Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to Eminnis for beta-ing this story.

Chapter Nine

A Place to Hide

"A Place to Hide," Bill read.

The mood in the room relaxed slightly at that. They were all hoping that this meant that everything would be okay if Harry was trying to find a place to hide. That had to be good right?

Mentions the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken:

"That quickly!" Molly gasped.

"We're not sure how much time has passed since this happened," Remus said, also looking pale. "We don't know how long it took for Kingsley to learn about the Minister … nor how long it took him to try and contact us."

Molly looked as she hadn't even heard him, and she bit her lip nervously. Arthur had his arms around her, trying to calm her down, though he didn't look very calm at the moment either.

Hermione cries Ron, where are you:

Hermione moaned miserably at that; how could she have let Ron out of her sight for a moment? Didn't she know how dangerous the times were? She felt Ron's hand take hers and she couldn't stop her heart from beating excitedly at his touch, but she pushed that feeling aside as she squeezed his hand … it was more important that she was reassured right now.

Mentions that Harry saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd:

Molly's whimper was the loudest, though she was by no means the only one to make a noise at that.

Hermione says Ron:

Both Hermione and Molly shivered at that. Ron gave Hermione's hand another squeeze of reassurance.

Mentions that Harry seized Hermione's hand, so they weren't separated:

"Smart move … grabbing her hand," Tonks said, she would have added that it wouldn't be good if they got more separated than they already were, but that wasn't the best thing to say right now.

Mentions and then Ron was there:

"Oh, thank Merlin," Hermione said quietly but Ron and Harry could hear her.

Mentions Ron caught hold of Hermione's free arm, and Harry felt her turn on the spot:

"You Apparated!" Arthur said, looking a little pale.

"Er … it looks like it," Hermione said looking at him confused. "I'm sure I got my lic …."

"You brought both of them as side-alongs!" Arthur went on and several people said 'oh'.

"So …." Hermione said still confused, she had read a little bit on Apparation but she still didn't understand why Arthur would be this surprised about that.

"It's very difficult to bring a single person along when Apparating," Percy said, looking at Hermione impressed but not surprised, though perhaps a little jealous. "The concentration needed to Apparate increases exponentially with each person you add to it. It's impressive that you could manage to do it with two people, especially when you probably learned how to Apparate only a few months prior to this."

"Oh," Hermione said, the smile she always had when she was complimented but tried not to look too smug about it was on her face.

Mentions away from the descending Death Eaters and perhaps Voldemort:

Everyone shivered at that.

"Hm … I'm not sure he would make a personal appearance," Dumbledore said. "He seems to have his mind occupied on something else at the moment and he wouldn't want to be bother with the lesser hunt. Though I would assume he would come immediately if they had seen Harry."

Again, the tension in the room relaxed only slightly at that.

Mentions they seemed to be surrounded by people:

"You Apparated in the middle of a public place!" Severus was the one to say this time, shaking his head. "Didn't you realize that you could have been seen? That would bring yourself to the Ministry's attention if a Muggle had seen you! They would have to send in Obliviators."

"I …." Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't think of anything. After all she hadn't actually done this yet, so she didn't have any answers to that.

Mentions that a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of Ron:

"Well, there's nothing abnormal there," Fred said attempting to bring some humor into this.

"Ron's appearance always inspires people to laugh," George added.

Harry says why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me:

"Oh dear, you didn't have time to take anything with you!" Molly groaned. "You don't have anything but the clothes on your backs! You're going to starve …!"

"Sh … Molly," Arthur said, cutting off her fretting. She didn't say anything after that, but she did bury her head in his shoulder and started to sob.

Hermione says it's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you:

"See dear, Hermione is taking care of them," Arthur whispered to his wife and her sobs softened slightly. She didn't want to think about the three of them trying to take care of themselves on their own, but it was comforting that at least she could count on Hermione to think of things they would need.

Mentions Hermione pulled out of her bag a pair of jeans, sweatshirt, socks and the silvery Invisibility Cloak:

"Wow, an Extension Charm," Fleur said. She looked at Hermione, very impressed. She didn't know the girl very well after all, but she knew that she was only in fifth year, of course she would have been going into her seventh year in the book, but it was still impressive. "I don't believe that is even taught at Hogwarts … I know they don't teach it at Beauxbatons."

