Harry Potter and the Return to Hogwarts

"Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best." -O. Wilde

"I danced in the morning

When the world was begun,

And I danced on the moon

And the stars and the sun,

And I came down from heaven

And I danced on the earth,

At Bethlehem

I had my birth.

Dance then, wherever you may be,

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,

And I'll lead you all wherever you may be,

And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he...

... I danced on a Friday

When the sky turned black -

It's hard to dance

With the devil on your back,

They buried my body

And they thought I'd gone,

But I am the dance

And I still go on..."

Chapter 4.

Christmas had come and gone, almost everybody had been satisfied with the food, the decorations and the presents. David hadn't liked the orange sweater from Mrs. Weasley much, Helen got a rash from one of the cookies and Draco disliked the mistletoe hanging everywhere. Dumbledore seemed extremely amused at how the Potions master always seemed to have to kiss someone under a mistletoe twig that all of a sudden appeared over anyone he got within a few centimetres of. By New Years Eve all of Draco's conversations with other people were shouted and he generally kept to himself.

Sinistra had been seen, and heard, scolding the Headmaster on several occasions, for being too childish, too immature and mostly just because she was feeling peevish the moment she caught his prank on Draco. ("Really, one would think you're a first year here, Professor, instead of the Headmaster.")

A few days into the new term an owl came at breakfast with a package for Hermione. It wasn't anything unusual about it; she used to get packages fairly often from Flourish and Blotts so nobody minded much. It was yet another shipment of books. Hermione took one look at the note, abruptly rose and ran out of the Great Hall. Harry, who had been sitting next to her, picked up the note, glanced up and vacated his chair in the same manner as Hermione had.

He found her outside the Great Hall, looking out a window at the snow. "Hermione, you left all your books inside."

"I did?"

"Yeah. D'you want to, I don't know, talk about what got you so upset that you forgot your books?"

"Well. Not here, anyway, you already know most of it."

"Where then?"

"Don't you have class? What about David and Aimée?"

"Hermione, I don't have any classes today until after lunch. David is spending the day with Seamus, Merlin help us all and Aimée has Potions right after breakfast. So why don't you come with me and have a cuppa and a nice chat about nasty divorces and such... tell uncle Harry everything about it. How does it sound?"

She smiled, a small tired smile, at him. "It sounds wonderful. Lead the way."

Five minutes later Harry and Hermione was sitting in some armchairs that had once belonged to Parvati's great-aunt Persephone, who'd adored Harry at first sight and almost wouldn't let go of his arm. "So... spill. What's the big horrific package sitting on your seat in the Great Hall?"

"I'd really just forget the whole thing." She took a deep breath. "We have to go back in time..."

"Time-turning? Didn't you do enough of that in your third year?"

"Git. Back in time as I'm going to tell you about something that happened ages ago, not taking you along and showing it to you."

"Go on then." He sipped his tea, courtesy of the house elves.

"As I was saying, we have to go back in time to one nice, sunny day in June about 7 years ago..."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione Granger-Krum was bone-tired. Having a full time job, trying to co-ordinate her life with her husband, the ever so busy Quidditch playing Viktor Krum and being presumably pregnant wasn't a cup of tea. She had left the office earlier than ual, feeling feverish. All she really wanted to do was to get home, have something to drink and slip into bed. But alas, it wasn't to happen. Because when she got into the main bedroom of the three-bedroom flat she and Viktor had bought the year before when they got married the bed was otherwise occupied. Her so-called loving husband was in the middle of loving someone else.

That someone else noticed her first. "Shit. Eh... Viktor? Who's that lady standing there?"

Viktor slowly turned his head towards the door. "Hermione!" It was amazing how that man could pronounce her name so differently, how perfect he managed to speak English when he wasn't trying to charm the pants of anyone.

"Hello, dear. Excuse me for a second will you?" She ran into the adjourning bathroom and stuck her head over the toilet bowl. Viktor got out of bed and followed her. The third participant in their family melodrama quickly left the bed, got dressed and left the room.

"What's wrong with you?" Viktor held her forehead while she got rid of whatever food lay in her stomach.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" She lifted her head. "I married you, promised to be faithful to you for the rest of my life, and you cheat on me. You promised the exact same thing, if you see fit to remember it." Her head went down to the toilet bowl again.

"I have been faithful to you. I love you, Hermione. But Quidditch practise was cancelled today and I got lonely..."Hermione's head got back up again.

