Disclaimer – Not J.K. Rowling, not making any money off of this.

12 – Concealed

Hermione took a sip of her tea – strong, black – and pressed her fingers into her temple. Why couldn't anything be easy? The sun was barely up, and already this day was more than she could handle.

She hadn't been able to sleep. The tension with Ron was unbearable. They needed to talk, to have it out really, but she couldn't figure out what to say to him. She sighed and took another sip of tea.

She turned back to Moody's book - 'They'll Never Find It: Hiding Things That Need to Stay Hidden.' She'd made no progress with Professor Lupin's journals yet and she was hoping something in this book would help. She'd already been dying to know what was in them, then, last night at dinner, Professor McGonagall had delivered a note to Harry from Hagrid: "Hallo Harry, In disperete neede for Wolfsbaine. Do you now were I cin find some?" Once they interpreted his atrocious spelling, Hermione had immediately thought of Lupin's diaries. If anyone would know where to find Wolfsbane, it would've been Professor Lupin. Ever since Greyback and his pack took up residence in the Forbidden Forest, a general search for a new source of Wolfsbane had been going on, with remarkably little luck.

Hermione had just turned to a new chapter - "Using Enlargement Spells to Create Hidden Compartments," when she was startled by the crack of house elf apparition. Kreacher appeared at her elbow, bearing something wrapped in an aqua green velvet cloth which was pressed between his hands, one flat on the bottom, one flat on the top.

"Kreacher is to be giving this to the Mudblood," he muttered, staring resolutely at his own hands.

"Excuse me?" Hermione didn't know what surprised her more – his appearance, the mysterious item clutched in his hands, or the fact that, despite his much-improved attitude, he still called her . . . that word.

"Kreacher is to be giving this to the Mudblood."

She started to reach for it, then drew her hand back. "Who told you to give me that?"

"Miss Black. Miss Black is saying it will be faster for delivering messages."

Hermione bit her lip. Hyacinth had sent this? She grabbed her wand, and quickly checked the item for dark magic, then checked it again for any magic. It glowed slightly the second time, showing that it was magical, but not dark. She could get Harry. He could order Kreacher to tell the truth, find out more about this item, but if it was from Hyacinth, then Harry wasn't supposed to know about the messages at all. She could wait for Kingsley, but he wouldn't be by until dinner tomorrow. She had so much to do today. It would be a huge help to have a quicker way to find out when new messages came in.

"Thank you, Kreacher," she said, reaching for the item again. Kreacher turned and carefully set it on the table. Was he just being his usual odd self or was he trying to avoid touching a "mudblood"? As soon as he'd set it down, he disappeared with another crack.

Hermione gingerly pulled back the cloth, revealing a heart-shaped locket. How would this help her get messages? Then she had an idea. She opened the locket and, sure enough, there was a picture of Hyacinth, although a very young Hyacinth, still in pigtails.

"Hi!" the locket girl said, waving and smiling.

"Hi," replied Hermione, then she looked up. She heard voices echoing down the hall. She shut the locket, slipped it around her neck and stuffed the cloth into her back pocket.

" . . . early in the morning for all that female drama. I'll talk to her after I've gotten some breakfast and a good cup of . . . ." Ron's voice halted abruptly as he and Harry entered the kitchen.

Hermione stared at him, then, without a word, pointedly returned to reading her book. She was so angry she had to make an effort not to rip the pages as she turned them.

"Um . . . 'morning, Hermione," Ron said.

"Up early today?" Harry asked, but she didn't respond. Both boys moved in silence as they poured themselves tea.

Eventually they found some leftover scones, and sat down. Ron finally said "Are you . . . angry or something?"

"Me, angry?" she snapped. "Don't worry, I have no interest in inflicting my "female drama" on you." She looked back at her book, but was completely unable to focus on the words. She decided she couldn't tolerate being in the same room with him, slapped her book shut, and stood up. "Harry, I'm going to need your cloak for an errand later." She had been hoping they'd go with her, but alone would work just as well.

She was almost out of the door, when Harry called her back. "Hermione, wait. Where do you need to go?"

"I was planning to go out and ogle Death Eaters."

"Come on, Hermione," Ron said. "I was just kidding about that."

"Just kidding? You think you can say anything you want to me, no matter how insulting, and if you say it's just a joke, then nothing's wrong."

"No, I didn't . . . well, I don't . . . ."

