A.N- Thanks to Aqeela for reviewing! Thanks to my Beta, for helping me in my endeavour to make a worthy piece of literature. To my readers, or lack thereof, I hope this chapter is more to your liking. Enjoy!

Meanwhile Harry potter and his friend Ron Weasley were discussing some serious stuff.

'Listen Harry. We need to do something. I heard there was an attack on central London. The death eaters are starting to make their presence known. The few that remained out of Azkaban are now enlarging their ranks to get more people. Quite a few of them are under the imperious.'

Harry remained deep in thought. The only sign of life was the movement of the creases on his forehead. How on earth was a 17 year old going to defeat the most evil wizard in Wizarding history?

This was going to be an extraordinary feat, if he was able to do it that is. He needed to use all the wit that he and the Order possessed in order for him to come near his goal. The first and foremost thing to do was to find the horcruxes. That was pretty obvious. But the main thing was how were they going to find them?

He knew that Hufflepuff's goblet, Nagini, and something belonging to either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw were horcruxes, which needed to be destroyed. He still needed to find out about R.A.B, the person who had apparently taken Slytherin's Locket.

So much to do in so little time! It took a lot of self control to not turn completely mental from the sheer pressure.

Hermione was doing research. She was trying to find out as much as she could about the four founders. She had already discovered the whereabouts of their tombs but the problem lay not in the finding of them but in accessing them. The reason for her trying to find the tombs was because they had found out that within the tombs lay the founders' heirlooms.

Obviously Voldemort had put them elsewhere, in a place, which only he knew about, but still there was hope in finding them; because each tomb contained a sort of tracking device for the heirlooms. Evidently, the method of tracking the heirlooms was old magic; it was going to be very tricky to get the right spells, to articulate them in a proper manner and to do the incantation with the precise hand movements. However, it was the only possible way that the Order could get their hands on them.

One day, many months ago; Hermione found all this out. While shaking with excitement she told Ron and Harry about it.

Then Ron had asked. 'Mione?'

'What is it Ron?'

'Umm… this may be a stupid question, but what I don't understand is how come there's a method of finding the objects. I mean it's kind of like the founders knew that someone was planning on taking them.'

'Harry, would you like to answer that question or am I right in thinking that you want to know the answer yourself.'

Hermione got a sheepish grin as Harry's answer. Sighing she told them, 'listen guys. These objects were sacred to the founders. They had to put a spell on them in order for them not to fall in the wrong hands… or any hands for that matter. Just incase something happened to their heirlooms they needed a keep safe or some sort of thing in which there would be a way to get the things should they be misplaced. They could not do anything themselves obviously since they would be …well… dead. But they wanted to make sure that someone would somehow be able to get their belongings back.'

'Okay. I get that now, but still…'

'But still what Ron?'

'I think what Ron is trying to say Hermione is that, shouldn't they have put some sort of curse on the people who tried to take their objects?'

'Ever wonder why Voldemort suddenly transformed from the handsome Tom Riddle, to look how he is now?' Hermione said with raised eyebrows.

'Good point. But why did the curse take only his appearance? Why were the curses not life threatening or something?' inquired Ron

'Oh, but they are.' To their mystified looks, Hermione carried on.

'When Voldemort took the objects from their tombs he paid a heavy price. I know his goal was to put his soul into the heirlooms but while doing so he didn't just take a part of his soul away, the founders took a part of him away from himself.'

'Do you mind talking sense Mione?' That undignified comment came from Ron. Ever the impatient one.

'If you let me continue Ronald, I was just about to explain. Let's just imagine that Tom Riddle had not planned on making a horcrux but still took the objects out.

Part of his soul would be taken in and would never be let out. Tom Riddle once had feelings, remember that. He wasn't born a heartless bastard, he was made into one. While doing what he was, the founders (bar Slytherin, since he was a blood relative) sucked his emotions out. That is one of the main reasons he doesn't understand love or hate. He is only familiar with evil. He only knows things, which would make the world an unbearable place.

Before you ask me why he doesn't feel hate even though it is believed that it is stemmed from evil, is because hate comes from love. It is an emotion. You hate someone because they did something to offend what you love or something like that.'

Seeing that they were still puzzled, Hermione continued.

'Let's take the example of… Malfoy. We hate him, but why? Its because he made fun of us.'

Addressing them separately she started, 'Ron, he makes fun of your family, something that you love.'

Turning over to Harry she revealed, 'He keeps teasing you about having no family and you hate him for it because you really want to have one. To emphasize, you would love to have a family.'

'On the other hand,' she passionately placed her hand on her chest, 'My reason for hating him is because he always tries to make me feel inferior to him. I don't like bowing down to anyone. I have my own freewill and my independence. I am by no means saying I am better than everyone else but am saying that we are all equal. For someone to take that away from me would obviously acquire my hatred!