"I get lonely too, Viktor. I get lonely in the middle of the night, when I turn around and you're not there because you are off somewhere playing Quidditch. I manage without finding a warm body to comfort me in my loneliness."

"I kill any other man touching you."

"The famous double standard is making its way onto the stage. I can't deal with this, Viktor. I just can't."

"Vy not?"

"It's no use trying to charm me. What you did today..." she turned her head slightly over again, felt something in her throat. "was unforgivable. I've got bread in the oven and that's adding some complications to this."

"How can you think about food in a time like this, Hermione, Why do I care if you are baking? Is it that bread with nuts again? You know I'm allergic."

"I am not baking. I am PREGNANT." She started to sob over the toilet. Viktor flushed before putting an arm around her shoulders.

"There, there. I will teach him all about Quidditch."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione looked at Harry. "We tried to make it work, we really did. Even if I couldn't stand the sight of him our child still deserved to know its father." She couldn't stop the silent tears. "When the child was born it was a girl. We named her Elizaveta..." She pulled out a handkerchief. "She was such a sweet baby, Harry. So outgoing and affectionate. Viktor and I had our problems still, but right then the most important one in our family was Elizaveta. Then, when Elizaveta was about a year old everything changed. One morning when Viktor went to pick her up she wasn't our little outgoing Elizaveta any more. She'd died during the night. It was so hard. One minute she was alive, we were putting her to bed, the next morning we were frantically calling around to see who could help. It was too late. After that there weren't anything holding us together but the grief and the memories. It just wasn't enough. We split up. He moved back to Bulgaria and I, well, here I am, ditched a last name with a hyphen and a famous husband."

"And the package?"

"Some books of mine that Viktor brought along to Bulgaria. He's remarrying and his fiancé is not going to let him keep anything of mine. I didn't even know he had them. He kept something of mine all these years, imagine that."

"Who was this someone you caught Viktor with?"

"Let me put it like this: for his fiancé's sake I hope he's going to have another best man at this wedding..."

"No?"

"Yes. Why is the tea cold?"

February 14^th, 2012.

Draco pointed a look at Serena. She was dressed in a Queen of Hearts costume. "A thing to learn about dances is that boys don't usually like funny girls." Draco was dressed as a wealthy Muggle, and had dressed Aimée up as his secretary, without Harry's knowledge. She brought out a notepad and wrote something down.

"Noted." They walked further into the mass of people that constituted the Hogwarts Valentine's Masquerade. Draco hadn't actually planned to attend; in fact he wanted to be as far away from it as possible. Being around the students more than was really necessary? He'd rather hang out with Serena the entire evening. Unfortunately his Nemesis had come to get him... A little girl by the name of Aimée Kathleen Potter. Who would've ever guessed that the little girl d be so incredibly, so extraordinarily - so - Slytherin? She had cried - or at least he thought she had. She didn't have anyone to go with to the masquerade and nothing to dress as. Had it been any other person he would have ignored such a blatantly obvious hint, but he had grown rather attached to the little girl who actually seemed to like him for himself, not for the sake of her Potions grades or something entirely different. So here he was... mocking people for what it was worth and dragging an innocent child along. He only hoped they didn't run into her father, because he felt pretty sure that, even if they had something close to friendship, Harry wouldn't appreciate Draco learning his little girl the art of badmouthing other people. No, he decided. The ex-Gryffindor probably wouldn't like it very much at all.

"Let's move on, Aimée. I am too important for the so-called Queen of Hearts."

"It looks like she is too busy for you too, Mr. Malfoy." The girl had a point; Draco was forced to acknowledge it. The Professor in question was undoubtedly far too caught up in the fascination of trying to make Charlie Weasley forget that he had a girlfriend. He wasn't sure if that sort of behaviour was really suited at a dance, least of all when one was under the pretence of being the chaperones. Where was Hermione? Shouldn't she be around her boyfriend? Or did she perhaps prefer to strike down later, like an avenging angel? Oh, well. Leave Weasley to face his destiny for now. He had a date he didn't want to ignore.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Whilst Draco and Aimée were off mocking everybody and filling the notebook with Draco's rules of life, Katharine, Eleanor, Helen and Eric had stuck themselves in a corner looking out on the crowd, playacting chaperones, occasionally sharing some unnecessary comment to try anning one of the others. They were all in a fairly morose mood. No dates, stuck at Hogwarts, chaperoning a bunch of hormonal teenagers and all the punch was non-alcoholic.

