The following morning when Ron walked into the Gryffindor common room, he found the twins sprawled out in an armchair apiece, and Harry and Hermione lying in a tangled heap on the couch, looking more like a two headed, eight-limbed bushy-haired fantastic beast than two first-year Hogwarts students.

Ron had received an owl a few days earlier from his mum telling him to invite the great Harry Potter to come visit the Burrow sometime during the summer. She thought that since they were in the same grade, he'd be the best of her children to ask. So Ron had gotten up early that morning in hopes of catching Harry before he left their dorm room and joined the Know-it-all for whatever they would be doing now that classes were finally over; probably still studying, if he knew anything at all about the Bookworm. But Harry wasn't there when Ron stirred long before the break of dawn and when any reasonable person would awaken during the summer, to sunlight streaming into his face, a little after eight thirty.

Deciding since he was already awake he'd go ahead and get up and try to somehow get Harry alone, Ron had arisen and quickly changed, before descending the spiral staircase to the common room. Where he found the aforementioned scene playing out on the couch in front of him.

"Oi! What are you doing?" he exclaimed loudly at Harry's sleeping body, rendering it, and the three other bodies in the nearby vicinity, no longer in that state. "I'm supposed to be inviting you to come visit us this summer!"

Harry looked up blearily at the youngest school-aged redhead, blinking his eyes sleepily, trying to fully awaken.

"What does you asking Harry to visit have to do with Harry sleeping on the couch?" asked Hermione confusedly, echoing what Harry had been trying to think in his muddled, still-sleepy brain.

Ron stuttered, clearly not expecting a kind of inquisition that early in the morning.

"W-well, how am I supposed to ask Harry if he's not alone? And anyway, what are you doing so close to him in the first place? He's my little sister's!"

That woke everyone up in a right hurry.

"He's what?" demanded Hermione in a tone that clearly said run-and-hide-for-your-life, which Ron apparently didn't get, because he didn't run and hide for his life.

Instead, he opened his mouth to presumably tell her just what Harry was when one of the twins jumped up and jumped in. "Okay, okay, okay. Why don't you just mosey on along, dear little brother of ours, and we'll handle this before you jam that foot of yours any further down your throat." Literally pushing Ron towards the portrait hole he continued, "Go on, there you go, go get breakfast, I'm sure all the food's just waiting on you to go eat it..."

Once the portrait was safely shut behind Ron, the still sitting twin said apologetically, "Sorry about that. I suppose we probably should have told you about that earlier, we just didn't think it would come up until summer or next year, so there wasn't any hurry. We didn't realize Ron would open his big mouth."

The standing twin sat back down in his armchair, continuing, "You see, ever since we can remember, our dearest mum, bless her heart, has been telling our younger sister, Ginny, that she'll grow up to marry a hero one day — specifically you, since you're the only child hero around. Now, I suppose it might be normal enough for a mother to tell her daughter she'll grow up to marry a great wizard one day — it's not like we have another mum to compare her to — but mum's taken it the extra step of making it a specific person."

"We really were going to warn you, we just didn't think it would be of any use yet," added the other twin.

"She's been telling your sister she'd marry Harry one day?" repeated Hermione in complete, utter, dazed, stunned, astonished, astounded, disbelieving disbelief.

"Usually not in such words exactly, but she's always made sure Ginny knew everything there was to know about Harry, and then encouraged the fangirling that naturally emerges from that. Combine that with telling her she'll marry a hero one day, and well, you do the math."

"But what about Harry!?" exclaimed Hermione, outraged. "What about what he wants? He's already been stripped of a magical childhood, is he going to be stripped of marrying whomever he wants as well!?"

"Hey, don't yell at us," said George, throwing up his hands in defense. "We've never encouraged any such thing, but you have to understand that there's no disagreeing with our mum in her house if you like keeping your eardrums, which we just so happen to. But like I said, we planned on warning you before you had to start dealing with it, we just didn't expect Ron to spit it out so soon. We didn't even know for sure if he payed enough attention to know about it."

"Okay, okay, it's not your fault," replied Hermione slightly mollified. "But that's still completely absurd of your mum."

"Believe us — we completely agree with you there."

A few hours later, Harry and Hermione were walking into the Great Hall together for an early lunch when Professor McGonagall came sweeping up to them.

"Mr Potter, the Headmaster would like to have a word with you after you finish lunch," she said.

