Hermione's P. O. V
I finished putting my last pair of shoes inside of my trunk, and latched it shut. I was leaving the Muggle world and joining the Wizarding world. I was spending the remainder of summer at the Burrow with Ron and the rest of the Weasley's. I checked my watch. 6:00. I better get downstairs.
Lugging my trunk downstairs, I paused as I see my parents. My mum sat on the couch crying, while my father had an arm around her shoulder. It was always hard when I left them. I was careful not to tell them about Voldemort returning.
I cleared my throat, and they both looked up.
"Hermione, dear, do you have to be leaving so soon?" asked Hermione's mother, giving me a hug.
"Yes mum," I lied. "Dumbledore said it would be a good idea for muggle-borns to spend the summer with pure bloods, you know, to get to know how our life styles differ."
"Alright darling," she said. She backed away, running her hand through my bushy hair. "So beautiful." She heaved a big sigh, "Alright, so when will Mr. Weasley be here to pick you up?"
"Pretty soon," I said, eyeing the fireplace. I really hope he didn't floo, as her parents were neat freaks.
A few seconds later, the doorbell rang. Mr. Granger got up from the sofa and opened the door.
He looked confused. "May I help you?"
"We're here to pick up Hermione Granger," said a quiet, calming voice that did not belong to Mr. Weasley. I walked to the door and was a bit surprised, Mr. Weasley was not there.
"Professor Lupin?" I said, a bit surprised.
My old professor was standing there, his brown hair a bit longer, and he looked rather grey, and he wore shabby clothes. Next to him was a young woman with bubble-gum pink hair and wore a Weird Sisters shirt, ripped up jeans and boots.
"Hello Hermione," said Professor Lupin smiling. He reached out a hand for me to shake, but I gave him a hug instead. He was a lot like an uncle to me.
The woman said, "Wotcher Hermione."
"Hello," I said kindly. "Mum, dad, this is Professor Remus Lupin, and this is-?"
"Nymphadora Tonks," finished Lupin. "Call me Remus, Hermione."
"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus. I go by Tonks," she said. "It's great to meet you Hermione. All the Weasley's ever do is talk about you."
I smiled at her. "Nice to meet you Tonks. "
We welcomed them in. "Remus, Tonks, this is my mother and father, Ian and Jean Granger."
"Nice to meet you," said Remus, a bit awkwardly. "Hermione, are you ready to go?"
"Yes, may I have a minute with my parents?"
"Of course, pleasure to meet you. Come, Tonks."
I turned to my parents and gave them each a hug and a kiss.
"Make sure to write," said my father.
"I will, love you both."
Remus, Tonks and I walked to the end of the neighborhood, earning many weird looks from my neighbors.
"Just ignore them," I said to them, as a group of teenage boys goggled.
We continued to walk, until we got to the edge of the woods.
"Apparating to the Burrow?" I asked as Tonks took hold of my arm, and I held on to Crookshanks and Remus took my trunk.
"Not the Burrow, no," said Tonks.
We apparated to an empty, dingy, gray square, between houses number 11 and number 13. Remus reached into the pocket of his robes and brought out a small piece of paper. "Memorize that."
Number 12, Grimmuald Place is the Headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix
"Do you have it memorized?" he asked. I nodded and Tonks snatched it and burnt it.
Slightly confused, I looked between 11 and 13 to find another building there. I looked at Remus and Tonks and they walked inside.
Mrs. Weasley opened the door. She looked rather thinner, and a bit paler. "Hermione," she whispered, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Come inside, and try to stay quiet. Just go up the stairs, you should see the room you're sharing with Ginny."
I nodded and Remus put a charm on my trunk so it would follow me up the stairs, and I stopped at a dark green door. Opening it, I walked into a dark, dusty and rather moldy room. There were two beds, one with a silver comforter, and one with a green. Ginny's things lay on the green bed, but she was absent.
