FicWad

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, ideas, and situations created by JK Rowling and owned by her and her publishers. I own the original elements & characters. No money is being made by me, and no trademark or copyright infringement is intended.

Saturday, March 23, 1997

Hermione sat down after checking the vital signs on Master J, Professor Spellman, Harry, and Luna.

"Rather boring isn't it, here all by yourself?"

Hermione tried to jump up from the cushion and pull out her wand all at the same time, but wound up rolling on the floor instead.

"It's all right, it's just me!"

"Professor Lawrence! You . . . you startled me."

"Sorry about that." Tom kept his hands raised. He helped Hermione sit up and stepped back. Hermione gestured for him to sit.

Tom sat down near Hermione. "Not much company, are they?"

"No, not as such," she admitted. "Although Luna and Professor Spellman are more in deep meditation than, well, out-of-body." She sighed. "Still, it's rather boring."

"Well, that's the problem with people like us. We rarely get the glory jobs. Still, what we do enable the other people, the people like Harry and Henry and Tudor, to have a real chance in the fight."

"I'll have you know I've held my own," Hermione said.

"I know you have," Tom agreed. "So have I. But like you, when I have, it's usually been as part of a group. I don't get to play of part of solo hero." He smiled. "Good thing, too. I don't think I would be very good at it."

Hermione smiled back, and the pair sat back to get to know a bit more about each other.



As Easter came and went, many people assessed their situations. Draco Malfoy, for example, was curious as to why Michael Corner never returned. It was some time before anyone else contacted him, and Corner's fate remained unknown.

Harry had been very surprised at his progress over the Easter vacation, as was Tabitha. Master J and Dumbledore were pleased with Harry's progress, but by now they had learned to expect the unexpected from Harry. Luna had progressed at a slower pace, but was also well along in her lessons.

Everyone concerned was now convinced that whatever Harry's power was that could lead to the defeat of the Dark Lord was in his possession and being developed, although they argued about which power, or combination of powers, it might be. Each person was commanded by Dumbledore to speak less about it, and to think more. They would discuss the possibilities at the beginning of summer.

At the beginning of the year, Dumbledore had been concerned about the Old Believers being openly at the school. About three dozen students had come to hear about the Old Belief, starting shortly after the beginning of the term. Eighteen students remained by the Easter break: the quintet, Lavender Brown, Natalie Macdonald, Colin and Dennis Creevy, William Lloyd, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Eloise Midgen, Sally-Ann Perks, Geneva Driver, Morag McDougal, Tracey Davis, and Anna Lloyd. Of those, Hermione, Lavender, and Tracey seemed the most interested.

Dumbledore watched over the group, and satisfied himself that it wasn't overly influencing the students. The only faculty member who had had strong objections had been Snape. The Potions instructor hadn't realized that Tom and Tabitha were within the druid hierarchy until the start of term, and was unpleasantly surprised when they easily out-argued him about the presence of the Old Belief.

A casual comment had informed Dumbledore that those two knew the Hidden had reactivated the stone circle. Neither would say what that had entailed, or what it might bode for the future. From what Dumbledore knew of the ancient cults, he wasn't certain he wanted to know.

To his surprise, the centaurs had not complained to him about the druids in the forest. True, they had mostly withdrawn after their confrontation with Umbridge the previous June, but they had not gone too far away. When Dumbledore had sought them out in early March, they had even seemed to almost welcome the return of the druids.

As far as Dumbledore could see, and he could see further than most, April and May continued even more normally, if not positively, than the previous few months had. There were fewer points taken for troubles between the Houses than there had been over at least the previous six years. Whatever frustrations there were between the students, both within the Houses and between them, all of them seemed to settled in the dueling clubs or by some other reasonable manner. While it couldn't be said that the remaining Slytherins were popular, at least they weren't openly hated. There were even fewer complaints about Professor Snape's favoritism towards Slytherin and high-handed discrimination towards the other Houses.