So Voldemort does not know hate, though he thinks he does. He knows only power and wants to gain it no matter what the consequences. He only wants to emerge on top. That my friends, is the curse that the founders put on those who removed their belongings.'

'Voldemort's personality or lack thereof is starting to make sense now,' said Harry with dawning comprehension.

'So now, if we get back on track, Voldemort did lose something precious but does not know it. Now, our main aim is to get to the founders' tombs and access them quickly before total chaos ensues.'

'Hermione, what would we do without you?' said Ron in awe.

'Probably mope around all day and manage to get kicked up the ass many times in a row.' Hermione smiled while she stated the facts.

They all started laughing, which was good because it alleviated their tension and temporarily lifted the foreboding atmosphere around them.

Harry brought himself back to the present. Ron was looking at him awaiting his response.

'We go in search for the tombs, on Monday!' he exclaimed vehemently.

'You sure about this, Harry?'

'I've been waiting for this for a long time. It's time to get started. Hermione should be coming back from the library soon. We need to talk about how we plan on getting to where we need to go. The supplies, the skills that will be needed and so forth.'

Looking into Harry's emerald eyes one could see an air of finality. The past few months had been less than kind to him. No teenager had to suffer the same extent as he. The world was resting on his shoulders and he just had to deliver. When he had found out about the prophecy he made a shell around himself that no one could penetrate. He wanted to be alone. But then came Hermione and Ron to his rescue. They not only shared his burden but lessened it. It was true that in the end it came down to him to vanquish the dark lord. But he could not get to that point at all if it had not been for his friends.

Their talents were such that Harry often wondered if fate had purposely given him friends with those qualities. Hermione's intelligence, Ron's strategic mind and of course their love and courage, joined with Harry's attributes made such a remarkable team. It was perfectly suited for vanquishing!

Suddenly, someone tumbled into the lounge with half a dozen scrolls or so. Brown hair flapping about and handbag slipping off her shoulder. Please welcome Hermione Granger. Tiredness was etched on every line of her youthful face, but then again that is what would happen when one is confined to the library for hours on end.

'I found it' were the words which escaped Hermione's mouth. It was received by many opened mouths and shocked faces.

'Found what exactly?" questioned Fleur. She and Bill were happily married and were both currently in the presence of the Order. Not many people knew of what the 'golden trio' were up to. Harry only wanted the senior members of the Order to know what they were planning on doing. After the speculation period was over he would alert the other members of what was going on. He didn't want to give them false hope.

'I found …the book concerning some old spells that Voldemort would most probably use.' Hermione finished quite lamely.

'Oh right.'

'Well, um. Harry, Ron could you please meet me upstairs after an hour or so?' Receiving an affirmative nod from Harry, she turned and went upstairs.

The first thing that Hermione did was jump unceremoniously onto bed. 'This feels good.' She thought. After coming back from endless researching she deserved a bit of rest. She sunk herself back into her pillow, taking in all the softness of the bed, and ended up falling into a deeply deserved slumber.

There was a knocking sound and then the noise of a door squeaking.

Murmuring voices could be heard. 'Shall we wake her up?'

'Nah, let her sleep. Just give her another hour or so.'

'Alright Ron.'

It was at that moment that the girl in the bed stirred.

'Lets go Harry, before she does our head in for not letting her sleep'

Padded footsteps could be heard throughout the hallway. Hermione just smiled lovingly at 'her boys'. They really were cute. She hadn't expected to fall asleep for longer than half an hour, but oh well what's done is done. Slowly she got out of bed and went to the shower, to waken herself up. That was the remedy for every ailment including lethargy. ( A.N -or so my beta says).

As the cold water hit her head like a ton of bricks she got jolted out of lala land. She was in the middle of the war and played one of the main characters in it. She had just found out how to get to Helga Hufflepuff's tomb and what the charms were to actually gain entry into it. It had cost her many sleepless nights wondering about the undecipherable writings in an ancient book, but afterwards, her painstaking efforts finally bore fruit!

She had just scored information, which had probably not been known since possibly the time of Helga Hufflepuff herself. Smiling to herself, she stepped out of the shower and got dressed. She tidied her room (which had been neglected for the past few days) with the wave of her wand and then gathered some scrolls together, which would aid her in her little presentation. And then she went to her door and called for her two best friends.

One after the other they trudged up the stairs. She beckoned them in and sat them down on her bed, while making the bare wall her makeshift screen. Giving them a grave look, she told them about what she had found out. Skipping over the finer details, she briefed them on her findings. She preferred to go over it in great depth with the presence of the senior Order members.