"I think you two need to talk," said Harry as he left the kitchen as fast as if he'd been on his Firebolt. Was he being perceptive or cowardly or both?

"He's right," Hermione said. Down the hall they heard Harry greeting someone who was approaching the kitchen. "Maybe we should go out in the garden."

Ron's face was the same color it'd been when he'd accidentally caused himself to vomit slugs, but he followed her. She sat down on the back stoop and Ron sat down next to her. Her anger seemed to vanish, and she felt incredibly tired. She bit her lip, fighting the burn of tears before she'd even said anything.

"This isn't working," she said softly, so softly she wondered if he'd even heard her, until she heard him sigh.

"I know."

What else needed to be said? What else could be said? They sat in silence, then they both spoke at once.

"I'm sorry. I don't know . . . ."

"I never thought things would be . . . ."

They both stopped and laughed nervously. "You go first," Hermione said.

"I just never thought things would seem so awkward. The whole world's so messed up. We can't go on any proper dates. I don't know what we're supposed to be doing."

"Me either. I was wondering . . . do you think we could just go back to the way things used to be?" Her head told her that wasn't possible, but surely things wouldn't get any worse.

"Yeah. I think maybe we should."

Hermione felt a strange sensation of physical lightness. She smiled and turned to Ron. "Friends?"

"Yeah," he nodded and she reached over to pull him into a hug. They both stood up, Hermione brushing the dust of the steps off of her pants.

"So why did you really want Harry's cloak?" Ron asked as they headed inside.

An hour and a half later, Hermione and Harry were pressed close together, both crouched down uncomfortably under his invisibility cloak, as they followed a brown haired Muggle down a London street. What they were doing was illegal, or at least it would've been illegal if they were still playing by the old Ministry rules. Illegal or not, Hermione had a strong feeling that confounding Muggles wasn't quite right.

The cloak was too small for all three of them now, so they'd left Ron at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, digging through boxes, gathering up things that could be useful, like shielding cloaks, bruise removal paste and extendable ears.

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione were following a Muggle, 'Vern' according to his nametag. He was the man whose hair Bill had gotten for Harry's polyjuicing. Hermione had wanted to get some Muggle hair for herself, and Harry was running low on his. So the two of them had found the coffee shop where Vern worked and Hermione had confounded him to decide to go get a haircut, right away. Thankfully, Bill had chosen a Muggle with no shortage of hair and a haircut would make it easy to get a good supply.

Vern stepped into the first hair salon he encountered, a posh place full of black marble and orchids: "Transformations." Harry and Hermione slipped through the door behind him.

As Vern spoke to the receptionist, Hermione looked around for someone about her size. Just as Vern was chosen because he was close to Harry's size, Hermione wanted to avoid having to change clothes when she polyjuiced. Too tall, too fat, too thin: then, washing out a customer's hair, she spotted a black girl with lots of curls. She peeked down at her feet – not too little, not too big. Perfect. Hermione pointed the girl out to Harry.

"She's taller than you," Harry responded.

"Everyone's taller than me. She's pretty close." Hermione looked over at Vern. The salon had empty chairs and he was being escorted into one of them. She bit her lip. She'd have to do it again.

"Confundo." The girl's hands stopped their efforts on her customer's hair. After a few seconds she rinsed her hands, turned off the water and walked over to two of her co-workers who were chatting near one of their stations.

"Hey, Allison. What's up?" One of them greeted her. Hermione smiled. Somehow it felt better to know the girl's name.

Two more confundus charms later, one of Allison's friends went to finish with the neglected customer and the other pointed the black girl into her chair and began cutting. Hermione saw Harry smile at her thoroughness, but she didn't want to cause any problems for their target's customer. The hair began to pile up on the floor near both chairs.

"We need a diversion," Hermione whispered to Harry. He nodded and pointed his wand at a large teal vase on the front desk. A moment later it sprung a leak, water began dripping all over the place and the receptionist cried out "Bloody . . ." then slapped her hand over her mouth, horrified and what she'd just shouted. Everyone in the salon turned to toward her, then several people jumped up to help her deal with the wayward water. .

Taking advantage of the distraction, Hermione performed two quick summoning charms, modified so that the hair slid across the floor until it disappeared under the cloak. She'd brought two small pouches and she quickly filled each. Harry frowned as she did two more confundus charms. Vern and Allison each asked for a tissue, which they used briefly, then slipped into a pocket. Hermione murmured two switching spells, then looked at Harry and said "Let's go."

