Right, here's the next chapter!

Many thanks to the reviewers of chapter 8:

HarryMione4evr: Thank you very much! I'm not that good at updating soon but getting reviews like your gives me enough inspiration to post another chapter!

scorpio-1983: Thank you for your nice review! That's so helpful to get such reviews! As you can see, I'm posting asap!

blackdragonofdeath13: Thank you for loving my story! I'm trying to post the next chapter proportionally to the kindness of my reviewers :p

No back to the story!

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As she made her way to Harry's apartment to get him his hot chocolate, Hermione forgot to cast the spell towards the lights in the hall. She couldn't technically do so since she was carrying the cup of chocolate in each of her hand. Of course she could have put a locomotor spell on them, but she was starting to feel tired again and she did not think about it. That, unfortunately made Peeves to come around. The little evil poltergeist was more than happy to have his say and hurried towards the lights to see who was there and what he could do to make this person feel miserable enough. He was delighted to see it was Hermione, after all, she had been Head Girl once and he had been unable to get her at that time because she had been very careful not to cross his way during her last year in Hogwarts. Now was his revenge!

He silently arrived just in her back and suddenly screamed as much as he could. Hermione jumped and screamed as well as she was startled to death. She screamed all the more when she got burned by the hot chocolate. Peeves was laughing and quickly getting to another floor so that he could not be caught by the now very angry witch.

"Peeves I'll get you out of Hogwarts!" shouted the witch.

"What happened?" asked Harry going out of his apartment.

"This stupid Peeves startled me and I burned myself with the hot chocolate I was going to bring you," stated Hermione.

"Show me," asked Harry taking both Hermione's hands.

"It's not that bad," she started, "I'll ask Ginny a healing potion tomorrow, it's not like it's a serious burn anyway."

"You really should go to Ginny to heal that," stubbornly said Harry, "It might be more serious than you think."

"Oh come on Harry," Hermione answered, "It really is no big deal, and I assure you that I'll survive with some cold water on it until Ginny can give me her potion tomorrow." She then took her wand and gestured to the broken cups. "Repero!". Suddenly, all the pieces of china moved in order to form two perfect cups, even the tiniest of the pieces.

"I guess I can't do anything about the chocolate unfortunately," said Hermione.

"I don't care about the chocolate; really, I just needed to have it to keep me awake." said Harry. "How comes you were the one to bring it to me anyway? I asked Dobby to do it." He asked.

"Well it's a coincidence actually; I was in the kitchen making one for myself when I met Dobby. So he finished the chocolate and Ii told him that I'll bring it to you, it's that simple." She said matter of factly.

"Needed to stay awake to work on your book?" he teased, "Or trouble sleeping?" he then seriously asked.

"Got another nightmare," Hermione finally answered after having wondered what to answer for a few seconds.

Harry sighed at her answer. He knew oh so well how depressing those nightmares could be. He had those kinds during years. Now he was only dreaming of his parents and Sirius, it was nice dreams although disturbing as they were not here anymore. Those dreams were vivid, as if they were talking to him during his sleep. That's why he was making researches in very thick books. That's why he needed to stay awake; he really needed to be sure those were dreams and not messages from the dead people he missed the most. He had been taking lots of books from the library since he was at Hogwarts, looking for the slightest information about what he was experiencing. He even had borrowed a divination book. The one called "A New Interpretation of your dreams, by Sybil Trelawney". Of course he could have talk about it with Hermione. He was sure she could have pointed him to the most pertinent book ever about the subject in a matter of seconds. But he didn't want to talk about it right now. He felt people would either laugh at him, or pity him. And he had enough of both those reactions over the year to have to bear with it again. Somehow he knew Hermione would not react that way, but he was not ready. Maybe later though.

Hermione looked at him as he was deeply immersed in his thoughts. She was cleaning the hot chocolate mess on the floor but starting at him at the same time. He looked tired, really tired. Maybe he was having nightmares as well? He was the same Harry as she had known for years thought. Messy untamed black hair, deep emerald eyes, glasses she remembered she had been repairing a countless of times... Except now those eyes were tired, very much so. Hermione quickly finished her work with the hot chocolate and looked back at Harry.

