A/N: Sorry for the week off, this chapter didn't previously exist, but so many people wanted the Order's reaction to losing Hermione and thus Harry, that I decided to write it, which of course took some time. I hope it flows well enough with the rest of the story, and isn't too rushed or OOC with the rest of it, as I wrote most of it in a single day last week, and hadn't written the rest of this story since like a month or more before that, before I started publishing the story, so my brain's got other versions of all of these characters mixed in with this particular story's versions, so hopefully I got this close enough to the rest of this story. If not, it's all your faults for all the comments wanting this chapter — smirk.

Hestia Jones and Sturgis Podmore slowly walked back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

They had lost their targets, and Mad-Eye, Lupin, Sirus, and Kingsley were not going to be happy with them. The only bright spot was that they only had to tell Lupin and Sirius, and didn't have to tell Dumbledore themselves — that was not a conversation they wanted to be part of. Making it up to the door of the hidden building, they paused for a few seconds, before finally casting the charm to unlock the door, knowing they had to face the music sometime and just wanting to get it over with.

Meanwhile, down in the kitchen where everyone was finishing up breakfast, Lupin and Sirus heard the front door open. At a pointed look from Sirius, Lupin quietly excused himself to go meet their spies, who, just as expected, had clearly failed to follow Hermione and Tonks if they were back this soon. Quickly making his way up to the entrance hallway, he immediately caught sight of Hestia and Sturgis's dejected and nervous faces.

"They escaped you?" he said quietly, and knowingly.

Hestia simply nodded sadly, as Sturgis looked at the werewolf in slight surprise.

Seeing Sturgis's confused look, and Hestia's still nervous look, Lupin continued, "We expected it. We hoped you'd be able to follow them, but it's Hermione Granger we're talking about — you were there when she chewed us out last night. She's too smart for her own good sometimes, but it means we did expect this exact thing to occur, that Hermione would have her own plan. Now what can you tell me did happen?"

By the time Hestia and Sturgis finished their short story, everyone from the kitchen had begun making their way upstairs, assigned by Mrs Weasley to dust and make sure that the first rooms they had cleaned were still clean, now that all the real cleaning was done because of Hermione's insistence of using magic. As the students moved past, Sirius came to a stop at Lupin, Hestia, and Sturgis.

At the animagus's raised eyebrow, Lupin simply said, "She's smart." Turning back to Hestia and Sturgis, he said, "Thank you. We'll take it from here."

When Hestia and Sturgis had headed back outside, Lupin led Sirius into the drawing room and shut and locked the door.

"It's almost certain they're where we thought he was," said the werewolf.

Sirus nodded. "So he's definitely safe."

"I'd like to wait for Tonks' message before saying that for sure, but...yeah — it definitely seems like it," replied Lupin. After a long pause, he sighed, "I suppose we have to tell Dumbledore now."

Sirius didn't reply for several seconds, before finally saying slowly, "Do we, though? It's not like Dumbledore's actually going to be here at Grimmauld Place tonight, or any other night for that matter, to see that Harry isn't here. And he's the one who gave the Order the plan to rescue Harry from his relatives and handled the Ministry after the dementor attack, but never checked to see whether Harry made it here safely last night or not. Which means unless Mad-Eye or Kingsley went and told him what happened and the new plan, that just proceeded to fail just as expected, he presumably doesn't even know Harry isn't here — and given the fact Mad-Eye didn't expect the plan to work any more than we did, if he told Dumbledore anything it was probably that Harry seems to be safe, just not here. Though I personally think he was smart enough to make himself scarce and not say a thing. Not so sure about Kingsley, but Dumbledore hasn't shown up here yet."

"But he's our leader — he needs to know where Harry is!" exclaimed Lupin. "Or really, where he isn't but that we think he's safe."

"Does he, though? He's only ever half-helped Harry," countered Sirius. "Yeah, sure, he's going to be Harry's defense in the trial, and he made the Ministry obey their laws — not that he should have had to do that, and he sure as hell didn't countersue against the Ministry for trying to break the law — but he still makes Harry go live with his abusive relatives for some secret reason he won't tell anyone, and he hasn't done anything to help Harry with the abuse he suffers at Hogwarts on a yearly basis, or do anything to help him in that stupid tournament last year he shouldn't have been in!"

