Chapter 23

Hermione stared at the picture on the top of her dresser. It was a picture of her, and her parents at her favourite place in the world, a beach near her house. She was about thirteen when it had happened, and about to enter her second year of Hogwarts. Her parents had both taken the day off from their job as Dentists and taken her out for a picnic. After lunch, they had walked along the shoreline, until they found some rocks up ahead. While she was never one for athletics, she loved to take walks with her parents. Together, they scaled the rocks (which actually weren't all that high). As they neared a place close enough to the water, her dad had offered to take a picture of her and her mom. However, a passerby offered to take it so he could be in the shot as well.

It was one of her favourite memories, and she knew that she would probably remember the event for the rest of her life. So as she continued to stuff her bag with anything and everything she could think of, she came to a frightening realization. It was a thought that had been tossing around in her mind for quite some time, but she only now understood what it meant. Her parents were probably going to be in danger.

She knew that she wasn't going back to Hogwarts the next year, and if Voldemort ever got control of the Ministry of Magic, she could be assured that her house would be one of the first that would be searched. And if her parents were found, then they would be executed on the spot; all because she would be helping Harry.

She could never hate him for what it meant for her parents. It wasn't his fault that a complete psychopath wanted to kill him. She loved him, and she would do anything for him. And even though that put her life in danger, so be it. But she would have to be careful and think of the repercussions of her actions. She would have to keep her parents safe from Voldemort. But she wasn't quite sure how they would take to the fact that they would have to uproot from their life and go on the run. She grabbed her wand and made her way down the stairs as she reached and unwanted conclusion.

As she made her way down, she saw her parents sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea and laughing over something that her father was telling her mum. When she walked into the kitchen, both her parents gave her a warm smile. But they instantly noticed that something was very wrong.

"What it is, Hermione?" Her mother asked with a kind, gentle voice, as Hermione sat down at the table. Her parents offered her some of the biscuits they had been eating, but she shook her head.

"There's something I need to talk to you guys about," she said as she took in a deep breath. Her father nodded for her to continue on. "You remember how I told you back a while ago how people made fun of me for my parentage? And I told you about my friend Harry Potter, who's famous because all those years ago he defeated a famous wizard, but how he returned a few years ago? Mum, Dad, it's gotten a lot worse, far worse than I ever let you believe," She said, as she started shaking.

"How much worse?" Her father asked her after a moments silence.

"They kill people like you and I. They believe us to be so bad that we need to be exterminated from the face of the earth," she said, as she felt herself calm down.

"Like the Holocaust?" Her mother said in a fearful voice. Her parents took Hermione's silence as a confirmation to the horrific truth she was revealing to them.

"Why are you telling us this now, Hermione?" Her father asked in a soft voice. "Something's changed hasn't it?"

"The bad people, the Death Eaters, are going to come after me," she said, her voice breaking.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sure you're not going to be the first target. You'll be safe; didn't you say that Headmaster of yours was one of the most brilliant people you've ever known? Surely he will keep you from harm?" Her mum said in a reassuring voice.

"He got killed," Hermione said flatly. "And trust me, it will be personal when they come after me. In fact, I'll be one of the first they come after. I'm not going back to school next year, I'm going to help Harry put an end to all of this," she informed her parents.

"The two of you are barely adults! I don't care if your world has a different legal age than ours; you're not old enough to go fight a war, Hermione. You have a government in that world; there has to be someone older that's capable of defeating them!" her dad said, losing his cool. "I won't let you put yourself in that sort of danger!"

"It's not your choice to make. It has to be Harry who does this; no one else can. And Harry needs Ron and I to stand by him and support him. I need to do this, for all our sakes," Hermione said, trying to keep her voice as leveled as possible. She knew it would be hard to explain everything to her parents, especially when they barely knew the half of it.

Her parents exchanged a look. "Hermione, we trust you. I don't want you having to go out there and fight, but you know that world better than us. If it were up to me, I'd ask you to leave it all behind. But you belong in that world, we all know that. And you'll never be happy if you aren't allowed to use your potential. So if you need to go fight that war then at least promise that you'll do everything in your power to stay alive," her mum said slowly.

"And keep those two boys safe while you're at it," he father said with a sad smile.

She felt two tears roll down her cheeks as she hugged her parents. Hermione was grateful to them for being so understanding of why she needed to do this. Mrs. Weasley was still pretending like the three of them were going back next year as if nothing had changed. She would be losing so much, and she couldn't afford to lose them too.

