Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Returning to Hogwarts	By : TheSlytherinPhoenix Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 56088 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS AND DO NOT MAKE ANY MONEY OFF OF THE STORIES. I SIMPLY LOVE TO WRITE FANFICS IN THE POTTERVERSE CAUSE THEY ARE FUN AND ENJOYABLE TO ME. THIS IS SIMPLY FOR JOY AND PEOPLE TO READ FOR FUN.

Chapter List
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  Everyone assembled for breakfast, a perfect morning at Hogwarts. Perfectly distracting that is. Hermione had been eating her omelet in peace when Peeves, the most annoying poltergeist she had ever met, decided he was going to torment anyone that ate eggs that morning. Every plate with eggs on it, even Minerva’s, was suddenly vaulted into the air at dangerous speeds so that food went flying. Screams and squeals echoed off the stone walls while laughter from the others made the noise thunderous when combined.
  “So help me! The Baron will hear of this!” Headmistress McGonagall screeched in exasperation. The high pitched laughing from Peeves as he flew through a wall was the response she got before wands were being flicked and the mess was being reversed- though none of the plates that had eggs on them once again were being eaten, but instead were flying off and out the door towards what Hermione would assume was the kitchen.
  Harry came in, ducking under floating plates in dumbfounded curiosity. When he took his seat the puzzled expression was comical and reminded Hermione of the boy on the train she met and even though she was highly exasperated and grumpy she couldn’t stop the mild ease in tension she got once he was there. “Were those plates full of eggs?” He asked as he pulled a muffin from a pile on the plate near him.
  “Peeves decided he did not like eggs today.” She sounded pouty, even to herself.
  Harry’s laughter was infectious though and soon enough Hagrid was laughing as well as Slughorn- who had been having sunny side up eggs and toast and had been previously highly offended. “Perhaps the first thing you should teach the first years is how to fend off Peeves. That is probably the best practice they will get while at Hogwarts.” Hermione mumbled, but it gave Harry an idea to approach Minerva with later in the year.
  “That is actually brilliant. I will have to remember that one.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I take it you were eating eggs then?” He took a bite of his muffin, still smiling at her.
  “As a matter of fact, yes. A very delicious omelet with bacon, cream cheese, spinach, tomatoes and avocado. It was delicious until Peeves destroyed it.” She huffed softly, but Harry knew she liked blueberry and lemon muffins so he handed her one. She took it happily, shaking her head. “That is not the point, Harry.”
  “But it will keep you from being grumpy with every book you find out of place till lunch, ‘Mione.” He stood up then, taking his muffin with him. “Better make sure to beat the students to class today.” And with that he was off, boyish even in his adulthood. She wondered what he would teach the first years as she nibbled her muffin and made small talk with Hagrid about the plans he had to take his class into the lake for a lesson on the merpeople in the water.
  Chills inched their way up Hermione’s spine as she remembered the first and only time she had been in that lake. She never wanted to go into it again. “That sounds amazing!” She smiled at him, watching his face glow much like Santa’s does on Christmas cards. Once breakfast was dismissed she took her time getting back to the library, though she detoured into the infirmary to discuss having a bookshelf set up in the area so students could find some sort of escape if they were stuck in there, much like her and her friends had been on many occasions at the magical school.
  After an hour of random conversation, and polite inquiry to a house elf about arranging the move of items listed she was tucking books away into their places in the Library and helping hopeless first years understand potions and transfiguration. That was how the next few days at Hogwarts went and then it was the weekend and even though the students were still coming and going she noticed that it was far less than normal for an evening but she assumed that the children were tucked away studying in common rooms so that way they could enjoy their weekend starting when they woke up Saturday.
  She wandered around the tables scattered through out the room and through the aisles with nooks tucked away to make sure no book was left behind in her last check of the evening before she sealed off the library. She had thought of it one night while sipping tea by the fire, she had been reliving memories of sneaking around and made notes to put enchantments up. It had take an evening of research but she had figured out the proper spell to cast the Caterwauling Charm but it was only set off by underage students and ignored the staff. She was rather pleased with her genius moment and had to admit to herself that it was going to be dreadfully humorous the first time it was set off by a sneaky student.