"Is this about Harry, or about you being stuck in this house instead of running around the country as a dog?"

"It can't be both?" growled Sirus. "You haven't had to live here with that bitch for the past month. You get to go out and actually do things! And don't tell me it's hard, and dangerous, and whatever else you might be about to say — I'd rather die from doing anything than be a prisoner in my own bloody house! Now if your conscience won't let you live without telling Dumbledore, then do what you must. But until he comes and actually asks where Harry is, checks to make sure Harry is in fact safe, I'm not going out of my way to say anything to him. And when that hag comes around asking tonight, if she doesn't get to you first, because we both know Mad-Eye's going to make himself scarce around here for a while and Kingsley's off working, I'll tell her I don't know because I'm imprisoned in this bloody house for the foreseeable future, and to go ask you."

"I'm not going to tell him where I think Harry is, just that Tonks says he's safe and that she's with him. But I still have to tell him something — he does want to make sure Harry's safe," replied Lupin defensively. "And no, this is not because he took me into his school as a werewolf, both as a child and a professor."

Sirius shrugged. "Do what you think is right, but no one went running around yelling about me moving there after getting kicked out of here — and Tonks is essentially James's parents in this scenario. And there were lots of adults who could have known and been concerned about where I was — I am a Black, for crying out loud, that was power back then. Maybe not Harry Potter importance, but I wasn't a nobody, either."

"We both know Tonks isn't a parent like Harry's grandparents were with you."

"She's a bit eccentric and acts like she doesn't take anything seriously most of the time, but she made it through the aurors just fine and Kingsley trusts her — and don't tell me you don't believe she'd die to protect Harry," scolded Sirius. "She may be unique, but she'll do anything to keep him and Hermione safe."

"Okay, okay, fine — I trust Harry with her as much as with anyone else, and she's at least not all secretive and scheming like Dumbledore," sighed Lupin. "But unless Tonks's letter makes me decide otherwise, I'm still going to go tell Dumbledore and not just wait for him to come here or ask."

~HP~

Several hours later, Lupin and Sirius convened to read the letter Lupin had just received from the auror.

They hadn't expected it to tell them where she, Hermione, and Harry were, but they also hadn't expected it to be as short and brief as it was. Though if Tonks really was on Harry's side now, they supposed afterwards that they really should have expected something like this from the youngest Order member. But upon opening the sealed letter, they found a very concise message.

~.~

'Harry's safe. You'll ignore this, obviously, but — LEAVE HIM ALONE! The kid deserves some peace for once in his life.'

—Tonks

~.~

Sirus looked back up at Lupin.

"I assume that's not enough for you to actually do as she wishes and not tell Dumbledore?"

"Sorry. I'm not going to tell him that I think I know where Harry is, but I think he should know that Harry isn't here," replied Lupin.

"Have fun, then — glad I'm not you."

~HP~

A few hours later, an owl pecked on the window of Dumbledore's office.

After thinking it over, Lupin had decided that alerting Dumbledore to Harry's lack of gracing Grimmauld Place with his presence was not so urgent as to have to be done in person at that very moment, and so had written a letter expressing the details that Harry had not been at his relatives house when they'd gone to pick him, that Hermione and Tonks were now with him as of that morning wherever he was, and that Tonks, certified full-time auror and Order member who understood all the security measures that had been set up for Harry's protection at Grimmauld Place and was staying with Harry and Hermione for the rest of the summer, believed in her professional opinion that Harry was safe where he currently was.

Dumbledore read the letter with much consternation, settling back into his chair to think. On one hand, he really wanted to get Harry safely into Sirius's house he'd spent so much effort warding. On the other hand, this Granger girl who was sometimes too smart for her own good, was extremely stubborn when she thought she was right. And apparently the young auror the Order had picked up since reforming had joined Hermione's side, and would now be protecting Harry against him. Many Order members, especially certain older ones from the first time around might have thought the young auror crazy, or eccentric, or just an Order presence inside the Ministry and specifically the aurors, but he knew how strong of a witch she really was, and how smart she was, her unusual hair choices and natural clumsiness aside.

Which all summed up to leave him in quite the predicament.