"I need to keep you safe before I go," she said after they separated.

"Are you going to put more charms on the house?" her mum inquired. As soon as she had turned the legal age, she had placed every single protection spell that she knew of on the house. But she knew that it wouldn't be enough if someone more powerful than the average Death Eater came after her family.

"No. I need to do something more. I need to get the two of you to leave here so you can be safe," she told them.

"You want us to leave everything behind; our home, our jobs, and our lives? How can you simply expect us to leave everything at the drop of a hat, like we are some sort of criminals to be on the run? I love you honey, but we can't leave it all behind," her mum said with her voice rising slightly.

"Please mum! You don't understand what they will do. They'll come in here, and tear the house apart while you watch. Then you'll be forced to watch as they torture the other one of you. When they have finally had their fun, they'll slaughter you without any mercy. And if you think I'm exaggerating then you've got another thing coming. That scenario is an actual report from what has happened before. And it will be worse for you. The torture won't just be for fun, but for information. And they won't stop until they have it, regardless if you know anything or not."

For the first time since she came down, her parents looked genuinely frightened of what Hermione was telling them. They nodded as calmly as they could, and together they reached a consensus.

Her father grabbed her mum's hand before speaking, "How soon do we need to leave?" he asked as her mother nodded in agreement.

"Leaving isn't enough, we need to change your identities," she said, shocked that they didn't put up more of a fight, but glad they were trusted her.

"Like using fake a ID? I don't think I like the sound of that too much. There's so much that could go wrong these days," her mother said warily.

"No, nothing like that," she said hastily. "I need to use magic on you to make you believe you're someone else. If you remained as Thomas and Jean Granger, then they will be able to find you. But if you truly believed you were someone else, then you'll be safe from them."

"So we'll forget who we are?" Her father said slowly.

"Yes."

"And we won't remember anything about our former lives."

"Yes."

"Including you." It was no longer a question, but a statement.

"Yes," she said, tears forming in her eyes. She blinked them back; the last thing she needed was for her emotions to get tied up in this.

"Will it be permanent?" her mother said in a near whisper.

"I can probably remove it after its safe. However, there's a small chance that it won't be undoable."

"How small of a chance is that?" Her dad asked.

"I don't know."

"If that's what you think you need to do. But promise that you'll try to find us again, so we can be a family again," Her mum said, as her father agreed.

"I'll miss you. I'll do everything I can to finish this war as quickly as possible, so we can be together again," Hermione choked out. She shed a few more tears before she spoke the spell that made the people she loved forget about her existence.

"Obliviate."

"I'll be fine, Aunt Andromeda," Draco reassured his aunt once more. She had been fretting constantly since she learned that he, Remus, and Tonks would be going to the dangerous mission to get Harry out of his home and to safety.

"Surely there has to be another way! Thirteen of you risking your lives, and not to mention Harry as well. What if something goes wrong tomorrow? What if one of you gets killed? Oh Merlin, there has to be some way that's safer than what you are planning!"

"Mum, you know as well as I do that there are no other ways. Apparation and Floo is out of the question, and we can't very well make a portkey from his house. Just its mere presence will alert every Death Eater in the near area," Tonks said as she rolled her eyes. She had returned from her honeymoon a day ago, and she had a sort of glow about her. Draco couldn't put his finger on it, but he settled for the fact that she was glowing with happiness. She placed a reassuring hand on her mother's shoulder.

"Just promise me that you'll be safe," she said as she turned her back to them.

"We will, Andromeda. And I will do everything I possibly can to keep these two safe from any sort of harm," Remus assured his mother-in-law.

"And Draco?" Andromeda called out as the three of them turned to leave. "I know that you're probably not coming back here after this, and that you're probably going to go off with Harry and do Merlin-knows-what. But Ted and I will always be here for you, and you can stay here anytime you want."

Draco felt his throat tighten as he nodded silently towards his Aunt.

One after the other, they stepped into the fireplace and flooed off to 12 Grimmauld place.

Draco scanned the room once he got out of the fireplace. He wiped the ash off of his pants as he saw the room filled up with people, some of which he knew, and some he didn't. He assumed that they were waiting for everyone to arrive before the official meeting began.

Kingsley was talking to Bill and Remus when he scanned the room, and they appeared to be having some sort of serious discussion. He guessed that it had something to do with the kerfuffle currently occurring in the Wizarding World.

