Preparations
'"Ministry Raid at Death Eater Mansion uncovers dead body"
'In the early hours of this morning the Ministry of Magic conducted a raid at the home of a suspected death eater in Wiltshire. Upon entering the manor the ministry Aurors came across a body hanging by a silver chain from a chandelier in the entrance hall of the 18th century residence. The body is thought to be that of the manor's owner, Mr Hector Rookwood, but at the present time this cannot be confirmed due to the body's current condition. Efforts are being made by St.Mungo's top healers to identify the body. A spokeswoman from St.Mungo's said this morning: "we believe that the body is Hector Rookwood, but don't actually know yet, go away please, we're busy".
'The supposed body of Rookwood was hung from the chandelier after being burned with some kind of acid until no skin was left, and his features deformed by knife wounds. "This torture was methodical and expertly performed, must of hurt loads. It was not the cause of death though, we reckon he was finished off by Avada Kedavera" this little speech by a Ministry 'official' was given to the Daily Prophet this morning.
'The Ministry are quite sure the mutilated body is Hector Rookwood. He is the son of the infamous Algernon Rookwood, who has recently escaped from Azkaban prison with a group of known death eaters. It is yet unknown whether Rookwood junior was a supporter of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, although a neighbour commented this morning: "dunno bout 'im bein' a death eater type, but 'im and 'is twin sister are well into the dark arts, whole family is! Up to their eyeballs in it, the lot of 'em!"
'The Ministry decline to comment on the reason for the raid on Rookwood's manor, but it is suspected that Rookwood had in his possession a powerful dark artefact. The ministry was this morning in uproar as it seems the murderer of Hector Rookwood stole this object from a secret room, as the walls of the east wing of the manor were blasted apart, most likely by the dark spells Rookwood had allegedly placed around this room to stop anyone gaining entry. This apparently failed as this mysterious object was stolen, and more besides.
'The Aurors Department have failed to shed light on the situation, commenting "we can neither confirm or deny that Rookwood has this particular object, or that it was stolen from…"
"Hold on a minute Hermione, so they don't actually know if he had this whatever-it-was then? They're just guessing?" Ron looked at her bemusedly, clearly not understanding why there were so many gaps in the report. That makes two of us Hermione thought. She scanned the article again, with Harry looking over her shoulder at it.
"hmmm" His eyes quickly moved down the page, "No mention of what this 'powerful dark artefact' is then?"
Hermione stared down at the paper doubtfully. "But you'd think they'd know though, wouldn't you?"
"Well, maybe they do" came Ron's voice from by the window. He looked at them in a superior knowing kind of way. such a bloody drama queen Hermione thought, rolling her eyes. Finally, after two minutes of knowing looks and his irritating pacing, she snapped "Well are you going to tell us your theory then or just continue being a prat?"
It was the beginning of August and once again they were at Grimmauld Place, which now belonged to Harry. Currently they were taking refuge in Buckbeak's room, occasionally tossing the hippogriff dead rats. The reason for being stuck in that smelly, dirty room was to escape the frenzied scrubbing of the rest of the house, led by Mrs Weasley, who had decided to undertake the cleaning as her summer project and had enlisted the help of a very disgrungled Ginny.
Since the middle of July Harry, Ron and Hermione had been in Grimmauld Place, caught up in the desperately needed cleaning of Harry's newly acquired, and now permanent, home. Never again would he have to go back to the Dursleys'.
"weeellll" said Ron in that annoyingly superior voice, "Maybe the prophet know exactly what this 'dark artefact' is. Maybe they know what it does, and maybe they've been told be keep quiet. Maybe Fudge is leaning on them again, it's happened before" he said with a nod in Harry's direction.
Hermione's sceptical expression slowly faded. yes, she thought, it has happened before. All last year when the Ministry was denying Voldemort's return. She frowned. This 'powerful dark artefact' would have to be extremely dangerous if Fudge didn't let the prophet print its name and use.
She glanced at Harry, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines, with that look of concentration on his face that she had come to know so well. Studying him a little closer, she took in his whole appearance. The same messy hair fell onto his face, half hiding the scar that had made him famous. The same vivid green eyes looked out at the world behind those round glasses of his. She frowned slightly. He looked different somehow, sadder maybe. He was still the same Harry he always was, but more defined, more real. She couldn't help but wonder what was going through him mind, what he was feeling.
Her eyes travelled down his body, taking in his hardened muscles, the contours of his arms, his chest. He had been working out almost none-stop since Sirius died. it must take his mind off the pain she mused. She couldn't help but think he was preparing himself for something. Battles were inevitable this year though, and he was preparing himself in everyway possible. Hermione knew that none of them could afford to be lazy now, they had to be on their guard at all times, and Harry was right to be prepared. They had already had many sleepless nights studying new spells, potions and defences. Even Ron was happy to learn even the hardest and most complex spells with only a minimal amount of complaints.
"What?" Harry was frowning quizzically at her. She realised she had been staring at him, lost in thought, for well over a minute now. She looked away quickly and, to her horror, blushed slightly. Harry just shrugged and shared a confused look with Ron, who muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "girls". Hermione opened her mouth to snap at him, but before she could, Harry cut in "You know what? I think Ron might actually be right." Hermione shot Harry an extremely offended look and he soon realised his mistake. He quickly amended it "ooops! Sorry Hermione, I didn't mean about the 'girls' comment! I was talking about what he said about the prophet, about it being stingy with information"
Ron started looking extremely impressed with himself, and Hermione rolled her eyes at him, not that it had any effect.
