"Here you are," McGonagall told me gruffly as she handed me a strange spidery object, one I'd never encountered before in all of my studies. "It's a portkey, in a sense," she continued. I took it gingerly, looking at the object.

It was almost like a snow globe, or so the small glass orb in the middle suggested. But the thin metal legs that stretched out from it reminded me more of a strange sort of syringe. It was of wizard-make, as no Muggle object could balance so heavy a glass on such thin legs, and it was obviously ancient. If I squinted, I could see a small dot amidst a green backdrop within the glass. Curious. "What is it, Professor?" I questioned quietly.

She glanced quickly at Remus, almost as though silently asking him whether or not she should tell. He nodded slightly. "It's where you're hiding, Miss Granger," she answered. My head shot up.

"Pardon?"

She sighed and took the object back. "See that small speck in the glass?" She pointed to figure I'd noticed earlier. I nodded. "That's a house. Small, of course, but it will do." I stared at her.

"You expect me and Charlie to fit in that?"

She looked at me over the rims of her glasses. "What are you talking about?" I stared at her as though she'd gone insane when she handed the figurine back to me, but I took it nonetheless.

Remus turned to her with a slight smile. "She thinks you mean to put them in the glass, Minerva."

She snorted most indelicately. "Now, really, of all the childish things. I'm not putting you in the glass; it's my little way to keep an eye on you. This shows the house and the surrounding area. The house is approximately two miles from a small Muggle town. The house has a charm on it and the Muggles forget it's there until someone takes up residence there."

She rolled up her sleeves. "Now, if you're ready?" It was more command than request, but I couldn't help but question her one last time.

"How is this hiding? What are you going to do with us once we're there? What if someone finds this, they'd know where to find us, wouldn't they? What are you going to do with it? Throw it in the lake?"

I saw Charlie's mouth twitch slightly out the corner of my eye. McGonagall was caught off guard, however, and spluttered. "Well, I--Miss Granger! Of course not!"

"Well," I continued, "then where in Merlin's name are you going to put it?"

She shot a look at Remus that suggested my sudden forgetfulness of respect was somehow his fault. He shrugged sheepishly. Sighing, she stepped to one of the many cupboards that were surrounding the meeting area of the office. She opened one and pulled out a fancy Sneak-o-scope and a slightly tinkling instrument that looked like it had something to do with Astronomy. A delicate container that was similar to the legs of the object that was to be my home was neatly hidden behind them. "There," she said shortly. "You'll be in my office always, hidden behind these things. Does that satisfy your curiosity, Miss Granger?"

I smiled at her. "Very much so, Professor. Thank you."

"Are we ready now, then?"

"Yes." I set the object on her desk and took a better hold it, leaving room for the hands of Charlie, Remus and Professor McGonagall. With a complicated wave of her wand and a muttered incantation that I couldn't quite catch, I felt the familiar sensation of a hook behind my navel and I was suddenly falling head first into a grassy hill.

Charlie landed just as unceremoniously beside me with a groan. Remus and McGonagall, being the more experienced of us, landed gracefully on their feet, only mussing up McGonagall's stern hair-knot slightly.

"Now, if you'll be so kind as to follow me, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley." And she marched off in one direction. Hurrying to stand, I had to jog to catch up. Before long, we had reached the speck I had seen in the glass. Only now, it was quite a bit larger and clearly a house.

It was old and small, by housing standards, and more suited to one person or two married than a pair of barely acquainted people thrown together by chance, but I supposed that it was better than one of Mr. Weasley's tents. At least this had a door that could close completely and a small patch of weedy garden outside the doorstep.

McGonagall walked up the step and opened the door carefully, as though she expected it to break in her hands. It creaked loudly and a cloud of dust flew from the hinges. She coughed delicately and stepped in. The rest of us followed quietly.

