Hermione stepped out of the Green flames into the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts. Never before had flooed so much in her life. A few minutes after her, another figure stepped out of the fireplace, the green flames slowly receding in his wake, returning to their normal orange glow. Without saying a word Remus Lupin walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, waiting for the headmaster to return to his office.

The girl began cleaning the soot off of her clothing before glancing around the room marveling at the various magical instrument that rested around her. Her eyes immediately fixated on Fawkes the phoenix and immediately began stroking the great bird's plumage. "Hey Fawkes." She cried happily as the bird turned its cheek and leaned into her touched.

"It's incredibly uncommon for a phoenix to take such a strong liking to a person in such a short amount of time."

Hermione whirled around and was met by the twinkly gaze of Albus Dumbledore. "I have only seen such a thing one other time. I believe you and I both know to whom I'm referring to Miss Granger," said the old wizard with his usual grandfatherly smile.

Hermione did indeed know who it was he was talking about, but thought that she was nothing compared to Harry. Nevertheless, she blushed at the praise all the same. Lupin stood up from his seat and approached the witch, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you ready for your final lesson?"

"Yes sir, I want to do everything I can to help Harry."

"I believe this goes without saying, but Harry is lucky to have someone as determined and thoughtful as you by his side. The fact that you were able to learn how to brew something as difficult as the Wolfsbane in a few short weeks is nothing short of unbelievable."

Before she could reply, the doors flew open to the office and Severus Snape entered the room, his robes billowing behind him. "Come along Miss Granger. I have more important things to do than cater to your personal instruction."

Lupin was the first to speak up. "Come now Severus, you know the importance of Miss Granger's instructions."

"Actually Lupin, I don't understand." He gave the werewolf a calculated stare, one that was matched by former Professor. Both men were now standing in front of each other, refusing to give an inch. "I fail to see the reason why a student needs to learn such a difficult potion when there is already someone at hand who has experience with it, or have you forgotten Lupin?"

Smile on Dumbledore's face briefly faltered. He quickly moved forward in an attempt to defuse the tension that was slowly building between the two adults. "Now Severus, current circumstances are much greater than just Mr. Potter and Miss Granger. Miss Granger's assistance is crucial to keeping all those around Harry safe."

Snape merely remained fixed in his spot, the evidence that he heard the headmaster was a simple nod before turning around and leaving the office. Realizing it was time to go, Hermione hurried along and followed the Potions Master down to the dungeons.

The Next Day

Hermione woke up the next day, excitement radiating from her body despite how tired she was. After nearly six weeks of lessons with Professor Snape, she was now able to brew a perfect Wolfsbane potion, something that most Wizards never accomplish, let alone in such a short time period. Her determination to provide all the help and support for her best friend, was all the encouragement she needed. She knew how desperately Harry wished to be normal and she thought that it was the least she could do for him saving her life.

She quickly got dressed and carried her trunk downstairs into the living room to wait for the Weasleys to come get her. After several minutes passed, her parents Richard and Emma Granger joined her in the family room, and began their morning ritual of him reading the newspaper s his wife watched the television.

Silence settled on the muggle family for several minutes as the anticipation for the wizards' arrival. Understandably, both of the elder Grangers were nervous. What struck both of them as odd was that their daughter seemed to be more anxious than they were, if her constant fidgeting and glances towards the clock on the wall were any indication.

"Hermione dear, is something troubling you?"

The daughter looked to her mother and her heart immediately sank at the concerned look in her mother's eyes. An emotion flooded her mind, on that she was used to feeling at home ever since she started at Hogwarts.

Guilt.

She felt guilty for leaving her parents for the rest of the summer holiday, even if it was only for a little over two weeks. She knew her parents missed her while she was at school even though she wrote them quite often. Being able to see their only child for two months out of the year took an emotional toll on her parents. It wasn't until this summer that Hermione finally saw a glimpse of how much her departures affected them.

One night earlier in the summer, when her parents thought she'd retired for the night, she heard them discuss their fears that they were losing her to the magical world. The youngest Granger immediately felt guilty that her parents thought they were losing her and tried her best to remedy the situation. Her guilt did not stop there however.

Her parents had remained unaware of her adventures at school. After her first year she initially wanted to tell them everything, but her father had made it clear that he would pull her from the magical school the second there was trouble. She knew from then on that they couldn't find out. She had found a place where she felt like she belonged, a place where she had finally found friends.

"Well…" she began. To be honest she didn't want to lie to her parents but she didn't want them to know everything either. "It's Harry. He…got hurt towards the end of the last school year, and I just hope he's okay."

Emma moved to stand next to her daughter, and placed a helpful hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry sweetie, if something had happened, surely someone would've told you."

