A/N Chapter Warnings: Thank you for all your positive feedback! i'm glad you're all enjoying this new story. Story is rated M for a reason, this chapter may contain: bad language, sex, violence, mentions of rape, and general adult themes.
Chapter 6: End of Summer, Temporary Goodbyes and Time To Go Home
The end of the holidays was pretty anticlimactic, considering everything that had been going on.
Hermione had enjoyed her last evening with Draco and Severus. After Draco had finished watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hermione had managed to dig out Severus' cassette of the film and the two students spent the night dancing and Hermione taught Draco how to Time Warp.
It had been a fun and frolic evening and to end the night, they had one last meal of fish and chips with wine and then they had settled by the small fireplace for a short while.
Hermione had given Draco his things that she had picked up for him whilst in Diagon Alley and she even gave him Severus' rejected goodie bag from the Weasley twins. She told Draco all about it and Draco was in fits of laughter.
"No way! Those twins are legends" he exclaimed as he took out the products that she had been gifted by the twins.
"I thought you were more likely to use some of these things than I was" Hermione said.
Draco nodded in agreement; he was going to put some of these items to really good use.
"Save some for us" Severus remarked from his position in his favoured chair.
"Don't want to know" Draco said as he collected his things and took them up to his room.
Hermione picked up a couple of the products from the ground and looked up to find Severus watching her.
"Early night?" She asked.
Severus put his book down, grabbed Hermione by the hand and led them up to their bedroom. They passed Draco on the landing and Severus warned Draco not to disturb them.
"Gross" Draco said as Hermione giggled at Severus' eagerness in taking her to bed.
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The following morning was bittersweet. Hermione's trunk was fully packed and had been placed in the hallway by the front door. Draco's trunk was also packed and ready in the hallway along with a small bag of Severus' things as most of his belongings were already in his new rooms at Hogwarts.
The three of them sat at the small kitchen table for one last breakfast together.
"Draco, are you sure you will be alright here on your own overnight?" Severus asked.
Draco nodded.
"Yes godfather, it won't be difficult. Then it's back to Hogwarts tomorrow" Draco replied.
Severus nodded and looked over at his Hermione. She had been down all morning and she was currently staring at her toast with only a small bite taken out of it.
"Darling, are you alright?" Severus asked her gently.
Hermione looked up and, to Severus' and Draco's shock, she looked as though she was seconds away from bursting into tears. Severus immediately moved over to where she sat and kneeled in front of her whilst holding her hands in her lap.
"Darling, talk to me" he said gently as Draco watched the two of them.
"Can't we just stay like this forever Severus?" She whispered brokenly.
"Just me and you, and maybe Draco" she sniffled.
"What? You would accept Draco's smelly feet forever? Now I know something's wrong" Severus said, making Hermione laugh.
"Hey!" Draco exclaimed from the other side of the table. His feet didn't smell that bad, did they?
"Oh Severus, I'm really going to miss this when we go back to Hogwarts" Hermione said.
"Me too sweetheart, me too" Severus replied.
Hermione nodded and went back to eating her now cold toast. The two men watched her with concern as they dug into their full English and pondered over her words. Hermione was right; their lives would be much easier if this was all they had to do. It would be so simple and none of the usual shit would mar it up. The rest of breakfast passed in a contemplating silence.
Once all the dishes had been cleaned and put away, Severus told Hermione that she needed to make sure she had all her things together as they were leaving within the hour. He then retreated to his study to collect a few more potions and other bits and pieces that needed to be handled with care when moved.
Hermione knew she had all of her things together so she didn't need to double check. It wouldn't matter if she left any of her belongings behind anyways; she intended to come back to this home soon. She would miss having the luxury of being so free around Draco and Severus so, she made the most of her last hour in her new sanctuary and spent the last hour dancing with Draco in the living room.
"Promise me you won't burn this house down tonight" Hermione jested.
"I'm not that bad!" Draco replied.
"Who was it that set the toaster on fire?" She asked him.
She cast her mind back a couple of days before and remembered how Draco had been hungry and felt that he was comfortable preparing himself some toast. Severus and Hermione had been alerted moments later by the smell of burning, and the fire alarm, that all was not going too well in the kitchen. They had burst in to find the kitchen covered in thick black smoke and Draco attempting to put the fire out with a tea towel whilst trying not to die of smoke inhalation. Hermione had immediately grabbed the small bucket of sand that Severus kept under the sink in case of an electrical fire emergency, whilst Severus cut the power and started opening windows. Once the smoke had cleared nearly an hour later, Draco was still smiling bashfully at the situation and Hermione felt that, now the danger was over, she could laugh at his novice ability in handling a toaster. She vowed to never let him live that one down.
"That was an accident and it was only a small fire, easily sorted out" he said as if nearly setting the house alight was no big deal at all.
"I would like to have a home to come back to" she said.
Severus smiled from the entrance to the living room. He loved how his Hermione thought of this shabby old house as a home. She, and Draco, had brought light to this dreary house for the first time in decades.
