Only when Dumbledore stood up and stretched out his arms did the noise in the Great Hall come to a spiraling halt. One by one, down the long house tables, every Hogwarts student told their friends to shush, beginning at the end of the table nearest the staff and continuing down the line until silence fell like a blanket.

Harry pulled his head away from Hermione's ear. "I'll tell you later," he whispered.

She giggled softly and her cheeks turned pink. Sitting up straight, she redirected her attention to Dumbledore, but Harry kept his eyes on the back of Hermione's head. He was feeling something he hadn't felt since last school year, that piece of him that was so into Hermione, that wanted her as much as ever before.

He caught Ron's eye across the table. Ron winked at him and Harry grinned.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts, everyone," Dumbledore said, his voice grave and solemn. "Despite everything that has happened over the last four months, it is truly wonderful to see you all back here this evening, safe and eager to continue learning in our quest to battle evil and promote the peaceful coexistence of the wider wizarding world." He paused, soaking in the whole massive body of students at once.

Harry sat up a little straighter, memories flooding his head and remembering the truly awful current state of the world outside of Hogwarts castle. Comforting as it was to see Dumbledore on the platform addressing the students, Harry couldn't help but feel a pang of unease crowd his stomach as his mind drifted to the students who would not be joining them this year.

"Inside the walls of this castle, the people whom we love and whom we've lost have not vanished from our minds," Dumbledore went on. "Our dedication to what we believe should have intensified over our time apart, and the fierce devotion to those whom are not present with us today will be the fire under us that spurs us on even when it seems like the material being taught is worthless." He sighed in deeply. "With that, I want to welcome the new students joining us this year," he stretched out his arms as the doors to the Great Hall opened and Professor McGonagall led the new, somewhat small batch of students down the center of the tables.

Hermione turned to face Harry as Professor McGonagall began her introductory speech, presenting the sorting hat, and beginning with Anderson, Kevin, a small blonde boy who tripped up the stairs as he rushed to the stool to put on the hat.

"Dumbledore is always so good at presenting an air of comfort," she whispered.

Harry nodded. "I know. He has a way of making every person's death seem worthwhile, or, in the very least, purposeful." He slid his hand under the table to grasp hers. She gave his hand a tight squeeze.

"He never addresses us before the new first years get sorted, though," Ron whispered from across the table.

Harry shrugged. "Special times call for special measures."

Hermione squeezed his hand again and he looked at her. She was looking at him with a fierce blaze, a look he recognized. It felt good to share it with her again. Her eyes seemed to tell him they'd found their way back to a familiar place.

They both reluctantly looked away from one another and watched as the rest of the first years were sorted into their houses. One after another, the small first years sat at the four respective tables until one last girl was left standing feebly in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Zimmerman, Hannah," said Professor McGonagall.

"She looks familiar," Ron whispered across the table, his eyes still locked on the little girl sitting on the stool with the enormous sorting hat on her head, dipping below her eyes.

"How you figure?" Ginny asked. Her eyes slid across Hermione and Harry as she turned to look at Ron.

"Look at her mouth, twitching. Who does that remind you of?"

Hermione turned to look at Harry, then at Ron, her mouth slightly agape. "You've got to be joking," Hermione said, here eyes wide. "Snape?"

Harry nearly jumped in his seat as the sorting hat called out, "Slytherin!" and Hannah ran to the gloomy Slytherin table. He looked across at Ron, who was trying to conceal a laugh.

"Wonder if she knows who her father is?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Hermione shuddered, and Ginny laughed. "Who in the hell would—"

"If I could have your attention for just a couple more minutes," Dumbledore said, raising a hand high into the air. "I need to make a couple introductions for our new staff." He moved his hand to the staff table and pointed to the two new faces sitting at the table. "Our new Potions master, Professor H. E. F. Slughorn." A tubby older man with a bushy mustache Harry thought rivaled his Uncle Vernon's stood and took a slight bow. His stomach was so enormous that it proved to be difficult. But his boisterous face was grinning and he held up a hand in a wave, then sat back down.

"And at Defense Against the Dark Arts," Dumbledore continued, "Professor Gregory Numan." Professor Ashcroft stood. He was a younger man with a thick head of black hair that was combed backward. A thin smile broke on his face by the welcoming applause and he bowed courteously. He looked like a strict man, but Harry also felt that he possessed an air of security.

Hermione leaned backward. "You know, Sirius would have been really good as a Defense teacher."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he would have. I wonder if Dumbledore asked him."

Hermione shook her head. "I doubt it. Why would Sirius pass up the opportunity to be around you more?"

Harry shrugged. "That's not entirely true. I'm having private lessons with Dumbledore, Sirius, and Lupin, remember?"

Hermione turned to look at him. "What?"

Harry felt confused. "Wait. I never told you? After the battle last spring when Dumbledore told me the whole story?" Harry shook his head. "Strange. But yeah, once a week, they're all going to, I dunno, give me lessons of some sort." When Hermione still didn't say anything, Harry bit his lip. "Huh. I guess I must have told Ron and thought I told you."

She stared at him and shook her head, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "This conversation will continue."