Harry automatically turned to Hermione, who nodded in encouragement. So Harry turned back to their Head of House and said, "Okay, but Hermione comes, too."

Hermione looked at him in surprise, but Professor McGonagall simply nodded and said, "He'll be waiting for you in his office. Go to the gargoyle on the third floor and tell it 'Cauldron Cakes'."

Then she swept away, leaving Harry and Hermione standing in the middle of the entrance to the Great Hall.

"You didn't have to invite me," said Hermione as they walked over to the Gryffindor table. "I wasn't trying to ask you to do that when I nodded at you, I was just saying you should go, and try to get some answers for us."

"I know, but I'd prefer having you there," replied Harry. "After all, we are a team."

A while later, the two of them strolled up to the gargoyle on the third floor, and Harry said, "Cauldron Cakes."

The gargoyle sprung to the side and the wall split in two, revealing a spiraling staircase behind it. Riding it up, Harry and Hermione found a landing and a heavy oak door. Knocking on it, they were immediately bid entrance.

"Ah, Harry, good to see you my boy!" said the Headmaster jovially as he saw the two of them walk in. "And you too, Miss Granger. What I need to discuss with Harry will relate to you, as well."

Harry and Hermione each gave a polite, "Hello, Headmaster," before sitting down in the chairs across the desk from Dumbledore.

"Please, just call me Dumbledore," replied the Headmaster cheerfully. "Now I wanted to talk to you before you left for the summer about some special requirements considering your living arrangements when you're not here, Harry," continued the silver-haired wizard, looking at Harry. "I know you have become very close to Miss Granger here, and stayed with her over Christmas. And I could understand, given growing up in your relatives' home, that the two of you might have entertained the idea of you staying with the Grangers over the summer as well, since the two of you are next-door neighbors."

This wasn't something Harry had thought about at all, but it was something Hermione had thought about more than once over the past few weeks as the end of school wound down, even though it wasn't something she had talked to Harry about at all.

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't allow you two to do that, though," continued Dumbledore, quashing Hermione's renewed thoughts. "In order to keep you physically safe from certain evil forces that wish to do you harm, you need to still call your aunt and uncle's house home during the summers. Therefore, I must ask that you still live at your aunt and uncle's house while you are on Privet Drive. I know it makes no sense to you now, but you will understand why later.

"However, you can spend as much time with Miss Granger as you like over the summer, and I strongly encourage it. I know you've been abused at your relatives house, and so I was very pleased to hear that Miss Granger had moved next door to you. And I do not think you will have to stay on Privet Drive all summer, either. Mrs Weasley, the twins' mother, has asked about you coming over to her house during the summer, and while that is acceptable, it needs to be after at least a fortnight of staying at your aunt and uncle's house."

Looking back and forth between them, he finished with, "Do either of you have any questions?"

Hermione had a million, including whether Dumbledore knew about Mrs Weasley's ongoing attempts at arranged marriaging Harry, but she knew better than to actually ask any of them. She didn't know exactly the extent of Dumbledore's manipulation into things outside the Stone, so best not to let him suspect that she suspected anything at all for the time being.

And since her only question regarding what he'd just said was 'Why?', and he clearly wasn't going to answer that, she just shook her head.

Harry did the same, just thankful he would only have to spend the nights at his relations', before suddenly blurting out, "Sir, why did you set me up to face Voldemort?"

A look of surprise flittered across Dumbledore's features for a split second, before he schooled them to a look of mild curiosity. "So you know about that, do you? Well done. And to answer your question, seeing as how Voldemort tried to kill you as a baby, I thought you had the right to face him again." He paused for a second, before asking, "Any other questions?"

"Why did Voldemort try to kill Harry as a baby?" asked Hermione bluntly.

Dumbledore let out a long sigh, before replying gravely, "Alas — the one question I cannot answer. Not yet, anyway. One day I will tell you, when you are older—"

"You'll have him face Voldemort, but not tell him why facing Voldemort is even something that could possibly happen?" exclaimed Hermione in disbelief. Harry looked at her in shock — Hermione Granger never interrupted a professor, and certainly never yelled at them.