"Are you ready? It is time to go" Severus called from the doorway.
"I shall be back early tomorrow morning to escort you to the Hogwarts Express Draco, so don't stay up too late" Severus told his godson as he patted him on the shoulder. He then looked at Hermione, indicating that they really needed to go now.
Hermione nodded and turned to hug Draco.
"I will see you at school" Hermione said.
"See you at school, Granger" he replied smirking. She grinned in return.
Severus and Hermione headed to the front door where Severus picked up his own bag of belongings and started wheeling Hermione's trunk out the front door and up the garden path.
"I love you brother" Hermione said as she turned back to smile at Draco one last time.
"Love you to sis" Draco replied, grinning back.
Hermione waved at Draco and headed out the front door, shutting it behind her and walking up the path to where Severus was standing in the street. She had a great summer here and she wouldn't forget it. She wordlessly turned to Severus and the two took a calm walk to the apparition point.
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Hermione arrived at Grimmauld Place and was greeted by Ron, Harry, and Neville. Ron took her trunk and put it in the main family room of the house, where everyone else's trunks were sat ready for the trek back to Hogwarts.
"This is awesome! We're going to have so much fun, we really have missed you Hermione, and it's been a bit boring without you around. Of course, we did think you were dead for the most part" Ron stammered out through his excitement.
Harry laughed at Ron's excited babbling. If Harry was being honest, Ron had been really starting to irritate him, by the third week of their holiday. Harry had tried not to let it get the better of his patience though, and he understood that Ron was just bored. Since Hermione had returned to them, Ron was using all that pent up boredom as a way of getting on her nerves. However, it seemed to Harry that she found Ron's behaviour endearing and that was how Harry knew that Hermione had missed them just as much as they'd missed her.
The adults were watching the little reunion with smiles on their faces, it was good to have the 'Golden Trio' – plus Neville – all back together however, they knew that this likely meant there was going to be trouble. They always got up to mischief and whilst the adults were happy, they also felt a little uneasy about the four friends spending the evening together and getting up to no good.
"Well, if that's all, Lupin and I shall be heading off now. We have meetings to attend to this afternoon" Severus said and looked at Lupin.
Lupin nodded and said his goodbyes to Tonks and the rest of the occupants of the house. He headed towards the door to wait for Severus and everyone followed him, stating their farewells. This left Severus and Hermione alone in the living room.
"I will miss you Severus you must promise to see me at Hogwarts" she said to him.
Severus nodded. He would never admit it out loud but he felt a little bit of emptiness in his life knowing that they were going to have to go back to their professional roles.
"Madam, I wouldn't have it any other way" he said as he gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"I love you Severus" she whispered.
"I love you too darling" he replied as he left the room to catch up to Lupin.
Once Lupin and Severus had left, Molly declared that it was time for lunch and so, made everyone something to eat.
Once lunchtime was over, Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione were sat around the kitchen table.
"Who's up for a game of exploding snap?" Ron asked.
With that, a very competitive afternoon followed.
"How did you guys do on your OWL's?" Hermione asked the boys sometime later.
"I got an O in Herbology, an E in Defence, Charms and Potions, and an A in Transfiguration" Neville replied first.
"That's fantastic Neville! Congratulations on pulling that grade up in Potions, Professor Snape really did help you out last year, didn't he? Does that mean you're focusing on Herbology? You really have a gift for that Neville" Hermione exclaimed.
Neville nodded.
"I really enjoy those classes, I think that's where I'm heading. Also, Snape really was a great help last year. I think that once I got over my actual fear of him, I found that I was able to concentrate and focus more on what I was actually doing in classes instead of worrying about where he was and if he was going to scare the crap out of me in classes." Neville replied with a beaming smile.
Hermione beamed back, she was really glad that Neville had finally found something he excelled in. Neville was always beating himself up about his clumsiness and the way he fumbled over his spells but, last year being part of DA had changed him, and he had become a lot braver and it really showed in how he picked up his grades last year.
"What about you Harry?" Hermione asked.
"I got an E in Potions, Magical Creatures, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology. I got an O in Defence, I got an A in Astronomy, a P in Divination and a D in History of Magic" Harry said.
"That's good Harry. You know how I feel about Divination but it's a shame about History of Magic. However, you have always been amazing at the more practical subject so I bet you're really pleased" Hermione chuckled excitedly for her friend.
Harry flushed red at the praise and mumbled a thank you. Hermione turned to Ron.
Ron hesitated for a moment. Hermione raised her eyebrow at his hesitation.
"Well...I got an E in Magical Creatures, Charms, Defence, Transfiguration and Herbology. I got an A in Astronomy and Potions. I got a D in Divination and P in History of Magic" Ron said.
"Pretty much E's across the board then?" Hermione grinned at him.
"Congratulations on all of your results. Considering all the crap that was happening last year, all our results were better than what I expected. I thought that I was going to fail everything and was pleasantly surprised. Luckily we can re-take some of the exams if we want to" Hermione said.
