Author's Notes: Where art thou, summer? Why have you forsaken me? Only two more weeks until school (my heart goes out to those of you in the U.S. who already had to return to that horrid establishment known as your school), and we're still in July in this story. Yikes.

Special thanks to Starbucks. I could not have written this chapter without you. ^_^

Friday, 21 July

4:27 p.m.

I haven't had much time (or, quite frankly, much energy) to write in here for the past few days – Mrs. Weasley keeps us busy with our "decontamination" efforts (we've finished Ginny's and my room, as well as the twins' and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's), and the Order keeps us busy by having secretive meetings that we are obligated to listen in on. Thus far, we haven't gleaned much else from our eavesdropping, however.

They've only held one other meeting with almost everyone present (except, again, Dumbledore), but the adults of Grimmauld place – Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, and Lupin – have had several little unofficial meetings in the kitchen which we've managed to eavesdrop upon. The only good piece of information we picked up, though, was that a few members have been keeping a close eye on the Death Eaters Harry mentioned last year. Thank goodness someone took him seriously.

I really, really hope they catch Malfoy's father doing something rotten first.

We also overheard them talking about Dumbledore having trouble finding a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Not surprising, as they have a tendency to end up either dead, Obliviated, or soulless. Also, all the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers we've ever had (with the notable exception of Lupin) have tried to in some way harm Harry and/or Ron. I'm almost hoping the Dumbledore will finally give the position to Snape – he's horrible, but at least we'll know what to expect. Although then we run the risk of getting a homicidal maniac for a Potions Master to replace Snape. We just can't win.

I've also been wary about writing in here because I realized how much potentially harmful information I've written about: the location of Headquarters, the actions of the Order…finally, I got downright paranoid, so I swallowed my pride and discreetly showed this book to Tonks.

"If someone were to say…write some things in this book that would, say…incriminate certain people or groups…" I began cautiously, "is there any way that, say…someone else could possibly break the magic surrounding the book which allows only myself - I mean, the individual who writes in it - to read said incriminating information?"

Tonks flipped the book over in her hands, opened it, rifled through some pages of invisible writing, and then took out her wand. She tapped it once and waited while I fidgeted next to her. She tapped it again and muttered something. Then she handed me back the book, grinning. "Don't worry," she said with a wink. "Ron and Ginny won't be able to read your diary."

As if that's what I was worried about! Besides, Ginny's seen me writing in here loads of times already, but so far she hasn't said anything about it, and I doubt she would try to read it. I indignantly informed Tonks that it is a journal and then strode off.

I do like Tonks, though. I've never met a full-fledged witch who's close to my age before. She's really nice to Ginny and I, and it's quite nice to have another girl around sometimes.

Tonks has been showing up more and more, and Bill less and less. Personally, I think Bill's job is to get on good terms with the goblins, sort of like what I think Hagrid's been sent to do with the giants. Bill's well-placed to do so, since he's working at Gringotts and all. When I voiced this opinion to the others, however, Fred grinned and said that Bill's just not around because Fleur Delacour got a job at Gringotts recently.

Oh, please.

When Fred told us this, I carefully watched Ron for his reaction. But he seemed nonplussed and continued prying a hoard of screeching Vermila off the headboard of George's bed.

In fact…after about a week here I started noticing that Ron is ever so slightly…different than he was last year. Oh, he's still infuriating at times, and completely oblivious to certain things…but slightly less so. Perhaps You-Know-Who's return has changed him, or maybe it's living at Headquarters, or it could even be that he's really worried about Harry, like me, so he's too pre-occupied to be annoying. But he seems more…I don't know…mature, perhaps? The only prattish comment he's made all week was the roundabout one about owling Viktor, and the two of us have yet to get into a row. Maybe he's just thankful that I'm here to share in the unpleasantness of Grimmauld Place, and he doesn't want me to get angry with him and leave or something. Or perhaps…dare I write it?...Ron's finally growing up. Well, at fifteen years of age, it's about time, so bravo for him.

