The next weeks passed swiftly, too swiftly for Brogan who was not getting any closer to Professor Slughorn and certainly too swiftly for Draco who was back to clinging to Brogan like a limpet.  Blaise was not impressed.

“I know you’re not trying to seduce her for a nefarious end Draco.  In fact I refuse to believe you’re trying to seduce her at all because you’re driving everyone mad and it isn’t cute at all.  Are you going to tell me what’s up?”

Draco shook his head no, they were trudging back to the castle after a frigid practice.  One of their chasers had decided to quit the team because of the upcoming NEWTs and the new chaser was another girl, she and Brogan had become fast friends and they were walking quite a bit ahead of Draco and Blaise.

“You can tell me,” Blaise wheedled, “I have that spell on me from Professor Snape, I won’t be able to tell anyone.”

Draco shook his head no again.

“Is it something that Brogan doesn’t know?”  Draco stopped to glare at him.

“Oh it is, all the more reason to tell me.  If you can’t talk to someone you know you’ll go mad, it’s how you’re built Draco.  Can you talk to her father?”

Draco shrugged.

“Not the sort of thing to talk to him about then, what about the Weasel?  You and him seem to have a bit of a truce going on now.”  Draco’s next shrug was more thoughtful somehow.

“Well, consider it because this behavior has got to stop, you’re making us all barmy.”  And Blaise swatted him on the rear with his broom for good measure.  That at least got Draco to squawk a bit and chase Blaise all the way back to their dorm.

 

Draco had talked to Ron, they had met in the boys’ bathroom the day after That Meeting.  Ron looking wrecked as he cast a silencing charm and dragged Draco to a corner.  Draco was frightened for a moment that he might try to hug him or something but Ron just stood there with his arms wrapped around himself, maybe holding himself back from just that.  “Did you talk to Snape?” he asked in a rough voice.

Draco nodded, he didn’t trust himself to open his mouth about this topic at all, ever.

“He thinks she...  she’s one?”  Another nod and Ron made a sort of choking sound, Draco recoiled as if Ron’s grief was a match that would set his own back on fire again.

“Are you, is he, going to tell her?”

Draco took a deep breath, “after we find some, some solutions.  And Severus will, he’s crazed, I’ve never seen him like this.  He’ll find a ritual or something, he’ll save her, I know he will.  He’ll do anything for her and he’s smart and powerful and ruthless and... crazed really.”

“That’s actually reassuring,” Ron chuckled a little, leaning against the wall now.  “I don’t think Hermione suspects -she would have said something if she did, and I didn’t want to mention it to her but, if we needed the research, I would.”

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t think we do.  So now we can protect her too, for a little while at least.”

“Yeah,” said Ron.  He reached up to rub his cheek where the scratch was bothering him.  Draco noticed it and gave him a questioning look.  Ron gave him a rueful smile, “I snuck out to the old charms classroom last night and blew up a shitload of old desks.  McGonagall gave me detention for a week and took twenty points.”

Draco smiled, “I had the same thought but after I talked to Severus I was too wrecked to do anything but go to bed.  He probably drugged me.”

“So we’ll play it cool?”  Ron clarified.  “You’ll let me know if you and Snape need anything yeah?”

“Yeah, and we’ll play it cool.”  Draco promised breezily, well it was a shadow of his usual breeziness but Ron appreciated the attempt.

Ron had one bit of sunshine to cling to after that, Draco’s abject failure at playing it cool.  More than once Ron got to sleep with Brogan held safe in his arms because she had come up to rant about what an ass Draco was being.  It wasn’t very sporting or anything but at least Ron was trying to keep up his end.  The fact that he was succeeding more than Draco was probably just because he was more experienced at fearing for Harry’s life and trying to cover it up.

 

“Draco wants to go out for Valentine’s day.”  Brogan announced from the pillow next to Ron.

“Of course he does,” said Ron.  “Why wouldn’t he?”

“Because he should know how annoyed I am with him.  That’s why he shouldn’t.”

“That’s ridiculous, that’s such a girl thing to say, he’s a guy he has no idea that you’re thinking he should be thinking like that.”

“What?”

“You know what I mean, or at least you would have before.”

“That’s a low blow Mr. Weasley.”

“Says the bint who stepped on my jewels over Christmas break.  You’ve sold out mate, no hard feelings just admit it.”

