Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. I'm just borrowing them for a story and my own imagination.

Chapter 4

Hermione woke up to hands shaking her gently, concerned voices muffled in her ears as her body slowly came back to awareness. When she finally opened her eyes, she was looking into Remus' concerned eyes. This close to the full moon, his normally green irises were closer to the golden yellow of the wolf. His eyes were bloodshot, clear evidence that he hadn't slept properly in Merlin knows how long, and Hermione wondered if it was because of the impending full moon, or perhaps maybe it was because-

"Hermione! Merlin, witch, can you hear me?!"

Hermione cringed back at the loud sound, her brain finally conscious enough to appreciate her present situation. She was sitting up in the guest bedroom where she had fallen asleep in the afternoon. The lack of light in the room indicated that the sun had long since set. The pajamas worn by the two men in her room further proved her theory. She looked down at her hands, slightly embarrassed that she had slept for so long.

But wait, why were they in her room? and why did they wake her up? Had something happened? She looked up at Remus, her mouth opening to ask, but she was beaten to it by Sirius.

"Hermione, are you okay? What happened?"

"Sirius? What do you mean, what happened? You woke me up, remember?"

"No, little witch, you woke us up! You were screaming bloody murder! We thought someone had broken in while we were sleeping, but when we came in here, you were still asleep! What kind of dream were you having to make sounds like that?!"

Hermione looked away again, this time horror creeping into her as she realized that she hadn't placed her usual silencing charms, and thus, they had heard everything. She had dreamed about the silver wolf again, only this time she had been chased by something else, something dark and sinister that had been hot on her heels until she had been woken. She was worried, unsure about what it meant that the dream that had been so consistent and familiar had changed so rapidly overnight.

She raised her head, wondering whether she should just make up a lie about having a bad dream but seeing the worried faces looking back at her, she realized that she had to tell them the truth. Besides, they might have some insight.

"There's something else I need to tell you guys. I was keeping it to myself, mainly because it didn't seem all that important, but now…I have to tell you. It all started after the Battle at the Ministry…"

By the time she finished explaining what had happened, Sirius looked calmer, but it was Remus's expression that puzzled her. He looked concerned as if he knew something about the matter.

"Remus, what is it? What do you know?

"Nothing concrete. It's just…it sounds familiar for some reason. Like I've heard it before. I just can't quite put my finger on it."

"Maybe it's from one of those stories that you two read so bloody often. No offense, little witch, but maybe you just read a particularly nasty story and it just stuck with you. Nothing to worry about."

"No, that's not it! I would remember if this was just some bloody novel that I had read! This is something else! I know it is!"

"I agree with Hermione. This isn't just a story. Something else is happening here. That being said, right now, there's not a lot we can do immediately. I'll look into it, and try to figure out where I know it from, but for now, let's all get some rest. In the morning, we need to head to the Burrow for the Order meeting and sort out Harry. I promise, Hermione, I'm not dismissing it, we will help you find answers."

After that, Sirius and Remus were reluctant to leave Hermione alone in her room, and Hermione was reluctant to stay there too. So they ended up shifting back into the reading room. Sirius brought out some old Odgen's firewhiskey that he had, uh, liberated from Grimmauld and some glasses and the rest of the night flew by in a blur. They ended up staying up most of the night swapping stories about all the shenanigans their respective gangs got up to. To Hermione, the glory days of the Marauders were quite something else, although there were several stories that gave her and Remus a matching look of disapproval as Sirius crowed about all the rules broken.

The Golden Trio's adventures brought back a powerful surge of nostalgia that made Hermione ignore the burn of the firewhiskey and drink probably way too much. A decision that she sorely regretted the next morning when she woke with a crick in her neck and a pounding in her head that made it seem as if the Weird Sisters were playing one of their concerts inside her brain. The bright sunlight shining on her face wasn't helping either. She groaned and tried to get more comfortable, only to freeze as she realized that what she had believed to be a pillow, was not in fact a pillow, but a very distinctively human leg.

