A/N: No quotes. I was in this barbaric place where the internet was not available, all on my lonesome (I was at my old house playing with felines and writing, but couldn't post due to no cable or internet). I couldn't look up quotes, so none here.
Enjoy!
She wasn't bothered by stares during the train ride, because she and Neville stayed in the compartment, allowing Ginny and Luna to join them but keeping the windows covered so no one else could look in. She first became aware of the stares when she was climbing onto one of the carriages. She glanced over and saw several sixth-year girls from Ravenclaw glance suddenly away from her. One muttered something to another, whose eyes grew wide as she looked over at Hermione.
"People are leering at you like you have a second head," Ginny muttered as the carriage bumped along the road, passing the gates.
"Makes you wonder if it's because of what I did, or because of who I did," she replied.
"That was a rather crass way of putting it," Luna remarked.
"Crass, but accurate. I wouldn't be surprised if half the school knew I'm seeing Sirius."
"I'd bet all of them. Your display was quite apparent at the station," Ginny stated, turning the copy of the Quibbler sideways and looking at something curiously.
"All the stuff I did last year, and I'm going to be known for sleeping with Sirius Black," she grumbled.
"If you didn't want to be known for it, you shouldn't have done it," Ginny pointed out. "He's not as irresistible as he thinks he is."
"Thank you, Queen of the Obvious. Though I would have been known for it even if I hadn't done it, if we had kissed on that platform without ever physically knowing each other."
"At least you got the pleasure before you got the reputation."
"Whatever you say, Woman Who Sleeps With Harry Potter."
"Hush your mouth. At least he's my age," Ginny bantered playfully, eyes still on the Quibbler.
"He's a year older than you. You're barely of-age," Hermione snapped back just as playfully.
"One year difference, twenty year difference," she held up two hands as if she were a set of scales. "Lets see who wins this argument."
"Can we talk about something else?" Neville sighed. "I don't need to be reminded that everyone else seems to be able to find a date without problems, different generation or no."
"Neville, you're a hero," Hermione said kindly. "Girls will be all over you this school year. You'll have your pick."
"Yeah, sure," he muttered as the carriage jolted to a stop. She climbed out first and started making her way towards the castle.
"Hey, Hermione!" a voice called from her left. She groaned and tried to speed up, but the sound of running footsteps soon caught up with her.
"How was your summer, Parvati?" she asked, looking at the girl walking next to her.
"Good. Yours?" her fellow Gryffindor answered quickly, pushing for information.
"Good," she answered non-committaly.
"So... how's Sirius Black? You've been around him since he came back, haven't you?"
"No need to beat around the bush. You're looking for the next big gossip story, you saw me snogging Sirius on the platform, now you want information," she said with sarcasm worthy of Snape.
"No need to be nasty, Hermione," she sounded affronted. "We've known each other for how long?"
"Speaking of which, why are you back here? Didn't you finish last year?"
"McGonagall gave us the choice to come back and re-take some of the classes that were lacking, and because our NEWTs were so messed up because of everything that was going on. If we were happy with our NEWTs we didn't have to come back, but if we weren't happy we were told we were welcome to come back and re-take those classes we want to. Considering there was no 'Defense' in our Dark Arts lessons, and that last year made it blatantly obvious that we need as much 'Defense' instruction as we can get, we decided to come back."
"Figures," she muttered under her breath. At least she wouldn't have to share a dorm with Lav-Lav.
"How's Ron?" Lavender appeared on Hermione's other side.
"Wonderful. He's seeing the nicest Muggle," she said, speeding up and leaving a stunned looking pair in her wake. She sat at the Gryffindor table where she was quickly joined by Neville and Ginny.
"Whatever you said to Lavender is making her irritated. She's already plotting ways of getting my brother back," Ginny said, glancing down the table.
"She only wants him because he's interesting," she smirked back.
Ginny snorted as McGonagall stood to start the feast.
"I'm bored," Ginny whined as they sat in the fireplace, a half-played game of Wizard Chess sitting in front of her.
"You've been saying that for a week," Hermione retorted. "And we're only two weeks in."
"There's nothing fun going on this year," she whined.
"You have Quidditch. On Wednesday you get to run tryouts, Captain."
"Oh, why did I agree to do that?" she groaned.
"From what I remember you didn't agree, you were appointed," she pointed out.
"As were you, Head of the Defense Club."
"They only wanted me for that position because of..."
"Everything you did last year?" Ginny offered, making a move.
"I'm still calling it Dumbledore's Army," she replied, making her own move quickly.
"It's Saturday, 'Mione. You have unlimited Hogsmede access. Why aren't you wandering the town?"
"Who would I wander with?" she shot back. "It would be boring all by myself."
"Take Neville. But I doubt it would be as boring as you think."
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing. But I'm having major cramps. I could use a bit of Honeydukes Finest Fudge," she looked pleadingly at her friend.
"Or you could go to Madame Pomfrey and get a potion for it," Hermione raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"You're a woman, 'Mione," she said with a fake whine. "You know nothing works better than chocolate."
