A/N: Yay for long chapters! Enjoy
A flash of green light suddenly filled the room. My immediate instinct pushed me to roll off the bed. I stood tall; my wand out at the ready in the direction the light had come from. I silently muttered a shielding charm around myself. The room was still.
I glanced slowly around the room, when a purple curse came out of nowhere, flying straight toward my head. I ducked in time and threw a disarming spell its way. It was silent again.
I cast my Patronus. "Possible danger. Come quickly and quietly. Watch out." I watched as my otter crawled across the room and through the door to my friends. A quiet minute later, a stag, horse, fox, swan, beagle, and hare soundlessly made their way in, each nodding at me and speedily bounding around the room. I gasped at the brightness that surrounded the room, the Patronus' reflecting each other's beautiful, pale blue light.
My door creaked open and I pointed my want at the entering figure. I met Harry's eyes. His wand was out and Ginny stood close behind him.
"What did you tell me in the woods while Ron was gone?" He whispered.
"That I thought I was in love with Ron and that I was more afraid of his not returning than of being captured by You-know-who." I muttered loud enough for him to hear me. A tear fell down my cheek and he walked slowly up to me and pulled me into a hard hug. Ginny rubbed my shoulder, staying alert for whatever it was that had just tried to attack me.
Neville and Seamus then entered, their hair standing on end. Neville smiled at me and he and Harry ran over to help Ginny and Luna set charms around my three small windows. Seamus rubbed his eyes sleepily. "You alright, 'Mione?" He yawned. I put on a weak smile and nodded, looking wearily around the room. All of my friends were there, searching so intently. After about ten minutes of intense shielding and searching, they gave up and many returned to bed.
I walked over to where Cho and Hannah Abbot stood. Both of them were living in the room next door and looked so afraid and out of place in my room.
"Oh, Hermione! I'm so glad you're okay!" Hannah sobbed, throwing her arms around me. I patted her back as she cried, attempting to assure her I was fine and everything would be okay, though I wasn't sure I could believe myself. Cho looked at me over Hannah's shoulder, smiling sadly.
"Did you see the flash of light?" I asked as soon as Hannah let go of me. They both shook their heads.
"We didn't see or hear anything," Cho said. "We were fast asleep."
I shook my head. "There was no noise, but the spells were so bright. It woke me up." I rubbed my temples. "I've never seen such an intense coloration before. I have no idea who it could have been."
Ginny ran up behind me. "I sent a Patronus to my parents and the twins. They're on their way to cast a couple of stronger wards around the place." I thanked her and we followed the rest of them out the door to the living room. Seamus, Dean, and Harry sat on one couch, while Neville and Hannah cuddled together on the nearby loveseat everyone looked toward the fireplace, where I joined Ginny and Cho to lean against the warmed brick. I noticed the sparkle of recent spell work and realized someone must have closed the Floo Network into Grimmauld. I made a mental note to thank whoever did so. Luna came in soundlessly, levitating multiple cups of hot chocolate and sending one to each of us and receiving a chorus of "Thank You"s as she sat between Seamus and Dean. I took my cup and smiled at the whipped cream, shaped to be a perfect otter.
There was a loud knock on the front door and all of us froze to stare at it. Harry stood and ran to the door. "Who is it?" He demanded.
Arthur's voice rang through the thick door. "Ut enim ad Phoenicis,"
"Iterum occurrunt!" Molly Weasley finished the old safety passcode. "Harry, please let us in!"
Harry just barely opened the door before Molly pushed herself through and ran to me. "You poor dear!" She cried. "Are you alright? Didn't get hit did you? We will find who did this to you, Hermione dear, I promise you. We won't sleep-"
"We already haven't slept, Mum." Fred mumbled sleepily.
George yawned. "Yeah, I'm beat."
"You complain once more and you WILL be beat!" Molly yelled. The twins apologized, throwing tired grins my way and collapsed onto one another where Harry had just sat. The twins now lived separately, George with Angelina and Fred above the joke shop, but acted just as inseparable, as if they hadn't been apart once since the war.