Brogan opened and shut her mouth looking for a suitable retort.

“And hey, if you start to cry I’ll take that as admitting it too.”  Ron said, although Brogan was close enough to feel his sides start shaking with suppressed laughter.

“Cry?  Cry?  I’m just trying to decide the best way to make you suffer!”

“There, there, I know it can be hard with all those emotions swirling around,” Ron paused wondering if he dared to finish that sentence and decided what the hell, they could do with the distraction, “...swirling around in your uterus.”

The effect was instantaneous, and violent.

 

The Valentine’s date in Hogsmeade was less sweet than it could have been.  Astoria tried and tried and tried but she couldn’t get Brogan into a skirt much less a dress.  The cargo pants did look pretty cool though tucked into Brogan’s high leather boots.  “You look like a muggle soldier of fortune,” Astoria despaired.

“Astoria, what sort of magazines do they sneak in your dorm room at night?” asked Brogan, truly shocked.

Astoria crossed her arms to sulk, “I saw an ad for a movie once, and that’s what they called the guy -the guy who was wearing the same outfit as you are.”

Brogan laughed, “don’t worry so much about it, Draco likes people who can take care of themselves, this will be fine.

Now what about you?  Did you want to borrow anything for your date with Michael Corner?”  Astoria was easily diverted and it made Brogan feel a little nostalgic for when her life was that simple, until she realized it had never been.

 

“I hope I don’t call you Harry by mistake Princess,” was Draco’s only comment on the soldier of fortune ensemble. 

Brogan just shrugged and fell in beside him, “I blame you, you’ve been hovering and I thought if I showed you just how bad ass I can be you might come to your senses.”

“I know and I’m sorry.  I’ll try harder to be reasonable, I just care...  I care a lot and you’re in danger.”

“Well there’s no denying that,” said Brogan linking their hands and swinging her arm playfully as they approached the village.  “But you must have noticed the mad survivor skills I have too.  I wouldn’t want to call myself the master of death or anything but...  a straight on AK from the Dark Lord, a basilisk bite, an attack by a nesting dragon...  I think you can relax a little more.”

“You’d think that helps but it just makes me despair even more, because you know you’re the one who stole the egg from the nesting dragon you idiot and you’re the one who waltzed into the basilisk’s lair.  I can grant you mad escape skills but must you keep testing them?”

“I swear it always made sense at the time.”

“I’m sure, and that’s why you’re not allowed to make any decisions like that on your own anymore.”

“But Hermione was even around for some of them, she’s at least as reasonable as you are.”

“Ha, she’s a Gryffindor.  Nobody has self preservation skills quite like a Slytherin, you are to rely only upon my judgment from now on.  No more listening to the Gryffindors.”

“You make it sound like a wonder I got placed in Slytherin.”

“It is a wonder.  Actually that also makes me nervous, because if you’re so clearly lacking in a major Slytherin skill then there must be another one that you have in spades; like cunning.  If your cunning is off the charts to make up for your lack of self preservation then Merlin only knows how you could be playing all of us.”

“Do all Slytherins give themselves ulcers?”

“Yes.  Those aren’t after dinner mints on our table, they’re antacids.”

“Fascinating.”

Later they were drinking tea at Madam Puddifoot's, bags of chocolates and flowers lying at Brogan’s feet like offerings to an idol.  “I told Slughorn I’d stop by on my way back from Hogsmeade today, I was thinking you could impress him with your festive Valentine’s Day ensemble.”

“Well I guess that was something you should have shared earlier,”  said Brogan who was studying all the couples around them over the rim of her tea cup.  Astoria and Michael Corner were sharing a tiny table but Michael seemed to be sending too many glances at Ginny Weasley who was at a different table with Dean.  Oh the drama.

Her tea sloshed when Draco kicked her under their table.  She gave him a dirty look and he just smiled blithely, “so sorry, just stretching my legs a bit.”

Brogan blushed and focused her attention solely on Draco.  “Maybe if your legs weren’t so absurdly long they would fit under the table.  And maybe if you weren’t so absurdly good looking I wouldn’t have to spend all my time glaring at all the other girls trying to make eyes at you.”

She smiled when his ears turned pink, “Oh now you’re just being cute,” she crooned reaching out to tug one of his traitorous ears.  “You probably don’t know how well you’ve done just getting me in here.  I came with Cho Chang one year and had a horrible time; swore I’d never return.  And to be back, on the other side of the table as it were like this.  It’s disconcerting.”

