DISCLAMER: I own nothing but the plot.

A/N: Sooooo sorry about the delay… I know many of you thought I had given up the story but don't worry neither I did nor I intent to. I seem to have gotten over my block (Thank God!) and here is the next chapter! Thanks a lot to all of you that reviewed I read it all and I loved them all so thank you so much. And a special thanks to my new beta DSSWeasley. :P Now on with the story.

Chapter 9 - Setting Things Straight

As he was lying on his bed back at Grimmauld Place, Harry couldn't think of a word to describe how he was feeling right now better than exhausted, physically and emotionally. He had just come back from Diagonal Alley and from the reading of Sirius will; and, to be honest, it had not been as bad as he thought it would. In fact, he was pretty sure thinking about it had been more emotional draining than the reading itself. Apparently Sirius had wrote this will during the First War' when Harry was just about one year-old and hadn't had an opportunity to change it with being in Azkaban and going into hiding, so there were no last goodbyes or advices for the future, - what would have he said to a baby anyway? - just a statement that everything that he owned would belong to Harry in the event of his death. So Harry just had to spend a couple of hours going through boring documents and signing papers.

After they had left the bank, Harry had dragged Remus - who still wasn't speaking more than the absolutely necessary - to almost every single shop in the Alley and had bought not only his and Hermione's school supplies but also everything that he thought could be of any use during their extended' summer. Remus had obviously questioned this, seeing that he was buying a whole lot of stuff, but Harry just shrugged it off saying he was getting most of this things to try and cheer Hermione up, since she hadn't come with them he didn't know what she wanted specifically so he was trying to get everything she might have bought if given a choice to pick it up herself.

Now, all that he wanted was a couple hours of sleep before dinner so that he could recharge his batteries but as he was starting to drift off to sleep, the sound of the door opening and closing crashed all his hopes of getting any rest. Tiredly, he opened half an eye to see who the intruder was and then woke up completely after the sight of a disheveled Hermione looking lost around the room.

"Where have all this stuff come from?" Asked Hermione after finally spotting Harry half-sitting on the bed surrounded by several bags.

"Well, you asked me to get our school things, so I got those and a few other things too." Replied Harry yawning.

"A few? Harry, you bought the whole Alley." Said Hermione tiredly, moving toward the bed and gesturing around the room that was filled with bags, boxes and packages.

"Well, I didn't know what you wanted." Harry started as Hermione put down the bags that where on the bed and sat down next to him. He was about to continue his explanation when they heard a sound of something being dropped on the floor outside their room. So he took of his wand and put a silencing charm on the room while Hermione put her special locking charm on the door.

"Do you thing someone is trying to spy on us?" Asked Hermione walking to the door and placing more charms on it.

"Well, they can try but we're not going to let them." Said Harry as Hermione sat back on the bed and placed another charm on the room that made the warm red walls around them, the ceiling and the floor all flash briefly gray.

"What was that?" Asked Harry smiling for he knew that it had to be some extremely complex but handy spell that only his Hermione would have thought about.

"A coating spell. It blocks any magical device that enables people to see through things from seeing inside or through the place where the spell is cast, in other words, it prevents Mad-Eye from spying on us." Said Hermione in her usual classroom' tone as if it was the most common spell in the word, which made Harry only smile wider. People normally thought that this know-it-all attitude of hers was annoying but Harry always thought it was endearing, well, most of the time anyway.

"Ok." Said Harry putting an arm around her and bringing her closer to him. "Now that we are protected against prying ears and eyes I can properly explain to you why I bought a little' more than you expected." He said innocently and earning an eye-roll from Hermione. "Well, we are hoping to stay this summer, Merlin knows how long, on a small island in the middle of nowhere and I don't think they have any shops there so I had to buy a lot of supplies. I also had to buy things for you and I really didn't know what you wanted or the subjects you are taking so I had to buy everything on your list plus a whole lot of stuff Remus told me girls use and some stuff I thought you'd like. And then I got carried away and bought myself a lot of things too, I never had much living at the Dursleys and even after I found out my parents had left me money I was never able to buy anything that didn't fit in my trunk because I wouldn't have a place to store it since the Dursleys already complained enough about Hedwig… But now that I have a house of my own I just…" He trailed off and sighed. "So, putting all of those together, well, we have all of this." He said looking at the bags all over the room.

"It's Ok, Harry, you are allowed to have anything you want while you are here. You deserve it." She said kissing his cheek. "Now, did you just say you have a house? How was the reading?" She asked him quietly resting her head on his shoulder and running her hand up and down his side.

