Author's Note: First of all, I am sorry for the delay. There were a few times where I had to toss the chapter and start over, but it here now! Secondly, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favourited, and followed this story! It does this writer a world of good to see the numbers increase in those three columns! As you all will notice, this chapter will deviate form Hermione's view, but it is integral that this chapter is written as it is and placed where it is within this story. With this chapter, I want to show the reader what occurs after the incident at Malfoy Manor (the last chapter) instead of heard from word of mouth from the characters. Keep in mind that this is a dark story so a little morbidity is to be expected! I think I have rambled enough, so on to chapter 6!

"When it rains, it pours."

A soft pop echoes in the early morning light in the fields outside of the Burrow. A very bedraggled, bespectacled dark-haired wizard pushes his way, stumbling partly, into the clearing surrounding the house.

He knows that the inhabitants of the dwelling are more than likely sleeping this early in the morning. It is a Saturday, so Arthur Weasley does not have to leave for work like he would if this were a weekday. Harry would like nothing more than to knock frantically on the door and relay the day before yesterday's events to the family inside, but he refrains from doing so because of the pain he knows he would cause. It is a pain that he would rather wait to share with the others, so he settles himself on the stoop, leaning against the front door, and waits.

He must have dozed off at some point because when he awakes, he is staring up into the grinning faces of Fred and George, and feels a large knot forming on the back of his head where he fell inwards onto the hardwood floors of the Burrow.

"Mum..."

"...Dad!"

"Harry's here!" the twin's cry out to their parents who were rounding the corner to see what was going on.

"Merlin's beard!" Arthur Weasley exclaims as he quickly helps the twins pull Harry up off the floor, "We had hoped that you had escaped! We heard of the nasty bit of business that happened at Gringotts, but I told Molly that I knew for certain that you three would make it out allright. Where's Ron and Hermione?"

Harry stares at the older wizard for a few moments, "You don't know what happened?"

The hopeful expectation of the Weasley family drops when they see the worry flicker in the dark-haired wizard's eyes.

Sniffling slightly as she realises that bad news is around the corner, Molly steels herself before speaking, "Out with it Harry," the red-haired with takes a deep breath, "I know it has to be bad, otherwise you would still be on your quest. What happened?"

"You don't know? It hasn't been published in The Prophet?" Harry looks around and sees the whole family, including Ginny, who had walked down the stairs as soon as she had heard her mother call Harry's name, looking at him with anticipation.

"Pius is keeping everything quiet, Harry," Arthur Weasley says, "All we know is what Bill told us, that you three had to do something within Gringotts and then we heard that someone tried to break-in, so You-Know-Who's people within the Ministry were sent to investigate."

"Can we go inside? I think we should all sit down for this," the bespectacled wizard asks as he feels the weight of the pain strike into his heart a little more. 'Of course, this makes perfect sense,' he thinks to himself, 'keep everyone that isn't a Death-Eater out of the loop and the Order won't be any wiser.'

The Weasleys all move from in front of the door and allow The-Boy-Who-Lived to walk inside. They all follow Harry into the sitting room. Each step they take, causes a little more of their hope for a happy ending to die inside each one of them.

Molly conjures up a tea pot and some cups and settles down beside her husband on the sofa. She waits impatiently as the young wizard in front of her takes a long sip of tea, "I am sorry for being a bit rude, Harry, but you show up at our house, after you and Ron and Hermione leave when the Death-Eaters attacked Bill and Fleur's wedding. We don't hear a bit of news from any of you for months! We have been worried sick! It wasn't until Bill owled us to tell us that you lot were at Shell Cottage the other week that we were at least put in better spirits. Now you show up here, alone, looking as if you haven't ate or slept since you left their house. So you must tell us now, dear... what is going on?"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley," Harry looks up apologetically, from his tea cup, at the matron. "It feels like it has been ages, though it was only a few days ago, since I have had the comforts of home. When we left Shell Cottage, I did not think things would have happened as they did. I knew the dangers, but I didn't expect what happened to actually ever happen!" He stares sullenly at the cup in his hands, it starts to shake as he remembers every little detail that he has tried vainly to forget.

"Why did you three go to Gringotts in the first place, Harry?" Arthur asks quietly.

"I can not tell you, Mr. Weasley. We had reason to believe that something was hidden in one of the vaults. Something that Dumbledore wanted us to find."

"Bollocks!" Molly retorts. Everyone stares at her in shocked amazement upon hearing the word leave her lips. "You mean to tell me that you lot went into Gringotts and my son is missing and you can't tell us the bloody reason you three went there in the first place?"

"Now Molly," Arthur says calmly, his arm wraps around his wife's shoulders. "I am sure Dumbledore had his reasons, rest him, but you can't blame the lad for keeping his oath."