" Men speak so conveniently of love when it serves their purpose, and when it doesn't; it is a burden to them."

"Jeez, Kath. Whatever brought up that incredibly piece of wisdom?"

"I don't know. Valentine's Day?"

"You know? I do love the male body, it's so much better designed than the male mind."

"Hey!"

"Well. It's true. Many of the most empty headed men I've men are often the ones with the best bodies. Fact of life, Eric."

"Well, I've never met an intelligent good-looking woman I'd want to date, either."

" On behalf of all the intelligent and good-looking women in the UK, let me just say: whew."

Eleanor stopped laughing at Helen and Eric. "Uh-oh. Trouble."

"Where?"

"Little miss Quentin managed to weasel her arms around Weasley's neck. Unfortunately we're not the only ones noticing. Hermione looks rather steamed. And I mean steamed as not steamed like the windows of a car when teen-agers are "necking" in it."

"What is Charlie thinking of? Serena is a great gal, but someone like Hermione only comes along once, maybe twice in a lifetime. If you're lucky." Almost every eye on the masquerade was stuck on what looked to become the event of the year. After all... it wasn't always your professors argued about a man, and another professor to boot, in front of your eyes.

"You know? Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental."

"So... why bring that up now? Are you saying that Serena getting her claws into Charlie is an accident or destiny, Helen?"

"It was merely a thing I felt the urge to speak out loud. Why? What d'you people think?"

"With Serena? Nothing is accidental when it comes to our Serena. Everybody's figured that out now."

"But what if Charlie and Hermione splitting up is in the cards and Serena, being who she is and dragging the little green jealousy monster out for Hermione to play with, upsets that?"

"That's a novel approach from our live-in Divinator. Sure you haven't seen anything you want to pass on?"

"Fiddle-dee-dee. Helen." Now they were down to the level of five year olds. Eleanor stuck her tongue out.

"That's mature. Add the mouth of that redhead from the pub to stick that down in, once again, and we'd have ourselves a show almost suitable for an audience over the age of consent."

Sinistra had chosen not to wear festive robes. Her long black robes were nearly hanging after her. "People are particularly stupid today. I can't talk to any of them. I don't know why. Is there anything special about today? Parker? Branstone? Ash?"

Eric put on his serious face. "It's a little something we like to call Valentine's Day. The colours red and pink features in the theme of today, along with hearts and Cupid, and those who happen to have a girl to snog, in a broom closet, a cupboard or an empty classroom will do so. The rest of us pathetic losers are just standing around, like decorations and mocking other people bitterly."

"So?"

"You couldn't care less, huh?"

"Not really. All the fun disappeared when Severus died. I just remember the year he lost a bet about a Quidditch match and had to wear boxers with these tiny hearts on them. Harrumph." She pulled herself together.

"How did you know he actually wore them?"

Sinistra smiled, smugly. "Well, the hearts kept shouting out terms of endearment. It's rather hard to hide. But I was looking for Potter. Anyone of you know where he's hiding?"

"Daddy isn't here? But he was supposed to be. I wanted him to see my costume."

"If you show him the notepad, I'll poison you myself."

"Malfoy. Potter." Sinistra nodded at them.

"Why isn't he here?"

"If it isn't the gang itself. Standing in a corner looking all..." Serena looked closely at them all. "... Chaperoney. Why the sombre mood? It's Valentine's Day. A day of un-limited flirting."

"You do that all the time anyway. We haven't seen Harry in a while, got a clue to where he is?"

"Harry, as in my date Harry?"

"He is your date?"

"Yes, why?"

"Were we supposed to bring dates? Nobody told me anything about that."

"I do love you, Eric, but you must acknowledge that it's amazing. A personality like yours and you still can't get any dates for the biggest date night of the year."

"What I find even more amazing, though disturbingly upsetting. The fact that someone with a personality like yours can. If Harry's your date, where's he, and why were you all over poor Charlie?"

"I was simply being friendly. Harry skipped out of me a while ago... had something important to do in Hogsmeade."

"Daddy didn't tell me that."

"Well. Aimée. Sometimes our parents do have lives of their own. Your father simply decided, after we talked about it for a while, that he wanted to be somewhere else tonight. He asked me to take you, and yes, he did see your outfit, to your aunt Padma and David later. You still have regular time for bed."

