Disclaimer: JKR owns everything Harry Potter. Adopted from Chitsiez, first five chapter are her words, the sixth is started by her but will be finished by me.

She had her head leaning against the window of the train compartment she shared with her two best friends Harry and Ron

"You ok 'Mione?" this came from Harry.

"Yeah Harry, I'm fine, just tired."

"Why you tired?" asked Ron, "It's not as if you were doing anything last night, you went up early," he leered at her, "or did you? Huh? What are you hiding from us?" Harry looked at him strangely, wondering what his best friend was talking about.

"What, no, I told you I wasn't feeling well and went up to bed." came her slightly defensive reply.

"We weren't saying anything bad about you Hermione. Were we Ron?" Harry demanded of him.

Ron sneered at Hermione, but didn't answer Harry. This made the hairs on Hermione's neck stand up. She didn't understand the changes Ron had been going through lately. He was starting to get nasty towards her, she wasn't sure if she felt comfortable being in a room with him anymore, certainly not if they were alone.

Harry looked at Ron again, but shrugged it off. He didn't know what was going on with Ron now. He'd been getting strange about 'Mione lately and Harry wasn't sure he knew what to think about it, or how much he liked it to be honest.

"Right guys, we're at the Platform." Hermione stood up and put Crookshanks back in his carrier. Since her back was turned she didn't see the hungry look on Ron's face, but Harry did, and he was starting to get worried about his friend.

"Ok Hermione. We'll see you for Harry's birthday right?" Ron asked.

"Yeah 'course! Wouldn't miss it for anything" came her reply.

"Oh thanks 'Mione" Harry said, "didn't know you cared that much" with a teasing look on his face.

Blushing, Hermione turned away and went out the door onto the platform. She turned to wait for the boys to give them a hug and remind them to owl her. Yet she didn't appreciate Ron's slightly suggestive motion towards her backside. Pulling away, she saw that Harry had noticed.

"Make sure you owl me ok?" Harry asked. She nodded at him to say yes, not trusting her voice not to screech at Ron for grabbing her.

She suddenly felt the need to get out of there, so she made her excuses to Ron, Harry seemed to understand and went to see her parents.

Couple of days later

Hermione woke to a knocking at her window. Looking up she noticed it was Hedwig, Harry's owl.

"Hey girl, how are you? You got a letter for me?" Hedwig bobbed her head, flapping her wings. Gently, Hermione untied the letter from her leg. "Thanks girl, you mind waiting for a reply?" she asked, handing the owl a few owl treats. Hedwig hooted and bobbed her head, before daintily grabbing the treats out of her hand.

Hey 'Mione,

How are you? How's your summer going so far? Glad to be home? Sorry for all the questions all of a sudden, but I'm bored. The Dursleys are holding me prisoner again. Won't let me out. Do you mind sending me some decent food again? Dudders is on another diet, and I'm only getting grapefruit halves.

What I wanted to ask you is if you know what's going on with Ron? He seems to have changed lately, and I know he's my best friend, but I'm not entirely sure I like it. It's like he's turning into a Malfoy. I had an offer of friendship from a Malfoy, I'm not interested in another, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, if you could reply when you find time, I'd love you forever!

Hope you're having a great summer.

Love

Harry

Hermione laughed to herself. So he'd noticed too had he? At least she could count on Harry to be on her side. She sat down at her desk to reply.

Harry,

I'll answer your questions in order shall I?

I'm fine, still a bit tired, haven't quite caught up on my sleep, still having nightmares you know?

How are your nightmares by the way? You know it wasn't your fault that Cedric died don't you? If you're going to blame it on anyone, blame it on Wormy and Voldy (yeah funny names I know, but hey, if you can't scream at them, laugh at them)

Yeah, I'm really glad to be home. Mum and Dad still don't know what happened and stuff, and I'm going to keep it that way, I don't want to have them pull me out of school where I'll be even more at risk. At least at Hogwarts I'm learning to defend myself.

I can bet you're bored. Hey, I'm just thinking, we both live in the muggle world, so why don't we meet up some time? It would get you out of the house. You could give me your Gringotts key, and I could exchange some Galleons to pounds for you. Just an idea, feel free to say no.

Oh wait, there are probably Order people watching you. (I over-heard Snape grumbling to McGonagall about 'guard duty.') I'm assuming it's probably something to do with protecting you, given what's just happened.

Anyway, maybe you should keep an eye out, I'm sure Moony would let you go out, maybe he could come with us? Otherwise complain to Snuffles, I'm sure he'd break you out. The twins would, but right now I don't particularly trust the Weasleys.

