With a contact in the Department of Mysteries, Hermione Granger realised, they could get Harry's prophecy and even inspect the Goblet of Fire. Probably she would need to work both the Lovegoods and Mr Dumbledore for that. So she would have to research for the Lovegoods, which she'd already resolved to do. As for Aberforth, what had she learned? That his brother was a bastard? Maybe it was the opposite; he'd pointed out there were worse people than Dumbledore out there. And she'd already decided he could be useful if he were dying - perhaps also if his legacy were threatened.

What threatens his legacy?she wrote.

She could actually interview Aberforth, she realised. And if Grindlewald was still around … the sycophants like Elphias Doge would be no good. Maybe Bathilda Bagshot could be shamed into telling the truth about Dumbledore's early years by reminding her Grindlewald was her great-nephew.

After school, she went with her parents - now accustomed to blending in in Diagon Alley, but nonetheless clutching each other's hands tightly the whole time - to Eeylops Owl Emporium. She had no immediate plans to use a new owl for anything important, but rather, as a distraction, while she used public owls. She was preparing to take a chance with it and had written a letter to Luna, but enclosed a note to her parents inside, stating she was ready to be assigned a research project whenever they wanted.

Just before heading to the owl shop, she used a public postal service that handed off to the Muggle post to send a note to Harry Potter, the cupboard under the stairs, etc. inviting him in very indirect language to visit again. This time, no tea parties with dolls. She'd show him her backyard Quidditch practice and let him try, and she'd invite his help with non-verbal, wandless magic to see if the Scabbers switch would actually work with two of them trying at the same time.

When she got to the shop, she found that Hedwig was already there, and, surprisingly, there was a male snowy as well. It was unusual, she'd found out, for a female like Hedwig to be pure white instead of spotted. She borrowed money from her parents to get both of them, plus cages and treats.

She read that Hedwig was a German girls' name that meant, roughly, "war," and decided to name her owl Günter, which meant, roughly, "warrior." They were both excellent decoys. Harry's would, after school started, be sent overtly as often as possible. She was either actually or spiritually his familiar, after all. Hermione had found Crookshanks, too, at the Magical Menagerie and her parents had lent her even more money to get him, so now for the first time in her life, she had to be a responsible pet owner. Worse, it turned out magical postal owls weren't all that domesticated at first. She had to give Günter more attention than Crookshanks at first.

In addition to sending him to Luna, she took a chance later and put "The Curio Shop on Portsmouth" in as the address, with a little note asking if they had a catalogue. The reply that came back the next day was 3 folded pieces of paper with very general categories, not really a catalogue at all, yet highly informative.

She fretted about not using Günter enough. Perhaps, she thought, she could surreptitiously "meet" Sally-Anne Perks or Fay Dunbar or … well, who might be a muggle-born, even if they weren't in Gryffindor, as she speculated those two girls were? Maybe she could "meet" the Patil twins? They weren't likely to know anyone who knew Dumbledore. He cast a shadow over the whole wizarding world for Hermione, and now she was trying to avoid him yet live a productive life, her resentment was growing. She talked it over with her parents and with her dolls. They managed to give her perspective and calm her down. It was obvious from some things Aberforth had said that Dumbledore was not, in fact, the greater evil. But he was the immediate one, and the fact that she might have to work with him later didn't make him any less inconvenient now.

Finally, she slapped herself, and not just mentally. Instead of having her parents brave Diagon Alley, she sent Günter for catalogues and ordered by owl. If McGonagall had someone check in on her periodically, the owl flights to shops would establish her cover, after all. And Günter was well-pleased.

The research the Lovegoods assigned to her via Günter was a shock, more than a shock, it made her have to sit down or fall over. They wanted her to research Horcruxes! My God, they know! she thought. Well. It was good, actually. She could now blame them. And she would start, not with how you made them or where they were. She actually knew all that. It was, she decided, too late to save Regulus the Death Eater. Sirius would have to settle for being freed two to three years early.

What Hermione would research was how to remove a Horcrux from a living creature. Safely.

Harry had scribbled a reply on her note that the Dursleys were visiting Marge two days after he'd got his missive. Since he was home alone all day, Hermione took the bold step of visiting via the Knight Bus, helping Harry finish all his chores, and paying his way to her home. Harry genuinely liked "Quidditch practice," but far more importantly, however he did it, when he concentrated with her after waving a stick in the correct pattern (and Hermione decided she'd been overcautious not doing the same, since a stick wasn't a wand) and, if the truth be told, both of them were probably subvocalising, so it wasn't truly non-verbal - at any rate, it worked. "Pink Scabbers" was swapped out for "Blue Scabbers" every time, without a hitch.

Hermione was not too big a person not to worry about Harry outshining her. She was going to keep him from Ron Weasley's clutches and tutor him, and he was probably more powerful than her. It went against her competitive instincts to let anyone, even a "boyfriend," get one up on her in school. She was, she mused, probably a lot like a racehorse in that way.

She had learned to strike while the iron was hot, so she and Harry took the Knight's Bus to Diagon Alley, bought a rat familiar with magic, and carried him out in a cage she'd bought a while back. They were in luck. Not only was Percy Weasley there with just his mother accompanying him, but more fortunately, they were headed to the Magical Menagerie to have the rat checked out. With her and Harry concentrating, it worked just as it had at her home.

They then went to the Lovegoods with Peter Pettigrew in hand. Hermione had explained a little about what they were doing, and why, but before they met Luna on the edge of her family land, she'd given him more details about his godfather, and enough about the rat to make him cautious, but not enough to have his magic flare up and kill it.

At the Lovegoods, they planned out how Pandora would sneak the rat in for Amelia Bones, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to find. They had Harry write the "A Friend" note. No-one associated with Dumbledore, not even Arabella Figg, had ever seen Harry's writing, and even the Dursleys had not seen enough to recognise it. It also made Harry smile a lot.

If she could get Director Bones on side, along with the Lovegoods and Mr Dumbledore, they would have their entry into the Department of Mysteries. If Director Bones heard the prophecy, that would go a great distance towards increasing Harry's status and her desire to protect him from the headmaster's abuse.

As a thought crossed her mind, she wrote down a note to let Sirius Black know about his brother as soon as possible, and to tell him about the locket once she was sure he wouldn't trust Dumbledore and blab to him. The Black Family's library was probably her only hope at conducting useful research for the Lovegoods.

When they were done with everything and had gone back to Number Four, Privet Drive, Harry told her having a girlfriend wasn't that bad, and even put up with her kissing his cheek.