A.N Hello, all. I've received several confused reviews as to Bellatrix's allegiance. In chapter two, during the battle in the sky, I never say it was Bella chasing after them. SPOILERS: It is not Bella. Black is Andromeda. In the summary, I said a few characters have changed sides i.e. Bellatrix and Andromeda have switched places, in a way. I'm not going to explain how or why this happened yet (it's fully explained in later chapters). I apologise for the confusion, I was experimenting with their resemblance (in the books their looks are nearly identical) and attempting to create suspense. I hope this appeases some of you. I hope you enjoy the story.
Hermione sat on one of the many landings on the long staircase in The Burrow, watching the sky lighten outside the tall window. The sun had just started to peek over the distant hills surrounding The Burrow and a golden glow filled the scene. Other members had finally begun to leave; Remus and Dora having left before dawn and Kingsley just finishing a conversation with Mr. Wealsey. No one had been to bed yet. Hermione had escaped the business of downstairs soon after the general debriefing was finished, once everyone had returned. Mad-Eye was dead. Dung had vanished. George lost his ear. But Harry was safe.
Hermione understood that, logically, the mission had been a success. Harry was safe here with most of them and now they were free and safe from the prying eyes of the Death Eaters and could plan their next move.
Harry had spoken to her and Ron about the Horcruxes Dumbledore told him about. He wanted to go out hunting them as soon as possible. In fact, earlier during the night while she had been hiding on the stairs, Hermione had seen Harry stalk off into the night, his rucksack in one hand and his wand in the other. Immediately she had leaped to her feet, ready to charge out the door before her friend could stupidly disappear on them and the entire mission turned out to be for naught.
To her surprise and relief, she then spotted Ron run after the dark-haired boy. From her perch high up in The Burrow tower, she watched the two boys argue – she could tell by Ron's flailing arms and the squaring of Harry's shoulders that it was indeed a heated argument between them. Then finally, Harry hung his head and nodded, and both boys returned to the house.
Lost in her own thoughts, Hermione did not hear the heavy footfalls climbing the stairs behind her sometime later.
"Bloody hell, 'Mione, Kingsley's saying that you dueled Black! That true?"
Hermione jumped at the proximity of Ron's loud voice and then rolled her eyes at her own inattentiveness and skittish behaviour. She'll have to work on that with more and more Death Eaters running around the Wizarding World unchecked.
"I guess so," she mumbled sleepily, rubbing the grogginess from her face.
"Blimey…" The ginger boy sat down beside her and leaned back against the railing. "I got to shoot off a couple spells at a Lestrange, but that's not the same… Black!" Ron chuckled and shook his head disbelievingly."She's one of the worst. She was a complete nutter that night at the Ministry. A deadly nutter!"
"We had You-Know… I mean, Voldemort after us for a while as well," Hermione said, a little bubble of laughter escaping at the look of bewilderment on the youngest Weasley boy's face.
"You… you fought – You-Know-Who!"
"Relax, Ronald, Harry does it all the time," Hermione laughed and bumped his shoulder playfully.
"Yeah but… he's Harry, and you're – you're Hermione! You don't fight, you read and –"
"I'll have you know I am perfectly capable of handling myself in a duel, Ronald Weasley!"
"No, I know, it's just –"
"There you are."
Hermione and a beet red Ron looked up to see Harry standing above them, a serious and determined look on his face. This was a look Hermione had been seeing more and more frequently since the last night of the Triwizard Tournament.
"We need to talk."
"Sure, mate," Ron said, rising to his feet. He offered Hermione a hand up and the three of them made a beeline for his room at the top of the stairs.
Hermione followed more slowly, unsure if she was ready for another Serious Harry Talk, but she knew better than to refuse the Boy-Who-Lived when he was in such a mood.
They settled in their usual position, a triangle around the little cauldron they used as a fire-pit. Hermione conjured a little flame and watched it dance in mid-air above the rim.
Hermione and Ron watched Harry expectantly, yet with polite patience. Their friend would speak when he was ready.
Hermione closed her eyes. Will I ever get a good night's sleep again, she wondered to herself. She thought of the last time she had slept well through the night. Must have been while I was still at home… when Mum and Dad still knew me… when I still had parents…
Hermione's eyes flew open and she wiped a hand over her face once more. Let's not think about that.
"I'm going out to search for the Horcruxes," Harry said suddenly. Hermione watched the light of her little flame reflecting off the lenses of his round glasses. He was just as tired as she was. They all were.
"Yeah, we know, mate."
"We've agreed to go with you – we want to! All of us are going to find the Horcruxes, together," Hermione said determined, placing a comforting hand on Harry's knee and giving it an affectionate squeeze.
