A/N: I decided to post the full version here, it isn't so bad and posting different versions here and on Whispers is pretty inconvenient for many people. If you didn't read it yet, check out the last couple paragraphs of the previous chapter first!

7. Sunday morning.

Hermione woke to the sound of the telephone. Still half-asleep, she noticed Severus reaching over and picking it up. He grumbled something into the receiver, then replaced it.

"Whazdat?" Hermione managed, bleary-eyed.

"Wake-up call," Severus replied. "As you should know, being Professor Muggle Studies and all."

Hermione pushed herself up on an elbow, wishing she could think of a good comeback, but it always took her a few moments before she was anywhere near awake. The only thing she could think of was far simpler. "What time is it?"

"Six thirty."

"That early?" Hermione asked, shuddering.

Severus shrugged. "I requested it before I knew how late it would be before we'd actually get any sleep. I didn't think to change it."

Hermione grinned as she recollected the previous night. "I forgive you," she said.

"Ah, you do?" he replied dryly.

She nodded, then reached over and kissed him. "Always."

For a moment she was tempted to go on, then she recalled the rest of the previous evening. With a sigh, she pushed herself up again, shaking her head. "I think we better make sure we are in the lobby well before the first students. I don't know about you, but I really want to save the hotel from any more disasters. Oh, damn, I'm gonna be supervising detentions all next week."

"I'll be happy to take some of those," Severus offered.

"Thank you, I would appreciate that," Hermione replied. She rarely gave detentions to her students, she hadn't thought of what she'd give them to do for an entire week.

"Just don't expect me to be easier on the Gryffindors, after last night."

Hermione flashed a quick smile, but she replied in a more serious tone. "Severus, if I didn't care for you as you are, I wouldn't be here."

Severus nodded slowly, then smiled. "I'm glad you are."

Hermione returned his smile as she gathered her clothing. She pulled on her sweater and jeans, then, before returning to her own room for a shower and fresh clothes, gave a quick kiss to Severus. Okay, maybe not so quick, but they had woken up plenty early.

They still made it down to the lobby well before the first students. Hermione stepped out of the lift to find Severus sitting almost exactly like he had the day before, reading the Sunday Times. She smiled, then sat down and grabbed a piece of the paper as well. Out here, his shield was back in place.

All too soon, the students started to trickle in. Ricardo and Ian first, not quite as boisterous as they'd been yesterday. Then the girls, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs giggling and blushing. Hermione pretended she didn't know what they'd been up to last night. Severus raised an eyebrow at her but she simply shrugged. She wasn't going to tell on the girls, it hadn't been that long ago she'd been seventeen and watching a smut movie was pretty innocent compared to the trouble the rest of the students had been in, the previous night.

Sirius and Remus joined them looking fine as ever. Hermione suspected they'd either changed their plan about the tequila or they had brought a hangover potion. Technically illegal here, but she needed them in good shape. Such were the privileges of being a teacher.

The four pub crawlers came down last of all, looking rather pale. Even so, they managed to turn paler when they saw her and Severus. Even Arty. Especially Arty, as he'd had his wits about him all during the previous evening's events and probably remembered a lot more than the others did.

"And how are you feeling?" Hermione inquired as she got up and led the way to the restaurant for breakfast.

"Terrible," Nathan said.

Ramon glanced at her uneasily. "I suppose some real headache meds are out of the question."

"There's Tylenol or aspirin," Hermione told him.

Ramon groaned.

"How do Muggles deal with this?" Poul wanted to know.

Hermione shrugged. Truth to tell that was something she didn't quite understand either.

"What did you guys do, man?" Carter wanted to know. "You missed all the fun with the fire alarm."

Ramon shrugged. "We sneaked out of the hotel, found a bar, then we sat and drank for a while. I think. I don't remember a whole lot until Professor Granger and Professor Snape were standing there."

Sirena looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh, man, and I thought we were fucked up last nite."

"Language, Miss Glenfield," Remus warned.

"Sorry."

Alicia smirked at the discomfort of the Gryffindor. "At least I don't have a headache anymore after seeing yours. How about some 'killer' toast?"

Ramon looked at her, horrified. "I don't even want to think of food!"

"Suit yourself," Alicia shrugged, walking towards the buffet.

"You really should eat something," Sirius advised. "And drink lots of water, you guys did drink water last night as I told you, didn't you?"

They nodded, then quietly made their way to the breakfast line.

