Hermione had been staying with the Order for all of a day before they decided it was time to try to find Ron. Really, apart from having witnessed a handful of important events, she could not fathom why the two of them were so important, though she supposed she was a guest of honor. The Xian and her instructor had released her after she asked them to be allowed to continue her investigation of the problem, but as always there was something they wanted. In digging through her mind and looking into the conflict in magical Britain, which had caught the attention of much of the world, one of them had been most interested in all the different sides and what they represented. She remembered her attempt to explain it as she aided Mrs. Weasley with preparing supper.

In most countries with a respected, authoritative, legitimate government, you will only find two sides in the event that an internal war occurs, those for and those against. The central difference with the conflict in my homeland is that Voldemort does not care about the government as long as it does not get in his way, and blood purism cannot be classified as a strictly 'anti-government' position. Opposing him and his minions essentially divides itself to pro-government and anti-government factions.

Her audience understood why there were oppositions to Crouch's authority, mostly because of the bad faith approach it was taking in its stated objectives. It was easy for them to see from her memories that the Ministry was taking more pains to keep itself in power than it had to fight the Death Eaters. It was fair, of course, for any state to suppress rebellion, but cracking down on insurrections before they started necessarily predicted that the state had plans that would invite rebellion.

In short, the Xian wanted to understand the anti-government faction that was opposing Voldemort and his forces, since she had already identified herself as belonging to that very group, in a sense. Once out of range of their Legilimency, she allowed herself to think of another explanation, that they were looking for whichever side would leave Magical Britain the weakest after the war was over, but she felt that they might actually be wrong about that, if that had been their assessment. In any case, she doubted she would find Ron and Mafalda, since they were hiding from entities of greater resources than she, so she sought out the Order.

Remembering some of the Hogwarts teachers had been members, and some of them lived in Hogsmeade, she drew an appropriate teleportation ward for getting there and arrived instantly, disguising herself with some charms to her outward appearance. The method of travel was something she had been studying, but her understanding of it was easily completed by those with infinitely more experience in the subject. At the village, she asked around for a few different teachers and where they might be residing, but the residents were less than willing to share information with a stranger. Fortunately, she found Hagrid at the Hog's Head.

"Huh? 'ermione? Tha' you?" he had asked quietly. It appeared the alcohol was getting to him, which fit, since she counted about twenty discarded mugs.

"Yes... are you still caring for the grounds?" she asked, motioning for him to follow her outside.

"Bit 'o this, bit 'o that... when they moved the school, they said they didn' want any o' the creatures ter come with 'em. Big mistake, if yeh ask me." Her supposition that he knew she was a wanted criminal was confirmed as soon as they were outside. "What're yeh doin' here?"

"I need to get in contact with the Order of the Phoenix. I know they won't base things at Longbottom Manor; it's too exposed..."

"Come with me," he whispered, or what passed for whispering. "How'd yeh get here?"

"I know a ward that teleports anything within it. I can't say that it will get through Anti-Apparation jinxes, but..."

He told her the address, how to get in, and the rest was history.

Hermione finished up helping the Weasley matron and went into the dining room, which was larger than it had any right to be, even when the property expanded itself to admit visitors. She understood they had received the place from Sirius Black, which explained the screaming painting. Apparently he did not share the same views as his deceased family members, which was a relief.

Ron, and to her surprise, Luna and a boy she did not recognize entered through the front door. They were using some of the same appearance charms she had been before coming to Grimmauld place. Ernest Macmillan came in afterward. Their responses to seeing her varied. Everyone except the witch sort of looked away every time she looked at them.

"You're back then."

"Yes, whilst time permits. I am on an investigation with the Xian, a mostly independent group of senescent wizards with permission from both the Imperial Ministers and the school."

"You never said you were going to China."

"No, I thought it better for security purposes. Cho is still there."

"Finally, she tells us the reason she came," Mrs. Weasley expressed, coming in from another room.