"Actually, Ron and I have been talking…"
"Oh?" The brunette raised an eyebrow in surprise. "And what, may I ask, have you two been discussing?" Since when do the two of them have secrets?
"We thought that… it might be more… practical, if you continued on at Hogwarts instead of coming with us to hunt the Horcruxes," Harry stumbled for words he thought Hermione would respect and understand, attempting to appeal to her logical mind. But he knew, of course, when he saw the fire in the witch's eyes, that no matter what words he used, there was no preventing the outrage of the young woman.
"WHAT? Why? Ron, you agreed to this?" she rounded on the terrified looking red-head, who was always at a loss for words when encountered with a very angry Hermione.
"We thought it would be smart to have a clear head inside Hogwarts keeping an eye on things," Harry explained, praying for a miracle, that Hermione would agree with their plan. "Snape's Headmaster now, 'Mione, we need someone to watch him and keep everyone in the school safe from the Death Eaters that will be around."
"Ginny can do that," Hermione argued.
"Ginny will be watched like a hawk – her entire family is in the Order – she'll need help."
"They'll be suspicious of me as well! I'm one of Harry Potter's closest friends –"
"Dad says the Ministry's ordered a mandate obligating all students to resume their term at Hogwarts like normal. Not that it's been said, but Muggle-borns especially," Ron said in a small voice, still terrified Hermione would yell at him again
"If anyone asks, tell them that you wanted to finish your education and that a dictatorship wouldn't scare you away from your books," Harry suggested in a tone that was half serious, half joking.
Hermione's brow settled into a deep frown. She didn't like this at all, but Harry did have a point, as much as she hated to admit it. She would be able to do more research from the school and relay any news she overheard back to them. She'd have access to the school library, to professors… "And what about Ron? I'm sure they'll want all Weasleys accounted for as well."
"We've dressed up the ghoul from the attic to look like me," Ron explained, his chest puffing out just a little with pride. "Everyone will think that I've stayed home sick with Spattergroit. No one will want to check and make sure that it's actually a human dressed in pyjamas sleeping in my bed."
Hermione hid her shock at Ron's obviously well thought-out plan. "Very well," she said, refusing to admit she was impressed. "How will we communicate? It wouldn't be smart to write back and forth using owls – I'm sure many owls will be intercepted now that Snape's Headmaster."
Ron and Harry shared a look, one she recognized from whenever she asked them if they had finished their homework. It was a shared look of half guilt and ill planning.
"We, uh, haven't quite thought that one through yet," Harry admitted sheepishly.
With something that was part sigh and half groan, Hermione lifted herself off the floor. "It looks like I have some homework to do then. But first, I think we should all get some sleep."
Both boys grinned at her and her heart swelled. She would miss them and worry constantly for their safety. She would have to find a very stealthy method of two-way communication for them and she already had an idea of in which book to begin her research. But first, she was positive she heard her cot in Ginny's room calling her name.
Hermione plodded into the crowded Weasley kitchen just as Mrs. Weasley was serving up breakfast. Before taking her seat across from Harry and Ron, Hermione dropped two identical journals onto the table in front of the boys.
"Bloody hell, 'Mione!" Ron garbled out around a mouthful of eggs and toast. He swallowed. "I know I tried in our third year, but I really don't want to read your diaries."
"Don't be silly, Ronald," she retorted. She took her seat and spooned scrambled eggs onto her plate. "These are what we will be using to communicate while I'm in Hogwarts."
"Well, how does it work?" Harry asked, taking the first of the journals and flipping through it.
"Think of it like the coins we used for Dumbledore's Army. We can both write in our journals and it will appear in the other. It's more commonly known as the Copy-Cat Spell," Hermione explained, demonstrating with the self-inking quill she brought down with her.
You see?
She wrote. Then she opened the second journal to the same page and found her words written exactly the same.
"Wicked!" Ron grinned, taking both quill and notebook to do his own experimenting.
"It kind of reminds me of Tom Riddle's diary. Not too fond of that…" Harry said sceptically.
"To be honest, he did provide a little inspiration," Hermione said, brimming with pride at her ingenious idea. "I thought it was ironic – using Voldemort's old tricks to help us defeat him."
"I think it's brilliant, 'Mione!" Ron admired, still busily scribbling in the journals.
"But, what if someone finds it? Hermione, they could find out everything – "
"Evanesco scriptura," Hermione said, tapping her wand to the words she and Ron wrote in the first book. Instantly, the words vanished. "Revelio scriptura," she said and tapped her wand to the page once more and everything reappeared, exactly as it had been before.
"Brilliant!"
