TWO WEEKS LATER

Sighing aloud, Hermione pulled open the door to her bedroom, making sure to carefully set down the wrapped box onto her desk, the noise coming from downstairs breaking her out of her self-imposed exile. She looked longingly at the box, hoping desperately that there might be a chance to give Harry his birthday present, several days now past.

It had been two weeks since the ruination of her entire life… her existence, since the day that Harry Potter had given her his mother's ring and promised her that their life together then, now and for the future was over. Forever. In that time, no matter how hard she'd tried to isolate herself from the wizarding world, Ginny and Molly Weasley had made sure that she had been kept informed of all that had been going on.

For four days, he'd locked himself away at Sirius' house, away from everyone except the one adult… if anyone could count Tonks as an adult, that he'd trusted to protect him last year. They'd bonded, a sister to a younger brother, much as Hermione considered the strange and outgoing witch as an older sister. Tonks had been there to soothe the pain that she'd wished that she could have helped him through. Silently to herself, Hermione hoped in a small, selfish way that Harry had refused to open up.

But none of that had mattered. After four days, Harry had opened up the manor and spoke with the Headmistress. Reports had been sketchy after that. Harry and Tonks had left the ancestral home to the Black family to destinations unknown, before returning with a third… a cloaked figure that no one had lever learned the identity to. From there, there had been mini-meetings of the Order, only a select few allowed in. At hearing the rumours at the time, Hermione had prayed that the secret of the horocruxes.

Ginny had not said. Apparently, the Weasley family as a whole had been purposefully left out of those meetings, a consequence that no one could immediately blame but had caused Molly to break down in tears all the same. So, it was second and third hand information that finally reached Hermione's ears. And none of that even touched on all of what had been discovered by the cookies.

Within a week, they had rule out any idea of an outside agent having entered the Burrow, bypassing all of the wards and guards placed about the cramped magical home; and while that had been a comfort… it not being a successful Deatheater plot, the resulting conclusion had been even more frightening.

Someone already at the Burrow had left the cookies.

But that only brought up more questions. First, to Hermione, was why? Why a lust spell? It had been Charlie Weasley who'd then touched on the next significant worry: Whom were the cookies intended for? Who was the actual target? Harry had been due to arrive that day, so was he the intended victim? Or had they been placed after everyone had determined that Harry was not arriving that day?

It was just so frustrating.

Pausing at the top of the staircase, Hermione Granger leaned against the wall as she roughly ran her fingers through her hair, the curls in a wild frizz since she had been too depressed to deal with it much lately.

"…got to know!" It sounded almost like… Goddess above, no! That's Ron's voice. "This might be the only chance!"

Her father's voice followed roughly. "That may be, but not from you. She doesn't want to see you… after everything that's happened, I'm not letting you…"

"Please, Ron." Her mother's soft voice now. "We can't… she's still doing very well… there's just no way…"

Hermione squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. Standing tall with her chin up, she smoothed her hair as best she could and walked down the stairs, the escalating rise of the people downstairs seeming to hit her like a wave. For a moment, her presence was missed as she took in the chaos of her living room.

Her parents stood to one side, their very posture of providing a shield to the rest of the room. Facing off against them were Ron, Remus Lupin and Arthur Weasley. The two men with flaming red hair seemed resolute in their desire to get to Hermione, while her former professor stood with his arms folded across his chest, his gaze swiveling back and forth. He looked more a spectator at a tennis match.

"I'm telling you that she needs to know that Harry is…" Ron was near to yelling.

"Harry?"

She hadn't even realized that she'd spoken aloud, her hand at her chest, when the five other occupants of the room all stopped what they were saying and turned to look at her. For a moment, no one said anything, before the babble started trying to move towards her.

Her mother was the first to reach her, to pull her tightly in an embrace. Hermione allowed her Mum to hug her as she glanced over the woman's shoulder, her gaze riveted towards one of her best friends. Ron was trying to get to her, but a firm grip on either shoulder by both Mister Lupin and his father prevented him from drawing closer. Her own father was standing in-between, ready to act as another obstacle if it became necessary.