"No. I was having so much fun."

"Well. Time for bed. See you later, party people. Come along, Aimée."

"But I am not tired."

~*~*~*~*~*~

After having lost his trusty sidekick Draco wanted someone else to hang with. He wanted to dance. Dancing the night away sounded just about right. As long as it didn't have to be with Serena. It was something about her that just made him want to grind his teeth together, hard, whenever he was in her company.

"May I have the next dance?"

The woman he was asking wasn't the prettiest one in the room; she wasn't even on a top ten list, provided that some git would stoop to actually make such a list. Draco had never really talked to her, except to ask her for guidance on new books, or request new books. He figured that it wouldn't hurt getting to know her, as a person. It was a frightening concept to him. He wasn't supposed to have close female friends, or at least he'd been raised to think so. After all females were only good for one thing, his father used to say and wink, making sure that the man in their lives was ok. When Hermione and he broke up and Hermione held her pretty little "let's be friends" speech he had assumed that she meant it in the general way that he did when he broke up with someone. Been nice seeing you, get the hell out of my way. But to his astonishment Hermione had actually meant what she said. He might even go so far now to say that she was one of his best friends.

It didn't seem like he was going to get an answer anytime soon. He tried to ask her again. Maybe she needed the time to form a reply. "Do you want to dance?"

"You don't have to dance with me."

"I want to. So. Will you dance with me, Astrid?"

"Hmm. I believe I will. But..." she held up her hand. "... this doesn't mean that I am flirting with you."

"Of course not. Why?" He smirked slightly.

"Just reassuring myself that my world is still intact. So. Let's dance."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Aimée wasn't sure that she liked Hogwarts. It would've been nice to attend with all the others who were a year older than her, but to only attend fr a few classes and having to be alone with Hermione for the rest of them wasn't a booster to her loving school.

She liked school. Liked to learn things. But since she was the only pupil having to go to these classes she had no room for slacking off. Not that she intended to slack off, but it would've been nice to have the opportunity. Nice to not having to study all the time with the knowledge that Hermione was going to ask her, and only her, questions about the French Revolution, 1066 and the Great War.

She didn't have all that many classes, English, French, History, Mathematics, Science and Geography. Most of it it was up to her to read by herself and Hermione answered any questions she might have, but it felt bloody unfair having to do it at all. Her father and Mr. Wood took care of her physical education, running laps around the lake, playing games and Quidditch. She had been sent to Molly Weasley for weekends now and then, they had figured that she needed to know how to cook, clean and mend things the magic way. Her parents had always enjoyed doing things without magic, or at least as much as possible. It was different being at the Burrow and learning to do things fast and efficient. It didn't hurt that George Weasley had been home one of those weekends either...

All in all her life would've been nice - if she just could have another pupil to share the attention with. It was just until she could start for real at Hogwarts, she hoped. Unless her father decided to be difficult about things. He could do that.

~*~*~*~*~*~

May.

"Finnegan. It seems that there has been an increase in patients in the Hospital Wing. We don't wish to disturb those of your patients who need the care, but, really. Don't you find it odd that so many come to see you so close to finals?"

"The only real reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great and they know I know it."

"I am sure. Unfortunately the finals happen to be important and anyone you deem healthy enough to look straight, walk long enough to get to the class-room and get it over with is supposed to do just that." Sinistra snapped. Dumbledore hadn't been quite well lately, and she already had way too much responsibility on her shoulders without having to worry extra about him. She turned around and left the Hospital Wing. Seamus felt childish, yet he stuck out his tongue at her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The exams had come and disappeared almost without any damage, every student able to walk had indeed been forced to attend. Some had received incredible marks, others not so incredible. Aimée was thrilled. She had more than passed her Potions exam, Mr. Malfoy had said she'd done it perfect, and that meant that next year, when she would attend Hogwarts for real, she could start on the Second year curriculum.

Hermione, who basically had just good things to say about everyone in Gryffindor, except the three M's hated being forced to acknowledge the fact that all three of them would be attending Hogwarts the next year as well. They had passed all their exams.

The real discussion at the moment weren't really the pupils, but where everybody would be going for the summer. Draco was going to visit Gabrielle Delacour in France and Serena couldn't resist. "You do speak French, don't you?" She was only going to London to visit some friends.

