Interlude: Hermione

A.N: First of all, I apologize for the yearlong break. There had been a death in the family and several complications in my personal life and work. Sorting everything out and then getting into a mindset to write again took a lot of time. But I am back again. I cannot promise you fast updates, but one thing I can promise you is that I will be doing my best to make the chapters lengthy.

I don't like having Author Notes at the start of a chapter as it breaks immersion, but I thought I needed to address my absence first.

We will be having a few interludes before we go back into the driving seat of the MC. This is to mainly facilitate a time skip and show their own growth as well. I might have messed up with the whole war council scene and all, but I have been out of touch for a while. Please bear with me till I get back into groove. Moreover, there is a reason why Harry hasn't talked about certain things with the group. Mainly because at this point in the story, some of these details are inconsequential to them.

And hey, we broke through the 50k word milestone this chapter!

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"Miss. Lunch is served," squeaked Winky.

Hermione looked up from the journal she was writing on and smiled.

"Thank you Winky, we will be upstairs in a couple of minutes," she said. Winky beamed at her and left.

Hermione looked at the place the elf was standing a second ago and shook her head wistfully. S.P.E.W was a noble cause, but one which needed to go back to the drawing board. She had been cross with Harry for not just binding one, but two elves. Moreover, he had already hired Dobby, so the fact that he was not paying the other elves caused her to bristle. But a long and quite chilling talk later, she understood that fighting for elf freedom was a lost cause. What she needed to fight for were their rights and terms of service. They should be treated with care and allowed to leave when they wanted to, that was her primary concern now. The tone with which Harry talked to her made her feel like she was back in elementary school, being admonished by a teacher for telling the other students that they were dumb.

Alas, that was something that she would need to think of later. All in due time, once this thrice damned war was over. She looked at the framed photograph of her family and almost broke once again. It had been three weeks and there was no sign of the gaping hole in her chest disappearing. She always thought Harry was too broody at times, but now she understood how he could be like that. Loneliness was an old friend, but being bereft of the two people who were always there for her warranted brooding.

She had been too enamored with this world of magic that she had left her parents behind in a hurry. And now, no matter what she tried, they were out of reach. She did not regret spending so much time with her friends, her only friends. But she sorely wished that she had spent more time with her parents during the last few summers.

"Wake up Luna," she said as she wiped the corner of her eyes.

The girl did not budge.

She poked her a few times and repeated her call.

"Don't wanna," came the muffled voice from underneath the sheets.

She shook her head and put away her things. Research and training had been her salvation this summer. She did not know how she would have coped if she was there in the Burrow after all that had happened. Probably would have murdered a few people.

That thought immediately worsened her mood. The Order of the Phoenix. What an utterly incompetent collection of nitwits. Her old self would be appalled at the thought of mentioning her teachers in such crass light. They might be experienced witches and wizards in their respective fields, but in the end, where were the results? And the ministry was even worse.

When Dumbledore said that her parents were well protected, she believed him. Her implicit trust in authority demanded her to. And hadn't she been a right fool? Who in their right mind would call a few detection charms and anti-apparition charms enough protection? And since no blood sacrifice was made, and no magical residue was in their home, her parents got piss poor protection. If it was nigh-impossible to ward a non-magical home, they should have said so! Her parents would have moved out. But no, they had to lull them under a false sense of security. And when the terrorists came knocking, everyone was too busy fighting elsewhere.

What made it worse was the looks of pity they had given her while delivering the news. Once Harry decided to stay at Grimmauld, she wanted to return home. The atmosphere at the Burrow was already stifling due to the war. The passive aggressive behavior of Mrs. Weasley and Ginny towards Fleur didn't help one bit. And Ron, the thickhead was losing his faculties and drooling around. There was nobody she could talk to, and she resorted to spending time at Grimmauld. The library was not a key factor at all, no sir. But she did want to leave. She would have at least done something if she was there, or died with them. Instead, her parents had died alone. Then their blood had been used to send a message. The rational part of her mind knew that they were still a target purely due to her blood status. But in her grief, she couldn't help but think that she had indirectly killed her own parents.

