Hello everyone. This is my first ever fan fiction so please bear with me. I am not sure just how long this is going to be, but it may be quite long. I will try to remain faithful to canon but deviations will be made given the nature of this fic.
This takes place during the summer of Hermione's sixth year making her of age. All characters belong to JK Rowling, I am just borrowing them.
This story has not been edited/reviewed by a beta-reader so please forgive me. Constructive criticism and reviews of all kind are welcome. Updates will come as soon as possible. At the very least there will be one chapter published a week.
The first chapter will be the shortest, please forgive the length. This is simply to establish the setting and time period.
Chapter One: echoes up above
Hermione was spending the rest of her summer at Grimmauld Place after the Order had thwarted an attack on her parents. Albus Dumbledore was one to take no chances so after careful deliberation he decided to send her parents away to a safe house. No one knew of this safe house other than Dumbledore himself and Kingsley Shacklebolt (who was put in charge of keeping watch of them). Hermione had begged the headmaster to know where he was keeping her parents, but the old man would not budge. He assured her that it was for her own good and that her parents were better off this way, which meant that Hermione was not in any position to argue with him. Her things were taken to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place immediately after the thwarted attack and her house was subsequently burned by a small group of Aurors who made sure that her things would leave no traces of the family's move.
The only thing she had to be thankful about was spending time in the presence of the Order. The only permanent resident other than herself was her former professor, Remus Lupin. The old werewolf had been more than happy to see Hermione and made sure that she was comfortable, often preparing a breakfast for the both of them in efforts to keep her stance on house elves in mind. Or so he told her anyway, in reality the werewolf hated Kreacher's constant snide comments and back talk. One could only take so many comments about mudbloods and half-breeds before taking serious offense. They had pleasant talks during breakfast before he would retreat to the library and she would make her way to the sitting room to study. On occasion her former professor would ask her about her early studying, arguing that it was much too early begin. She didn't even have her text books for sixth year yet! But knowing that was confined to the dwelling with nothing else to do he did not give her too hard of a time.
The meetings were the most exciting part of her days at Grimmauld Place, even though Dumbledore forbade her to stay during the order's meetings, she was allowed to speak to the other members before and after their meetings started. Tonks was always the happiest to see her and attacked her with a warm hug upon seeing her. She had been one of the Aurors to thwart the attack on her home and knew that Hermione had taken the attack quite hard. Kingsley simply greeted the young Gryffindor with a knowing and warm smile that meant that her parents were safe. Her professors said nothing to her through McGonagall would often give her a small smile. Then they would close the doors to the dining area and leave her alone, sometimes she would sit at the top of the stairs and try listening to their conversations, she never could hear anything though, as she expected they would have cast charms on the doors to keep her from listening in.
It was a late night meeting when things suddenly got a lot more interesting for Hermione Granger. She was sitting on the top of the stairs, curious as to why they didn't ward the door when they sent her up to her room. She hadn't even intended to disobey Dumbledore; a trip the bathroom had resulted in her being able to hear loud argument in the dining room. She could make out Kingsley's voice and Dumbledore's voice. Dumbledore never yelled, not like that. She craned her neck to peek over the railing and saw that the door was cracked open a bit. Before she had the sense to back away from the stairs and make herself scarce, the door was thrown violently open, slamming against the walls. Hermione gave a start and jumped up, her knuckles going white as she clamped her hands over the railing. The black, bottomless eyes of her potions professor met her own and she swallowed her eyes wide. His face was a mask of anger and bitterness, it looked as if he had swallowed a lemon and a vein stood out on the side of his neck. The man let out a snarl and stormed out of the hallway, slamming the door on his way out.
Hermione's heart beat rapidly as she stood, frozen on the spot. She had never seen her professor that livid. His eyes looked as if they could burn a hole through solid steel. She turned on her heel and ran to her room before she was caught by any other irate order members…..