at the burrow.

at about half past 10 the next morning Harry was eagerly awaiting Ron, the twins and Mr. Weasley. While he was waiting, his aunt and uncle were getting rather impatient. Dudley had understandably gone out early so as to avoid the "freaks" after his last encounter seeing him needing surgery. finally at almost 10:40 (the Weasleys were famously never on time for anything after all) the area between the coffee table and the tv flashed blue and seemed to push out before with a swirl and a pop the four Weasleys stood before Harry and the two Dursleys.

"Hello there Harry!" Mr. Weasley called cheerfully.

a round of "hello" from the three younger Weasleys were had to which Harry reciprocated in kind. "Hello Mr. Weasley, thanks for coming to pick me up, you as well Ron, Fred, George."

"Harry, please, you can call me Arthur" Mr. Weasley said kindly.

"Of course, Arthur."

"Ah, you must be Harry's family, how do you do? my name is Arthur Weasley, head of the department of the misuse of muggle artifacts at the Ministry of Magic" Arthur said, introducing himself and extending a hand to Vernon who reluctantly took it.

"Vernon Dursley, Director of sales at Grunning's drill manufacturers" Vernon said haughtily.

"right well, best be off soon, Hermione should be arriving back at the burrow some time today, along with your Hogwarts letters I suspect. have you everything packed Harry?"

"Yes Arthur, just need a hand grabbing it, if you'd be so kind Gred, Forge" Harry said with a grin.

"Not an issue old chap" one said.

"Wouldn't want our star seeker pulling a muscle with his trunk now would we George?" the now known Fred said grinning.

"Absolutely not, can't have him ridding the bench recovering and leave us with blowhard McLaggen" George said, walking out with Harry leading the way and his twin following.

leading the two up the stairs Harry quietly turned his head to speak "do me a favor and don't leave any pranks behind, the Dursleys will have my hide for it next year if you do."

"Breaks our hearts to do so, but I suppose we can abide by that given the circumstances." Fred said.

"Indeed" George said.

Walking into his room Harry pointed to his trunk at the end of his bed as he grabbed his bookbag loaded with his dirty laundry from that morning and his firebolt which was of course, too long to fit in his trunk.

"Definitely lighter than ours eh?" Fred asked grabbing one end of the trunk.

"Doesn't carry supplies of chaos like us our dear Harry" George said getting the other

"Is that supposed to be a compliment, insult or just and observation?" Harry asked.

"Yes" the twins answered in unison after a moment to glance at each other.

walking back downstairs Harry and the twins saw Arthur and Ron standing rather awkwardly while the Dursleys glared at them.

"Best be off then, grab hold you four" Arthur said as he pulled out an old length of rope.

"Do try not to show up again till next summer boy" Vernon said.

"yes Uncle Vernon" Harry said before he felt a jerk at his navel as he and the other four grabbed the rope before being deposited on the front lawn of the Burrow in a spin, only for Harry to wind up face down in the dirt. "Why does every form of magical travel hate me except for flying?" Harry asked referencing his brief experience with floo travel.

As the four Weasleys laughed, Arthur helped Harry up and explained "you have to get used to it. And bend your knees when you're about to land. Wait till you aparate for the first time!"

"Not exactly looking forward to that" Harry said following the Weasleys inside and then up to Ron's room to deposit his belongings. coming back down stairs, Harry saw Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen pouring herself and Arthur a couple mugs of tea. "Hello Mrs. Weasley, how've you been and do you mind if u have a mug of tea as well?"

After setting the tea kettle down Mrs. Weasley turned and rushed over to pull Harry into a hug saying "hello to you too Harry, I've been good and of course you can have a mug, go ahead and take a seat dearie. do you still take it straight?"

"yes Mrs. Weasley"

"Please, call me Molly" Mrs. Weasley said, going back and passing Harry a steaming cup of the decidedly British drink. "Hermione and the Hogwarts letters should be here today. We let Professor McGonagall know that you and Hermione would be here today so that she could send your letters straight on." As if on cue, a great barn owl swooped in carrying 6 letters. "Well, that's convenient" Molly said untying the letters so the owl could be on it's way. "Here you are Harry."

Opening his letter found a new book list, with the only real difference being the "level IV for the mandatory classes and level II for his electives. of note though was that there was now "dress robes" on his supply list.

"Arthur, Molly are dress robes normal for those fourth year and up to need?" Harry asked.

"No, so there must be something important going on this year. If you've heard of Kingsman tailors in London then it might be worth noting for someone of your station that they have a magical side too. All the employees there are at least in the know, what with the royal family being one of their most prominent customers over the past hundred and fifty years or so. Just tell them "I've been told your tailors work suits like magic" and they'll get you squared away" Arthur said.

Just then Molly noticed a car coming up the drive way "that must be Hermione then."

Harry popped up eager to meet his best friend after their month apart "is it? Well then, I'll pop out to greet her and help her bring her stuff in" Harry said, missing the grins from Arthur and Molly.

"Hermione, I've missed you" Harry said giving her a hug as she climbed out of the car.

Laughing, Hermione replied "I missed you too. Usually it's my job to jump up and ambush you with a hug though!"

"Hermione dear, why don't you introduce us?" Hermione's mother asked.

"Sorry Mum. Harry These Are my parents Doctors Daniel and Emma Granger. Mum, Dad this is my best friend Harry Potter."

