In which Ron and Hermione get a wake up call and make a plan
Dear Hermione,
I'm glad you finally found the time to send me a letter after four weeks. I know the two letters I sent to both you and Ron must have ranked pretty low on your scale of importance, what with you moving in with the Weasleys and going through all of the "dark" items and books you're finding, but I'm so grateful you finally were able to set aside a few moments of your time. I would have sent more letters (that I'm sure would have gone unanswered), but I recently realized that someone is interfering with my mail. I haven't been able to receive or send any letters for the last couple of weeks, even when they were just addressed to shops in Diagon Alley and didn't contain any personal information. I've heard that things such as owl wards exist but that they have been illegal for over two centuries. So I'm not sure who would have done such a thing in an attempt to isolate me. Do you have any ideas?
You asked how my relatives were treating me…more of the same, really. And by that, I mean every day I've been given a list of chores as long as the essays Snape usually sets for us. Luckily, I've been doing most of these tasks from such a young age that I can finish them all by the end of the day. Food has been pretty scarce as usual, but at least they haven't locked me up yet. So, I suppose that's an improvement over previous years. Of course, it's not like I can go far from the house, seeing as I'm afraid Lord Voldemort will be waiting for me around every corner, ready to capture, torture, and cast an AK at me. Again.
You're right, spending the summer (or any length of time actually) with my relatives is not what I would wish. Considering they absolutely despise me and would be pretty happy if I keeled over dead, it doesn't exactly make for a pleasant summer. I've always wondered why I ended up with them, and why I was never removed from their care at any point during the first ten years I lived with them before starting at Hogwarts. Did I ever tell you that twice muggle child services paid a visit? One time they even came with a policeman. Of course, nothing ever happened. I never knew why. All of a sudden, anyone interested in the bruises I came to school with, or who asked why I was so thin, or overheard how my Aunt and Uncle spoke to me…just forgot all about it. I wonder what could have happened. I don't know what you expect Mr. or Mrs. Weasley to be able to do. If they couldn't help after their sons had to rescue me before our second year, I don't know what could have changed between now and then to give them more influence over the situation. If anything, they would have less of a chance now that Dumbledore is insisting this is the safest place for me, and there is an outright threat to my life now that Voldemort is back.
Regarding Sirius, I'm not sure what you expect me to do. As I mentioned, I'm unable to send letters right now. I'm assuming that since yours came through, I can reply, but I've tried sending Sirius letters already, and Hedwig returns them all to me unopened. I don't see the point in attempting another letter. And even if I could, why would I want to? If Sirius can finally clear his name, that could only be a good thing, isn't it? Sirius actually taking steps to try and be declared innocent sounds pretty good to me. I'm not sure why that would be such a big deal or why it would put him in more danger than before. Although the more I think about the entire Sirius situation, the more questions I have. Wasn't Dumbledore Chief Warlock back when Sirius first went to Azkaban? It would have been his responsibility to oversee any trials back then. Considering Sirius was viewed as the traitor that betrayed my parents, ultimately leading to Voldemort's downfall, you'd think his trial would have some attention at the time. And even if it was overlooked for some reason, Dumbledore would undoubtedly have had the power to request a trial after third year when we knew he was innocent. I read a book this summer about the Ministry of Magic and the various ways our community is governed – as Chief Warlock, he would have had the authority to put someone under his protection and call for an investigation. I wonder why he chose not to. It probably would have been easier and less dangerous than sending us back in time to rescue him.
You'd be pleased; I've nearly completed my summer homework and have even done extra revision. When Sirius could still send me letters, he recommended some books on the Ministry and legal system, as well as Wixen nobility and culture. I realized there was so much I didn't know about this world that we joined when we were just eleven. I wish there had been some sort of education for the muggle-raised students before we started at Hogwarts to prepare us better. Perhaps a class or pamphlet, or anything, really. Anything more than the two sheets of parchment that were sent with just the invitation to start at Hogwarts and the supplies list. Wouldn't that have been nice?
