I know I didn't keep up with my promise, my reason being was a very personal issue that I am still having trouble dealing with. I love this story and I love everyone that has read it an encouraged me to write more, but once you have gone through what I did, everything is different. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and stay tuned for more.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Everyone kept a close eye on Hermione in the days right before the week of exams. She only relapsed once when Snape wrote up a list of all the things the exam was going to include. The list literally said, "everything."

During the actual week of exams, she seemed robotic. She only spoke when asked a direct question and all other spare moments of her time she spent going over her pages and pages of notes. She barely slept, though everyone else was in the same boat. A lot had happened that year and having to remember all of the things the students had learned proved quite difficult. Neville, bless him, had a panic attack during his DADA exam and had to be escorted up to the infirmary by Professor Snape, no less. After a few hours to allow him time to calm down Professor Dumbledore took Neville to his office and allowed him to finish his exams alone and in his own time.

That night in the Great Hall was mostly silence. The stress of preparation and the exams them selves had tired everyone out. Yes, they were over, but the older students were just mentally exhausted.

After the exams, however, the Slug Club was due for their first meeting. Hermione had met up with Fred and George in the dungeons to enter the party together. Hermione was dressed in a simple dark red gown with her hair pulled back into a tight bun while both the Weasley boy's were wearing t-shirts and jeans. She hadn't bothered with make-up, but after the three of them entered into Professor Slughorn's office/dinner party, she wished she had. The students milling about the room were all seventh or sixth year students who looked absolutely stunning in their various forms of formal attire. Fred and George, however, seemed unaffected by the atmosphere and they went immediately over to a little snack bar. Hermione noticed them slip a few items onto a tray rather than eat anything. She promised herself not to try anything on the table to be safe.

By herself, and also the youngest person in the room, she felt completely out of place. A few seventh year Slytherin's took notice of her by herself at the door and she tried not to let their laughter get to her. She knew she received her invitation for the evening because she was brilliant and Slughorn saw potential in her-she realized that when she was the only fourth or fifth year student to get an invitation-and that she shouldn't let the judgement of a few get to her. She earned this, dammit. She made it through exams.

Though surrounded by students older than her, she had no idea what to do. Casually, she made a lap of the room, unable to find Slughorn anywhere. She had just taken a seat in one of the plush green couches when the old man came into the room himself. "I do apologize for my tardiness," he said as he waved everyone towards the round dinner table shoved between the wall of plaques and a bookshelf of picture frames. Hermione pulled herself to her feet and thankfully, Fred and George waved her to sit between them. George nudged a plated of biscuits closer to her and she eyed him warily. He leaned in closer, "just take one, don't eat it," he whispered into her ear and she glared at him for a moment and then took a biscuit. He passed the plate around the table, and everyone took one. Apparently none of these students had any idea about the Valentine's Day fiasco, and Hermione just hoped she wasn't about to be apart of something similar. "Just trust us." Fred whispered in her other ear, which caused her to jump. She sat up a little bit straighter and noticed that only the Slytherin's had eaten them, Professor Slughorn excluded, he was too busy pouring himself some wine. Once his glass was full to his satisfaction, he raised his glass. "To the first of many gatherings," he smiled and made eye contact with each of the students, a particularly young glint in his eye showed itself when he looked at the twins and Hermione looked down at the biscuit. What did they have planned?

Everyone drank from their toast and then the food appeared on the table on various serving dishes and Hermione took a small portion of the roast beef and potatoes and also picked from the grilled asparagus. There were more...exotic looking dishes but since she didn't feel confident in what she thought they were, she left them for those who did know. The Slytherin's in particular, seemed to know and took hefty portions. The smell coming off of them was too potent, she decided. Whatever expensive dish it was.