"No need to ask how you did then?" Harry said.
"All O's I bet" Ron grinned at her.
"Actually, I got an E in Defence but I think I'm going to retake the exam in the winter when the re-sit examinations take place" Hermione said.
"Wow! Hell must have frozen over if you got an E" Harry exclaimed.
"Alright, stop with the roasting, you know what I am like with my grades" Hermione chuckled.
"Dinner!" the voice of Molly Weasley echoed loudly throughout the house.
"It's dinner time already?" Hermione asked in shock at how quickly the afternoon had disappeared.
"Yep, my stomach has been grumbling for hours...I'm starving!" Ron exclaimed as they headed back downstairs to the kitchen.
"When are you not hungry Ron?" Neville joked.
They all laughed at Ron's stunned look, Neville was taking shots now.
They arrived in the kitchen and were pleasantly surprised to see that they were going to be having dinner with Molly, Arthur, Tonks and the twins.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the shop?" Ron asked.
"Hello to you brother, really nice to see you" George said sarcastically.
"We're great thanks for asking and yourself?" Fred followed up, again with a sarcastic tone.
"I only saw you yesterday, cut me some slack" Ron replied as he sat down and started loading his plate with food.
"Enough boys, this is the dinner table" Molly chastised them.
They sheepishly apologised and everyone worked on filling their plates with food.
"This is delicious Molly, thank you" Neville said as they ate.
"You're welcome dear" Molly smiled back.
"Have you heard from Ginny recently? How is she?" Arthur asked his wife.
"She's alright; she's been spending time with the Patil twins and that Lavender Brown girl. I wrote to her the other day and she replied telling me that she had been having a good time with her friends" Molly replied.
"That's good then, is she going to King's Cross with them tomorrow or does she need someone to go and collect her?" Tonks asked, joining in the conversation.
"No, she's alright, she's going with the Patil twins" Molly confirmed.
"Are you all pleased with your OWL's?" Tonks asked the four students.
"We were just talking about those" Harry said.
"We are all pleased" Hermione said cheerfully as the boys murmured in agreement.
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After dinner, the four friends headed back upstairs to the room they had been comfortably sat in earlier.
"Well what do guys wanna do for the rest of the evening?" Neville asked.
"How about some fun?" Harry suggested.
"That sounds good" Neville smiled.
"Depends what you guys mean by fun" Hermione stated, knowing exactly what the boys were like.
"I managed to swipe these" Ron said as he proudly pulled out two bottles of Firewhisky from his robe pockets.
"Yes!" Harry cheered.
"Is this a good idea?" Neville asked, hesitant at the idea of riding the Hogwarts Express with a hangover.
"Drinking games woohoo!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.
"If you can't beat them, join them" Hermione shrugged, not really putting up a fight.
She could do with a couple of strong glasses of Firewhisky.
"Let the games begin" Ron said as he poured the first round.
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The sun shone through the bedroom curtains and Hermione groaned as she tried to open her eyes whilst trying to stop the dizzy feeling. She felt as though she had been hit by a bus and it was taking all of her self-control to not throw up everywhere. Maybe something to eat would help her stomach settle.
"Breakfast!" Molly Weasley called from somewhere downstairs.
That threw Hermione over the edge. She put her hand to her mouth and made a beeline for the nearest bathroom. She didn't think breakfast was such a good idea after all.
"What the devil is the matter with all of you?" Molly Weasley asked as four very sick looking teenagers dragged their way into the kitchen.
"I believe these might give you an answer" Arthur chuckled as he held up the large empty bottles of Firewhisky he had found whilst checking all of the rooms to ensure the kids had everything they needed.
"Oh for goodness sake" Molly snapped angrily.
"As punishment I am not going to offer you a hangover potion, you will learn your lesson by getting on that busy, loud, bustling train with headaches and turning tummies" Molly glared at them.
The four of them groaned but accepted their punishment. They were then ushered into the main room of the house to collect their belongings. They met the stares of the very disapproving faces of the older Order members, especially their own head of house. Minerva shook her head at them whilst grabbing Neville.
"You will be coming with me" she said as she pulled Neville and his belongings towards the apparition point.
Molly and Arthur took hold of Ron. Shacklebolt and Moody took hold of Harry and Hermione was taken by Tonks.
"Looks like you had a great night" Tonks giggled at her as they followed the others to the apparition point.
"Let's just get this over with" Hermione said as she tried to hold onto the contents of her stomach as the feeling of apparition seized her.
They landed; Hermione looked over to see Neville and Ron reproducing their breakfasts with a very smug looking Minerva and Molly nearby. They had purposely instigated a rough apparition as personal punishment for their charges.
A pale looking Harry looked pityingly at his friends, whilst Hermione tried not to join Ron and Neville in the throwing up adventure. She didn't think she had anything left in her stomach anyway.
"Come on, the train will be leaving soon" Minerva demanded.
The group headed towards the platform.
It was time to go home.