A/N: Ok I know ! isn't proper grammar but I felt the sentance warranted it. Hope you agree! Happy reading. Remember to R&R ;) Step

Oh, I know this is a bit longer than my other chapters but there was no point in breaking it up.

Chapter 12

Harry and Ginny followed Hermione upstairs to her room. The three of them stopped, however, when they saw the mound of boxes stacked in Hermione's room.

'Oh, I'm so glad you two are here to help! Aren't you so glad you offered?' she said with a cheeky smile.

They moved the boxes out into the hall – using magic of course – and then brought two of them back into the room. Harry sat on the floor with one, Hermione and Ginny sat on the bed with the other.

'Cool! I get the box with Hermione's old school books in!' Harry said smiling up at the two witches. He took a red exercise book out of the box, 'Hermione Granger, Mathematics Homework, Mrs. Gwynn. Class 6M.'

'6M?' asked Ginny, confused.

'Year six, Middleton house; each year was split into four houses like at Hogwarts. I was in Middleton which was…red actually.'

'That's strange,' said Ginny.

'Not really, more of a coincidence. You weren't chosen to be in a house because you possessed certain qualities, it was purely random, which one you were placed in.'

'Ah I see.'

'Now there's a surprise,' said Harry looking through the workbook.

'What is?' asked Hermione who was rummaging through her own box.

'Ten out of ten, ten out of ten, twenty out of twenty, fifteen out of fifteen, Merlin's Beard!'

'What?' Hermione asked sensing the sarcasm and amusement in Harry's voice.

'Seven out of ten! Seven out of ten? What happened Hermione?'

'Oh shut up! Little miss know-it-all did have the occasional bad day you know!'

'Yes but that's three whole questions wrong!'

'What's your point saviour boy?'

'How did you recover Hermione?' The experience must have been traumatic.'

'You'll have a traumatic experience in a minute if you're not careful!' Hermione exclaimed, pulling out an old diary from the box. Ginny did the same.

'Aww look Hermione's old diaries! Do you mind if I read them?' Ginny asked.

'Yeah go on, I'm pretty sure my…' she checked the date on the spine and mentally worked out her age, 'nine year old self didn't have any embarrassing secrets.'

Ginny started flicking through the small book, reading the odd entry.

'How do you want these sorting Hermione?'

Hermione glanced up at the small pile of books Harry had looked through.

'Err…if you put them in year order and in some sort of subject order please.'

'Any particular subject order?'

'English, Maths, Science and the whatever's left.'

'Ok, that can be arranged.'

Harry picked up a pile of books and started putting them in different piles.

'Err Hermione, why is this one covered in ink?' He held up a book that was dotted in ink spots, and then opened it to reveal a page nearly filled with ink.

'I think I know why!' Ginny answered not looking up from the diary but smiling broadly.

Hermione grinned, she knew what was coming. Ginny read allowed,

'Today in school something very strange happened, there's only one n in happened by the way Hermione,'

'Yes, thank you Ginny, can I remind you I was nine!'

Ginny continued reading.

'We were having a test in science and Lisa was copying from me. I got very angry, but I couldn't say anything because it was a test. Then suddenly there was ink everywhere and her pen was broken into small pieces.'

'You made her pen explode!' Harry asked laughing.

'Apparently!' Hermione said with a huge grin on her face, 'of course then I had no idea what had happened, everyone presumed she had been pressing too hard on the nib and it cracked the cartridge sending ink everywhere, but when I was at home I thought about what had happened and I remembered feeling like a surge through me, and a split second later her pen was in bits!'

'Hermione Granger I am shocked!' said Harry, 'that girl must have been traumatised!'

'Oh she was fine after an hour or so, and it served her right. And you're one to talk Mr. I-blew-up-my-aunt-and-set-a-snake-on-my-cousin!'

'Yes well I was provoked!'

'So was I!' Hermione replied shrilly.

'I swear if I have to sort out another argument between you two today I'll jinx your mouths shut!'

'Aww come on Gin, Hermione knows I'm only messing!'

'As does saviour boy!' Hermione replied, and then burst out laughing at Harry's face. Despite himself, Harry laughed as well.

Hermione looked through the diary she was holding, it was from the year before she went to Hogwarts. She opened it to July. She read the passage from her last day at first school.

Well today was my last day at St. Aidans, I'm looking forward to going to King Edwards but I'm a bit scared too, Hannah, Lauren and Alex will be there and we'll be facing it together so it'll be ok. I've decided I want to be a doctor when I grow up, it'll be hard work but I think I can do it. Anyway the holidays are here which is great. We're going on holiday in two weeks to France, I think we're going for three weeks which means I won't get to spend much time with my friends this holiday. Oh well, I guess I'll have to make the most of these two weeks. Starting now! Bye!

Hermione smiled, remembering the time she had spent with her friends that holiday. It was strange really, she missed the fact that she hadn't gone through secondary school with them, and got to know the people they turned out to be. She had seen them occasionally, bumping into the in town when she was home for the holidays. She struggled to remember the cover story her parents had come up with to excuse her absence from the local grammar school when she saw them, but if she mentioned the words 'finishing school' and 'up north' they normally remembered what they had been told by their parents.

Her eyes had glazed over and she hadn't turned a page in the diary for the past five minutes.

'Hermione? Are you ok?' Harry asked gently.