I looked back to the door way and my heart sank a bit. There stood Ron, staring at me with such worry and exhaustion in his eyes. I stood slowly. Everyone stopped to watch us.
"I'm so glad you're okay." He said, shoving his hands deeper and deeper into his fleece jacket. A slight smile crept onto my mouth, but the tears remained. Only a few hours ago we had been in a yelling match and I had made it clear how upset I had been with him. But he had come, worried about my well-being despite all of that. I walked over to him and he wrapped me in a fierce hug. "Scared the bloody hell out of me."
"Thank you for coming, Ronald." I whispered.
We separated and I returned to sit next to Ginny. He went to where Harry stood near the entryway. The two shook hands at first, then Harry patted him on the back and hugged him. "Good to see you, Mate." He chuckled.
"Wish they were better circumstances," Ron grinned.
After finishing our greetings, I explained all I had experienced to everyone. We sat there, making no noise in the glow of the firelight, trying to figure out how to move on.
"I haven't heard of spells with so intensely described coloring before," Arther said, his face clouded in thought.
"There haven't been any instances of attacks in seven months." Harry said in a business like manor. "And we caught the perpetrators of the last three attacks." Ron nodded, looking an awful lot like his father at that moment.
Just then, a Patronus in the form of a Koala appeared and crawled to the middle of the room.
"We've had an attack on a member of our household. Keep your guards up. All is well, but we fear the worst we have imagined is on the brink of appearing." It turned to look at me. "Hermione, be careful. There is one here who fears your safety is most on the line." And with that, the Patronus disappeared.
Molly stood. "Andromeda," She gasped. "How could she know to fear for Hermione?"
My head was spinning. There had been an attack to a member of the TONK'S household. I instantly thought of the morning before, with Malfoy. Had he been attacked? I stayed calm knowing that Andromeda had assured that all was well there, but uneasiness flowed through every vein in my being.
I sat on the stairway in apprehension. My hands tangled themselves into my hair as I listened to my mother talk to Ted. Aunt Andromeda was conversing nervously with what looked to be a soft white Weasel in the back garden. I growled at the unwelcome reminder of fourth year's incident with Mad Eye Moody.
"Have you recently applied some wards to the home?" My mother's voice was soft, but having been raised to listen to it, I could easily understand each word.
Ted coughed. "Yes, the day before we deemed you guys safe." "Arthur Weasley may be on his way to make them stronger." I winced. The image of a Weasley was infuriating entering the house, remembering how their prat of a son had treated Granger. I shook my head trying to get her grin from the day before out of my head.
I heard my aunt rush into the house. "There's been another attack!"
"On who?" Ted's voice was full of worry.
"Hermione Granger." My heart began to race. No. "The D.A. and the Weasley's have been warding the old order house and keeping the girl safe. Poor girl."
I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Get. Granger. Safe." I snarled.
My mother's eyes went wide. "Draco-?"
"I said get her safe! Nott and Lestrange attacked me, and if my attack had anything to do with hers, then she needs to be in the safest place possible." I sighed. "She's not pure-blooded and she's one of Potter's two best friends. Not only that, but she's recently split from the Weasel and is vulnerable as hell."
"How do you know all this, Draco?" Ted asked quietly. "Why so much interest?"
My fists and teeth were clenched. I had never felt so livid in my life. "I saw Granger the other day on my walk. I don't care, I just don't want any more unnecessary deaths." My eyes found my mother's and I silently pleaded her to understand. She pursed her lips and looked down at her neatly folded hands.
"Andromeda, please send word to them to watch for Miss Granger's safety and inform them of our own news of attack." She said softly, her tone smooth and pure. I looked to my Aunt. She stared at me, her mouth opened slightly. She looked to Ted, who nodded slightly.
"Okay. Expecto Patronum!"
A/N: The passcode is Latin for "For the Order of the Phoenix, we meet again". I figured they needed a way to recognize other members of the Order, so why not a cool sounding, barely pronounceable, Latin passcode?