Anyways, I think I'm doing as well as can be expected this summer. I really wish I wasn't alone here in Surrey. It seems unfair that after that happened to me at the end of the last term, I was sent off to my relatives with no one here to really talk to about what I saw. But I'm so thrilled you and Ron are spending all summer together, really very happy for both of you. If you can spare time away from all the critical cleaning you're doing, I hope you can send a letter sooner than four weeks from now. If, however, it will be another month before you can write, then don't bother. I'll see you at school.
Regards,
H.J. Potter
Hermione Granger lowered the parchment to the kitchen table in front of her. This was, without a doubt, the longest letter Harry had ever written her. And essentially, all of it was either scathing sarcasm or pointed questions about things Harry clearly wanted Hermione to ponder in more depth. Questions that, now that she really thought about them, she couldn't come up with a sufficient answer for.
Hermione glanced around the table, glad that Hedwig delivered Harry's letter early and most of the residents at Grimmauld Place were late risers. Mrs. Weasley was bustling around the kitchen behind her, putting the finishing touches to breakfast. George was down at the far end of the table, twirling his wand between the fingers of his left hand while lazily flipping pages of a Quidditch Quarterly magazine. A few seats past George, Sirius Black was seated at the head of the table facing the kitchen and entrance to the room and was quietly sipping a cup of tea while reading his own correspondence. Hermione observed him for a few moments while he was focused on the documents in front of him.
Despite Sirius ostensibly living here at Grimmauld Place, he was rarely seen. Officially, when he wasn't with the group, he was in his study, his bedroom, or the room where Buckbeak was tucked away. Unofficially…Hermione knew he was leaving the house somehow.
After speaking about her suspicions with Ron and Ginny, the youngest Weasleys had stationed themselves near the door to his bedroom, and Buckbeak's room after the three confirmed that Sirius wasn't in his study. Hermione had positioned herself near the front door to see if he was sneaking in and out as Padfoot. Despite all three of them hearing and seeing nothing, after a few hours, the man had waltzed out of his study that she was positive was totally empty earlier in the day, as if he had been in there the entire time. Hermione wasn't sure what it meant. Sirius had told the others he wasn't leaving the building, Professor Dumbledore had demanded it, in fact, but it seemed apparent he was lying.
Hermione just wasn't sure if she should do anything about it. The Other adults in the order tended to be busy enough with their full-time jobs and Order business that they never seemed to notice Sirius was missing most of the time. She, Ron, and Ginny had talked for ages about whether or not they should say anything to Sirius himself or another adult, but they weren't sure if it was their place or what Harry would want them to do. And with Professor Dumbledore insisting on them not sending letters to Harry, they had no way to ask.
Although it seems the lack of communication was noticed and not appreciated by their friend.
Hermione shifted her gaze from Sirius back to Harry's letter. She could read his hurt and anger as it spilled off the page, and if she was honest with herself, she really couldn't blame him. Hermione thought if she were in Harry's place, she would be upset also. Although maybe if she had the chance to explain that they weren't writing at Professor Dumbledore's request, it might help Harry understand their lack of communication this summer. Folding up Harry's letter carefully and tucking it within the pages of the heavy tome she had brought downstairs with her, Hermione stood and made her way over to the kitchen.
"Can I help with breakfast, Mrs. Weasley?" Hermione offered
"Oh, thank you, darling, I'm nearly finished. Would you mind bringing the tea to the table? Then anything on plates can be brought over as well." Mrs. Weasley replied with a smile before moving her gaze behind Hermione. "George, please set the table. Sirius, the dining room isn't a place for correspondence, dear. Help Hermione move the food over and set those letters aside for now."
Hermione began gathering the teapot and dishes with cream and sugar to move to the center of the table as she heard shuffling papers and the screech of the dining room chairs being pushed out behind her. Within a few moments, the table was laden with plates; all the ingredients for a full English and several bowls of cut fruit and porridge still steaming hot. Just in time, Hermione heard the start of thundering footsteps coming down the stairs.