Hermione smiled at her reassuring words, her nerves beginning to settle. Instead of the incessant pacing that she had been doing previously spent the morning doing, she sat down in a chair and awaited the arrival of the Weasleys.

After waiting another 10 minutes, the fireplace suddenly erupted with green flames causing Hermione's parents to jump from the chairs they were sitting in. The next thing they knew, an older gentlemen with red-hair strode out of the fireplace wearing what they immediately recognized as robes.

"Sorry for being late," said Arthur Weasley. He quickly crossed the room and shook the older Granger's hands. "There was a commotion on our end and we couldn't leave until it was settled. Best wait a moment Hermione, Ginny should be right behind."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, the hearth erupted once again, and Ginny Weasley entered the Granger house.

She immediately ran forward shouting, "Hermione!", as she quickly embraced her friend. "Thank god you're finally coming over. I've been going crazy with all the boys at the house."

"I can't wait either Gin. This is going to be a wonderful experience." She then leaned her head forward and asked in a whisper, How's Harry?"

"You'll have to wait and find out." Hermione couldn't help but notice the grin on Ginny's face as she said this. Needless to say, Hermione wasn't happy with that answer. She had been worried about Harry ever since the full moon, and the lack of letters she had gotten from him only set her further on edge. She tried her best to remain calm, but the horrific scene that she saw as she left him that night had haunted her since then.

"Well we best be off, the boys are getting hungry, and Molly wanted to wait until you arrived to make supper."

Hermione ran over to her parents, giving them the biggest hug she could muster, wishing them goodbye before stepping into the fireplace to travel to the Burrow.

Upon arrival, Hermione was immediately scooped into a bone-crushing hug by Mrs. Weasley. "Hermione dear, it's good to see you." She looked at the older woman and couldn't help but smile at the woman's overly- mother like ways. "I hope you weren't waiting too long, we had a change of plans right before you went."

"What for?"

Mrs. Weasley crossed her arms in front of her and the smile on face disappeared. "Well…Fred and George thought it would be funny, to trick Harry's cousin into eating one of their joke products when we went to get him last week. They wanted to tag along today to get you but I told them they would do no such thing."

Hermione couldn't help but smile at this. Yes, she did normally despise the jokes that the twins played and would normally yell at them for being so immature, but this time she couldn't help herself. She'd heard about Harry's home life and thought that they deserved it for his treatment. Molly picked up on her train of thought and immediately attempted to dissuade her of it.

"Now Hermione. Just because they're not the nicest of people, doesn't mean he deserved to be undermined like that." The younger girl only nodded, wanting to appease the Weasley matriarch than get into a heated discussion. Content that she got through to the girl, Mrs. Weasley turned towards the door leading out to the garden and yelled, "Hurry up boys! Dinner's almost ready."

As if called by a summoning charm, four mops of red hair came bursting through the doorway, dashing towards the kitchen table in hopes to get their meal as quickly as possible. Hermione could only smile at the antics of the Weasley children, she was brought out of her musing by a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, but found herself stunned at the sight in front of her.

"Harry?"

When she first laid eyes on him, her mind instantly replayed the last time she saw him on the full moon. She shivered briefly at the flash of memory, but immediately shook it off to take in her friend's change of appearance.

There was no doubt that the person in front of her was Harry Potter, but he had changed significantly in two short weeks. The first thing she noticed was that his hair was longer, by a few inches but it now came down over his ears and eyes. She also noticed that he had gotten bigger since she saw him last. He'd acquired a more muscular figure, not overly big but a slim-built figure that was a stark contrast to his previous sickly thin appearance.

She tried to her finger on what else had changed, before she realized that she now had to look up to see his eyes. It appeared he had also grown several inches taller as well. The most startling change however was his eyes. Yes, they were the same emerald green as ever, but they seemed brighter, much more intense, mesmerizing her.

After realizing she had been staring in shock for several moments, she began to blush at her awkward actions before stepping towards him, wrapping him in a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay," was all she could whisper softly, her fears at losing her best friend finally passing.

"Thank you," he whispered back, continuing to hold onto her. This went on for a few more moments before Hermione noticed that Harry had started to stare at her as well.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just…you smell nice."

Surprised, she could only repeat her previous question, which Harry immediately placated by saying he would tell her later. The pair entered the kitchen and sat down at the table across from each other. Conversation broke out along the table with Ron, the twins, Harry, and Ginny discussing Quidditch, while Hermione asked Arthur about his job at the ministry.

Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen, with food in hand, set the meal down on the table so that everyone could dig in. "There we go dears, dinner for nine."

"Actually 11."

Everyone turned to look at Harry, confusion plastering all their faces. Mrs. Weasley immediately began to recount but before she got the chance to, two more people entered the kitchen.