"And," Harry continued, "I think its about time we got some proper answers. About everything."
Ok, now you've lost me Hermione thought. By hers and Ron's quizzical expressions Harry realised he wasn't being clear enough.
He grinned at Ron. "your brothers haven't left any of those new experiments of theirs lying around have they? You know, the spy flies?"
Hermione instantly narrowed her eyes. "Harry Potter! What exactly are you going to do?" but she thought she already knew what was coming. The Order still would not let them attend meetings, and nobody would tell them much, which totally annoyed Harry and Ron, and, if she was honest, her too.
She saw the look on his face and sighed. She wasn't going to win, her protests would be useless, and Ron would side with Harry on this. She gave in. "Ok, what's the plan?"
Two days later a meeting of the Order was arranged. Harry and Ron spent the best part of the day before planning. They decided they would hide the spy fly in the meeting room, but soon found there was a problem. The fly might actually fly out of a door or window before the meeting had even started, one of the reasons why Fred and George had given up on them and left them at Grimmauld place. So in the end Ron suggested that they tie the spy fly to a bit of string, then tie the end of it to a chair, so the fly couldn't fly off.
Harry provided a distraction ("Oops! Sorry Mrs Weasley, I didn't mean to drop all those dung bombs, honest!") while Ron slipped into the room where the meeting would take place, and tied the fly to a chair at the back of the room, where it would be least noticeable. Hermione would have no part in any of it, she thoroughly disapproved with the whole thing. The boys wouldn't listen to her protests and warnings about what would happen if they were caught, so she occupied herself glowering at them and glancing darkly at the listening device that they had placed in Ron's room.
"Ah, come on Hermione! It isn't like we're doing anything wrong!" Ron's pleading only earned him a deadly glare and more arguments. "Nothing wrong! You are spying on good, respectable people!"
"Oh and Snape too" Ron added smirking. She opened her mouth to correct him, but closed it again and marched off. Oh when will they learn?! she thought there's no point in me trying to stop them though, although I thought Harry would at least listen!
"What's she flouncing off for anyway? Honestly mate, I don't know about you, but I really don't understand that girl!" Ron threw himself down on his bed and sighed. "I mean, really! You'd think she'd stop bossing us around by now, wouldn't you? She's not so bloody innocent herself!"
Harry agreed, after all, hadn't she actually asked what the plan was? He pushed himself off the chair and walked to the door. "I reckon we should talk to her about this though, or she wont speak to us for days. I'm going to find her."
A few minutes later Harry walked into Buckbeak's room, and found Hermione sitting by the wall, throwing rats to the hippogriff. He sat down on the floor next to her, and decided that it was best to wait until she calmed down.
What does he want now? As if just coming in here and sitting next to me is going to make me less angry! She decided to stay silent, if he's not going to talk first, I'm certainly not!
After a few minutes of irritating silence, she finally snapped "If you carry on with this ridiculous plan of yours Harry, I'll…I'll…I'll tell Mrs. Weasley!"
Harry gaped at her in horror. "No way, you wouldn't do that" but seeing the look on her face he continued "Ah come on Hermione! It's not like you've never broken any rules!"
Oh why does he have to do that? Grinning like that, so I don't stay mad, its not fair!
"Broken rules? Me?" she said indignantly, "I never break rules! And stop grinning at me Harry James Potter, it wont make any difference you know! I'm still mad!" she protested weakly.
That just made him laugh. "Hmm… let me see… sneaking around after dark in my cloak? The time turner in our third year? The pollyjuice potion? Breaking Ministry decrees? School rules? Oh and lets not forget blackmailing Rita Skeeta! Nope, you've definatly never broken any rules! And anyway, if you hadn't read that article in the prophet to us, I wouldn't have thought to spy on the Order would I? And, really, this is my house, isn't it?! So I think I have a right to know what's going on in my own living room, don't you?"
She frowned. Although she didn't agree with the part about her breaking all those rules (so I bent a few, that's not the same!), she had to admit he had a point. "Actually, I agree with you. You'd think after everything that's happened, they'd let you go to those meetings. You're right, it is your house now, and out of respect for Sirius you'd think they'd let you know what is going on, and let you have your say." She was surprised to find she actually believed what she just said, the Order really weren't being at all fair about all this. She glanced at Harry, and saw him lost in thought.
A rush of sympathy flowed through her. "you really miss him don't you?" she asked softly. Harry sighed and continued to watch unseeing as Buckbeak tore up another rat. Hermione didn't know what to do for him, she knew how angry he was about Sirius' death, he blamed himself. Every time Sirius' name was mentioned, his face would darken and he would promptly exit the room, leaving everyone staring after him with guilt and pity. She knew Harry hated their pity, she knew she would too. She slipped her arm round him, not knowing what else to do. She rested her head on his shoulder, whispering "I'm so sorry Harry". she didn't know what she was saying sorry for exactly, but it seemed the right thing to say.
She didn't know how long they sat there like that, each taking comfort in the other's presence, but too soon Ron banged on the door, making them both jump, and Buckbeak snorted and tossed his head in irritation. "Hey, Harry, you in there mate? Come on! The meeting's about to start!"
Harry stood up, reaching down to help Hermione up. He grinned at her "Oh come on, you're not going to sit in here all day are you? When you could be finding out what's going on?"
She hesitated for a few seconds, then grabbed his hand.
~*~*~*~