Year 2 The High Notes

Hermione's first year at Hogwarts flew by almost faster than she could credit it, and by the end of the year, certain patterns were already in place. James was fast friends with Sirius Black, and with Remus Lupin. The three of them were always together, and usually into some sort of scrape. So far, none of their pranks came close to anything the Weasley twins had pulled off, but she felt that they showed promise. Lily and Hermione had a close-knit friendship that included Severus Snape. Hermione and James remained remarkably close, and by extension, Remus and Sirius became surrogate brothers. They tried to keep an eye on Hermione, and made sure that the Slytherins stayed far, far away from their best friend's sister. By this time, old Hermione wasn't overlapping this life quite so much. She remembered everything still, but it wasn't quite so disorienting. It was as though those older memories were pushed behind a wall where they might be accessed later, if needed.

At the close of the school year, Severus was shocked to receive a tight hug from Hermione and a promise of letters. There was a strange feeling inside him when she said that, and he realized that it was happiness. He found himself hugging her back, and promising to return her letters.

21 July 1972

Mr. Severus Snape

Spinner's End

Dear Severus,

I hope that this letter finds you well, and I hope that you and Lily are having a wonderful summer vacation together. So far, my summer has been fairly boring. My mother is a distant cousin of Sirius Black's mother, and she convinced his parents to let him come stay for a few weeks. They have ignored me completely the whole time, and when I complained to mother, she said that boys will be boys, whatever that means. Father says that in a few years, I will wish that boys would just leave me alone. I told him I wished it was a few years later, now. It would be nice to have boys that wanted to play with me. Then father got red in the face, and told me to go play.

What have you been up to this summer? Have you been working on your potions? You are so talented, Severus. I hope you know how much I admire that in you. You and Lily have been in my thoughts. I look forward to seeing you both this fall.

Your friend,

Hermione Potter

The letter was much creased from being folded and unfolded, and it was kept with the other letters that his new friend had faithfully written him throughout the summer. He knew that she'd written to Lily as well, but her letters were more precious to him because they were tangible proof of friendship. Severus had never had any friends, and now he had two. He wasn't sure what to do with that, but he felt that funny happy feeling whenever he thought about it.

The only other memorable thing that happened that summer, occurred at the Potter Estate. Charlus Potter, as a member of a very old pureblood family was well acquainted with several important figures of the wizarding community. He had known Professor Albus Dumbledore for a number of years, and was more than willing to offer his home as a meeting place for Albus and a number of other people. James and Sirius were wildly curious about the meeting, but Hermione suspected that she knew exactly what it was about. The only problem was that she was an eleven year-old child, and no one would listen to her or believe her.

Being a pureblood witch was an interesting experience for Hermione, and she realized that this kind of knowledge would have been immensely useful to her old friends. As a part of her childhood and upbringing, she knew things deep in her bones that the old Hermione had struggled to learn from books, but had never really understood clearly.