Thanks for the feedback so far! As promised, this chapter is quite a bit longer and hopefully explains a lot! Enjoy!

I've had to come back and edit this one slightly, as I'd noticed a small mistake I had made. I think that it should be okay now!

Breakfast in the Potter household was quiet that morning. Hermione was far too involved in her own thoughts to notice the looks on Harry and Ginny's faces. Ginny had gone down ahead of Hermione, most likely to warn Harry of Hermione's mood.

Harry had changed a lot on the outside over the years. Of course, he still had messy black hair that he could not control. He had traded his round, rimmed spectacles for rectangular frames, and he was no longer the scrawny little boy of Hermione's childhood. He, like Ron Hermione thought sadly, had built up quite a lot of muscle.

Hermione's mood had been up and down since Ron's disappearance, so the couple were used to being cautious around her. She just felt more down than usual the past few weeks. Hermione frowned and absent-mindedly played with the locket around her neck. Was she starting to lose hope?

The locket had arrived on her doorstep roughly a year after Ron had disappeared. It was January, and the air was still chilly, the mornings still dark. After much denial, Hermione had finally began to accept that she may never see him again. Of course, she was still in mourning. She had spent the whole year crying, waiting on him to turn up at the door in one piece.

Hermione and Ron's apartment was quite small, despite the fact that the couple both had jobs in the Ministry of Magic. They had been saving for their dream home, Hermione recalled sadly.

When she collected her post that crisp January morning, she picked up a sandy brown envelope. There was something about it that made Hermione feel uneasy. The envelope was about the size of an A3 piece of paper, and it was bumpy. Running her hand over the envelope, she had an uneasy feeling. With slight hesitation, Hermione had carried the envelope into the small kitchen and sat the envelope down on the counter in front of her. She never opened mail without doing checks on them first.

"Purcio" she whispered, swiftly swishing her wand at the mysterious mail. The envelope glowed a bright violet for two seconds, before fading back into it's original colour.

Hermione surveyed the envelope carefully. She generally kept to herself, and wasn't used to getting mail, never mind suspicious looking packages. Pursing her lips together, she lifted her wand up to the package once more. "Seira" she whispered again.

The envelope burst open, it's contents spilling out onto the kitchen counter. To Hermione's surprise, an emerald green locket lay before her. The accompanying note had been brief, but Hermione froze as she saw the handwriting.

It couldn't be.

The handwriting on the envelope was different to the one on the note. In Ron's untidy scroll, the letter read:

H,

don't open it until you find me.

Love,

R

Words couldn't describe how Hermione felt when she saw it. She got that uneasy feeling in her stomach again. She felt nauseous, scared, excited. In fact, she felt so many emotions run through her at once that she had no idea how to react. Hermione Granger, the brightest student in her own year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had no idea what this note meant. She had run her hand over the handwriting on the note, a painful surge of sadness running through her.

To this day, Hermione could never work out the cryptic words on the note. She just knew that it was written for Ron, and that it was clearly important. She had searched every book she could find on mysterious lockets, but sadly to no avail. She glanced down at the locket that she now took everywhere with her, wondering if Ron was still alive, still waiting for her to find him.

Since she received the note, she had left the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and joined Harry as an Auror. She realised she would never find Ron if she wasn't in the middle of the action. As head of the department, Reisin Hornrock had been skeptical at first. After some consideration, however, Hornrock had gladly accepted her transfer. Hermione had a feeling that the acceptance had something to do with her role in the defeat of Lord Voldemort, and perhaps a little influence on Harry's part.

Working with the famous Harry Potter had been strange at first. Hermione recalled their first mission together, where they were sent to capture a cult group of wizards who were trying to avenge their master, Lord Voldemort. This had become quite a standard practice for the Aurors after the Battle of Hogwarts. The Ministry had to take on a multitude of Aurors to keep up with the amount of work from former Death Eaters who had come out of hiding since then.

In all the years she had known him, Hermione had never seen Harry acting so professional. It was strange to see the boy she often found herself lecturing on rule breaking in her youth strictly adhering to Ministry guidelines. Of course, there was still the odd time where Harry had to improvise, but Hornrock tended to look the other way on these occasions, usually because Harry had turned out to be right. Outside of work, though, Harry was still the same hot headed, risk taking boy he always was, and Hermione loved him for that.

Harry seemed to be the only person besides her that really believed Ron was still alive as much as she had, perhaps partly due to the locket, and partly due to the fact that Harry, like Hermione, couldn't bare to admit to themselves that he may be gone for good. Since she had received the locket, Ron's family had also regained a small bit of hope.

"Time to go, Hermione." Harry's voice brought Hermione back to the present, back to the breakfast table in the Potter household.

"Is it eight thirty already?" Hermione checked her watch. How long had she been daydreaming for? Wand in hand, she rose from the breakfast table, leaving her untouched food sitting on the plate. Ginny looked down at the plate with a frown, then gazed at Hermione with a worried expression on her face.

After pulling on her cloak and waiting for Harry to do the same, Hermione hugged Ginny goodbye.

"Come back after work," Ginny smiled kindly. "We're having guests over."

Hermione nodded, then dissaparated with a crack. She appeared in a bleak, dark, stoney room, with no windows and no visible doors. The room was empty apart from a pedestal that sat in the middle of the floor.