He could of course ask Tonks where they were if she continued coming to Order meetings like he expected she would (Hermione and Tonks would both know the strategic advantage of keeping a presence in the opposing camp), but he had no foolish expectations of her giving up Harry simply at his behest, if she hadn't given him up so far. He could also ask Lupin, and Sirus, Mad-Eye, and Kingsley, if they knew where Harry was, but once again, if they knew at all, they hadn't said anything yet, which probably meant they wouldn't say anything either. So he was really out of direct ways to find out where Harry was.

And while he was loathed to admit it, Hermione wouldn't leave her boyfriend in a place she considered unsafe, and while she didn't know everything, she did know far more than any incoming fifth year really had the right to, and was rarely wrong. Similarly, even if she understood nothing about hair strategy, Auror Tonks did know more than most Order members about military strategy, and she also wouldn't let Harry stay in a location she wasn't positive was safe. Which meant in the end, Harry unfortunately (well, slightly fortunately since he, Dumbledore, couldn't find the boy) probably was completely safe indeed wherever the boy had managed to run off to. He would of course send out feelers to all his informants and contacts to see if they couldn't find Harry, or catch wind of where the boy might be staying, but he honestly doubted anything would turn up since Hermione and Tonks were colluding together.

It did very briefly flutter through Dumbledore's mind that Harry might have somehow discovered his family homes and figured out how to get to one of them, but that was such a ridiculous idea that he immediately pushed it out again — he had done far too good of a job hiding that secret from Harry for the boy to have ever figured it out on his own. Some might have said it was cruel to withhold that from the boy, but Dumbledore knew that if Harry realized he had a life to live for, he might be less inclined to make the sacrifice of his life that he would be needed to make to rid the world of Voldemort once and for all.

So in the end, Dumbledore decided that there really wasn't anything he could do about the unfortunate Harry situation at the moment at least, and in a move he knew would be a surprise to everyone, who would all expect him to make much ado about Harry's disappearance, simply returned a short letter to Lupin thanking him for the information, and left it at that for the time being. He would work behind the scenes, but until he actually had some action he could take, there was no advantage in making a scene. It was all about the long game, not the last few weeks of this particular summer.

Molly Weasley would of course take great objection to his plan when she found out, but he hoped she would be appeased soon enough when he was able to send out the prefect badges, and her youngest son received the new Gryffindor badge instead of Harry. He had already determined right after the end of the previous year and everything that had happened in the graveyard, that Harry had enough responsibility to be going on with already to have to deal with being prefect as well, and it looked like that decision was going to come in handy here, as well. And until he found the thirty-second Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in as many years, ever since Voldemort had cursed the darn position, and he could send out those letters, he would just continue his well practiced policy of immediately throwing any letters Errol delivered into his special 'Weasley file' — better known as a lit fireplace.

That evening, as Mrs Weasley bustled around working her arse off cooking a scrumptious meal for all of the Order members and her own children, none of whom ever truly appreciated how hard she was tirelessly working day in and day out for them all, she noticed that all of the normal members of the Order who spent a majority of suppers there — so namely Lupin and Sirius — were sitting around the kitchen table chatting away merrily.

Decidedly NOT going out to bring Harry back for her to mother.

So storming over to them before any of her children arrived and might overhear such sensitive information, she came to a stop dead in front of Sirius and Lupin, and placing her hands on her hips menacingly, demanded, "Where's Harry! You promised you were bringing him here tonight, and I haven't seen a single person even leave to go get him yet!"

Sirius simply turned to look at Lupin, silently reminding the werewolf that he had already told him that he wasn't going to be the one to tell Mrs Weasley what had happened.

Sighing, Lupin looked up at the Matriarch and said, "We told you that if everything went according to plan, we would bring Harry here tonight. Not everything went according to plan."

He saw no reason to elaborate that nothing had gone to plan, and instead that everything had gone exactly as expected.

Mrs Weasley stood there for several seconds, clearly expecting more, before finally shouting, "Well?!"

"Well, what?" asked Lupin mildly, having a good idea what she was 'well'-ing about.

"When are you going to bring him here?!"

"Ah, yes…" replied Lupin. "Well, you see, the thing is, Dumbledore doesn't have a clue where Harry might actually be. So until Dumbledore can tell us where to go to look for Harry, we really don't have much choice."

