AN: I am so sorry for not updating sooner! We had this huge heat wave last week and I was really unmotivated to write. Anyways, here's the latest chapter. :)

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter!...not...:(

Harry woke up bright and early. He took a look around and was relieved when he realized he was still at Hogwarts. The rest of the boys in the dormitory were still fast asleep. He took a look at the time. The clock read 5:19. 'Merlin, why did I get up so damn early?' He tried to go back to sleep but it was pretty futile. Giving up, Harry got dressed. He then remembered that he promised to write home. Harry dug through his book bag and pulled out a roll of parchment and a brand new falcon quill. Harry sat down at writing table in the dormitory and began to pen his letter.

Dear Mum, Dad, Krissy & Nicky,

I finally made it to Hogwarts! I got sorted into Gryffindor! Merlin, I am so relieved. You won't believe how nervous I was when it was turn. I thought I'd pass out. But I didn't and I've already made some friends. Their names are Hermione, Ron and Neville. You might know Ron and Neville. Their last names are Weasley and Longbottom. Hermione's muggleborn and she's the nicest girl I've met. She's already memorized our textbooks! She is really bright and seems quite competitive. But she's also quite lonely and I think I made her day when we decided to be friends on the train.

Lessons start today. I'm a bit nervous but I think everything should work out.

I have to go now. I'm meeting my friends for breakfast in the common room.

I miss you all.

Love Harry.

Harry wrote a similar letter to Sirius as well. Towards the end of his letter the boys started getting up. Harry quickly signed it. Harry lingered while the boys got ready. When Ron and Neville were ready they waved to Seamus and Dean who were still not ready. The three boys descended to the common room. Hermione was already there. She was sitting in the chair near the fireplace. When she saw them she stood up and met them at the foot of the stairs. In her hands she was also carrying a scroll.

"Can we stop at the Owlery first? I need to mail a letter to my parents."

"Sure. Harry also has to mail a letter." Ron replied.

In the Owlery Harry and Hermione mailed their letters. Hermione couldn't stop gushing over Hedwig. Ron's stomach rumbled loudly and he blush scarlet. "I'm really hungry! Can we go now?"

In the Great Hall as the students tucked into their breakfasts Neville confessed that he was extremely nervous about the start of the lessons.

"You see, I only showed signs of magic a year and a half ago. My great-uncle kept trying to force it out of me and nothing happened." Hermione took it upon herself to help Neville with the lessons. Harry and Ron were giddy at the thought of flying lessons. Hermione and Neville blanched. Ron spoke about his family.

"...so one of my brothers works in Egypt as a curse breaker and another of my brothers is a dragon keeper in Romania."

In the midst of their conversation, the Gryffindor prefects handed them their timetables. Mondays consisted of Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and Potions. When they were done with breakfast they headed up to the common room to grab their book bags and head off to charms.

Harry found the lessons pretty uneventful. He already knew all this. He volunteered a few answers to Flitwick's questions. Ron seemed really impressed. "Mate! You know all this stuff and yet you haven't even touched your textbooks! You're a bloody brain!"

Hermione didn't seem too thrilled. After Harry answered the fifth question she shot Harry a dirty look.

'Bugger...she hates me now because she thinks I'm better than her.'

Harry kept quiet through the rest of Charms. He even kept quiet in Transfiguration. Harry confronted Hermione during lunch.

"Just leave me alone Harry!" She was hiding behind their Herbology textbook. As if trying to pick up on something she might have missed. "Come one Herm! Don't be like this."

"My cleverness is all I got! I have to be the best." She sounded slightly hysterical.

Harry quietly asked her, "You really don't remember do you?"

"What exactly am I supposed to remember?" she shot back.

"Think Hermione! Don't you remember me, Ron, Neville? All of this? Doesn't it seem familiar?"

Hermione finally gave a small smile. "Are you having that Déjà Vue feeling I had yesterday?" Hermione shook her head and glanced at her wristwatch.

"We better hurry or we'll be late for Herbology." She packed her bags and left. Harry groaned inwardly. 'How long until she remembered?' Harry vowed that after Potions he'd do some research on Voldemort.

In Potions that's when Harry realized that some things just never change. When Snape read his name from the roll call his eyes flashed and he looked shrewedly at Harry. Snape asked Harry a variety of questions and because he wanted to mend fences with Hermione Harry said he didn't know. That was partially true. How was he expected to memorize all 1000 magical herbs?

Snape smirked and took away 5 points for failure to prepare for a lesson. Harry scowled. Ron passed him a note. Slimy oiled git. Harry had to control himself from laughing out loud. Snape paired them up and set them to prepare a strengthening solution. Harry was paired up with Ron. Hermione was with Parvati and Neville was with Seamus.