Brogan got up and scraped her chair around so it was next to Draco’s, she got several annoyed looks from their neighbors but ignored them.  She sat down thigh to thigh with Draco and pulled his hand up to her chest, “Feel how my heart is pounding,”  He couldn’t really, not through her sweater so he dragged his hand up to her throat and there he could feel her pulse fluttering madly, he gave her a curious look.

“It’s the reminder of how idiotic I was with Cho and it makes me wonder if that was because I was the wrong gender then, and how could I not have known and what if this is all a mistake too and I change back, then what will happen to me?

See, I’m a good Slytherin, my stomach is churning too, ulcer here I come.”

Draco picked up her hand and kissed her fingers.  He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close so she could rest her head on him.  “Honestly, the Dark Lord and every Death Eater is relentlessly searching for you -so they can torture and kill you- and you’re afraid your dick will come back and nobody will like you anymore?”  He was hoping for a chuckle but all he got was a hopeless sort of shrug.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Draco stood and pulled up Brogan, then turned to gather their stuff.  He guided her out before another Puddifoot Valentine’s Day tea could be ruined by tears.

 

They didn’t go straight back.  They stopped at the quidditch pitch where Draco sat down and somehow knew to give her the space to choose his lap or the bench next to him.  And he wasn’t (too) sad when she chose the bench.  He sat and waited while Brogan took deep breaths and seemed to gather herself for a siege.

“It’s so hard,” she finally said, “so so hard.  And the potion from Poppy makes me feel calmer right, and more in control.  Which is good but then it also makes me responsible for my actions too you know.

Last fall when I was such a wreck and crying every day I had like a tidal wave of emotions in me and they just swept me along and, I didn’t really try to fight it.  I just gave in and did whatever and now I look back and just cringe.”  Brogan finished.

Draco immediately put his arm around her, “You did try to fight it, you did really well.  And you were so exhausted and lonely then too.  It was a shitty time and you did really well.”

“But that time in the common room and by the door to Snape’s quarters?”

Draco pinked right up, “well, those were perhaps not our most coherent moments but I certainly didn’t regret them at the time.  And I don’t regret them now.”

“But aren’t you mad that once they put me on that potion it all ended?  I feel like I’m right back to being a clueless nerdy thirteen year old.”

Draco scooted closer, “I’m not mad, even I could see that we were rushing things a bit and if we had kept going I’m pretty sure Severus would have maimed me by now.  Somehow though, at the time it seemed worth it.  Even now, older and wiser as I am now, I think I would probably go for it if you offered again.

I’m learning a bit about Gryffindor tendencies you know, and that carpe diem thing, our futures are very dangerous and uncertain...”

Tears started to gather on Brogan’s lashes, “And then we circle around to another reason why we shouldn’t get too close.  The Dark Lord will see right through this disguise, in person it wouldn’t be a disguise at all to him and he’ll come after you too then.  And even if you do manage to deny me sufficiently to save yourself, it will still be worse if we’re close.”

“Princess, it’s too late for you to try and push me away for safety.”

She shook her head, “No it isn’t, we could stage a big fight.  Maybe we wouldn’t even need to stage it.”

“It’s too late.”

She sighed and nodded, she would have fought more but she had never been able to drive Ron and Hermione away there was no reason Draco would go; loyal Hufflepuffs the lot of them.  “So you’re just going to keep being my boyfriend even though I’m...” something kept her from saying ‘not a slut anymore’ and she couldn’t find anything else to say.

Draco waited but when she never finished he responded anyway, “Yeah, I’m going to keep being your boyfriend even though I know I hover too much and drive you barmy.  Even though I spend more time on my hair then you do on yours -and yours always manages to look better.  Even though I dress like an investment banker and you look like the world’s sexiest auror.  Even though you manage to make me smile and laugh every single day.  Even though you look at me as if you like me back and my stomach does flip flops.”

“You’re a hopeless romantic aren’t you?”

“Maybe, I prefer not to focus on the hopeless part though.”

That got him the smile he deserved, even better was when Brogan finally shifted and climbed onto his lap so that they were facing each other.  Draco wrapped his cloak around her back and trailed his hands down to her bum, tugging it in closer even as Brogan reached up to his face. 