"I must have realized that we would need it," Hermione shrugged, the 'trying not to be smug' smile back on her face.

"Yeah, we get it, Mione is incredible in everything, can we move on," Ron groaned, though he didn't really look too annoyed with the conversation.

Mentions that Ron stripped off his robes as Harry asks when did you do all this:

"I bet you couldn't take your eyes off of him, ah Hermione," Fred teased and Hermione and Ron turned bright red.

Hermione opened her mouth to deny it but realized she couldn't, not without being laughed at more than what was going on now.

Hermione mentions that she had the essential packed for days and I just had a feeling:

"You had a feeling this would happen!" Molly said, looking almost angry about that, like she was saying, why didn't you warn me about this?

"Mum, Mione just likes to be prepared for everything … well in advance, too," Ron said.

"And it seems like that was a very good thing this time," Harry added.

Molly nodded, feeling ashamed, but she was just so worried about not only the trio's safety, but everyone's. Everyone was in danger in this book, she knew that.

Hermione says please, Harry, get that Cloak on:

"Honestly Potter, don't you realize how recognizable you are?" Draco said.

"Are you worried about me Malfoy?" Harry said, looking bemused and starting to chuckle at the disgusted face Draco was making now.

"As if," Draco scoffed, though he had an odd feeling that Harry wasn't so wrong by his question, which only made him angrier at himself. "I just thought someone should point out how slow you are."

Mentions Harry thought of Ginny and fear bubbled like acid in his stomach:

"I'm sorry that I'm giving you indigestion Harry," Ginny said sadly and several people laughed at that Harry among them.

"I suppose I can forgive you for that this time," Harry smiled.

Someone says fancy a drink, ditch ginger and come and have a pint:

"Ew," Hermione made a face, as Ron's glared intensified and it looked like he was gritting his teeth trying to stop himself from saying something.

Hermione suggested they go somewhere before Ron could opened his mouth to shout:

"Ah … I was hoping that we would have at least got to hear book Ron tell those gits off," Fred sighed, and almost everyone laughed at that. Though it was clear that Ron's brothers were all amused about this, they all felt protective of Hermione at the same time and didn't particularly like how these drunk guys were talking to her … they wouldn't have minded Ron doing something to them.

Mentions Harry didn't like being stationary, walking had given the illusion that they had a goal:

"That might be true, but being here might actually give you some time to think about where you should go," Remus said. "And I would feel a lot better if you had some shelter right now."

Ron says we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here:

"No!" several people shouted.

"I don't want you anywhere near that place!" Molly said.

"It wouldn't be safe!" Tonks added.

"I get it," Ron groaned, he wasn't really sure why he was suggesting that in the first place. He knew it wouldn't be safe there.

Mentions a pair of burly workmen entered the café:

"I don't like this!" Molly fretted, and several people's thoughts echoed that statement. Why would workman suddenly come into this Diner and more importantly, why would they be mentioned in this book if there wasn't something odd about them being there.

Ron asks if Hermione can do the talking Patronus and she says I think so:

"Which pretty much means you can do it," Ron and Ginny said at the same time.

"I wonder if this means I can already do the Patronus Charm … you did mention teaching us that when we got back," Hermione said looking at Harry.

"Well, I'm sure if I get around to teaching it you will pick it up in no time," Harry smiled at her.

"Are you really going to teach them Patronus?" Remus questioned. "It's a difficult spell Harry, as I'm sure you remember me telling you that before …."

"I know it's difficult, but I don't think I'll be able to get a Dementor, or a Baggort to pretend to be a Dementor, so it will be different than the lessons that you gave me," Harry said.

Hermione says I took out all my Building Society saving:

"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry frowned, he didn't like that she had to take all her money out of savings.

"I'll just ask you to reimburse me after this is all over with," Hermione smiled, and Harry chuckled.

Mentions the workmen made movement and Harry mirrored them, they drew their wands:

"NO!" several people yelled, not liking their fears being confirmed. Molly kept the chanting up as Bill read the book in a tense voice.

