Notes

*Waves* Um, hi?

I guess I'm updating this again after months of inactivity on this story. Turns out I had enough for an okay-length chapter and decided to post it instead of letting it lie stagnant in my documents. As a general rule, I prefer not to post anything under 1 000 words, and at 1 065, this chapter just makes it.

Anyway, as I am currently focusing on 'In Six Summers' Time' this will be taking the back-burner for the moment, but I hope you enjoy this chapter nonetheless

Harry and Hermione walked out onto the platform at Hogsmeade hand-in-hand. Harry was grinning giddily, and Hermione kept looking down at their intertwined fingers, as if hardly believing that it was actually happening. They were holding hands! Sure, they'd done it before, but this was different.

"Hermione!"

The couple turned as her name was called, to find the red-haired member of their trio running towards them. He stopped short when he caught sight of Harry, and the hands that held the pair together.

"Er- who's this?"

Harry barked out a laugh - reminiscent of his late godfather, for reasons he had yet to explain.

"Really, Ron? You've known me since first year, yet you can't recognise your best mate?"

Ron's eyes bulged in surprise and recognition, "Harry?! Blimey, mate, you look - you look… different. What happened this summer?"

Harry shrugged, "A lot of things. I went to a healer, for one."

"Oh." Ron frowned, at a loss of what to say.

The silence lingered for a minute, before Harry shrugged and began walking toward the carriages, "Come on, we don't want to miss the ride."

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other with a smile, and a shake of the head, before following him to the thestral-led carriages. They climbed into one beside Neville and Luna, whom they greeted with a smile, before the carriage lurched and began it's climb towards the castle.

They held a pleasant conversation on the way, talking briefly about their holidays but not going into much detail. Hermione and Luna exchanged glances, however, when the younger girl caught her holding Harry's hand.

Noise died down, however, as they entered the great hall together, but Harry barely noticed. He was too busy staring at the silver-bearded man sitting at the centre of the teachers' table. Dumbledore himself looked pale at the sight of Harry, as if his whole world had just crashed. Needless to say, there would be some major changes at Hogwarts that year.

Harry helped Ron and Hermione lead the first years up to the dorms after the feast. Some of them, as always, had heard of him and his exploits before, and looked up at him in awe. He simply ignored their looks, as he had so many years before, and showed them the way with a smile, eagerly chatting with some of the bolder ones - which turned out to be most of them, as they were Gryffindors after all.

Once they reached the common room, he gave a brief goodnight kiss to Hermione before heading up to be with a smirk on his face, planning a 'surprise' for her in the morning.

Hermione was woken up by the feeling of something licking her face

"Eeugh!" She cried, shoving the thing off her. She opened her eyes to catch a glimpse of a dark black Alsatian that barked once before disappearing out of the dorm. She hesitated a moment before chasing after it.

Meanwhile, in the boys' dorm, an Alsatian raced up the stairs and clambered back up onto his bed, where he swiftly changed back into Harry and threw the covers over himself, pretending to be asleep. He knew Hermione would come looking for him, so it would be best if he had an alibi.

Sure enough, only a moment later, the bookworm herself entered the dorm and threw back the curtain surrounding his bed.

"Harry!" She screeched, startling not only him but all the other occupants of that dorm into wakefulness.

"I'm up, I'm up!" He cried, putting his acting skills to the test as he shot out of bed and blinked his eyes open wearily, his hair a total bird's nest. Hermione stopped short at the sight, her breath catching in her throat.

She shook her head to clear it. It really wasn't the time for that.

"Would you care to explain why I was woken up by a dog licking my face this morning?"

Harry exchanged glances with a now-wide-awake Ron, who looked at him before shrugging. He looked back at Hermione.

"A dog? What kind of dog?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, not quite believing his innocent act, "A black one -Alsatian, I think."

Harry shook his head, "Sorry, 'Mione, but I only woke up when you came in."

"Oh really? What's your animagus form then?"

Her boyfriend's eyes widened, caught off guard by the question, "Wh- what are you talking about? I'm not an animagus."

She raised an eyebrow at him, a smirk playing on her lips, "Well, I know a way we can check that. You see, I happen to know a spell that forces a person to change into their animagus form. It also indicates whether they have actually completed the transformation before. They glow green if they have and red if they haven't."

Harry was beginning to sweat. He looked to Ron for help. His best friend seemed to catch on and tried to prevent her from going any further.

"Hermione, come on, Harry's only just woken up. He's been here the whole time, right guys?"

He looked to his dorm-mates for back up. They all mumbled their concurrence.

Hermione seemed to contemplate it for a moment, causing Harry to relax slightly… before she whipped out her wand and cast the spell at him.

She did it so suddenly there was nothing Harry could do to avoid it. Before he knew what was happening, the spell had hit him, and he felt the, by now, familiar change come over him. A second later, a great, black Alsatian stood where he had been, glowing emerald green, the same colour as his eyes, with a faint white mark on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt.

A stunned silence filled the dorm for a few moments. Hermione smirked, satisfied. Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus simply stared, speechless. The dog - Harry - growled quietly, and seemed to roll his eyes, before leaping off the bed and onto his girlfriend, knocking her over. He wagged his tail and barked, looking at her sheepishly.

Hermione just laughed, and shoved him off, "Get off me, you mangy mutt."

The dog barked at her once again, before turning back into Harry.

It was then that McGonagall came in, "Would you care to explain why some students felt it necessary to tell me that there was a dog in the girls' dormitory?"