Hermione looked around the bedroom frowning. She knew everything was packed in their trunks, ready for the floo trip to King's Cross but she couldn't help but double (really triple) check just one more time. Sirius denied her taking anything from the Black library to school but she didn't want to hunt for them again if he decided to try and rearrange the library. He wouldn't but Remus might. Maybe she could set up a computer and get a catalogue started? Could she charm a power supply? Possibly. Probably. Did it even have to be a part of the wall or could it be portable with a sticking charm? Professor Flitwick might have some advanced charms books she could look at…

Shaking her head she continued her perusal of the room.

The last few days had been intense for both Harry and Hermione with poor Remus and Sirius stuck in the crossfire. The strange shared aura she and Harry had acquired after the ritual settled back down for the most part with Sirius noting they looked more or less normal to his magical sight. Each had a fine line of the other's magic hovering just over their skin before their own magic started. Harry also had an area of Hermione's magic concentrated over his scar.

Remus was still researching what Harry's visions meant and with the new information from the ritual he made several trips to Knockturn Alley for more…specialized books. Hermione itched to get her hands on them.

The main problems lay in discovering their magical control was vastly different now. Harry's first banishing spell during training sent the rubber ball they were using into the wall. Literally. She tried to summon it from its new home stuck in the stone foundation and nearly took Remus's head off with it. It took hours over the week they had left before September 1st to settle enough that their Professors and classmates wouldn't notice much of a difference.

The moodiness was another matter altogether. Hermione understood she got moody around her period. She expected it and often tried to spend her time in her dorm reading with a hot water bottle. Harry, who could be annoyingly observant when she didn't want him to be, figured out her pattern by the middle of second year and started to drag her up to his dorm when she wanted to squirrel herself away. He told her she needed company and plied her with chocolate he got from the Weasley twins. Ron, however, avoided her like the plague at that time, telling them he got 'nagged enough thanks' and he'd wait until Hermione was done being 'such a girl'.

They actually ended up having a little reading group with Neville, Dean and Seamus (occasionally joined by the Weasley twins who wanted to know why Harry was so interested in their Honeydukes stash), who liked to listen to Hermione read from muggle fantasy books once their school work was done to her satisfaction. It scared her at first, reading aloud in front of the other Gryffindor boys, but once they heard her reading to Harry while she lay in her jammies, wrapped up in an extra blanket on his bed, they insisted she keep going, especially Dean as The Hobbit was one of his favorite books. She'd fallen asleep in the boy's dorm more than once and had to sneak back to her own come morning.

Harry, however, was moody ALL THE TIME. He was worse than any girl she knew. It wasn't strong but it was there in her head, sort of like how she could always tell where he was. And it was enough to make her bitchy. And Sirius got on her last nerve all the time. The end result was the Marauder kept getting shocked whenever he started joking around. If he switched out tea for seeped catnip (he did and Crookshanks loved it) he got a shock. If he transformed the training dummies in the basement into a conga line, he got zapped. Andromeda had to make several visits and teach both Hermione and Harry how to brew a mild calming draught as well as another form of meditation that could be done together and separately to control the emotions they were getting from the other person. When they tried to figure out what was causing the problem, Andi and Remus could only guess that Hermione's extra magic manifested itself almost like static electricity and the more Sirius annoyed her, the more it built up until she released it, shocking him.

It didn't bother her at all. Sirius was getting tired of it though. And if it happened at school…well, she was fairly certain that Ron was going to be on the receiving end more often than anyone else.

The other problem that crept up was their sleeping habits. They'd been sharing the same room and bed for almost a month. The adults (she couldn't bring herself to call them grown ups because most of the time they were more childish than she and Harry) wanted them in separate rooms for the last few days they were at Grimmauld Place to get them reacclimated to sleeping apart.

The first night was an unmitigated disaster.

Harry hadn't had a regular nightmare since Hermione started sleeping in the same bed, at least not one that fully manifested. She woke when he started to get restless and was able to either calm him back to sleep or wake him enough to bring him out of it. With her being across the hall that first night, Harry woke the house screaming. The gas lights were flickering, doors were slamming, and Hermione couldn't get into his room fast enough. Furniture was levitating off the floor, pictures were off the walls and a shield of some sort was blocking the door. It took Hermione far too long to get past it and calm Harry down. It seemed to be a regular nightmare, most likely one from his time with the Dursleys and he didn't wake fully, just curled into Hermione and went back to sleep.

