Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters as you all know
A/N: In my mind, it doesn't matter what happened in the book, Sirius is alive and well.
Chapter 4: At Grimmauld Place
Two hours after Hermione arrived at Malfoy Manor, Harry and Ron sat at the table in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place playing a game of Wizard's Chess. Ginny walked in and looked around, "Shouldn't Hermione be here by now?" she asked.
Ron shrugged, "She must be running late." he said.
"Check mate!" declared Harry, he looked at his watch, "She should have been here an hour ago though." he pointed out, "You'd think she would have let us know she was going to be late."
"I'm sure she's fine." said Sirius (A/N see? Alive!), looking up from the Daily Prophet at the end of the table. "Like Ron said, she's probably just running late."
"Who's late?" asked Tonks as she walked into the room. She was a brunette at the moment with deep brown eyes and a tan.
"Hermione." everyone said together.
Tonks nodded, "Didn't Arthur, and Mad-eye go to meet her? Shouldn't they at least have checked in by now?"
"I'm sure they're fine Tonks. There's nothing to worry about." Said Sirius firmly, "Shouldn't you be on guard?"
"Kingsley had to trade." Tonks answered and, not catching the point that he was trying to change the subject, she asked, "So they haven't check in yet?"
Harry opened his mouth to tell her no but before he could Sirius stood up and said, "Tonks, can I have a word?" he beckoned to the door. Tonks shrugged and followed him to the next room.
"They should have checked in an hour ago." He said when he was sure the door was closed behind them, "I didn't want Harry and the others to worry."
Tonks frowned, "Aren't you the one who is always fighting with Molly about how much Harry can know? You're always saying he has a right to know everything."
"Yeah well…..this is different. Remus and I think something may have happened. Remus just went out to find them." explained Sirius.
"Well, if you really didn't want them to know then when should have went to a further room, because you know all three of them had those Extendable ears stashed in their pockets."
"I thought Molly got all those."
"He's coming!" whispered Ginny urgently from the other side of the door. Quickly Ron and Harry went back to their game and Ginny pretended to be very interested in it. They all stuffed their Extendable Ears back in their pockets as Sirius opened the door a crack and peered inside. The others pretended no to notice.
"See? They're not paying any attention." Sirius told Tonks.
Tonks rolled her eyes, "Since when are you so gullible?" she snapped and walked past him into the kitchen. "I'm going to see if Kingsley would like to switch yet." She then changed to a beautiful, pale, blue-eyed blond.
"Bye." Said everyone as she left and then they all turned to look at Sirius. Feeling intimidated by their stares, he muttered, "I'm going to….check on Buckbeak."
"Do you think something really happened to them?" asked Harry when he was sure Sirius was out of ear shot.
Ginny shrugged, "They were supposed to be here by now."
Ron nodded and added, "And the order members are usually right on time, no wonder Sirius is worried.
"I think if they're not here in an hour we should go look for them." decided Harry.
Ginny rolled her eyes, "You just want an excuse to sneak out, you haven't even been outside since you got here two weeks ago." she remarked.
"That's not true!" protested Harry, "I'm worried about Hermione."
"I agree with you Harry." came a voice from behind them. They turned to see Fred enter the kitchen, followed by George.
"We just heard Bill talking to Dumbledore," George continued for his brother, "They're not going to send anyone to look for them until they now something happened to them. The same for any order mission."
Fred nodded, "But if anything did happen, they might not find out until it's too late to help them. I swear we have more sense than they do."
"Why don't you join?" asked Ginny "You are not in school anymore."
George shrugged and Fred said, "Maybe we have joined but just haven't told you."
"You haven't joined because mum gives you the evil eye every time you bring it up and you're afraid of her." pointed out Ron.
"Well since we're not in the order we don't have to follow those rules and we ere going to help you find Hermione," began George
"But since you obviously think we're chicken…."continued Fred
Harry sighed "We wouldn't be able to sneak out anyway, you mother watches me like a hawk." he pointed out. Ginny and Ron nodded in agreement.
"Harry. Harry, Harry," said Fred, "you have clearly forgotten who you're talking to."
"We are the kings of sneaking." George declared. "We know every trick in the book. All we'll need is for someone to stay behind to cover for us."
Fred nodded in agreement, "Someone who is a good liar and can easily have mum believing everything she says." The boys all looked at Ginny. She glared at them.
"Why should I be the one left behind? I want to help too." She said.
"Help with what?" asked Mrs. Weasly as she walked into the room.
"Clean Buckbeak and his room." said Ginny right away.
"Oh, it is starting to smell up there but why would you want to help if you don't want to?" Mrs. Weasly asked.
"Well there's nothing else to do."
"Why don't you help me with dinner?" suggested Mrs. Weasly.
"O.K." agreed Ginny reluctantly. She glared at the back of the boys heads as the left the room and headed upstairs. "Oh you know what mum? I wanted to pick up my room a little bit before Hermione gets here since we're going to be sharing." With that she ran upstairs after the others. "So what's the plan?" she asked as she entered Harry and Ron's room.
"Well there is an order meeting in 15 minutes so dinner won't be for about an hour, if we haven't heard from them by then we'll go after dinner." explained Ron.
"But that means you'll be gone into the night." pointed out Ginny, "That's risky."
Harry nodded, "She's right, and they would eventually notice we're gone. Ginny can't lie for more than a couple of hours."
"A couple of hours after we leave it would be too late to stop us." pointed out Fred.
George looked at his watched and said to Fred, "We have to go the meeting will be starting soon."
"I thought you weren't part of the order." Harry said.
"Well not technically but Dumbledore said we can sit in on the meetings. We just can't have any assignments until we decide to become official members." George explained.
When they were gone Ginny asked, "What do we do now?"
Harry shrugged, "Just wait I guess." Ron nodded in agreement.
A/N okay so that was kind of boring but on the bright side, my chapters are getting longer