A/N: This is a sixth year fic and does contain spoilers from OotP, which if you haven't read by now, shame on you!

CHAPTER ONE: The Rescue

It was far from the best summer Hermione could recall having. Obviously there were worse fates than being stuck at Number 12 Grimmauld Place since the end of the school year, but at the moment she was having trouble seeing them. It wouldn't have been so bad if she had at least been allowed to sit in on the meetings with the members of the Order, but even that had not been permitted. The adults would share what information they deemed relevant, but Hermione knew there was a great deal they were holding back – and it was beginning to frustrate her. She understood Mrs. Weasley, Professor Lupin and the others wanting to protect them, but she, Ron, and even Ginny were in as deep as the rest of them. Couldn't they see that? Now that Voldemort was trying to regain power with the aid of his Death Eaters, it probably wouldn't be much longer before the Order's attempts to shield them from everything would no longer work. If Voldemort had entered the Ministry of Magic, the most heavily secured building aside from Azkaban, what was to stop him and his band of followers from doing the same thing again?

Aside from Voldemort himself, the Dementors of Azkaban were the Ministry's highest priority. The Aurors had their hands full with the inmates of Azkaban. Without the Dementors, there were too many prisoners for them to look after. The Aurors had been granted permission to stun the more difficult to handle prisoners, but that would only work for so long. If the Dementors returned to Azkaban under the direction of Voldemort, there would be no way even all the Ministry's Aurors would be able to stop them.

The Daily Prophet had taken to reporting any and all sightings of Voldemort, no matter how unbelievable they sounded. It was as if the wizarding newspaper was trying to make up for the months it made Harry and Dumbledore sound like mad fools. The majority of the articles were pure speculation, except for the weekly column that talked about Corneilus Fudge's impending resignation. The wizarding world was screaming for him to step down after being lied to for months about Voldemort's return, even though a good majority of those people were the same ones who jumped on the bandwagon to criticize Harry, saying he was just looking for a way to be in the spotlight again.

Fudge had stopped speaking to the press altogether, something that had done nothing to help his image. The Ministry even had to go to such extreme measures as to set up a barrier to prevent any incoming mail from getting in because of the enormous amount of howlers he had been getting. Possible candidates for the new minister were already going around, including Dumbledore and Ron's father. Dumbledore was named because for weeks the Prophet had wrote about his battle inside the Ministry against the Dark Lord, the story getting more exaggerated with every printing. Ron's father had also been named – much to the excitement of all the Weasley's – because after having to endure The Ministry's blatant denial and duplicity for the last two years, they wanted someone honest who wouldn't keep them in the dark, and the pro-muggle supporters also wanted someone who had a genuine concern for the wizarding world's neighbours. The Prophet was running pools on how long it would be before Fudge stepped down – the longest estimate was three months.

With The Order keeping them in the dark, and the Prophet not reporting much of anything that could be considered of value, it was she who was more irritated and impatient with the current situation than Ron, who teased her mercilessly about their sudden role reversals. She supposed some of her irritation came from the fact that they had received very little news about Harry. He had stopped writing altogether after his birthday, and no one would tell them much except that he was safe at the Dursley's. To her, there was a big difference between 'safe' and 'well off.'

She had survived the summer in large part because of Ron. He kept her mind off the fact that she had not been home since the summer before, and had been there through every short and bleak letter they had received from Harry when he had still been writing to them – usually only because she or Ron had owled him first. The last they had heard from him was a brief note thanking them for the gifts they had sent him on his birthday. He refused to reply to any other letters they sent, and eventually Hermione gave up writing to him. Ron had tried easing her worries by telling her it couldn't be much fun for him being stuck with those horrid muggles, and maybe he just needed some space after everything that happened the last school year.

She pictured Harry locked in his room by his Aunt and Uncle, being alone day and night with nothing to occupy his time but thoughts about Sirius. What did it matter if he was safe if he was lonely and miserable with no one to talk to?