Food-wise, yep I'll get you some in a bit, just wanted to write this letter. But I won't be able to shrink it, so I'll only be able to give you as much as Hedwig will carry.

Was about to say this letter was long enough for now, but there's still Ron's behaviour to think about. Yeah, I'm not happy about that either, I don't know what's gotten into him, but it scares me. He's been making moves on me all year, and I'm not really interested. I mean, he's a nice guy and all, but we bicker too much. What kind of relationship is that going to turn into? Not one I'd be happy in that's for sure.

So you love me now? Or do you hate me 'cause I've written so much?

Right, I'll go sort out this food package for you and send it off.

Love

Hermione

She stood up from her desk and went down to the kitchen to find food for Harry.

Later that day

'Mione

I Love you! Thank you so much for the food! Did you make the cupcakes? They're amazing! I didn't know you could cook! You'll have to make me more, I'm in love with them!

Anyway, I'll do the same thing you did ok? Answer your questions in order.

Yeah, I'm still having nightmares, but what you said makes sense. And I like your names for them. Makes it a lot easier to deal with I think. Although I only figured this out after laughing for 20 minutes. Haha I'm still laughing now!

Meeting up with you would be great. I never get to leave the house, so it would be great fun to go out and do some shopping or go to the zoo or something.

After you said that about guards, I've noticed a lot of apparating and disapparating going on. You know, that cracking noise that sounds like a car back-firing? I've pin-pointed the noise to the back of Mrs. Figg's backyard – you know the old cat-lady that used to look after me? Hey, wait a minute. She must know about our world if she's letting people come and go from her backyard? That means she knew exactly how they were treating me the entire time and Dumbledore did nothing about it. No wonder he never came to check up on me, he had Mrs. Figg. Not sure how I feel about that. What do you think?

I'll see if I can figure out when Moony's on. Or maybe I can send you a letter to him to pass on? Or you could write to him? I'm sure my outgoing mail is being watched, so if Hedwig is going anywhere other than your place or The Burrow, I'm sure she'd be stopped.

You need to get an owl. The pouch attached to Hedwig's leg is for you, go get an owl so you can talk to Moony and Snuffles for me. I think I'll start writing my letters in code, a code worthy of the Marauder's.

We really need to sort out which of the Weasleys we can trust. Somehow I don't think Ron, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, or Percy are very trustworthy. But the rest of my thoughts on that can wait until we have that code sorted out. I wish we could do magic! Stupid under-age magic law.

I agree with what you said about a relationship between you and Ron. It wouldn't work. It would only work in the physical sense. And I know you're not the kind of girl to just go shag any guy you see. Are you? Suddenly I don't want to offend you. At least I hope you're not that kind of girl. Wait, is that what Ron was trying to ask you on the train? Ew if he was. That's just wrong. Who in their right mind would shag Ron? God I'm rambling.

Ok, I'm going to give this and the pouch to Hedwig now. Can you change what you have left into pounds for me? That'll be easier than going down to my vault, it's not a very fun ride down on the carts.

Yes, I do love you. Hope you love me after the length of this letter. It's almost a Snape-worthy assignment length.. Haha

Love

Harry

Hermione laughed. But she was also thinking about the things Harry brought up about Dumbledore. Why would he leave Harry with them if he knew how they treated him? That was accessory to child abuse. Could that have lead to accessory to murder if Harry hadn't left to go to Hogwarts? That's a scary thought.

'I'll reply as soon as I've gone to Diagon Alley,' she thought.

"Hedwig, do you mind waiting here for me? I'm just going to go to Diagon Alley to buy an owl. Or would you like to come with me and help me choose?" she asked the snowy owl. Hedwig bobbed her head. "Ok. But could you meet me outside the Leaky Cauldron? I don't think the muggles will understand me having an owl on my shoulder." She hooted her reply and took off out the window.

Hermione wrote a quick note to her parents saying she was going out for a bit, and she'd be back before dinner, then locked up, grabbing her wand and left.

Diagon Alley

She was getting a few funny looks from people because she had an owl sitting on her shoulder, but she didn't care. Entering the Owl Emporium she was greeted with the noise of many owls. Suddenly she felt Hedwig lift off her shoulder and head towards a small brown-grey speckled owl. Hedwig turned to look at her as if to say 'Here's your owl 'Mione.' She walked over and took a look at the owl Hedwig had chosen. She fell in love the second she looked into its eyes. It was as though the owl had just been waiting for her. It was much the same as how it had felt when she got Crookshanks last year.

