Hermione

"Hedwig!" I shouted as the Snowy Owl flew through the window of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Sirius had just ran up the stairs to mine and Ginny's room and told us that Harry was attacked by dementors and is in trouble with the Ministry. He ran out before we could say a word.

Ginny had sat down where she was standing. "I hope Sirius told Fred and George about this." Her voice was shaky. "This is the most information we've heard all summer, and they will hate us if they miss it." She had attempted a smile, but could only get partway there. I sat down next to her.

"Ginny, Harry will be alright. Everything is going to be okay." I had tried to make my words as comforting as possible, and hoped that they were true. We sat like that until Hedwig had flown in.

She screeched at me, which was unusual for such a mellow bird. I reached up to stroke her, thinking that it would calm her down, and felt her sharp beak bite hard into my hand. I withdrew it with a gasp as she dropped a letter in front of me before flying out the door and down the hall. I inspected the marks Hedwig made on my hand. The cuts weren't bad; they were more like scratches. Still, I couldn't believe that Harry's beautiful, clever owl would attack me like that.

I looked at the front of the letter, and instantly recognized Harry's handwriting. The scrawl was even messier than usual, as if he had written it in a hurry. Ginny looked up as I opened it, a mixture of emotions on her face. I read the letter out loud to her.

"'I've just been attacked by dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.'" Ginny and I looked at each other, got up and ran down the hall to Ron's room. "Ron! Harry's just sent-" I broke off as I noticed he was reading a letter too. He looked up and saw the parchment clutched in my hand.

"He sent one to you to, eh? Look what Hedwig did to me when I tried to calm her down." Ron showed us a nasty-looking cut on his index finger. He went over and sat on his bed. Ginny and I followed suit.

"What are we going to do, Ron? We can't possibly tell him the truth, Dumbledore made us promise we wouldn't and Harry is going to be so upset-"

"Hey." Ron cut me off. "We promised Dumbledore we wouldn't tell him, so we won't. Let's go tell Sirius. He's his godfather, he'll know what to do."

I suddenly felt very stupid. Why didn't I think of that? As if reading my mind, Ron smiled and shook his head at me. "You can never think properly when you get like this, Mione. Do I need to remind you of the Devil's Snare in our first year?" He made is voice high pitched and hysterical. "'There's no wood!' Honestly, it was like you hadn't been at a magical school for months."

I smacked him on the arm. "Shut up Ron!" Ginny scooted closer and said, "No, go on, I want to hear this story!" Ron opened his mouth, a grin on his face, when I cut him off.

"No! It's not important now. Let's just go find Sirius." I grabbed Ginny's arm with my free hand and pulled her out of the room, with Ron following right behind us.

We found him in the kitchen with various members of the Order. I had been hesitant about barging in unannounced, but the Order should know about the letters anyways, shouldn't they? I hesitated, and Ron pushed open the door instead. It looked like they were planning something, but stopped talking as soon as they saw us. Mrs. Weasley bustled over to stand in front of us, trying in vain to block out the impromptu meeting behind her.

"What do you three need?" she asked, looking at us suspiciously.

"We, um, came to talk to Sirius," I stammered. "Harry's just sent us letters and-"

Sirius cut me off. "Ah, yes, you too? He's sent me one as well. We were just discussing what to do about it. Let them sit down, Molly, this isn't so important that they can't hear it." Mrs. Weasley looked behind her shoulder at him, sighed and walked back to Mr. Weasley, who put his arms around her.

Ron, Ginny, and I approached the table slowly, while Tonks and Lupin made a space for us between them. Sirius waited until we were settled before explaining to us what was happening.

"We decided that select Order members will go get Harry from his aunt's and uncle's. Mad-Eye is currently planning out exactly how we will go about doing that." He had emphasized 'Order members' to clearly prove that we were not invited to go along. I looked over at the others, and saw Ginny's face was expressionless, while Ron looked annoyed.

Sirius must have caught it too. "I know it's hard for you to not know what will happen to Harry, but if it makes you feel any better, I will be stuck here too." He tried to hide his bitterness behind a smile, but it didn't fool anyone. I smiled at him sympathetically. It must be as hard for him to not know as it is for us, possibly more so.

Tonks nudged Ginny, who was sitting next to her, and said, "I can't wait to meet the kid. Especially after everything he's done! It's brilliant!"

Lupin smiled and said, "Don't get too excited, Tonks, or Alastor may not let you go."

Tonks was about to say something when the twins Apparated suddenly into the kitchen. Fred glared around the table and said, "What's going on? Why weren't we invited to this meeting?" George picked up the rest of the sentence.

"It's obvious that this isn't 'classified information that non-Order members aren't required to know' since Ron, Hermione and Ginny all get to be here," He said, using one of Moody's prior phrases. Their ears were both red, always a Weasley warning sign.

"Well maybe, if you two would give anyone a chance to talk, someone would tell you what's going on!" The sudden outburst from Mrs. Weasley made me jump. Ron noticed this and patted my shoulder. I blushed, he probably thought I was just a scaredy-cat. Mrs. Weasley was glaring at the twins and pointed to a couple of conjured chairs at the table. Fred and George bowed their heads and sat down, while Lupin this time told them the plan.

"Ron, you know I love your family, including your Mum, but don't you think she was, well, overreacting?" I was whispering, hoping no one noticed our conversation. Ron hadn't removed his hand from my shoulder.

"Don't worry about them, Mione. Mum's still mad about their joke shop, and takes her anger out on them as much as possible. The Extendable Ears kind of put her over the edge." He smiled, and I giggled a little.

I had momentarily forgot that our friend was in danger, with the possibility of being expelled. I didn't care that we were on the brink of a war. I was too busy enjoying this moment at Grimmauld Place, with Ron, the twins, and normal family problems. Well, as normal as it can get for wizards and witches, anyways.