Chapter one: a midnight miracle

The old hatch on the door was rusty and worn out, but still held strong against any intruders. Hermione moved backwards as far as she could positioning her body straight in front of the door, with her back pressing against the stone wall behind her.

She hadn't been in that cellar for years, maybe even a decade. Last time was before her brother had vanished. She must have been four or five years, and could hardly recollect the memories now.

The air was moist and smelled of old. She remembered her father telling her to watch out for the many boxes and old furniture stored down here.

She moved up to the door, the only door once you where down the stairs. It was shut and she found her strength far too weak to pull it open, so she turned back and called William. He was bending down to look in a box with 'books' written on it. What a waste of marker, every box down here contained books, Hermione had figured.

'William, I can't open the door.' She said in her high pitched voice.

Her brother turned his head to look at her and broke into a smile.

'What would you want to go in there for?' he asked her.

He had blonde hair, not glistening white, but rather a bit darker, almost brown, and his eyes where insanely blue, like the skies or the water in the lake by the park. His body was well trained, not too much but definitely not too little either. His trademark crimson shirt was buttoned up until the third from the top, and his black jeans where newly purchased so they didn't look as shabby as his previous ones.

'I wanna look inside. Maybe there's books in there too.' She said hopefully.

'Yeah, maybe.' He replied, his face turning into deep thought as he moved over, jumping past another book box and an old arm chair, and coming to stand next to her in front of the door.

With a high crack it opened to his strength, and both brother and sister coughed loudly from the dust erupting.

But there where no books. It was an empty little storage room, big enough to fit around five people Hermione's size and with a little bench at one side. It looked like it hadn't been used for centuries.

But Hermione noticed something strange on the inside. There was a hatch, to shut so that no one could enter. It looked stable, but old. There was also a door knob on the inside.

She mused over the thought that it would have been a perfect place to go play hide and seek on.

The next week her brother was gone, disappeared. Kidnapped or run away was the police's theories. She didn't want to go near the cellar ever again, so her parents had shut it, hiding the door down there with a veil in deep crimson. Like Williams constant shirts…

Hermione shuddered. Some of it against the cold, a bit because of the memories but mostly because she was truly terrified. She wished intently Harry and Ron would be there, telling her it was all going to be alright because death eaters couldn't even get their tattoos right. They made them burn…

She giggled in her nervousness but clasped her mouth shut with her hands a second later. She couldn't make a sound.

She thought about the situation. It wasn't very brave of her to be hiding in terror in an old storage room in the cellar when there was a dark mark over her house and strangers had entered her house, blasting anything they caught sight of into oblivity.

The darkness wasn't as bad as she had figured, after a while her eyes had adjusted so much that she could easily make out everything in the tiny room.

Her clothing was thin so the vaguely familiar cellar cold was taking over against the fear. Her brown hair was more bushy than usually, since she had just rushed out of bed and it was the middle of the night. Her skin was tanned up and glowed with a soft gleam from the now ended summer, and the black shorts and loose spaghetti strapped linen in beige where adding to the summery look.

Her face must look tiered. Her eyes where still dim from lack of sleep, and underneath them small bags of dark blue where forming. Her lips where dried out and her cheeks held marks of newly shed tears on them.

Hermione could feel her body beginning to relax slightly. Her breathing wasn't rapid anymore, but slow and firm, and luckily she hadn't had a cough attack from the dust layers.

But she was no where near feeling alright. She was still petrified at the thought of the events taking place up stairs, angered with herself for fleeing and being so emotionally unstable at the moment, while at the same time trying to think logically and find a solution to what was going on.

There would be a window, quite near the door to the storage, leading out of the cellar and into the back yard. Once she felt a bit calmer, and more confident she would try to escape through that, warn the order and then come back with aurors and everybody else she could manage to get a hold of.

She thought about the neighborhood. All homes had fires, but only the magical ones where connected to the floo network. Trying in vain to rummage through those she knew and didn't and figure out who may be a part of her world…

Her head was beginning to ache, both from the nights events and the fact that she wasn't coming to a clear conclusion of the action she had to take. Soon…

The kitchen was dark. There weren't any windows in the house, or none that actually worked very well to bring in sun shine at least.

Harry muttered a curse under his breath as he followed the sound of the crackling fire. There was no one else up, which was unusual in the place by now.

Order members came and went, and where quite un quiet once they did.