"Do you want me to get you another cup?" she asked.

"What?" asked Harry as if suddenly surfacing to the current situation again.

"Do you want another cup of hot chocolate?" asked Hermione.

"No it's alright, I need to sleep now, I'll see you tomorrow then," he said.

"Ok, good night Harry," said Hermione before going back to her apartment.

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The following morning, Hermione woke up and grimaced at her hands, they were very red and it was hurting her a lot. She put robes on her night gown and quickly made her way to the infirmary. At this time, no one would come across her, besides, the students were not here. She took her wand with her. If this evil Peeves was coming across her path this time, she'll give him a piece of her mind!

As she arrived in the infirmary, she saw Professor Snape exiting the huge room that was used as a dormitory for the student that might be ill during the year. He saw her and made a quick bow with his head to greet her and then resumed his walk towards his dungeon. What could he be doing in the infirmary so early in the morning? Hermione knocked at the door and asked for Ginny when the door opened to a house-elf.

"I'd like to see Ginny, please," Hermione gently said to the house elf.

"I is not finished with the cleaning," answered the house-elf, "But I is looking for Ginny Weasley for you."

"Thank you, what's your name?" asked Hermione.

"Me name is Letty," answered the house-elf making her way towards Ginny's office.

"Hermione? Do you need something?" asked Ginny.

"Yes," simply answered Hermione showing her hands to Ginny.

"Oh my god, when did that happened?" enquired Ginny.

"This night, with hot chocolate, this stupid Peeves scared me and here's the result" Hermione said.

"You should have woken me, really." stated Ginny.

"Yeah, I know that's what Harry told me." She said.

"What do you mean, he told you to come and see me? You mean this night? Come on Miss 'I'm-going-to-see-my-nothing-more-than-a-best-friend-in-the-middle-of-the-night, spit it out! What were you doing with Harry in the middle of the night? I wanna know everything!"

"You wish," mischievously answered Hermione.

That made Ginny's jaw to drop. She clearly was not expecting that at all.

"What? What do you mean? Did something happen between the two of you? It's about time!" said a happy Ginny.

"Calm down girl, I was only teasing. The only thing that indeed happened is that," said Hermione gesturing to her hands.

"Oh I'll get you for making me think you had finally said something to Harry!" said Ginny. "Right, let me get you a good healing potion and in a matter of one hour, your burns will be forgotten.

"Speaking of potions, what was Snape doing here?" asked Hermione. She was most surprised when she realized Ginny was now furiously blushing.

"He was just bringing me some potions I needed." she answered trying to hide her blush as much as possible. "Here's what you need. If you still feel the burn after lunch, come back to see me, I'll give you more potion."

"Ok," answered Hermione.

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Now that she was back in her apartment, she prepared a bath with some perfumed oil and she went back to her bedroom to choose her clothes while the bath tub was being filled. Then again, she made a switch with her wand to start the muggle stereo and she sang along the music while putting some of the potion on her hands. She then casted a protecting spell on it so that she could take her bath without hurting her hands or avoiding any kind of effect from the potion. Then she came back inside the bathroom and she relaxed in her bath still singing. She liked this routine in the morning, especially when she did not have to wake up early. She had enough time to do so today; otherwise she was sometimes doing it in the evening, most of the times after an exhausting day. Today she'll be working on her schedule, deciding how she was going to follow the program that had been decided for her classes. Then she'll get her official schedule from Headmistress McGonagall to see which classes she'll have during the week. She'll have to choose the Gryffindor's prefects as well as being the new Head of Gryffindor and she'll have her word to give on who will be the new captain of the Gryffindor's Quidditch team. She'll have to decide on a pass word for the Gryffindor Tower as well. As scared as she was of failing in her duties, she was really starting to feel excited about the whole thing.

She then exited the bathtub to circle herself with a huge towel still humming along the radio. She then dried her hair and tried to tame them as best as she could. Truth be told, she was doing way better than she once did with her hair. She had finally succeeded in getting them some kind of control over her hair. When she was ready, she headed to the Great Hall to have breakfast.