The inside was no less ancient or small than the outside, if anything it was even more so. The entire thing was one room for living and dining with a small door leading into what I assumed to be the bathroom and a pull-down staircase up into what must have been an attic serving as a bedroom. The furniture was shabby and moth eaten, but no worse than what might be find in a dodgy camp in some forgotten town. The couch was sagging quite a bit in the middle, but the blanket folded neatly over the back looked like one of Mrs. Weasley's and it was clean and bright, contrasting with the dark wood and faded rug in front of the extremely sooty fire place. The dishes in the kitchen were clean, at least, and stacked neatly in an open cupboard beside what looked like a well stocked food shelf. The sink was slightly dirty, with a ring around the edges and I couldn't bear to think what the bathroom must look like. All in all, it was dusty and a little musty-smelling, but there was nothing a few well placed "Scourgify"s couldn't fix.

"The bathroom's just through there," McGonagall said, pointing to the small door. "And the bedroom's up the steps. Only one bed, I'm afraid, so one of you will have to kip on the sofa. The food shelves will not restock themselves, so you'll have to be sparing. One of the Order will come by occasionally to send you another supply, but we can only come rarely. The water will not run out and there isn't any electricity or many candles, so you'll have to be sparing with them. All in all, it will be slightly cramped, but ought to do quite nicely."

I looked around. "When was this last used?"

"Perhaps seventy years ago or so. It's only used in the direst of emergencies. But we have taken the liberty of bringing some things you might like around."

"And we cleaned it up a bit, too," Remus put in. "Obviously, my cleaning spells need a bit of work, but it is better than it was earlier."

Suddenly, Professor McGonagall turned to Charlie and me. "There's one more thing I need to show you." She stepped toward the fire place and reached to take a corner of the mantle. "Mr. Weasley, if you would help me lift this?" He obliged and the mantle was soon off the fireplace, opening a secret door that had a chest hidden behind it. She turned to us. "As you can see, there's a trunk back here, so I would suggest that, unless you wish to burn it, you not use the fireplace."

McGonagall lifted the lid and said a quick Lumos and started down the stairs that her wand illuminated within the space of the trunk. "If you'll follow me," she called from a few steps down. Smiling, Charlie let me go first, then Remus and then himself.

I could see little as I walked down the surprisingly long staircase. At the bottom, I could see the little circle of light around McGonagall's wand, but nothing else was visible. Suddenly, with a swish of her wand, the place was lit by dozens of candles and I could not suppress my gasp.

It was a workshop; a huge workshop that had space for a good sized library, a potions table, various tools to use for Arithmancy, DADA and Herbology. There was a large table set in the middle meant for various projects and a shelf completely dedicated to quills, ink bottles and parchment. I had difficulty harnessing my excitement.

"This is for you to do any work you might wish or that we send you to do, not to mention your lessons, Miss Granger. Charlie will tutor you and I expect you to keep up with your classmates." I nodded vigorously, still surprised at the hidden basement that was bigger than the entire house.

She headed for the steps again. "Let's go back up now, please." And we all followed her obediently.

Once at the top, she and Remus headed for the door, but stopped just before exiting and turned to face us. "Oh, I almost forgot." She reached into one of her robe's pockets and pulled out a pair of plain silver rings. She took my hand and placed it on my left ring finger, repeating the action on Charlie.

"You are to wear these rings at all times," she ordered sternly. "They allow the Order to keep an eye on you and make sure that you remain safe and undetected. If you choose to travel into the town, remember that it is Muggle and do not use magic. While there, go under the pretense of a young married couple just starting out. That ought to keep away any overly curious neighbors." I glanced at Charlie and blushed. He merely grinned back cheekily. "And the Order will be sending you some missives from time to time, usually about clues we have towards the hiding place of Lucius Malfoy, or any of his activities. We'd be quite pleased if you would put forth your efforts into those subjects."

"And don't open the door unless you're absolutely sure of who's on the other side," Remus added in seriously. "We'll send you a few passwords to know who's there in a few days, after the next meeting." We nodded.