Dumbledore waited patiently until the noise died down and he held everyone's attention again. Harry refocused his attention.

"In other news, you are all aware of the heightened level of panic our world now endures and I ask of you not to put yourselves into situations that would jeopardize your life or the life of any of your schoolmates, teachers, or other staff. In these hardest and darkest of times, being safe is most important and most crucial. Study hard and learn the essentials to succeeding in a world that requires constant alertness. Don't let yourself fall asleep to the events occurring, learn to trust your friends, and most of, learn how to grow into that person that will bring about an effect on those around you."

Dumbledore bowed slightly before he sat back down. The great hall was filled with applause as food appeared in front of them. Harry smiled at the large bowls of mashed potatoes, roast beef, vegetables, and all his other favorite Hogwarts foods. He gathered them onto his plate and sighed into his first delicious bite.

Harry laid in bed thinking, long after Ron's snores had begun their background music to that evening's silence. He'd heard Seamus and Neville whispering for a while, but their noises had, too, died away some time ago. He didn't know what time it was, nor did he really care, even though he knew that it would be harder to go to classes the next day while trying to function on very little sleep.

There was too much to think about to go to sleep. This year was already going to be so different, with Snape being dead, Mrs. Weasley dead, Dean dead, and the whole wizarding world knowing that he and Dumbledore had been telling the truth all along. Now Sirius was out in the open too, his vindication perhaps the sweetest of all.

But what was really tugging on his mind right now was Hermione. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her there, standing quietly and digging the toe of her shoe into the ground. He'd been feeling something different all afternoon, a sort of guilty pleasure, that he felt so natural around her and so comfortable. He felt this burning desire to kiss her in a way he hadn't felt since very early into the summer holiday.

He thought that she felt similarly, at least, it seemed that way. Everything fell back into place after they kissed on the train, like they were crawling back to somewhere familiar.

Any plans he'd had or thought of with Ginny had been washed away. She still flitted in and out of his mind, but she seemed to be more of a way for him to escape the problems he'd been having with Hermione. Sure, they had gotten to know each other better through frequent letters, but he had something with Hermione that he could never have with Ginny. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but nonetheless knew wasn't worth pursuing something that could have happened when things with Hermione were going so well. What if he and Hermione could make it work? What if they never had to see other people?

He closed his eyes and saw Hermione again. This time she was standing quite still, and smiling, no longer shifting uncomfortably. He smiled.

"What? Can you see me?"

Harry's eyes shot open and he sat up. The whisper had come from his left and he looked and squinted through the darkness for the source of the voice. His bed dipped down and he saw the imprint of a knee.

"Hermione?" he whispered.

The hanging shut itself and Hermione took of his invisibility cloak.

"Surprise." She giggled and lifted up the covers to slide in with him.

"How did you get my cloak?" he asked, as quietly as possible. He wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her in close, feeling that familiar sensation in his head that cause him to feel like he existed in a perfect moment whenever he could smell her hair and feel the soft curves of her body.

"I took it out of your pocket after dinner," she said. "It took forever for Pavarti to fall asleep tonight. She and Lavender kept asking me questions about you and me. I had to pretend to fall asleep in order for them to leave me alone."

"Lovely," Harry said with a grunt.

Silence drifted between them for a moment. Hermione shifted in his arms and dug her nose into his chest. He found himself absently running his fingers through her hair.

"Can we pretend that our breakup never…really happened?" Harry asked, finally.

Hermione leaned her head backward, on the pretense to look into his face, but it was so dark in the room that he could only make out the faintest outline of her head.

"Are you sure?" she said, sounding like she was holding back something.

"What do you mean, am I sure?" he said. "Would I ask you if I wasn't?"

"No, no. I just mean," Hermione said quickly, finding Harry's hand and interlocking her fingers with his. "I didn't come here tonight to get back together, you know, I just, I wanted to be somewhere familiar and it seems like I spent more nights here than I did in my own bed by the end of last year." She stopped. "Okay, that came out wrong."

Harry grunted. It almost sounded like she didn't want to get back together.

"Let me try again," she said, taking a deep breath. "Harry, you know I love you, and that I thought we should break up before because it seemed like you had feelings for—"

"Hermione, stop," he said. He had found her lips with his fingers and pressed them together. "We haven't spoken much in a while now and, well, I've had some time to think myself. I don't want to be broken up. I love you. I want things to work out between us. This summer was…I don't know, a test that we failed. But when we fail a test in school, we don't just give up." Hermione coughed softly. "Sorry," Harry corrected himself, "when I fail a test, I don't just give up. I find a way to make it up, study extra hard so the next time I will pass."

Hermione was silent for only a couple seconds. "Since when did you become the relationship expert?"

Harry shrugged, then remembered she couldn't see him. "It isn't about relationships, it's about how I feel. I feel like I was being unfair to you, and I know you don't deserve that, but I also don't want to let you go."

"I think we are presented with something very unique, Harry," Hermione said, softly, her lips nearly touching his ear. "It's like Dumbledore said, we are in the darkest and most dangerous of times and we know what is important. We love each other, and maybe everything will fall into place if we just let it. Stop worrying about the dangers that lie before us in a relationship and focus on how to help you survive."

