Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


There was no light in the room although it was high noon. Hermione didn't care as she sat cross-legged on the bed that was to be hers for the duration of her stay. Her current book was spread out on her lap with many pages of notes around her and a stack of books at her side. Her eyes had long ago adjusted to working in dark conditions and it was necessary to keep them so. She might have a comfortable workstation now but that wouldn't be the case in a few days time.

This was her second day at the Burrow and it was already grating on her nerves. Five weeks into the summer and she had been finally retrieved from home in order to attend the nuptials of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Harry had been in the Burrow for a week and a half already because as it was covered by Aurors and Order members alike it was deemed safe enough for the Boy-Who-Lived. That was the official version any way. Hermione knew that keeping the wizarding world's savior mentally stable had been the key driving point. Dumbledore's death happening before Harry was even truly over Sirius's had caused many to question how his sanity would hold up so they had allowed him early release from the Dursleys for the first time in his Hogwarts history to allow him some sort of support system. Hermione was more than a little upset that she hadn't been brought early to be a part of the system seeing as she was only one his best friends. Even worse, letters had been taboo between them for 'security reasons' and the only way she had been able to contact her friend had been through a charm she created that would allow them to write on parchment to each other and communicate instantly. She had gotten the idea from the muggle email that her mother had shown her on the computer the previous summer and had used the Protean charm as a basis for the new spell. Luckily, in a stroke of foresight she had mailed a piece to both Harry and Ron right after the end of school and before the mail ban started.

Still, being purposely separated from her friends had done nothing but increase her resolve that finally ignoring the rules and taking this situation into her own hands was the best decision she could have made. She had made what she felt was excellent progress in preparing for the War and part of that wouldn't have been possible if she had stuck to the rules that the Order wanted her to follow. As the Ministry was still breathing down Harry's back and being almost as much as a nuisance as Voldemort, her first step after getting back from the training at Hogwarts had been to discover and/or develop some sort of spell that would block anyone from detecting any magic she was doing. She'd had to go into some of the Gray area magic books to find base charms and potions that she expanded into her own new spells. It had taken her one week with no sleep to do this; such was her determination and need.

Her parents had thought she was crazy as what time she didn't spend locked in her room, she was at the 'library' or buying various muggle methods of disguise. The first time she'd come back home with about twenty bottles of different dyes and hair products, her mother had sat her down and wasted both their time with a twenty minute lecture about loving herself and not changing for any boy. Hermione had laughed in her face and informed her that she and Ron had agreed to put things on hold for various reasons. Her mother had been taken aback but Hermione had simply gone back upstairs to her room. Wizarding disguise spells had ways of being detected unless you were a Metamorphmagus, so she was making a collection of disguises that she, Harry, and Ron could use on their search for the Horocruxes.

They had already found and destroyed Slytherin's locket. Once Harry had mentioned it was a locket and the letter with the initials R.A.B, it wasn't too hard to connect it with Sirius's wayward brother Regulus and the locket at the Black house that couldn't be opened. They made their move after Hermione was finished with her cloaking spell and both boys had mastered it. It had been a tricky piece of spellwork to disappear under everyone's nose without anyone noticing, but surprisingly enough, it was Ron who had suggested a doppelganger spell (a darker Grey spell he'd heard about from one of his brothers) that allowed them to be elsewhere with a copy of them in the place where they were supposed to be. Hermione refined it until their doppelgangers could fool their closest friends and they had set off. Three days later, they had found and destroyed the Horocrux on Hogwarts proper.

