Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. As Proof of this, notice the sixth book does not have Luna searching for Crumple Horned Snorkacks... in Harry's pants!

Chapter 2 – Hermy has issues

"Hey mate. Quite the entrance you made."

Harry was unpacking his trunk trying to find his wand. Remus had brought his things over after him and Moody finished inspecting his neighbours to Moody's satisfaction.

Harry had received four separate warnings from the ministry of magic, from warnings of expulsion to imprisonment. Harry was a little worried until he read a note that came along via Fawkes telling him that the Order would take care of it.

He turned around at the greeting to find his friend leaning nonchalantly against his door, with an owl on his shoulder.

Harry tried to be just as nonchalant as he put away his underwear that he was holding.

'Thank God that wasn't Hermione.'

"Well you know me, got to be in the spotlight. I am Harry Potter after all" Harry said the last bit with as much dignity as he could. 'Snape would be proud' Harry thought with a smirk.

Ron snorted while walking forward and doing some form of manly handshake, that Harry thought he might have picked up from the eldest Weasley boys.

"Whose owl is that?" Harry asked as he observed the haughty avian. It looked slightly familiar.

"He's mine. You remember the owl Percy got the first summer you stayed over?"

Indeed this was the same owl as the studious prefects, and it acted like its owner too. It's obvious distain for Ron was apparent as he did not act as dignified as his well mannered brother; this was exemplified as he scratched his under arms.

"Oh right, I remember now… why do you have Percy's owl"

"Oh once Fudge was proved wrong, he came back. Saying how he was 'terribly sorry', and would 'try to make it up to us.' "Ron said this vindictively but Harry cold see the pleased look he tried to hide.

'The Weasely's are once again whole. The Weasely's were definitely on the other end of the spectrum when compared to The Dursley's' Harry thought wistfully.

Harry found it odd that Percy would admit he was wrong and crawl back to his family, but then again he was a Weasley. Family was very important to them.

"But that still doesn't answer why you have Percy's owl? Hermes Right?" Harry directed the question to the owl, as he was so used to talking with Hedwig. 'Where is Hedwig?'

"Oh right, well he has been bending over backwards for the whole family, well minus the twins… but anyway, one day I just got fed up with Pig continuously zooming around my head." Ron said bitterly… Harry thought there was something he was not saying but let him have his secrets.

"I ended up giving him to Ginny, It's practically hers anyway; she even got to name the stupid ball of fluff."

Harry was a little angry with his friend as Pig had been a gift from Sirius. Harry brushed those thoughts away as he remembered the bird walking over his transfigurations essay after he had taken a dip in his ink well.

"Percy found out, and I think he took a shine to me because of the whole me being a prefect thing that he ended up giving me Hermy here for 'school purposes'."

Ron seemed quite fond of the owl even if it showed its affection by viciously tugging on a loose thread on his collar.

"Hermy?" Harry questioned.

"Oh it turns out that Hermy isn't a he, but a she. Bit of a surprise really." Ron explained.

:-..-..-..-..-:

Hermione wasn't having a good day.

She had tried to gain access to the Library only to find that they didn't have one in the Tower.

They had books alright, Books on things that were not available anywhere else. Things that were deemed ground breaking or classified. 'The things I could learn…'

'But no, I don't have "clearance." '

Hermione felt the tell tale signs of frustration clouding her mind. It wasn't the books themselves but the opportunity they presented her that she was interested in. Before Hogwarts she did not spend nearly as much time in the library as she did on arrival. By all purposes she was a normal girl, well liked amongst her friends.

Safe and secure in knowledge that things would be as they always were and will be.

Then things changed.

Maybe I can get Harry to let me see some of those books, if he asks Dumbledore I'm sure he can get them.' Hermione wasn't troubled by using her friendship with the unfortunate boy to get what she needed. If nothing else she thought she was helping him.

