The feast ended with Umbridge demanding that every single student be questioned and Dumbledore simply telling her no. Umbridge looked like she would blow a fuse. But instead, Dumbledore swiftly ordered the prefects to take the 1st years to the dorms as he prepared to argue with the Undersecretary.

"I'm Harry Potter. This is Hermione Granger. If you have questions, bother her, she's good at answering them." He ordered 1st year to follow him. Finally, they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?"

"Malfoy uses too much hair product."

"That's not-" Hermione tried to correct him but was interrupted by the Fat Lady saying, "correct."

"Now make sure you don't forget," Harry said, walking into the common room and lying on the couch. Although he expected Hermione to start giving a tour of the common room instead, she and the 1st years looked at him expectedly.

"What?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"I am?" Harry enquired

"The tour"

"I thought that was your job," He cheekily replied

His smirk soon turned to terror as he dodged curses from a furious Hermoine. It would be a day that would go down in Gryffindor folklore. The 1st years watched in amazement as Hermione sent spell after spell at Harry, and the young Gryffindor dodged each deftly, teasing the brunette. Finally, Harry relented and gave the 1st years a tour of the common room.

"Now that concludes the tour; any questions?"

Harry saw a single hand go up in the back. It was a small girl with brown hair.

"Are you Charlus Potter's brother?"

Sensing an opportunity for mischief, Harry smiled.

"Yes, I'm indeed his much better-looking brother. Because I have green eyes and remember kids' green eyes are much sexier than black ones."

"HARRYYY, they're 11!" Hermione shouted as she tried to zap him with another curse

Harry dodged and swiftly made his escape to the boy's dorm. "Remember, kids' green is sexier than black. You'll be quizzed on this." could be heard throughout the common room. The following day Harry was forcibly dragged out of bed via ropes and taken to McGonagall by Hermione. As the bookworm dragged him along the ground, Harry reminisced about his Hermione. Maybe she wouldn't zap him for his crude jokes a little slap up the head with whatever book she had on hand, but the Hermione he grew up with wasn't this uptight. He suspected the reason was Charlus. He knew his brother was much more outgoing and brasher from his memories. This world's Hermione needed to be more strict with Charlus than him.

"Hermione, want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

She stopped completely, eying him curiously.

"Why?" She asked cautiously.

"Making sure Charlus doesn't get himself killed is a stressful job. So why not take a break," he said, flashing her a faint smile.

Hermione POV

Harry had always been different. How he walked, talked, and acted was different from Charlus. Occasionally she would see the fun-loving side that seemed genetically encoded in Potter men, but it would be rare and brief. So she wasn't surprised that he was selected to be prefect like everyone else. She'd expected it. Harry didn't kick up a fuss; he tried his best to blend into the background, but he was one of the best students in the school. So it didn't surprise her that he was picked for the prefect position, but he was hiding something. She knew Harry was powerful, just as strong if not stronger than Charlus when it came to magical power. He hid his abilities and knowledge; if he hadn't, he would've surpassed her in quite a few subjects. If what she overheard from the order meetings was true, he had taken down one of Voldemort's top lieutenants from the last war with relative ease. It made Hermione angry. She'd heard from Lily that James had made a habit of going on daring adventures with Sirius during the last war. And by daring adventures, she meant facing hordes of death eaters, secret missions that took them undercover in an audience with Voldemort himself, and general dangerous stupidity. The men of House Potter were danger magnets. But at least James and Charlus would tell Lily and her about the dangers they were going into or just finished.

But Harry he was different. Nothing. She thought it was because he was different from his father and brother. But no, he was probably doing some very secret, dangerous training to be able to fight in the eventual war, and he wasn't telling her. It hurt her and scared her at the same time. One day during the war, he could vanish, with no clue where he was, and she would never hear from him, only to find out Voldemort or some high-ranking death eater killed him. Every time she looked at Harry, she remembered the time in 1st year when he took a stray swipe from a troll trying to distract it as Charlus and Ron finished the job. Miraculously he only had minor injuries from the hit, but the blood that was gushing from his head would stay with her forever, and so would the small smile he gave her when he got out of the hospital wing. It was the last time she saw that smile.

She got too busy making sure Charlus and Ron weren't getting themselves killed. And any time she was free to hang out with him, Harry wouldn't smile, just shallow laughs like something was eating him up inside. Then last year, it happened. She hadn't seen him at all last year besides when they were on the train. The Triwizard tournament seemed to take a visible toll on him despite it being Charlus competing. But then, almost magically, he appeared to change. Gone was the shy boy who seldom smiled. In his place was someone else who seemed carefree, like his biggest responsibilities weren't on his shoulders anymore, and he was free to do whatever he wanted. She told Lily about it, but she brushed it off as Harry finally hit puberty. But this person in front of her didn't seem like Harry. She knew he felt different even though they looked the same she was convinced this wasn't Harry Potter. That is, until he smiled.

His soft, faint smile. Almost before her eyes, the boy seemed to get younger, looking like a boy around 11, his eyes sparkling with innocence. There wasn't any doubt in her mind after that the Harry she'd known had changed, but he was the same Harry who had smiled at her all those years ago.

"Sure, Harry"