A/N: Still tweaking :D

Disclaimer : Not ours... We just borrowed Ms. Rowling's sandbox!

A/N: Thanks for the reviews tchizek, SandBlood14433, and Snape'sgirl

Chapter 15

Mr Dumbledore

"Mia… come on wake up" Harry shook her shoulders.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered.

"Ow! Mia…. Don't shout!"

"What?" Hermione looked bewildered.

"You were shouting in my head, contrary to your whispering right now. It's bloody painful" Harry grimaced.

Hermione started giggling. Harry looked at her perplexedly. Now what was the matter!

"What? Something in my face?"

"No… you said….you said…" and she dissolved in to giggles again.

Harry frantically thought over their brief conversation. He couldn't find any major blunders. Girls!

"Oi! No bashing against my gender" Hermione stuck out her tongue. He had forgotten his Occlumency shields.

"Mia" Harry exasperatedly asked, "Would you tell me why you thought it was alright to laugh at me when I was just making you wake up?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Harry Potter?"

"MIA!"

"Ok ok, it's just you said…" she lowered her voice mysteriously. Harry eagerly leaned in to hear her words. "CONTRARY!" Hermione shouted into his ears and started laughing uproariously at his flinch.

"What the heck! Mia you are going to be the death of me!"

"Harry….you can't blame me! Usually I have to correct both Ron's' and yours' basic grammar and now you are using big words and speaking….well…" Hermione stumbled on her words realizing there was no way she could tell what she wanted to, without offending Harry's sensibilities.

"Not like a moron?" Harry completed wryly, smirking at her. Hermione blushed. Harry, though red and embarrassed now, continued.

"Um…. Someone trained me in the art of speaking, so to speak. He said I would never impress the young dark lord if I sounded like a 'bumbling idiot'. So yeah…. I've been practising…. And…."

"Severus" Hermione smiled.

"How do you…?"

"Bumbling idiot? Moron? Dark lord? You leave plenty of clues, Harry." Hermione smirked and continued.

"Besides your Occlumency shields are down again."

"Shit!"

They went down in to the inn, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible and swiftly had breakfast. Then they sat together and had a long discussion about their cover story. Harry was seriously lacking knowledge in the department of magic schools, so they decided to be home taught. Praying they could be consistent about their stories, they set out to have lunch.

While they were arguing about what to buy, someone tapped on Harry's shoulder. Hermione looked over his shoulder and froze. Dumbledore, looking young and spry, was standing behind Harry. Though unlike his usual jovial expression, he wore a dark scowl. His robes were sewn together too many times and they could tell he wasn't feeling very friendly. They were amazed at how much could change in a few years. Well half a century is pretty long, they agreed after a beat.

"Who're ya both? Never seen yab'fore…." His normal cultured voice sounded gruff to them.

"Prof. Dumbledore?" Hermione began, unsure as to how to address him. They needed someone to take them to Hogwarts and he was the best person.

"I ain't no professor girlie…. But it seems ya know my brother"

"Brother?" Harry asked, shocked that he never knew such an important tid-bit about their headmaster.

"Humph! Leave it to him to forget all about me" Aberforth grumbled.

"No...No we don't know your brother personally, Mr. Dumbledore. We just thought you were him from the pictures we have seen of him. We were hoping for a meeting with him." Hermione said trying to diffuse the tension.

"Who're ya? Don't sound like yer from 'ere." Aberforth asked once more.

"We are not. We…" Here they exchanged a calculated glance, wondering how much to tell him.

"We are refugees." Hermione said finally.

"What're ya running from?" He asked suspiciously. One could never be sure of anyone in these turbulent times.

"Not what Sir, who. I'm a muggle born and Grindelwald is after my family. I had to run away to save myself. My family…" Here her voice broke, not needing to pretend. She missed them every day.

Aberforth's eyes softened a bit but then hardened again.

"And you, boy?"

"I'm her friend Sir, her guardians' felt it prudent to have someone take care of her."

"You aren't from 'ere and you didn't come to Hogwarts. Where're ya from?"

"Sir… we feel it best for our safety if others know as little about us as possible. His parents are still alive and it would be dangerous for them, if it became known that they openly supported a muggle born."

"Makes sense. Girlie, why did ya say ya wanted to meet my brother?"

"Well we were hoping to join Hogwarts for the next term as fifth years and since he is the deputy Headmaster, we thought we could approach him for help."

"Fifth years? You're educated?"

"Yes Sir. We were both homeschooled"

"But aren't ya a muggle born?" His face darkened again.

"Yes I'm. But harry here is a half blood and well, our families are close, so…." Hermione lied through smoothly, stamping on Harry's foot when he started to stutter.

"Oh ok. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Mister Dumbledore Sir. We are truly grateful." Hermione beamed up at him.

"That's alright." He answered gruffly, not used to be thanked or regarded, for that manner, this sincerely. He turned and walked away. Harry let out the breath that he was holding.

"Whew! That went well…."

They were sitting in the three broomsticks, sipping warm butterbeer. A much younger but no less beautiful, Rosmerta was bustling around. She was surprised to see the youngsters all alone. It was rather a dark time. The girl had a mass of curls that looked like a lions' mane and wore black wire trimmed glasses. She looked, thought Rosmerta, geek personified. The boy also had a mop of black hair that stuck in all directions and he wore glasses too. But it's his eyes that captured her attention. Emerald, dark jade. She was not sure how to describe it. He also had an odd shaped scar in his forehead, a lightning bolt. It made him look badass, Rosmerta decided with a small smirk. The two teenagers were not oblivious to their hostess's attention but they chose to ignore it.

They had received an owl from their former headmaster, requesting them to meet with him in Hogwarts. Earlier that day, they had gone and met Albus Dumbledore. They were really apprehensive meeting the powerful wizard and had prepared all of yesterday forging memories to appease the man. They had to select carefully from their memories, what to present, so they wouldn't reveal who they were or contradict their story. They also had tweaked Hermione's appearance a bit, so no one would automatically assume her to be just a pretty face. The wizard was suspicious but kind and sympathetic to their plight. He was satisfied with the memories he saw and the two looked obviously truthful. He had discussed with Headmaster Dippet and procured them both seats in the sixth year class. From what he could see, both of them were brilliant and it pained him to witness the eyes that held wisdom beyond their ages. No one was supposed to suffer this young.

"Harry"

"Yeah Mia" He was surprised she didn't just speak in to his mind. It would have offered them privacy.

"We are to return in a fortnight. I don't feel ready."

"We are Mia, we are. There's no more better time like present. What do we have to fear when we are together?" Harry smiled gently at her.

"Together" She echoed with a soft smile.

A/N : Whew! That's done…. Now we get to the interesting bits. Next chap they go back to Hogwarts, meet our dark hero and get SORTED! Yup! They are gonna get sorted again….hazard a guess? How do you want our tom to be? And how do you like our geek Mione? Give us fodder and our brain may work a bit faster (hint hint)….. There are so many hits, why don't you review people?

And I know you are going to hate us again but both of our exams are gonna start and we won't be free until the end of May. So bear with us please...we will update in June.