After slipping outside Harry asked "What was that last bit, with the switching spells?"

"Oh, that. I switched some Muggle money with the tissues, you know, to pay for their haircuts." Harry smiled and shook his head. Hermione could have used another confundus and they wouldn't have had to pay, but that felt like theft.

Harry and Hermione hurried back to Diagon Alley, slipping into an alley to shed the invisibility cloak along the way. They joined Ron where he was gathering some supplies from the shuttered Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and their alibis were set.

The next problem was where to brew the potion. Nothing could be hidden in the busy kitchen. Harry was adamant that Ginny couldn't know anything about this so Hermione's bathroom was out. The boys' bathroom was their only real option.

Once she'd accepted this, Hermione made some alterations which made it tolerable. She put an undetectable expansion charm on the bathroom cabinet, so that the cauldron could be hidden away, and another on the counter to give herself plenty of working space. She created a hidden wall cabinet for ingredients, inspired by Mad-eye Moody's. After a week of unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the musty yuck smell, she was overjoyed when she came across a charm - "Abolesco olere" - that eliminated all smells from an area. It was actually sort of odd to be in a space that smelled of absolutely nothing, but far preferable to the alternative. It did have to be recast about once a day; she wondered if that was normal or if the decades old stench of a boys' bathroom was unusually persistent.

One afternoon, Hermione had her old copy of Most Potente Potions out and was patiently adding the lacewing flies, which were finally done stewing. The door to the small bathroom flew open, Hermione instinctively steadied the cauldron. Ron poked his head in, his eyes alive with excitement.

"There's been an attack, on St. Mungo's. We gotta go!"

Hermione's heartbeat picked up. This would be the first time she'd been on a raid for months. She tossed the last of the flies into the potion and stirred them in. It only took her a few more minutes to hide everything away again. By the time she got into the boys' room, Harry was pulling on his trainers and Ron was ready to go. Harry looked up at her.

"Okay, Hermione and I will go to Andromeda's, make sure someone sees that we're there, go into Lupin's office and lock the door behind us. Then we'll floo into the Leaky Cauldron and apparate over.

Hermione glanced through her bag to make sure she had everything she needed. She'd packed with supplies days ago, waiting for the next attack.

"Sounds good. I gotta go. I can hear the others gathering downstairs." With that, Ron left. Harry nearly followed him, but Hermione pushed the door shut and shook her head.

"Wait a minute, Harry. If we want them to believe we're just going to Andromeda's we can't look like we're in too much of a hurry."

"Can we go now?" Harry asked, bouncing on the soles of his feet.

"Yeah, but we do need to make sure Mrs. Weasley sees us, so we can tell her where we're going. Let's use your cloak so we can wait on the landing until they're gone. Then I'll go into the kitchen and ask for some sandwiches so she'll see us."

"Where do I go?"

"You can come into the kitchen if you can be calm and not suspiciously hyper."

It only took an extra ten minutes and they were arriving in the floo of the Tonks' home. Mr. Brown was sitting in the parlour, reading his paper, so they greeted him and told him they'd be in Lupin's office. Hermione could hear activity outside on the porch, but she didn't want to see the others. They didn't have time to chat.

As they hurried through the hall, Hermione went over the day's plans, yet again. "Harry, we'll have to come straight back here. We've still got a lot of Professor Lupin's things to catalogue."

"We'll have to make sure we don't have the 'help' of Ginny, Lavender and Luna, then. You hardly got through anything the other day." Harry seemed more amused than annoyed. It took a lot to interfere with Hermione's efficiency.

"No, although part of that was me not wanting everyone to see his more . . . sensitive things. Part of it was we all got distracted into discussing how to handle an orphanage attack. And they did help me come up with a plan. I just hope it falls into the 'it's so crazy it just might work' realm."

"Me, too." Harry's voice had gotten grim. The thought of what would happen if it didn't work was hard to dwell on.

"I have some ideas to try to open his cabinets. I'm still not sure what to do about the journals." The books were being added to the Black family library – the regular one upstairs, Hermione only took a few down to her private library since it was already crowded enough. The various magical items usually ended up being stored at Hogwarts where there was more room.

"I just wish we could figure out his passwords. Tonks probably knew them, but she . . . ."

