===September 1 1993===
"Harry, our normal car already has someone in it, and he's taking up a fair amount of room." Hermione says as she looks into the train car, Loki perched on her shoulder.
"Who?" Harry asks.
"Adult male, disheveled appearance." Hermione replies.
'Mum says to tell you she thinks it's Remus Lupin.' Loki thinks to Harry.
'That's for passing that on sweetness.' Harry thinks back before speaking. "Let's make the best of it dear, I'm sure we can all squeeze in."
"Really?" Hermione asks.
"You can sit on my lap, Hannah on Neville's. That should leave room for Ron and Lavender if she chooses to join us." Harry explains.
"Or Ginny." Hermione says. "Otherwise I'm going to have to corner her in the dorms and talk to her."
Harry nods. "Good point." He says as he goes into the train car and sits. Hermione follows behind him and sits on his lap.
A few minutes later Neville pokes his head into the car. "I see, is this how we're supposed to all fit in one car now?"
"What are you talking about Neville?" Hannah asks as she looks into the car. She blushes when she sees Hermione sitting on Harry's lap. "Are..are we allowed to do that?"
"We're both fully dressed, Harry has his arm around my waist. I don't see why we wouldn't be allowed." Hermione answers.
Hannah looks at Neville. "Are you okay with that?"
"Getting to hold you?" Neville asks. "Sure." Neville finds a spot to sit and Hannah sits on his lap.
"This isn't too bad." Hannah says.
"So how were your summers?" Hermione asks.
"We visited each other frequently." Hannah answers.
"We're officially dating, or I suppose I'm courting Hannah." Neville says. "If we're still going strong at the end of this year I can talk to Hannah's father about a marriage contract."
"So you would be married before our seventh year?" Harry asks.
"If all goes well, yes."
"I hope it does." Hermione says.
"Hey!" Ron says as he steps into the car and sees how the two couples are sitting. "Is that really the best idea?"
"It's the most effective use of space." Hermione says. "We attempted to leave enough room so that you wouldn't have to have Lavender sit on your lap."
"If she joins us she won't have a choice, Ginny's coming. I had told her you two wanted to talk to her." Ron says then looks over to Remus. "I didn't expect this though."
"Yes, the appearance of what is likely our new Defense teacher on the train is a little unexpected." Hermione says.
"How do you figure he's our new Defense teacher?" Ron asks.
"Only position I'm aware of that needs a new teacher." Hermione reasons.
"That makes sense." Ron says.
"Sorry for the delay." Ginny says. "Luna wants to join us."
"Luna's welcome, but it's a little tight in here." Harry says.
Luna comes in and sits. "We'll make do." She motions for Ginny to sit on her lap, and she does.
Lavender stands at the doorway right after and looks in. "Am I supposed to sit on Ron's lap?"
"It's the only available space left." Neville says.
"If you don't want to, we can catch up with you later." Hermione says.
Lavender sighs as she comes into the car and sits on Ron's lap. "You may put your arm around my waist to help hold me, but don't get any ideas."
"Of course not." Ron says as he carefully puts an arm around her.
"So how was Egypt?" Harry asks.
"We had a great trip." Ron says. "It was great to see Bill again. Dad had us go on the muggle tours."
"I thought those were neat." Luna says.
"Wait, you went with them?" Hermione asks.
Luna nods. "My dad has been wanting to go look for exotic creatures, so it worked out."
"It was great having Luna around." Ginny says. "She's helped me get over what happened last year."
"That's very good." Harry says.
"While we're talking about last year." Hermione says. "Ron told us on the way home last year you still had a thing for Harry."
"I did." Ginny admits. "But Luna helped me sort through that. It was just a celebrity crush, like a lot of people had on Lockhart."
"Good to hear." Hermione says.
They spend the next hour or so discussing little details of each other's summer when suddenly the train comes to a stop.
"Are we there?" Ron asks.
"No way, it's way too early." Neville replies.
Hermione gets off Harry's lap. "We'll check it out."
Harry gets up. "The rest of you stay here."
They step out of the car and see a few other students looking out of their cars. "I'll try and calm down the students, you head to the front to see if there's a problem." Hermione says.
Harry nods and begins to head away from her. Suddenly one of the boarding doors opens in front of Hermione. Loki hisses. 'Something's coming!' She thinks to both Harry and Hermione.
The ghostly form of a dementor floats into the train. "Stop right there and identify yourself!" Hermione shouts as she draws her wand.
The wraith-like creature floats towards Hermione draining the heat from the corridor and striking Hermione with fear as it searches her memories. Unfortunately for Hermione she had spent a good amount of time using Munin"s ability on Harry. He let her see every bad memory he had, and now she was reliving them one at a time. Her wand hits the floor as she drops to her knees, the dementor reaches out towards her.
Harry feels something is off, so he turns and sees Hermione on her knees. His heart starts pounding as he sees her before the creature. He thinks only about the fact he couldn't protect her last year, and now he can. He quickly starts running towards her. 'MUM!' Loki mentally shouts as she bites Hermione.
The bite snaps Hermione out of the fear daze. "Hugin, Munin." She whispers, summoning the daggers and weakly crossing them over her head. "Clypeus." A weak light shines from the daggers.
Harry sees the shield, and the dementor is still reaching towards Hermione in spite of the shield. He runs up to Hermione and jumps onto her shield using it to propel him higher. He summons his sword and calls out, "Purgo!*" His sword glows brightly as he thrusts it forward into the chest of the dementor. His momentum taking both of them to the floor. Harry watches as the dementor turns to dust.
Three more dementors fly into the train. Harry readies his sword when he hears. "Expecto Patronum!" And a spectral wolf chases the dementors away.
Harry looks back to see Remus holding his wand before both he and Hermione pass out.