Mentions Ron, a few seconds late, lunged across the table pushing Hermione onto her bench:

Ron felt relieved about that though he wished that he wasn't late in reacting. It just felt better knowing that he was doing something to protect Hermione.

Mentions Harry sent another Stunning Spell at the Death Eater with the twisted face:

Bill read this with disdain for he easily recognized this description as the man that had killed his uncles. Molly's eyes flickered with rage at just hearing this, but her heart throbbed painfully in her chest as she thought of the trio facing this man … this highly dangerous man.

Mentions Hermione uses Petrificus Totalus on the Death Eater:

"I'm glad you got him, but don't you think you should use a stronger spell than that?" Sirius inquired.

"I probably did the first spell that came to my mind," Hermione said. "Speed is more important … besides he's incapacitated now."

Hermione asks how did they find us, what are we going to do:

"Merlin that is a good question!" Fred said. "How did they find you?"

"Maybe it was like Snape said," Charlie said. "That a Muggle saw them and that caused the Ministry …."

"I'm not so sure about that," Severus himself interrupted. "That doesn't explain how the Death Eaters would know that they were in this cafe. It doesn't make sense that they would go there."

"So, what happen?" Sirius asked, looking at his godson warily. "Why the hell did they show up there?"

No one seemed to have an answer to that.

Mentions that somehow Hermione's panic cleared Harry's head:

"Well, I'm glad I could help," Hermione glared at him halfheartedly, she was too nervous to pull it off correctly.

Ron asks what are we going to do with them, kill them, they'd kill us:

Ron looked petrified that he had suggested such a thing and Harry looked at him with the same expression. "I don't think I can do that mate," Harry said in a shaky voice.

"They deserve it," Molly was the one to say, there was a dark tone in her voice that nobody was used to hearing. Harry looked at her even more shocked than he already was.

"Dolohov was one of the people responsible for …." Remus started but Harry remembered an early discussion he had with Moody that year, one with a picture of the old Order of the Phoenix.

"Oh …." Harry said and looked at Molly with understanding, though she had buried her head back in Arthur's shoulder. No matter how much she wanted this man dead, she didn't really want her son and his friends to become cold blooded killers like this. It was one thing to kill someone in a fight and quite another to kill an unarmed, helpless man.

Harry says we just need to wipe their memories, if we killed them, it'd be obvious, we were here:

"I don't think you can stop them from knowing that you were here," Severus said warily, though he didn't totally disagree with the plan.

Hermione says nor have I, but I know the theory:

"You do understand that knowing the theory and actually doing the spell are two different things," Severus said harshly. "You can cause serious damage to someone if you perform a spell like this without the proper training."

"Well, it's all the better if she gives them permanent brain damage," Sirius pointed out.

Ron says clean up, why:

"Why can't you ever just clear things up when you're told to," Ginny said in a very good impression of her mum that had all the Weasley boys and various other people laughing.

Ron says Hermione you packed my old jeans they're tight:

"How dare you do that Hermione," Fred said laughing.

"Yeah, just because the tight jeans would make his ar …." George started to say.

"Shut up!" Hermione hissed at them, turning red yet again as several people laughed.

Hermione says you don't think you still got your Trace on you, Harry:

"No, that's impossible," several people said at the same time.

"There is no way to keep the Trace on someone once they come of age," Arthur said.

"They could have put a different tracking spell on him though," Tonks said. "Of course, that means they would have had to have access to him, so I don't think that's it either."

Don't be silly Harry, Snape can get in there:

"But I don't think that other Death Eaters could," Remus said. "Which means that only one …."

"I'm not going to attack Potter," Severus said coldly.

"And I understand that, but the Harry in the book doesn't and from his point of view limiting the number of people that can go after him to one is a good thing," Remus said. "Especially since there is only one way that you can enter the place."

Harry says I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape:

"I wouldn't be so eager for that if I were you," Draco said, "I doubt that you would last a minute against Professor Snape."

Severus looked slightly pleased by this praise.

"I've faced worse opponents than Snape," Harry said, his eyes going a little lifeless as he thought of the duel, he had last summer.