"I could care less about bloody oaths, Arthur! My boy is missing! He could be hurt! Laying up somewhere and not able to get home to us! I need to know what happened! And where is Hermione, Harry? Is she with Ron? Is she keeping him safe? How did you split up from one another? I need to know everything!" The fury and the hurt in the red-haired witch's eyes was enough to push Harry to tell them the story.

"Okay... I may not be able to tell you why we were there, but I will tell you everything else."

Harry, with a very shaky voice, proceeds to tell the Weasley clan what happened when they apparated to Diagon Alley until Hermione and Ron's departure. The whole family sits in rapt silence as he recounts every last detail. When he finishes his tale, there are tears in his eyes and his hands shake so bad that he drops the cup that he held.

The stoneware cup crashing against the hardwood floor seems to awaken the family in front of him from their silence. Molly lets out a gut-wrenching sob while her husband pulls her into a fierce hug which hides his face from the rest of them so no one can see the silent tears streaming down his face. Ginny stares sullenly at the floor, her face devoid of emotions, but Harry can sense the pain that resides deep within her.

The twins are the first ones to speak, "Blimey..." both are pale and quiet for a few seconds until Fred speaks.

"Why did she do such a thing, Harry?"

Harry starts to reply that he doesn't know when Molly, regaining some composure lashes out, "I don't give a damn why that bitch did what she did, but next time I see her, she is mine! We fed her, took her into OUR home, and this is the sort of thing that happens? She took my baby away from me! Do you know where they went to?" Molly stands up, walks the short distance over to the young wizard. She grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him, "Where did she take my boy?!"

"Molly, please!" Arthur rushes over to the pair and grabs his wife by the shoulders. Instantly she releases Harry and slumps into her husband's embrace.

"I-i n-need t-to find him, Arthur!" The matron sobs.

"I know dear, I know. And I promise you, we will do everything in our power to find him." The older wizard turns to Fred and George, "Can you two help your mother to her room? I think she needs to lie down for a while."

Nodding their heads, the twins stand up, go to their parents, and gently wrap their arms around their mother's shoulders and lead her quietly to her bedroom upstairs. Arthur watches as the three make their way up the stairs, once they are no longer in his sight, he turns to his only daughter, "Ginny, I need to have a word with Harry... if you could just go on up to your room..." The older wizard watches as his youngest stands up and runs up the stairs. A bedroom door slams violently back into its frame. Sighing aloud, Arthur plops down on the sofa he had been sitting on during the whole conversation. The weight of the world could be seen in his eyes and the gravity of the whole situation is heard within his voice, "Now Harry, do you have any thoughts as to why she would do such a thing?" The red-haired man did not dare speak Hermione's name lest anyone within the house heard him and started up on a rampage again.

"I..." Harry racks his brain, trying to think of something, anything, that he may recall might have happened during their quest that would cause Hermione to go dark, "I can't really think of anything that... wait! She started acting strange after we were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor! Ever since then, she seemed distant and cold, as if she was in another world."

"What happened at the Malfoy's, Harry?" Arthur asks, leaning forward in his seat. The patriarch of the Weasley family never knew the trio had been inside the manor and became suddenly eager to know the details. The older wizard hoped that once Harry told him what happened, they could clear up the mystery of Hermione's strange actions.

"I can only tell you what I know, Mr. Weasley. We were in the forest, hiding while searching for the things that Dumbledore said were needed to destroy V-..." Harry pauses, grimacing at his near slip-up of mentioning the Dark-Lord's name. "You-Know-Who. When I said His name."

"Now Harry, you told us before, that we only add the fear to His name when we do not speak it. I, myself, never speak His name in front of Molly, but since she is upstairs, you should be able to say V-..."
"Don't!" The younger wizard cries out, cutting the older man off mid-sentence, "He has cast a spell on His name! It is similar to the tracer placed on underage witches and wizards, but instead of a letter from the Ministry, Snatchers will be able to find you. That is how we were taken, I said He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's name out loud and the Snatchers, lead by this guy named Scabior, were able to find us even with all of the charms and spells Hermione had placed on our encampment. We all ran to try and get away, but they used an Incarcerous spell on all of us, not before she used a Stinging Jinx on me and hid my glasses though. After we were captured, they apparated us to Malfoy Manor." The wizard looks at his hands for a few seconds and sees that they are still trembling, "I'm sorry, Mr. Weasley, but do you have anything stronger to drink besides tea? If I am to continue, I need something to steady my nerves."

"Of course, I'll be right back."

Arthur gets up slowly from the sofa and walks towards the kitchen. He could have just as easily summoned a bottle of Firewhiskey and two glasses, but he wanted to give Harry some alone time. 'The boy's nerves are shot,' he muses to himself, 'Whatever happened these past couple of weeks must weigh heavily on him.'