Though Dumbledore was dead, the ancient wards and magic protecting Hogwarts held, making it still one of the safest places on earth. The problem only came in someone from the inside letting unscrupulous characters in, but as everyone was gone, including the teachers, and it re-opening was still being reevaluated it was the perfect base for them. The entire Hogwarts library was at their disposal and they made use of it, researching all the founders and descendents to get a lead on the next Horocrux, and increasing their own knowledge. Harry, after Hermione had informed him that both she and Ron had the aptitude to become Legilimens and Occlumens and would he please get a move on so they could do something about it, had finally mastered Occlumensy and Legilimency enough to help train them, and together they worked to control their minds. What time not spent researching or going through each others heads, was spent drilling in offensive and defensive spells both wandless and silent, and in muggle hand-to hand combat and martial arts. Harry had gotten the idea from a movie his cousin was watching and had come prepared with different styles of martial arts that Hermione, Ron, and he could pick and choose from. Non-stop drilling and help from a surprising source had made them all proficient enough that they would be able to stay alive long enough to get their wands if they were parted from them.

They spent a week together linearly at Hogwarts, leaving for their school almost as soon as they arrived to their various houses. In reality they spent almost two months. Hermione had managed to get a time-turner (the same one from her third year and the only one that had survived fifth year's ministry time turner massacre as Dumbledore had never returned it) from a harried McGonagall, who hadn't asked questions and didn't even remember handing it to her (Hermione felt slightly bad about that but Harry had justified it by pointing it out that now their professor couldn't be implicated in anything), and they had used it judiciously.

They left Hogwarts determined with their friendship tighter than ever. Hermione had given them both a disguise package just in case, and instructions on what they could do from their different locations. She had worked like a madwoman since then, making undercover forays into Knockturn Alley or Hogwarts (thank Merlin for Apparition) whenever she needed a book for research and developing the rest herself. Her average was three hours of sleep a night and it was always choppy as she tended to wake up at odd moments with new leads or old answers.

Besides the Horocrux research, occlumency and legilimency training, and frantic drill work with or without her wand, Hermione was taking a leaf out of the Weasley twins' book. She'd succeeded in making wizarding versions of both grenades and proximity mines. Memorizing new spells and re-assessing certain Dark spells was another pastime. The Ministry had a habit of being overcautious with their descriptions so Hermione had discovered that some Gray and Dark spells and potions didn't live up to their labels. It was more relative than that. Some of the potions and a few charms had shortened her work considerably.

Now, however, she was dedicating all her time to Horocrux research and finding the next one, Hufflepuff's cup. As soon as the wedding was over she, Harry, and Ron were taking off. If the school re-opened, they might make a pit stop there, but everything hinged on their finding the horocruxes and not letting Voldemort know that they were doing so. The destruction of the locket had left them drained of magic for twelve hours after the fact; Hermione from holding the circle wards that kept the magical backlash from being detected by anyone, and Ron and Harry from the terminating. Hermione had refined the process since then so that it would have less magical drain on them and so that it could be done quicker. Hermione was no fool; none of the other horocruxes would be so simple to get rid off.

The book she was reading was in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and it was one of the many foreign wizarding books she'd had to turn to better understand horocruxes. All countries had quietly banned anything to do with the soul splitting technique, but England, in the Ministry's typical overzealousness, had almost completely gotten rid of all information besides the name. Hermione had learned several new languages in self-defense and had perfected translation spells in order to pass it on for the boys to read. The most frustrating thing, worse than the lack of info, was that while Hermione could probably make a horocrux herself, she was still only guessing at the steps Voldemort took to make the multiple ones.

She turned to the next page. The entire section was on methods of preserving the soul for passage to Osiris and Anubis. Though the book was written for the ancient priest sect of Egypt, it contained several theories that she felt Riddle must have used to successfully make horocruxes. The sheer genius behind the machinations made her appreciate Snape's class and her experience in the past year's potions more than ever. The Half Blood Prince's potion's book had shown her faults in a very unpleasant light. While she excelled in schoolwork in controlled environments, 'books and cleverness' could only take her so far. In putting her obsession with good grades on the backburner, she had started making those improvements and now she was tracing one of wizarding's greatest minds down one of its darkest roads. The thought both thrilled and scared her.