"I didn't want to have to say everything multiple times." She maintained her neutral, reasonable tone. I suppose it is a bit of a cold response to Ron, but he did not exactly run over and hug me... not that I would expect that. In any case, there are important matters to attend.

Mr. Weasley was the first to return from dealing with the goblins, which was part of how he kept in touch with his oldest son. After him, Professor McGonagall apparated onto the millimetre-wide point that she had cut into the wards, which relied on her knowledge of exactly where it was to keep herself from splinching into a million pieces. She estimated that Hestia Jones would be a few minutes longer.

"I heard you had an interview?" she prompted.

"Yeah, just explaining a bit of what's been going on here." Ron took a seat at the table. "Seems the Quibbler readers want to know if there's any other options besides the Ministry and the Death Eaters."

"Funny, the Chinese want to know the same thing." She looked around the room. With everyone else doing work, this might be the greatest crowd of Order members I can expect. Aside from that, I really don't have long. "Essentially, with our island being the tipping point of a global conflict, strong ministries with resources to spare have been interested in supporting one side or the other."

"Why?" the boy next to Luna asked, or demanded, depending on how she interpreted his tone. "What reason would they have for helping us?"

"A naive assessment, which assumes their intentions are limited to their statements, would conclude that they were disgusted by Crouch's government and unimpressed by the gift that Voldemort gave them, and decided to search for a third side more in line with their values." She took a bite of the blood sausages and mash Mrs. Weasley had prepared.

"Well, that's definitely a naive assessment," the Gryffindor responded. "They wouldn't be helping us if they didn't think they would get something out of it." I wasn't entirely finished, but that's what I expected. Mr. Weasley seemed more interested in listening than talking.

"Why is that, though?" she asked "Could they not see it as more likely that one side would win than the other? They could just decide to support the winner and then gain a convenient alliance."

"If they were supporting the winner, it sure as hell wouldn't be us!" Ron shouted, annoyed that she did not appear to get it.

"We're not winning? What are we doing, then, killing ourselves in some impossible slaughter?" she asked. So far the two of us have been doing the most of the talking. Maybe the Order was right in bringing us together. "Weren't you going to try to retrieve the Stone? Do you have any idea where it is?"

"No, I still don't know where it is. The first step in any kind of operation is reconnaissance- we've uncovered that the Ministry most likely enlisted a current or former Death Eater to use in a false flag attack against themselves-"

"Why didn't you join forces and use the information they already gathered and brought here?" she asked, referring to Grimmauld Place.

"Look around the room, Hermione- I'm not having tea parties with Neville's grandmother so she can invite foreign interests over and ask them how much of our country they want in exchange for some tacit support they'll withdraw later! I don't even have to ask to know what happened, without Dumbledore, there's not a damn phoenix in the Order." She was tempted to ask if he had thought of that in advance, but it seemed Professor McGonagall had other ideas.

"For the record, Mr. Weasley, you are correct in assessing the most likely reason our organization is smaller than it was in the last war. The most I could ask of Elphias Doge and Sturgis Podmore were monitoring actions against the Death Eaters, who have apparently spread beyond the continent." Her stare of steel had not diminished. "I shall not, however, suffer this manner of disrespect. You did not join us, as Miss Jones informed us, because you were of an age where you would not be assigned responsibilities. That is of course entirely correct, I would have insured you and your friends would have a place in the Irish school young Mafalda now attends."

It looked like Ron wanted to object. She is essentially confirming his suspicions that they would have relegated him to less-dangerous tasks. It also looked like Mrs. Weasley was going to agree with that assessment.