"You sent Nymphadora with Hermione to find out his location!" shouted Mrs Weasley.

"And Auror Tonks seems disinclined to divulge his location at the present time," answered Lupin. "So until such time as she decides to disclose that information to us, or else Dumbledore hears from any of his vast resources where Harry is, there's nothing we can do."

He would have said that he was sorry, but truthfully he wasn't, so he didn't.

Mrs Weasley was so shocked by this utter betrayal of Lupin and Sirius (never mind the fact he hadn't actually been part of that promise, he was always in cahoots with the werewolf) in promising her Harry and then utterly failing to deliver, that it took her several seconds to be able to respond.

"What do you mean — ?!" she began shouting at the two beasts, before suddenly realizing the twins were lurking in the doorway to the kitchen, trying to listen in on top-secret Order business.

"Out! Everyone! Out!" she turned and screamed at her offspring. "Go do your Hogwarts homework until I come for you! Stay out of the kitchen, this is Order business!"

She furiously strode towards the kitchen door, slamming it shut in the faces of her two most disobedient, unruly, and also identical children, before throwing every spell known to mankind (or her, at least, so really what was the difference?) on the door to prevent them from eavesdropping on such an important conversation. The twins, Ron, and Ginny skulked back to the second floor landing to look down on the entrance hall, disappointed that they hadn't heard anything before their mum had discovered them, only that she was clearly a mite bit upset with Sirus and Lupin.

Meanwhile, storming back over to Lupin and Sirus, Mrs Weasley continued yelling as loudly as she could, "How could you possibly let this happen?! It was your responsibilities to make sure Harry is safe!"

"I'm not allowed out of this bloody prison!" exclaimed Sirius angrily, but he was spoken over by Lupin.

"Harry has a full-time auror with him who believes he is safe, in her position as both a fully qualified auror and a member of the Order."

"He's with Tonks! That girl doesn't know anything!" screamed the Matriarch. "She can't even walk through the entrance hall without knocking over the umbrella stand and waking that stupid painting!"

"A girl who is a fully qualified auror, which is far more than you can say!" shouted back Sirius, finally snapping after a month of being locked up with the bitch. "You're nothing more than a cook and a nosy, interfering busy-body who thinks because of her last name — which isn't even hers — that she can take over other people's houses and lives and do whatever she wants! You just don't like Tonks because her hair isn't always a perfectly mundane, boring color and length, and she's actually doing something to fight against evil besides bitching at it! If Dumbledore wasn't making me let you all use this as the Order's headquarters, I would kick your fat arse back to the Burrow where it belongs! Because I'm sure as hell not doing anything for the war against Voldemort being stuck in here! I could do far more from my cave outside Hogsmeade than I'm doing stuck in here! And why for Heaven's sake hasn't somebody put a bloody sticking charm on that stupid umbrella stand yet, anyway?! In fact, I'm going to do that right now because it should have been done at least after the second time it was knocked over — that or throw it out entirely, it's hideous and useless for wizards who never use umbrellas anyway!"

And with that he jumped up and stormed away to go fix that very problem that should have been fixed a month before.

Mrs Weasley glowered at Sirus's back until he'd disappeared out the door, before turning back to glare at Lupin some more. But before she could yell anything, Lupin spoke first.

"If you have a problem, tell Dumbledore yourself. We've done what we can, and when I told him what had happened, he simply thanked me for keeping him abreast of the situation, and said nothing more on the subject."

Still more than irate, but literally having nothing else she could do at the moment besides yell at thin air for a while longer, Mrs Weasley restrained herself from doing so any more for the time being and returned to the kitchen where she belonged.

~HP~

Grumbling to himself as he approached the offending severed troll's-leg umbrella stand, Sirius spotted the four youngest Weasley children looking down from the second floor balcony.

He waved them down, knowing it would be time for supper just as soon as the Matriarch finished yelling at Lupin, before turning to the umbrella stand he was surprised Hermione and Tonks hadn't burnt with Fiendfyre before throwing the ashes in the deepest pits of hell, and then throwing that entire hell into an even deeper hell, during their thorough cleansing of the house. Tilting it on its edge, he held it from falling over with one hand, as he cast a simple sticking charm on the bottom of it, and then on the floor beneath it for good measure, and set it back down. He nudged it with his toe a few times to make sure it seemed to have worked, before giving it a firm kick to test it for real. It remained firmly in place, finally Tonks-proofed only a month late.

