AN: Thank you to all the lovely people who have read this and are following the story as well! I cannot express how EXCITED that made me, you are all precious. Also - for this story, Sirius is alive because he's one of my favorite HP characters and he never died in my mind, and we all have that one character, I know we do, so don't judge if you find yourself doing that. Moving on! I just want to specify again that this is definitely an AU and is happening at the end of summer right before 7th year starts. This is a bit of a longer chapter, so I hope you enjoy!
Harry was correct about Hermione wishing to speak to Tonks and Moody first. After Mrs. Weasley brought Hermione some stew levitating the bowl in front of her while holding several quilts, she had bustled around, wrapping the quilts around her and casting a warming charm in the room, exclaiming "honestly this place is so cold and gloomy isn't it, you'd think Sirius would want to open some windows once in a while!" She tied her wayward curls back for her – as much as she could manage to anyways - all while Hermione stared blankly ahead wherever Mrs. Weasley had positioned her for the moment. After all of her flittering and fussing, she sat next to where she had Hermione settled with a heavy sigh and dragged her knuckles across from the top of her forehead to the apple of her cheek and brushed away the curls that had already sprung forward from their designated place. She decided she wanted, and more importantly needed, to say something to the young woman lying beside her looking so lost who had become like a second daughter to her after all these years. Speaking softly, in almost a whisper, Mrs. Weasley bent down next to her ear and grabbed one of her hands to put between her own and said, "as much darkness that you witnessed, experienced, thought of yourself even, as you were gone, just remember that you have twice as much love and support coming from your family. The Order, all of your friends, and of course Harry and Ron especially, we are all your family and we are all here for you, dear. You'll be okay…I just know it." With that and one final squeeze of her hand, she gave Hermione a kiss on her forehead and told her to eat up, fluffed her pillows once again, because pillows can never be too fluffed after all, and crossed the room to take her leave.
Hermione had heard every word, but they came to her in waves of recognition, as though Mrs. Weasley weren't right next to her ear, holding her hand, and instead was across from her in a large and empty room, hearing the words only as echoes of the originals. Once she had fully registered everything and processed how she felt about what was said, "Because processing is a necessity," she thought primly in the same voice that she had used all throughout Hogwarts as a young girl, she decided to sit up. "I will be alright," she had repeated to herself aloud, running through everything about herself in her mind that was even slightly contributive towards her being the person she knew she was. She ate some of her stew and put it back on the bedside table, expecting Harry and Ron to be in any moment, taking this alone time and savoring it as much as she could knowing that soon alone time would be about as likely as catching a dementor in the middle of a laugh.
She was correct when Harry walked in a few minutes later, but was pleasantly surprised to see Tonks and Moody in tow instead of Ron. Moody practically threw Harry out of the way before he had left to give the three of them privacy, while moving get to the chair perpendicular to the bed. He sat down gruffly and grunted his greeting at her, his magical eye swirling in all directions to check for enemies. As she watched him get settled into the chair she couldn't help but think to herself, "Moody is definitely an appropriate last name." Tonks made a much less pronounced entrance as she just smiled widely and her hair changed from brown to a bright pink and looked at her with genuine affection and excitement in her eyes. Hermione mustered up as much of a warm smile as she could at the moment for these two, knowing that without them she would still likely be locked away in the Malfoy Manner's dungeons, and she unconsciously rubbed her wrists as she turned her face to look at the other two people in the room.
Hermione looked down sheepishly before opening up the conversation. "I wish that there was something more I could say other than just thank you, it sounds so underwhelming compared to what you did for me…"
Moody spoke up first, effectively cutting off Tonks, whose hair turned to a shade of a candy apple red at the annoyance, saying, "We need every able member of the Order here with us." He paused for a second and added in as an afterthought, "Or at least alive. Everyone has a job to keep this organization runnin' smoothly girl, and even if you're young things are changin' and we both know you're smart enough to realize that age ain't goin' to exclude people from the darkness goin' on around us anymore, Miss Granger." Looking her directly in the eye with his good eye while speaking gave Hermione the sobering realization that she wasn't rescued with the concern of saving her life only, maybe it had been the main reason yes, but things were changing and saving a life just because you can wasn't just something people could do anymore without thinking about it first. The irony of most of the current Order members being Gryffindor was not lost on her. Tonks, who was sporting a much lighter shade of red now, decided that now it was her turn to talk and this time Hermione was the one being cut off by the words,
"Oh, ignore the old curmudgeon 'Mione, I told everyone what I heard because I wanted to save you, he's just being cynical." She gave Hermione a quick wink and a cheeky smile, knowing the reaction that was about to come from the oldest member in the room. Moody looked thoroughly affronted as he responded saying,
"As you would be, Nymphadora, if you'd seen even half of what I have in my lifetime!" Tonks' hair started turning the previous shade of red at the sound of her first name, but curiously started to turn back to a more muted shade and a mischievous grin spread across her face as she turned to address him.
"Sure thing Mad-Eye, tell me though, do all old and cynical curmudgeons snuggle kneazles, or is that just you?" When Moody's eye widened just a little, Hermione looked between them with a small amount of outward amusement and Tonks continued, "Oh don't give me that look - I saw you and Crookshanks the other day, in the drawing room when you thought no one was looking! You both looked pretty comfy to me if I do say so myself." Tonks' mischievous grin was now replaced by a smug one, with overall satisfaction on her face at getting the rise out of Moody she wanted in return for him using her dreaded first name.
