A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-eight and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-nine soon!
September 1969
Hermione stood by Molly in the kitchen at the Burrow, peeling potatoes for the other witch's famous shepherd's pie. Or, at least, it would become her favorite shepherd's pie someday, having been a regular staple when they had been staying at Grimmauld Place.
Molly was recounting all of the plans that she and Arthur had to tie the knot in just another month, describing the alterations she was having done to her grandmother's wedding robes to make them more modern. As they were starting out without much help from Arthur's family, the wedding was going to be a quiet, simple affair, but Molly told Hermione that it suited them.
Having seen the single wedding portrait of the Weasleys in the future, Hermione could agree. They both had looked singularly happy and in love.
"What would you want for a wedding?" Molly asked, tasting the filling and adjusting her spices as required.
"I've never wanted anything too fancy myself," Hermione explained. "Maybe just a courthouse wedding." The other witch had never heard of something, and Hermione tried her best to describe what it would be like.
As it was, there was nothing equivalent in the wizarding world, seeing as there was a magical binding required for the ceremony, but Molly supposed it could be done at the Ministry of Magic if someone really wanted to. "Not the most romantic of locations, of course," she said with a grimace.
"Well, I don't suppose that it matters much any more," Hermione said, pressing a hand to her baby bump, growing more and more rounded each day. Although she still had several months before the baby was due to be born, she felt as though she had recently "popped". "It's not like anyone will want to marry me, anyway."
"Don't sound so glum, Hermione. I am positive that you will find someone that will love you and your baby," Molly said with a grin. "And not be afraid for the world to know it," she added, not having approved of the secretive way Rodolphus had conducted their relationship.
Hermione's heart clenched when she thought of Ron, and wondered if this Molly would have approved of him marrying her. Would her positivity extend to her own flesh and blood? She'd gotten the impression that Molly of the future had never approved of Hermione after her dating Viktor Krum became public knowledge.
Before long, the pies were in the oven, one tiny dish for each witch or wizard that would be attending the meeting that night. Although it was still not officially the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore had organized a group of like minded individuals and they were all gathering at the Burrow that night to discuss their plans for countering Voldemort.
Molly's brothers would be there, as would Amelia Bones. Professor McGonagall would be joining them, with Silvanus Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures Professor. Finally, Alastor Moody would be coming as well. Hermione was excited to see him once again, although he wouldn't have any idea who she was.
The Prewetts arrived first, and Molly introduced them. It made her heart ache to see just how much like Fred, George and Ginny the trio was, and she resolved to not let either of the twins be killed this time around. As she recalled, they had been felled by Antonin Dolohov the first time around.
Next came the Hogwarts contingent. It was unusual to see them out of school, meeting as peers and not as a student and teacher. Hermione supposed that someone must have filled Professor Kettleburn in as to her pregnancy, because he had nothing negative to say about it. "Miss Granger, aren't you glowing?" he asked in his thick Welsh accent.
"Please, Hermione is fine, Professor Kettleburn," she said with a grin.
"Likewise to you then - Silvanus," he offered, with a tip of his head.
Moody arrived through the floo just once the pies were ready and placed on the table, growling about the warding that was on the Burrow, seemingly finding Arthur's security lacking. "You ought to review this with him, Albus," Moody scolded. "Constant vigilance will keep him safe!" Hermione smiled, hearing his common catchphrase.
Molly fretted when Arthur still hadn't arrived twenty minutes after the proposed meeting time. "Oh, let's just eat, shall we?" she suggested, her hands wringing in her lap. "Arthur has a way of getting caught up in things at work, and well...he had said something about an enchanted...toaster, was it Hermione? On his way to work this morning."
The group did not need to be told again to eat and all happily dug into the meat and potatoes. Compliments to Molly came from everyone, making the witch blush prettily. "Well, I couldn't have done it without Hermione's help with the vegetables," she said, nicely.
Hermione shook her head. "It was all you, Molly! I'm afraid my skills in the kitchen are limited to chopping," she countered, not wanting to take any of the shine of Molly's hard work. "And even that's just from potions."
Gideon laughed from his seat beside her. "I'm surprised she let you help at all then!"
Before they could talk much more, Arthur was flooing into the living room, where the long dining table had been set up to account for all the guests. Under his arm was a tightly wrapped package. "Sorry I'm late," he said, breezing over to press a kiss on Molly's cheek, before stopping in front of Hermione. "I had to meet with someone."
Arthur pressed the package into her hands, and encouraged Hermione to open it. Loosing the twine and pulling back the paper, Hermione was eager to see what was hidden in such nondescript wrapping. Immediately upon seeing the black leather, she felt the sensation of dark magic, dripping down her spine like cold water and making her shiver back up.
There was absolutely no mistaking it - Tom Riddle's diary. A horcrux.