"Yes, this house is mine now, along with everything Sirius owned. And as for the reading, it wasn't that bad." Answered Harry also quietly and then proceeded telling her about his day, when he was done it was his turn to ask her about hers.

"What about you? How were things at your house?" Asked Harry lying on the bed and bringing her down with him so that he could hug her and comfort her properly when she told him about it.

"It was hard, going back there and walking into the half destroyed living room, memories of last night flashing in my mind…" As soon as she started talking Harry could feel her tears start soaking his shirt where she was resting her head, her voice was weak and pained and it broke Harry's heart to see her like this. But he knew that he had to let her talk, it would make her feel better to get it out of her chest. "But at least my aunt was there, she helped me set everything for the funeral tomorrow and we talked a lot, it really helped me talking to her. Not that talking to you doesn't help too, it's just that you never knew them and she did, so there are some things that you just wouldn't understand." She added quickly so not to hurt Harry's feelings.

Harry understood why she felt that way and he didn't mind that she felt better talking to her aunt, it had been easy for him to talk to her about Sirius because she knew him as much as he did, in fact she had spent more time with him than Harry himself last summer but he really never met her parents or remembered his own for that matter, so most of the things she probably talked about with her aunt were things he couldn't really relate.

"You know, she's my guardian now." She continued after a while. "It's a good thing my parents told her about me being a witch on the summer before 4th year, I wouldn't have the energy to tell her right now."

"Is she ok with you staying here with me?" Harry asked worried.

"I didn't ask her permission. I just told her I was going to stay at the Order's Headquarters because it was the safest thing to do. She doesn't have to know the details." She shrugged.

"So, do want to see the things I bought?" Asked Harry after a while, hoping that it would cheer her up.

"Sure, I brought my trunk and some other things from home too." She said pointing to a pile near the door Harry hadn't noticed before. There were a couple of boxes, her guitar, a pet-carrier with a sleeping Crookshank's inside, two trunks and a bird cage. As he moved closer to take a better look at what he was sure to be his possessions, she explained it to him.

"As you've probably noticed I asked Tonks if we could stop by the Dursleys to get your things since I was sure you'd forgotten all about it. They were quite pleased to know that you had left earlier this year and didn't opposed to us getting your things. I've told Hedwig to fly here so she should be arriving any minute now, maybe we could send our course lists to Professor McGonagall later."

"Sure, we'll send them as soon as Hedwig is up for the trip. Now let's open these packages so I can show you what I bought." Said Harry grabbing a few packages and jumping on the bed like an over excited kid on Christmas morning. When he looked up at Hermione he saw that she was smiling at him so he pulled her onto the bed with him and trusted a broom-shaped package in her hands with just one thought going through his mind. Mission accomplished.'

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Harry lay awake in bed the next afternoon thinking about the stressful day they just been through and about how it wasn't over yet. They had come back from the Grangers' funeral a couple of hours ago and looked themselves up in Harry's room since Hermione didn't want to talk with anyone. It was so ridiculous how everybody seemed to want to say some cheap line to her as "At least they didn't suffer" or "They are at a better place now" as if any of this crap would make her feel any better about it all. Harry knew, of course, that they all meant well but it was just not what she need right now, she needed silent support, a shoulder to cry on and that's what Harry was going to be to her. Harry had been impressed at how she had managed to keep it together during the whole service, only shedding a tear every now and then, but as soon as they got into the room and put all the proper privacy spells in place she had completely broken down and had cried herself to sleep in Harry's arms.

Now, as he looked at her peaceful expression, it was hard to believe it was all true, if fact, if weren't for the tear tracks on her face he would be compelled to believe that the last couple of days had just been a bad dream; but they weren't that lucky. It was all very real and tonight they would still have to endure another excruciating interrogation, with the added bonus that this one was going to be commanded by their beloved headmaster. Harry was a bit surprised that the old man hadn't shown up before but according to Remus he was busy at the Wizengamot now that he was reinstated as Chief Warlock and the ministry had finally sacked Fudge and was going through the motions of finding a decent replacement.

Apparently there weren't too many people willing to take the job since the wizarding world was in a state of total disarray right now. In the fortnight Harry spent at his relatives' house he had cut himself completely from the outside world, with the exception of the few letters from his friends, he didn't know anything that was happening in the war. When he started going to Hermione's house she got him updated with the wizarding news and they would also read the Daily Prophet together in the mornings, so from what he knew it was not a simple matter to choose a new leader to the wizarding world right now. There were attacks happening every day, all Death Eaters had broken out of Azkaban and the common wizard everywhere was in complete panic.

