Author Notes:

This story was nominated under the Most Intriguing Plot category in Romione Awards,2015. And this year too it has received two nominations, Best Multi-Chapter Fic and Most Intriguing Plot in the Romione Awards,2016 on Tumblr. Heartfelt thanks to the reader(s) who submitted this story for the Award.

Edit: In Search of Hermione won all the categories it was nominated under and was announced the Best Overall Fic 2016. Heartfelt thanks to all my readers who read and voted for this story. Thank you all so much!

...

Please take the time to read

Timeline:

This story begins after the fight at the Department of Mysteries and Sirius's death, just at the beginning of their summer holidays before their Sixth Year.

At the beginning of this story Dumbledore is still alive, and so is Snape and everyone else who died in the final War.

Disclaimer:

This story is strictly AU. And I completely understand that quite a few scenarios appearing here could not have happened in our beloved series. The characters will be different from their original selves.

It's rated M not only because of some serious smut but also because I will be experimenting with the darker aspects of human nature in this story.

Variation from Canon:

* Hermione belongs to an elite Pureblood family, and after a much internal debate by the Sorting hat between Ravenclaw and Slytherin has been sorted into the later. Although she will retain most of her canon characteristics like being brilliant and bookish, she will also display some very aristocratic, Pureblood, snobbish traits true to her house.

* Ron's will not exactly be OOC, but his Sixth-year self will be more mature/broody than in the books and the reason will come to light in due course.

* For all the Trio's feats that have included Hermione's brilliance from year 1-5, Luna (still a Ravenclaw) will have done those, from solving the logical puzzle while saving the Sorcerer's Stone to brewing the polyjuice, from finding out about the basilisk to saving Sirius with the time-turner. Let's forget the getting petrified part shall we please? Just assume they managed without Hermione somehow (I've told you it's AU remember?).

In short, please expect people and situations to be different from as they are in the books.

All Characters belong to JKR.

EDIT: I am editing the whole story for errors now, one chapter at a time. As I finish editing a chapter, the title will be underlined, so you know. (Not having a beta sucks big time!)

Chapter 1: The Unwanted Task

The door banged shut, not very lightly either, as Ron entered the kitchen holding a Quaffle under his arms, his flaming hair windswept, sweat soaked t-shirt sticking onto his chest.

Molly turned around from the oven to glance at her youngest son, and with her brows furrowed in concern, went back to opening a packet of sausages and dropping them onto the sizzling hot pan. The sound of a chair scraping sounded behind her and she spoke without taking her eyes off the food.

"You are not sitting at the breakfast table like that, Ron."

"Mum- " he grumbled, and for a brief minute, she wondered when his voice had deepened so much.

"I said, no," she responded sternly, he was still her boy after all. "Go, take a shower and then you may have breakfast," she instructed, her tone softening ever so slightly this time.

It had been a few weeks since Sirius had died, and though she did not approve of the stunt the kids had pulled by going to the Ministry by themselves, she couldn't help feel saddened about how much they had been forced to grow up at such a young age.

She heard him grumble inaudibly for a second and then push back the chair roughly before he stomped his ever growing feet on the staircase as he went up. Any other day and she would have called him back and lectured him about proper behaviour but she could not bring herself to do it anymore. Their most recent loss was still hanging heavy over all of them, and Ron looked particularly forlorn ever since he had got back from school. Her instinct had immediately been to sit with him for a talk, but Arthur had held her back.

"He is growing up Molly. Let him deal with it himself," he had said. She wasn't exactly convinced and had still made a couple of unsuccessful attempts before grudgingly accepting defeat, and agreeing to heed to her husband's words. At least, Harry was arriving later that night with Dumbledore, she hoped the two boys getting together would help them both.

Pulling away from her thoughts, she got busy with the eggs and the toasts as the rest of the family slowly stumbled down the stairs for the first meal of the day.

...

"An Order meeting at the Grimmauld Place?" he asked, lifting himself up to rest on his side. His furrowed brows hid under his fringe as he eyed his best friend, who was sitting on the spare bed untying his shoe lace, having had arrived an hour back.

"Yeah..." replied Harry solemnly, and Ron could pick up the reluctance in his voice.

"I thought we were avoiding the place after, you know, Kreacher," he said uncomfortably. Harry hadn't mentioned Sirius's death but the despair of the unfortunate event still hung in the very aura of his person.

"Dumbledore has personally reset and strengthened the wards, and he made me question Kreacher to see if he has disclosed anything. Apparently, he kept quiet about this one thing at least. I had to order him to keep mum about everything that happens or has happened there, " he said, his bitterness for the mangy old elf evident in every word.

