Chapter One
The light from the sun had just faded when Hermione walked out of Grimmauld Place. She looked around the dark street for any signs of movement as the lights from the lanterns cast the area in a soft yellow glow. Not seeing any signs of being monitored, she walked to the edge of the anti-apparition wards and turned down an even darker side street. She had to make sure no one in the Order saw what was about to happen. She continued to monitor the street for a few more minutes until she was absolutely sure there was no one coming and going from the house. She quickly turned the ring on her left pinky a full twist to the right, then stood there waiting. She had it down to an art, this habit of sneaking out. It wasn't often that the house was mostly emptied of people, so she had to take advantage of any chance she had. While she understood the logic behind keeping Harry, Ron, and herself out of danger and away from the skirmishes, it didn't make it any easier when the people they had come to care about came back injured or dying. The feeling was similar to what she guessed a leash would feel like. Especially when she had trained both as a combat medic and a duelist by Dumbledore himself before he had died.
He had first approached her at the end of their fifth year with an offer of private tutoring. She hadn't understood why at the time, but had eagerly jumped at the chance to learn something new. The only caveat was that she wasn't able to tell anyone about it. In the beginning it had been just the two of them. He had taught her everything he knew about dueling, at least to the extent that he had been willing to go himself during a fight. Then he had brought in Pomfrey to start teaching her everything there was to know about healing. Then it was McGonagall, Snape and in sixth year Slughorn. It hadn't been easy trying to learn all the different spells and potions while also making the appearance of keeping up with her school life and Dumbledore's Army. It wouldn't have been possible at all if it weren't for the modified time-turner currently resting against her chest. It had been a surprise as well. Everyone thought they had been destroyed in the Department of Mysteries. Harry and Ron had continued to be so completely oblivious about her coming and going that they hadn't noticed the almost constant state of exhaustion she had been in. There had been days where all she had managed to do was stumble to her bed and pass out.
It wasn't until a few months ago that they noticed anything at all. In a fit of boredom Harry had come to find her in the library, then Ron had burst in a few minutes later claiming to have seen her walking down a side street. She had tried her best to convince them it must have been someone else to no avail. She told the two of them everything. It had led to a fairly lengthy argument about the dangers of sneaking out and the constant lying. The fact that she had done it to save the two of them hadn't mattered. Molly had been the first one to notice the tension, that the three of them weren't talking to each other. Sure they did during meetings and were cordial in front of the others, but after everyone left they were back to ignoring each other. Molly had stayed after one night and given all of them a piece of her mind. She hadn't wanted to know any of the particulars. Hermione knew it was because Molly thought there must have been a fight over sleeping arrangements. Namely who was sleeping in whose bed. She lectured them about fighting during a war; how it could destabilize everything the Order had been working for.
She wasn't wrong. They needed to present a united front. The face of the Order when it came to the public. The Daily Prophet had turned into a puppet paper-mill for Voldemort. A picture of the three of them was on the front page most days under High Priority Targets. But there was also The Owl's Review, a small paper that had popped up a year or so ago. They still weren't sure who was behind it. All they really knew was that it randomly dropped from the sky once or twice a week and it told the story from the Order's side. All of the Daily Prophet's photos of them were older ones from their later school years. This one though, it had used their most recent photo taken roughly seven months ago. She had been working to heal a burn that had gone almost all the way through Ron's ribs while Harry had knelt next to her holding her med pack. Colin had snapped the picture. Two days later it had appeared in The Owl's Review. The caption under it saying she could heal anything Voldemort's followers could throw at them. After that the spells and curses from the other side had gotten increasingly more dangerous if not downright lethal. That had been one of the last missions they had been allowed to go on with the Order.
That was also around the time she had started sneaking out. It was innocent at first. She would go foraging for potion ingredients she was running low on, a quick trip to a local muggle grocery store for something she had been craving while on her cycle. Small things that no one would notice. Then an attack on one of the Order's safe houses had killed most of the people living inside. They were scattered all the way across the country. Different kinds depending on the set up and what the people living there needed. Some of the houses were used as a rehab after battle for those injured so badly they needed a longer recovery time. Others were used merely to hide those targeted by Voldemort. This one in particular had been the former. One she had made regular visits to to help Madam Pomfrey with. It had been a rash decision to go in undisguised and warn them of the danger. She had merely pulled the time-turner out of its warded pouch and threw it around her neck, turning it as she ran for the wards.
Madam Pomfrey already knew of its existence, having been one of the people that had trained her. It hadn't taken long to explain that there was an incoming attack on the house and that they needed to evacuate as quickly as they could. The attack had happened, but since the house had been emptied there had been no casualties. It had landed her in a heap of trouble with Molly and Moody. Pomfrey hadn't told them where the information came from when she called them in for the evacuation. They had merely seen her there and since she hadn't had clearance to leave the house she had been lectured afterwards. It's what had led her to what she was currently doing now.