The irony was that in the end, they let her leave. Of course, there was a blazing row. Especially due to a certain someone's insensitive mutterings, but she had left. Only if she could have done it sooner. What surprised her the most was that Molly Weasley was supportive of her. But in hindsight, the woman had lost her brothers in the previous war. She was the one person in that family who understood her current need for space. Which, again, was ripe with irony.

She took a look at the mirror and grimaced. Her hair was messier than usual. The bags under her eyes were nowhere close to disappearing. And the simmering rage in her eyes was perpetual. This was not the Hermione Granger she remembered. She had died the night her parents did. What remained was a hollow shell containing a raging fire. And she had promised herself that she would burn those who took her parents away from her. These were terrorists, and her muggle heritage had plenty to say on how to deal with terrorists. Wizards and their outdated laws would watch the world burn while they were cowering in their homes.

"Hermione, you are doing it again," groaned Luna from her bed.

She took a look around her and saw that the furniture in the room had been rattling. She took deep breaths and tried to do what Harry taught her. She sighed as she realized how much of a nuisance she had been. Harry had been right about Snape, the malicious man was not teaching him proper occlumency. And once again, in her belief of authority, she had thought that the man would be doing justice to his job. Who was she kidding, once her rose tinted glasses had been viciously torn off, she finally saw things for what they were. And no matter how much she believed herself to be a goody two shoes, at the end of the day she had always taken things in her own hands. She was quite glad that her grief had not buried away that particular part of her.

"You not coming for lunch?" she asked when the rattling finally stopped.

There was no response from Luna, the girl was asleep once more. She shot one last look at her disheveled self and walked out of the room. Harry had told her not to bottle up stuff. Rich, coming from him. But he had changed, and he was right. She would go to the training room after lunch and take out her ire on the dummies.

When she reached the dining room on the upper floors, she saw Harry and Neville at the table, chatting away about something.

"Sorry. You could have started without me," she said as she took her seat.

"Bah, we don't mind waiting for a couple of minutes," waved away Harry.

"Speak for yourself. Your hellish training always leaves me famished," japed Neville.

"And here I thought I was rid of gluttons," shot Harry right back. He could only mean one person. And that buffoon would not dare come where she was right now and that suited her just fine.

She watched in amusement as her two friends joked around. These two boys had changed beyond comprehension. Gone were the Harry and Neville of old. After that horrible residue had been removed from his scar, he had become incredibly focused. He soaked in knowledge like a sponge and had better control over his emotions. But one thing that had not changed was the anger. Before, he would have just displayed his frustration, but now, it was tempered, honed like a blade and then pointed towards his pursuits. His snark had still remained, but gone was the nervous, lanky kid. In his place, was a confident, rugged man.

In another world, she would have found him attractive. In another world, she would have acted on that attraction. But in her current state of mind, she could not challenge the status quo when it came to him. He was family, he was stability. In no circumstances would she allow herself to worsen things with her best friend. Losing him too would break her beyond repair. Moreover, she did see how Susan had been eyeing him this past month. It most definitely wasn't another Cho Chang fiasco in the waiting. And she was certain that her best friend did not even know how his eyes sought her as well whenever the redhead came over. It was just a matter of time before he realized. And when this war was over and she was rid of this rage, she would think about finding someone for herself.

Neville, on the other hand had bulked up like it was nobody's business. The potions and the physical fitness routine had made both the boys unrecognizable. But Neville was the one with the most prominent changes. The DA on its own had begun to toughen up the boy, but this summer had just accelerated the process. Especially when he learnt that Harry chased away Bellatrix and took out Rabastan, Neville had gone bonkers with his training routine. Some vestiges of the shy and soft spoken boy remained, but for the most part, he had come out of his shell quite well.