Hermione looked at her exasperatedly. Ginny looked at her with her bottom lip sticking out, trembling slightly.
Hermione sighed loudly. "With or without nuts?"
Ginny clapped excitedly and handed her a few Galleons from her pocket. "Little bit of both?"
"That's beyond a cramp craving. That's almost a..."
"I'm not pregnant. I just love Honeydukes, and we don't get to go for a month, and I don't know how many times I'm going to be able to get you to go into Hogsmede and pick up sweets for me."
She crawled out of the portrait hole and walked towards the Heads dorms to get some money of her own. The dorms were on the third floor, hidden behind a portrait of a smiling witch playing with a baby. The password had to be agreed upon by both of the Heads in front of the portrait, and she and Neville, deciding that using something they'd rather not be reminded of might be the safest course of action, had decided to use 'Nagini'.
The portrait swung wide with the secret wall behind it. Hermione ducked inside and stepped into the large common room. A fireplace was crackling merrily on the other side of the room, shelves on either side carried books on a variety of subjects. There was a small greenhouse area for Neville's plants, which had appeared before they ever entered the room, making Hermione suggest that the room had much the same properties as the Room of Requirement, giving the heads what they desired. Off to either side was their private rooms, each with a large four-poster bed decked out in Gryffindor colors. Each bedroom had their own bath, with large stone shower and oversized bath with the same variety of bubbles found in the Prefect baths.
"Hey, Hermione," Neville smiled at her, putting down his pruning shears and wiping his forehead.
"Hey, Neville. Should you, er, have that Devil's Snare in the room.."
"It's Flitterbloom," he corrected. "Do you want to hear about it? I'm surprised you don't know."
"How about when I come back. I promised Ginny that I'd go to Honeydukes and get her some fudge. Care to join me?"
He thought about it for a moment. "I could stop at the quill shop. I seem to have forgotten to pack mine. I've been borrowing, but I really should get my own."
"Oh, Neville," she sighed, smiling warmly before going into her dorm to get some gold. When she came back he was standing by the portrait hole, waiting for her. They walked out of the castle together and through the grounds. They strode through the gates, which had opened enough for them to get out and snapped shut behind them. They talked about how classes were going as they walked, and soon Hermione was giving him pointers about performing Vanishing charms, making small rocks and plants disappear as she walked to demonstrate.
Soon they were in the Village. They stopped at the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer before heading towards Honeydukes. As they walked Hermione got the strangest feeling that someone was watching her, but she looked up and down the street and didn't see anyone there. Shrugging she held the door to the sweet shop open for Neville.
"I hate coming in here, because I never fail to spend half my money," Neville smiled happily as he started looking around.
"Then don't bring all your gold," she replied, making a beeline for the fudge.
"I didn't. But somehow it usually amounts to half my spending money by the end of the year."
"Ah, live it up," she said, picking up two packages of fudge, then starting to look around for herself.
"Do you think these actually work?" he said, turning pink and pointing towards something.
"'Love nuggets'," she read in disgust. "'Entice your lover into an all-night romantic interlude with these delicious...' Ugh. They're probably spiked with some sort of love potion, maybe a stamina draught as well."
"So it just makes you lust after each other."
"Yeah. Two people in true love don't need a love potion, though it might help them enjoy each other a little better for a night or so."
"Hermione..." he muttered as low as he could as she took her sweets to the front to pay. "What do you know about Hannah Abbott?"
"I've heard she's a nice girl. I've only talked to her a couple times, and she seems very nice."
"Yeah... nice," he said absentmindedly as they exited the shop.
"Am I detecting a hint of a crush?" she raised her eyebrow as they walked towards the quill shop. She again looked around because of the feeling that she was being watched.
"She does seem nice," he muttered, looking the other way and not speaking until they had finished purchasing their quills. They started back down the street when he pointed at Zonkos, or rather where Zonkos used to be.
"Under new management!" a banner in the window touted. The sign above the door had been changed from Zonkos to Weasleys Wizard Wheezes.
"Funny. George never mentioned that he had bought Zonkos. He told me he didn't have the gold quite yet," she said, looking up at the sign.
"Want to go in?" Neville asked.
"Wouldn't hurt to take a look around," she shrugged, heading for the door.
"Good afternoon!" a witch in the magenta robes that signaled her as an employee smiled at them from around a large display of Skiving Snackboxes. "Can I help you find anything?"
"Just poking around," they said in unison. Neville started towards a display of products designed to help in school while Hermione made her way towards the back. She walked slowly down the aisles, occasionally pausing to pick up a product and look at it. She got the feeling again that someone was watching her, someone close, but when she spun around no one was there. Thinking she might be losing her mind her eyes slid over a display of Wonder Witch products that made her miss Sirius. Just as she was thinking about him she heard soft footfalls come to rest behind her. She was about to spin around when a voice purred in her ear.
"I told you that you'd see me sooner than you thought."