In her mind, the pureblood raised by Muggle's was at a greater disadvantage than she. He needed someone to guide him through the world as more was expected of him. Sure he had influence, and could get his way if he were to take advantage of the fame that was bestowed on him, but he looked to Hermione for answers, and she needed information to give him.

Hermione made her way down to the suite Ron and Harry shared. She opened the door ignoring a startled Neville and marched over to Harry's room.

She was about to enter but she overheard Ron's familiar tones.

"Hermy… yeah I love her." Ron gushed to Hermione's secret pleasure. She wasn't sure how she felt about the red head but his words were not unwelcome. Although she would have to have a talk with him about shortening her name. She only let Grawp call her that, and only because he could use her as a Barbie if he was so inclined to.

"Yeah she is quite the looker, but I must say my little lady is much prettier, where is she anyway?"

'Jerk.' Harry was similar to Ron in the respect that she had considered them both as possible love interests. They had not flirted but she thought it was an unspoken truth that one of them should want to date her, if not fight over her. To have one of the boys she thought of as something more; criticize her looks in comparison to another girl…

Hermione was not pleased with her friend. 'I hope it's not that slag Cho' Hermione had not approved of the pureblood witch. She had come up with contingencies if she were to end up with Ron. 'Harry would marry a Muggleborn girl. That way, it snidely thumbed the purebloods and Harry could have something in common with his bride to be.' She had rationalized.

Memories of Cho's face surfaced taunting her in her beauty. Shame and spite welled up as she recalled a shameful event last February.

Squashing those thoughts she, heard the conversation pick up again.

"Well I'll admit she is stunning, but I've grown quite attached to Hermy, even if she is kind of cold to me." Hermione did not know what to think of that, sure she was kind of snippety with him but 'he was so immature some times'. She felt a little ashamed of her behaviour, letting some of her anger slide.

"I still can't believe she's a girl, she acts almost exactly like Percy too. So formal and cold… kind of like Malfoy"

And then it re emerged twofold. 'How dare he!' Hermione was outraged that her friend would insult her behind her back.

Apparently Neville had come to see what Hermione was listening to as well and realized what was going on.

"Oh Hermione it's not what it…"

"Oy, don't compare my things to Malfoy..." Ron Defended. At some unheard gesture from his compatriot, he continued. " I'll admit though I did take a peak down below when she wasn't looking to make sure. Definitely a girl." Ron said oblivious to the scandalized and afraid friends on the other side of the door.

Hermione saw red.

Neville could only stutter before doing the only sensible thing. He took a step away from the door as she charged.

:-..-..-..-..-:

"You see Hermione around?"

"No" was the quick response from the three males as they averted their eyes from the Weasley female.

She raised an eyebrow at their synchronized answer, but let it be as she could question her friend later in her suite.

The teens were all lounging around the dinner table as Neville and Harry played black jack with an aggravated Ron.

"Stupid Muggle game. Let's play chess Harry, you can be white!"

"I don't know I kind of like this game." Neville apparently had a thing with numbers. Harry wondered whether he was one of those types who could count cards.

"Stupid Muggle game. Stupid math" Ron continued to grumble as Harry tried to decide whether he wanted another card.

"Hit me"

"Ok"

SMACK

"Ow. Not literally Luna!" Luna was the dealer this round and had actually taught the two boys on either side of Harry how to play. Harry having some knowledge of the proper phrases was not much help as they used the magical deck.

Neville and Luna along with their families were moved to the citadel a day after they arrived home. They were high targets because of the Ministry Fiasco. Well them and a couple other random families. The Grangers had jumped at the chance to spend their vacation with their daughter in a magical building. They had been drifting apart since Hermione had been indoctrinated into the world of fables and myth. Harry got to know the two but was slightly disheartened when they did not know who he was. Ron was the same. Apparently Hermione did not talk about them with her family. To be fair Hermione just simply did not talk with her family in general. Dan Grangers fears were coming true.

"Well then why did you tell me to?" She peered over the table at the messy haired teen with suspicion.

