Harry was walking towards the stairs as he exited the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

That meeting had been quite the development, Lupin definitely seemed odd.

It was understandable that the man would be devastated, but why was he acting so strangely towards Harry?

His ex-defense professor had not even acknowledge his presence, only turning to look at him when Dumbledore asked him and Fleur to stay for a minute after everyone left.

Did he think it was his fault that Sirius died?

Maybe there really was a great conflict between vampires and werewolves, which had been raging on throughout the centuries, unnoticed by all but those who were a part of it.

Yeah, right.

He was probably grieving the loss of the last person he could have called family, he was bound to be devastated. He certainly looked devastated, his clothes were trashed, his demeanor was that of a broken man, and he smelled like hell.

He had tried not to dwell on it, but damn! That guy reeked of animal, alcohol, smoke and garbage. He had always looked like he had been in a fight with a pack of cats, but now he looked like he had been drunk and then severely trashed by the very angry pack of cats; clothes completely ruined, his hair was grey in places it shouldn't be for a man his age, and his demeanor was that of a beaten man.

Harry thought he would ask the werewolf what the problem was after the meeting but then Dumbledore had intervened and Remus had left pretty quickly. So now he would have to wait until they met again, probably in two months time, when they were scheduled to return to Headquarters to report.

Dumbledore had been very clear with that particular instruction.

Because of the headmaster's suspicion that some of them might be being watched not just by Death Eaters, but by other creatures like themselves, they were not to return or even approach #12 Grimmauld Place until after two months. They were also advised against communicating with each other.

Harry hadn't expected it would be that…intense? Dramatic? Never mind.

At least he had been a little lenient with Fleur and Harry. The two of them, being the two youngest members, and this being their first mission, had been allowed to keep in contact. In addition, they had been given the address of a probable safe house should they ever need it.

He hadn't asked Fleur what hers was, the part-Veela had waited for him after she had been dismissed and was now walking silently behind him, but his was apparently a temporarily abandoned apartment above a restaurant called Yo Sushi, not that far away from some Westminster Bridge, according to Dumbledore, that wasn't that far away from the clock tower he had seen, which turned out to be the Big Ben and Parliamentary building, again, according to Dumbledore.

How had the Dursleys managed to never take him to London?

Again he thought about the meeting he had just witnessed, he couldn't say he was a part of it, since he hadn't really said anything. The only time he had spoken at all had been after everyone else had left, when Dumbledore had asked him if he was totally sure this was what he truly wanted, and telling him it was not too late to back out.

Harry had assured him, even if he was no longer as sure of himself, that he could do it if he was given the chance.

Everyone else's tasks were already mapped out and a strategy had been drawn for each, except for him.

Hagrid had been as nice as always, ha and Madam Maxime had been the first to arrive, the half-giant had been a somewhat nervous at first, probably thinking Harry would be a wreck after losing his godfather, but after he had explained his theory of making him proud instead of mourning, the man had gotten busy with congratulating him for making it into the Order and supporting his idea.

"You can bet Sirius is proud of you, watching you become a young man and all." He had said.

While he had been working at Hogwarts, fulfilling his role as a teacher, Madame Maxime had been using her contacts to find giant settlements in France; they were supposed to go visit them in this upcoming summer break. As giants had an established procedure for first encounters, taking only a few days to send them a message, they would visit around four of these and spend the remainder of the time period pretending to be vacationing somewhere on the western region of the country.

Remus didn't have it so easy.

Apparently there were dozens of little camps around England, and of these he only would visit a few.

Unlike with giants, he would actually have to live among them, pretending to be desperate for a place to stay and live as an equal, for a number of weeks before he could move on to a different one.

During his stay, he was to talk to the werewolf population and find out their general opinion about working for Lord Voldemort, trying to at least plant the seed of doubt about Voldemort's intentions for them in their minds.

Hopefully some would resist, and when they did, he would be there to help someone rally them all, thus creating another faction working against the Dark Lord.

Harry was worried about him.

He wasn't taking Sirius' death in stride, and now he had an important task ahead of him.

Harry's mission couldn't be harder than his, since there was only one known location where vampires lived in the vicinity.

Fleur's assignment was a complete unknown; the only information gathered about veela settlements was the name of a small village in the north of France where veela were rumored to have been sighted frequently. She had the same story as Lupin, wayward part-veela, abandoned by all and wanting nothing more than to learn about herself and her kind and find a place where she could be understood.

Whether the other veela accepted her or not was up to them and the outcome of her mission hung upon their decision.

That probably was what she was thinking as they walked the short way from the kitchen door to the stairs; Harry's vampire brain was allowing him to process more information in a lesser amount of time.

He wondered how was he supposed to tackle his assignment.

He knew the where, the when, and the why. But he did not know who would be there when he returned to the underground city, having only met two vampires, and more importantly, the how.

How was he supposed to just get down there and become one of them?

Calm down, Harry. He mentally said to himself. You had an important conversation with their leader, you left on bad terms and with an appointment pending. Just go, smile, and pretend like there is nothing wrong anf you are just there to talk to the leader again.

Sounded like a good plan. Surely they would notice he had been turned and offer some kind of support. Right?

But you did kill one of them, remember? The helpful voice in his mind said. What are the chances he was an important one?

Well…

He was definitely screwed.

Harry was a bit surprised when he noticed he was climbing the third step of the first floor staircase. Agile mind indeed.

But as interesting as using his mental capacity to the fullest was, it still felt weird to be focused that much while walking and thinking of what to do about his friends.

So he decided to wait until he returned to his bedroom to start thinking what to do about the whole situation.