Severus Snape, in fact, had largely withdrawn into his private laboratory when not performing his duties. He also seemed to have a bit of a permanent smirk on his face, which worried Dumbledore at times, especially when that smirk widened so slightly when Snape gazed at the Gryffindors at meal time.

The April Quidditch games were rousing but surprisingly friendly. Gryffindor beat Slytherin 150-0, when Harry caught the snitch just six minutes into the game. The Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff game was at 210-210 tie, as Cho Chang had been able to fool a Hufflepuff beater and out-manoeuver the Hufflepuff seeker to catch the snitch in an amazing dive that even Harry and Ginny publicly admitted had been spectacular.



The game in later May, Hufflepuff-Slytherin, finally showed that the Slytherins might have some potential for the next year. They still went down in defeat, but a ninety minute game that ended 240 - 120 showed the Slytherins had some real offense.

The last game between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, on May 31, the Saturday before the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s started, was the only time the entire term that real dislike was shown between the Houses and even within a House.



For Hermione, the time between the Valentine's Dance and the weekend before the start of O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s was the most enjoyable time she spent at Hogwarts to date. Certainly somewhere 'out there' was Voldemort, laying in wait for Harry with who knew what evil plan, but Harry was now fairly able to at least protect himself and had more protectors than ever before.

That was the only darkness in Hermione's life. She was caught up, if not ahead, on all of her classes. Nearly the entire Sixth year now looked to her to organize study sessions for the N.E.W.T. subjects. She had also regimented all the Fifth and Seventh year Gryffindors to help them study for their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, and fully half of the other Fifth years and a third of the Seventh years had joined the Gryffindors. If this was what it took to become Head Girl, Hermione was going to do it.

Hermione also found the time to study the Old Belief. The druids assured all the students that upon the satisfactory completion of a year of study and a statement of belief, they could join the Open Believers. The druids also informed them that small information centers would be formally opened in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley that summer.

While Hermione knew she didn't have to go through that period of study (thanks to Cadfael the previous winter), she was never one to cut corners when it came to gathering information. She was happy to learn that she would be accepted that coming summer, and that the other members of the quintet would be as well.

Hermione made certain that she had time for Harry, of course. They both missed having Ron in their lives as a friend. As close as they were with Ginny, Neville, and Luna, that still did not replace the synergy the original trio had. At least three nights a week, Harry and Hermione could still be found sitting on one of the sofas near the fireplace between 10:45 and 11:45, after they had showered and changed into their dressing gowns. Hermione would be knitting while Harry would be reading his adventure novels. They both found great comfort in just being next to each other, and rarely had to say much.

Of course, Harry also found his way into her dreams at least twice a week. When Harry and Luna had finally figured out Hermione's attraction to Professor Lawrence over the Easter break, they had also started bringing the pair of them together early Sunday mornings, so they could at least spend time together in their dreams.

Hermione was glad that Tom was working out. He had dropped close to two stones of excess weight since they had met the previous August. She felt if he could drop a few more pounds, he would be very presentable, no doubt looking like a wizard of 30 instead of 40 when she could finally introduce him to her parents. Hermione was hoping that this would be sooner than they had agreed on, but knew she would have to play that by ear.

The last Friday in May, as Hermione made her way down the stairs in her dress robes to the last dance of the year, she felt her life was under control. Harry was waiting for her, along with Neville. Ginny and Natalie were still getting ready. Hermione preened a little for her two male friends, and both of them kissed her on the cheek.

Neville and Hermione watched Harry leave, on his way towards Ravenclaw to pick up Luna. "How much longer do you think this will last?" Neville asked.

"How long will what last?" Hermione asked.

"These golden weeks," Neville answered, to Hermione's shock. "These have been the best few months of my life. Haven't they been for you?"

"They have," Hermione admitted.

Neville smiled. "Well, at least we know they are 'the good old days' as we're living through them."