Morning found most of the townhouse wrecked. Each day started the same way unless Harry was drugged with Dreamless Sleep. And he could only take so much of that. Hermione was totally against plying him with muggle sleeping pills at his age. The only option they could come up with was her sneaking into his dorm with the invisibility cloak. Which tickled Sirius to no end. Either that or try to have Sirius and Remus explain to Professor McGonagall why two of her lion cubs needed to share a bed. Sirius thought it would be the greatest prank ever to pull on McGonagall. Until he was reminded she had actual claws.

"Mi, are you ready?" She heard footfalls on the stairs.

"Yes. I just wanted to make sure we had everything."

Harry popped into view dressed in well fitting jeans and a red tee shirt with a faded Gryffindor lion on it. She was glad Remus had picked up some new clothes for Harry.

"We do. You packed it."

"I just had to…"

"Check again. I know. Do you think Sirius is going to be okay without us around?"

Hermione smiled looking up into Harry's bright green eyes. He'd gotten new glasses while they were here and while she thought Harry always looked good, these flattered his face and made his eyes really stand out. He'd wanted to try contacts and had them packed but wasn't totally sold on the idea. He was too used to his glasses.

"I think Sirius will be okay. Remus will be here and Andromeda said she'll keep making house calls. He's even started meditation and journaling to help with all the time he spent in Azkaban. Plus, Andromeda took our memories and is having a meeting with the head of the DMLE to see if she can get Sirius a trial." She squeezed his forearm. "He won't be here alone."

"I know it's just this is the most time I've gotten to spend with him."

"Well, just think, you'll have a place to come for Christmas break this year."

"True."

"Are you sure you want to leave your hair long like that?"

"Is it that bad?" Harry ran his fingers through his now collar length hair. It was long enough from not being cut since the previous summer that Harry could pull it in a tail. Andromeda had trimmed it up a bit the day before, giving it a bit more of a style other than hacked off with kitchen shears.

"No. But you've already started to use it to hide your face. I know that trick. I do it myself. You'll just have to pull it back more." She carded her fingers through the soft black strands.

"Are you two done up there yet? Remus is ready to go!"

They met Sirius in the lounge, where Remus was waiting by the fireplace.

"Doing anything I would approve of?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows.

"I can still have you neutered, Padfoot," Hermione snarked, this time holding up what appeared to be her bluebell flame in her hand but this flame sparked and crackled with electricity. She'd finally gotten some control over the "static charge" she felt whenever she was irritated.

Which, thanks to Harry's emotions, was way too often.

The Marauder held up his hands. "Easy, kitten, I'm kidding! I'm just getting my digs in before I don't see you kids for the next few months."

Hermione smiled. "Well, maybe I'll just have to miss you, too," she laughed before giving Sirius a hug and passing him off to Harry. The two held onto each other for a moment before pulling apart.

"From what I've heard there might be a bit of a surprise at school but I still expect to see one or both of you at Christmas."

"A surprise? Sirius, you know how well surprises and I get along," Harry groaned.

"Let's go, pup," Remus grinned. "This surprise should have nothing to do with you." He stepped through the emerald flames and Hermione followed with a quick wave a moment later.

"I'm gonna miss you, Sirius."

"Me too, pup. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Ha! I don't plan on getting kicked out of Hogwarts. Hermione would never forgive me!" Harry laughed as he stepped through the emerald flames.

The Express was belching out smoke and the platform was surprisingly sparse for being only a half an hour before eleven but Harry and Hermione quickly said their goodbyes and climbed onboard with their shrunken luggage and an empty compartment three quarters of the way down the train, they dropped onto the bench and waited for their red headed companions to rush in at the last minute.

Crookshanks let out a mournful cry, begging to be let out of his carrier already.

"Not yet, Crooks, I need to wait until Ron and Ginny get here." Hermione soothed.

"Go ahead, I'll keep an eye on him."

Harry stretched out along the bench resting his back against the corner and dropping his feet and ankles in Hermione's lap as he let Crookshanks drape his long body over his legs, his head resting on Harry's chest.

Hermione snorted and tugged off Harry's trainers.

"Shoes, Harry I don't want dirt and goodness knows what on my lap."