I sighed, and fell flat on my bed, which was a bad idea, since it was dusty. I coughed a lot and was covered in dust, when I heard two cracks. I jumped and yelped.
Two red-heads with floppy red hair sat on Ginny's bed, both were laughing. I picked up the dusty pillow and threw it at one of them, making a dust cloud.
"Fred! George! That wasn't funny!" I said.
"Actually, it was quite humorous," said Fred, wiping the dust off of him. I rolled my eyes, and sat back down on my bed.
"So, Hermione, how has your summer been? Meet any ravishing young men?" Fred asked, waggling his eyebrows.
"Fight and Death Eaters?" asked George
"Save the human race from the zombie apocalypse?"
"It will happen you know."
"Just give it a few years."
"Yes, I have accomplished all that in the week I haven't seen you two," I snapped, still a bit annoyed.
"Ooo, Hermione, you mad?" said George.
"Of course not! I'm just confused."
Both boys got off Ginny's bed and sat next to me, George putting an arm around my shoulders, and Fred around my waist.
"About what, dear Granger?" asked Fred
"The state of the world?" asked George.
"Your sexual preferences? Because a girl would be ho-"
"Don't even start, Fred Weasley. No, I'm wondering what the Order of the Phoenix is, why we are not at the Burrow and where are Harry, Ron and Ginny and why are you touching me?"
"Well, question one is that the Order is a secret society that Dumbledore started. It's for people who believe You-Know-Who is back, and wants to fight him."
"Question two is that we aren't at the Burrow because it's not safe for us right now."
"Question three is that they are all at safe houses. Ron is staying with Auntie Muriel for a while, Ginny is at Luna Lovegood's, and Harry is still at the Dursley's."
"And we are touching you Hermione, just to bother you."
"Thank you, I feel so loved," I snapped. "Now what are you boys doing here?"
"Right, mum wanted us to let you know that dinner's ready."
"Fine, can you leave and let me just change out of these dusty clothes?"
Fred and George glanced at each other, and whipped out hats from their back pockets. They put them on and their heads disappeared.
"Wow," I said. "This truly is amazing magic. Why do you have them out though?"
"Can you see us?"
"I can't see your head."
"Dang it!" they said. "We were planning on using them to watch the girls-"
"Girls do what?"
"Never mind."
She rolled her eyes. "You boys are pigs. May I see one?"
Both of them took their hats off and Fred, with a shocked, yet amused, expression, gave Hermione the hat.
I pulled it over my bushy hair, and looked in the mirror hanging on the head. Sure enough, my head was gone, the only traces that it was there was the bushy hair falling down my shoulders. I started to laugh, thinking it was quite funny. Fred joined in first, and then George.
A few seconds later, I pulled the hat off and handed it back to Fred. His brown eyes, precisely the same color as Ginny's were sparkling.
"Thanks," I said. "Would you boys mind leaving? I still need to change."
"You don't have to," said George, pulling out his wand. "Diffindo!"
A slash was made through the knee of my jeans, and my leg started bleeding. My leg gave out, as the slash was quite deep. "Ouch!" I said, inspecting the damage.
"Sorry, Hermione!" said George. "I always confuse the cleaning charm and the slashing charm."
"Oh, don't worry about it. Worst has happened to me. I'll just go clean this up . . . "
"Don't be stupid," said Fred, and kneeled . "Here, I'll help Hermione. Episkey, repairo."I felt her cut go hot and then cool, and it mused together, and the tear at the knee stitched together. "And scourgify." All the dust faded off my clothes.
He put his wand back in his pocket, and raised his red eyebrows. "Better?" he asked.
I looked at him, and smiled. "Yeah, thanks Fred." I checked my watch. It was 7:30. "We better get down to dinner," I said standing up.