These months really had been golden as far as Neville was concerned. If anyone had told him, right after the disastrous Yule Ball of his Fourth year, that he would duel with the torturers of his parents; help save Harry, Ginny, and his other friends; become one of the top duelers of his year; move to the upper 10% of his class in his current academic standing (although not the overall standings, since his performance had been so poor his first four years); and have Ginny not just as his girl friend, but as a lover and be nearly engaged in everything except name; Neville would have thought it an hallucination.

Neville was the person most of the younger students came to for advice on dueling and even most everyday matters (if only because Harry seemed too famous and Hermione too busy). Even some of the younger Slytherins now sought him out. Neville swelled with pride when McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Hagrid had all told him how his father had been looked up to in much the same way when he had been a Sixth year prefect and Head Boy. Neville didn't think he had much of a chance of being Head Boy, even though he had split Ron's regular prefect duties with Harry, but just being compared to his father that way made up for a lot of lost opportunities for him.

Unlike his friends, Neville knew what he was going to do with his life. The Longbottoms were not a very wealthy family, despite their long ancestry, but they were well-off. Neville had an estate to run. While wizards often live more than twice as long as Muggles, the steward Neville's great grandfather had appointed in 1911 wanted to retire by his hundredth anniversary. It could take nearly ten years for Neville to learn all the details that he would have to learn.

No, life was good. Hearing steps, Neville looked up and smiled at Ginny, who smiled as she came down the stairs.



Ginny smiled when she saw Neville smiling at her. She couldn't help it. It had taken her almost a year to realize exactly how much Neville loved her.

In part, that was because she had always remembered that she had been Neville's second choice for the Yule Ball two years before. Granted, Neville had also been at best her second choice at the time, but she didn't count that. After all, Neville hadn't made any move that next term that she was aware of, and he had written only twice the next summer.

And yet Neville had come to try and rescue her when Umbridge's goon squad had grabbed her the previous June. Had there only been the three Slytherins who had attacked her, between the two of them they could have beaten them back. Crabbe jumping Neville from the back had led to their capture.

Still, it wasn't Neville's attempted rescue that had made Ginny realize that Neville was either interested in her, or had perhaps never really lost interest. It was his concern for her after they had hexed the Slytherins. It was the number of times he had visited her in the Infirmary, and the flowers and chocolates he had brought her. It was the letters he had sent her, and the attention he paid exclusively to her that summer.

Ginny had liked Neville by the time they had finished at Little Whinging. She was very happy dating him seriously during the autumn term. It was seeing Neville seeing her through others' eyes over Christmas that had really opened Ginny's eyes.

Neville loved her. He loved her in a way that was far beyond what she had felt for Neville, and much more seriously than her amazingly long-term crush on Harry. It was when Ginny realized how much Neville loved her that all her defenses had finally crumbled, and she had fallen totally in love with him.

Ginny didn't know when they would be leaving for their summer training, but she was hoping that she would have time to go to Neville's. She now suspected that there was a good chance that she might be spending her life there.

So when Ginny reached the bottom of the stairs, she took Neville's hand in hers and melted into his very powerful arms. Neville was never going to a story-book hero, or a sports champion, or slay a dragon, or any of the childish things Ginny had once dreamed of. He would instead be an everyday hero. He would be one of the workers making certain that people like Harry had a chance to succeed.

Ginny knew that should she ever again need rescuing, Harry would do so, just as he would rescue any who needed it. If Neville rescued her, it would be first because he loved her, and only second because it needed to be done.

She was the most important person in Neville's life, and now he was the most important one in hers.



Luna ignored the snide remarks of the Clique as they glided down the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room. She had made certain she was in the common room before they came down. They weren't above a bit of shoving on the stairs, unless it would wrinkle their robes.