"Hm …." was all Draco had to say to that, but he was eyeing Harry almost warily now.

Mentions the only thing out of place was the troll's leg stand and it was like Tonks had just knocked it over again:

Several of the people that had seen Tonks trip over that multiple times snorted at that.

"How do you know someone isn't there already?" Molly questioned, making everyone nervous again just like she had been this whole chapter.

Mentions that they remained on the doormat, scared to move farther into the house:

"Little Potty, scared of a house," Draco sneered.

"Be quiet little boy, don't you see how dangerous everything is … anything can go wrong, nowhere is safe!" Molly said, starting to work herself into hysteria. However, she seemed to be unable to say anything more than that, but her eyes still looked at Draco with a crazed expression.

After Hermione casted Homenum revelio and nothing happened:

"Oh, thank Merlin, good thinking," Molly said, sounding very relieved.

Ron says you've just had a big shock, what was that supposed to do:

Several people chuckled at that.

"What?" Ron questioned.

"It worked exactly how it was supposed to," Bill told his little brother and Ron sighed, Hermione wouldn't like that he suggested that she couldn't do a spell properly.

Ron says can't see anyone out there and you'd think if Harry still had the Trace they would follow us here:

"That's true," Tonks said, "so they definitely don't have a trace on you."

"Well, that's comforting and all, but it still leaves us wondering how the hell those Death Eaters found Harry in the first place," Charlie said.

Harry says I think it's started opening again whenever he loses control, that's how it used to:

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow here; it certainly does sound like Voldemort is trying to block Harry from his mind this time.

Mentions that Voldemort had used this connection to lead him into a trap that resulted in Sirius's death:

Everyone gasped at this, and Harry dropped his head. It must have been his fault that Sirius died … he had believed whatever it was the Voldemort had shown him and Sirius had died because of it.

"Harry," Sirius said, he was watching his godson closely and didn't like what he saw. He got up and sat next to him (Ginny having moved over to give him some room). He was going to tell Harry that he was more than willing to give everything he had to keep his godson alive, but he knew that Harry didn't want to hear that. Instead, he said, "It's a good thing that we know about this. Now you know that whenever you have a vision about me you shouldn't believe it."

Harry looked at Sirius and nodded his head. That was right, they have the power to change this future and he will. "Thanks Sirius."

"Anytime," Sirius said and pulled Harry into a hug that both of them needed.

Arthur's Patronus says family safe, do not reply, we are being watched:

"We're safe," Molly said, relieved and slumping in Arthur's arms. Though she could have done without the, we are being watched, line, it was the best she could hope for at the moment.

Harry says it's your family, I'd feel the same way, then thinks of Ginny and added, I do feel the same way:

"Hmph, so does that mean that you don't care about the rest of us?" Fred said indignantly.

"Yep," Harry deadpanned.

Voldemort says you called me back for this, that Potter escaped again, Draco, give Rowle another taste of our displeasure:

All eyes were on said boy, who was looking rather pale at the idea of not only being in the same room as Voldemort but torturing someone. He never minded taunting someone … torturing them with his words until they snapped (though he didn't like them snapping so much because usually he would end up getting cursed). He didn't mind cursing anyone either, but he's never used a serious curse on anyone yet. Nothing that would hurt like he knew that Voldemort wanted him to do to this Rowle guy. His stomach turned and he knew that he didn't really want to do something like this … Not to this guy that he didn't know. He felt odd when he realized that he couldn't even imagine doing something like that to Potter, who he truly hated more than anyone else.

Mentions Harry was sickened by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort:

Draco looked down, again lost in thought. He wanted that didn't he? To be a Death Eater like his dad. To earn respect from people like the Dark Lord … like his dad. That is what he always wanted. But hearing this, seeing what he would have to do to be a real Death Eater made him feel ill at ease.

Harry says yeah great thanks:

"That was the end of the chapter," Bill said. "Who wants to read?"

"I think I will," Ron said.

"No! Say it ain't so!" Fred said.

"Ronniekins wanting to read," George gasped.

Ron ignored them the best he could as he started to read the next chapter.