"Where did you get this?" she demanded, needing to know how they had gotten possession of it. "How did you get this? I doubt that it's owner was pleased to be parted with it."
"Well, I can't rightly say that it's owner knows they've been parted with it," Arthur said cheekily, looking rather pleased with himself in the process. "It was brought to me, by...someone who shares our interests."
"Did you know about this?" she asked, turning to look at Dumbledore. When the older wizard nodded in approval, she couldn't help but wonder why she'd been left out of the loop. "Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded, thinking that she and Dumbledore were going to work together to locate the horcruxes, seeing as it was their combined knowledge that had helped figure them out.
"Is it the Diary?" Dumbledore asked, looking at her over his half-moon glasses.
Hermione nodded silently, knowing that she would recognize it anywhere, even if she couldn't sense the dark magic partially pouring out of it. "Yes, it's the one alright," she answered. She wished that she would have spoken up about the Diary before when she'd known Harry was writing in it. Maybe...maybe they could have figured things out in the future sooner if she'd just told Dumbledore about her suspicions that something was off about it.
"Excellent," he said with a pleased look on his face.
The Headmaster began to steer the conversation towards the reason they were all gathered there, only to be stopped by Hermione. "Don't think you can just get away with not telling me about how you got this," she interjected, holding onto the Diary tightly, feeling her anger rise. "I deserve to know."
Dumbledore sighed, looking at her for a minute, deciding what he was going to share with her. "We have, for lack of a better term, a mole in Voldemort's organization. They are a branded Death Eater, and we have been feeding them information," he revealed. "They were told to be on the lookout for such an object, and when they found it, they were able to bring it safely to Arthur."
Hermione's mind was spinning, wondering who it could be. She wasn't sure who had taken the mark in this time, but she knew that it couldn't be Snape. He wasn't even a first year yet! Maybe Abraxas Malfoy had flipped, if he thought the political tides were turning? He seemed only concerned with his family's own position in society, and she was certain he would be marked if he wasn't already. The others all seemed to jealous.
"Who is it?" she asked, wanting to know, needing to know.
"Yes, Albus, I think it would be best if we knew," Moody added. "It could be useful if we come across this mole during our work as aurors."
Dumbledore shook his head firmly. "No. For the safety of the individual, we will be keeping their identity a secret, until such a time that Voldemort is no longer a threat," he explained. "They are risking their life to do this, and I think it's best that we respect that."
Hermione did not want to respect that, suspecting that she might have some foreknowledge from her time that could be useful. What if the mole wasn't as trustworthy as Arthur and Dumbledore imagined? It was putting Arthur at risk, and she couldn't bare the thought of anything happening to him.
No one looked too happy to accept Dumbledore's assertion, but it seemed that everyone was also going to defer to him in this case. If he said the person's identity would remain secret, then it would remain secret. Even Moody stopped with his arguments after a while, sensing that Dumbledore was absolutely not going to budge on this one.
After that was handled, Dumbledore briefly explained that they were looking for artifacts that would be needed before they could try to kill Voldemort. He didn't tell everyone that they were horcruxes, but Hermione could see understanding shining in Moody's eyes. "Specifically, we are looking for something that would have belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, so if you see any curio shops or the like, perhaps inquire as to if they have sold something along those lines in the past decade or two," he said.
"Seems like a bit of a long shot, Headmaster," Fabian quipped.
Gideon nodded in agreement. "Yes, who's to say they will even remember twenty years ago? That's a big ask."
"We still need to try," Dumbledore said, a hint of exasperation in his voice that Hermione felt as well. It wasn't as if it could hurt...unless it got back to Voldemort that they were looking. "But, you need to remain as discreet as possible."
"So we are really going to do this? We are plotting a murder," Amelia Bones said, looking a bit uncomfortable with the idea of killing Voldemort, no matter how it was achieved. Hermione knew that she would eventually become the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, and was pleased to see her strong moral character was still held in this time.
Hermione frowned, though, thinking of the alternatives. "We have no other choice, unfortunately," she told the assembled group, solemnly. "If we don't stop Voldemort, he will stop at nothing to take control of the Wizarding World and rid it of muggleborns, and then muggles next. He's worse than Grindelwald."
Moody balked at her words. "And just why are we trusting a witch barely out of Hogwarts to tell us what we must do?" he wondered aloud, his two eyes boring into her just as deeply as his magical one would one day do. "How exactly did you come across this information?"
She looked guilty, knowing that she couldn't tell them about her true circumstances. It was already dangerous enough that Dumbledore knew. It would be terrible if word got out that she knew things that were yet to pass. "You just need to trust me, I guess," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, feeling very insecure in that moment. "But I promise that I'm telling the truth. And I will do everything in my power to make the wizarding world a safer place."