She tapped her quill against her mouth, and then rolled off the bed simultaneously casting a shield charm and a Stupefy at the door. Wand in hand, she faced her aggressor.

Ginny Weasley crumpled to the ground, her cheerful expression going slack as she fell and hit her head on the partially opened door. Hermione wandlessly ended the spell and Ginny's first word was "Good." She stopped after this and blinked.

"Did you just Stupefy me?" Ginny asked slowly. The entire episode had happened in a few seconds and her brain was still catching up. She stood up gingerly and the light coming in from the hallway making her trademark Weasley hair look like fire.

That reaction time could get her killed, Hermione's brain supplied.

Ignoring this thought, the brunette witch closed her book and began putting up her papers; with a wave of her hand all her books shrunk and her notes changed into to-do lists, essays on the pros and cons of different careers, and possible assignments for homework. She put all of this into her bag, then locked the bag with five different charms, two found only in certain parts of Africa and three she'd created, all of them keyed to open to only her or the boys' magical signature. Once this was done, she turned back to Ginny. The girl might be the future Mrs. Potter, but she was not in the loop of people Harry put his ultimate trust in, a loop that just contained Harry himself, Ron and Hermione.

"You startled me." Hermione answered. During the time she and the boys had spent researching at Hogwarts, they had made it an ongoing game of sneaking up and hexing the others as a fun way of preparing themselves. They even kept score to see who was in the lead at any given time. Hermione was hexed so many times researching that automatically striking out at any distractions had become her habit. She'd gotten so fast at casting jinxes and counter that she could hex and finite her parents without them even realizing it.

Ginny glowered at her. "Don't you think you're taking this a bit too far? I can't even walk into my own room without getting stunned!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Were you ever able to do that?" Ginny had six older brothers.

The redhead witch had the grace to blush. "Okay, so maybe I haven't always been able to do that, I just didn't expect attacks from my only female ally. And you didn't say a word." She grinned at that. "I can't wait until I master silent magic."

"It takes hard work, but it's worth it." Hermione tried to look interested in the conversation and not like she wanted Ginny to get out so she could continue her research. Slowly but surely, Hermione was getting better at this whole 'dissemblance' thing.

Of course, her best (read: only) female friend saw right through it. "Hermione, I better than most understand that it's important for you to work, but you need a break before you collapse. Come outside and socialize. Get fresh air."

Fresh air. Hermione cocked her head to the side, trying to remember the last time she'd granted herself that luxury. She'd just apparated over here from her house and she had only left the room for bathroom breaks and dinner. And she'd finished gathering the necessary materials they'd need on the road weeks ago which meant that she hadn't left the house since then. So, it had been at least two weeks since she'd had 'fresh air', not that it truly mattered to her as she would be getting plenty of it on the Horocrux search.

Ginny had planted herself in her Weasley mom stance that meant she wouldn't budge until she'd gotten her way. A glance at the mirror informed Hermione why.

Bushy didn't even begin to describe the state of her hair as it seemed to fly in all directions at once, as thick and tangled as ever. Her skin was pale and pallid and the circles around her eyes were so dark they looked like eyeliner. Her clothing was at least clean, though the jean shorts and t-shirt she was wearing were wrinkled enough that even three months ago she might have thrown a fit had she seen them. Now she didn't care.

"Ron and Harry wanted to talk to you to." Ginny added, seeing Hermione weaken.

Hermione nodded. They needed to come up with the final plan of departure from the Burrow as well as catch up on everything they'd done in the few weeks they'd been separated. She stood up and ran a hand through her hair.

"Ow."

Well, tried to run a hand through her hair. It was in desperate need of a comb, brush, and an entire bottle of detangler. After witnessing another of Hermione's fruitless attempts to comb her hair straight, Ginny took pity on her and spelled it into a bun.