"Lumos" Hermione muttered, and the tip of her wand lit up like a torch in advance. Harry appeared with a crack right beside her two seconds later.

There was only one place that people could apparate into the Ministry, and only Aurors were allowed to do so. Following Harry's lead, Hermione placed her wand on the pedestal. The voice of Reisin Hornrock echoed in the room. "State your names."

"Hermione Granger, sir." Hermione said robotically. It had become almost automatic. They went through these security checks each day. Still, Hermione thought, the Ministry could never be too careful. Hornrock had been right to demand heightened security after Ron's disappearance.

"Harry Potter" Harry responded in the same monotone voice as Hermione's.

"Very well." Hornrock's voice spoke again. The chamber started to rumble as the wall behind the pedestal lifted, revealing a long, pale grey corridor behind it. After lifting their wands again, Harry and Hermione followed on through the passage.

The passage had many doors, colour coded for each department. Their office was behind a pale red door near the end of the corridor. As they entered the small, cramped office that Harry and Hermione shared with a few of the other Aurors, Hornrock's scowling face greeted them upon entry.

Hornrock was a strange looking man, Hermione had been rather taken aback when she had first met him. It had been her first day as an Auror, when she met the lanky man with long grey hair and rugged facial features. His square shaped jaw was covered by roughly two inches of grey hair, and a shorter grey moustache lay on top of his lip.

"Potter, Granger." Hornrock nodded. "Meeting in my office, right now. No time to lose." Hornrock looked serious. Following the footsteps of their boss, Harry and Hermione exchanged nervous glances at one another.

The door to Reisin Hornrock's office lay a few doors from Hermione and Harry's. Inserting his wand into a small, circle shaped opening in the door, Hornrock's office opened with a click. "Come in." Hornrock said gruffly, as he held the door open

Upon Hornrock's orders, Hermione and Harry walked in to the square shaped office. There were more than thirty file cabinets as well as a multitude of mysterious looking safes in their boss's office. Hermione had been impressed that Harry had never once asked about any of the contents. Outside of work, Harry usually let curiosity get the best of him.

"The Hat of Anala is missing." Hornrock said grimly. This meant nothing to Hermione, but one look at Harry's shocked and panicked expression told her that this wasn't a pleasant announcement, to say the least.

"How?" The sound had barely escaped Harry's mouth. He seemed to be temporarily paralysed.

"My suspicions say The Cult of Angau." He replied shortly. "We've been watching them closely, and they've showed great interest in the hat."

This time Hermione froze. If the Cult of Angau were involved, this was some heavy duty work. Hermione remembered the last time she and Harry had dealt with them. It had taken twelve Aurors to raid their headquarters, which had turned out to be their leader Rex Bowstern's Manor, which was located near an abandoned sewage plant. Although the plant had been empty for many years, the stale smell of sewage still wafted through the area.

Hermione remembered the smell vividly. Last time they had entered the dreary looking manor, they had barely made it out alive. They had managed to rescue a handful of muggle borns from the dungeons that lay below the grounds of the manor. Hermione remembered, with a jolt of nausea, the numerous dead bodies of their colleagues and unknown witches and wizards, that Hermione had supposed were also muggle born.

Whatever this mission was, it wasn't going to be easy.

"Sir?" Hermione interjected, before Hornrock had the chance to go on. "What is the Hat of Anala?"

"The Hat of Anala is a hat that was made from the skin of a unicorn, Granger." Hornrock stated. Hermione shuddered, dread filling her up on the inside. "Dark magic. No one knows where it came from, or who made it, but in the wrong hands it is a very dangerous tool."

"What does it do?" Hermione asked, although part of her didn't want to know the answer. If a unicorn had been slain to make the hat, and she didn't doubt that this was the case, this hat was bad news.

"Enhances the power of the wearer." Harry replied instead. "Imagine limitless power. Imagine being able to cast an unforgivable curse on anyone, from anywhere in the entire world. Research has shown that it has been around for at least a century, but the Ministry only got wind of it when Ron and I..."

Harry trailed off. An awkward silence followed. If Hornrock had noticed the pain in both his employee's eyes, he didn't let on.

"Potter, Granger - only you two can know about this. This mission is top secret," Hornrock continued the conversation sternly, throwing an almost accusing look at them both.

"Yes sir." Harry and Hermione replied in unison.

There was a pause, then a look of realisation became visible on Harry's face. "Didn't the Cult of Angau flee their headquarters?" the Auror asked his boss.

Hornrock nodded grimly. Hermione's heart sank.

"How much time do we have to find their new Headquarters?" Hermione asked apprehensively.

"Never miss a trick, do you Granger?" Hornrock said in an odd voice that sounded almost like pride. "The hat can only be worn if you've taken the Anala potion. As far as our research has shown us, this potion is complicated and can take around two months to brew." There was a pause while Hermione and Harry tried to digest the information, then Hornrock continued. "I don't want to take the risk. I think a month would be best, at the latest."

As the lanky wizard handed them the book, he nodded his head towards the door. "Well I suggest you get researching. You need to be prepared for any hex or spell that may be thrown at you. You need to be prepared to face the protection around the new headquarters, keeping in mind you still need to find it. This won't be a light workload. "

With these final words, Hornrock led Harry and Hermione out of his office with grim, worried expressions on their faces.

Thanks again for reading! Please, please review on this chapter. I want to know if I'm on the right track here.