Welcome to Headquarters
Dear Mum and Dad,
Yes, I am having a good time with the Weasleys. No, Harry isn't here yet. We're hoping he can come in the next week or so. You asked what I've been doing. Well, we've been helping Mrs Weasley with some cleaning around the house, and I've been trying to get Ron to do his summer homework. I don't know why I'm bothering, I'm just going to have to do the same thing with Harry when he gets here. I've also been spending a lot of time with Ginny. It's nice for both of us to have another girl around.
I have to go now, but I'll write again soon.
All my love,
Hermione
I felt so bad writing letters to Mum and Dad and not being able to tell them everything, even if I knew it was safer that way. My only consolation was that so far I hadn't had to tell an out-and-out lie, but I knew that it may not be long until I was forced to, depending on how fast the war progressed.
So far we had been officially installed in Headquarters for about three weeks, and things weren't looking good. The Ministry had gone beyond simply refusing to believe that Voldemort was back, and had now started discrediting Dumbledore and Harry, making it even harder for our people within the Ministry to convince anyone of the truth. Further to that, Voldemort was being very clever, only doing things that could be easily explained away as unfortunate accidents that could happen to anybody, giving us very little to work with, or against.
Not that "we" were doing much. Mrs Weasley had made it very clear from the beginning that us children – plus Fred and George – were not to have any part in the war effort itself. We could talk to the Order members that passed through if they had time, but we were not to ask them questions about what was said during meetings or specifics of what was going on outside. Obviously we were told some things, partly for our safety but I think mostly for the sanity of the adults, who knew we would only pester them until they gave in. But mostly, our role in the war so far had been cleaning Headquarters, which was no easy task.
But speaking of the Order members, there were definitely some interesting characters passing through those doors on a regular basis. Obviously we already knew Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape, but it was both interesting and quite strange to see them outside of school. Particularly Snape, whom Ron was convinced was a Death Eater sent to spy on us and kill us all. I have to admit the thought had crossed my mind, but I hope that I was not quite as overly dramatic about it as Ron was. I think the whole neighbourhood could have heard his tirade the first time Snape visited Headquarters. McGonagall was also a bit of a surprise, not by her presence, but by her actions. We had all gotten so used to her strict Professor demeanor, that to have her smile at us and ask if we had been enjoying our holidays was somewhat of a shock. Whilst McGonagall was still definitely McGonagall, all of us got to see the slightly softer side of her character that summer, a side we didn't see again for many years to come. I think that, despite her best efforts, Professor McGonagall did have favourites among her students, and it was becoming clear that we were amongst them. Oh, she didn't do us any special favours, and she checked that we were doing our summer schoolwork every time she was at Headquarters. But there was something in her eyes, something soft and caring and almost like love. I think given the chance, McGonagall would have made a very good mother.
But I digress. The Professors weren't the only members of the Order who were out of the ordinary. In fact, anyone who was ordinary seemed out of place in this motley crew of resistance fighters. There was Mundungus, forever reeking of something toxic and carrying stolen goods in his pockets; here was Dedalus, with his squeaky little voice and range of top hats. Over by the fireplace was Tonks, with her bright pink hair and Weird Sisters T-shirt, talking to Charlie – sporting several new burns on his arms – and Remus, ever scarred and greying. At the table you could find Mad-eye whispering to Emmeline Vance, Mr Weasley and Edgar Bones, his magical eye whirring around, keeping track of anyone and everyone. Mrs Weasley was invariably found at the stove, sometimes with one or more of the female members helping her. Hagrid could be seen wherever there was space for him – and sometimes where there wasn't. And Sirius…well Sirius was everywhere at once. Catching up with long-lost friends, arguing with Dumbledore to let him out of the house, moping in a corner, making plans with Mad-eye and Kingsley about how to get Harry out of the Dursleys and into Headquarters in the safest possible manner. You name it, Sirius had been there and done that, and probably a vast number of other things that didn't even cross our minds.
I didn't know if I was more worried about Harry stuck with the Dursleys with no idea what was going on, or Sirius, trapped in his own personal Hell. Remus had told us kids a bit about Sirius' upbringing, and even though it really wasn't much, between that, Sirius' behaviour and the house itself, we got a pretty good idea of what it would have been like. It had become clear to me very soon after meeting him that Sirius was an action person. He couldn't just sit back and watch things happen. And now not only was he being forced to stay inside indefinitely, but it was in the one place he never wanted to hear about again, let alone live in. And I was worried that if he was kept there much longer, he'd do something stupid. Unfortunately, it was becoming very clear that he was going to have to stay at Headquarters for a very, very long time…
As vague as I had to be with my parents, I was able to put at least a bit of truth into my letters. Most of our days were spent cleaning, a task that would have been dead boring in any other house, but was a tad too exciting in a house that literally tried to kill you every few hours. Of course Ron complained about it the whole time, regardless of the "adventure" it provided, but the twins were 100% in their element. Even though I knew they really wanted to be involved in the Order themselves, the tasks we had been given provided them with something they craved – equal parts danger, adventure and help for pranks. And whilst their positive attitude was infectious, it was also alarming just how many things they seemed to be collecting along the way and hiding away from Mrs Weasley.
Another thing that I had told the truth about was my relationship with Ginny. I loved my boys, I really did, but sometimes I just really needed a girl to talk to, gossip with or just to spend "girl time" with, playing with each other's hair and eating the chocolate we got Tonks to smuggle in for us. It was then that we could temporarily forget the war, forget that our lives, as well of the lives of the ones we loved the most, were in terrible danger, forget that we were different. In that room, we were just two teenage girls complaining about annoying brothers and overprotective mothers or discussing which couples we thought would get together or break up or making fun of our Professors. Once we opened that door again, it all came flooding back. But for those few moments, we weren't a Muggleborn and the daughter of two of the biggest Bloodtraitors in our world. We were just Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley, girls with hopes and dreams of a bright, safe future. And it was those moments that kept us sane I think. Because we spent so much of our time worrying and speculating and trying to get information out of the adults, that if we didn't have our own little refuge, we may not have made it through that war at all.
A/N. Firstly, a huge apology and a big thank you for your patience. I know this is slow on the updates, and I am honestly doing my best. I had this idea of writing at least five chapters before posting this one to be ahead, but one paragraph into the third and I caved! So there is more coming, I promise. Hopefully this was worth the wait, as are coming chapters. I'm really excited about the rest of this story, I feel like it's going to be really fun to write. I only hope I can do it justice! Anyway, enough from me. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you did, what you didn't and what are you looking forward to the most from OOtP? NG.