That'll be Ginny, with Ron shortly behind her. Fred should be a bit longer still.actually there to be another set of hands able to put out fires. Sirius had slipped it to all of them early on that the Blacks of old were paranoid enough to enact basically every protection ever created on their ancestral home, one of which included a ward to block the ministry wand tracing magic usage by underage students. They had all promptly taken advantage of this and begun casting spells whenever the adults were out of the room.
Hermione propped her current book, A Witches Guide to Enchantments: The Eerie and the Entrancing by Calendula E. Black, against the large bowl of diced strawberries and was content to read another chapter while she ate.
The table filled up around her as the remaining Weasley siblings, Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody, the Order members stationed at Headquarters last night, settled in for breakfast. Hermione was able to ignore the quiet murmurs from the far end of the table, where Sirius and Moody were conversing, and the spirited argument between Ron and Fred about the Chudley Cannons' chances at beating the Falmouth Falcons at their upcoming match. As she reached the end of the chapter, she finally closed the book and looked across the table at Ron until he met her eyes.
Hermione raised her left eyebrow, then looked down at her right hand and tapped her middle finger three times. Their established code for "Something has, or will soon, or is happening to Harry, and we need to talk about it as quickly as possible in private." Ron's brown eyes flicked back up to meet her gaze, and he blinked twice rapidly. Understood.
Ron leaned over to his brother, earlier argument already forgotten, and whispered in Fred's ear. She knew it would be a request for a distraction, which the twins hardly needed an excuse to create. Hermione quickly scanned the room to confirm where all the adults were. She knew Mr. Weasley had long since left for the Ministry, he was working longer and longer hours this summer, frequently gone before the rest of the house woke up and returning late in the evening. Mrs. Weasley had already returned to the kitchen and had started the washing up, with dishes scrubbing themselves in the sink and leftovers floating into the cupboards layered with preservation charms. Tonks and Moody were chatting; from the sounds of it, he was quizzing her on various concealment wards. Despite Tonks recently graduating from Auror in Training to Junior Auror, Moody still treated her as his apprentice, constantly springing pop quizzes at her. Hermione moved her eyes to Sirius only to receive a jolt of surprise.
Sirius was staring right at her, his focus flicking between her and the Weasley boys, who were still obviously conspiring. He had a knowing expression on his face, and Hermione was reminded that this was a self-proclaimed Marauder who, by all accounts, spent seven years at Hogwarts getting away with sneaking around under the professors' noses. He probably could sniff out any scheme that happened within fifty yards of him, let alone at his very kitchen table.
Sirius made eye contact again with Hermione and then deliberately lowered his gaze to the book in front of her that was using Harry's letter as a bookmark. When he looked back up at her, his expression had changed slightly. He still looked at her shrewdly as if he knew exactly what she and Ron were planning, but now there was a hint of anger in his expression as well. His jaw was clenched, with deep brackets forming around his mouth as he pressed his lips together as if to hold in words. His eyes, though, his eyes were cold. Hermione had just a moment to stare, taken aback by the anger and disappointment she could read in his face before Sirius blinked, and it was as if all that emotion had been wiped away. Sirius looked back towards Moody and answered a question that seemed to have stumped Tonks, and it was as if the moment between Sirius and Hermione had never happened. She only knew for sure what she had seen because the knot that had formed in her chest upon her first reading of Harry's letter had tightened.
Something else to ponder. Sirius is obviously angry with me – and likely Ron – and it's got something to do with Harry. Who is also upset with us. Is Sirius upset for the same reason? But if someone has interfered with Harry's mail, then how would Sirius know that Harry is mad?
Before she could get too far down her thought process, Ron stood from the table and began making his way to the door, so she hurriedly stood and followed him. She wasn't sure what Fred and George would do to distract their mum from noticing that Ron and Hermione had snuck out before she assigned their cleaning for the day, but she did not want to still be in the room when they let whatever it was loose.
