Hermione had gone to the gala just to appease her own curiosity. When nothing of consequence had occurred by 10:30 that night she had gotten her wand and headed home. After looking over her notes from her meeting with Harry she had turned in for the night and was sleeping soundly when a loud knock rang out from the door.
She rolled over and looked at the clock on her wall. It was four o'clock in the morning. As she grabbed her robe and threw it around her body all she could think was that someone better be dead or else whomever was on the other side of that door was likely to be killed. Wand in hand, Hermione looked out of the peephole on the door and immediately noted that Ron was on the other side.
"Ronald Weasley," she hollered indignantly at him as she pulled the door open then immediately froze when she saw a look of complete dread on his face. "What happened?" she lowered her voice now feeling bad about the thought that had run through her head as she'd made her way to the door. The only other time she'd seen that look had been when Fred died.