Hello faithful readers. I know it's taken me little while to update, but I had a few issues with this chapter. It took me a while to get the flow of it, but I think I got it! :) Thank you so much for the reviews, I hope I get more, but thank you so much for your support! :) I'm having a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope you guys are having just as much fun reading it! :)

So I present to you, a new chapter!

As always I own nothing, not the hot guys, or the magic or Dobby or the really awesome castle. It's really sad to admit that.

Relief flooded through Hermione. He was here, he was safe. That mantra kept repeating through her head until it finally set in. She could breathe again.

In her relief she started to ramble,

"I'm so happy you're all right. I was so worried, I heard about the trial and they just can't expel you, they just can't. I realized my letters were complete and utter rubbish, but I was sworn to secrecy. He thought it was best if you didn't know anything, but I disagreed, I think I put up a rather good fight, but we've got LOADS to tell you, I've got a lot to tell you! I had a talk with Sirius and-"

"Breathe 'Mione." Harry told her amused.

She let out a breath, smiling sheepishly, "Sorry, I've just been so worried about you. Are you alright?" she asked, truly concerned.

"I'm fine, I've fought off more than two dementors at time, remember?"

Hermione nodded, "How could I forget?"

A silence ensued, and Hermione took the chance to really observe him. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes, but it was the eyes that made her stop. They were warm, but the usual sparkle wasn't there. The hint of mischief that was always lurking under the surface was gone, replaced with an anger and hauntingness that it made her heart clench painfully. She reached out before she could stop herself, and stroked his cheek.

"Oh, Harry," She said softly, "How are you really?"

"I've been better, but I'm doing alright." He told her quietly. She nodded and decided to change the subject.

"Well I expect everyone wants to see you so maybe we should-"

"Wait."

Hermione looked up at him questioningly. Harry really just wanted to spend time with her right now, just her.

"I really don't care to see anyone right now, there just going to want to know about the dementors and the trial and….I really don't care to talk about that right now so….d'you think maybe we could just….stay down here for a while?"

Hermione smiled, "Of course Harry."

He sat down on the sofa, Hermione following suit.

"So what is this place?" he asked her looking around.

"Headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization, Dumbledore is in it, he founded it. It's the people that fought against Voldemort last time, and it's also Sirius's childhood home."

Harry raised his eyebrows. This was not a place he would want to grow up. It was dark and depressing, and it looked like it held a lot of dark magic.

"Been talking a lot with Sirius, have you?" he asked her. For some reason, Hermione blushed.

"When I heard about what happened, I was a nervous wreck, so he started talking to me to take my mind off things."

"Must have been one conversation." He teased, making her blush even more.

"It was about you actually, and your parents." She said.

"My parents?" Harry asked, confused.

"He told me I reminded him of your mom, with the way I was worrying over you," She admitted quietly, "He told me stories about your parents, about their Hogwarts years and even a an interesting story about Snape." She giggled.

"Seriously?"

She nodded, "And I think now I know why he despises you." She teased.

"And why is that?" he asked her.

"He and your mother were best friends, but he liked her a lot more than just a best friend."

"You mean-?"

"Yep, he fancied her, and then when she started dating your dad-whom he already hated-they got into a fight, ending their friendship."

"But why would he hate me for that?"

"Honestly," she rolled her eyes, "Everyone tells you that you look like your father, and then you have your-"

"-Mother's eyes." Harry finished for her, the pieces finally fitting.

"So Snape holds a grudge against me because he loved my mom, but she dated my dad and because I look like my dad, so he thinks I'll act like my dad, but when he looks at me he also sees my mom." He mulled this over for a few seconds

"There still something missing, if he loved my mom so much, why would he hate me? Wouldn't he be nice to me?"

"That's what I thought, but Sirius wouldn't tell me." Said Hermione.

"I guess that something for me to ask Sirius about."

"So why were you guys talking about me?" Harry asked her.

"Um…Er….I-it's probably not a good time to discuss this with you, you have enough to worry about." She said hastily. Harry became suspicious. Hermione told him everything no matter what was going on. He was slightly annoyed that she was treating him like some delicate little flower, but he was more worried that something was wrong.

"Is everything alright?" he asked her.

"Of course, everything is fine, it's brilliant." She said a little too quickly, blushing slightly.

"Are you sure?" he pressed.