If he was lucky, he would arrive undisturbed at his room and just sit there thinking for a possible solution for his dilemma. And when he came up with an intelligent course of action, he would follow it and hope for the best; the next day was supposed to be his last day in headquarters and he hoped to have it all fixed up by then.

Of course, Harry's luck didn't have precisely the best record in existence. It would pop in on the most critical moments and completely abandon him to his fate at any other time.

And this didn't seem to be a sufficiently severe situation, as when he finally arrived at the landing his room was on, a bushy haired girl was leaning against the wall, right next to his door.

She appeared to be dozing off, her head was bobbing up and down as it slowly slid downwards or sideways and then jerked up suddenly while she struggled to stay awake.

For a minute, Harry considered slipping past her and into his room. But he could sense this was one of those things Hermione was determined on, so delaying her would be useless.

Fleur didn't notice anything was wrong until she bumped into Harry's back.

She looked up again and was about to ask him what the matter was, but was stopped by Harry rising a finger to his lips.

She looked curiously at him and he removed the finger from his lips to point at the half-asleep figure of Hermione.

The blond girl blinked a couple of times and scrunched her azure eyes, trying to see through the darkness; it must have been darker than Harry thought, his eyes could see everything clearly as if they were only under a shadow.

Fleur finally spotted the other girl and she smiled knowingly, but after a second she turned thoughtful again and looked at Harry.

"What are you planning to tell 'er?" she asked in a whisper.

He really had no idea, Fleur bumping into him had distracted him, but he figured he would just wake her up and think of something.

"I'm not so sure." He answered. "I'll just wake her up and see what happens."

He turned to Fleur, who nodded.

"Good night, Fleur."

"Good night, 'Arry." She replied, her voice a little downcast.

As Harry walked away, he began wondering.

Was this going to be the last time she saw her for the next two months, the next year?

She had been nothing if not supportive and kind to him; he figured he at least owed her a proper good-bye. But that was not the time or place for it, whispering and with a potentially volatile girl half asleep not really far away from them.

If they were to leave the next day, maybe they could meet up really early so they could get a chance to properly say good-bye. Yeah, that would work. He could wait for her out in the street so he would still be fulfilling Dumbledore's orders. Besides, it would only take a minute, no harm done.

Right?

Just as he was about to turn around however, he felt, and heard, Fleur take a quick step forward and reaching out to grab his shoulder, spinning him around.

"''Arry!" she whispered. "I need to speak wiz you." There was a peculiar look in her eyes, not desperate, not in any way urgent, just… peculiar. Still, it looked as if it was something that was important. Does she want to say good-bye as well? Why couldn't vampires have the skill to understand girls and identify her expressions?

Before he had a chance to formulate a response, the French part-veela continued.

"Can you meet wiz me in ze kitchen," She asked. "tomorrow at six in ze morning?"

Harry nodded, some confusion showing on his face.

Fleur's hand was still on his, Harry was in a good way perplexed to say, rather muscular shoulder. He didn't remember his build being like this yesterday; the change was small, not just defined but a bit more muscular, but even a human should notice it had one seen him before and after, or at least he hoped so. Harry was as tall as Fleur since his first day as a vampire, but either her shoes had had taller platforms that day or he had just grown about half an inch.

He was more confused about that than the unsure expression on the blonde's face, but was brought from his internal meditation on the probable cause of his 'growth spurt' when said blonde pulled him into a hug, nothing to tight or overwhelming as last time, just a friendly and… perhaps a touch… shy, hug?

The hug was brief, but Harry did have a chance to notice the effect hugging her back had brought upon girl.

Her body seemed almost tense until he hugged her back, she had relaxed and silently let out a breath Harry hadn't realized she had been holding in as she melted into the embrace before quickly letting go.

The small amount of confusion evident on Harry's face was exponentially increased by the time she offered him a smile and continued up the stairs, not another word spoken.

Again he wondered why God had decided to make women be so damn complicated and nearly impossible to understand. First she's all thoughtful and silent, then she goes all serious and urgent, and now that.

Why? Why, God, why?

This is becoming highly frustrating. He mentally stated.

He finished his musings before Fleur even disappeared from his sight.

Well at least I have the quick wits thing.

He watched her until she reached the end of the staircase, bent the corner and walk into the next one, vanishing from his eyes but not his ears, not his feet for that matter, as he could still feel the weak vibrations coming from the wooden floor generated by each step she took.

He turned around to Hermione.

Still where I left you, I see. He thought. Better get this over with.

He walked over to her and tentatively touched her arm.

"Hermione" he whispered, but the girl did not even stir.

Nothing.

Better try a new approach.

He poked her arm and called her name again, his lips an inch from her ear.

"Hermione!"

The girl jumped a bit as her sleep was rudely ended and opened her tired eyes, coming face to face with her best friend recently turned vampire, who had a grin slightly irritated, slightly amused expression on his face as he looked at her.

There was annoyance in her eyes, but Harry was greatly relieved to see there was not one bit of fear in them.

"Sorry" Harry said, his tone light, "I tried everything else but you just wouldn't wake up."

"Oh, ha, very funny, Harry." She snapped at him.

They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, their expressions slowly morphing into seriousness.

"We need to talk." She stated.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, this was going to be a long night. "Of more than you have in mind."

She didn't seem fazed, maybe she thought he was going to reveal the fact that he was a vampire, as if she didn't know that already.

"Let's go inside." He said, opening the door on her immediate right and motioning for her to go in with his other hand.

He was pleased to see Hermione did not hesitate for an instant about being alone with him; he liked to believe that meant she still trusted him not to kill her if stuck in a closed space together.

Harry followed her in and closed the door behind them.

He just knew it was going to take quite a while for Hermione to become satisfied of receiving information, and he didn't think he could lie to her.

Good thing I don't need that much sleep.