"What do you mean?" Harry whispered back. "Take it slow?"

Hermione laughed softly. "Yeah, we're really good at taking it slow." She paused. "I mean, take it easy. I mean, the worst thing that happens is we break up…again."

"You mean you want to get back together?"

"Yes, Harry. Of course I do." She moved and he let go of her hair. She knelt above him and then slid slowly onto his chest, her legs stretching down the length of his, and her hands walking down his arms until they curled in between his fingers.

He leaned up and kissed her, pulling her down with him to the pillow and forgetting about everyone and everything. Life was good. Life was really good.

When Harry awoke the next morning, Hermione was already gone. He double checked by feeling the mattress next to him, in case she'd hidden herself beneath the cloak. He sighed when all he felt was the sheet.

"Harry, are you awake?" Ron's voice called from beyond the curtains.

Harry reached for his glasses and whipped open his hangings. "Yeah, yeah." He yawned.

Ron stood still for a moment and stared at him. "Well, get moving! We've got to meet with McGonagall after breakfast before our first class." When Harry still sat and stretched, Ron clapped impatiently. "Come on, or I'm not going to wait for you."

Harry stood up. "Alright, calm down." He went to his trunk and began dressing, while Seamus and Neville called their goodbyes and left for breakfast. It was strange not to have Dean around the room any longer. Harry wondered how Seamus had dealt with the loss of his best friend over the summer. He'd seemed alright at Harry's birthday party. But Harry could imagine Ron not being around any more and knew it couldn't be easy on him.

When Harry was finally ready, Ron led the way out the door and down the staircase. Hermione and Ginny were sitting on the couches with a couple girls from Ginny's year and Katie Bell. Ron walked right past them and to the portrait hole.

All five girls stood up quickly and joined Harry, who shrugged and followed Ron, more slowly. Hermione snuck her hand into Harry's, and he gripped it back, casting her a smile.

"Is this what Ron is going to be like?" Ginny asked. "Now that he has a girlfriend, that is?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Harry mumbled. "He wasn't exactly a bundle full of joy this morning. If Emma was a Gryffindor, and not a Slytherin, he might have it a bit easier."

"Why do you think that?" Ginny asked.

"Think about it," Harry said, visualizing Hermione being in a different house than him. "He can't spend time with her in our common room and she has all different classes than him because she's a year older. The only time he will get to spend time with her is before and after meals and in the library, or the great hall for study sessions."

Ginny shrugged and glanced at one of her friends. "I'd prefer not to think about it, now that you've explained that much to me."

Harry smirked and glanced at Hermione. "Finally Ron is getting a little action, eh? Seems like he needs a girl to tether him down."

Hermione snorted. "Good luck. You lived with him for a while this summer, he has changed so much, I don't think a girl could tether him."

Ginny shuddered and slowed down so Harry and Hermione walked ahead of her. Katie Bell laughed, though, and kept in stride with Harry and Ginny's two friends fell back with Ginny.

"I think it is a very interesting match," Katie said, looking at Harry. They were nearly the same height. She was maybe a hair shorter than him, but very thin. "I've known Emma, of course, since my first year. She's brilliant, she really is. But with her I never could tell her loyalties. I mean, everyone knows her mother, or knew, but then there's her father. So, what can you really say? Without ever actually talking to the girl, I never knew that she was on our side."

"What do you mean about her father?" Hermione asked.

"He abandoned the family when they were really young," Katie said, her eyes big and wide. "Left Emma and Alice with his mother because their mother was all strung out. Not to mention in the company of He Who Must Not Must Be Named." She sighed and they all rounded the corner to the great hall. "It's so unfortunate that, above all, they had to be placed in Slytherin."

They walked through the main doors and there was Ron, conversing in goofy smiles with Emma nearest the Slytherin table. Her hand was toying with his robes and Harry couldn't help but smile.

"Remember what you told me last year?" he asked, leaning over to Hermione. Katie leaned in, too.

"What?" Hermione asked, smiling at Ron as well.

"About the rumors of Emma being, uh, loose," he said.

Katie laughed. "Rumors? Ha." She covered her mouth. "I mean. Oh, look, there are all my friends." She rushed off, casting them a wave as she caught up with a girl her own age.

"Do you think Ron would…?" Hermione asked, sitting down next to Neville.

"I have no idea. We've never really talked about it," he said, feeling something catch in his throat. In a much lower voice he added, "You and I have never talked about it either."

"Morning Harry, Hermione," Neville said from beside them. Seamus nodded smugly at Harry and winked.

"Morning Neville," Hermione said, pulling the orange juice close to her. She purposefully didn't look at Harry. "Excited for classes to begin?"

Neville shrugged. "I guess so. It's all we can do, eh? To keep ourselves alive."

"That or hide at the bottom of a bog," Seamus said, stuffing a fork full of egg into his mouth. He grabbed a piece of toast.

Harry glanced sideways at Hermione, who was determinedly buttering her own piece of toast. He guessed this wasn't the best place to talk. Conceding, he helped himself to breakfast.