1st chapter! This introduces the characters and everything. I hope you enjoy it :)
Chapter One
Hogwarts
"Harry, Harry. Wake up."
Harry Potter groaned and rolled over to grab his glasses. He rolled back over and looked at his best friend. "What, Ron?"
"Let's go to the kitchens." Ron suggested.
Harry groaned and threw his head back on his pillow. "You woke me up for that?"
"I'm hungry and everyone's asleep. We might as well go for a snack. Get more use out of the invisibility cloak your dad gave you." Ron grinned. "After all, this is our last year."
His grin was infectious and soon Harry sported a similar expression. "Okay."
The two boys crept to Harry's trunk as silently as they could and pushed open the lid. A gleaming, odd coloured cloak lay at the bottom of it. Harry reached in and pulled it out.
He swung it around and placed it on the shoulders of both he and Ron. As soon as it covered them, they disappeared from sight. At least from human sight.
Stealthily, the two boys crept from the Gryffindor dorm and down the stairs, passing a snoring Neville who was hunched over a potions essay from the snarky potions master, Severus Snape.
"Poor guy." Ron muttered as they passed.
Harry nodded in agreement as he pulled open the portrait hole and the two walked through it.
The Fat Lady rolled over in her hair, still asleep, as her canvas swung open. She only snorted when it shut again. Otherwise, her slumber continued uninterrupted.
"Come on." Harry hissed.
Remus Lupin was sat in his chambers. He had started as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor that year. He taught fifth to seventh years while his friend, Sirius Black, taught first to fourth years. He also covered Remus' classes during a certain time of month.
Not only did the two friends live and work together, they also had raised a child in secret.
One night, eighteen years before, the two had been monitoring this family for a secret organisation called the Order of the Phoenix that was set up by Albus Dumbledore to save the wizarding world from Voldemort. There had been a prophesy and Dumbledore, and everyone else for that matter, had assumed it was about Harry Potter.
So much so that they had sent the Potters into hiding with Sirius Black as their secret keeper. They had nearly switched to Peter Pettigrew when Peter had made the mistake of being too eager. Suspicious, Lily and James had stunned him and discovered the Dark Mark.
So Voldemort didn't find the Potters that night, but Bellatrix Lestrange had attacked the Longbottom family, sending Alice and Frank into a conscious vegetative state. Their son, Neville, had been sent to live with his grandmother and they now lived in Saint Mungos.
There had been another baby that night. A little Muggleborn girl. Dumbledore had managed to discover that Voldemort was also fixated on her, but the prophesy seemed so clearly linked to Harry that they had not really protected the Granger residence.
Then the Grangers had been killed and their daughter, Hermione, had survived the killing curse; the only one ever to do so. Remus and Sirius had taken the child and fled.
As per the Order's instructions, they went deep undercover with the girl. They had started her training from an early age, going against Dumbledore's wishes. They hadn't wanted to defy him, but there was a chance Voldemort wasn't gone and they couldn't risk the life of the girl they had come to love so much.
When Hermione was three, Severus Snape had joined the group. He flooed to their house every night to spend time with the child, reading her a night time story and playing with her. He had taught her potions and was extremely surprised when she brewed the Polyjuice potion when she was twelve years old. She had brewed it to enable her to go to Hogwarts under the guise of someone else to defeat the Basilisk. She had researched it all before hand and when she overheard a Floo call from Severus to Sirius saying that a girl had been taken, she had flooed herself to Hogwarts to find the snake and kill it.
"Remus?"
Remus jolted out of his thoughts too see the very girl had been thinking about standing before him. She was on the cusp of womanhood and was blossoming into a very beautiful woman, if not a bit too harsh. She, unlike her peers, had had to fight the forces of evil practically alone. She was older than all of them yet kinder and gentler as well.
"Yes, Hermione?" Remus smiled.
"I'm going to the kitchens to get something to eat. It's late so no one should be about." Hermione told him.
Remus nodded. "Have you had any luck with the research?"
"I think I might have worked out how to get Slughorn to talk. It's just finding the right time." Hermione replied.
Remus sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He glanced at the clock to see it was one in the morning. He hadn't realised it was so late. "Well, I'm going to bed."
"Night, Remus." Hermione smiled, hugging him.
"Goodnight."
Hermione slipped from the room and navigated the hallways using an object two of her father figures had given her called the Marauder's Map. They had said it might help her with her missions.
Skilfully dodging Filch and his cat, Hermione entered the kitchens where she was greeted by Dobby the House Elf and his companion, Winky. Hermione had saved Dobby from the Malfoy family when she realised Malfoy had given Ginny Weasley the diary that had possessed her. She had tricked him into giving Dobby the diary that held one of Lucius' socks inside as she posed as one of his human maids.
"Miss Hermione!" Dobby cried.
Hermione laughed as she hugged the elf tightly. "How are you Dobby?"
"Dobby is good, miss. How is miss?" Dobby replied.
"Tired and Hungry." Hermione gave a wry smile.
"Winky will fix Miss Hermione a sandwich." Winky announced, walking off.
Hermione smiled at the elf's actions. Winky wasn't one to proclaim her feelings, but she knew that Winky took great pride in taking care of Hermione.
As Hermione sat in the kitchen, watching as Dobby and Winky worked in tandem to make her a snack, the door opened.
Hermione moved with lightning fast reflexes honed by her training her time in the field. She grabbed the intruder and placed her knife to his neck.
"Harry!" Ron cried as he stared wide eyed at the girl holding onto his best friend with a knife in her hand.
Harry's eyes were wide and he frantically searched the room for something within arms reach he could use to free himself.
"Miss Hermione!" Dobby cried. "Miss Hermione be letting Mister Potter go!"
"You know him?" The girl snarled.
"Yes, Miss Hermione. He is being Dobby's friend." Dobby sobbed.
The girl released Harry, making him stumble forward a few steps to get away from her, rubbing his neck.
"Harry, you alright mate?" Ron asked.
"Fine." Harry croak, eyeing the girl warily.
"Sorry." The girl gave an apologetic look.
"Who are you?" Ron growled, also cautious of her.
"Hermione Granger." She introduced, holding out her hand.
Ron's jaw went slack. "The Hermione Granger?"