Ron eyed his best mate and dropped back on the bed.

"What now mate?" he asked softly, watching the Chudley Canon players zoom in and out in the frayed poster overhead and hearing Harry shuffle and adjust himself in his bed.

"Dumbledore said he'll give me some lessons this year and... I don't know..." Harry answered back.

"Private lessons with Dumbledore, bloody awesome," he replied eagerly, hoping to cheer his best mate up with his enthusiasm. It really was a choice many would kill for.

"Yeah, I guess," replied Harry but without much cheer.

The boys remained silent for a long time as the candle flickered and eventually died down.

"Ron?" Harry said after a long while. He had almost forgotten he wasn't alone.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

Harry could almost sense Ron stalling as he fidgeted in the bed which creaked under his weight.

"I am not sure what you are talking about mate," he responded eventually, hidden in the darkness of the room.

Harry took in a deep breath contemplating whether to confront him or not. After a while, he turned to his side to face the other bed.

"I know something happened before we left for the Ministry that day, Ron," he said hoping Ron would not feign sleep. "I'd have to be blind not to notice how you changed within a few days from being the happy carefree Ron I knew to this," he indicated towards his best mate, just about making out his hand; the night seemed unnaturally dark.

"I thought you were busy with You-Know-Who. I didn't realise you were crushing on me instead," Ron replied in mock seriousness and then let out a small laugh. A smile found his way to Harry's lips easily, and he found himself unsuccessful of cutting down the chuckle that escaped him.

"Crushing on you?" he said mimicking the sound of puking for effect.
"Who am I, Lavender Brown?" he asked feeling suddenly better by being a part of something that was more natural for his age.

"Lav-Lavender Brown? Where did she come from?"

"Oh come on, Ron!" he grinned easily this time, "She has been eyeing you all year! Even I noticed it!"

"Woah... I never knew... I guess..." he stammered, his voice much less playful now than before. He paused and sucked in a deep breath.

"Hang on! How do you know she has been eyeing me? Does that mean you've been watching her too? Apart from Cho, I mean? Blimey mate, how many are you eyeing simultaneously?!" he laughed aloud, "Well, you might give it a try. At least she won't cry if you snog her," he added chortling.

"Very funny, Ron," replied Harry in a false hurt tone before he too burst out laughing. It felt good, a small light in his dark life, perhaps, but something he desperately needed after Sirius.

The moon set over the horizon as the sound of their laughter broke the silence of the night.

The next evening found the members of the Order of Phoenix gathered around the table in the dining area of the old Black House.

Waiting for their leader, the group sat together discussing and updating each other on the Orders plans while Harry stood apart.

"You okay there?" asked Ron softly, and as Harry turned around, he was handed a bottle.

"Firewhiskey disguised as butter beer. George got it. Drink it up," whispered the ginger softly, eying his mother who was sitting at the far end with Tonks.

Harry took a gulp and let the fiery liquid numb his senses for a while. "Thanks," he muttered looking at Ron who raised his own bottle of real butterbeer and took a sip.

"Thought you might need it," he said wiping his lips with the back of his sleeves.

"Yeah..."

"What is all this about?" asked Ron taking a look around the room. "I thought they wouldn't allow us in the meetings."

"No clue. But I guess something is happening. Dumbledore specifically asked the two of us to be present today." The two best friends looked at each other, each completely clueless as the other when a knock suddenly sounded from the main door.

..

The door to the kitchen opened, and Dumbledore appeared followed by Kingsley and Lupin. Just before the Auror turned and shut the door behind him, Ron could distinctly make out another figure cross the corridor outside. Before he could so much as turn around and whisper it to Harry, however, Dumbledore's eyes met his over the old wizard's half-moon glasses, and to Ron's immense surprise, he found a hint of a smile in that bearded face. For reasons unknown to himself, he kept quiet, waiting for Dumbledore to speak.

A hurried shuffling of chairs and papers ensured, and the wizards and witches all settled down quickly to take their places as Dumbledore took the chair at the head of the table.

Ron found himself squeezed between Harry and Lupin, and just like everybody else, he watched the headmaster curiously. His mother was sitting a few places ahead and he could just make out her frown as she eyed them- two under-aged boys in a group of older and more experienced Order members.

"Kingsley?" gestured Dumbledore, and the dark-skinned wizard nodded once before turning towards the anxious group of onlookers.

"We have called this urgent meeting because something important has happened yesterday, something that the Ministry and the Prophet wish to keep under the wraps," stated Kingsley in that characteristic deep voice of his.