  Enchantment in place she was now tucked away in her hole in the wall for the evening and ready to fall asleep with her book while she lounged in pillows. Hermione did just as she intended, drifting of into peaceful sleep until it changed; as it always seemed to do. She had been dancing in the dream, smiling and having a good time but when she spun around to see her friends she saw only snatchers. She had screamed, she always screamed in the dreams and she always fought. Sometimes they laughed at her while other times they would pass her from person to person while others beat Harry and Ron. This time, they were dragging her through the gates at Malfoy manor and she knew what was coming. The nauseating laughter of that woman was burned into her memories so even in her dreams Bellatrix’s laugh, appearance, and entire persona was accurate to the last unruly curly hair on her head.
  The screams that the savage mad woman let out were close to that of a banshee and as she was about to strike Hermione screamed herself awake. “No!” She was clawing at her neck and chest, “No-nono. Stop.-st” she was frantic and pleading between sobs as she realized she was awake and clutched a pillow tightly as she tried to stop the shaking that seemed to come from her very bones.  After she had calmed herself enough to breath and not have the exhale shake as if she had been running for miles, she slipped into a seemingly heavy thick robe that seemed to be made of thick velvet on the outside that was a deep burgundy color but the inside was soft cream colored satin fabric and yet it was light as silk on her. When tied together it could pass for a winter dress but it was her favorite robe and it hid her pajamas which were long black pajama pants with little multi-color mugs on them and a spaghetti strap shirt that was thin, light, and pastel pink.
  She would not be able to sleep again after the nightmare so she planned to wander; the clock said it was still hours before dawn so the castle would be deserted. She needed the silence, the familiar halls, the peace that Hogwarts brought her. With her wand in hand emitting the faintest of glows she flicked it slightly and a small ball of soft golden cold fire began to dance and slowly bounce and glide around the ground where she walked to illuminate where she went. She had been tampering with this particular enchantment and had named it the Fire Pixie because it reminded her of the glowing orbs on the Fantasia cartoon she had seen as a child in the muggle world.
  A few of the paintings spoke with her in hushed voices, others snored away, while the occasional grouchy portrait hissed at her. She smiled at them all and kept moving through the halls in relative silence and contemplation for almost an hour. “Why are you awake Hermione?” She squealed loudly before she was able to cover her mouth to stop it mid way through the loud noise. She was spinning around so fast that she was unable to keep her footing and falling, which meant even though she had stopped the noise from waking the castle she had made it impossible to catch her fall. It was too late and happening too fast.
  Harry caught her, having not meant to scare her as he did. She was so lost in her own mind that she had obviously not heard his footsteps, or maybe he was just that quiet- either way he still felt horrible. It had been automatic to reach out and grab a hold of the women he was now holding to his chest with her face pressed to him and eyes closed tightly. She was catching her breath and he wondered if he was about to be yelled at by her, but still he was smiling because after the fact- it was just slightly funny. “Harry! What are you doing awake!” she was finally looking up at him now.
  He laughed a little, “I asked first.” He let her go, watching her take a step back so she could compose herself.
  “Nightmare.” She mumbled, flushing pink as she took note that she had been in his arms.
  “I wondered when I saw you on the map-” Harry started, but she interrupted.
  “Minerva has the map.” She sounded perplexed.
  “When going through Grimwauld Place I found the diagrams on how my father and Sirius made the map. Made another one.” He tucked it away in his pocket.
  “Oh.” She had not thought of that. “Why are you up?”
  “Couldn’t sleep.” He replied instantly, though Hermione knew Harry as well as she did herself.
  “Nightmares too?” her bouncing Fire Pixie began to glide and sway around the pair of them at all random levels from above them to sliding down around them in a spiral and back up again.
  “Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head, smiling down at Hermione. “I see you finally worked out the kinks in that thing. Glad it isn’t catching things on fire anymore.”