They tip-toed past Mrs. Black's portrait, still silent behind the heavy curtains that hid her from view, and advanced up the steps. Ron spoke once they reached the first-floor landing, "Want to go to my room 'Mione? Ginny might come up to yours if she gets out while mum's dealing with the twins."
"No, that's where they'll first try and spot us. We might need a bit for this. Let's use the library."
The Black Library, tucked away on the top floor, ought to be much smaller than it was. It technically utilized the attic, but it had so many extension charms and shrunk-down books and shelves that Hermione had yet to wander through the whole thing. She was positive it contained almost as many books as the Hogwarts library, accumulated over generations of the Black family. They could easily find a tucked-away corner and hide for a couple of hours without the others tracking them down.
As they continued up the stairs, they heard a loud thud from several stories below them, followed quickly by the sound of Mrs. Black starting to screech, just a moment before she could hear the faint voice of Mrs. Weasley beginning to berate Fred and George. Glancing over at Ron and meeting his eyes, the two picked up the pace to hurry up the last set of stairs and quickly moved into the library. Best to be well out of sight by the time Mrs. Weasley finished with the twins.
Ron let Hermione take the lead once they entered, as she had spent much more time within the room since they came to Grimmauld Place. She led him confidently back eight rows, then down an aisle on the right, before moving aside a hanging tapestry that hid a small sitting room behind it. Based on the dust and cobwebs she had cleaned out upon first finding this space, she thought it had been forgotten about by Grimmauld's residents well before the house was most recently occupied. As Ron settled into one corner of the sofa, Hermione cast a quick privacy ward that would alarm them of anyone coming close to their hideout but would silence their voices from the outside. Charm cast Hermione turned around and joined Ron on the couch.
"What's going on, Hermione? Did you hear back from Harry?" Ron looked hopeful that Harry had sent word. He was taking the "no contact" order from Professor Dumbledore much harder than Hermione and hadn't appreciated that when they finally were allowed to send something, Hermione had been asked to author the letter.
"Yes, he did reply this morning." Hermione paused here, unsure how Ron would react to Harry's anger. "I think he's a bit angry with us and, well, very angry with Professor Dumbledore. Here, just read it." Hermione pulled Harry's letter out from her book and passed it over to Ron, who scanned it, his frown becoming more and more pronounced until he finished the letter and let it drop onto the couch between them.
"He's right, you know, to be angry with us." Hermione wasn't surprised by the apparent guilt on Ron's face as he continued, "From Harry's perspective, we've essentially abandoned him all summer, right when he needed us the most."
Hermione thought Ron was remembering his actions following Harry's selection as a champion and agreed that from Harry's viewpoint, this would be the second time his friend had deserted him in less than a year.
"But we were just doing what Professor Dumbledore asked of us, Ron. I didn't like it either, but what were we supposed to do?" Hermione reasoned, "Professor Dumbledore is the one who fought You-Know-Who before and knows what to expect. He said that to keep Harry safe, we had to limit contact, I wish we could have written him or even had him with us this summer, but his need for safety is more important than what we want." Even as Hermione said this, she knew Ron's answer.
"I know we both just wanted to keep him safe, but we should have ignored Dumbledore, Hermione, the way that Harry would have ignored anyone telling him not to be there for us when we needed him. Merlin, we could have at least found a way to get him word at the start, so he knew to expect nothing else from us!"
"Besides," Ron continued, "Harry pointed out in his letter that Dumbledore isn't always right. He should have gotten Sirius a trial, and Harry should never have been sent to the Dursleys. And if Dumbledore really wanted to keep Harry safe, why not at least come up with some sort of safe way to communicate? Rather than just sending Harry off and then leaving him to think no one cares enough to write?"
Hermione knew Ron was right. Harry would never leave either of them alone and in need just because an adult told him so. Part of that was down to Harry's distrust of any adult, but it was also down to Harry valuing his relationship with Ron and Hermione above any other relationships in his life.