"Come on, Mum will be happy to see you too." Ginny led the way downstairs, past the numerous wedding preparations, to outside where several chairs were set up for the wedding and Harry, Ron, and Gabrielle Delacour were sitting and talking.

As they walked towards them, Gabrielle said something that made Ron throw his head back with laughter. Ginny patted Hermione on the shoulder as if to comfort her, but Hermione felt no twitch of jealousy, no sudden desire to set rabid canaries on anyone. Since she and Ron had agreed to put things on hold, she had at least one aspect of her life she could count on.

Harry glanced up and saw them first. His shoulders tensed up as he glanced at Ron obviously enjoying the French witch's company and Hermione with Ginny. His eyes met Hermione's, gauging her feelings in a few seconds and his entire body relaxed at what he read in them.

Hermione smiled, one of her first since she'd arrived. Harry depended on them too much for them to screw up with everyone's concentration by entering a volatile relationship. And no matter what anyone said, any relationship involving the two of them without a mediator would be volatile.

"Hey guys," Ron charmed two chairs to join their little group. Hermione took one that set her between her boys while Ginny sat in between Gabrielle and Ron. "We were just talking about the latest law the Ministry passed. Apparently it's even being decried in other countries."

"It's about time the rest of the world realizes that situation here is not getting better anytime soon." Hermione said matter of fact.

"Yes," Gabrielle's English had improved immensely since the last time she'd seen her, though her accent was thick as ever. "En France, the government ees debating on intervention or embargo and some of my family and friends have expressed dismay at Fleur's decision to marry a British wizard."

"But France is not the only wizarding population eyeing us." Ron put in. "In fact, we're practically allies. Its other countries like America and Spain who are trying to get the support to intervene and impose martial law."

For some reason this comment struck Hermione as funny although her laugh was far from happy. "By the time they're done debating we will already have martial law under Voldemort. And then it will be open warfare." The graveness of her tone increased with each word she spoke and the uncomfortable silence following her last word signaled the death knell of the conversation.

Hermione could point out several different examples of situations exactly like theirs in both Muggle and wizarding history whether it be the rise of a dark lord or a gun-happy dictator. The other countries or even the government and people of the country victimized debated and talked and weighed pros and cons and thousands of people died. History was riddled with instances of this yet each time people had the nerve to act like it was something new. If people actually read and researched instead of blindly following the idiot who talked the loudest, things would actually change.

The bustle continued around them, people complaining about the placement of chairs, the flowers, the food, and the guest seating arrangements. Hermione ignored this, her mind focusing on the fact that there was an ever present clock ticking above their heads and that every second wasted was one that they would regret in the end. Harry met her eyes and she knew that their thoughts mirrored each other: they had a death to plan and they needed to make use of the time presented to them which meant that the two younger witches sitting with them needed to leave. They both looked at Ron and he sighed.

"So, not that it hasn't been fun, but-"

Ginny abruptly stood, her face and ears red. "You just need to ask us to leave. We're not blind."

The rest of the group stared at her; Gabrielle and Ron with something close to surprise, Harry with regret, and Hermione with the same sense of apathy that had been growing in her since she realized that she had to help turn one of her best friend into a killer with the whole world standing in the balance. The apathy helped her view things dispassionately, be removed. And removed, she saw the hurt that the redhead witch couldn't conceal with anger or humor, hurt that she was being left behind again. But Hermione couldn't afford to coddle her which meant that this situation was just one more thing which would go unresolved until after Voldemort was dead, or AV as Ron had finally nicknamed it (the suggestions Harry's Ultimate Conquest and Harry's Win were vetoed). The things being clumped in this category were just piling up. Hermione wondered, not for the first time, if the wizarding world had therapists.

The youngest Weasley stormed back to the house.

"What's up with her?" Ron voiced after Gabrielle hurried after Ginny to placate her.

"She wants to come." Harry crossed his arms.

"That's out of the question." Ron stated, much more placidly than normal. "It would be too dangerous and she's too young."