They were not as crazed as they had been in the fall, this was a whole lot sweeter.  Draco gently brushed away the tear drops that were clinging to her lashes, gently swept his thumbs across her cheekbones, gently tilted her head just so, and gently reminded her that he was not going to go anywhere. 

 

They almost didn’t make it to Slughorn’s that evening.  By the time they left the pitch it was getting pretty dark and they had to cast little healing charms on their lips which were suspiciously red.  “Why are we going to see him again?” whined Brogan.

“I’m trying to get a summer potions internship in France.”

“Why?  I mean I know you want to go there and see your mum but why do you have to get a job?  Couldn’t you keep working with Da?”

Even in the half dark Brogan could see a flush start creeping up his neck.  “I need the money to take care of my mum.”

“What?”

“My father hasn’t disowned me yet but he’s close and he stopped supporting my mother.  Her relatives are very sympathetic, they won’t throw her out or anything but she, she hasn’t said anything but I know she likes to have nice gowns and things.  Imagine the torture of being in France and unable to shop for clothes?”

“Oh Draco, I’m so sorry.  But your mum is a Black isn’t she?”

“Yes.” said Draco and he looked at her questioningly.

“Sirius Black left me his fortune, we can give it to your mum instead.”

“But you might need it.”

“Well then we can share it or something.  I don’t really want it, not without Sirius knowing that James Potter wasn’t my father.  But if I don’t claim it Bellatrix might get her fingers on it and that cannot be allowed.”

“No, that cannot be allowed, bad enough they have access to the Malfoy fortune.”  They had arrived by then and Draco looked Brogan over critically.  “We’re still going in though, no wriggling out of it.”

Brogan sighed and fixed Draco’s collar, smoothing it out.  “Of course not, on with the mission.”

Draco rapped smartly.

 

Professor Slughorn was in his satin dressing gown, the bits of fabric seemed to be trying their best to cover his enormous stomach but the distance was simply too much for the slippery fabric.  And even though Slughorn was fully clothed underneath his dressing gown (honestly what was it even for?) Brogan was still vaguely repulsed.

Draco clandestinely pinched her bottom until she put a gracious smile on her face anyway.

They were bustled over to seats by the fire and Draco put on his fake manly voice to discuss manly things.  Brogan tried to look interested but not vapid, mostly she tried to not look miserable.  She tried to call for Dobby mentally to see if they could get some food since they would probably miss supper at this rate.  Then she decided it was a relief that she couldn’t mentally call for Dobby, because what if she accidentally did it at a bad time.  Then she noticed they were talking to her, oops.

Slughorn was pouring tiny glasses of something amber and offering her the first one.  As she reached out mechanically for the glass the professor turned to Draco and gestured with the bottle, “Mead from Madam Rosmerta, she wanted me to share it with Dumbledore of course but he’ll never notice if the bottle’s a wee bit lower now...”

Brogan had never tried mead before, it smelled divine so she took a quick swallow.  She immediately wanted to spit it out again but her body seized and she couldn’t move at all, she didn’t even think she had made a sound but Draco was there.  He was holding her and she could see his fright and his lips moving.  She stared and stared at him, right up until her eyes rolled back and she knew no more.

 

Horace Slughorn had never pretended to be a brave man.  He was no hero, he was not calm and collected in a crisis; and if he could admit his own shortcomings then what right did others have to judge him on them?  He felt like he was stating this case quite coherently but in actuality his gibbering was making Severus Snape even more murderous as if that was a possible thing. 

As soon as Brogan was stable enough Poppy poured a calming draught into Slug’s gaping maw and bundled him back to his quarters to rest.  She wished that she had the nerve to drug Snape too, failing that she bustled herself off to write up a report in her office.

“You did well Draco,” Snape finally murmured when they were alone.  They each had a chair on either side of Brogan’s bed and were just sitting and staring.

Draco huffed, “we’ve been studying poisons in class for the last month.  Brogan actually brought bezoars up in discussion last week.  And when that sleeping potion almost killed her last fall she joked about you not thinking to accio the remedy, it’s like she set out a road map for me.”

“Possibly, but clearly not just anyone would have the presence to follow the map.” replied Snape thinking of Slughorn.

Draco shrugged.  “She still looks awful.”

“She will recover though.”  Snape said it as if the force of his voice would make it so.