Suddenly, in a great show of feeling, Professor McGonagall turned to us and hugged us tightly. I stared at Charlie over her shoulder, and almost laughed to see a similar expression on his face. She released us sniffling and stepped out the door quickly so as not to be spotted crying.

Remus then took me in his arms. "Be brave," he whispered in my ear. "I'll be by soon to see you." He released me and I smiled as bravely as I could at him. Then, with a manly wave to Charlie, he left. I could hear the distinct pop of apparition as he and McGonagall departed. We were alone.

I looked at Charlie nervously. "So, here we are," I said with a slight laugh.

"Yeah," he responded. There was an awkward silence. I looked around uncomfortably, my eyes resting on the food shelf. I suddenly realized I had not eaten since the snack trolley had passed my compartment on the train and I was incredibly hungry.

"How's about something to eat," I called over my shoulder to him as I made a beeline for the food.

"Sure," he responded easily, glad to have something to say other than awkward small talk.

So we ate a pair of sandwiches while talking about everything and nothing. Mostly about Hogwarts and what I wanted him to teach me while we were stuck at the cabin in hiding.

By the time we'd cleared the plates, washed them, and stacked them back on the pile, it was 9:23, according to Charlie's watch.

He yawned widely. "I think it's about time I go to bed, how about you?"

And I suddenly remembered that there was only one bed. I glanced at him nervously. He didn't expect us to share, did he? Without a second glance at me, he stepped out of the kitchen, pulling his shirt over his head at the same time. I stared at his scarred and freckled back with surprise and then immediately looked away. He wasn't going to strip anymore of his clothes off, was he? When I looked back up, a minute later, he was staring at me strangely, clad in only his dragon print boxers. I felt the heat rise up my neck.

"Aren't you going to bed, Hermione?" he asked.

I stuttered most unbecomingly and found I did not have any words to answer him with. "Well, I--that is-- you see..." I trailed off uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot. I looked up at the pull down staircase. A sense of realization seemed to wash over him.

"Out of your reach, isn't it?"

"What?" I watched in horror as he came closer, stopping right beside me. His chest, toned and covered with healed burns from his extensive work with dragons was at eye level. It was hard to force my eyes to meet his when met with such an outrageous display.

He looked at me as though I'd gone slightly mad in the last minute. "The staircase," he clarified. "Out of your reach, yeah?"

"Oh," I muttered in relief, willing to go with any explanation he could come up with. "Yeah."

With a soft smile, he reached up and pulled it down. "There you go," he said. He gestured for me to go up. I hesitated.

"Don't you want the bed?"

He grinned. "Nah, not really. I'm used to sleeping wherever. Besides, you're the girl. My mum didn't teach me manners for nothing. It's all yours."

I tried my best to return the grin. "Thank you." I headed up. "Good night," I said quickly, turning to him.

"Night," he responded and went towards the sofa. I waited for a minute until I heard him blow out the candle and the room was enveloped in darkness. With a soft sigh and a harsh scolding in my head, I continued up to the room.

The upstairs room was small, smaller than the downstairs, and the ceiling was so low that I couldn't stand straight. A low and sagging bed took up almost all of the floor space, the rest being taken by a short and cracked wardrobe. I pulled my robes and outer sweater over my head, shortly followed by my shoes, knee socks and skirt. As there were no pajamas to sleep in yet, I made do with my undershirt and underwear.

I crawled under the musty covers and buried my head in the slightly mildew-y smelling pillow. My nose crinkled with slight disgust and I swore that tomorrow would be devoted to cleaning the little house until it was habitable. I fell asleep peacefully, only to be met with dreams of Ron wearing dragon boxers and waking up with the most horrible feeling that I'd never be able to look either Weasley straight in the face again.

"Damn Voldemort," I muttered as I thought of the Weasley pair. "If it weren't for you I could have one of them." I quickly corrected myself. "Ron, Ron. If it weren't for you I could have Ron." With a tired smack to my forehead, I fell back into fitful slumber.