Over the next several days, Harry and Hermione continued talking by house elf, finally able to freely share everything they wanted to without any adult interference.

Harry explored the house and grounds of Potter Manor, along with getting to know all the house elves he had there, who were keeping the house in much better shape than the house elf Hermione had told him belonged to Grimmauld Place did. While he certainly still missed getting to see Hermione every few days like he had before she'd been taken to Grimmauld Place, Potter Manor was a much, much nicer place to be spending the summer compared to Number Four, Privet Drive, and he hoped he'd be able to return to Potter Manor the next summer instead of having to return to his abusive relatives. Then he remembered that he could just return with them from Kings Cross, and as soon as he stepped inside Number Four, he could just call one of his house elves, and they could take him to Potter Manor to spend the summer — and maybe even could apparate Hermione there at least every few days to visit, so long as the Weasleys didn't whisk her away anywhere as soon as term ended.

Hermione, meanwhile, continued to force using magic to clean Grimmauld Place, and so in the two and a half weeks since she'd first been taken there, they had nearly finished everything. All of the rooms, halls, and stairs had been cleaned of their collected grime, dirt, dust, and filth, making the entire house shine like it hadn't in at least a decade, though probably much longer considering it had been the Blacks who had been living in it before it had become abandoned. And with the twins help at perfecting the nifty little charm taught in sixth year, she and the twins had snuck around the house changing the colors of some of the darker curtains, rugs, and carpets to brighter, more friendly colors, brightening up the house even more. Additionally, now that all of the rooms had physically been cleaned and the easiest of the dark artifacts and junk removed, they had gone back through all of the rooms to remove the more dangerous, but incapable of attacking on their own objects and giving them to Tonks to turn in to the aurors office to be disenchanted or destroyed. They still had a handful more rooms to go through for that, but all in all they were nearly done with the entire house. Her only question now was, what would Mrs Weasley try to force them to do once they were done cleaning the house to prevent them from having free time, now that her excuse of cleaning would be gone.

But in addition to talking to each other about what each of them was doing, Harry and Hermione also discussed Harry's upcoming trial for defending his life against the dementors, and the fact that despite their constant weekly libeling of him and Dumbledore, the Daily Prophet hadn't mentioned anything about Harry being charged with violations of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy by performing magic in a muggle area.

Hermione's belief was that they were saving it up for when they successfully (in their delusions) illegally expelled him from Hogwarts and snapped his wand in half, because otherwise it would have gone along so well with the image of Harry as an attention-seeking show-off they were spreading. But as for the trial itself, Hermione assured Harry that as long as the Ministry obeyed its own laws that it had written (which was admittedly a pretty big 'if' at that point, given the fact they'd tried to expel him and snap his wand in half without any due process to start with), Harry would be found not guilty without a problem.

Clause Seven of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery stated that underage wizards could use magic in exceptional circumstances, including situations which threatened the life of the wizard himself, or anyone else present at the time of the exceptional circumstance, which cleared him of all 'underage use of magic' charges. Then, Clause Seven of the International Statute of Secrecy stated that magic could be performed in muggle areas and in front of muggles in exceptional circumstances, including situations which threatened the life of the wizard himself, or any witches, wizards or Muggles present at the time of the exceptional circumstance, clearing him of all 'magic performed in a muggle-inhabited area' charges.

So while Harry knew he was still a long way from actually being cleared, as long as he could force the laws of the land to be obeyed by the Ministry that wrote them, he would be cleared of all charges on the morning of the twelfth.

They were also both awaiting the day when the adults of Grimmauld Place informed at least Hermione (and probably Ron), if not all of the students there, that Harry was missing from his relatives' house, and that they had no clue where he was. But the entire week, they never did — or at least not to Hermione, and she was pretty sure they hadn't to any of the other students in Grimmauld Place either.

So until they did think it important enough to inform Harry's girlfriend that Harry was in fact missing, Hermione kept both the fact she knew exactly where he was, along with the fact she even knew he wasn't at his relatives' house to begin with, all to herself. She knew from her daily correspondence with Harry that he still seemed to be perfectly safe, and much happier than he ever was at the Dursleys, and happier than she figured he probably would be if he was there at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, stuck inside all the time.

Now, in truth, the adults actually didn't have a clue that Harry wasn't at his family's house like they'd told him to stay, as none of them actually bothered to go check on him to make sure he was safe and okay after the dementor attack that had nearly cost him his life (or at least soul, as he would have technically still been alive after the dementors had kissed him), or even to see if he was obeying their orders. They just assumed that he had nowhere else to go, and no way to get there if he did (apparently forgetting all about the Knight Bus and the summer before his third year he spent living at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley), and therefore would stay right where Dumbledore wanted him to, like the good little pet he was.

~HP~

But Friday, something finally occurred that Hermione knew she would have to make a decision about.

After lunch, as they finished up ridding the final room in the house of the last of the dark objects in it, Tonks drew her over to the closet of the room and whispered quietly, "We're going to get Harry tonight. They had me drop a muggle letter into the Dursleys' mailbox yesterday afternoon inviting them to the prize-giving of the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition — which of course doesn't actually exist — so they'll be gone tonight when we go pick up Harry."

Hermione was on the verge of telling the other girl that Harry wasn't actually there, when she realized it meant none of the adults knew Harry wasn't still there, and therefore clearly hadn't gone to check on him after his attack. And she quickly decided that if they didn't even care enough about Harry to check up on him after he nearly died, they could bloody well waste their evening and panic a bit trying to gather Harry from somewhere he wasn't at. But she did have to decide whether she was going to be waiting on their return so she could scold them for not having made sure Harry was safe, or stay in the shadows and not say anything until they admitted to her that Harry was missing, and they were clueless.

But she had time to decide on that, so all she replied to Tonks was, "About damn time they finally did something — he was attacked four days ago."

Tonks merely nodded her agreement, before they both slipped back out into the room and began working again, neither of them saying anything more about it.