Also he and Dumbledore had changed status again from complete lunatics to the hope of wizarding kind and Harry was quite curious to see how Dumbledore was going to play this to his advantage and also quite eager to see the Headmaster's reaction when he refused to be his number one puppet anymore. He laughed out loud as the image of the always collected headmaster having his jaw hit the floor in surprise came swimming into his mind.

"What's so funny?" Asked a sleepy voice from his chest.

"Just thinking about Dumbledore's reaction when I put him in his place." Said Harry kissing Hermione on the top of her head. "Go back to sleep, we still have a few hours before dinner."

"I've slept enough. I think we should go talk to Ron, we'll leave in a couple of days and I don't want him to stay mad at us the whole summer." Said Hermione looking up at him.

"Are you sure, Mya? As you said we still have a couple of days left, we don't need to do this today. We have enough on our plates already without going and picking up a fight with Ron." Asked Harry concerned. They've already been through a lot today and still had the meeting with Dumbledore and the others later, fighting with Ron now could make things a little too much to handle.

"No, I need to do this as soon as possible. I have to know if I still have a best friend or if I should mourn for another loved one." Said Hermione forcefully.

At seeing how important it was to her Harry agreed and it was with a heavy heart and an intense sense of dread that he made his way out of the room with Hermione to try and find their best friend.

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They didn't have much trouble finding Ron. He was going through his trunk in his - and what used to be Harry's - room and paid them no mind as they walked in and settled on Harry's old bed. Harry thought it would be better to just sit and wait until Ron was ready to talk to them but Hermione didn't seem to share his thoughts seeing that after a minute of being ignered she stood up and walked over to where Ron was trying to get his things in order.

"Ron? Can we talk to you for a moment?" Asked Hermione pleadingly.

"So now you wanna talk, huh? After ignoring me all summer, now you wanna talk. Well, I don't think now it's the best time." Answered Ron without even looking up from what he was doing.

"C'mon Ron, don't be like that. Please, just talk to us." Begged Hermione.

"I'm serious, now it's not a good time. I have to finish packing, I'm going back to the Burrow tonight." He said and just now Harry noticed that Ron's things weren't all over the floor as they used to be when they were sharing the room.

"What? Why are you leaving?" Asked Hermione surprised.

"Mum thinks it's best that we leave now that this is Harry's house. And I think it will be better this way too, I need time to think about stuff."

"I don't mind having your family here." Spoke Harry for the first time but Ron just ignored him and continued packing.

"Listen Ron, I know you need time to think this through, and I'm all for giving you space but please, I just need to know if you are still my friend, our friend. I'm really sorry if you think we took you for granted this summer, things were just complicated with me being grounded and Harry mourning but that doesn't mean we don't need you because we do, I need you Ron. Please, don't be mad at us forever." Pleaded Hermione with tears in her eyes.

Harry was furious. How could Ron be such a prat not to care how much he was hurting her? But as he was starting to stand up to get Hermione and leave before he hexed Ron into oblivion Ron did something that shocked him into sitting again. There, before Harry's eyes, Ron hugged Hermione. And she hugged him back. Harry didn't know whether he should kill Ron for hugging his girl or thank him for doing it for her, in the end he chose just to wait and pretend he wasn't there while they just stood there hugging like there was no tomorrow and whispering things at each other's ears for what, to Harry, seemed like an eternity. The only consolation to Harry was that when they parted Hermione was smiling. Ron wasn't going to die today.

"So, are we ok now?" Asked Hermione holding Ron's hands. He just nodded smiling at her. "All of us?" She asked again looking at Harry then looking back at Ron.

"No." Ron answered letting go of her hands and turning his back on them again. Hermione just sighed and motioned for Harry to stand up and talk to him. But as Harry was approaching him, Ron spoke again.

"Don't. We're not having this conversation now and we're not having it in front of Hermione. I need to think first. It's my fault Hermione moved on, I should have asked her out when I had the chance but I didn't, not because I thought she wasn't good enough for me but because I thought I' wasn't good enough for her and now it's too late. I can accept that. What I can't seem to accept is the fact that my supposed best mate would go for the girl he knows' I fancy behind my back." Said Ron almost shouting the last part. When Harry was opening his mouth to reply he held up his hand and continued. "I don't want to hear any excuses or explanations now. As I said, I need to think first, you should do the same. We will talk at school." He said giving Harry a poorly wrapped package. "Happy Birthday in advance. See you at school." And with that he opened the door and motioned for them to leave, which they did with Hermione stoping just a minute to hug Ron and say their goodbyes.

