Authors Note.

Thank you for all of the reviews, but here's a little something unexpected for you.

Lots of love

Sinsofdragons.

So open up my eyes to a new light
I wandered 'round your darkened land all night
But I lift up my eyes to a new high
And indeed there would be time.

And in the cold light, I live to love and adore you
It's all that I am, it's all that I have.

There will be time - Mumford and Sons.

Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry when saw them sat on the wall outside her house. Harry and Ron had clearly been there a while, drink bottles half empty as they ate sweets and joked around. Had it really only been a week since she had last seen them? She wanted to run to them, throw her arms around them and then yell at them for being foolish enough to come after her. But common sense told her that this could easily be a trap, and so she pulled her wand from her boot and slipped it up her sleeve, ready to hex them should they not be who they appeared to be.

"Who are you and why are you here?" she asked when she got to her gate, watching with a mix of amusement and exasperation as instead of worrying that she might not be who she said she is, they cheered "Hermione" and moved to hug her. She pulled out her wand and the two of them paused.

"Hermione, knock it off, it's us," Ron said as he stared at her wand with annoyance.

"Fine, if you are Ron, how did you really get that scar on your side instead of that story about heroically saving me from some cursed clothes last summer?" Hermione snapped, her wand still firmly aimed at them both.

Ron groaned and with a shifty look to Harry murmured "By jumping behind you and screaming like a girl when a spider ran across my hand, and then tripped and cut my side open on that ugly dressing table. If you are really Hermione, what did you swear you would do if I didn't help you revise for charms last year?"

"I threatened to write to your mother and detail in graphic detail everything you claim not to know how to do to get out of helping cleaning. I then swore that if you complained I would never help you pass another class again by letting you see and use my notes." She paused and looked at Harry. "How did you talk to me when I left?"

"Through the enchanted set of mirrors that Sirius gave to me. What did you swear to me you heard McGonagall tell Peeves during the reign of Umbridge.?" Harry asked, a small grin on his face.

"That the chandelier in the great hall unscrews the other way." With that, she dropped her wand and threw herself at the pair of them hugging them tight even though it hurt her side to do so. This close she could see the scars on Ron's arms from the enchanted brain and how pale Harry was. It filled her with concern and worry and with a look around to make sure that they were not being watched she fished out the key from her pocket and let them into her cottage. Crookshanks who had clearly been napping before the door unlocked greeted Hermione with a purr and she could have sworn a growl in Ron's direction. The feeling was entirely mutual as she heard Ron say once more that he hated her cat.

She watched as they looked around the living room, Ron seemingly fascinated with everything muggle, including the light switches whilst Harry just seemed to be taking the room in. "You know if you waited for another" she paused to check the clock on the wall "five minutes I'd have called you through the mirror. I'm guessing that if I check the mirror upstairs I will find a tracking rune, won't I Harry?" She leveled him with a glower and was not amused by the small grin that formed on his face.

"I'm not apologising, so don't expect me to. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you Hermione, so just be glad that it's just me and Ron and not the order." He seated himself in the same place that Bellatrix had last night and Hermione couldn't help but feel extremely guilty about that right now. Ron had taken the seat next to her, and she noticed with slight amusement between her and the front door. She pulled her feet beneath her to make a show of how she had no intentions of leaving and opened her arms for Crookshanks to cuddle up with her.

"Arse" She muttered. "Pair of mean little boys, aren't they Crookshanks?"

"Mean?" Ron grumbled. "Witch hasn't seen me in a week and greets me with a wand in the face and calls me mean. Anyone would think I didn't spend the last week being yelled at by Mum for not watching to make sure you didn't run off. Because get this 'Mione. It's my fault you ran, cause Harry and I weren't supportive enough. Didn't stop in a crowded station where we were being escorted by armed guards to go hmm, can't see Mione, did she bugger off to Yorkshire?" He leveled a glare at her then before continuing. "No see, there's me, half bandaged and can only see out of one eye, holding onto Dad for support cause I could barely walk mind, oblivious to the fact that one of my best friends has done a runner and left me and Harry to hang for it. You think Mad-Eye believes we didn't know where you'd gone? That Mum didn't berate the pair of us for not watching you, even though Harry was next to Mad-Eye at the time with your Mother, who by the way is terrifying. Nah, 'Mione isn't that stupid to run off and just oh I don't know, play house whilst the rest of us panic that you've been taken and killed.

"Then that git" he gestured at Harry, "tells me not only has he spoken to you, but that wasn't coming back and he wasn't telling the order anything because he owes you for all the times you've saved his arse." He looks between the two of them now looking annoyed and half amused at them both. "So I've spent the week at home with Mum either coddling me cause her baby boy nearly died and yelling at me for not telling her where you were so that she could bring you home. Brightest witch of our age my left nut. What kind of genius forgets to make sure there's a cover story and that her friends won't suffer for her actions. Mum has damn near chewed my ear off about you and yours, yours gets torn between crying that she's an awful mother and furious that any child of hers could be so reckless."

Hermione just looked at Ron for a while and chewed over what she should say. The silence stretched awkwardly for a few minutes, during which Crookshanks left her for Harry and the scratches he gave the ginger beast behind the ears. "Ron I'm not going to apologise, it would mean me saying that I think what I did was wrong and I don't think that. I don't know what Harry told you, but Ron, my parents aren't my parents. They had their entire lives erased to the point that they could look right passed me and now my father is a death-eater and my Mother is a harridan that calls me Cassiopeia. My entire life has been a lie, my Harry's bloody aunt now, technically I can take everything from the Lestrange vaults and I am going to have people convinced that I am a death-eater spy because of her reckless decision to shag a death-eater."

