The UST Cometh!

Professor Brock, one of the two American professors at Hogwarts, grinned slyly at her friend. Professor Dumbledore hadn't told them anything, but they knew what was coming. She and Gwen had both read the books. Looking down at the tables of students, she spotted the Gryffindor fifth year male prefect and sixth year female prefect chatting idly together. She wondered if, having been distracted by what was going on in their own lives, they had forgotten what was going on this year. Just down the table, the other fifth year prefect was looking up at her with a slight grin on her face. Lani knew exactly what was going on.

The doors at the end of the Great Hall closed as Professor Dumbledore and Doctor Cohen, the head healer at Hogwarts, entered together chatting quietly with each other. Lena Cohen had studied as a doctor in the Muggle world, in her home country of Armenia, and she knew exactly what was going on. She had told the two Muggle Studies professors everything. Mrs Norris stirred as Doctor Cohen entered, acknowledging her friend's approach. She wasn't really a cat - Caprice Nimmer had found a brilliant disguise for getting around Hogwarts.

Lani whistled quietly at her fellow prefects. Cory and Izzy looked up from what they were doing distractedly, and looked around at her motion towards the Ravenclaw table. Rianna Potter - no relation to the boy-who-lived - received the signal, and grinned to herself. She might be the only one of the group in her house, but she still had a lot of fun. She stamped her foot hard twice, and Yuri caught the signal. She put an arm around Sam, who suddenly had a good idea of what was going on. Sam called over the table at a girl who was scribbling distractedly on some parchment, and Siofra Ferret looked up.

"The... Hogwarts... Feast... began... once... Doctor... Cohen... had... entered... with... Professor... Dumbledore..." muttered Siofra out loud. "What is it, Sam?"

"UST," replied Sam, looking around at the Gryffindors momentarily.

"When?" asked her fellow student with a sudden urgency.

"Soon - CoS," replied Sam, seeming to remind Siofra of something. The girl put down the parchment and pen - which was unusual for her, and looked up at the head table. Professors Brock and James were now chatting to Doctor Cohen, but they spared her a grin.

"I can't believe it!" growled the Armenian woman, hitting her hand on the table as she continued speaking. "Just because I am usually at St Mungo's does not mean Madam Pomfrey is ahead of me! She trained for two and a half years - I trained for seven!"

"You told us before," said Professor Brock, rolling her eyes. However, before they could continue to speak, Professor Dumbledore stood up and announced the start of the feast.

As the feast drew to a close, Izzy nudged Cory. "Nothing happened!" she hissed. "Where are they?"

"I want UST as much as you do," replied Cory, looking around him at a couple of second-year boys. They looked rather dejected. Suddenly, however, a lot of mad dreams came true.

The doors to the Great Hall opened, and a young bushy-haired girl stood in the doorway. The second year boys turned as one of their friends pointed her out.

"Look! It's Hermione!"

Neville Longbottom was right! Ron and Harry leaned out from the table as their friend ran up towards them. She gave Harry a huge hug as she arrived, and he grinned with joyous abandon. Izzy rolled her eyes at the Ravenclaw table, where Ri was sitting with a frown.

"Bloody hell. Let go of each other. You don't fancy each other," muttered Lani, who had been 'Britted' - as Izzy put it - by her time at Hogwarts. Izzy was, in fact, the only true Brit among the 'LNMUM', as they called themselves.

The two kids released each other, and Hermione faced Ron. True to form, Ron and Hermione were very uncomfortable around each other. There was a loud squeal from the Slytherin table as they shook hands - Ron mumbling nervously.

"UST!" yelled Siofra, thumping the table. Yuri and Sam joined in, and so did Ri from Ravenclaw, and Cory, Izzy and Lani from Gryffindor. Over at the Staff Table, so did Professors Brock and James, and Doctor Cohen. Some other students joined in randomly, not really knowing what they were cheering about. Looking rather embarrassed, the trio sat down.

A moment later, however, another disturbance filled the hall. "Sorry I'm late," growled Hagrid, grinning through his beard. "The owl tha' sent my le'er got all lost on the way. Some ruddy bird called Errol."

He beamed up at the Staff Table, where Cyndi grinned delightedly at Gwen and Lena. "I hope he does have a Catherine out there somewhere," she whispered to her friends.

"There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid," Harry was saying, hugging him tightly. Izzy shrank away, hugging Cory tightly in her fear of cliché and bad lines. However, after spending so long at Hogwarts it didn't seem as bad as it had before. Now... it seemed true. She joined in with the applause, and Hagrid went up to the top table.

"Well, I guess we've had all the reality we need, eh Cory?" she asked him with a smile, patting him on the arm.

"Back to Accio Firebolt next year," he said with a sigh, putting his head in his hands. "I don't want to leave here."

"Neither do any of us. But Dee's seen her fave guys apart from Autie, and we've been to Hogwarts, and we've been back in time, and we've all met each other, and oooooh, I'm gonna miss you guys," sighed Izzy. Cory hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"We'll meet up again one day." He looked up at the staff table and held up three fingers to their friends up there. "RoR, forty-five minutes. Okay?"

*~*~*

When the LNMUM who had visited Hogwarts returned to their homes in their sleep that night, they were disappointed but happy. They didn't tell anyone about it - to everyone else it had appeared in a time slot too small to officially exist. However, on their computers they chatted together every night for hours and hours at a time. They would never ever forget the UST. Never.