After breakfast Hermione sent all the students up to their room to pack. They wouldn't return to Hogwarts until after lunch, but checkout time was at ten. She had arranged so they could leave their luggage at the desk and pick it up later.

She quickly gathered her own things, then made it downstairs hoping to be there before any of the students, which she managed just barely. Ian and Ricardo, who were still half packed after their midnight move the previous night, came down almost immediately after her. Last to make it downstairs was Severus, grumbling about folding clothes, small suitcases, shrinking charms and house-elves. Hermione grinned and he glared at her, but not as darkly as he would have, once. She smiled as she oversaw the stowing of the luggage.

Leaving the hotel on foot, she led the way to Trafalgar Square.

Since it was Sunday, she had planned for a leisurely morning, followed by lunch in a pub she knew near Victoria Station. Fortunately, the weather was still nice. They found a small stand selling pigeon food, and soon the students were laughing and taking pictures while the pigeons flocked around them. Others climbed all over the lions, taking pictures while sitting on top of the larger-than-life statues. Only the three hung-over boys found a quiet spot on one of the benches.

Sirius and Remus were feeding pigeons with the students, but Hermione leaned against the basin of the big fountain. Severus joined her and they watched the students in silence. After a while, Hermione noticed Severus was staring at her rather than at the students. A smile spread over her face.

"Still think this trip is such a bad idea?" Hermione inquired innocently, shooting his question from the previous night back at him.

"I must admit it has greatly improved since late last night," he admitted, allowing a brief smile although he made it disappear just as quick, here in public. "But we're not home yet."

"Ever the optimist," Hermione replied.

"I prefer realist," he said. "And I notice you're not letting them out of your sight, either."

"True enough," she admitted. She kept one eye on their charges even now, watching as Alicia and Sirena climbed down off the lions and made their way over to the stand selling pigeon food.

"Perhaps we can come back here some other weekend, just the two of us," she suggested.

"I might consider that," Severus replied carefully.

Hermione smiled. Coming from him, that was an enthusiastic response. Lila, from Gryffindor, glanced in their direction, until her friend Gina spoke to her and she turned away.

"You realise as soon as even one student finds out the entire school will know before the first period on Monday," Severus remarked.

"They'll get used to it," Hermione said. "Unless you mind?"

"They've said worse things about me," he replied quietly.

A flock of pigeons descended on the two Slytherin girls, and Katrin was trying to shake off some of the birds that had landed on her so she could take a picture with her Muggle camera. Remus was helping Leroy change the film in his. Everything looked perfectly fine, until a loud, angry shriek cut through the cooing of the pigeons.

A large shape descended and the pigeons that had settled down on the Slytherin girls exploded in a panicking cloud of feathers. Seconds later, the cloud cleared, leaving only a few fluttering feathers and revealing a huge Eagle Owl landing on Sirena's shoulder. The immediate area was completely clear of pigeons.

"Oh, damn," Hermione said. She started towards the girl.

Severus was a few steps ahead. "Where'd your owl come from? Send him away," he hissed.

Sirena looked as startled as anyone. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't know he'd followed me." She reached up to dislodge the bird, but voices erupted from all around.

"Oh, Miss, can you hold?"

"Wow, I want a picture, wait, don't move!"

"Does it eat pigeon food? Can I feed it?"

Hermione glanced around and to her dismay she found they were in the middle of a quickly growing crowd of Muggles. Because of the unseasonably nice weather, the square had been quite crowded with both tourists and locals, and it wasn't every day an owl landed on someone's shoulder. Several cameras were clicking already.

Severus also looked around, scowling darkly, but he seemed at a loss how to handle the problem. Hermione quickly made her way to Sirena, who had by now transferred her owl to her wrist and looked rather embarrassed.

For a moment, Hermione wasn't sure what to do either. First, they had to get rid of the owl. "Send him away, Miss Glenfield," she said, softly but urgently.

The majestic owl did not agree immediately, hooting in an annoyed manner, then spreading his wings to their full, 5 ½ foot width, before finally taking off to a lot of ooh'ing and aah'ing from the crowd.

Hermione looked around, frantically trying to think of a convincing story to tell the enthusiastic Muggles who were milling about, firing off questions at Sirena, herself, and the students who happened to be nearby. There were way too many to Obliviate them all, and then there were the pictures.