"You don't have Head Wumps' do you? They are quite dangerous; they say that's where we learned how to use the imperious curse." Luna ignored the sniggers of Ginny and amused smiles of Neville and Ron as she leaned over the table and put her hand on Harry's cheek and used her thumb to lower his eyelids and push his nose about like silly putty.

Harry colored spectacularly under the touch but was saved by Hermione's entrance.

"There are no such things as Head Wumps' Luna" She added tiredly as she sat opposite Ron at the circular table they were playing on. She purposefully avoided looking at the boys. They had come to the unspoken agreement to not discuss the misunderstanding that occurred days earlier, or the conversation illustrating a disturbingly detailed plan on the illicit use of the invisibility cloak to snoop the girl's bath and bed rooms.

Harry tried to squash the part of him that had been interested in that idea but had come to the conclusion that Dumbledore was not stupid enough to give a pre-pubescent boy a way to go unnoticed without being able to punish him for misuse. Even if it were his fathers.

"That's what the Muggle's say about witches and wizards." Luna sing songed to the exasperated girl.

"She's got you there Hermione. You never know" Neville added mystically.

Hermione just ignored her friends, mumbling "boys," as she took out a book she had managed to get from Remus.

The Citadel was a pleasant change from Grimmauld Place. Like being at Hogwarts without homework. Harry only wished he could leave. He did not like being confined anyplace, and they were definitely being confined as he had woken up to find Auror guards following them around.

"You kids are dull. Why won't you go out... anywhere?" This came from Tonks as she was their lucky chaperone today.

'Not what I expected my minders to suggest' Harry thought in confusion. His previous assumption conflicting with the bored comment from the jittery Auror.

"What do you mean? We can't go out?" Ron asked. He too had came to the same conclusion as all those who had stayed at Grimmauld the summer before.

"And why not?" she honestly seemed puzzled by this. Harry was getting the vague sense of déjà vu as he compared this to his conversation with the Headmaster.

"Aren't we supposed to stay in the tower?" Neville asked hesitantly. He did not have the same confidence to talk with strangers as the others had. Let alone an Auror.

"Well at night yes, but you can leave during the day, that's why you got us, we guard you when you're out and about. It's training to become full Order Members." Tonks explained to the surprised but pleased group.

Harry had found out that some of the recruits from last year like Tonks did not have the same training as the Order so they were not true members until they passed. People like Molly and Arthur were more honorary because they helped out in the previous wars taking in children who needed a place to stay while their parents were indisposed either fighting or recovering from injury. It was one of the reasons Molly Weasley loved Harry so much.

Apparently Ron and Harry had met two or three times before Hogwarts as his parents were called away to fight and he would play with his first friends' blocks. Molly had smiled after she explained it to the shocked pair.

:-..-..-..-..-::-..-..-..-..-:

"I often called you two the other Twins. Far too much like your father, you were at that age." She said fondly as Harry smiled at the similarity and closeness that Ron and he had shared long ago.

:-..-..-..-..-::-..-..-..-..-:

"We can leave?" Harry asked, not used to this amount of freedom.

"I Beg Of You To" she pleaded. Apparently the Young Guard was just as antsy as the rest of them.

The other fellow beside her just looked on stonily. Apparently most Guards, with the exception of Tonks who outright ignored them, were supposed to act like the Guards at Buckingham palace. Luna had a lot of fun with Ginny's lipstick at the encouragement from a cheering metamorph, who gave tips as the man just stood there, occasionally twitching.

"Yes! What do you guys want to do?" Ron cheered. "Diagon alley?"

"No, it's no fun really, I do need to pick up some money but there is nothing to do there." Harry shot down that idea.

He had spent a entire summer in Diagon alley and if he could go anywhere he wanted this summer he was not going to waste it going to quality quidditch with Ron or Flourish and Blots with Hermione. For once he wanted to do something other than window shop or contemplate the seedy nature of Knockturn alley.

"Are there, any other places to go?" Hermione questioned

"Hogsmead?" Ron asked slightly disappointed that his idea was shot down.

