AN: Okay writing HP fanfic is still quite new for me so please be kind. I'm also not English or American so sorry for any grammar mistakes etc.

Starts after GOF, will follow the original plot in some ways but mostly not. Harry/Hermione romance. Ron and Dumbledore bashing probably included.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think of it.

Closer than expected

August 1996

It wasn't the first night this summer that Harry Potter lay awake in his bedroom, despite it being the middle of the night. Images of Cedric Diggory's dead body kept him awake almost every single night.

A big furrow was upon his brow as he tried to push the flashbacks from last June out of his mind. He looked around the room to find something to distract his mind but without success given the fact that he was at the Dursley's for yet another summer.

Slowly and in a bit of a trance he got out of his bed and made his way to the desk in the room. His eyes fell on the letters his friends had wrote him during the last couple of weeks. 6 of the 9 letters on the desk were from Hermione, 2 from Sirius and only one from Ron.

It was the first time he realized that Ron had only sent one single letter. He remembered well, one of the first days of the summer break he had written 2 identical letters for Ron and Hermione saying he was at the Dursley's and probably wouldn't see them till September.

In response Hermione had sent him a long letter explaining she would try her best to send as much food as possible, knowing that Harry always starved during summer and she promised to keep him updated on everything that was going on in the magical world.

As Harry drew circles with his thumb on the letters he smiled at the thought of Hermione caring so much for him, but that smile faded when he remembered that Ron had responded as well.

He took Ron's letter from the bottom of the pile and opened it.

"Good Luck Harry" was written in a messy handwriting, not more than that.

Suddenly Harry felt his temper rise and without even realizing what he was doing he tore Ron's letter into pieces and threw them out of the window. Harry was angry at his friend for such a stupid response, especially after all they had been through.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

After spending most of the morning in his room and doing his best to try and avoid his family, Harry decided to go outside for a walk. This he hoped would keep his mind from everything else. After a few minutes, however he realized that this was not the case.

Pictures of Wormtail and Voldemort were still in his head as he walked around the corner on to a sports field. He sat down on the grass pitch and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

A green flash of light… A high-pitched voice laughing … People screaming…Harry's mind was replaying these sounds and images over and over again.

With a lot more effort than usual Harry opened his eyes again and immediately knew something was off.

As he looked around the sports field he realized that the sky was dark and cloudy where it was bright and sunny just a few moments ago. He also felt the grass break under his hands as if it was frozen.

Harry quickly jumped to his feet as he realized what this meant. Dementors were near him!

Harry took a few seconds to go over his options. He could either make his way back to the Dursley's house as quickly as possible, or he could wait here and try to defend himself. The second option however wasn't a real option since he was in the middle of an open sports field and wasn't allowed to use magic.

With his heart beating three times as fast inn his neck he started running for the exit of the sports field and ran into the next street and decided to take a short-cut through a small park on his left.

Only a few yards before the end of the park, Harry fell to his knees. It was as if something was sucking all his energy and willpower out of him. Harry knew what this meant, the Dementors had caught up with him.

As he forced himself to look over his shoulder he panicked a little bit when he saw the two big, dark-clothed creatures slowly glide his way. What was he supposed to do?

Harry knew he didn't have any other option than to use magic if he wanted to survive this encounter with the two Dementors and just hoped he wouldn't get punished because of it.

With a lot of effort, he pulled out his wand from his jeans and pointed it at the Dementors.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry managed to speak with an unusual quiet voice.

With a smile of relief on his face, Harry watched his silver coloured stag appear and chase after the Dementors. It didn't take his patronus long to make the two dark creatures go away.

Harry quickly got up from the ground and made his way back to the Dursley's house. Once inside, he went straight upstairs to his room since he was in no mood to speak to his relatives.

After sitting on his bed for a few moments Harry noticed not one, but three owls flying to his window. He quickly opened it so the owls could fly in.

As soon as he took the three letters of the owls they immediately flew off again, leaving a slightly confused Harry behind.

Harry got a weird and annoying feeling in his stomach when he realized who wrote the letters. One was an official looking letter from the Ministry of Magic, one was written in a handwriting Harry recognized as Kingsley Shacklebolt's, and finally the last one was from Hermione.