"So, what have you made us today, Winky?" asked Harry with an indulgent smile. Despite all that he went through, it was good to see her best friend smile every now and then.

"Winky learnt how to make a new dish. Main dish is chicken biryani and the side dishes are chips, salad, pickles, gravy and raita. Please pick what you want," she said and then snapped her fingers. The dish appeared on their plates as the various side dishes appeared on small bowls.

Harry bent down and took a long whiff and let out a moan. She had half a mind to reprimand him regarding his behavior, but she had tolerated worse in the company of Ron.

"Winky, getting you those recipe books was the best decision I ever made. Your dear master hopes you keep surprising him with different cuisines," Harry said as he started eating. Winky swelled up with pride and wiped the corner of her eyes. It was such a contrast to the Winky who was drowning in misery and wasting herself away in Hogwarts.

"I bloody agree. Please teach Jasky these dishes when you have time Winky," Neville said.

"Winky will!"

"Where are the other elves?" questioned Hermione.

"Old Kreacher being cleaning up the mess the old wizards left downstairs. Noddy and Jasky are helping their mistresses with their work. Winky does not know where Dobby is."

"What mess?" muttered Hermione.

"The order had a meeting last night. The twins pranked Snape and in his panic, the dumbfuck lit a few chairs on fire," said Harry.

"Why did the twins join them? We don't need any spies in that cesspool." she snarled. The order was still a major sore spot for her.

"Well, their family is a major part of the order. It would not be right for us to persuade them away from that. They're already sore as it is due to Percy running off on his own. It is a bloody miracle that Mrs. Weasley did not outright ban them from the order as it is. And moreover, the twins are helping us loads on their own, so it works out."

"Where is Luna?" asked Neville. She could see the diversion when it was this obvious, but she did not want to keep talking about the order as well. Especially when she was eating such good food.

"Won't wake," she replied.

"Figures. We were cutting close on our project and had to pull an all-nighter to get the artefacts done. Let her sleep for now," Harry said and nodded at Winky. She immediately understood and started loading a lunchbox with food for Luna.

"Another all-nighter? Harry, this is not good for your health at all. With the way you have been pushing yourself, I expect you to take some rest."

"I'll sleep tonight Hermione. There was just so much stuff to get done." She would not be convinced by this. He had a bad habit of playing off his fatigue and general health concerns. She would need to have a talk with Winky. The elves were very protective of him, they will ensure that he sleeps.

"You're crazy is what it is. If you have that much work pending, you could have cut off a bit of the training and used that time to recuperate and focus on the projects. Potions can keep you awake only for so long," Neville said.

"Ha! You are one to speak. I have never seen someone spend so much time in the gym. It is almost like you are addicted," he shot back.

Just then, Dobby appeared in the room and passed an envelope to Harry. The sheer sight of the elf was mind boggling. Harry had commissioned butler and maid uniforms for Kreacher and Winky. Dobby, on the other hand was nowadays seen wearing bright neon outfits. He immediately put down his spoon and tore into the envelope. He read it quickly and a massive grin broke out in his face.

"This is good news. Great job Dobby! I suppose she would want rewards for this. You know what to do Dobby. Thanks for the help." He said. She could not make heads nor tails out of that conversation.

"Yes sir!" Dobby kneeled on the floor and disappeared without a noise. Now that took her by surprise. Elves usually made a distinctive sound when they travelled. This, was different.

Looking at her incredulous expression, Harry chuckled. "Dobby found out about ninjas Hermione. Surely you can understand where this is going."

She groaned and got back to her lunch.

"He's dedicated though. I saw him popping everywhere, trying to reduce the sound," informed Neville.

"Oh definitely. Each of them are unique, of course. Winky is the best at cooking, Kreacher is the best at cleaning. Although I wonder how he let the house get so grim over the years. Ah well, elves have some convoluted reasoning for things sometimes so I suppose he had his reasons. The cheeky rascal must have been laughing at us when we were waging war against this house last summer."