The conversation around the table was ultimately about how confident each student was about their exams, and the relief of them being over. The seventh years spoke of their career plans and what they would be doing after they finished Hogwarts. The Slytherin boy's would all start working with their parents in whatever business they had. One managed the company that delivered magical ingredients and potions to the different wizarding villages across Europe, such as Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. The family had owned that business for over three hundred years, and were one of the still proud pureblood family's. That fact was stated with a glance in Hermione's direction, and she met his look with a steely glare of her own.

"It must be wonderful to have a history of family wealth to lean on, to never know what it is like to have to earn what it is you have." Hermione couldn't help but bring up.

"Yes! Miss Granger, too write you are. Not all of us are lucky enough to be born into wealthy family's. Even more so, most of us have no muggles related to us. Please, what is it your parents do, in the Muggle world?" Slughorn had a bright and curious smile, and seemed innocent in his question, but she couldn't help but feel like she was about to be judged by everyone else (except by the Weasley's of course).

"My parents are Dentists. They run their own practice in London. It's quite successful." It really was. And while being a dentist wasn't the most lucrative of the medical professions, Hermione's childhood was cushioned well with accommodations. She went to the best schools and had a nanny all her life because her parents worked all day, and every day but Sunday.

"And what is Dentists?" A Ravenclaw girl asked. Her hair was a perfect blend of brown and blonde and was done up in a complicated braid with a flower in it. She gave off the vibe of a fairy princess, but her sharp eyes noted a sense of danger.

"A dentist is someone that keeps up with oral hygiene, with cleanings but they also fill cavities, and do root canals, and pull teeth." She tried to sound proud, but honestly, every witch or wizard just needed a quick spell to fix their teeth, and even to rearrange teeth didn't take much work. "Muggles can't just wave a wand to fix their teeth," she defended quickly, the few Slytherin's snickered.

"What is a root canal?" the same Ravenclaw girl asked. Hermione drew in a breath, "it's a procedure that involves drilling to an infected tooth and removed the nerve and all the infection and then sealing it up. It's...well it's quite painful and I'm not sure it's appropriate for dinner conversation." She smiled faintly and Slughorn nodded, but he seemed very curious. He set his sites upon Fred and George and started asking them questions about their father and his work in the Ministry. The conversation then flowed to all the student's whose parents worked in the Ministry and who all was planning on working there as well. Then somehow the spot light went back to Hermione.

"So Miss Granger, where are you planning on taking yourself after Hogwarts?" She knew the question was probably going to come to her but, she didn't have an answer.

"Honestly, Professor, I haven't decided." She wanted to do the best she could possibly do in school, but since Voldemort returned from the dead and posed a huge threat to muggles and muggleborn, she felt like she needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And her attention to the exams pulled most of her concentration as well. "But I...well, I'm not sure what I would like to do, even. I haven't had the lifetime of thinking about it, or even to be exposed to it. There's so much about the Wizarding world that I haven't seen."

"I can certainly help with that," Slughorn smiled and waved to the cabinet behind him full of pictures, each moving, "many, many of my students have gone on to become quite successful in their careers and if you'd like to be put in contact with any of them, I'd be happy to arrange it." Hermione smiled gratefully, but the snickering coming from a few people of the table drew her attention and she sent a glare towards them.

"Thank you very much, professor." She smiled at him again and tried not to let her feelings of embarrassment show on her face. She was surrounded by such old blood, even with Fred and George. They could trace back their magical lineages back for so many generations, yet as far as Hermione could trace, she was the first person in the family. Ever.

She tried to remain as far out of the conversation as possible, but the words Dueling Champion kept getting thrown around. "Yeah, I've won the title every year, for my bracket every year." The Slytherin boy was bragging. Hermione tried to keep herself out of it, but it was Slughorn that said.

"I know someone else in the room that has won every year. Also who got it started." He turned his jolly eyes to her, "Miss Granger, care to add anything?"

"Well I can't say I won every year," She admitted bashfully, "Draco Malfoy beat me in Second year." The name made the Slytherin's laugh. She bristled.

