Standard disclaimers apply!

I do not own Harry Potter. I have nothing to do with Scholastic, Warner Bros or Bloomsbury. I'm not JKR and I am certainly not making any profit out of this.

Sun 6th Sept 1998

"No need to ask who that's from," said Ginny, glancing up from her kippers and toast to find Hermione smiling slightly as she read her morning post.

Hermione nodded vaguely.

"What's he got to say?" Neville asked, glancing from Hermione to Ginny and back again.

"Just stuff," Hermione murmured, taking a moment to sip her coffee.

"Stuff?" Seamus arched his brows and scooted over to sit beside Ginny. "What sort of stuff?"

Hermione looked up to find she had a rapt audience. "Bloody hell," she rolled her eyes. "Don't you people have breakfast to eat or something?"

"Bloody hell?" Dean echoed, smirking slightly. "Did my ears deceive me ... from the Head Girl, no less?"

Exhaling impatiently through her nose, Hermione stared at them all. "Would you like me to read it aloud?" She gestured to the letter in her hand, and then cleared her throat in a formal sort of way.

"All joking aside, I'm glad you seem to be settling in. You will tell me if you're not, won't you? I don't know what I could possibly do ... but tell me anyway." She took a another sip of her coffee. "Work slowed down the last few days, I think because the holidays are finished. By slowed down I mean busy, as opposed to bedlam. It's nice to have a breather."

"Shall I go on?" She bit back a smile at their expressions. "I'm sure Ron won't mind, although it gets a bit more personal toward the end."

"No, that's fine," Dean said quickly, looking slightly sheepish, "none of our business ..."

"Really?" Hermione did smile then. "You think so?" Shaking her head, she drained the rest of her coffee. "Anyway, I've got things to do. Ginny, you're finishing your potions essay after lunch, right?"

"A-ha," Ginny nodded vaguely, engrossed in her own mail.

"Right. I'll keep the afternoon free." Hermione addressed Neville, Dean and Seamus, "I'll see you all at lunch. Neville, I'll be in the library if anything comes up."

"Why'd you stop her?" Seamus asked as they watched Hermione leave the Great Hall. "That was interesting; Ron never struck me as a letter writer."

"He used to write her every other day during the summer holidays," Ginny remarked absently, not bothering to look up. "Well, when she wasn't staying with us."

"Honestly," Dean frowned slightly, "I don't want Ron pissed off at me. He's a bit ... how do I put it? He's a bit protective of Hermione."

"I noticed that," said Neville.

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked.

Even Ginny looked up from her letter. "How do you know?"

Dean looked vastly uncomfortable. "Not sure it's my place," he turned to Neville, "when did you notice it?"

"When I had tea at The Burrow back in June," said Neville. "A conversation started about Hermione coming back here, actually, and she seemed to not want to talk about it. We asked, but Ron shut it down pretty quickly.

"True, that," Ginny agreed. "Dean?"

"How much do you know about when we were staying at Shell Cottage?" Dean asked bluntly.

"Harry told me the guts of it. Oh. Are you talking about what happened at Malfoy Manor? Yeah, they told me about that. It's not a secret or anything, but they don't talk about it much." Ginny looked thoughtful. "You were there," she nodded at Dean. "I'm sorry," she added, quite sincerely, "I forgot."

"That's OK," Dean chuckled, "I got off lightly. Ron was ..." he paused thoughtfully, "not happy, when Hermione was being tortured."

"Hermione was tortured?" Seamus' eyes widened.

"Oh yeah." Dean shook his head at the memory. "The cruciatus."

"Bellatrix?" Neville was suddenly pale.

"Uha." Dean nodded. "It was really bad, I don't know how she handled it – but Ron was going mad, really mad. I thought he was going to break the door down with his bare hands – ask Luna, she'll tell you."

"I'll tell you what?" asked a voice from behind him.

"Oh!" Dean swivelled around. "Hi Luna. I was just saying about Ron going mad at Malfoy Manor."

"Oh yes," Luna agreed, sliding onto the bench beside him. "It really was very intense, and Ron was very upset. Even after, when he got her to safety, he was quite enraged – why, it wasn't until he knew she was going to be alright that he could be persuaded to leave her side, and then all he wanted to do was ... what was it he wanted to do?"

"Go back and tear apart that putrid bitch limb by limb," Dean quoted.

"I think he might have done it," Luna said, quite matter-of-fact, "only Hermione told him not too, and then Harry arrived with poor Dobby."

*

10:00am, Sunday 6th September, 1998

Hogwarts Library

Dear Ron,

Are your ears burning? They should be, because they're talking about us.

Neville, Ginny, Dean, Luna and Seamus.

I can't find it in myself to be cross (although I probably should be), perhaps because I understand their curiosity, and it's easier to just let them talk amongst themselves than have to answer any questions.

I finished my potions essay yesterday morning – as I'm sure you're not at all surprised to know. Ginny held Quiddich trials yesterday, and is less than impressed with "this year's talent". I supposed that is one of the downsides to Hogwarts lack of students this year – although there was definitely no lack of interest. I don't know a lot about Quiddich, but even I can tell that she's going to have her work cut out for her.

Frankly, I don't think there is anything at all wrong with your wanting a peaceful couple of years (even if they are working for George) – I feel exactly the same way.

Harry is Harry; and I suspect that even though he's happier than he's ever been (which he clearly is), he's still got a lot of anger to work though - and the best way for him to do that is to put his energy into fighting the dark arts.

I love your idea of going on holiday. Where shall we go?

Cardiff, of course, because we did rather enjoy it (your poor ears!). I also loved our day in Cardigan - especially that little nook we found in the Teifi Marshes (although I'm quite sure that gaggle of geese didn't need to see what they saw); I KNOW you enjoyed that just as much as I did (you don't leave these letters laying about, do you?). Would it be too twee (as you put it) to rent a cottage for a few days? Somewhere quiet. Maybe on the ocean, or on a moor somewhere. Just you, me and nature?

Now, get a quill ready and take notes!

31st October. 12th December. 13th February. 17th April.

As promised, as soon as I knew, you did.

Now, for a surprise (it was news to me, at any rate).

Professor McGonagall tells me that both the Head Girl and Boy are allowed two free weekends per year – the only stipulations being that the weekends must be separate from one another's, and we must be back on Hogwarts premises by 9.30pm on the Sunday night. Also, we must give seven days advance notice.

I'll leave you to make what you will of that information (that was a hint, in case you were wondering).

Meanwhile, I have several other letters to answer. I hope you've had a relaxing weekend, and you can rest assured that the idea of your degnoming activities will keep me ... entertained ... for some time to come.

By the way, I love it when you're soppy.

Feel free to be soppy.

I love you!

Hermione

P.S. Did you take your shirt off? I need to know for academic purposes.

Have I mention that I really like the reviews so far?

I really like the reviews so far!

(Surely there's a more original way to say that? I feel like a broken record - but I have to say it, because ... you know ... true and all that!)