Author's Notes - Heheheheeee! I'm on a roll! Hopefully in the upcoming chapters things will be sorted out and explained, but if anyone wants anything specific to be clarified, please tell me ! ^.^

Chapter forty-five.

Harry sighed as he entered the common room after Hermione's Sister's Wedding. Two new people resided within Hogwarts as replacements of Draco and Alice; Horace Slughorn, the new Potions Master of Hogwarts and Kylie Morton, a recent graduate of Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. For some reason, Morton would go all… fluttery around him. She would blink twice the normal amount whenever she saw him and was always touching him… Maybe she thought he had a couple of war injuries that were possibly giving him pain and wanted to help…? Eh. Whatever.

Harry was just glad that he didn't have to share a room with Slughorn, as the old coot's only condition for returning was to have his own personal rooms. But for some reason he was always in his commons…

"Harry! How was it?" Morton asked cheerfully, jumping up from her place by the fire to (forcefully) take his outer dress robe.

"Oh, er, fine thanks." He answered, wondering why she wanted to hang his robe up. Even he didn't like hanging his robe up. Too much fuss.

Morton bustled around him and began to brush invisible lint off his lapel as she tutted.

"Harry, you'll catch your death! Come sit by the fire and warm up!" She mothered him eagerly.

Maybe mothering's a Healer trait… No, Alice would've just gone; "Hn. Its cold Potter, what the hell are you doing in only a single layer of clothing?"

"I've got a warming charm on…"

"So? I've got three warming charms, six pairs of socks, four layers of clothing and a duvet. AND I'm sitting next to the fire. It's still cold Potter."

"You're just weird."

"No, you are! What sort of delusional people wander around with only dress robes on in the middle of a very cold winter?"

"This is England. It is, as you say, cold all the time."

"…You Pommies are barmy." She would then retreat back under the duvet with only the top of her fuzzy, colourful, beanie showing, a couple of dragons breathing fire knitted into it…probably to help with the warmth. And Harry would wander over to the spot next to her by the fire. And she'd go, "(sigh) Potter, did you want some doona? There's plenty of space."

"Thanks Fletcher." And she would grudgingly open up and give a bit of her warm space for someone else in the cold.

Harry found himself smiling goofily at the imaginary conversation, but broke out of it when he heard talking. Morton was blushing pink as Slughorn chuckled.

"Hm – What?"

"Harry m' boy! I was just saying how like a married couple you two are! Greeting each other so affectionately when you come back… making sure the other is well… And Kylie, you look so like Lily! Top of your class too, I'm sure! You remind me of her! And going from your father Harry, Potters like their redheads! …Are you sure you two aren't in a secret relationship?" he asked winking, as Morton giggled and glanced meaningfully towards Harry.

"Ah… If there is one, I've not known of it. Well… g'night, I'm gonna hit the sack." He said deadpan and walked past a suddenly quiet old Potions Master and Under-experienced Healer-to-be.

Hermione sighed as she cleaned up after all the guests had gone. Emily and Nathan had…gone off… to start their honeymoon, her Mum and Dad had…similar ideas… and Nik, well, he and his 'flavour of the month' have been going strong for two years now. They were probably doing pretty much the same thing.

It was always funny, Hermione mused, how Nik would introduce his girlfriend every time the family got together as his 'flavour of the month' and tell everyone not to get too attached to her, as there'd be a different girl soon. He'd get wacked over the head as Nicole would reply with the fact that when she dumps him, she'd be going straight into the arms of Hermione.

This was usually followed by a salacious smile in Hermione's direction as the two girls pretended to flirt, while Nik would kick up a fuss, wrap his arms around her and declare that 'for the time being, she's MINE! Hermione can have her after, not while she's still with me, got it little sis?"

It was routine. A very funny routine, to be sure. And one Hermione always looked forward too.

She sighed and sat down limply on one of the abandoned chairs. But she doesn't want Nicole. She wants Draco…

Why does one day have to be so long?

"Have you heard of the tale of Old Man Winkle?"

Alice was lying upside down on her bed, swinging her legs back and forth like a child, amused by the simplest gestures.

"You mean Rip Van Winkle. Of course. He fell asleep and didn't wake up until a hundred years or so had passed, I think. The end."

"He was away with the faeries…"

"Away with the faeries?"

"Of course! He drank some of their wine and to compensate, he had to stay with them for a hundred years! Of course, usually you have to stay for all eternity, but still, he must've gotten someone else to do that for him… Maybe the faerie king fell in love with a mortal and so Old Man Winkle convinced the girl to be the faerie king's bride… I'm pretty sure a couple of my cousins are in America…They might be able to help with straightening - "

"Alice, you sound like Luna."

"…Well, maybe Luna sounds like me. Besides I like Luna."

"So do I, Alice. But still, 'away with the faeries'? That's what my Mum would say when she'd catch me not studying."

"…It could happen."

"If Draco's gone a hundred years, I'll – I'll - "

"You'll do what? Bury me under the patio?"

Hermione gasped and whirled around, knocking the chair over in the process.

"Draco! – You missed the wedding!"

"…That's it?" he looked slightly disappointed.

"And you were gone for two months! How could you do that?"

"Two months… Well, that's not too bad…"

Hermione stormed up to him and wacked him over the head, "Draco! And Alice is - " her face paled with dread.

He shook his head solemnly.

"We tracked down Cobweb. She was hiding with her mother. 'Under our very noses,' so to speak. No-one thought to look there at first, simply because it was so obvious. When we found her, Oberon and Titania banished her too.

'Boy was she cursing the very ground we stood on! …Literally. We were stuck in a bog for a bit, trying to get away.

'But, I couldn't make head or tail of her memories. Faes are so much harder to read than Muggles or other Magical Folk. And even though Titania and Oberon probably know where she is, they won't tell me."

"But – But she's their Granddaughter!"

"They're Fae, they live by different rules and sets of moral codes and conducts. But, from what I can deduce, she's alive and Aboveground."

Hermione sighed and hung her head. She walked the couple of steps separating them and hugged him gently.

"I missed you so much."