"And Dobby is your personal ninja?"

"Spot on Ms. Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor."

"It's good to see that you prats are still kids sometimes," she said and shook her head with a fond smile.

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"You ready Luna?" Hermione said later that evening as she levitated a couple of boxes in front of her.

Luna flicked her wand and a bunch of papers arranged themselves.

"Silent casting in OWL year? Impressive."

"Oh Hermione, my head is clean of Wrackspurts. How could I not cast silently? Let's go" she said and motioned her to lead the way.

"I suppose. All this occlumency training has helped with my casting after all," Hermione replied without showing any reaction to what Luna said. She had long grown to understand that when the girl said outlandish things, there were hidden meanings behind what was said.

They entered the room and placed their things on the massive table. Hermione picked a seat near the head of the table and sat down. Luna took the seat opposite to her and they began reading through their individual notes.

Within the next half an hour people began arriving one by one. Xenophilius Lovegood and Neville arrived first since they were also staying at Grimmauld. Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom arrived together since they had things to do at the ministry. Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott were the last of the group to arrive.

"Where's Harry?" asked Neville once everyone was settled in their places.

One simple question, and it immediately set Hermione's teeth on edge. If he had left on another one of his missions without telling them, then Voldemort was the least of the boy's concerns.

"I thought he was with you," she responded.

"Nah, he holed himself up in the training room to do whatever secret training it is that he does."

"But that was hours ago," she protested.

"We can find out easily," stated Susan and called for Winky.

"What can Winky help miss with?" asked the elf.

"Do you know where Harry is Winky?"

"Master just returned a few minutes ago. He is getting things ready."

"Thanks Winky," she said and set her things in order. She wondered what exactly Harry was preparing. His project was supposed to be done with Luna. But the tired face and his lack of energy the past week meant that he had been doing more. This whole clandestine approach of his was grating on her nerves. It was not necessary in their group because everyone here would help him. But no, the noble prat had to shoulder everything on his own. Well, he told her that he would come clean in the last meeting of the summer and here they were. After this, they had to manage things from Hogwarts and that would be a major issue there due to the lack of privacy.

Several minutes later, Harry walked in, clad in his raid outfit. His mask and goggles were hanging from his neck. The distinct lack of blood and sweat also told her that he wasn't returning from a mission. But this meant that he was going to go on one.

"I apologize for the delay. Something came up at the last minute and I had to go check it out," he said as he sat down in his seat.

"What happened?" Neville asked.

"We'll discuss that at the end. For now, is everyone ready?" he asked.

Everyone nodded at that and Madam Bones began to speak, her practiced tone commanding everyone's attention.

Hermione listened as Madam Bones and Neville's gran detailed what the current status of the ministry was. Most departments within the ministry were compromised and a majority of the Wizengamot had been throwing wrenches in the plan as well. Any steps that the DMLE and Scrimgeour are taking were being stymied by the politicians. Public support was at an all-time low for the ministry, and morale was down in the dumps. Moreover, the loss of Azkaban has complicated things and most of the DMLE personnel were busy manning the holding cells that they were using as a stopgap.

"Frankly, despite the legality of the vigilantism, your decimation of the raid teams has had a massive effect. Voldemort has started focusing more on the political front instead of sending out his minions on suicide runs. He is planning to take over the ministry and all we can do is delay him. We started out our battle too late. And I would be a hypocrite to tell you to stop, because I would not be here if you did not do what you did."

"He thinks that some Grindelwald sympathizers are out there who are killing his pawns. Too bad not a lot of people know about Dumbledore's past with Grindelwald, or else Riddle would be sending out droves of men after the order in retaliation. He is petty like that. Would have thinned their numbers more that way. I hear Moody is going trigger happy since there is no proper prison. He would have killed half of the attacking force himself. Dumbledore tried to get him to tone down a bit, but Moody isn't willing to listen to shit since there is no Azkaban to shunt Death eaters into," said Harry.