The door banged open and Ron and Hermione came rushing in, they made straight for Brogan’s bed despite the napkin wrapped around Ron’s hand and the blood soaking through it.  Poppy materialized and intercepted them.

“Mr. Weasley, what happened?” she asked as she guided him to a different bed and started peeling off the napkin.

“I cut myself with a knife at supper.” Ron mumbled.  Draco caught Hermione’s eyes and she shook her head as if to say, he’s completely demented.

“Well, it doesn’t look too bad,” Madam Pomfrey sighed.  She wanted to say, ‘really you had to actually hurt yourself?  You couldn’t just fake a headache or something?’  Nonetheless she healed the cut and rubbed a bit of cream on it. 

Hermione had drifted to the end of Brogan’s bed and was looking at her with teary eyes, “everyone was talking about it during dinner.  I was leaning over to reach Luna at the Ravenclaw table when I heard Ginny yell Ron’s name.  I guess the news was a shock and his hand slipped.”

Draco had stood up and led Hermione to his seat with his hands on her shoulders, “Yeah, why don’t we go with that.  It doesn’t matter, Ron’s all healed up and Brogan will be soon too.”

Snape looked up and caught Hermione’s teary eyes, “she will be Miss Granger, she really will.”

Hermione sniffed and nodded. 

Of course Brogan chose that moment to go into convulsions again.  Poppy and Severus leapt for the bed while the students scrambled out of their way.  After a few moments Brogan was quiet again, the fits were getting shorter and further apart as the antidote worked. 

Draco hadn’t left Brogan’s side so he knew that but Hermione was wrapped up in Ron’s arms and sobbing with fear.  Madam Pomfrey sighed as she stepped away from the bed and saw them.  She pulled them off to the side and spoke to them quietly for a long time, explaining patiently about the antidote.  In the end she decided to let Ron stay ‘for observation’ and sent Hermione off to get their homework so they could use the time productively.

After Hermione had washed her face and set off for the tower and their bags Madam Pomfrey wrapped up Ron’s perfectly healed hand and shoved a pair of pyjamas at him.  The bandage was uncomfortable and he felt like an ass putting the pyjamas on in the early evening but he didn’t say a word, his eyes just kept sliding away from the healer and over to Brogan’s bed.

When he was changed Ron settled himself in the bed behind Draco’s chair.  Hermione came back shortly after and settled herself on the foot of his bed with her charms homework.  She tried desperately to lose herself in the work and was startled when she heard the scratching of a quill.  Ron was doing his homework too, he looked up and met her eyes with a small smile.  Hermione smiled back and kicked his foot a little before going back to her work.

Ron had terrified her, it reminded her of first year when he let his knight be taken in the magical chess match, but this was worse somehow.  She knew of course that the cut could be healed in seconds but the way Ron had thought to do it - so quickly and so efficiently.  It made her shudder, that kind of ruthlessness that kind of blind stubborn determination to get to Brogan’s side.

It wasn’t that Hermione was jealous, except she was.  It didn't matter that in her head she knew that Brogan wouldn’t risk what she had now with Ron by trying for anything else.  And Draco challenged Brogan more, Draco got her eyes flashing and her blood pumping, Ron was a safety blanket or a brother.  Hermione smiled a little to herself, she knew how literal the safety blanket was sometimes.

Harry turning into a girl had shaken Hermione worse than anyone else, except of course Harry.  Hermione had spent days going over the years she knew Harry and trying to see if she had missed some clue, some hidden streak of girlishness or whatever.  Sometimes Harry was steely determination, sometimes Harry was shaking in his boots, sometimes Harry had been awkward and shy around girls, sometimes Harry was awkward and shy around boys, Harry had been just a kid.  A kid with issues and insecurities and needs and wants and hopes and dreams. 

Hermione looked at her professor sitting silently next to Brogan’s bed.  Would Snape be here like this if Harry was his son?  Did it make a difference to him that a daughter was something to cherish and protect?  Would Draco be there if he wasn’t attracted to Brogan?  What did love and sexuality really mean?  Would Ron like her if she became a boy?  Would she like Ron if he became a girl?  Was this something that wizards just accepted because they believed in magic and could overcome all her mundane concerns with potions and charms?