They walked down to the kitchens. A lot of people were there. There were Bill Weasley, talking, surprisingly, to Fleur Delacoure, from the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Tonks was laughing at something that Sirius Black said. Remus was talking quietly with Mad-Eye Moody, and a tall black man I didn't recognize. Mr. Weasley was helping Mrs. Weasley carry out trays of food. Dumbledore was also there, talking with Professor McGonagall, and another bearded man. Hagrid was also there, talking with a short, scraggly red hair. Fred, George, and I looked like the only students.
Sirius was the first to notice us, and he made his way over. "Hello, Hermione," he said, giving me a hug.
"Hi Sirius. Your looking good."
"Well, it feels good being in shelter after two years of fighting against the elements. Gets boring though, a bit lonely." A distant look came on his face, and then he shook his head. "Anyway, dinner starts in a few minutes, go ahead and take a seat."
I sat down first, and Fred and George sat on either side of me.
"Do you know everyone?" Fred whispered to me.
"I don't know a few," I whispered back. "I don't know the man speaking with Remus and Mad-Eye, the man talking with Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore, and the man talking to Hagrid."
"The man talking with Remus and Mad- Eye is Kingsley Shackbolt. He's an auror, and is a really cool guy. He's like the male version of you basically."
"Wait, he's an auror, but he's working for a society rebelling against the ministry?"
"Oh yeah," said George, hearing Hermione and Fred. "A bunch of them are Auror's and work for the ministry. There's Tonks, Kingsley, Daedalus Diggle, Dad of course, Sturgis Podmore, Hestia Jones, and Elphias Dodge."
"Aren't they afraid of getting in trouble?" Hermione asked.
"Nah," said Fred. "They're pretty fearless. Anyway, the guy talking to McGonagall is Aberforth Dumbledore-"
"Professor Dumbledore's brother?" she asked.
"The very same. He also run's the Hogshead in Hogsmeade. And the guy talking to Hagrid is Mundungas Fletcher. Don't go near him unless you fancy him stealing that necklace you're wearing."
Hermione's fingers immediately went up to the pendent on her chest, a small blue and white stone hanging from a cord.
"Isn't that the necklace that Krum gave you last year?" George asked.
"Um, yeah. I thought is quite suits me. But if it's too much I won't wear it. . ."
"No, no, no, it's fine. But we just thought that you broke up with Krum."
Hermione laughed. "We never really went out, now did we?"
"Uh, yeah. Seriously everyone was talking about you."
"And Krum talked about you all the time. We had two classes with him."
"I just thought it was a last minute thing to the ball. I mean, every champion needed a date. And I was there when he thought about it."
"Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, sweet naïve Hermione," said Fred chuckling.
"Fred, George?" a gruff voice called back. I tore my eyes from Fred, and looked at the source. It was Mundungas. "Who's the lass?"
By then, we caught most everyone else's attention. "Hermione, a friend of ours, Ron, and Ginny from school."
Everyone shouted greetings, and Bill ran over, and I jumped up to give him a hug. Last summer, I had grown close to the oldest Weasley child. He became like a brother to me.
"Hermione!" he said, hugging me back, lifting me off my feet. He was a good foot and a half taller than me, so he did this easily.
"How are you doing?" I asked as he set me back down.
"I'm doing great. I'm working at Gringotts in Diagon Alley now. Helping the Order. I'm getting along quite well with . . . Fleur." He turned Weasley red. I raised an eyebrow and looked around him. Sure enough, Fleur looked a bit angry at the attention he was giving me.
"Lucky you," I said, grinning.
"Yeah," he said, running his fingers through his hair. "She's great. So how's everything with Harry going?" He wiggled his eyebrows and smirked. Last summer, he somehow thought that I had a crush on Harry.
I rolled my eyes. "Bill, for the last time, I do not like Harry!"
"Keep telling yourself that Hermione," he said, winking. "Well, dinner's starting. Mind if I sit next to you George?"
"Not at all, bro," he said. Bill went over to Fleur, and pulled her gently over to us.
She looked at me rather coldly. "Ello, 'Ermione," she sniffed.
"Nice to see you Fleur."