Hermione laughed and the boys flinched. "She's only a year younger Ronald, and its just as much danger to us."

Ron frowned. "You're not actually on her side ar-"

"Of course not." The brunette witch waved this concept away. "It was the principle. She's not ready."

"Exactly what I said."

The corner of Harry's mouth quirked up. "That depends on the translator."

"A modern English one would not have found our reasons synonymous." Hermione snorted.

They all grinned at each other and they were back in first year when their biggest concern had been Snape's potions' class and they had been secure in the knowledge that good trumped bad and love conquered evil and happily ever afters were the rule, not the exception. Then reality dropped back in; Harry's eyes aged ten years, Ron's position hunched over, and all traces of emotions left Hermione's face.

"Do we want to do this here or somewhere more private?" She asked, taking out her wand in the same breadth.

"Here." Harry answered.

"That way no one will suspect we're up to anything because they can see us." Ron elaborated. "And I don't feel like moving."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine." She began the set of spells that she had researched and arranged to go in the perfect order to prevent any form of eavesdropping or any detection of the spells themselves. It was both to get into the habit of doing and because she wouldn't put it past the Order have at least one listening spell on one of them as that's what she would have done in their position. Once that was finished, she settled back in her chair and looked at the other two expectantly. "Let's begin."

"Something needs to be done about the Ministry soon or half the wizarding world is going to see Voldemort as the lesser evil and then we'll really have a problem." Ron said, grimacing mildly at the dark wizard's name. "With every statute and law purposely aimed at curtailing pureblood rights, they're just pushing Voldemort's main demographic into his arms. Even Mum and Dad are upset about these things and we're firmly entrenched on among his enemies."

"It's not just the pureblood's either. Wizarding Protection Statutes numbers 12 thru 16 are about half-bloods." Harry added. "It's like Scrimgeour is purposely being prejudiced against the rest of the wizarding population to make up for Muggle-born and Muggle discrimination."

Hermione frowned. The Daily Prophets she had been getting had failed to mention this, not that she was too surprised. She was disappointed that the Quibbler hadn't started printing the real news so that wizards would have something to read other than useless propaganda. "Last time we talked you said they had imposed a curfew and banned a few of the more outdated pureblood customs, ones that were used mainly by elitists."

"Yeah," Ron shrugged. "But since we didn't want to disturb your research, and since we couldn't owl you, we didn't tell you."

"Oh, so Scrimgeour following Hitler's path isn't important enough to tell me." Hermione barely restrained herself from snapping at Ron's 'oops-sorry' expression. Why did they think that she had given them the e-parchment?

"It's nothing we didn't already predict and plan for." Harry cut in before his two friends started sniping at each other. "Two days after we talked to you, that Tuesday, Scrimgeour passed more Wizard Protection Statutes and the Racial Tolerance Laws."

Ron took over and Hermione was reminded of watching Fred and George. "In the beginning they were just getting rid of outdated things and equaling rights, but last week they interfered with the heir process and dowries." His words dripped with disgust.

"Dowries?" Hermione repeated, her natural feminist tendencies breaking free of her priority oriented mind. "Wizards still do that?" No matter how many years she'd spent in this world, there was always something new to discover. "Getting rid of them doesn't seem like a bad idea. This isn't the eighteenth century."

"What?" Ron stared at her like she'd just announced she was having Voldemort's love child, his facing growing redder by the second. "How could you-"

"Ron, remember I thought the same." The boy-who-lived stooped over further, his brow furrowing as he searched for the right words. "Hermione, it's not the same as it is in the muggle world. It's like the physical manifestation of a will, proof that that you will carry on your family legacy, not just limited to girls. Every piece of history your family has is secured to a 2nd generation member of your family to be passed down. If there is no immediate family, the dowry will pass to the nearest blood relative. It's a way to ensure that family history is not forgotten because everyone will have something and the ministry won't be able to step in and repossess things. A main reason why the Malfoys have retained most of their Dark Magic items and books since under the dowry process they can't be seized without Malfoy's permission unless they go through a years long procedure to bypass it." Harry's tone grew bitter. "That's the excuse they gave to why they were abolishing it. Because of a couple families' Dark Arts collection. Taking dowries away is like someone burning everything your family has to remember its past by: photographs, antiques, diaries."