"Dumbledore's past with Grindelwald?" Hermione asked shakily. All that was recorded in the books she read was that Dumbledore defeated him in a legendary duel.

"Oh yes," he nodded towards Hannah and continued, "Your neighbor, Bathilda Bagshot has quite a tale about her great-nephew Gellert and little Albus."

"Ugh, she is not quite stable these days though," replied Hannah.

"We digress. Despite the chance it might give us, driving public opinion about Dumbledore down, on the off chance that Riddle will retaliate is a huge risk. Especially when Dumbledore does not like to kill. He is a strong wizard and we still need him," Augusta said. Harry nodded grudgingly.

"Speaking of public opinion, the empty flat that you provided is shaping up nicely. The Quibbler should be up and running by next month. And I hired a couple of muggleborns who were willing to foray into journalism. They apparently went to college after Hogwarts so they do have the qualifications. So your new paper should be available sometime soon," stated Xenophilius.

"Awesome, thanks Mr. Lovegood. Skeeter is back at the Prophet isn't it? Will our leverage still hold, Hermione?"

"What leverage?" asked Susan.

"She's an unregistered beetle animagus. Hermione here, kept her trapped in a glass jar for a while in exchange for her silence"

Madam Bones looked at them incredulously for a moment and then groaned, muttering about underage criminals just committing crime after crime.

"Is that why she left you alone last year?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, that and the article in the Quibbler."

"Why does this not surprise me anymore?" he muttered and feigned being stuck in a body binding curse. Hermione blushed at that reminder and hid her face.

"Illegal activity aside, we have covered our portion, now it's your turn kids," Madam Bones said.

This was the compromise that they had arrived at. After what happened, all of them wanted to go with Harry on his raids. But the adults were pretty worried. And they could not stop him at all after his single point that he chased off Bellatrix on his own despite being low on reserves after dealing with multiple death eaters. None of them save for Amelia had that level of skill. And she was busy preparing her trusted personnel to go incognito once the ministry was close to falling. They would be the basis of the resistance. So they decided that they will use this month to train full time and also build stuff to help them once they started out on their own raids.

Harry looked expectantly at Susan and she nodded.

"Hannah and I managed to get somewhat familiar with elemental magic. When you all start learning this, we will help you out. Thank Merlin our Library survived the attack without any issues. This book here is one of the last copies remaining. If it were available to the public, we would have true elemental wizards running about. Thank god for small mercies, Death Eaters with that kind of magic would have been even more of a headache. But the book tends to ramble on and on. We have made notes for all the exercises in it," said Susan.

"Yeah. Unlike elemental spells, pure elemental manipulation is a different ballgame. You will have to pick an element, do the ritual and slowly build your affinity towards it. It is a long and arduous process and we are barely even close to intermediate levels. But we are now able to use our wands to summon our respective elements and control moderate amounts with pure intent and nothing else. It will be a formidable skill at higher levels," Hannah added to the discussion.

"Good, you all can learn and improve it during your new DA sessions," said Augusta.

"What elements did you pick?" asked Neville in an excited tone.

Instead of answering his question, Susan lifted her wand and smirked. A thin line of flames exited her wand and twisted and turned in place. The flames coalesced into the form of a small spear and then disappeared.

Harry let out a whistle in appreciation and Susan winked in return. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at Hannah expectantly.

"I picked Earth, it will get messy and you won't be able to vanish all of it," she said.

"I think I will pick the moon. It resonates with me quite well," said Luna.

There was an awkward silence following that statement, after which Hannah spoke up.

"Umm… Luna, this grimoire only provides instructions for rituals for earth, wind, fire, water and lightning."

"It is possible to merge different elements and get unique results, but once a ritual is done, you can't do it for another element until you gain mastery over the first one. That's why even the few people who know this kind of magic never go beyond one element, as they are supposed to be difficult to master," added Susan.