Hermione followed the leg up to the still sleeping face of Sirius, whose neck was at an angle that indicated it would hurt just as much as hers, and drool leaked down the corner of his lips. She gently moved away from the unconscious Marauder, and upon realizing that Remus wasn't in the room, decided to go looking for the missing werewolf.

He was sitting at the kitchen table, head in his hands, as he too inevitably felt the effects of last night. He looked up blearily when he heard Hermione enter the kitchen, but only grunted in response to her weak greeting before gesturing vaguely at the vial of Hangover potion on the table. Hermione gratefully downed it in one go, grimacing at the taste. It helped with the swirling nausea in her belly, but the pounding was still there. It would take some time and food to be fully coherent again.

She got to work on breakfast, with Remus helping her once he noticed what she was doing. By the time the bacon and eggs were ready, Sirius had also wandered into the kitchen, and having drank the potion also, he grabbed plates and glasses that he lay out on the table the trio.

The food cleared their minds, and they were able to look at each other sheepishly as they remembered last night's fun more vividly. How they had managed to be conscious this early in the morning after all that, was a true mystery.

After clearing the breakfast table, they each returned to their own rooms to get dressed and ready for the Order meeting at noon. They had agreed to have lunch at the Burrow and Molly was sure to cook up a storm with all the people coming, so they were looking forward to it, even if it was official business.

The meeting was a mess. This was the first time everyone had gathered together since Dumbledore's funeral, and while the day had started off well, it soon became clear just how raw the wounds still were. Molly had clearly been crying all morning, Moody was more irritable than usual, and Professor McGonagall was barely speaking a word to anyone. Even the Weasley twins were more sombre than usual, a truly terrifying thing to see.

It was Kingsley Shacklebolt who eventually broke the silence.

"I know we are all still mourning. Dumbledore was our leader, a mentor, and a friend to us all. None of us would be here without him. But Dumbledore set up this Order for a reason. He would want us to take comfort in each other and continue our work to end this war. We cannot forget our purpose in our grief. We must keep going."

"Kingsley is right", McGonagall's usual no-nonsense tone was replaced by a tired and weary whisper. "Albus built the Order so that none of us would be alone in this battle. We must remember that going forward. We have each other and we cannot fail. We must keep going and eventually, when all of this is over, we can break down and cry. But now, we must stand strong."

The meeting ran smoothly after that, with detailed discussions on everything that had happened since that dreadful night. Tonks and Kingsley explained the state of panic that the Ministry was in as it tried to deal with the loss of Dumbledore, as well as the implications his passing would have on You-Know-Who's power. The people were panicking, terrified to leave their homes. Many families had already begun to flee the country.

At Hogwarts, a great number of Muggleborn students had withdrawn, worried that without Dumbledore, the school was no longer the safest place for anyone. There were dozens of reports of Death Eater attacks, who were now targeting everyone that they could. Ollivander was missing, as well as a great number of other shop owners from Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Entire families had vanished as well. It could not be denied any longer that this was war. and right now, the Order was losing.

It was decided that they needed to rally now more than ever. and to do that, they needed to get Harry. As of his upcoming 17th birthday, Harry would no longer be under his mother's protection and he would be completely vulnerable. So, bringing him under the Order's wing was key. Everyone agreed that Harry should be moved before his birthday because You-Know-Who would be expecting him to stay as long as the protection lasted.

Plans were put in place to move the Dursleys, and then Harry. Mundungus Fletcher of all people put forth an idea of how to safely move Harry using Polyjuice potion and decoys. But Hermione shut that idea down, pointing out all the things that could go wrong. Instead, she put forth her plan, one that was much simpler, and readily accepted by everyone. They finalised the details and agreed to retrieve Harry on the 26th of July, three days from now.

Author's note: I really am sorry about the irregular updates. I'm not very good at sitting down at set times to do things, especially writing. I'll try to at least be frequent enough with my updates, but I'm not sure how frequent just yet. I'm starting a new job soon and I don't know how much time that will leave me. But I'll try my best. I really do love this story; it's been in my head for so long. I appreciate all the support from everyone. Thank you so much.