𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐑━︎━︎H. Granger ︎✓︎

❝︎CHAPTER FORTY-TWO❞︎

▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐓𝐰𝐨 ━︎━︎ 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎"𝐒𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 here all summer?" Ron asked, his face twisting into one of discomfort. Hermione's eyes widened as she slapped his arm. Ron rubbed the place she had hit him and looked at her. "What? It was a genuine question."

     "Yes, I've been here all summer." Juniper confirmed, petting her dog's head that was laying in her lap. "It's my father's old manor. It was the only place he could go that was safe. I quite enjoyed spending time with him."

     Hermione huffed. "Ignore him." She glared at Ron again before looking at Juniper. "He's upset about Harry and he's taking it out on you."

     "I wasn't taking anything out on her!" Ron scoffed. "It was a genuine question!"

     Juniper chuckled softly. "I can tell."

     Their conversation went quiet when the door opened. They all turned their heads and watched as Harry stepped in. Hermione launched herself forwards, pulling him into a hug. "Harry!" She pulled away and Juniper and Ron stood up, walking over to them.

     "Are you alright?" Juniper asked, pulling him into a hug next. She pulled away, eyes scanning over him for any injury.

     Hermione continued. "We overheard them talking about the Dementor attack. You must tell us everything."

     "Let the man breathe, Hermione." Ron commented.

     Hermione kept going. "And this hearing at the Ministry. It's just outrageous. I've looked it up. They simply can't expel you. It's completely unfair."

     "Yeah." Harry breathed, walking over to the bed where Shadow was. "There's a lot of that going around at the moment." He paused, looking at the dog. "Is that-is that a dog?"

     "Yeah." Juniper nodded. "My dog."

     Harry hummed, petting the dog. "So what is this place?"

     "It's headquarters." Ron answered.

     "Of the Order of the Phoenix." Hermione finished. "It's a secret society. Dumbledore formed it back when they first fought You-Know-Who. Juniper's known about this for weeks, she's been staying here over the summer."

     "You couldn't have put any of this in a letter, I suppose?" Harry asked. "I've gone all summer without a scrap of news."

     "We wanted to write, Mate." Ron told him. "Really, we did. Only. . ."

     "Only what?"

     "Only Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you anything." Hermione answered.