'Huh? Erm yeah I'm fine. I was just wondering what life would have been like had I not found out I was a witch. What I would be doing, if I'd still be friends with the girls I was friends with at school. You know, just thinking. Do you…do you never think how things-' she stopped herself before she finished the question. If Harry and his family had not been wizards, he would more than likely still have parents. 'I'm sorry, that was insensitive. I didn't mean to-'

'Hermione it's ok. I know what you meant, and yeah, I do think about it sometimes, what would I be doing if I'd gone to Stonewall High in my dyed, second hand uniform and my broken glasses. I wonder if I'd have made friends finally being away from Dudley, or whether I'd have been known as 'that Potter Boy' throughout my entire education!'

'Did you think about what you wanted to be when you were older?'

'I really didn't know. Merlin I didn't even know until fake Moody suggested I'd make a good Auror what I might end up doing in this world and that was when I was fifteen, never mind eleven!'

'Yeah I suppose.'

'So what's bugging you?' Ginny asked, even though she couldn't understand what Harry and Hermione had experienced, being brought up thinking they were muggles, she knew instinctively something was bothering her friend.

'Nothing really, I mean, don't get me wrong if I could go back and decide against going to Hogwarts, I wouldn't do it. I'd still get on that train, even if I knew what I do now, but there will always be a part of me that'll miss living out life as I planned. Even though it was an eleven-year-old girl's plan, it still had goals, ambitions and dreams.'

'That's perfectly understandable Hermione. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to have your world turned upside down, and at quite a young age as well. But you can't say you've not taken advantage of every opportunity that you've been offered, you did unimaginably well at school considering you're muggle born and you've been the best of friends to Harry and me, not to mention the most caring and loyal girlfriend to my lazy arsed brother.

'You've lived life as a witch to the fullest, from someone with muggle parents that's a huge achievement, and you should be proud of that. I know none of the recent events were planned, but it all went quite well with only one hitch, which will wake up eventually! You should be proud of yourself Hermione, I know I'm proud of you, and Harry too.'

Hermione sat on the bed taken aback by the very kind words of her friend. It was enough to her she understood how she felt, never mind to know that Ginny was proud of her.

'Thanks Gin,' she croaked, 'that was a really nice thing to say.'

'That's ok, you are allowed to have insecurities Hermione and friends don't judge you on them, no matter what they are, ok?'

'Ok, point taken.'

'Just don't decide to live as a muggle hermit. I would drag you back to the wizarding world with my own two hands if I had to!' Hermione smiled.

'No you wouldn't. You'd use magic all the way!' Harry responded. Ginny looked at Hermione, eyebrows raised.

'Saviour boy does have a point!' she replied. Ginny scowled at them and pulled out a small book from the box.

'YES! I've found photos!' she almost sang. Hermione's smile slipped off her face whereas Harry's threatened to split his face in two, 'bad look Hermione!'

'Oh Merlin! They would be in this box wouldn't they? And you would be the first to find them! Can I just say, before you open the album that my fantastically bushy hair was tame in the first few years at Hogwarts compared to what you are about to see in there. It was also a bit shorter so it had a triangular shape to it. Swimming was a good lesson for me at school, it was the one hour in the week where my hair was flat!'

Ginny looked at Hermione and smiled.

'Oh come on Hermione, it can't be that- oh!' she had opened the album and caught sight of Hermione's hair, 'wow, you weren't exaggerating were you?'

'No I wasn't!' Hermione laughed.

'Let me see!' Harry exclaimed from the floor. When Ginny ignored him he stood up and squeezed himself between Ginny and the box so he could look at the photos.

'O-k! That's erm, that's quite big hair Hermione! I mean I'm not one to talk when it comes to hair, I gave up on mine years ago but that's erm, still big!'

'That was very restrained of you Harry, thank you…I think!'

Ginny and Harry looked through the rest of the photos, Ginny got past expecting them to move (eventually) and once they had passed the shock of Hermione's hair, they asked question about who else was in the photos and where they were taken.

Apart from pausing to look at photos the trio managed to work their way through the boxes pretty quickly. Hermione kept a few things aside to take back to the house so she could look at them properly, including her diaries from her first three years at Hogwarts and her school reports to see if she could see any hidden hints from her teachers comments that indicated she made strange things happen in class.

Harry's favourite box was the one holding all the games. He looked at Monopoly in awe. Having never been allowed to play it at the Dursley's he was ecstatic to hear Hermione offer to teach him how to play. That reaction was nothing, however, to the one he gave when he found Mouse Trap.

'Dudley used to play this in front of me knowing I wanted to play but never letting me join in. Can we please take it back home with us?'

Hermione nearly wet herself at Harry's reaction and told him that, yes, he could take the game back home. It was half past ten by the time they had finished sorting, wine having flowed freely all the while. The three slightly giddy friends descended the stairs and went to say their goodbyes to Hermione's parents. After telling her dad which boxes were for where – the ones on her bed were to keep, the ones on her floor were to go to charity and the ones outside her room could be thrown out. Knowing her dad probably wouldn't remember which pile was for which, she had left reminders for him in the forms of very glittery and sparkly multicoloured words hovering above the boxes, apparently Hermione got a little more creative with the help of alcohol.

The three of them said their goodbyes after arrangements had been made for Friday and after Ginny had insisted that there was no need to dress up for dinner (it being a thoroughly informal, extended family dinner).

With their boxes in and games in tow they apparated back home. They were all very tired so went to bed after one more glass of wine. For once Hermione had no trouble falling asleep. Although she didn't normally approve of indulging in large quantities of alcohol (she found the negatives generally outweighed the positives) it was tonight proving useful in sending her to a dreamless sleep.