"Whenever you're ready, Hermione," Harry said softly, looking around to the others.
Everyone was gathered around a campfire. Hermione and Harry were seated on a bench made from a log, everyone else scattered about. Hermione nodded and sat up.
"There was a struggle at the house, as everyone knows. I had noticed a total of twelve men involved in the struggle against us. None were recognizable on account of their coverings. It was possible that they were there to collect information on our efforts as of yet, but it appears more likely that they were there to retrieve Harry and/or the other students. I do believe that we are temporarily safe.
"The organization is nowhere near as powerful as Voldemort and his followers were, and I do believe we all have enough experience to bring them down. This event, however...horrible, has given me another insight into the organization.
"They're failing. Floundering, in fact. I doubt there is a single goal they have. They're acting on desperation. From our position, a properly headed organization would not have attacked us. We were no real threat. Therefore, the only reason for the attack was either they believed we were a threat, which would mean they are acting without sources, since we've made no progress, or they have no other reason for existing.
"Either way, this shows that they are failing in whatever their original goal was."
Harry smiled, "Perfect. So, what's the next step?"
Hermione frowned slightly, "Now, that's what I'm not sure about. We could try and continue looking into the Floo powder thing, or we could start an alert of some sort and really focus our efforts just on finding the students... Or there's some third strategy that I just can't think of at the moment."
Everyone nodded, silence falling over the fire. "I have an idea."
All eyes went to Draco, "Well, why don't we place a call to the aurors? I mean, Ron's been kidnapped, right?" He continued once everyone nodded, "That makes this organization an international threat. We can put the Ministries around the world on the case of tracking them down, and then focus our efforts on the Floo powder again."
There was a resounding agreement and Harry smiled proudly at his boyfriend, mouthing "I love you" across the fire.
So, Hermione pulled out her wand and got on the phone with the ministry. Everyone else started formulating plans for their research.
A new routine was built. Draco, Hermione, and Martin would set to work on the Floo powder research, while Harry took everyone else into a clear area to practice more complex defense moves. Every few days, Martin would rotate out with Dani so he could do some training as well, and things were going smoothly.
One blessed day, their breakthrough finally came. And, no, it wasn't from Hermione. Actually, it was Draco who came up with the idea. Hermione, Draco, and Martin had been standing around yet another failed batch of Floo powder when Draco got a mad look on his face and went to Hermione's bag to rummage for supplies.
"I've got it!" Draco figured, pulling a few items from the bag, "We've been approaching this all wrong. It's not that they've altered the Floo powder...it's that they altered its recipe. We have to create Floo powder, but tweak the amount of ingredients that we put into it."
"That's all great and dandy, Draco, but how can you be sure we have everything?" Hermione sighed, crossing her arms and leaning against a tree.
Draco gave her a look of utter annoyance mixed with the supremacy that only a Malfoy could hold, "I've made Floo powder before, you know."
Hermione blushed a bit, "Oh, well sorry then."
"What?" Draco looked taken aback, and flushed himself.
Hermione shook her head, "Nevermind, just tell us what to do, then."
And that was the beginning of their largest breakthrough so far. It took three days and thirteen hours, but they managed to create a batch of Floo powder that could transport a group of nearly five hundred from a building without a trace, except some minor residue on the ground. Even better, you didn't need to use the Floo network for it to work, since that magic was never programmed into the powder. They had actually done it.
Hermione spent the day on the phone with the Ministry again, checking in everywhere about Ron's possible whereabouts and updating the different Head Aurors on their discovery. Everyone celebrated that night. Ken and Michael had gone into town with slight glamours on and picked up groceries the day prior, so there was plenty to celebrate with.
That night, however, after the fire was dying down and everyone was settled into bed...Harry stayed up with Hermione. They laid together in her cot. Harry held her in his arms and rubbed her back softly.
Hermione finally allowed herself to feel her pain. She collapsed in on herself, burying her face in the chest of a friend she knew from battle. Her body shook with soft tremors almost unceasingly. As Harry gently brushed her curls from her face, her tears hit his chest with a hot vigor.
She had gone through too much in her life already. Now her husband was kidnapped, her children separated from her, and a child that might have been had been lost. She hadn't felt so small since the time she spent pinned beneath Bellatrix Lestrange, and even then she had known that dying in that moment would have been a sacrifice for every other person like her.
Hermione was not the first person to suffer from loss.
She also wasn't the first to shine despite of it.
She went through terrible, terrible things. On a daily basis she was treated as a second-class citizen by those with a longer magical lineage than she. This hadn't stopped her from being brilliant, talented, and brave.
But she wasn't the first to do that either.
Hermione was just another girl who was too strong to bow to the forces that wanted her on her knees, but now she had lost everything, and the only person who she had to turn to was a friend that she had been estranged from for years.
It's a little ironic, the way that life treats you sometimes. Just when you think you've finally escaped the horrors of your past, settled down, begun a beautiful family with someone that you love… That's when it decides to come back.
She shouldn't be bawling her eyes out into the thin blue T-shirt that Harry seemed to wear everywhere. Hell, she shouldn't even have a reason to cry in the first place.
She knew she shouldn't, but Hermione couldn't help but blame the very person that was comforting her for her pain. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be here. Ron would be safe. Her children would be by her side. She wouldn't be learning about a pregnancy by losing it.
But she knew it was bigger than that.
If it weren't for Ron and her own efforts, would Aurors worldwide be looking for these students?
If it weren't for her, would Draco have been able to properly reconstruct the augmented Foo powder?
Hermione knew that this was necessary...she was just so damn tired of losing every battle in order to win the war.