The summer passed all too quickly for Hermione's liking and before she knew it she was packing to spend the last week of the holidays with the Weasley's. Ron had wrote weeks earlier asking if she wanted to spend almost a month with his family, but Hermione had written back and said a week was all she was able to spare. Hermione wasn't overly fond of having to The Burrow go anyway, but after talking with her father she accepted it was for the best. Firstly she needed to keep up the pretence of being a muggleborn and secondly she would be able to pass valuable information onto her father.
Over the summer they had kept a close eye on the newspapers and Voldemort was thrilled that the Ministry were denying Harry's claims about his return. Most people seemed to believe that Harry and Dumbledore had lost the plot, much to Voldemort's amusement. While Harry was coming across as an unstable young wizard being influenced by Dumbledore, Voldemort had arranged for the Dementors to pay him a visit. The subsequent incident had ended up in him having to attend a hearing to determine whether or not he was able to return to school. Eventually he'd been cleared to return, but the entire incident had left him looking even more unstable.
After packing her new school books and equipment Hermione set about packing her clothes. When she was at home she favoured dark, well-fitting clothes but at Hogwarts and when she visited her friends she wore slightly baggier clothes and favoured light, pastel shades. Overall the Hermione that attended Hogwarts, dressed very differently to the daughter of The Dark Lord.
Hermione had just finished packing when there was a knock on the door. Shouting for whoever it was to come in, Hermione beamed widely when her father entered the room. Hermione had spent all summer with her father, learning new spells and advanced magic from him and attending Death Eater meetings.
"Are you all packed, princess?" Voldemort asked.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "I just wish I didn't have to go right now. I could be staying here and learning more magic."
"We'll have plenty of time for you to practice some more magic." Voldemort chuckled at Hermione's enthusiasm to learn new spells. "Right now, I need another set of eyes and ears within the Order."
"Another set. Who's your other spy?" Hermione questioned.
"Severus." Voldemort replied. "I'm still not sure if I can completely trust him, but he did inform us about Dumbledore reforming the Order."
"I guess." Hermione frowned. She still didn't completely trust that Snape was on their side, considering he'd spent years in Dumbledore's pocket.
"Anyway, enough about Severus. I have a present for you." Voldemort smiled at Hermione as he handed her a small dark blue box.
Hermione eagerly took the box from her father and opened it. Nestled on a bed of sapphire satin, lay a silver heart locket on a long silver chain. Hermione picked the locket up and turned it over in her hands.
"It's beautiful." She smiled. "Thank you."
"This is how you'll get home to attend meetings." Voldemort explained, opening the locket and revealing an emerald heart on one side and a ruby heart on the other side. "When I've set the meeting time, it'll appear on the back of the locket."
Voldemort shut his eyes and Hermione felt and saw the locket glow. When she turned it over there was an inscription on the back of the locket. The lettering simply read 'Hermione' and once Hermione had read it, it disappeared.
"Impressive." Hermione nodded. "But how does this locket enable me to leave Hogwarts?"
"I've enchanted the stones inside." Voldemort said. "All you have to do is be in a secluded place and when you press the emerald heart it will transport you to my study. From there you can floo to Malfoy Manor and attend meetings. When it's time for you to return to school you just press the ruby heart and it takes you back to the exact place you left from."
"Which is why I need to be somewhere secluded." Hermione said. If she was going to disappear and reappear she would have to ensure she was somewhere that no-one would see her.
"Exactly." Voldemort nodded. "I'll understand if you can't attend all the meetings, but I'll inform you of them all. Any you don't come to, I'll send you an owl to keep you up to date."
"Will it be written in invisible ink?" Hermione checked. Over the years when her father had written to her, his letters had been written in invisible ink and Hermione had read them in the privacy of her own dorm room using a spell her father had taught her.
"Of course." Voldemort nodded. "We can't risk anyone finding out the truth about you, it'll be too dangerous."
"Do you really think Dumbledore will hurt me?" Hermione asked. She knew both her parents were very worried about what would happen if Dumbledore discovered who she truly was.
"I honestly don't know." Voldemort admitted. "He might not hurt you, but he might kidnap you or try to brainwash you or something. All I know is that I'm not taking any risks with your safety. Your identity will remain a secret for the foreseeable future."
Hermione nodded in understanding as she slipped the necklace over her head. With the chain being long the silver heart came to rest halfway down her torso. Hermione knew her baggy clothes would hide the necklace and no-one would ever need to know she was wearing it.
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The following morning Hermione was in Diagon Alley to meet Ron and his mother, Molly. When Molly inquired about her parents Hermione claimed they had dropped her off before going to work. While her mother had a muggle couple under a spell that had them thinking she was their daughter, they tended not to use the Granger's too much. The couple had met the Weasley's once or twice, but Hermione often claimed her parents were busy people and just weren't available for socialising all that often. Hermione got the impression that Molly thought she was slightly neglected by her parents and she felt sorry for her, but Hermione didn't care about the pity as long as it stopped her asking questions.
"I need to get a few things, then we'll be heading back to Grimmauld Place." Molly declared as she shrank Hermione's luggage and gave it to Hermione to put in her cloak pocket.