Grabbing the bottle of liquor out of the cabinet, the wizard places it on a tray with two glasses, and walks back into the sitting room. While walking closer to his destination, Arthur hears someone gasp and something fall loudly onto the hardwood floors. Nearly dropping the contents of the tray to the ground, he rushes into the living room to find Harry sitting as he was before, but in a catatonic state. Grasped in his hands is a piece of parchment.

Arthur sets the tray down onto the coffee table, "Harry! Harry, are you okay?" He queries as he shakes the stunned wizard.

Silence.

"Shit," the ginger-haired man murmurs aloud. He glances around to see what had fallen to the floor and notices a small wooden box. He gently picks it off the floor and looks about the sides of the small container trying vainly to notice any markings that could determine who it came from. He sees none, but hears something rolling around inside the box every time he moves it.

As Arthur reaches for the clasp to see what is inside, Harry snaps out of his catatonic state and shouts, "DON'T!"

"Harry?" The older wizard looks towards the sound of the younger man's voice, "Harry, are you okay? What happened back then? What does the note say? And what is inside this infernal box that you do not want me to open?"

"Here, read the note, but do not open the box," Harry hands the note over to the older wizard with a sigh.

Arthur notices that the young wizard seems even more exhausted than he was before he came to them. It makes the Weasley patriarch now see the other man for what he really is, a man who has been used by both sides of the war and is on his last leg. 'No person should have to deal with what Harry has been through,' the wizard thinks to himself as he opens the piece of parchment that the young man gave him.

To Harry and the Weasley family,

I am sorry if I have been untoward to any of you these past few days, I feel as though

I have not been myself. Though you may not forgive me, I hope that this letter helps

you find solace from my past grievances. I do not know what I was thinking with my actions

at Gringotts, maybe I will never know. Be that as it may, I have sent you all a gift. A gift that

may mend the bridges that have once been burned and a key to give you your Ronald back.

I am sorry,

Hermione

Upon reading the letter, Arthur feels his heart beating faster and feels a few tears fall from his eyes. "Harry... I do not understand, why would you hide this letter from me? And why the bloody hell will you not let me open the box?" The wizard feels rage building inside him for the Boy-Who-Lived. "Hermione is giving me my boy back! She must have had a change of heart and the only way I can have him back is opening that bloody box! It is the key for his return, yet you deny me! Leave! Leave from here Harry and never return!" His hands tremble with the hate he has for the young wizard sitting beside him. "I said go, Harry!"

The young man hurries off the sofa, stumbling as he runs into the coffee-table in front of him. A sharp pain pounds stubbornly in his shoulder as he smashes it into the door-frame of the front door as bright sunlight glares down at him, blinding him momentarily while his eyes grow accustomed to daylight. 'Fine, if he doesn't want to heed my warnings, let them wallow in their pain and suffering once they open the box!' With that thought, Harry recalls the only image he can think of and dissapparates.

Inside the Burrow, Arthur tries to calm himself and finds it very hard to. Normally calm, cool, and collected, the man always had a way to calm even the most ill-tempered person, but now it is he who is furious and try as he might, he can not calm down. "Who the hell does he think he is?" Arthur mutters to himself as he reaches for the small wooden box on the table, "Does he think that just because he is the 'Chosen One', that he can deny anyone anything?" Flicking the clasp of the box open with his thumb, the wizard opens the box and peers inside. A strangled cry of pain and fear escapes his throat as he drops the box, its content, a pair of brown-coloured eyes roll across the floor. Inside, scrawled in blood, were the words: I see you.

Outside, the clouds darken and the distant rumble of thunder grows steady as Arthur sobs loudly, causing the rest of the Weasley family to run downstairs.

"Dad, what is it?" Fred asks as he moves closer to his father and reaches for the letter and the box that had been tossed carelessly on the floor.

"Fred, no!" Arthur screams as he grabs his son by the shoulders, "Don't look at what is inside!"

A bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, striking a nearby tree and seemingly also opening up the heavens, allowing a torrent of rain to crash onto the earth. The noise startles the family inside and Ginny and George rush to the window.

"Oh god no!" Ginny cries out as she falls to the floor weeping.

George turns around to face his parents and brother. His face pale and gaunt, "They killed him, didn't they Dad? She killed Ron!"

Arthur nods his head slowly, the strength fading out of him as he stares out at the tempest of blood growing steadily stronger in the fields surrounding their home. Upon seeing the confirmation from her husband, Molly lets out a haunting howl of grief and drops to the hardwood floor in a swoon.

"This is only the beginning..." Arthur finally says to no one in particular, "This is only the beginning of the end."