"No, we can do that any time at Hogwarts." Hermione said

"Well what do you usually do for fun?" Neville questioned.

"Why don't we go to the village down the road?" Luna said as she shuffled her deck. She was perplexed as she seemed to continuously get the King and Queen of hearts and a shifty looking Joker card at the bottom of the deck all the time. She did not think her divinations deck would give her so much trouble.

"There is no magical village down the road Luna" Hermione explained to the girl condescendingly.

Luna turned a raised eyebrow to Hermione as she paused her shuffle to stare at the witch before returning to her zoned out appearance while stating "I never said it was magical."

"A Muggle Village. I've never been to one of those." Neville stated curiously.

"Brilliant Luna!" Harry was very interested in this. He may have been Muggle raised but he had never experienced any of the Muggle world outside his school and home.

Amongst all the agreements, Hermione seemed the most vocal against going. Harry wasn't sure whether it was because it was Luna's idea (she had taken a particular dislike to the girl) or whether it was because it was Muggle. Harry wasn't stupid; he was decently observant, most of the time. Hermione had a mentality, to discuss Muggle things, was to flaunt her background. Something she was very careful not to do.

Not quite shame, but neither pride; a murky mix between the two that left her in awkward waters.

They eventually convinced Hermione to go but Ginny had to stay as she was grounded. She had not done well on her transfigurations final and tried to hide it from her parents. Unfortunately being surrounded by Order Members who were also your teachers did not help her lie.

They made their way down to the village which they could not catch the name of. It was a little hamlet. Quaint with a lot of attractions, being so close to the coast had made this an ideal if not secret tourist attraction. It was not a backwards community either; they had all the amenities a bunch of friends could want. Cinemas, bakeries, arcades, and dozens of other attractions littered the town. Although Neville and Ron were more enticed by the string Bikinis currently worn by a group of giggling girls.

Harry was more used to it as he had seen snippets of such things in magazines and commercials Dudley had taken to watching or ogling.

That's not to say Harry had not taken a gander but he did not go slack jawed like his two roommates… much.

Curiously the girls did not want to stay on the beach, much to the disappointment of the boys.

"Well what do you guys want to do first?" Hermione asked tersely.

"Hmm… what you say Hermione?" Ron reluctantly turned away from a pretty red head who winked at him saucily before giggle madly with her friends at his blush.

"Honestly!" Hermione was not getting any happier at this.

Harry tried to share an amused smile with Luna but found her staring stonily at the brunette who had winked at him across the street. The very busty brunette wearing a skirt that was far too short to be considered clothing. Harry thought she might have a great 'personality' but decided it would be safer for the men of the group if he steered them away from the friendly women otherwise the not so friendly ones he currently hung around with would hurt them.

"Well we could go see a show." Harry said desperately and was rewarded when Hermione huffed her approval and Luna became dreamy again.

"Show?" Ron asked.

:-..-..-..-..-:

"Whoa"

"So you liked it then"

"Whoa"

"I'll take that as a yes, what bout you Neville?" Harry asked as his pureblood pals continued to stair in wonder after the credits finished.

"Big dragon" Neville appeared shaken by the three year old movie that was doing a repeat performance.

"Dinosaur... not a dragon."

"It's okay Neville. Dinosaurs aren't real. My dad told me about the movies before, they're fiction." Surprisingly it was Luna telling Neville about what was make believe and what wasn't.

"Actually Luna dinosaurs are real, Muggle's discovered them a long time ago." Hermione seemed to enjoy telling the girl what was real a little too much in Harry opinion.

Luna turned a stunned eye to Harry for confirmation. "It's true..." Hermione smiled smugly at the girl. Harry decided to help Luna out after witnessing her friend's horrible behaviour.

"People thought those were myth for a while, but now we know they're real. Just extinct." Harry said idly trying to emphasize the words myth and real.

Harry wasn't sure if it was true but decided to wing it. Luna smiled brilliantly at Harry's support, recognizing his attempts at trying to cheer her up.