Ron really had been a good friend, and from the amount of time they were spending together it was almost unnatural that they were arguing very little. She couldn't really describe what had brought about the change. It was both comfortable and unnerving at the same time. It was as if unknowingly they had moved to some new level in their friendship where they both tended to infuriate each other a lot less. They still had the occasional row, and when it did happen it was bad. The worst one had happened two days earlier when he had caught her reading a letter Viktor had sent her. She had made the colossal mistake of telling him Viktor had been writing to her all summer. Ron had been such a big prat about it, she wondered if he was ever going to grow up at all and get over this childish grudge he had against Viktor Krum for no good reason. Only this morning had she started speaking to him again, and that was only because Professor Lupin and Tonks were taking them to see Harry. She was still angry with him and she wanted him to know that. She wasn't sure why she had felt the need to keep it a secret that Viktor had been writing to her and vice versa, but Ron had no right to get upset the way he did. How dare he tell her who she could and could not befriend. Ron Weasley might be her best friend but he did not control her life, and the sooner he learned that the better.

That was where things stood with them now. They were both seated in the back of the car on opposite sides, not talking. Tonks had borrowed the vehicle from an unnamed source, and Hermione suspected the reason Lupin had not asked her how she had found it was because he didn't entirely believe she had come about it in legal ways. Tonks said they could use it for the whole day if needed, but she had to bring it back as soon as they had finished with it.

They passed the road sign that said Privet Drive, and it would only be a few moments longer before they arrived at the Dursley's. Her mind began running through the possible scenarios they would find Harry in. He would be locked in his room and angry at the both of them like he had been last summer when he had been forced to stay cooped up with the Dursley's while they had enjoyed freedom at Phoenix headquarters. Or perhaps he had spent so much time wallowing in his own misery, thinking he could have prevented Sirius' death that he wanted to be left alone completely. Both situations seemed equally likely to Hermione as Tonks pulled the car up in front of the most well kept house she had seen in her life.

Her parents were neat and conscientious people, but nothing like on this scale. Each flowerbed was lined up perfectly, with an equal amount of space between it and the next one. If they weren't muggles and against magic in every imaginable way, she would swear they had put some sort of a spell on the grass to make it look that green. That just wasn't natural.

Lupin turned around in the passenger seat to face them. "Do you want one of us to go in with you? They can be a bit, ah… difficult."

"We'll be fine, Professor," Hermione assured him.

"I could always change into an overweight warlock and scare that cousin of Harry's," Tonks said mischievously.

"I'm sure Dudley would still be bigger then you," said Ron snickering, as he stepped out of the car.

As they were walking up the driveway and passed the Dursley's obnoxiously shiny car, Ron tried to strike up a conversation with Hermione. "Is it normal for muggles to be this tidy?"

She shrugged in response and pressed a finger to the doorbell of the house.

He sighed. "Are you ever going to talk to me again?"

"We're talking right now," she replied smoothly.

Ron tried to quell the frustration building inside him and it worked surprisingly – but just barely. "Look, I'm sorry about going off the way I did about ruddy Krum's letters. That's why you're still mad, right? You've been waiting for me to apologize."

There was the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the door, so Hermione spoke quickly. "No, I haven't been waiting for an apology, because for you to apologize you'd have to mean it. And I know you'll just do the same thing again, so what's the point?"

Before Ron could respond, the door swung open, and someone nearly as large replaced it. He glanced down at Ron and Hermione, narrowing his portly eyebrows together. "Yes?"

"We're here to see Harry," Ron told him. He let his hand brush back the side of his jacket just enough so that the tip of his wand was visible.

Dudley's already enormous eyes widened in fear. He waddled back from the door, muttering some incoherent response and using a beefy arm to point up the stairs.

By the time they set foot in the house, Dudley was already halfway to the back door. They could see Harry's Aunt working in her tulip garden and his Uncle sitting on a lawn chair reading the paper.

"Come on," Ron said, steering her up the stairs. "I don't want to be around when that lot comes in."

The entire wall leading up the stairs was covered in photographs and portraits of Dudley Dursley's portly face. It was as if Harry was a nonentity.

"That was mean," Hermione said, when they had almost reached the top.

"What?"

"Showing him your wand like that."

"It's not like I was going to use it. I just didn't want him to try and stop us from seeing Harry."

Part of her agreed with Ron's methods, but she managed to maintain an air of disapproval about it. From the awful stories she had heard about the Dursley's, they deserved more than a threat for the way they had treated Harry since he was a baby.

They had arrived outside of Harry's bedroom. The door was shut, and no noise could be heard from inside.

Ron rapped his knuckles on the door. "Harry?" When he received no response, he went to knock again – and pulled back his hand as the door opened.

