Author's Note.

Thank you for the overwhelming response that you all had to the last chapter. You made my day so much that I decided to give you this chapter a little earlier than I had intended.

Lots of Love, Sinsofdragons

Boy come on out from the cold

You're lost outside there don't you know

It's not what you say it was you do

Just keep wishing your wishes are true

Well your dreams there reality

There's no pain there's no misery

Just polish the blood and the bruise

For there's just no way you can lose

But I wish it was true.

The White Buffalo - Wish it was true.

"Harry it's been over a week mate, we have to tell them that you've spoken to Hermione. I mean didn't you say she would be checking in today?" Ron was sat on the couch in Harry's bedroom at Potter Manor. The room looked like someone had taken the Gryffindor common room and turned it into an opulent bedroom. Tapestries lined two walls, depicting magical theory on one and an ancestor whom Harry was pretty sure might have been the idiot that had tried to tickle a sleeping dragon. Ron had his feet up on an oak table with wrought iron hinges that seemed to hold it all together and was wearing a maroon jumper that he had stretched out at the neck from his tugging.

Harry was in a similar position, his eyes going from Ron to the mirror to the unlit fireplace in his room in sequence as though he was waiting for something, anything to happen. The two of them had once again been excluded from all meetings, something that had caused more than one shouting match between him and his guardians. Harry knew they meant well, but constantly being treated like a child that needed coddling was getting on his last nerve. Ron, who had come over from the burrow to escape his mother treating him just the same way, had been shocked when Harry had locked the door and confessed that he had heard from Hermione.

"Look she said she is safe, and I sent her something that I can track to find her. She's pissed at Gran, for her it is like her whole life has just been obliterated and she was left with a waking nightmare. I mean, come on Ron, one day she's muggleborn, the next she is the step-daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange. She said she needs time and after speaking to her, mate she is a mess." He shrugged helplessly then, Harry hated seeing her look so defeated and he felt guilty as hell for it. "I mean, for me, this is a good thing, I get some of my family back and I escape ever having to go back to the Dursleys, but Hermione? I see why she is not happy, not least of which is because Gran won't stop calling her Cassiopeia. It's even more of a mouthful than Hermione is."

Whilst Harry seemed calm as he explained his thinking to Ron, he couldn't deny that he had checked the mirror almost hourly for anything from Hermione. His half that he had pilfered from Sirius felt as though it had attached itself to him considering how often he held it.

"Yeah, but mate it's 'Mione innit? She's alone and death-eaters would kill her on site, 'cos they don't know she's actually a pureblood." He looked puzzled then as though something had occurred to him. "Actually how are you tracking her through that mirror?" Ron eyed Harry suspiciously, not quite believing that Harry was capable of such a feat.

"With those tracking Runes that Hermione tried to drive me demented with when she was revising for Ancient Runes." Harry had been rather pleased with himself for actually remembering that particular rune, although, at the time, he would probably have traded detention with Umbridge than spend another hour having his hand smacked when Hermione thought he was going easy on her. The witch was a menace with that temper of hers. When Ron continued to look suspicious he grumbled. "You know the ones, she drew them on Luna's trunk when she found out her roommates had taken her belongings and then cursed it so that they'd all look Marietta in an hour if they didn't give them back to her."

"Oh yeah, Belby got in a right hump when his sister came crying to him cause Hermione wouldn't take back the curse. Serves the little thief right if you ask me, who steals turnip bloody earrings anyways?" Ron ruffled his hair as he considered that and muttered: "Ravenclaws are all mental."

Harry laughed as he continued "So anyway I added one to the back of the mirror that I sent Hermione, nicked Sirius' half and now I can talk to her and find her if I need to."

"What happens if she gets into trouble though? I mean yeah you set up a check in, but it has been a week mate. Someone could have off'd her already and we're waiting for some check-in that will never happen." Ron seemed to alarm himself as he spoke, because he kicked his legs off the table, sending the empty mug that held his tea tumbling to the floor.

"Relax Ron, its simple. She misses that check-in and I confess everything to Sirius and raise absolute hell until he goes and gets Hermione. She has until 6 pm today, so if she doesn't message me by then, and Sirius isn't in, you and I are going to go and get her ourselves."

"Harry they aren't just going to let you run off into Merlin knows what." Ron stood now and began pacing back and forth, letting his agitation and worry get the better of him with each passing moment.

"So we don't tell them, we just say we are going to practice Quidditch and fly off and get her instead." Harry shrugged knowing that this was probably what he was going to do anyway, and if they insisted on sending Sirius to guard him it wouldn't take much to convince his Godfather to help them get her back. If he had to stupefy Sirius to get away he would do that too, because whilst he was happy with the turn of events he was also furious at them for what they had done to Hermione. He also didn't want to lose Sirius, having seen him fall through the veil had broken something in Harry. He'd been shocked when Hermione had come running into his dorm room crying, flinging herself into Ron's arms and choking back sobs as she told them what had happened to her parents. It was like the order hadn't paused to acknowledge Hermione's feelings, or what that loss would do to her. Whilst Harry had raged in her defence his heart had broken to see her just wilt before him, all that fire she had seemed to have been snuffed out.

"Right, so mate your plan is that we wait 'til six to go and get her, from wherever she's squirreled herself away, on broomsticks under the noses of the entire order and not get caught doing so?" Ron gave Harry an impatient look, as though waiting for Harry to see the flaw in this plan.

"What's your point, Ron?"

"Mate the weather this week has been shite, gets dark so early that if we wait to leave six and then we have to fly all the way there, we'd never make it before the entire order knows we are missing and come looking for the chosen one. So if we don't want them to think its suspicious that your charming self has finally emerged to see daylight and give us time to get away we should go now. 'Cos mate no offense, as nice as this place is, I'm sick of your grouchy self and wanna see 'Mione." He grinned then as something occurred to him. "Besides, you have any idea how rare it is to have her mad at someone else for once? A bloke wants to enjoy it while it lasts. 'Cos we both know she'll find a reason to be mad at me again soon."