"I am sorry, and I know you hate to hear this, but both of you are too young to deal with that at the moment. But in a few years—"

"Too young!? You wanted him to face the most dangerous wizard in generations, who most adult wizards refuse to even say his name they're so scared of him, but Harry's 'too young' to know why Voldemort's after him in the first place?" yelled Hermione vehemently. At some point she'd leapt up from her chair, and now stood towering over the Headmaster; or at least as much towering as a twelve year-old could, which meant she was about the same height as Dumbledore was sitting down.

Dumbledore leaned forwards with his elbows on his desk and his fingers pressed together, and studied the pair for several seconds, clearly debating something, before finally leaning back with another sigh.

"I still think twelve and not quite twelve is too young to hear this, but since you are so determined to hear it now, and I will eventually have to tell you anyway — okay. I will tell you."

Hermione sat back down, before leaning forwards eagerly. She might have been angry at the Headmaster for trying to refuse information that was rightfully Harry's, but she was still excited to learn something new, even if she had to pull teeth to get it. And his willingness to change his mind about telling them mollified her somewhat as well.

Looking mostly at Harry, Dumbledore began, "Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He thought by killing you that he would come out ahead of the prophecy, but to his great detriment, he had only heard part of the prophecy. So instead of taking care of the prophecy like he thought he was, he actually made the prophecy real, to his great downfall — both on the night he unsuccessfully attempted to kill you, and his eventual permanent demise at some point in the future."

At this point Dumbledore stood up, and walked over to a black cabinet on the edge of the room, behind where a phoenix sat primly on its perch. He pulled out a shallow stone basin, and walked back over and placed it on the desk betwixt them.

"I assume you recognize what this is, Miss Granger?" he asked.

"It's a pensieve. It's used for viewing memories, especially stored memories."

"Correct as always, Miss Granger," Dumbledore replied proudly. "But in this case, we shall being viewing a memory I prefer to keep inside my head for safekeeping."

He then raised his wand to his own temple and withdrew silvery, gossamer-fine strands of thought, depositing them into the basin. Prodding the silvery substance with his wand, an unusual figure, draped in shawls and with eyes magnified enormously by her glasses, rose out of it, revolving slowly. When she spoke, it was in a harsh, hoarse tone.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

As the figure faded back into the silver mass, Dumbledore looked back over at Harry and Hermione. "There is neither time, nor is this the time, for a full explanation of exactly what the prophecy is saying, but what it comes down to is that the person Voldemort marked, which was done when he gave you that scar, will have the power to kill Voldemort for good one day. Voldemort tried to kill you first, but in the end only made you the person who would one day kill him."

Harry and Hermione sat processing all this information for several seconds, before Hermione blurted out, "But how did Harry survive Voldemort the first time? That he did is in all the history books, but none of them explain how."

"When Voldemort went to kill you, Harry, he first encountered your father in the hallway, who tried to hold off Voldemort long enough for Lily to escape with you. After killing James, Voldemort then found your mother upstairs in the nursery with you, where she begged Voldemort to kill her instead of you. After killing her, he then tried to kill you, but since Lily sacrificed her life to save you, the spell rebounded off of you and hit him, destroying his body and leaving his spirit to wander the earth.

"It also made it impossible for Voldemort, or anyone Voldemort is possessing, to physically touch you without suffering severe burns, because something so evil cannot come in contact with something protected by such love. And finally, as long as you are living somewhere where Lily's blood still flows, namely your aunt's house, Voldemort cannot harm you there."

Harry stared at Dumbledore in shock, hearing for the first time exactly what had happened to his parents, and how he had survived when they hadn't. But Hermione's brow was furrowed, like she was trying to figure something out.

"But that doesn't make any sense," she said slowly after a few seconds. "I mean, why wasn't Lily saved by James's sacrifice, like Harry was by Lily's? And why had it never happened before? I can't believe that there has never been a single person before James to sacrifice their life in an attempt to save someone else's. There has to be some other reason the curse rebounded off of Harry.

"Maybe Voldemort not being able to touch Harry could have come from Lily's sacrifice, as well as James's, since it's completely possible that Voldemort couldn't have physically touched Lily without the same thing happening after James's sacrifice, just no one ever found out since Voldemort didn't try to touch her, he just killed her.

"And the same could go with the protection at Harry's aunt's house, since James obviously didn't have any blood family left for the home protection to work on, or Harry would have been sent there, instead of with his abusive muggle relations. But Harry surviving Voldemort's curse can't have been because of Lily's sacrifice — at least not alone."