  Hermione started to laugh, remembering the first few times the small ball had left bouncing trails of fire behind it. “Now that was a nightmare.” She sighed softly. “But I did add something to it.” She was smiling at the orb as she swirled her wand in a precise design then popped her wand tip up into the air. The orb exploded like a silent slow motion firework, though each glowing ember turned into its own miniature living orb of golden light the size of a firefly. They all began to lazily swirl around as if they were snowflakes while softly glowing and twinkling around them to gently illuminate that entire space around them instead of just the designated pathway.
  Harry was distracted briefly by the magic around them but when he saw her in the soft light coming off the pixies he couldn’t breathe. Hermione had been beautiful to him for so long that he wasn’t quite sure when he started to think about her as more than just his friend. He had always noticed her, but somehow she had gone from Hermione the girl to Hermione the best friend in a blink. And now she had gone from that to this stunning creature standing before him with the reflections of twinkling lights in her eyes and what muggles would refer to as a firefly glow on her skin like they were at a river and not in a hallway.
  How he would have given anything to be brave enough to take her in his arms and kiss her. To feel her lips press to his as he pulled her tight to his chest would be worth all the battles he went through to get to the moment, but he could never find the courage to with her, she made him feel powerless. If only Voldemort would have know that this muggleborn brilliant witch was the only thing that would have made him surrender his wand and wait for a real death if she was taken by him, if only he had known that Hermione was his weakness. Thankfully he hadn’t, no one did except for Neville.
  Harry tore his eyes away from the woman as he watched her start to move. The bonus of being so observant was he had learned to see movement in the pre-stages and was never caught looking at what he didn’t want to be; perhaps Uncle Vernon being a tyrant had paid off for once. He was now looking at the closest pixies to her face which happened to be at her shoulder and slowly gliding between them to bring his gaze to meet her waiting one. “That is amazing ‘Mione! You’ve outdone yourself.”
  She did the same movements but backwards with her wand and all the floating dots formed back into the one solid pixie she had summoned to begin with in a backwards explosion in on itself. “Thank you. Many sleepless nights makes for perfect excuses to perfect my little side projects.” She was suddenly very aware of how close she was standing to him and felt her heart begin to race as she made an excuse to move. “Maybe a small snack would help us sleep. Want to raid the kitchens with me?”
  Harry pretended to think about it for a moment, tapping his chin. “Might not be as fun since we can’t get expelled for it, but I’m in all the same.” She had made a face that was possibly the most adorable thing he had ever seen her do before. Hermione had a scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes though her lips kept a hint of a smile as she shook her head at him, she even told him to hush before turning back the way she had come from to make her way to the kitchen. She had a sway to her step as she shook her head in what he assumed was her silent laughter in her head.
  He followed her, of course, but was torn between watching her and her little magic ball that was almost as captivating. It would go from lazily swaying along the floor like a pendulum in a perfect rhythm then it would seem to get confused on where it was supposed to go next and go off pattern and change speed then find its way back to its proper purpose. Then there was Hermione- the enigma. She had been with him literally since day one, and it had only taken him till his second year to figure out she was special to him, though being young he had not known the depth of it until fifth year when he watched a death eater hold a wand to her while they had tried to get the prophecy out of the Ministry
  It had been quite startling to have the sudden surge of both hopelessness and rage ignite in him when he had swept his gaze over all of his friends- Ginny included- still clinging to hope until he saw her standing there as the perfect weapon against him. Lucius had assumed he had given it up because it was all hopeless and they were all caught, but Harry would have fought until he died while keeping hold of the prophecy happily but what he would not do is watch her die or worse be tortured before death just to hurt him. There had been no time to analyze that sudden shift in his world, Sirius had died.
  As they walked side by side in silence Harry wondered just when exactly it had all changed for him, even though it was hopeless because nothing would actually change he tormented himself with thoughts of her all the same; with memories they had, with possibilities that he wished could be true. She walked into the kitchen as if it was her own, whereas Harry peeked inside and took a look around the dimly lit room. It was nothing like he expected, he had thought to come into some medieval kitchen and hearth but what greeted him looked like a gourmet kitchen that would be in a restaurant worthy of five stars. A muggle chef’s dream come true, but somehow he expected some of the things in the room would not react as a normal kitchen and made note to ask about it before pushing and pulling on buttons and knobs.