Luna gathered up the various girls who were waiting for their dates to arrive from other Houses, in such a careless manner that not one of them realized that they were being as expertly herded as any sheep in a trial. As she got the other seven girls out into the corridor, she saw three of their dates were waiting. One, of course, was Harry.

Luna smiled. She had never realized how lonely her life had been until Harry had been added to it. The harassment of the Clique and her own straight-forward approach to life had left her more separated from everyday life than she had realized.

Luna had compensated for it. She had always been in the top 5 students of her year in every subject. She had roamed around the school at night in her dreamwalking, discovering quite a bit about the 'secret' lives of many of the students and staff. She knew what each member of the staff liked as late-night snacks. She had seen enough snogging and petting and oral sex and even some sodomy to turn her off from the subject until she fell in love with Harry. She had seen much friendship, and a near-equal dose of cruelty, in the halls of Hogwarts.

For Luna Saw. She Saw the motives of those around her. She knew of the failed attempts at valor and the pettiness, cowardice, and avarice that drove too many of the people around her.

Then she truly met Harry.

Harry was far from perfect, of course. He was moodier and more temperamental at times than the vast majority of students. Yet Harry cared. He cared for justice and honor and love. He cared that right should be done in general, not just for him.

Harry had also drawn a number of similar people to him, all flawed, as all people are, but honorable. Ronald Weasley, overly-proud, but always rooting for the underdog. Ginny Weasley, always ready to pounce on a bully. Neville Longbottom, then still fearing to stand up for himself, and now trying to protect others. Hermione Granger, then self-righteous in the cause of liberty to the point that the ideological Muggles of the French and First Russian Revolutions would have been put to shame by the comparison to her at times, although she seemed to be mellowing a bit since Ron had left.

That was a group that she could respond to.

It wasn't that Luna didn't know her own limitations and faults. She was passive, rarely confronting people she felt were wrong or mistaken, unless they were attacking her father. She had allowed herself to be pushed into being something of the House clown, which didn't really bother her, but which also meant that when she tried to argue for a point, people automatically thought her idea had to be off.

None of this group, not even Hermione, ever tried to put her down, at least not to her face. Her ideas, yes, but never her as a person.

There were so many points that had brought her closer and closer to Harry. There was the organization and meetings of the DA. There had been the time right before Christmas her Fourth year, when she had tried to kiss Harry under the mistletoe -- she was still wondering what had inspired her to try that!

Most importantly had been those two nights in June. Luna regretted much about the night she went to the Ministry, but she would never regret having gone. The six students had barely survived until help had come for them. Had there been only five, there was an excellent chance at least some of those five would not have made it out alive.

Of equal importance to her relationship with Harry had been the last night of the school year, when Harry, deep in his own pain and mourning, had offered her comfort for her petty problems. That's when she had realized some of what she had felt for Harry since the previous December.

That night, she had dreamwalked to Harry's room, and found him in a middle of a nightmare. She had joined him in his torment and comforted him. From that moment on, she vowed that she would give her affection to Harry, if he would have her.

As the last of the errant beaus came to claim his Ravenclaw, Luna smiled at Harry and took his arm. She was glad to be linked with Harry Potter.



As Harry escorted Luna towards the great hall, he smiled at the changes of the last eleven months and twelve months. Twelve months ago, he had been fearing the O.W.L.s and his ego had been badly battered. Eleven months before, he was in an emotional hell. If objectively all of his major problems and burdens remained, he now knew how to handle them, and how to share the burden with his friends and his lover.

If life was still far from good for Harry, at least it was manageable. Compared to his life over the previous two years, that was a change to be satisfied with.



Harry and Luna missed seeing Professor Snape lurking in a dark corner as they made their way to the dance. Harry had wondered why Snape had never taken up any of the challenges he had been allowed.

Snape had been tempted many times, including this night, but he knew he couldn't take the risk. If Harry Potter was powerful enough to destroy the Dark Lord, then Harry Potter was too powerful to be allowed to live.

Severus Snape had sworn to take care of that problem.