Poor blundering Neville. He managed to melt his cauldron drenching himself with the potion. Angry red boils popped up on his skin. Neville whimpered in pain. Snape spat him to get out of his sight. Snape turned his eyes upon Harry and blamed him for Neville's mistake and took off another 5 points. Harry opened his mouth to protest when Ron kicked him under the table and hissed in his ear.

"You don't want to make Snape mad. He can turn really nasty." Harry continued to glower at Snape. When the bell rang Harry practically sprinted into the hallway.

Ron and Hermione caught up with him. "Funny, why does Snape have a grudge at you? He usually hates everybody but he really seems out to get you Harry."

Harry gloomily replied, "It's because Snape and my dad hated each other in school. They were in the same year."

Harry broke away from Ron and Hermione saying he has to go to the library. "But we didn't get any homework!" Ron protested.

"Don't worry Ron. It's not school work. It's personal research." The two offered to go with him. "Don't worry about me. Go see if Neville's alright. I'll catch up with you guys before supper."

The library was practically empty. Harry could count the number of students on one hand. Making his way to the newspaper archives, Harry searched for articles revolving around Voldemort. It turns out that Voldemort did indeed exist. Numerous deaths and disappearances were documented in the papers. Other articles also included Voldemort's growing support from some of the Wizarding World's fanatic purebloodists. Finally Harry found the article that covered Voldemort's supposed defeat. As Harry read it he grew worried.

November 1st 1981

My dear witches and wizards of the United Kingdom. Today is a wonderful and joyous day. It seems that You-know-who, has finally been defeated. Or has he? Numerous reports have surfaced that You-know-who has simply disappeared and wasn't exactly killed. Has the war finally come to an end? It certainly seems so. Many previous missing people have resurfaced. They claim they were enchanted by You-know-who and seeing that he is gone, the enchantment is broken. Is You-know-who gone for good? Headmaster Albus Dumbledore clearly doesn't agree. "I suspect You-know-who (the headmaster actually said his name but we the Daily Prophet chose to omit all instances of his name!) did in fact flee but I don't think we've seen the last of him." The headmaster said this in a speech hours after You-know-who's disappearance. As you know, You-know-who had in fact challenged Dumbledore to a duel hours before his downfall. Dumbledore's account of the duel is that halfway through it, you-know-who just appareted out of there. But we are not quite certain. Dumbledore knows for sure that one of his hexes did hit you-know-who. Recovered at the scene of the duel was You-know-who's travelling cloak. We do hope that this is the last of him.

Written by Damian Embers senior reporter for the Daily Prophet.

For ongoing Victory parties, please see page 5.
For Minister Bagnold's speech, please see page 2.
For enquiring about a missing loved one please see page 21 for obituaries or page 14 for missing persons recovered.

Harry replaced the article back in the file. He looked for other articles that spanned years after Voldemort supposed "defeat" but there wasn't much too find. There was a small piece here and there of Voldemort rumours. Voldemort seen on a beach in the Maldives, Voldemort in hiding, Voldemort reforming his ways. Harry thought it was a load of old rubbish.

Harry collected his thought. 'So, Voldemort isn't really dead, he's more like MIA. Arg...this doesn't help matters...' He threw the articles on the table. Librarian Madame Pince saw that and came swooping in like a vulture.

"What do you think you are doing boy? You better replace those in order!"

Harry rolled his eyes and started to fix them. He glanced back at the original article he read after a moment's hesitation he made a copy and replaced the file.

Looking at his wristwatch he saw that it was almost supper time. Making his way to the Great Hall he saw his friends already sitting at the Gryffindor table. Hermione was the first to notice him.

"Finish your project Harry?"

"Not quite, It's only beginning." Harry replied dryly.

The weeks flew by lightning speed. Pretty soon it was the third week of October. Harry's personal project was progressing slowly. He still hadn't managed to extract former memories from Hermione, Neville or Ron. However, the three of them reported they had weird dreams. Ron's dream was of him stabbing the locket, Neville's was killing Nagini (and that terrified him out of his wits. Neville ended up waking up screaming the middle of the night.), Hermione dreamt spending times with Harry in the tent on their horcuxes hunt. Harry poured over books hoping one of them would have the answer to his question.

Lessons went on and teachers piled on the work. Though he had no problems with the work overall he still had to write essays and those took up a lot of his time. Harry also had made the Quiddich team which had been a genuine surprise. After their first flying lesson, Madame Hooch was quite impressed. McGonagall was in her office grading papers when she saw Harry zoom past her window. She took a closer look. She approached him after his lesson and said she had to speak with him. She ended up introducing him to Oliver Wood who was in desperate need for a Seeker. Harry was only happy to agree.