Fortunately, the students avoided answering, and instead of making something up or telling contradictory stories they looked at her and Severus for guidance. Unfortunately, this also meant it was up to them to come up with an explanation. Another convention? Somehow she thought bird watchers or members of nature conservatory groups didn't usually take the birds they cared for along to their gatherings. Hm, at least that was a start.

"We're from a bird sanctuary," Hermione ventured. "It's the hardest thing to get one of these birds to return to the wild after hand-raising them."

Some of the Muggles nodded, but others frowned, which didn't surprise Hermione. She thought it was a pretty far-fetched explanation, too.

"I didn't know there was a sanctuary near London," a woman said. "I love birds, do you allow visitors?"

"It's a private facility, and rather far up north," Severus replied, his tone of voice discouraging further conversation.

The woman looked taken aback. "Oh. Well, that's too bad then."

Unfortunately, an elderly Muggle man was not so easily convinced. "I thought that species wasn't native to Britain," he remarked. "Even Eurasian Eagle Owls don't nest here anymore, and that, was it a Giant Eagle Owl? Astonishing!"

Oh, great, just their luck. Thousands of Muggles who wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a barn owl and a tawny owl if you handed them a bird guide, and they had to run into someone who could recognise a Giant Eagle Owl on sight. The man was right, this particular species came from Africa.

"We, eh, rescued it from a bird smuggler," Hermione ventured. "As a chick."

To her relief, the man swallowed her fabrications. "Oh, I understand! Horrible, those people who smuggle exotic animals into the country. They should string them up. Or stuff them into a small suitcase to suffocate."

Judging from the confused looks on the faces of those students who were close enough to hear, they were completely lost, but Hermione nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Terrible what they do. Now, you must excuse us, we have a very full program for today."

"Of course," the man replied. "Have a nice day."

"Thank you, same to you," Hermione said cordially. She glanced around, hoping to make a quick getaway. Her story had holes in it big enough for, well, a Giant Eagle Owl with its wings spread, and she didn't want to be around when the man realized no genuine bird rescuers would release an African owl in Britain.

Fortunately, Sirius and Remus had already gathered the students who had not been involved in the latest incident. She led the way to the tube station while Severus berated Sirena.

"I didn't think he'd follow me here, I really didn't," Sirena explained.

"No, obviously you didn't think," Severus snapped. "You've had him long enough, if I remember right. You should've realised by now he's jealous."

"I'm sorry," Sirena said.

"Two rolls of parchment on the behaviour of Eagle Owls in captivity, Miss Glenfield, hand it in on Friday. And make sure it is satisfactory or you will still clean the Owlery," Severus decided.

"Yes, sir!" Sirena replied, and quickly fell back to walk with Alicia.

Once they were out of sight of the people who had witnessed the owl incident, Hermione paused. The problem was, she'd planned to remain at Trafalgar Square for another hour, and it was now only eleven. Too early for lunch, the large pub she had selected for lunch wouldn't even open until noon. She conferred with Severus, Remus and Sirius.

"We could fill in the hour walking to the pub and shooting some more pictures along the way, but the pub is also close to Westminster Cathedral. If we take the tube now, we have time for a quick look around there."

"If I know anything about Muggles, there's likely to be a mass there on a Sunday," Severus frowned.

Hermione nodded. "There are masses all day long, but they allow tourists in even so."

"Excuse me, I have to go pray," Severus remarked dryly. "Taking a walk is definitely safer."

"Of course you'd like to avoid any kind of church, too many crosses. I'm surprised you can stand the daylight all weekend," Sirius said.

Severus glared at him. "And you'll have to wait outside, I don't think they allow dogs in."

"I'd like to see the Cathedral," Remus interrupted their bickering. "And the students are pretty quiet, this morning."

They were, not too surprisingly since most of them hadn't had that much sleep. And a couple of them had been complaining about the walk from the hotel to the square that morning, they might even be less trouble in the Cathedral than on a longer walk.

"We'll risk it. It'll only be a brief visit," Hermione decided.

The tube ride went off without a hitch. As long as she took them into the tube just after something went wrong, Hermione thought, they behaved themselves.

The Cathedral was very close to the station. She took the students apart on the sidewalk.

"Remember, acoustics are such that your voices will carry, so be very careful what you say, even if you speak softly among yourselves. Don't disturb the mass, don't touch anything, and don't speak with the locals."

Everyone nodded, but of course they'd promised to behave before and had still caused trouble, whether willingly or by accident. She'd have to keep a close eye on them. They entered.