"I-"she tried, but caught herself. Hermione hated lying to him, she really did but she wasn't so sure that this was the right time to tell him her feelings.

"And don't lie to me." Harry added at her hesitation.

Wait to go Granger, you're in it now.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, Mrs. Weasley popped her head in.

"Sorry to interrupt dears, but the meetings about to start, you best head up stairs. I'll call you down when dinner is ready."

Saved by the bell, Hermione thought dryly. She jumped up off the couch as if it burned her.

"Right, come on, I'm sure everyone's anxious to see you-" she turned to leave, but Harry grabbed her wrist.

"We'll talk about this later." It wasn't a question or a demand, it was a plea.

Hermione hesitated, but nodded. Harry, satisfied with her answer, followed her up the stairs. They passed moth eaten curtains, to which Harry assumed lead to another door—oh how wrong he was—, they passed shrunken heads on plaques, on a closer inspection, he noticed they were heads of former house elves.

Harry was having a rather hard time imaging his God father living here.

When they reached the second landing, Hermione took a right and opened a door.

The first thing that caught Harry's eye was the shocking burst of red hair.

That red head of hair belonged to his best friend.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, jumping off the bed he was sitting on, and walking over to them. Ron was grinning at him, and for some reason, Harry was slightly annoyed.

"Hello, Ron." Harry said coolly.

"How've you been mate?" he asked cheerily. Whether it was the month of not knowing anything and being told to just behave or it was the fact that his best friends were keeping things from him, or just had been attacked by dementors and not getting an ounce of a 'well done', for some reason Harry lost it with that one, innocent question.

"Been better, you know, with the dementors and all-" Harry let the sarcasm heavily lace his voice—"then being stuck at the Dursely's for a month, looking over my shoulder for any Death Eater's looking to attack me right in the middle of the street, watching the news every hour of the day, nicking papers out of bins 'cause that's about the only way I'll know anything, you know, with Dumbledore making my friends swear not to tell me anything. I can't say that I've been well."

"Dumbledore thought it was a good idea."

"Yeah he thought you'd be safest with the muggles-"

"And he thought it best that I didn't know anything, because that would somehow make my life easier, but I guess he was wrong on both accounts." Harry said bitterly.

"Harry we really wanted to tell you-"

"CAN'T HAVE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBELDORE MADE YOU SWEAR-"

"It's not like we've been in the meetings! It's not like-"

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER, HAVEN'T YOU? ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSELY'S FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN THE TWO'VE YOU HAVE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT—WHO SAVED THE SOURCER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH OF YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

Every bitter and hateful thought Harry had over the last month came flowing out; his frustration of not knowing, of all of them being here together. It all became too much.

"WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COMEBACK? WHO WATCHED HIM KILL CEDRIC DIGGORY? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"

Ron was standing there, his jaw on the floor. And Hermione had tears in her eyes. Harry's heart broke at the sight. He didn't mean to yell at her. He didn't mean to yell at Ron. And what made this even worse? He felt much better.

Harry stood in the middle of the room, panting, his throat hurting from all the shouting, but he felt better than he has in weeks. He looked at his friends, seeing the shock and the hurt on their faces, and he felt ashamed. He looked away from them and walked over to the window.

He stared out into the night, knowing that there were Death Eater's out there, doing deeds for their beloved master. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

"Voldemort." Harry said. He didn't need to turn around to know that Ron flinched at the name.

"What about him?" Hermione asked quietly, and, Harry noticed, quite cautiously, as if he would explode all over again. The shame he felt before, increased.

"Do you know what he's up to?"

"It's like we said Harry, we haven't been to the meetings, we're not allowed. But we've heard some things from the Extendable Ears, we don't know the details, but we have a general idea." She replied.

"Extendable -?"

"Extendable Ears, Fred and George have been inventing them, quite useful. But we had to stop using them; mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them before mom started binning them, but we got a good bit of use out of them before mum knew what was going on. We know that some of the Order is following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them y'know-"

"—some of them are working on recruiting more people to the order-"Hermione said.

"—and some of them are standing guard over something." Ron said. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry didn't mean for it to come out as sarcastic as it sounded.

"Oh, yeah." Ron said, comprehension dawning. Harry sighed, and turned around, looking anywhere but Ron and Hermione.

The silence was deafening, so Harry decided to break it.