Hermione decided to cut in before things got a bit nastier and decided to thank them very loudly. When she was sure she had both of their attentions, she said "Tonks, I could go for a spot of tea right now, would you be so kind as to get me some?" She nodded but before she could leave to get the tea, a colossal crash came from below them. Tonks and Moody bolted out of the door, and once Hermione had found her way out of the maze of all of the quilts that were wrapped around her, she was following as quickly as she could behind them. Once she had finally reached the kitchen where she knew the others would be, she gasped at the sight before her. Kingsley Shacklebolt was on the floor of the kitchen, looking very much like a large and unconscious heap of purple fabric.
Sirius, who was nearest at the moment looked down at him and welcomed him with a smirk on his face, "Kingsley, old pal! Lovely of you to stop by. Renervate!" Sirius looked up to see Mrs. Weasely, who was also in the kitchen at the time, giving him a disapproving look. "What?" Continuing with his own disapproving look, "It was a genuine greeting, Kingsley really is lovely company Molls, shame of you to disagree with me, that's poor manners." Hermione, not for the first time, had rolled her eyes at Sirius's antics.
Mrs. Weasley was about to give her own retort when Kingsley, now fully standing with his robes righted, boomed, "Not now!"
Though Kingsley had been a Ravenclaw, Hermione was pretty sure that he was channeling his inner Gryffindor right now as he looked around the room surveying everyone's face with an intensity that could have rivaled a lion in the wild preparing itself to attack. Making sure he had everyone's undivided attention he continued. "There's been an attack on Hogwarts, McGonagall sent me her patronus and I flooed in right away to the channel connected in the headmasters office. I got there just in time to hear banging on the door and have Minnie tell me to go – to warn the Order and get reinforcements while she was working on getting the students who didn't have anywhere to go for the summer and had stayed into safe hiding places in the castle. She looked ready to fight and had her wand pointed at the door. I was just about to floo here when the door busted open, and several clouds of black came pouring in, swirling around the room.
"Deatheaters," Harry whispered angrily, his fist clenching and unclenching, pointing a hard glare at the ground. Hermione and Ron shared a concerned and terrified look, both for Harry and for knowing that this could very well be it – the last day that this mish-mosh of a family in the room with them right now –the Weasley's, each other and Harry, Tonks, Moody, Remus, Sirius, Kingsley even, would all be together, living, breathing, existing.
"That's exactly what they were! They flew around destroying all of the knick-knacks on the walls, ripping the books off of the shelves having paper fly everywhere around us making it nearly impossible to see anything clearly, exploding all the glass in the windows, and all I can remember is having the paper finally settle and then watching a cloud of black smoke come right through me then waking up here. She must have threw me through the floo herself…I think this might be it – the storm that's been brewing is finally here."
"Now wait a second, that doesn't make a lick of sense. Not that I don't believe you Kings, of course I do. But why would Voldemort try to attack Hogwarts? The school year hasn't even started yet." Everyone turned to look at Remus as he spoke. He was in the library on the top floor of Grimmauld Place when Kingsley decided to…drop in, and therefore took longer to reach the kitchen where everyone else was but had made it just in time to Hear Sirius' jokes that had been made in poor taste. Unsurprisingly, he and Hermione had rolled their eyes at the same time.
Harry exploded, "Who cares why they did, we need to get to Hogwarts, we need to fight, we need to protect everyone that's there!"
Stepping over and putting his hand on his godson's shoulder to minimally placate him, if only for a second, spoke up for the first time since he made his jokes. "I think that is exactly what he wants right now, and that's the very reason he attacked Hogwarts. He wants to lure Harry out!"
Harry stepped away into the middle of everyone with the most defiant look Hermione had ever seen on his face, which meant a lot all things considered, and was now yelling. "It doesn't matter Sirius! It doesn't matter if it's the perfect plan to draw me out, I'm not leaving McGonagall and those kids to their own defense, I won't!"
Hermione and Ron again met each other's eyes, this time coming to a decision. Each took a deep breath and came to stand next to Harry, Hermione arriving on his left and taking his hand in her own to show her solidarity and loyalty to Harry over the Order itself, and Ron to the right squaring his shoulders and taking on a defiant look of his own showing where his loyalty lied as well. Harry turned to his left and whispered lowly into Hermione's ear, so that nobody besides them could hear what he was saying, and asked if she was sure that she was feeling alright enough to continue doing what she was about to do. Looking him in the eyes, she gave him one certain nod, giving him the answer that he needed to hear. Having his two best friends – his very first forever family – stand by him both literally and figuratively gave Harry the last push of confidence needed to declare to everyone in the room that he would, in fact, be going to Hogwarts and if they didn't like it they could follow him, Hermione and Ron into the floo and come get him themselves. He then promptly headed to the fireplace, a mixture of rage, determination, and surrender marring his face. Following just one step behind went Ron with determination on his face as well, mixed with a healthy amount of terror, and Hermione with sheer determination and concentration covering hers. Before anyone could stop them, Ron grabbed a handful of the floo powder, shouted Hogwarts, and they were engulfed with green flames, ready to fight the battle that they had been preparing for since childhood. Kingsley was right, the storm that had been brewing was indeed here.
Hello again! So if any of you are questioning whether or not this is going to be a short story because the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort is coming up quite quickly, it isn't. Please review or find me on Tumblr as dramioneandicecream!