"Wow, I didn't know they could built something this big!" Leroy said, much too loud of course.

"Sh," Hermione hissed. At least he hadn't used the word Muggles.

"Sorry," he said, more quietly now. He took out his camera and started to take pictures. That'd probably keep him busy, the Hufflepuff really liked his new camera.

Walking quietly, they circled the nave, looking at the chapels. To Hermione's relief, the students were pretty calm, pointing out a number of things like they had the previous day at the museum, but keeping their voices down. She heard a few whispers.

"How come they have stars on the ceiling? It's the middle of the day!" Yolanda wanted to know when they reached the Chapel of St. Paul.

"Those people aren't dressed like Muggles at all, their clothes are closer to wizard clothing than to what the Muggles wear," Katrin remarked as she spotted the priests.

"That guy with the wavy hair looks like your mom," Lila told Ricardo a little later, pointing at a mosaic of some saint or other.

"My mother does not have a beard!" Ricardo replied, indignantly. Lila giggled, a little louder than necessary, and of course Gina joined her, only stopping when Severus glared at them.

"How come they use candles while they also have electricity?" Carter wanted to know.

"It's tradition," Hermione explained. She truly didn't know that much about churches and Cathedrals, her parents hadn't been religious and she had only attended church a few times when she'd been staying at a friend's house for the weekend.

To her relief, they'd made it all the way around without any major disasters. She counted the students. And counted them again. Uh-oh.

"Damn, someone's missing," she said quietly to the other teachers. "Who's not here?"

Severus, Sirius and Remus looked around as well.

"Mr. Jones," Remus was the first to find.

Leroy, that figured. He had probably lagged behind taking yet another picture. Hopefully that was all he was doing.

"We should look for him," Hermione sighed.

"I'll watch the students and hold them together," Severus said.

"Sure, like yesterday," Sirius said lightly.

Severus glared at him.

"Thank you, Severus," Hermione said, ignoring Sirius' remark. "Come on, Sirius, Remus, he's gotta be somewhere in here."

"I'll check the shop," Remus offered. "He might've run out of film."

Hermione nodded. "Good idea. We'll circle around then, I'll go clockwise, you go counter clockwise," she told Sirius, and set off.

It couldn't be too difficult to find the boy, she thought, it was unlikely he'd have left the Cathedral. She walked quickly, glancing in each of the Chapels as she passed.

Suddenly, she spotted her quarry coming towards her.

"Mr. Jones, where were you? You know you were supposed to stay with the group," she said.

"Sorry, Professor," he replied, "I was just changing my film again, I managed it by myself this time, and then I tried to catch up but I just had to get a picture of the ornate pillar in that one Chapel, and the mosaic in the next and then I saw this…"

"Yes, yes, fine. Did you talk to anyone?" Hermione asked.

Leroy shook his head.

"Good," Hermione sighed in relief. "Then come along and do not stray from the group again."

"No, Professor, thank you, Professor," Leroy assured her.

She didn't take any points, she was long glad he hadn't got into any serious trouble. She walked back towards the rest, fortunately spotting Sirius along the way. Remus had returned to the group after checking the shop.

Together once more they left the Cathedral and walked the short distance to the pub, a pleasant place that had plenty of room for the entire party.

Lunch went really well. The students were starting to get the food thing down, not asking any awkward questions. Not that she let her guard down completely. She was getting seriously tired, but she had to admit that was not all the student's fault. No, she didn't regret last night in any possible way, but she would be glad once they'd made it back to Hogwarts. Well, after lunch they'd ride the tube back to the hotel, pick up their bags, walk the short distance to the Leaky Cauldron, and Floo home. All things they'd done before, there really was no reason there'd be any trouble.

The weather was still sunny as they walked down the steps into the tube station. Leroy was taking yet another picture, the boy was getting as bad as Colin Creevey!

The station was crowded, but it didn't take long before the tube arrived. Suppressing a yawn, Hermione looked around to make sure her entire group would make it into the tube.

"Guys, don't push," she warned them, as a good number of people were getting off the tube at this station as well. The last passenger got off, and the students in front started to climb in. Sirius hopped on, and Remus. She brought up the rear with Severus. Suddenly, a young man pushed his way through the students from inside the tube, jumped off, jostled Xandra and Leroy and took off down the platform at high speed.

"Hey, bastard, that's mine!" Leroy shouted. And before Hermione or Severus could stop him, "Locomotor Mortis!"