"So in your letter's you said you've been busy."

"We have," Harry winced at Hermione's quick answer, "We've been decontaminating this place. It's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, and most of the bedrooms, I think we're doing the drawing room tomorrow—ARRGH!"

With two loud cracks, Fred and George had materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room, both grinning madly.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione shrieked. They just ignored her with a roll of their eyes.

"Hello Harry." George said, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out." Fred teased, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

Harry, despite his former mood, found himself grinning right along with them.

"I see you passed your Apparation tests, then?" Harry asked.

"With distinction." Fred said with a wave of his hand.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk up the stairs." Ron said, annoyed.

"Time is Galleons, little brother." Fred said. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception." At Harry's raised eyebrow, he explained, "Extendable Ears." He held up the flesh colored string, which Harry now saw was trailing out and onto the landing. "We're trying to hear what's going on down stairs."

"You'll want to be careful," Ron warned, staring at the ear, "If mum sees one of those again…."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting their having." Fred told him.

The door opened and a long mane of flaming red hair came into the room.

"Oh, hello Harry." Ginny said brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."

Turning to Fred and George she said, "It's no go with the Extendable Ears; she's gone and put an Imperturbable charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" George asked, looking crestfallen.

"Tonks told me how to find out." Ginny told him. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it doesn't make contact with the door, it's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Fred heaved a deep sigh, "Shame. I'd really like to know what old Snapes been up to."

"Snapes here?" Harry asked, shooting a quick glance at Hermione, who looked at him knowingly.

"Yeah." George replied, carefully shutting the door and sitting down on one of the beds, Fred and Ginny following. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git." Fred muttered.

"He's on our side now." Hermione reminded him.

Ron snorted, "Doesn't stop him from being a greasy git. The way he looks at us when he sees us…"

"Bill doesn't like him either." Ginny added, as if that settled the matter.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was in Egypt."

"He applied for a desk job so he can come home and work for the order," Fred said, smirking slightly. "Says he misses the tombs but there are compensations."

"What d'you mean?"

"Remember Fleur Delacour?" George asked him. At Harry's nod he continued, "Well she got a job at Gringotts to emmprove 'er Eeenglish-"

"—and Bill's been giving her private lessons." Fred snickered. Harry grinned, Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled slightly, Ginny giggled, and Ron's ears went red.

"Charlie's in the Order too, but he's still in Romania, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizard's brought in as possible, so Charlie has been making contacts on his days off." George told him.

"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked. Immediately the room went tense and all the Weasley's and Hermione shared significant looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of mum and dad." Ron told Harry in a tense voice.

"Why not?"

"Because every time Percy's name is mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying." Fred told him.

"It's been awful." Ginny said sadly.

"I think we're all well shut of him." George said with an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"What happened?" Harry asked bewildered.

"Dad and Percy had a row."

Harry raised an eyebrow, and they proceeded to tell him what had happened between Percy and they're dad. Now Percy had never been Harry's favorite out of all the Weasley children but out of respect he was pleasant to Percy, but he couldn't say he was surprised that he put his career before his family. But that also didn't mean he wasn't upset or angry with him for doing that to the Weasley's.

"Mum's been in a right state, you know—crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work—ignores him I s'pose." Ron said bitterly.

"But Percy must know that Voldemort's back." Harry said slowly, ignoring all the wincing and flinching that came when he said his name. "He's not stupid, he must know that your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof—"

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron said, shooting Harry a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and….I dunno….I guess that's not good enough for him."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet very seriously." Hermione said with disgust.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked her confused. Her eyes flickered up to meet his for the first time since his outburst.

"Haven't you….haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" she asked him hesitantly.

"Of course I have!" Harry said loudly and pretended not to notice her wince.

"Well, have you been reading it?" she asked him nervously.

"Not cover to cover." Harry admitted in a softer tone.

"Well you need to read it cover to cover in order to pick it up, but they—Er—mention your name a couple of times a week." She admitted.

"But I'd have seen-"

"Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," Hermione said; shaking her head slightly, disgust filling her tone. "I'm not talking big articles. They just slip your name in, like some standing joke."

"What d'you—?"

"It's quite nasty actually. They're just building off of Skeeter's stuff." Hermione said angrily.

"I thought she wasn't writing for them anymore?"