A part of Hermione still thought that they had done the right thing by following Professor Dumbledore's orders. It had made for a miserable summer for all of them (Harry more so than her and Ron, obviously), but keeping Harry safe was more important than anything. At the start of summer, Hermione had thought that eventually, Professor Dumbledore would have relaxed his order or changed his mind about Harry staying with the Dursleys the entire summer. But they were four weeks in, and the headmaster showed no signs of changing his mind. Hermione thought that perhaps the benefits of keeping Harry physically safe no longer outweighed his mental and emotional well-being.
God knows the Dursleys aren't providing any emotional support or mental health awareness for a boy who was just tortured and saw a friend die. Harry needed a supportive group of people around him right now. And probably therapy.
"So, what do we do?" Hermione asked
"I think we need to apologize somehow and explain that while we know it wasn't right, we were just doing what Dumbledore asked. Harry usually forgives pretty quickly as long as you make a genuine apology and explain why you did what you did. But getting him the letter might be difficult. If someone really has set up a mail ward – which is crazy, by the way, those are super illegal, like straight to Azkaban illegal – we might not be able to get any more letters through." Ron seemed stumped at how best to send Harry a letter if the wards in place would stop an owl, and Hermione had to laugh.
As much as she hated Harry having to stay with the Dursleys in the summer, it was moments like this that made her realize that Professor Dumbledore's idea of hiding Harry in the muggle world was actually quite genius, thanks to the inability of most witches and wizards to navigate muggle systems and infrastructure at all. She just wished Harry was placed with literally any other muggle family.
"Ron, we can just send a letter the muggle way?" Hermione suggested with a smile.
Ron's mouth dropped open in surprise for a minute before he grinned sheepishly, "Oh, yeah… that'd work."
"I can owl my parents and ask for a few stamps and some envelopes, and I think I saw a post box at the far side of the square, up near Number 18 Grimmauld. We might have to sneak out once people have gone to bed." Hermione mused; the front door was close enough to the kitchen and dining room, and the main sitting room that people gathered in that she didn't think they'd be able to get out without being seen during the day. Hermione missed Harry's invisibility cloak for a moment, which would have made slipping outside easy, but she knew it was better off with Harry in case he needed it.
Snagging her wand from her pocket, Hermione cast a quick accio to summon the parchment, quill, and ink she had left in the room after her last revision session and penned a short letter to her parents, giving them a brief (and very edited) summary of her time so far at Grimmauld and requested they send a packet of stamps and envelopes back with their return letter. Reading over her shoulder, Ron suggested she ask for a few extra to send to Harry since it was unlikely his Aunt and Uncle would give him any supplies.
Letter to her parents written, Ron and Hermione crept down the stairs again until they reached the third-floor study, which had been turned into a temporary space for the owls until they could get around to cleaning the actual owlery, which was up near the library. Ron quickly tied Hermione's letter to Errol's leg and carried him to the window as Hermione instructed the owl on her parent's address.
Errol had just disappeared from view when the door behind them slammed open, causing both Ron and Hermione to jump before turning and seeing Mrs. Weasley, temper still high from dealing with Fred and George, standing in the doorway.
"And where have you two been? We're working on the first-floor bedroom today. Hustle down."
Luckily, Mrs. Weasley didn't wait for their excuses on where they had been before she whipped around and started up the stairs, calling for Ginny, who must have made a quick retreat from the dining room not long after they had.
That was close," said Ron, "Think we'll hear back from them tonight?"
"Tomorrow morning will probably be the earliest, but then we can get a letter off to Harry tomorrow night. He should get it by the end of the week."
Ron nodded, pleased with the timeline she was anticipating, before suggesting they head down to help with today's cleaning project before his mum returned even angrier.
As they left the study, Hermione found herself hoping that Ron was right, and a sincere apology would be all Harry needed to forgive them. Although that was usually all it took in the past when the three of them fought, with everything else that had happened recently, Hermione worried it wouldn't be so easy this time around.