As they entered Lupin's office, Hermione spied a note, addressed to "Harry & Hermione," in delicate penmanship on the desk. It was from Andromeda. She bit her lip. They didn't need any more complications.

"Harry & Hermione - I believe I may have the answer to Remus's security. Come see me when you get in – Andromeda."

"Great," sighed Hermione.

Harry already had his polyjuice flask out. "Just do it when we get back."

"No, we can't. We have to make sure they believe we've been here the whole time." She bit her lip. Was there any plausible reason why they'd wait a couple of hours before going to see Andromeda? Not really. "Look, you go. I'll go talk to her, then catch up with you." There was no way Harry could talk to her without making her suspicious. He was so jumpy that he hadn't been able to stay in the kitchen and make small talk with Mrs. Weasley and he'd only gotten worse since they left.

"Hermione, that's not fair. I'll come with you." It clearly took an effort for Harry to say that. She was glad that he'd at least offered.

"No. That'd just slow us down. You go. St. Mungo's is huge. There'll be plenty left for me to do."

On her way downstairs Hermione took deep breaths and tried to think calming thoughts. She was fairly antsy, too. Then she remembered – this was actually exciting news. Perhaps not on the same scale as going to St. Mungo's to fight Death Eaters, but Andromeda would expect her to be enthusiastic about finding a way to get through Professor Lupin's security.

Andromeda was probably out on the porch. The weather had been chilly lately, but she was good with warming charms. The porch was her favorite place to sit while she watched baby Teddy play with his toys. As she drew closer Hermione heard what sounded like quite a few children playing in the back yard. Whose children could that be? Why would they be playing here? Teddy was still too young for playmates.

When Hermione stepped outside her eyes were drawn to the lawn, where indeed there were what must have been a dozen small children running in circles, with Luna frolicking among them.

"So – what do you think?"

Hermione jumped. She hadn't even noticed Ginny standing down the porch, with Lavender, also watching the children play. Andromeda looked up from her chair, where she was giving Teddy a bottle. She had a sly, knowing look in her eyes.

"Who are they?" Hermione asked.

"Wow," said Lavender. "They even fooled Hermione." Her voice was flat. Hermione wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

Luna spotted her from below, and shouted "They're my pigeons!" Hermione was puzzled for a moment, and then she gasped. The other day they'd come up with a plan for saving the orphans. Part of it was to transfigure small animals to look like the children. Luna had been certain it would work, but Hermione had never dreamed they would look so realistic.

"Are you telling me those are . . . ."

"Yep. Pigeons!" Luna danced in a circle among them, her hands waving in the air.

Hermione frowned and studied the children more closely. They weren't actually playing any sort of organized game, but each was turning in circles, ignoring the others unless they came too close. One of the children – it was hard to tell if they were girls or boys – was dressed all in shades of grey, although the others were far more colorful.

"They've been refining them all morning," smiled Andromeda.

Hermione turned to Ginny, who was looking quite pleased. "We've added more color, made their motions less jerky, kept them from pecking the dirt, . . ."

"Or each other," Lavender added.

Ginny's smile grew bigger. "Between Lavender and Luna they've found all sorts of spells that help." Lavender looked away, but Hermione could see that she was pleased.

"Amazing," Hermione spoke in a soft voice. This could actually work.

"Watch," yelled Luna. She pointed her wand at a squirrel running up a nearby tree. The squirrel turned and ran down the tree, then over towards Luna. Hermione couldn't hear the unfamiliar spells she was using, but she saw the squirrel turn into a child, this one a bit bigger than the others. His clothes were all shades of brown, but Lavender waved her wand from the porch and they changed color, looking almost like blue jeans and a t-shirt. He ran through the other children, scattering them, scaring some of them, but not really paying any attention to them.

Luna stopped swirling, folded her arms and carefully considered the squirrel/boy. She squished her face up, then waved her wand and they all watched as he grew taller.

"What did you just do?" Hermione called down, overcome with curiosity.

"I aged him a bit," answered Luna.

"What spell did you use? Is it a charm?"

"No, it's the spell version of the aging potion."

"You can really do that?" Hermione had never seen anyone actually use a spell version of a potion.

"Oh yes, it's one of my father's hobbies, although it is a very intuitive art." She went back to spinning around in the midst of the children. Hermione rolled her eyes. She was glad that Ginny was taking notes. They could look those over later.