The door opened again and this time, Snape entered and took a vacant seat between Arthur and Kingsley. Ron was left wondering why the Potions master had come in late since it was obvious from what he had seen that the man had come along with Dumbledore minutes earlier. He turned around and watched Harry furrow his brows apparently thinking the same as there had been no sound of the main door this time around.

Harry looked took a few steadying breaths as he watched Snape walk casually into Sirius' house. All the pain he had been struggling to keep within him was threatening to leap out but then Kingsley began speaking and he pulled himself away to concentrate on the present.

"One of the elite Pureblood couples, the Grangers, who were supposedly providing generous funding to the Dark Side and their daughter have been murdered in their own Mansion in Southampton," continued the Auror grimly and sounds of gasps echoed around the room. Harry turned to face Ron and was surprised to find him freezing for a brief minute before the redhead met his eyes and shrugged dismissively. News of death was becoming a commonplace since Voldemort's appearance weeks back. Only, in this case, the dead were from the enemy camp and he knew one of the victims.

Hermione Granger was in their year, and quite obviously a Slytherin. She was also the brightest in their class and extremely proud of her superior intelligence. Though Harry couldn't recall her taking part in the sneers and jibes Malfoy loved to hurl at them, she was only slightly better, choosing to spend her time with the comparatively silent girl, Daphne Greengrass. The duo was famed to be the ones who spend the majority of their days in the library, but it did not decrease their high headed, snobbish attitude for belonging to the elite Pureblood society. Granger had also drawn great attention by attending the Yule Ball with Victor Krum. It had caused quite a sensation during their fourth year.

"She-" Harry began but was stopped with a look from Dumbledore. Kingsley continued.

"The local story is that the kitchen fire went out of hand and burnt down the place while the family was sleeping. But that is really a lame cover. We are sure Fiend Fire was used on the Mansion."

"Now the question here is, why would Voldemort murder one of his own men?"

"Betrayal perhaps?" offered Tonks looking around.

"The Dark Lord required some special service from them which the Grangers denied," provided Snape in his deliberate slow drawl.

"Special service?" questioned Molly looking repulsed.

"He wanted the daughter to join ranks, although for what purpose is known only to the Dark Lord himself. Extremely brilliant though she is, she is still under-aged, and hence still under the Trace," answered the Potion master.

"Wait you just said, 'she is'! Does that mean?" interjected Tonks and the eyes turned towards Dumbledore.

For reasons he could not clearly fathom, Harry realised Ron was fidgeting uncomfortably next to him.

"She is alive, yes," answered Dumbledore, and gentle murmuring ensued. Harry wondered if Ron was trying to escape from next to him.

"And that is the reason for this meeting. We have been able to rescue Miss Granger before the fire hit her room. As it is, the cursed fire leaves no trace, there won't be any bodies left to recover from the site, so her escape from death is well hidden from Voldemort. But she needs to be kept safe, hidden and cared for."

"Is she here?" questioned Arthur.

"Yes, for now..." provided the Headmaster.

"Poor dear..." whispered Molly, and this time, Harry was sure he saw Ron flinch next to him.

"I guess I'll..." began the Weasley matriarch, half rising from her chair, Harry assumed, perhaps to fix a meal, but she was stopped mid sentence by Dumbledore himself.

"No Molly not you."

The older witch looked sceptically at the wizened old man but took her seat anyway.

"You all need to know that she has been put upstairs in the third floor's second bedroom. Severus has put up special wards around it. It is not just to keep her safe, it's also to avoid her risking an escape. Although she does know her life is at risk, she might not take kindly to be rescued by the Order. As such, I don't wish her to know more about us, just yet."

The group looked on at their leader, clearly clueless with where he was going with it.

"But she still needs to be taken care of, and that is why I have asked the two of you to join us today," he said indicating the two of them and they stared at each other, stunned. Ron was looking positively ill.

"Albus, you can't be serious! The boys... I mean..." began a flabbergasted Molly, looking scandalised with the suggestion.

Dumbledore smiled, watching her over his half-moon spectacles with a hint of something Harry could only describe as mysterious in his eyes.

"Molly dear, trust me. It's all for the best. This is one responsibility Ron will have to take."

"NO!"

Harry watched Ron scramble up the chair, extracting his long legs from under the table and push the chair back as he got up.

"Professor Dumbledore Sir, I... I can't! I-I won't!" he stammered, obviously uncomfortable as all eyes turned towards him. Harry could distinctly make out his ears turning red to almost match his hair.