"Right owl, what do you say about coming home with me?"

"So you want that one there miss?" came a voice over her shoulder.

She jumped, turning around. The manager of the store was standing there.

"Sorry, you gave me a fright. Um, yeah, I think so, we seem to agree with each other." She replied.

"That's good; we haven't been able to sell him yet. Why don't you come on up with him, and we'll get you two sorted out." He suggested.

"Sure." She turned back to the owl to gesture for him to come with her. "Oh, and can I get everything to go with him?" she called across to the manager.

"Absolutely love. Just give me a minute." He got a cage, food, and owl treats together for her and placed them on the front bench.

"Is there any way you can shrink all this for me? It's just I'm a muggle-born and I won't be able to resize it magically." Hermione asked.

"That we can do love. I can set it so that you only have to touch it with your wand to re-size it. It doesn't use magic, so you don't have to worry about any pesky letters from the Ministry" he said with a wink.

"Um, thanks." She said slightly nervously. "How much do I owe you?"

"5 Galleons for that love."

"Right, here you go." She said, handing over the coins.

This left quite a bit in the pouch Harry gave her, making her think that the manager had given her a discount for her owl. Picking up her items and placing them in her pocket, she still couldn't believe some of the things magic could do. It made shopping so much easier.

Walking out of the store with two owls on a shoulder each, even more people were giving her strange looks.

"Hedwig, why don't you two fly back to my place, and I'll meet you there soon, I just have a few more things to do here." She suggested to the two beautiful owls. With a nod, and a friendly nip on the ear from her new owl, they both took off towards her house. Hermione swiftly moved towards Gringotts Bank to change the money for Harry, and to make a quick stop to buy some more ink and parchment. If she was going to be writing a lot of letters, she wanted to make sure she had enough parchment. Now what to name her owl?

At Harry's that evening

Harry,

Thank you so much for the money to buy Speckles (yes I named my owl Speckles. Has to be better than anything Ron can come up with for that energetic owl Snuffles gave him) haha.

Again, answering your questions.

Yes I made the cupcakes. You didn't know I could cook because the house-elves do everything at Hogwarts. And Mrs. Weasley never lets me in her kitchen. But if you like them, I'm more than happy to make more for you. Got any flavour requests? You'd be surprised to find out that cooking relaxes me. Now that I've said that though, you have to share something with me that I don't know.

About Dumbledore and Mrs. Figg, that can wait until the code's sorted. I'll send a letter to Moony in a bit and see what he says about it, even if he charms some paper for us to write on. Since I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what goes on at your place. I'll ask him to come to mine and see what he says about it. If he was that close to your parents, I'm sure he'd be horrified to know how you're treated.

I've attached the pouch to Hedwig again. It turned into 180 pounds – the exchange rate is 3 pounds per Galleon. Yeah, Speckles was 5 Galleons. It seemed pretty cheap to me. But I'm not complaining.

Of course I still love you after the length of your letter. Yes, so why can't you write essays this long all the time? It's not that hard to do if you read the notes before class and understand them! I'm sure you're smarter than you show. Is it anything to do with you not wanting to show Ron up? I know he's not the smartest cookie in the box, but that doesn't mean you have to be the same. I'm still going to be your friend, even if you do turn out to be smarter than me.

Right, I think that's enough for now. Going to go make my request to Moony, and see what he thinks.

Love

Hermione

At Hermione's that same night

Moony,

Hey Moony, it's Hermione. I was just wondering if you would have time to come see me? I'm worried about Harry, and wanted to talk to you in person. I think our mail's being tracked so I won't say more in this letter, but if you can give me a reply, and maybe a muggle way of contacting you? I'm not sure if you live in a muggle area or not, so if this isn't possible just let me know.

Thanks

Hermione

"Here you go Speckles, take this to Moony will you? His real name's Remus Lupin, but we call him Moony." She told her owl. "Safe flight boy."

Three days later

"Thank you so much for coming Moony" Hermione said, opening the door.

"Not a problem Hermione, I must say you letter was rather interesting. What are you worried about?" he asked.

"Um, well, has Dumbledore told you how Harry is treated at his Aunt and Uncle's?" Hermione asked, nervously.

"Quite well, don't they? I mean, Dumbledore always said they treated him like Lily and James would." Remus replied, somewhat confused by the question.

