Chapter One
Hermione Granger sat on the stairs of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, watching the antique clock in the corner tick towards another lonely morning hour. She was waiting. Waiting for whom, she didn't know. The elders of the Order had gone to help someone, she didn't know who… or even why.
She was brought back to reality by the aged clock, chiming two o'clock in the morning.
DING… DING…
The aggravated side of Hermione wanted to hurl a brick through the clock face.
"Bloody clock…" she whispered to herself.
She hated not being informed. But she wasn't the only one. Neither Harry, Ron nor Ginny knew who was coming. So, at eleven o'clock, they dragged their tired bodies up to bed. Hermione wished she had gone too. Her comfy, warm bed seemed so appealing at this hour… But the thought of someone needing help when they arrived kept Hermione at her spot on the stairs.
She looked around the fire-lit room and couldn't believe how different it looked compared to only two years before. The entry hall where she now sat was warmer, homier than the dusty, damp and rotten-smelling hole it used to be. The wallpaper used to peel from the walls and cobwebs had dominated every nook and cranny. Now, after many tiring hours of backbreaking work and cleaning, the hall, as well as every other room in the house, felt like a home.
The walls glittered and danced with the fires light. There were comfy chairs and soft rugs dotted here and there around the room. Mrs. Black's blood-curdling screams were no longer heard as her portrait had finally been taken down and was replaced by a beautiful, and silent, picturesque scene of Scottish rolling hills Mrs. Weasley had found in the attic.
Suddenly, the front door of the house burst open, causing Hermione to jump from her spot on the stair. Coming through the door, looking tired and disheveled, came five people. Dumbledore came in first, pushing his long beard aside. Tonks and Lupin followed helping a familiar looking woman through the door. Also helping the woman, looking bruised, tired but hopeful, was...
"Malfoy?"