Chapter 1:
"Are you sure you want to go to school that far away?" Harry asked Hermione once again as he helped her pack up her belongings from her parents house.
"It is the best school in the world," she told him again with a laugh as it was the 5th time he had asked since they started packing.
"But it's in Australia! You can't even just floo back for a visit or apparate and Portkeys have to be arranged months ahead of time!" He complained again to her, he couldn't believe they would be so far apart; he had never spent more than a month away from her since they were 11!
"We'll still write to each other," she told him with a smile. "Besides we have the letter boxes that Professor Dumbledore made for me so that we don't even have to use owls!" They finished packing her stuff and headed to #12 for the rest of the summer. Hermione's parents had not reacted well to knowing that she was definitely never coming back to the muggle world and even worse when she said she was going to spend the next 5 to 7 years in Australia for university. Harry offered her a place to stay until she left and she was grateful. She was also glad she would be able to spend quality time with Harry before she left for so long.
"The place looks great," She told him as they walked in. Harry had hired both Dobby and Winky as his house elves and they were working wonders on the House of Black. She was surprised to see quite a few of her Hogwarts professors when they went into the kitchen.
"Albus decided to reinforce the wards over the summer and kicked everyone out, including himself," he told her laughing at the Headmaster who was sitting at the end of the table examining a box of sweets. "I offered everyone a place to stay and this way they are in appariting distance to Diagon Alley, can come and go as they wish and can still have staff meetings every week."
"Why on earth would they have staff meetings during the summer, I thought that was the only time of year they got to have a life?" Hermione asked him.
"To most of us Hogwarts is our life Hermione; you don't mind if I call you Hermione now do you?" Minerva McGonagall asked her. "And you are free to call us by our first names as well now that you are graduated."
"Thank you Professor but that will take some getting used to," Hermione told her cheerfully. "I am glad to see you again."
Two weeks later Harry walked in on Hermione trying to transfigure some of her older muggle clothing into an outfit appropriate for where they were planning on going to dinner. "Hermione, why don't you wear something you already own?" He teased her before noticing how that made her seem sad.
"I don't own anything suitable," she told him trying to change the subject.
"What's the real problem?" He asked her, knowing she could care less about fashion.
"It's nothing important Harry," she told him, turning her back to him. "I am just trying to save money is all."
Harry, being much more perceptive after becoming friends with the Slytherins, realized she was hiding something and that she didn't want to bother him with it. "Well, let's go look in the storage room Dobby and Winky have set up. They salvaged anything that was not coated in dark magic and I believe that includes a wardrobe or two… maybe there are some decent robes. No offense but transfigured clothing looks… well… it looks a lot like transfigured clothing!" Hermione laughed and followed him to the storage area, glad he dropped the subject. "You can have anything you find in here; I told all the teachers the same thing. This is the stuff I don't need or want and it is up for grabs as it will just sit her unused otherwise. You wouldn't believe what those two elves found hidden around here. I have three other rooms of stuff to sort through that I thought looked useful or just wanted to have so don't think you're putting me out by taking anything. I think Albus already honked onto a few trinkets for his office!"
Hermione thoroughly enjoyed herself that afternoon. The storage room as Harry called it was the old ballroom and was packed full of stuff. It was like a flea market and she was the only one shopping and didn't have to negotiate prices! She found at least half dozen old wardrobes with wizarding clothing in them. She was so relieved. What she hadn't told Harry was that she was basically broke. She knew she would have to confess her situation to him before she left as she would need a loan for her first semester of books and she had read that you always wanted to get a personal loan from one of the wealthy families rather than trying to go to the Goblins as they were ruthless.
The first big 'treasure' she had found was a multi-compartment trunk which was a life saver as she was now toting all her worldly possessions and even shrunk down they had filled her trunk, book bag and three suitcases. The trunk even had a special compartment for books that could store her entire library; or rather an entire library as it would hold more books that she could dream of owning. There were 5 compartments, but 4 were hidden to all but the owner according to the manual she had found with it. As the trunk was unclaimed at the moment she could see all the compartments. The visible compartment was the standard trunk like she had, plus the library compartment, a wardrobe compartment, a compartment with different temperature controls for plants or potions ingredients and another large compartment for general storage. She thought it was the most versatile trunk she could have imagined.
She filled the wardrobe compartment with the robes and clothing she had found. She had always preferred the more classic styles anyways so there was no problem with the clothing being a few years or even decades old. She knew she would have to have Winky help her tailor some of them to her, but she had a lot of time to do that before she left. Her best find in the room was the collection of potions supplies. There was a large crate full of potions masters' equipment. She knew it was high quality, expensive and she was lucky to find it. She would not be able to purchase such equipment until she received her mastery, the only way to buy it was to have your license or inherit it. There were full sets of caldrons in all metals as well as scales, mortars and pestles, vials and jars… everything she was dreading having to purchase for her education. She had decided that she was going to get double masters in potions and transfiguration.
She was excited again to find shelves of books, she summoned Dobby to ask why they were not in the library and he informed her that these were the duplicates and she was allowed any or all of them. She was unable to contain herself and emptied every single one of them into her trunk. She was having such a good time that she would have been late for dinner if Fred and George had not come in looking for a Quidditch set.
"You two already have one don't you?" She had asked them confused.
"Yeah but we want to experiment on it and didn't want to ruin ours!" Fred told her and they all headed to the entry to meet Harry. It was their summer tradition to head to a different muggle restaurant in London every Thursday night. Harry, Tonks, Fred, George, Remus, Neville, Hermione and Bill were the main group that always went and other joined them as their schedules allowed. They chose Thursday so they had a better chance of getting served their group was so large. They had decided on Italian food for the night and spent the evening discussing what everyone was up to and how to get Fred and George's new ideas to work. They had become the unofficial think tank of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.