Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Although I do own this plot and the new characters and ideas…

Okay here is your new chapter for the New Year! Thank for all of your reviews. It gives me support…and Beans…you are messed up! And stop stalking me!Lilwhitney

Chapter One: Wake Up

Hermione gasped the terror overwhelming her as she fell hard off her bed.

'Jeez', she thought groggily. 'How long has it been since I've fallen off my bed?' and she smiled despite the growing pain creeping down from her butt to her legs.

When she finally situated herself on the floor she took a quick glance around her room and then turned her head toward her clock on the opposite wall she was facing. 4:00 a.m.

'Great,' she muttered as she got back into her bed. 'Now I'll never get back to sleep.'

In a lot of ways, Hermione considered herself older then she looked. For example: she found it impossibly hard to get back to sleep when she was woke up. Even of it was just a blink of an eye or if she woke up ten minutes after acquiring sleep.

She sighed and started to stare at her ever so familiar ceiling. There were pictures on it she had tapped on it last summer after being extremely bored with the blank white swirls above her.

There were only five of them. The very first one in the row was the oldest of them. It was of her and her father on her forth birthday. She was outside holding his hand while she was sticking her tongue out in hopes of catching snowflakes. Hermione smiles at the memory. She had always loved the snow. It was a bittersweet thing to her. So beautiful, but very cold to the touch. She turned her head to the neat picture and made a face.

It was of her on the day she had received her Hogwarts acceptance letter. She had been so excited that she had accidentally tripped over her own feet and therefore her dad had snapped the picture with Hermione on the floor, face first into her mothers meatloaf (which had been so conveniently dropped at her mothers excitement of her daughters acceptance).

Hermione smiled slightly at the memory and moved on to the nest picture in line. It was of the 'Golden Trio', a name Hermione and her best friends had been given at Hogwarts for their reputations. Hermione was in between Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. It was from their forth year at Hogwarts together.

She frowned slightly because she distinctly remembered Ron had been trying to make her hair pink for the picture before she had noticed. But to Ron's dismay, and anger, he had failed. Viktor Krum had so diligently pointed out to his Herm-my-o-ninny that she looked exactly like a pretty pink flower.

Hermione sighed and looked to the next picture in the group and giggled. It was of her and Ginny, back to back looking like secret agents, with their hands pointed to look like guns. They had had the most serious look in their faces that Hermione had to crack another smile. That had been taken last summer, and since that summer her and Ginny had become the best of friends. But speaking of the summer…Hermione flinched. Ginny Weasley—lead to Ron Weasley. Someone she desperately wanted to forget about. But the horrible reminder came to her any way. Last month, they had broken up. And this thought finally led to the last picture on the ceiling. It was of her and Ron three months ago. He was carrying her piggyback and they had the smiles of two carefree lovers completely happy with their lives and who was in it.

Hermione felt un-bidden tears reach the surface of her deep brown eyes. They had been together for six months… six glorious months. And the Ron decided he didn't want it anymore…didn't want her anymore. She turned away from the pictures and let out a ragged sigh. She hadn't been in love with Ronald Weasley, she was certain of that. But she had been very close to it.

Hermione looked back at the clock. It was 5:35 a.m. She blinked. Had she really been in La-La world for more than an hour? She gave a slight shrug and brang herself slowly out of her comfortable position on her bed, grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of jeans, and headed for the shower.

Hermione breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with the taste of water. The rush of the hott water cascading down her body relaxed every pore in her body. Showers were in her opinion, the only cure for stress. She'd been having a lot of showers lately.

When she was done she stepped out of her warm, comfortable atmosphere and into reality. She grabbed a towel off her rack beside her flipped her hair in front of her and expertly wrapped the towel around her hair. When she was satisfied with her handiwork, she slid into her baggy, yet comfy jeans, and jammed her head tee shirt over her head. It was now 6:45 a.m… fifteen minutes till breakfast at the Grangers house.

Breakfast was always early. It had been that way since before I was born. My parents were early birds. And of the worst kind…it had rubbed off on me. Now I sensed I had an internal clock. One that literally made me wake up at 4:00 a.m. every morning. It was a truthfully annoying habit.

I then trooped down the stairs two at a time. All the way ignoring my cat's wish to be loved.

"Good morning, sunshine!" My mother cooed at me, when I emerged from the kitchen door. "Isn't it a lovely day?"

