Author's Note I'd like to thank alot of people. For my readers and reviews, for, first of all, reading this and giving me feedback on my idea, not to mention handling my delay. Secondly, Gary, who when I lost my first draft with my computer being evil deleted my last six chapters, had saved my second chapter on his own computer. And thirdly to Butterflykisses, who has now become me second beta and who helped me after my story was rejected for the second time

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but any characters you do not recodnise from the Harry Potter books are mine.

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Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm-Unknown

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Audrey Anbury had been looking forwards to this day all week. It wasn't like anybody else would think it special, oh no. However, today was a day Audrey had very few like in the past. It was a day when both of her parents out of town, and she was almost guaranteed not to be bothered by her friends until noon.

So far she was making the most of it. She'd stayed in bed nearly two hours past her usual time, then had woken up, and dressed befitting for a lazy morning in, namely throwing a lilac bath robe over her nightclothes, and placing her feet in slippers for protection from the cold floor. Taking several minutes, she busily went around to feed each of her pets, and petting one or two of them, before taking Tucker out of his larger pen and settling him on his customary perch on her shoulder, the tawny ferret, already the loudest thing in the house, churring loudly.

After this, she leisurely padded downstairs and into the kitchen, in mind of preparing several pieces of toast and one strong mug of coffee before settling down in the empty sitting room to enjoy the sounds of silence.

Balancing a plate and mug in both hands, she entered the totally empty living room...

Or what should have been a totally empty living room.

"What the hell? What the HELL ?" she screamed, simultaneously dropping the platter with her breakfast on it and grabbing for the nearest thing she could find -a mop- and brandishing it as a weapon towards whoever stood in the middle of the living room, her living room, completely uninvited.

The person turned around quickly, but Audrey was in such a panic that she didn't even register who'd face it was.

" Get.out.of.my.house!" she screeched, swinging at the person with the stick end of her makeshift weapon. " I will call the police!" she crowed, jabbing out with the mop's handle, as if to parry an assault, though the intruder had shown no signs of coming towards her. As if afraid, she felt Tucker shift on her shoulder, behind the hair that was haphazardly draped over the robe's shoulder.

"Audrey, Audrey stop that! It's me- OUCH! Audrey for the sake of keeping my body in one piece I'll leave. So much for surprising you..."

Audrey froze, all the color suddenly leeching from her face. Heaving slightly, she scanned the person before her. Now everything about this person seemed familiar, although she hadn't seen her since the end of last August. The bushy brown hair, was perhaps a little bushier than she remembered, but still recognizable. The eyes, and the face now, which was frowning heavily as the person reached down to rub her tender thigh where she'd berated it with the mop moments before. Immediately, she felt her 'weapon' drop from her hands and onto the pile of mess that had once been her breakfast.

"Oh god, no. Hermione, no. Oh...God sit down. I didn't know...I forgot you were going to be...I didn't know anybody could get into the house...You were so quiet...I didn't know...Oh...Oh..." she mumbled, shakily approaching her long-time friend warily, half expecting to lashed out at.

"S'alright," was Hermione's reply, a rue smile crossing her face. "Learned something though. Don't ever use the spare key under the flowerpot to get into Rey's house, especially in the morning and if you want to leave with the same number of injuries as you came in with." she plopped down heavily onto the couch, wincing as she moved her battered leg up onto the cushions. "You've learned something over the term; taking lessons from Meara, have we?"

Audrey sat down beside her, hands still shaking slightly. " You were so quiet I hadn't even realized you were there." her laughing was light, a little higher in pitch than usual for her, bordering on hysterical. "Honestly, I'm so sorry. When...When did you get back, anyway?"

"Last night, we pulled in after dark." Hermione supplied casually, still a little hesitive, it seemed, to move with any fast movements, as if expecting Audrey to go grab the mop again, although any thought of being a rampaging murder and threats of calls placed to authorities had vanished from her friend's tone now.

"And school? How was school?" Audrey asked, seeming intrigued.

Hermione's face changed. It wasn't a look of pain, or happiness, or worried. In fact, Audrey didn't know what to make of it. To her it almost seemed like she was deep in thought, as if trying to think of what to say.

But who would ever need to think of anything to answer such a simple question Audrey asked herself, watching the change. It was either good or bad, was it not? Straightforward.

"It was...Interesting." she finally admitted. "Yes, it was definitely interesting." she seemed to grow more confident the second time around, deciding on her answer, and even nodding rapidly to emphasize.

Tucker reappear from his spot on Audrey's shoulder, peering out from a tossled curtain of dulled blonde hair, sniffing the air, beady eyes on Hermione.