"I did not know that," Slughorn smiled a little, "tell me, how is Mr. Malfoy getting on in Ravenclaw? The first in his family not to be in Slytherin, I believe."

"Yes. That's true." She said, the looks in the eyes of the Slytherin's across the table was starting to get her blood boiling.

"Almost like he betrayed his blood line, like his mother." The boy held his eyes with Hermione as he said that and she lurched to her feet.

"Don't you dare speak ill of Narcissa Malfoy." She didn't remember drawing her wand, but she suddenly was very aware of it in her hand. So did everyone else. He eyed it, at her side and then raised his eyes to her.

"Narcissa Malfoy betrayed her husband, and got him killed. Narcissa Malfoy betrayed her allies." He slowly got to his feet, and deliberately pulled his wand from his robes. Slughorn seemed equal parts excited and worried. Yet he did not stop them.

"Narcissa Malfoy selflessly gave her life so that the Order to recapture and imprison escaped Death Eaters. Your relatives if I am not mistaken. What she did made her a hero." She glared. Fred and George were standing protectively behind her, their arms folded.

"My relatives are not Death Eaters." He defended, but it was weak and Hermione laughed.

"Convicted and imprisoned as we speak. It's a wonder why all of you aren't in prison. Tell me, is Voldemort having a cuppa with your parents right now in one of your estates?"

The fact that she said his name got a gasp from everyone at the table. The boy visibly flinched. "Now, now students, this I believe is a good place to call the evening to a close. Please make your way back to your dorms."

Fred nodded his head and put an arm around Hermione. "Damn girl," he grinned, "Firecracker." Fred and George escorted Hermione all the way back to the Tower, each congratulating her on standing up to that seventh year.

"I'm sure it will come back, though," She said as they sat on the couch in front of the fire. "Now, tell me, and don't you dare lie, what is it that you put out on that table? Slughorn seemed in on it as well."

"Those biscuits?" Fred and George grinned. "Perfectly harmless," George said.

"And yet..." Fred laughed, "when activated with a particular phrase..."

"I think we'll find our snake friends in the infirmary tomorrow." Hermione's jaw dropped, "having some problems with rainbows shooting out of their orifices." Hermione laughed once.

"Didn't Professor Slughorn eat some himself?"

"Oh no, simply had it on his plate. We decided if he didn't take one, then everyone else might not have."

"Wait...we. Is he in on your pranks?!"

"Who do you think is financing them, Hermione?"

"Honestly." The two laughed and then stood. "Best get yourself to bed as well, missy." They excused themselves to bed though Hermione hung behind for a little while.

She stared into the flames and tried to imagine what career she had ahead of her. She didn't know of any internship positions that were offered to seventh year students, nor did she really know what jobs required of their exit exams, though of course she was planning on getting the highest marks in all of them...

She could work in the Ministry, or perhaps become a professor at Hogwarts...maybe something that let her travel. She definitely wanted to see the magical world, all of it. She recalled a conversation she had had with Ronald one day about his brother Bill who worked for Gringotts, but he went all over the world.

Before she knew it, she fell asleep on the couch.

She dreamed of a future with Draco, little brunette and blond headed children running about, of waving to them as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. And yet soon after the train was gone the dream dissolved and Draco and herself were locked in a dueling battle with wizards in black robes. Draco was hit with a flash of green light and fell next to her.

She jolted awake to see Neville lurching away from her. "Sorry! I was just wakin' you." He held his hands up in defense, she drew in a deep breath and looked around, to find she was still on the couch in the common room. "It's almost time for our last meal of the term!" She pulled herself to her feet and stretched out. Neville looked about her and realized she didn't have any books or anything out.

"Why'd you sleep down here?" he asked.

"I was thinking about my future...guess I just dozed off." The last bit of her dream haunted her, she wished she had forgotten it. "I've only realized that I don't have a long time left to decide what to do...do you know?" She asked him. He shrugged his shoulders faintly.