"Unfortunately no, but I do kiss that way." He sopped and stared at them. "Bloody hell, gutterminds. Gabs knows English, even if she blatantly refuses to speak it. There's also such a nifty thing as a Translation Spell, for us who actually manages to remember it. I'll manage just fine with my dear Gabs."

"Where are you taking the children, Harry?"

"They will be busy buggers. Grandmother and Grandfather is yearning for visits, Auntie Padma has sworn them to secrecy about where they are going with her and while David is off with Charlie I am supposed to take Aimée shopping." He winced. "I only hope I can win half of the arguments about what she may wear."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Charlie Weasley was having a problem. A girlfriend problem. They quarrelled sometimes, more and more often lately. The sweetness of the beginning of the relationship had worn off, and although they still had their moments he felt forced to accept the truth. He loved Hermione. He just wasn't in love with her.

He didn't think she loved him either, not like she had loved Krum. 'And look where that love got her,' his thoughts told him. 'Right back at Hogwarts, where she ought to have just stayed. It'd been much more sensible. Hermione is a sensible girl. Why don't I love her?' He didn't know. How was he supposed to? Dragons he knew. Brothers he understood. Girls? Love? They were mysteries in his mind. It would've been so much easier if Hermione had been a Swedish Shortsnout. At least then he would have had a clue about what to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Charlie. We need to talk." He was packing his bags, had promised David Potter he would bring him and Gregory, his own nephew, with him to Romania for a while. Theywere going to look at dragons. Hermione stood in the door to his room.

"What is it?"

"I am sorry Charlie, but this relationship is not working for me anymore. I don't love you like a boyfriend. I love you like I love Harry and Draco, like I loved Ron. You don't deserve it."

"Is there someone else?"

Hermione looked shocked at him. "No, there isn't. But there's the dream of someone else. I would never two-time anyone. Don't you know me better than that?"

Charlie had been thinking the same thoughts as her, but was nevertheless a little bitter over not having been the one to break it off. "I suppose I do. Well, you know. Sometimes people aren't who you need them to be for you, and there isn't really anything we can do about it, is there?"

Hermione was almost weeping. "I guess not. But let me tell you that this isn't about finding anyone better than you, because I don't think such a man exists. It's about finding out where I end and the person I love begin. You helped after my marriage broke up, and you even showed up with chocolate ice cream when I broke up with Draco. Sometimes I feel like you reinvented Hermione Granger, at least partially, it scares me. I need to know who I am. I'll always love you, it's just not the World Cup kind of love. It was ok in the beginning, but let's face it. We're not Ilsa and Rick, Scarlett and Rhett or... Our love isn't one they're going to be making a film about."

"So, this is the end? I'll love you forever."

"Love you too, but I'll expect to hear almost everything about the new girls in your life after me. Only, promise... Don't go out with Serena."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Another Butterbeer, kid."

"The wonders of being dumped, huh?"

"Yeah. And I come and tell all the gory details to my younger sister. Why'd you have to be a bartender, Gin?"

"With a nickname like Gin? How could I not? Let's do the routine and be over with it." She placed the Butterbeer in front of him, put her face closer to his. "Rough day? Want to talk about it?"

"Funny, Virginia. I am starting to think a boy's best friend is his mother."

"Oh, mum would lend a sympathetic ear alright, and fix you up with someone else the next morning. Well, she likes Hermione. She'd wait a day. She was really set on Hermione being a Weasley, Charlie."

"There's always George." They both laughed. "To tell you the truth, I am not exactly heartbroken. The sparks went out of the relationship a while ago, only yesterday I was wondering what we were doing together. I love her in about the same way as I love you, like a sister."

"Wouldn't that be illegal?"

"I've always admired you the sense of humour, astonishing how you can find so much misery to laugh at."

"Misery loves evil laughter."

"It's 'misery loves company' you know that. I'm sure I taught that to you, once when your first boyfriend ditched your sorry corpse."

"So, Romania huh? Brave thing you're doing."

"Not afraid of the dragons. I know dragons."

"I was talking about bringing our darling little nephew and David. Last I heard, Benjamin actually set their house on fire."

"There isn't much to set fire to in the dragon camp that the dragons haven't already tried setting fire to."

"You're a man, what do you know?"

He leaned over the counter and pinched her cheek.

"More than I want you knowing before the age of forty."

~*~*~*~*~*~