Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift

Epilogue - Part 7

January 5, 1998

Hermione was exhausted. She'd spent the entire last month worrying and thinking over all the bits and pieces that could go sideways today, and so many things had gone sideways.

She'd had so little time to plan, and there were so many new dynamics and variables in play, she knew from the off that her hopes for perfect execution were slim to none. And all things considered, it had gone pretty well. As well as could be expected, but that was mainly thanks to-

"Finally!" Harry exclaimed as they entered the shared dormitories of the Hogwarts Head Boy and Girl.

She let out a discontented sigh as she entered her room and realized her trunk was nowhere to be found. It had been an extremely long, extremely frantic, and extremely annoying day...and she desperately needed to get out of her uniform. The one benefit of being in hiding was getting to wear ridiculously comfortable clothes all the time. Having to wear the Hogwarts uniform once again had been bordering on soul crushing.

"Ranty!" she called into the ether, eternally grateful as the elf popped into the room.

"Miss Granger be needing something?" Ranty asked impatiently. "Ranty is very busy with new students going to the wrong places!"

"I was just wondering if someone could help find my trunk? It seems to have been waylaid. Maybe in the Gryffindor dormitory? I'd go look myself but it's been a very long day and-"

Before she could finish her sentence the diminutive elf had grabbed her hand and forcibly pulled her out of the room.

"Miss Granger's trunk is in the room where she will be sleeping!" she informed, pointing to Harry's room. "We elves is not stupid!" she declared before popping out of sight.

Any awkwardness caused by the revelation that the elves truly did know everything that happened within the castle walls was quickly shushed away. She needed to get out of this infernal uniform.

She found Harry in his room, halfway through shedding himself of their awful, constricting garments. Hermione sighed wistfully as she watched her boyfriend pull on one of his new jumpers.

"Looks like the elves are onto us," he joked, gesturing toward her trunk.

"Ranty just informed me. Are we that obvious?" she asked as she quickly set to work.

Harry shrugged. "I'm just glad we don't have to sneak around."

"Me too," she exclaimed as she threw on one of Harry's unfairly comfortable Quidditch jerseys. All was right with the world once again. She couldn't wait until she could start stealing some of Harry's new clothes.

Ten minutes later she re-entered their common room, a stack of books in her arms. Hermione wasn't sure what she wanted to start working on and she wanted to minimize having to leave Harry's side as much as possible. Having multiple options within arms reach seemed like the most prudent solution.

Her arms were piled so high with options and her mind so preoccupied that she hadn't realized how familiar the couch seemed before actually taking a seat beside Harry.

"Harry, I think this is couch from the Gryffindor common room," she informed.

"Yeah," he commented casually. "I asked McGonagall if we could have it moved here."

"When did you ask her that?" she asked, as she buried herself into his side and smiled. It truly was their couch now.

"When she asked me to be Head Boy," he answered. He draped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer.

"We could ask for things?" she continued. None of the information the headmistress provided said anything about being able to ask for things.

She felt Harry' shrug an answer before letting out a tired sigh. "I know we need to start getting caught up but I'm beat," he informed as he closed his eyes. It was clear that he would not be joining her study session that evening.

Hermione pondered the books sitting beside her. Their end of year NEWTS had been pushed back to mid August to accommodate for the shortened academic calendar but she needed to get cracking. It was important to set the tone from the off and the last thing she could afford to do would be to fall into bad habits.

Before she could decide where to begin Crookshanks jumped onto her lap. She decided she could wait a few minutes to begin. Her kneazle had been cooped up here alone since the train ride and the least she could do was give him a bit of attention.

Hermione had meant to move her kneazle to the open space beside her and get to work at some point. That's what she'd meant to do. But before she could manage it she'd reflexively begun scratching Crookshanks in the spot that always elicited a purr. And as the seconds ticked by... as she stared into the fire...and buried herself a bit more into the small of Harry's shoulder where she knew she fit perfectly...her plans for the evening changed.

Her NEWT scores would undoubtedly suffer but it was time to face facts. Tonight would be the first night off of the year with many more to come.