A/N: I have got LunaNotLoony as beta reader and all the improvement in my grammar and wordings, the credit goes to her.
Harry, along with unconscious Hermione, apparated back to the place where they were caught by Snatchers; he collected their tent and quickly apparated away again to another place and cast all the protective enchantments.
After double checking them, Harry put up the tent. He carried Hermione into the tent and put her on her bed and covered her with his own blanket. He didn't want her to use Ron's blanket again so he took out and burnt it, taking it far away from the tent. Then he came back and settled beside Hermione on the floor.
Everything that had happened in the short period of time left Harry with thousands of thoughts. He could still hear Hermione's cries when she was tortured by Bellatrix. Cursed loudly, he remembered his stupidity again. The worst of it was that Ron saved them and more specifically him once again. To rub salt in the wound, Ron was the one whom Hermione thought of when she almost died.
Harry was not stupid; he made the connection very easily: whenever Hermione called out Ron's name, he could somehow come to Hermione, wherever she was.
Harry hated lying to Hermione, but one more incident causing him to lie to her again. It is not a big deal to lie once again by manipulating the facts and taking the credit, but this time he has got witnesses and, if not now, someday Hermione will definitely know the truth.
After cracking his brain for another half an hour, Harry decided to go with complete lies and drifted into sleep, with his head on Hermione's bed.
Ron apparated to the Shell cottage, and as soon as he entered the house Bill, Fleur and Dean pointed their wands at him, while Luna greeted him with a nod. Bill carefully asked,
"Where are Harry and Hermione?"
"They are continuing with the mission." Ron replied, clearly not wanting to elaborate.
"What is your favorite chess piece?" Bill asked the security question.
"Knight," Ron answered and turned his attention towards the other occupants in the room, "You all go upstairs and take rest. You must be feeling very weak."
"I will prepare something to eat." Fleur said realizing Bill and Ron wanted to speak alone and went into kitchen; all others left the room, leaving Ron and Bill alone.
"What is it, Ron?" Bill asked casting a silencing charm on the room. "I know you want to speak to me alone and something's running in your brain."
"I'm thinking about taking Griphook's help to get into Gringots, he is a goblin and was thrown out of Gringots," Ron said and Bill knew he is asking his opinion in that matter.
"I worked with the Goblins before and they don't help anybody without any benefit or profit in that. I don't think he will be helping you, Ron, and, even if he agrees to it, it will be definitely because of his own reasons and you can't trust him. I don't think this is only thing running in your mind Ron. You wanted to go to Hogwarts right, now you changed your mind; I can tell that," Bill said.
"I don't want to sit and hide, like a coward, and finish our mission in secret and live with fear until we confront You-know-who. I'm a Gryffindor- so are you -and it's time for the counter attack. Yes, I know you all are waiting for Harry before you act but this is much more complicated than that. We must provide some distraction and also keep on fighting, other than waiting until something happens," Ron said passionately. He felt his anger rise as he thought of Hermione's torture.
Bill sighed. "I know how you feel Ron, but when things are not going our way we must wait for the right time to act. Acting on the impulse will lead to our own destruction. Don't let your anger to take control of you. I know what happened in Malfoy manor; Luna explained everything."
"I'm angry, though, Bill, and you don't know how much my hand is itching to take my wand and get back to Malfoy Manor and torture Bellatrix! I know it doesn't end the war and it is not right. But Voldemort must pay for the torture endured by Hermione. I have a plan but I need all the Order members for this. I know I'm not Harry, but you have to trust me in this, you were in the order much longer than I. I just want you to arrange a secret meeting with all the members of the Order?" Ron asked hopefully, knowing Bill would definitely take him more serious than anybody else would.
Bill laughed out loud and said, "You really don't know, do you? You and Hermione are like second in command to Harry and all the members in the Order will listen to you more than anybody. If you call for a meeting everybody will come by tomorrow morning. You don't worry about that by tomorrow morning all the Order members will be here."
"Thanks Bill, for believing in me," Ron said gratefully.
"Any time little brother; I don't think you will be telling me about your plan till tomorrow, right?" Bill asked, even though he knows the answer.
"You'll have to wait until tomorrow," Ron said. "And I need few more favors from you."
"Bloody hell, I don't know Ron, but every time you ask something like this, it's no good for me." Bill tried to lighten the seriousness.
Ron smiled the smallest of the smiles and directly came to the point, "Do you know how to put a taboo on any word?"
"Oh, that's unexpected, though you've developed a habit of surprising me, but unfortunately putting a taboo on a word is very complicated piece of magic and I can't do that. But I think Kingsley could. But why do you want to put a taboo on a word Ron?" Bill asked, looking at Ron thoughtfully.
"It comes to play in my second part of the plan, don't worry about it now," Ron dismissed casually, which made Bill worried but he did a good job in hiding it.