"Nice to finally meet you sir, ma'am."

"And you Harry. Though, please call me Emma."

"And me Dan"

"Anyway, can you help me with my trunk Harry? I want to get inside and read my Hogwarts letter!" As Harry and Hermione lifted the trunk out of the boot of the car and Hermione said goodbye to her parents Harry did a bit of a once-over on her noticing that she was a little taller and had thinned out just a little bit because of it. She also had a nice light bronze tan, her hair being a few shades lighter too.

"You look good Hermione. I see you got to spend some time in the sun again this year, didn't you say you were going to be going to Spain this year back on the train?" Harry asked.

"Yep! Had a blast too! We went and toured a few museums and spent a lot of time on the beach where Mum and I worked on our tans and Dad tried to pretend he wasn't still head over heels in love with Mum. It was quite funny actually, especially when she caught him staring at her. Honestly I hope that whoever I wind up married to loves me like that at 20 years of marriage too" Hermione said wistfully.

"I hope I do" Harry whispered under his breath.

"Pardon, I didn't hear you."

"Oh, I said I'm sure they will" Harry's heart was racing, not realizing he had said it out loud. "Hey Hermione once we get this up to Ginny's room and you say hello to everyone can we go and talk?"

"Sure Harry." Walking into Ginny's room they both said hello to her as they deposited the trunk next to the spare bed, neither of them having yet seen her due to her working on her homework.

"Oh hello, need any help?" Ginny asked?

"Nope that's it. If you need help with your homework by the way come let me know, I still have some ideas floating around for those assignments" Hermione said.

"Can-do and thank you!"

Exiting Ginny's room they made their way downstairs to for Hermione to say hello to the Weasley parents and get Hermione's letter before going outside to talk. Noticing the twins and Ron playing a pickup game of quidditch they made a b-line for the orchard sat down under one of the apple trees. Hermione opened her letter and started going over it. "About what I expected. Though what do we need dress robes for?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I dunno and if Arthur and Molly know they aren't telling either other than some special event. Way I figure it it'll probably be a formal of some variety."

"Makes sense. If it was just some special school event then our uniforms or even weekend clothes would probably be enough."

"Yeah. Which brings me to this: if it is as we suspect and it's a formal of some degree will you be my date for it?"

"Wh-what? Me? Why?"

"Well assuming that's not a no, because you're my best friend, I've always thought you were cute and I've fancied you since the time turned fiasco a few months ago."

"W-well then if that's the case then yes, I'll go to whatever formal there is this year on two conditions."

"Name it" Harry said a little shakily.

"You have to take me to Hogsmeade first and you'll let me pick your dress robes after I get mine. If we're going to be going together I'm not going to be mismatched with the boy I've fancied since second year" Hermione said with a smile.

"Done and done" Harry said with a grin as Hermione kissed him on the cheek.

"That's for asking me and agreeing to my terms."

After some more catching up where they both made sure to comment on each other's appearance a bit more they made their way inside with the twins and Ron for dinner. "As long as neither of you have any problems with it we were going to go to Diagon tomorrow to get your books and supplies for school" Molly said.

"No problems here Molly" Harry said.

"Nor with me" Hermione added.

After dinner and a bit of relaxing and cleaning up on everyone's part they were all sent up to bed as it was getting closer to 10pm. As they were the last of the teens up the stairs Hermione stopped Harry on the stairs and pulled him into a hug before kissing him squarely on the lips. "Thank you Harry, for everything. We'll talk about that later though."

As she entered the Ginny's room she giggled at Harry's dazed look as she was closing the door. Snapping out of it Harry raised his fingers to his lips as he resumed his climb up the stairs, Harry didn't notice the twins poke their heads out to see him and smirk. Finally entering Ron's room he was brought out of his daze by Ron asking "what's up mate? You've got a funny look on your face."

Looking up at his question, Harry answered truthfully "Hermione just kissed me and said that we'd talk about it later."

"Blimey, what'd she do that for?"

"Well I asked her to whatever formal there'll be this year that we need dress robes for…"

"Why'd you do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why ask Hermione when you could ask any gorgeous bird at school?"

"Why not? She's my best friend and I fancy her."

"Well I just mean there's some better looking girls there aren't there?"

"Maybe to you Ron, but not to me and let's leave it at that yeah?" Harry said with a glare.

"Alright, didn't mean anything against her really mate."

"Sorry Ron, didn't mean to get so short tempered, I just don't like how you're always picking a fight with her."

"Understandable. They get a little exhausting from my side too to be honest. Her and I just click Like that thought, you know? That's how our friendship kind of works. I say something stupid, she corrects me and we bicker or she does something that I don't get and I say something that sets her off. At the end she's still my friend too."

"Fair enough, just try to cut down on it a bit."

"No promises." Was the last thing either of them said that night as they went to sleep shortly after.

an: sorry for the however many notifications to the like 40 something of you that favorited/followed. Basically though a lot of plot is gonna seemingly happen really quick. Idk what I'm gonna do with the Weasley yet. Basically I have through Valentine's Day roughly planned out. Oh, and as an obnoxious america just know some my thoughts on how to deal with things will be translated to Harry...

oh and for the reviewer complaining about there being a bunch of fics by this name... "that's a yp, not an mp" as my dad would say. I'll just leave it at "tough shit."