Chapter Song

ONE DAY YOU WILL ~ LADY ANTEBELLUM

You feel like you're falling backwards

Like you're slipping' through the cracks

Like no one would even notice

If you left this town and never came back

You walk outside and all you see is rain

You look inside and all you feel is pain

And you can't see it now

But down the road the sun is shining

In every cloud there's a silver lining

Just keep holding on (just keep holding on)

And every heartache makes you stronger

But it won't be much longer

You'll find love, you'll find peace

And the you you're meant to be

I know right now that's not the way you feel

But one day you will

Chapter quote

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

- Mother Teresa-

It was the hottest day of summer so far at least that what it felt like to Hermione. She had been cooped up in number 12 Grimmauld Place ever since her mother died. She told Mrs. Weasley that she was adopted but didn't want anyone but her and Ginny to know at that moment. Mrs. Weasley told her that was fine and that she should call her molly not Mrs. Weasley.

Hermione was the only one that ventured into the black family library at the moment she would take the books off the shelves and both the shelves and books down and would put the books back up if they weren't too dark. She took the dark ones and put them into a closet located in the back corner of the room. Surprisingly the section shelves were still mostly full when she finished with it. She did the work at night when molly and the order where in meetings and didn't have her, Ron, Ginny or the twins cleaning up other rooms.

When she finished with one shelf she would sit in the bay window and watch the muggles walking past not realizing that there really was a number 12 Grimmauld place that went unseen to the muggle eye. She hadn't looked back into the chest in the two weeks since she's been here. She wanted to be alone. She thought of moving it into the library but didn't want to impose on Sirius's space; even if he hated the house of his hated youth although he did say he was glad that he wasn't the only one who disliked his family.

"Hermione?" called Ginny.

"I'm in the library." Hermione called back continuing to look out the window down to the street with the muggles.

"Muggle watching are we?" asked Ginny.

"More like gazing."

"The room looks a lot better than when we first got here. Did mum tell you to clean it?" she asked.

"No I just did it for myself plus I thought Sirius might like to have the dark magic books removed. I put them in the closet over there until he decides what to do with them."

"Thank you."

"Oh Sirius, I hope you didn't mind. I just started doing it by cleaning the shelves and books but I thought you would want the dark books removed."

"Calm down Hermione. Its fine and we could use the books for fire fuel."

"Oh okay."

"I never thought that I'd see the day when Hermione was willing to burn books." said Ginny from her chair.

"Well they are dark books."

"Lunch is ready girls. Hurry down so we can finish and start with today's cleaning." Yelled Mrs. Weasley

The two girls and man hurried down stairs so they wouldn't have to face the wrath of one Molly Weasley when they didn't get down to lunch or any other meal on time especially when cleaning was to be done in the afterward. She had planned on cleaning the drawing room on the third floor but she also thought that it might be wise to clean up one of the sitting rooms and make it into another bed room for a guest the order was expecting in the next month.

Mrs. Weasley had them clean the sitting room because it would be needed sooner than the drawing room would be. They had to remove all the dark objects out of the room and dust and wipe down all the surfaces, some had to be scrubbed down along with the floors. The twelve years Sirius was in Azkaban left the rooms unkempt by Kreacher the black family house elf.

Since she didn't know if any of the objects were cursed or how many were cursed Mrs. Weasley made the children and herself ware dragon hide cloves to protect from any curses or poisons' the objects might hold. It was also a pains taking process because they had to keep on taking several objects from Kreacher.

About two hours after they stopped the kids working, "You can stop working now. The Order has a meeting." She had told them.

"Come on Fred we can see if we perfected our latest project." Hermione heard George whisper to Fred so their mother wouldn't hear them and yell at them; like she did yesterday when she found the Canary Creams in their room when she cleaned it. The yelling was frightening to Hermione who at that point hadn't even heard her yell like that even though she spent like every summer with Harry, Ron and his family. Hermione snickered and walked over to where Ginny was standing.

"Hey Gin you want to help me go through all my mum's stuff in that hope chest"

"Sure it would be better than starring at the kitchen door waiting for the meeting to be over so we could eat dinner or getting pranked by Fred and George." Replied Ginny taking one last glance at the mysterious and mysterious look on the twins faces. "I don't want to be in the same room as them when they get caught by mum again and it would be nice to see what you're mum was like."

"Especially when she was younger; she hadn't been in that hope chest since before I started Hogwarts. For all I know my Hogwarts letter is in there somewhere," Replied Hermione.

"That would be cool to still have your letter. I know mine is long gone."

"Have you thought about who your dad might be?" asked Ginny.