"Well, I knew you are putting too much trust on Ronald Weasley, Headmaster," sneered Snape, and Harry pulled Ron's arms to shove him back into the chair. His own blood was shooting to his head. Although he desperately wanted to punch that sneer off that oily face, it wouldn't do lose their temper here and drop this chance of getting more involved in the Order's business.

"I am putting my trust on him because I know he is the best man for this job, Severus," replied the old man calmly, and Harry loved watching Snape frown, visibly annoyed at the very public scorning by the Headmaster.

"Now, if you boys will follow me, please?" he called and pushing back his chair, left the table and opened the door. " Just the boys," he added as Molly Weasley glanced helplessly at her husband.

Keeping his eyes trained on his mentor's back, Harry followed Dumbledore up the stairs, while Ron followed behind him, grumbling under his breath and dragging his feet. Once they reached the third floor, Dumbledore took them inside a smaller room and took his place in a rickety armchair, while the two of them sat down on the facing couch which had quite a few springs peeking out of it.

"I understand you are not very happy with this arrangement. May I know the reason?" he asked Ron.

Ron fumbled for a bit, but then perhaps the daunting prospect of the task he was assigned made him overcome any embarrassment he felt for his earlier behaviour.

"Because she is from Slytherin and... because I don't wish to do it," he responded firmly.

"The houses mean nothing outside school Ron."

"But I don't-"

"You don't wish to be part of the Order then?"

"Of course I do! " he replied incredulously and looked between him and their teacher.

"Then?" asked Dumbledore softly.

"I... "

"During times as these, we are often forced to do things we don't particularly like. Doesn't mean the tasks are any less important or that we are incapable of them. I guess I do owe you an explanation for the importance of this."

Harry and Ron looked on while Dumbledore continued patiently, his arms placed on the armrest casually.

"You both know, Miss Granger is an extremely brilliant witch. And it's her brain that is both her asset and enemy now. If I could change fate, I would have wished for her to be on our side, but born in the family she was, there wasn't much we could do about her being a part of the wrong side. Voldemort knows of her abilities and is sure she will be a valuable asset in the upcoming war. He realised he could use her skills to his benefit. You will get to know what he wished of her in due time.

However, for whatever reasons they must have had, her parents refused to let her into his ranks, and I will be eternally grateful to them for it. They both paid with their lives for that bit of disobedience, though," he nodded sadly.

"Now, she is alone, orphaned and out of her safe zone. She needs to realise that she still has people who can care for her if given a chance. And the dark side is not where she belongs. If we can change her heart and bring her to our side it will be a huge blow for Voldemort. But that won't be easy considering the values she has imbibed and will require immense work. I believe it will be easy for her to get accustomed if someone of her own age can help her there. Can I trust you with this responsibility, Ronald?"

Ron looked like he was expecting Dumbledore to let him go. He grunted softly, "Why not Mum or Tonks?" he asked like a stubborn child.

"Because I don't wish to compromise on her education. Once school starts, she will need to finish her education if she has to be prepared for this war. She will need someone to get her the lessons and assignments. Although the teachers will all know about her taking the classes, she won't be able to attend them herself as she is dead to the world and for her safety, it's of utmost importance we keep it that way."

"How will she attend school without anyone knowing?" asked Harry before he could stop himself.

"Well, we have created a separate chamber attached to your dormitory which only the two of you will be able to access."

Ron looked like he would faint.

"Why can't Harry do it?! You said it will be accessible to both of us," he pleaded, perhaps knowing completely well that Dumbledore wouldn't back down and he would have to do it anyway.

"Because Harry will be busy helping me with something else," Dumbledore replied cryptically, and the boys glanced at each other.

"And for this task, he is only your backup during any unavoidable situation. Even then, he will pretend to be you when meeting her. Technically, you are the only person she will see till we are sure of her alliance."

Harry who was watching his best mate wondered if Ron was beginning to get a headache, he sure looked ill. But he seemed to have accepted his fate, albeit a lot grudgingly.

Dumbledore looked at Ron for a long time and then raised himself up.

"Your mission starts from now. You and Harry will stay here for the rest of the summer. The wards of her room will allow you in, but no one else. I think I'll ask Molly to get the poor girl something to eat now and you can take it to her," he finished, and with a swipe of his purple robes, left the room to go downstairs.

"Fuck it all!" groaned Ron kicking the foot of the armchair the Headmaster had just occupied, but only after the old man's footsteps had almost died down.

A/N:

Thank you so much for reading!

I am really looking forward to that review of yours to know this story of mine is worth the time I am putting into it.