"Consider your level of experience," the old Transfiguration teacher continued. "You have magical ability considerably beyond the average fifth-year, unless I am to understand you traveled here from the Lovegood residence in a matter of minutes without the use of Apparation." Hermione's eyes widened. He had said he was going to work on it, but she had not exactly taken him at his word. "The same can be said of at least one of your associates, since she has already attempted to pass through my mental shields, though I should note my expectations were far lower for dropouts like the other." The wizard glared at her rather than looking ashamed. "At the same time, you would not survive an encounter with even the weakest of the Death Eaters, even with your other associate. A Hufflepuff, I presume?"

"How did you know?"

"Those with the potential to lead draw all kinds, Mr. Weasley. Very few first-year students could have encountered the Lord Voldemort and lived to tell about it; even the boors Crabbe and Goyle could see that your orders were worth the taking. Do you, however, believe that you should be a member of the Order, on equal footing with your father?"

If Ron did believe it, he was unable to make the argument with the man himself in the room. The Ravenclaw momentarily wondered what he thought was fair, but she found herself more interested in Luna's abilities with the mind arts. Reaching out quietly, she detected mental shielding without making herself known, but the girl waved at her, which seemed to suggest she was aware.

What is it?

I only wanted to check your shielding.

I see. I'm actually kind of an open book. Ron asked me to see if I could link the company's minds together, so I did it.

Hermione hoped her change in expression would not be visible on her surface thoughts. Elsewhere she heard the Gryffindor confessing to his old Head of House that he knew he was a bit young, and he knew they would be right to keep him from dangerous tasks, which was why he had to strike out on his own. He did not know where Dean was, if that was her next question. Professor Mcgonagall sighed.

"His case worries me more than yours." She inclined her head slightly as she spoke. "The staff did its best to keep the truth from the students, on the orders of our late Headmaster no less, but the truth is, Mr. Thomas most likely died, if only briefly, but Professor Snape managed to stabilize his condition and provide him with unicorn blood, which will fate him to a cursed existence." To Hermione's observation, she seemed less concerned about what her former student might do than what might become of him. "Before you ask, we have not heard from him either."

She had heard that their old Potions master had been something of a double agent during the last war, presenting himself as a spy for both sides, and eventually declaring that his loyalty had been for Dumbledore the entire time. Well, it is rather easy to say that once Voldemort was dead. Would things have been different had the other side won? Having not seen him at Grimmauld Place, she expected he had decided it was unlikely the Order would win, and would simply stop reporting to them. Wouldn't that make it obvious that he was no longer spying on them for his master, though? He must have said something about stopping his spying campaign, otherwise that would make it seem like he was never spying in the first place.

"Miss Granger, what exactly have the Xian offered?" the former teacher asked.

"They were not terribly specific in that regard," she started, glancing back over to Ron, but it seemed he would at least hear her out. "They seemed to be threatened by the existence of a dark wizard who can keep himself from dying, but most of their focus was on getting rid of Crouch's government, which is fair enough."

"Did they know you would think that?" the wizard next to her old friend asked. "You seemed to imply earlier that they knew you hated your own ministry."

"I made no secret of it." She chose not to mention that they could have read it out of her head if they felt like it.

"Then they know you don't like a system that's trying to be like their system-"

"I- I did not tell them that their system was not my preference; if anything I would have confessed to preferring it just by living there for months on end-"

"Immigration is not the sincerest form of flattery. If you supported their system, you would support Crouch's efforts and wait around for him to die and be replaced by someone else. People who believe in a system of total control do not object to specific people being in charge, because they do not believe they should have any input into which group of people are at the helm." Luna sent her a quick mental note that the young wizard's name was Harper.

"They could have read every thought in my head, Harper," she explained. "They would know that, as you suspect, I was only using their school as a place of refuge where I could continue my education as a wanted criminal."

"Then they knew what you wanted."

"What bargaining power do I have? I'm not the Queen. What does it matter that they knew I had a stake in the conflict?" She had never liked the expression 'an elf in the fight'.

"They knew that you could come here and offer their help to us," Ron answered, most likely just figuring it out himself. "They knew that if we requested help from them, it would all seem legitimate, because our only problem, from the very beginning, was that we would never win as things were. If we had a powerful ally, everyone would side with us. The whole damn country, really."

