Hp: Hermione and Darkness

Hermione and the others waited in tense silence as George strained to listen to the conversation in the kitchen. Minutes felt like hours. When George finally pulled the string from his ear, his expression was grave.

"I'm not sure if I got all of this right, but from what I gather, Harry and his chav of a cousin were attacked by Dementors. Harry ended up pulling out his wand and performing the Patronus Charm. They escaped, but Fudge went absolutely mental. He's threatening to expel Harry and take his wand. There's even going to be a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry."

"But he was just trying to protect himself!" Hermione exclaimed, her voice rising in anger.

"Right, but Fudge doesn't care," Fred said, shaking his head.

"He's been working with the Daily Prophet to discredit anything Harry or Dumbledore says," George added. Hermione's heart sank; she had been reading the horrendous lies in the Daily Prophet all summer.

"He's right," Hermione whispered, her mind racing. "This is bad."

"Should we try to call Harry or send him a letter?" Ron suggested, his worry evident.

"Leave that to us," came a voice from the hallway. In their bickering, they had wholly missed Dumbledore's arrival. He looked livid, his usually twinkling eyes now blazing with anger. Hermione had never seen the headmaster so furious.

"The Order will take care of it, not students," Dumbledore said sternly.

"Yes, sir," Hermione mumbled, terrified of his wrath.

"Why don't you five go upstairs and prepare for Harry's arrival," Dumbledore instructed. "I have some issues to attend to."

"He's coming here?" Hermione asked, her heart skipping a beat.

"Eventually, yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "All in due time. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to have a discussion with Mundungus Fletcher." With that, Dumbledore descended the staircase to the kitchen, his robes billowing behind him.

Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George exchanged incredulous looks. The tension in the air was palpable, each of them processing the gravity of the situation in their own way. Finally, George broke the silence with a wry grin. "Who wants to take bets on how long before Harry explodes after he gets here?"

Hermione didn't need to bet—she could already feel the heat of Harry's anger from miles away. She knew he would be livid even before he set foot in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

A few owls from Mr Weasley and Dumbledore swiftly handled the initial chaos and confusion. Once the Order wasn't panicked, they allowed everyone back into the kitchen. The five friends had tons of questions, all of which were tutted away by Mrs Weasley.

Determined to help, Hermione threw herself into researching the potential trouble Harry might face at his disciplinary hearing. She came across the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, which made it acceptable for underage wizards to use magic in life-threatening situations. This knowledge helped Hermione calm herself down a bit. There was an obvious, straightforward defence. Moreover, from what she could tell, the Ministry had no jurisdiction over Hogwarts; therefore, Fudge could not expel Harry.

They were in for another surprise later that day. Out of the blue skies of London flew Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl, and landed in the drawing room where Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were cleaning some Doxies. There were three pieces of parchment in the owl's beak: one addressed to her, one to Ron, and the third to Sirius. They all read:

I've just been attacked by Dementors, and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.

Guilt washed over Hermione as she reread the parchment, her heart sinking with each word. She then passed it off to Ron.

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered, his face paling. "He's livid."

"What do we do?" Ginny asked, her voice tinged with worry.

"There's not much we can do," Hermione said, feeling helpless.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Ron. Hermione looked over to see Hedwig pecking at Ron's hands as if she were trying to make him write a return letter. "I can't! I'm not allowed to write to him!" Ron pleaded, holding his bloody finger.

They finally calmed Hedwig down after a while and let her fly around with Ron's owl, Pig, but they knew that whenever Harry did get there, he'd be a lot more furious than Hedwig was.

Three days later, Headquarters was in a frenzy of activity once again. Hermione learned that a guard of Order Members was about to collect Harry and bring him back. She tried not to worry too much about her best friend needing an advanced guard of powerful witches and wizards to travel to London, but she couldn't help herself. Dumbledore must have been right—things were much more dangerous than they realised.

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