Their redhead friend had calmed down. "It's even worse than taking away the heir process."

She had heard about the heir process. Specialized family magic was passed through families thru the strongest member-usually the eldest male- in a method that allowed the rest of the family who shared blood ties to draw upon it. Once that member reached the age where he or she could no longer hold it, they passed it on to the person who was considered heir of the entire family. In rare cases where the magic was too much to hold or a family held two types of drastically different magic, two heirs would be chosen. It was the reason that some families were known for certain types of magic. It was also the reason that certain types and branches of magic had died out thru the ages because if the heir died without naming a successor and no one was strong enough to step forward and bind the wild magic, it was lost. Still, it was interesting to consider that Ron considered the loss of heritage worse than losing a part of his magic.

"And no one has rebelled yet." Hermione stated.

"The ministry hasn't been enforcing it. Dad says that they can't." Ron's hands clenched and she knew that he wanted to pace. "No one will do it. Some of the Aurors have already quit. People are trickling out of the ministry. If the Order didn't need him inside the ministry, Dad would be gone as well. Both he and Mum have been furious. He says that Scrimgeour won't listen to reason, yet every time he sees Dad he asks him about Harry."

"It's almost as if he thought the death of Dumbledore would automatically make me the Ministry's lapdog." Harry's sentence ended on a sneer, as it always seemed to do when he talked about his relationship with the Ministry.

"We've long known that Scrimgeour won't be much help, now we know exactly how much of a deterrent he'll be." Hermione pursed her lips. "Besides taking over the ministry ourselves, we can't do much on that front so we'll have to trust the Order to handle it."

"So basically we're ignoring it." Ron clarified. "The Order is useless. They aren't doing anything. We've been here the entire summer and they still don't trust us with basic information. Everything we've learned has been through the twins and spying."

That was as much as Hermione had expected when she'd arrived and none of the adults had updated her on anything. Despite the fact that they were all of age, the Order was treating them like first years. Yet it wouldn't change anything. The Trio had never had the permission or protection of others when they ended up on an adventure (aka fight for their lives); all they had was Harry's bravery, Ron's strategy, and Hermione's intellect. It had got them through six years of misadventures when most of their escapades were thrust upon them at the last minute. Since they'd had time to train and plan Hermione was much more confident. Not that she thought that they'd get out of this scot-free. Her aim was for their survival and Riddle's death.

"Think of it as practice." She said practically. "You boys can give me pointers."

"Everything always has to be about work with you." Harry joked without malice.

Hermione shrugged. "Someone in this group has to stay focused. Now how have preparations for leaving been on your end?"

Ron snorted. "Bloody easy that's what. The only thing they're serious about is us not owling anyone. We've been going off on our own so much that no one even comes to look for us as long as we check in every five to six hours."

"Five to six hours?" She gaped, ignoring Ron's language. "They let you go unsupervised for five to six hours? Surely one of the Order is trailing you?"

"At first maybe." Harry shared a look with Ron. "Then they backed up when they saw we weren't doing anything dangerous."

"We've decided that they think I've been alleviating Harry's depression and left us alone to keep Harry from spiraling too deep." Ron grinned.

Harry sighed. "I'm glad you find my mental instability so amusing."

"There is little else that is."

It was a true statement that sapped the enjoyment from the air. Hermione's next question killed what was left of it. "Did the Death Eaters actually have a Muggle massacre last Friday?"