"Oh, that's a shame. I think I will wait for a different ritual then," said Luna with a dejected face.

"Moving on, here," Neville said as he placed a cube on the desk. Hermione took a closer look at it and was glad to find out that the project she helped Neville with had panned out so well. The cube seemed to be made out of clay, and several runes were carved on it.

"Portable Devil's Snare. The seed is soaked in strengthening solution for increased potency. I added a mixture of regermination potion and invigoration draught. The potions are separated from the seed by a layer of clay. Once the runes are activated, the potions will mix with the seed and cause the Devil's Snare to deploy. The regermination potion will force the plant to germinate while the invigoration draught will hasten the process tremendously. Took a lot of tries to ensure that the potions do not have an adverse reaction, and Hermione helped with the runes."

"So you throw them into a crowd and boom, instant trap?" asked Harry.

"Yup, great for crowd control. The thing will be strangling them and if they use fire or light to get rid of it, they'll damage themselves as well and still give us several moments of leeway to take our shots."

"Good job Neville and Hermione," beamed Augusta Longbottom proudly.

"Thanks gran," smiled Neville. His participation in the Ministry attack and his subsequent training had done wonders for the relationship of the two. Augusta had finally begun to see Neville as his own person and was proud of him. Hermione was glad that he was finally content in that regards. In their ragtag bunch, there were a lot of dead relatives. This was the time to cherish whoever was remaining.

Mrs. Longbottom then continued, "Devil's snare is not a common commodity on the market so we have procured some and are growing them carefully in our greenhouse. I will take care of them as per Neville's instructions when you are at school. The portkeys for all our properties are ready and I have secured Frank and Alice already. I oversaw the protections and even hired some trusted curse breakers and enchanters to strengthen them. We don't have to worry about safe houses for a while."

"Then Harry would need to cast the fidelius on them soon, I suppose," mused Madam Bones. Out of their entire bunch, at present only he was strong and skilled enough for the fidelius. It was an immensely complex charm and required a lot of power as well. It came as a shock to everyone that a sixteen year old learnt it in a matter of a few days.

It was one of the most ancient spells and due to the strenuous requirements, only a handful of people in the world were capable of casting it. Mainly due to the lack of public knowledge about the spell as well. It would be a massive disaster if every two bit thug in the world had invisible, intangible, unplottable and soundproof hideouts. Thankfully, the black library was obscenely rich with all sorts of knowledge. Or else it would have taken a while for Harry to find the specifics of the spell itself.

"Yes, if I can't get them all before we leave for Hogwarts, I can sneak out on the weekends and finish it off," he said. Hermione frowned as he casually added more workload to his already full schedule. Even though it was necessary, it wouldn't do anyone any good if he collapsed due to exhaustion and needed a few days to recuperate. He needed to space out his tasks better and they needed to get better to share some of the burden. Hermione shook her head in frustration and opened her boxes and placed one of the contents on the table.

"My turn. This is a concoction I managed to finally crack," she said as she pointed to a vial of bubbling reddish orange potion. "Nothing new about it actually. We even learnt one of them for our O.W.Ls. Thing is, nobody is crazy enough to actually attempt mixing them. On their own, these potions are highly volatile and claimed a lot of lives due to accidents. It took me a lot of tries, but I finally managed to weaponize it."

Nevillie immediately scooted away from the table as Harry peered at the vial with a puzzled expression.

"What did you do Hermione?" Hannah asked in a small voice. Honestly, the girl was too squeamish. Hermione just smirked and pointed towards Harry.

"It's just something Harry said actually. He was complaining about bombarda not being enough for his dive bombs and that the buildup of magic often gave him away. So I thought, muggle fighter planes do not discharge explosions directly, they drop them. I took the fire-breathing potion, diluted it a bit, and then mixed it with erumpent potion, which explodes when in contact with anything. The main problem was finding a stabilizing agent that did not blow the two of them up while mixing them. The best part about it is, since the fire-breathing potion gives a person the ability to breathe fire, once it meshes with the erumpent potion, it just amplifies the explosion and releases way more thermal energy than usual. Took a lot of tries but I finally managed it."