She heard the footsteps before she could see the people making them. As the sound rounded the corner Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off of both him and Ron. They walked quickly towards her and grabbed her arm as she turned to apparate them out. They landed in a field roughly two hundred yards from a house that had been burned down with what could only have been fiendfyre. Harry swore low under his breath and turned to look at her with hope in his eyes. She shook head slowly and kept staring at the house. Slughorn had been hiding here, using the top part of the house as merely a cover for what was underground. The underground area had been converted into a giant cavern with an entire laboratory's worth of potions. He had been brewing for them since Dumbledore had died and he'd been forced to choose sides.
"He died didn't he?" Ron asked in a low voice, the trembling in his left hand becoming more visible. That was her fault, the trembling. When she had healed his side she had been so focused on the lungs that she had forgotten to fully repair some of the nerves that had been damaged.
"Yes. You can't see it from here but the ground has collapsed in sections behind the house. He was crushed under one of them." She cocked her head to the side and studied the damage. "I won't need a disguise for this one, but the two of you will. He-"
"Trained you. We know," Harry said a bit coldly from Ron's other side.
Her head snapped in his direction, "How long do you plan to use that against me? I already told you that Dumbledore thought it best if no one knew."
"We're not here for this," Ron said in a resigned voice. He had become the peacekeeper between the three of them. "We're here to get him out before he dies. Let's focus on that and we can talk later."
Harry scoffed under his breath as she moved closer and placed the chain of the time-turner over their heads. She looked at him briefly, wishing things could go back to the way they were. They knelt down in the tall grass and she spun the hourglass backwards six times. They watched the scene in reverse as a lonely Death Eater appeared halfway between them and the house. With a quick wand movement fiendfyre had erupted from his wand and engulfed the house in flames. The ground collapsed in sections as the man sent the fyre into the cavern below. The control in which he used the fyre was almost horrifying to watch. Fiendfyre was difficult for even the most skilled caster to manipulate like that. Either the man was far older than his height and build suggested or Voldemort had an ace up his sleeve that no one knew about.
When everything had ceased to be a blur she quickly rummaged in her bag for the two vials of poly-juice potion she kept stashed in there. It had been Ron's idea. Using the potion to be able to go out and help the Order without them knowing it was them. It also helped to lessen the targets on their back in a fight if the other side thought they were just random people. Hermione would routinely go to the local store and use magic to snip off bits of peoples' hair. She tried not to use the same person twice; it wouldn't do for the Order to start wondering who they were. A series of random faces were less recognizable. Harry handed her his glasses to transform the shape while he and Ron both took the potion. Ron shot up a bit and Hermione groaned when she realized that he had taken the wrong one. They were supposed to be the same height and build. Two non-descript order members escorting her.
She looked up at the sky and calculated that they had roughly an hour to get in and out before the Death Eater showed. She stood up and started down the hill, a look of boredom on her face as though she was just out for a stroll. Harry and Ron joined her. Ron towering over both of them far more than usual. They had already altered their clothes to fit the new bodies. Something she had drilled into their heads from the very beginning. It didn't matter if they were disguised if their clothes swamped them or tore from the stretch. They reached the door in a matter of minutes and she lightly tapped on it with her wand. The door opened almost immediately. Her first observation was that he had lost quite a bit of weight. It wasn't just that though. His cheeks had hollowed out and his eyes had a sunken quality to them that she hadn't seen in a long time.
It was admittedly hard to get supplies on a regular basis, food included. There were many nights, even at headquarters, where all they had were nutritional potions. Meant to supply the body with the bare minimum it needed to function. They were useful for people in recovery, but for those in the field it wasn't enough to keep them going for long. She knew from experience. She had lost count of the number of times she had claimed she wasn't hungry so that Ron and Harry could split the extra portion between themselves. She knew that Slughorn had been the one keeping them in stock of all their healing and nutritional potions but she thought he would be smart enough to request food when his supplies ran low.
"Hermione? I wasn't expecting a visit from you today." He said in a somewhat slurred voice, leaning heavily on the door edge. "I didn't think you were allowed out."
"Yes well, I believe your life is more important than any permission they could give." She said quietly. "I'm aware that this is hard to believe but in less than an hour you will be dead if you don't pack up and come with us."
"D-dead? How in the world would you know that?"
"Because we just traveled back about six hours in order to keep you alive. A Death Eater comes and burns the entire place down with fiendfyre. You try to run to the caverns, but sections of the ground collapse and you get crushed under one of them. You have roughly thirty minutes to get everything you can't live without together then we have to leave. We'll drop you off at HQ and you can request another safe house. You absolutely cannot tell them that I was here." She told him matter-of-factly.
He stared at her in shock for longer than she had anticipated. She felt Harry shift behind her and looked over her shoulder to find him turned around looking out at the field. She glanced down at her watch and frowned. "Now you have roughly twenty-five minutes. I'd suggest you get moving."
