An Opus Alchymicum Vol 3: The Book of Dust

The Fairytale Princess of Hogwarts

Harry and Hermione spent the remainder of the holidays practically glued to their phones, so much so that Lily even had to invent a clever little charm whereby the phone batteries drew energy from their magic to recharge. It would be handy when they returned to school, Harry reasoned, for he was pretty sure there were no plug sockets anywhere around the ancient castle.

When January the Third rolled around, however, Harry was equally as nervous as he was excited to see Hermione again. It wasn't that he couldn't wait to be in her presence once more - for that was a given - but it was simply down to the nature of their text message exchanges, which often had spilled over late into the nights and early mornings.

They had started off playful and sort of cutesy, but they had tangented off pretty quickly after that. The lack of face-to-faceness meant that both Harry and Hermione had found the courage to be a little bolder in what they were saying to each other, a degree more than they would ever have been in person. The texts had become delicately more personal and intimate, sharing their private hopes and dreams with each other in ways that they hadn't been brave enough to before.

There was nothing too overt, but Harry was a little terrified of what Hermione would be thinking when she saw him next, considering that Harry told her almost daily that he missed her like crazy and couldn't stand not seeing her pretty face every day, even if he didn't use those exact words. There was a large part of him that was convinced he should have kept such confessions very much to himself.

But Harry needn't have worried. For as soon as Hermione spotted him on Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters on that drizzly January morning, she immediately disentangled herself from Lyra and raced the length of the platform to clobber Harry with a hug that knocked him flat. Or it would have, if his father hadn't been standing right behind him to catch them both before they hit the deck.

"Hi," Hermione smiled breathlessly, her cheeks colouring as she moved her head back to look at him. She hadn't let him go though. "What took you so long? We've been waiting ages for you!"

The definition of we soon became clear, as Harry felt Pap walking in a tight circle around his and Hermione's ankles. Then the cat began clawing gently at the leg of Harry's brand new Levi jeans.

"Can I?" Harry asked cautiously to Hermione, motioning down at Papageno who was practically climbing his calf.

"Mmm-hem," Hermione allowed, rolling her lips together expectantly, her expression unfathomably bright.

Harry reached down and scooped Papageno up into his arms. He saw Hermione's eyes roll back into her head a moment and she bit her lip, as her breath caught with the contact between Harry and her dæmon. Her chest rose and fell with a surge of blatant joy and Harry knew he was on safe ground.

"Is it always like that?" he quipped with a grin.

"Every time," Hermione squeaked breathily. "Come on, let's go and find a compartment before they all get full."

"Have a good term," Lily called, as Hermione dragged her boy away. "If the baby comes while you're at school we'll let you know!"

"Yeah!" James laughed. "We'll try and make sure it happens while you are in Potions, give old Snape a reason to let you off your homework!"

"They wouldn't really try and get you out of homework, would they?" Hermione asked as they boarded the Express. She sounded slightly scandalised at the notion. "That's really quite irresponsible!"

"That's my Dad for you!" Harry laughed. "Here, this compartment will do."

Harry flopped down next to the window, Hermione choosing the seat opposite him. Pap curled up on the seat next to Harry and decided to have a nap. They were about to start talking when the compartment opened and a blonde-haired first-year girl that Harry didn't recognise came in. He wanted to tell her to go away, as he didn't want to share the compartment with anyone but Hermione, but the girl had the most protuberant eyes Harry had ever seen, and an expression that looked eternally surprised.