Gellert returned on the day that Harry was due to arrive, much to the relief of Molly Weasley. Nobody could quite work out how the dark wizard had become one of her brood but she'd been pestering Hermione for news since the day he left. Of course, she knew nothing and didn't expect to hear anything until there was something important for her to know. Gellert was very independent and didn't even seem to realise that people cared about him.

Hermione had no idea how he'd known that Harry was due to arrive but he appeared one evening in the library, reeking of metal and sulphur and looking worryingly contented. She hugged him anyway, holding her breath as she did and he hugged her back, which confirmed her theory that he was in an excellent mood.

Of course, the thin fabric of his shirt did little to disguise the thickly wrapped bandaged around his chest. She considered asking what he'd been up to but decided that he'd tell her in his own time. He clearly wasn't going to collapse any second.

She looked him over when they parted, noting the strangely shaped scar on the back of his hand had returned – angry and red as if it had recently been carved into the skin that their potion had smoothed over. His hair had darkened with the five years the potion had removed, wherever he'd been was somewhere hot; he had tanned lightly which suited him much better than the pale skin he'd had after the ritual. It dampened the eerie intensity of his eyes and made him seem somehow more normal.

'Harry has just left his home in Surrey.' He informed her as she retreated to the safety of her chair to take a deep breath.

'You need to shower.' She told him frankly and he laughed. Gellert was one of those people that appreciated blunt honesty and would rarely take offence. He waved his wand over his body, magically cleaning his clothes. The smell disappeared and she breathed a sigh of relief.

'Will you tell him who you are?' She asked curiously and he nodded.

'Of course, you should be careful though. He will be angry that you haven't sent any letters and he's struggling with the side effects of dark magic.'

'What? What have you been doing with Harry?' She demanded and he shrugged.

'Nothing much, anything other than a dementor and I might have been able to help but I can't cast a patronus.' He grimaced and she waved her hand for him to elaborate. 'There was a dementor attack and he was forced to use a patronus to ward it off. Mundungus had been skimping off again.'

'And the dark magic?'

'Oh, Voldemort's been busy. Some of his emotions have been leaking through their bond.' He said dismissively. Hermione frowned, concerned for her friend. She could see Gellert clearly didn't want to talk about it, so she gave into her curiosity and asked him where he'd been for the past month. He was perfectly content, it seemed, to regal her with stories of his visit to Indonesia and he handed her several postcards, seemingly proud that he'd remembered the muggle tradition. She didn't have the heart to tell him that usually one filled them in and sent them via the post.

Harry arrived in the company of Ron just as he was wrapping up a story about a temple and the native wizards and Hermione jumped up to wrap him in a hug. She apologised repeatedly, exclaiming how she wished she could have told him and how Dumbledore had made them swear to keep it a secret. Ron chimed in about how Hedwig had half pecked their fingers off and it seemed everything would be okay.

Then suddenly Harry's eyes went cold and he stepped away from them.

'Must have been nice all safely snuggled up here. When did you arrive?' He demanded coldly and Hermione hesitated. She knew that she had to be honest, but Harry wouldn't want to hear that she'd been here for more than a month.

She whispered her reply, almost hoping he wouldn't hear it. Then Ron chimed in again, repeating how desperately they had wanted to tell them and Harry seemed to explode into red hot fury. He took a breath, doubtless to begin a furious tirade, when a cold voice cut through his demeanour.

'Step away from her.' Hermione whipped around to see Gellert standing, wand pointed at Harry with an expression more dangerous than any she'd seen him wear. Suddenly he actually seemed like a dark wizard rather than just another young adult.

'And who are you?' Harry asked, seemingly shocked out of his anger, then it roared back with fresh fuel. 'So what? Some new guy turns up and you're just happy to leave me with the Durselys. I bet Dumbledore told him everything, how many times have you fought Voldemort?'

'Actually, Albus tells me as little as possible. For some reason he doesn't trust me.' Gellert said mildly, with a wink in Hermione's direction. He strolled forwards and stuck out his hand to Harry in a way that could have been copied from Ron. 'Gellert Grindelwald.'

For a moment Harry was completely shocked, then he looked between Hermione and Gellert.