"Yes," I said back, then mumbled, "If you could see the sky correctly."

"How was your sleep, pumpkin?" My father asked me as he folded his Sunday paper, and started filling his plate.

"Fine daddy." I said glumly putting very little effort into my answer.

"That bad, huh?" he laughed as he grabbed for the butter.

I just shrugged, and took a swig of the grape juice in front of me, and sighed.

"So…has anything come for me yet?" I asked allowing a glimmer hope to rise in my voice.

"No, not yet, sweetheart." My mum said as she placed a plate of chocolate pancakes in front of me.

"What are you expecting?" my dad asked me curiously, when he had finally swallowed everything thing in his mouth and could now concentrate on me.

"Oh, just…my letter from Hogwarts I get every summer." I said in a rush.

"Oh," my mother said bringing about my attention again. "Then you won't be needing this then." And she pulled out a letter in pink ink and started to wave it at me temptingly.

"Mum! Where…when did you get that?"

"Last night."

"Well, why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh honey, you were just too tried for anything. I wanted to make sure you had gone to bed without anything being pressed onto your mind. You know, you work yourself too hard dear." She said after an afterthought.

"Well, let me see it!" I said excited.

She handed the envelope over after examining it one last time, and slid it to me from across the table.

"Thanks, mum." I said as I skipped merrily to the living room.

And as soon as I was comfy in my over sized bean bag chair, I tore opened the letter and read its contents.

Dear Hermione,

Hey Girl! I miss you soo much! Two months is really too long of a vacation, you know? When do you plan to go to Diagon Ally? Because I was thinking that maybe we could rent a room together at the Leaky Cauldron and spend our last week of our summer together. Does that sound okay with you? Write me back as soon as you can!

Love from,

Ginny

When I was done reading Ginny's letter I had a cross between a happy and sad expression torn onto my face. I was glad to have a chance to get out of here and spend some girl time with Ginny, but…I knew why Gunny was so desperate to get out of the burrow. Harry Potter was spending the last week of the summer vacation at the burrow. And clearly Ginny couldn't handle the situation.

Ginny Weasley was practically in the same boy situation as I was. But then again, my guy didn't want me while, Ginny's…wanted her.

I sighed. Poor, sweet Ginny. She and Harry deserved happiness – and of the best kind. But ignoring each other's feelings for one another while they were clearly, heads over hells in love…wasn't exactly the healthiest thing in the world.

I mused over the complexity of my friends lives for a few minutes and then went to my fathers desk to grab a notebook and pen. But when I passed by the kitchen door again I heard my mum call out, "Hermione?"

"Um, yeah mum?"

"Could you be a dear and wash both of the bathrooms today? I need help with the cleaning…"

"Sure mum," I said while my face cringed with dislike. "If you'll let me go spend my last week of my summer vacation with Ginny in Diagon Ally?"

I heard her put down her fork in the kitchen and come into the living room.

"Sure honey." She said, "As long as you keep safe, and stick together."

"Yes," I said and smiled at her convincingly. "Ginny and I will stick together.

"Okay, honey." She said as she let herself smile back at me., "When do you leave?"

"Oh, I'll find that out later tomorrow," I said as I indicated my free hand towards the paper in the other, "Just let me tell that I can go along with her."

"Okay." She said, satisfied and walked back into the kitchen.

When I was comfortable in my chair again I wrote my reply.

Dear Ginny,

Guess what? I can go! Just tell me when we leave.

Love from,

Hermione

P.S. (I need to talk to you about something --- or rather, somebody)

Love, again

Hermione

When I was finished composing my letter I folded it up into quarters and gave it to Rain, my new owl, to deliver, and I sent her on her way.

After a long day of cleaning, I took another long deserved shower and slid exhausted into my bed. But something was nagging at me from the back of my mind. Had I forgotten about something? I wasn't sure. Today hadn't been a big, long, full day…nothing special had happened. But my conscious told me differently.

Then it hit me. I had had a dream last night. That was why I had fallen out of bed. But…I couldn't remember what it had been about. Had it been important?

Then a wave of weariness swept over me, and sleep, for once, came un-bidden.

My last thought before I gave into the sandman's demands was, 'I wish it was winter…'

A/N: Please read and review!

Thanks…lilwhitney