"No Moony. They don't. Harry grew up in the cupboard under the stairs for the first 11 years. He got Dudley's second bedroom after he started Hogwarts, but in the summer they lock him in there, and feed him when they remember to, which isn't always every day." Remus was getting angrier with every word Hermione was saying about Harry's treatment at his family's hands. Hermione realised her never knew, so she felt somewhat better about what she was going to ask. "Moony, have you been on guard duty at Harry's at all?"

He looked at her a bit funny "No. Why?"

"Are you in the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Again. No."

Hermione was fuming by now. The respect she had for Dumbledore was going down the drain. Fast.

"Bloody fucking Dumble fucking Dore. Who does he think he is, not trusting the only people who were friends with Harry's parents to look after him" she spat out. Remus was looking amused at the ranting girl before him.

"What do you mean Hermione?" he asked her.

"Only that Sirius offered to get Harry to live with him when we found out he wasn't the secret keeper like everyone thought, and that as Godfather, he legally has guardianship, whether he's a wanted man or not. And that Dumbledore just shipped Harry straight back to his Aunt and Uncle's without a decent excuse as to why he couldn't stay with Sirius," came the growled answer.

Remus was taken aback by this. He clearly didn't know that legally Harry could be with Sirius. This made him wonder whether James and Lily's will had ever been read. He decided to ask Hermione if Harry had ever mentioned it. "Hermione, has Harry ever said anything about James and Lily's will?"

She looked at him with a blank look on her face, "Noooo.." she said slowly. "He's never said anything except to wonder if they had one."

This angered Remus, since he knew damn well that they had a will. He was the one who looked after Harry when they went into Gringotts to sort it out. Right, his first stop after this was going to be Gringotts to enquire about their will.

"Right Hermione, what are we going to do? Right now, I don't trust Dumbledore farther than I can throw him, which isn't far. I want to go to Gringotts when I leave and see about their will. Then I'm going to go talk to Sirius, see what we can do for him. But what do we do about getting Harry away from those, those, I can't find a name to describe them."

"Well, Harry and I were going to ask you if you could charm some parchment for us, so that only those who know the Marauder code can get into it, and it'll just show something harmless until the code is said. But it has to be so that we don't use any magic to seal or unseal the letters. Can that be done? That we only have to touch the parchment and say the code?" she asked him.

"Sure can. Why don't we sort that out now? It'll take me a little while, so I'll just do a couple for you and Harry now, and I'll take the rest with me to do tonight, since I don't have a whole lot else to do anymore," came his reply.

Hermione led him up the stairs to her room so he could charm her parchment. As soon as he was gone, Hermione sat down to write Harry his letter. First she wrote something on an un-charmed piece of parchment, which he would hopefully understand, so that he could get into the other one she was going to write.

Harry,

Went to Zonko's, and got you a present that's somewhat worthy of the Marauder's. Hope you like it.

Love Hermione

Harry

Haha, so you figured it out? Thank Moony for these, it doesn't register any magic, and all you have to do to read it is "I solemnly swear I am up to no good", the same for writing a new letter, and "Mischief managed" when you finish reading or writing the new letter. I'm a genius right? Well no, Moony is, since he did it, but I am for coming up with the idea to charm letters.

Anyway, Moony's gone to Gringotts to see what happened with your parents' will. Then he's going to see Snuffles, and see if he knows anything. Moony isn't too fond of Dumbledore right now either, so you have nothing to worry about on that front.

Ok, now I'm going to start writing what I couldn't last letter. Yes, Mrs. Figg had to know how you were being treated, so she's not one of my favourite people right now either. She should have taken matters into her own hands and called social services. Or someone at your Primary School should have. Or maybe they did, and Dumbledore Obliviated everyone involved and made it all go away. Who knows. He's lucky if I don't see him for a long time so I can cool off. I'm so angry.

What is Dumbledore thinking? It seems as if he's trying to do all this to you on purpose. I mean, why let Hagrid know about the Stone if he's that bad at keeping secrets. Did he want Voldemort to find out how to get past Fluffy? Did he care at all about the students being Petrified second year? Why didn't he admit he knew Padfoot wasn't the Secret Keeper when he had the chance? Every person has the right to a trial, and as Chief Warlock, he could have pushed for one. And last year, how could he not know that his best friend was being impersonated by a Death Eater? If he knew the guy that well, shouldn't he have picked up that something was wrong? I'm seriously worried about this. What will happen next year?

Right, well I think that's enough for now, I'll pass on any messages from Moony and Padfoot.

Love

Hermione