Live Forever

4: Slide Away - Part 4

August 12, 1995

As brilliant as the last week had been this day had loomed over her and Harry's heads during every wonderful moment spent together. While Ginny, Ron and the twins were put to work cleansing the house of every annoying magical creature and curse imaginable she and Harry had spent most of their time working on their summer assignments thanks to a passionate and supportive subset of the Order. Sirius and Tonks in particular seemed to be devoted to helping her and Harry get as much private time as possible. And as much as she thought there were more important things to be dealing with she couldn't bring herself to verbalize it. Getting to celebrate with Harry had been brilliant. So brilliant.

But now Harry was gone and she was in the drawing room, sitting on the floor and trying to think of anything but the possibility that he would be expelled from Hogwarts. The hour that had passed since Harry had left that morning felt like a lifetime. An anxiety ridden, helpless, infuriating lifetime.

"There you are," Sirius intoned tiredly as he sunk down beside her on the floor.

"This is the part where I'm meant to tell you everything will be fine," he consoled. "But as that's a crock of shit I'll just sit and quietly panic with you if you don't mind."

She chuckled and closed her eyes, suddenly missing her parents. "You really shouldn't use that type of language," she informed absently.

"You've ruined me, you know," he continued, ignoring her mild rebuke. "Without you being all brave and noble I would have been secretly hoping Harry would get expelled and stuck here with me. But instead I'm worried for his future and it's entirely your fault."

"I wasn't being noble," she admitted. "I just wanted to spend time with Harry and thought he didn't deserve to be alone."

"Yeah, well so did I but I sat on my arse for a month instead of making it happen. So accept the compliment."

"I never thanked you properly for the mirror," she interjected, uncomfortable at his praise.

He waved his hand dismissively. "I'm glad to have a use for them."

They lapsed into an extended silence and eventually she felt her anxiety growing once again. The silence was becoming unbearable.

"We should play chess," Sirius eventually, inexplicably, stated.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"Because I'm currently going round the bend thinking about Harry and I'm tired of losing to Ron."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "And you think you can beat me?"

"Please," he answered dismissively, "you're a girl. Everyone knows girls aren't competitive or good at critical thinking. I mean, it won't be that exciting to beat a girl but it will at least be something to pass the time."

The last thing she wanted to do at the moment was play chess...not to mention the fact that she'd never hear the end of it if he won. And she was rubbish at chess so losing was a distinct possibility. But she was in severe need of a distraction and really wanted to beat him.

"Fine," she mumbled, trying to hide her grin at Sirius' excited clap.

"This is going to be great! I love beating girls!" he exclaimed.

Forty five minutes later she raised her arms in triumph. "Checkmate!"

"I can't believe I lost to a girl," he muttered miserably. "Suppose it was the charitable thing to do...help you with your self esteem and all that."

"Right," she grinned. "You let me win."

"Did I mention I was surrounded by dementors for over a decade?" he continued feebly. "That's bound to have affected my cognitive abilities."

"I don't doubt it," she replied.

"Hey!" he protested, realizing that he'd unwittingly insulted himself and that she had agreed. "Girls are gross anyway," he mumbled as he stuck out his tongue.

Through her laughter she heard a rumbling from the other room. She sprinted out the door and found a bewildered but pleased Harry looking on as Ginny and the twins circled him while chanting He got off!

"I told you," she heard Sirius mutter in her ear. "Now go hug Harry and don't mention how you had to cheat to beat me at chess."

She surprised herself by not taking Sirius' advice, opting to hug him instead. He let out a grunt of surprise before he returned the hug and joined in the celebrating chant.

Seconds later she found herself joining in the idiotic chorus as well. She couldn't wait to tell her parents the good news.

August 19, 1995

It had been thirty minutes since Harry had disappeared with Professor McGonagall into a nearby room and Hermione was desperately trying not to worry about what new awful revelation was being shared. It had taken weeks but she'd finally convinced Harry to talk to Sirius about the strange dreams he'd been having about the Ministry hallway and door. This was her punishment for urging Harry to trust them with the disturbing visions and the subsequent tingling in his scar.

She was about to whip out an extendable ear to find out what was going on before the door opened.

"Good day Miss Granger," McGonagall intoned pleasantly as she moved to leave. She slightly relaxed as it seemed to indicate they weren't planning on wrapping Harry's head up in muggle bubble wrap and shipping him off once again for his own protection. She waited until McGonagall properly left the house before she began her interrogation.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" she demanded, becoming instantly annoyed/relieved at Harry's surprised chuckle. She glared at him out of habit.

"Nothing's wrong," he soothed, entirely unaffected at her feeble attempt to intimidate him, "and I'm not supposed to tell you. You'll find out soon."

"What?" she nearly shrieked.

"Take it easy," he mumbled as he pulled her into a nearby room and closed the door. "Of course I'm going to tell you," he said in a hush, "no-one else but you will care anyway."

"Stop beating around the bush and tell me," she demanded angrily, causing Harry to grin.

She didn't know whether to be pleased or annoyed at this dynamic. Her attempts at intimidation were failing miserably but she was still getting her way. Is this what it was like to be in a relationship? It was all very confusing.

"McGonagall wanted to talk with me about the fifth year prefect position," he stated unceremoniously.

She squealed and wrapped him in a hug. "That's fantastic, Harry!" she enthused into his shoulder. At his continued silence she pulled back. "Isn't it?"

"Dumbledore suggested she appoint someone besides me because I had too many other things going on in my life," he answered, clearly annoyed.

"What things?" she asked, becoming annoyed on Harry's behalf.

"I've no idea and he didn't share anything else with McGonagall. I'm guessing it's to do with the resurrected tosser though."

She buried herself into his shoulder once again. "What did you say?"

"I accepted because of who the other Gryffindor prefect is."

"Who?" she asked as she pulled back once again, not daring to assume.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not even going to bother answering that question."

She unconsciously began leaping in place, causing Harry to laugh. "You can't tell anyone until we get our letters."

She grabbed onto him once again and furiously nodded as she squealed into his shoulder to muffle the sound.