"Yes. Fifty killed and the Order found out after the muggle police had started investigating. It was at a community swimming pool and a third of the dead were children under the age of thirteen." Harry's voice was tired, as if each murder was a personal insult to him. The aged look was back in his eyes and it was all Hermione could do to keep from getting up and hugging her best friend. She had become adept at reading his moods and any comforting right now would be seen as pity which would make things worse, so she would put that on the back burner until later. Priorities.

"We overheard Tonks complaining that if the death toll kept increasing like this and Muggles keep on being killed in public places with witnesses, we wizards won't be able to maintain our secrecy much longer." Ron continued. "Truthfully, these last attack patterns almost suggest that he wants to be discovered by muggles."

"Attacks?" Hermione frowned, hating the fact that she was this behind in information. If the Order members would come to their senses and initiate her and the boys this wouldn't be an issue. "As opposed to disappearances?"

"Attacks." Ron nodded. "Not only in broad daylight, but in places that leave witnesses in different areas so it's impossible for the Obliviators to reach all of them."

"Train stations and airports; football, cricket, and rugby matches." Harry counted them off on his fingers. "It's escalated since I came here but it was bad enough that the Dursleys were happy to be getting wizarding protection when I left. The muggle prime minister's explanation has been freak weather and no one believes it. I'm surprised that you don't know. It's been all over the news."

"Lightning that decapitates and maims on a clear sunny day?" Ron shook his head. "No one is that thick."

"My parents," she paused; it was odd to think that right now they did not consider themselves such and would not until she and her friends won the war. "They did mention that weird things were happening, but they said that they thought it was another terrorist group. I have to admit that I've been so focused on research that hippogriffs and blast-ended skrewts could have started a colony in my backyard and I wouldn't have even noticed."

Harry chuckled mirthlessly. "And you know all the disappearances we were trying to figure out in the beginning of the summer? Well, their bodies have been turning up at famous landmarks both wizarding and muggle."

"They found the head of one of the Unspeakable divisions hanging from Big Ben. Three of the missing aurors were discovered staked in the middle of Diagon Alley. The Muggle Studies professor was found in Hogsmeade…" He swallowed. "Her skin was hanging under the Three Broomsticks sign with the message 'Death to Blood Traitors' on it in blood and the body was in the street. Vo-Voldemort," Ron was still not as comfortable with saying the name as his friends were, "wants all the attention to be on him."

Hermione nodded and successfully fought back the nausea she felt from picturing the professor's death. She had to think logically. Mysterious vanishings followed by the discovery of a ravaged corpse, it was basic scare tactics. Riddle was building on the wizarding world's fear, stoking the flames with each slaughter and torture. The strategy was no less brilliant for its simplicity, she had hand the megalomaniac that. "This is allowing him to do to key things: increase fear of him and garner interest in recruiting."

"Recruiting?" Ron gave Harry his trademark Hermione's-gone-daft-again look. "I'm sure there's some bloke out there reading about V-Voldemort's torture and mass murder, going 'that seems like fun, I wonder where I can join up?'"

"Sarcasm does not become you Ronald." She knew that this thing was riding all of them hard, but everything would go smoother without his needless remarks.

The boy-who-lived was apparently thinking on the same lines as she. "Ron, those sorts of people who Voldemort wants. But this is mostly aimed at getting people to join him to avoid becoming another casualty. Plus people who will join up to get back at the ministry for passing these stupid laws. Frankly, Voldemort doesn't need to do any campaigning for new members; the Scrimgeour and his crew are doing it for him."

A thought occurred to Hermione. "The order has checked to make sure it's actually Scrimgeour and not Polyjuice, right?" Normally the question wouldn't have left her lips as until a few months ago she had viewed the Order as an intelligent, capable organization; now, in the view of someone who has seen that they left two potentially unstable young men (they would always be her boys) notorious for going off half-cocked into danger alone after the death of an important figure in their lives, she felt the question was necessary.

They all exchanged glances. "Yes, he's been here so. I mean..." Harry trailed off.