He saw several other people as well, but none of them were who he was looking for.

He spotted Hermione talking to Weasley in a corner of the room. They were huddled off from the rest of the room, and talking in a secretive manner, so Draco guessed that they were talking about what they were going to do once they got Harry out from his house.

Hermione had a mature look on her face; like she just faced some sort of trauma that she was currently getting over. He frowned as he noticed that there was also sadness in her eyes. He would have to ask her about it and find out what had happened over the last month.

As he approached them, he heard bits of their conversation.

"The Ministry is slowly losing power. They have Imperiused most of the employees there, and it's only a matter of time before the entire infrastructure collapses."

"It was in the Prophet this morning that attendance at Hogwarts is now necessary."

"Have you decided what you're going to do? They'll assume that I've gone into hiding because of my blood, but you're still a Pureblood. Even if you are a Blood Traitor, they'll expect you to show up. And if you don't, they'll go after your family."

"I know; my father and I have been working on something that will give me a reason not to go back."

Suddenly, the two voices stopped as they saw Draco approaching.

"Malfoy," Weasley said cordially as he gave Draco a friendly nod.

"Draco," Hermione said, much more warmly. "How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't owled you much. Everything has just been so busy, especially these last few days…" She said, her voice trailing off.

"Weasley," he said, nodding back at the boy. "Hermione; I've been good so far. It was nice to be able to stay with my Aunt and her family. They were so welcoming, and I enjoyed getting to know them."

Hermione looked like she was about to say something in response, but their attention was called out at that moment.

"Oi, you lot!" Moody's gruffy voice carried out in the room. "I don't need to remind you how important it is that this goes perfectly. If even one of you lose your cool and give away that you're not Potter, you'll be killed on the spot. You all need to act as he would when put in a situation that you need to prove yourself. Anyone who thinks that they are incapable of doing this, leave now."

Moody paused and scanned the room. No one had even slightly filched when Moody had given them their final chance to get out.

"Good. Now that that's been taken care of, on to next business. If anyone doesn't know where their headed as their safe house, speak up now and I'll remind you."

Draco found himself about to say something, as Bill Weasley swooped beside him. "We'll be going to my Aunt Muriel's, Malfoy."

Draco nodded quietly. He began to tune of the rest of the details, as Remus had already gone over them before they had left Andromeda's place. Instead he began to focus in on Hermione.

She was listening in keenly to the instructions she was being given, even though he was certain that she had already heard all of this before and memorized every single detail. And while she was usually like this when it came to class and her studies, she seemed as if she was forcing herself to pay attention so that she didn't think of other things. He was curious, but knew that it was better not to pry. He barely had a friendship with her, and the last thing he wanted to do was push her limits.

As Draco tuned in again, he realised that Moody was bringing his meeting to an end. "I've already sent off two Order Members to get Potter's family to safety, and once they've gotten far enough from the house, then they will alert me. Once this has occurred, we will ride to his house and inform him of the plan," Mad-Eye concluded.

He noticed that the eldest Weasley beside him had a grim look. "I have a feeling that something is going to go slightly wrong," he said aloud.

Draco looked around to see if there was anyone else he could have been talking to. Once he realised that it was indeed him, he turned to face the ginger. He saw the Bill smirking once he realised Draco had been unsure of himself.

"From what Ron's told me, I definitely thought you would have been cockier," Bill said with a grin.

"I have my days," Draco said with a shrug. It was no secret that he and Weasley didn't get along when they were younger, so he knew that his family was bound to know that as well. "Stick around; maybe you'll get a glance."

Bill stared at him long and hard before breaking out into a roaring laughter. "I like you, Malfoy. I'm going to enjoy having you around to bug. Things tend to get a bit dull around here, and it will be nice to have someone to spice it up from time to time."

Draco found himself smile at Bill. He was definitely not what he had expected in a Weasley. He didn't mean that as if he expected them to be a poor, senseless lot; he had long learned that not to be true. But he thought that they would all be the same sort; turning him away, and expecting that he could not change.

He knew that it was Ron's personal prejudice as a result of the way Draco had treated him all for all those years, but he expected the Weasley's to all group together and shun him as a result of it. It felt nice that he would be able to start anew with the family.

He was about to say something back to the man he suspected was about to become a good friend of his, when Moody called their attention back to him.

"It's time to go. Everyone cast the Disillusion Charm and get ready to take off."