"Not really because all I know is he either has black or dark brown hair and eyes that are exactly like mine. Not really much to go on and it's not like I can walk up to every pure-blood wizard and look at their eyes to see if they look at mine." Hermione replied tiredly.

"I get your point."

"Well here's the chest." said Hermione sitting down Indian style in front of it and opening the lid all the way.

All the Weasley's (minus Percy and Charlie) and Hermione and some of the order where just sitting down to dinner when Kingsley Shacklebolt appeared into the kitchen. "Sorry I'm late." he told them the kids were smart enough to notice that he expected to appear in the meeting not the middle of diner and knew he needed to say something.

They finished dinner and the adults that weren't in school sent the kids up stairs so they could continue the meeting. Of course Fred and George never ones to leave quietly; complained that they should be allowed into the orders meetings. The other kids could hear her yell at them that they were still in school and too immature to handle what the ordered deals with each and every day. She had yelled louder than when she found their canary cream stash.

Hermione, Ginny and Ron burst out laughing when they reached Ron's room. They had gone to Ron's room because the contents of the hope chest were scattered about Ginny and Hermione's beds. They had decided to organize it before they look at it all.

The silence of the room was broken with two loud resounding Pops. The pops had come from those of Fred and George. "If you three younglings want to hear what they are saying come with us," Replied Fred and George at the same time.

"How?" asked Ron.

"We have perfected these." Said Fred holding up a flesh colored string.

"What is that?" asked Ginny scrunching up her nose.

"This my dear little sister" said George began "is an extendable ear!" he finished with a flourish.

"What do they do?" asked Hermione.

"They allow any person to hear any conversation up to one hundred feet away. All though you want to be careful about using them because people can see them."

"So can cats," Added George.

"How do you know that?" said Ginny.

"Crookshanks ate the end of the third one we tested," Replied Fred.

"Now come on lets go listen to what they are talking about," Said Fred and George pulling Hermione and Ginny off the spare bed in Ron's room.

They were all silent as they crept down the stairs so they were close enough to use the ear. What were dementors doing in a muggle neighborhood? (Sirius) is he all right? (Molly) of course he's alright but fudge is going to have a field day with this one he's already had him sent a expulsion letter. (Kingsley) what? (Molly again) don't worry molly he not going to be expelled Dumbledore got him a hearing instead he's bound to get a fair shot now. (Arthur) well we have to get Harry here somehow. (Mad-eye)

After that they heard the scraping of chairs and all five kids ran up the stairs to their rooms.

"Harry got attacked by dementors? How?" asked Ginny in a agitated voice. Hermione knew that Ginny still had a crush on Harry even though she said she didn't.

"The ministry is supposed to have control of them unless Voldemort got a hold of them." Hermione said.

"Could you please not say his name?" asked Ginny

"Fine T F D got them on his side."

"T F d?" question Ginny.

"When you break his name down into three parts you get Vol De Mort and translate that into English from French you get theft from death at least that's what my computer at the time said."

"Oh that is so creepy how that fits his personality and name." Replied Ginny, "Wait, where is the computer located now?"

"I know I only did the translation during my trip to France with my mum and dad and I sold the computer when I started spending most of my time in the magic world although I would get another if I or someone else figures out how to make muggle things work around magic."

"That would be cool, either that or someone magical invents the magical equivalent to them."

"That would probably easier."

"Bedtime is in twenty minutes," Called Mrs. Weasley up the stairs, "Bed checks in thirty." She added.

"Might as well put all this up," Replied Hermione waving her hand above all the papers and photos. Ginny agreed and helped her put it all back into the hope chest. After they finished cleaning up they both of the girls grabbed clothes and snagged the closest showers before the boys could and cleaned up, changed and went to bed.

"Night, Gin," Called Hermione as she rolled over to go to sleep. But sleep would not come to her because she was still distracted by the hope chest. She knew that chest held the key to her real father's identity. She had mix feelings about it on one had she wanted to find him and ask him why he never contacted her or why he never came back to her mother and on the other she wanted to leave it alone and keep the memories she had of the man raising her.

Before she knew it Hermione could hear Ginny snoring in the bed across from her. Five minutes after she heard Ginny's first snore she heard the door opening and the door closing. (Mrs. Weasley doing bed checks)

Hermione couldn't stand it anymore she yanked the covers off her body and went to sit in front of the chest. She just sat and stared at it debating whether or not she should wait for Ginny's help or not. It would be better if she waited for Ginny because if something made her start to cry she wouldn't have to worry about waking Ginny up. And Ginny waking up a full five hours before she was suppose to would make for a very angry and very mad red head and that meant that Hermione would have to watch out for the Bat Bogey hex when ever Ginny was able to use her wand again.

So instead of waking up Ginny, Hermione just looked at the chest.