Once the meeting was over, Mrs Weasley stalked out of the kitchen to head upstairs to tell her children and Hermione that it was time to eat.
As soon as she opened the kitchen door, she nearly tripped over a pile of dungbombs, something she'd noticed kept showing up outside doors the Order was having meetings behind — she was going to have to have a word with Sirius about Kreacher trying to break all the Order members' necks by tripping them up with the hard, round balls under their feet. Arriving at the first floor, she found Ginny leaning casually against the railing, her hands yet again filthy despite the fact she hadn't had them cleaning since several hours before, another odd occurrence that seemed to keep happening.
"The meetings over, you can come down and have dinner now," she told her perfect daughter. "And Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please."
Then she turned and continued up the stairs. Entering Ron and Harry's room a floor above, she repeated to her youngest son, "The meetings over, you can come down and have dinner now."
But as she turned to leave, Ron asked, "Where's Harry? You said he was coming tonight!"
"Tonight ended up not being the best opportunity — they're planning on trying again tomorrow night," she replied dismissively, before disappearing out of the room before Ron could ask her any more questions. The last thing she wanted to do was admit to anyone that they didn't actually know where Harry was, and that Hermione was leaving to join him wherever he was, even if she knew they would both be back at Grimmauld Place in her warm, motherly embrace by the following night.
On the third floor, she found the twins casually leaning against the railing looking down over the entrance hall where several Order members were leaving, and told them it was time for supper as well, the oddity that they were standing in almost exactly the same position as Ginny two floors below completely going over her head.
Arriving on the fourth floor — where she'd finally discovered Hermione had made her room right next to the room of eccentric auror who couldn't keep her hair in order, after having refused to share her perfect daughter's room on the first floor — she walked down the hall that the back of her mind grudgingly had to admit looked far nicer and more inviting than even the rest of the rooms that had been cleaned by magic, and knocked on the muggleborn's door. But as much as she knocked and tried to twist the knob (maybe even after casting a few very minor spells at it), the door remained firmly shut and locked, and Hermione never responded to anything she called through the door about supper being ready and that she could come back down now. Eventually, she gave up and headed back down to the kitchen, having supper to finish preparing for everyone.
As it was, Hermione never joined them for supper down in the kitchen that night. Wanting to avoid all of the adults until the very last minute the following morning, Hermione had called another one of Harry's house elves to bring her supper from Potter Manor, and she ate a delightful meal in peace in Tonks' room, without having to worry about anyone trying to ask her where Harry was.
Eventually, supper downstairs came to an end and everyone dissipated to their rooms or houses if they weren't staying at Grimmauld Place, and Tonks opened the door to her room, raising an eyebrow as she saw the bookworm sitting on her bed reading.
"Missed you at dinner," she said, walking over and sitting down next to the bushy-haired bookworm, who'd set her book down upon hearing Tonks open the door. "Kingsley told me I'm going with you tomorrow morning when you go to Harry's."
After a pause in which Hermione merely nodded, she added, "They're expecting me to tell them where you go, you know."
"No they're not," replied Hermione, shaking her head. "They might have asked you to tell them, I wouldn't know, but they don't actually expect you to tell them anything. They know I wouldn't have asked for you to be the security to go with me if I thought you'd snitch. My guess is they'll have someone tailing us to try to learn where Harry is since they don't expect you to actually tell them, but I already have a plan for that."
"And what makes you think I won't rat?" asked Tonks as she stretched out on her back next to Hermione. "I am an Order member, after all."
"Because you know me, and trust my opinion that if I say Harry's safe where he is, he's safe where he is," answered Hermione. "Because you could barely contain yourself when I told the adults off for never checking on Harry. And because I'm offering you the chance to stay with Harry and I for the rest of the summer instead of in this still depressing despite my best attempts place, and a bunch of gold if you need the extra incentive."
"Does Harry know you're offering all of this?" chuckled Tonks, looking up the bed at Hermione with a smirk. "Because while I've come to understand that your parents' profession makes quite a bit of money in the muggle world, that of course could be transferred over into the magical world, the lodgings you're offering definitely aren't yours, and I've a pretty good guess the gold isn't either."
"You know, that actually would have been a great idea now that you mention it," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Harry could have run to my parents house and no one, Order or Death Eater and Voldemort, would think to look for him there. But no, nothing I'm offering you is mine, and no, I haven't asked Harry, but I know my boyfriend, and I know he would gladly give you more than what I've said just because I've told him how much of friends you and I have become, and he trusts and would want to help anyone I've deemed trustworthy."
"I do have a job, and would like to keep up with what's going on in the Order, you know," replied Tonks.
"Getting to your job will be easier than here because you can apparate from inside instead of having to step outside to do so," answered Hermione. "And as for the Order, I seriously doubt they'll try to kick you out if you only show up for meetings, like Snape, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and a whole long list of others. Your only problem is going to be them constantly bugging you about where you, Harry, and I are, which I don't know anything to do about."
"They'll do that even if I just go with you the once tomorrow morning," replied Tonks with sigh. "The fact I live with you and Harry won't increase or decrease the amount they will try to get me to tell where you guys are."
"Well, you can decide when we get there tomorrow if you want to live with us or return this room back here," said Hermione. "But as for the plan tomorrow, it's to not show up downstairs until right before eight o'clock to avoid as many people as we can, and then once we're outside, follow my lead and we'll be at Harry's place in no time without any Order members with us. And Harry will have breakfast waiting for us, so you don't have to worry about that."