Harry grinned, knowing it was true that it was a rare occurrence that Hermione wasn't mad at Ron for something. Whilst he always seemed to escape Hermione's ire, Ron usually bore the brunt of it. Sometimes when Harry watched them fighting, he thought Ron actually enjoyed it and wondered, not for the first time, whether Ron riled Hermione up on Purpose just to have her yell at him. Harry stood, grabbing his wand from the table he slotted it into his boot. Mad-eye had lectured him for three hours only the night before when he had seen Harry tuck his wand into his pocket. Something about having trained a careless auror that had blown off their left arse cheek after forgetting their wand was in their back pocket when they sat down. Apparently, accidental misfire was a common wizard problem and Harry should be more careful. When Harry had asked Kingsley with a straight face whether the one cheeked auror still worked for the ministry it had set Sirius off into a coughing fit of laughter that left he and Remus in tears the angrier the grizzled old auror had gotten.

When Tonks had offered to show the room that the clumsy auror in question was her by letting him have a squeeze Dorea had intervened, chastising them all, even as she tried not laugh with them as Mad-eyes face turned a mottled shade of puce. Only Sirius giving Harry these boots with an inbuilt wand holder had seemed to placate the old auror. Harry had quipped what happens if he blows off his foot by accident, Remus had told him that he suspects that's what really happened to Mad-eyes leg. Not that Harry was really all that concerned, losing a foot or an arse cheek ranked pretty low on his list of concerns. It was probably somewhere above whether Malfoy liked him and between concern for Umbridge after her centaur ordeal and whether he would ever have a good hair day.

Grabbing his broomstick as he left the room he told Ron that Sirius' broom was by the back door and he could borrow that. The pair of them stomped down the rather ornate staircase, that was lined with statues and artwork with a wrought iron banister that curved with the stairs. Harry honestly wondered whether there was a peacock hidden around here somewhere because from all accounts the place rivaled Malfoy Manor in ostentatiousness. It looked as though royalty had once lived here, and every generation since had wanted the world to know it. The rooms dripped wealth and made Harry more than a little uncomfortable knowing that technically it was all his. Harry had honestly been more than a little surprised at the number of things that referenced Slytherin in a home that belonged to a prominent Gryffindor family, but he was smart enough not to say it in front of his proud Slytherin Grandmother.

They were almost out the back door, brooms in hand when her voice stopped them in their tracks. "Ah, there you are Harry, darling. Would you and Ronald care to join me in the parlour, I thought we could have afternoon tea." Her youth still jarred Harry a little, he knew she should be older, and yet her curly dark hair and grey eyes seemed full of life as she regarded them both. She certainly didn't dress her age, Molly looked older than she did, and Harry didn't think he was alone in being slightly perturbed that to someone who wasn't related to her, she was hot.

He shared a look with Ron, who shrugged before turning to face the matriarch of the manor. "Actually Gran, we were going to go play Quidditch. Ron wants to have a better year on the team than the last one, so we're going to go practice a few moves whilst it's still light out."

"Yeah, Mrs. Potter, plus Mum's been driving me demented, barely lets one of us out of her sight or leave the room without panicking. Been feeling kind of caged in, it has been a week and I'm already going stir crazy stuck indoors all day every day." Ron ruffled the hair at the back of his head, giving her a rueful look.

"Well, I had thought that you both would want to be informed of the progress that we've made on finding Cassieopia.."

Harry interrupted, snapping as he did so. "Her name is Hermione. And is she in the parlour?" He paused waiting for her to respond, but then thinking better of it he quickly continued. "No she is not, so there's been no real progress then has there? So We'll go and do something other than sitting inside and fret that you and Dumbledore have driven her off to Merlin knows where without any protection after taking her family away from her. And no offense Gran, but if I have to sit inside and have my questions ignored and be treated like a child much longer, I might just send Voldemort an invite for tea just to have him try and kill me and break the tedium."

She gasped in anger, recoiling a little as though she had just been slapped. "Harry James Potter, how dare you speak to me like that? Never joke about that thing killing you like he did my James. That evil beast murdered your parents and you..?" she shook her head, hurt written all over her face as she took a step back from them and Harry felt a stab of guilt go through him as he continued.

"Because my best friend is out there on her own after you carelessly obliterated the only family she has ever known from her life. They are as good as dead to her and you can't even call her by her name? No wonder she ran, I only wish she had taken me with her." With that Harry turned and dragged Ron with him through the open door, kicking off from the ground on his broom before she thought to stop him. He flew so fast that he knew Ron would struggle to keep up but he had to act fast before Dorea thought to place wards to stop him leaving the grounds. It was only when he saw the outskirts of a village a mile away that he relaxed enough to slow down.

"Mate why did you say that?" Ron panted as he caught up, but cut himself short when he saw the pained expression on Harry's face. "Harry…"

"Just don't okay, I already feel like an arse, but I can be forgiven for that, but if Hermione is hurt or killed because I didn't come and find her then I will never forgive myself. Hell, I would walk into Malfoy Manor and let Voldemort have at it, it would be better than I deserved. So let's not talk about what a shite grandson I am turning out to be, and go find Hermione, before the shock wears off and she comes looking for us, yeah?"

Ron shook his head even as he followed Harry "Alright, but we both know she and my Mum are going to kill us when we get back right? I mean if we have Hermione she might be distracted, but enjoy this flight mate, something tells me your gran is going to shove that broom somewhere the sun doesn't shine when she sees you next."