He nodded distractedly as he scratched the half kneazle.

"Is it my imagination or did Crooks get bigger? Are you sure he's really just a cat and not half lion?"

Said cat let out a loud yowl and head butted the wizard.

Hermione smirked. "That answer your question?" Her reply was a sock in the face.

That was the scene Ron, Ginny, Fred and George walked into. Hermione laughing and trying to shove Harry's feet out of her face, the cat trying to smother Harry since he was moving and not scratching him, and poor Hedwig in her cage by the window looking disgusted at the lot of them.

"Will you look at that, Feorge? Looks like our little Harrikins and Miss Granger are no worse for the wear from their little adventure."

"Too true, Gred. They don't appear to have been starved…"

"Nor captured by Death Eaters…"

"Will you two shut it?" Ginny griped as she pushed into the compartment and wrapped Hermione in a hug, expertly dodging Harry's feet. "How are you both? We were so worried."

"Yeah, mate. We had no idea where to write to you. I tried sending Pig with a letter for you, Harry but he kept coming back. So I tried to send one to Hermione…"

"I sent a letter to Hermione, you git, you didn't even think of it." Ginny interrupted, finally flopping on the bench opposite Harry and Hermione. "Pig came back then, too. That's when we started to worry."

Fred and George whistled and looked up at the ceiling while Hedwig barked happily. Harry raised an eyebrow at the two of them but they both gave a small shake of their heads. Okay, better to ask later then, Harry thought.

"We were fine, really. Harry and I stayed about a week in Diagon Alley before we ran in Remus Lupin…"

Harry picked up "We ended up staying with him since he didn't want us wandering around alone." They'd already discussed keeping Sirius quiet for the time being.

"Wicked. So you basically got to do whatever you wanted for the last month? You two are so lucky. I had to de-gnome the garden and Mum made me work on homework," Ron huffed.

"We didn't exactly just sit around, Ronald. We got our summer work done, as well. And Professor Lupin wanted Harry to start some extra lessons considering how often he ends up in danger during the school year…"

"Ugh, extra lessons! Was it something cool at least? Like dueling?"

Harry shrugged, watching the twins try to slip something pink and shiny into Ron's pocket.

"Some. Hermione and learned some of the spells we're going to go over this year. He had us reading a lot of books and …"

Ron held up his hands. "You lost me at reading, mate. I'd rather go flying."

Harry snickered. "I have been teaching Hermione to fly…"

She glared at him. "Really, Harry? You had to say that where the terrible two-some could hear it?"

"George, I think we're insulted!" Fred (and it was Fred) held his hand over his heart. "Do you think we would use this information for nefarious purposes, Miss Granger?"

"YES!" Everyone in the compartment save the twins shouted.

"Are you really better at flying, Hermione?"

She shrugged. "Can I stay on a broom? Yes. Can I fly like this maniac, here? No. But I could probably handle a pickup Quidditch game now."

Harry laughed. "She's evil is what she is. Mi would make a wicked chaser. Her aim is dead on most of the time. When we were dueling with Remus she could hit the targets dead center all the time."

"What about you, Harry?" Ginny reached out to pet Crookshanks.

"My strategy was just to blast as hard as I could. Figured the bigger the blast, the more likely i was to hit the target."

Hermione noticed the twins exchange a look and put a stop to whatever was drifting through their warped minds.

"That's not the best way to go about things. You end up with collateral damage and wear yourself out faster in the process. Speed and accuracy is better." She sighed. "And I suppose the same thing goes for whatever pranks you two have on your minds. At least the accuracy part."

"Dad went to your house, Hermione. Why didn't you guys just stay there? You could have come back to the Burrow then?" Ron fished around in his pockets and grinned when he came across the pink candies popping a few in his mouth and chewing.

"I didn't want to deal with my parents' reaction when they found out I spent four weeks home alone with a boy. Can you imagine how that would go over?"

Ginny cringed. "I wouldn't be able to go anywhere ever again. I doubt mum would let me go to Hogwarts. She'd probably try and find me an all girls school."

Hemione nodded then burst out laughing, rapidly followed by Harry. Ginny followed their gaze and leaned forward to see around the twins before dissolving into giggles herself. Ron looked curiously at everyone.

"What? What's so funny?"

Ginny dug out a pocket mirror and handed it to him. His hair was now curling more wildly than Hermione's and sticking straight up in the air.