"Wh-what about Harry?" Hermione chided herself for how small and weak her voice sounded, even to her own ears.

Her mother said nothing, humming a soft tune that reminded Hermione of when she was a child, scared of the dark. Roger Granger had his faced scrunched up in displeasure, his eyes darting over to the other men in the room, his eyes hard.

Ron had quit struggling against the two older men, but his face was animated. "Hermy… Hermione… Harry's been hurt… he and…"

"Hurt!" She pulled roughly away from her mother and moved to stand nearer to Ron, all thoughts of anything else leaving her in a rush at the mention of Harry being injured. "What happened? Where is he? Can we go see him?"

The youngest Weasley male opened his mouth to answer, but Remus took the moment to pull at Ron's shoulder, effectively pulling him behind as the graying wizard took Hermione's attention.

"Harry's fine. Exhaustion, mostly." His eyes seemed almost to glow amber. "His… well… the people with him took him to Hogwarts. Poppy forced a few potions down his throat and he's sleeping." Grimacing, he jerked a thumb at the young man behind him. "Ron, here, was listening in on a private conversation between McGonagall and Arthur reporting his condition."

Her mother wrapped her arms from behind, offering silent support as her father sighed and started pacing in the room. Hermione considered everything that was being said, as well as what was not.

"What was he doing?"

"You know what he's doing, Hermione." Ron's voice was pleading. "They found R.A.B. That one was at Grimmald Place!"

Hermione's eyebrows shot to her hairline at the bold words that Ron had spoken in front of the others. As far as she knew, no one else knew anything about what Harry planned. "R.A.B. Who was it?"

At her question, Remus looked questioningly between the two teenagers. "R.A.B? Initials? The only one I ever knew with those initials was Sirius' brother…"

Ron was nodding violently. "Yep. Maybe that was why Harry was locked in there."

Hermione felt air return to her lungs, her heart lighter for some reason. Harry had figured it out. And maybe he hadn't been hiding from her, but maybe he had been trying to destroy the horocrux!

Tears fell down her cheeks as she smiled suddenly. She wouldn't have known it, but the entire room had seemed to somehow brighten as the despair that had been consuming her as of late seemed to abate, even for only a second.

It was with that small ray of happiness that caused her father to stop his nervous pacing and take in his daughter and then Ron. Finally, he spoke. "Baby, do you want to see Harry?"

It wasn't even a question. Hermione immediately jumped into her father's arms, the others in the room stepping back in surprise. Tears falling of another purpose, she hugged tightly to her father as she nodded.

Sighing in resignation, her father silently agreed, though he wasn't about to have his leverage over his daughter go to waste. "Okay… if Remus will agree…" At the unspoken question, the indicated man nodded. "And after you've cleaned yourself up and had something proper to eat…"

Hermione pulled back, a retort on her face, but her father kept talking over her. "You've lost weight, dear…" Her mother nodded over to her left. "And you look a fright."

"You're going to want to do something with your hair, at the least…"

Hermione giggled, something that definitely shocked both of her parents, as the girl moved over to give a quick kiss to her mother's cheek before running up the stairs without another word to anyone.

Once she was gone, Roger turned to the rest of the room. "Is this going to go well?"

Arthur and Ron looked nervously at one another. Remus sighed. "That will depend on what you're hoping for."

"I want my baby happy."

"Then my guess would be no." The werewolf shrugged. "Harry isn't going to just open his arms and welcome her back. One, because he's still upset… otherwise he might've asked for Ron, here, some time ago… and two, I think things have… changed."

"Changed?" Dianne Granger asked, her hand slipping into her husband's in search of obvious support. Quietly, she recognized the sound of the shower upstairs turning on.

Ron looked incredulously at the two men talking. "What do you mean changed, Professor? We've got Harry somewhere where he's got to talk to her."

Arthur Weasley patted his son's shoulder. "Harry's been traveling for the past two weeks with other people in whatever fool mission Albus, Merlin preserve his soul, wanted the three of you to accomplish."

"But…"

Arthur shook his head. "No, Ron. I have no idea what its about, but Minerva has reported to the Order, minus you and your sister and Hermione, that Harry's… uhm…" He looked over at Remus.