She stood up then, pacing back and forth. "The cheek of that woman calling me reckless when she's the one that caused this bloody mess. She should have left well enough alone, never admitted that she was my mother and let me live my life that need I remind you, she chose for me whilst she played the martyr." She spun then and pointed a finger at Harry. "If you ever act like her and try and sacrifice yourself for me and Ron I will resurrect you from the dead just to kill you myself. And just how did you two get away and here all alone without anyone stopping you? Because Harry they intended to keep you under armed guard the entire summer so that if you even sneezed the entire order would be aware of it."

"We flew," Harry answered, cutting her off before she could start ranting once more. "I might have said some honest and hurtful things to my Grandmother and whilst she had gone off in shock Ron and I flew off to "play Quidditch". The order is all over the place trying to find you, thinking that you won't have gone far from London or at least the southern half of England. They're stretched so thin that Gran was on her own to watch us today. I mean by now they will know that we are gone and will probably be looking for us. So we need to either go back with you or message them and let them know that we are safe and they we're with you. Either way Hermione, we aren't leaving you on your own." He had that determined look on his face that he always got when he had set his mind on a course and there was no turning him from it.

"Harry if Voldemort tries to find you know he can, this place isn't protected. He will get wind that you aren't with the order and send people out to find you." Hermione looked at him with concern.

"I know, but Hermione I can't lose you. You and Ron are my best friends, so if you stay here, then so do I. You're always there for me and Ron when we need you, so don't shut us out when you need us the most." Harry reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently.

"He's right, Hermione." Ron chimed in. "And you are in almost as much danger as Harry is because they all know that Harry would do anything to protect those he loves. So if you stay so do we." He gave her a small grin then. "Besides, if I wasn't here who would you have to yell at and make sure you ate when you decided to get engrossed in a book or seven? You need us, just like we need you."

"You all need to be more aware," said a voice from the doorway and the three of them whipped their wands out and aimed them at the wizard standing there.

"Easy now, Pup. You steal my mirror and my broomstick you should expect me to follow. Hermione, you have led the order on a merry little goose chase." Sirius shut the front door behind him, his hands calmly in the air as he looked around at the three panicked teens. Crookshanks, ever oblivious to danger had siddled over to Sirius and was winding between his legs yowling for attention from the infamous marauder.

"Harry, first off, you're grounded. Second, what did I tell you when you and Hermione saved me from the dementors in your third year?"

"That I could come live with you if I wanted, and that the ones we love never truly leave us. You also told Hermione she was the brightest witch of her age." Harry answered with a sullen huff. "What did you say to Kreacher about your mother when showing me the family tree?"

Sirius gave a small smile then. "That my mother didn't have a heart. She kept herself alive all those years out of pure spite." He paused then and seeing that they had lowered their wands he went straight to Hermione, looking her over for a moment before pulling her into a hug. "You gave us all a right scare, kitten."

Hermione bit her lip and looked up at him and huffed. "I am not going back."

"Who said anything about taking you anywhere Kitten? A few well placed wards and you'll have a safe house not even Dumbledore could break his way into. Now Harry and Ron write letters Molly and Dorea so that they know you are both safe and expect to receive some howlers. Hermione and I will set some wards and make food whilst you do so." Sirius instructed, his arm never letting go of Hermione as he spoke.

"What do you need 'Mione for? We can't use magic outside of Hogwarts." Ron asked.

"Her house, mate, she needs to seal the wards or they won't stick so she has to help," Sirius responded. "We won't be long."

With that, he led Hermione to the small garden outside the kitchen door and closed it behind them. "Hermione, love why do you smell not just like a werewolf but of pond water and" he paused sniffing again "someone male I can't place."

She sat on the stoop and huffed. "Because I inadvertently found myself in the middle of a pack hunt and got chased across the moors before falling down a waterfall to lose them. I'd just gotten back to safety and saw Ron and Harry sat on my wall. I haven't had the chance to tell them yet."

"And the male?" Sirius inquired, concern marring his normally jovial features.

"A, um well not a friend, but someone I knew from school that helped me," Hermione answered looking anywhere but Sirius' eyes.

"Alright," he said letting it go for now. "But you're not hurt, they didn't bite or scratch you?" When she shook her head he sighed. "I don't really need you for this, but I didn't think you'd want to answer in front of those two. They mean well, but Harry would have run off to fight Greyback and I have no desire to see my Godson mauled." He took out his wand and began casting some spells she knew, and others that she did not. When he cut his hand and used it to draw a rune she didn't recognise she spoke up. "What is that for?"

"It's half of the spell to make this location secret. You need to cut your hand and do the same." Sirius explained. "I'll be the secret keeper so when it's done, I'll tell you the address so you can walk back inside, okay?"

Hermione nodded and proceeded to cut her thumb and with some prompting from Sirius drew the same rune. The rune hung in the air for a second before Hermione felt a wave of magic flood the air around her house and suddenly she couldn't see it anymore.

"Hermione you live at Number Three Spinners Way." Sirius murmured to her and just like that her house was once again in front of her. He caught her hand when she went to move inside. "Hermione just be careful with Rowle, he's not his father but he isn't someone you should trust either."

When Hermione's head whipped up in shock he looked at her with a barking laugh. "Who do you think yelled at you to get a room?" And with that he sauntered back inside, holding the door open for her.