"I mean I've thought about being an Auror like my parents, but I don't know...after...well I don't want to be in danger all the time. Maybe a Professor?" He shrugged. "I'm a bit more worried about You Know Who being back and all." Hermione nodded faintly.

"Yes. If you'll wait for me, I'll change really quick." He nodded and took a seat and she ran up the stairs, on the way she passed Fred and George, who both raised an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything.

Once back downstairs, she went with Neville to the Great Hall. They had just gotten to the Staircase when Harry ran up to them. He hadn't come in the direction of the common room, however. "Feeling better?" Neville asked him. Harry did look a bit pale, but otherwise fine. He nodded and patted his stomach.

"No idea what kinda bug it was, but it was...colorful." Hermione's eyes widened.

"You didn't happen to eat biscuits last night, did you?" She asked. Harry tilted his head and thought.

"Yeah, I guess I did. Ron had gotten some from his brothers. Said they saved some from dinner."

"And did Ron eat any?"

"He took them to breakfast, I had mine last night before I went to be. You don't think..." He trailed off because Hermione started running down the stairs.

"How long did it take for you to get sick after eating them?"

"Uh I felt fine most of the evening, but after Seamus and Dean got back into the room I started feeling off. They helped me to the infirmary."

"What were they talking about?" She asked. She remembered the twins mentioning a phrase that activated the biscuits but they never told her what it was. "We have to stop Ronald from eating them."

"Fred and George." Neville laughed faintly, "they're getting good." Hermione rolled her eyes but couldn't help but admire their magical abilities.

Though of course she was also reminded how they were able to pull off such magic, because they were being funded by a teacher-which was entirely inappropriate!

When they entered the Great Hall, things were going on as usual. Hermione marched straight to Ron, who was filling up his plate with food from the table. She sat next to him and looked intently at him. "Have you eaten the food that your brother's gave you?" She asked intently. Ron sensed her tone and shook his head.

"Crabbe and Goyle snatched them from me on my way in, the gits. I was about to grab them back but Snape walked by." He looked sullen for a moment but when Hermione sighed with relief, he looked at her concerned.

"What is it they have done now?" He asked.

"Well I was in the infirmary all night. Thank you for noticing." Harry sank into the seat opposite Hermione. "Rainbows were shooting out of my ears and nose and mouth and...well..." He looked at his lap. "everywhere." Hermione's eyes widened. Ron covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laughter. He failed miserably. Fred and George sat down next to them.

"Why did it take so long for you to get here?" Hermione asked, accusing them with her glare. They smiled.

"What are you, Hermione? Our mother?" They laughed.

She glanced over her shoulder and the Slytherin table who had some noteworthy absences, those at the dinner last night. Professor Slughorn looked pleased this morning, she noted from his seat at the head of the room. She noticed Draco had just joined the Ravenclaw table, so she excused herself. He was just starting to load up his plate with food. He had just plucked up a biscuit from the tray in front of him. She smacked it out of his hand.

"I can have a biscuit with breakfast if I want, Granger." He glared at her, assuming she was just being protective of his health. She shook her head and leaned in. "Trust me. Don't eat them. Even if they do have chocolate bits. Please." She stared at him pleadingly until he nodded and started picking other things to eat. She stopped the other Ravenclaws as well within her reach.

"What's got you all riled up?" Terry seemed particularly angry that he was denied the biscuit.

"Just. Don't." She huffed and then pointed a thumb towards the Weasley Twins, who were gazing happily towards the Slytherin table. All were eating their breakfast like nothing was wrong.

"Oi! Flint!" Fred called out. The boy turned and glared towards the twins, a biscuit half bitten into in his hand. "After the meal, George and I were going to let off Firecrackers in the quad. You should join us, mate!" Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what the word was, and she looked up and down the table. No one looked different. Flint shot a rude gesture towards the twins and then turned away.