Tonks had been here helping Mrs Weasley with dinner earlier, and even professor Snape had passed by. Harry was aware that both Fred and George where at their comic shop. They where staying the night there. Bill was at some meeting, curtsey of the order, and Dumbledore was presumably at Hogwarts preparing the arrival of the students day after tomorrow.

He sighed, and scratched his scar vaguely aware of the prickling sensation. It had become common for him to have it burning ever so slightly these days or just itching but he tried his best to ignore it.

Until tonight. It had been different, even managed to wake him up and bring him down to the kitchen for a cup of tea to sooth his nerves.

Harry felt pretty certain it was just a bit more than normal aching, but just a little part of him had that nagging feeling, like when he had the dream about Mr Weasley being attacked last year.

Shaking his head he walked up to the pot of tea, filled it with water and put it on the stove waiting for it to heat up.

'Harry mate, what're you doing up?' Ron's voice called from the stairs and soon enough his figure emerged from the doorway. Behind him a stumbling newly awakened professor Lupin gave a little wave.

'Hope there's enough for all of us in there.' Lupin motioned at the tea pot and sat down by the big table as Harry nodded.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you.' Harry said looking away from the two other nightly dwellers.

'Nah, we'll punish you tomorrow. Dishes and dinner is my idea.' Ron said half heartedly mocking his friend.

Then it hit him. It was like a thousand dementors emerging all at once. Like falling freely towards the ground after falling off your broom, and landing with full force on your head. Like your skull was trying to break open.

And there was light. A dim green sort of light, mingling with red and gold, and a faint bit of silver.

'Harry!' Ron and Lupin had jumped up, but Harry was un aware of his surroundings. The only thing he could, and had to, focus on was the girl. The trembling crying girl by the wall.

Hermione… He recognized her the instant he managed to focus on the image before him rather than the intense pain around him.

She was pushing her body further backwards, but the wall was resisting her futile attempts of hiding away. She had locked herself in what looked like a cupboard, or maybe a storage room. He felt strangely familiar with the place, it reminded him of privet drive and his many nights staying locked inside the cup board under the stairs.

But she was afraid of something. He hoped it wasn't he who had frightened her.

He tried to reach out and touch her but found he couldn't move, something was grasping his hands. Then he heard voices from outside the looked door.

They where looking for the girl. The death eaters. He was sure now, he just needed to get back. To warn Lupin.

But then Sirius image floated before him for just a second.

'No, it's different this time. It's real.' He said out loud, and suddenly the pain had stopped, or at least subdued.

'Harry. Harry Potter! Mate, you really scared me there. Calling for Hermione you where.' Ron was saying.

'She's hiding from them. But they know she's still there, they where looking for her. She's locked herself into some sort of a small room, probably a little storage place, it was so small. And she doesn't have her wand, they'll kill her. Remus we have to..'

'Harry calm down. It was just a…' Lupin paused. 'Just a bad dream, you are probably not quite awake yet. It's very normal…'

'No! This isn't Sirius, it was real. I saw it happening. I watched… Like with Mr Weasley. I could feel it. They'll kill her. He didn't want me to know, she wanted me too. She's strong she'll be able to conjure magic even without her wand, but she can't defend herself without it.' Harry said interrupting Lupin's soft words.

There was a crack in the room and a startled Ron jumped up to his feet, reaching for his pocketed wand out of habit before Dumbledore's image stopped him.

'You can't…' Ron begun.

'It's quite right Mr Weasley, but extreme situations call for hard measures… Or how is it the muggle saying goes?' Dumbledore looked like he might stroll off deep in thought.

'Headmaster, Harry here says…' Lupin begun but was again interrupted by Harry's voice.

'It was real, I saw it. Hermione!'

'Yes, I got a message from the ministry, saying the dark mark had been spotted over the Granger residence.' The headmaster continued with a low rumbling voice, the twinkle in his blue gleaming eyes not as obvious.

'Wait… So Herm is out there, with a dark mark over her head? And we're standing here like idiots discussing weather our mate Harry here is having a real vision or not.' Ron's voice was slow yet confused.

'Mr Weasley, Mr Potter and Remus, I have taken the nessecary measures. I sent out warnings and aurors are apparating to the location as we speak, but we must be careful in case they are still in the house. I wished to come here and tell you in person, but I should have known…' Dumbledore stood still for a while deep in thought.

Harry cleared his throat in an effort to regain attention from his headmaster, and the others in the room.

'Mione?' he said iwaving his hands in the air questioningly…