Ginny, too, is subtly different, perhaps because she finally gave up on Harry and found herself a boyfriend who fancies her back. I mean, she's always been a bit mischievous and stubborn – she's the twins' number one co-conspirator around here – but now she seems even more so. Plus, she's finally outgrown the shyness she used to have around people she didn't know. And she seems a bit less…giggly. Well, except for last night, when we stayed up giggling about the upstairs toilet, which was extremely irritable yesterday and decided to completely drench Ron in water when he walked into the bathroom.

As for the twins, they haven't changed an iota, save for their new disgust with Percy and a few isolated, surprising actions on their parts. Ron told me that they bought him new dress robes for unexplained reasons, and that the robes didn't shrink when he tried them on or try to strangle him or anything. They also offered to pay for new school robes for Ginny, supposedly as repayment for doing the twins' dirty work all summer. But I truly think that they did it out of the goodness of their hearts.

I don't know where they got all this money from, though, and I'm also stumped as to what they do up in their room all day. They've been acting sort of suspicious, and I've seen them pocket some rather disgusting commodities when they think no one's looking. They're most definitely up to something, but I'm not quite sure if I want to know what it is.

We barely see Mr. Weasley any more, save for at meals – if he's not working at the Ministry, he's on some secret errand for the Order (we still haven't quite figured out what "guard duty" entails). But Mrs. Weasley goes out far less often. She's usually helping us clean or cooking, but occasionally she disappears on Order business too.

I'm quite worried about Mrs. Weasley, though…she barely eats and she always seems very pale. Wednesday morning I woke up early and walked into the kitchen to see her standing alone near the stove, crying quietly into her apron. She spotted me after a few seconds and quickly blew her nose, telling me that she just had something in her eye. But I worriedly told Ron about it later, anyway. He got very red in the face and angrily started cursing Percy again. But when he was done, I caught him looking at me a tad more fondly than usual. I think he's glad that I'm looking out for his mum.

Unfortunately, I haven't…made much progress with Kreacher yet. The poor thing's so brainwashed into thinking that Muggles and Muggle-borns are bad that he…hasn't quite taken to me yet. But I'm going to keep trying! I've cornered Sirius a few times and have been on his case about Kreacher's living conditions and the way people treat him around here. Sirius just shakes his head at me whenever I go on one of my tirades.

"You can be as nice to him as you want, Hermione," he said with a sigh the other day, "but Kreacher's always going to be a dirty little stinker."

Well. Mr. Weasley told me that Dumbledore said to be nice to Kreacher too, so there.

Sirius seems glad for the company at Grimmauld Place, but I can tell that he absolutely hates being back here. Sometimes Fred and George can get a laugh out of him, and he seems slightly happier when Professor Lupin's around, but most of the time he just sulks. Seeing as he's an escaped convict and all, he can't jolly well just stroll outside and start doing things for the Order, and I think he's bitter because of it. But at least he tries to keep himself somewhat occupied by helping us clean occasionally, taking care of Buckbeak, and sometimes spending hours on end trying to yank down the wailing portrait of his mother. I think there's a Permanent Sticking Charm on it though, because it is not coming down.

So that's the week in a nutshell – cleaning, eavesdropping, and people growing up just when you've abandoned all hope of them doing so. Life at Grimmauld Place isn't really that bad. Sure, the place is infested with Doxys, Puffskeins, Scrantulas, and sulky escaped convicts, but at least I'm getting to spend the summer with Ron.

And Ginny too, of course.

The only thing that would make the summer even better (besides a change in location) would be if Harry was allowed to come here. His relatives are absolutely horrid to him and I just know he's going mad all by himself without any proper news. Harry would probably make Sirius so much happier if he was here…and I know Ron appreciates my company and all, but I also know that I'm not Harry. Ron misses him too, even if he'll never say anything like that out loud because boys just don't say that type of thing out loud.

Especially Ron, who has the emotional range of a teaspoon.