Harry fought the urge to start with the letter from his close friend and decided it was probably wise to start with the letter from the Ministry. He had a bad feeling about this one and his hands were shaking while he opened the envelope.

He quickly scanned through the letter and knew his worse fears just became reality. He read it a second time and tried to consume the information that was stated.

Expelled from Hogwarts, losing his wand, being cut off from the magical world. Harry felt sick just by the thought of it. In his worrying, he almost forgot the two other letters. Quickly he opened Shacklebolt's letter.

"We're working on it.

Do not speak to anyone.

Do not give your wand."

Harry read these three lines over and over again. What does that mean we're working on it, who even is we? Harry closed his eyes and tried to calm his temper he felt rising. Harry knew all he could do now was wait and see where this was going. He reached out for the third and last letter Hermione had sent and slowly opened it.

"HARRY ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!

I'M SO WORRIED, THEY WON'T TELL US ANYTHING

PLEASE STAY SAFE UNTIL WHATEVER IS GOING ON IS SETTLED!

Love, Hermione"

Harry didn't know what he was feeling at the moment. He was touched by the fact that Hermione seemed to be the only one who was worried for him. He was feeling angry and annoyed because she knew who the "we" were and didn't tell him in this or any of her previous letters.

Feeling tired Harry sat down on his bed, head resting on his knees and his hands playing with his beloved wand he wasn't sure he was allowed to keep after today.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Slowly Harry opened his eyes and looked out of his window where he saw that it was already late in the evening. He pushed the thoughts of his encounter with the Dementors and the ministry out of his head and stared out his window.

He didn't react when a floor beneath him the doorbell rang, he wasn't allowed to open the door anyways.

"Potter!" Harry suddenly heard his uncle scream from downstairs. This couldn't mean any good thought Harry before he slowly made his way downstairs.

"It's a few of your people" his uncle growled when he saw Harry and with that he disappeared into the living room, leaving Harry alone with the guests.

With his heart beating heavy in his chest, Harry took the last few steps off the stairs and looked who was standing in front of the door. His heart made a little jump when he recognized who was there for him.

Arthur Weasley, Mad-eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt and a young witch with green hair Harry didn't recognize were smiling at him.

"You have 5 minutes to pack your stuff and go with us." Mad-eye said before Harry could even greet them properly. "Tonks will help you."

The young witch took a step and waited for Harry to show her the way to his room so it was Harry's guess that this was Tonks.

It was only when Harry and Tonks arrived in his room that Harry realized what a mess it was. His books were spread out over the entire room, his clothes as well. Here and there were potions ingredients and all kinds of stuff.

"Euhh sorry." Harry stuttered and with a slight blush on his face he started packing.

Tonks just gave him a little wink before she started to help him. Within a few minutes all of Harry's stuff was packed and they were ready to go.

"Oh by the way I completely forgot to introduce myself." Tonks said as she and Harry were about to walk downstairs. "I'm Tonks, I'm a junior auror, my real name is Nymphadora but if you call me that I'll hex you." She added and smiled at the face Harry was making.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Harry carefully loosened his grip of his broom and stretched his almost frozen fingers. They had been flying for almost two hours now and Harry started to get tired since it was almost midnight. Mad-eye and the rest had simply refused to tell Harry where they were going, something that irritated him a lot.

After another 30 minutes of flying Harry, who was closely behind Lupin's broom realized they were heading towards the ground. They had arrived at their destination.

When they all landed Harry took a short moment to look around. They were in a normal looking neighbourhood, no signs of any magic Harry thought to himself.

"Please read this Harry," Remus said and gave Harry a small piece of parchment.

It took Harry a few seconds to realize he was reading an address. An address of somewhere in this street. But when Harry searched for the house with number 12, as written on the piece of parchment, he saw it was missing.

He read the address several times again and gasped when he looked up to the houses in front of him again. Number 12 had appeared right where it should have been before. Harry couldn't stop the smile appearing on his face. He loved magic!

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Slowly Harry made his way up the stairs to the room Lupin said he should go. He had heard voices from a large room downstairs, including Sirius his voice, but the adults didn't allow him to enter. Harry fell his anger rise again by the simple thought that they would deny him to see his godfather.

