Chapter 2
The next morning Hermione woke up surrounded by a pile of books. Harry had found a letter from Lily to Sirius and was obsessing about it. Then, Harry had noticed that Sirius' brother had been the R.A.B. that had left the locket in the cave. The rest of the morning was spent in a frenzy, combing through the black house in search of the real locket. Sometime close to lunch, Ron had found what seemed like a nest in one of the closets, and Hermione was reminded of the house elf that inhabited grimmauld place.
"Kreatcher!" She almost screamed in excitement. "He could have taken it."
When they summoned Kreatcher he told them that he had had the locket but that Mundungus Fletcher had taken it. He also told them how he had gotten it into his possession. Hermione could see the look of horror on Harry's face. Having seen Dumbledore drinking the same potion just a few months earlier, the inferi surrounding them. Regulus had been in that lake, Regulus had become one of them, Sirius' brother.
They now had a place to start their quest, Mundungus had had the locket in his possession and Harry had sent Kreacher after him. They just had to wait in hope that Fletcher still had the locket. So Hermione spent her time desperately trying to find out any information about the other Horcruxes. Dumbledore had given her a book on the Tales of Beedle the Bard, which she spent the next two days reading intently. Hoping to find any tiny detail she hadn't seen earlier to give them some kind of clue. There had to be a clue there, right? Why else would Dumbledore have given her the book?
Dumbledore had probably expected her to have figured it out already. She was supposed to be the smart one, yet, so far she had been far from useful. She knew she had to find information about the next horcrux. She got angrier and angrier with herself the more often she reread Tales of Beedle the Bard. She was supposed to be the smart one, then why couldn't she figure it out? She felt like she was a dead weight to Harry and Ron. She was useless if she even failed at the one thing she was supposed to be good at.
To make matters worse two death eaters had appeared outside Grimmauld place, keeping watch for any sign of them. Ron kept playing with the deluminator. Clicking the lights constantly on and of. The flickering made it almost impossible for her to focus. It had been four days since the wedding and they still hadn't gotten any kind of news. Needless to say the atmosphere at Grimmauld place was tense.
Then Lupin arrives at Grimmauld place. Once again Hermione felt like she had been useless in defending her friends after she put down her wand as soon as she saw it was Remus while Harry had been clever enough to check it really was him. She hadn't even thought about the possibility of polyjuice. Remus informed them of everything that had been going on. Luckily everyone was safe. But the ministry really had fallen and the minister of magic had been replaced by a puppet of Voldemort. Every day more muggleborns disappeared.
Then Lupin told them he had gotten Tonks pregnant and was planning to abandon her at her parents house while he fought in the war. She knew he was probably expecting to die, and he stupidly thought that would be better for his child than a living father. While she could understand where he was coming from, the fear of condemning a child to the life of a werewolf, she thought he was being an idiot. His own self hatred stood in the way of logic. Obviously it was a bad idea to have a child in a war but abandoning it wasn't the solution.
Harry seemed to explode at Remus when he told them his plan to come with them. calling him a coward and telling him he was selfish. Then Remus disapparated and they were once again alone, without any way to contact the order. She looked at Ron who also seemed conflicted. They understood where Harry was coming from having lost his own parents in the war, but thought he had overreacted.
Hermione thought about Remus for another while. Hopefully he had returned to Tonks and their soon to be child. She wondered why they couldn't just take a potion and be done with it. Remus obviously didn't want a kid and the middle of a war didn't seem like the best time to have children, what if either of them died? It wasn"t logical of them to keep the child. It didn't make sense to her. "It was rather irresponsible of them to even get pregnant." She thought to herself. She knew it was possible to have an accident but had read that with proper use of the contraceptive charm this was extremely rare. She had done her research properly when she and Ron had started considering becoming sexually active. They always used the charm and a condom to be sure.
She and Ron hadn't told anyone they were having sex and tried to keep it on the casual side. Nothing really had changed between them besides them having decided they liked to make out with each other and have recreational sex occasionally. Harry knew obviously that they were together, but besides him they tried to keep it a secret. Neither of them thought it would ever become something more serious. They both enjoyed having sex with each other but that didn't necessarily mean they had to be in a romantic relationship. They were friends with benefits as Ron sometimes called it.
Harry had started reading some article in the daily prophet while Hermione was thinking about this and Ron had just started cooking. A relative calmth had returned to Grimmauld place even though the air still seemed filled with restlessness. None of them able to relax completely anymore. Then suddenly they heard a loud crack in the kitchen. They all stumbled into the kitchen as fast as they could to see that Kreacher had returned and had brought Mundungus with him. Harry quickly disarmed him before they tied him up and took him into the living room to question him.