The former professor quirked his lip, though definitely not as a smile. "Companions?"

He nodded in thanks. Yes. Companions. Ron, his companions reported that in the two weeks, two of the things that Harry had been looking for were destroyed."

Ron's face went white. "Two? Already?" He moved over and sat in a chair across from where the Granger's were standing, watching. "That means four are gone… Two left… one we know… then the last before…"

"Son?" Arthur was definitely worried over what Ron was mumbling about.

The shower overhead turned off, easily heard in the sudden silence of the living room. The Weasley patriarch moved to sit next to his son as Remus shrugged his shoulders at the two muggles that were watching.

"Ron… I've respected your confidences, especially after everything you've been through lately… Harry and Hermione… Luna… but this sounds like something the Order has to know about. This sounds important."

The younger red head looked at his father. "And you think it just now important?"

"No. That's not what I meant…"

"No?" Ron's voice started to elevate. "The Order was just going to pat us all on the head and let us run around like kids, never thinking what Professor Dumbledore asked us to do was important in defeating Vo..Volde…" His hands clinched into fists. "Defeating V-Voldemort."

"That's not it at all, Ron…" Remus tried to interject, but Roger cut him off.

"Just what is it that Harry's doing now?" Hermione's father's voice was hard.

The young man looked up at him. "I won't say… can't. I'm not ever betraying Harry again…"

Roger dropped his wife's hand and started to step closer when Hermione's voice called out from the stairwell. "Dad. No."

The room turned to find Hermione standing there, her hair still wet, dressed in a pair of light blue jeans and a Gryffindor Lions tee shirt that most likely had been Harry's at one time or another. Her feet where in white trainers and her hands still held a damp towel that she was wrapping her hair in.

"Baby…"

"Darling…" Her mother looked up.

Hermione shook her head. "Don't ask Ron to do this… not this. We need to get moving to see Harry…"

Her father seemed to shake himself out of whatever place he'd been in and nodded once. "After you eat something…" At his daughter's pleading look, he pointed at the kitchen. "A sandwich. I don't care. Something."

After she and her mother had left for the kitchen, Dianne fussing over Hermione not taking the time to properly dry her hair, the men all looked at one another, the tension thick and heavy.

"This is so not a good idea." Roger finally stated into the quiet.

"No. It's probably not." Remus agreed. "But there's no stopping her. I know that almost as well as you do, Roger."

Ron sighed as he leaned back into the seat's cushions, tension and nervousness seeming to almost vibrate off of him. Everyone ignored the bickering going on between mother and daughter in the next room.

"Why isn't this a good idea?"

Arthur laughed at his son's question. "Sure. Now you listen." Shaking his head, he moved to get off of the couch. "You two are both so set on talking to Harry, neither of you have considered that he doesn't want to talk to you, hasn't had time to work through his own grief."

"B-but we've always found a way past any fights, Dad."

Roger felt sympathy for the older red-haired man. Licking his upper lip, he lifted his head to stare at the ceiling. "You're wanting Harry to forgive you, right?"

He looked down to find the boy nodding at him. He smiled and hoped it didn't look too forced. "What if he's not ready?"

Ron looked lost. Roger considered trying to help out more, the looks on the other two men's faces looking desperate, but the chance went away as the kitchen door swung open with Hermione carrying a half eaten sandwich and a bottle of soda. Her mother chasing after her.

Hermione's face was set. "Let's go."

Remus and Arthur both nodded, albeit without much enthusiasm, as they all stepped closer to one another, Hermione taking only enough time to hug each of her parent's one more time before joining the men.

No one in the room failed to notice how she stood as far away from Ron as was possible. "Wish me luck." She called before they all touched a piece of rope Arthur pulled from his jacket pocket.

Ina sudden twist of reality, Dianne and Roger were left alone in their house. Sighing, Dianne turned to look at her husband. "Well?"

Shrugging, he moved toward the open kitchen doorway. "I guess we get ready for her to come back even more heartbroken than last time.

She wanted to argue, but the words dried away leaving only sour taste in her mouth.