."

"Fiora."

All three of the other boys spoke at the same time, and Harry laughed.

"Oh well. I'm hungry, Harry, I'm going down to breakfast."

"Have you seen Hermione?"

"No," said Ron coolly. "Let's go down, then."

Harry glanced around the common room, scanning it for his friend, but didn't see her, so he let Ron tug him towards the portrait hole. He glanced over his shoulder just as he was climbing through, and glimpsed Hermione just coming down the stairs from the dormitories. Their eyes met for a brief second, and hurt flashed across her face in the moment that he saw her. Then Ron was pulling him through the hole, and it closed behind him. Harry sighed. Oh dear.