There was a deafening silence throughout her explanation and afterwards. Both the Bones ladies were looking at her with mouth agape while Hannah's eyes seemed to pop out of their sockets. The Longbottoms had a very uneasy expression on their faces. Meanwhile the Lovegoods seemed intrigued. Harry on the other had a lot of expressions cycling through his face. His initial puzzled expression slowly morphed into one of understanding and then he began to chuckle.

"You basically made magical napalm," he said.

"That is an oversimplification. But yes. Right now, these boxes are full of them and I've placed an unbreakable charm on the glasses so they don't break. Keep that in mind before you put them to use," she replied.

"Why am I not surprised? You did brew a N.E.W.T. level potion in a toilet in our second year," he chuckled once more.

"You what? Oh Merlin what kind of crazy people have I involved myself with," breathed out Susan. Although there was a smirk on her face, indicating her true feelings about it. It took a few seconds but Hermione understood her reaction. Susan had picked fire for her element after all. More fire to a budding pyromaniac would seem amusing after all.

"Whatever you do, just don't let Seamus know that this thing exists," stated Neville once he got over his shock.

"Hermione, just please don't publish this recipe anywhere. I beg of you," pleaded Madam Bones. Despite her tone, she too had an indulgent smile on her face.

"You all are crazy," muttered Hannah as she shook her head.

"Anyway, you're on, Luna," said Harry as he nodded towards her.

"Cool beans," she clapped and pushed the pile of papers she brought with her to the center of the desk.

"So I spent a lot of time going through mommy's research materials. She devised an alternate method for the animagus transformation. But she passed away before she could complete her research. Her method can potentially boost our existing mind defenses with the avatar of our animal in our minds defending us, and it might be possible for someone to get a magical creature as their form. It was all speculation since she could not finish the process though."

"So did you manage to finish it?" asked Hermione, curious about the whole process. She had always wanted to be an animagus since she saw professor McGonagall transform all those years ago.

Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead as he explained, "Not yet. It is very complex, and we had to spend a lot of time trying to understand what was already there in her texts before we tried to expand upon it. Thankfully, my mum was also looking into the transformation, although not to the same extent Luna's mom was. She had noted it all in the Potter grimoire before her demise. She spent a lot of time observing dad's transformation and trying to find out if there was a different method. Although, she did not proceed beyond observations and theories, mainly because her notes stated that she was putting it on hold, delving into sacrificial magic. Probably what saved my hide," he finished as he pointed to his scar.

Luna patted his head like one would a puppy and continued, "We do have some positive news though. Harry's mommy made a lot of observations that helped us fill some gaps in my mommy's research. Mommy did not have any proper animagus to work with and had only journals and essays to base her work on. So there were a lot of things that we needed to redo after reading Mrs. Potter's notes. But mommy was in the right track. I am sure that we can do it before this year ends," she stated confidently.

Hermione knew that they had to do this on their own. Getting help from McGonagall wouldn't be possible because she will blab to Dumbledore and they will insist on either overseeing them for their safety or outright vetoing them from doing it. The only other animagus they knew was Skeeter, and asking her for help was tantamount to opening themselves for blackmail and information leaks.

"Moony would know more about the animagus transformation wouldn't he? He was with the marauders when they went through it after all," she asked.

"Remus is not in a good place right now. His last friend died and the man is practically zoned out all the time. Moreover, he is still loyal to Dumbledore, and we do not need that kind of scrutiny this year. We'll let him be for a while," Harry sighed.

"Well that's it for us. I have been helping Luna with the research. I've been training. A lot. Like everyone else really. And I've been going on my nightly strolls," Harry said with a smirk, "also, I managed to reach an agreement with your contact Madam Bones. Soon our group will have secure auror grade communication devices. We will of course modify them to ensure that nobody else can piggyback on the network, but yeah, we'll have it soon enough."