Hermione scrubbed her face for a while and breathed deeply.  Ron gave her a sympathetic look and rubbed her arm.  And really, really really really what bothered Hermione about all of this was that her relationship with Harry had changed forever.  She was working on something with Brogan and they were friends, sometimes they were even close, but it would never be like it was before.  The dynamic was all different now, even if Harry had become gay and they found themselves cackling in empty classrooms about Blaise Zabini together, she could picture that and it would have been fine.  But having Harry become a girl, become competition like this, it hurt Hermione. 

Hermione knew she was pretty and not just because her daddy told her so, or her mum, she could see it in Ron’s eyes too and she knew it clinically.  But she wasn’t comfortable with it yet, she wasn’t good at being a pretty girl and it made her more self conscious and less good at it.  Brogan wasn’t especially good at it either but instead of comforting Hermione it just made her more embarrassed and less enthused about spending time with her.

Not that Brogan even seemed to notice, she had Luna and Pansy and Astoria, and Millicent too now that she was on the quidditch team.  Brogan and Ginny had even been chatty together at Professor Slughorn’s party talking to that professional player.  Brogan had more girlfriends than Hermione did and Hermione had been a girl since birth.

Hermione felt another tear dribble down her cheek and looked up to see Ron giving her a look full of compassion.  She looked at him and then was quickly distracted by Brogan, her friend who had been poisoned and was having another fit in the bed next to them.  Madam Pomfrey was right, this fit was much shorter and less intense than the one before, she was getting better.  Ron took her hand and she realized that he thought she was crying over Harry.  And of course she was but mostly it was her own stupid self pity and, and she had to leave.

Everyone turned to look at her as she scrambled to her feet and started shoving books in her bag.  For a moment she thought hysterically that they would think she was leaving because Brogan was too loud and distracting for her to study near, but when she dared to meet their faces she saw that wasn’t so.

Ron got up too and walked her to the door, carrying her bag for her with his ‘injured’ hand.  “I’m sorry,” Hermione started.

“Don’t be,” said Ron casting a little silencing bubble around them and shifting so that Snape and Draco could only see the broad square lines of his back.  “Will you be okay getting to the tower?  Do you want me to come with you?  I can leave.”

“No, it’s alright.  Thanks for offering though, that’s nice of you.”

Ron placed a warm hand on her shoulder, close enough to her neck that his fingertips could reach skin.  “You know Harry and I, we never got caught up in competing for you.  He never thought of you that way, and I would have known.  I would have known because I thought of you that way.  It’s tricky with three of us sometimes, you know.  We had a balance, and I don’t know but I think we can get that balance back.  Maybe we’ll need to add a fourth right,” neither of them had to actually look at Draco to acknowledge he had already become their fourth, “but we’ll sort it out and get back to what we had.”  He licked his lips and shyly looked down before he continued.

“I used to have this dream of us getting married,” Hermione gave him a shocked look, “hold on, it gets worse,” Ron warned her blushing madly, “we would get married and then we would de-age Harry so he was just a little toddler again, take him right back to before he ever went to the Dursley’s and then we would raise him right.

That was my dream, you and I taking care of Harry together.  Just so you know it isn’t like a competition or anything.”

“Oh Ron,” warbled Hermione and she was really crying now, how could she not at such a sweet sweet thought.  “You can’t fix him, or her, you know.  If you did that, started over, it wouldn’t be Harry in that bed.  It’s so sweet but it’s almost disrespectful, isn’t it, of who he became and what he overcame to be that person.

It’s as bad as me trying to understand.  I always feel like I have to understand and know these things,” she paused to wipe her eyes again, “and it’s just as bad as fixing, this belief that I can know and understand.  Some things just are and we have to let them be.”

“You’ll be here to help me with that, won’t you Hermione?” Ron asked, his voice rough.

“Yeah, and you’ll help me too, right?”

Ron reached out for her hand and brought it to his lips, “of course,” he promised kissing her fingertips.  “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

“No, you worked hard to get your bed for tonight, if Harry has bad dreams then you should be here.”

“Snape might stay too, it’s weird to think of others caring.  It’s been just the two of us for so long.”

“There’s a bloody lot of changes for us to get used to this year isn’t there?”

“Hermione!” said Ron, impressed and delighted.

Hermione smiled, a smug little smile, and then she stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed Ron square on the lips, “good night Ron.”

Ron pecked her back, “good night Hermione.”