  Hermione watched him enter slowly, she had been sneaking into the kitchen since her third year and was used to all the magical elements and was grateful that he was now looking at something besides her. She had felt the weight of his gaze as they walked, could feel him analyzing her or maybe she was just being ridiculous with the waves she was determined to make in the pool to drown herself with. The whole walk back she had sworn he was staring at her, she would have bet her wand if it wasn’t something she was nearly almost completely sure that she was paranoid. But then again- why had he come out to her in the dead of night in the halls of Hogwarts if not for the very reason that he was watching her on the map specifically.
  She had tried to slip glances his way but every time she did he always seemed to be looking at her Fire Pixie so she had convinced herself that she was delusional in her brilliance and had simply over thought everything. She would have lost her wand though, when she turned around from where she was standing with the fridge open to find some juice to drink she remembered her manners and snapped her gaze to Harry to offer and get him something as she reached into a cabinet to get a cup and that was when she caught him staring at her and quickly looking away to continue to examine the kitchen. She would have dismissed it but she had not spoken yet to get his attention so he had already been looking at her. For once brilliance won out and she asked him if he wanted a drink, already pouring him a cup as he answered yes and walked around the over-sized island in the center of the kitchen.
  “If you close your eyes and focus before opening any of the ovens or food cabinets, even the fridge the castle will provide what you are craving. Sort of like the room of requirement. You can get anything here.” She smiled as she turned away from him, having started to ramble to cover her sudden jump in nerves though her voice maintained it’s steady normality much to her relief. “See.” She placed her hand on the oven door handle, paused, then opened the door to reveal a perfect pepperoni pizza steaming on a pizza pan. A flick of her wand had it floating out to the island while a pizza cutter rolled about quickly to make a party cut so she could nibble on small squares that had a pepperoni on each one.
  “I love pizza.” He mumbled before picking two pieces to start eating. With a mouth full of the best midnight snack ever he spoke to her with a grin, “I think I just found my favorite room in the castle.”
  Hermione rolled her eyes, but in truth next to the library this room was by far the most amazing thing she had found at Hogwarts. Her fondest memory had to be when she came down for sushi at 2 a.m. when studying, she had eaten it in the cooks dining area. “If you go through that door there is a small room and round table so house elves can eat their meals. I used to have my study snacks in there while we were at school.” She paused and laughed, “Well. I guess not much changes.”
  “So tell me ‘Mione.” Harry took another bite of pizza, “Why were you holding out on me all those years?” he looked around, “I would have studied more if there was pizza.”
  Hermione tried not to giggle too much as she ate her pizza square, the image of bribing Harry with pizza to do things settling in her mind. “If I had known that you would have been force fed pizza nightly, Professor Potter.” She teased, watching the way his lip curled up into the slightest smirk.
  “That is still so strange to hear. I have everyone call me Harry- even my students.” He paused his eating, “Now that I know about this treasure” Harry gestured to the room, “When I notice you miss lunch I can bring you food now since I know you don’t allow the house elves to bring you anything.” She was nibbling her pizza now with cheeks pink as a flower and he doubted she even knew she was blushing. Her unknown moments to herself were her most beautiful he had come to see over his life of knowing her. The moments where she forgot to worry and was just simply Hermione and not what the world thought Hermione was.
  “I don’t miss lunch that often.” Hermione tried to argue, but failed.
  “You’ve been to lunch twice this week.” She pouted, the sudden urge to do things friends were not supposed to do swept over Harry, making him shift in place where he stood.
  Hermione wanted to say it was more than that, but when she thought back on it Harry was right. Proving, yet again, that he kept an eye on her. She shook her head, though it appeared to be a sign of having given up and letting him win she was actually arguing with herself in that second; telling her overactive imagination that Harry only kept an eye on her as a habit from horcrux hunting days. She wanted the subject off of her, “So what do you plan to do this weekened, Harry?”
  “Make you enjoy flying.” Was his casual reply that made her almost choke on her pizza.
  “Never going to happen.” Hermione recovered quickly, shaking her head as she chewed her food.
  “Then I will keep trying until you love it as much as I do.” He sounded so confident she couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her features.
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Returning to Hogwarts