The first person to...react...was Goyle. beams of rainbows shot out of his ears and then his open mouth. Then...one by one...the Slytherin table all started to succumb, with beams of rainbows shooting out of their noses, ears, and mouths. One slytherin girl started to run out of the room with a rainbow shining brightly between her legs as well as her mouth. Hermione covered her mouth in horror, but the rest of the room started to erupt in laughter.

"Thanks Hermione." The Ravenclaw's around her whispered to her. Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors also started shooting out Rainbows and the laughter got even louder, then started to trickle out as more and more people had rainbows coming out of everywhere. Hermione buried her head in her hands. She couldn't believe it. The Professors were all running around trying to figure out something to do. Hermione noticed that Slughorn was doing his best not to laugh, but once McGonagall asked him something, he stood and left the room quickly.

A small number of students had never eaten the biscuits and looked on in astonishment as chaos unfolded around them. One by one, the Ghosts started appearing through the walls as word spread. Their laughter filled the room. Many of the students left the room, leaving a faint glow about the air behind them as they did. Hermione felt bad for poor Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing. There wasn't enough room up there for 95% of the students. Hermione realized that the twins had the house elves on their side, which was the only way for them to have distributed their special treats to all four tables, and she looked again at Slughorn's seat on the table. She couldn't hardly believed he supported such a thing.

"It's harmless," Draco told her, "a little embarrassing, yeah, but harmless." He patted her shoulder, "but I've no idea what I would do without you." He whispered the second part into her ear and she smiled faintly, but then the image of him dying in her dream hit her again and she looked away.

"I dunno what I'd do without you either." There was a lot more weight to her words than she meant and Draco noticed.

"What's gotten into you?" He asked, taking her hand.

"Just...just a bad dream, that's all."

"Well I'm hear to listen. Two perfectly good, unobstructed ears." He flicked them for emphasis and she nodded faintly. He stole a kiss quickly and then the two of them tried to have a bit more breakfast. Dumbledore was unable to give his end of the year speech, as nearly all the students had left the hall, and their exit from Hogwarts was actually delayed a few hours. That's how long it took for the rainbows to disappear.

Once safely on the train, Fred and George kept themselves locked in a compartment, because word started to spread about who was responsible. Hermione and Draco managed to get a compartment to themselves. "Now tell me about this dream."

"I'd...I'd rather not." Not only would she probably tear up about it, but she didn't want to give Draco any extra hope in their future. She definitely wasn't about to break up with him, but those little blond and brunette headed children haunted her as much as his death did. She had no idea what the next few years would play out to. Did she even want kids? Right now was a definite hell no.

"I...I just dreamed that you and I were dueling some black-robed people and...and you got hit with a spell and died right in front of me. I'm scared about what the next few years will bring." Draco ran a hand through his hair before he took both of her hands. He kissed both her knuckles.

"Try not to worry about it. We can prepare as much as we can...and do our best to stay alive. I know it doesn't look good, what with Him coming back and all. But he has no army. Not like he did before. And the Order is ready for him." Draco gave her hands a small squeeze.

"Now, tell me all about the dinner last night." Hermione smiled faintly and launched into a detailed recount of everything that happened. He wouldn't meet her eyes when she mentioned what they had said about his mother, but he smiled faintly when she admitted she was about to curse them right in front of Slughorn. A small part of her thought that if she had, that he wouldn't have done anything.

After her story, they both started talking about possible career options. Draco admitted that he had enough money in the family fortune that the two of them didn't have to work at all, and they could spend their lives doing whatever they wanted. If that was something she wanted to do.

She was saved having to answer because they had arrived at the train station.

Sirius and Sybil had Cissa with them, and smiled brightly when they saw Draco emerge from the train, and waved at Hermione as well. They helped the two find their things and then locate Hermione's parents as well. Leaving was difficult, but after a tight hug from Draco, he promised to see her as soon as possible.

"Love you," he whispered into her ear as he pulled away. She smiled back, "love you too."

Not too terrible, eh?

Lemme know.