Dumbledore leaned forward with his fingertips pressed together again, looking at Hermione curiously. After several long seconds he finally said, "Many of my fellow professors have been commenting all year on how bright you are, Miss Granger — it seems I would have to agree with them. And perhaps you are right. Perhaps it was something other than Lily's sacrifice that protected Harry that night ten and a half years ago. Surviving killing curses is a rather inexact magic after all, as Harry is the only one to have ever done it."

Over the following two weeks, Harry and Hermione enjoyed their freedom of being able to explore Hogwarts without any schoolwork to worry about. Hermione even limited her reading to a few hours in the afternoon under their tree by the lake and a couple hours at night, and only visited the library every other day. The twins, with the help of their map of marauding, showed Harry and Hermione all the secret passages of the school that the two younger students hadn't discovered yet, to better prepare them for their second year at the magical school.

A week after their last exam, results came out. Hermione of course had the best grades of their year, but Harry was a close second. The twins continued their success of passing well enough that no one was concerned, but not so well anyone would form any undue scholarly expectations of them. After all, they had enough expectations to be going on with in the pranks and jokes realm to get caught up in scholarly expectations as well.

The last evening of term was the End-of-Term Feast. As Harry and Hermione walked in, they found the place decked out in the red and gold of Gryffindor. Between all the points Hermione had earned them in class, and Draco limiting the midnight wandering point loss differential to a mere twenty points, along with all the other points earned and lost by everyone else in the school, Gryffindor had won the House Cup for the first time in seven years.

The following morning, they rode the Hogwarts Express back to London. Saying goodbye to the twins, Harry and Hermione stepped through the barrier together back into the muggle world, where they quickly spotted Hermione's parents standing off a bit to the side, watching with curiosity as the rest of the young witches and wizards met up with their families. As Harry started to look around to find his uncle, who usually stood out quite easily, Hermione grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her parents.

"I owled mum and dad to tell your relatives that my parents could pick you up as well since they'd already be here to pick me up, instead of your relatives having to make the trip here, too," she whispered in his ear as they walked over.

But before they'd made it halfway across the platform, a high-pitched young female voice exclaimed loudly from the other side of the platform, "There he is, Mum, look, there he is!"

Harry and Hermione turned to find numerous heads across the platform, both magical and muggle, turned towards him. Locating the source of the yelling, they saw a young female redhead standing next to an older, fat female redhead, who could only be the two female Weasleys.

The girl was pointing at Harry, and as soon as he had turned mostly in her direction squealed, "Harry Potter! Look, Mum! I can see Harry Potter!"

Very briefly closing her eyes in exasperation, Hermione turned back around and pulled Harry with her, and resumed their journey to her parents. They had just made it up to Hermione's parents when the rotund woman came bustling over to them as fast as she could. As soon as she was almost close enough to them to not have to shout, she began introducing herself without invitation.

"Hi! I'm Molly Weasley, but you can just call me Molly. I'm Ron and the twins' mom!"

Harry and Hermione turned back around to face her, and could see the twins rushing over from behind her, mouthing, "Sorry!"

"Now I know Dumbledore won't let you come over immediately, but he did say you could come over to our house later in the summer, to get away from your muggle relatives, since you have no where else to go," she continued, ignoring the fact that her entire audience was just standing there staring at her.

Harry and Hermione were floored anyone could be so bossy and interfering, while Mr and Mrs Granger were wondering who this woman was that apparently knew about Harry's living conditions, but apparently didn't consider them to be a worthwhile place for Harry to go, either.

Hermione quickly took over.

"Thank you for your gracious offer, Mrs Weasley," she said politely. "Harry and I will certainly consider it. We'll owl the twins later in the summer to let you know."

She finished with a charming smile before turning back to her parents and silently and subtly motioned for them to start moving.

Unseen behind them as they started to walk off, the matron Weasley had tried to start following them and say something more, but was stopped by the twins stepping in front of her.

"Let them go, Mum. Anyway, Ron and Percy are waiting to say hi to you."

Reluctantly she acquiesced, and headed back to her own family.

Outside, the Grangers and Harry were climbing into the Grangers' car to head back to Privet Drive.

"So...did you two have a fun term?"

A/N: Book 1 finished. On indefinite hiatus. Not abandoned, and brought to a logical pausing point, but any future updates will be slow coming.