As he entered the room on the second floor he saw it was a simple bedroom with two large beds in it. One of the beds clearly had been used the last couple of days and after one look at the possessions around the bed Harry realized it was Ron who had been sleeping here.

It was only after a sharp hooting noise that Harry turned around and saw Hedwig and the rest of his belongings next to the free bed. He walked to his beautiful white snow owl. While he was stroking the now much happier looking owl he let his mind drift to all that had happened today. Harry was irritated by all the mystery that was hanging around, especially since he was involved the most.

A knock on the door made Harry stop thinking about it. He walked towards the door of the room but before he reached it, it already flew open and a second later something brown and bushy clung around his body. Hold on that wasn't something, it's Hermione, Harry thought to himself.

When he looked up he saw Ron standing in the doorway as well, and noticed he was looking at Hermione, who still had Harry in a bone-crushing hug, with a weird expression.

A few moments later Hermione finally released Harry and he could breathe normally again. He immediately noticed the worrying look his best friend was giving him.

"Good to see you mate," Ron said and was the first to break the silence.

Harry simply nodded in response before turning away from both his friends and walking to the window where he stopped and stared outside. Now that he finally was reunited with his friends he realized how angry he actually was with them.

Hermione fell her heart break a little when she had seen the look in Harry's eyes. She knew before that Harry probably would be angry with them but when she also saw that hurt in his eyes she had to do her best not to start crying. She quickly gave Ron a worried look but he didn't seem to be bothered by the whole situation.

"Harry, I know you're probably angry with us but please let me explain why we didn't give you any information what was going on" Hermione said with a trembling voice. Harry however didn't react at all. Unsure if she should keep talking Hermione was quiet.

Then after what seemed hours Harry finally said something.

"Just tell me why," he almost whispered.

Hermione now had tears in her eyes. There was so much hurt in those few words that Harry said that she wanted to give him another hug but she knew that wasn't an option right now.

"Dumbledore made us promise we wouldn't give you any information about what was going on at the Ministry and here with the Order," Hermione quickly began to talk. But she realized Harry didn't even know about the Order.

After briefly describing the Order, its members and its functions she continued.

"Please Harry believe me when I say that we felt really bad about it. I was so worried about you the whole time and even wrote a few letters with a tiny bit of information for you but Dumbledore checks every letter that goes in and out."

Hermione now couldn't stop her tears anymore and quietly began crying. She felt sad for being such a bad friend to Harry.

Harry slowly turned around and looked at both his friends, even though he realized Ron had not said a word since Hermione was speaking. When he saw the tears on Hermione's face he felt a bit for causing them. It wasn't the first time she cried because of him he realized, something he disliked a lot.

"I'm sorry guys, I shouldn't be mad at you two," Harry said with a little voice and put a hand on Hermione's shoulder in an attempt to show her he felt bad for her tears.

Hermione wiped the tears from her skin and looked up to her friend. She had always admired his courage and talent but now for one of the first times ever she realized how big of a heart Harry had. And somehow the warmth of his hand on her shoulder felt really nice.

Hermione got a slight blush on her face when she realized what she was just thinking to herself. But luckily the blush went unnoticed by the two other people in the room.

"it's alright mate, I would be pretty pissed as well to be honest," Ron said after a while, nervously looking at Harry. The redhead teen still had an uneasy feeling when he saw how close Harry and Hermione were but decided not to make a comment on it.

After a short while with a bit of an awkward silence in the room they heard Mrs. Weasley shout from downstairs to join them for some food. Only after that Harry realized how hungry he was.

But it wasn't only food he was hungry for, he was hungry for answers as well. He hoped some of the Order people were still around and wasn't disappointed when he heard the noise of a lot of people coming from what Harry presumed was the kitchen.

When he heard the voice of Albus Dumbledore he knew one thing for sure. He wasn't going to leave the kitchen before he got his answers.

Meanwhile Hermione was looking at Harry every two seconds. She knew that look on his face, he was going to confront some people, and honestly, she couldn't blame him. She just hoped Harry wouldn't get hurt even worse.