"Are you telling me they expected me to hide their involvement from you?"

"Not really, but they prob'ly figured we'd want to look like we did everything ourselves, so they'd disguise themselves as us, come up with reasons for why they were so strong, and hit the biggest targets before leaving. Wouldn't need to do much after that, since the island would support us. We'd be cleaning up and trying to figure out what to do about the Death Eaters, and around then they'd tell us they'd reveal that they helped us unless we gave some of their ministers key positions in the new government." He sighed. "Harper had it right, unluckily. There's nothing stupid about accepting help, but the appearance of it would ruin us. Everyone on the bloody island would know we only threw out Crouch because we gave the country away in the process, whether or not it was part of the deal."

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment. Hermione wanted to bash her own head in. How could I not see something so simple? They practically taught it to us in our lessons-

It's okay, Hermione. I fall for tricks sometimes. I think they guessed you would not suspect they would use an aspect of their system against you because they knew that in your heart, you had no love for it. Perhaps they counted on your ability to figure it out, though. That's something you haven't considered.

Thank you, Luna. Please never enter my thoughts again. The other Ravenclaw smiled at her. Well, not without... knocking.

It was more or less established that taking the deal the Xian offered would be trading one master for another, if the second promised to be more benevolent. She knew the Order had little contact with the international community since Dumbledore died, so McGonagall had asked her a number of questions about what was going on in China since she arrived, though she doubted the answers were satisfactory. Apparently their one contact in the continent was Remus Lupin, and he was trying to persuade packs of werewolves not to side with Greyback, and it seemed to be working. On the rare occasion that he visited, he had the strangest of questions for the Weasleys.

"Ron, have you seen your rat?" she asked whilst Harper was answering questions for the Deputy Headmistress, to his apparent chagrin.

"No. I really haven't seen him since some time last year. Why?"

"Well, you remember Professor Lupin, right? He's been asking a lot of questions after Mr. Weasley told him about a rat that had lived for twelve years."

"Huh. I always thought Mum and Dad just went out to the garden to get a new one every three or so." Hermione's eyes narrowed. You did not always think that, you were tricked when you were eleven at least. "Does he think he's seen the rat before?"

"Well, yes, he thinks the rat might actually be thirty five years old. Basically, the reason he was able to stop being a werewolf-" That's right, he would have heard about that from Hannah. "-was because this old friend of his named Sirius Black came to visit him in his Animagus form. Werewolves are not inclined to attack non-humans, and essentially the Hogwarts staff along with Black managed to calm him down enough to figure out what he had done to himself to remain in his beast form."

"Wait, I thought Sirius Black was in-" The Gryffindor thought about it. "Never mind, go on."

"When his old friend came to help him, Professor Lupin initially believed that the long years of suffering under the dementors eventually made him repent of his wrongdoing, or possibly destroyed so many of his memories he was no longer the same person. It was... odd, though, because before leaving to help the Order, Black insisted that he was innocent, and he had never betrayed his friends, because a man named Peter Pettigrew actually committed the crimes he was accused of committing, and then faked his own death."

If Ron looked a bit tempted to say that it sounded convenient, it was for nothing.

"Pettigrew would have been working for the Death Eaters, then?"

"He would have. He was an Animagus."

"Why would he hide with us? There aren't any other Animaguses that turn into rats?" Ron asked, apparently having to come to terms with the implications. "How did he fake his own death if Lupin doesn't think he's dead all of a sudden?"

"Apparently he cut off his finger before using an advanced explosive charm." That would explain why Professor Lupin kept asking about the rat missing a toe on one of its forelegs.

Her friend stared forward again. He seemed to be lost in thought. It was meant to be a beloved family pet, even if he complained about it...

"Well, don't see any harm in stunning him if I ever see him again."