"Moody's seen him and hasn't done anything so he must be the original." Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron's deductive reasoning.

"We still can't discount the possibility of some form of Imperious or that one of the other Ministry officials is under Imperious, but for now let's get back to the Horocrux search." She took a deep breath. "I've pinpointed the most likely spots to find the cup. I won't tell you now for liability reasons, just that you'll need clothes for both hot and cold climates."

Harry sat up again, the most animated he'd been bodily their entire conversation. Hermione didn't know whether to be pleased that he was showing life or worried that he was getting too focused. Indifference won out, for the time being. She needed to evaluate how much good Harry would do for the wizarding world if he broke after he saved them (and how much good she would be if he did).

Ron interrupted her thoughts. "How many likely spots?"

She hesitated, struggling with issue of accountability before deciding that she could grant them this. "Three and Voldemort has been to each place."

"Any new ideas on destroying them?" Harry peered at her intently.

"Yes, from my research on the ritual we did and from analyzing the results, I've come to the conclusion that it was the destruction of the object that destroyed the Horocrux, so we didn't have to remove and destroy the piece of soul." She pursed her lips. She should have realized it sooner from the way Harry had destroyed the Riddle's diary second year, but that was what happened when you tried to do too many things at once.

"What?" Ron kicked the side of Harry's chair. "So we went through that bloody ritual for over twelve hours and all we needed to do was melt the locket?"

"Ron," she rolled her eyes. "It won't be as easy as all that. Voldemort was no fool so it won't be that easy to destroy the cup. We'll definitely have to use magical means."

"Means that won't include you almost dying from magic loss. Sounds like a plus in my book."

So she had been a little worse for the wear after the ritual, it wasn't anything to complain about. Each time she drained herself and survived she pushed and expanded the boundaries and quantity of her magic. That was what mattered.

"Moving on, we need to be prepared to leave the moment the wedding is over. The doppelganger spell will come into effect immediately and we won't have to worry about people looking for us." The spell, as they all knew, was actually an intricate network of charms held together by runes, potions, and arithmancy thought up by Hermione and powered by all of them. There would be a constant drain, but it would ultimately increase their magic reservoirs. It also cut back on the number of lies they would have to tell when they left.

"And we aren't telling anyone." Ron motioned to the Burrow, no doubt referring to one of the expansive Weasley brood. "Not our location, but just letting them know that we are gone."

Hermione sighed. "We've already gone through this. The less people know, the better our chance for success."

"But we might need something; there might be an emergency!"

"They might get questioned or worse to find out our whereabouts." She ignored the way Harry stiffened; they had to deal in truths and the time for babying Harry Potter had long passed. "They can't release information that they don't have."

A beat of silence then, "you didn't tell your parents?"

She smiled, aware that it was no more than a baring of teeth. "My parents, having no idea that they ever had a child are, even as we speak, picking out a new house somewhere in Australia where they are going to be living under a new name." And, after all the potions that she'd given them, they wouldn't even register as related to her on any of the spells used to indicate relation. It would be a nightmare for her to try to locate them after this was over.

Her expression didn't alter as Ron deflated, his eyes searching hers disbelieving, and Harry stared shocked. It didn't hurt anymore; tears had streaked down her face when she obliviated them. That action had affected her in places Dumbledore's death hadn't touched and the last of an innocence that she had already considered gone had departed with her parents on their plane to Australia. But there was no time to mourn and no reason to when her rational side had resumed control and pointed out that Harry's parents were dead and that Ron's were going to be taking an active role in the war.

A war that had begun on sacrifices and one that would be continued with sacrifices.

This reflected in her eyes. Ron glanced away

"So it's settled." Harry said with finality, his piercing green eyes never leaving hers. "In two days we officially begin our quest."


A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, FF wasn't letting me upload chapters. I hope everybody likes this so far. Please leave me a review to let me know what you all think. ^_^