He nodded and made quick work of packing his things up. It was when he headed downstairs that a low whistle came from outside. Hermione spun for the door, flicking her wand down from her arm sheath. Another quick glance down at her watch showed that they should have had another twenty minutes before the man showed up. Sometimes luck never went that way. She skidded out the door in time to see the man deflect a hastily cast expelliarmus from Harry with barely a flick of his wand. He never tried to strike back, he just calmly walked over until he was roughly fifty yards from them before stopping.
His mask wasn't like that of the rest of Voldemort's followers. It was bone white, a stark contrast from the rest of his clothes and barely visible underneath the hood pulled up. She couldn't make out the carvings on it from the distance separating them. He just stood there, staring at them. As if he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do next. His gaze quickly shifted to her as she stepped forward and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. It was barely perceptible, but his head jerked back slightly as he recognized her.
"I need the two of you to go inside and get Slughorn out of here. Drop him at the edge of the wards for HQ and then wait for me in the alley. I won't be far behind you."She muttered so quietly that she knew Harry and Ron could barely hear her.
"Like hell we will. We saw the same thing you did when he burned down that house. Leaving you here would be sending you to your death." Harry replied agitatedly.
Her head whipped around to look at Harry. "Oh so now you want to keep me safe. Is that the line you won't cross? I'm sure I don't need to remind you that I have been extensively trained for something like this while the two of you have not been. After all, you've spent the last seven months punishing me for it. I offered to train you and you told me no. Even though that was one of the main reasons we did it."
"Bloody hell you two, this is not the time or place for this." Ron all but shouted at them.
Harry glared down at her, his eyes sparking in anger. "And as I've told you, it wasn't doing it that feels like a violation. It was not sharing your plans and information with us the way we shared with you."
"We really don't have time for this you two." Ron said urgently beside them, "Come on, let's just do what she says."
Harry looked across her head at him. He paused for a moment then grudgingly turned towards the house and Slughorn watching them from the doorway. He walked over and held his arm out for Slughorn to take then stared at Ron until he joined them as well. With a final look at Hermione he all but growled at her to make sure she came back in one piece. As if she wanted to come back in multiple ones. They apparated away with a crack leaving Hermione and the unknown Death Eater still standing there staring at her. When she looked back at him she realized that he had walked over to her, crossed his arms and was studying her. She could finally see the design on his mask. It looked like a mandala of scales and whorls that was centered on the nose were tiny cracks splintering from the bottom right edge; as though someone had gripped it so hard the bone, she could recognize that material anywhere, had shattered under the pressure.
"I won't make this easy," she said in a low voice.
He pulled his wand out and when she fell into a defensive stance, held his hands up in surrender. He slowly pointed his wand at his throat and muttered a quiet incantation.
"I'm not here for you." A somewhat high pitched voice said. He huffed in frustration and once again pointed their wand at his throat. This time the words came out in a deeper baritone that she knew wasn't the correct one either. He was disguising his voice, probably because she already knew him. It didn't narrow the options down any. At this point she had fought so many of them that their voices all seemed to overlap into a blur. "That's much better. Although I am curious as to why you stayed behind instead of running away like the hulking brutes you had with you. Are you not a priority in your Order anymore? Does a withering away old man rank higher than you?"
He started to circle her. "What are they doing to you? You're too skinny. Those pesky nutritional potions aren't really a good substitute for actual food. I'll have to have a personal talk with Kingsley about that the next time I see him. It takes the fun out of beating the lot of you if you're not strong enough to fight back. He refuses to talk to me, but I know he can hear me. What will he think when he finds out that for all they've done to keep you safe you're still putting yourself in danger and quite literally starving yourself to death?"
"Where is he?" She demanded sharply.
Kingsley had been captured a few months prior. They knew he wasn't dead due to the clock that sat on the wall in the kitchen in Grimmauld Place. It was a replica of the one Molly had in hers. The only difference was the number of hands that had been added. His hand had steadily been pointed towards mortal peril since. If they had broken through his occlumency shields then- "Oh God. The safe houses. They're all compromised."
Her mind raced a million miles an hour. The man in front of her just let her know the safe houses were compromised. He knew where Kingsley was. The safe houses were compromised. She had to go. Had to tell the other Order members what she found out. But she couldn't. Not without them finding out she had been breaking orders. She decided she wouldn't tell them about Harry and Ron going with her. No need for all of them to get into trouble. She sighed heavily, feeling the leash around her neck growing tighter. It had to be done.
She flinched when the man stepped around her. Fire was already pouring from his wand as he went. He carefully kept the flame away from the two of them as he burnt the house down and sent the flames into the caverns. She stood frozen in place as she watched his total control of the flames. It wasn't until the fire was gone and he had turned back around to face her that she realized she had been staring in awe. They stood there staring at each other until a burning sensation from her ring brought her to her senses. She glanced down at her hand and gave it a quick spin to the left. Letting both Harry and Ron know she was safe. A quiet chuckle brought her head back up. He was staring at her ring, a slow smirk crossing his face.
"Run along, mo ghráidh. They'll be missing you."
He watched her face for a moment longer before he turned on the spot and vanished with barely a sound. She was still looking at the spot he had vanished when she apparated back to the alley.