Disclaimer: If I knew how to spell Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Swahili, I would own it.  But, unfortunately, I don't.  *sigh*  And in case anyone's interested, that first sentence wasn't true either.  Just in case anyone decides to challenge it…because, really, it'd be a waste of your time.  Currently I have a grand total of $12 dollars.  Wow.  Who needs to get a summer job?  Meee…heh.

Potions Homework

[epilogue]

there once was a girl and there once was a boy

who never got along

because the boy delighted in evil ploys

and the girl found solace in her books and walks,

until one day

that boy and that girl sat down to have a talk.

when she looked at him with her wide brown eyes

and said, "I'm lonely,"

in a sad kind of voice with a bit of a sigh,

he wanted to laugh, to mock, to sneer, "Is that true?"

just to see her hurt,

but instead he blinked and said, "I'm lonely too."

and from a confession the two forged a friendship,

tentative and wary.

both were afraid that the other might slip

and ruin that fragile connection they shared

that was different

from others because of the secrets they'd bared.

they had friends who just didn't understand

the way the two felt.

it was said there was no middle ground, only no man's land,

but that boy and that girl didn't agree.

they would make it work

and after many difficulties, they did succeed.

Draco had Hermione pressed up against the wall of the corridor when Harry stepped onto the Hogwarts Express, aware that it would be the last time the train would take him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He pulled a face when he caught the two snogging, and Ron, from behind him, exclaimed loudly, "Get a room, Malfoy!"

Flushed, Hermione pushed her boyfriend away from her and smiled sheepishly at her best friends.  "Hi Harry, Ron."

"Top o' the morning," Draco added, his usual smirk in place despite his otherwise disheveled appearance.

"Care to sit down?" asked Harry mildly.  He moved past them into a compartment, dropping his things onto the floor as he settled down.  Hermione, Draco, and Ron trailed after him and seated themselves as well, Ron beside him, and the lovebirds cuddling next to each other.

"You two are disgusting," Ron announced as Draco tugged on one of Hermione's curls and began kissing her neck.

Hermione giggled, swatted the Slytherin lightly, and answered, "Not like I haven't caught you with certain female Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in the past two years?"  She raised an eyebrow.

Ron pinked.  He grumbled something incoherent under his breath.

"Ah, anyway," Harry said delicately, changing the subject.  "How was everyone's summer?"

"Peachy," replied Draco promptly, with a lascivious wink at his girlfriend.

"That's right, Draco, you spent it with Hermione."  Harry squinted and tried to keep the mental images out of his head.  While he had become accustomed to his former rival's presence and even tolerated his frequent snogging sessions with Hermione, he was still a little uncomfortable with it.  He didn't mind the Slytherin as much—Draco was much more laid back and very noticeably less malicious than he had in earlier years, perhaps now that his father's influence on him had been removed and replaced by Hermione's had something to do with it.  And since Hermione was clearly very happy [Harry noted that she was also more relaxed lately, though still very conscientious about her studies] he really couldn't complain, could he?

Draco inched his fingers up Hermione's jumper.

"All right, all right," Harry complained, retracting his earlier thought and holding up his hands.  "That's enough.  Would you like a private compartment?"

Ron was covering his eyes [to prevent blindness] but he still managed make out Malfoy's smirk as he said, "Very much, thanks.  You can see yourself out."

"Draco," laughed Hermione.  She elbowed him lightly.  "What kind of example is our Head Boy setting?"

"I need to be alone with the Head Girl," he replied with solemnly.  "We have many new policies at Hogwarts to discuss.  Rule enforcement and new prefects and such."  He quirked an eyebrow.

Harry rolled his eyes.  "Right," he drawled, crossing his arms across his chest.  Before he could comment further, the compartment door slid open and a short, pretty girl with long black hair bounced into his arms.

"Hi, Harry!" she chirped, peppering him with kisses.

"Su!" he said, surprised.  Then his features melted into a smile and he kissed her back.

Ron groaned.  "I need a girlfriend," he muttered.  "You people really know how to make a bloke feel left out."

"Does Potter have this thing for Asian girls?" Draco asked Hermione for the fifteenth time since the Boy Who Lived had gotten together with the seventh-year Ravenclaw.  "Smart, Asian girls?"

