Ever since receiving Albert's letter, Hermione had been a complete mess. Although she had decided to send her family out of Britain soon, she still could not completely calm down after learning that they might be in trouble.
There was no need to take such a risk.
As for her plan to spend the Christmas Holiday with her family, Hermione had immediately canceled it. The fact that Albert had written to her meant that something really had gone wrong.
She was still completely baffled by the "implication" mentioned in the letter, but Hermione believed Albert would neither joke about such a thing nor have any need to.
So, after receiving the letter, she made her decision without much hesitation and sent Albert a reply.
When Hermione met Albert in Professor McGonagall's office, she found that he had already arranged everything for her. Her leave request had gone smoothly; Professor McGonagall had approved it without even asking why.
"I thought you'd need a little more time to think."
Albert was pleased that Hermione had made up her mind so quickly. Though he had expected it, he still wanted to resolve the problem as soon as possible. After all, Hermione's family had ultimately been implicated because of him. If something happened to them, not only would the mission reward be ruined, but his relationship with Hermione would likely suffer as well. Maintaining a good relationship certainly could not hurt.
"What exactly is going on?" Hermione finally could not resist asking the question that had been troubling her.
"You know that Lord Voldemort captured Cassandra and made her perform Divination on me. What she divined would very likely affect you and your family." Albert looked at the somewhat nervous Hermione and spoke calmly.
"Cassandra?" Hermione repeated. She knew Cassandra had been captured by