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As soon as she was done with breakfast, she headed towards her office to check on the papers Headmistress McGonagall had gave her. She was eager to see what kind of schedule she will have during the year. She sat on her chair and began to read the time table. On Monday she was giving double Charms on First years and then she was giving a one hour class at the seventh years. After lunch she was giving them another two-hour class. On Tuesday, she was giving double-charms to the second years and a one-hour then two-hour class to the sixth years. On Wednesday, she'll have two hours with the third years and one hour with the fourth year. Then, after lunch she was having a two-hour class with the fifth years. On Thursday, she'll teach the fourth years during two hours and then the fifth years during on hour. She was then giving two periods to the sixth years before and then the seventh years. She'll have all her Friday to herself but she suspected she'll use it for her Head of Gryffindor's duties and to prepare her classes. She was having the four houses together in each of her classes. That was fine with her but she suspected it will be very impressive to teach to so many people at once. She knew she was ready for that, Charms were one of her favourite subject and she read so many books about it! She knew her stuff. Her only point of concern was her behaviour towards her students. She didn't really know how to react and how to make them to listen to her.

She was glad she'll be starting with the first years. She thought that somehow they'll be easier to manage. But right after them, she was teaching the seventh years during 3 full hours. That was dreadful! What if she couldn't manage her class? She'll have to ask advices to Harry or McGonagall about it, she needed to be ready. After all, she had managed to be a good Head Girl on her seventh year, which was a little bit the same after all. Well of course she didn't have to teach a whole class at the time, but she did lecture some people when they were having a bad behaviour.

She put her schedule aside and looked at the prefects proposition list. She knew nothing about them in fact; it was very difficult to make a choice. There were a little sum up of their current behaviour next to each name, and there were their marks as well. They were all quite successful in their studies it seems. Then again, she put the list aside and decided to have a word with the Headmistress about it. She took the next paper that was entitled "Gryffindor's Quidditch team". She smiled and thought Harry could help. Then again, how was she supposed to choose someone while she did not know the team? Really, why on earth had they chosen her as Head of Gryffindor? She sighed and took the next paper. This one was about choosing the Gryffindor's Tower passwords. Now that was a thing she could do! Finally! She wrote a couple of passwords and headed towards the Fat Lady portrait to give them to her.

Once again, a surge of nostalgia took over her as she was making her way to the tower. She had spent some many happy memories there. She surprised herself when she realized she was taking all her time to go there, savouring the moment. She smiled when he took the staircase that had once guided her, Harry and Ron to the third floor that was out of bound at the time. How many times had they used those stairs under Harry's invisibility cloak?

When she arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait, she was greeted by a very excited portrait indeed.

"My dear, I am so delighted that you're the new Head of Gryffindor, nothing against Minerva of course." She quickly added.

"Hello," said Hermione, "I'm here to give you the new passwords for the term."

"Of course dear, just tell them to me and it's ok."

"Right, so, I thought we could change it each month if it's alright with you." started Hermione.

"Good idea dear, go ahead and I'll memorize them all."

"Ok, right now the password's Guiverna McCloud, so let's keep it like that, we'll change it in September to be Dumbledore's Phoenix, October's will be Shrieking Shack, November will be Diagon Alley and December will be Firebolt." She said. "If it's working like that, I'll soon give you the other passwords."

"I got them dear." stated the portrait.

Hermione then looked at her. "Could I have a look inside? I kind of miss it."

"Password?" required the portrait.

"Guinerva McCloud." stated Hermione.

"You may enter," simply answered the Fat Lady.

Hermione was suddenly overwhelmed by all the memories that were surfacing. The fireplace where they had been talking to Sirius was there. The armchair where she had spent hundreds of hours studying, the staircase to the girls dormitory ... The table where Harry and Ron where playing wizards chess. She remembered the parties that were held here when they won the Quidditch cup, the enchanted banners and all the food and butterbeer the Weasley twins were bringing back from the kitchen. All had remained unchanged.

She sat on an armchair and stayed there delighted to be back to what had been her house during seven years. As she had not had enough sleep the previous night, she finally fell asleep on the armchair.

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Ok, it's all for now. Hope you'll like it. Please read and review, you know that the more review I get, the more update I make ;)

Thanks in advance!