Harry scowled back at Hermione as she muttered about "encouraging the girl," but was cheered that he guessed correctly as she had not tried to deny his statement.

"You guys want to go eat something." Harry asked as Ron's stomach growled ominously forewarning its need for sustenance. Ron just nodded as he was still stunned by the movie, occasionally muttering "whoa."

"You want to get some burger and chips?" Harry asked to the confusion of Neville.

"Burger?" Neville did not sound like the name agreed with him.

Harry just grinned a mischievous grin as he led his friends back to the beach where he saw a small restaurant

:-..-..-..-..-:

"Muggle's are awesome!"

Ron did not stop gushing about his Adventures to his dad who paid particular attention to his sons' story about Muggle recreation.

"So you're telling me they captured a dragon on picture. This is worrying"

"Dinosaur" Neville corrected. He had gotten over his original fear that the giant lizards were going to come for him and embraced Hermione's explanations about their history.

Hermione took this opportunity to explain what one was to the excited father of seven.

"Remarkable… simply remarkable. The things Muggle's can find without magic. How do they know how old they are?"

"Carbon Dating" Harry thought Hermione liked to throw those fancy words in for her amusement just because she knew the man did not understand what it was. Harry secretly enjoyed it to, but not on people like Mr Weasley, who were just curious. He was always so patient with Harry, explaining the intricacies of the magical world. It made Harry feel accepted in a way he very rarely did.

The day had been perfect in Harry's opinion. He had never felt so … normal.

After their meal at "The Cove" (as the restaurant had been called), a pouting Tonks told them they had to be heading back after thanking Harry for the meal. Harry had treated his guards to 'Sloppy Burgers' and the movie as thanks for the day. Tonks was grateful and expressed it by jumping in Harry's lap and proclaiming him "a keeper" in front of a harassed waitress.

The other guard, who Harry decided to name Bob, did not react, but he seemed to be fonder of Harry as he shadowed the teens back to the tower. Harry almost thought he saw Bob smile but was forced to conclude it was a twitch from Luna poking his buttocks with a stick. Tonks hung back to admire the girls guts, and Bobs glutes.

They were currently gathered around a dinner table in the Weasley parent's suite. Harry thought it must have been a bit like a vacation for the parents as their kids had their own suits and they had theirs to themselves. Molly Weasley seemed more relaxed than he had ever seen her, and Mr. Weasley guffawed loudly and frequently to the most miniscule jokes.

'I guess even she needs time away from the kids. This must be what it's like for them when we are at school.'

Mr and Mrs. Granger were currently having a long conversation with the pair. Harry could hear Mrs Weasley gush about Hermione being such a charm to have around the house. Hermione did not seem as pleased with the conversation as the adults were.

Ginny was currently sulking as Luna told her father about how Harry had treated her to lunch at the restaurant and how nice the guards were. She talked about Bob frequently.

Ginny sent envious looks towards Luna through most of the night while smiling at Harry frequently.

Harry felt the tell tale signs of warning signals being flagged as Ginny would gaze at him a little longer and longingly than was appropriate for a friend.

He used those moments to talk with Mr. Lovegood at the dinner table as he was going on about how the Muggles were planning something to do with Asian Viper tongues in Singapore. He claimed that the Muggle dignitaries were meeting in secret to create an army to defend the world from Demonic uprisings.

Harry thought Mr. Lovegood was interesting. Luna just beamed as Harry asked "Do they speak Parseltongue?"

AN: Hey all, I thought I would warn those about Hermione's behaviour. Just to let you know there will be some Hermione Bashing in my story, I'm not totally sure how far I will take it but she is not going to be betraying Harry or anything. Their friendship will be strained however.

Now, you guys might have noticed some Harry/Luna action going on. I'm just laying the ground work, but I'm still not sure whether to use it.
Any who… This Authors Note is getting long so I'll just finish off saying I still need a beta and Reviews make me happy.

Not a must but I won't be turning them away.

Joe