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"If everyone would be silent, please. I would like to start this meeting now." Spoke Dumbledore at the head of the dinner table where few members of the order plus Harry and Hermione were all congregated for the interrogation'. As the noise in the room died down he turned to the couple with kind eyes and began speaking softy but loud enough for anyone to hear.

"I hate to be bringing this up now after everything you two have been through this past few day but I'm afraid we can delay it no more. I'm sorry I have not been here for you before now but I was caught up with procedures at the ministry that I could not avoid and I hope you can forgive me. From what I heard about your last meeting the Order didn't get the answers to the questions that are plaguing our minds so I would like to ask you now to be completely honest with us when answering these questions for they are the key to your safety and to the capture of those who did you harm."

Harry just nodded and saw that although Hermione did the same she was forcing herself not to roll her eyes. At seeing their agreement the headmaster motioned for Remus to start the questioning.

"We have a few questions that need to be answered before we ask you about what really happened that night. Firstly, Hermione, we need to know how you bypassed the wards we set up on Harry's house." Asked Remus sounding at lost as how could anyone bypass wards designed by the great Albus Dumbledore. Harry felt a bit hurt listening to his former professor speaking for the first time since their trip to Diagonal Alley, Remus was still clearly avoiding him and right now wouldn't even look him in the eye.

"Wards? I don't know what you are talking about. I just apparated there like I would to anywhere else." Said Hermione confused.

"You don't understand, Hermione. There are powerful wards on that house that prevents anyone from apparating in a 1-mile ratio. You must have done something different." Said Remus.

"Well, Your powerful wards must be defective then because I didn't do anything different from any other apparating I've done. I'm afraid I wouldn't even know how." Countered Hermione. Murmur started all over the table after that statement and Dumbledore had to ask for silence again before he could speak.

"I'm sure we can form a team to go check the wards tomorrow even though I have a pretty good idea of what might have happened there." Said Dumbledore with the usual twinkle in his eyes but he didn't offer any more information on the subject. Seeing that he was done talking Mr. Weasley addressed them.

"Hmm… Harry. According to your safety instructions you weren't supposed to leave the house without a proper trained escort and we already know that Hermione's parents didn't know about your being at their house seeing that Hermione was grounded. So, how did you happen to be there at the time of the attack? Did you have another dream that warned you about it? Or did Hermione apparated to you for help?" Asked Arthur clearly uncomfortable with the subject of Harry and Hermione's relationship.

"None of those actually. I was already there when we heard her mother scream. I had been there the whole day as I had for the past several days since I got my apparation license. Funny how no one seemed to notice I was missing." Answered Harry coldly.

"How did you wanted us to protect you, boy, if you were sneaking out when you knew you were supposed to stay put?" Asked Moody angrily, making everyone recover from the shock of Harry's statement.

"And how were you planning on protecting him if a Death Eater apparated to his room during the night and kidnapped him while he was asleep? We already reached the conclusion that the wards on his house are rubbish and that you had no way of knowing if he was home or not. When would you notice that he was missing? When you didn't get your "I'm fine" letter? No, that could be easily forged. Maybe when you decided he had suffered enough staying on that house by himself and went to get him out of there? Would he still be alive by then? Would he still be sane?" Asked Hermione forcefully. She was livid and nobody seemed to be willing to interrupt her speech. "Don't talk like you were doing him a big favor protecting him because you were not. You've put him through hell living in that home saying it was all for his safety when that wasn't even real. So don't blame him for your own incompetence."

"Humph! I knew Harry dear wouldn't be acting this foolish if this girl wasn't influencing him. The Daily Prophet alerted us about her when they were in 4 year. Playing with his heart like that while seeing Viktor Krum and now doing the same with my Ronny… " Molly Weasley rambled angrily only to be interrupted by the headmaster. And not one minute too soon either because Harry was ready to give her a piece of his mind too. Hermione though didn't seem affected by it, she seemed even bored like she expected that to happen.

"Now, Molly, lets not accuse people of things they have no fault of. Harry is not a innocent child anymore and as we saw in all his years at Hogwarts he can make his own decisions and once he has his heart set on them no one, and I mean not even Miss Granger, can make him change his mind. And also Miss Granger is right, sometimes we care so much for someone that it clouds our judgment in a way that we do them harm while trying to protect them. And I'm afraid that has happened to Harry too many times. But all we can do about that now is apologize and think back to what we've done wrong so we don't repeat ours mistakes. I truly am sorry Harry." Said Dumbledore with a sigh.