Harry stood in the doorway, blinking in surprise at the sight of his two best friends standing there. "Ron, Hermione, what are you doing here?"

The greeting wasn't as bad as some of the ones Hermione had imagined. As far as she could tell he didn't look angry to see them, and that was indeed a good sign. She studied him carefully. He had lost weight, that much she was certain of. He looked a bit sleep deprived and as if he hadn't combed his hair in several days, but other than that he appeared perfectly normal. He was actually smiling at them. He didn't look at all like a person who had spent their summer vacation grieving over a lost family member.

"We were worried," Hermione began, putting her arms around Harry and hugging him tightly. "We haven't heard a word from you in almost a month."

"Yeah, well, I've been busy with stuff," he explained, stepping back into his room.

Hermione and Ron exchanged quick looks with each other when Harry had his back turned. What could have been so important that he had been too busy to contact them? By the look Ron was sending her, he had come to the same conclusion as she had – Harry was lying.

"You didn't answer me. Why are you two here? You've never come to visit me before."

Now she did detect a hint of anger in his tone. "We want you to come back with us to Phoenix Headquarters – if that's what you want."

"So Dumbledore finally decided that I had enough punishment for one summer, is that it?"

She was stunned by his attitude. Harry had always had the utmost respect for Dumbledore. "Harry, your safety has always been Dumbledore's number one priority."

"Maybe he should stop worrying about me for a change and help someone else," he said bitterly. "Has he even bothered to try and clear Sirius' name now that everyone knows Voldemort is back?"

She saw the hurt and anguish blazing in his eyes and knew then what he had endured all summer was much worse then even she had imagined. "Harry, it's more complicated than that. He can't just go running to Fudge without evidence, and probably without revealing information about The Order in the process."

"Right, what was I thinking? He can protect Hogwarts and fight Voldemort, but it's asking too much to clear one innocent man's name," he said, his voice heavy with resentment.

She opened her mouth to press the matter, to tell him that if there was any chance Sirius's name could be cleared Dumbledore would be the first to do it, but Ron was silently shaking his head at her. The last thing they needed was to put Harry on the defensive and have him shut them out completely.

"Look, we didn't come all this way for nothing," Ron said finally. "We're not letting you rot in this place another day, so you better back up your trunk and come downstairs. Lupin and Tonks are in the car waiting."

Without waiting for Harry's response, he guided Hermione out of the room and in the direction of the stairs.

"You can't force Harry to come with us," she said to Ron in a hushed voice, in case Harry could overhear them. "You need to accept that maybe he would rather be here then at Grimmauld Place. It was Sirius's home. He may not be ready to deal with that just yet." They had not even brought up that Sirius had left Grimmauld Place to Harry because they hadn't known how he would react to that news.

"Well I sure as hell aren't going to let him stay here a second longer – and I don't see how you can either," Ron was saying, not bothering to lower his voice. "Busy my arse… I bet he's spent the last seven weeks locked in that room blaming himself for Sirius' death. I know we both agreed we wouldn't force him to talk about it," he added quickly when he saw she was about to interrupt him, "but he shouldn't be alone – not like this," he finished before starting down the staircase.

"Believe it or not, I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think you could have gone about it in a nicer way," she said, following after him.

"Next time I'll remember to give him some flowers and a kiss first," he remarked sarcastically. "I bet he'd love that."

She rolled her eyes at him, but refrained from saying anything further. She wasn't going to let him goad her into another fight when they still hadn't recovered from their last bout.

They stood together at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Harry. When she turned and looked out the kitchen window, she could see the three Dursley's huddled together, probably waiting for them to leave before they deemed it safe to enter their own house again. She looked away from them and back up the stairs. She was starting to wonder what they would do if Harry didn't want to leave, when he appeared on the top landing with Hedwig's cage in one hand and his trunk in the other. Ron went up to give him a hand with the trunk.

When they reached the bottom, Harry looked around and said, "Where is everyone?"

Hermione pointed to the window in the kitchen, where his aunt, uncle and cousin were huddled together watching them closely.

Not bothering to wave goodbye, Harry opened the front door and stepped outside, Ron right behind him holding the other end of his trunk.

Hermione stepped out last and closed the door behind them. They may have got Harry away from the Dursley's, but that wasn't going to make the rest of his problems go away. She hated to even think it, even if it was just to herself, but if past events were any indication she had a feeling things would get a lot worse for Harry before they got better.