The thief smacked against the ground with a yelp of surprise, Muggles everywhere turned to look.

"Leroy!" Hermione hissed, at the same time Severus hissed, "Mr. Jones!"

Leroy turned, looking pale. At least he'd put his wand away again.

Severus pulled his wand from his sleeve. "Finite Incantatem," he muttered, releasing the man, but the thief remained on the floor, likely too afraid to move.

"Please stand away from the doors." The tube was about to leave. Sirius had made his way to the doors and looked at her.

"Go, just go, we'll meet at the Leaky Cauldron," Hermione said, gesturing at him to stay inside. They couldn't hold up the tube to get off again without being noticed, and the bigger the group, the more attention they'd draw.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think…," Leroy started.

Hermione sighed. "That could be the motto of this trip," she remarked dryly.

As the doors closed and the tube pulled out of the station, they turned and strode toward the thief, Leroy and Xandra, who was also still with them, in tow. Hermione glanced around. As so often in the Muggle world, no one had actually moved toward the fallen man, and most people were pretending very hard to look the other way. Still, plenty of people were watching them surreptitiously.

Severus picked up Leroy's camera. "I believe this is yours," he said silkily.

Leroy gingerly reached out and took it. "Thank you, sir," he replied.

The thief, meanwhile, started to blubber. He looked at them. "Please sir, madam, I didn't mean to, I'll return everything. Just let me go."

"You can move, so get up," Severus started to tell the man, but the thief reached into his coat and handed Severus an entire handful of wallets.

If the situation weren't so messed up already, Hermione would have wished for Leroy taking a picture right then. Severus looked horrified, staring as if the wallets were a cluster of poisonous snakes. As it was, she groaned. With just their camera, they might have been able to Obliviate the thief and make him believe he'd simply tripped. Now, they were holding the culprit's entire morning's loot, and they'd have to do something with it.

"I think we better continue this discussion elsewhere," Hermione suggested. "There's a police station nearby the hotel we stayed at."

"Get up," Severus told the man, who quickly scrambled to his feet.

Still watched by a good number of Muggles, they walked to the exit of the tube station. Once outside, they started in the direction of the hotel, but only far enough that they were out of sight of Victoria Station. Unfortunately, the street was all but empty.

"Cover me," Hermione said quietly.

Severus immediately moved closer, effectively shielding her actions from any onlookers. Leroy and Xandra needed a prod before they, too, caught on.

Shielded from prying eyes, Hermione reached for her wand. "Obliviate," she said softly.

The thief looked around, confused for a moment.

"Thank you for your directions, I'm sure we can find our way from here," Severus told him smoothly.

"Uh, eh, yes, of course, no problem," the man stammered. With a small shrug, he took off down the street.

Hermione sighed. There really wasn't anything they could do about the people in the tube station, hopefully they would think the man had merely tripped. Leroy's spell had not been too loud, and Muggles saw what they expected to see. After all, there's no such thing as magic, right? Thank Merlin Leroy hadn't used a more obvious spell like Furnunculus.

"What do we do with these?" Severus asked, indicating the wallets.

"Too many people saw us to drop them off at the station anonymously," Hermione said. "If they go and ask around where the loot came from, they'll probably find someone who witnessed the man 'tripping', and they'll want to know why we didn't report it. I better go to the station and convince them that was all that happened."

"Do you want me to come?" Severus asked.

Hermione considered his offer. She really didn't want to face the officers alone, even if she would try her best not to get any further than the front desk. But she wasn't sure whether Severus knew enough of the details of Muggle police stations not to raise suspicion, and it would also mean they'd have to get their story all worked out. And she really, really didn't want to take the students into the station.

"I think I better go by myself," she decided. "You take care of him." She indicated Leroy, who gulped. Surely he hadn't thought they'd forget. Likely he'd just hoped she would be the one to decide on his fate. Well, too bad, she'd already taken more points in two days than in the entire five weeks she'd been teaching, and she'd be the one dealing with the cops.

They walked to the police station, since she really didn't want to go back on the tube and run into any people who'd witnessed the event. She set a brisk pace, and the two students knew not to complain.

Entering the Charing Cross police station, she walked up to the front desk.

"I inadvertently came upon some stolen items I would like to drop off," she told the officer on duty.

The man looked at the wallets she handed him and frowned. "I have to make a report on this."

"I really don't have a lot of time, I'm here with a group of students and we're on a tight schedule. We have far to travel today," Hermione excused herself, making herself sound harried without too much difficulty..