"Err…" Started Tonks breaking the uncomfortable silence that had been created after Molly's accusations and the Headmaster's apology. "I think what is left to discuss here is what happened during the attack. We got a few basics from Harry the night it all happened but we need details if we are going to conduct a proper investigation on it. I know it must be hard for you to talk about it Hermione so if Harry would tell us everything he knows you would just have to fill in the blanks." Said Tonks kindly looking at them both.

"Ok, but I don't know much more than what I've already told you." Said Harry nodding. "We were upstairs in Hermione's room when we heard a scream so we grabbed our wands and ran to the living room… " He sighed and grabbed Hermione's hand under the table to try to comfort her for what came next. "When we got there we saw the Death Eater over her parents bodies." She squeezed his hand hard and he moved his chair closer to her so she could lean on him. "I think that er… scene froze for a second and that's when I was stunned." Tonks nodded and looked at Hermione expectantly waiting for her to continue from there.

"When I saw that Harry was down I didn't know what to do. It was me against three Death Eaters and if I tried to flee they would get Harry so I just did the first thing that popped on my mind and fired a Reducto curse on the living ceiling. I had an advantage over them because I was still hidden from their view so they didn't have a chance to try and hex me before the ceiling stated coming down on their heads. I didn't even stop to see what happened next before I grabbed Harry and apparated us here." Said Hermione in a small pained voice as if she was reliving everything she was telling them.

"That was all you needed to know, right?" Asked Harry eager to take Hermione out of there and comfort her.

"Yes, Harry, that was all. But I'm afraid that now we will have few arrangements to discuss with you." Said Dumbledore apologetically.

"What arrangements?" Asked Harry frowning.

"Your living arrangements. After much discussion on this matter we thought it would be better if you spent the rest of your summer at Hogwarts."

"What? I'm not going to leave Hermione here alone." Countered Harry.

"Well, Miss Granger's aunt is her guardian now, and she wishes to take Hermione on a vacation across Europe until classes are to start. She thinks it might be a nice distraction for her on top of being safer to stay out of the country right now." Explained Dumbledore leaving the couple dumbfounded. "Seeing that leaving you here all alone most of the time wouldn't be an option we think that Hogwarts would be the best place for you to go. It's safe and it's familiar to you so you would feel at home staying there."

"When would we have to leave?" Asked Hermione still surprised by the turn of events.

"Tomorrow morning. I would like you both to pack your things tonight. A guard will be waiting here first thing in the morning to take you to the airport to meet your aunt, Hermione. And after your are safe inside the plane they will come back here to take Harry to Hogwarts." Answered Remus with true sympathy on his eyes.

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. This had to be some kind of plot to separate them, maybe they did think Hermione was the one instigating his behavior and thought that by separating them they could get Harry to follow their every wish again. But as was Harry getting ready to starting telling them all the reason why that wasn't going to happen Hermione tugged on his hand and motioned for him to stand up.

"We should start packing now if we are going to leave so early tomorrow. We'll see you in the morning." She said dragging an unwilling Harry out of the door.

Only when they reached their room and had all their privacy spells up was that Harry spoke up.

"You can't be serious Hermione. We can not let them do that to us!" Shouted Harry angrily. He didn't want to be shouting at her but he had get out his frustration somehow and the fact that she was actually starting to pack wasn't helping matters at all.

"And we won't, Harry." Answered Hermione calmly.

"Then what are you doing?" Asked Harry exasperated pointing at where she was shrinking the things Harry had bought her so they could fit in her trunk.

"Packing." She answered rolling her eyes. Harry just gave her an annoyed look that said "Reaaaally?" so after another eye roll she explained it further. "I know that I said we could wait until after your birthday Harry but we can't have that luxury anymore. We are leaving for the island tonight."

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Harry looked at the room again, his room, the room Sirius made especially for him. They had all their things shrunk and packed inside their trunks that were also shrunk inside their pockets. Harry had sent Hedwig to stay at Hogwarts and Hermione had told Crookshanks to hide in one of the empty rooms until later when he would deliver their letter to Tonks saying they had left for the remainder of the summer and asking her to take care of the half-kneazle for her. They were all set to leave, all Harry needed to do now was grab the portkey Hermione had made with the coordinates of the island they were hopping to find.

At first Harry thought they would just apparate there but as Hermione reminded him, one could not apparate such long distances. So she had brilliantly made her first illegal portkey. She never seemed to amaze him, and she believed this was what they had to do even if it was unbelievably dangerous and they were breaking laws and people's trusts by doing it. So, even though he was still a bit unsure about all this, he walked over to Hermione and with a look at all the love and trust she had for him in her eyes he grabbed the portkey and in the blink of an eye they were gone.

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A/N : So, what do you think? Review!