A/N: Okay, let's talk about the time jump in the previous chapter because I think a few of you felt a little jostled.

The logic behind making the leap straight from Easter to The Battle of the Astronomy Tower was threefold:

1.) The canon timeline for HBP is not only messy and riddled with enormous gaps, but the '96/'97 school year ends almost a full month later than most of the other trio-era spring terms.

2.) I would rather give you the story as it played out in my brain rather than shoehorn-in a filler chapter just because I felt like I should.

3.) I have been writing this sucker for almost 17 months now and there are things I'm eager to get to. What can I say? I'm human.

oOoOoOo

3 July 1997

In the evening following Albus Dumbledore's funeral, Hermione Granger once again found herself standing near the edge of The Black Lake, shoes hooked in one hand and toes nestled in the clover beneath the beech tree. The castle was to her left, towering and grand as ever.

"I thought I might find you out here," a familiar voice said before sidling up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. She leaned back into Fred, listening to his heartbeat and the quiet lapping of the water on the shore. "I had to get out of there, it was really very depressing. Almost like a funeral."

She snorted softly and closed her eyes, feeling the breeze gently lift and toy with the ends of her curls while the leaves rustled softly overhead. Even if her own affections for Albus Dumbledore had been minimal, dubious even, most of the people around her didn't share that sentiment. And there was a sort of bone-deep exhaustion that came with existing in close proximity to that sort of grief for long spans of time. Harry, in particular, had been taking it hard.

Fred lapsed silent at her back for a few moments, and then they just stood there, watching the sun set slowly over the mountains in fiery shades of ochre and auburn. In more ways than one, she was struck with a powerful sense of déjà vu, and she wondered if Fred felt it too; like a chapter coming to an end.

"You're leaving," he finally said, breaking the stillness. It wasn't a question, just as it hadn't been when she'd said it to him.

"Haven't we done this already?" She mused, opening her eyes and rotating slightly to look up at him. He didn't look angry, not particularly, but there was a crease between his brows that she had the impulse to reach out and smooth. "What gave me away?"

"Ginny," Fred replied. "George ran into her and she was a right mess. She told him that Harry had broken things off."

"Mmm," Hermione hummed and tipped her head, turning back to the lake. She'd had a feeling he might try something like that, altruistic as he endeavored to be. "He's a sweet boy, but not always the brightest."

"Then I take it that you… won't be following his example?" Fred probed. His tone was pointedly blithe, but there was an undercurrent of genuine concern that made her chest ache a little. Ache because he was justified in thinking that she might push him away.

"No," she reassured soundly, feeling his arms relax around her as she did. "I can't do this without you and, unlike Harry, I'm selfish enough not to bother trying. That said, I can't expect you to –"

"Shh," he quieted immediately. "I'm not going anywhere. But what I haven't quite parsed out is whether or not I'll be invited along on this adventure with you."

She stilled. She'd thought about it; in truth, she'd thought about little else since she'd determined that was indeed the path that she, Harry and Ron were on. But it wouldn't – couldn't – be something that she asked him to do, not with what he would be risking. Not with the people he'd be leaving behind.

"Well," Hermione began slowly, taking a deep breath, "I suppose that's up to you. But first, there are things that I need to tell you, Fred. Things that you deserve to know, to weigh, if you're considering coming with us. Because I don't know where we're going or how long we'll be gone, and, if I'm being honest, I haven't the faintest idea how this is all going to end."

Fred stepped back and firm hands gripped her shoulders, rotating her toward him. Then he placed a single knuckle beneath her chin and tipped her head up, so she had no choice but to look him directly in the eye. His sapphire gaze bore into hers, catching the late afternoon light and adding a glowing intensity to his already solemn expression.

"Then tell me. Tell me everything."

So, Hermione did. She began with the memories in the pensieve – Tom Riddle's boyhood and Horace Slughorn's long-kept secrets. She filled in the gaps from their own years at Hogwarts; Ginny and the diary that wasn't really a diary, the true purpose of Harry's abduction during the Triwizard tournament, and the contents of the prophecy that had very nearly cost her own life. Finally, she finished with her personal theories. About Nagini, and the relics from the founders, and even the one speculation that she'd scarcely let herself consider. The one about the scar on her best friend's head.

Fred, as with most things, took it all in stride. Through the entire retelling, he interjected only to ask an occasional question, and when she was finished, he sat in contemplative silence, thumb stroking meditatively back and forth on her bare knee. The sun had finally disappeared and given way to twilight, and they'd reoriented themselves to sit on his jacket, which had been transfigured into a makeshift picnic blanket.

Hermione didn't say anything; she'd had months to process what he'd just absorbed in the span of about forty minutes, so she simply sat back and waited.

"Let me see if I have this right," Fred finally began, turning to face her straight-on. "If I go with you, we're essentially going to be on the run, hunting objects that we can't easily identify, locate or destroy, and, if we're captured or murdered, everyone that knows how to kill old Moldy-shorts goes down in one fell swoop."

"Correct."

"And Dumbledore didn't see fit to tell anyone else about this? McGonagall? Kingsley? Remus?"

"Don't get me started on that. Honestly, and try not to take offence at this, Harry will probably be mad that I even told you."

"Right. And if I stay behind, you still have to do all of that without my vast knowledge and skillset at your disposal, but I then become a sort of Plan B should the aforementioned transpire."

"It sounds like you have the shape of it."

"Then we need to come up with another failsafe, because there's no way in hell that I'm letting you go without me."

Hermione exhaled in an enormous rush as that sank in. She'd told herself she wouldn't leave him out of this fight if he wanted in, and she wouldn't question or hold his decision against him, regardless of which way it fell. Because if he chose to stay, knowing everything he now did, they'd both find a way to live, or quite possibly die, by that verdict. But if something happened to her and he only stayed because she told him to? Because she refused to share what she knew and put them on equal footing? He'd live the rest of his days resenting her, and she'd quite frankly deserve it.

So, rather than argue or push or ask if he was certain, she simply nodded.

"Alright. Okay. Well, there's a lot to prepare and not much time to do it." Fred got up and extended a hand, pulling her to her feet and bending to collect his jacket-cum-blanket. "We haven't discussed it yet, but I can't imagine Harry is going to want to wait long once his trace is off."

"No, I'd wager not," he agreed as they started to make their way back toward the school. "What do you need from me?"

"Does your dad still have the tent from the World Cup a few years ago?"

"Yeah, I think it's in the garden shed somewhere."

"Brilliant," she said, nodding. "We'll be needing that. I also have to procure some pretty rare potion ingredients –"

"Done. I've suppliers aplenty."

"Of course. How are you at undetectable extension charms?"

"Dab hand, we had to use them when we developed Weather in a Bottle last year."

"Good, good…" Hermione thought silently for a long moment as a small pit began to form in her stomach. She took a breath and held it as she asked, "What about memory charms?"