By that time the Weasley children had made their way down to him, and he led them down to the kitchen, opening it without any forewarning to the occupants inside, hoping to maybe let the students catch the tail end of any remaining argument going on between their mum and Lupin, without him being able to be accused of telling them any 'top secret' information. But unfortunately it seemed to already be over, as Mrs Weasley was back in the kitchen banging around pots and pans like they had personally offended her greatly, and Lupin was still sitting in his chair at the table, as mild looking as always.

Supper was a rather quiet affair that night. Mrs Weasley was still routinely glaring daggers at Sirus and Lupin. Sirus and Lupin were ignoring her and mostly talking amongst themselves and with the twins. Ginny was talking to her mum when her mum wasn't too busy glaring at Sirius and Lupin. Ron wasn't saying much to anyone. And Mr Weasley, who'd arrived just before supper had started, was occasionally talking with Sirus and Lupin, but mostly wondering what those two had done to offend his wife this time, and why any of them put up with her.

But supper eventually ended without any yelling matches or anything else, and Mrs Weasley ordered everyone off to bed. As they were all heading out of the kitchen for their bedrooms, however, Ron abruptly looked around him as if suddenly noticing that something was missing, and turned on his mum and demanded, "Where's Harry?! You said Harry and the Know-it-all would be here tonight!"

Everyone turned to look at Mrs Weasley, especially her other three children, but also Sirius and Lupin wondering what the Matriarch would say, and Arthur wondering if he might finally find out what the hell had happened before having to ask her once they got to their bedroom.

"Never you mind! Plans have changed — you'll see them again on the train," Mrs Weasley snapped. "Now off to bed! All of you! And I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking!"

She as sure as a snowball's chance in hell was about to let her still in school children know that certain supposedly responsible and trusty Order members, whose sole responsibility had been to bring Harry there safely, had no clue where Harry was, or whether he was safe or not, or what was happening to him — they were far too young, and that was Order business.

The twins looked like they wanted to demand an actual answer, but their mum was glowering so hard and loathingly at all of them, that even they decided to settle on self-preservation, and do as the wardress demanded.

~HP~

Not wanting to waste any time, and knowing that the delivery would be slower than ideal in an urgent situation like this, as soon as she made it up to her bedroom, the Matriarch immediately began writing a letter to Dumbledore about the catastrophic crisis emergency that was going on there.

A letter she had no doubt would be answered very promptly. Or as promptly as the half-dead owl she had to send it with could deliver the letter and return — Arthur really needed to buy her a new, faster owl, especially for desperate situations like this. But she was going to get the letter written and sent immediately, so the feather duster that called itself a delivery owl would have all night to get her letter to Dumbledore by bright and early in the morning for him to promptly respond to.

Knowing she was being very reasonable in doing so, she asked the esteemed headmaster why Harry hadn't been brought to Grimmauld Place for her to protect like he was supposed to have been, and how long it was going to be before he was brought to her. She quickly sealed up the letter and gave it to Errol, urging him to deliver it with utmost haste, even if he died upon delivery, that it was a very time sensitive matter.

Knowing all her problems would be sorted for her soon enough, she finally changed and crawled into bed next to her husband, knowing brighter days were finally ahead.

~HP~

The following morning, when Dumbledore walked into the headmaster's office, he found the half-dead bird he had expected to see soon lying on his desk.

Most fortunately, though, she hadn't sent him a Howler, so he didn't have to perform any advanced magic on it so he wouldn't have to hear whatever screechings she had to screech. He untied the letter from the owl's leg, and neatly tossed it into the freshly roaring 'Weasley file', never to be seen by human eyes. Three more weeks of never having to set foot in that horrid, dirty, dump-heap that was Grimmauld Place in order to avoid Molly, or at least no more visits until after the prefect letters had been sent out, and Harry would be safely at Hogwarts where she couldn't complain to him any more.

Other than not being able to dictate Harry's life for the next month, life was really not going all too badly.