Su Ling's head popped up.  She had overheard Draco's comment.  With a sunny smile, she said blithely, "That's redundant."  Then she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend again.

Hermione laughed.  "Yes," she said in answer to Draco's question.  "He does."  First Cho, then Li (a sixth-year Ravenclaw who had, after Harry broke up with her, gone into raptures over Blaise Zabini and was currently in a very volatile relationship with him), and now Su.

Once again, the compartment door opened without notice, and Ginny stood framed in the doorway.  "Well," she said acerbically, "it looks like everyone's warm and cozy in here.  Just wanted to tell Malfoy that Pansy's looking for you."  She smiled saccharinely.  "Sorry to disturb."  She slammed the door shut as she left.

Ron flinched.  "She's been like that since you two got together," he mumbled to Harry and Su.  At first, after her successful attempt to get Draco and Hermione together, Ginny had apologized for her scheming and had appeared to come to her senses about Harry, who had started dating Su Ling after Christmas.  She had even gone with Hermione, Harry, Su, and Ron to Malfoy Manor over the Easter holidays and had seemed to enjoy herself.  Unfortunately, three days after they'd returned, Draco had discovered that Tom Riddle's diary, the one that had caused so much trouble in Harry's second year, was missing again.

Ginny had not commented when Ron had bluntly asked her if she had it.  She'd merely blinked, said something noncommittal about the upcoming exams and too much stress, and left for her room.

"I hope she's okay," Su Ling was saying worriedly.  "I don't like it when people hate me…" She rested her head on Harry's shoulder, a small frown still on her face.

"I'll talk to her once we get to Hogwarts," Hermione promised, "She knows better than anyone what kind trouble that thing can cause."  She fingered her shiny Head Girl badge pensively as images of the terrible consequences that might occur flooded her mind.

Harry, brow wrinkled, repeated for the umpteenth time since the diary had gone missing, "But I destroyed it.  With the basilik's fang…"

"If Riddle had already worked his way into Ginny then he wouldn't need the diary to survive.  He'd be right there in her.  And once she got her hands back on the diary, she could rechannel him into it as she wrote."  Draco's voice was matter-of-fact, clearly suffering no qualms about sharing the bare facts of Dark magic items.

Ron stared at him.  "Bloody hell."  He lowered his head to his hands, gripping his fiery hair.  "Merlin, Ginny… Mum's been at a loss about her all summer."

"Maybe she'll come out of it all on her own," offered Hermione hopefully.  She didn't want anything bad to happen to the youngest Weasley.  They'd been friends—or at least she thought they'd been friends—before the whole Draco incident last year.  She hoped Ginny hadn't let her crush on Harry develop into something more…dangerous.

Though it seemed a bit too late now, didn't it?

Draco pressed a kiss to her cheek, his breath warm on her skin, as he squeezed her hand.  "Cheer up, love.  With all of us to watch out for her, she'll be fine.  We'll be fine."  He grinned at her.  "And in a few hours, we'll get to see what our private rooms look like."  His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

"Draco!" chorused Ron, Harry, Su, and Hermione, the former three in disgust and the latter in throes of laughter.

The compartment door slid open as Hermione's giggles faded.  Pansy Parkinson stood in the doorway with a glower on her face.  "Are you still with Granger?" she griped, her fists clenching.  "But you were engaged to meee, Dracooo."  Her complaint ended on a wail.  The Malfoy in question proceeded to wince and mutter a spell causing the door to fly shut with a slight whump.

"I need to learn that," Harry said with a pointed look at Ron, "to keep some people out when I'm trying to study with Su!"

Ron snorted.  "Study?!"

Su clamped a hand over her mouth to suppress her chortles.  Hermione laughed openly and leaned her head onto Draco's.  Seventh year, she mused, was going to be the best ever.

--

A/N: And that wraps it up!!  Thank you so much everybody. ^^ Sorry for the long delay…I was, er, once again sidetracked.  This time by Fushigi Yuugi, which is the BEST anime in the world if anyone's asking.  ^_~.  Anyhow, please review, and if there are a lot of questions, I'll try to address them…um, somehow.

I know I left the whole Ginny issue hanging.  A perfect set-up for a sequel!  *sweatdrop* Though I'm not sure I'm ready to go there quite yet.  Eventually, perhaps.  In the meantime, schnoogles from your favorite HP characters if you review!!