"Hey Tuck. " Hermione said lightly, almost sounding happier at the ferret's appearance and the possibility of distraction. "Haven't see you in a while, miss me? Haven't gotten anything on me though." The ferret seemed to ignore her, and Audrey outstretched her hand so the ferret could move down it, and into the hands Hermione cupped to hold the little body. As soon as he reached the fully-clothed girl, he begin sticking his head into the pocket of her sweater in search of treats that she already said she didn't have, nonetheless.

Audrey's stomach growled hungrily itself, making her finally remember the meal which was now soaking into the carpet, and the fact that she'd hadn't eaten anything since the night before. "Just a sec. Want to have anything to eat?" Audrey called over her shoulder, moving off into the kitchen, sidestepping the mess, and promising to clean it up later. She wasn't exactly know for her culinary art, but at least it may be enough to repay Hermione for the earlier unprovoked attack.

"Ah, no thanks." Hermione declined hurriedly. Audrey bustled about like a madman, piling a plate with more toast and bringing another kettle to boil for the second time that morning, not bothering to answer her, for the simple fact that her friend seemed to be unwilling to talk that morning.

Oddly enough, the other girl's voice drifted into the kitchen from where she sat, now almost willing to talk. "Can't wait to see Meara and Catrin again." Audrey could see over her shoulder that she was petting the ferret, her face turning to a mask of relaxation. As to why she was not relaxed before, Audrey could not even think of one explanation.

"Oh yeah...they haven't changed a bit since you left though, so don't expect anything extravagant." It was true. Catrin was still the mouse girl who everybody gnawed at, and Meara was...Well, she was still Meara. There was no real, easy what to explain her red-headed friend. "All of us are probably different from the crowd at...What'd you call it...'Harris'?"

"Yeah, that was it." she replied, " And no, none of you guys are like the people I met at school. People at Harris' are, well, they're different."

A sudden movement from Audrey's arm cause the mug she'd set out to tip over, rolling across the counter. Interesting? Different? What had they done with Hermione that had made her stop her usually descriptions, ones that Meara often said could 'fill at least three pages with the tiniest type imaginable'. Was the small descriptions her fault? Had she said something, done something that was different. No, the only new thing she'd done that morning was branish her mop, and she'd only hit her outside the leg, not outside the head!

Was it possible that Hermione, now the member of a prestigious school, had become stuck up? Did she think that she was now unworthy of knowing anything about the past months, since she had slightly less academic knowledge than herself. Did Audrey dare think Hermione had changed so rapidly in relatively little time.

She scolded herself, setting the mug on it's end again. She was worried, but surely she could put on a front. She had seen her mother act as if nothing was wrong, and she could do it now!

"Well I guess so." Audrey stepped back into the living room, plate piled high with buttered toast and her second mug grasped tightly in both hands, mouth parted in a tooth and somewhat manic smile. "They're all gifted!"

"A little more gifted than you think."

"Hm...What was that?"

"Nothing. I said nothing."

Audrey raise a thin, whitish eyebrow, her smile widening even more, her nose and eyes nearly squishing shut. She wanted to know what was going on, and what Hermione had so quietly murmured. She just had to keep up the front a little longer...

"Come on, you can tell me, can't ya?"

"Err...Audrey, are you okay?"

"Okay, why wouldn't I be okay? I'm perfectly fine...In fact more fine than I ever was fine since your back and fine and I'm all ready to hear about your school and all your classes and what happened and the students and what happened and what it looked like and every single thing you learned and-"

"Audrey take a breath.."

"And how I bet everyone thought you were just brilliant and-"

"Your hands are shaking...You'll have tea all over yourself..."

"How all the popular people swarmed around you and-"

" B Audrey/B " Her name was spoken with such force that Audrey froze in mid-sentence. Only now did she notice that Hermione had sat up and lean outwards from the couch to grasp her shoulder roughly. Her mouth ached from the over-broad grin, and a puddle of scalding water had fallen from the cup in her unsteady hand to land on her slipper and soak throughout to burn her toes.

"What?" She asked innocently, staring back into the quizzical, concerned face.

"Lay off the caffeine, Rey." Hermione said lightly, thought undoubtedly serious.

"Oh...Well...Alright then." Regaining what little grace she had left after the trying morning, and sitting down on the couch. She couldn't help but notice that Hermione seemed to edge away either to get away from her or to get closer to the front door, or, most likely, both.

I'll have to try again. She said to herself, but much subtler. What she needed to do, was think of how exactly she was going to go about it.

Audrey finally opened her mouth to speak, but at that moment, with possibly the most unwelcome and awkward timing imaginable, the doorbell rang. The brilliant interrogation she was about to speak was lost with that momentary distraction, and she couldn't help but groan aloud in frustration, and wince as she heard the muffled noise from the behind the door.

Specifically, it was two all-too-familiar voices. And if she could have personally chosen the worst possible time that they could show up, than this, undoubtedly, was it.