Harry abruptly woke from his dream. In it, he was Voldemort and he tortured Bellatrix, Wormtail and the Snatchers, along with Greyback. His scar was burning and it was too much painful for him to handle it. He tried to think about something else. He knows his dream was the punishment for the death eaters, for letting him escape, but what surprised him is that Ron left them unscathed. Harry honestly thought that without him or Hermione restraining him, his anger would be out of control. Whenever Draco and his goons taunted Hermione, he had to be physically restrained by someone to stop him pouncing on them.
Harry's scar was still burning but the intensity decreased. Sighing, he got up and made a sandwich for himself with the last remaining of bread slices. They are running out of food, he will have to go to some Muggle place next time and buy necessary things.
When Harry returned to the room, he saw Hermione stirring and within three strides he reached by her side. She appeared to be having some sort of nightmare and she suddenly opened her eyes and searched frantically around the room.
"We're safe Hermione; we escaped from Malfoy Manor," Harry tried to reassure her but she pushed him aside and grabbed her wand and pointed it at him.
"What is the mission Dumbledore gave us?" Hermione asked, with an edge in her voice and she appeared to be a second away to cast a nasty spell at him.
Harry raised his both arms above his head, "To destroy Horcruxes." Hermione slowly removed her wand from his face, and Harry slowly asked, "How are you feeling Hermione?"
"I am fine, where are we? And how did we escape from the Malfoy Manor?" Hermione asked, still checking their surroundings carefully.
"After you lost consciousness, Wormtail came down to the cellar to take me up, but I overpowered him and took his wand. I came above and disarmed all of them and then I gave their wands to Luna and Dean, who escaped with Olivander and the goblin. I dissaparated back with you to the place where they caught us and collected our tent and then apparated to this place." Harry said it very convincingly and with a straight face. He doesn't have any Weasley ears to turn red whenever he lies or is embarrassed.
"Oh, thank you so much Harry, I honestly thought it is my last day today," Hermione said, as she hugged Harry tightly. Harry felt as if he was over the moon.
"Any time Hermione, I will never leave you and you can trust me with anything." Harry said, subtly hoping Hermione would see the difference between Ron and him.
"Harry, you said Luna was also present in the cellar, she doesn't have any place to go. Her father is captured. Do you think she will be OK?"
Harry felt disappointed when Hermione didn't elaborate on his bravery in the Malfoy Manor. "She is Luna, right? She is a fighter and she can survive anywhere and she has Dean with him. I think she will be OK. How do you think they found us in the middle of the forest?" Harry changed the subject.
"By the way they interrogated us it appears that they must have taboo on You-know-who's name. I have read about taboos they break all the protective enchantments whenever you speak aloud the tabooed name," Hermione said thoughtfully. "It really makes sense; you see, Harry, when they first attacked us when we escaped from the Bill's marriage we spoke You-know-who's name aloud and then the Death eaters attacked us."
"I am sorry, Hermione, I was the one who spoke his name aloud," Harry apologized, knowing Hermione would forgive him without a second thought, since she doesn't know that he knows it already but didn't tell her.
"You don't have to apologize to me, Harry, we didn't know that. It would have been me if not you." Hermione said sincerely. "I don't know but I think we should meet Weasleys, we didn't heard anything about- oh, Harry, I thought I would never see him again when Bellatrix was torturing me. I never thought that one of us may die in this war... I think we should enquire about him; we haven't heard any news about him since he left. He didn't even go to Hogwarts," Hermione said fearfully.
"I don't think he is in any sort of danger Hermione. You don't worry about him; if he is in any sort of danger, they will not harm him, but try to use him as bait for me," Harry said scathingly.
He got up abruptly and said, "I will bring something for us to eat, you rest, Hermione. You are looking very weak. I will come in couple of hours." Harry went out of the tent and the protective enchantments and dissaparated.
Ron never knew how many Order members there were and that they had came just for him. He always thought he is invisible to everybody whenever Harry is around; even to his parents, he is not exceptional.
He was suddenly in his mother's tight hug, and before he knew what was happening, his father, who hardly ever did, hugged him too. Ron felt grateful for Bill for making them not to ask anything about Harry and Hermione. He felt safe and even more confident about his plan then before.
He stood on a couch which Bill had transfigured into Stage. He suddenly lost all his confidence as soon as he turned around and saw all the Order members, seeing him as if he is their leader. But as soon as he remembered Hermione's face he felt his anger rise once more and he started explaining his plan. The twins, who never knew when to keep their mouth shut, interrupted him twice by making some funny comments, and found themselves in full body bind curse with the courtesy of Ron. As soon as he finished explaining his plan, he stood nervously waiting for the approval of the Order.
After ten seconds of silence Kingsley spoke, "this is a brilliant plan. It will definitely work and there's much less risk."
All the members of the Order agreed to Ron's plan and all of them are ready to implement it.
"When will we be getting into the action then?" Somebody asked from the middle causing everyone to look at Ron's direction once again.
Ron felt his ears burning and he knows that they must be bright red by now. "First we all need to master one spell I am going to teach you, and as soon as all of you perfect it, we'll go. We will start with this plan."