"What's Grimmauld Place?" Hermione whispered to Ron. She was guessing it was somewhere to do with the Order, but since she wasn't supposed to know about the Order she played dumb.
"It's the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Ron replied. "We've been staying there most of the summer, it's so cool."
"What's the Order of the Phoenix?" Hermione asked.
Ron grinned at Hermione before telling her all about the Order and how Dumbledore had founded it to fight Voldemort. Hermione listened to Ron ramble on for a good ten minutes, before he paused and she decided to change the subject.
"Is Harry staying there?"
"Yeah, but he's spending most of his time in our room." Ron sighed. "He's been in a foul mood since he arrived and our Hogwarts letters didn't help."
"Why's he in a mood?" Hermione questioned. "I mean, I read about the Dementors and I know people don't believe him about You Know Who. But we believe in him and his hearing went well, he's allowed to come back to school."
"I know, but when he first arrived he was mad that I hadn't told him about the Order. Dumbledore wouldn't let me tell him, so he was mad that I'd been keeping things a secret from him." Ron replied. "Then after his hearing he was even more put out that Dumbledore didn't talk to him. Apparently Harry tried to talk to him, but he just walked away and ignored him."
"Well that's just rude." Hermione snorted, unimpressed with Dumbledore and his behaviour. "And what did you mean about our Hogwarts letter?"
"I take it you got your letter last week." Ron said.
"Yes, and I'm a prefect." Hermione beamed, genuinely happy with the news.
"Me too." Ron said, causing Hermione to look at him in surprise.
"Wow, that's great Ron." Hermione was totally surprised that Ron not Harry had gotten the male prefect position, although she was guessing that the news hadn't gone down well with Harry.
"Harry doesn't think so." Ron said, his smile fading. "He was rather put out that Dumbledore overlooked him."
"That's no reason for taking it out on you." Hermione stated. "Harry should know better than to be moody with us."
"Try telling him that." Ron snorted. "I've hardly gotten a civil word out of him for weeks. That's why I'm so glad to have you here to talk to."
Hermione smiled at Ron and she changed the subject back to the Order and how Ron had spent his summer. For the rest of the morning Ron told Hermione about the Order and the people involved as they followed Molly around while she did her shopping.
"Right let's get back." Molly said finally.
Taking hold of Ron in one hand Molly told Hermione to hold onto Ron as she prepared to apparate them to Grimmauld Place. Hermione held on tight to Ron and seconds later Molly whisked them away.
When they landed they were standing in the middle of what looked to be a muggle street. Before Hermione had a chance to question what was going on, Molly handed her a piece of paper and told her to read it. The paper held the words 'Twelve Grimmauld Place' and once Hermione had read them a house started to appear between two more.
"It's cool, isn't it?" Ron asked, clearly loving the magic of the place.
"It's very impressive." Hermione nodded, watching as the house settled as though it had always been there.
"Right, let's get inside." Molly called, ushering the teenagers on in front of her. "I've got to get lunch started so Ron, show Hermione around and tell her where's she's sleeping."
Hermione followed Ron into the dingy house and she couldn't help but curl her nose up in disgust. She knew the house belonged to Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and had been unused for years but she thought a better effort could have been made with the cleaning.
"The hallway's still a bit of a mess." Ron explained as Molly headed passed them and disappeared into the dark corridor that seemed to stretch forever. "The bedrooms are all spotless as is the kitchen, front room and library."
"There's a library?" Hermione questioned, wondering if she could find any useful books. Sirius's family had once been supporters of her father so there was likely some dark material knocking about the place.
"How did I know that would interest you?" Ron laughed. "I'll show you it when we get upstairs."
Leading Hermione into the front room, Ron showed her a comfortable living space that was perfectly clean. From there Ron lead her upstairs, where he showed her the library. Hermione was impressed with the space and planned to spend the next week exploring what it had to offer.
"You're sharing with Ginny." Ron explained as he led Hermione into a room with two beds. "Not that she's always here, mind you. Sometimes she just stays at The Burrow."
"Is that where she is now?" Hermione asked, removing her trunk and bag from her pocket and tapping them with her wand to undo the shrinking spell.
"Nah, I think she's downstairs." Ron shrugged. "Speaking of which, we should head back down for lunch."
As they left the bedroom, Ron pointed out the room he shared with Harry and the room the twins were using across the hall. When Hermione asked about Harry, Ron suggested they head downstairs and see if he was there and if he wasn't he reckoned they were best to just leave him alone.
As it turned out Harry was actually in the kitchen, sitting talking to Sirius and their former Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin. When Hermione entered the kitchen Harry rushed over to her and gave her a hug, before apologising to Ron. Ron quickly accepted Harry's apology and the two boys settled down at the table, leaving Hermione to wander over to where Ginny was sitting with a witch who was changing her appearance at will.
"Hermione, this is Tonks." Ginny said, introducing the pair. "She's a metamorphmagus."
"Really?" Hermione raised an impressed eyebrow.
"Show Hermione, some of the things you can do." Ginny encouraged Tonks as Hermione sat down.
Within minutes Hermione was laughing with Tonks and Ginny and asking questions about Tonks' abilities. Over the rest of the day Hermione discovered a bit more information about the Order as they unknowingly welcomed The Dark Lord's daughter into the fold.