Surely this could fool a bunch of Death Eaters.

Death Eaters. She shook her head. She'd forgotten all about why she'd come down here, and what she really needed to be doing.

She went back over to the table and lowered her voice. "Andromeda? I was going to ask you about . . . your note." She didn't want to say too much in front of the others. This part of the job was particularly sensitive. "Maybe I should just come back later."

"I think you probably should. We can talk when there aren't so many . . . people around."

Hermione nodded, grateful for several reasons that Andromeda was being cautious.

"Great. I need to get back to work – Harry's waiting. I'll come back down when we're done." Hermione looked over to Ginny. "I've got to get back upstairs." She knew Ginny was annoyed that she got to work with Harry so much. "Sorry, but we promised Kingsley we'd get this done. Harry and I'll both be down later."

Lying to Ginny gave her an unsettled feeling in her stomach - best to just leave before she said any more. "Bye," she called over her shoulder. She was already so late.

As soon as she was in the room she summoned her polyjuice, too rushed to walk across the room bhairs into the flask. She swirled the potion to mix it.

"Hey, Hermione, . . ."

She whirled around, holding the flask behind her back. She'd forgotten to lock the door. How stupid!

"Sorry to interrupt, but we forgot to ask about . . . ."

Ginny froze in the doorway, her eyes boring into Hermione's so intently that Hermione looked away then realized that she shouldn't have done that, just like she shouldn't have jumped, she shouldn't have turned around so quickly, she shouldn't be holding something behind her back. At least she'd stopped biting her lip.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny answered, the edge in her voice suggesting that she already knew he wasn't there. Luna peeked over her shoulder and looked around Remus's office.

"He's . . . um . . . he'll be right back."

"Oh, are you lying about everything then, or just Harry?" Luna asked.

Hermione cringed with mortification, but Ginny just glanced at Luna. "Don't know yet. Which is it, Hermione?"

"Look," Hermione decided to take a different tack. "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to say."

"Let me guess. Harry's off fighting whatever battle is going on. That's why mom wanted me to stay here all afternoon, even though I'm supposed to be allowed to fight now." Hermione couldn't help but admire Ginny's deductive powers.

"I guess I'm being left out too. I wonder why. My jellylegs jinx is quite good." Hermione hated the idea of Luna in battle for some reason, although she had held her own at the Ministry of Magic.

Ginny continued without responding to Luna. "You're providing cover for Harry, but now that you've established your alibi you were going to go join him. You're hiding something behind your back and wishing we would just leave so you could take off."

Luna had walked over and was studying the jars with various creatures in them that were on one of Lupin's shelves. "It's probably something useful in battle. Maybe a Babbling Beverage or some Polyjuice Potion."

Hermione made every effort not to react, but either she flinched or maybe the answer was just too obvious.

"It's polyjuice. That's how they can get into the battles without anyone knowing that they're there." Hermione didn't respond. Ginny stepped closer and stared at Hermione. "Explain to me why you should be able to go into battle and we shouldn't?"

At this Luna looked over her shoulder, waiting for the answer.

"Well, . . . Harry doesn't want . . . ."

"I'm of age. Harry doesn't get to make decisions for me."

"I know. It's just . . . ." Hermione was stuck. She had no good answers.

"So where's the battle?" Ginny pressed her.

"St. Mungo's. Look, the Death Eaters all scatter as soon as anyone from the Order shows up. I'm so late; it's probably all but over now."

"All the more reason for us to go with you. They'll need help cleaning up, healing."

"I'll bring some dittany," said Luna brightly.

"I don't have any more polyjuice with me."

"But you do have more back at Grimmauld Place. Come on. We'll go back there. If it's totally over, everyone will already be getting back. If not, . . ." Ginny turned toward the door and sent her patronus, a fox, out the door.

"What was that?" Hermione asked.

"Just a message to Lavender. She'll want to come."

Hermione sighed, but Ginny was right. They'd need everyone they could get at St. Mungo's and there was no reason to leave behind three solid wands.

It wasn't long before they were stepping out of the floo at Grimmauld Place. Hermione was a bit surprised that no one was back yet. Her stomach tightened, now wondering what was going on, why was it taking so long? This whole thing was making her so nervous she was getting heartburn. She could feel the strangest warmth near the bottom of her throat.