'How long have you two known each other? Is this another secret I wasn't trusted to know?' His anger had faded to raw betrayal now and Hermione was quick to reassure him.

'He didn't tell me who he was until just a few weeks ago – actually, Dumbledore was the one who told me...'

'We met a couple of years ago; I was using her to get information on Dumbledore.' Gellert admitted, 'she knew me as Gerard.'

'Oh! Her secret boyfriend!' Harry exclaimed and Hermione shrunk in embarrassment as all three wizards turned to look at her. She slapped his arm slightly, mortified that they were calling the dark wizard her boyfriend.

'She used to talk about you all the time!' Ron goaded and she huffed. Harry looked between the three of them, seemingly distracted from his anger for a bit.

'What is this place anyway? She didn't talk about you that much.' Harry amended, seeing that Hermione was about to burst into embarrassed tears.

'Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.' Hermione answered quickly, hoping that if she answered any questions that he had now, he would be less inclined to start shouting again.

'What is this Order anyway?' He sounded slightly annoyed again and Hermione hastily elaborated with the pitiful amount of information she knew.

'So what are they doing? What's going on?' He demanded and she looked straight at Gellert; the only one of them who was allowed in meetings.

'Nothing.' He sneered. 'Arguing a lot and following some known death eaters.'

Hermione tried her hardest not to laugh. Gellert never had anything positive to say about the order but she knew he must see something worth the effort or he wouldn't stay. Then there was a moment of chaos as the twins arrived with their extendable ears and proceeded to complain about the impermeable charm on the door. Ginny arrived several seconds later, doing an admirable impression of her mother as she scolded them for almost waking the Lady.

The conversation descended into catching up about their family and friends until once again Gellert was brought to the forefront again as Fred jokingly called him their young darkling and discovered exactly why one shouldn't insult him as he became victim to a powerful nosebleed hex and blood sprayed across the room. The next few minutes descended into laughter as the twin that had been sneakily distributing his experimental nosebleed and vomiting sweets struggled with the same effects that everyone else had been suffering.

Eventually, the dark wizard was convinced by Ron to cast the counter-curse (the blood was starting to drip on his sheets) and the two twins fled.

'So you're supposed to be protecting me? Aren't you meant to be like Dumbledore's age?' Harry turned to the resident convict.

'I'm a year older than him but I found a way to reduce my age. He asked me to use a little more to become your age so that I could go to Hogwarts with you.' He sneered impressively as he mentioned the name of the school and Hermione tried to imagine having to go back to school if she knew that she could out do almost all the teachers in their subjects.

'Have you decided on your electives?' She asked curiously; she'd already assumed he'd be taking ancient runes because spell making was something he clearly enjoyed.

'Runes, Arithmancy and Divination of course.' He announced and all three of them spluttered in surprise.

'But Divination is a load of tosh!' Ron exclaimed, he'd already admitted on several occasions that he only took divination because it was easy.

'No it not!' Hermione exclaimed, remembering everything that he'd taught her in their tutoring sessions. She wasn't very good at it; her mind was far too busy for the meditations needed for those without the sight to glean anything of the future but she'd seen some of the stuff Gellert had predicted and it was almost terrifying to behold. The two boys looked at her like she'd grown another head.

'Hermione, you were the one that stormed out of divination calling Trelawney a fraud.' Ron reminded her and she huffed. Trelawney was a fraud for the most part, with only the occasional prophesy. Gellert on the other hand described his sight as a second layer of reality and with simple meditations, he could focus on exactly when he wanted to see. Of course, he was best at short term predictions – card games against him were a lost cause.

'The order meeting will end in under five minutes, then we will have tomato soup with homemade bread for dinner and your mother has made a special dessert to welcome Harry.' Gellert said, he was looking straight forwards and his eyes seemed to glow strangely in the dark room. 'She'll be annoyed that Ginny threw dungbombs at the door but more annoyed that Tonks knocks over the umbrella stand. Then Fred and George will spill dinner over the table and Sirius and Molly will have an argument over who is Harry's legal guardian.'

Harry and Ron just laughed but Hermione knew without a doubt that what Gellert had just told everyone was a genuine rendition of the future and she knew that with the relatively short range, almost everything would come true. As Molly knocked on the door she prepared herself for what would inevitably be an interesting dinner.