"Charlie! Bill!" Mrs. Wealsey immediately smothered the two individuals, who were revealed to be the two oldest of the Weasley children, before ushering them to the table. "What're you two doing here? I though you wouldn't be here until the day before the cup."

The elder one spoke up first, "Well mum, I got off work early and Charlie had decided to take time off before…you know what happens this year, so we thought we'd come home and surprise you." Greeting were exchanged between the Harry, Hermione, and the new arrivals before the family decided to dig in for dinner.

After the meal was finished, all the Weasley children, save Percy, made their way outside to have a friendly Quidditch game. The twins began hitting a Quaffle back and forth with their beater's bats getting ready for the game to begin. Hermione however, pulled Harry aside, dragging Ron along as well, so that she could get some answers for Harry's strange behavior.

"Okay Harry. What was that about you saying I smelled nice, how'd you know Bill and Charlie were coming, and why do you look so different?"

"Okay, Okay. I'll explain," Harry said, raising his hands in defense, at the volley of questions that were sent his way. "About my looks, Remus says that it's because of the transformation, my body changed to adapt to my condition. He said it was kind of like shedding my old skin." Hermione shivered as the memory of that night resurfaced in her head again. He saw this and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Hey it'll be okay. Moony also said I wouldn't have to go through that again, and that it should be less painful next time."

Hermione gave him a small smile back, a warm feeling entering her chest at his attempt to comfort her. The feeling though, was short lived as Ron was quick to interrupt.

"Do you remember anything from that night?"

"No I remember talking to Hermione. After that I remember an intense pain and then nothing until I woke up in the hospital wing norming."

"Okay, but what was that about how I smell?"

Harry began to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. He had hoped that Ron's line of questioning would've diverted the conversation from hear. "Well, Moony said that my senses would improve a little before my next transformation. Right now, it seems that it's just my sense of smell has gotten better. It's all new for me so when I saw you earlier, it just kind of slipped out." He started to blush and looked down at his feet, embarrassed that he didn't have a handle on his new attributes.

The moment was disrupted by an "Oi! Look out!" coming from the direction of the twins. Hermione turned to see a rogue Quaffle streaking towards her head. Before she could react and turn away, she saw a hand reach out and pluck the ball from inches in front of her face. Gasping in surprise, she looked over at Harry, who had the Quaffle in his hand with an amazed expression.

"Nice catch Harry. Ya wouldn't mind playing keeper for us would ya since we don't have a snitch." Harry's face now sported a devilish grin before replying, "Sounds like fun." He then turned to Ron and Hermione, the grin still on his face, before running over with Ron to join the game.

Hermione sat down at a nearby table and opened a book as Harry took his place in front of the makeshift hoop. She simply could not understand why everyone was so obsessed over Quidditch. She thought the game was barbaric, the only reason she went to any of the games was to show school spirit, but mostly to support Harry.

She began to read as the game began barely paying attention to what was going on above her it was Ron, Fred, and Charlie versus Harry, George, and Ginny. The game went on for several minutes before the resident bookworm even glanced at the action above. When she did she saw a sight that startled her. For a brief moment, Harry's eyes flashed that familiar gold color before reverting to their previous state. She chalked it up to her imagination as she had gotten used to seeing his eyes do that since the end of the school year but her attention didn't falter.

She watched as Fred flew forward with the Quaffle and threw it towards the goal, only to be stopped by Harry. It didn't even seem to be a challenge to him. He quickly lobbed the ball to Ginny, ignoring Hermione questioning glare.

When the next shot game in Harry was above the goal seemingly unprepared. In one swift motion, he rolled his broom over, caught the ball, before hurling it away quickly with a surprised look on his face. This went on for the rest of the game as no one was able to make any shots past Harry.

"Blimey Harry, maybe we should try you out for Keeper, with Wood gone and all," called George from the other side of the field.

"Yeah maybe, but I like being Seeker too much," Harry called back, not noticing the slight glare coming from Ron.

Hermione watching this whole display decided that she wanted to get to the bottom of it, and immediately went into the house to grab the book she was looking for. She skimmed through her book on werewolves, unable to find any relevant information on Harry's recent abilities and finally relenting that she should probably get a good night's sleep. She had a whole week to figure this issue out, but one thought came to the surface before she drifted away into slumber.

Nothing was ever simple when it came to Harry Potter

Authors Note:

Next chapter is the Quidditch World Cup and with it the story should pick up a bit and the plot should thicken. With it we'll get to see how Harry's affliction effects the events of "The Goblet of Fire" and hopefully within the next 2 or 3 chapter we'll get to introduce Fleur and Head back to Hogwarts