Madam Bones nodded at that and said, "So that's it for the coming year then. You all will be focusing more on learning the elemental magic and your animagus transformations. Augusta will be procuring materials for Neville's snare traps and that unholy explosive Hermione made. She will also be trying to sway her friends in the Wizengamot and the ministry. Xeno will be working on the Quibbler and liaison with the new paper you are setting up. And I-"

"Will be playing an elaborate game of among us with the auror department." Finished Harry. Everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows and he sheepishly shook his head, "just an obscure reference. Sorry for interrupting."

She smiled indulgently once more. Hermione had noticed that Madam Bones was also aware of the budding attraction between Harry and her niece and it seemed like she approved of him. But once again, it all hinged on her friend not messing it up if something serious develops.

"I did not understand that reference," she said as he snorted due to something he apparently found funny. Hermione noticed that of late Harry said some obscure things that only made sense to him. Unperturbed by his interference once again, she continued, "Anyway, I will be trying to sort out what I can in my department. We caught a few moles already but finding more has been increasingly difficult. If we want to go to ground when the Ministry falls, we can't afford any moles. Don't expect large numbers though."

Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, digesting everything they heard so far and mentally preparing themselves for what was to come.

"Harry, you said that you would be sharing something with us during this last meeting," Hermione said.

"Yeah, better if we have dinner first. It's time already. I don't want to put people off their meals," he said as he called for Winky.

Everyone here had already been through a lot and seen horrible stuff in the past few months already. Hermione wondered what he had to say that would put them off their appetites.

She could not focus on the delicious lasagna that Winky had made and kept thinking of all the possible things that he could say. Once everyone was done with the meal Harry took a long breath and dropped a bombshell on them.

"As you all know, the reason we went to the ministry was to retrieve a prophecy. A prophecy about me and snakeface. That's why our parents went to hiding," he gestured towards Neville and continued, "It could have been either of us, but he attacked us and set things into motion. I will not go into the exact wordings as half of it is just about identifying who the prophecy mentions. Basically it's either me or him in the end. I have to be the one to kill him. Of course, I do not believe in that tosh, but he does, and Dumbledore does, and they have set events into motion that will make the prophecy self-fulfilling or some other bullshit. Please do be careful about this knowledge. He doesn't know the entire prophecy. This is why I have been stressing on the importance of occlumency as well."

He paused for a second to let us digest it and continued, "If we are starting a resistance, we must all know our roles in it. My role ultimately is to get rid of him, but that does not end our fight does it. He rarely comes out of his hidey hole, it's his sycophants who are wreaking havoc, and we need to purge them, root and stem. If they come into power, they will do what the Nazis did. Then when their superiority is established among our lot, they'll attack the muggles. The end result would be all of us bombed to oblivion. This can't be allowed to happen. And I can't do this alone. I need all of your help, so please lend me you aid," he stood and bowed after he said this.

After a long silence, Hermione spoke up, "This is why you have been running ragged haven't you? You have been training to match him," he nodded, "Harry, I have fought by your side since the beginning. And I will, till the end. You can always count on me," she said as she straightened him up and engulfed him in a bone crushing hug.

"You said that it could have been me who was the subject of the prophecy," stated Neville and they both turned towards him, "It doesn't matter either ways. He took everything from us and he will continue to take more and more from everyone in our world. When nobody believed in me, you did. Likewise, I believe in you. You will beat him, and we will help you do it," he then joined them in the group hug.

One by one, the teens all joined in the group hug. Hermione did not hear what they said as she broke into tears and hugged her friends tighter. The loss of her parents reminded her of what she had lost at the Death Eater's hands as well. She vowed once more that she will do her absolute best to see this war to its end. She would not fail her friend, she would not fail her parents. Most important of all, she would not fail herself.