"That, little brother, is our newest product," Fred announced.

"We are proud to show you the Curly Q candy!" crowed George.

At that moment the door to the compartment slid open and Crookshanks hissed, his hair standing on end. The blonde prince of Slytherin slid into the doorway, his two bodyguards flanked behind him.

"What's going on here, Scarhead? Weasley competing with the Mudblood on the ugly scale? Sorry, Weasley but you'll have to work harder than that. You forgot the buck teeth and hunched shoulders."

Harry's face hardened, his eyes darkening as the Weasleys shouted protests at Draco. Before he could draw his wand or worse, use wandless magic against the arrogant prick, Hermione lightly gripped his hand. Harry felt her magic reach out to him and he quickly caught on. One of the first tricks they learned was that they could 'pass' some of the wandless spells they learned back and forth to each other. So if one couldn't necessarily do the spell on their own but the other could - they could pass it along.

Hermione was letting Harry build up quite a bit of her 'shocking' static before he reached out and touched the metal doorframe Draco was gripping with both hands. The result was the slicked up Slytherin jolted back into his goons and tumbled into the hall as Harry closed and the twins magically locked the door.

Ginny turned to him, wide eyed. "Harry, what was that?"

Harry leaned back into his corner and got comfortable. "Magic."

The welcome feast went pretty much as expected, the sorting hat rhyming out a song about the four houses, the tiny first years looking amazed at everything. Harry and Hermione had rushed out with the crowd in an attempt to avoid Dumbledore who had been watching the two the entire time the feast had been going on. Harry was just waiting to get called to the Headmaster's office. For now, They were safely in the Gryffindor Tower and everyone had…well what seemed like bigger problems to deal with.

"They can't just CANCEL QUIDDITCH, can they? Hemione there has to be a rule against that? Right? I mean, I was gonna try out this year!" Ron wailed.

"Yeah, Ron, cause you trying out is the biggest problem with Quidditch being canceled," Fred snapped.

"I don't think Quidditch had ever been formally canceled in the history of Hogwarts. Not that I can remember anyways," Hermione murmured, flipping through Hogwarts a History.

"That's good enough for us," George nodded with the rest of the Gryffindor team, who'd all gathered around one of the couches in the Gryffindor common room. "Do we need to start a petition?"

"Noooo. Why don't you just have skirmishes? Informal games? You could have people who wanted to try out this year fly. Even have people from different houses switch up teams if you want. We have two whole months before this Tri-Wizard Tournament and only of age students can enter….get that smile off your face boys, I think Professor Dumbledore would have already anticipated you two," Hermione stated with a smirk.

"I'm wounded, Hermione! Besides, George and I have a foolproof plan. We're only a few months shy of the age limit. A bit of aging potion and BOOM! Easy as sliding in dragon dung," Fred mock polished his nails on his robes.

"More like you're both fools," Hermione muttered under her breath.

"Be nice," Harry whispered, having been close enough to catch her reply. "Actually, informal games sound like a good idea. It's not like we're going to be using the pitch for anything for those two months. We might not even need it for the tournament. We could even bring out Dean's football and have pick up games for those that don't want to play Quidditch or are waiting their turns in the air."

Eighteen eyes turned on Hermione at the same time (the Quidditch team plus Ron and Ginny). She shrank down in her chair a bit.

"Hermione, you'll help us won't you? Get everything organized with the other houses?" Harry begged, turning puppy dog eyes on her. The twins dropped to their knees while the others just stared. She hated saying no to Harry.

"Ugh. Fine. But you guys need to help. You need to talk to the captains of the other houses. Get me the details of who wants to fly and who wants to play football."

"We will! Thank you!" The twins pounced on her in an enthusiastic double hug, which led the rest of the team to pile on top of her. Arms and legs flailed about as the group tried to untangle themselves, something of the twins dropping on the floor only to explode into a cloud of pink and purple flower petals that smelled suspiciously of sausages.

"Ahem."

The sound of Professor McGonagall clearing her throat stopped all movement.

"While I hate to interrupt whatever shenanigans this is, I'm afraid the late hour matters not. Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, the Headmaster would like to speak with the both of you. Now."

Carefully extracting themselves from the bottom of the puppy pile, the two teens straightened their robes and followed their Head of House out the portrait hole.

This was going to be interesting.