Chapter 7

There are many horrible situations to find yourself in when you wake up. Jim had personally experienced more than his fair share of those situations. Waking up with his head in the lap of a beautiful girl while she ran a hand through his hair?

That was definitely not a horrible way to wake up.

Jim found himself lying on the floor of the train, and thought for a moment about how stupid he had just been.

That spell had been one that the girls had forbid him from ever casting again after he had been forced to use it during their escape from Hogwarts. Dementors had been quite dogged in their pursuit of the trio, until a couple hundred had cornered them just outside of Hogsmeade.

Jim's stag patronus had always been quite powerful, and the fact that is was joined by Hermione's otter, and Luna's rabbit should have seen every single one of the dementors banished. Instead, one dementor, that seemed freakishly larger than the others had simply devoured the ethereal animals; leaving the trio defenseless. It was quite a stroke of luck that they had perfected the Tutelam spell before being forced to flee the castle.

As an adult the spell had taken a good chunk of his magical strength, leaving him drained for days, and worrying the girls. As a thirteen year old, his magical muscles were not near as strong as his adult one, which must be why he passed out after using the spell.

Slowly sitting up; and somehow managing to startle Daphne who must have thought that he wouldn't wake before arriving at the castle; Jim shook his muddled head and observed his companions.

Harry and Hermione merely looked relieved at his waking. Harry, of course, would be used to strange things happening around him at this point, and seeing Jim as the one to perform the unexpected feat must have been quite refreshing for him.

Daphne and Tracy were of course displaying the normal Slytherin approach to the unexpected: Stoic blank faces. After all, he may have helped Daphne with her kitten, but there was no way that they would dare display themselves as anything but powerful pure-bloods when in mixed company.

Jim sighed and ran a hand through his hair, absently noticing as he did that his ponytail had come loose. Walburga would be quite upset with him if he told her about this. Not only did he out himself as a powerful wizard with an unknown spell, but he also managed to mess up his perfect pureblood image.

"I don't suppose we can pretend that never happened?" he asked; knowing that Harry and Hermione may agree, but there was no way that the two Slytherins would see this as anything less than an opportunity.

He was proven correct when both Daphne and Tracy almost simultaneously quirked an eyebrow and sniffed.

Harry, who, it seemed, had not yet realized that Hermione had kept a tight grip on his hand since his episode with the dementor, merely nodded.

Surprisingly, Hermione copied the Slytherins perfectly, raised eyebrow and everything.

Jim shrugged and turned to pull the shade on the cabin door.

"Yeah," he said, "stupid question."

Accepting his wand from Daphne, who had apparently picked it up when he passed out, Jim sat down on the bench next to Harry. Silently conjuring a new hair tie, he set about returning his appearance to pureblood acceptable, while studying the four people who could ruin his second Hogwarts career before it even started.

"Okay," he said, addressing Daphne and Tracy, "One each."

Daphne laughed and turned to look at Tracy. A completely silent conversation took place over the next several minutes between the two before they seemed to come to a consensus, after which Daphne turned back to Jim with a small smile.

"Three," she said, "each. You overplayed your hand too early in the game for us to accept anything less."

Jim fought hard not to growl at the two girls. Despite finding himself to be growing fond of the pair of Slytherins, that was a bit too high of a price for him to pay. Absently twirling his wand, he leaned against the back of the bench as he thought. Obliviation was always an option, but even with his skills he would be hard pressed to Obliviate all four of the others before someone managed to fight back.

Not the way he wanted to start off his return to Hogwarts.

Leaning forward again, he placed his elbows on his knees and countered.

"One each, as well as one shared," he said, "and I back your moves for the next year."

Despite her stoic upbringing, it was obvious from the way her eyes shone, that Daphne was quite excited about this offer. She turned to Tracy again, who forwent the bargaining with a single nod. Daphne returned her attention to Jim and smiled.

"Agreed," Daphne said, reaching out with her right hand, "no one outside of the four of us will know that you somehow managed to killed something that has never been killed before."

Jim relaxed slightly and accepted her hand for a quick shake. That was one potential problem taken care of, now for the next.

Turning to Hermione, Jim said, "I will give you all my notes on that spell around Christmas. That way you'll have finished the first term of Arithmancy, and may know how to read it by then."

Hermione squealed and surprised Jim by actually throwing herself across Harry to give him a hug. Jim had to stop himself from hugging her back the way he had done in the future. This Hermione would not understand him holding her tightly.

"Oh Jim," she said as she released him, "I wouldn't have told anyone anyway. You don't have to give me the notes. I'm just really curious about how you did it."

Jim barely heard her.

He was too caught up in thinking about the last hug that he had gotten from his Hermione before he had gone to bed the night they apparently did the ritual to send him back in time. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, as it had been a nightly ritual for Hermione and Luna to hug him before bed. The last time however, Hermione and Luna had both held him a tightly as they could, holding the hug for a long period of time, until he had finally asked them if everything was okay. It had been Luna who let go first, and even then she still kept her hand on his arm. Both girls had reassured him that there was nothing to worry about that night, and they would take care of things the following day.

Those were the last hugs he would ever receive from his girls.

Jim abruptly stood, trying to hold his composure as he stepped to the door.

"I need to get some air," he choked out, before bolting.

A/N: Normally I would try to post something a bit longer than this. However, with the way things have been going for the past several months with computer issues and health issues, I just wanted to make sure to put SOMETHING on here.