Harry had gotten used to the frequent letters from home. He got owls almost every day. Unlike his fellow classmate who threw them away once they had finished responding Harry kept each one at the bottom of his trunk. The letter which he frequently read over and over was the one he got back after he wrote home and said that he made the Quiddich team. He had gotten his Nimbus later that evening enclosed with a note from his parents stating how proud they were off him.

Regarding schoolwork Hermione had come to terms that Harry was just as smart as her. However despite being quick at study she seemed to master the spells faster than in the past. Even sometimes it would dawn upon her, 'Have I done this before? It shouldn't be this easy.' In her spare time she would help Neville in Potions. Despite his lack of confidence he was still gifted. Herbology in particular. The only subject he struggled in was Potions because of Snape's overbearing manner. Hermione had to agree that Snape was quite unpleasant.

He really had it out for Harry. The only person Snape liked was that Malfoy boy. Oh! How she hated him! He had to be one of the most arrogant person she'd ever met in her life. Apparently Ron and Harry seemed to be the target of Malfoy's ridicule. They would often retaliate and end up with detentions. "Boys..." she muttered under her breath.

Hermione sat in the Common Room waiting for Harry. He had Quiddich practices. Ron was serving a detention with Snape for back talking and Neville had just gone to bed five minutes before. Hermione was looking over her History of Magic essay. It was 3 more rolls longer than they were assigned to do. She couldn't help but think about Harry's personal project. He wouldn't share it with them. She was extremely curious.

When she had asked him about it he had given her a vague response, "You'll find out as soon as I figure out this specific spell." It frustrated her to no end.

The more she thought of Harry, the more she blushed. She had finally admitted it to herself that she had developed a crush on him. She wasn't the only one. Her roommates Lavender and Parvati spent most of the time squealing and gushing that Hermione was so lucky to be friends with Harry because he was one of the cutest boys in their year.

There was something in the pit of her stomach that made her think that her crush was something more. She felt so happy when he was near her. True, it had annoyed her in the beginning when he was better than her at school but suddenly she surpassed him. Even her teachers were impressed. McGonagall was extremely impressed when her Transfiguration was at a 3rd year level.

Hermione kept looking over at the portrait hoping Harry would enter. She suddenly realized that Harry had left behind the file of his project behind. She glanced around the Common Room and saw only a few 7th years lounging near the windows. She grabbed it and thumbed through it. She saw a few articles about You-know-who. She had read about You-know-who in one of the extra books her parents had bought her.

He mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago. (Why was Harry researching You-know-who?) He's also written a paragraph about the reversal of Memory Charms. Enclosed was also a letter from Sirius about Memory Charms and how to reverse them.

Harry,

Memory Charms are quite difficult to perform. Even fully trained wizards have a hard time with them just like Patronuss'. You're quite eager to learn aren't you? Or do you want to erase someone's memory because you did something you shouldn't have? I suppose if presented with enough evidence from a previous memory can jog it back to a certain extent. I suppose the counter spell "Memor" could help but it's very complex. I don't know of any Potions or herbs that can help.

Let me know if you find anything.

Best, Padfoot.

'Why would Harry be researching the reversal of memory Charms?' Hermione thought. She looked over other pieces of parchment. Something caught her eye. There was a piece with her name on it. Eagerly she read it. Harry had written a small paragraph.

Hermione, Ron and I encounter the Troll. We save Hermione's life and that's how we became friends. Hermione going out of her way to teach me the Summoning Charm for the 1st Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Hermione was there for me and she believed in me during the Horcrux hunt when I thought I'd failed in myself as a leader. Hermione present time: She keeps having these memories as dreams. How do I convice her they're NOT dreams? Never preformed a Memory charm before...Hermione has though...Shall I use Sirius's spell?

Why did all of that sound familiar. She using Memory Charms? When? A memory stirred in her brain.

An image of her and her parents. She's pointing a wand at them "Obliviate!"

Hermione gasped. Was that real? She knew this was a long shot, but would it work?

Pointing her wand at herself she muttered "Memor!"

Suddenly bright white flashes entered her mind. She started to remember. She remembered the Troll, the Yule Ball, the Time Turner; the Horcrux hunt...all these memories and more came flooding back. She remembered the War. Harry had snuck away to meet Voldemort. Merlin! She remembered.

She tried the Summoning Charm which hadn't worked on the Train.

"Accio Textbook!" Hermione whispered.

The book came soaring up in her outstretched hand. She gave breathed shakily. Those dreams weren't dreams. They were real. Sweet Merlin...she was 12 again. How did she get back here? Harry went to see Voldemort. Did he kill him? How did they reset time? There was no way, other than a time turner...

Harry came in at that moment through the portrait. He saw her and made a bee-line towards her. He looked at what she was doing and saw that she had the file. Hermione looked up at him and before he could say anything, she uttered the words, "Harry, I remember."