"Oh no, she kept her promise—not that she's got any choice." Hermione added proudly. "But she laid the foundation for what trying to do right now."

"Which is what?" Harry asked, impatience seeping into his tone.

"Remember how she had written about you collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"

"Yeah." It was very unlikely that he would forget about that.

"Well they've been writing about you as though you're some deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's some great tragic hero or something." Hermione said very quickly, as if waiting for him to jump in and yell at her. Harry felt the shame wash over him all over again. "They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter' or if someone has had a funny accident or anything it's 'let's hope he doesn't have a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next-'"

"I don't want anyone to worship me—"Harry began hotly.

"I know you don't." Hermione said anxiously, that frightened look in her eyes again. "I know, Harry. But don't you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll be anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going."

"I didn't ask—I didn't want—Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry sputtered. "I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it's never-"

"We know, Harry." Ginny said earnestly.

"And of course they didn't report anything about dementors attacking you." Hermione told him angrily, a fire in her brown eyes that made Harry slightly nervous. Well, Harry thought to himself, grinning slightly, at least it's not directed at me. He realized Hermione was still talking and tuned back into her tirade.

"—I bet they were told to keep quiet about that. Dementors attacking someone would be big news. I'm surprised they haven't reported that broke the Statue of Secrecy, it would go so well with the image of you as being someone stupid show-off, I think they're buying their time until you're expelled-"she was so lost in her ranting that she missed the look he threw her-"then they're really gonna go to town—I mean if you're expelled." She added, finally catching the expression of disbelief on his face. She smiled sheepishly at him, blushing slightly. Harry rolled his eyes, but grinned at her none the less.

But they were on the subject of the trial and that's not something he really wanted to talk about. He thought around for a change of subject, but was saved from doing so when they heard footsteps up the stairs.

Fred and George threw quick looks of panic at one another before scrambling to reel in the Extendable Ear, while the rest just watched on amused. Just as they had reeled it in, the door opened, and Fred quickly shoved it in his pocket, just as Mrs. Weasley's plump figure appeared in the door way.

Her eyes scanned the twins all too innocent expressions suspiciously, but must have decided against asking what they were up too. With the twins, she probably figured she was better off not knowing. Looking over at the rest of the group she smiled.

"The meetings over and dinner's almost done so you can come down stairs." she told them, looking over at Harry she added, "Everyone's anxious to see you."

Just as she was about to leave she turned around casting another suspicious look around.

"By the way, who left all those Dungbombs outside the door?" she asked, and Harry was positive she looked over at Fred and George.

It was Ginny who spoke up, "It was Crookshanks, he loves playing with them."

Harry admired the way she was able to look directly into her mother's eyes and lie straight out, especially when Mrs. Weasley looked so suspicious.

That answer seemed to satisfy her thought, because her face brightened, all suspicion gone.

"O, I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall and Ginny what did you do to your hands? Go and wash them before dinner please…."

Ginny grimaced but followed her mother out of the door. The twins gave a quick wave then disappeared from the room with a loud crack! Ron, just at the mention of food, flew out the door, leaving Harry alone with Hermione, who was looking at him, as if ready for him to yell at her again now that everyone had gone. The sight of her so nervous made his stomach clinch in shame.

"Mione…" Harry began, but she stopped him.

"Don't worry about it Harry, I knew you would be angry, and I don't blame you, but you have to understand, Dumbledore kept us in the drawing room until we swore we wouldn't tell you anything. I was all for staying, but he eventually brought me down, telling me it was for your safety, reminding me that you had already been through so much already and well….." she trailed off.

"It still doesn't make it okay that I yelled at you. I was angry and frustrated, and I took it out on you. I'm sorry." He whispered to her. She smiled at him, her eyes soft and gentle. She walked over to him and hugged him tightly.

"It's alright." She whispered. He smiled into her hair, finally content.

Now I don't know about you, but I felt that's how this chapter needed to end. I promise we'll eventually get around to some Harmony moments, but for now I need to get all this Order crap out of the way, then we can get onto the mushy stuff that were all looking forward to.

How do you think I should go about that any way? I kind of have a vague idea, but I would love your input! And also do think I'm kind of dragging this part of the book out? Let me know please what you think, I can take it. ;)

Remember! Review, Review, Review! They make me happy.

Happiness and Hippogriff's,

Bri ;)