"I'm sorry, Mrs..?"

"Miss Granger."

"Miss Granger, but I have to insist on taking at least your name and a few brief facts. If you would tell me what happened?"

"Well, we were about to take the tube at Victoria Station when this man jumped out. He grabbed the camera of one of my students, trying to make off with it, when he must have tripped –he fell flat on his face. It knocked the breath out of him and apparently gave him quite a scare, because when my colleague and I approached him he didn't just hand over the camera but also pushed all of this into our hands. He even pretended to come to the station with us but once above ground he took off," she rattled vaguely.

"Do you have a description of this man?" the officer asked.

Hermione shrugged. "White, 'bout twenty years old, blonde." She was so vague on purpose. She couldn't divert too far from the truth because of all the witnesses, but she didn't want the guy found. He'd have no recollection of the event, after her memory charm.

The officer sighed. "That's not much to go on, Miss."

"I'm sorry, it went all really fast and we did get the camera back after all," she said. She didn't like playing stupid but she'd do her duty to society in the Wizarding world rather than here. "If you need nothing else, I really must go back to my students."

"Almost done, Miss. Your address?" the officer asked.

"Is that really necessary?"

"I'm afraid so," the officer replied.

Hermione gave in, giving the man her parent's address again. Then she pointedly checked the clock on the wall.

"That's all, Miss. We will contact you if we need anything else."

"Thank you," Hermione replied.

She quickly left the station. This had to be the last thing to go wrong. She caught up with Severus and the two students outside.

"How'd it go?" Severus asked.

She shrugged. "I think he's thoroughly convinced I'm an airhead who's too stupid or too careless to get a decent description of a criminal and who doesn't care enough to make a report. And I have to instruct my parents of what to do if they call, he insisted on some sort of contact information. But I guess it could've been worse."

"You acted the airhead? I'm sorry I missed that," Severus remarked, lifting an eyebrow.

She glared at him. "No doubt."

He grinned, and she dropped her glare, laughing instead.

Leroy and Xandra looked so uneasy she almost laughed again when she noticed their faces.

"Come on, let's get our bags and get to the Leaky Cauldron before Sirius and Remus start a search party," she suggested.

The two students almost ran the short distance there. Fortunately both the hotel and the Leaky Cauldron were really close, and there were no more mishaps.

Sirius and Remus were waiting with the rest of the students, who were chatting excitedly –and loudly- now they were once again among wizards and didn't have to watch every word. Tom, the landlord, was clearly enjoying the stories of the students, grinning broadly as he listened to them.

Hermione handed out the Floo powder. They send the students first, and finally Hermione stepped through.

The students were greeted by several of their friends and house mates who had been waiting for them.

"I knew it'd be a bed idea for Snape to go with you guys," Simon Ralte, a sixth-year Gryffindor was saying. "All Houses but Slytherin are down a bunch."

Hermione coughed, and the boy turned. "For your information, I took most of those points. Ask your house mates why, I'm sure they'll be happy to tell you."

Of course the adventures would all sound wonderful to those who'd remained behind, even the disasters –especially the disasters- but well, that's how kids were. She shook her head.

Albus had also come down to meet them. "How did it go?" he asked eagerly.

"We made it back in one piece, but we ran into a few glitches along the way," Hermione replied.

"I want to hear all about it," Albus said, his eyes twinkling. Hermione knew he'd enjoy hearing the adventures of the students almost as much as the students' housemates would.

"Of course," Hermione replied.

"Tea at four?" the Headmaster asked.

Hermione nodded. "I'll be there."

The students dispersed, going to their own dormitories to unpack and to tell their adventures to their friends, and soon only she, Sirius, Remus and Severus were left.

"So, do it again next year?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Remus said.

"You bet," Sirius put in.

Hermione turned to Severus.

"As if," Sirius sniffed.

For once, Severus ignored Sirius. "You might be able to persuade me," he remarked.

"Oh, I will," Hermione promised. She grinned at the stunned expression on their colleagues' faces.

A/N:

First of all, sorry it took me so long to upgrade! Been *really* busy with work, some days was being a pain and I also always find it very hard to write a satisfying ending to a story. Seems the part I like best is usually somewhere in the middle, then the end is quite difficult.. Well, I hope it was still a decent read. : )

To all my reviewers: Thank you very much for your support! I hope you will read the other stories I'm going to be posting (and hopefully updating more frequently : ))