They tiptoed through the front hall, trying not to awaken Mrs. Black. She'd put protective charms on the potions in her room so she couldn't summon the polyjuice. They'd have to go get it.

The warmth was building, almost burning. Hermione reached up and felt it. The locket. It wasn't heartburn. The locket was hot.

She opened it and the sweet girl was there, pleading. "Miss Granger! It's urgent!"

Hermione froze on the landing. "Wait, Ginny. I need to . . . ."

"Miss Granger – Miss Hyacinth's beside herself. There's a message. She says you must see it right away."

"What? What's going on?" Ginny, Lavender and Luna all gathered around behind Hermione, trying to see the locket she was shielding with her hands.

"Of course I must," Hermione muttered. She should just give up on getting to St. Mungo's. It was clearly never going to happen. Then she noticed the young girl looked upset. "I'll go see what she needs." Hermione snapped the locket shut and turned to Ginny, Luna and Lavender. This was going to be a bit tricky.

"Um, . . . there's a problem. There's something I need to do. Down here, in the library."

"Is there time?" Ginny asked.

"Not really, but it won't take long. Go on up. The polyjuice is in the cabinet in the boys' bathroom. I'll meet you back in the parlour." Before they could object, Hermione hurried off to see what Hyacinth needed, probably just a new message on the vase. She could translate it later.

The rest of the girls were in the parlour, debating where to get hairs for their polyjuicing, when Hermione rushed in.

"We have a problem, a serious problem." She was taking in large gulps of air, but she still couldn't seem to breathe right. "Oh my gosh. What do we do? What do we do?"

"Hermione? What's wrong?" Ginny came over and half helped, half pushed Hermione into a chair. "Take a deep breath and hold it. Now." For once Hermione was glad that Ginny had a bossy streak.

Hermione started to speak and Ginny interrupted. "Wait. You can't tell us anything if you hyperventilate or faint." Hermione nodded. She could feel the deep breath working, helping her to stop her panic, although just barely. "Okay, now talk. Slowly."

"There's going to be another attack. The Death Eaters are attacking the orphanage today, this afternoon, in just two hours."

Hermione hoped they wouldn't ask too many questions about where she was getting her information, but this was too big for her to handle alone.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, the first thing we need to do is . . . ." She summoned her patronus, an otter who was inappropriately playful given the circumstances, and sent it off – "Tell Harry or Ron that there's an attack on an orphanage now. We need help." Even in her panic she remembered to make the message neutral. A Death Eater could hear it and they couldn't know the Order had been forewarned.

"Okay, what next?"

"Hermione, we can do this. We came up with the plan. We've been practicing. We're ready." Ginny's tone was so calmly certain that Hermione began to think she was right.

Lavender had come over, her eyes alight. "Hermione, we're ready. We know the plan." Hermione's panic seemed to be having an adverse effect on both Ginny and Lavender, making them calmer and more resolved than ever.

Luna smiled at Hermione. "I want to add some crows," she said, in a voice that sounded as though she were merely discussing the weather.

"What?" Once again Hermione felt that Luna spoke a different language.

"Oh, that's what we'd come up to ask you about," Ginny clarified. It was nice having someone who could translate. "The orphanage needs some adults or it'd be suspicious. The cat we tried chased the pigeon children too much, but we think a couple of crows would work. We tried one; it was too small. Luna found an enlargement charm though that should work. The crows squawk a lot, but I've known ladies who sounded just like that."

Luna nodded. "The time Professor Sinistra was mad at the 5th year boys for . . . ."

There was a flash and Hermione's glowing otter reappeared. Even it seemed sobered now. "I cannot deliver the message. The floor has been sealed." With that somber pronouncement it faded away.

They all stood silent, mouths agape.

Hermione took another deep breath and tried to calm herself. The implications of what the patronus had said were too many, too awful. "What does that mean?"

"No idea," said Ginny, at the same time that Lavender muttered "Nothing good."

"We're not going to get any help," said Hermione. What it meant for the others she couldn't think about now.

"We can take care of the orphans. The others can take care of themselves." Luna was unusually firm.

"Do you think so? We have no time. I wanted to practice. I . . . ."

"Hermione?" Ginny cut her off. "Where's the attack?"

"In Surrey." She looked at the other girls all staring intently at her. "Okay. Let's do this."

This would work. It had to.

AN – I know that was long. It's just that so much happened. Don't worry. The next chapter will have lots of Draco.